#me when i have autistically high standards for the interpretations of my funni show and neither sub supremacists nor shippers Get It

[nyatbinary-81]

yea sure. puts on my hbomberguy voice

So. Here is a ramble on The Story Of The Man Himself: What the FUCK is up with that???

like, alright, in episode 25's sub version, the intro says “When the man’s hands were cut off, he began writing a story in his own blood. That was a story of the man himself, who would continue to spin stories even after his death.�� which is notably different from the dub version, which only says "That was a story he could continue spinning even after he died." a rare W for sub enjoyers, getting a little more flavor than dub enjoyers.

but its very clearly stated within the show that the story drosselmeyer was writing isnt His, its the story of the prince and the raven. this isnt even spoilers, they tell you in like episode 2. so why is the narrator, someone who tells the plot's stories in layers of metaphor, saying this Outright?

maybe because mytho IS drosselmeyer, cloaked in metaphor and allegory.

let's start simple: they look alike. no come back im going somewhere. princess tutu's cast all have unique appearances; their own hairstyle, hair type, and hair color, their own facial shape, their midly varying skin tones, etc etc.

like, this image doesnt even include the side or one-off characters who all look unique. pique and lillie, ebine, paulamoni and her husband, literally all of the animals, etc etc. so why, in this varied cast, do TWO of the main characters have white hair and golden-brown eyes? thats a very specific combination to put on Two Characters. oh well! surely thats a coincidence! maybe it just Happened to be an effective character design for both of these men with forbidden powers and surviving something that should have very much definitely killed them.

hey wait a second.

let's go over this story one more time. drosselmeyer is a writer whose stories come to life. his power was feared for the possibilities it could cause, so the bookmen cut off his hands and destroyed his stories. he evaded death by using his blood to write a story of himself, possibly dying from bleeding out in the process. its unclear. but its unlikely he wouldve been able to get actual medical attention for his hands, so i assume the impromptu amputation killed him eventually.

mytho is a revered prince with a forbidden power who uses it to trap the raven after they both escape from the story, completely losing his heart and thus himself in the process.

im not the only one seeing parallels, right? they are holders of great power who are loved and whose enemies Want that power. when their enemies cannot have the power to themselves, they vow to kill the power's holder. using this power, they endure an injury that should have killed them, leaving only a shell of themselves to continue existing.

maybe other stuff in drosselmeyers stories lines up with this. maybe the ghost knight is another version of himself, maybe the gk's lover, tutu, and lohengrin are all people who tried and failed to defend drosselmeyer. maybe drosselmeyer wants mythos story to end in tragedy just like his did. maybe its all just a parallel to tie the story into neat bows, not a direct self insert.

however its really funny for it to be a self insert bc so is edel and that makes all three of them transfem as FUCK thank you and goodnight!!!

The narrator opening episode 25 by saying the story of the prince and the raven is a story about himself was wild and completely changes the narrative

[dmcgrann-um]

Introduction

I am Dylan McGrann, an art major and English minor at the University of Montevallo.  I tend to obsess over contradictions, among other things.  I’m not always sure why.  Sometimes this obsession is a concern for what is ‘true,’ but I also think this obsession is partly a function of identity and self awareness.  I was born in Birmingham, Alabama and have lived in Alabama all my life.  However, my family is not from Alabama.  My father’s side is scattered along the northeast coast, and my mother’s California and Texas.  My parents met in California, and when I was born my parents had not lived in Alabama for even a year.  Growing up here, I’ve always been very aware of this.  I never truly ‘fit in’ growing up.  Some would ask when meeting me ‘Where I’m from?’, some even if I’m from Europe.  And being gay and autistic have shaped my sense of being in the South as well.  As a child I never felt I was truly ‘from’ the South.  I share this not just to paint a portrait of myself, but because it relates to how I’ve encountered Mark Twain over the years.

