zellephantom (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zellephantom) wrote2019-01-18 12:46 pm
zellephantom) wrote2019-01-18 12:46 pm
Entry tags:
Phantom Thoughts pt. 33
Buckle up for a long one, folks, because it's BACKSTORY TIME!
{"Tell me how you saw him first."
"I had heard him for three months without seeing him. The first time I heard it, I thought, as you did, that that adorable voice was singing in another room. I went out and looked everywhere; but, as you know, Raoul, my dressing-room is very much by itself; and I could not find the voice outside my room, whereas it went on steadily inside. And it not only sang, but it spoke to me and answered my questions, like a real man's voice, with this difference, that it was as beautiful as the voice of an angel. I had never got the Angel of Music whom my poor father had promised to send me as soon as he was dead. I really think that Mamma Valerius was a little bit to blame. I told her about it; and she at once said, 'It must be the Angel; at any rate, you can do no harm by asking him.' I did so; and the man's voice replied that, yes, it was the Angel's voice, the voice which I was expecting and which my father had promised me. From that time onward, the voice and I became great friends. It asked leave to give me lessons every day. I agreed and never failed to keep the appointment which it gave me in my dressing-room. You have no idea, though you have heard the voice, of what those lessons were like."}
Of all the words you could use to describe the Phantom's voice, the first one you pick is adorable??
As much as I hate to blame a widowed old lady verging on senility, it is a little bit Mme. Valerius' fault. (Mostly Erik's fault for taking the Angel idea and running with it, though.)
(ohh now I want to read fanfics about Christine and Erik just hanging out as friends during the Angel days before it all went wrong...)
{"We were accompanied by a music which I do not know: it was behind the wall and wonderfully accurate. The voice seemed to understand mine exactly, to know precisely where my father had left off teaching me. In a few weeks' time, I hardly knew myself when I sang. I was even frightened. I seemed to dread a sort of witchcraft behind it; but Mamma Valerius reassured me. She said that she knew I was much too simple a girl to give the devil a hold on me ... }
So, was Erik also playing the accompaniment? Just standing there trying to hide a piano in the wall??
Dramatic change in oneself *is* very frightening, even if it is change for the better. Mme. Valerius is not exactly comforting, though. 'Oh, you're too straightforward and stupid for the devil to want to mess with you.'
{My progress, by the voice's own order, was kept a secret between the voice, Mamma Valerius and myself. It was a curious thing, but, outside the dressing-room, I sang with my ordinary, every-day voice and nobody noticed anything. I did all that the voice asked. It said, 'Wait and see: we shall astonish Paris!' And I waited and lived on in a sort of ecstatic dream. It was then that I saw you for the first time one evening, in the house. I was so glad that I never thought of concealing my delight when I reached my dressing-room. Unfortunately, the voice was there before me and soon noticed, by my air, that something had happened. It asked what was the matter and I saw no reason for keeping our story secret or concealing the place which you filled in my heart. Then the voice was silent. I called to it, but it did not reply; I begged and entreated, but in vain. I was terrified lest it had gone for good. I wish to Heaven it had, dear! ... That night, I went home in a desperate condition. I told Mamma Valerius, who said, 'Why, of course, the voice is jealous!' And that, dear, first revealed to me that I loved you."}
So did she have to try and make an effort to keep her voice concealed, or was she 'magically' back to her usual level of singing after the lessons?
That's.. strange. Realizing you love someone who you haven't seen in years because your boyfriend slash tutor got jealous of you talking about him.
{"I went back to my dressing-room in a very pensive frame of mind. The voice was there, spoke to me with great sadness and told me plainly that, if I must bestow my heart on earth, there was nothing for the voice to do but to go back to Heaven. And it said this with such an accent of HUMAN sorrow that I ought then and there to have suspected and begun to believe that I was the victim of my deluded senses. But my faith in the voice, with which the memory of my father was so closely intermingled, remained undisturbed.}
UNDERHANDED MANIPULATION TACTIC, ERIK. THAT'S VERY MUCH NOT A GOOD THING TO DO *AND* YOU JUST GAVE AWAY YOUR GAME. (Wait- DID she suspect at the time or was it just obvious in hindsight? The former would be very interesting.)
I'm... not touching that last sentence. There's a lot of ways you can interpret that if you want to, but I personally prefer the non-vaguely-incestuous version of 'my dad promised to send me the Angel of Music- if this isn't the Angel, then was my father lying to me or failing to keep his word? no, it MUST be the Angel. my father would never fail me.'
