#They really be meant together cus of daddy issues

[ladyvendetta]

Rogan and Curien:

YOU AREN'T MEANT TO BE TOGETHER!!!!

Their children with daddy issues: OGKE

Lisa ain't joking, she did really want to get fcked 👀

Buut instead of Embrace of pain this become a idk nifty art 💁

[soobasaur]

hello ^^ i read your minchan boyfriends headcanons and i really enjoyed it :) can i request a minchan parents headcanons pls if that's ok? thank you <3

minchan as parents headcanons

hey stupid, i love you

minho x chan headcanons

a/n: anon i literally love you cus i love this trope so much like tysm for asking this because i love writing /reading minchan as parents!! might be cus of my daddy issues ಠ_ಠ anywayz i made jeongin their kid in this cus i’m too lazy to come up an oc ;-;

« masterlist part one »

minho didn’t think he wanted kids, but after taking care of three cats and his boyfriend being a child at sometimes...how different could it be?

apparently very different

he was the first to bring up children to chan one night, his sister had dropped off her five year old niece for them to take care of for a couple hours

and seeing chan with kids made his heart go jdkfkfkfk

so afterward when they were both slumped on the couch tired out, as casually as possible he went

“maybe we should look into getting a kid?”

thankfully chan wasn’t holding a hot beverage, otherwise he would’ve spilled it over himself

he barely managed to sputter out a response but just ended up nodding

“yeah, i’d like a kid.”

and that was that

they both looked into adoption soon after, waiting for their applications to get approved before anything happened

it took a couple of months but they ended up getting matched with a little boy, who they named jeongin

the day of his birth was as hectic as you could imagine

minho running around making sure they had everything and chan figuring out how to attach the new car seat to their newly bought minivan

but the moment they spotted jeongin in his little crib was worth it

the nurses taught them how to do a swaddle, it took chan a couple more tries since he was clumsy with his fingers

but he eventually got it !!

minho was the one who carried the carrier to the car, a small smile on his face as he buckled their new family member in

the first few nights werent as rough as they’d thought

neither of them had a proper sleep schedule either (due to chan’s insomnia) so they didn’t have trouble getting up at night to tend to their son

they were used to running on low sleep so they didn’t miss it too much

they ended up moving to a bigger house so jeongin could grow up running around a bit more and have his own room eventually

all their friends pestered them for pictures everyday, which they happily supplied

chan was definitely the i love you so much i’m gonna embarrass you dad

jeongin knew if he wanted chocolate for a midnight snack chan was the one to ask

the amount of things like that him and jeongin have gotten away with together jskskdk

what minho didn’t know wouldnt hurt him...!

when jeongin started school minho was a sobbing mess

he didn’t think he would be! but when he and chan walked back to the car after dropping him off he just broke down crying

and chan was like “babe he’ll be back in a couple hours,”

and minho was like “he’s growing up sobs,”

chan most definitely made jeongin watch kids friendly anime with him, and got him into playing video games

minho was like let’s get him into reading!! and chan brought home manga

minho was like (;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ`) not what i meant but ok

minho was more strict out of the two of them, chan had a hard time saying no

for the first couple of months they sent their cats to minho’s sisters house until jeongin was a bit older

and after meeting the three cats jeongin fell in love and begged for more pets

leading chan to bring home a fish

how could you say no to a three year old jeongin :((

u cant!

minho let them keep the fish but gave them both a scolding

felt like he had two kids sometimes!!

chan loved going to the park with jeongin though, he felt no shame in running around like he was five with his son

halloween was so fun

minho loved to make them go on family costumes

and since jeongin was just 3 he went along with anything

jeongin makes a cute shark >///<

he must’ve taken off his dad chan because jeongin was almost as clumsy as chan, if not more

no amount of baby proofing could prevent them both from tripping on thin air

minho did not understand 🧍

overall they would be the bestest dads ever

and any hateful stares they got was met my a glare by minho

>:(( it was 2021 anyone could have a kid!

they raised jeongin on letting him be whoever he wanted to be

he wanted barbies? cool with them

he wanted toy cars? also cool with them

taking care of their chaotic friend group made it easy for them to care for jeongin

minchan perfect parents (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞

thanks for reading ⁂

[haircoveredwriter]

Okay before anyone asks, yes I've seen the summaries of the 6 extra eps. Yes I'm excited about them, and hell yes I'm still zen and think Caryl is coming.

