I think it's pretty logical for Erik to remove the mask to
perform the revival. He can put it back after that, thus making the fic
in line with the canon.
That was my thought -- after all, he has presumably just gone into the
water to retrieve two drowning men, a scenario where you really don't
want a wet cloth mask flapping over your face and basically
waterboarding you -- except that I then remembered that we are told
explicitly by the dialogue that he is wearing a mask immediately after
his full-body immersion in the lake to kill Philippe, the inopportune
visitor.
He returns, apologises for his appearance (presumably dripping all over
the floor; he certainly hasn't had time to change) -- Je te demande
pardon de te montrer un visage pareil! je suis dans un bel état,
n'est-ce pas ? C'est de la faute de l'autre ! Pourquoi a-t-il
sonné ? Est-ce que je demande à ceux qui passent l'heure
qu'il est ? Il ne demandera plus l'heure à personne -- and
rushes off at once to take this opportunity to perform his Burial Mass
;-p Then he comes back unexpectedly to catch Christine with the key to
the torture chamber, and delivers his little speech about promenades on
Sundays while incidentally making it quite clear that he has his mask on
at this point: Autrefois, tu ne pouvais pas regarder mon masque
à cause que tu savais ce qu'il y a derrière... Et
maintenant, tu veux bien le regarder et tu oublies ce qu'il y a
derrière, et tu veux bien ne plus me repousser!
So even if he means "un visage pareil" quite literally (i.e. he is
apologising for daring to show her 'such a face' rather than for his
general appearance), he definitely has a mask on a few minutes later,
despite having no reason to don one in order to play the organ in
complete solitude ;-p
(Also, for the purposes of my story, I've tried to make it clear that
Erik is performing old-fashioned artificial respiration by manipulating
the limbs, not mouth-to-mouth -- he doesn't need to remove his mask in
order to do that. And to be honest, he probably isn't diving
fully-immersed into a small vertical chamber full of water to retrieve
the bodies of Raoul and the Persian; that would be suicidally
difficult, when he can presumably simply let the water out of the room
and pick them up off the floor!)
The other element, since he is interacting with Christine during the
artificial respiration scene, is whether he would be comfortable walking
around in the same room with her without a mask; the fact that he takes
care either to retain one while jumping in the lake or to put one on
before returning to her, coupled to the fact that he is definitely
wearing a mask when he returns to her and kisses her after imprisoning
Raoul (and expresses amazement that she doesn't die when he takes it
off!) made me assume that he will go to any lengths to keep his face
shielded from her. But then I subsequently remembered that during her
original kidnapping by Erik, Christine had gone to the lengths of
burning his mask to persuade him that she no longer feared his face, so
that he would let her go. So he has clearly spent many days in her
company in the past without wearing one, and therefore has no reason
whatsoever to do so after snatching her off the stage for what he
assumes to be the beginning of their life together, or else their mutual
death.
I can only assume he's doing it because the author considers the
mask to be the character's trademark. Basically, canon is a mess :-(
Unfortunately, amid this mess, we have two moments when Erik clearly
is stated to be wearing a mask, and they are immediately before the
torture chamber is set into action, and immediately after reviving and
imprisoning Raoul...
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2020-07-14 11:41 am (UTC)That was my thought -- after all, he has presumably just gone into the water to retrieve two drowning men, a scenario where you really don't want a wet cloth mask flapping over your face and basically waterboarding you -- except that I then remembered that we are told explicitly by the dialogue that he is wearing a mask immediately after his full-body immersion in the lake to kill Philippe, the inopportune visitor.
He returns, apologises for his appearance (presumably dripping all over the floor; he certainly hasn't had time to change) -- Je te demande pardon de te montrer un visage pareil! je suis dans un bel état, n'est-ce pas ? C'est de la faute de l'autre ! Pourquoi a-t-il sonné ? Est-ce que je demande à ceux qui passent l'heure qu'il est ? Il ne demandera plus l'heure à personne -- and rushes off at once to take this opportunity to perform his Burial Mass ;-p Then he comes back unexpectedly to catch Christine with the key to the torture chamber, and delivers his little speech about promenades on Sundays while incidentally making it quite clear that he has his mask on at this point: Autrefois, tu ne pouvais pas regarder mon masque à cause que tu savais ce qu'il y a derrière... Et maintenant, tu veux bien le regarder et tu oublies ce qu'il y a derrière, et tu veux bien ne plus me repousser!
So even if he means "un visage pareil" quite literally (i.e. he is apologising for daring to show her 'such a face' rather than for his general appearance), he definitely has a mask on a few minutes later, despite having no reason to don one in order to play the organ in complete solitude ;-p
(Also, for the purposes of my story, I've tried to make it clear that Erik is performing old-fashioned artificial respiration by manipulating the limbs, not mouth-to-mouth -- he doesn't need to remove his mask in order to do that. And to be honest, he probably isn't diving fully-immersed into a small vertical chamber full of water to retrieve the bodies of Raoul and the Persian; that would be suicidally difficult, when he can presumably simply let the water out of the room and pick them up off the floor!)
The other element, since he is interacting with Christine during the artificial respiration scene, is whether he would be comfortable walking around in the same room with her without a mask; the fact that he takes care either to retain one while jumping in the lake or to put one on before returning to her, coupled to the fact that he is definitely wearing a mask when he returns to her and kisses her after imprisoning Raoul (and expresses amazement that she doesn't die when he takes it off!) made me assume that he will go to any lengths to keep his face shielded from her. But then I subsequently remembered that during her original kidnapping by Erik, Christine had gone to the lengths of burning his mask to persuade him that she no longer feared his face, so that he would let her go. So he has clearly spent many days in her company in the past without wearing one, and therefore has no reason whatsoever to do so after snatching her off the stage for what he assumes to be the beginning of their life together, or else their mutual death.
I can only assume he's doing it because the author considers the mask to be the character's trademark. Basically, canon is a mess :-(
Unfortunately, amid this mess, we have two moments when Erik clearly is stated to be wearing a mask, and they are immediately before the torture chamber is set into action, and immediately after reviving and imprisoning Raoul...