#poto Russia

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Thirstiest non-Anglophone Phantoms: Part I

Inspired by @nerdywriter36's post on sluttiest Phantoms and @opera-ghost's post on "Jeremy Stolle heard 'slut' when the director called cut." here are some very slutty Phantoms from non-English language replicas.

In chronological order:

1. Henk Poort, Netherlands, 1993 (w/ Joke de Kruijf)

Solid boob grab AND face caress, sir.

2. Eiji Akutagawa, Japan, 1994

This is the famous "maneuver" and it lasts approximately 40 seconds.

3. Saulo Vasconcelos, Mexico, 2000 (w/Irrasema Terrazas)

Not his thirstiest moment but do it for the **magic hands**

4. Ethan Freeman, Germany, 2006 (w/Anne Görner)

Sir, you are on stage.

How the German Phantoms do not split their very tight pants every show is a mystery for the ages. You get two of Ethan because he is my comfort Phantom.

5. Dmitri Ermak, Russia, 2016 (w/Tamara Kotova)

No way this list was going to not have at least one Russian. The man looks like he's about to have Christine for dinner.

[manderleyfire]

i want to watch/listen to poto russia and since you've seen all the combinations who do you thing work together better chemistry wise?

Ermak/Kotova – Ozhogin/Csampai – Shkoldychenko/Bakhtiyarova

please note that my choice might be biased here but aren't we always that?? lol anyway, dimatoma (aka ermak x kotova) belong togehter on stage and it's a universal truth that binds us (poto moscow fans) all!

[ladystormcrow]

A bittersweet POTO headcanon related to the Rite of Spring one I posted last night (I didn't include it there because it's not technically E/C/R-related):

After its disastrous opening night, Don Juan Triumphant was never performed again. However, its score went on to become a subject of fascination and inspiration for the new rising generation of composers in Europe and Russia (including Richard Strauss debuting his own Don Juan tone poem in 1888), and it ended up helping kickstart the modernist movement in music that would develop across the turn of the century, which The Rite of Spring is famously part of.

[yellowtomb]

It was a late February, when I wrote this post. And now its May 1st.

In this February post I promised to tell about two ukranian documentaries, that shed a light on russian warcrimes. Since that, one of the docs, 20 days in Mariupol won the Oscar. Since than russia committed so much more. Yesterday they bombed Odessa, again, with ballistic missiles. The war is still going on. ________________________________________________________

20 days in Mariupol is a first documentary film of Pulitzer Prize-winning ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov. Chernov have been a war photographer since the 2014 year, from the start of this war. He also documented Euromaidan protests. He was wounded couple of times during his work as war correspondent. In the last two years of full-scale war, I saw a lot of his potos, as I am involved in design process of Russian War Crimes exhibitions, that took place in Europe and USA. I saw this photos of dead civilians too many times. As a part of my job, I also designed (and curently also editing) a map of russian war crimes in Ukraine. By editing I mean constantly adding new places on the map (you can see the map on the site of the project).

I should mention, that I still cannot watch 20 days in Mariupol. I could not force myself to watch it in cinema, its too hard. I heard about Mariupol from my dear friend, who spent those 20 days there herself. I saw lots of video in the first month of invasion and they still terrifies me.

And its because of that horror, that I am trying to avoid - you should see it. You don't see films like that from russia, in which they would show you, how "Ukranian Nazis" destroyed Donetsk. Cause it never happened. After ten years of conflict, Donestk (which is the capital of one of the separatists quasi-state) is still there. Although russians claimed that we bombed it every day. And yet, it took them less then a month to turn Mariupol into ashes. And its been documented and even translated in real time, such is a nature of our media era. And yet the world missed it. But we should not forget it.

