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The Erik vs. Raoul debate
Dec. 11th, 2018 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
betweensunandmoonBut you wouldn't expect [the 2004 movie] to be the film that was responsible for so many teenage girls declaring that they hated Raoul and couldn't stand the thought of R/C, given the amount of extra heroism they went around adding in to Raoul's character... presumably it's the attractions of the youthed-up Phantom as played by Gerard Butler that are to blame :-p
~igenlode in a comment on my journal
This is, no doubt, a correct assumption where many Phantom fangirls are concerned, but I believe there's a bit more to it than that. Though it pained me to do so, I sat down and listed every reason I could think of for the average adolescent female who had only seen the 2004 movie and was unfamiliar with any of the other versions to adore Erik and despise Raoul. I intend to explain those reasons in this post.
Disclaimer: I realize that Raoul-hatred is as old as The Phantom of the Opera itself. I acknowledge that there are legitimate reasons to dislike Raoul, as there are for any fictional character. I chose to focus on the 2004 movie because of the Gerik fangirls and subsequent Raoul-bashing it left in its wake. I am not a psychologist, so anything I say here has a significant chance of being complete bullshit. I do not mean to imply that every movie fan only liked it for superficial reasons. I condemn no one for lusting after Gerard Butler.
Anything else I need to disclaim? No? Good. Let us begin. This will take a while.
( Read more... )
~igenlode in a comment on my journal
This is, no doubt, a correct assumption where many Phantom fangirls are concerned, but I believe there's a bit more to it than that. Though it pained me to do so, I sat down and listed every reason I could think of for the average adolescent female who had only seen the 2004 movie and was unfamiliar with any of the other versions to adore Erik and despise Raoul. I intend to explain those reasons in this post.
Disclaimer: I realize that Raoul-hatred is as old as The Phantom of the Opera itself. I acknowledge that there are legitimate reasons to dislike Raoul, as there are for any fictional character. I chose to focus on the 2004 movie because of the Gerik fangirls and subsequent Raoul-bashing it left in its wake. I am not a psychologist, so anything I say here has a significant chance of being complete bullshit. I do not mean to imply that every movie fan only liked it for superficial reasons. I condemn no one for lusting after Gerard Butler.
Anything else I need to disclaim? No? Good. Let us begin. This will take a while.
( Read more... )
