not only that, but even if it's not a song as such, not including it as a spoken track on the soundtrack and just *letting the audience get flashbanged by it in theaters* is. simply diabolical
But it’s also so genius like, I can’t remember where but reading about how on the day (or the following day?) John died, Alexander was writing a letter to a friend informing him about his newborn son. Also not me trying to block Philipa with my hand while watching dear Theodosia before mad skipping because my mental health can’t deal with Laurens interlude that day.
And as if laurens interlude couldn't get any sadder, on the balcony(?) above the stage you can see lafayette and mulligan reading the letter at the same time and stopping in place after eliza announces his death :(( On a happier note, though, i mentioned this in the live chat but lin wrote dear theodosia based on him adopting his dog! (Which is even funnier when you remember he has an actual son, but he wasn't born at the time lol)
It hurts even more when you find out that it is widely accepted by historians that Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens may have had a romantic relationship while away at war. He had a specific style of writing to Eliza that was full on love in his letters but used different syntax, etc in letters to his friends. He wrote the same style in letters to Eliza as he did to Laurens. 💔 Lin said he purposely left the Lauren’s scene off the OST because he wanted it to be an emotional gut punch surprise for people who had listened to the album over and over but hadn’t seen it live until that point. There’s another moment in Act 2 that is also left off the OST.
@@lasagnafrenchtoasthoneybutteryeah, it is not just a headcanon and there are actual physical letters that Hamilton's son censored and edited... Because they were so scandalous. So we don't have all of the letters within their FULL context (some sentences of the letters between them were literally physically cut out of the letters... Not even just scribbled over but his son cut them out of the letter) but the things that were less scandalous that were left in are still sexually suggestive... Or just very much romantically suggestive for the time. There honestly isn't a huge amount of debate amongst historians (the ones who disagree are usually mainly the homophobic ones, obviously) it was pretty cut-and-dry that SOMETHING was going on... I mean at the very least John Laurens knew the size of Hamilton's penis so you know THERES THAT.
I don't know if this is intended but, I always feel like it could be intentional: When Eliza reads the line, "his dream of freedom for these men (the black soldiers) dies with him." Laurens' ghost sings, "Tomorrow there'll be more of us!" I always think he could be foreshadowing that in a few decades there will be a bunch of people willing to fight for freedom for their descendents (among other things 😏)...
I saw once that Lin says he consideres Laurens’ death one of the biggest “what ifs” in history because he worked so hard to abolish slavery and it all came to a sudden end with his death. We will never know if slavery would have ended sooner if Laurens was there to lead the fight. 😢
In Aaron Burr sir it is also mentioned that he is an orphan as when Hamilton says "How'd you do it, how'd you graduate fast" Burr responds with "It was my parents dying wish before they passed"
With Epic, I was sadistic with watching Casper experience the heartbreaking moments for the first time, but "Laurens Interlude" is something else entirely. 😭
So. I've been holding on to this for a week, because I clocked a bit of foreshadowing. Which I wouldn't even mention had Mortius not already told Casper about who the lady with the very tall hair is. But during the Battle of Yorktown (the song), when Hamilton sings about John Laurens, you get a really quick vignette of him and a chorus member taking out a British soldier, then shaking hands over the line, "We will never be free until we end slavery!" It was only during the reaction that I actually realized WHO Laurens shook hands with there. And knowing what was coming, it was ROUGH. But I love that it's the kind of foreshadowing that you really only see on a second or later watch, because you need to know who she is before it makes sense.
There is also a lot of...let's call it educated guesses, that Laurens Death may not have been as much of an accident or poor communication error as it was made out to be. He was treading on an awful lot of toes with his emancipation speeches and the timing of his death, was convenient for those opposed, if nothing else. Of course, there will never be proof either way, but still, it isn't impossible that He was more than just a casualty of war
Laurens most probably was also su*cidal, which was worrying both his father and Hamilton. Some soldiers who fought with him have also confessed that sometimes Laurens was almost... throwing himself in front of a bullet. He was quite literally known for his "reckless bravery in battle". After the Battle of Brandywine Lafayette said that Laurens' survival was "due to luck and accident, as Laurens did everything to get wounded or killed" :(
I always forget how much I love "Dear Theodosia" yknow? Like, it gets so overshadowed by Lauren's Lament and Non Stop coming immediately after it that you almost forget it's there. But my god it just... It feels so perfect as a song, if you know what I mean. I would actually argue it's one of if not the most perfect song in the entire production, for where it's at.
i could've sworn i read somewhere at the end of the laruen's reprise there used to be the lines "all of the slaves under his command have been returned to their owners" as even more of a whammy QwQ
I thought it might have been in a bootleg running around and didn't wanna add that line to the D*sney version? (Even tho slavery is talked about a lot, maybe that one line was too far?)
