#Bahorel relevant

[pilferingapples]

Bousingo Fashion: Rash Waistcoats and Scarlet Opinions

something of a companion piece to my recent post on Romantic fashions, dealing with a subset of it --specifically, the Bousingo style, or. What Would Bahorel Wear?  

( @badassindistress​, this is for you XD)

First, for those who’ve missed my other rambles on the Bousingo/Bouzingo/Bousingots group, a quick description of their general Deal, from Jehan Valter’s account of the  premiere of Hugo’s le roi s’amuse:

No doubt, the Bousingots had fought at Hernani and broke their share of seats, but ...The Bosingouts alone were at the barricades of 1832. There is the difference between them and the Jeune-France,... while the Young-France, inspired by the Byronnian sadnesses, hid their health and their good humor under elegiac and morbid exteriors, while they were satisfied with the freedom of the enjambement, and that they dreamed of revolutions as those of art, the Bousingots manifested political sentiments of extreme violence at least in form.

There’s a LOT of room to debate this description, but it gets across the general contemporary view of the group: the street-fighters types of Romantic republicanism, or of Republican romanticism; whichever side of it you like to emphasize.  The stereotype of their character was...well, Bahorel,pretty much to the letter. Hugo knew what he was writing, down to the Rash Waistcoats. Bahorel dresses Bousingo!  which means a very identifiable and politically loaded style But what exactly did that look like?

Let’s get some more 19C quotes in here!

" ...(there was) Pétrus Borel, in “bousingot” costume of insulting originality*: Marat* waistcoat, and a pointed hat with long ribbons, descending in the middle of the back.." (Jehan Valter's account of the opening night of le Roi s'amuse)

He could be spotted from afar by his pointy, wide-brimmed grey hat, his goatee, his long hair, by his enormous red cravat that clashed with the white lapels of his Marat-style waistcoat...- George Sand, Horace

There’s already a lot going on here, but let’s start with: 

Rash Waistcoats

...the best fellow possible; he had rash waistcoats, and scarlet opinions... (LM 3.4.1)

So as far as I’ve been able to tell, a Marat waistcoat is a waistcoat with really, REALLY Extra lapels. Based on , of course, Marat, as seen in this image:

(ID: noted French revolutionary Marat wearing an extravagantly loose cravat, and a furry...jacket? with wide, spotted lapels. Very Wide. Almost sticking out further than his arms. He’s gonna put someone’s eye out with those things./end ID)

I *think* those are coat lapels--but the waistcoat named after him seems to be based on that look. Lapels for days! (note: a “Robespierre” waistcoat, like Grantaire wears, seems to be the same idea- a waistcoat with wide lapels--but not as exaggerated, and with a different cut.  Like so :

(ID: a bright red waistcoat with lapels that reach almost to the arm-scye /end ID) And you can read more about them at this excellent post! )

George Sand’s Bouzingot wears a white Marat waistcoat,but red was a more iconic color. And a very specific red! Let’s fire up the quotes again!

" In order to avoid wearing the infamous red of '93, I had admitted a slight admixture of purple into the dye, for I was very desirous not to be suspected of any political intention. I was not an admirer of Saint-Just and Maximilian Robespierre, as were some of my comrades..." -Theophile Gautier, A History of Romanticism 

The “infamous red” to avoid was scarlet, the color Bahorel definitely wears: 

Bahorel, who was like a fish in water in a riot...wore a scarlet waistcoat, and indulged in the sort of words which break everything. His waistcoat astounded a passer-by, who cried in bewilderment:--

"Here are the reds!"

The Beards

“It was my beard that saved us! my romantic beard! my pretty little romantic beard!"- Les Miserables, 3.8.12

A beard ,fine,silky,full,scented with benzoin,and cared for as a Sultan's beard might be,... A beard ! A very ordinary matter in France nowadays,but at that time there were but two in the country : Eugène Devéria's and Petrus Borel's . It required absolutely heroic self - possession and contempt of the multitude And mark that when I say beard , I do not mean mutton-chop or fin-shaped whiskers,or a tip or a tuft,but a genuine,full,complete beard,one to make a man shudder . -Theophile Gautier, A History of Romanticism

In the 1820s and 1830s (especially early 1830s) beards were incredibly Out. Men of Proper Society simply Did Not Wear Them,  Oh, they had facial hair--but not beards. 

I need you all to understand how silly this dividing line got, so I made a Diagram: 

(ID: a rough sketch of a face, showing, in order, sideburns, a moustache, a neckbeard, and all three combined; these are in green and labeled “fine”. one face has a small soulpatch-level goatee, labeled “Risky, Satan’s Chin Patch”.  The last shows a short but fully connected beard, with  facial hair covering the entire jawline, labeled “Anarchy, Riot, Doom” /End ID)

The Full Beard was Iconically Romantic and especially iconically Bouzingo Romantic, as you’ll see when we hit the caricatures. Oh boy, are there gonna be caricatures. 

The final part of this is the hat--and here, I think, it’s time to move into contemporary (and near-contemporary) illustrations. First , a fairly Subdued version of two Bouzingo meeting: 

(ID: two Bouzingo talking closely, with a Secret Handshake. They are wearing the clothes described in this post. Behind them  a policeman gestures angrily. /end ID)

I love this picture (and would love to know the provenance!) ! You can see the Marat waistcoat lapels, the beard on the one on the left, and, of course, the signature Pointy Hat. Imagine those lapels in bright scarlet, those trousers in plaids, black, or white, and the jackets in either bright blue or dark black for maximum waistcoat contrast, and you’ve got a good mental image of how this would have looked at the time. 

...You can also see the police officer telling them to move along. “Hostile Police Interaction”is also an iconic part of the Bousingo look, for obvious reasons. 

Here are some more fairly realistic, and sympathetic, pictures; these are illustrations of Laraviniere, the “Bouzingo” character in George Sand’s Horace. 

Beard, long hair, pointed hat, extravagant but loose cravat,  “Robespierre” style lapels sticking out, tight plaid pants, solid cane for whomping people in fights? It’s the whole package baby! 

I gotta include this picture too, because “naked , having grabbed a carpet, so you can come out and fight with landlords and cops” is also an Iconic Bouzingo Look. I am extremely not joking. If you’re going to care at all  about propriety , you can’t be Bousingo, and at least one group (and that led by Borel, Bahorel’s most direct inspiration) did run a nudist commune for a while!