Let me regail you with an unsolicited word vomit about how I see things panning out. Feel free to scroll past this now if you don't wanna know or don't care. No hard feelings.

(Putting it underneath a break since it got longer than I meant it to be. And I can't figure it out of the app so here's my makeshift one)

--------------------------------------------------

We good? Good.

So Kang really has put together the same formula we've been getting with Caryl for God know how long, except this time it looks like they are actually gonna hash some of their shit out. No more dancing around it or doing the Gimps special of just forget about it and it'll blow over with sunshine and rainbows. Actual talking. (Let's pick our jaws off the floor and continue.)

'Home Sweet Home' has them in their usual awkward place of not being able to deal with anything because they're dealing with Neg@n/M@ggie/Elijah (magic ninja)/the kids/did we just fucking destroy the whisperers??/does anyone have any snacks stuff??...the usual and instead of letting them heal they have become the group's caretakers. It's just a bunch of whoopie 😶 although we've seen clips where Daryl is already up to defend Carol's choices regardless of how mentally and physically exhausted he is. True love at its finest. Plus we know they talk a bit on some level and it leads us to them going off together in 'Find Me'.

Caryl. Alone. In a tiny cabin. Daryl opening up and talking about his past. Yes please. (I'll give y'all a min to laugh at Caryl having a cabin episode 😏😏)

Now the way it's worded sounds to me like Daryl has callbacks/flashbacks to a variety of things; 1- his childhood and dick bag daddy 2- his time locked in the cell at The Sanctuary which plays into Neg@n and can also link to things from the first one, and 3- how he had to just get away after R!ck "died" and Carol was in Kingdom land since it was too painful to be home. The last one I see him relating feelings more towards Carol, fearing she's gonna run since it's all over, deciding to open up about his other stuff in hopes he can delay what he sees as inevitably heart wrenching and soul destroying. Why is this important besides making him have sad puppy eyes? Because Carol learns some truths she didn't before (mostly about the whole Neg@n situation) and in true broken ZA queen style we've come to expect, she puts this issue and the self imposed guilt on her shoulders to fix they into way she thinks she can, what Daryl deserves to be distant from her and Carol is the one who decides in 'Diverged' that it's a super cool, fun idea they go different ways for reasons I can't pinpoint yet. She wants to go het something before going home....he should make sure everyone is okay while she looks for berries...she's gonna go find throw a couple rocks at the collapsed cave since she can't pour one out for Con©on...take your pick.

Any way you slice it, it leads to Caryl trying to function separately and failing like a couple of fleshing birds flipping out of the nest to waddle across the grounds, landing face first every 3 steps. Tptb ain't even trying anymore with that 'will this break Caryl forever and they'll despise the other for eternity?" Yeah, cus we all go on potentially one way road trips with a person we can't stand to be around. Come on guys. Put SOME kind of effort in.

Yes there is gonna be angst but I see it resolved by the end of the ep and Caryl fixing whatever never there crack the writer's pretended was there.

By 'Here's Negan' we have Carol "taking Neg@n on a journey to diffuse issues at home". I don't for a second see this as her leaving with him, her choosing to spend time with him, or them bonding over anything except for Carol laying down the law of how things are gonna be going forward if he gets to sticky around. If not then he has the choice to hit the road make his own way again. I hope she brings up some kind of hint as to how pissed she is about what she learned from Daryl and he's lucky she didn't know about it beforehand or he'd be walked bait by now. Give me some take no shit Carol all day y'all but Neh@n is gonna have his use in reliving his past life (Lucille) and give Carol a pep talk on not letting great things right in front her nose slip through her fingers before it's too late. He's gonna push her the same.way he made the girlfriend comments to Daryl until the light bulb goes off and her penny drops in the bucket, making her see what IDIOTS she and Daryl are being.

