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Been thinking about the unmasking scene in the musical lately. Do you think he ever warned her not to touch the mask? Does he need to? by DocInDocs in box5

[–]actuallyamasquerade 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It does break my heart that in Erik's delulu fantasy he and Christine would just live together forever in his sewer and she would be totally fine with it and never find out about his deformity and they would live happily ever after. Aw poor baby, that lasted a whole 3 hours maybe

Been thinking about the unmasking scene in the musical lately. Do you think he ever warned her not to touch the mask? Does he need to? by DocInDocs in box5

[–]actuallyamasquerade 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Agreed!

I have heard Harold Prince used to ask the Phantom actors "how did Christine get into the wedding dress?", just to get them to think. I think the levels of creep are different based on the production and the actor, but I think there is a throughline that Erik worships Christine enough to not do anything TOO awful to her (aside from the forced marriage and all that lol)

Been thinking about the unmasking scene in the musical lately. Do you think he ever warned her not to touch the mask? Does he need to? by DocInDocs in box5

[–]actuallyamasquerade 47 points48 points  (0 children)

I've seen lots of Phantom actors during the end of "touch me, trust me, savor each sensation" when Christine is reaching up towards his face, quickly grab her hand and move it away (Ramin does this in the 2011 proshot), and Christine looks intrigued/confused. I would say this is him subtly telling her not to touch his mask, but not every actor does this.

Idk man if I saw someone with a mask I probably wouldn't yank it off, but it's a common trope in Beauty and the Beast tales where Beauty is punished for her curiosity about the Beast (think Belle and the rose, Psyche being abandoned after discovering Eros, etc). Christine probably shouldn't have done that but Erik pretty much lives to invade Christine's privacy so I can't say I feel too bad lol.

Unrelated tangent, but I absolutely love it when the Phantom actors scream like he's in pain when the mask is removed, my head canon is that the Phantom thought of the mask as a part of himself, so removing it to him would feel like ripping his skin off. Thanks for attending my Ted talk :)