Entering this course on Mark Twain, I feel very familiar but also hardly familiar with the author.  My first memory of Mark Twain is actually not from literature but television in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  While I was only 8 at the time, the character still made some impression on me, the show depicting him a quirky, jovial yet cynical old man, and clearly some kind of performed voice for Americana that I could recognize but not sufficiently grasp.  Years later I first read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in high school at 14 and learned more about him formally.  This is when I truly came to understand him as a figure.  That Mark Twain was his pen name.  That he piloted steam boats on the Mississippi.  That he traveled much and was inspired by characters he met while traveling.  And that he was funny, and still reads funny today.

I actually read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn twice in high school.  The first time when I was in a pre-I.B. program with an alternative curriculum where we read many state-required readings early in 9th grade.  But later I had to drop the program.  This is when I was diagnosed with autism and was medicated for the first time. While I did improve, I remained in standard classes where I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a second time, but this time a bit differently.  In this class, there was something different about the teacher’s investment in the book.  It was a kind of romanticism of the South that had eluded me somewhat in the prior class.  Where before we discussed in detail for days the use of racist language, how how such language could be interpreted and should be read carefully, now we simply read it out loud in class with only a short warning from the teacher but focused much more on how Huck is characterized.  And in the second reading there was an emphasis on setting that I could tell was important to the teacher and some students.  It was then I began to sense a kind of plurality existed in Mark Twain.  I encountered this in Mark Twain outside of school too.  Often in quotes online or in memes, and from a wide variety of people.  People who might appreciate his humor, his brash yet subversive attitude, or his opinions on cats.  Mark Twain (or Samuel Clemens) clearly built an enduring voice in American culture that meets a wide range of perspectives.

Reading Justin Kaplan’s biography Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography, Mark Twain truly seems to embody this contradiction of perspectives more than I imagined before.  For instance, his performance of Christian piety for Mary Fairbanks or Olivia Langdon are not simply fake but ‘honestly’ fake.  It’s a peculiar sort of performance that hinges less on the purported desire for them to make Mark Twain into a devout Christian, but rather their desire for their belief to be acknowledged.  For Twain this kind of performativeness serves as a device to not just acknowledge others, but to retain civility or respect all while maintaining the honesty of his critical perspective.  But Mark Twain as described by Kaplan seems to have genuinely wanted the admiration of others as well.  His willingness to seemingly suspend himself for this purpose is more extensive than I had understood before.  

I didn’t previously appreciate how literally performative his carrier was.  Mark Twain was not merely a pen name, but a built-up character and alter-ego of sorts.  He spent so much of his time physically engaged with audiences.  He does not only belong to a canon of American authors, but also as a humorist, American comedians too. It’s hard for me to not simply compare Twain in his own time to observations of our present. These days as an adult, I‘m not so bothered by whether I’m from the South—it’s a simple fact that I am. Now I know that feeling I used to have, if not common, is widespread in the South as well as the United States generally. Another thing I learned about Twain in the last two weeks is that Samuel Clemens had this feeling too in his own way.  Perhaps this is partly why Mark Twain as a figure and writer continues to resonate. His navigating of a Victorian & Gilded Era United States bears some of the same marks of culture today—a public divided on theological, racial, and class lines that may have improved but not fundamentally changed since.

But I want to understand Twain and his moment on their own terms as well.  I look forward to reading more as the course explores his body of work.  Going forward here, I won’t dwell so much on myself, but hopefully you have an idea of where I’m coming from.

[fellowstrangetownappreciator]

Curious and autistic-coded

Hello there! April draws to an end and with that I think it’s high time to hurry up and write this. What does April have to do with anything, you ask? April is the Autism Acceptance Month. So what better month to do this?

Unfortunately I didn’t make it. I failed. It’s already 1. 5. when I’m posting this. But at least I tried to deliver on time.

In this mini essay I’ll present my case about why I think the Curious brothers from TS2 Strangetown display autistic-coded traits and my personal takes on it.

It’s basically your average headcanon post but with a funny top hat!

0: Preface: What do I mean by “autistic-coded”?

When a character is coded as something, it means that they have traits that are associated with the demographics in question to make the consumer knowingly or not link the character with the demographic, although the character's "label” is never explicitly disclosed.

In the nutshell, it means that there are canonical reasons to read the characters as autistic, although you won't find the word "autism" anywhere in the game nor in the developer's commentary.

