Ex-Convict of the Opera!

[tenlittlebullets]

A wee question for the flist:

A man who has been hideously wronged by society becomes a father figure to an orphaned girl twenty to forty years his junior, then falls in love with her and throws a jealous shitfit when she wants to marry some charming young man he doesn't know.

A man who has been hideously wronged by society becomes a father figure to an orphaned girl forty-five-ish years his junior, then falls in love with her and throws a jealous shitfit when she wants to marry some charming young man he doesn't know.

Why is the first one tragically romantic and the second one squicky as hell?

ETA: *facepalm* That idea is not allowed to give me plotbunnies. NO.

Comments

[la-lanterne.livejournal.com]

I see your squicky and raise you the French Les Mis miniseries with Dépardieu as Valjean. Ew, incest-y Valjean :(

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

That's what made me think of it, actually. I was going "Ew ew ewwww" at the miniseries and then I thought "wait... if that's gross, why isn't Phantom gross too?"

[la-lanterne.livejournal.com]

I think Phantom's sort of gross, what with the father figure spying on the young soprano in her dressing room and all...

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Homicidal tendencies alter the equation a bit. :o

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

You'd think they'd make it more squicky though.

Ah, phangirls. :P

[nowgoesquickly.livejournal.com]

It's all about motivation. Valjean does not want Cosette to satisfy sexual urges (that we know of). Hence the romance and tragedy.

Since you mentioned it, the Phantom reference can also be applicable to Judge Turpin and Johanna in Sweeney Todd.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Erk, did it come out backwards? Everyone seems to think Phantom is all "OMGZ ROMANTIC," whereas if you even bring up the possibility of Valjean/Cosette people freak out.

[nowgoesquickly.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I misunderstood. Or perhaps I'm just backward in my thinking. But I see very little romance, or much of anything good, in the relationship between Christine and Erik. He is scarily possessive of her, not to mention extremely violent. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't find the desire to own another human being to be even a little bit romantic.

The Valjean/Cosette relationship and your suggestion that he falls in love with her doesn't seem incestual so much as overprotectively dadlike. Unless you are making insinuations toward an outright sexual relationship between them, which would be a little icky if only because they've lived as father and daughter for ten years.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously because Valjean didn’t threaten to blow up anything. Gratuitous death makes everything more romantic.

[steel-lily09.livejournal.com]

Hellz yea. :D

[mollisher.livejournal.com]

That's some Jerry Springer fodder right there.

...If you do follow that plotbunny, I may feel slightly consoled that there's somebody as deranged as me out there. Even though Valjean/Cosette is slightly less disturbing than Thenardier/Cosette :)

[misentropic.livejournal.com]

Unless I'm misremembering the Phantom story (I saw a version of it when I was 10, so it's possible I've forgotten a lot or that they omitted something), the difference isn't the age gap so much as the fact that when the Phantom meets Christine, she has at least started puberty at that point. Whereas when Valjean adopted Cosette, she was what, six?

It isn't as squicky to act as a mentor to a teenager and then want to jump her once she's an adult. But anyone I had known since they were just out of nappies would be on the "I'd rather claw my own eyes out" list.

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Tell that to Mr. Knightly from 'Emma'. Eighteen year age gap, that, and there is the memorable line, "I held you in my arms when you were born."

That relationship always struck me as disturbing, and Jane Austen is usually really good with believable romance.