The School for Good and Evil discussion

Hello, SGE fans! I have enjoyed Soman's debut novel, THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL, but recently i've begun Gregory Maguire's WICKED and have noticed quite a few similarities between these two books. Whether Soman was inspired by Wicked, or it's all simply a coincidence, I'd love to discuss it here. Thank you!

Similarities

1) The relationship between Agatha and Sophie is the same between Elphaba and Galinda. In the beginning of Wicked, Galinda is 'moritified' to be associated with Elphaba and tries desperately to switch dorms, to not be roommates with Elphaba. Galinda meets with Madame Morrible to discuss the switch, but fails. Galinda's friends, mockingly, call Galinda 'good' because she is able to tolerate Elphaba's presense. Galinda and Elphaba, one night, have a discussion between Good and Evil, and the origin of true evil. Elphaba is desribed as ugly, wears gray and black with frumpy frocks and boots, reminicent of Agatha. Galinda is desribed as being beautiful, with golden hair and on top of all the latest fashion trends, so many hoops and skirts, so much pink. Their relationship lays the foundation for Agatha and Sophie, and Sophie's desire to switch school's. Their attitudes/personality traits are also verbatim to their SGE counterparts.

2) Madam Morrible is the same as Lady Lesso. Apart from the alliteration between their names, the purpose of the characters is similar. Madame Morrible is the head of the girl's college at Shiz Academy, and whom Galinda tries to convince to let her switch into another dorm (not to be with Elphaba). She is the domineering, authoritative figure over the girls.

3) Boq, a student in the boys college, is madly in love with Galinda. He is, and his love for Galinda, is somewhat ridiculous. He will not give up on his love for Galinda, even though she is mean to him and tells him she will never love him because of various factors (she is an uppercrust girl from Gillikan, he is a farmer from Munkinland, but mainly because he is short.) Nevertheless, he does not give up. He is analogous to Hort. Also, Boq is compared to a hedgehog and Hort is compared to a weasel.

4) Avaric is a student at the boys college and is friends with Boq. He would be analogous to Aric in SGE, but apart from the ommition of a few letters in Avaric's name being changed to Aric, there isn't much else.

5) The mogrification process in SGE would be analogous to Animals in Wicked. In wicked, there are Animals (uppercase, not lowercase) that possess human language, memories, knowledge, and want to be treated as citizens, but their rights are slowly being taken away by the Wizard of Oz. Banns were planced on transportation and access to jobs for Animals. I argue that the mogrification process in SGE was based off this, where students are turned into animals, or other objects, if they fail to become fairytale heros/villains/etc.

6) The premise of Good and Evil in Wicked laid the foundation for Good and Evil in SGE

7) Doctor Dillamond in Wicked would be anologous to Professor Sader in SGE.

(MORE TO BE ADDED!)