These images are reasonably realistic,even sympathetic, portrayals. Now let’s get to the caricatures, and how people who didn’t like them saw all this. This is some of my favorite stuff, it’s hilarious:

Image: Caricature (un peu chargée) d’un “bousingot” romantique  This image, leaning heavily on the Romantic associations of the Bouzingo, brings in that Medieval-style dress I mentioned. Apart from the hat and beard, this guy doesn’t have anything particularly Bousingot about his outfit; the dramatic ruff and doublet-esque cut of his coat could go for any Romantic. But I love this picture , look how ticked off he looks!XD

I have no idea if this illo, titled “Old and New”, was supposed to be insulting, but I think it’s really charming! It’s a French Revolution-era revolutionary-- Robespierre-striped coat, knee breeches, wig or powedered hair, little cockades, etc,-- meeting a then-”new” Bouzingo, in striped trousers, a broad-lapeled tricolor waistcoat, a wide-brimmed “sombrero” type hat (also a solid Bouzingo fashion choice) , full beard (but super short hair--the other way that fashion ran,it’s either long or basically a canon-level buzzcut), and 1830s coat. The old Revolutionary carries a neat cane, and appears to be opening a snuffbox; the Bouzingo carries a fightin’ stick, and appears to be smoking a pipe made with a crowned skull holy shit I love it.  And they’re getting along just fine!  I have no idea if the vibe is supposed to be “The kids are all right! carrying on the banner!” or “ Look,the Youth of Today is trying to bring back that awful Revolution!” but either way the affinity between generations has me charmed.  (and again, we see the strong perceived political aspect to Bouzingo fashion!)

Now a couple of definitely unflattering images:

Above, from an article about “newspapers and their readers”: a Bouzingo reads Le Charivari!  as @clove-pinks​ said on the post that introduced me to this image: “Swanky, obnoxious outfit, long hair, reading Le Charivari illustrated magazine—it’s a bousingot Romantic! “ Again we’ve got the hat, the beard, the loud pants, the stick (I am dying at the stick placement omgggg) -- but you can see how the negative take on them frames them as poor (everything here is patched and broken) , dirty, and menacing. 

One more, from the same source as “Old and New”:  a whole darn group! Again, there’s the outfit geared to be provocatively tricolor, the broad sombrero style hats, a friggin Phrygian cap, a heavy stick , and beards all around. Note though the wide array of colors, especially the guy in a pink hat in the background!:D 

So there’s Bouzingo/Bozingo/Bousingo etc fashion for you! Right at the intersection of Aggressively Political and Dramatically Romantic, bright, brash-- but still leaning into (then) modern styles. This look was about knowing the modern dress code enough to send very clear and specific messages; in this case, “Ready, willing, and able to throw down for the republic at any moment”. It could be toned up or down , but it was always  LOUD (Bouzingo Means Noise!!) and it was meant to be a legible message to anyone who’d been in Paris for five minutes.  Anyone wearing this outfit (a) knows how to do Style, and they’ve chosen to wear this look , and (b) is a fighter, or is about to become one, because oh,you will get punched in this outfit.  Or arrested. Or punched and then arrested. 

But you’re gonna look incredible when it happens. 

#Bousingot #Bouzingo Bouzingot Bousingo #Bahorel relevant #yeah it can go in the #Bahorel #tag #there is SO MUCH MORE i could say #but this is . 1700 words help #long post #canon era fashion

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

It’s been a week since his and Joly’s exchange, and the conversation returns to Enjolras at the strangest times, and never the ones he expects. When he sees the awful, awful potholder Bahorel made when he was first getting into Zero Waste on Combeferre’s table. When a girl in one of Enjolras’s grad classes starts talking her way through a nuanced political point she clearly knows nothing about. When he sees a sign outside of the bodega near his flat that chili is half-off. When he’s watching a documentary about microplastics.

Is Enjolras satisfied with his and Bahorel's arrangement?

Warnings: references to sex (not graphic), Tylenol misuse (not addiction, not PoV character, not a plot point)

For @fremedon for the WatchAlong Card Exchange.

#bahorel/enjolras #fandom 2.0 #fandom 2.0 RISE #les mis #les mis fanfic #les amis #holiday fic #kinda #there is mistletoe but it isn't actually really relevant #my track record of dodging kisses on the mouth is IMMACULATE #shitposting sometimes writes

[a-la-sante-du-progres]

A list of Les Mis headcanons I have because of fanon characterizations. I tried to keep out things that are suggested in canon or in adaptations. So:

-Les Amis are anticapitalist and they believe there is a class war. In the novel they look like radical republican -EDIT: I mean pro Republic and obviously NOT the American Republican- and socialdemocratic more than real socialists (except for Bahorel probably) but the fandom made them totally red and I embrace this headcanon.

-Jean Valjean will be saved and will never be estranged from his daughter. His last plot doesn't exist in none of my headcanons and I'm glad the fandom ignored it as well. They have a strong and healthy relationship. Marius will respect that or he will fuck off.

-Javert can and will be saved

-Reincarnation for every character.

-R is an artist. In the brick he dumped Art but I share the fanon vision of Grantaire being very fond of every art in canon era and also doing graphic design in modern era. He can be bitter about it tho.

-R is actually helpful once in a while.

-R IS NOT a misogynist in modern AUs and is also friend with several women. Musichetta is a good match, because if his closeness with JB, but also Irma and Floreal, subverting the canon dynamics. Eponine too. He's smart and he thinks a lot about systemic oppression so I agree he would be sympathetic to women in 2023. BUT I don't overlook R's misogyny in canon era.

-Grantaire and Eponine would get along very well, especially if the age gap was eliminated in AUs.

-Jehan has a gender non conforming style. Long hair for sure but also traditionally feminine clothing in his wardrobe, like skirts.

-Enjolras cares about Grantaire. This one may seem born in adaptations but imho fanworks got to it before musical productions.

-Courferre

-Eponine, Cosette, Musichetta are relevant in modern AU ABC plots.

-I love bi Cosette! Zero hints in the novel but it would be neat.

-If the scenario hasn't to be strictly canon compliant, Les Amis survive, take a while to heal and then they reprise the struggle.

#les miserables #les amis de l'abc #les miserables headcanons #les amis headcanons #enjolras #grantaire #combeferre #jean Valjean #cosette #javert #jehan prouvaire #enjoltaire #queer headcanons for les amis are not in this list because honestly there is a lot of les amis queercoding in the novel #the same applies to jvj and javert

[dolphin1812]

They’re here at last!!!

I love all of Les Amis, but their introductory paragraphs have also been pretty thoroughly analyzed - @everyonewasabird and @fremedon have pretty comprehensive posts on them from previous Brickclubs. Rather than go through them individually, then, I’ll try to point out some general trends that would be relevant to Marius (given that we meet them as soon as he’s kicked out of his house, we can assume there’s a connection):

The first major issue is the legacy of the French Revolution (1789) and the Terror (1793). All of the characters we meet here (with the exception of Grantaire) are attached to the legacy of the former, but they’re divided over the latter. Enjolras, for instance, is compared to Saint-Just – a more radical figure from that time period – and with his “warlike nature” and link to the “revolutionary apocalypse,” he’s definitely more in the tradition of ‘93 than ‘89, even if he’s attached to both. Combeferre, on the other hand, fears that kind of violence, only finding it acceptable if the only alternative is for things to stay the same. Like Marius’ newfound Bonapartism, all of their ideas come out of the clash and evolution of thought after the Revolution and the French Empire under Napoleon, placing each Ami in a similar position to him as they work out their ideas. All of them, though, came to a different conclusion than Marius, prioritizing the Republic over the Empire. At the same time, they’re all distinct from each other, too, revealing the diversity in French republican thought. With his limited exposure to political ideas outside of royalism (and now, idolization of Napoleon), the myriad veins of republicanism that the Amis offer broaden up the political sphere of the novel significantly.