In this particular case I do believe that the developer may not even be aware of the code, as there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. If there is, I’m not aware of it and I would be happy to learn.

So, let’s start!

1: “The white male who is very good at science”

Unfortunately autistic representation in pop-culture has a long history of being rather straightforward in which traits the characters often have. This stems from the belief that autism is “a boy’s disorder” (that’s why some autism charities to this day use blue in their symbols). Among popular examples of autistic-coded characters are Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper and Death Note’s L and Near. I’m sure you can think of more but you’ll find that most of them are men and either explicitly white or racially ambiguous white-passing. They also tend to be gifted in tech, logic or other science-y activities.

There’s nothing wrong with that! Nothing wrong with being an autistic with those “stereotypical” characteristics and there is nothing wrong with people being represented. What is wrong is the monotony and afab people/people of color being underrepresented which leads (among other factors) to harder access to diagnosis and resources for those people in real life. But! That’s a topic for a different day. (and not for a simbrl, mind you)

Back to the Curiouses! I just wanted to say that autism in media is traditionally associated with characters whose gender presentation, race and interests align with theirs. Those characteristic thus make a very convenient template for autistic-coding.

2: Inconsistent performance, huge gaps between strengths and weaknesses

Pascal, Vidcund and Lazlo are very skilled Sims by default, extraordinarily even for their age. Pascal has a skill maxed while his younger brothers both near maxing theirs.

But as you can see in Pascal’s default skill panel, apart from Creativity, all his other skills are extremely low, 0 points for Mechanical, Body and Charisma, 1 point for Cooking and Logic and his second best skill, Cleaning, has only 3 points. The same situation can be observed in Vidcund’s and Lazlo’s, except their strong suits are Logic and Cooking respectively.

Huge discrepancies within performance in different cognitive areas is a common trait found in those on the autism spectrum. We’re often talking extremes here and the scale of the difference is the defining factor. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, it’s just in neurodivergent people those tend to be unusually noticeable.

I think that skills, simplified as they are, are the closest The Sims has to possibly simulate that because they track the character’s performance and expertise in different areas and allow comparison. In real life, of course, this comparison is not nearly as possible and exact, nor desired, but for all our analysis-loving enthusiasm, here we’re still talking fictional characters.

3: Struggle with social cues

It is widely known that one of autistic traits are difficulties with processing social situations, picking social cues and successfully replicating socially desired behavioral patterns.

But these three are Sims, are they not? They cannot possibly display this trait, since they’re programmed the same way as others.

Yes and no.

It is true that there is no specific in-game feature that would allow Sims to behave with explicit neurodivergency in mind* but with the right combination of traits they can simulate behavior that really hits close to home for neurodivergent players.

*at least not in TS2, TS3 has traits that simulate some possible neurodivergencies but their names tend to be rather... ableist unfortunate and they’re not relevant to this post since they’re not autism related, and even if they were, we’re focusing on TS2 exclusively

Let’s take look at Lazlo here. He is, indeed, a playful soul. He likes to goof around, tell jokes, make others laugh. And since he’s very close to his brother Vidcund, close enough even to Tell Dirty Joke (an interaction that needs quite a high relationship to unlock), he autonomously does just that.

And oh boy, does Vidcund disapprove.

From my personal experience playing them, their relationship usually takes quite a hit from every cheeky joke Lazlo throws Vid’s way. They usually autonomously repair it very quick but it happens often.

But that’s a standard behavior. Vidcund’s very serious, he doesn’t take well to jokes.

No. I mean technically yes, Vid is definitely a grumpy old plant dad but, at least in my game, he tends to accept Lazlo’s jokes. All kinds of them, actually, except for the dirty ones. And Pascal, who technically has even lower Playful points (0 in comparison to Vidcund’s 4), doesn’t seem to mind Lazlo’s poor attempts at grown-up humor.

But! What is it that makes Lazlo try still? What drives him to attempt to make Vidcund laugh with a dirty joke over and over again? (and fail?)

I my interpretation, Lazlo doesn’t do that on purpose, he is just really poor at evaluating “dirtiness” of a given joke and frequently misinterprets Vidcund’s cues. The animation of a dirty joke being rejected even supports that as Vid doesn’t signal his discomfort with any exaggerated easy-to-read facial expression until Lazlo gets to his punchline.