As someone who experienced the show through the soundtracks first, and then discovered Lauren's Interlude through an animatic on youtube; I can not fathom how it wasn't in some way included on the soundtrack. That moment there, as well as the birth of Hamilton's son is so, SO, important for the establishing of Non-Stop and Act 2. Hamilton since the start of the show has been chasing a glorious death to make a difference and managed to get by time after time. Then, the war ends and he has a son. For the first time in perhaps ever, he finally has reasons to live... Only for Death to take his best friend swiftly and unexpectedly. Suddenly, the fear of Mortality really grabs onto Hamilton and he realizes he can't die yet. Not when theirs a country to grow, not when their is a son to raise, not when their are slaves to be freed in honor of his late friend. Hamilton Needs to leave a Legacy, and he Needs to make a Difference, before Death makes him just a Memory. It's as Hamilton says after hearing the letter... "I have So Much work to do"
With the addition of the Laurens Interlude, there is a total of 47 songs in Hamilton, which was his age of death. Just an interesting fact that Lin Manuel Miranda was able to keep that fact in but subtle
Here i come with more fun facts! Aaron burr became an orphan at the age of 2, after i believe both his parents, and grandparents died all in one year. Or maybe his dad died when he was 1, i dont fully remember but i know his mom, grandmother, and grandfather all died the same year. After that, burr and his sister went to go live with an uncle, who was abusive (physically?? Im not too sure, i dont know if its been specified.) Which even caused burr to try and run away many times but he never succeeded. Burr was also very smart in school as well. I believe he graduated at a younger age. Edit: I was right! "Burr had a very strained relationship with his uncle, who was often physically abusive. As a child, he made several attempts to run away from home." "At age 13, Burr was admitted to Princeton as a sophomore, where he joined the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society, the college's literary and debating societies.[7] In 1772, at age 16, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, but continued studying theology at Princeton for an additional year. He then undertook rigorous theological training with Joseph Bellamy, a Presbyterian, but changed his career path after two years. At age 19, he moved to Litchfield, Connecticut to study law with his brother-in-law Tapping Reeve, founder of the Litchfield Law School.[8] [9] In 1775, news reached Litchfield of the clashes with British troops at Lexington and Concord, and Burr put his studies on hold to enlist in the Continental Army." Edit2: I also wanna talk about john Laurens. The war did not actually end until 17783, which I believe was a few years after Hamilton left- yes, that scene in Yorktown, the fight in Yorktown, the British did surrender. From that fight. And that's what led america to win eventually, but Alexander did not stay in the war until it ended. I believe his family and politics and everything led him to stop fighting(at least in the war) and kinda settle down. He even tried to convince Laurens to leave the war, but Laurens refused because he wanted to continue until the war ended. He was very passionate about freedom for a bunch of people. Now here's the crazy part: John Laurens' death was an assisted sewerslide(if you know, you know) He was bed ridden sick, though he still fought despite everyone telling him not to. This was a pattern. He would often stay on the battlefield even while injured, or sick, etc. To the point where one time, he had to be dragged out because he refused to leave. Anyways, his death. I believe he was only with two other people at the time, when they saw the soldiers retreating, I believe this was when they were trying to win south Carolina back. Despite better judgement, John just jumped into battle while it was obvious they were outnumbered. John was shot, and died on impact, so he was possibly shot in the head or heart, something like that. I believe it's pretty obvious, researching John's life, that he wanted to die(trying hard not to say the word here lmao) Especially since he took the blame after his 10 year old brother died while under his watch. They were in Europe, while their father was away(in Charleston South Carolina, I believe) and since John was the oldest, he was in charge. He was known to be very reckless, especially in the war. So it's not hard to believe he knew what he was doing when he was killed.
What makes it even worse is that when Laurence death the men of his batallion were sent back to their masters. Elisa reads that in a recording you can find online. And Laurence and Hamilton had a romantic relatiionship too, at least I think some letters between the two pointed that out.
I remember hearing about Laurens Interlude and finding an animatic for it back in the day. As you can imagine, i was completely blindsided and its a moment that still makes me sad. Rip Laurens
Ooh, Casper is gonna get a TALL glass of ‘fuck me up’ with a dash of mortius tears. Fantastic stuff. Also on a less emotional note, that bit where mortius karate chops the screen made me think that the editors should have lil puppets/drawings of themselves that can pop into the video. They deserve a lil screen time too.