On top of that, they’re a group; they can learn from each other in a way that Marius hasn’t had a chance to. Even Grantaire, who claims to not believe in anything, has friends, and while he distances himself from specific ideologies, his jokes illustrate that he’s familiar with them (for example: “He sneered at all devotion in all parties, the father as well as the brother, Robespierre junior as well as Loizerolles”). Marius doesn’t have friends or people to really work through ideas with. Oddly enough, the most similar structure to this that we’ve seen so far is the royalist salon. The key difference (aside from the obvious) is the chance to learn from different perspectives, whether that’s based on variations in republicanism, in priorities (conflict vs education, the local vs the international), or both. They’re not even all defined by their politics. Courfeyrac (who easily has the most insulting character introduction in the book) is defined by his character and personality first, with his political ideas mainly being a given from his participation in this group. These variations in emphasis, then, not only show us the diversity of their views, but the varying intensities with which they hold them (as in, you could talk to Courfeyrac about something that isn’t political, but you couldn’t do that with Enjolras) and how they’re kept together in spite of their disagreements (a common goal – a Republic – and many fun and socially savvy members). All of these factors serve to give a sense of liveliness as well, contrasting sharply with the “phantoms” of the royalist salon.

Les Amis aren’t very diverse class-wise, but they’re still better than the salon. Bahorel and Feuilly, at least, aren’t bourgeois or aristocrats.

Feuilly also brings us to the international level, far beyond Marius’ early attempts at imagining himself as part of a country. Focusing on the partition of Poland in particular, Feuilly advocates for national self-determination in all lands under imperial rule. The idea that a people should govern themselves was key to republican thought more broadly in that time (nationalism really took shape in the 18th-19th centuries), but to Feuilly, this isn’t just an issue of nationalism, but of tyranny:

“There has not been a despot, nor a traitor for nearly a century back, who has not signed, approved, counter-signed, and copied, ne variatur, the partition of Poland.”

The word “despot” ties this back to France in a way, with his rejection of despotism as it affects Poland possibly implying a similar anger at the same phenomenon in France. The Bourbons at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 were, after all, the same Bourbons who ruled during the Restoration. A quick note on Lesgle: I didn’t get the joke around “Bossuet” the first time I read this book. Then, I had to take a class on the French monarchy, and I was assigned a text by Bossuet of Meaux, court preacher to Louis XIV and fierce proponent of absolutism. His name seemed familiar, but it took me a while to think to check Les Mis? And now I think calling Lesgle Bossuet because he’s Lesgle (like l’aigle=eagle) of Meaux is one of the funniest jokes in this book.

#Les mis letters #lm 3.4.1 #les amis de l'abc #enjolras #combeferre #courfeyrac #feuilly #grantaire #Bahorel #Lesgle #bossuet #this ended up being much less organized than I’d hoped #But that’s OK because they’re here and now we can all talk about them!!

[lemeute]

Nonship Bingo!:D Enjolras and Bahorel, Bahorel and Feuilly, Enjolras and Feuilly :D (you are Aware of why I'm asking these three!)

(I am very aware :D)

FEUILLY & ENJOLRAS

they could successfully team up to do most things, even things neither of them is particularly skilled at, as long as they are convinced it is important. they're both fast learners and connecting a big picture understanding to the relevant plan and details. however, the range of things they think is important is possibly narrower than your average two people.

"notice me senpai" is mutual and it is not a phase. they are ride-or-die drift compatible besties, and can even be roommates, and they will still be little bit "notice me senpai"

found family is gonna be marked on all amis combinations, even if they don't know each other that well; like, it is so literally spelled out in the intro chapter that I gotta mark it! (I also think "would kill for each other" and "would die for each other" are gonna get marked a lot.)

ENJOLRAS & BAHOREL

things they should team up to do are mostly fighting. just...a lot of fighting. making trouble. getting out of trouble. et cetera. thus, I think it is inevitable that they have survived at least one harrowing situation. whether it was harrowing to Bahorel I can't say. he's really good at having a good time while having a terrible time. but like, objectively harrowing situations.

(the Specific Life Experience is also probably related to these kinds of situations)

the reason they would make good roommates is, I think, that as long as Enjolras loves and trusts you, he is a really tolerant roommate. he does not deserve to have to live with Bahorel's absolute nonsense lifestyle. but also he doesn't notice his surroundings that much unless they are either Task-Related, Really Bad, or A Riot.

BAHOREL & FEUILLY

none of the ones on here got at the really specific thing I see these two as having going on. so I put "intellectual rivals" as an option bc that felt like an important piece of the dynamic.

if there was a square that was just "Why Are U Like That. How Are U Like That"--that would complete this dynamic really well. like. "I would die for you and would also hang out with you regularly and also respectfully what the fuck"

#lm tag #feuilly #bahorel #enjolras #behold a meme

[winter-parrot]

went and saw the les mis nat tour. thought i maybe wouldn't cry so much this time, was wrong. having lots of thoughts and feelings. i'm gonna dump them here in whatever tangle they come out in because i want to document some of it while it is still Fresh.

act 1

did not expect the prologue (esp on parole) to hit me that hard. i almost cried and that was when i knew i was in for it tonight.

there were!! little brick moments esp in the prologue!!! that i really loved!!!

valjean stealing a coin from a kid. this has to be a petit gervais reference even it it came early during on parole instead of the brick-accurate what have i done

baptistine and mme. magloire were there with myriel!

fauchelevent got his leg wrecked by the cart and specifically had to be carried off, which doesn't feel like a detail i've seen often

the entire town coming out with pitchforks to see valjean arrested was A Lot.

they didn't do the parole slip rip-to-the-beat thing!! they just did one (1) at the end i miss it.

they gave?? most of the factory girls solo over to the foreman??? that was a weird choice

they made fantine's firing more personal for valjean, mainly by having her try to talk to him and be brushed aside during the factory fight. valjean also paused to look back before he walked offstage. i dislike this.

lovely ladies was so brutal. oh my god. i felt her degradation and despair in the lovely ladies descent a lot more viscerally than i usually do. and but god i wanted to punch bamatabois so bad. good work to the actor, but fuck that guy

tiny tiny nit but they kept saying monsieur mayor which was driving me nuts. pick a langaug dammit!

runaway cart continues to feel choppy bc of all the lines they cut out of it.

it's not by the face, it's not by the voice, no, it's by the lifting that you recognize a man. this will always be funny to me.

there was!! a french flag!!! flying over the courtroom scene!!! it had words on them but i couldn't see all of it. the middle looked like egalite as you'd expect, but the far right was justice?? fraternite seems like a weird one to replace with justice, so maybe the whole thing was different? I couldn't even see the left where liberte would go bc of the stage lights.

little cosette was so good. oh sweet child you desrve all the hugs.

surprisingly managed to mostly enjoy master of the house. hated the opening more than i ever have before, specifically watching the audience laugh at mme thenardier abusing cosette. i realize it's not entirely the audience's fault, the show is absolutely playing it for laughs, but the ick was high today.

