#I have more observations

[ifyouhappentoremember]

Quick Thoughts - The Phantom of the Opera - London - May 29, 2023

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see Phantom in London! The last time I saw Phantom was the last public performance, which was an extremely emotional performance (I wrote my thoughts up here).

The main trio was Jon Robyns, Holly-Anne Hull and Matt Blaker. I’m putting the rest of the post under a read more cut, because it got very long.

I was really thrown off by the tempo of the music. It would be slightly faster than I was used to (which, for the record, I don’t have a problem with!!) but then, for certain lines, the tempo would slow almost to a crawl?? I don’t understand the rational behind it.

Holly-Anne Hull is a lovely Christine. She does have the head in the clouds aspect to her character, which makes you understand why she’d wholeheartedly believe that her father really did send the Angel of Music to her. She has a delicate, ‘floaty’ quality to her soprano. She does live up to the hype.

I saw Matt Blaker as Raoul the previous time I saw the London production. I’m so glad he remains such an awesome Raoul. He had such wonderful details. I especially loved in the dressing room scene, how he says the line “you must change, and I must get my hat - two minutes … Little Lotte.” He starts almost on his way out the door, and he turns, his hand holding on to the door frame and leaning towards Christine (like he’s Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain) to gently call Christine ‘Little Lotte.’ It was so goofy and sincere!

I walked in without knowing much about Jon Robyn’s take on the Phantom. I walked out thinking that he is a perfectly serviceable Phantom. He’s got choices I think are interesting, choices that confuse me, and choices I don’t enjoy. I think if I saw his Phantom frequently, I would probably end up appreciating his characterization more.

Vocally, I would say that Jon Robyns is one of the weaker Phantoms I have seen. There can be a strained and nasally quality that I find distracting. For reasons that I do not understand, his prerecorded singing sounded worse than his live singing. Additionally, I want to note, that his singing got better as the show went on and he did hit all of the money notes with no apparent issue.

But for me, vocals do not make or break a Phantom! Let’s discuss acting choices!

The first lair started off rocky. I prefer my Phantoms to move gracefully and fluidly and Jon Robyns did not deliver on that front. I was disappointed by the lack of details. The cape flip lacked pizazz, it just flopped down on the boat. The movements felt mechanic in the first half.

I did like that during the line ‘touch me, trust me’ Holly oh so slowly brought her hand to the masked side of the Phantom’s face. Jon then covers Holly’s hand with his own and in that moment, you can see how happy he is. When Holly turns her face towards his, Jon quickly turned his face away and pulled her towards the mirror bride.

London doesn’t do the catch anymore? When did this change??? I swear last year, they did the catch?

Just when I was thinking to myself “I don’t recall a Phantom choosing to sing the lines “Damn you! Curse you” in Stranger Than You Dreamt It” he started chuckling????? Like he was the goddamn Joker????? You could have knocked me over with a feather.

After the mask return, Jon’s Phantom made a sudden movement and it made Holly’s Christine flinch. It made me sad, as this moment is usually played almost weirdly-tender.

I just love Matt’s Raoul and Holly’s Christine together. Their All I Ask of You was perfection (weird tempo aside). I really love it when Raouls kiss the hand of Christine when they go down the stairs before the reprise starts, and Matt did it here.

Ok, so the reprise. It’s a lot angrier than I’m used to.  During the bit when Raoul and Christine are singing, Jon made the acting choice to indicate the Phantom’s distress and sadness by using his left hand to hit himself three times on the side of the head in rapid succession (please note this decision; it is a surprise tool we will use for later).

Holly delivered an amazing performance of Wishing. That last note in ‘Help me say goodbye’ was so strong and powerful.

I had no idea what to expect from the Final Lair. I knew Jon Robyns was playing the Phantom with a violent, unpredictable streak, but his Phantom also likes to cry. We got some angry crying in this Final Lair.

Does it make me a bad person that I have to stifle laughter every time the Phantom’s face falls when Christine sings ‘tears of hate’? All of them always go from glee to such despair in 5 seconds.

During the like “why make her lie to you…” Jon made the acting choice to indicate the Phantom’s distress and sadness by using his left hand to hit himself three times on the side of the head in rapid succession (you see!!!! Paralells!!!!)

Matt Blaker coming in with the details. When he is let go from the nose, he did a nose dive to the ground. He was not moving for a good 10 seconds. He only got up because Holly helped him up. AND THEN he goes in to step in between Holly and Jon because he knew he had to protect her!!!! Guys!!!!! We do not deserve Matt Blaker’s Raoul!!!!

Jon did not do a repeated I love you which really surprised me (in a good way!) He instead made the choice to sob into the veil (which is a real mood btw)

[stars-obsession-pit]

A cult has been causing trouble for the Infinite Realms in their search for power and eternal life. And to make things worse, the Observants suspect that they have at least one actual ghost—or possibly even a traitorous Observant—working with them and interfering with their view. This could become a major problem…

However, as Observants, they’ve sworn not to intervene directly, so they have to pick someone else to look deeper into the situation for them. And, if necessary, to deal with it.

