Halloween Death Match 2025: The Phantom of the Opera vs. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

We are back, baby! Halloween is next week, the best day of the year is almost here. And what do I do every year for Halloween? Host a Death Match between two fictional horror characters, of course! That’s what we’re doing today! It’s time for the fifth annual Halloween Death Match!!

I can’t believe this is the fifth year I’ve been doing this. Time really does fly. As it is the fifth year of this insanity, I think it’s only fair we do a double header. That’s right, you’re not getting just one Death Match this year, you’re getting two! Today is the first of these fights, and next Wednesday will be part two.

So who is fighting to the death today? Which poor characters have been chosen? I’m so glad you asked. Today we have two characters who are not strangers to the Death Match stage. The last time they were in battle, they both died. My friends and I have resurrected them for the purposes of today’s fight. Please give a warm welcome back to the Phantom of the Opera and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!

Also give a warm welcome back to my friends Amanda, Frankie, and Katie! You know them, you love them, I love them, and it’s time for a wacky conversation about two fictional characters to find out who will triumph. A mad musical genius or a mad scientist.

Like always, my friends have been provided a handy-dandy list of strengths and weaknesses both characters possess. Everyone knows this is a death match. Everyone’s prepared. Everyone’s ready. But only my friends know who will win between these two Gothic literature behemoths.

The rules are simple. Our two characters are in a Battle Royale style fight. The characters were given three days to prepare for the battle. The colosseum’s looks have been changed thanks to these two characters. Fans of both fighters have spent good money to come watch. Two famous horror characters enter, only one may exit. This is the fight to the death. Each competitor has strengths and weaknesses that can help or hurt them in this competition. But who will win? Well…you’re about to find out!

Hannah: It’s time–

Amanda: Hi, and welcome to another new episode of the Nothing to See Hear podcast.

All: Laughter

Amanda: Sorry, I had to do it.

Hannah: I don’t blame you. We have a special guest today. Welcome Katie, Friend of the Pod.

Katie: Hi!

Hannah: It is the fifth annual Halloween Death Match.

Amanda: Has it really been five years?

Hannah: Yeah, this is the fifth one.

Amanda: Really?

Katie: Way to make me feel really fucking old.

Amanda: I can’t believe we’ve been doing this for five years.

Hannah: Kicking off our Death Match 2025, kicking off our double feature, it’s the Phantom of the Opera versus Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I learned necromancy and brought them both back so one of them can be killed once again.

Amanda: Guys, Secret is here.

Hannah: We have very, very special guest star Secret with us tonight!

Amanda: He’s rubbing up against the computer. He hears you guys. He’s looking for you guys. He’s headbutting the computer since Frankie isn’t here to be headbutted.

Hannah: That’s adorable.

Amanda: You say that until he gives you a concussion. How have his headbutts been for you, Frankie?

Frankie: Your cat has never given me a concussion. Can we focus on the fight, please? I’ve got things I’ve got to do later tonight.

Amanda: I’m sorry! He’s just being so cute cause he heard you!

Peanut Gallery (Monique; Amanda’s mother): Was Frankie just being mean to Secret?

Amanda: Yes!

Frankie: No! I’m just busy tonight, I have other things I need to do.

Amanda: Alright.

Hannah: The Phantom enters the arena. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde enter the arena. We have given both contestants time to survey the colosseum, set traps if they so wish, Dr. Jekyll has been given time to prepare his serum.

Amanda: How much time have we given these people?

Hannah: Three days.

Amanda: Ok, so a decent amount.

Hannah: Yes, three days. We’ve given them three days and the plans to the colosseum, and then told them both to have fun…now they fight to the death for our entertainment. I don’t know why these characters keep accepting these invites. * beat * Who do we think makes the first move in this battle?

Amanda: Are you asking for our picks yet?

Hannah: If you have someone whose side you’re on then by all means, go ahead.

Katie: I pick the Phantom.

Amanda: Yeah.

Frankie: It’s another unexciting one, it’s the Phantom.

Hannah: It’s the Phantom?

Katie: Jekyll is just too much of a loser to beat anybody.

Frankie: Wow!

Katie: Look, Jekyll and Hyde kinda suck. Jekyll, he’s a scientist, but he’s just a normal ass dude. He’s not a super genius or anything crazy.

Amanda: He’s like a little nerdy Milo Thatch.

Katie: Yeah, and he’s a decent dude. He’s not doing anything nefarious with his mostly regular guy powers. And then Hyde. Hyde is just a tall, muscular guy.

Amanda: He’s just a big, beefy guy.

Katie: Yeah, he’s just a beefy guy with no brains or impulse control who just beats people to death in the street.

Hannah: And you don’t think he’s just going to charge the Phantom?

Amanda: No, look at the Phantom’s strengths.

Katie: Yeah, look at the Phantom’s resume.

