In Defense of Raoul || AVM Blog Party || Part Two

Part one here

Six months later.

The Phantom hasn't shown his masked face since the incident where he dropped the chandelier on the audience. The managers of the opera house are so happy that he's gone, they've let down their guard and are having a party. A masquerade, to be precise. (Which... is pretty gutsy considering they were bothered by a man who wore a freaking mask all the time...)

Masquerade! Paper faces on parade!

Masquerade! Hide your face so the world

will never find you. 

                                 (Masquerade.)

Lalala everyone's happy, singing, dancing... even Christine is enjoying herself, she and Raoul are engaged, and life is looking good---- except for the tiny detail that she doesn't want anyone to know they're going to get married because she's afraid of what the Phantom will do.

 Raoul: But why is it secret, what have we to hide?

Christine: Please let's not fight, wait 'til the time is right.

Roul: Christine, you're free, when will that be? It's an engagement,

 not a crime. Christine, what are you afraid of?  

                                                   (Masquerade) 

I know that's something that bothers people about Raoul, because he should have been more considerate of Christine's feelings there. But look at it from his point of view. It's been six months. They've been secretly engaged for six months (which was not appropriate in society during that time), and the Phantom hasn't shown up once. Raoul thinks he's gone, everyone but Christine thinks he's gone. And sure, he's asking her to actually wear her engagement ring on her finger, rather than on a chain around her neck, but he's not forcing the issue.

He does not make her wear it. He's just befuddled that she isn't.

About halfway through the merrymaking, guess who decides to crash the party. *cue thunder and screaming and earthquakes*

The reason for the Phantom's six month absence is because he holed up and wrote a creepy musical featuring Christine as the leading lady. Said musical is now finished and he makes it clear that they'd better perform it, or he'll do something even worse than destroying the chandelier.

I'd advice you to comply, my instructions should be clear. 

Remember, there are worse things than a shattered chandelier. 

                                                  (Why So Silent) 

He turns his attention to Christine, and rips her engagement ring off the chain around her neck.

"Your chains are still mine. You will sing for me."

                                                   (Why So Silent)

And then he disappears in a poof of smoke because that's just what he does.

And since the owners of the Opera Populare are afraid of what will happen to them if they don't put on this production, they agree.

Firmin: This is lunacy! Well, you know my views.

Andre: Utter Lunacy!

Firmin: But we daren't refuse......

Andre: Not another chandelier..... 

                                 (Notes Reprise) 

During the preparations for the new opera, Carlotta accuses Christine of being behind everything, and everyone jumps on Christine's case. Raoul is the only one who sticks up for her.

Carlotta: She's the one behind this! Christine Daae!

Andre: You have a duty!

Christine: I cannot sing it, duty or not.

Raoul: Christine, you don't have to. They can't make you. 
                                                  (Notes Reprise)

The only reason Raoul asks her to agree to be the lead is because he realizes that if Christine does that, the Phantom will be there. And he knows it's their chance to get rid of this elusive Opera Ghost.

And the only reason Christine doesn't want to is because she is afraid of what the Phantom will do. This is getting to be a pattern, see?

Raoul, it scares me, don't put me through this ordeal by fire!

He'll take me, I know. We'll be parted forever, he won't let me go. 

What I once used to dream, I now dread. 

If he finds me, it won't ever end, 

and he'll always be there, singing songs in my head. 

                                            (Twisted Every Way)

I mean, she knows that the Phantom is the reason why she's had so many chances with her voice, but it's hard to overlook the fact that he murders and threatens people. She knows it's dangerous. But she's also sure that if the Phantom is around, she will not be able to marry Raoul.

Am I to risk my life to win the chance to live?

Can I betray the man who once inspired my voice?

Do I become his prey? Do I have any choice?

He kills without a thought! He murders all that's good.

I know I can't refuse and yet, I wish I could, 

oh what, if I agree, what horrors wait for me?