________________________________________________________

The second documentary is Intercepted. The film consist of telephone conversations intercepted in 2022 by the Ukrainian Secret Service between russian soldiers in trenches in Ukraine and their families. It may sound trivial in 2024, but this movie does let you see the most grounding example of 'banality of evil'. I mean, its almost trivial to hear famous Hannah Arendt's quote again and again, especially when you don't live in war-torn country. But Intercepted illustrates it just like it is - you hear wives, mothers, girlfriends of russian soldiers tell them, that it's okay to kill, to steal from dead civilians. Someones wife is okay with the fact, that her husband will rape ukrainian women. It does not count as cheating, even more - she supports it. Another wife asks her lover to take home some fine electronics, or kids clothes for their kid. From the destroyed house of ukrainian family, I mean, and she knows it. While you listen to this hellish dialogs - you can see pictures of destroyed ukrainian cities, burnt homes... but its the voices and words of everyday russian families that make this documentary so bone-chilling. Its inhumane in a very literal sense - they just don't see ukrainians as people.

(I could not find where you can see Intercepted right now, but I will edit this and provide links later.) "20 days in Mariupol" 2023/"Intercepted" 2024

[gwaaaaar]

My Personal Ranking of the MazM Games

Lawd im going insane so. Making this ranking. Excluding Yellow Bricks of course. Keep in mind this will not inherently judge the quality of the games moreso my enjoyment so feel free to disagree :) i would love to hear everyones opinions

HYDE AND SEEK SWEEP!!!

Imo theres nothing wrong with HNS (a lie there probably is but shhh). The characters are solid, the plot can fall a little flat at times but MazM said they prioritized making memorable characters more as they can be taken out of the story and used in multiple re-imaginings. They were pretty successful in doing just that. If we didn't have hns we wouldn't have Alan... mai waifu...

Kate is a good protagonist! She's a smartass and an absolute hothead but a load of fun. Pollie is literally a sopping wet meow meow tumblr would love her if HNS was actually popular. I don't think you guys need to know my opinion on Alan (beautiful gorgeous all that is good in the world). Mihir is good South Asian representation:) hes witty and sympathetic. Shoutout to Crack for actually making him look South Asian... so real for that. Bishop is an amazing antagonist like holy shit it may just be my bias but idk she got me tweaking. Of course you got the OG characters like Jekyll and Hyde, although I must admit Jekyll was fucking tweaking lawd that wasn't Jekyll that was his evil brother Jackson.

Art is really good too! Crack was working solo on this project and their art is soooo good, not Maha's painted style but it definitely works for the setting. The watercolor makes sure its not visually boring. The gameplays really fun! If a bit difficult, but I managed to finish the game 3 days after release. It's refreshing after the previous interactive book style games we had before. Honestly I'd reccomend it to any new MazMians and it's very easy to get into :) It's like MazM's tribute to JNH which made them popular in the first place.

2. It's Pechka time. Pechkas all over the place.

Ok ok so. I'd actually say Pechka is a masterpiece. Like literally nothing wrong with it story/characterwise. The story isn't as weak as HNS and it takes itself a lot more seriously. It is MazMs first historical game and it is really educational! Korean rebellion in Russia is a very interesting topic to explore. I didn't even know about it till I played this game.

It was their passion project, it's clear they were very excited to share a story that dealt with their culture so personally. The love shows through the research and dedication they put into it. The characters are sos so so gooood like. Back when I was smaller, I used to scoff at Pyotr for being selfish but. Nowadays hes my poor meow meow malewife. He'd do rounds on tumblr if he was popular. Asya too theyre literally the malewife girlboss dynamic. Pyotr and Asyas relationship is so fucking complicated but lawd they compliment each other perfectly. Daejin, Lizaveta, and Kyuhan have such a sweet story together and just. Aughhhhh.

The art done by Maha and Crack is interesting. The art style uses hatching and it's more simplistic compared to the painted art styles of prior. They primarily focused on making sure the characters actually looked ethnic Korean. The colors assigned to each characters omg... I LOVE WHEN CHARACTERS HAVE A SIGNATURE COLOD THAT REPRESENTS THEM TO A T! The CG cards at the end though... THERES NO HAPPY ENDINGS!!! Some are more bittersweet/neutral. But I think the CG cards do have a wide range of emotions and effectively carry the endings well.

