#anyaxdmitri

Why? Because there are some loose ends, historical inaccuracies and plot holes that need fixing

Last Dance of the Romanovs: I would change Alexei to being slightly older and Anastasia to being slightly younger for historical accuracy. Would also change the 1916 at the back to 1917 cause that's when they were arrested. I would also make it so that Anastasia doesn't get shot at the end, she has mire interaction with her sisters and Tatiana comes back to drag her out, but theguards fire at them and drag them out. Then when Maria Feodorovna is reading the letter we see the Romanovs getting shot behind her for continuity

In My Dreams: change Anya to not being so timid and more sassy and spunky, looking at Vlad behind the chair and stating "I can see you." (Also throw in her sayings "spacebo" instead of thankbyou when Dmitri hands her the glass

Learn To Do It: Much more of Anya being an absolute prankster. When Vlad sings "you three tantrums and terrorised the cook! Ha!" The ha is replaced with Dmitri yelping as he opens a book and a fake spider springs out and Anya is cackling. She then continues to pull faces at him until Vlad says "but you'd behave when your father gave that look". Anya getting randomly angry during the Queen Victoria section bothers me, so I'd make it so they were obviously tired and at the end of their wits. When she's bickering with Dmitri, he flicks her/pushes her/anything to be a bother when Vlad says "continuing on" which makes far more sense. Anya and Dmitri doing the crazy WALTZING begins with Anya throwing him around and then he throws her around and then spins her and it's like a "oh hey we can actually... get along????" And then Vlad interrupts with the polka. Would also add more traditional Russian dances including Dmitri doing the Cossacks dance because yes

My Petersburg: I'd make this much more focused on Dmitri and would use this as an opportunity to express what it was like for the working class in Imperial Russia (this is important 1 for explaining Dmitri's behaviour and 2 it explains why history wants Anya to live bear with me.) I would actually love it if he was an ethnic minority (probably Jewish) for the contrast between what Vlad has told her and what Dmitri has told her. The actual song wouldn't be so mich about Petersburg, but what Dmitri's dream city would be: equality, no poverty, hot food and beds and baths, you get the gist. It also gives us a glimpse of the puppy dog wide-eyes Dmitri we see in Paris.

A Secret She Kept (Anya giving him the diamond) pretty much everything stays the same except Anya really contemplates giving him the diamond and when he sound her he finishes with a massive hug and buries his head in her shoulder. At the end just before the change to the station, Dmitri does his excited "I'm going to take a bath in a real bathtub!" And does a little excited jump

Paris Holds The Key: Dmitri is staring wide-eyes the entire time and is having the time of his life. During the funky instrumental bit before the mini solos when they're standing in the middle, Vlad gives Anya and Dmitri chocolate and Dmitri steals the rest of the bar. At the end when they split off Dmitri says he's going back to have a bath and lad remarks to not use up all the hot water and not eat all the chocolate as Dmitri runs off and all we hear is hysterical laughter

The Nightmare: When Dmitri runs in the door opens with a bang and Anya screams and buries her face and pleads for him to not hurt her (cause she doesn't realise that it's Dmitri) and he sits on the floor and comforts her as she cries into his shoulder. Then he helps her onto the bed and we have In A Crowd of Thousands. (Also I would bring back the oversized button up because that was so mich better sorry not sorry)

After the Ballet: I'd complete scratch Everything To Win and replace it with a different song (more on that later) and would bring back the movie section where Dmitri goes in instead of Anya. We don't see them conversing but we hear them and we see Anya's reactions to the revelations of Dmitri's plans. When he inevitably is thrown out, she yells at him, says something's along the lines of " you are the scum of the earth" and "you broke my heart", slaps him then storms out. Then we have everything go black except a spotlight on Dmitri and his song which is essentially him realising what he has become and lamenting about he has now become the tormentors of his childhood and how he's realised too late that happiness doesn't come from money but from love which he hasn't felt for literal years. Behind him, through the doors, we see the silhouettes of his life experiences: his mother's death, his father's arrest, him protesting, etc, and eventually we see him dancing with Anya before it goes back to black. At the end he makes up his mind to get the Empress to see Anya if it's the last thing he does because it's the only thing he can do after what he's done. He then has the whole dramatic argument and gets slapped again and then finally drags her to the apartment where Anya throws a book at him and he backs out and yeah

Still/Neva Reprise: ok this one is the reason I have some of my changes. Last Dance of the Romanovs continuity so that she can scream "back in that cellar in Yekateringburg all over again" without it being a massive pothole because shE GOT SHOT AT THE BALL????? And also, her knowing about the real complicated truth of Imperial Russia and FINALLY being able to remember Nicholas II saying "I am my father's daughter but u am not my father" and when he asks her if history really wants her to have lived she says "yes" And he asks why and she says something along the lines of "so that I can heal the wound my ancestors left in Russia" (idk something like that) just because it bothers me that we completely brush over the fact that the revolution happened for a reason and it makes her more sympathetic towards Gleb. And then the rest is the same except the dress, we bring back the og movie dress because the red dress is pretty but wth why do we have late 1700s skirt with a post 30s bodice? Sleeveless dresses didn't come around until the 30s???? ITS 1927????????