No only that but as I mentioned, the invisible lines between spicy and too vulgar are often hard to thread. I can recall many times I thought I was saying a witty quip on an “adult” topic and was met with awkward silence or someone shushing me because “that’s not how you speak in public”. I can well imagine myself in Lazlo’s shoes.

A situation of social cues being misinterpreted or ignored can be observed also in Vidcund. Programming-wise, those are just his low Niceness and extreme Shyness showing but combined they again paint a picture of a very neurodivergent-looking behavioral pattern.

He often behaves like the concept of politeness or social rules doesn’t exist because the combination of the aforementioned traits makes him come off very blunt (lecturing and shoving telescope-peepers with no warning whatsoever) and distant (having a high chance of rejecting simple small-talk socials).

(That’s Jasmine Rai casting the “Summon Vidcund” spell.)

Yes, I am fully aware that it makes a stronger case for him being an a**hole than autistic but... there’s no reason he can’t be both. Not all autistic people are sweet cinnamon buns, all personalities you can think of can be neurodiverse and, for some their neurodiversity can even amplify their inconsiderate ways, as I believe it is the case with our dear grouch Vidcund.

4. Their bios

“No matter what happens, Pascal believes there is a logical explanation for everything. In his free time, he practices home psychoanalysis and collects conspiracy theories.”

(that’s how I imagine practicing psychoanalysis looks like, sorry Freud)

“Serious and exact, Vidcund strives to fit the universe into a nice tidy package. He has an unnatural fondness for African violets.”

(let’s collectively pretend those are African violets)

“Not as studious as his older brothers, Lazlo got his degree in Phrenology. He likes to call phone psychics and spends hours trying to bend forks with his mind.”

*error: screenshot of Lazlo bending forks not found*

(but here he is hanging out with Erin Beaker, the closest thing to “calling phone psychics” you can actually do in-game)

Both Pascal’s and Vidcund’s bios point to a pattern-focused worldview with a strong emphasis on rationality as the center-point that anchors the way they understand the world around them and build their principles on. This “pattern-ization” of thinking is a common autistic trait, with rationality being a popular theme because emotions tend to be difficult to access and asses for many of us.

Lazlo’s biography is an outlier. But it still has something significant in common with those of his brothers: All three of their bios allude to a potential special interest of sorts.

Special interests as an autism-related term are very specific, in-depth and long-term hobbies or areas of expertise that make an autistic person happy and they tend to go to seemingly exhausting lengths, often at the cost of other areas of knowledge and most likely the person’s ability to talk about anything else for a long enough time. (a loving hyperbole, no disrespect meant) Mine are my characters and cats. An even more intense but a short(er)-term passion is called a hyperfixation.

Them potentially having a special interest is yet another possible autistic-coded feature.

5. Wait. Why does it matter?

Right. What does it matter if a Sim (A SIM) (or two or three) is autistic? What do I hope to achieve, pushing my autistic Curiouses agenda down your throats?

I got to write a long rant-piece about some of my favorite TS characters and I feel like I can finally die satisfied.

Apart from that and me sharing my happiness of finding some good pixels I can relate to, it is a matter of representation.

Remember by the very beginning I wrote how most of the representation our community gets in media tends to be just a one specific type of character?

And how the Curious brothers seem to fit the stereotype to a point?

There is something I omitted, something I saved for the last on purpose.

The role. The role in their story, the role in the society the piece of media portrays.

We often see neurodiverse, autistic or autistic-coded character as children, students, villains, lone savants, victims in distress, comedic relief sidekicks, either very vulnerable and needing protection, or detached and having their role defined only by their academic prowess or their special interest/profession.

What we rarely get to see them as, are... parents.

That’s what many of us autistics are or plan to be someday in the future. The dogma around autism has started to dwindle relatively recently and there are little to no examples of autistic adults being the care-givers for once in the media around us.

The Curious brothers are just that. They are chaotic, they are eccentric, they can be a little too much... but they are dutiful and loving fathers/uncles to their little aliens they raise.

