Maybe this blog should be a spotlight of bad characters who I believe deserved better. First Zuko, and now the Phantom. Maybe next week I should talk about Draco Malfoy.... stay tuned.
This week I watched one of my all-time favorite movies, one of the first things I ever hyper-fixated on in media, Phantom of the Opera.
My parents would play the musical soundtrack every Halloween as we carved pumpkins. When I was 11 years old, my older sister explained the plot to me, and I realized that I needed to see the movie. Pretty dresses, love songs, and attractive men in old period clothing??? How could I resist? (I'm starting to realize how much I have never changed... wow)
Since the movie was rated PG-13, my parents told me I wasn't allowed to see it for another couple of years. I told them, "I promise I'll never ask to watch another PG-13 movie before I turn 13. Just please let me watch Phantom of the Opera."
They said no.
I tried to listen to them. I swear, I did.
I made it about a year before I gave in. I snuck the DVD into my room, crawled under my bed, and watched the movie on a portable DVD player we used for road trips. Two and a half hours later, and I was even more hooked than before.
I have wanted to be Christine for Halloween ever since, but I've never been able to get a good enough costume in time. Literally 12 years of loving this movie and I've still never dressed as her for Halloween. This desire has only increased with time, as my hair got curlier and curlier like Christine's.
The potential:
My first kiss happened when I was 15, as I showed this movie to my boyfriend. We kissed during the rooftop kiss scene of the movie (shown above). If you've seen it, you know how baller that is for a 15-year-old who is obsessed with this movie.
The OG love Triangle. This is the Phantom, Christine, and Raoul (why do I feel like I'm introducing you to old friends haha).
As a quick overview for those who haven't seen it, Raoul and Christine were childhood sweethearts, until her father suddenly died. Then at a very young age, she moves to the Opera house to train to be a ballerina in the opera. While there, an "Angel of Music" trains her to sing, but it's just the Phantom pretending to be an angel (??). Then when the lead soprano quits, Christine is cast as the lead because of her training.
She and Raoul are reunited after all these years, because he is the new patron of the Opera house. After her performance, the Phantom takes Christine into his lair for who knows what reason (???). Then the drama of the love triangle ensues. Anyway, lots of singing and dancing and murder happens, and in the end, Christine chooses Raoul. Because between a murderer and a non-murdering, mediocre man, what choice did she really have?
Despite all that, when I was younger, I loved the Phantom. Like... with all my soul, I loved him. Gerard Butler embodied the kind of man I wanted when I was younger: dark, mysterious, with some emotional scars that I could help fix if he let me (I mostly joke). But really, he didn't have to go That hard on the sex appeal, but he did. He did it for us.
Plus he handles a cape pretty well 😏
Anyway, as time went on, how I viewed each relationship in the movie changed drastically, depending on the lessons I was learning in my own life.
When I was 12, I was happy that both men liked Christine. I was excited by chase.
When I was 16, I wished that Christine chose the Phantom, a sad and tortured soul, who just deserved to be loved. Before living at the opera house, he was a slave to a gypsy circus master who beat him for money because of his facial disfiguration. Of course he would be troubled and have dark thoughts because of that.
Is that an excuse for murder?
According to me now: No.
According to me then: Possibly?? 😌
When I was 19, I decided that I had gotten it wrong. Raoul was the healthy choice, and the Phantom, a murdering sociopath, deserved every bad thing he got. Just because the Phantom is hot doesn't mean he didn't traumatize and lie to Christine for all of her life. He essentially groomed her from the time she was a little girl. And just because Raoul has a bad haircut (lol) doesn't mean he can't be good for her. Plus, he sings the sweetest love song duet with her with the cutest line:
Let daylight dry your tears
I'm here, with you, beside you
To guard you and to guide you
When I was 21, I realized that Raoul was problematic and controlling in his own right, so Christine really did have a hard decision to make. I mean, the man constantly told her she was crazy, even though he knew she had been kidnapped. When she confides her fears of the Phantom in him, at worst he says (paraphrased) "it's all in your head haha let's go get dinner." At best, he says (actual quote), "Don't think that I don't care, but every hope and every care rests on you now :)" He consistently gaslights her, doesn't listen when she's talking, and then acts hurt and confused when she wants to avoid provoking the psycho in the basement.
And now, at 24, I realize that almost every character in the show is problematic (except reigning queen, Christine Daaé, and her friend Meg Giry). Now, I am back to enjoying it for the pretty dresses, the love songs, and the attractive men in period costume. And yes, my attraction to Gerard Butler as the Phantom remains. Consistency is key, people.
Now that I have the entire movie memorized, I watch it every year around Halloween for nostalgia. This week my friend and I watched it while painting ceramic pumpkins to get into the fall spirit. And reader.... it worked.
Welcome to #spookyseason, everyone. Go watch Phantom of the Opera.
But also realize that you deserve someone better than the Phantom or Raoul.
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