#he has black hair in the mazm game

[lauriab]

Welcome to the phandom!!! Here is the fullest list I could come up with of every phantom you could encounter out there and a snippet of their personality (except for adaptations I haven’t seen)

(No pressure to read the whole thing btw, if you just wanna know who the main boys are they re at the top :D)

Main phantoms (the ones you’ll see referenced most often):

Leroux!Erik or Lerik: original 1909 novel by Gaston Leroux. He’s the classic, creepy and misunderstood, he’s a commentary on society’s treatment of anyone outside of the norm. One of the most fucked up phantoms tbh. Refers to himself in the third person. But rly he’s just a funny little man :D

Lon Chaney Erik or Lerik: 1925 silent film. A really faithful adaptation except for the overly dramatic hollywood ending. Mostly the same as the book.

Merik or Musical!Erik: ALW musical phantom, usually based on Ramin karimloo s performance in the 25th anniversary recordings but other popular actors include Hugh Panaro, Micheal Crawford and more. A much more romantic and seductive phantom than the adaptations that came before.

Gerik: 2004 film adaptation of ALW s musical starring Gerard Butler. He’s buff, not that ugly, and a bit of a drama queen.

Cherik or Dance!Erik: 1990 miniseries starring charles dance, based on a musical by yeston and kopit (which I’m not putting as a separate Erik since they’re so similar). By all means the sweetest cinnamon roll phantom out there. He likes picnics, is a ginger and doesn’t pretend to be an angel to trick Christine. He must be protected at all costs.

Kerik or Kay!Erik: Novel by Susan Kay. It’s basically a published fanfic of a biography of the phantom s life. This Erik is very fandom based, he’s hot, troubled and ✨the main character✨ tm. This novel is very often used when referencing erik’s backstory in the phandom, also the reason “the persian” is often called Nadir Khan.

Winslow or Bird!Erik: 1974 film phantom of paradise. It’s a very funky musical comedy/horror adaptation set in a nightclub. The phantom wears a weird bird helmet/mask.

MazM Erik: 2018 MazM mobile game. He has long flowy hair, is really fucking creepy and insane (but still a sweety in my heart)

Jerik or Rat!Erik: 1998 film Il fantasma dell’opera. Ah the infamous rat phantom. Haven’t seen this version but all I know is Erik has a weird relationship with rats, he s not disfigured and is generally considered the weirdest one of the bunch.

Hana or Takarazuka!Erik or Erika: female version of the phantom from the Japanese production of the yeston and kopit musical by the all female theatre troupe takarazuka. Quite similar to Cherik, she’s a sweety, but also hilarious and scary and I love her.

Destler or Englund!Phantom: 1989 horror movie. He’s a classic slasher, played by non-other than Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger). The adaptation that introduced the last name Destler, which is generally accepted in the fandom as Erik’s last name.

Erique or ClaudeRains!Erik: 1943 film. Haven’t seen it but from what I ve heard: ✨composer gets splashed with acid and goes insane✨, also he has weird dad vibes maybe?

Niche phantoms:

Prof Petrie: 1962 horror film

Monster in Paris: 2011 animated film, the phantom is a giant flea lookin monster, i havent seen it but by all accounts it’s a really sweet film

Animated Erik: 1987 children’s film, terrible animation, very funny, so bad it’s kinda good

Staller phantom: 1991 musical starring david staller, good actor, terrible musical, the song perfect music slaps tho

Kenneth Hill phantom: 1976 musical (which predates ALW’s musical!!!). I’ve heard a couple songs from this musical, very cool tbh, plus the first instance of a black actor playing the phantom I believe?

Phantom of the mall (Eric): 1989 film. He’s a high schooler I think? Also like a jock?? He lifts weights??? Wtf is going on here????

Honorable mentions (I’ve seen these here and there but they re so incredibly niche):

1930 oswald and the lucky rabbit short, Korvin Phantom: 1983 film, There’s a few more niche video game adaptations such as a point and click game but frankly they re quite hard to find.

A lot of really cool artists have also made little phantom guides that can help recognize the different Eriks like this one! (By @bowlersandtophats I believe?):

can anyone explain the differences between each erik for me? like the names people use / his personalities? i’m a lil confused seeing people using different ones lol

[avashades-purpleorange]

Is it just me, or do you find fictional black-haired weirdos as comfort characters?

[satum-eloquence]

AAAAAAAAAAA I CANT WAIT FOR “THY CREATURE”!! (it reminds me to continue play mazm: jnh but thats for another time).

so in anticipation i will share my thoughts and my speculations on thy creature and some little things i noticed in the trailer and other materials mazm released. note: i havent played mazm much but however i am just so stoked about a frankenstein game sooooo

ready?

