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 :(

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Homicidal tendencies alter the equation a bit. :o

[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.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

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

[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.