i’m not naive

@fleurdalecour

@persea

@diannabary

@blarke

hello this is douchebag speaking

how dare lin sideline eliza because of his own favoritism towards angelica. eliza is the main hero of the musical yes but she is constantly diminished by the creator and the fandom who prefer alexander with angelica or laurens or even fucking thomas jefferson. this musical isn’t about alexander’s story. it is eliza’s musical and is about love and loss and betrayal and forgiveness.

i can’t even believe the lines that were cut from first burn and frankly it’s offensive to me, to eliza’s character, and to the actual eliza schuyler hamilton who is probably rolling in her grave every time someone calls her a mary sue.

for example:

“don’t take another step in my direction i can’t be trusted around you”

here we have eliza asserting herself and telling her cheater of a husband that he needs to get away from her or else. push over?

“heaven forbid someone whisper he’s part of some scheme your enemy whispers so you have to scream i know about whispers i see how you look at my sister”

eliza calling alexander out on his shit and how he never has any fucking chill and he just RUINED THEIR LIVES because of his fucking PRIDE— he couldn’t bear to be thought of as a crook so he outed his own SELF as a philanderer. and also, i am even more fucking pissed that the last part of this line was excluded since lin painted angelica— a woman who loved her husband so much she defied her parents and eloped with him then moved away from her family all the way to his home in england— as in love with alexander and perpetually jealous of her sister even though in musical canon NINE YEARS had past since they last saw each other. and if you were curious: alexander never wrote “my dearest, angelica” in a letter to his sister in law. it was the other way around and it was ALEXANDER who commented on it in his next reply back to angelica. if anything it was ALEXANDER who was in love with angelica and not the other fucking way around.

“i’m not naive”

since the fandom tends to think that eliza is stupid and not alexander’s intellectual equal (arguments for other ships of his) even though her handwriting is scattered through 90% of his documents proving she sometimes finished them for him— and lets also not forget the schuylers were the second wealthiest family (second to catherine’s— philip schuyler’s wife— own family) in albany meaning eliza had the foremost education of almost anyone back in that time

“you have thrown it all away stand back watch it burn”

SHE IS PLACING THE BLAME WHERE IT SHOULD BE ON ALEXANDER AND TELLING HIM TO FACE HIS CONSEQUENCES HOW IS THIS NOT AN IMPORTANT LINE TO KEEP LIN

“and when the time comes explain to the children the pain and embarrassment you put their mother through when will you learn they are your legacy”

bringing up the children is telling alexander that he will NEVER live down his actions and the consequences will always haunt him in the looks of his children like they don’t even know him anymore. eliza also specifically states her feelings on what happened something that doesn’t happen in the burn that made it to broadway which also reads as alexander tricking eliza into loving him and her subsequent despair when he betrays her. and also— ACTUALLY TELLING ALEXANDER THAT HIS LEGACY— THE ONE HE STAYED IN NEW YORK TO OBTAIN AND REVEALED AN AFFAIR TO KEEP— WAS ACTUALLY SOMETHING HE HAD ALL ALONG AND HAD TAKEN FOR GRANTED

“if you thought you were mine: don’t”

No one wants to talk about the fact that Eliza knew what she was doing when she burned the letters in the play

“I’m burning the memories, burning the letters that might have redeemed you.”

She burned the letters that proved that he actually loved her.

I think the final burn was meant to be her organizing her anger and then acting on it but destroying him without actually killing him. But it doesn’t feel like that, it feels like she’s just sad (i do love it) but we never got to see her truly truly angry in the soundtrack. She goes from helpless to heartbroken to helpless again and it never addresses her anger.

This one did. And I’m so upset we never got it in the soundtrack.

The other thing is her saying “I see how you look at my sister”

THAT WAS SO IMPORTANT TO ME!

