#...alright it's more about poto in general but still!

[britishchick09]

TELL ME ALL ABOUT UR PHANTOM LGBT+ HEADCANONS RN

yas!!! :D

musical erik, cherik, 'ghost on the roof' erik and lerik are all ace! so are the christines in those adaptations. armand and firmin are gay, musical christine is bi and book raoul is trans! (or any adaptation of raoul really!)

now it's time for my rewrite... and they're all canon! meg is aroace even though she doesn't care about labels, raoul is straight but maybe heteroflexible since he kissed a guy in boarding school and was cool with it? armand is gay and in love with firmin, who's aro af and straight- but he's fine with his pal's little crush on him ;) - daddy daae was bi and madame giry/nadir are definitely very supportive allies!

now for eristine, who have their own pride flags! here are their separate ones:

and joint one!

christine is aroace and demialterous (she experiences emotional closeness attraction after getting to really know someone) and is in a qpr (queerplatonic relationship, which is a platonic committed relationship that's more than bffs yet not romance) with erik, who's the identity queen! he's intersex, ace af, a paragirl (identifying as 51-99% girl, which means he identifies as 80% girl and 20% guy), demiromantic (he doesn't feel romantic attraction unless he really gets to know someone) and sapphic (the only term he could use in 1888 unless he makes the connection that asexuality is for humans and not just plants!). these terms aren't on his flag but he's also apothisexual (a term under the ace umbrella that means he's repulsed by sex) and he used to be gendermask (when someone hides their true identity under another)

now rainbows in paris shine a bit brighter thanks to him and everyone else in the rewrite living as their true selves! (and the fan potoverses i'm sure!) :D

[harrowscore]

It’s been some days, but can I ask your opinions about Phantom in Milan?

yes of course!! so, here are the things i enjoyed:

the performances were all very solid. ramin karimloo's voice has grown far better with time - he was never one of my super fav phantoms of all time but i always enjoyed him and it was really a treat to see him live. amelia milo is a lovely christine, and vinny coyle was also good as raoul. ah! and i got to see earl carpenter as andré (he's a superb actor and singer, and acting wise probably my fav erik ever)

the audience was on fire and very enthusiastic. the performers received multiple standing ovations at the curtain call - it was really a magical experience

in general the new staging, costumes, coreography were alright, and tbh far better (for the most part) than the restaged tour lmao. sure, the black angel wings of doom in the graveyard trio scene + the yellow coat/giant hat combo in ponr were a Choice but honestly? i didn't mind it so much, it kinda worked on stage.

in general i obviously prefer the original production but this was still a worthwhile experience. even my dad (who can't understand one word of english but was already vaguely familiar with the plot) absolutely loved it - he even said it was the best thing he saw in milan lmao. now he's a poto fan too sdfghjfjf

so tl;dr: they did a lot of things right. what i disliked instead:

in the graveyard scene... well it really doesn't look like a graveyard, to the point that my brother (who like my dad is familiar with the musical and even read the book many years ago) didn't understand that it was supposed to be a graveyard at all lol. the scenography was very bare ngl (they possibly saved some money for the abovementioned black angel wings of doom lmao)

i thought the staging for aiaoy was a bit... heh. basically raoul and christine don't really touch/hug each other until the end of the song (with the big damn kiss etc.) and it was a weird choice since this is supposed to be a romantic scene; in fact it kinda reminded me of the restaged tour version. same with motn (erik & christine don't have any physical contact until the famous 'touch me, trust me' bit, while in the og there's this interesting thing where he barely touches her at all/she leans into him etc. until the climax) but it makes more sense here. i mean, this is just a pet peeve of mine, both scenes were fine. as you pointed out it's been some days since i saw the show so maybe i'm misremembering it all. if anyone out there has a better memory than i have and wants to correct me you're free to do so lol

in the final lair scene, after erik lets christine & raoul go, she does return to give him back the ring but whereas in the original they face each other here she just. leaves it there (tho she looks emotional) while erik is facing the audience and singing 'i love you'. again, this doesn't ruin the show or anything but i prefer the more intimate scene from the original.

obv there were a lot of changes/additions to the og production and i can't list them all (i suppose other phans already did) but imho it's one of the most 'loyal' non-replicas out there, and while the original brilliant is still. you know. the og brilliant and all in all superior/far more spectacular this did not disappoint 💜

[plush-anon]

Would you ever write... a Scooby Doo and Phantom of the Opera crossover?

Ooooo, that would be a tough one to do. I would LOVE to say yes... but I honestly don’t know what I would really write, if that makes sense. 

(now allow me to vibrate intensely in place and hyperfixate over two of my earliest and most influential fandoms for about a thousand words please and thank you)

As much as I love these two fandoms (and I REALLY do. POTO 2004 helped pull me out of a REALLY ugly spiral in middle school - I dare say my worst - and Scooby Doo was THE fandom I first wrote/posted fanfiction for), meshing them would be... difficult.

