Why I don't ship E/C

[betweensunandmoon]

It's not just that I prefer Raoul and identify more with Raoul than with Erik, though that is part of it. I wouldn't ship Erik and Christine even if there were no Raoul at all because the relationship is so very obviously unhealthy for both of them. It surprises and worries me that so many people seem willing to overlook that.

Comments

[erimia]

It's ironic, given this canon, how many phans basically use "beauty equals goodness" trope when dealing with Erik. If they find Erik sexy/attractive, of course it means that his personality is better than it seems! Or, in a more high-brow version of this, if his music is so genius, of course he can't be that bad, can he? (This one was pointed out in some review on the Phantom Project/Phantom Library. It said how in this case it's about beauty of the art rather than beauty of the face, but it still runs on the same premise.)

Yes, I, too, strongly dislike it when people cheat on their previous partners or ditch them for others in romances, and it's often treated as no big deal because it's with their True Love. It doesn't help that authors often use previous relationship to showcase how great the new love is in comparison to it. It feels so cruel and dehumanizing if the "ex" is a decent person, and a cheap source of conflict if they are not.

[igenlode]

I think there's a very basic human assumption that beauty in art must reflect beauty of the soul (perhaps derived from a religious idea that all good in the world ultimately reflects/derives from divine goodness, whereas all evil is either man's own wickedness or else the inspiration of the Devil?) It's very hard to imagine that someone can write beautiful, elevating work and be himself an ordinary mortal who leaves hairs in the soap, snaps at the parlour-maid and bilks the bus-conductor of a tuppenny fare ;-) The beauty has to come from somewhere, and if not from the artist's innermost self, then where?