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vicomte_de_chagny2021-05-05 07:20 pm
betweensunandmoon) wrote in vicomte_de_chagny2021-05-05 07:20 pm
Entry tags:
How I wish Love Never Dies had gone
Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe where Love Never Dies still exists, but isn't quite like we know it...
Erik, after making a name for himself in vaudeville, is still pining away for Christine, and wonders if he would be happy had she stayed with him. Cue ballad full of regret and longing. He's been training a young singer—a replacement Christine, you might say—on the grounds that she never ask him about his past or attempt to see his face. She's developed feelings for her mentor, though he doesn't seem to return them. He actually does, but has never acted on those feelings—because, after all, she's not Christine.
When Erik hears that the renowned opera singer Christine de Chagny is coming to New York to give a special performance for Hammerstein, he can't resist the opportunity to see her again. And when he sees Christine—successful, happily married, and a mother—it becomes clear to him that he could never have made her as happy as she is now, and that he made the right choice in letting her go all those years ago. Cue duet between Erik and Christine about the choices they made or something like that. He realizes he now faces a similar choice with his new apprentice. Said apprentice, having met the de Chagnys and learned the truth about Erik's past, must decide whether to stay with him or abandon him.
Does it still sound like bad fanfic? Yes, but it doesn't warp Raoul and the Girys out of character, strip Erik of everything that made him sympathetic in the original, or make Christine a cheater. Which is something, at least.
Erik, after making a name for himself in vaudeville, is still pining away for Christine, and wonders if he would be happy had she stayed with him. Cue ballad full of regret and longing. He's been training a young singer—a replacement Christine, you might say—on the grounds that she never ask him about his past or attempt to see his face. She's developed feelings for her mentor, though he doesn't seem to return them. He actually does, but has never acted on those feelings—because, after all, she's not Christine.
When Erik hears that the renowned opera singer Christine de Chagny is coming to New York to give a special performance for Hammerstein, he can't resist the opportunity to see her again. And when he sees Christine—successful, happily married, and a mother—it becomes clear to him that he could never have made her as happy as she is now, and that he made the right choice in letting her go all those years ago. Cue duet between Erik and Christine about the choices they made or something like that. He realizes he now faces a similar choice with his new apprentice. Said apprentice, having met the de Chagnys and learned the truth about Erik's past, must decide whether to stay with him or abandon him.
Does it still sound like bad fanfic? Yes, but it doesn't warp Raoul and the Girys out of character, strip Erik of everything that made him sympathetic in the original, or make Christine a cheater. Which is something, at least.