Does Patience share a universe with Ruddigore? Why is a curse something to be do terrified of? Is Grosvenor superstitious? Was Victorian society in general?
Utopia, Ltd has language that strongly suggests that the operas share a continuity - King Paramount talks about corresponding with the Mikado of Japan, and there’s the whole …thing… with Sir Edward Corcoran, KCB.
Conversely, the line “and whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore” in the Modern Major General song seems to indicate that the operas exist as fiction with respect to one another…
(One solution is to adopt the @heroofthreefaces approach and say the operas are all are reflected fictional planes of one another, and someone - probably Sir Mervyn Murgatroyd, Bad Baronet of Evil Time Travel - is a fiction plane traveler. The other solution is Whatever is Most Fun at the Time)
(…a third solution that has only just occurred to me is that General Stanley is referring to Pinafore the ship and not Pinafore the opera, because the crew is famously just Like That - see Ralph’s line “I know the value if a kindly chorus.” And maybe Sir Edward knows the Song because he’s also a fan…)
Continuity aside, though, the Victorians were also extremely superstitious. Victorian Spiritualism is a whole thing, that maybe someone better versed in the period than I can say more about.
Thanks for the reminder that I need to see Gondoliers, Utopia, and Grand Duke already! GSCU connected universe coming when?
I love the idea that the HMS Pinafore is famous for having an annoying singing crew- reminds me of Ruddigore’s professional bridesmaids (“They sing choruses in public, and that’s mad enough!)
also… a fiction plane travelling Bad Baronet? Y E S P L E A S E
For more on Sir Mervyn and his Evil Time Travel, talk to @shimyereh and @mrpinniped, as he and the other one whose name I forget are their creations. Reference images may already exist :)
Here is my original post explaining Evil Time Travel! It was part of the backstory I came up with for Sir Mervyn (20th baronet) when I played him in a production of Ruddigore nine years ago. @mrpinniped was in the same production, as Sir Conrad (12th baronet). We decided that both of our Bad Baronet ghost characters had been mad scientists in life, and we had a lot of fun with headcanons about them having used Evil Time Travel to get up to shenanigans together during their baronetcies.
I also have a tag: #bad baronets of ruddigore in the wrong operetta
That is awesome. @shimyereh and @mrpinniped, may I draw a couple of evil time travel comics based on your headcanons? Sir Mervyn has been living rent free in my brain for a couple of days now
@feydruthven ABSOLUTELY. Go for it!
I WOULD LOVE TO SEE SUCH A COMIC!
My profile pic is still my drawing of Sir Conrad from some years ago- he’s got a white lab coat, spikey brown hair, and often carries a chemistry flask. Sir Mervyn wears a blue lab coat, has longer curly hair, and has a pet bat named Antoine. (These were our actual costumes for the show, I can probably dig up a photo if you want a visual reference.)
I have other headcanons about continuity between the operas. Obviously Major Murgatroyd from Patience, on the day he was to marry Angela, was informed that his uncle died, so he had to go take up the Baronetcy. Also the Pirate King is Ruthven’s disinherited son.
Also, going back to the OP, yes, Victorian society definitely had some mysticism fads- we see it most clearly in Ruddigore and Sorcerer, but you’re right that Bunthorne threatening to curse Grosvenor does seem more out of place to a modern audience.
The evil time travel heritage discussion is BACK BITCHES
*strolls casually back in with some character designs*
@shimyereh @mrpinniped thanks for your blessing and input!! I’ve been really busy but I promise I’ll draw an evil time travel comic this month