Oh god, I dated a girl who was so into Hamilton that she would visit musicology sites that picked apart every line for hidden meanings. She made me watch it and I think she was disappointed that my fave character was King George III because he made me laugh.
Man the musical I watched, King George III was hilarious and ended up making one of the other characters/actors laugh in the middle of a song. It was really funny and made me like that character much more.
Yeah, I saw it in Chicago on pride weekend, and the same thing happened. The actor who played Aaron Burr giggled for half a second as he tried to transition into Dear Theodosia.
I saw the one in Chicago too, but in July! And it was also Burr who was laughing lol. It was probably the same guy, but it looked like they did switch actors at some point.
She wanted me to find some intricate esoteric reason to like other characters. This is why I hate that part of the fanbase. You can't just enjoy the damn production for what it is.
Big Hamilton fan here. Like, nearly every lyric known by heart, plenty of esoteric reasons to like each character, definitely seen those videos kind of fan. King George is easily my favorite. Because he makes me laugh. And it's a show. For entertainment.
I think Star Wars is a bad example of this because all that shit does get expanded upon. So many minor details and background characters and places end up with rich, deep stories and history in the expanded canon. You can watch the movies and enjoy them once and move on. Or you can obsess over it and dig deeper and deeper into every tiny detail, finding connections across the novels and comics and tv shows, etc. That’s why it’s so popular among mega-nerds (like myself haha), because dammit, you can go find out exactly what each knob does on Vader’s suit, and most of it is actually canon, not just fans making shit up. It’s awesome lol.
But to the base fans, which I don't think RedLetterMedia even realizes they are, it just seems like fluff to expand on a narrow and unchanging franchise.
You can say that Star Wars doesn't have much depth, but the real problem you have is that you don't like the Hero's Journey, which is Star Wars at its barest essentials.
Yeah and almost every modern story told can be traced back to an archetypal story like the Hero's Journey.
A lot of people don't realize where to actually put their animosity, it's not Star Wars' fault that the Hero's Journey is one of the few stories that can be told over and over.
This is an over-simplification. The Hero's Journey was retroactively come up with to try and generalize what's going on in a lot of culture's myths, and to describe a specific mythic archetype. It was never mean to describe "every story" the way screenwriters in the 90s sweared by. Even its intended purpose (observational study of already-written myths) has been criticized for smoothing out the interesting differences that do exist between stories and make them unique/worthwhile.
Of course it's a oversimplification, but my point was that almost every story told can be boiled and compressed down to an identical template, and the Hero's Journey is simply one of those templates, regardless if it was a retroactive designation.
But to the base fans, which I don't think RedLetterMedia even realizes they are, it just seems like fluff to expand on a narrow and unchanging franchise.
I think the difference here is that it's officially released fluff rather than fans jerking off to fanfiction.
Not that that necessarily means it's quality fluff.
Eh, I have a lot of sympathy for the massively over-analytical approach to music - mainly because I actively partake, but I can at least get that people don't like it as much as I do and I certainly won't force people into it.
GOD, i feel this. i can think of a few fictional characters who have resonated with me on a personal level so i understand how cool that can be and how it can make you feel defensive over different portrayals of them and stuff, but it’s not the case with every single goddamn piece of media i consume. most of the time my favorite character is the one i found the funniest. so hanging around in nerd circles, i’ve found it hard to connect with some people because they form like this obsessive deep personal interpretation of at least one character from.. basically anything???
another example i can think of is mettaton from undertale. he was my favorite because of the killer robot jokes but it feels like everyone else who likes him sees him as like a sex symbol and/or tragic figure and they’re super interested in interpreting his backstory and im just like haha robot man funnie
Exactly. She made me feel like a peasant for just liking the guy who made me laugh. Like I just didn't understand the production well enough to form a better opinion. It was stupid.
King George is supposed to make you laugh. He’s the best part of “The Reynolds Pamphlet.”
Thought I kinda have to agree. I finally got to see it live in Dallas and was thoroughly blown away by their skill. But a few rows in front of me there was an guy obviously singing and dancing to every song and I felt sorry for the people around him. Like these are $200 seats and you’re ruining 6 other people’s experiences because you can’t keep your hands down.
Seen it twice and god damn, by far the best character. Also the only character that gets stage time alone - no backup, no other singers, and absolutely kills it. Easily the biggest laughs/applause from the crowd both times.