i will never not find show me where you live funny

look down broke in while jvj and cosette were stil having their sweet moment. idk if it was intentional but it felt very ominous and it worked

oh god gavroche was so tiny. i've never seen a gavroche feel so viscerally young, with all the invincible courage and rashness and childness bravado. i almost cried when he first appeared just because he was so small and so young and i knew what was coming.

i did a lot of crying in not-technically-sad scenes because i knew what was coming. oh god.

gavroche seemed to have a bit of hero-worship of enjolras, a la his relationship to bahorel in the book. this did become relevant in the most painful way that i feared.

i love enjolras's red waistcoat in look down

on the topic of enjo's costuming, i make fun of him for being half naked a lot. but i realized today that all the students are fully dressed (buttoned up, waistcoat + cravat, jacket) in act 1 but end up at more-or-less enjo level of (un)dress on the barricade.

is?? state of (un)dress being used as a visual shorthand for revolutionary fervour???

i think??? enjo almost got arrested after the look down scene. i missed the actual onset but i looked back towards him to find an officer waving a truncheon menacingly in his face, so.

in my life felt very ick!! which is not what was expecting. mostly it's the staging where cosette is trapped inside the courtyard pushing out at the bars, valjean comes in, unlocks the door for himself, and then locks the two of them back in. it brought back beeblemis trauma honestly.

(obligatory???) acknowledgment that vlajean does kind of become cosette's jailor in the brick, but the musical doesn't really have the room for that kind of nuance. not when we see so little of them.

courf just?? randomly grabbed a gun at the from nowhere?? at the end of red and black???

enjolras then shouted to the streets! raising said gun right before do you hear the people sing. this isn't the baricades yet!! this is a demonstrably bad choice like one (musical) day before your planned rebellion. especially if he's already been almost arrested. boy, what are you thinking???

i miss the revolve. they had to do some weird snaky maneuvers to keep marching without walking off stage. it looked stupid honestly.

garoche & enjolras's deaths area also elevated by the revolve imho

also the barricade revolve is just cool

oh god how am i not at the end of act 1 yet.

the one day more overlapping medley at the end felt werid disjointed and i'm not sure why?

one day more also made me cry not bc the song itself is particualrly sad but i couldn't stop thinking in one day more most of you will be dead which was. heartbreaking.

okay now i'm done act 1

act 2

i have less to say about act 2 i mostly just cried a lot

the tragedy of on my own really struck me, i think bc eponine felt more defiant?? like more angry about her fate, less lovestruck.

i cried at now we pledge ourselves to hold this barricade. more anticipatory grief knowing what was coming.

enj felt like a very good leader which i always appreciate. i love him, my boy.

javert's uncovering felt so violent in a way that i'm not used to seeing on stage. they fought. several times. it was very physical and tense.

also gavroche was so fucking proud and i was so fucking proud of him too and so fucking sad.

the audience laughed at now hat i know that you love... me as well which was. weird??? is that normally a laugh spot???

a little fall of rain wrecked me, partly for eponine's death, but partly for gavroche showing up just in time to see her die. musical gave no indication of their relation but i know and i was sad.

the progression from they will see the people rise to the people too must rise to the people have not stirred. god!!! this is not new but it did strike me anew today!!

courfeyrac??? told valjean well done, sir and like banged his gun against the barricade as a gesture of respect/praise??? that was weird on so many levels. idk where that came from.

i started crying near the end of bring him home and basically did not stop for the rest of act 2. only lessened in intensity at times.

grantaire's verse in drink with me was very belligerent and enjo was not putting up with it. i'm used to seeing this as a moment for enjo to comfort/soothe r (at least in the last ~10 years of productions) but this enjo was not fucking having it. it was more hostile than comforting. gavroche ran off to comfort r after.

oh my god gavroche's death. sans revolve they obviously couldn't show him on the other side of the barricade. so we just hear some shots, and then he throws the ammo over, and then he gets to the top of the barricade -- and then he gets shot down, right into enjo's arms. he then gets passed to grantaire, who stands there holding him for the entire lead up to the final battle.

enjolras was?? the first to die??? he ran up to the top of the barricade not to shoot but to wave the red flag, and then was the first to get shot down. then the rest of the amis in the standard cross-beam of spotlights thing. and then, last of all, grantaire puts down gavroche, runs up to the peak where enjo died, and is shot.

i'm not exactly upset about grantaire getting that moment, but him getting it alone -- esp after enjolras was the first to die -- felt like a weird choice.

the oboe solo pause after the final battle continues to be my downfall

thenardier says [God's] as dead as the stiffs at my feet while standing over marius. i have yet to decide if this is an intentional staging choice as commentary on "God may look dead but he's alive, i promise" or just a coincidence

they dropped valjean's there is a life to save line, no idea why

javert was so unhinged during his suicide. he was waving a pistol around for the first half and i briefly but genuinely feared they were going to restage his suicide to be by gun. thankfully it was an unfounded fear.

the candles are still my undoing!!!! i knew exactly what was coming when they brought them out during turning and yet. and yet. the simultaneous blowing out made me bawl.

side note, ghost!grantaire and enjolras appeared flanking gavroche and my first thought was are they his parents now??

dear god please do not let them parent anybody. they're bad enough individually but as a pair??? unthinkable.

i almost laughed during valjean's confession bc all i could think was ahh yiss story time with papa. i was still crying but it did not stop me from snorting.

can we cut that weird opening to beggar at the feast. you know the one.

this one's a jew is more ick than usual given current events

tacking on i might try it too after this one's a queer does not, in fact, make it gay liberation!!! it just makes it gross!!!

you've already cut so many lines from this show, why is this bit still here

take it away and give me back the i remember eponine lines in the same damn song!!!!

i think that's all for act 2??? even if it it's itls fucking late and this post has exceeded 2k words so fuck it.

general notes

i can trace the 2012 movie influences in places, that was unexpected

splashing waves as the opening imagery of work song

were the msurm factory uniforms always that blue?

did fantine's death always have that white curtain?

fantine spitting on valjean was a hathaway thing, wasn't it?

gavroche gets to keep his this is the land that fought for liberty line! i'm torn about this bc i love those lines but also this is my school, my high society bit was good too

the harmony at the end of red and black!!!! it was like my favourite music change for the move i love that they kept it

entire master of the house scene staging felt very movie-ish, just in the ~vibes~ of it

nose boops!! valjean boops cosette like four times i'm p sure that's a movie popularization

actor / character interpretation thoughts

valjean was good! i liked him better in the first act 24601/madeleine side than on the act 2 fauchlevent side, but still good

fantine was angry and i liked that.

thenardiers were mostly good. weird that they made mme obviously lust over other people??

marius was fun! good balance of earnest lovable genuine and idiot himbo booby.

did not like cosette. this is the first time i've actively disliked a portrayal of cosette and it was a big pity. the musical does enough infantalizing of adult!cosette already, i really did not need the actress to play that up.

mixed opinions about javert. honestly i think he's a fine musical javert i just like my book javert too much. obsessed with jvj, openly defiant to madeleine, very Godly, that kind of thing. but his voice was good and his suicide was extremely unhinged in a good way.

i fucking adored enjolras. he felt older?? which is not exactly the right vibe but it came with the right vibe of authority and calm that i super super appreciated. also he sounded beautiful and his hair was a glorious mane of curls.