They make it work. Even if they face difficulties, even if they don’t exactly fit the standard.

“Sometimes, a family truly can be three brothers raising alien babies, and it’s beautiful.”

It encourages us to define family by love rather than traditional structures and it shows us that portrait of a functional neurodiverse family we need to see.

And goodness, is it a powerful sight.

[eyecicles]

Is L autistic or just, you know, traumatised for some reason?

The thing is, even if you compile all the evidence of him maybe suffering from PTSD, there are still more than enough “quirks” and character traits of him you couldn’t explain with him being “just traumatised”. He shows way more autism symptoms than PTSD symptoms, but I personally can still see him having both. You know, this isn’t something unheard-of; a large number of autistic people suffered trauma and/or developed PTSD. I’m diagnosed with both too.

And here’s why I firmly see L as autistic:

He’s confused about social rules:

Example:

If you’re traumatised, you can be confused about what people want from you too. Meaning, you can be overly sceptical, lash out at people for something harmless because of your triggers, interpret neutral faces as “angry” or outright hostile, etc. That’s not what’s happening here. L disregards social norms altogether, and sometimes he doesn’t even understand them. He never interprets facial expressions or body language incorrectly (at least not in the manga), which is kind of a given looking at his profession (and no, not every autistic person is bad at interpreting stuff like that, also because this can relatively easily be learned & lots of autistic people are skilled psychologists and criminal investigators).

He’s good with psychology but he doesn’t have great social skills, and his confusion or the reactions he gets because of his lack of social skills never make him react emotionally.

Also, whenever he’s rude to people, it’s never defensive. He’s rude to people like Matsuda or Misa when they annoy him, he’s rude to Watari when he thwarts one of his plans (when he asks the task force to make the decision to either stay with him and quit the police, or to stop working for him and go back to the police.) but doesn’t seem like he ever pushes someone away out of fear. He has no problem with pretending to be close to someone, like he does with Light and Misa.

That’s why I have a hard seeing this as a PTSD symptom, although trauma can make any already existing confusion much worse for autistic people.

His disregard for social standards:

Example:

Visible suffering from trauma can definitely make someone look “weird” in the eyes of society, but what’s also typical for traumatised people is to act a) more aggressive and defensive than it would be necessary or b) to act more demure, to be shy, to try to be as invisible as possible. L is neither. He’s completely neutral when the examiner asks him to sit properly. This is just an example, but L’s mannerisms neither seem forced (as if he’s trying to prove a point) nor does he ever seem shy or ashamed of something.

In fact, it’s remarkable how much control he has over himself and his emotions.

A good example would be when Light physically attacks him; he fights back without seeming outwardly angry. It’s amazing how much control he shows when Light punches him with all this might, and that’s something I would have a hard time seeing in someone who’s so much traumatised that it’s affecting their entire demeanour and mannerisms. But I digress.

A disregard for social rules can be due to a number of reasons, but with L it’s rather obvious: all of the things that make him stand out have to do with him trying to feel comfortable. He doesn’t wear socks or shoes, he sits in a way that’s comfortable, he always wears the same lose-fitting clothes, he holds objects “weirdly” because it disgusts him to touch them directly, he’s listless, etc. For me, this shows that he doesn’t care what other people think of him either because he has no interest in forming relationships (and Ohba confirms that he never had friends) or because his comfort is just that important to him. I personally think it’s both, which brings me to the next point:

His lack of interest in people or anything outside his work:

Again, traumatised people mostly distance themselves from others out of fear, while L is so much fused with his work that you would have a hard time finding evidence of him having another hobby, or any kind of interest in people on a personal level. And I’d say crime solving is his special interest:

He’s not obsessed with it out of a sense of justice; it’s his biggest, and maybe only, hobby (the only exception could be tennis).

Stimming and ticks:

Example:

L has an obvious oral fixation, which is extremely common in autistic people. He’s always either eating something, biting his thumb, licking his fingers or touching his lips. Biting one’s lips or fingers can be a sign of nervousness and fear, which is therefore indeed something some traumatised people will indulge in as well, but L does it all the time and he isn’t a nervous of fearful guy at all. On the contrary; he’s quite bold and not afraid to get into the faces of other people, even when he’s almost certain they’re a serial murderer.