Some Scooby properties have already played with Phantom some - Stage Fright actually did okay on their Phantom monster figure, esp in that he was a spirit focused on ego and NOT obsessing over Daphne (like they’ve done in other films - thanks Music of the Vampire TT_TT) - though considering every OTHER misstep made in that movie, it’s a damn miracle they even got THAT right. And Be Cool Scooby Doo had an episode with a Ghostly Prima Donna that hits a lot of the same points - amazing opera singer who wreaked havoc on a theatre when scorned by the owners.

(And if you wanna get into the actor side of it, Lego Scooby Doo: Haunted Hollywood’s plot focused on the ghost of a Boris Karloff/Lon Chaney Sr mashup haunting the studio with his horror characters, with the unmasking being the Mashup Actor JUNIOR wanting to carry on his dad’s legacy, a la Lon Chaney Jr. Again, not a great movie, but the mystery/monster element was handled alright)

The meshing of the two doesn’t really inspire much plot to it that hasn’t already been done to pieces. If it’s just a traditional Scooby mystery at a music competition the Phantom is trying to control/ruin, well - just see the above examples.  Regardless of the rest of the movie/episode’s flaws, WB actually did okay with the Phantom-esque elements. If it’s a modern POTO retelling with Mystery Inc trying to stop the Phantom, then, well. It’s basically rehashing Sherlock Holmes and the Phantom of the Opera adaptations all over again (of which there’s at least five and a comic miniseries - no joke, those actually exist), but with wacky hijinks and a talking dog. Not much new or interesting there, IMHO.

It would be VERY tired, low hanging fruit to have Daphne get kidnapped as the Christine replacement, and Velma’s family history is firmly established in Germany from Frankencreepy (and while that movie has... many problems, Velma’s family backstory is actually pretty damn good on its own, barring some minor quibbles over details mentioned).

I guess you could do Fred as like... the descendant of Raoul and Christine? Christine was OG Swedish in Leroux, and Fred’s family is primarily blonde and blue-eyed by WNSD standards (I refuse SDMI on principle). There could be something about Fred being targeted by Erik for conflicting reasons, his spirit sent into extreme emotional flux with what was Raoul and Christine’s great-great something grandson, while another mystery goes on framing Erik for something else... There could be something there, but I wouldn’t be the one to do it; main reason being, I am NOT great at writing Fred. 

For me, Fred is a difficult character to write, period; I have a better time of it with the live action Scooby movies Fred because I can play around with the flaws (read: bashing in the first movie) more. Fred in general is a tough character to write bc he’s played as the straight man, the generic leader (tho I forever mourn my lost draft of my post-SCOOB AU mashup with Orpheus in Eurydice - I actually had him there! *cries*).

More recent stuff plays around with him being an engineer - BCSD played him up as a neurodivergent mechanic, and I love that one to pieces - or a charming enough if frustrating at times himbo (WNSD), or in some cases an obnoxiously jealous dumbass who doesn’t know how to use buttons or listen to basic fcuking instructions (Moon Monster Madness, Music of the Vampire, also WNSD) or occasionally the dude SO obsessed with the Mystery Machine he may actually want to fcuk it (Frankencreepy, Happy Halloween SD!).

On the whole though, he’s not one ever really associated with music except when forced unrealistically (see again, Stage Fright for the sake of Fraphne baiting that they NEVER fcuking act on in these movies, to the point it’s legitimately frustrating and cheap to pull - Stage Fright esp so, bc Fred and Daphne spend the ENTIRE goddamn movie talking about having feelings for each other, KISS ON STAGE, and WHAT do they do?!? WHAT DO THEY DO?!??!?! THEY QUESTION THE KISS AND REVERT BACK TO STATUS QUO GODDAMNIT IT I’M JUST WHY) or when the gang is suddenly a band (WNSD, Legend of the Vampire, a background shot with him playing guitar in Witch’s Ghost, BCSD Screama Donna) or both (honestly all of the above, though BCSD played it for laughs best with Fred on the drums).

The closest we EVER got to Fred being interested in singing/music was an old ‘Behind the Characters’ short Hanna Barbera made for Cartoon Network, where Fred admitted he used to be in theatre and loved singing tunes from Showboat.

So him being the tie to Erik feels like a dead end to me. Not impossible, but still just... yeah, not a clean fit in my mind.

As for Shaggy and Scooby... they have enough problems to deal with without adding Erik on top of everything else. ‘Nuff said.

So yeah, unfortunately I have to say no on this one. There’s nothing I feel like I could do in them that wasn’t already tired (as opposed to the ROTG/POTO mashups I thought up forever ago), but hey, that could just be me.