Basically, the ship is still sailing. Kang is aimed straight at canon Caryl and she's never waivered in her destination so we good fam. Settle in for the angsty goodness because it's gonna lead to the biggest release we've been waiting 10 damn years for. Get your popcorn and tea ready.

Caryl on.

[drkoestersmithrpg]

OK THIS IS THE CHAPTER

This *IS* a chapter in Enthusiasm.  It WILL BE the 2nd chapter of Nobody’s Baby but it needs a lot of editing, obviously.  “The day they pulled you out of the drink” is a reference to a plot point that hasn’t been written yet. and wont be in Nobody’s Baby.

----------- ------------------ --------------

                                               The Big Secret

“He’s good for me,” Tony reassured himself, as he waited with a pounding heart in the bedroom, waiting for his Not-Baby to come out in the new silk nightwear they had picked out together.  His eyes kept going to the box on the nighttable, the box with the gift he was not supposed to buy (and certainly had not spent too much money on!) that he had bought anyway and now was terrified to think about.

It was ring.  NOT the kind with a diamond in it, certainly.  But a ring nonetheless.  The ring he had cleverly sized and wanted Peter to wear on his middle finger.  The ring he had inscribed.  He wanted to give it the man who was “Good For Him.”  

He wondered if they would have to have another argument first.

But Peter was still in another room trying on his present-to-himself and the wait was making Tony a little crazy.  

“Sweetheart?  Angel? Are you ok in there?”

“I don’t know,” Peter’s voice came from the bathroom, and it didn’t seem promising.  “I think it looks ….. silly.”

“Well can Da….can I see it?  Please?”

“I don’t know Tony.”

“Ba….Angel please.  I’ve been thinking about it for days.”  (That was a lie, they had overnighted it.  But he had been thinking about it since the day Peter asked.)  “I promise I’ll tell you if it looks silly.

“Besides, you don’t have to wear it for long.”

“Turn off the lights first,” Peter called out, and Tony couldn’t really argue.  He was still wearing his shirt, after all, and Peter had been more than accommodating in that regard.  If he didn’t want to look at his own scared body during sex, could he begrudge Peter not wanting to be seen in his experiment-turned-mistake?

“Are you in bed?” Peter called out after Tony instructed FRIDAY to dim the lights.  Tony willingly complied.

(Besides, if they went straight to bed, he could sleep on the entire ring issue.  Yes. That sounded like an excellent idea indeed.)

“I am now,” Tony called out when he was, and was delighted to watch a shy Peter creep from the bathroom, sprint across the bedroom, and dive beneath the covers in the dim light.

Tony pulled him close and kissed him thoroughly.  He knew his boy well, and soon Peter was relaxing into the bed under a long kiss and a massage with very expert fingers. Tony kneaded his ass, his thighs, and his back without ever turning him around, and soon Tony was calling on FRIDAY (between kisses) to raise the lights bit by bit, until he could see the rich green against Peter’s ivory skin.

“Oh it’s beautiful, angel.”

“Are you sure?”  Peter said.  His face was relaxed, but still his brow creased with worry.  “In the mirror it looked…..ridiculous.”

“You don’t need a mirror.  Da….I’ll tell you the truth.  It’s perfect.”

He was stroking Peter’s chest through the silk as he spoke.  Now he moved his hand lower and caressed the hard stomach.  

“Do you like the way that feels?”

Peter’s eyes were closed now, and he whimpered an assent as he turned into Tony’s embrace.  That left his ass free for Tony’s hand, and Tony used that to his advantage.  He kissed Peter’s hair over and over again, murmuring sweet nothings and reassurances (but without the B word!) until his hand finally began working it’s way down the crease of Peter’s body until Peter was moaning freely into Tony’s chest.

Tony’s fingers stroked and teased Peter at his very center.  

Tony had to make this good.  More importantly, Tony had to make this the fucking of Peter’s life.

After all, in the morning, they were going to deal with the ring.

