Evanora, the Wicked Witch of the East, is the main antagonist of Disney's 2013 fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful. A witch to be feared, Evanora is Theodora's over-protective sister. With her penetrating gaze, she exudes a powerful presence and has positioned herself as the royal adviser and protector of the Emerald City.
Background[]
Physical appearance[]
Evanora is a beautiful young woman who has fair skin, dark brown hair, and brown eyes. She usually wears a black-and-green glittering dress with a transparent green cape, a feathery shawl, and a feather headdress. She wears her emerald pendant with a gold chain around her neck. In her true form, she has wrinkly skin and white hair, and extremely unkempt nails.
Personality[]
Evanora is very deceptive and cruel, enough to corrupt her own sister, but also very cowardly, as she always runs and hides whenever she feels truly threatened. This is a strong indicator that her lust for power is a way of compensating for her cowardice and insecurity. However, despite all her negative qualities, Evanora isn't especially violent or bloodthirsty as shown in the scene where her sister gives the order to not show Glinda's forces any mercy, since she was perfectly content with scaring them enough into running away and was visibly disturbed by her sister's "take no prisoners" approach. In fact, in general, she seems to be disturbed by just how violent and homicidal her sister became after her transformation, which also indicates while she had no problem manipulating, lying to and corrupting her, she didn't think the end result would be quite so bad. On the flipside, she's far more violent and ruthless towards Glinda specifically, whom she harbors a long-held hatred towards, and has no issues torturing and trying to kill her.
Powers and abilities[]
As a powerful witch, Evanora possesses numerous magical powers, like Theodora and Glinda. Her powers originate from a special source: a green emerald necklace that glows whenever she uses magic. It was later shown that, without the necklace, Evanora is powerless.
- Electrokinesis: Evanora has the ability to create and project electricity and lightning, which serves as her primary means of offense. She was shown to conjure green lightning from her fingertips and was also able to conjure lightning in both hands and combine them for a deadlier strike.
- Flight: Evanora was able to levitate herself and fly in the air. Unlike Theodora, she does not use a broom to fly.
- Conjuration: Evanora has the ability to conjure or materialize any object she desired out of thin air. She utilized this ability through a magical red powder, conjuring a music box similar to the one Oz gave Theodora and used this as a plow to lure her sister into becoming wicked as well.
- Illusion Casting: Evanora has the ability to cast illusions, which she primarily used to mask her true form (an old, ugly hag with grey hair and yellow) with the appearance of a beautiful young woman.
- Crystal Gazing: Evanora has a magical crystal ball that she uses to spy on her enemies, as seen by how she used it to spy on Oz after he has gone to destroy Glinda.
Appearances[]
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz[]
In this movie, the Wicked Witch of the East was played by Miss Piggy. Along with her sisters Tattypoo, Glinda, and the Wicked Witch of the West, the Witch of the East was part of a successful singing group called the Four Little Pigs before they went their separate ways, and became the East Coast diva. She abused the Munchkins and enjoyed cooking them in her oven. She has a very small cameo in this film, using the ability of Dorothy Gale's trailer to taunt the Munchkins for the last time, before being unable to carry her weight around and became rather messy to her death. Her magic slippers and a fight for acquisition over them got involved in the plot.
Oz the Great and Powerful[]
Evanora first appears guarding the throne when her sister Theodora, introduces Oscar Diggs, the fabled "wizard" to the throne room that previously belonged to her father and the king, who was murdered by the wicked witch Glinda. She appears gracious that the wizard has returned to help them stop the Wicked Witch of the East's reign of terror, then asks him to join her, later on, to learn about him. As Oscar leaves the room, Evanora scolds her sister for bringing an impostor to Emerald City. Theodora tries to defend, believing that Oscar is really the wizard who will save them. In her anger, she accidentally sets off her own magic to a nearby torch. To this, Evanora slyly asks Theodora if this is really what she wants, or if she is just as wicked as the witch as to wanting to aid her.
She then accompanies Oscar to "test" if he is truly the wizard, to which Oscar claims to be true. Knowing his lie, she shows him the treasury, immediately enticing Oscar. However, she tells Oscar that the only way to receive these riches is to kill the Wicked Witch of the East, and the only way to do so is to break her wand, only then will he become the king. Seeing no other option, Oscar sets out to stop her.
In truth, Evanora was the real Wicked Witch of the East and the real murderer of the former king. Years ago, she sought to rule Oz by herself and killed her father, the King, so she could rule uncontested. When rumors swelled that the Wizard of Oz would return and take his place as King, Evanora vowed to never let that happen. Her real motive was to send Oscar to kill the sister who opposed her, Glinda, to crush her resistance and then kill the Wizard herself so that she could rule Oz forever. However, Glinda reveals the truth to Oscar before he is about to kill her while Evanora watches in anger through her crystal ball as her plans to kill Glinda has failed. As she watches, Theodora comes into the room and sees her sister spying on Oscar; she questions what happened when Evanora was with Oscar. Seeing Theodora's potential for evil, Evanora lies to her claiming that Oscar seduced her that night and promised to make her queen after he kills the Wicked Witch. Hearing this, Theodora cannot believe it, but Evanora uses the exact words Oscar said to Theodora to make her claim seem legitimate. Evanora then sends out her armies to stop and kill Oz and Glinda.