Another example:

Stacking things. This can be a form of visual self-stimulation, a way to help us concentrate, which is seemingly the reason why L loves stacking objects, and it’s in fact one of the most famous “Asperger’s” symptoms. Playing with objects to distract yourself or to avoid an uncomfortable social situation would be something different, but L does it whenever he’s in deep thought. So much so that he won’t even look at the people around him, whether they talk to him or not. We often see him ignoring people and not because he’s afraid of them, or angry with them. Autistic brains love to intensely focus on one thing at a time.

Another example:

Playing with your own toes/toe wiggling is a very, very common autism symptom

Lack of empathy:

Example:

When L confines Misa, Light and Soichiro, there are several scenes that show the task force being concerned of feeling sorry for one of these characters, while L obviously doesn’t.

I have a hard time imaging L feelings sorry for anyone but himself on a more than superficial level, haha. He feels bad about the FBI agents Light killed, but there’s never a hint of sorrow on his face and definitely no pity.

As I said before: he also never shows a hint of shame, which can be due to lack of empathy and/or lack of interest in social acceptance.

His high intellect:

It’s not just a cliché that autistic will often be highly intelligent; while most autistic people aren’t “genii”, lots of people that are famous for their mental achievements are on the spectrum, or suspected to be on the spectrum. The way an autistic brain is structured can make it easier to be extremely detail-orientated, to think “rationally”, to intensely concentrate on a topic they find interesting with a passion and persistence a lot of non-autistic people lack.

Routine:

L always looks the same, always sits the same way, always eat similar food, always drinks the same beverages, etc. We never see how he would react if you would take that away from him, but I think it’s obvious that his love for sameness is not something he does out of fear; there’s nothing that suggests that he’s trying to avoid triggers. Sure, this still could be the case in theory but looking at how L does almost everything out of the need to feel comfortable or because it helps him concentrate, it’s doubtful.

Also, autistic people often react differently to food, sometimes we can have an either much more sensitive or less sensitive stomach, and I find it interesting how L has no problem with consuming so much sugary food without getting sick. (That’s also something I can relate to *cough*)

His motor skills and agility:

It’s both a classic autism symptom to be extremely bad and to be extremely good with motor skills. Sometimes both at the same time. While L’s body language is often pretty awkward, he’s also quite skilful. Examples:

He’s an excellent tennis player

His capoeira skills prove how agile he is

He can tie cherry stems with his tongue

He can write with a pen while holding said pen with just his finger tips

“Weird” facial expressions:

Well, we all know about L’s funny facial expressions, and I can’t tell you how often people brought up my expressions, since I look either very neutral (”stone-faced”) or apparently do something weird with my face, rarely anything in-between… which yes, is a classic autism symptom

His appearance in general:

Thick, wild hair, bad posture, large pupils, long & crooked limbs, even dark circles - all of that is a bit more common in autistic people. While autism doesn’t have to affect our appearances at all, it can, and it’s interesting how L has displays some physical symptoms as well.

[glassprism]

What are your complete thoughts on the 25th Anniversary? (Acting, singing, blocking, etc.)

I feel like I’ve written complete thoughts on portions of the show several times over the course of... my blogging career, I guess... so this will be more like quick summaries.

Sets and props: Meh. Projections are not my thing and the interlacing of the screen was a tad painful. More importantly for me, it lit up the stage too much, ruining the original “black box” effect and only serving to highlight how bare and minimalist the stage was. I missed some props (the elephant, the Il Muto bed, the portcullis, etc.) and the chandelier falling, but I understand that was due to the constraints of being in the Royal Albert Hall.

Costumes and wigs: Generally good, with the exception of some odd changes in costuming (the lack of the Mandarin coat, Christine missing her puff sleeves for ‘Masquerade’, those dang yellow decorations on the bodice of Christine’s wedding dress that made it look like she spilled a drink down her front). Also, could have done better with the wigs, especially Christine’s, it looked totally deflated by the end. But overall sumptuous, and I loved finding a variety of different productions’ costumes among the ensemble.