{I had thought about my love for you and realized all the useless danger of it; and I did not even know if you remembered me. Whatever happened, your position in society forbade me to contemplate the possibility of ever marrying you; and I swore to the voice that you were no more than a brother to me nor ever would be and that my heart was incapable of any earthly love.}
This needs to be emphasized more: R/C IS *ALSO* FORBIDDEN AND SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE LOVE. IT IS NOT THE EASY WAY OUT.
{I don't know how it was that Carlotta did not come to the theater that night nor why I was called upon to sing in her stead; but I sang with a rapture I had never known before and I felt for a moment as if my soul were leaving my body!"
"Oh, Christine," said Raoul, "my heart quivered that night at every accent of your voice. I saw the tears stream down your cheeks and I wept with you. How could you sing, sing like that while crying?"}
Had you checked for Dementors? That would explain both the soul-sucking and the fainting.
(Also more crying together. Gee, I wonder if this will ever be important later?)
{"I felt myself fainting," said Christine, "I closed my eyes. When I opened them, you were by my side. But the voice was there also, Raoul! I was afraid for your sake and again I would not recognize you and began to laugh when you reminded me that you had picked up my scarf in the sea! ... Alas, there is no deceiving the voice! ... The voice recognized you and the voice was jealous! ... It said that, if I did not love you, I would not avoid you, but treat you like any other old friend. It made me scene upon scene. At last, I said to the voice, 'That will do! I am going to Perros to-morrow, to pray on my father's grave, and I shall ask M. Raoul de Chagny to go with me.' 'Do as you please,' replied the voice, 'but I shall be at Perros too, for I am wherever you are, Christine; and, if you are still worthy of me, if you have not lied to me, I will play you The Resurrection of Lazarus, on the stroke of midnight, on your father's tomb and on your father's violin.' That, dear, was how I came to write you the letter that brought you to Perros. How could I have been so beguiled? How was it, when I saw the personal, the selfish point of view of the voice, that I did not suspect some impostor? Alas, I was no longer mistress of myself: I had become his thing!"}
MORE MANIPULATION... At least she's become confident enough to reclaim herself as mistress of her own actions, unswayed by any man!
{Pity me, Raoul, pity me! ... You remember the terrible evening when Carlotta thought that she had been turned into a toad on the stage and when the house was suddenly plunged in darkness through the chandelier crashing to the floor? There were killed and wounded that night and the whole theater rang with terrified screams. My first thought was for you and the voice. I was at once easy, where you were concerned, for I had seen you in your brother's box and I knew that you were not in danger. But the voice had told me that it would be at the performance and I was really afraid for it, just as if it had been an ordinary person who was capable of dying. I thought to myself, 'The chandelier may have come down upon the voice.' I was then on the stage and was nearly running into the house, to look for the voice among the killed and wounded, when I thought that, if the voice was safe, it would be sure to be in my dressing-room and I rushed to my room. The voice was not there. I locked my door and, with tears in my eyes, besought it, if it were still alive, to manifest itself to me. The voice did not reply, but suddenly I heard a long, beautiful wail which I knew well. It is the plaint of Lazarus when, at the sound of the Redeemer's voice, he begins to open his eyes and see the light of day. It was the music which you and I, Raoul, heard at Perros. And then the voice began to sing the leading phrase, 'Come! And believe in me! Whoso believes in me shall live! Walk! Whoso hath believed in me shall never die! ...' I can not tell you the effect which that music had upon me. It seemed to command me, personally, to come, to stand up and come to it. It retreated and I followed. 'Come! And believe in me!' I believed in it, I came ... I came and—this was the extraordinary thing—my dressing-room, as I moved, seemed to lengthen out ... to lengthen out ... Evidently, it must have been an effect of mirrors ... for I had the mirror in front of me ... And, suddenly, I was outside the room without knowing how!"}
That's.. an uncomfortable appropriation of Christianity. Like I get that he's supposed to be an Angel, but yeesh... Just rubs me the wrong way.
