The tragedy to me is that it’s not so much his face that drives Christine away from him as in the end she even says his face doesn’t bother her anymore…it’s his actions, his behavior, that turns her away. It was his action of murdering Joseph Buquet that made her run to Raoul in first place, he inadvertently pushed her toward Raoul. That’s the tragedy, that the Phantom is so mentally messed up due to years of abuse for his face that when he finds someone who can look past his face, he ruins it because of his own psychological damage. I do believe Christine loved him in the end, he was her ‘angel’ all those years and then he was basically sexual awakening into womanhood…but in the movie especially, she was still too young, and frankly too inexperienced to handle a man as mentally complex and damaged as the Phantom was. Maybe if she’d been older and more mature, or if he hadn’t been as mentally messed up…things might have gone differently.

They are also making loads more eye contact, and treating the lyrics more seriously than I’ve ever seen actors do it on Stage…this all contributes to making the song far more romantic and serious. But it’s also how the movie itself portrays Raoul. On Stage it comes across that Christine is understandably terrified, as her ‘angel’ has just killed a man! Of course she’s scared and conflicted and she turns to Raoul to protect her, and the two of them fall back into this adolescent state together where Christine turns Raoul into her Prince Charming like she did as a young girl, and Raoul is only to happy to play the part…but it’s a fantasy through and through as these two adults are acting like teenagers to try and escape what’s happening in the present. But we all know that reality will intrude at any moment…as the Phantom is obviously listening to everything. In the movie however Christine is not trying to turn Raoul into Prince Charming, he IS Prince Charming! The movie plays up the fantasy way way more then the Stage Show, and Raoul is a true blue romantic hero in the film. So this song becomes more of a real love song between them, it becomes Prince Charming falling in love with the Cinderella.

He’s my favorite Raoul as well, he is just so sweet, gentle and caring with Christine (I also feel Patrick was rather dashing in the movie and I like his long hair, sue me😆) you know this man would go through hell for Christine and even when he makes the mistake of using her as bait to catch the Phantom his apology in the end feels 100% genuine to me, not always the case with Stage Raoul’s. A LOT of Stage Raoul’s make it feel like it’s about their own ego measuring contest between them and the Phantom, and Christine becomes an afterthought. I never once get that from Patrick’s Raoul. And as a Phantom/Christine shipper you will usually NEVER catch me saying this…but the 2004 Movie is the probably one of the ONLY times I’ve ever felt Christine made 100% the correct choice in going with Raoul in the end. And that’s not because I don’t like Gerry’s Phantom (I like him fine except for his singing voice 🫣) but Emmy’s Christine is just so young, OF COURSE she still wants Prince Charming! The Phantom is just too much for her, too complex and too damaged for her to deal with at 16 years old! So yeah I don’t get as upset with the movie ending as I tend to do with other adaptions of Phantom, where I feel Christine definitely was making a mistake that she would later regret. Just my opinion of course.

​@@BookRose-rk1rv Thank you for breaking your mind over the dynamics with Patrick. I thought your reflections were well communicated and reasoned. I felt similarly, there is such importance in how a character is played. The love needs to be strong and sincere, and Patrick does a great job of delivering that. Anything else feels scary and unsafe. If there's some tells of ego in Raoul then suddenly the purity of his affections for her are called into question and one wonders how much of his pursuit is borne from self satisfaction. I am curious though, what makes you generally wish that she end up with the phantom over Raoul?

@@HisBelovedSon70x7 I think I should have been more specific when I said ‘adaptions’ as I’m mostly talking about the Webber Stage Show. Although in the Leroux Novel I definitely feel like Christine made a mistake going off with Raoul. While she couldn’t really have ended up with Erik either as he was way way WAY more disfigured and insane in the book then in any other adaption other then maybe Lon Chaneys…but Raoul is such a whiny self entitled spoiled crybaby in the novel that I can’t help but think Christine will look at him in a few years time and think ‘I gave up my career for this man child’! 😆 As far as the Webber Stage Show…you’d better brace yourself as this is going to be long 😎 It has a great deal to do with how Erik is presented vs how Raoul is presented. Erik and Christine seem to have a far far deeper connection through their shared passion and love of music, Christine is in awe of him as much as he is in awe of her and you definitely get the feeling when they sing together that they are in like a shared osmosis with each other, speaking their own language through music. He is also Christine’s sexual awakening in the Show and always has been, the attraction between them can frankly be electric at times especially during Music of the Night when she is pretty much swooning to the sound of his voice…he is the man who wakes that part of her up in the show, not Raoul. Raoul by contrast is presented more as Christine’s link to her past, to her girlhood…and she uses Raoul as more of an escape from all the stress and fear she’s dealing with…as her ‘angel’ just murdered a man, she’s terrified and runs back into Raoul’s arms, with him she can return to a time when her father was alive when the world was all sunshine and rainbows, with him she can be a 14 year old girl again, and he can be her Prince Charming. Christine does love Raoul, but it’s the love of a girl not a woman. All I Ask Of You is a beautiful love song, but it is a fantasy through and through…it’s Christine clinging to her girlhood to escape the horrors of adulthood that is being thrust upon her. So her leaving with Raoul in the end can feel like a regression rather then a progression. She is leaving the man with whom she shared such a passionate artistic bond with and she’s going to give it all up for a fantasy that will not last the more she matures and realizes Raoul ain’t Prince Charming. Now you could say ‘well the Phantom is obviously unstable, he killed people’ yes he did and I don’t sugar coat the fact that he is a very damaged man…but Webber romanticizes him, not me. He is presented as a real contender for Christine’s heart in the show and despite the horrible things he does and her fear of him…Christine still never loses her attraction to him. Their is a reason Webber changed the forehead kisses in Leroux to two full on kisses on the lips. So it’s very easy to come away from the Stage Show feeling like Christine made the wrong choice, and I’ve seen many Christine actresses really play up her devastation in leaving him in the end. You really feel the loss of Christine leaving the man who could have have been her musical soulmate and it’s heartbreaking. In the movie now, Christine is still a girl, she is not as old as Stage Christine. And the movie leans HEAVILY into the fantasy, in fact I’d argue it IS a Fantasy, unlike the Stage Show. Patrick’s Raoul isn’t playing the part of Prince Charming, they literally turned him into Prince Charming with a white horse and all. All I Ask of You therefore changes from ‘two adults escaping into adolescence’, into ‘Prince Charming falling in love with Cinderella and vowing to protect her’. Their entire dynamic is shifted in the movie…and in a way it makes Christine’s choice feel much more understandable. And it makes Raoul a more desirable option then he is in the Stage Show, in my opinion. Patrick had a lot more to work with in the movie, we actually see Raoul physically fight for Christine…whereas in the Stage Show he pretty much exists to just be a foil to the Phantom. I hope I made my view understandable, I’m an Phantom/Christine person and always will be, but I don’t hate Raoul nor do I hate Raoul/Christine shippers as I’ve said I actually ship them in this movie. Another Raoul I happen to really like is Raoul (or rather Philippe as they changed his name🙄) in the 1990 Phantom mini series..he is a bit of a ladies man at first but he genuinely seems to really care about Christine and we get a nice flashback to their childhoods together which helps to make their bond feel more real.

@@BookRose-rk1rv Thanks for taking the time to explain. 🙂 That makes a lot of sense considering how each of her love interests are portrayed. I particularly appreciated your choice of words in Christine 'regressing' in choosing an immature version of Raoul. It doesn't sound like she had a great option either way in that version. Thanks again for taking the time to explain. Bless you.