Latest Posts by kitschy-gillyflowers - Page 5

"likes mean nothing on tumblr" you're sending me a little heart. that's not nothing it's your heart. look here's one for you <3

he’s an unreliable narrator TO YOU. i believe him

i think everyone needs to adopt "i didnt say it was good, i said i liked it" into their vocabulary right now. it did me wonders

Rondo. Concert in Osaka.

the other day i was witness to a bunch of ppl hating on phantom of the opera for being problematic/romanticizing an abusive relationship and i just. i. like...

do people not realize the entire point of the story is that she leaves the phantom and gets with raoul. like. she literally tells the phantom to his face that she doesn't love him and will never be with him. she rejects him. she was only attached to him under the false pretense that he was a spirit sent by her dead father to comfort her and tutor her in music.

most of their so-called romantic scenes were when she still thought he was a spirit sent by her father. if she had romantic/sexual desires for him (which i'm not opposed to) then imo (thru the lens of psychoanalytical criticism) her feelings were a result of her psychologically sublimating the loss of her father + the loneliness of the opera house lifestyle into this forbidden sexual fantasy which blends the lines between the sexual and the spiritual. but ppl aren't ready for that.

anyway, then she realizes she was being manipulated and had a traumatic grief response and leaves him and leaves the opera behind to have a happy life with her childhood best friend who loved her for her regardless of whether or not she sang. like. hello?

ppl just hate it because of the fans who romanticize erik/christine and gave it that reputation + the love never dies sequel which basically retcons the original story and has no basis on the musicals canon or the story in the original novel... but popular opinion doesn't change canon and neither does retconning... so why should either of those things matter... stop conflating fandom opinions with narrative truths...

Sometimes an unfortunate reality of life is that you'll see yourself in the protagonist of Daphné du Maurier's 1938 novel Rebecca.

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Imagine you live in a tiny coast town in idk fucking Georgia or something. Everything is fine and dandy but one day King Charles and the Pope publicly declare war on your town because the pope told him your mayor kidnapped Prince William. Then, you remember that one guy Will who showed up like four months ago and is pretty quiet and keeps to himself and doesn't do much besides sit in the fields all day. Everyone starts searching for him to get King Charles off your backs only to realize he has completely disappeared.

This also does absolutely nothing to explain why the Pope is backing King Charles, UNTIL you remember your Mayor's DA is actually the Pope's BROTHER who ran away because he didn't want to marry some random royal person he didn't know. Little do you know, that the rando royal is actually Prince William, who has been kidnapped for real this time- by the pope- but is being held in an underground bunker in the okefenokee swamp.

Anyways, you're trying to figure how the fuck your town of maybe 300-ish people is going to fight the british navy and fucking spanish inquisition. The mayor, handling this remarkably well, makes two phone calls. The first to the Mayor of Washington DC, who is lending you the national guard since your mayor saved him while he was being held captive by an anarchist terrorist group one time. The second is the governor of Louisiana, who agrees to lend some humanitarian aid because your mayor walked his daughter home after she got lost on a chicken farm once. Then, the pope decides to pillage and raze the fuck out of Louisiana, partly because they were offering to lend aid, but mostly because the pope knows the governor's son is your mayor's side piece.

Now, your tiny town is full of the national guard and 20,000 cajuns that are simply itching to terrorize some monarchists. Also that bishop that you were pretty sure was just spying on your town comes in and denounces the pope and offers to fight for your mayor. Lastly, your mayor meets King Charles and the Pope at the town limits, and the mayor, ever wanting peace, offers to marry the pope, who takes a confusingly long time to say no.

Then the battle happens and your army of the national guard and 20,000 cajuns absolutely rock their shit before things start to turn for the worse and just when all seems lost Prince William shows up and absolutely decks King Charles in the face, throwing such a legendary haymaker hard enough to be heard throughout the whole battle, ending the fighting instantly.

The Battle of Phoenix Drop was fucking wild.

is this too niche of a joke

Christine & Raoul (Phantom of the Opera)

Sierra Boggess as Christine Daaé

Hadley Fraser as Raoul de Chagny

i need to talk about this beacuse i've been a poto fan since 2021 and i just have to say... i truly don't think raoul was trying to gaslight christine AT ALL in the rooftop.

the goal of his character is to protect everyone and make sure everything is ok at the opera. including christine.

one of his lines in "why have you brought me here/raoul i've seen him" is: "my god who is this man?"

of course he knows there's someone who's killing people. he just wants to make sure christine knows that it's not a supernatural being, because she is having a mental breakdown and because, at this point of the story, raoul thinks that if the murderer is only a man then he can be defeated and is not as dangerous as a literal monster (that's a reason why he tells christine "you said yourself he was nothing but a man... YET while he lives, he will haunt us till we're dead".)

he even checks to see what is happening when she asks "what was that?". he does care. that's why he's telling her all this. he wants to make her feel safe and calm.

while erik is blinded by the dark he has lived in his entire life, raoul is, at the same time, blinded by the light and his position. he is naïve (and maybe a bit dumb) but he has a heart of gold. he only wishes good for everyone (even for erik in some way. i mean, notice how he gives him advice. and, also, him and christine met because he went to fetch her scarf!! this dude wants to help others!!). and it seems to be hard for him to accept that not the entire world will be good and that not everything will always go the way he wants it to go.

he has blind optimism.

and his journey is to see life and the world as it is. it's personal growth. it's letting go of the chains that held you down. and that is also christine's journey.

they both leave their caves and learn about life together.

he wants to do everything for everyone and he may be stubborn as hell, but he would DIE for others (especially for christine). he needs to be the hero, it's not until the end when he becomes the victim that he realizes that the world is more than what he'd always known. and now he has seen the good and the bad. and the middle of both. and he can carry on.