{ You, who saw me disappear from my room one evening, may be able to explain it; but I can not. I can only tell you that, suddenly, there was no mirror before me and no dressing-room. I was in a dark passage, I was frightened and I cried out. It was quite dark, but for a faint red glimmer at a distant corner of the wall. I tried out. My voice was the only sound, for the singing and the violin had stopped. And, suddenly, a hand was laid on mine ... or rather a stone-cold, bony thing that seized my wrist and did not let go. I cried out again. An arm took me round the waist and supported me. I struggled for a little while and then gave up the attempt. I was dragged toward the little red light and then I saw that I was in the hands of a man wrapped in a large cloak and wearing a mask that hid his whole face. I made one last effort; my limbs stiffened, my mouth opened to scream, but a hand closed it, a hand which I felt on my lips, on my skin ... a hand that smelt of death. Then I fainted away.}
Yay! No creepy mirror bride in this version! Just more fainting.
{"When I opened my eyes, we were still surrounded by darkness. A lantern, standing on the ground, showed a bubbling well. The water splashing from the well disappeared, almost at once, under the floor on which I was lying, with my head on the knee of the man in the black cloak and the black mask. He was bathing my temples and his hands smelt of death. I tried to push them away and asked, 'Who are you? Where is the voice?'}
I remember there was mist...
Well, that's certainly.. different than ALW.
{His only answer was a sigh. Suddenly, a hot breath passed over my face and I perceived a white shape, beside the man's black shape, in the darkness. The black shape lifted me on to the white shape, a glad neighing greeted my astounded ears and I murmured, 'Cesar!' The animal quivered. Raoul, I was lying half back on a saddle and I had recognized the white horse out of the PROFETA, which I had so often fed with sugar and sweets. I remembered that, one evening, there was a rumor in the theater that the horse had disappeared and that it had been stolen by the Opera ghost. I believed in the voice, but had never believed in the ghost.}
So he stole her favorite horsie? That's an impressive amount of attention to detail.
{Now, however, I began to wonder, with a shiver, whether I was the ghost's prisoner. I called upon the voice to help me, for I should never have imagined that the voice and the ghost were one.}
That is incredibly ironic. Also super awkward for Erik. 'Voice, save me from the terrifying opera ghost!' 'Umm... I am the terrifying opera ghost?' 'Oh' 'Oh indeed'
{But the figures of which I caught sight had made me run away. There are demons down there, quite black, standing in front of boilers, and they wield shovels and pitchforks and poke up fires and stir up flames and, if you come too near them, they frighten you by suddenly opening the red mouths of their furnaces}
Well, that's not a very nice thing to call the hardworking furnace tenders, even if they are creepy. (I assume that's what going on and not anything supernatural?? feels very Hades/Persephone though)
{I sprang to my feet. I was in the middle of a drawing-room that seemed to me to be decorated, adorned and furnished with nothing but flowers, flowers both magnificent and stupid, because of the silk ribbons that tied them to baskets, like those which they sell in the shops on the boulevards. They were much too civilized flowers, like those which I used to find in my dressing-room after a first night. And, in the midst of all these flowers, stood the black shape of the man in the mask, with arms crossed, and he said, 'Don't be afraid, Christine; you are in no danger.' IT WAS THE VOICE!}
Woah, easy does it with the sudden all caps announcement of who's in the room- you'll give me flashbacks to bad fanfic. (Also how dare you?? I have never yet met a flower which I would call stupid.)
{I had, no doubt, to do with a terrible, eccentric person, who, in some mysterious fashion, had succeeded in taking up his abode there, under the Opera house, five stories below the level of the ground. And the voice, the voice which I had recognized under the mask, was on its knees before me, WAS A MAN! And I began to cry... The man, still kneeling, must have understood the cause of my tears, for he said, 'It is true, Christine! ... I am not an Angel, nor a genius, nor a ghost ... I am Erik!}
I am FIRE! I am DEATH! I am ERIK! Doesn't quite have the same ring to it. (again with the sudden all caps, Leroux? seriously?)
{An echo behind them seemed to repeat the word after her. "Erik!"}
Yep. Still just an echo. No spying going on here.
{"We have nothing to fear except the trap-doors, dear, and here we are miles away from the trap-doors ... and I am not allowed to see you outside the theater. This is not the time to annoy him. We must not arouse his suspicion."}
Nothing to fear but fear itself (and also trap doors)!
{"Tell me how you saw him first."
