#fish rambles

[nothingf-i-s-h-yhere]

[dross-the-fish]

Love your phantom takes, curious to know what you think it is that Erik doesn't like about Carlotta's singing?

Canonically it's because she's souless and while her art is technically flawless it lacks emotion. In the book it actually notes that at one point on stage she shows off a bit, playing the role of Marguerite as if it were Carmen. My interpretation is that she does what a lot of popular singers with strong vocal talent but no real acting chops do. She adds a bunch of unnecessary flourishes to songs that don't need them. That's honestly one of the worst things a singer can do to a musical number unless said musical number is explicitly designed to have very colorful riffs and runs. Think of like, back in the 90's, those god awful shitty contemporary pop song versions of Disney songs. Christina Aguilera's version of "Reflection" from Mulan is probably the best example to illustrate this point. It plays well on the radio but wouldn't actually suit the song's original context. In this analogy Christine is Lea Salonga and Carlotta is Christina Aguilera. Some people may actually prefer Aguilera's version (I will never understand you, if you are one of those people) but no one can claim it's the version that belongs in the film or that this is the way Mulan herself would sing it. This is precisely what it would seem Erik doesn't like about Carlotta. She can sing the house down but she doesn't know when to pull back and really disappear into the role. She can only ever be Carlotta in a costume. This does make me wonder how Christine would handle a role like Carmen or the Queen of the Night from Mozart's The Magic Flute, tbh. Leroux loves to emphasize how angelic Christine is when she sings it actually makes me doubt she'd be convincing in a role that required her to act cruel or lascivious. From a Doylist standpoint I don't think Leroux would ever have put Christine in the position for the audience to associate her with something spicy like Carmen. At around the time Carmen came out it was highly controversial and even a bit ground breaking. It had a pretty negative reputation in France for quite a long time. The character of Carmen herself was extremely polarizing and there was a lot of critical backlash. Which Leroux would have been aware of even if Phantom of the Opera was written decades later. It's not an accident that Leroux wanted us to associate Carmen, and by proxy all of it's scandal, with Carlotta, on the other hand. Carlotta is meant to be every negative stereotype about actresses of the time. We are meant to be repulsed by her lack of modesty when she plays Marguerite. It's something to ponder anyway. Would Christine possibly not have been able to pull off Carmen or any acting role that wasn't a conventional leading soprano? Erik himself doesn't believe Christine has the temperament to handle the music he's writing. I always found that very interesting that when she asks to hear his music he immediately defaults to "Oh no, that would be way too much for you. I'll play you Mozart instead." He and Leroux both are very keen to protect Christine's virtue and image as a perpetual "good girl." This isn't unique or unusual considering the era in which the book was written but I have found myself on more than one occasion losing a little of my patience for this particular literary convention. Christine's saving grace is that she does actually have a personality and manages to be proactive, even fiery at times. Leroux manages to write his characters as complete people but as is to be expected from a novel written by an Edwardian Era white man, he's still beholden to some of the outdated misogynistic tropes of his day.

[damianwayneismine]

Damian is the kind of person who I feel like would watch those uncommon animal friendship videos unironically.

He will only discuss them with Colin and Cass, and on some occasions, Bruce. He'll try to show them to him and pretend it's ironic. Tell him to look at this 'idiotic' video, and Bruce will say he thinks that they're cute, so that eventually he can start showing them unironically. Damian finds one of a bat and a robin. Purely a coincidence, right?

Later, Damian starts sending them to Jon without context, who is confused and tells Clark, and then Clark tells Bruce, and then Bruce tells Jon that Dami wants to be his friend. On a side note, I love JonDami SOO MUCH, whether they're romantic or platonic.

[kokanee-nerka]

I think Dew silently walks up to the ghouls he trusts the most and hugs them when he needs some comfort. No words. No looking at them. Just padding up and hugging.

I also think nobody teases him for that. They tuck him closer and hold him until he lets go.

And I think he gives damn good hugs. Tucks his head right into their collarbone or lays his head on their chest. His claws just barely prick their skin around their hips or waist. He doesn’t intend on moving once he’s latched.

Nobody bats an eye when Dew walks up to Aether and hugs him. And Aeth pulls him closer and kisses between his horns, rubbing his back. Newer ghouls wait patiently for Dew to trust them enough to tuck himself into them too.

[box-of-fish]

KakaObi soulmate au. specifically one where you find the things your soulmate loses-

Obito keeps losing fucking white Zetsus for some reason. Do you know how annoying it’d be to find messed up half melted bodies all the time? how much that would mess up missions? you’re meant to be on a covert operation but you just fucking Keep Finding Bodies ™.

Kakashi is tired of this. His superiors are tired of this. His team is not tired of this, they’re having a great time actually. it's a great game. who is Kakashi’s soulmate? maybe its a serial killer. maybe its Orochimaru. maybe it's Maybelline.

“And you are sure it’s not Orochimaru?” Shisui questions, poking the half disintegrated body of whatever it was that he’d just stabbed. His entire squad is staring at the thing rather than resting and keeping watch as they’re supposed to.

“Reasonably sure,” Kakashi agrees. The bodies have long lost interest to him, considering whoever his soulmate is keeps losing what seems like the same corpse over and over.

“Reasonably certain, taichou?” Tenzo pipes up, and the night devolves from there.

—

(Five years later, Uchiha Itachi will look in damning terror at the man he’s come to realise is Uchiha Madara, standing next to what looks like one of Kakashi’s mystery bodies, and draw a conclusion that’s not entirely wrong.)

-

Obito keeps losing white Zetsu clones, Kakashi hasn’t lost anything since he was two, and the fourth shinobi war could be a comedy of errors if only it stopped being a tragedy

[feeshu09]

After almost two days... I got ✨her✨ Froakie was my first starter in my XY playthrough like a decade ago, so it made me really really incandescently happy to find her 🤧🥹

[littlelightfish]

I would like to remind people that Chilchuck hasn't seen his wife in 4 years.

So he maybe wasn't there to see his daughters become adults, but he was there for the majority of their childhood.

When he left, Mayjack and Flertom were 12, and Puckpatty was 10. They reach adulthood at 14, so maybe yes, he was absent when they were still kids, but that doesn't mean he didn't maintained contact with them afterwards as far as I know. The thing he uses around his neck was a gift from Flertom, and he was using it when he met Laios's party.

[silly-fi5h]

Blasting Cavetown while riding my bike is the best (the only thing that's not good is how hot it is outside 😭✌️)