I adore the line “you will come of age with our young nation” because before I ever heard about this musical I wrote my undergrad thesis on the children/teens during the American Revolution and included basically that same sentiment in my introduction section. So very glad to hear that Mortius has highlighted that and brought up that really cool but subtle thread within the musical! ❤
Lin actually wrote Dear Theodosia with burr and hamilton’s verse being sung at the same time. (I might be wrong about this tho). It just fits together so perfectly and there are lyrics that line up such as “when you smile”. It also shows the different speeds in which they are singing. In this situation, Hamilton is speechless and Burr cannot stop talking which is opposite to every other song in the musical. It contradicts the motif of waiting for it and running out of time. I am pretty sure that there is an edited version on tiktok and I highly suggest you listen to it in your free time!
I just listened to the edited version --- so wonderful, and yeah, you can definitely hear the contrast between the speeds at which Aaron and Alexander sing.
They were originally going to sing it through again together after their individual verses, but the show was already so long he cut it down to just their two verses.
The king spit alot while speaking in real history and the constant dadadada he does is be cause he was genuinely crazy and would ramble then sometimes make random sounds like this
As a representation of the American growth, the bricks on the back wall build up from Act 1 to Act 2 It’s worth noting that Leslie Odon Jr has a baby girl around this time as Lin has a baby boy, their first children.
Also there's a fun note that I don't know if anyone else has brought up, when burrs light cuts out his actor is actually saying prayers for his newborn daughter, which just makes this so much more perfect
@@officialmortius it happens 🤷 I was confused seeing the two either side but not the Interlude on either so was curious which it was in, wasn't prepared... Never prepared
Dear Theodosia is just heartbreaking. It's a beautiful song anyway, but knowing they both outlive the children they are singing to puts it over the top.
I think Jonathan just did the spitting thing to hammer home how crazy King George was (if I'm also recalling correctly George got really animalistic in the final years of his life so it's possible he could have done a lot of spitting)
I wanted to let you know that I always give a thumbs up on your videos, but I purposefully wait until the cute little dog pops up and requests it. lol It just makes it more special to me. I love it.
you know just watching you guys both are the best thing ever that has been happened. but also mortius thanks for showing me casper stuff many years ago with caspers songs and now working together its just amazing to see how much how much this means to you guys. also your stuff makes my day even better. and never stop make content. also I cant wait for what comes back next, ya ha ha
I actually live in the last place that Theodosia was seen alive, Georgetown, SC. She attended a soiree at the "Mary Mann" house on Front Street. The next morning, she boarded her schooner in the harbor here and sailed away never to be seen again. My house is 3 blocks from where she sailed. So tragic. Great and FUN reaction.
Mortius' pure enthusiasm and excitement to share and explain things is such a joy to see. I usually don't care for scripted reaction videos, but there's such passion and love that's apparent.
6:49 it's a representation of King Georges's madness (at one point he started foaming at the mouth). And also Jonathan Groff releases a lot of fluids (spit, sweat, etc.) while performing.
6:26 Actually, to my knowledge, yes. He was known as the mad king george (I can't remember what exactly it was, maybe mercury) but there was something used to make fancy stuff that messed with his head, and he kind of lost it. I'm pretty sure part of him being known as the mad kind george was him drooling. This is just vague memory of a past conversation I've had though.
omg as soon as you said i didn't realise this was a thing that happened til i saw the show i knew EXACTLY which bit you were gonna play bc i had the exact same experience
I love listening to your analysis - both Casper's first time watch and musical insights and Mortius' expertise and lyric analysis. I do hope y'all will go back at the end to watch it all the way through (or at least in 2 acts). You don't have to film your reactions but please give us a final review with your thoughts. 😊
Idk if anyone else has pointed this out but in the song Stay Alive we can see John Laurens shake hands with another cast member. This member is The Bullet, (shaking hands with death in a way) and foreshadowing Laruen's end.
Dear Theodosia is my favours song from Hamilton for a lot of reasons. But one of them is that I was watching it with my mom. After the line "I make a million mistakes" she paused it. I was confused and then she told me that she used to say that to me when I was a newborn, and that she have never heard anyone else say that until she heard it in this song. Idk, i LOVE this song and it really have a special place in my heart now🥰 Amazing video!!!
Not-fun fact Theodosia, the wife of Aaron Burr, dies due to (I can't remember if it was) drowning or illness, and later his daughter disappears; after going onto a boat and traveling somewhere, never to return; so "dear Theodosia" just stabs me in the heart, also just for later reasons; during the war / revolution one of the Schuyler sisters gets killed, Peggy (or Penelope) gets killed by a red coat who threw a hatchet into her head, She deserved so much better! especially since she died protecting her younger brother, and some other youngsters that were with her.
I love your pair reactions and I would really like to see the 2 of you react to a small musical called "36 questions" that Jonathan Groff stars in (the actor who plays the king) it's free to listen to the whole thing on Spotify. It only has 2 characters on it and it's really interesting.