grantaire is a delightful garbage bastard man.

i've already talked about gavroche but god gavroche!!!

courfeyrac kept catching my eye in both good ways and bad. kind of felt like he became ami #3? (after enjo and marius, per the musical). very often on enjolras's left, the first to seize a gun, the first to praise jvj on "killing" valjean (that was weird, what was that), etc etc.

song list in playbill was not incorrect but kind of weird. notable mentions:

the entirety of prologue was just listed as prologue

both what have i done and javert's suicide were just listed as soliloquy (not even x's soliloquy)

confrontation wasn't listed at all?? i'd think it was folded into come to me, odd as that seems, except that just has fantine and valjean listed.

drink with me became drink with me to days gone by???

all the little bits and pieces of song missing was expected, but seeing none of the battles listed at all felt a little weird. not even the final battle.

the spotlights on stage were mostly yellow/warm white, except for when someone died/was near death, where they got bright cold white spotlights. except javert -- he got the cold white spotlight in stars, too, and in one day more.

was this an intentional choice to make a statement about javert??

was this just an accidental coincidence??

did other non-dying people get the white spotlight too and i just didn't notice??

#les mis #oh god this got so long #2100 words.. help... #i had to go back and update several times bc the wordcount is making tumblr editor unusable on my browser rn #and i was afraid of losing 2k words #so i had to write and save in chunks #did you know there's a 4096 character-per-block limit??? #i sure didn't until today #if anyone wants to Talk To Me about this PLEASE DO #sylvie says

[almondmisery]

Sometimes I go through my calculus notes from winter quarter to look at the chaos, and today I realized that there were a lot of stupid things...enough to, that’s right, make a:

Les Amis as Stupid Things I Wrote in the Margins of My Calculus Notebook

Enjolras:

Courfeyrac:

Combeferre:

Feuilly:

Bahorel:

Jehan:

Joly:

Bossuet:

Grantaire:

#les amis de l’abc #les amis as posts #les mis #this could almost qualify as les mis x math but i wont use the tag #anyway yeah my calc notebook has a lot #fun fact the cursing page that’s bahorel was from the one day someone asked me to borrow my notes from #how’s that for chance #anyway wow imagine me making blog relevant original content #who woulda thunk it

[benevolenterrancy]

Im so shocked to find someone else who likes BOTH ace attorney and les mis hiii. if edgeworth and phoenix were to ever met enjolras and grantaire what would happen u think. or kay & sebastian and gavroche & eponine if thats more ur boat

Hi!!! Weird niche combos, ayyye!!! And listen, I love other fandoms crossing over with Ace Attorney because the AA world is already so friggin weird you basically can't do anything that would make it weirder.

Okay, if Phoenix and Edgeworth met Les Amis in just like... a pub or something, the meeting would last about two minutes because Phoenix and Edgeworth are both, in their souls, old men who would hear that boisterous nightmare and immediately leave to find a quieter spot to sit. (Larry or Maya might be gravitationally drawn towards the chaos, but not those two)

But lbr if this is the Ace Attorney universe they aren't meeting in a pub. They're meeting because someone's been accused of murder, that's the only way Phoenix meets anyone.

Enjolras definitely seems like the ideal client for like ten minutes. He's well spoken, looks cherubic, and seems sensible, who could possibly think of accusing him of murder! He looks, feels, and sounds innocent! Huge improvement on most of their clients! Until he's actually in court and they realize that 1) he will get passionately off topic and good luck stopping him -- the judge keeps getting completely drawn into whatever Enjolras is saying and it's never relevant to the case. 2) When the angelic facade comes down, he actually comes across as super suspicious because he is definitely a passionate and rather ruthless revolutionary leader with means and motive.

As for everyone else... man it would just be clown town. There's so much potential for interesting interactions. Grantaire on the stand would be exactly like Oldbag -- the text just keeps scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and... Using Apollo's ability on Joly would just be a nightmare because the man is basically one continuous nervous tic, good luck figuring out which one is the nervous tic...

Bahorel is obviously in hell -- not only is his friend accused of murder, but there are so many lawyers around here. Also it forces him to acknowledge that he actually knows stuff about law, and that's just disgusting. I feel like Kay and Gavroche would be bros, forcing Edgeworth to adopt another delinquent child...

There's absolutely more here -- thoughts?

#ace attorney #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #les mis #les miserables #grantaire #edgeworth #apollo justice #athena cykes #kay faraday #maya fey #bahorel #gavroche #holy crow guys it's been a REALLY long time since i last drew les mis characters #it felt good and weird to return to that #does make me want to draw more grantaire i'd almost forgotten how fun it is to draw that potato - and enjolras with his crazy hair #i had originally tried designing enjolras a modern day look but then i realized that i could put him in canon era clothes #and he still wouldn't be the weirdest dressed person in that courtroom #my art #bene speaks #ace attorney crossovers are hilarious i really do love them #i would love to hear other peoples thoughts #i don't know anything about sebastian though idk how all you people have managed to play investigations 2 but i sure haven't #i'm sitting here in my corner looking sadly at capcom waiting for them to give me a gd translation

[kjack89]

Man I always get whiplash from your blog layout, it's great. Anyway, 44 (Tentative kisses given in the dark.) for exr *eyes emoji*

Sorry not sorry about the blog layout XD

Anyway, this was supposed to be something else, something sweeter, but then this happened, and, well...

ExR, modern AU, developing relationship.

Enjolras dumped his bag on a table in the backroom of the Musain and started unbuttoning his coat, though he paused when he saw Grantaire, Joly and Bossuet at a table in the corner, their heads together as they discussed something with what looked like urgency.

His curiosity piqued, Enjolras wandered over to them. “Not to use ableist language, but if you believe that, you’re cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs,” Bossuet said dismissively, as Joly nodded in agreement.

Grantaire snorted. “Not entirely sure that’s ableist, though General Mills may sue for copyright violations. Besides, I’m not the one who’s apparently lost what’s left of my marbles.”

“Look, copyright violations aside, I think Bossuet’s got a point—” Joly started, but Grantaire cut him off.

“Oh, sure, take his side like always,” Grantaire sniped.

Enjolras cleared his throat and all three startled before looking over at him. “Dare I ask what you three are arguing about?” he asked mildly, and to his surprise, Joly blushed.

“I wouldn’t call it an argument,” he hedged, glancing sideways at Bossuet, who nodded emphatically.

“Right, it’s really more of a disagreement.”

Enjolras raised an eyebrow. “Fine, what are you disagreeing about?”

Grantaire smiled blithely at him, the only one of three who didn’t look remotely abashed. “Whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not.”

Enjolras blinked. He had not been expecting that. “Uh...what?”

“You know, the holiday classic starring Bruce Willis,” Grantaire said cheerfully. “Which I maintain, if you’re going to allow films like It’s a Wonderful Life and Holiday Inn, which, let’s not forget, features actual blackface, to be counted as Christmas films, you also have to allow Die Hard, which is arguably even more Christmas-y since it actually takes place fully at Christmas.”