The only problem of this game is the coins which makes it rlly tedious. Pechka is a bit slow burn, so the fact you can only play 2 eps a day is a bit... of a drag. Theres like 10 endings and no log to keep track of what dialouge youve gone through. Like i get you cant replay it without replaying the entire story bc of the endings system unlike jnh or poto or hns but at the very least i wish there was a log to keep track. The footnotes too like, we cant even replay induvidual episodes to find more footnotes which is a bit infurating. It follows the interactive book style of the previous games but the 10 endings give it a new twist.

But yeah on a technical level i might rate it the same level if not higher than hns. Just with hns i found more enjoyment and not many faults :)

3. Thy Creature,,,

Lawd I think you all know how I feel abt Thy Creature. But I'll break it down. Early access Thy Creature had so much potential to be a modern masterpiece it's actually unreal. It was doing something new by being a midquel game rather than prequel/sequel/1 to 1 adaptation. The idea of the bosses representing concepts and characters is genius. They messed up once they realized they didn't have enough time to do all they could n its a shame. I wish it could've gotten delayed just so the writing would be baked properly. Story is a lost cause </3 With characters, the characters are good! However. In the new version, EA characters such as Noah, Justine, and Creature, have been character assasinated. Noah got away just barely because his new iteration is not all bad, Justine's character stayed relatively the same however her feelings towards the Creature have been tampered quite a bit. A lot of the Creature's moral dilemmas are stripped away and it is far more emotionless in the new version which SUCKS. Noah and the Creature had such an interesting dynamic in the early version and it had been removed in the final cut </3.

Character motivations have been completely hidden as the new memory system doesn't give them induvidual reactions to memories which SUCKS. Like. Noah lashed out at the Creature because he realized he had forgotten about his beloved orphanage. YOU DON'T GET THAT IN THE NEW VERSION </3333. They made 701 eviller rather than sympathetic in the final version too </3 The characters that were introduced in the final version are just fine though, perhaps because we didn't lose anything, only gained. Leon is a ray of sunshine, Hanna is a milf, Alex is a badass, Ben is sympathetic etc etc They're like a family :) The boss battles r so cool too... Only gripe is EL is a fascinating character and died too soon to feel attachment to.

The art is fucking gorgeous, Maha primarily worked on the art until Crack finishsd HNS and joined 6 months before release. Unfortunately this is the last MazM game the two worked on as they have left the company due to overwork. Their art is practically one of the lead contributions to why people like MazM so much. Thy Creature is beautiful. I like the earlier concepts better with the sketchy/horror aspects, but the new polished art is just as good. The bullet hell gameplay is a neat mechanic! If only it weren't so hard :(((. In demo traliers there was a concept for having text slide across the screen and scenes playing out during the bullet hell. The bullets would be words and you as a player would have to pay attention to the story thats playing out while dodging, which is a fascinating concept too! But, that sort of thing would be very difficult for certain disabilities and just in general hard to deal with, so I understand why they removed it.

This game was not meant to educate like Pechka, but rather be moving. There are no footnotes like the other game which is fine like it is its own thing. I still think it's a lot of fun. Team MazM put their heart in it just like they did with Pechka, it's worth a try if one likes bullet hells :).

4. Phantom of the Opera let's go!!! 🌊🐴 juan

Lawd you guys know how I feel abt it too. But I'll break it down. Story for the first half is book accurate but the second... The changes are uhm. A decision alright. Not a good one but they're there. I did enjoy it a lot but I will admit the quality is a bit meh. It was my first MazM game so there is my bias. Although shoutout to Daroga for going "shut up white boy" to Raoul when he was being a bitch abt SWA. MazM took an anti-racist stance and they are so real for that. The fact they added the Daroga in the first place is good but, they fucking blame him for Erik's actions when whatever Erik did was his own fault??? But also they made Eriks backstory darker and had the audacity to be like. Actually no one hates you for your face Erik lol. Like??? NO???? HE HAS CLEARLY BEEN SUBJECTED TO IMMENSE PERSECUTION FOR LOOKING LIKE THAT HIS TRAUMA ISN'T HIS FAULT??? But I unironically like the episode where they unionize against the shitty managers. First Pay and A Strike is one of the better episodes. They have two endings, one is canon compliant where Raoulstine run away together, and the other is where they go their seperate ways. I think the addition of that second ending is a cool one and brings to mind new opportunities!

