#west side story fandom
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Musical fandoms and ingenue hate
Is this really such a problem?
There's a YouTuber named Katherine Steele who mostly makes videos about musical theatre, and who has a small video series in defense of ingenue characters, titled "Why Everybody Hates..."
There are four videos in the series: "Why Everybody Hates Cosette" (Les Misérables), "Why Everybody Hates Christine" (The Phantom of the Opera), "Why Everybody Hates Johanna" (Sweeney Todd), and "Why Everybody Hates Maria" (West Side Story).
Some other sources – like TV Tropes, for example – have cited those videos to talk about why these characters are "widely" disliked.
But is it really true? Of all four of those musicals' fandoms, I've only been deep in the Les Misérables fandom, but from what I've seen people say about the others, I had no idea that those ingenue characters got big amounts of hate!
Being indifferent to the character doesn't count as hate, nor does considering her unoffensive but boring.
Do Johanna and Maria get the same kind of real loathing in the diehard Sweeney Todd and West Side Story fandoms that we see in the Les Mis fandom with talk about "that horrid Cosette," "I hate her with a passion," etc?
There is a lot of visceral, venomous Cosette-hate in the Les Mis fandom, or at least there used to be in the '90s and early 2000s. But it has a cause: Éponine. Immature people hate Cosette because she's loved by Marius, when they want him to love Éponine instead. (And to a lesser extent because she "abandons" her father Jean Valjean, but that's more the novel's Cosette than the musical's.)
I know that there's also some Christine hate among Phantom Phans, which is also love-triangle related: they hate her for choosing Raoul instead of the Phantom.
But I had no idea that Sweeney and WSS fans were venomous about Johanna or Maria – are they?
From what little I've seen of Sweeney fans, I've occasionally seen them call Johanna boring or a Mary Sue (and even then, the context has been "I always thought she was, but then [insert actress here] made me appreciate her"). But for the most part, I see people talk approvingly about how she's more complex than an average ingenue, how she can be played as mentally unstable, etc.
And Maria? Yes, there are the people who can't stand how quickly she forgives Tony for killing Bernardo. (Although that complaint only seems to have become widespread with the 2021 film's release – I remember occasionally reading it in the past, but not nearly as much as now.) But apart from that, and from sometimes seeing people call both Maria and Tony boring, I had no idea that anyone hated her! And if you think she had no characterization but "pretty and nice" until the 2021 film, then you've been giving both the stage version and the 1961 film a shallow surface read! She's always had intelligence, playfulness, passion and strength!
I'd like people who have been deep in the fandoms of these musicals to tell me. Is there really a widespread problem of loud, venomous hate for all these ingenue characters, the way there has been for Cosette in the Les Mis fandom? Or is it really just a few people calling them "boring" now and then, with only the love triangles in Les Mis and Phantom making people nastier about Cosette and Christine?
#musical theatre#broadway#west end#musicals#ingenues#commentary#les miserables#les mis#cosette#the phantom of the opera#poto#christine daae#sweeney todd#johanna barker#west side story#maria#les mis fandom#poto fandom#sweeney todd fandom#west side story fandom#character hate
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im too late for the wss fandom but i have so many ideas for a fic…yes, a fic for a musical thats a remake from a movie 1962 that’s an adaptation of romeo and juliet
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just saw this on pinterest and it hit me like a truck
#wheredallthetimegoblog#dead poets society#dps#anderperry#dps fandom#like it’s so true#why aren’t there any movies for girls like this 😭#maze runner#west side story
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I wonder why christian misrepresentation are rarely talked about if compared to other religion misrepresentation. Like, I've seen people really vocal about Greek myths misrepresentation in LO and such (and it's valid because it's a culture and religion) but I rarely saw the same thing with christian even though there are many media who use christian religion innacurately, to the point where it comes off as using it as an aesthetic and not a proper religion.
Is it because of rampant religious trauma especially in western world? No ulterior motives on this question. I'm not a christian and yet I'm curious about this. I apologize if this sounds harsh.
I obviously don't have The Answer(tm) to this but personally speaking (and I'm about to get VERY personal here so take this with MOUNTAINS OF SALT), I think it's just the obvious - Christian mythology is one of the most well-documented and strongly protected out of virtually any other religion on the planet. Especially here in the West, it's commonplace for kids to go to Sunday school, for couples to have Christian weddings even if they're not practising Christians themselves, even the American anthem references the Christian God. It's simply not as easy to 'misrepresent' it because the representation is written into our very fabric of society. Even Greece itself is primarily made up of Orthodox Christians.