"I had heard him for three months without seeing him. The first time I heard it, I thought, as you did, that that adorable voice was singing in another room. I went out and looked everywhere; but, as you know, Raoul, my dressing-room is very much by itself; and I could not find the voice outside my room, whereas it went on steadily inside. And it not only sang, but it spoke to me and answered my questions, like a real man's voice, with this difference, that it was as beautiful as the voice of an angel. I had never got the Angel of Music whom my poor father had promised to send me as soon as he was dead. I really think that Mamma Valerius was a little bit to blame. I told her about it; and she at once said, 'It must be the Angel; at any rate, you can do no harm by asking him.' I did so; and the man's voice replied that, yes, it was the Angel's voice, the voice which I was expecting and which my father had promised me. From that time onward, the voice and I became great friends. It asked leave to give me lessons every day. I agreed and never failed to keep the appointment which it gave me in my dressing-room. You have no idea, though you have heard the voice, of what those lessons were like."}
Of all the words you could use to describe the Phantom's voice, the first one you pick is adorable??
As much as I hate to blame a widowed old lady verging on senility, it is a little bit Mme. Valerius' fault. (Mostly Erik's fault for taking the Angel idea and running with it, though.)
(ohh now I want to read fanfics about Christine and Erik just hanging out as friends during the Angel days before it all went wrong...)
{"We were accompanied by a music which I do not know: it was behind the wall and wonderfully accurate. The voice seemed to understand mine exactly, to know precisely where my father had left off teaching me. In a few weeks' time, I hardly knew myself when I sang. I was even frightened. I seemed to dread a sort of witchcraft behind it; but Mamma Valerius reassured me. She said that she knew I was much too simple a girl to give the devil a hold on me ... }
So, was Erik also playing the accompaniment? Just standing there trying to hide a piano in the wall??
Dramatic change in oneself *is* very frightening, even if it is change for the better. Mme. Valerius is not exactly comforting, though. 'Oh, you're too straightforward and stupid for the devil to want to mess with you.'
{My progress, by the voice's own order, was kept a secret between the voice, Mamma Valerius and myself. It was a curious thing, but, outside the dressing-room, I sang with my ordinary, every-day voice and nobody noticed anything. I did all that the voice asked. It said, 'Wait and see: we shall astonish Paris!' And I waited and lived on in a sort of ecstatic dream. It was then that I saw you for the first time one evening, in the house. I was so glad that I never thought of concealing my delight when I reached my dressing-room. Unfortunately, the voice was there before me and soon noticed, by my air, that something had happened. It asked what was the matter and I saw no reason for keeping our story secret or concealing the place which you filled in my heart. Then the voice was silent. I called to it, but it did not reply; I begged and entreated, but in vain. I was terrified lest it had gone for good. I wish to Heaven it had, dear! ... That night, I went home in a desperate condition. I told Mamma Valerius, who said, 'Why, of course, the voice is jealous!' And that, dear, first revealed to me that I loved you."}
So did she have to try and make an effort to keep her voice concealed, or was she 'magically' back to her usual level of singing after the lessons?
That's.. strange. Realizing you love someone who you haven't seen in years because your boyfriend slash tutor got jealous of you talking about him.
{"I went back to my dressing-room in a very pensive frame of mind. The voice was there, spoke to me with great sadness and told me plainly that, if I must bestow my heart on earth, there was nothing for the voice to do but to go back to Heaven. And it said this with such an accent of HUMAN sorrow that I ought then and there to have suspected and begun to believe that I was the victim of my deluded senses. But my faith in the voice, with which the memory of my father was so closely intermingled, remained undisturbed.}
UNDERHANDED MANIPULATION TACTIC, ERIK. THAT'S VERY MUCH NOT A GOOD THING TO DO *AND* YOU JUST GAVE AWAY YOUR GAME. (Wait- DID she suspect at the time or was it just obvious in hindsight? The former would be very interesting.)
I'm... not touching that last sentence. There's a lot of ways you can interpret that if you want to, but I personally prefer the non-vaguely-incestuous version of 'my dad promised to send me the Angel of Music- if this isn't the Angel, then was my father lying to me or failing to keep his word? no, it MUST be the Angel. my father would never fail me.'
{I had thought about my love for you and realized all the useless danger of it; and I did not even know if you remembered me. Whatever happened, your position in society forbade me to contemplate the possibility of ever marrying you; and I swore to the voice that you were no more than a brother to me nor ever would be and that my heart was incapable of any earthly love.}
This needs to be emphasized more: R/C IS *ALSO* FORBIDDEN AND SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE LOVE. IT IS NOT THE EASY WAY OUT.
{I don't know how it was that Carlotta did not come to the theater that night nor why I was called upon to sing in her stead; but I sang with a rapture I had never known before and I felt for a moment as if my soul were leaving my body!"