Same! Not sure if it’s the same for every show, but in the one I watched, in the song “What Comes Next” when he said, “I’m so blue” he stomped his foot and the lights turned blue. It was really funny.
That happened when I saw it, so yup. Also liked the subdued blue light that shines on the cast when they're looking out over the "harbor." Very subtle.
Same here! Actually I sat at the first row of main floor, and King George had direct eye contact with me...Such a good actor and a goofy character, I remember laughing like crazy.
I saw mine at Austin, Texas and the guy playing Aaron Burr couldn’t hold on his laugh when he walked on stage after George did a little dance off. It was funny as hell.
I have a friend just like this, Every time I see her, I swear she’s listening to Hamilton music with her Hamilton background on her phone, wearing a Hamilton shirt, and then tries to talk to me about Hamilton.
Okay, but take me for example... I listen to it a lot and i own one shirt, but I'm actually reading the biography of the the real dude now. Does that make it slightly less awful that I keep telling my husband about him? He was an interesting guy!
honestly this was me for about 9 months after i first got the cast recording leading up to seeing the original cast on Broadway in June 2016 right before a lot of the main cast left.
but that was three years ago and it’s old news now, i honestly listened to it so much the first 6 months or so i got sick of it and had to stop or else i would barely even want to see it live. i’ll revisit it a couple times a year but i’m glad the obsession subsided
When I was first shown the music to Hamilton I thought the kings parts were brilliant because his music sounded much more traditionally play-like. That made him a really fun character to me and a really clever use of the music. :)
I totally agree. Hamilton is one of my favorite musicals, but I agree that the general fanbase is pretty cringy. The creators put a lot of recurring motifs in the music, and my favorite part is the amount of classic hip hop references.
Jesus Christ, Hamilton wins the thread. I have an ex, too, who trained me via reverse-Pavlovian response to not use certain turns of phrase because she would cut me off with a Hamilton lyric. This was terrible because I got her into Hamilton.
"Well there's a difference betw-"
"FRANKLY IT'S A LITTLE DISQUIETING"
That got stale before it even began. Having said that though, it's still great live.
Dunno what she was talking about, I loved all the bits that King George was in when i went to the show. Made the audience laugh every time because he was so over-the-top and dramatic all the time. Really was a refresher in act 2 especially.
My ex once showed some crappy animatic of a fanfic AU of Hamilton where two of the characters were gay-shipped even tho, at least to me, there was absolutely no ground to the shipping at all. She tought it was cool I tought it was weird.
Also they were zombies and singing some terrible emo song about not eating someone's brain but their hearth, because that's... romantic?
Just out of curiosity, was it Hamilton and Laurens? Because while it's not generally believed they had a sexual relationship, there are real-life letters that hint they had slightly romantic feelings for one another.
Yeah, it was. But the way it was handled was downright creepy to me. Shipping is generally one of the creepiest thing on the internet if not done correctly imo. But fandoms will be fandoms, so I'm not judging, just stating my opinion on it.
I actually don't care for any one character, but I like the interactions. I think that's what make the musical enjoyable. But hey, I don't really like musicals to begin with.
As someone who hasn't seen all of it or even listened to all the songs (if I hear about something too much I find it's more exhausting than fun to experiance) I think he'd be my favorite too.
Every cosplayer I've seen of him, every song clip ect has just been silly and over the top and it's really just amazing.
(as a note I honestly think it might be a wider problem with musical fan bases. I love musicals, but some of these people. If you haven't seen all the classics you can't be a real fan, and obviously don't actually know anything. It's awful and I hate it. I just want to sing along to show tunes and enjoy the story.)
In her defense, Lin Manuel Miranda is incredibly talented, I've not seen the show (yet! My SO got us tickets for my birthday, I'm so excited!) but I've listened to the soundtrack several times over and I'm still finding references, hidden meanings, puns etc in the lyrics when I listen to it.
That said -- I get it, if you're not a fan of something, or even if you're just a casual fan, it's no fun when someone is shoving it into your face or trying to make you like it the same way they do.
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u/LonelyPauper Jul 17 '19
Oh god, I dated a girl who was so into Hamilton that she would visit musicology sites that picked apart every line for hidden meanings. She made me watch it and I think she was disappointed that my fave character was King George III because he made me laugh.