yayyap X3

@ultimatefangirl225 thanks for the inspo and allowing me to use your template.

I am MOTN biggest hater guys.

Obivously since I didn't make the teir list I don't know what each category means so here is my guess so you can understand my ranking

*Commence the organ*: The songs that make my soul acessend to heaven

A passion play at last has now begun: The songs that while don't make your acessend are acutal gold

Erik has left the walls and entered my mind: The songs that no matter what you do will forever be in your mind

Creme de la creme: Due to what this means in English I belive this is for songs that are perfect but you don't get the stuck in your head loads but are definitely iconic

Ludicrous! Have you seen the score: The songs that aren't bad but aren't good

I WILL think of you: The songs that are not brilliant but they do occupy some brain time but you can sometimes forget about them

Debinne and Polingy: Due to these being the book mangers for like 1 chapter I think these are the songs that you do like but you do just forget them

Keep the your hands at the level of your ears: The songs that when you play you wanna cover your ears and not listen to them

Crashed harder than the chandelier: The songs that are horrdenus and make you wish you where under the chandiler

LND: The songs that you wish forget existed

Me: So that's why you have to live as an outcast in the basements of the opera house?

a lot of people have brought up that she takes on a christ like role by showing compassion to the damned and redeeming a sinner (CHRISTine duh,) but not many people mention the fact that this role was forced onto her more than chosen. The compassion and the pity and - if u c it this way - the love feels for erik are all things she speaks about as if they are weights on her shoulders, almost as if all the compassion she feels for erik were born out of his MANIPULATION while she was VULNERABLE!!

As presented, though, I'm having a hard time with the idea that Christine was manipulated into having compassion for Erik. Bro is honestly pitiable enough all on his own and the only time he truly weaponises Christine's compassion is at the end with the Grasshopper/Scorpion ultimatum. That said, Christine isn't presented as a passive victim either. Instead, we see her trying to carefully navigate her relationship with two competing and excessively jealous suitors, both of whom she cares about, and neither of whom she wants to see hurt.

While it's fair to assume Christine likely had some manner of emotional trauma afterwards, I don't find the argument compelling that this would equate to physical or sexual trauma.

I'd like to point out that Christine kisses Erik AFTER he releases them both in what I'd argue is a benevolent farewell:

‘I released the young man from the dungeon,’ Erik continued, ‘took him to Christine and watched them embrace in the Louis-Philippe room. Christine was wearing my ring and had agreed to wear it until I died. I had made her swear that, upon my death, she would return to the lake from the Rue Scribe at night, and bury me in absolute secrecy with that gold ring. I told her where she would find my body and what she was to do with it. At this Christine came up to me and for the very first time kissed me on the forehead – don’t look, Daroga! Yes, she kissed me on the forehead and then they were gone. Christine was no longer in tears, but I was weeping, and I wept alone."

(CW: I DO NOT ADDRESS SA AS ONLY SA, YES I USE THE SCARY R WORD)

The words "SA" and "Erik" being in the same paragraph don't really sit well with me. NO version of Erik would be able to commit such an act. I feel like he's just being labeled as a potential rapist here because he's a man. I am not defending Erik because 'OOOH HOT MASKED MAN!!' but because he is not like this??? He is not some aggressive, manipulative asshole rapist. I personally think that Erik doesn't even know what rape is?? He doesn't know that such things happen in the world around him. His knowledge of love and sex comes from romanticized books he regularly consumes, which do not address rape directly nor write or mention it in any degree. He is blissfully unaware of many degrees of assault. His love is childish, pure, and innocent. Just because his love is pure and innocent doesn't mean it is a bed of roses. True, pure love can be terrifying. It can be SCARY.

Again, I DON'T THINK ERIK REALLY KNOWS WHAT SA IS, and I don't think he has this horribly manipulative mind that some people are viewing him to have. To have such an evil mind means he has to KNOW specific manipulative tactics and how these can harm the minds of those around him.

His love for Christine is childish. He is childish in his own ways. He acts impulsively like a child and doesn't really think twice when it comes to killing. To Erik, Christine is his teddy bear or blankie (Which children usually have an obsessive love for), when you take this away, a compulsive HELL TANTRUM happens. But this love, while being obsessive, is pure. Yes, I am comparing his obsessive love for Christine to something as innocent as a child with a stuffed animal or blankie. It's very similar.

for arghzombies I agree that erik is genuinely pitiable in every way, im not saying he was in any way trying to gaslight or manipulate christine into pitying him, more so that the only reason christine even knew him in the first place is because he was speaking to her through walls and preying on her grief and religion and (what i assume to be) loneliness! i believe that she resented how pitiful he was and how close they had grown and how much she had cared for him because at the end of the day he still approached her by means of manipulation and made her life (and everyone else’s) extremely difficult. it’s not fair that she should feel compassion for him, but it’s impossible not to.

for yourbxsicwitch, my point was not that erik would even THINK about sexually assaulting christine. i doubt that was ever even a thought in his head because, like you said, his love for christine is almost childish. BUT!! he still emotionally and mentally violated her, he still manipulated her, he still traumatized her. my point was just that i like reading fanfics that explore Christine’s healing process from sexual assault, even though I don’t believe erik would ever do that, because I believe it closely resembles how she would feel knowing that the man that destroyed her life, kidnapped her, nearly killed her lover and everyone in the opera house, and preyed on her grief, is still a man she cannot help but feel compassion for no matter how much she might wish she didn’t.