Finale/The Kiss: OK THIS SCENE BOTHERS ME SO MUCH ITS SO CUTE BUT IT BOTHERS ME BECAUSE Dmitri never apologises to Anya to her face. It's just "ugh I can't be with you goodbye" and she's like "you literally used me and haven't apologised to my face but I LOVE YOU" NO SHE WILL COME RUNNING AND RUN INTO HIM BECAUSE HE WAS GOING BACK TO APOLOGISE AND THEY TALK ABOUT THE THINGS AND THAT THEY LOVE EACH OTHER AND DMITRI APOLOGISES STRAIGHT UP WITH NO EXCUSES and then Anya kisses him and they hug again and Anya says "let's run away together to the countryside and well have fresh food and real baths and a warm bed" and it would be so cute. Anya also wouldn't leave without leaving a letter for Nana in which she says thank you and that she'll be back again soon and we have the classic "it's the perfect ending!" "No, it's theboerfect beginning" line from the movie. Then the actual finale we have Anya changed into a causal blue dress (like the movie dress) and she and Dmitri run down the stage with suitcases and hats and they waltz and he spins her around again and they kiss on the last boom at the end and yes

OTHER CHANGES FOR THE WHOLE MUSICAL:

Anastasia RomanovA not Romanov

She's assessed as Her Imperial Highness or Your Highness NOT your majesty because she's not the Tsarina

Favourite ship to write?

Dmitri/Anastasia (Dmitry/Anastasia depending on how you spell his name, it's confusing and I will rant about it if you ask me anyway-)

I know I haven't posted too much about them lately, but they are my favourite ship, especially to write.

Number 1: they're historical. Bonus points already. I can put them in WHATEVER fun historical events are happening at the time (eheheh world war 2) and explore how that impacts their relationship.

Number 2: I feel like they have such an equal relationship. They both provide a family, home and love for each other, they understand a lot of what the other has gone through and they complete each other really nicely. They're similar enough in their personalities to be close, but not so similar that they clash.

Number 3: I love to write the fight they had in the actual film and musical. I once saw a comment saying that Dmitri/y is abusive and that their relationship is toxic, but I beg to disagree. While yes, there is a lot of miscommunication (and a bit of manipulation at the beginning,) it's important to understand that 1) Dmitri/y's character arc is incredibly big and by the end he is not selfish or manipulating anyone and 2) have you considered a thing called trauma? Lemme explain.

Imagine that you have spent your entire life impoverished and working in horrible, dangerous factories or in other poor working conditions, you never gained an education, your parents died tragically when you were young (if we're going via the musical, your dad was arrested and taken to a labour camp to die), you've probably been betrayed, abused and beaten several times, you have to steal in order to survive, and somehow after the revolution you were praying would happen, the country you've been stuck in your entire life is somehow worse than before. Oh how glorious your life is, hmm. Now, if I told you that you could run away from this horrible country and your life and start afresh, you could live by the seaside in a nice, warm house owned completely by you, you could have hot water and a bed and enough food to fill you always and you could be rich, BUT you have to convince a girl who could possibly by the missing grand Duchess that she's Anastasia, would you?

OF COURSE YOU WOULD THIS IS YOUR ONLY TICKET OUT OF THIS HELLHOLE! And that's exactly what Dmitri/y did AND HE HAS PERFECTLY VALID REASONS! His motives were good, his actions were not. And he realises this after Anya blows up at him about how hurt she is and he realises that not only did he come to finally trust someone again, that person trusted him back and he just destroyed it. He recognises what he did wrong and (in the movie) he apologises! In his own way of almost getting killed for her, which if you compare with Dmitri/y at the beginning he would NOT have done that so clearly he's trying to make it up for his mistakes, but anyway, in short he's a traumatised boy who trying to relearn how to actually care for people and trust them after he's been absolutely shattered by people. (Add my own personal headcanon that he's Jewish into that and OH BOY DOES THAT HURT MORE-)

Number 4: I love writing them with children. I feel like they're absolutely amazing parents who care for each other and their children and it's so cute to me

Anyway this ended up becoming longer than I anticipated whoops-