The whole time i was listening to the soundtrack when I first got into it, i kept thinking that there was no way that Eliza didn’t notice that her husband was lusting after her sister

lin has said multiple times that eliza is the hamilton this story is about. it starts with “alexander hamilton” and it tells his story but it ENDS with “who lives who dies who tells your story” and eliza told hamilton’s story. she is the ENTIRE REASON this musical exists. eliza made sure hamilton was known for all that he did more than what his enemies said about him after his death. eliza lived to be 97— let that sink in— 97 in a time when most people died at 40— she lived to be 97 in order to make absolutely certain her husband’s story was told.

it is her strength and her knowledge and her love that is commendable. and yes i love angelica and alexander but eliza needed a moment more than being sad and upset and having stage directions that show how angry she is that most people will never see. she deserved the legacy of being unquestionably strong that this musical did not give her. it is a disservice to eliza as a woman that because of lin’s decisions and interpretations some people who listen to or watch the show can believe that eliza was too stupid to notice how alexander looked at angelica or even worse that she was okay with it. it’s a disservice that we don’t see the extent of her anger and even how they reconciled! there is a single line— one. single. line. in a song that isn’t even about eliza and alexander but about their son and their grief over his death. that is NOT ENOUGH for them to suddenly be fine by the time “best of wives best of women” come around. i know that this is a musical, and like eliza i’m not naive, and i know that not everything can go in but this is something important that your actual lead character needed for her own narrative— something that is such an important theme throughout the show.

But this fully addresses that there will be ripples.

The final burn happens and that’s it. It’s done. She’s burned the letters and we don’t speak of it again. Like, that’s it.

They don’t talk about it ever again in the musical (and I’ve seen it live; they literally go from the blue lights and letters burning to philip getting shot and dying and the only “mention” again is her pulling her hand away from Alexander’s).

We never readdress the fact that Alexander cheated on his wife and broke her heart. And that pisses me off SO much.

But, her saying that the children are his legacy, that she is his legacy.

That is everything, because he would not have had his name in the history books like he does now if it wasn’t for her. His legacy and his life didn’t end with him dying, and in his goal to create and leave a legacy, he left a mess from his family (wife) to have to clean up. Eliza is the hero of this story.

NEXT POINT:

Eliza, throughout the play, addresses Alexander as “you” even when she’s not talking directly to him. The only time she says his name is when she’s trying to get his attention and to get him to spend time with her.

The final burn makes it feel like she’s only singing to thin air; the first burn makes it seem like she’s holding letters and a candle and that Alexander is in front of her, watching her burn the letters and being totally unable to stop her.

“Don’t take another step in my direct, I can’t be trusted around you” that is SO direct and says he’s right. there. and that he’s totally unable to stop her.

That makes her saying “I see how you look at my sister” all more important because it’s not just to the air and ashes, it’s to his face and know he knows that she knows.

The first burn is so important and so much more… accurate? correct? perfect? than the final burn. And it’s so much better because, even though I do love that Angelica drags hamilton to his face, Eliza never does in the final burn. In this one, she definitely is.

It’s so much more raw and so much more powerful.

how dare lin sideline eliza because of his own favoritism towards angelica. eliza is the main hero of the musical yes but she is constantly diminished by the creator and the fandom who prefer alexander with angelica or laurens or even fucking thomas jefferson. this musical isn’t about alexander’s story. it is eliza’s musical and is about love and loss and betrayal and forgiveness.

i can’t even believe the lines that were cut from first burn and frankly it’s offensive to me, to eliza’s character, and to the actual eliza schuyler hamilton who is probably rolling in her grave every time someone calls her a mary sue.

for example:

“don’t take another step in my direction i can’t be trusted around you”

here we have eliza asserting herself and telling her cheater of a husband that he needs to get away from her or else. push over?

“heaven forbid someone whisper he’s part of some scheme your enemy whispers so you have to scream i know about whispers i see how you look at my sister”

eliza calling alexander out on his shit and how he never has any fucking chill and he just RUINED THEIR LIVES because of his fucking PRIDE— he couldn’t bear to be thought of as a crook so he outed his own SELF as a philanderer. and also, i am even more fucking pissed that the last part of this line was excluded since lin painted angelica— a woman who loved her husband so much she defied her parents and eloped with him then moved away from her family all the way to his home in england— as in love with alexander and perpetually jealous of her sister even though in musical canon NINE YEARS had past since they last saw each other. and if you were curious: alexander never wrote “my dearest, angelica” in a letter to his sister in law. it was the other way around and it was ALEXANDER who commented on it in his next reply back to angelica. if anything it was ALEXANDER who was in love with angelica and not the other fucking way around.