In this... the Phantom's opera.... 
                                             (Twisted Every Way.) 

 Raoul is quiet for a second, and then he goes, "Christine, Christine, don't think that I don't care--but every hope, and every prayer rests on you now."

And that is another thing that bothers people about Raoul, that he actually asks her to help them stop the Phantom. Is his plan risky? Probably. Did he honestly think Christine would be in danger? No! He was going to get all the cops to come and protect her. How was he supposed to know the Phantom had other plans?

After Christine agrees, there's a disastrous rehearsal of Don Juan Triumphant, and she needs a break, so she goes and visits her father's grave.

Little Lotte thought of everything and nothing. 

Her father promised her that he would send her the Angel of Music.....

                                        (Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again)

Right here, she's very vulnerable, she's lost, she's afraid, and this is the moment the Phantom catches her alone. (Like... what a lurker he is. It's kind of funny actually, that he's always like, "And this is when I make my big entrance, Christine won't know what hit her.)

Wandering child, so lost, so helpless, yearning for my guidance....
                                                                   (Wandering Child)

She's not sure what he is, he came to her when she was at her father's grave, when she was asking her father for help, so she still sort of believe that he's the Angel of Music that her father promised to send. The girl is so confused.

 Angel or father? Friend or Phantom, who is it there, staring?

The Phantom has this mesmerizing sense about him, and every time he's around Christine, it's like he's putting her in a trance.

Phantom: Have you forgotten your Angel? 

Christine: Wildly my mind beats against you...!

                                    (Wandering Child)

Enter Raoul, who had come to look for her. He sees the Phantom beckoning her towards him, and he instantly comes to protect her. (Like the hawty that he is, MHMMM.)

Raoul: Once again she is his, once again she returns...

To the arms of her angel! Angel or demon?

Still calls her, luring her back from the grave. 

Angel-- or dark seducer?

Who are you, strange angel? 

                                     (Wandering Child) 

 

Raoul: More tricks, Monsieur? 

Phantom: Let's see Monsieur, how far you dare go!

Raoul: More deception? More violence?

Phantom: That's right, that's right, Monsieur, keep walking this way!

Raoul: You can't win her love by making her your prisoner!

Phantom: I'm here, I'm here, Monsieur, the Angel of Death! 

                                              (Wandering Child/Bravo Monsieur)

Let me explain you a thing:

It is not normal to throw fireballs at people who are trying to stop you from talking to a girl.
It is not normal to call yourself the Angel of Death.
It is not normal to threaten to kill a man just because he calls you out on your bad behavior.

In that scene, when both the guys in her life are fighting, Christine runs to Raoul. NOT THE PHANTOM. She always picks Raoul. Every time there's a choice of siding with Raoul or the Phantom, she chooses Raoul.

And in this part, Raoul has put himself between Christine and the Phantom, to keep her safe, to shield her. The only thing that kept him from confronting the Phantom right there, was Christine, who asks him to stop.

When they leave, the Phantom yells that it's war upon them both, *cue thunder and screaming and earthquakes*, and he disappears in a giant fireball of fury. (Drama queeeeen!)

A little while later, it's the night of the premiere performance of "Don Juan Triumphant", and Raoul and the managers of the opera house have brought the police in. If the Phantom shows up to watch Christine perform his opera, his game is up.

Raoul: For if Miss Daae sings, he is certain to attend!

Andre: We make certain the doors are barred--

Firmin: We make certain the men are there! 

Raoul: We make certain they're armed--

All: The curtain falls... his reign will end!

                                   (We Have All Been Blind) 

Except the the Phantom made plans of his own. He kills the leading man so that he can take his place in the show. (In the scene that he's in, the lead character is wearing this big old giant cloak so no one can see his face.)

He did not need to kill Piangi. He could have just knocked him out, Piangi wasn't a threat to him, the only thing Piangi did wrong was have some trouble with the music.