As the two sisters continued to watch Oscar's journey, Theodora became heartbroken at Oscar's betrayal as he joins forces with Glinda. Playing on her sister's lust for revenge, Evanora conjures up a green apple and offers it to Theodora, claiming that it will cure her broken heart. Theodora immediately takes a bite from it, but afterward, she realizes that Evanora was the Witch all along, however, she is too late to realize this as Theodora begins to transform into a hideous, much more wicked, green-skinned version of herself, a sign of Theodora's repressed evil coming to the surface. Pleased, but in shock of her sister's new appearance, Evanora tells her she can cast an enchantment to mask it, but Theodora angrily yells no as she embraces this new form as the Wicked Witch of the West. As she throws on her hat and cackles, Evanora realizes how dangerous she has made her sister and admits she pushed her too far.
With war approaching from Glinda's resistance, Evanora along with the Witch of the West prepare their army against the coming invasion. Announcing that they will drive away from the enemy, Evanora is suddenly interrupted by the Witch of the West stating there will be no mercy, only complete slaughter, as she demonstrates her much more cruel change to a surprised Evanora. When the resistance finally attacks, Evanora and the Witch of the West watch invaders coming through the Poppy Fields covered with a mist conjured up by Glinda. Evanora calls out for the winged baboons to attack but realizes too late that it is a trap composed of false scarecrow soldiers that put most of the baboons to sleep, despite attempts to escape. However, two baboons manage to avoid this and capture the nearby Glinda as Evanora flies towards her. Before she flies back to Emerald City with her prisoner, China Girl had retrieved Glinda's wand and is almost caught by Evanora's attention, however, Evanora shrugs this off and leaves. Gathering the captured civilians to Emerald City's square, she taunts the chained Glinda of her failure to bring a wizard to save the people of Oz and tortures her with her magic. Just then, the Witch of the West arrives and announces the cowardice and betrayal of the Wizard, showing the hot air balloon flying nearby. She shoots it down, causing it to ignite on fire and pour down gold stolen from the treasury. The people become discouraged, but Evanora smiles upon this and congratulates Theodora. Turning to the townspeople, she continues to torment Glinda over the Wizard's abandonment. As she and the Witch of the West are about to finish Glinda, an illusion cast from a carriage appears as Oscar's head. Shocked, Evanora orders the Winkies after him, but their spears go through him. Thinking this to be impossible, the Witch of the West tries to fire at the head, only to dodge a barrage of sparks. In response, Oscar sets off multiple effects to scare the witches and believe his power such as fireworks and fire.
Seeing the Wizard's might and uprising from the citizens, Evanora retreats to a passageway hidden in one of the columns, attempting to escape the city. However, she is confronted by Glinda in the throne room, wishing to end her reign of terror and put her father to rest once and for all. Evanora fires lightning at Glinda, but Glinda retaliates, levitates to the air, and deflects a subsequent blast. Although it appears Evanora has gained the upper hand, the charge explodes and sends the two witches flying back against the walls. Evanora, in a weakened state, tries to kill her with her magic but realizes her magic pendant is gone, Glinda having accidentally broken it. Horrified, Evanora falls to the ground and tries to crawl away. As she struggles, she turns into her true form. The real Evanora is revealed to be wrinkled, hag-like, and ugly without her magic. Without regret, Glinda banishes her from Emerald City. In anger of her fall, Evanora attempts to lunge at Glinda as a final attack, but Glinda fires a beam that slams her out of the window. However, she is saved by her baboon minions and swears revenge against Glinda and Oscar as she flies away with the remnants of her army.
Once Upon a Time[]
On the show, the Evil Queen is the half-sister of Zelena (The Wicked Witch of the West). However, an official Witch of the East has appeared but, unrelated to Zelena, not wicked, and doesn't get crushed by a house and she was portrayed by Sharon Taylor.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Evanora's green accents and clothes set her up to be a strong contender for the Wicked Witch of the West (or a red herring), even though she is the Wicked Witch of the East.
- In Wicked, the Witch of the West is actually the older sister, but in the movie, the Witch of the East (Evanora) is older.
- During the witch fight in the episode "It's Not Easy Being Green" of the TV series Once Upon a Time, Regina, is the younger half-sister, and wears red gloves. In Oz the Great and Powerful, the Witch of the East wears green attire and is the older sister. Zelena (The Wicked Witch of the West) is the firstborn half-sister, and wears green attire, whereas in the Disney film, the Witch of the West wears red.
- In Once Upon a Time, Zelena wore a similar pendant. Like Evanora, her magic was contained in it. They both were powerless without it. But whereas Evanora's true form revealed itself, Zelena's didn't.
See also[]
- Suzy Johnson - Played the role in Wizard of Odd.
- Miss Piggy - Played the role in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz.
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