Swancon: ONLINE, and LOVE NEVER DIES

[alias_sqbr]

This ANZAC weekend was the local scifi con, Swancon. And like so many recent cons, it was online.

This was an interesting experience! I was unfortunately very sleepy this weekend so wasn't up for a bunch of content I'd been looking forward to, but participated in couple of Youtube chats via Watch2gether, which were super fun. I also submitted to and checked out the online art gallery, which was a cute virtual space you could wander around.

There were also video chats, online board games, etc. There's been a bunch of discord conversations leading up to Swancon, too, and the possibility of a bookclub etc following the con.

The first thing we watched on Youtube was the Australian production of the Phantom of the Opera Sequel musical, Love Never Dies. It was very entertainingly bad, and we all ended up shipping Meg/Christine and Phantom/Raoul more than any of the canon ships.

God, though, people talk about Twilight etc having Unfortunate Portrayals Of Sexy Bad Boys but stuff by and for men is so much worse. At least the heroines of female wish fulfillment usually get to live. Meanwhile the Phantom knows Christine's kid is his son because he's into music and the goth aesthetic. NOT LIKE HIS MOTHER, THE OPERA SINGER WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH A PHANTOM. OBVIOUSLY ALL THAT MATTERS IS WHO THE DAD IS. And he and Raoul treat Christine like a trophy to be fought over, ugh. The songs weren't even catchy, though the unexpected rock guitars were certainly...something. Having all these French and American characters randomly slip into Australian accents really added to the experience, too.

Comments

[skygiants]

Even aside from the godawfulness of the plot, it's truly astounding how lifeless the music in Love Never Dies is. I think my favorite part of the whole experience is the way that any time a glimmer of the original music comes through the listener is like "NO WAIT COME BACK!"

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah I kept thinking back with nostalgia to a highschool choir I was in who did a medley of Phantom Songs to a single piano. At least that had some oomph!

[pauraque]

Somehow it escaped my attention that there was a sequel to Phantom! It sounds like ignorance was bliss in this case.

[alias_sqbr]

I was previously aware of it because I'd seen the characters themselves complain about it in a meta-humour heavy comic. And now I understand why.

[flamebyrd]

I read the Wikipedia synopsis of Love Never Dies a few years back and decided never to try and watch it, because wow. (Also I never really bought into the whole Christine and Phantom romance to begin with, so that didn't help.)

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah and Love Never Dies less sells you on why Phantom/Christine is good and more just makes Raoul/Christine look so bad that anyone is a step up.

Phantom, fandom, etc.

[brainwane]

I, too, saw Love Never Dies on YouTube!

I am grateful to live in an age where the first time I ever saw this thing, I simultaneously had social media access to experienced fans who could talk entertainingly about the precise ways this thing was weird, surreal, enjoyable, bad, etc.

Re: Phantom, fandom, etc.

[alias_sqbr]

Ha, yes, me too.

[acequeenking]

I love Love Never Dies entirely because it is such a trainwreck. I do think some of of the music, on its own, can be okay (well, okay, Devil Take the Hindmost deserved better tbqh, the rest of it is mostly Phantom B-sides at best). I just can't look away from it. There's so many ways its awful:

1. It's weirdly grudgy, yet, simultaneously, adoring of Christine. Despite that, it can't seem to nail down any kind of timeline for her: when did she sleep with the Phantom? How did she get away with it? Why does the musical tend to villify her for making what was literally the only sane choice?

2. The Phantom moving to coney Island I just...why? Why???

3. This thing literally shits all over Raoul's characterization in Phantom and then lights it on fire with a match. Why is Raoul an alcoholic in hock up to his ass? The worst that could be said about him in Phantom is that he's boring. I don't think there's anything good to say about in LND, especially when he gives up on Chrstine and HIS SON (like, the kid he has been raising for YEARS, regardless of genetics!).

4. Why oh why would you leave the Kid with the Phantom? Does this man scream emotionally available, well-adjusted adult? Honestly I think the kid should take his chances with Madam Giri.

Also Meg/Christine is good good shit and frankly I wish there was more of it???

Phantom/Raoul would be like a reality TV couple times 1,000 divided by France. VERY entertaining. XD

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, ok, Devil Take the Hindmost was actually kind of catchy.

I was thinking (4) as I read a synopsis during the musical, but the version I watched just ends without saying what happens to little Gustave, so we all agreed it was actually the story of how Gustave got two (terrible) Dads.