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[superduperfandomgirl]

Hamilton: A New-Found Obsessio-I Mean, American Musical

Sooo, if you couldn’t guess from the title, I’m obsessed.  Like “wow help me from the feels and humor and gaaaah” obsessed.  And this textpost is basically me just proclaiming (or rather, writing incessantly -- to keep with the theme of Hamilton) my love for Hamilton: An American Musical and especially my love for Aaron Burr.

Lemme just start off by saying, yes, Aaron Burr is presented as the main “villain” of the musical.  And yes, he did some bad s--t (just look at what he did in real life, tho; the guy was a total skeez, although he did support some really cool causes like women’s rights and ending slavery).  He made mistakes like killing Hamilton in their infamous duel.

He was a shitty guy many times.  But, to be fair, so was Hamilton.  There’s the whole Reynolds affair (pun intended), not to mention Hamilton’s comments on the poor (”How can you trust people who are poor and own no property?” -- kinda rude, dude).  But, in my opinion, that’s kind of the point of Hamilton, and part of why I love it so much, despite the historical inaccuracies and overwhelming feels.  As an amazing YouTuber pointed out in their video (their name is Make Stuff and the video is called “Hamilton and Motifs: Creating Emotional Paradoxes” -- I highly suggest you check it out because it is so amazingly well done and makes fantastic points!), Hamilton is chock-full of characters who make mistakes but also do great things.  I agree, and I would argue that one of the main themes of the show is that you should honor your heroes but never idolize them.  No human is perfect, and the characters who represent some of American history’s biggest idols definitely aren’t.  To quote Burr himself:

“We rise and we fall and we break and we make our mistakes.”

Burr definitely makes mistakes throughout the musical (and in real life), and many of them can never be redeemed.  But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve the same amount of compassion that we show for the “hero” of this tale, Alexander.  In fact, I personally found it easier to empathize with Burr, for whatever reason.  Possibly because I often get the feeling (and I know others do, too, so if there are any Burr fans reading this, I would love to chat ;D) that I am being left behind in life, too scared to take chances and seize the moment like Hamilton.  Perhaps it’s because, like Burr, I often feel like I am being unfairly bullied for my personal approach to living life.  I can’t really say, because there always seems to be a lot of factors that go into me choosing a favorite character in a fandom.  All I know is, once I choose one, I am bound to that character.  Their sadness, their pain, become mine in a way I am pretty sure is emotionally unhealthy. :P

So, where does this leave us other than me ranting at the Internet when I should be sleeping?  Well, the whole reason I started this rant was because I was reading an absolutely SPECTACULAR fanfiction series by allonsy_gabriel on Archive of Our Own called “History Obliterates (the Hamilton Reincarnation AU No One Wanted)”, and there was a part where Laurens makes fun of Burr.

Now, I’m usually pretty upset with the way Hamilton treats Burr.  Don’t get me wrong -- there are plenty of times Burr is an absolute a--hole to Hamilton.  But I also feel like there are a lot of times Hamilton just comes out of the blue and insults Burr and (especially) his “wait for it” tactic with no provocation, from the time they first meet during “Aaron Burr, Sir” to “The Room Where It Happens”.  Like, seriously, I love ol’ Hammy, but he has no chill, especially when it comes to his first friend/enemy Burr.  And Hamilton’s friends are no different.  “Story of Tonight Reprise” is an extraordinary song, but it always makes me sad when the Hamilsquad starts saying things like, “You’re the worst, Burr”.  It’s all in good fun...but is it?  Burr is known and despised by many throughout the musical, and while this conversation may just be formed from drunk ramblings, it might also be an indication of how most conversations between Burr and Ham&Co go (especially given the amount of vehement hatred that is aimed at Burr by Lafayette during his line).

So, when I saw the part about Laurens making fun of Burr, I took it as the standard Hamilsquad Hate and felt a twinge of sadness for my baby.  But then, something miraculously, incredible, and astounding happened -- Hamilton stood up for Burr.  And this is something that has happened earlier in this epic reincarnation series, too (although I won’t give any spoilers, because you should definitely read it).  At first, I was like, “Aww, I wish this was canon, but unfortunately, Hammy never stands up for Burr like this in the musical”.

But then, I felt a little tingle and was like, “Actually, wait, this moment seems familiar”.  And it should be, because this is almost exactly what happened in “Story of Tonight Reprise”.

The guys were all heckling Burr about his love life and insulting him (Lafayette, sorry buddy, not to throw you under the bus, but it’s true), and Hamilton turned them away so that he and Burr could have an actual heart-to-heart (or the closest the two of them can get, at the very least).

This moment warmed my heart, and I realized that, even though they didn’t have your conventional type of friendship, Burr and Hamilton had their own unique way of interacting with each other that wasn’t exactly friendly but wasn’t exactly hateful either.  Of course, this all went to s--t when politics got involved, but I think if they had both been without the pressures of the political lives they led, they might have been able to be friends.  Or, at least, not have entered the f---ed-up relationship they did that ended with a bang one eventful day in July.

To sum up, I just want to say that this musical, Burr, Lin, the entire Hamilsquad, the fandom, and basically all the characters in the musical are beautiful in their own way!  I think that it is so wonderful that Lin created Hamilton so that it gave everyone a voice, even characters who were only known as “the damn fool who shot him”.  Burr got to be represented, to be understood for the human he was.  Eliza got to become more than just Hamilton’s wife, more than just “that wife he jilted that one time”.  Hamilton was seen as more than just the Reynolds Pamphlet; Lafayette’s extensive help during the Revolution was shown to be even greater than what I had already thought; Hercules (a man I had never even remembered before I listened to Hamilton) got to show off his incredible spying/sewing skills; Laurens’ struggle for a brighter day for the enslaved and his tragic death were put to light; and Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and so many more were shown as the imperfect Founding Fathers they were.  

Yes, there are many parts of the musical that don’t match up quite well with reality, but the whole musical is designed to show off the good, the bad, and the ugly of all its characters.  In its own way, Hamilton is very, very real, because it goes more than skin-deep with its heroes and villains.  It provokes thought into its watchers and listeners and makes them want to look deeper into the stories we’re all told in history class.  It helps us see more than just the black-and-white version of events, where Hamilton was Burr’s enemy and could never have defended him or sat and talked in peace with him.  In the end, it really depends on who lives, who dies, and who tells your story, because so many facts get mixed up depending on the narrator.  And sometimes, even with its own imperfect version of events, it’s brilliant to have narrators like Lin and all of the talented people behind Hamilton: An American Musical who can tell the story from multiple perspectives.  Life doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints, after all...so why should our view of history?