#in contrast Burr feels pressure to live up to both of his parents. can't believe Burr's coming out on top here

[cishetseymourkrelborn]

explain why you dont like Philip

It's mostly an issue of how he's framed by the narrative. I will admit that the narrative doesn't have infinite time to do incredibly intricate explorations of all of the characters' psyches, but I would've appreciated a little bit more for him. I will also admit that I was in a similar situation to him, with my father attempting (and failing lmao) to cheat on my mom, and I responded in basically the exact opposite way that he did. The fact that I don't find his response relatable doesn't at all mean that he is a bad character, but I feel that the reasoning behind his response would have greatly benefitted from additional exploration and elaboration.

Philip is apparently still attached enough to his father to put his life on the line for him without hesitation after he essentially ruined his mom's life (not to mention the fact that the Reynolds Pamphlet couldn't have been great for Maria's social life and standing either.) Not only this, he is seemingly one-mindedly enthusiastic about being his father 2.0 after his father did this. Does he care about continuing and living up to the legacy of his mother, who from what I've read did more than her fair share of raising him? No, he just wants to be Hamilton 2.0, not Eliza 2.0. Why did the influence of his feminist aunt Angelica fail to instill the value of continuing and living up to the legacies of the women in his life in him? I don't know, the musical isn't interested in answering that question.

The musical presents his fate as being almost pre-determined. The ten duel commandments motif is inextricably linked with him when he's nine years old and the conflict that lead to his death hasn't started yet and continues to be linked to him until his death. This framing to me takes agency from him, suggesting that his fate was written in stone as a child rather than allowing for any acknowledgement or exploration of the fact that he was an adult man who made a choice and could have made a different one. If the musical was interested in exploring why he had a frankly misogynistic response to his father's mistakes, doubling down on being an extension of the man who ruined his mother's life and seemingly not caring at all about being an extension of his mother, I would probably like him more or at least not think of him as a bad character, but as it stands it seems more interested in using him as a prop for Hamilton (and admittedly Eliza)'s arcs than a fleshed out character.

Philip saying that he forgot what Eliza taught him is something I want to give the musical the benefit of the doubt on. The interpretation I've seen in fan spaces is that he's saying that he miscounted the ten steps of the duel, forgetting her lessons of teaching him to count to ten. I sincerely hope that this is not the only intended meaning of this line and that he's also saying that he forgot her lessons about appreciating life for what it is and not getting into stupid unnecessary conflicts that could kill him, but as we never see her attempting to instill the lessons she attempted to instill into his father into him, I am being generous with this interpretation. The alternative, that he really is just saying that he forgot her lessons about learning how to count (while following his father's much more widely applicable/deeper lessons got him into the duel in the first place) is not great! Don't love the implications of that contrast of his father's lessons that can be applied to his life outside of the duel and his mother's lessons that were a very basic skill with no larger relevancy to his life and the philosophy that he should approach it with.

Honestly this could all be solved for me with a few breadcrumb hints that he's wildly overcompensating for his father's betrayal by trying to be an extension of him. Shoving down his feelings of anger and betrayal by acting out their polar opposites. Or something along those lines. It doesn't have to be that exactly, I just want to know why he misogynistically doubled down on devoting his life to furthering the legacy of the man who ruined his mom's life beyond 'that's what needed to happen for Hamilton and Eliza's arcs going forward.' I want to know more about this guy who looked at the same situation I was in and responded in the exact opposite way and the musical isn't interested in giving that to me. Why is he like this.