When Christine realizes it's him on stage with her, he asks her to marry him, by holding out a ring.

Say you'll share with me, one love one lifetime,

lead me, save me, from my solitude. 

Say you want me with you, here, beside you. 

Anywhere you go, let me go too. Christine, that's all I ask of--

                                                 (The Point of No Return)

She takes off his mask, revealing him to the police, and he grabs her and they vanish in a flash of smoke. (He's very theatrical, this Phantom.)

That's cold, Christine

(Incidentally, I find it kind of interesting that when the Phantom tries to ask Christine to be his wife, he uses Raoul's words, like he knows that Raoul did it right, and he wanted to emulate that. Just a thought.)


This is the finale.

The Phantom has brought Christine down to his lair again, she's now wearing a wedding dress, (the same wedding dress that the Phantom had on his life-sized Christine dummy), and he's trying to explain why he is so messed up.

Phantom: This face which earned a mother's fear and loathing.                  
A mask. My first unfeeling scrap of clothing.

aw yiss for the best Christine

Pity comes to late, turn around and face your fate!
An eternity of this before your eyes!


Christine: This haunted face holds no horror for me now. 
It's in your soul that the true distortion lies.

                                    (Down Once More) 

I think that is the most ignored line in the whole musical. Christine isn't afraid of him because he's ugly, it's because there is something broken inside him. He is not stable! He's not a good guy! He's a distraught mad-man, but a villain none-the-less.

Raoul at this point has finally found where the Phantom's been hiding, and he's coming to get Christine out. (A heeeaaart fuuuulll of loooove-- oh wait, wrong musical.)

Since the lair is protected by a portcullis and he's stuck on the outside, things get heated because he's not happy to have this gate blocking his way, when all he wants to do is throttle the Phantom and get Christine out.   

Raoul: Free her! Do what you like, only free her! Have you no pity?

Phantom: Your lover makes a passionate plea.

Raoul: I love her! Does that mean nothing? I love her! Show some compassion!

                                                              (Down Once More)

The Phantom eventually lets him in, after some mocking and laughter, and when Raoul's distracted, puts a noose around his neck, like "You didn't see that coming?? Mwuahaha." (It's a cool magical lasso that hangs by itself, because the Phantom has nothing better to do than to invent things that do what he says.)

Nothing can save you now, except, perhaps, Christine!
 
Start a new life with me-- buy his freedom with your love!

Refuse me and you send your love to his death.

                                                              (Final Lair)

So here, we have Christine, who is at this point an emotional basket case due to the fact that the man she trusted for years, has the guy that she loves literally choking to death. And now she has to chose between living the rest of her life with the Phantom, who's frikken weird, or let Raoul die. Guys. Come on. This is not healthy.

The tears I might have shed for your dark fate,

grow cold... and turn to tears of hate!

                         

 And then! Raoul actually apologizes for putting her in that situation! HE'S DYING AND HE'S SORRY, AND IT'S SO CUTE.

Christine, forgive me. Please forgive me. 

I did it all for you, and all for nothing! 

In fact, the whole time Christine is pleading with the Phantom to led Raoul go, Raoul is still trying to protect her.

Phantom: So, do you end your days with me? Or do you send him to his grave?

Raoul: Why make her lie to you to save me?

Whenever the Phantom starts moving towards Raoul, Christine always steps between them, like, "Nooooope. Nope nope nope. Just baaack it up."

Phantom: His life is now the prize which you must earn. 

Christine: Angel of Music, who deserved this? Why do you curse mercy?

Raoul actually tells Christine to say no. He knows the Phantom is going to kill him if she doesn't agree to marry him, and he still tells her to say no. So if you don't believe he was willing to die to set her free, you're wrong.

Raoul: For pity's sake, Christine, say no!

Don't throw you life away for my sake!

I fought so hard to free you... 

Phantom: You've passed the point of no return.