I forgot to mention this when I saw this video but I've been holding on to this discovery for awhile. In Aaron Burr, Sir. They slyly predicted John Laurens' death. Aaron Burr: Fools who run their mouths, wind up dead Laurens: Ay yo yo yo Burr: Like I said.
Just gonna leave this comment to say gigi’s done it again with the Scylla animatic. It’s awful in the best way and I love it. Intentional uncanny valley makes for great subtle horror. Great vid btw.
OMG, Casper has to watch all of Howard Ho's Hamilton song breakdowns after the reactions are done. When he talked about them not resolving the chord, I was like nope they did not lol. Also, what a heartbreaker! I could tell the whole time Mortius didn't remember the interlude was coming and just cringed every time that was obvious.
OK, so whatever you watch after Hamilton on Open Arms Reactions CANNOT include the "happy best friend character dies tragically" trope, I don't think poor Casper can handle this again so soon.
Having only listened to the OBCR before finding this series of Hamilton reactions, I had NO IDEA that interlude about Laurens was a thing. Augh, my heart :(
Yeeaaahhhh Lauren's Interlude is _brutal_. Theres a specific version of it that actually says outright and specifies that all of his soldiers were returned to their masters. If yall ever get a chance to hunt down Szin's animatics for these, theyre all great, Laurens Int. Included
Make sure you subscribe to our new channel for Act 2!!!
youtube.com/@openarmsreactions
Lauren’s Interlude coming DIRECTLY AFTER Dear Theodosia is ACTUALLY criminal
Lin set out with a mission to cry his audience to death when he wrote them😂
not only that, but even if it's not a song as such, not including it as a spoken track on the soundtrack and just *letting the audience get flashbanged by it in theaters* is. simply diabolical
But it’s also so genius like, I can’t remember where but reading about how on the day (or the following day?) John died, Alexander was writing a letter to a friend informing him about his newborn son. Also not me trying to block Philipa with my hand while watching dear Theodosia before mad skipping because my mental health can’t deal with Laurens interlude that day.
“Don’t tell Odysseus there’s an infant in the room” loosing my shit oh my god Casper!
When
@@Magenta-lion.The.loremaker 18:54
@Mardukm21 thx
Don't forget, there's a hint about Laurens' fate when he shakes The Bullet's hand in Yorktown.
And as if laurens interlude couldn't get any sadder, on the balcony(?) above the stage you can see lafayette and mulligan reading the letter at the same time and stopping in place after eliza announces his death :((
On a happier note, though, i mentioned this in the live chat but lin wrote dear theodosia based on him adopting his dog! (Which is even funnier when you remember he has an actual son, but he wasn't born at the time lol)
I NEVER caught that.
Hahaha that's actually so cute awwww
I never noticed that..😢
thats adorable
@@BlueCookies1116 how is that cute? It’s so sad 😭😭
I feel so bad for Casper. I would give anything not to listen to the Laurens Interlude for the first time again. 😭😭
"Don't tell Odysseus that there's an infant in the room." CASPER NO 🤣
Casper losing the man of his life again when will justice be served!
In my head, “when will justice be served” is now always read in the voice of Katherine Howard.
Exactly that!!! I was wondering if it was a reference or not but im so glad you pointed it out😂😂@@archviceroy
Wait till his reaction to Philip
@@boomgirlbucko shhhhhhh that never happend
It hurts even more when you find out that it is widely accepted by historians that Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens may have had a romantic relationship while away at war. He had a specific style of writing to Eliza that was full on love in his letters but used different syntax, etc in letters to his friends. He wrote the same style in letters to Eliza as he did to Laurens. 💔
Lin said he purposely left the Lauren’s scene off the OST because he wanted it to be an emotional gut punch surprise for people who had listened to the album over and over but hadn’t seen it live until that point. There’s another moment in Act 2 that is also left off the OST.
I don't remember which moment in Act 2 is left off the OST, which is it?
omg I thought that was just believable headcanon for people, now I love it even more!
@@lasagnafrenchtoasthoneybutteryeah, it is not just a headcanon and there are actual physical letters that Hamilton's son censored and edited... Because they were so scandalous. So we don't have all of the letters within their FULL context (some sentences of the letters between them were literally physically cut out of the letters... Not even just scribbled over but his son cut them out of the letter) but the things that were less scandalous that were left in are still sexually suggestive... Or just very much romantically suggestive for the time. There honestly isn't a huge amount of debate amongst historians (the ones who disagree are usually mainly the homophobic ones, obviously) it was pretty cut-and-dry that SOMETHING was going on... I mean at the very least John Laurens knew the size of Hamilton's penis so you know THERES THAT.