“Turn over precious,” he whispered, and Peter gasped and moaned and agreed all at the same time.  The green silk panties were lowered and Tony lowered himself onto the rise of Peter’s ass, using lips, teeth and tongue to make his point. Peter whimpered as Tony teased his hole, calling out Tony’s name even as he was grinding his erection into the sheets. Finally Tony pushed the covers aside completely and, at Peter’s request, removed the silk shorts.  Wetting one finger generously in his mouth, he pushed it inside to the second knuckle.  

“Is this what you want, Peter?” he asked gently, has he rotated the finger gently.

“Oh god yes Tony,” Peter cried out, his face buried in the pillow.  

Tony straddled the boy and brought his hand back to his mouth, wetting a second finger, then pushing them in tenderly.  He moved his hand in and out, lovingly watching his fingers disappear into Peter’s body.  

This was it.  This was the night he gave Peter everything he wanted.

What he found (conveniently) stored in his nightstand slicked his fingers perfectly, and he buried two inside Peter as he traced kisses across his lower back.  Peter moaned helplessly over and over, calling out Tony’s name and begging for more.

When he was certain Peter couldn’t take any more he sat up again, and he spoke.

“Are you ready to be good for Daddy?”

Shit.

Peter’s head snapped back, his eyes hard.  But to Tony’s relief, he didn’t speak right away.

When he did speak, he only moaned, and pushed back on Tony’s fingers, before he said “Yes.

“If you’re going to fuck me…. I’ll call you anything you want….’Daddy.’”

Tony bend down and sucked kisses into the rise of Peter’s asscheeks, trying to ignore that hateful tone, trying to undo the damage he had just caused.  Peter didn’t seem to mind, he was pushing up into Tony’s kisses.  This caused him to grind into the bed, then push up again, backing into Tony’s fingers.  

“Oh god Tony,”  he whimpered, and he didn’t sound hateful at all,  “just fuck me and I’ll call you Rumpelstiltskin if you ask me to!”

“I love you Baby,” Tony found himself moaning into Peter’s skin, his eyes closed tight, desperate to be understood and terrified to look Peter in the face. “I love you, and I want to take care of you.  Just tell me that you’ll let me take care of you Baby…..” but he had to stop.

Peter was crying.

“Oh god Tony,” Peter was saying, but not in a good way. His voice was breaking and he was sobbing.

“Tony I don’t want you to ‘take care’ of me, I don’t WANT you to buy me things, ah god HOW can you be such a fucking genius and not understand that?!  I can’t be your sugarbaby, I can’t!  I can’t…..why can’t you just….why can’t you just let me…….”

His voice was breaking and he was gasping for air. Tony pulled away, scooped him up from off the bed and held him close.  Peter struggled but Tony refused to let go.  Certainly the boy could push the issue, Tony knew very well who was the stronger person, but Peter finally relaxed into his embrace and clung to him in silence.

“Why can’t I just love you?  Why can’t I just love you for who you are?” Peter was weeping, and Tony rocked him back and forth.  He made the “shhhhhh” sound over and over.  He was the only sound he could make.

He couldn’t speak.

They clung to each other for some time before he could.

“Peter, I never….I’m sorry.  I never once, I never ever thought of myself as a sugardaddy, I’m sorry. I never meant for you to feel like….you made it clear, from that first night that we slept together that I wasn’t allowed to buy you things.  You were adamant!  

“Peter what I mean is….I want to take care of you.  I want….I want to be inside you and I want to make love to you and I want to feel you coming around me …. but I want more than that.  I want to be with you the next morning and the next week and the next month and the next….”

“And the next three years?” Peter asked, pulling back, tears in his eyes.

“After I graduate?  And after that?  Because you seem to have this weird timeline in your head that after I get my degree …. something is going to happen …I’m going to go somewhere that doesn’t include you  and I don’t know how to escape from that.  I love you Tony.  I love you and I don’t ever want to let you go.  You can call me baby if you just promise not to push me away.  I couldn’t….I can’t……” and then he couldn’t speak anymore and Tony could only hold him close and rock him again.

Tony bit his lip until the blood came.  Dammit this was why he had avoided fucking the boy for so long, knowing that if he had Peter’s arms wrapped around his head and Peter’s legs wrapped around his waist he would open in his mouth who knows what he would say?

