I realized I never posted these here on tumblr! 2020 did unspeakable things to my mind and body…I staggered away from lockdown with a whole pitch of how I would make an animated Cats adaptation. I got the whole thing up here *taps skull*—it would be Very Good. I can’t think about it too much lest I awaken my sleeping obsession…still want to finish Old Deut and Macavity one of these days.
Fun fact: The term "Jellicle Cat" is actually the cats’ mishearing of the term "Dear Little Cat" (this gives me much joy)
potential spoilers for @thedrawingduke ‘s amazing webcomic Fantomestein below:
I’ll start with the theory I am one hundred percent sure I’m right on, and will be very embarrassed if it isn’t the case: Raoul is a direct descendant of Safie de Lacey.
Evidence: Raoul appears to be of Middle-Eastern descent. (I’m 100% convinced of this, though it’s mostly intuition and suspicion that Philippe almost called Raoul ‘the himyarite’ when being a bitch to Sorelli [it’s a term for a descendant of a specific Arabic empire] [THIS IS REALLY SHODDY EVIDENCE I KNOW I’M REACHING BUT HUMOUR ME])
The only two characters in Frankenstein and Phantom (that I remember) who are Middle-Eastern are the Daroga and Safie de Lacey. Pretty sure it’s been established the Daroga is not related to Raoul, so we can throw him out. Safie appears at least twice in chapter 3:
That’s definitely Safie running away in this flashback? Look at that profile - seems pretty familiar to me. Also: in Frankenstein The Creature talks about how Safie is incredibly pretty, and it’s been mentioned multiple times that Raoul is also incredibly pretty (though that low self-esteem can’t possibly help him). This is not like…. good evidence but it is some evidence.
Safie’s second appearance makes the resemblance between her and Raoul really really really clear:
Can’t see all of her face, but you can see she’s the spitting image of him. I’m 100% sure it’s Safie, and that the man touching her face is either Felix or his father - considering she’s holding his hand to her face, it’s probably the blind father. So we know Safie de Lacey looks weirdly like Raoul, and TDD is a brilliant character designer, so I doubt that’s unintentional. Pretty sure TC/Erik notices the resemblance too when Raoul sneaks in to the opera to give his letter to Christine:
fghjk yeah anyway I’m fairly convinced. Though I’ve stewed on this for a long time lol.
Anyway, next theory is that Raoul either A) is already dead and has been revived via Frankenscience or B) will die and be revived via Frankenscience. The first thing that kinda made me think of that was this:
It’s like: same pose, same colour clothes, same blood imagery red stuff. Definitely a connection between them somehow, probably just narratively but I guess we’ll see. (Also the fact that Raoul’s mask at the masquerade was a SKULL??? something’s gonna happen to that boy AND IT WON’T BE GOOD) Also: Raoul is petrified of going back to sea with the Waltons, his hands are cold “as a corpse’s”, he’s confirmed to have lost a lot of weight while at sea (dying of an illness?), Philippe asks Christine if she thought she’d become a “rich widow” if she married Raoul, Raoul told Christine he didn’t expect to ever see her again when he went back to sea (probably cause he’s dying [or thinks he is]).
[What’s in his letter to Christine? Is it just his feelings? But she already knows he loves her! Is it telling her of his chronic illness? Or that he’s dying? Or that he’s dead? I physically cannot wait to find out.]
And (another case of the ‘is there evidence or is it my brain’) I think that TC/Erick and Raoul are meant to parallel each other more in the comic than in the books? Both come from mysterious origins, have abusive/negligent father figures, are outcasts to 1880s society, (have anxiety), have latched onto Christine as their one true connection with another human being. Them both being dead would only add to that list, I think.
(I have more theories but little textual evidence to support them, but these are my main theories, and this is not all the evidence I have! I just gotta put more together lmao)
Found a frame for this beautiful commissioned drawing by @thedrawingduke. Finally! I knew if I sporadically checked the frame section of the thrift store I’d find what I was looking for. So happy I can properly display this lady at last!
I might need to print it smaller since the signature and some of the foliage is cut off, but the frame...it called to me...
Was chilling in a class when I decided to draw @thedrawingduke lovely character tc/ Erik but with his short hair style. He's nervous. Again. Love her work, she's really awesome, and check out her webcomic too @fantome-stein. It's pretty rad.
@thedrawingduke replied to your post: and you know what i thought of ramin and sierra...
yeah they were the first cast i saw after the movie so I was all “wow! wonderful, much better! great!” but now that tumblr dot com has provided me with An Education on the millions of other castings I never knew about/never got to hear, they aren’t that ground breaking and there’s been way better interpretations.
Also i did feel like ALW is lurking in the rafters doing Phantom-ception by making them act more canon to LND so that was uncomfy? And shipping real people (esp ones who are married w/ kids etc) is always just a Nope to me so *makes x with arms*
oh they certainly adjusted it for LND, they didn’t cast the OLC of LND as principals for a reason.
the shipping was really something... god.
btw Hadley’s Raoul is the one thing I’ve always hated from the beginning though. i didn’t like his singing and his interpretation was awful. for his sake i hope it was mostly the direction to blame.