Grantaire said this all with absolute confidence, which bewildered Enjolras almost as much as Joly, who leaned forward to tell Grantaire, equally heated, “Christmas-y is not a word, and also, the point isn’t whether they take place solely at Christmas time, but whether they’re filled with, y’know, Christmas spirit. Which Die Hard is not.”

Bossuet cleared his throat. “What do you think, Enjolras?” he asked loudly as Grantaire stuck his tongue out at Joly.

Enjolras shook his head slowly. “Believe it or not, this is one area where I don’t really have an opinion.”

Grantaire raised both eyebrows as he did what he clearly thought was a comical doubletake. “I could die of shock.”

“Well, try not to, at least not until we have your mockup for the mutual aid fundraiser flyers,” Enjolras said sourly.

“And here I thought you didn’t value my contributions,” Grantaire said with a grin. “But seriously, you don’t have an opinion on Die Hard?”

“Oh, I have opinions,” Enjolras assured him. “I just don’t think they’re relevant to this particular debate.”

Grantaire fluttered his eyelashes at him. “As if that’s ever stopped you before,” he said sweetly.

Enjolras scowled. “You really want my opinion on if I think a movie featuring an extrajudicial cop qualifies as having the spirit belonging to a holiday devoted to capitalism and religious imperialism?” he asked sharply, and Joly and Bossuet had the good sense to look a little embarrassed. “Because in that case, I do have some fascinating insights on the ties between the military industrial complex and evangelical Christianity.”

Joly and Bossuet grumbled and turned away, clearly ready to continue the conversation without Enjolras, but Grantaire propped his chin on his hand and smirked at Enjolras. “Fascinating though your use of big words may be, you didn’t actually answer the question.”

“The question of whether I think Die Hard is a Christmas movie?” 

“Yeah.”

Enjolras looked at him flatly. “Is ‘I don’t give a flying fuck’ an answer?”

Grantaire’s smile widened. “Not so much, no.”

“Oh, so when you give me that as an answer during Les Amis meetings, I’m just supposed to accept it, but when it comes to inane debates about Christmas movies, it’s not good enough?” Enjolras asked sourly.

Grantaire nodded. “Pretty much, yeah.”

For a moment, Enjolras considered telling Grantaire that he should focus on more important things, but he could only imagine all the ways that would backfire on him. “Fine. Then Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. Happy?”

Grantaire cocked his head slightly. “I’d be happier if you could explain why you think that.”

Enjolras stared at him. “Because it just...it isn’t.”

Grantaire’s smirk was back, and his tone turned teasing. “C’mon, cite your sources, this isn’t your first debate, you know better than that.”

“I don’t have to cite anything!” Enjolras snapped. “It’s not a Christmas movie. End of discussion.”

“Then why did Bahorel wear a sweatshirt with ‘Now I have a machine gun, Ho-ho-ho’ written on it in red paint to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party last week?” Grantaire countered.

Enjolras blinked. “Wait, that was from Die Hard?”

“Of course it was from—” Grantaire broke off, something like glee lighting up his face. “Wait a minute, have you actually seen Die Hard?”

“I’ve seen parts of it…” Enjolras hedged.

“That does not count.” Grantaire stood up. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Go where?”

“My place,” Grantaire said cheerfully. “We’re watching Die Hard.”

Enjolras stared at him. “What? Why?”

“Because you claim to hate it but you’ve never even seen it,” Grantaire said, as if it was obvious.

“And what part of my description of it would make you think that I would enjoy it even if I did watch it?”

Grantaire snorted. “No one said anything about enjoying it. I just think you should actually have an informed opinion about something if you’re going to wade into such hard-hitting debates as ‘Is Die Hard a Christmas movie’.”

Grantaire’s tone was innocent, but Enjolras ground his teeth together, recognizing that he had said the same exact thing to Grantaire during a Les Amis meeting the previous week in regards to a debate on restorative justice and an article that Grantaire hadn’t actually read. “I don’t exactly have a spare two hours to waste on this right now,” Enjolras snapped.

“Sure you do,” Grantaire said cheerfully. “What else do you have to work on?”

Enjolras immediately blanked on any of the things he could possibly have to work on. “That’s– that’s not the point,” he spluttered, but it was too late. Grantaire had already taken his arm and was steering him towards the door. 

“We’ll be back in a little over two hours and twelve minutes,” Grantaire called over his shoulder, and Enjolras sighed resignedly.

“I am so going to regret this.”

----------

Die Hard, as it turned out, was everything Enjolras had suspected, and then some, and about a half hour into it, he shifted on Grantaire’s couch and tossed a look over at Grantaire, who had thus far been more silent than he’d ever been at any Les Amis meeting. He could barely see Grantaire’s face in the dark room (Grantaire had insisted they leave the lights off for a ‘true cinematic’ experience), and was sorely tempted to elbow him or many any number of snide comments when he noticed Grantaire’s lips moving, just slightly, in time with Alan Rickman’s character speaking on screen.

“Are you...mouthing the lines of the movie?” Enjolras whispered, and Grantaire waved a dismissive hand.

“Shh,” he said. “And yeah, so?”

“So of all the movies in all the world, Die Hard is the one you have memorized?”

Grantaire gave him a look. “What part of shh don’t you understand?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same question during every Les Amis meeting,” Enjolras said, a little sourly. “Besides, since you clearly have the movie memorized, it’s not like you’re going to miss anything.”

Grantaire sighed but relented, half-turning to face Enjolras. “Fine, if you must know, Die Hard happens to be my favorite Christmas movie and, honestly, one of my favorite non-Christmas movies as well.”

Enjolras wrinkled his nose. “Ok, but...why?”

Grantaire made a face. “You’re going to think it’s dumb.”

“Dumber than the movie itself?” Enjolras asked, only half-joking.

Grantaire gave him a look. “Because responses like that are so likely to make me want to confide in you.” Enjolras held his hands up defensively and Grantaire sighed again. “Honestly, it’s my favorite movie because of John McClane, because...well, because he reminds me of you.”

“He – what?”

Enjolras wished he had come up with something more eloquent to say, but luckily, Grantaire didn’t seem to notice, as he was busy avoiding meeting his eyes. “Well, y’know,” he said, shrugging uncomfortably. “Saving the world, or at least Nakatomi plaza, by any means necessary because you realize that sometimes the system is broken and to do the most good, sometimes you’ve got to do it yourself.”

Enjolras opened his mouth to respond and immediately closed it again, mostly to swallow his immediate reaction which was to vehemently deny any similarity between himself and a cop, because despite himself, he knew that wasn’t what Grantaire meant.

Or at least, it better not have been.

“Well,” he said, after the silence between them had stretched to almost uncomfortable, “the comparison to a police officer aside, thank you for, y’know...saying that.” Grantaire nodded stiffly and Enjolras cleared his throat to try to make the moment less awkward. “So, uh, if I’m John McClane, who does that make you.”

Grantaire snorted. “Oh, Argyle, definitely.”

Enjolras gave him a look. “Be serious.”

Grantaire smiled, but it was a pale imitation of his usual smirk. “I am wild.”

Enjolras nudged him with his elbow. “So who?”