Well, he knew.  He knew, and he was going to say it now.  

Because his baby was in tears, and that wasn’t ‘taking care of’ baby.  That wasn’t taking care of baby at all.

He loosened his grip around Peter’s body and pulled away long enough to look into the boy’s face.  Wiping the tears off white cheeks, Tony looked into his eyes and spoke.

Which is to say, he opened his mouth.

He opened his mouth to say the truth that had been cued up since the day he had told Peter “Chose any song you want.”  He opened up his mouth to say the ugly truth behind every lie he had ever told.  

He opened up his mouth to say  “I’m never going to leave you Peter Parker.

“But you’re going to leave me, and that’s ok.

“I made my peace with that on the day the Sentinels pulled you out of the drink.”

Peter didn’t react.  

Tony was surprised that Peter didn’t react, surprised by the empty silence of the room.

“What is it, Tony?” Peter whispered, stroking his face, and the man blinked in surprise to realize he hadn’t actually spoken at all.

So he tried again.

He looked deeply into Peter’s eyes, opened his mouth.

“Who do you think locked you out? I was the one who filed the injunction against you.  It's the only way I can protect you……”

His brow knotted in confusion.  That wasn’t right, those were Obie’s words.  Obie, the man he loved and adored and trusted with everything.  Obie, who had naturally tried to kill him.  

He shook his head hard. Peter will still watching him closely, waiting for him to speak.  He opened his mouth and tried again.

“I'm sorry. I’m sorry Tony. You know I wouldn’t do this if I had any choice.  But he's my friend.”

But that wasn’t right, that was the words of an entirely different man, a man whom he had thought of as a friend  but turned out only to be a teammate who tolerated him …. a teammate who had actually left him for dead in Siberia.  

Tony shook his head hard and scrubbed at his face with his hands, trying to make the room stop spinning, alarmed to find himself so unmoored in time.  What was worse, Peter was pulling away, sighing.  “I know what you’re going to say.  This is about me and growing up and being a kid with a crush and scratching an itchy…something.  I’ve heard it all before.”  He was actually climbing off the bed when Tony reached out in a panic and pulled him back.

“Everyone leaves me someday.  You’re going to leave me someday.  And that’s alright.  

“You won’t be the first, Peter.

“But you will be last.”

He had said that outloud, at least.  He could tell by the look on Peter’s face.  It was a look of amazement and exasperation, but exasperation so tender it didn’t hurt at all when he said “Goddamn you Tony Stark” before pulling him very close.

Tony sank into Peter’s strong arms.  It was suddenly much easier to breathe, now.  There were tears, somewhere, but he didn’t need them now.  There didn’t seem to be any need for them now.  The Big Secret had been revealed, and no aliens had invaded from a hole in the sky and no vital organs had been removed from his chest.  Peter was accepting this fact the same way he accepted all the other annoying Tony Facts, with an eyeroll and an attitude of tolerance that would last up until such time as…

“Wait,” Peter said, pushing Tony away suddenly, holding him by two handfuls of shirt.

His face…Tony had seen that face before.  It was the face Peter made when he was working on the holotable, on the edge of a breakthrough.    

“So you’re saying….that you’re not going to leave me…..and I get to stay with you…..until I leave you?”  

“It’s a deal,” he concluded and kissed Tony hard.

[postedbygaslight]

The Problem With (Forced) Happy Endings, or, Why I Hate The Phantom of the Opera

Yesterday, I was messing around on here and suggested that I hated the way The Phantom of the Opera ended. Then, I got the following ask:

I thought I’d respond briefly, but then things got out of hand. So, @lushkitten1989, as promised, here’s way more than you bargained for.

There are many, many reasons to dislike Andrew Lloyd Webber’s monolithic Broadway musical, The Phantom of the Opera. So, I’ll dispose of some of the lower hanging fruit:

The story is dependent upon Christine being so naive that she doesn’t realize she’s getting music lessons from a guy behind a two-way mirror.

The phantom is a one-trick pony, defined almost entirely by his obsession with Christine. It’s never actually clear what he seeks to achieve by gaining de facto control of the day-to-day operations of the theater (other than merely being able to exercise that control— which may be the point).