"Oh, Christine," said Raoul, "my heart quivered that night at every accent of your voice. I saw the tears stream down your cheeks and I wept with you. How could you sing, sing like that while crying?"}
Had you checked for Dementors? That would explain both the soul-sucking and the fainting.
(Also more crying together. Gee, I wonder if this will ever be important later?)
{"I felt myself fainting," said Christine, "I closed my eyes. When I opened them, you were by my side. But the voice was there also, Raoul! I was afraid for your sake and again I would not recognize you and began to laugh when you reminded me that you had picked up my scarf in the sea! ... Alas, there is no deceiving the voice! ... The voice recognized you and the voice was jealous! ... It said that, if I did not love you, I would not avoid you, but treat you like any other old friend. It made me scene upon scene. At last, I said to the voice, 'That will do! I am going to Perros to-morrow, to pray on my father's grave, and I shall ask M. Raoul de Chagny to go with me.' 'Do as you please,' replied the voice, 'but I shall be at Perros too, for I am wherever you are, Christine; and, if you are still worthy of me, if you have not lied to me, I will play you The Resurrection of Lazarus, on the stroke of midnight, on your father's tomb and on your father's violin.' That, dear, was how I came to write you the letter that brought you to Perros. How could I have been so beguiled? How was it, when I saw the personal, the selfish point of view of the voice, that I did not suspect some impostor? Alas, I was no longer mistress of myself: I had become his thing!"}
MORE MANIPULATION... At least she's become confident enough to reclaim herself as mistress of her own actions, unswayed by any man!
{Pity me, Raoul, pity me! ... You remember the terrible evening when Carlotta thought that she had been turned into a toad on the stage and when the house was suddenly plunged in darkness through the chandelier crashing to the floor? There were killed and wounded that night and the whole theater rang with terrified screams. My first thought was for you and the voice. I was at once easy, where you were concerned, for I had seen you in your brother's box and I knew that you were not in danger. But the voice had told me that it would be at the performance and I was really afraid for it, just as if it had been an ordinary person who was capable of dying. I thought to myself, 'The chandelier may have come down upon the voice.' I was then on the stage and was nearly running into the house, to look for the voice among the killed and wounded, when I thought that, if the voice was safe, it would be sure to be in my dressing-room and I rushed to my room. The voice was not there. I locked my door and, with tears in my eyes, besought it, if it were still alive, to manifest itself to me. The voice did not reply, but suddenly I heard a long, beautiful wail which I knew well. It is the plaint of Lazarus when, at the sound of the Redeemer's voice, he begins to open his eyes and see the light of day. It was the music which you and I, Raoul, heard at Perros. And then the voice began to sing the leading phrase, 'Come! And believe in me! Whoso believes in me shall live! Walk! Whoso hath believed in me shall never die! ...' I can not tell you the effect which that music had upon me. It seemed to command me, personally, to come, to stand up and come to it. It retreated and I followed. 'Come! And believe in me!' I believed in it, I came ... I came and—this was the extraordinary thing—my dressing-room, as I moved, seemed to lengthen out ... to lengthen out ... Evidently, it must have been an effect of mirrors ... for I had the mirror in front of me ... And, suddenly, I was outside the room without knowing how!"}
That's.. an uncomfortable appropriation of Christianity. Like I get that he's supposed to be an Angel, but yeesh... Just rubs me the wrong way.
{ You, who saw me disappear from my room one evening, may be able to explain it; but I can not. I can only tell you that, suddenly, there was no mirror before me and no dressing-room. I was in a dark passage, I was frightened and I cried out. It was quite dark, but for a faint red glimmer at a distant corner of the wall. I tried out. My voice was the only sound, for the singing and the violin had stopped. And, suddenly, a hand was laid on mine ... or rather a stone-cold, bony thing that seized my wrist and did not let go. I cried out again. An arm took me round the waist and supported me. I struggled for a little while and then gave up the attempt. I was dragged toward the little red light and then I saw that I was in the hands of a man wrapped in a large cloak and wearing a mask that hid his whole face. I made one last effort; my limbs stiffened, my mouth opened to scream, but a hand closed it, a hand which I felt on my lips, on my skin ... a hand that smelt of death. Then I fainted away.}
Yay! No creepy mirror bride in this version! Just more fainting.
{"When I opened my eyes, we were still surrounded by darkness. A lantern, standing on the ground, showed a bubbling well. The water splashing from the well disappeared, almost at once, under the floor on which I was lying, with my head on the knee of the man in the black cloak and the black mask. He was bathing my temples and his hands smelt of death. I tried to push them away and asked, 'Who are you? Where is the voice?'}
I remember there was mist...