Christine: Angel of Music... you deceived me. 

I gave my mind.... blindly.

Phantom: You. Try. My patience. Make your choice.

There's this breathtaking silence, the turning point of the musical.

Christine: Pitiful creature of darkness... what kind of life have you known?

God, give me courage to show you, you are not alone.

Her choice is made and she's going to stay with the Phantom, because she loves Raoul.

The only reason she agrees to stay with him, is because he will kill Raoul, and she's willing to make that sacrifice, so long as Raoul can live.

It is not because she would rather be with the Phantom, it is not because she doesn't love Raoul, it's because the Phantom of the Opera did not give her a choice. If she'd chosen to say no, he would have killed Raoul, and probably forced her to marry him anyway.

It's very bittersweet, this musical, because there's always this part of you that wishes the Phantom could have a happy ending-- even people like me, who firmly believe that Raoul and Christine are SOUL FREAKING MATES-- wish that something could have happened to give the Phantom a happy ending.

But the Phantom's redeeming moment is right there, because, even though he was twisted, and insane, and violent, he did love Christine, and when she sacrificed her happiness to keep her fiance alive, he loved her too much to make her stay. He loved her too much to hold her against her will.

Giving her up was his redemption.*
*And that's why LND sucks.


So he cuts Raoul down.

You can hear the angry mob coming down to the basement to find the Phantom. He pushed them too far, and he hurt too many people, and they're out for blood. (His blood, particularly.)

Take her, forget me. Forget all of this. 

Leave me alone, forget all you've seen.

Go now! Don't let them find you. 

Take the boat leave me here, go now, don't wait. 

Just take her and go, before it's too late. 

Go now! Go now and leave me! 

Christine gives him back his ring.

Christine, I love you.

He lets Raoul and Christine go, and he can hear them while they're leaving.

Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime

Say the word, and I will follow you. 

Share each day with me, each night, each morning. 

After they're gone, he says to himself:

You alone can make my song take flight.

It's over now, the music of the night! 

He sits down in his throne and disappears, and by the time the mob finds his lair, all that's left is his mask.

The end.


So here's the thing, I know I've portrayed the Phantom as the villain in these posts, but I don't want you guys to think I hate him. I don't. I agree that his life was hellish, and it wasn't his fault that he turned out to be a madman. I'll be the first to tell you that the finale kills me, because it's so sad that he is still going to be unhappy. It is sad that his redeeming moment was giving up the only thing that could have made him happy. He is the saddest potato! He really is!

But the fact of the matter is: he was crazy, he was a murderer, and he could not have made Christine a good husband. The fact that he tried to force her to marriage screams bad relationship. There is so much more wrong with the Phantom than just his face!


Let's get one thing straight. Raoul is not a wimp. Raoul was brave, and strong, and everything he did was motivated to protect Christine. Just because he didn't string up and murder people who got in the way of his romance doesn't make him a wimp. He was ready to die for her, to keep her safe. He is not a fop, he is not a loser. He's one of the most underrated characters on stage, because everyone sees only the charismatic and sympathetic side of the Phantom, they never acknowledge what Raoul does for Christine. They jump on the "he's a pathetic Vicomte" aspect of the fandom, and never give him a chance. 


I'm not saying the Phantom is evil, I'm saying he was someone who's hard life had pushed him to insanity.

I'm saying that if it was any of you, you would have all chosen Raoul.

Anyway,  sorry this is so long, I had way too much to say.

By the way, am I the only one who's irritated that the only high quality gifs of POTO on Broadway are of the 25th Anniversary Performance? There are other freaking productions! Better casts than Sierra, and Ramin! Come on! (Also, if I could, I would have used all Original Broadway Cast pictures, because that cast is the best. It was gold.)

Comment what you thoughts! Let me know!

Who do you ship? ( I will not spear you if you still ship PhantomxChristine)

Are you fonder of Raoul now? (please say yes.)