So anyone that does 'misrepresent' it are either completely mislead hardcore Christians, or people who are doing it intentionally, such as with the intent to make a parody of it or to deconstruct it through a different context or whatever have you. And of course, people will still get mad at those things, if you're implying that people aren't vocal about Christian misrepresentation then frankly IDK what to tell you there LOL If you want a contextual example in the realm of webtoons, Religiously Gay was dragged to hell and back during its launch for having a very crude and insulting depiction of St. Michael, and frankly, yeah I don't disagree because what the fuck is this-
(like at best it's just terrible character design lmao that said, there's also plenty else to criticize Religiously Gay for, including its fetishy representation of gay relationships and the fact that it's still just the "naive person who looks and acts like a child hooks up with mean person in a position of power" trope, blech, but the character design is definitely the first thing you notice)
There are even plenty of hardcore Christians who will deadass claim "misrepresentation" over things that ARE factually correct but they just haven't read the actual Bible and simply cherry pick what works for their own agenda. And of course those people are routinely called out by people like myself who know for a fact that Jesus wouldn't have promoted the war crimes that many modern day Christians are committing and justifying today. So it really depends on the definition of "misrepresentation" here.
The issue specifically with LO and Rachel that I personally call her out for (and many others) is that she's called herself a "folklorist" and claimed she's so much more knowledgeable on Greek myth than anyone else, while making a complete mockery of the original mythologies while not being honest about her intent as to whether LO is actually supposed to be a legitimate retelling OR a parody (because it sure acts like the latter more than the former, but she still seems to expect us to take it seriously and consider her knowledge of Greek myth superior?) Which leads to a lot of her teenage audience claiming shit like "Persephone went down to the underworld willingly" and "Apollo did assault Persephone in the original myths actually" and the classic "why would Lore Olympus lie or make up fake myths?"
You just can't pull off this extent of erasure with Christian mythology because we have a whole ass book of it that's been preserved, sold on shelves, and systematically integrated into society for thousands of years. Of course, there are people who will still try their damned best to twist the Bible to match their own bigotry with the whole "Jesus hates gays" bullshit (he would never), but it's met with equal amounts of 'misrepresentation' that are actually fully well-read and are intentionally subverting and changing things to either critique, parody, or restore the original intent of a lot of stories in the Bible without all the manufactured right-wing crap.
Greek myth, on the other hand, has some stories that are well preserved, and others, not so much. And in the modern day outside of the poems and hymns, you'll also rarely, if ever, see anyone use stories from Greek myth to ostracize, torture, and murder other people. "Misrepresenting Christianity" is more often done by actual Christians who are using the Bible to commit hate crimes than the people who have actually read the Bible and are just taking creative liberties with it for the sake of deconstructing / parodying / analyzing / subverting it. Veggie Tales "misrepresents" Christian stories because obviously Moses wasn't a fucking cucumber lmao but it still accomplishes its goal by retelling Christian stories in a way that's fun and educational for children.
By comparison (on the whole, I'm not comparing LO to Veggie Tales LMAO) LO just isn't clear in its intentions beyond Rachel's initial statements that she was trying to "deconstruct" the myths, while labelling herself as a folklorist. Therefore, I'm going to criticize how she does it because the way she's done it up until now has been very mishandled and has resulted in a lot of misinterpretations of the myths simply for the sake of fandom. And yes, these people exist in Christian media as well - they're called TV evangelists.
And that's my (very heavy) two cents.
#here's your reminder that missionaries are colonizers#find me the Hellenistic pagans knocking on people's doors asking them if they want to hear about the glory of Aphrodite lmao#honestly it also depends on what you're surrounding yourself with#obv if you take part in the LO fandom and avoid what's going on in the christian world then what you experience and see will seem skewed#like even i could be very wrong in my opinion based on my own experiences as someone who lives in the west-#maybe there ARE pagans knocking on doors and using greek myth to commit hate crimes#so yeah we all gotta try not to fall for survorship bias#there are plenty of stories of people getting mad about christian mythology and its misrepresentations on BOTH sides#lo critical#lore olympus critical#anti lore olympus#webtoon critical#ama#ask me anything#anon ama#anon ask me anything
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the way it is literally impossible to watch west side story and not have your eyes glued to mike faist and ben cook in every single dance
#ansel elgort get out of the way#former newsies just have that je ne sais quoi#u know what i mean#anyway i love them#mike faist#ben tyler cook#newsies#west side story#newsies fandom
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If your favorite musical already has a proshot, just mark the one that is the case for that particular proshot! If it's available for free, mark the maximum you'd be willing to pay for it if it wasn't. ❤️
#musical#musical theatre#musical theater#musicals#theater#theatre#proshot#phandom#phantom of the opera#andrew lloyd webber#stephen sondheim#stephen schwartz#les miserables#les mis#ride the cyclone#newsies#avenue q#broadway#broadway musicals#west end#west side story#hadestown#the great comet#sweeney todd#melliot#idk what other musical fandoms to tag#musical fandom#poll
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I just know Neil Perry loves a good Sondheim, West Side Story in particular
#dead poets society#anderperry#dead poets society fandom#dps#dps fandom#neil perry#stephen sondheim#west side story
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THIS IS NOT A DRILL
new ben cook interview !!!!