They choose Phantom for this role, since his half-human nature means he’ll have an easier time operating in the living world. Danny’s not entirely happy with the assignment, but the situation does seem like a genuine issue so he’s willing to look into it (if in his own way).

Since he doesn’t know how prepared the cult is for ghosts, he decides that infiltration would be the best way to gather info. Thus, he takes on a new identity in his human form and approaches the cult, expressing interest in the publicly known part of their group. Then, a bit later, he manages to successfully gain admittance into some of the more private meetings. Everything is progressing as planned!

…Though he didn’t expect to like one of his fellow initiates so much. He hopes he can change their mind on things and bring them out of the cult with him when he’s done.

Meanwhile, a hero from the Justice League has also been sent to infiltrate the cult and investigate the rumors about it. It’s gone off without a hitch so far, but they’ve gained a potential entanglement in the form of one of the other new members whom they’re developing a crush on…

[miiilowo]

the fact the fnaf kid's hair colors in the movie match up with the animatronic they were stuffed into (w the exception of bonnie) feels deeply fucked up cause you just KNOW william did that shit on purpose. like yeah lets make a matching game out of this why not

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji goes to Lotus Pier (No relation to the AU of the same name)

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[meamiiikiii]

silly comic based on a time i struggled to read live on stream :thumbsup:

context clip compilation below ASDASDFASA

(cw for brief mention of hospitals/strokes)

[branwinged]

dany is an interesting character because her acts of violence routinely get framed as worse and more concerning than every other character whom one would label as 'perceivably morally good' in asoiaf. some of it is probably misogyny and some of it is strictly boxing dragons in the nuke metaphor category because "angry teenager has three nukes" does not result in particularly flattering readings of the character; but the rest is because revolutionary counterviolence often gets portrayed as just as bad (worse even) as the every day violence required to uphold an oppressive institution as a way to make some point about all violence in itself being evil. now the reason i don't believe asoiaf buys into that rhetoric is because dany's adwd story arc is basically her agreeing to one concession after another until the fighting pits are re-opened, she's married to a slaver, and the yunkish are slave trading right outside her city walls. i don't know why people are reading her choosing drogon in the fighting pit as her running away from her problems because i've always interpreted it as a rescue, she's a princess in the metaphorical tower, shackled to a peace the price of which is the continuation of slavery and the dragon is her rescue, the dragon is her knight, the dragon is her and the dragon is the truth she has been avoiding the whole book, that the choice she has to make in slaver's bay is not between war and peace but between war and slavery.

now the way she reaches this conclusion is kind of bad and concerning, "dragons plant no trees" is not the ideal thing to internalise but obviously that's a low point in her character arc, the way sansa believing littlefinger's philosophy of "it's all lies" is a low point in hers. and neither are whole truths. which is something that will get addressed later, because that's how character arcs work!

[ranna-alga]

"Do the Evolution" - Pearl Jam

[turtleblogatlast]

Leo getting hit with a truth curse but instead of forcing him to admit to super sad or worrying things it’s things like “it was me who broke the remote” “I saw Mikey prank Donnie and helped hide it because it’s way funnier if he didn’t know who it was” “I rip my clothes to look more like Raph’s because he’s really cool” “my stripes aren’t even red they’re pink!”

[vanhelsingapologist]

Publishing has always been a fucking nightmare, but now it’s a layer of hell. It’s not enough that writers be good at what they do. Writers have to maintain an active social media presence and cultivate a following. Be available.

They have to be conventionally attractive enough to look good enough to see on a screen, aesthetically pleasing, kind, funny, up-to-date on trends, socially aware but not so controversial that they turn off a brand from California from slapping their discount code on a video promoting a book.

They have to do all of this with no media training, with little help from the companies that are supposed to be doing this for them.

Of course, a lot of this isn't possible for say, the 40-something mother of two who teaches English at a school and writes on the side. She’s boxed out of an already complex industry that already has enough walls.

On some level, I think authors have always marketed themselves a little, but we’ve reached such a crazy point where we’re demanding the author become the influencer. Accessibility in publishing has narrowed from an inch to a sliver. And that inch was hard enough to get in as is.

[soups-archive]

Honestly, I don't think people give qCellbit enough credit. As much as he can be blinded by his own self depreciation, he knows his husband.

And there is something deeply wrong with "Roier."

Props to cc!Roier for his acting, because as someone who's been watching the both of them for almost a year now, the way he plays Doied with qCellbit makes my stomach churn a little bit.

It's an almost perfect impression of qRoier, but it's wrong in the ways that matter. He's a little too careless. A little too surface level in his portrayal.

He feels like if someone watched Roier's pov and took his attitude at face value without bothering to consider any of the nuances underneath. Which is, I guess, what Doied actually did.

He hits Cellbit with a sword when he's under-geared just "for fun". He stands back in fights when Cellbit's calling out for help. He nonchalantly brings up Bobby in order to convince the eggs and Cellbit to leave. He tells Pepito that he's Pepito's only parent and that Pepito is only his son. The small details all add up together and the result is something immensely off.