Raoul is as interesting as a pet rock. He is unbuttered toast. He is Mom Jeans.

The music is intermittently great, but just as often annoying as hell (to me, for example, the “Angel of Music” motif is grating and uninspired).

Those are fundamental, but relatively minor complaints. Phantom has a lot of strengths. The chemistry between the Phantom and Christine is very pronounced, and, at times, shockingly blatant in its sexual themes. Some of the songs are timeless classics (“Phantom of the Opera,” “Music of the Night,” “All I Ask of You”), and some of the sequences, like the chandelier crashing down on the stage, and the ensemble pieces, like “Masquerade,” are very accomplished.

But where Phantom really shines is building a very genuine feeling tension between what propriety and social mores tell Christine Daae what she should desire, and what she actually desires. Phantom dabbles with Bride of the Monstrous themes, but never goes all in on them, and the result is a muddled, confused mess of a story— one that could have been very, very good, but wasn’t courageous or forward-thinking enough to capitalize on its opportunities.

See, the problem starts with Raoul.

Yes, wonderful, handsome, unthreatening, rich, devoted, patient, loving, convenient Raoul. The honorable Vicomte de Chagny, no less. He is our erstwhile Socially Acceptable Love Interest™️. From the moment he’s introduced, it’s clear Raoul is meant to be Christine’s white knight, swooping in to rescue her from obscurity. The plot contrives to have him coincidentally happen upon Christine, his childhood sweetheart, now a chorus girl at the opera house he favors with his parents’ fortune.

Now, I know what the Phantom fans might say: Raoul is here to allow for a juxtaposition of dynamics, placing him as an anchor point to which Christine can return, reminding her that she is more than the Phantom’s pet (or pupil, or lover, or what have you). But I’d counter that he’s really here to act as a stand-in for society’s expectations for how a well-behaved woman should conduct herself. Raoul is young, conventionally attractive, affluent, and, most importantly, chaste.

Christine’s connections with Raoul are explicitly drawn as being rooted in childish notions of affection. To wit, Raoul First greets Christine with a modified nursery rhyme she was read during their brief time together as children. He visits her in the soft-focus glow of her dressing room, showers her with praise, and proceeds to not listen to her when she insists she can’t go celebrate with him. More than that, he dismisses her objections with little more than a hand wave. The point is, he sees her as a child, and treats her as a child.

Look at what happens the moment he leaves her alone. She looks into the mirror, and runs toward the dark reflection behind her own image (heavy symbolism of Jungian animus here). From their very first physical encounter, the Phantom engages Christine as a sexual creature, and the difference in her reaction is, well:

Once alone with the Phantom, Christine is no longer the child so idealized by Raoul. She’s a young woman seeking instruction of a different kind from a strange reflection of herself whose instructions have suddenly changed from anodyne singing lessons to exhortations to “feel the music of the night.”

The next time Christine is with Raoul is when they share their duet, the excellent, “All I Ask of You.” I say excellent because, like other tentpole numbers featured in Webber musicals, the song itself is brilliant, but, in the context of the play, it’s less inspiring. This is rather like “Memory” existing in a pop culture space entirely divorced from its origin in Cats, and I’m certain there are a fair number of people who simply identify the song as a soaring Barbra Streisand number, rather than the mournful plea of a neglected alley cat.

“All I Ask of You” is preceded by Christine trying to tell Raoul about her fear of the Phantom, and her growing unease at the magnetic pull he seems wield against her. Raoul’s immediate and repeated reaction? Something to the effect of: “There is no Phantom of the Opera. You’re imagining things. Don’t be silly.” The song then drives this home:

No more talk of darkness—Forget these wild-eyed fears—I’m here, nothing can harm you—My words will warm and calm you.

The call and response Christine and Raoul have here is staged as a sweet love song. And it is. But it’s also a proposal from a young man to a young woman, where the man suggests she abandon her desires to exist as a sexual being, and come be with him, where he’ll act as her protector against such base instincts.

