I fully support Caramelldansen pictures in any shape or form. Actually, that reminds me of a usertitle I've been meaning to have for a while now...
You do know what kind of Pandora's box you’re opening by asking be to talk about Wicked, right? Well, you asked for it...
The musical version's much happier than the book (and given it's got a pretty tragic ending anyway, so that's saying something); while the book version goes into a lot of detail about Elphaba's family and early years (she was born in a marshland to a drunken promiscuous woman called Melena and a preacher called Frexspar), the musical only touches on it lightly.
She has a sister, Nessarose - who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the East and gets crushed to death by Dorothy's flying house - but in the book she's born with no arms (a side-effect of herbs Melena took to prevent herself from having another green child), while she's wheelchair-bound in the musical (presumably because of the shortage of armless actresses).
Elphaba ends up going to Shiz University and because of circumstances, ends up sharing a room with Galinda - who will eventually be Glinda the Good - and the most popular girl in all of Shiz.
Galinda and Elphaba initially hate one another - Elphaba because of Galinda's obsession with all that is superficial, Galinda because of Elphaba's greeness and general strangeness. Eventually the two become friends, and after one of their professors is attacked - an Animal (a sentient animal with the ability to speak, like the Cowardly Lion), the two set off to the Emerald City to talk to the Wizard about prejudice against Animals.
It's about here that the book and musical are immensely different, so I'll explain the musical because it's much simpler. The Wizard is a fraud who can't even perform his own magic and tricks Elphaba (who has magical abilities) into giving a group of monkeys wings. Elphaba is horrified at what she has done and refuses to help him, threatening to tell the world of his secret. The Wizard sends his guards after the two girls and Elphaba escapes (not without a freaking awesome song, though) and Galinda returns to Shiz alone.
(Hah, I'd forgotten about Fiyero. Hurr, he's an important character.) Galinda's fiancée, Fiyero, takes Elphaba's sudden disappearance rather badly (as does Galinda), and they're both appalled by how the Wizard and the headmistress of Shiz, Madam Morrible, spread hatred of Elphaba around the whole of Oz, labelling her the Wicked Witch. Fiyero eventually leaves Galinda to find Elphaba and Galinda, in her anger, tells Morrible that Elphaba cares for her sister more than anything.
So Morrible summons a hurricane which results in Nessarose's death and Elphaba arrives on the scene immediately. The Wizard's guards show up, as does Fiyero. Elphaba escapes, but Fiyero is captured. Elphaba casts a spell to save him from being beaten and killed, but ends up turning him into a scarecrow.
Galinda and Elphaba meet up again and after screaming at each other for a bit, share a song that's ten times as romantic as he one between Elpahab and Fiyero (seriously), and shortly afterwards Dorothy shows up and it all ends when she throws a bucket of water over Elphaba. In the musical version, this is a set-up and the whole of Oz believes she's dead because of rumours about her allergy to water and she escapes Oz alongside scarecrow-Fiyero. In the book she actually dies.
Tada! So that's the plot of Wicked in a rather large nutshell (I’m sure Kinova can correct me if I’m wrong). Like I said, the book is much more detailed (but, I think, much better).
And Phoenix Wright (I'm gonna try and keep it short this time) is a game about lawyers that's much better than it sounds.
Phoenix is the main character and it's his job to solve cases and prove his client's innocence by going around, gathering evidence and presenting it at the right time in court.
The best things about the series are the memorable characters; Phoenix himself is one of my favourite lead game characters, as is his assistant, Maya, his rival, the prosecuting lawyer miles Edgeworth and many more; and the detailed and clever cases, which often work like murder mysteries, except instead of guessing who did it, you have to figure out the how and why.
The games are DS-only and, from what I hear, very hard to find in the US (online's your best bet). They're best played in order; Ace Attorney, Justice for All, Trials and Tribulations and the fourth game has a new set of characters, the lead being Apollo Justice.
And "OBJECTION!" is the game's catchphrase; when Phoenix spots a flaw in the witness' testimony, of if the prosecution finds a hole in Phoenix' argument, this is what is shouted. It's great.
XD I think my last name's pretty boring, to be honest, but I'm glad you like it ^^'
Duffy the Vampire Slayer. You, my dear, are certifiably mad.
Longest profile message ever? I think so.