@@yay29823after stay alive
I don't know if this is intended but, I always feel like it could be intentional:
When Eliza reads the line, "his dream of freedom for these men (the black soldiers) dies with him." Laurens' ghost sings, "Tomorrow there'll be more of us!" I always think he could be foreshadowing that in a few decades there will be a bunch of people willing to fight for freedom for their descendents (among other things 😏)...
I saw once that Lin says he consideres Laurens’ death one of the biggest “what ifs” in history because he worked so hard to abolish slavery and it all came to a sudden end with his death. We will never know if slavery would have ended sooner if Laurens was there to lead the fight. 😢
In Aaron Burr sir it is also mentioned that he is an orphan as when Hamilton says "How'd you do it, how'd you graduate fast" Burr responds with "It was my parents dying wish before they passed"
When Casper asked if Burr was an orphan my brain immediately flew to the "you're an orphan, *yes!*" line
Yep, Alexander even highlights it by responding "You're an orphan? I'm an orphan!
With Epic, I was sadistic with watching Casper experience the heartbreaking moments for the first time, but "Laurens Interlude" is something else entirely. 😭
Fun fact: The King was known for spitting, just like the actor Lol
Mad King George 😊,
he apparently started foaming at the mouth as his mental illness became more progressed, which is very sad really...
@@vly9257King George's songs are also laced with references to him being or going mad
@@scottmartin5990 Apparently, modern psychologists think that instead of going mad, he was suffering from bipolar disorder.
So. I've been holding on to this for a week, because I clocked a bit of foreshadowing. Which I wouldn't even mention had Mortius not already told Casper about who the lady with the very tall hair is. But during the Battle of Yorktown (the song), when Hamilton sings about John Laurens, you get a really quick vignette of him and a chorus member taking out a British soldier, then shaking hands over the line, "We will never be free until we end slavery!"
It was only during the reaction that I actually realized WHO Laurens shook hands with there. And knowing what was coming, it was ROUGH. But I love that it's the kind of foreshadowing that you really only see on a second or later watch, because you need to know who she is before it makes sense.
Glad you mentioned that. The first time I noticed that I totally freaked out
Casper got Polites'd again💔
WHY WOULD YOU CALL IT THAT😭😭😭
There is also a lot of...let's call it educated guesses, that Laurens Death may not have been as much of an accident or poor communication error as it was made out to be. He was treading on an awful lot of toes with his emancipation speeches and the timing of his death, was convenient for those opposed, if nothing else. Of course, there will never be proof either way, but still, it isn't impossible that He was more than just a casualty of war
Laurens most probably was also su*cidal, which was worrying both his father and Hamilton. Some soldiers who fought with him have also confessed that sometimes Laurens was almost... throwing himself in front of a bullet. He was quite literally known for his "reckless bravery in battle". After the Battle of Brandywine Lafayette said that Laurens' survival was "due to luck and accident, as Laurens did everything to get wounded or killed" :(
I always forget how much I love "Dear Theodosia" yknow? Like, it gets so overshadowed by Lauren's Lament and Non Stop coming immediately after it that you almost forget it's there. But my god it just... It feels so perfect as a song, if you know what I mean. I would actually argue it's one of if not the most perfect song in the entire production, for where it's at.
i could've sworn i read somewhere at the end of the laruen's reprise there used to be the lines "all of the slaves under his command have been returned to their owners" as even more of a whammy QwQ
To their masters 😭😭😭
i thought i imagined this!! i remember it too
Might be in a workshop version?
I thought it might have been in a bootleg running around and didn't wanna add that line to the D*sney version? (Even tho slavery is talked about a lot, maybe that one line was too far?)
As someone who experienced the show through the soundtracks first, and then discovered Lauren's Interlude through an animatic on youtube; I can not fathom how it wasn't in some way included on the soundtrack. That moment there, as well as the birth of Hamilton's son is so, SO, important for the establishing of Non-Stop and Act 2.
Hamilton since the start of the show has been chasing a glorious death to make a difference and managed to get by time after time. Then, the war ends and he has a son. For the first time in perhaps ever, he finally has reasons to live... Only for Death to take his best friend swiftly and unexpectedly. Suddenly, the fear of Mortality really grabs onto Hamilton and he realizes he can't die yet. Not when theirs a country to grow, not when their is a son to raise, not when their are slaves to be freed in honor of his late friend. Hamilton Needs to leave a Legacy, and he Needs to make a Difference, before Death makes him just a Memory.