It's VERY well acted, and it's the kind of difference that only someone who spent a long time with a character could pick up on, which is exactly why I think qCellbit seems to have caught on so quick.

[lilac-loserr]

I think the reason lwj is so quiet around wwx is because he goes completely fucking stupid when wwx is around. Like full on no thoughts head empty (except for gay thoughts). He can’t open his mouth because he cannot predict what kind of garbled disaster of syllables will spill out if he does. Everything he says in canon has been rehearsed in his head and whispered under his breath fifteen times at minimum before he can even dare to try to say it, lest he accidentally looks into wei ying’s eyes at the wrong moment, causing him to forget everything he was just about to say and also how to walk in a straight line.

Just. Give me stupid lwj.

[cerealmonster15]

i want jamiazu + idikei to go on a double date so badly i think the vibes would be So Very Turbulent

[epiphainie]

no but "tommy's good people. he's good for you" was INSANE like why did they make bobby say that three eps/couple months into their relationship? especially in a scene that was a long-time coming moment of bobby acknowledging how much buck grew up over the years and how proud he is of him, a moment so important to buck and bobby's relationship and extra important to bobby at that time because of what he was going through. like they didn't have to?? bring up tommy?? at ALL?? i feel like im going crazy

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

The man with Yellow Eyes

Wanted to post Gman's new design for my au, Aftermath

[cloysterbell]

Pete, I need you to stay here.

[taradactyls]

Something I love about how Pride and Prejudice is told through an omnipresent narrator, aside from the witty remarks and insight into other characters it allows even though it's usually focused on Elizabeth, is how it plays on the audience's own prejudices and assumptions.

The narrator tells us very early on, chapter 4, that Darcy is "haughty, reserved, and fastidious, and his manners, though well-bred, were not inviting." We've already seen that when we meet him the previous chapter, and will see more of it in those following. But it's the readers, along with Elizabeth, who take that observation as not only a list of flaws (despite only the first actually being negative) but presumes even more damaging flaws must be attached to it. Darcy can be off-putting, especially so in the setting we meet him in: he dismissed Elizabeth within earshot of her, didn't engage with people attempting to converse with him, etc. It's easy to assume the worst of him in a world so driven by social niceties, and because we follow Elizabeth, who is so lively and playful amidst the rules which govern society. Elizabeth thinks he's bad tempered? It would make sense - he hasn't shown consideration for others much socially, why would he care when he's angry? He acted from resentment and jealousy and went against his father's will? That's not such a jump after the conclusion of a bad temper, his own acknowledgement of implacable resentment, and evidence of pride. The awareness of one offensive trait so naturally leads to prejudice against it, that we easily assume still worse qualities must exist. We are as mistaken as Elizabeth.

Even the idea that 'No, Darcy was never haughty or rude, he was just shy and misunderstood, the narrator is wrong' is just magnifying that prejudice. Yes, we do find out later that Darcy is not at ease among strangers, and was always intrinsically good; his morals and core values meant he was never as bad as Elizabeth believed. But that doesn't mean he was without flaws, and it's so fascinating that some analysis of his character seek to completely remove the negative traits which he eventually overcame after acknowledging them in himself. The logic seems to be that they feel if he had them in the start that he isn't actually such a good person. It's just another example of being so prejudiced against certain flaws that it's impossible for some people to reconcile that there doesn't have to be more serious failings attached, and someone can still be a good person despite being arrogant and not always nice. It's, ironically, being prejudiced in the exact same way that Elizabeth was at the start of the novel. It's amazing that Jane Austen was able to tap into that aspect of human nature so deftly, and invoke in both in her main character, and readers to this day.

Now, of course, the story is so well known it's rare for anyone to read it blind, so it's less likely anyone will be unaware of Darcy's good qualities despite first seeing his worst. Even if they do, Pride and Prejudice has become so genre defining that new readers who are the slightest bit genre savvy will be more aware than contemporary audiences were. But even if we know the story it's still so understandable why Elizabeth feels the way she does. We see what she sees and feel her conclusions make sense. Just as, even though the narrator tells us Darcy is starting to catch feelings for Elizabeth, we fully comprehend her not noticing and believing there's a mutual dislike. And though that is concrete evidence of Elizabeth not reading Darcy and his motives correctly, we are still so sympathetic of the basis of her prejudice that her continued belief in Darcy's lack of virtues makes sense from her point of view. We can see, as she later will, that she takes it too far, and should have noticed evidence to the contrary, but her prejudice against him based on his early behaviour and her pride at reading people correctly is so understandable.

Basically, in a story about the characters' pride and prejudices, I love, love, LOVE how the narrator's voice brings out those same traits in readers the exact same way we see it presenting in Elizabeth. We're all on that journey with her, and we can likewise learn the same lessons about ourselves as she does. Pride and Prejudice feels timeless, because even though society and thus the nuance changes, the book is about human nature, and that remains essentially the same.