For characters, I think the character added to background characters like the dancers and Remy are pretty fun though! The managers are eh tbh like they shouldn't have been that malicious + the accidental racism with Carlotta and Melek. Melek... dear sweet Melek... she is a good character on her own just not in the story she's placed in. Her existence defeats the purpose of the story. She exists as a prop to make Erik look worse which. </3 Erik and Christine are the most butchered characters here like Raoul took their character development. Erik lost all his compassion, becoming a whiny baby. This defeats the purpose in the og book where he shows mercy to Christine by letting her go because she gave him a single act of compassion. The point of POTO was showing compassion and mercy and he just has none of those???? Christine had been reduced to a naive girl that needed to be taught to be strong via Melek. And i know Melek was portrayed as the one in the right and all but they fact they made a brown woman tell a white woman to toughen up leaves a bad taste in my mouth. She shouldn't have been used as a prop like that. I think it's purely accidental how this came off. But yeah Christine in the OG book, she was strong! She told Raoul to piss off many times, her strength was by showing compassion. She threw her fear aside to give a kiss to her captor!!! Raoul here is the best like hands down. I can write an essay for him later but his character development is the best and he is oddly realistic. I think a problem with the og Raoul (reason ppl can't side with him) is the fact his character doesn't translate well through time. Someone made a wonderful post abt og Raoul here! Give it a read it's good. The way MazM translated Raoul is fitting, as he gets far pushier than OG Raoul to some degree, but his development at the end is quite cathartic. They made Raoul sympathetic in another way which could be relatable for some. The OG Raoul was "attractive" because he was willing to give his honod and status away for a lower class woman. MazM Raoul plays with that idea, by placing more pressure on Raoul and making him unhappy with his situation. He is forced by his family to be perfect for them when he is a child at heart. He loves Christine because she is freeing for him. He is a good person, he just lets obsession cloud his judgement. He is the perfect foil to Erik here and just. Yeah I'll get my essay going soon. Not here. Not here.

Art is fucking gorgeous, Maha and Crack worked on it together but IMO Maha takes more prominence with their art style as the painted looks of the cg cards perfectly match the aesthetic. The backgrounds are BEAUTIFUL. The character designs are lovely. Erik is book accurate minus for the color of his mask. He is monstrous and it's awesome. Christine is blonde, just like the book! The starry look of her hair is unusual to people but it's a game, like whatever looks cool yk? It's beautiful she's beautiful. And we can't forget Jimin Raoul. What a look. They were originally gonna make Christine and Raoul both blonde but probably changed hair colors to make sure they didn't look too alike. I think the pink hair does give Raoul the perfect sweet vibes, even if it's a bit outrageous, it's funny and iconic!!! It also puts a nice duality theme between him and Erik, pink and black my beloved. The dancers are cute, love you Jammes. Remy... lawd i want him. The managers look French.

For gameplay, you have the interactive book format, which again isn't too engaging for me, but it's a good casual game and I think good for newcomers as well because the art is appealing. Coin system is meh but tbh better than Pechka. The footnotes are a lot of fun! Interesting stuff to know like. What's in gunpowder, what the fuck is eugenics, etc etc. But it does hilight the footnote system which helps to provide social context and consume in a new light :)

5. Jekyll jekyll hyde jekyll hyde jeky

I don't hate Jekyll and Hyde, it just doesn't capture my interest like the others do. It's not bad at all and one can argue it's better than POTO but. Idk not for me. The story is pretty book accurate with the characters being canon compliant. It's not a bad thing bc POTO was kind of a shitstorm with the changes made, but I don't feel as engaged. Again it's all up to taste. It just feels like MazM didn't bring anything too new to the table which is alright. This is the game that brought MazM to relevance so ofc, it's a special lil guy :)

Art is done solely by Maha but lawd it is GORGEOUS. DILFS FOR DAYS!!! Cg cards are wonderfully composed, sells the atmosphere of the story. Chibis are so silly, it's like Don't Starve.

