Brown Raouls

[igenlode]

It's interesting that there are currently two (that I know of) R/C fanfics running which have decided to depict Raoul as a non-white protagonist, even despite the difficulties this creates in retaining his 'de Chagny' role.

In Strange Sweet Sound on AO3, Raoul is described as a 'throwback' to an enslaved foremother, the darkest one in a family of otherwise only slightly-negroid aristocrats (a sort of parallel with the cases of Alexandre Dumas and the Chevalier de St-George).
In the graphic novel Fantome-Stein on Tumblr, 'half-caste' Raoul appears to be the illegitimate offspring of Philippe's sister, although this plot point has yet to be clarified. (Weirdly enough, in the earliest artwork he isn't discernably dark-skinned at all; it shows up starting in chapter two.)

I'm wondering if this fan development is something to do with millennials' psychology, i.e. in order to be virtuous you need to be able to demonstrate identity with some oppressed group. It's interesting that I've only come across this in pro-Raoul stories (admittedly in a grand sample of two!) -- I have a feeling that it's a subconscious attempt to make Raoul a more sympathetic protagonist and perhaps to counterbalance the 'Aristocrat = Evil' assumptions among the fandom/demographic (poor Philippe, the go-to source of villainy...)

Comments

[betweensunandmoon]

Fascinating!

I'm wondering if this fan development is something to do with millennials' psychology, i.e. in order to be virtuous you need to be able to demonstrate identity with some oppressed group.

Wouldn't surprise me. :P

I have a feeling that it's a subconscious attempt to make Raoul a more sympathetic protagonist and perhaps to counterbalance the 'Aristocrat = Evil' assumptions among the fandom/demographic (poor Philippe, the go-to source of villainy...)

Wait, people bash Philippe?!

[igenlode]

Wait, people bash Philippe?!

Given his canonical role in attempting to stop Raoul marrying Christine (and not even because he thinks she'll be bad for his little brother, but because she's a commoner), the fact that Erik murders him, therefore (like Buquet) he must be Evil in order to justify saintly Erik's having attacked him in the first place, and his status as 'extra character who exists but whom nobody really cares about much' and who is therefore a blank canvas available for any convenient plot-role, I don't think many fans actively like him :-p
(In Fantome-stein, for example, he oppresses his sisters, insults Sorelli, and is thoroughly embarrassed by Raoul's existence,locking him in his room to keep him from the masked ball... all of which are not unreasonable developments from what little we see of him in canon, if you need a villain and want to make the character a little 'darker'.)

Fanfics that want a moustache-twirling villain to persecute poor innocent Erik and his loving Christine but have a sufficient grasp of reality to recognise that Raoul really doesn't fit that template will often adopt Philippe as a powerful mafia boss-type figure with a private army and a corrupt array of officials at his disposal. I saw one fanfic recently that had Philippe attempt to rape Christine in order to give her a reason to flee from Raoul's protection back to Erik without making Raoul himself look bad. There's a subset of plots which have Erik as the rightful Comte de Chagny and Philippe as the evil half-brother who uses his unfortunate deformity as an excuse to dispossess him )e.g. by selling him to a circus) -- although of course Philippe then has to be much younger than in the book, or else Erik would be old enough to be Christine's father, and that would never do :-p
There is of course the notorious 'porn Phantom' (no, the official one from the series of 'erotic historical retellings' :-p), in which Philippe is portrayed as a violent sado-masochist who wants to take Christine home for threesomes with Raoul: he has a sex dungeon, a collection of sex toys, whips, and aphrodisiacs to further his enjoyment, and he won’t stop until he’s taught Raoul the ways of a deviant sex fiend.

And then there's the mass of modern-day fanfic in which 'brother Phil' is a business tycoon who is too distracted by making money to have any time for his brother and/or makes snobbish remarks about Christine to his snobbish mother behind Christine's back (which she of course overhears for Plot Reasons, i.e. to disqualify Raoul)...

[betweensunandmoon]

...I had no idea. I don't read much fanfic, so I assumed that most of the fandom was either indifferent to him or didn't know who he was. D: Poor Philippe!

Oh, god, Unmasqued. I'd heard of it, but I didn't know it was that bad. X( I need brain bleach.

[igenlode]

I think most of the fandom is indifferent to him or else doesn't know who he is (beyond the vague fact that 'Raoul has an older brother' -- most of the authors don't seem to realise that Philippe is actually old enough to be Raoul's father, and assume a four- or five-year age gap...)

It's just that when he does get an active plot role, it has a tendency to be that of 'convenient villain', or at least 'heartless Christine-hater' (well, that's pretty much canon :-p)