Orchestra: Not my forte at all, but they sounded great? It was a bit funny to see the orchestra playing directly behind the Phantom in ‘I Gave You My Music’.

Blocking: Generally close to the replica; what changes there are are generally to accommodate for the new setting, though some could have been better done (Christine’s faint in ‘Music of the Night’ kind of happens for no reason, the Phantom strangling Christine in the ‘Final Lair’ just makes me sigh, I dislike that Raoul in the noose is shoved off to the side instead of placing him at the center, and oh the ring returning scene). Biggest complaint is that some changes come off more E/C-supportive, whereas I prefer a more ambiguous interpretation.

After show: Pretty fun, great to see past, present, and future Phantoms (plus one international Phantom) represented, as well as to see the original cast singing. Just wish it hadn’t started the trend of “multiple Phantoms, one Christine” thing that’s gotten a bit overused.

Ensemble and supporting cast: Ranges from decent to good. The ensemble is lovely and I always enjoy picking out familiar Phantom alumni from there. Daisy Maywood as Meg is cute and voice is stronger than usual for Meg, probably because she was an Eponine understudy before this - which also accounts for why I found her a tad too belty sometimes. Liz Robertson as Madame Giry was menacing but needed to use more than eyebrow raises to convey her moods. Barry James and Gareth Snook as yhe managers are hilarious and work very well together. Wynne Evans as Piangi is fine, but I wish he hadn’t wobbled on the high note. Wendy Ferguson is pretty good, but I wish she was a bit more charming at times and less angrish.

Dancing: Dancing was fine, main complaint was that I wished I’d seen Daisy Maywood’s Meg and Sierra Boggess’s Christine do more dancing, especially as Boggess has legit dance skills.

Singing: Mixed bag. As said, the ensemble and supporting cast were all good (except maybe for Wynne Evans’s messed up high note). Hadley Fraser is okay, but with a pretty similar voice and strong vibrato that did not mix well with Ramin Karimloo’s and tended to drown out Sierra Boggess when singing together. Sierra Boggess probably has the best voice of the trio, just has some odd diction and throaty sound that makes it hard for me to listen to her a lot. (Oh yes, and I wish she’d attempted the London cadenza.) Ramin Karimloo throws a lot of emotion to his voice, but is rough and untrained and sometimes shouts more than sings. He’s better here than in some of his performances in his London run, or in LND, but it’s hard to listen to him for very long.

Acting: Another mixed bag. Of the trio, Hadley Fraser is probably the most polarizing, and the bottom of the lot for me - too aggressive, too unsympathetic, and by the time he actually comes around to changing and being nicer to Christine, it was too little too late for me sadly. Sierra Boggess is my favorite of the trio and her ‘Wishing’ is without a doubt the standout of the show, but I do find her acting a little stage-y at times. Ramin Karimloo, as with his singing, is extremely emotional, which makes up for the fact that his interpretation is pretty standard and conventional; I just wish he were less violent. However, it’s also a major improvement on his cold, stereotypically autistic Phantom of his London run. He and Boggess have good chemistry, but the downside is that when combined with Fraser’s grumpy Raoul, the show leans heavily towards E/C.

Overall interpretation: Like I’ve said, the show itself is about 90% replica blocking, with most changes being made for the new setting. Having said that, some of those seemingly minor changes, plus the interpretations of the leads, do make the show come off more heavily E/C, and especially it seems to favor a version where Love Never Dies is likely to happen. That’s fine if you like the sequel, or if the rest of the show is good enough to make up for it; for me, I can sometimes tolerate it, but other times find it irritating.

FINAL GRADE: 7.5/10. A beautifully shot show that stays fairly true to the original musical and with a strong ensemble and supporting cast. However, and just personally, the E/C and LND tendencies, the fact that I don’t care all that much for the three leads, and just how many times I’ve seen it giffed and edited and streamed and talked about so, so much in all my years as a phan, means that it’s kind of lost it’s luster. Still, even if I would be quite happy to never view it again, I would recommend it for the new phan who wants an accessible way to start diving into the stage show.