The gameplay is the interactive book style and uhhh, idk it's okay. Again nothing to write home about. It's a nice game to play on a rainy day :)

Honorable mention: Heartless

I found heartless on qooapp and while I can't play Yellow Bricks, I'll give my 2 cents on heartless.

I have heard the Wizard of Oz games MazM made are quite book accurate. I haven't read Wizard of Oz yet so I can't give my two cents on that. I'll give my two cents on how I felt.

Heartless/Yellow Bricks were MazMs first games. You can definitely tell the influence it has on their other games. How the story is paced etc etc. It's more child-friendly than their later games, but still has quite a bit of grimness to it. After all, it's about the tin man. Maha's art is so so so diff than it is now, YB/Heartless has a far cuter atmosphere where both the sprites and the chibi sprites are both, well, cute. Nicholas... sweet guy </3. Admittedly he does look like a child when he's an adult but they had a vibe to keep up. The witch is a milf. The gameplay is the interactive book style but it leans more into interactive imo. The minigames where you run away are reused in POTO where you run from the flaming skull. But uh in Heartless, YOU RUN AWAY FROM THE AXE THAT'S HACKING AWAY AT NICK. 😟

It's a ministory to explain what's with the tin soldier and oh boy with the short time it had, it pulled at my heart strings and never let go </3. Fun thing. Anyways. The footnotes system don't give any context metawise, just ingame stuff. Which isn't a bad thing as some people are unfamiliar with Wizard of Oz lore so it's good to fill them in on it.

[cinema-phantom]

Ivan Ozhogin and Arseny Sidorov - The Beauty Underneath (performed for the first time in Russian)

[phantsmenace]

PONR Special - Russian Edition (Pt. 2)

With Andrey Shkoldychenko (Phantom) and Elena Bakhtiyarova (Kristin).

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Minors: Don't read. TW for sexual themes.

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So. Where were we?

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Ah. There.

Doesn't it look like she's losing her senses there? And he's just, you know... Singing.

Kudos to her smear-proof lipstick. 💋❣

What's his voice doing to you, Mlle Daaè? 👀

His hold is soft and, if you pay attention, his thumb caresses her wrist. Her eyes flicker from his face, to his hand, to his eyes again and if that's not a heated gaze then I don't know anything anymore. 🤨🔥

Honestly, she gasps so much that this scene looks even more sexual than it already is 👁👄👁

Doesn't this look like he's crowning her here? And then, when his hands lower, he doesn't touch her directly, like she is just too precious for such a thing. Like he's physically, spiritually and verbally worshipping her.

Nice™.

This has strong Hades/Persephone vibes, specially if you consider their former back-and-forth with the wine- She hesitated at drinking the figurative wine at first, but then she, after his soft seductive acts, ended up doing so. I think this Christine is very aware that the person under the hood is not Piangi.

Or she thinks it's Ubaldo and they're totally smashing. Which Is Valid, And I Ship.

Mademoiselle, are you warm?

Her eyes aren't on Don Juan, or the performance; maybe she's trying to find Raoul with her eyes, but they aren't going up. Rather, they seem hazy and unfocused.

She could still be looking for her golden boy, but what I really think that is happening here is that she's trying her best not to give in. Even if she still thinks that this is Ubaldo (which I doubt), it is very obvious in this production that the direction wanted to show Christine's bond with the Ghost's music. Maybe she's projecting enough that, in her mind, she's singing with the Phantom; his music has seeped deep into her soul, making a rather bold claim on her. You're mine, it says, and Christine is struggling to fight against it because it has a point. Even if she doesn’t think that people can belong to each other, there's still a chunk of her heart that has been given to the Ghost. Or at least that's my take on the productions choice with Christine's acting.

Also, she horny.

See how his hand is accompanying the music? OG's making a statement there.

LADY AND GENT, THIS IS A WENDY'S FOR GOODNESS SAKE

Yes. He really did that. Look again.

Yes. Mlle just straight up had an orgasm there.

Valid

Little Lotte let her mind wander... Is she going to die of horny?

She went for it.

Erik you terrible tease. Jail for Erik. Jail for 1000 years.