Frankie: The Phantom is an assassin.

Amanda: He [Phantom] is gonna put him [Hyde] in a glass maze. He [Hyde] will just run around and give himself a concussion. You’ve ever been in one of those glass mazes at a carnival or fair? I walk into those mirrors I don’t know how many times. I can’t imagine what Hyde would do in one.

Hannah: So the Phantom set up a fun house mirror maze.

Katie: Come on, we can do better than that.

Frankie: The issue that Jekyll and Hyde will face in this fight is that Jekyll is the brains and Hyde is the muscle, but they can never be muscle and brain at the same time. The Phantom is brain and muscle at the same time.

Amanda: If Jekyll and Hyde could communicate this would be a little bit easier.

Katie: It’s not even that. Jekyll and Hyde are just two regular people, they can’t compete with the Phantom’s strengths. I mean, Jekyll and Hyde are just a guy with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Frankie: And we’ve given these guys three days to set up traps!

Katie: That’s a lot of time for an evil genius like the Phantom.

Frankie: The Phantom is a skilled architect.

Amanda: Hannah, you’ve given him construction workers too, right? So he’s not setting this stuff up all alone?

Hannah: You know what, in order to make it more fair, the Phantom isn’t given construction workers.

Frankie: I think he can still build most of the stuff on his own.

Amanda: Yeah, he’ll just have less traps. If he had the construction workers, he’d have thousands of traps.

Hannah: Are you saying he built one big one?

Amanda: I would say three.

Hannah: Three big traps.

Amanda: Yeah, one a day.

Katie: He could have built a lot of small traps.

Hannah: And what are these traps he’s set up?

Katie: Pit fall traps…? I don’t know man.

Frankie: Definitely pit fall traps.

Amanda: And the one he tried to drown Raoul in.

Hannah: He built a room that fills with water?

Katie: He doesn’t have construction workers, I don’t know if he could have pulled that one off.

Hannah: Yeah, I don’t know if he could manage that.

Amanda: Maybe the room is already filled with water. Maybe he built this room into the sewer. We don’t know. There could be a sewer underneath the colosseum. There probably is one!

Frankie: I’m gonna say no.

Amanda: But Jekyll would absolutely hate being dunked into the sewer water! He’s a doctor and he’d get covered in shit. I can’t imagine he would be having a fun time.

Frankie: I just think Jekyll is too weak, and he doesn’t have control of when he becomes Hyde.

Katie: Yeah, how do the potions work? I guess he just takes a potion and becomes Hyde?

Hannah: Yes.

Frankie: He also has a limited reserve of those potions though. How many does he have?

Hannah: He has however many he can make in three days.

Frankie: Cool, I don’t know how long it takes him to make one though.

Hannah: Neither do I, it’s never revealed in the story.

Katie: Let’s just say one a day.

Amanda: I would give him six. Two a day. Just to make this a little more fair.

Katie: What’s he gonna do with them though? Cause he can’t fight as Jekyll, he’s just a society man.

Hannah: The last time Jekyll and Hyde competed, I did say he could write himself notes so he could communicate between his Jekyll self and his Hyde self. And they are going into this knowing it’s a fight to the death.

Amanda: And Jekyll doesn’t want to die.

Hannah: Well both these men have died before. I’ve brought both competitors back from the grave. Who wants to stay living more is a good question.

Amanda: It’s the Phantom.

Frankie: How many potions does it take for Hyde to take control?

Hannah: There’s no specific number, Hyde’s dominance simply grows over time. And that’s according to Google, by the way. “The more Jekyll indulges his darker side, the more Hyde has influence over the body.”

Amanda: Interesting.

Frankie: The big issue is that Hyde needs to have control if they’re going to have a shot.

Amanda: He needs full control.

Frankie: Complete control. But in order to do that he’s got to keep embracing the darker side of Hyde, which means you’re gonna lose any strategic advantage Jekyll could possibly provide.

Hannah: Hyde’s gonna go barreling in?

Frankie: Yes.

Amanda: A better battle would have been the Phantom of the Opera versus the Joker.

Frankie: Well the Joker isn’t a Gothic lit character.

Hannah: Batman, not Gothic literature.

Frankie: It’s Gotham literature.

Amanda: And I care about that!

Frankie: The other issue is, even with Hyde, he just beats people to death. He’s not using a weapon or anything. He’s got to get up close and personal with the Phantom.

Hannah: He does have the option to use a weapon. He beats people to death in the book, but he could bring a weapon with him into the Death Match.

Frankie: That’s fair.

Hannah: I do feel he would bring a club.

Frankie: Yeah, he’s a one-on-one kind of guy.

Amanda: I don’t know. It could be one of those fancy canes that hides a sword.

Hannah: Oooohhhh, that feels right.

Amanda: Right! I forget what they’re called.

Hannah: So he has a cane sword.

Frankie: Even then he still has to get close. It’s not that big of a sword if it’s in a cane.

Amanda: Who’s to say it isn’t like a big walking stick.

Hannah: Either way he has a close range weapon.

Frankie: I feel the Phantom can easily trick Hyde. The Phantom is an illusionist as well.

Amanda: I’m telling you, the mirror maze would really fuck with Hyde. He would get really mad. Hell, I would get really mad. In fact, I have!

Frankie: Did you go into a rage and start rushing at your reflections?

Amanda: No. But Hyde would.

Frankie: I don’t know if Hyde would attack his own reflection.

Amanda: Yes he would! Katie said he has no impulse control.

Katie: He really doesn’t.

Frankie: He wouldn’t attack himself cause he’s all about self-preservation. He wouldn’t attack his own reflection. I do think if the Phantom taunted him he would go for it.

Hannah: You're saying if he saw the Phantom’s figure in the mirror, Hyde would then attack?

Frankie: Yeah.

Hannah: I agree. If there’s a mirror maze, or something with mirrors, Hyde would attack just to find out that’s a reflection and not the Phantom.

Frankie: And then he would start getting angrier and angrier. And you make mistakes when you’re angry, you get sloppy.

Hannah: And the Phantom? He’s just chilling, laughing at Hyde?

Amanda: Maniacally.

Frankie: And singing!

Amanda: He’s playing the organ.

Katie: And throwing his voice while doing it to make Hyde even more pissed off.

Hannah: So what you’re saying is Hyde is basically crashing out.

Amanda: A hundred percent.

Hannah: Does the Phantom move in? How long does this mirror stuff go on for?

Amanda: Until Hyde is livid.

Hannah: Are all the mirrors broken at this point? Has it gotten that far.

Frankie: No. The Phantom is still going to use them to his advantage. He’s going to pull one final trick before killing Hyde with a noose.

Amanda: Magic Lasso!

Hannah: Is he singing a weird little song while doing this?

Amanda: Absolutely.

Hannah: And that’s the end of Hyde?

Amanda: Yep.

Katie: He’s just too lame. You could have Jekyll and Hyde go up against really any horror character and he’d lose.

Amanda: …yeah.

Hannah: Well, I believe the outcome of this Death Match has been decided. Jekyll and Hyde have been decimated once again.

Frankie: He was. He’s a little weakling. All the other monsters beat him up to feel better about themselves.

All:  Laughter

Hannah: Does anyone have any other thoughts on how the Phantom offs Jekyll and Hyde?

Amanda: No, it’s gotta be the mirror thing. It would piss Hyde off so much.

Katie: My thought is the Phantom of the Opera builds a bunch of pit fall traps, puts really big spikes in the bottom of them, then throws his voice around the arena taunting the hell out of Hyde before leading him into one of the traps where Hyde is then skewered.

Hannah: Is this the shortest match in Death Match history?

Frankie: No, that’s still Lestat versus the Phantom.

Hannah: Only because you wouldn’t let me have my crack ship of Lestat x the Phantom! * beat * Well, it seems in the case of Dr. Jekyll and My. Hyde versus the Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom of the Opera is our winner! He managed to set up a mirror maze, and Mr. Hyde entered after the Phantom only to become very upset with the illusions, the thrown voice, and maniacal laughter seemingly coming from every direction that he broke many of the mirrors upon seeing a glimpse of the Phantom. But this sadistic lil fuck that is the Phantom managed to sneak up on Hyde, with a little bit of rope, a little noose, he sent Hyde down a trap door; thus ending Jekyll and Hyde once again.

All:  Claps

Hannah: That is the end of Halloween Death Match Extravaganza 2025. For this week at least. This is a double feature, and next week the four of us will be back with the most anticipated battle since Dracula versus Frankenstein’s Monster: Lestat de Lioncourt versus Frankenstein’s Monster!

Thank you for joining me and my friends for the 5th annual Halloween Death Match. I do hope you enjoyed your time here today. You never know what you’re going to get when you sign on for a Death Match. I had a wildly good time with this post and I hope you all did too. Once again, a huge thank you to my friends Amanda, Katie, and Frankie for helping me with this post. Please give them some love cause without them these Death Matches wouldn’t exist.

Speaking of Amanda and Frankie, they are my costars! The three of us host everyone’s favorite podcast Nothing to See Hear. You can listen to our show over on Spotify and YouTube. We talk Scooby-Doo, Disney, cryptids, ghosties, bad 90s wrestling, and gay vampires. We have the best time over there so go check it out. Again, you can listen to the show on Spotify and YouTube. While you’re listening to Nothing to See Hear, go ahead and give Reading Has Ruined My Life a follow over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog).

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. I will see you all again next week with Halloween Death Match 2025 part 2!

Until then, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!