I Can’t Remember If I Posted This Before Or Not 😭

photo credit: melanie gowie (x)

David Thaxton's Phantom is a special kind of unhinged and...amazing?

Slowly starting to discover Phantoms 2018-present as I build my mini archive. He and Killian Donnelly (but also maybe Dean Chisnall?) are carrying the post-Panaro era on their backs.

hey fish! i was wondering if you have any recommendations for the portrayals of erik that are more on the sweet or tender side of the spectrum? or especially tender moments some actors have done? thanks!

Yeah sure! These are the actors who come to mind offhand.

Earl Carpenter (with Rachel Barrell)

Ted Keegan (with Emilie Kouatchou)

Josh Piterman (with Kelly Mathieson)

And the OG Michael Crawford, but I would actually direct you to this audio clip for him.

And here are some other tender moments that I like!

James Gant (with Holly-Anne Hull)

John Owen-Jones (with Celia Graham)

Laird Mackintosh

Saulo Vasconcelos (with Irasema Terrazas)

Michael Nicholson (with Olivia Safe)

Jeremy Stolle (with Samantha Hill)

Also this audio of Greg Mills

(Do most of my favorite tender moments involve hair and/or hands? MAYBE SO)

EDIT: This is not meant to be an exhaustive list! Please feel free to add your own!

I never make claims about "the best" but after much consideration I've broken my own rule and have come to the conclusion that '06 Earl Carpenter was the best Phantom kisser IMO. I have no further comments at this time and will not be taking questions.

GIANMARCO SAURINO as  PROCURATORE FOURNEAU on "The Law According to Lidia Poët" | Season 2

Anywhere you go, let me go too.

I went to dinner and when I checked my phone a little later my best friend was live tweeting the Phantom boot I gifted him. Suffice it to say...I think I've converted my first person to the phandom.

I started him out with the 25th anniversary performance and then proceeded to give him comparative highlights of Hugh Panaro, Earl Carpenter, Davis Gaines and Norm Lewis to give him a sense of scope. Then built it out with others. Sprinkled in information about canon and the different Erik/Christine types and ranted a lot about hands and my personal tastes.

And then I gave him a Lucy St. Louis boot bc I suspected he'd like her and I asked him to share his thoughts afterward. Now his takes have me screaming because I've totally indoctrinated him.

"She was good, but I didn't like this Phantom. His ILY was weak! The hands weren't right. DO YOU WANT HER OR NOT BRO??" I warned him about the post-COVID fall off but now he's blaming me for setting him up with high expectations and declaring his allegiance to the 2000s era.

And he's already abbreviating POTO.

I'm so damn proud of myself (and him) lol.

Magnificent Obsession, 1935

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An Essay on Why David Shannon and Gina Beck Are My Favorite Final Lair Coupling

They are just absolutely brilliant together. And I think it's a combination of bouncing off each other's spontaneous reactions well, but also having a plan and complete synergy in how they understand their characters and the arc of the scene. It all works together to secure the Phantom's transformation and redemption while also leaving the audience feeling like Christine made the right decision, which is such a hard line to walk in the final lair.

I think Gina's Christine genuinely loves Erik in this one, but there was absolutely no way she was going to stay with him after everything he'd done. The decision is questionable for other Christines, but her particular take on the character just wasn't going to allow for that, especially given his Phantom's more aggressive approach to the final lair.

And unlike other interpretations of this scene, both she and David/the Phantom know that and it plays out in their body language post-kiss. Up to that point, David had literally been grabbing Christine at will and throwing her all over the place, all while desperately denying that his actions were dooming their relationship. And now she comes back to return the ring and he literally can't make himself touch her because he knows he's pissed away every claim to that kind of intimacy with her. There's no verbal or physical bid for her to stay; that unfulfilled caress says "I recognize what I've done and that I have no right to ask you to be with me, so I'm letting you go." And even worse is the fact that David also plays Erik with chronic pain, so we can hardly tell if the face twitch/wince he does is literal or figurative (let's just say it's both).

GIVE THEM A DAMN OSCAR, IDC.

I thought Gary Mauer and Marie Danvers's final lair kiss was special but after watching (more than) a few bootlegs I realize that Danvers never fails to deliver a good kiss regardless of who's playing the Phantom or Raoul.

And I feel like she deserves more appreciation because this is in fact an acting skill. Multiple Christines and Phantoms have already told us that Erik's face is just a disgusting mass of makeup, glue, saliva and sweat by that point in the show, so manufacturing chemistry and infusing the kisses with the right nuance(s) is no small feat.