youtube
all i needed to cheer up<3
#his voice is so calming#i could fall asleep to his voice#<33333#i love him so much <3#hopefully seeing him in illinoise!!!#newsies#newsies fandom#illinoise#illinoise broadway#ragtime#billy elliot#mean girls#tuck everlasting#west side story#Youtube
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RIFF LORTON ANGST IN THE WORKS ‼️‼️‼️
#hoping i don’t isolate my tiny audience too much by writing for a character that isn’t dallas#and for a dead fandom at that 😭#but you know what we’re in the mike faist renaissance#(although i am making it clear that i loved him before everyone else did)#plus riff and dallas are basically the same character in different fonts#diorgirl444#flo answers#riff lorton x reader#riff lorton#riff x reader#west side story#mike faist x reader#mike faist
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How successful would Maria…
Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!
#could they be a pro wrestler#Maria#west side story#Maria Vasquez#Maria Nunez#wss#wss 2021#west side story Maria#maria west side story#broadway#broadway play#west side story 1961#west side story 2021#musical#musical movies#broadway musicals#broadway world#broadway au#tumblr polls#polls#character polls#fandom polls#wrestling#poll time#wrestling polls#poll game#hyper specific poll#wwe#professional wrestling#pro wrestling
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Attention all Hogwarts students!
This year's musical, put on by the Music club is West Side Story! We're holding auditions and will post a poll once you've heard all of the contenders.
We're currently casting Tony, so all auditions will be for the lead role.
Up first is one Mr. Ominis Gaunt for your consideration.
(I am also taking suggestions for others you wish to hear audition, for any role in the show, so leave a comment with your favorites and maybe I can make it happen!)
#hogwarts legacy#ominis gaunt#hogwarts legacy ominis#hogwarts legacy fandom#west side story#auditions#musical theater#ai generated cover
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I dont trust White women who watched West Side Story and hate Bernado but their favorite character is Riff. Like, how do you say you are racist without saying you are racist 🤡
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not to start shit but. tell me you didn't understand princess jellyfish without telling me you didn't understand princess jellyfish
#idk idk something about the lines we draw to divide women being ultimately useless as they degrade both sides#something something bridging gaps between people with different interests#something something literal actual sisterhood and solidarity between women#i'm never one to defend tiktok i'm not even on there and it surprises me that princess jellyfish is being brought up#but like. what is this supposed to mean. to 'tiktokify' something#girlboss narrative what hello? what? you're throwing words at me and i don't know what they mean#but it's hilarious that this post comes off as something the sisterhood would have posted before all their character development#because this is a story about empowerment not through appearance- but that inner change is what beauty is made of#the development tsumiki and the other members of the sisterhood get is not that now they dress well#but that their often self-imposed isolation is not an antidote to os being ostracized in high school and having social anxiety#and that they've dehumanized other women in the process of defending themselves#and it's not that they have to change who they are of their interests but that they full accept themselves and can therefore#be comfort with who they are#and better navigate the world. and form friendships . and human connection and FUCK#like what are you talking about#sorry i know no one here follows me for princess jellyfish takes but that's what we're gonna get today#i think when you have a fandom / readership as small as pj (in the west at least) every bad take hits that much harder lmao#anyway. kuranosuke princess rights. we are all princesses. etc etc#princess jellyfish#kuragehime#screeds#screeds fR FR#txt#i didn't want to tag this person or show their name bc it ain't personal i just want to address takes like these .#“girl's girls are toxic” “not like other girls are toxic” what if we were all princesses idk. what if we loved each other
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Never knew that Newsies x West Side Story was a crossover but now that I know I need more.
(If anyone has recs pls tell me about them)
#PLEASE#I rlly hope that more ppl will write about these two fandoms#if push comes to shove I WILL rewatch both the movies/musicals and then start writing my own#do not test me#Newsies#West Side Story#Newsies x west side story crossover#crossover fanfic#ik they're not *technically* in the same time period#but when has that ever stopped a fanfic writer?
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Wanna ask the best gang leader ya' stupid questions?
-> RIFF LORTON IS NOW OPEN FOR QNA', ROLEPLAYS ARE OF COURSE, APPROVED -- Forced by my brother who's on cloud nine, @scottyzoomz *sigh*
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We're kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month with some of our favorite films featuring Hispanic characters & stories 🍿
#hispanic heritage month#movies#encanto#the book of life#in the heights#into the spider-verse#across the spider-verse#spider-verse#coco#fast & furious#fast saga#roma#west side story#selena#blue beetle#fandom#fandoms
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