Take A Look at Disney

10/6/14

Halloween: Theodora Vs. Zelena ( A Wicked Witch Showdown)





Are people born Wicked? Or do they have Wickedness thrust upon them?



Hello & welcome back  to  A Look at  Disney  and today, we  are  heading to the land of Oz as we take a look at two takes  on a classic  character from the land of Oz, that both came to us from Disney as we pit  Theodora from Oz: The Great and Powerful  is pitted up against Zelena from Once Upon A Time.  One of the great things about   their  being multiple  takes  on  a character as iconic as The Wicked  Witch  is that you  can  have numerous takes  on the same character and  be completely different from each other.   Mila Kunis and Rebecca Mader's Wicked Witches  are absolutely different from Margaret Hamilton and from each other as well.




  














With that out of the way,   we will be taking a look at Personality (Round 1),   what  are these characters' personalities like,   Motivation  (Round 2),  what drove these women and fueled them   to be  so wicked,  Transformation (Round 3),   a memorable part for  some  of the later witches is seeing how they became the witch, we the  infamous Wicked Witch.  Wickedness (Round 4),   a special category for this Vs.,   what  is a Wicked Witch, if they aren't well wicked and that is something that is important with a character such as The Wicked Witch because after all, what is the Wicked Witch, if she isn't wicked.   And finally,  Memorability,  any good witch is memorable and will leave an impression upon you and  stick with you.  Do these witches do that?  Well, we are here to find out.  Let's  begin.




Personality  (Round 1)


Theodora


I think to fully understand,  what the personalities of these two ladies are, we  need to look what they were  like before they became the Wicked Witch.  With Theodora, she was very passionate  and   you could say  somewhat  compassionate   and  before  becoming a wicked witch,  a good person,  who  wants to see good  in people  and has hope for a bright future.  What  led her astray,   Evanora.   Her  older sister  was able to trick  her younger sister  and turn  her wicked and made her a bitter and spiteful witch that wanted revenge against  Oscar Diggs and while I do have  a complaint with that,  I do think the contrast in what  Theodora was like before becoming the Wicked Witch and it's clear that she was a good person that was tricked by evil forces that was able to take advantage  of her fractured state.  As the Wicked Witch,  she isn't very frightening but I would argue that this is the Wicked Witch's first outing and she really has not built up her reputation of being so wicked yet.




Zelena


Okay,  I gotta be honest,  there  really  isn't  that much to Zelena other than jealously. Jealously drove her motivation and her entire character and unlike Theodora, we never really got to know Zelena before she became the Wicked Witch.  We get her origin story in "It's Not Easy Being Green" of how she became the Wicked Witch and we see that she had a adoptive father that never truly loved her and when she learned of  Regina, her younger sister, she grew jealous because she thought that Regina was given everything that she thought she was owed and to that,  I must say that I don't really feel like there was that much to Zelena as a character.  She was perhaps of the least layered villains of Once Upon A Time.  I wanted to like her as  there was a lot that could've been done with her but other than jealous and evil, Zelena and for that reason,  I have to give this round to...


Theodora





















Motivation  (Round 2)


Now I'll admit that this where  both of these Witches kinda falter.  While both  of these Witches can be good  villains, they don't  have the best motivations.  Now to be fair, one could argue the same of Margaret  Hamilton's Wicked Witch in the MGM film but while I'm not excusing her,   her portrayal wasn't trying to have as much depth to the Wicked Witch character, when compared  to these two takes on Oz's  most Wicked resident.



Theodora


Theodora's  motivation   after  becoming the Wicked Witch seems to be that she wants revenge on Oscar Diggs for what  he did to her.   Ultimately, Theodora  became  the Wicked Witch out of a broken heart and  wanted to show Oscar  that that he made her this way.   So, her motivation  at best is that of a woman scorned but here's my problem with that.  She only knew Oscar for maybe day, 2 tops at best and then decided that she wanted revenge on the man that had wronged her.



Zelena


Zelena's  motivation was driven by her jealously of Regina.  It's still  not much  but the way, the show presented it, you could see that it was building up over years of feeling this way and by the time of the second curse,   she had finally let loose and was letting her jealously fuel her clouded judgement and anger in an attempt to turn back time.   So,  I do think that by default that I have to give this round to...



Zelena

















Transformation (Round 3)



A memorable with the  later Wicked Witches is the pivotal moment, where they become the Wicked Witch.



Thedora



Theodora's  Transformation



Everything about Theodora's   transformation is quite effective,  from the dizziness that she feels  after she bites the apple to the arm  scratching the table and getting our first taste of her green skin.

















And then the shadow and hearing her first cackle, you know that this is the Wicked Witch.  And that's what makes her first  interaction with Oscar as The Wicked Witch so disappointing because this scene did a good job setting her up, only to drop the ball but for one moment,  we get  a great moment with  Theodora  as  the Wicked Witch.




Zelena


Zelena's  Transofrmation




Zelena's  transformation is at best,  a disappointment.  It  can best be summed up as being green with envy and that's it.












 There's nothing more to her transformation than that and another problem,  I kinda  have regarding  this transformation is that that  we don't get that many scenes of  a green skinned Zelena in the flashbacks and  she  can turn it off pretty by suppressing her jealously but she turns  green again,  after Dorothy arrives and she starts feeling jealously over  the witches doting on Dorothy.  That is just disappointing because while  we did get some moments  of Zelena being the Witch,  it was  just a letdown in the long run as her transformation didn't  really mean anything in the long run.   For that reason, I have to give this round to...


Theodora

















Wickedness (Round 4)



Theodora


Okay,  I gotta be honest and say that Theodora isn't exactly wicked.  I don't know if  this comes from the fact that this is her first outing as The Wicked Witch.  I will say contrast to that to who she was before the Witch and there is a drastic difference in personality but you don't  really get a feel  that Theodora  lives  up to the Wicked part of the Wicked Witch title.  She has her moments but she's not really all that wicked.



Zelena


Zelena, on the other hand  is wicked and so lives up to  being Wicked.   You get the sense in that both in the Fairy Tale flashbacks and current day Storybrooke plot lines, that Zelena is truly  wicked  and  I think that her wickedness is fueled by her years of pent-up jealously and anger led to  her becoming so wicked.  Without a doubt,   this round has to go to...



Zelena





















Memorability (The Final Round)



We're all tied up  with Theodora taking  Personality and Transformation, while Zelena took Motivation  and Wickedness.   Now,  we  are going to look at which witch is more memorable.



Theodora


Theodora  isn't a bad character but as the Wicked Witch,  she is a weak link in an otherwise good movie and while she does have the look and presence down.  She is overshadowed by other good characters in the movie and when compared to Evanora,  she is not a very memorable  Witch.  I remember more of Theodora before she became the Wicked Witch, then I do after her transformation.




Zelena


While Zelena  may be  my least favorite big bad from Once Upon A Time, I cannot deny that she left an impact.  I won't deny that her creepiness factor added in making her so memorable.  Like  any good villain, you will remember her, even after she is defeated.  Though I'm not 100%  sure that she's actually dead but her death was something to behold.














With that said,  this round has to go to Zelena.











 



The End Result!


By a score of 3 -2, Zelena  shows that she is just a little more wicked than Theodora.  Both are decent takes on the Wicked Witch. Not great, they do flounder in certain areas, mostly when it comes to their motivations but  they are new takes on this classic character that are fun to look at.  Join me tomorrow as we go to Ponyville as I countdown  The Top 6 Other MLP Villains.  

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