Shrugging slightly, Grantaire leaned back against the couch arm rest. “I dunno, probably one of the hostages that dies or something.” Enjolras just looked expectantly at him and Grantaire sighed. “Fine, I always thought if I was like anyone, I’d be most like Holly.”

Enjolras blinked. “John McClane’s wife?”

Grantaire nodded. “Yeah, she’s badass and not afraid to give heroes and villains alike a piece of her mind.”

“You do have that in common, I suppose,” Enjolras said with a light laugh.

“Yeah, but more importantly than a mouth that won’t quit, she doesn’t have to be the hero,” Grantaire continued. “She’s there to help and do what she can, but at the end of the day, it’s John McClane who saves the day, and she’s just along for the ride. And when it comes to Les Amis, and saving the world, well…” He trailed off. “I may be a lot of things, but I think we can both agree I’m not a hero.”

“I don’t know about that,” Enjolras said automatically, and it was hard to say whether he or Grantaire was more surprised. Grantaire stared at him, wide-eyed, and Enjolras flushed before adding, “I mean, uh…”

He trailed off, not able to actually find the excuse he was looking for, and after a long moment, Grantaire forced a laugh before looking pointedly back at the TV. “Well, in any case, spoiler alert Holly also gets the hero in the end, and that we can definitely agree is not in the cards for me.”

“It could be.”

Enjolras would never know what made him say it, but as soon as he did, he knew he meant it. They’d been dancing around this, and each other, for years, and if he didn’t say something now, he wasn’t sure there was any other time that it could happen.

Even if it was happening with John McClane killing vaguely European henchmen in the background.

“Enj—” Grantaire breathed, but Enjolras had already closed the space between them, cupping Grantaire’s cheek with one hand before kissing him lightly.

It was a quick kiss, light and fleeting and a little hesitant, because awkward kisses in the dark while Die Hard played was like something out of high school and Enjolras hadn’t been any more sauve in high school than he was now, but then Grantaire’s lips parted with a sigh and he kissed Enjolras back in earnest.

They broke apart sometime later, Die Hard long forgotten in the background, and Grantaire’s grin was so bright that Enjolras almost forgot the lights were off. “If this is your idea of Christmas, I gotta be here for New Year’s,” Grantaire murmured, and Enjolras raised an eyebrow at him.

“What?” he asked, amused.

Grantaire’s grin didn’t so much as flicker. “It’s a line from the movie,” he said. “We can always watch the rest of it, if you’d like.”

“If only there wasn’t something better to do,” Enjolras said dryly before leaning in and kissing him again. 

When the movie finally ended, Grantaire pulled away from Enjolras and fumbled for the remote to turn the TV off. He looked back at Enjolras, a slow smile spreading across his face. “So, uh, what’s the verdict - is Die Hard a Christmas movie?”

Enjolras pretended to consider it. “You know, honestly, I didn’t actually see a whole lot of the movie.”

“Shame,” Grantaire said, grinning.

Enjolras nodded. “Yeah. Guess that just means we’ll have to try it again sometime.”

“I’m pretty sure that can be arranged.”

Grantaire leaned in to kiss him again but Enjolras stopped him, resting his hand lightly against Grantaire’s chest. “You do realize we’re not going to watch Die Hard every time we want to do this, right?”

“Of course not. There’s also Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard—” Enjolras groaned and Grantaire laughed, leaning in and kissing him lightly. “Well, we’ll figure something out.”

“Yeah,” Enjolras said, kissing him again. “I’m sure we will.”

#exr #enjolras x grantaire #enjoltaire #enjolras #grantaire #joly #bossuet #and lots of discussion of Die Hard #les miserables #modern au #developing relationship #ask #answered #adorablecrab #sorry that i took your prompt and did #y'know #this with it

[pilferingapples]

An Ongoing Effort to Index This Blog

You’re probably here for reference material! Here’s a tag list to hopefully make finding that easier!

Before I get into the tag lists, a note on my Editorial Policy, such as it is:  I truly appreciate corrections, warnings about bloggers/writers operating in bad faith, etc! But if you’re contacting me with actionable info please come off anon or leave me some other way to get hold of you, so I can follow up if I need more info! I don’t post or reblog incorrect or hateful material on purpose, which means if I missed something I probably need more information!  I’m happy to keep a convo private if asked, I just need to be able to verify my sources. 

That out of the way! The tags!

(I had all these linked before accidentally deleting this post once; it's going to be a While before I can repair those links. If you want to find any of these , just go to pilferingapples.tumblr.com/tagged/name of tag and it should work!) Les Miserables Specific: -BrickClub: former readthroughs - LM X.X.X (as in: LM 1.2.3): chapter specific tags -Fandom 101: stuff that’s hopefully useful for people just starting to look around ; if there’s something not here you think would be useful, let me know! -Fashion,or:  Canon Era Fashion : what it says on the tin - Les Misereference: a general tag of all kinds of things , if you just wanna binge canon-era reference - (Character) relevant: references and commentary specifically relevant to one character.  Note that this includes “barricade relevant”, “Amis relevant” as a group, and, yes, “sewer relevant” - (character) talk: discussion of a character/concept , like “ Grantaire Talk”  or “sewer talk”  -what’s the meta for:  a general catchall tag for analysis discussion; mostly older stuff- Paris in Canon Era:  historical info for the True Main Character ; incl. sewers, schools, etc  - maps : They Are Maps - FRev :  goofy fannish stuff and silliness about the French Revolution - FRENCH REVOLUTION: actual historical/ analytical posts about the French Revolution (NOT when Les Mis is set, but hugely influential!)  -Women in the Revolution: what it says! historical /analyses stuff about women in various revolutions and uprisings, though mostly the 1830s and the Frev.  Romanticism Specific:  - Actual Romantics : stories and histories on members of the French Romantic movement -Four People and a Shoelace: specifically about the Petit Cenacle/Jeunes France crew -Hugolania: trivia and random Hugo homages/commentary/fandom stuff. Because Hugo always  had a fandom. more, doubtless, as I think of them! Adaptations: - Les Mis Stage : things about /from the stage musical  -Les Mis Dallas, Dallas Les Mis :  the 2014 Dallas Theater Center modernized production -Les Mis 2012 : things about/from the 2012 musical movie  -Shoujo Cosette: the 52-episode anime; characters from this sometimes just get tagged SC(character)  -Les Mis Arai:  the multivolume manga - Other Adaptations : what it says on the tin , including other musical adaptations, movies, and tv shows  Fanwork Specific -(Character) art:  exactly what you’d expect  - Canon era fic :..again… - Modern AU : rarely needed, but sometimes! -Fic Rec, Ficrec-what it says  Character/ Group/ Ship/Pairing tags, when not just a character’s name : - The Pontmercy Friend: Marius  - All of Them : the Amis as a group -Most of Them: ALMOST all the Amis as a group -Poetry Smash: Bahorel and Prouvaire  -Justice and His Tutor: Enjolras and Feuilly  - Bini!, Bini:  Joly and Bossuet  - OMST3K: J/B/M, for reasons - Power Trio: Enjolras, Combeferre and Courfeyrac  - Party Trio: Joly, Legle , and Grantaire -To Watch Faith Soar: Enjolras and Grantaire Ships Ahoy:  any content focused on romance  (these are NEVER EVER Ship Tags): - Owl and Wren : Valjean and Cosette - Para Bellum: Bahorel and Gavroche

#pinned post #THANK YOU SEAGLASS #long post

[aromantic-enjolras]

(hello! Idk if you prefer asks to your main blog or this one but anyways I am here)

8. Do you prefer happy, bittersweet, or sad endings?

14. Name a fandom/ship/character that you love that others would send you hate mail for liking

20. Name a song that reminds you heavily of a specific fandom or character

(Either one is cool! Whichever you follow the most or feel is more relevant. In this case the difference will be that if you ask me about fandom in this blog I’ll answer with Les Miz stuff and if you had asked my main I’d had answered with Cats stuff.)