It's as Hamilton says after hearing the letter... "I have So Much work to do"
With the addition of the Laurens Interlude, there is a total of 47 songs in Hamilton, which was his age of death. Just an interesting fact that Lin Manuel Miranda was able to keep that fact in but subtle
Dude, Mortius' take at 14:14 about the country running parallel to the character development makes so much sense!!! ❤
17:40 That heartbroken realization of what's about to happen is so relatable. 😂
Here i come with more fun facts!
Aaron burr became an orphan at the age of 2, after i believe both his parents, and grandparents died all in one year. Or maybe his dad died when he was 1, i dont fully remember but i know his mom, grandmother, and grandfather all died the same year.
After that, burr and his sister went to go live with an uncle, who was abusive (physically?? Im not too sure, i dont know if its been specified.)
Which even caused burr to try and run away many times but he never succeeded.
Burr was also very smart in school as well. I believe he graduated at a younger age.
Edit:
I was right!
"Burr had a very strained relationship with his uncle, who was often physically abusive. As a child, he made several attempts to run away from home."
"At age 13, Burr was admitted to Princeton as a sophomore, where he joined the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society, the college's literary and debating societies.[7] In 1772, at age 16, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, but continued studying theology at Princeton for an additional year. He then undertook rigorous theological training with Joseph Bellamy, a Presbyterian, but changed his career path after two years. At age 19, he moved to Litchfield, Connecticut to study law with his brother-in-law Tapping Reeve, founder of the Litchfield Law School.[8] [9] In 1775, news reached Litchfield of the clashes with British troops at Lexington and Concord, and Burr put his studies on hold to enlist in the Continental Army."
Edit2:
I also wanna talk about john Laurens.
The war did not actually end until 17783, which I believe was a few years after Hamilton left- yes, that scene in Yorktown, the fight in Yorktown, the British did surrender. From that fight. And that's what led america to win eventually, but Alexander did not stay in the war until it ended. I believe his family and politics and everything led him to stop fighting(at least in the war) and kinda settle down.
He even tried to convince Laurens to leave the war, but Laurens refused because he wanted to continue until the war ended. He was very passionate about freedom for a bunch of people.
Now here's the crazy part:
John Laurens' death was an assisted sewerslide(if you know, you know)
He was bed ridden sick, though he still fought despite everyone telling him not to. This was a pattern. He would often stay on the battlefield even while injured, or sick, etc.
To the point where one time, he had to be dragged out because he refused to leave.
Anyways, his death.
I believe he was only with two other people at the time, when they saw the soldiers retreating, I believe this was when they were trying to win south Carolina back. Despite better judgement, John just jumped into battle while it was obvious they were outnumbered. John was shot, and died on impact, so he was possibly shot in the head or heart, something like that.
I believe it's pretty obvious, researching John's life, that he wanted to die(trying hard not to say the word here lmao)
Especially since he took the blame after his 10 year old brother died while under his watch. They were in Europe, while their father was away(in Charleston South Carolina, I believe) and since John was the oldest, he was in charge.
He was known to be very reckless, especially in the war. So it's not hard to believe he knew what he was doing when he was killed.
What makes it even worse is that when Laurence death the men of his batallion were sent back to their masters. Elisa reads that in a recording you can find online. And Laurence and Hamilton had a romantic relatiionship too, at least I think some letters between the two pointed that out.
Not only did he die, his dream of an all-black battalion and freeing slaves died with him.
I remember hearing about Laurens Interlude and finding an animatic for it back in the day. As you can imagine, i was completely blindsided and its a moment that still makes me sad. Rip Laurens
Ooh, Casper is gonna get a TALL glass of ‘fuck me up’ with a dash of mortius tears. Fantastic stuff.
Also on a less emotional note, that bit where mortius karate chops the screen made me think that the editors should have lil puppets/drawings of themselves that can pop into the video. They deserve a lil screen time too.
Casper looks so defeated in that thumbnail... Not again....
Im having flashbacks already-
I adore the line “you will come of age with our young nation” because before I ever heard about this musical I wrote my undergrad thesis on the children/teens during the American Revolution and included basically that same sentiment in my introduction section. So very glad to hear that Mortius has highlighted that and brought up that really cool but subtle thread within the musical! ❤
I think Dear Theodosia was definitely Jorge's inspiration for Just a Man
I love the difference of Casper concentrating hard while Mortius is singing along.
Lin actually wrote Dear Theodosia with burr and hamilton’s verse being sung at the same time. (I might be wrong about this tho). It just fits together so perfectly and there are lyrics that line up such as “when you smile”. It also shows the different speeds in which they are singing. In this situation, Hamilton is speechless and Burr cannot stop talking which is opposite to every other song in the musical. It contradicts the motif of waiting for it and running out of time. I am pretty sure that there is an edited version on tiktok and I highly suggest you listen to it in your free time!
