I'm watching some of my Phantom of the Opera movies over again, and I'm starting to feel like the 2004 film of the musical is kind of lame besides the beautiful sets. The casting, the acting, the pace, the... aghgh. I'm just not so happy with it anymore. I think I'm always going to have the biggest place in my heart for the weird-as-hell Argento horror version. The Christine has at least a pinch of personality and an appropriately intense reaction to what's happening to her, and Julian-Sands-Phantom is... pretty good at being a phantom considering he has NO MASK.

But, and I know it makes me sound like every other phan ever, I still melt into a puddle over Crawford-Phantom. Just seeing his general shape makes my knees wobble. I can't get over him. He's just splendid in every way possible and sometimes I get goosebumps hearing him sing. There was some clip that has since been deleted from youtube with Reece Holland/Hare as Raoul, and Michael was looming high above the stage on a statue, crying over losing Christine and it was just... he didn't ham it up at all. It was gorgeous and real. Even thinking about his level of performance makes me feel like a failure with the Phantom that I have created. But at the same time, it inspires me to give him more dimensions.

For 150 pages now, Lily can count on one hand what she knows about him, on a non-personality level.

And another thing is that I created two characters that are so rigid and calculating and, well let's just be honest here -- bad with people. I didn't know that I would do this, but I have, and instead of the romance I used to fantasize about when I was 15, it's been a bunch of bickering and unwarranted attraction for the other, but they've kept a sometimes amusing and sometimes torturous-to-the-author distance from each other.

I'll have to work on it, I guess.

I made a new icon btw. x3 I was thinking of Raye mainly.