"never kill yourself" ❌ passive, inhibitory, restrictive

"let's all kill ourselves" ✅ active, communal, actionable

Raoul after Christine gives him some attention (and kisses him all over the face) (bonus points if he was actually turned into a dog) (I need someone to draw Raoul himself with kisses all over his face tho 😭 wish I could draw)

my boyfriend just asked me for a "review" of The Count of Monte Cristo and i had to send him this as a warning

oh yes it's that time of year again

It's an engagement, not a crime!

@lasagnatrades 's master

The outfits in question.

There is NOTHING funnier than THE Christine Daae arriving at coney island with the most ICONIC outfit and hair and slowing down time with the most beautiful entrance music and just fucking RAOUL APPEARING IN THE BACKGROUND WEARING THE UGLIEST FUCKING THING KNOWN TO MAN

LND but it’s just the parts I liked tolerated (part 1.5!)

Unpopular (?) (actually idk the popularity level) opinion:

I greatly prefer the POTO productions that replace Christine’s second kiss with a hug.

Cause what really does the Phantom in isn’t that a beautiful girl is willing to kiss him, it’s that no one has ever recognized that he’s a person and has the same needs, aspirations, desires, etc, as everyone else. It gets across that he’s unaccustomed to and amazed by ANY affection, not just romantic.

I don’t really see this interpretation much anywhere but I think the fact she’s doing this for Raoul’s sake is actually part of his change of heart. First of all, I’m certain by that point he was convinced that Christine was going to say no and save herself instead, but she doesn’t. She’s not only willing to sacrifice herself to save Raoul, an incredible act of love and selflessness, but she recognizes the horrors the Phantom had to experience to become so cruel and chooses to give herself up for his sake too. Instead of simply agreeing to stay with him with as much coldness as she can muster.

He has every reason to believe the only reason empathy exists is because there are people who just haven’t learned they must be selfish to survive. But Christine still did what she did after clearly losing her innocence. Even though she’s grown to understand the cruelty of the world and is now capable of true malice, greed, and hate, she chooses not to use them despite having every right to. She’s no longer naive, and she is still kind. That’s something the Phantom didn’t think was possible until now.

Love Never Dies ACT 2 Commentary (First Watch)

2012 Recording with Ben Lewis & Anna O'Bryne

**I know the general plot already**

!!Spoilers ahead!!

“Beneath this mask I wear / There’s nothing of me.” Hmm Raoul & Erik parallels

WE MUST PROTECT MEG <3 darling don’t cry

I prefer the dialogue of the original “Why Does She Love Me?” to this one simply because the old one was much more unsettling. But I’m not bothered.

“He’s just another circus freak!” LND Raoul is collecting douchebag traits like Pokémon

Idk why Erik thinks the musical talent is such a big connection between him and Gustave. Christine is a singer and her father was a violinist.

If a rivalry lasts longer than 7 years then you’re no longer rivals. You’re GAY. (but seriously, the chemistry between Erik & Raoul)

Raoul instantly regrets making the deal? The ONE decent thing he has done so far (would’ve better to not make the deal but I’ll take what I can get).

JAW DROPPED. Meg’s dance performance was fantastic. That dress had wayyy more layers than I thought. Lmao

If Phantom won’t love Meg I WILL.

Dang it Christine, don’t make future plans. I know how this ends, my dear. I’m cryingggg.

The set and Raoulstine’s outfits really do look like the POTO “Little Lotte” scene

Wait isn’t this a double deal? Christine has to sing for Phantom or he’ll hurt her family. But then he makes a deal with Raoul that if she DOESN’T sing then they get to go home? So is it a lose-lose either way? Is the first ultimatum void?

Wonder how the logistics of some scenes work from audience pov (not camera)

Christine: Singing like an Angel / The background: 🦚🦚🦚🦚 (shock to my eyes)

It would’ve been easier if all the love died low key

REPRISING “LITTLE LOTTE”???? EVIL EVIL writing decision. My heartttt.

Simon Gleeson (Raoul) sounds so much like Hadley Fraser when he sings that melody. I’m actually gobsmacked

The sequence to find Gustave looks SO fun

GASP- I knew Meg was gonna try to drown Gustave but I never connected it to her swims. Clever foreshadowing.

POOR MEG. Oh- my darling Meg

“We can't all be like Christine” WHAT THE HECK??? BROOO! HUH?

The ending is sweet. Phantom handing Christine off to Raoul. Phantom crying alone and Gustave comforting him.