I just listened to the edited version --- so wonderful, and yeah, you can definitely hear the contrast between the speeds at which Aaron and Alexander sing.
They were originally going to sing it through again together after their individual verses, but the show was already so long he cut it down to just their two verses.
Dear Theodosia also has a reprise which was cut from the final musical but which adds an interesting angle to the musical, especially Burr's story.
Like a flame that flickers out too soon…
The king spit alot while speaking in real history and the constant dadadada he does is be cause he was genuinely crazy and would ramble then sometimes make random sounds like this
You guys should read the letters between Hamilton and Laurens. They read like love letter 👀
As a representation of the American growth, the bricks on the back wall build up from Act 1 to Act 2
It’s worth noting that Leslie Odon Jr has a baby girl around this time as Lin has a baby boy, their first children.
As someone who usually listens to just the playlist i understand this title
I love that both Mortius and Casper embrace and freely demonstrate how deeply emotive Hamilton music and lyrics are, let those tears flow.
Also there's a fun note that I don't know if anyone else has brought up, when burrs light cuts out his actor is actually saying prayers for his newborn daughter, which just makes this so much more perfect
The real Theodosia was not orphaned (Yay) but she was lost at sea at age 29.
LMM did the Lauren’s interlude on purpose, so that there was something new for those who knew the OST
Yeah, King George III was known to foam at the mouth when he was having one of his fits of madness.
17:38 I'm not kidding when I say I watched that 5 times 😂😂😂
His pure joy when he saw johnathan groff😭
Ain't no way this title is serious 😭
Yeah, he forgot that Laurence's interlude was next, could literally see him realising 😭
LISTEN MAN, the Laurens Interlude wasn’t on the song list we were using and I forgot about it 😅
@@officialmortius it happens 🤷 I was confused seeing the two either side but not the Interlude on either so was curious which it was in, wasn't prepared... Never prepared
Dear Theodosia is my favorite song in the show ❤
Same! It’s so good! ❤
“Dear Theodosia-“ 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 (that song makes me cry so hard it actually breaks me)
0:25 why did Casper start mogging me 😭
"So you won't even have to wait a full week!" ... You're... TECHNICALLY correct, but that's not really how time works, but okay😅😂
Hey it’s one day less than any other one!
It's like Polites all over again for Casper 😭😭
Dear Theodosia is just heartbreaking. It's a beautiful song anyway, but knowing they both outlive the children they are singing to puts it over the top.
singing along to dear theodosia to my cat while she’s in my lap :D
And finally... my favorite song
He was known as crazy king George, the spitting adds to that
I think Jonathan just did the spitting thing to hammer home how crazy King George was (if I'm also recalling correctly George got really animalistic in the final years of his life so it's possible he could have done a lot of spitting)
The king was crazy and did spit alot
It’s so funny that Casper brought up frozen, because the guy who plays the king, Jonathan groff, plays Kristoff in frozen. :)
I wanted to let you know that I always give a thumbs up on your videos, but I purposefully wait until the cute little dog pops up and requests it. lol It just makes it more special to me. I love it.
Just thinking of how different history might have been if John Laurence lived.
You've got to watch Sweeny Todd if you want unresolved chords!
dear theodosia is in my top 5 Hamilton songs
Dear theodosia is one of my FAVORITE songs 🥰🥰🥰 the love and devotion in their voices it’s so beautiful and emotional definetly top 5
I was really waiting for the King and Casper's reaction!! Also, why must Casper suffer the loss of another man?! *sobs*
you know just watching you guys both are the best thing ever that has been happened. but also mortius thanks for showing me casper stuff many years ago with caspers songs and now working together its just amazing to see how much how much this means to you guys. also your stuff makes my day even better. and never stop make content. also I cant wait for what comes back next, ya ha ha
I only listened to the soundtrack and was not aware of this...
I actually live in the last place that Theodosia was seen alive, Georgetown, SC. She attended a soiree at the "Mary Mann" house on Front Street. The next morning, she boarded her schooner in the harbor here and sailed away never to be seen again. My house is 3 blocks from where she sailed. So tragic. Great and FUN reaction.
Mortius' pure enthusiasm and excitement to share and explain things is such a joy to see. I usually don't care for scripted reaction videos, but there's such passion and love that's apparent.
6:49 it's a representation of King Georges's madness (at one point he started foaming at the mouth). And also Jonathan Groff releases a lot of fluids (spit, sweat, etc.) while performing.