Sidenote: Can we all appreciate how his hand is bigger than her face? Thanks. 💕

You just can't convice me that Erik’s opera had this part choreographed. "Oh yeah they almost kiss, but literal Don Juan freaks out and gets too horny to function". 🙄 Like... I can't see it. So I'd prefer to think that in this moment Christine really just chose that she was going to kiss Don Juan, because Canon is whatever I want it to be. /just enjoy life however you want, folks./

Her focus finally snap back to the performance as Erik hunches like a loser. Or does she?

Why are you smiling, mademoiselle? Are you simply back into Aminta's mindset?

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And that's part 2. Are you ready for Part 3? 😏

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Part 1

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- Gifs by Persie (@petittneko)

[marleneoftheopera]

Happy National Hugging Day! 

3 of these are very much unlike the others, but I bet you will NEVER be able to figure out which ones they are.

[boxfivetrades]

He’s here! the Phantom of the Opera! He is with us... it’s the ghost!

With Irina Samoylova (Carlotta) and Regina Ahmetshina (Meg)

[phantomchristinesuk]

Тамара Котова/Tamara Kotova will be singing as Christine in the Broadway Hits & More concert in Saint Petersburg on 31st May.

She will be singing Призрак оперы/Phantom of the Opera with Иван Ожогин/Ivan Ozhogin & Все, о чем прошу/All I Ask of You with Евгений Зайцев/Evgeny Zaytsev.

Pictures: Tamara Kotova official Group (Alina Kopeykina and Kseniya Loginova & Assol) on VK & Tamara Kotova Instagram

[glassprism]

Favorite production photos, in no particular order:

Julia Udine, ‘Stranger Than You Dreamt It’, Broadway

Espen Grjotheim, ‘Final Lair’, Oslo

Michaela Gemrotova and Natalie Grossova, ‘Angel of Music’, Prague

Derrick Davis and Kaitlyn Davis, ‘Stranger Than You Dreamt It’, restaged tour

Lina Mendes, ‘Angel of Music’, Sao Paulo

Michelle van de Ven and unknown Phantom, ‘Point of No Return’, Hamburg

Robyn North and Alex Rathgeber, ‘All I Ask of You’, London

Ivan Ozhogin and Elena Bahtiyarova, ‘Final Lair’, Moscow

Jonathan Roxmouth and Meghan Picerno, ‘Music of the Night’, World Tour

Tomas Ambt Kofod and Sibylle Glosted, ‘Point of No Return’, Copenhagen

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First of all, I'm sorry for what I did to Meg in this chapter, and in this fic in general.

In this week's chapter, we go to Moscow, where both Christine and the Girys give each other answers that refute assumptions they held, and fill in gaps in their knowledge.

The part that was hardest for me to write, and sadly the most unrealistic was--and I don't think this is really a spoiler--Meg's confession of loving Christine, and Christine being totally oblivious.

AFAB queer readers will likely pick up on it, but I'll spell it out for straight readers--it is absolutely A Thing for two women to have a relationship, only for one to later on decide she's not interested in women at all. Meg genuinely loves Christine and has also had to let her go--but with her standing right in front of her, crying in her arms. I really hate this for Meg and I've already written another AU where they get to have all the delightful endless blissed-out nights that they deserve.

I've never been to Moscow, and regret that I likely never will. I have heard it's a stunning city and during the time that the story takes place was during the last blush of Imperial Russia, which I find fascinating. Most of the chapter takes place in their home, since Christine is too depressed to leave the house, but Moscow was a hub of art and culture, and I've hardly seen it depicted in POTO fanfiction, so I decided to give it a nod.

[ballerinadellamusica]

Meg & Christine backstage.

Pictures: Мария Геворгян, Елена Бахтиярова & Тамара Котова fan groups on vk, Amy Manford on Instagram

[wando4ka]

I am the mask you wear...

Ivan Ozhogin and Elena Bahriyarova as my favourite Erik and Christine

[capitanogiorgio]

The POTO Russian production really blessed us, uh

[sewerik]

elena bahtiyarova + andrey schkoldychenko, moscow