#poto sequel

Phillipe: STOP BODY SNATCHING ME

Stage Mom Ghost!Erik: I'm just being a good manager! You don't want to talk to people. People are terrible. Go play in the Mind-Opera while I deal with the annoying people :)

(Been a hot minute since I worked on this story xD But started re-reading Phantom and it got me in the mood.

tbh I prefer to pretend "Love Never Dies" doesn't exist, but I have thoughts on it anyway, so I'll get them out of the way. If you read it as ALW's fanfic (based on his and Forsyth's fanfic), it's psychologically interesting to consider that he originally wrote Christine for Sarah Brightman, the beautiful young singer he, a composer, loved and was bringing to stardom. So, hmm. At least it's a lot better than "The Phantom of Manhattan"; the Coney Island setting is a good improvement. But none of the music I've listened to felt or sounded remotely Phantom-y to me, so I've mostly just ignored the actual show (though it's produced some pretty gifs and fan art).

I've basically hated the whole notion of a sequel from the beginning -  especially once Forsyth's book came out and he trashed Leroux. It destroys too much of the essense of the story to me, the Phantom's redemption. Plus he dies at the end of Leroux. But whatever, those arguments are well known by now. I guess what fundamentally makes me hate the concept is that I think it's a great idea to explore in fanfic, but it's the way it's an "official" sequel to the show. It means many audiences will take it in as part of the "real story" (as it were), and change the way they see the characters in the original. That's what gets to me, and makes it feel like an insult, to Leroux, to the characters, to the thing I love and that's become a deep part of me - and to Lloyd Webber's original show, even though it's his own sequel. Geesh Andy, publish your fic on AO3 like everyone else!

I can see how people who don't have that kind of reaction, or who actually like the music (or look of it, or the actors), can enjoy it as just another adaptation of Phantom. (Well, okay, I can see it for a few seconds, if I try really hard. Then I just go "but noooooooo!!!" again.) I mean, most of the screen versions are flawed at best, but several of them I enjoy in various ways (and you've got a range of choices, from cuddly to serial killer). I think the emotional difference to me is fewer people seem likely to see them and think "Ahh, so that's what Phantom is" - except the Schumacher movie, which I hate, partly for that exact reason. It makes people think Erik was lurking under the opera house watching Christine from her early childhood, then crushing on her the moment she turns 16. Ewwww. Yet the Englund version making Erik a serial killer doesn't bother me, because it's mostly going to be watched nowadays by Phantom and horror geeks, and not taken too seriously (also it has better direction than Schumacher's, IMO; I love bits of it).

Isn't actually my cup of tea...

But just like POTO... THE ENDING BREAKS MY DAMN HEART. WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO DIE. 

THIS IS NOT RIGHT. OH MY GAWD.