 While the draft followed Maguire 's idea of retelling the story of the 1939 film from the perspective of its main villain , the storyline of the stage adaptation " goes far afield " from the novel . As Holzman observed in an interview with Playbill , " It was [ Maguire 's ] brilliant idea to take this hated figure and tell things from her point of view , and to have the two witches be roommates in college , but the way in which their friendship develops – and really the whole plot – is different onstage . " Schwartz justified the deviation , saying " Primarily we were interested in the relationship between Galinda – who becomes Glinda – and Elphaba ... the friendship of these two women and how their characters lead them to completely different destinies . " In addition to this change in focus , other major plot modifications include Fiyero 's appearance as the scarecrow , Elphaba 's survival at the end , Nessarose using a wheelchair instead of being born without arms , Boq having a continuing love interest for Glinda - and eventually becoming the Tin Woodman instead of Nick Chopper , the complete cutting of Elphaba 's years in the <unk> , the deletion of <unk> 's birth , Fiyero not having a wife and children , and Doctor Dillamond not being murdered . 