“i’m not naive”

since the fandom tends to think that eliza is stupid and not alexander’s intellectual equal (arguments for other ships of his) even though her handwriting is scattered through 90% of his documents proving she sometimes finished them for him— and lets also not forget the schuylers were the second wealthiest family (second to catherine’s— philip schuyler’s wife— own family) in albany meaning eliza had the foremost education of almost anyone back in that time

“you have thrown it all away stand back watch it burn”

SHE IS PLACING THE BLAME WHERE IT SHOULD BE ON ALEXANDER AND TELLING HIM TO FACE HIS CONSEQUENCES HOW IS THIS NOT AN IMPORTANT LINE TO KEEP LIN

“and when the time comes explain to the children the pain and embarrassment you put their mother through when will you learn they are your legacy”

bringing up the children is telling alexander that he will NEVER live down his actions and the consequences will always haunt him in the looks of his children like they don’t even know him anymore. eliza also specifically states her feelings on what happened something that doesn’t happen in the burn that made it to broadway which also reads as alexander tricking eliza into loving him and her subsequent despair when he betrays her. and also— ACTUALLY TELLING ALEXANDER THAT HIS LEGACY— THE ONE HE STAYED IN NEW YORK TO OBTAIN AND REVEALED AN AFFAIR TO KEEP— WAS ACTUALLY SOMETHING HE HAD ALL ALONG AND HAD TAKEN FOR GRANTED

“if you thought you were mine: don’t”

No one wants to talk about the fact that Eliza knew what she was doing when she burned the letters in the play

“I’m burning the memories, burning the letters that might have redeemed you.”

She burned the letters that proved that he actually loved her.

I think the final burn was meant to be her organizing her anger and then acting on it but destroying him without actually killing him. But it doesn’t feel like that, it feels like she’s just sad (i do love it) but we never got to see her truly truly angry in the soundtrack. She goes from helpless to heartbroken to helpless again and it never addresses her anger.

This one did. And I’m so upset we never got it in the soundtrack.

The other thing is her saying “I see how you look at my sister”

THAT WAS SO IMPORTANT TO ME!

The whole time i was listening to the soundtrack when I first got into it, i kept thinking that there was no way that Eliza didn’t notice that her husband was lusting after her sister

lin has said multiple times that eliza is the hamilton this story is about. it starts with “alexander hamilton” and it tells his story but it ENDS with “who lives who dies who tells your story” and eliza told hamilton’s story. she is the ENTIRE REASON this musical exists. eliza made sure hamilton was known for all that he did more than what his enemies said about him after his death. eliza lived to be 97— let that sink in— 97 in a time when most people died at 40— she lived to be 97 in order to make absolutely certain her husband’s story was told.

it is her strength and her knowledge and her love that is commendable. and yes i love angelica and alexander but eliza needed a moment more than being sad and upset and having stage directions that show how angry she is that most people will never see. she deserved the legacy of being unquestionably strong that this musical did not give her. it is a disservice to eliza as a woman that because of lin’s decisions and interpretations some people who listen to or watch the show can believe that eliza was too stupid to notice how alexander looked at angelica or even worse that she was okay with it. it’s a disservice that we don’t see the extent of her anger and even how they reconciled! there is a single line— one. single. line. in a song that isn’t even about eliza and alexander but about their son and their grief over his death. that is NOT ENOUGH for them to suddenly be fine by the time “best of wives best of women” come around. i know that this is a musical, and like eliza i’m not naive, and i know that not everything can go in but this is something important that your actual lead character needed for her own narrative— something that is such an important theme throughout the show.

▶ 🔘──────── 0:05

me talking about how much i love eliza schuyler hamilton: