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There is actually a golden retriever at the end of the rainbow (via)

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Hey y’all wanna see the worlds most appropriately unhinged phantom of the opera as it came up on my FYP?

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Leitmotifs drive me insane, like I hear *repeated melody that has an association with a person, idea, or situation* and I go *tears up the fucking rug like a dog*

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An Essay on ALW's Erik

One of the best insights I got into ALW's Phantom from some random Reddit user is to watch for whether the lead plays Erik from his own POV or from Christine's, especially in MOTN. (I also add a third option because several actors also play him from the perspective of the audience or a more omniscient narrator.)

These approaches result in entirely different, but no less accurate, interpretations of the character. For example, Earl Carpenter's performance from the first lair to the final lair is entrenched in the Phantom's perspective, from the total anxiety he projects in MOTN, to his more hesitant physical engagement with Christine, to his decision to kneel/silently beg Christine to stay with him during the ring return. And I love that there's variety within this perspective as well. Carpenter uses this POV to portray a very earnest and sympathetic (if unscocialized) Erik, but I'd argue that Anthony Warlow also falls within this category even though he leans into the darker aspects of the Phantom's psyche.

I have favorite Phantoms in both categories, but I admit that Christine's POV is actually what hooked me to this musical. I got deep into Phantom boots after losing my dad in my 20s and watching an engagement fall apart under the strain of grief. When Erik is viewed or portrayed (à la Hugh Panaro) through Christine's eyes, you can see the character undergo a pitchy transformation throughout the musical as Christine works through her own relationship to men while grieving and coming of age. Erik initially presents himself to her as a father figure, then as a full-on seducer in the first lair, and then as a total monster. The story is in part about Christine's journey toward reconciling these different ways of perceiving/relating to masculinity in the absence of what had been the only male figure in her life. And the musical approaches resolution when Christine realizes that Erik is neither her dad, her lover, or a total villain--he's just a man. And he's worthy of compassion, but she can also choose to leave him.

Anyway, I hate when people say that it's inaccurate for Erik to be "X" or "Y". Because especially through the lens of Christine's journey, Erik is all the things at one point or another (or even simultaneously). He is a daddy-coded immortal messenger and a genius and sex incarnate and unhinged and broken and, and, and...a literary figure shaped by the internal worlds of the author, the reader, and the viewer/listener. What's the point in trying to make objective claims about him? Resist binary thinking and make literary and media analysis great again.

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The urge to be a perpetually mentally confused woman with both a beautiful talent that is sought after by a myriad of suitors and a nervous condition AND to be an endlessly angsty man of dubious morals with a dark and equally mysterious past, with an unquenchable thirst for a beauty that he himself may never fully experience.

You may call me Angel of Music™, my dears.

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why is Richard sickly for like 95% of the book he's always complaining about being exhausted and faint and nauseous and riddled with headaches and his solution is LETS HAVE MORE PILLS AND ALCOHOL??

LIKE SIR PLEASE JUST EAT A VEGETABLE IM BEGGING U

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Just finished the secret history and one bit I couldn't get over throughout the book was Richard's sleeping pattern / insomnia. Just, how? How is that poor man still standing? How can he just lie down and sleep some 14 hours? And then not for even longer? Kept me on the edge of my seat honestly.

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richard enjoying a splendid breakfast after walking miles from 3-6 am on no sleep, bailing his friend out of jail and appearing in court, when said friend comes into the room and makes out with his twin sister in front of him with the casualness only found in the halls and chambers of house targaryen’s dragonstone

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Hilarious that Tumblr flagged this as possible mature content to me

My dog trying to hide from getting her ear medicine 

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he's got some moves

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as if you’re holding the world in your hands

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I mean it genuinely and wholeheartedly when I say Frank N Furter is one of the most sexual beings in fiction

the hottest person ever wtf???

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Blue skies