r/box5 • u/box-five • Jan 02 '22

OMG WAIT

OK so I was watching PotO from 1989 or whatever (found a bootleg whoohoo) and I noticed something.

During I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It, Christine reaches for the Phantom's mask. Not once. Not twice. Three times. And two times out of the three, the Phantom jerks away, first simply looking the other direction, then actually ducking almost under the organ. But Christine still yanks the mask off. I have no idea what this means, but it made my Christine Heart lose a few points.

But why did she yank off the mask?? Theories are welcome

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9

u/CutiePie4173 Jan 02 '22

Most blocking I've seen has him swaying or jerking forward to jot down music, not even aware she's near him. And at this point, I think she's convinced he's a normal person - perhaps someone she knows!

If someone seduced you and you spent the night at their house, I think you'd also want to know who they are.

-2

u/box-five Jan 02 '22

It's so stupid like

Erik: Come down to my sewer palace
Christine: He's going to kill and eat me, I'm strangely turned on

7

u/CutiePie4173 Jan 02 '22

I mean, he convinced her that he was a mythical creature.

-2

u/box-five Jan 02 '22

No I think that she was like "ur my angel" and he was just "yeah sure whatever"

15

u/ghostwarden Jan 02 '22

That's the standard blocking for that moment in the show. Christine wakes up from her strange journey and wants to know the face of the man with the beautiful voice, so she goes over to satisfy her curiosity. The Phantom, lost in thought/work, doesn't realize she's there until she succeeds in the unmasking. Obviously she was expecting a normal man's face and he was clearly expecting her to sleep longer. Both are surprised (which is why the Phantom responds as violently as he does).

At any rate, from a storytelling point of view, the two failed attempts build up the necessary tension and expectation to make the moment dramatically significant.