p o t o sketchbook

Raoul and Christine as story book characters -

I drew this a year ago but decided to color now 😅 Christine’s hair isn’t what I want because it’s the old hairstyle I gave her, but I didn’t want to edit much.

I’m working hard on the story! lol but I decided to change the race of several characters, including Christine because there is a way, historically-accurately speaking -

...

I use “class difference” as a reason for why Christine and Raoul are forbidden lovers imo, but it’s deeper than that.

Christine’s love for Erik is very much rooted in pity for his horrible life, and if she chooses to pet and pamper Raoul in front of the jealous Erik, she’ll devastate Erik.

And Raoul is a privileged little princess, he really can find someone else.

A phan may judge Christine for “choosing” Raoul, but she’s already judging herself, her consciousness says to tend to the man who is suffering, not the one who will eventually get over his pain.

The problem is, the suffering man, Erik, also abuses and keeps Christine living in fear so her conscious chains her to this man who doesn’t give as much as he takes. And people (including Christine) ask her to stay with this man, despite it being something that will kill her (literally, take everyone out of Leroux’s final lair and Erik is threatening/promising to kill her in a “pact”).

two wips like one year apart

When you miss Mermay for the second year in a row, you do it anyway 👏👏

I think it’s been misinterpreted...or used for some shipping war stuff 👀 

Christine believes her fear of Erik is valid. But that is challenged by Raoul’s question; “You’re afraid. But do you love me? If Erik were handsome, would you love me?"  AKA Is it just his looks that’s keeping you from him? Now she must defend the fact that her problem with Erik is more than his appearance. 

The problem is, her trust in her validity is weak. She does not trust her ‘good soul’. She’s skeptical of it, a harsh self-critic; she has a very hard time sympathizing with herself. 

Instance #1: When she realizes she’s trapped in the masked man’s lair, she won’t let the kidnapper take an ounce of blame: “I blamed myself bitterly for having been stupidly superstitious..I took a dreadful pleasure in railing at the perfect innocence with which I had welcomed the Voice.....When one is as stupid as I had been, one could expect the most incredible disasters and deserve them all. I wanted to kick myself,”

#2: She internalizes Erik’s idea that “now that you know me to be hideous, you will flee from me forever.” Christine agrees; “I realized...the monster’s reasoning was logical.....now if I got out of these catacombs, I would certainly not go back!” 

^^^But SHE DOES RETURN, because she never naturally comes to the conclusion to leave forever, at all points of the kidnap, she sympathizes with Erik;

Prior to unmasking: “the tone in which he pronounced those last words moved me deeply...I looked up at the mask with a softened expression.”

After unmasking, before Don Juan: “it had been necessary for the monster to play the role of an angel,” 

After Don Juan: “it was not the frightful threats that accompanied my being set free which helped me to keep my word, but the heartbreaking sob that he gave on the threshold of his tomb. Yes, that sob,...bound me more to the unhappy man than I myself realized...”

Erik convinces her she would have left forever after seeing his face, like the rest of them, but she always saw his pitiful state. She was always attached on that basis alone, and his unmasking didn’t change anything (it actually made her more attached). 

#3: When Erik’s mask is taken off and he erupts, Christine accuses herself immediately; “I had imprisoned myself forever and my curiosity would be the cause of all my sorrows.” She does not blame Erik; “He had given me sufficient warning. He had said over and over again that I was in no danger as long as I did not touch his mask. And I had touched it. I cursed my imprudence,” 

It’s in her to take all responsibility. But Erik had the power in that situation and projected a foolish character onto her (”You women are so curious” (said repeatedly) “Foolish, mad Christine”), to erase any valid reason she might have for unmasking her captor, and she internalized it! 

SO: Raoul poses the question “if Erik were handsome” to say; He’d surely be desirable then, right? It’s just a matter of Erik’s looks, that’s all that’s stopping you...

Christine says these are questions she hides in the back of her mind because they’re so invalidating...and yet (due to a lack of trust in her perspective, as we have seen^) she believes they might be true. She just told Raoul of all of her woes, everything that went wrong, and Raoul insinuates that she is making something out of nothing; the first person to hear her story and he suggests her only reason for fearing Erik is not his volatile nature, nor the way he makes her feel guilty for all that he does, no, it’s his appearance, the one thing he cannot help, that is why she rejects him. 

Everything else she mentioned wasn’t enough.

If Erik were handsome, would Christine love Raoul? Christine asks why Raoul would “tempt destiny”. ‘Tempting destiny’ would be making Erik handsome, Christine reasons; “he was the Guardian Angel of Music, and he might have been entirely an angel if God had clothed him in beauty instead of filth.” So she might have loved him, just as she did when he was her Guardian Angel....But those are all ifs.

The main point of Raoul’s question is to ask if looks are the only factor in her choices, and her rebuttal is simply, 

“Why do you ask me about things that I hide deep in my conscience..” I do not want to think that that is my only reason for being scared of Erik.  “...the way I would hide a sin.” Because I do fear that is why.  I do fear I am no better than the cruel world that rejected him in the first place... 

And that these are all excuses, my suffering is not legitimate in the eyes of God; it would actually be sinful to leave the unfortunate behind. But I want to leave, so I’ve pushed these fears to the back of my mind, I’ve hid them because I understand the possibility of them being true will destroy me (and my will to leave). Don’t make me validate the idea that all of my sufferings so far are invalid. 

...

*clears throat* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAaaaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Sorry, just for the funnies^. 

Thanks, stranger! :) I’m currently just writing my adaptation (like plot, dialogue), but I have no idea how to format it, my ultimate dream would be an animated miniseries, but I think I’m gonna go for webcomic....of some sorts 😅 

Getcha most puckeriest-puckiest-puckered lip boy here! :B

Yeah I can’t edit pen oops

Hilariously, I don’t have time to sit down and draw cuz of school ლ(ಠ_ಠლ)

But but but, I wanted to post because I’m trying to redesign Raoul, and this is all I got atm 😅😂 (*see, his chin’s less sharp OTL)

But I also drew this cuz I had a scene idea of Christine abducting Raoul during the Masquerade by coming out of this deep-ass fountain and pulling him in, trusting his sailor skills will keep him from drowning as they swim through to another exit~

Though I doubt I’ll actually write that^ in, so this pic is less that^ and more “moments before disaster”

Raoul: Little spoon learns how to be a big spoon

Christine: Big spoon learns how to be little spoon

Erik: Gremlin learns how to care for human

Daroga: Daroga learns how to get over it*

All their dreams and all their lights mean nothing if I can't have you 💕🎶