HERE WE GOOOOOO

My Dumbass Thoughts on Thy Creature I Will Regret Posting (as of March 2021)

(SIDE NOTE: I will use he/him pronouns for the creature as the book uses this pronoun for him and in the MazM caption of the post, the pronouns were not explicitly stated or implied)

THE DESIGN OF CREATURE

Honestly? Very good and yet somewhat accurate to the book. As I, vaguely, recollect his description includes “yellowish skin; scars, stitches, long, dark hair; yellowish eyes, 8ft.”

In the MazM ver,

he has lots of scars and stitches

no yellow skin but his current skin is very becoming of the overall aesthetic

long hair but not dark

has a yellow eye

i am not so sure about his height but i conjecture it would be similar to the book

has some cool looking horns!! there is a mysterious, alluded, character whose presence is set up as this big mystery that is continuously hinted at. maybe symbolic of his past or his conflict with himself?

imo, the creature looks very innocent and not as horrid as he was described in the book :> (such a cutie!)

holding a white flower. symbolizing innocence, maybe?

shows some flesh.

GAME MECHANICS

A very fun impression though I might feel very frustrated because of the maze lol (im bad at mazes, i just panic). Not much to comment on

So as we can see, it plays out like a typical mazm game with the whole “approaching other people, seeing their well-designed sprites and reading their dialogue”.

but it introduces unique gameplay

other than what i previously mentioned, we can dodge certain attacks as we travel through a maze

and in some instances (the non maze part), we a little logo of sorts with “x75” beside to it.

maybe that is the number of lives we have

75 is quite the large number, exceedingly odd!

the game might be very difficult or something like that or maybe we only have to complete the game in a single attempt before retrying. idk much about game design lol

its on pc so maybe we will use wasd or the arrow keys to move

TRAILERS, TEASERS AND DETAILS

This is the part where I point out small details and seeing what they could mean and stuff.

Teaser:

at the start of a teaser posted on MazM’s instagram two days ago (Mar. 22), the narrator says “many unbelievable things happen in the world” and we see a fluffy white creature with horns similar to the creature’s and that one mysterious character. as what i have mentioned in the design portion, the creature has a white flower which could mean innocence. the small animal (?) seems to resemble a lamb, a known symbol of innocence. It seems like the theme of innocence will be a recurring theme.

we then see the creature and start the gameplay.

slides of text reads “struggle all you want before i am fair to everyone”... does it mean that the creature will treat everyone else poorly because of his mistreatment by the humans? i am not sure

In the gameplay segment, two black figures, whose silhouettes remind me of a wedding dress, express their concerns over someone (likely male because of the “he/him” pronouns). They say “Poor thing.” and “He needs his mother’s care”. hmmm mother’s care?

also the figures seem to be identical to eachother

after the segment, we see an old man with a scarred eye (maybe de lacey???) and a woman beside him (if the old man is de lacey, maybe agatha is the one beside him).

If my guesses are correct and they are the De Laceys, could they be allies of TC (the creature)?

After the scene w the duo, we see creature and the quote of “Why does she hate me?” Who is she? An OC? heck, maybe fem!Victor? that could be linked with “he needs his mother’s care” (if the quote is referring to tc) but the fem!Victor thing seems QUITE farfetched imo because i am just shooting in the dark w no braincells recovered from school. some of these are just probably from the mazm ver of the creature’s past

also ooo a book at the right-bottom portion and the screen and a counter for how many of those lamb-like creatures (chimeras? parallels to creature? idk)

after they show us a bit of the maze gameplay again, a book which is similar to the book i mentioned, is on the floor.

Maybe the book is actually Victor’s journal which you can collect to know some of the lore

TC approaches the old man and says “I came to help you, why are you frowning at me like that?” It is likely that the old man isnt de lacy because the old man is probably not (fully) blind upon perceiving him. if he is de lacey, theyre taking some “creative liberties” by not rendering him fully blind. grrr i wish i had more context >:((((

then after TC interacts with a book which contains a letter from Ingolstadt. Most likely written to Victor and it speaks of overdue books on human anatomy, etc.

Then some speedy text!! I am not able to procure all of them but I got “I am” and “everyone”.

By 1:01, we see the same mysterious entity with horns similar to the creature (except the horns are even).

There is a family portrait of (possibly) the Frankensteins to the right. I conjecture the woman is Caroline and the boy beside her is victor himself! :D

Anyway, my eyes feel a bit droopy and there is still a trailer but yknow i gtg. so see ya and thank you for enduring my dumb thoughts for this long. youre pretty cool <333