Well, that's certainly.. different than ALW.
{His only answer was a sigh. Suddenly, a hot breath passed over my face and I perceived a white shape, beside the man's black shape, in the darkness. The black shape lifted me on to the white shape, a glad neighing greeted my astounded ears and I murmured, 'Cesar!' The animal quivered. Raoul, I was lying half back on a saddle and I had recognized the white horse out of the PROFETA, which I had so often fed with sugar and sweets. I remembered that, one evening, there was a rumor in the theater that the horse had disappeared and that it had been stolen by the Opera ghost. I believed in the voice, but had never believed in the ghost.}
So he stole her favorite horsie? That's an impressive amount of attention to detail.
{Now, however, I began to wonder, with a shiver, whether I was the ghost's prisoner. I called upon the voice to help me, for I should never have imagined that the voice and the ghost were one.}
That is incredibly ironic. Also super awkward for Erik. 'Voice, save me from the terrifying opera ghost!' 'Umm... I am the terrifying opera ghost?' 'Oh' 'Oh indeed'
{But the figures of which I caught sight had made me run away. There are demons down there, quite black, standing in front of boilers, and they wield shovels and pitchforks and poke up fires and stir up flames and, if you come too near them, they frighten you by suddenly opening the red mouths of their furnaces}
Well, that's not a very nice thing to call the hardworking furnace tenders, even if they are creepy. (I assume that's what going on and not anything supernatural?? feels very Hades/Persephone though)
{I sprang to my feet. I was in the middle of a drawing-room that seemed to me to be decorated, adorned and furnished with nothing but flowers, flowers both magnificent and stupid, because of the silk ribbons that tied them to baskets, like those which they sell in the shops on the boulevards. They were much too civilized flowers, like those which I used to find in my dressing-room after a first night. And, in the midst of all these flowers, stood the black shape of the man in the mask, with arms crossed, and he said, 'Don't be afraid, Christine; you are in no danger.' IT WAS THE VOICE!}
Woah, easy does it with the sudden all caps announcement of who's in the room- you'll give me flashbacks to bad fanfic. (Also how dare you?? I have never yet met a flower which I would call stupid.)
{I had, no doubt, to do with a terrible, eccentric person, who, in some mysterious fashion, had succeeded in taking up his abode there, under the Opera house, five stories below the level of the ground. And the voice, the voice which I had recognized under the mask, was on its knees before me, WAS A MAN! And I began to cry... The man, still kneeling, must have understood the cause of my tears, for he said, 'It is true, Christine! ... I am not an Angel, nor a genius, nor a ghost ... I am Erik!}
I am FIRE! I am DEATH! I am ERIK! Doesn't quite have the same ring to it. (again with the sudden all caps, Leroux? seriously?)
{An echo behind them seemed to repeat the word after her. "Erik!"}
Yep. Still just an echo. No spying going on here.
{"We have nothing to fear except the trap-doors, dear, and here we are miles away from the trap-doors ... and I am not allowed to see you outside the theater. This is not the time to annoy him. We must not arouse his suspicion."}
Nothing to fear but fear itself (and also trap doors)!
Have You Checked For Dementors is the best reaction I've read in my life
All of these people are such messes, I can't!!!
I did like the part where Erik tells Christine that he's no phantom and no angel, just Erik. It feels like he's trying to be vulnerable with Christine, showing the man instead of all the different personas he's wearing. It reminds me of one of my favourite musical leitmotifs in ALW's version, the little melody for "Yet in his eyes all the sadness of the world. Those pleading eyes that both threaten and adore" and "You said yourself - he was nothing but a man. Yet while he lives, he will haunt us 'til we're dead." I think there were other instances but these parts always remind me that Erik is a person and can be vulnerable.
Damn Christine, those people are just trying to make a living. Why you gotta be so mean?
Re: Have You Checked For Dementors is the best reaction I've read in my life
YES. EXACTLY. I was watching the ALW musical again the other day and I was really struck by that often-overlooked leitmotif and those particular lines. (I really want to write a meta about it but am still trying to gather and articulate my thoughts.)
(And I am very proud of that dementor line, so thank you for noticing! I hope you have a great day!)
Look I burst out laughing numerous times reading this but the Dementor thing is A+
I'd really love to read your meta on this! I'm always up for new, fascinating insight that makes me reexamine a story.