Despite all my critiques of this show, I still had fun. The music was great, the choreography, sets, and costumes were perfect. The cast were phenomenal, although I talked more about plot in my commentary than performances. Apologies.

If this show weren’t a Phantom of the Opera sequel and I didn’t have to worry about mischaracterization and message continuity, I think I’d like it much better.

Thanks for reading <3

I met these two guys at a bar and their names were also Mercutio isn’t that funny

Day 11: If you’re Mercutio and I’m Mercutio, who is driving the plane

random but i've been thinking about tcomc again and how i find it sort of disappointing that adpatations, when picking which conspirator to build up as edmond's ultimate adversary (which i sort of dislike in the first place tbh), always choose fernand, when if there is one that fits that role better it's villefort. usually mondego ends up as the more prominent of the enemies because he's the one with the most personal motivation, and ends up as mercédès' husband and albert's father. he's the one "closer" to edmond, being the one who somewhat "takes his place" in life, becoming the husband of his fiancée and the father of a son that mercédès says "should have been ours". plus, focusing on the love triangle is easy. but in the text of the novel, the conspirator who gets more space and is, in my opinion, a more definite foil to edmond, is villefort. edmond is arrested at his engagement/wedding party, villefort is picked up from his own engagement party to go interrogate him. both edmond and villefort are strongly motivated in life by their bonds with their respective fathers, though for wildly different reasons - and villefort keeps his disabled father in his home, while still resenting him, when edmond will never see his father again because villefort condemned him to protect his. both of them lose their first love, though in different ways. it's villefort's daughter edmond has to save from the mechanism he set in motion himself because his own surrogate son, maximilien, is in love with her. benedetto is villefort's son but spends some time believing his father is actually monte cristo. villefort's defeat is the only one that edmond (and the reader) doesn't enjoy, because inadvertently by destroying him he also causes the death of his innocent child, and that is what leads him to realise he may have gone too far. villefort ends up mad, when he'd hoped edmond would go insane in the chauteau d'if. and both of them of course have an intense and complex relationship with the concept of justice. and i could go on

Photos from Theater Lueneburg's production of Love Never Dies. It stars real life husband and wife (and former Phantom) Thomas Borchert and Navina Heyne.

( photo sources x x x x )

Love Never Dies ACT 1 Commentary (First Watch)

2012 Recording with Ben Lewis & Anna O’Bryne

**I know the general plot already**

!!Spoilers ahead!!

**All commentary is written IN THE MOMENT**

Just causally namedropping Oscar Hammerstein? lol

16 mins in and they’re already missing the whole point of POTO. Christine did NOT shun or despise Phantom (not including him committing murder and kidnapping). She showed him kindness.

Awww Meg being excited about Christine coming to Coney Island.

Meg is so darling. WE MUST PROTECT MEG <3 (I know where the story goes lol, but let me dream)

The stage smoke and sparks are freaking me out a bit lol. I feel so close to them

Amazing sets, costumes, and lighting.

“I want to go to Coney Island. And learn how to swim.” Big gulp. Chekov’s gun. Sorry Gustave.

That pretty carriage NEEDS to be in Elisabeth das Musical lmao. Aura 1000%

Idk if it’s foresight talking but HUH- I’d be asking for ID if I was getting in some random carriage

LND Raoul is classist, too? Sheesh. Pick a struggle.

I want to deck Raoul in the face already.

Simon Gleeson‘s (Raoul’s) talking voice low key sounds like Hadley Fraser. Or maybe I’m hallucinating.

“Father never plays with me. Doesn’t he love me?” SCREAMS. I’m so sorry dear. I’m your new dad now.

WE MUST PROTECT GUSTAVE <3

Phantom’s entrance into Christine’s room is so dramatic lmao

“Beneath a Moonless Sky”is so good

I love a little blue light and balcony (Rebecca das Musical)

Some one threatening to “take away everything you love” is a sign to RUN, not fall in love with them (hasn’t happened yet, but I know dang well)

Meg: “You look sublime!” Christine: “You look the same.” GIRL WHY DID YOU SAY THAT???😭 LIE IF YOU HAVE TO

Musical abilities are NOT a paternity test.

Gustave’s (Jack Lyall’s) voice is amazing

Why would the Phantom of all people think it’s okay to put others on display simply because they’re born different? (Although the plastic crystal boxes might just be metaphorical?)

“The Beauty Underneath” is a BANGER.

Will be back with Act 2 commentary soon. Pls feel free to to discuss your thoughts with me :)

I’m not trying to be a hater, just telling my honest opinion. I’m here for a good time. <3

YO WHAT RHE FUCK REBECCA

is this how erik x raoul shippers feel like

This’ll probably be one of the last animatics I post in a while, but I had to contribute at least one of them to one of my favorite ships of all time— Megstine 🥰🫶

My in-universe reaction to Maxim and Rebecca is that she emotionally and psychologically abused him for years, and I don’t blame him for finally snapping.  My out-of-universe reaction is that it was fucked up on du Maurier’s part to signal that Rebecca was a bad woman by making her a promiscuous femme fatale stereotype.

Ohhhh I love this quote from the Count of Monte Cristo!