And this tactic works. Christine is not so frightened of the Phantom himself— she pays lip service to being horrified at his murderous tendencies, but seems aware he would never harm her personally— as she is frightened of her seeming inability to resist her attraction to him.

Raoul positions himself as a shield Christine can hide behind so she never has to grow up. He prefers her as the girl who enchanted him when they were both children, and he’ll go to great lengths to keep her innocent and doe-eyed. Is it any wonder that Christine doesn’t want their engagement to be public? (Yes, I get that Christine doesn’t want to risk the Phantom’s wrath should he discover their impending marriage, but the whole thing looks more like Christine being very unsure as to what she really wants).

Raoul, who seems to be the only person in the play who continues to explicitly deny the existence of the Phantom into the second act, is, oddly, the first to run for a weapon when the Phantom shows himself. He’s the one who pushes Christine to acknowledge (falsely, I think) that her attraction to the Phantom is nothing more than a side-effect of Daddy issues. He insistently pushes forward with a plan to permanently rid both the Opera Populaire and Christine of the Phantom despite Christine’s warnings that Raoul doesn’t really understand what he’s fighting against. More than that, Raoul insists that Christine offer herself up as bait, and to do so publicly, an overt expression of control, of making her choose her loyalties in front of everyone.

Let’s pause a moment here before we get to the inflection point of the play. What I’m referencing is, of course, the aptly titled “Point of No Return,” wherein the true nature of Christine’s relationship with the Phantom is made public. I want to talk about the Phantom.

Throughout the entire play, the Phantom is presented as a sympathetic figure coded to represent misfit and outcast elements of society. He refers to himself as a “loathesome gargoyle” and confesses to Christine that he lashes out at the world and makes others fear him because he feels it’s his only choice for survival. But he also confesses to her that he secretly dreams of love and acceptance, and being able to live as he is, free from the condemnation of the wider world.

Yes, the Phantom expresses his displeasure with being defied in very unhealthy ways, but here we are again at the Death and the Maiden trope, wherein our heroine is the only person who is able to see beyond the darkness that both conceals and protects the man behind the mask. Here, Christine should be acting as the Phantom’s succor, a balm to his constant pain, and, in playing that part, she is meant to end his curse, or blunt its effects sufficiently enough for him to find peace. And, in return, the Phantom ought to provide Christine with growth beyond her childhood, and, in this version of events, usher in her sexual awakening and facilitate her passage into womanhood.

And it’s all set up to do that, for those themes to be realized, by the time the finale is cued up. Then, everything just goes to shit.

The Problem

If you’re unfamiliar with the way The Phantom of the Opera ends, you may want to stop reading.

After Christine stops Raoul from killing the Phantom in the graveyard, Raoul and the other peripheral characters contrive a plan to lure the Phantom into the open and kill or arrest him once and for all. The plan is simple enough. The Phantom has written an opera (aptly titled Don Juan Triumphant), and has ordered it be performed with Christine as the lead. Everyone assumes the Phantom will strike during the performance, most likely to claim Christine as his bride (or something like that).

Now, I posted a little joke earlier about what happens before the plan goes into effect. Raoul goes to Christine to comfort her and prepare her for her role in the trap, but Christine is very nervous about it. She tries to convey to Raoul why she’s apprehensive about the whole plan, but, again, Raoul doesn’t get it, and insists that Christine is getting worked up for nothing.

Of course, what ends up happening is “The Point of No Return,” the high point of the whole play, where the Phantom sheds all pretense and makes an overtly sexual appeal to Christine. And Christine, who’s supposed to be playing the role of Don Juan’s paramour, reciprocates the Phantom’s ardor, resulting in a very, very sexy sequence between the two of them. All while Raoul watches from the Phantom’s favored balcony (Box Five), and something like this happens:

The Phantom speaks directly to Christine, saying:

I have brought you— so our passions may fuse and merge— in your mind, you’ve already succumbed to me— dropped all defenses, completely succumbed to me— now I am here with you— no second thoughts— you’ve decided—

To which Christine responds:

I have come here— hardly knowing the reason why— in my mind I’ve already imagined— our bodies entwining, defenseless and silent— now I am here with you— no second thoughts— I’ve decided—

This whole time, while the call and response between Christine and the Phantom reaches its fever pitch, Raoul watches, and understands the depth of his miscalculation. More than that, he’s horrified and repulsed by this display of lust from his innocent Christine. The mere suggestion that she might be complicit in the Phantom’s passions is something that, it can be observed above, threatens to break his world apart.

