philomena

Anya remembers him as a wonderful father, because he was. Gleb remembers him as an oppressor who cost millions of lives and kept millions of more Russians in horrific poverty, because he did. Those things exist simultaneously. Those are both valid perspectives.

You rarely see musicals embrace moral ambiguity, and that's one of my favorite things about Anastasia. Gleb's mindset gets cracked open when Anya, a girl he found trembling in the streets, someone he considered a victim with no agency, is actually Anastasia, someone he thought was an oppressor. You can't square people into categories this way. It just doesn't work.

And you also have this really creative dynamic with Gleb, Dima, and Anya and their fathers. Gleb honors his father by doing the exact same thing as him, including making the same mistakes. Dmitry and Anya, however, honor their fathers by choosing new paths. That's not something you see very often and it is soooo clever.

well said, anon. dead fathers, and their legacies they left, haunt this show in every line. and i think this show concludes that we don't have to be our fathers!! and that's okay!!! how unique and wonderful and relieving is that?

the anya/dmitry/gleb parallel is one of my favorite aspects of this musical. it's so intentional and so subtle and so clever. i've never seen anything like it before and doubt i will again any time soon. i've said it before, but putting the neva flows and my petersburg back to back and having anya present and singing a single verse in both songs is so!!!!!! it's so. compelling. that wasn't a coincidence. we're supposed to read the subtext: anya is asking, 'what am i supposed to do with this if i'm really the tsar's daughter???'

Marching down my path.

A double piece featuring Penelope, Clytemnestra and Helen 🥹❤️ cause I love them very much

You can see a clear sign of this in episode 5. Ragatha discusses her abusive mother, everyone stares at her in concern, and we cut to Jax looking awkward. Which again, that’s fine. But we never bring up her trauma or history again except for the brief episode 8 scene and JAX making an especially cruel dig at her in the finale.

It genuinely sucks to me. Like I don’t need her to be a main character but it feels like even Gangle and Zooble (who don’t get a ton of screentime, but it’s a more forgivable since they were set up as side characters) got more development than her despite Ragatha being set up as a key character alongside Pomni and Jax.

The Little Prince log 🌹

even the main characters’ arcs reflect this: Wirt is scared of rejection and humiliation from Sara and Jason Funderberker, but after returning to the real world, Sara is more than receptive toward him and Jason Funderberker isn’t even an issue. Beatrice is too ashamed to face her family after turning them all into bluebirds, but at the end of the story it’s such a non-issue for them that they only use the incident to affectionately tease her and everybody is perfectly happy.

and it all cumulates in the final episode when Wirt and Greg finally face the Beast. for the entire series the Beast has been a looming figure of evil, something dark and strange and unimaginably powerful that you never, ever want to meet. but when Wirt actually dares to face the monster head on, not running or hiding or falling for its tricks, he destroys the Beast in less than a minute! the monster that’s been terrorizing the woods for who knows how long, preying on fearful travelers and eating the souls of its victims, is extinguished by simply blowing out a lantern.