Poor Casper 😭😭
6:26 Actually, to my knowledge, yes. He was known as the mad king george (I can't remember what exactly it was, maybe mercury) but there was something used to make fancy stuff that messed with his head, and he kind of lost it. I'm pretty sure part of him being known as the mad kind george was him drooling. This is just vague memory of a past conversation I've had though.
omg as soon as you said i didn't realise this was a thing that happened til i saw the show i knew EXACTLY which bit you were gonna play bc i had the exact same experience
17:30 Mortius and I are crying together
22:45 Casper and I are crying. 😭
I love listening to your analysis - both Casper's first time watch and musical insights and Mortius' expertise and lyric analysis. I do hope y'all will go back at the end to watch it all the way through (or at least in 2 acts). You don't have to film your reactions but please give us a final review with your thoughts. 😊
Jonathan Groff spitting is just how he is. It even led to his fandom nickname, Groffsause
Idk if anyone else has pointed this out but in the song Stay Alive we can see John Laurens shake hands with another cast member. This member is The Bullet, (shaking hands with death in a way) and foreshadowing Laruen's end.
Dear Theodosia is my favours song from Hamilton for a lot of reasons.
But one of them is that I was watching it with my mom. After the line "I make a million mistakes" she paused it. I was confused and then she told me that she used to say that to me when I was a newborn, and that she have never heard anyone else say that until she heard it in this song. Idk, i LOVE this song and it really have a special place in my heart now🥰
Amazing video!!!
The violin in the Laurens interlude kind of reminds me of One Last Time, idk.
The spitting may be linked to King George’s future descent into madness, which was actually referenced a couple of times in You’ll Be Back.
Not-fun fact
Theodosia, the wife of Aaron Burr, dies due to (I can't remember if it was) drowning or illness, and later his daughter disappears; after going onto a boat and traveling somewhere, never to return; so "dear Theodosia" just stabs me in the heart,
also just for later reasons; during the war / revolution one of the Schuyler sisters gets killed, Peggy (or Penelope) gets killed by a red coat who threw a hatchet into her head,
She deserved so much better! especially since she died protecting her younger brother, and some other youngsters that were with her.
I love your pair reactions and I would really like to see the 2 of you react to a small musical called "36 questions" that Jonathan Groff stars in (the actor who plays the king) it's free to listen to the whole thing on Spotify. It only has 2 characters on it and it's really interesting.
“It’s from John Laurens, I’ll read it later”
They actually exchanged many letters, some of them hinting at/outright implying romantic feelings.
I forgot to mention this when I saw this video but I've been holding on to this discovery for awhile.
In Aaron Burr, Sir. They slyly predicted John Laurens' death.
Aaron Burr: Fools who run their mouths, wind up dead
Laurens: Ay yo yo yo
Burr: Like I said.
*gets emotionally crippled by the third bit*
Even knowing about it going in, nothing could have prepared me for Laurens’ interlude live from second row ON HAMILTONS SIDE OF THE STAGE
Hold up Lauren’s death takes place right before A-AFTER THE WAR I WENT BACK TO NEW YORK? I recognized the start of that song ;-; tone shift
Yes, and the frantic urgency under Nonstop reads very differently when you see it as a response to Laurens' untimely death...
Just gonna leave this comment to say gigi’s done it again with the Scylla animatic. It’s awful in the best way and I love it. Intentional uncanny valley makes for great subtle horror. Great vid btw.
I love Casper's music theory nerdiness! Brings me back to university lessons.
OMG, Casper has to watch all of Howard Ho's Hamilton song breakdowns after the reactions are done. When he talked about them not resolving the chord, I was like nope they did not lol. Also, what a heartbreaker! I could tell the whole time Mortius didn't remember the interlude was coming and just cringed every time that was obvious.
Reactors are too precious 🥺
OK, so whatever you watch after Hamilton on Open Arms Reactions CANNOT include the "happy best friend character dies tragically" trope, I don't think poor Casper can handle this again so soon.
This was a great reaction!!!❤
Having only listened to the OBCR before finding this series of Hamilton reactions, I had NO IDEA that interlude about Laurens was a thing. Augh, my heart :(
I am pretty sure I just about stopped breathing for a moment when Casper pointed out the unresolved chord progression. 🤯
These songs always get me
Jonathan Groff spits because he’s the “ mad” King George III
Dear Theodosia was my father-daughter dance at my wedding!
Just for your interest, the Hamilton musical also has a full animatics adaptation and it is AMAZING.
Would be great if you would check it out:)
King George was known as the mad king
Yeeaaahhhh Lauren's Interlude is _brutal_. Theres a specific version of it that actually says outright and specifies that all of his soldiers were returned to their masters. If yall ever get a chance to hunt down Szin's animatics for these, theyre all great, Laurens Int. Included
That's what I need, Jorge needs to storm the stage of a Hamilton performance during Dear Theodosia. Gotta get those infants!