Thematically, this mirrors Raoul and Christine’s mutual declaration of chaste love in “All I Ask of You.” Which is important, because once the Phantom and Christine have crossed the metaphorical and literal bridge that separates them, and are embraced for all the world to see, the Phantom expands his entreaty, shifting from the blood-racing heat of “Point of No Return” to a soft, pleading reprise of “All I Ask of You.” He wants Christine to know he doesn’t just want her body, that he doesn’t just view her as a possession. That he loves her, just as much or more than Raoul.

And here is where Phantom could have become something great. Christine breaks free of the intoxicant of lust for the Phantom and turns to face him. He is emboldened, and reaches a more confident crescendo, saying

Anywhere you go, let me go, too— Christine, that’s all I ask of—

But the Phantom never finishes his sentence. Christine makes her choice, for sure. She does this. In front of the whole world. When the Phantom is most sincere and vulnerable.

Now, I might have been prepared to forgive Christine this mistake if not for the scene earlier, when she and the Phantom were alone, and she tried to remove his mask. He lashed out at her then, and proceeded to explain his sensitivity to being exposed. He opened up to her and revealed his vulnerability. And, above, when the Phantom has finally allowed himself to hope that Christine’s affections are sincere and reciprocated, she betrays him.

It horrifies me.

For the rest of the play, all the sympathy the audience has been conditioned to direct toward the Phantom is inverted. Christine shows affection to him only to trap him. She even kisses him, leading him on again, for no reason but to quell his rage toward Raoul. Even after his beastly rage has subsided, Christine can only chide him for being monstrous in body and spirit.

This haunted face holds no horror for me now— it’s in your soul that the true distortion lies—

The arc presented for the audience— to sympathize with the Phantom, and to experience with Christine the fear and wonder that can attend the awakening of sexual consciousness, is utterly squandered.

But why?

Happily Ever After

The answer is as simple as it is disheartening: because Christine is supposed to end up with Raoul. Raoul is her destined love interest because the plot demands it, and no other reason. The two of them don’t grow as a couple during the course of the play. Their dynamic as they leave the Phantom’s lair is unchanged from the dynamic they presented when Raoul came to see her in her dressing room at the beginning of the play. Even after being forced to acknowledge Christine as a complicated and sexual being, Raoul elects to ignore that, and champions only freeing her from the Phantom’s corrupting influence.

To come to this point, Christine’s character actually regresses, choosing to retreat behind Raoul’s promise of perpetual innocence and naïveté. The narrative turns from one of growth and sexual agency to one that urges the rejection of what is unpleasant to acknowledge. Christine essentially chooses to marry the nice guy with the trust fund, stays at home to raise the kids and play the doting wife, and occasionally allows herself moments of indulgence to fantasize about the tall, dark, mysterious man she always wanted to fuck back in college.

To make matters even worse, the Phantom is abandoned to misery and solitude. His suffering is rewarded with more suffering. Christine leaves him without hope or promise, and the Phantom remains shrouded in the dark, pining for Christine for the rest of his life. Through trusting and hoping for acceptance and love, the Phantom is shown only the futility of seeking either. The way this plays out is deeply disconcerting, going so far as to set up a prologue and epilogue set fifty years later, after Christine’s death, with a grieving, crippled Raoul learning that the Phantom is still alive. This represents a casual erasure of Christine’s presence from the narrative, and, worse, diminishes her role to that of the object of the struggle between two men over a young woman’s emotional and sexual destiny.

This is an ugly, sad, wretched story. It’s not a story of yearning or forbidden love. It’s a story about rejection and denial of desire. It’s a story about choosing what society deems acceptable over the needs of the self. Moreover, it’s a story about being afraid and remaining afraid.

There is nothing affirming or beautiful about this story. And I fucking hate it.