8. Do you prefer happy, bittersweet, or sad endings?

Normally either happy or bittersweet. Sad endings have to be well-deserved, I don’t like being sad.

... What the hell am I doing in this fandom??

14.  Name a fandom/ship/character that you love that others would send you hate mail for liking

Hmmm, this one is hard... I feel being into Cats can get me some weird looks? Also, I am very protective of Mary Morstan from Sherlock. She was a cool character before she got fridged and she didn’t deserve the shit she got just because people wanted John and Sherlock to get together.

I do have a few Les Miz headcanons I love that I think could get me hatemail, though. The big one is obviously “Enjolras is romance-repulsed aromantic and finds Grantaire creepy and annoying”, but I also have a really big soft spot for white, blond, rich Enjolras who is privileged in almost every way but chooses to care for other people’s problems, and also for gender-non-conforming cis Jehan who is very done with people assuming he’s non-binary just because he likes poetry and flowers and has long hair.

20. Name a song that reminds you heavily of a specific fandom or character 

Oooooh boy, do I have a lot of these!! I’ve been talking to @my-life-as-a-reader for a good hour today just about what songs remind us of what Amis... so they’re going to be a lot and in Spanish, sorry in advance!

For Grantaire, you have “Las Ruinas”, by Silvio Rodríguez (a love song full of Ancient Greek references) and a fuckton of Joaquín Sabina. In particular, we can see Bossuet or Éponine singing “Conductores Suicidas” to him (a song about being worried for a friend and fellow partier who has gone too far down the addiction hole), and Grantaire singing “El Muro de Berlín” to Enjolras to rile him up (a song about how old activists have become bourgeois).

For Enjolras, the song I quoted for my aro!Enjolras fic, “Créeme” by Vicente Feliú (a song about not having time for love because you are too busy with the Revolution), and also “El Necio” by Silvio Rodríguez (a song about staying true to your ideals even if it kills you).

For Bahorel, “CRS” by Les Wriggles and “Romero el Madero” by Ska-P (both songs are about answering to police brutality with violence).

I could continue, a lot, but let’s stop there. Someone else has also asked me that question, and I don’t want to overwhelm you! ;)

#Answer time #text posts #fandom #headcanons #Les Misérables #Cats (the musical) #Sherlock (the BBC series) #Mary Morstan #Johnlock #Enjolras #aro!Enjolras #Jehan Prouvaire #Grantaire #Bahorel #Silvio Rodríguez #Joaquín Sabina #Ska-P #my posts #long posts

[permets-tu-means-i-love-you]

ExR: "God, I missed you"

Hope this suits your needs anon.

Summary: Enjolras returns home from college nervous that nobody will remember him.

Warnings: Intrusive thoughts, tell me if you need anything else listed/tagged.

Enjolras was worried. Even though he should be celebrating, he couldn’t shake the anxiety that stuck with him. He had just graduated from law school after seven excruciatingly long years. Now, he was moving back home. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem, except for the fact that he had a large group of friends he hadn’t seen for, what, three years now? Sure, he’d kept in contact, but that didn’t change the fact that he hadn’t seen them face to face in forever.

He tried to visit them every once in a while, but as uni progressed he’d had less and less time to do so. Instead, regular texting was how they had to communicate, but even that had slowed down as more and more work had been piled onto Enjolras’ workload. It’s not like he’d been avoiding them, he just hadn’t had much time to do anything other than schoolwork.

As he taped the last of his moving boxes, he looked around his now empty dorm room. Seeing it so lifeless only made him more anxious about leaving. He had lived in this room for seven long, stressful years. Now he had to go back to a place he barely remembered. 

A tiny, nagging voice in the back of his head appeared, bringing unwanted thoughts with it. “And you’re back to people who barely remember you. They haven’t seen you for three years, why would they want to see you now?”

“That’s not true,” Enjolras said, thinking aloud. “I texted them last night and they said they were glad I was coming back.”

“But remember how long it took them to reply? It took them an hour to just read the text. And Combeferre was the only one who replied. Sure sounds like excitement to me. They don’t want you back, they only replied out of pity.”

He tried to argue with the intrusive thoughts, but anything he did only made them worse. He tried using various distraction tactics Jehan had showed him, but those didn’t help either.

“What if when you get back everyone hates you? What if you get back and nobody remembers you? What if you get back and you blackout and murder everybody? What if-”

Overwhelmed with anxiety, he instinctively started tapping a rhythm against his leg. He focused on that until he couldn’t hear the thoughts anymore, then picked up the last box and walked outside.

Once the last box had been neatly arranged in the back of his car, he sat down in the driver’s seat but hesitated before turning the key. There was still one train of thought that stuck with him.

“What if when you get back, Grantaire hates you? What if when you get back Grantaire doesn’t remember you? What if you get back and something’s happened to Grantaire?”

These thoughts had been plaguing his mind for longer than he’d like to admit. He’d been in love with Grantaire for some time, but he’d never told him. He’d kept his feelings bottled up for years, and now it was coming back to bite him in the ass. His anxiety increased every time he thought of how reuniting with his friends, but more specifically, Grantaire would go. He decided to stop thinking about it, but that didn’t do much to calm his fears.

He started the ignition and began the hour-long drive, only his thoughts, and The Greatest Showman soundtrack for company. It was going to be a very, very long drive…

~~~

Grantaire woke to the sound of his phone going off like a siren, a million notifications screeching to be acknowledged. Still half asleep, he reached over to grab his phone, almost dropping it in the process. He turned on his phone to see more than 100 messages in the group chat, all of them probably important. He glanced at the time and almost fell off of his bed. Now wide awake, he scrambled to throw on some clothes.

“Courf is going to kill me,” he thought as he rushed out the door, scrambling to get to the Musain. “It’s 1 am and I just woke up. I thought I had an alarm set…”

While it wouldn’t be much of a problem any other day, today was the day Enjolras finally got back from uni. It had been years since he last saw him, and he had been texting less and less. It was understandable, given that he was in his graduating year, but it had still hurt when a text went unanswered for days.

Grantaire burst through the doors of the Musain to find everything arranged perfectly, waiting for Enjolras. Then he heard a voice from the other room.

“Is that Grantaire? Move aside ‘Ferre, I need to commit a crime.”

Courfeyrac entered the room, glaring at Grantaire with a murderous rage. 

“And just where have you been? You were supposed to help make the decorations! And help with the baking!”

“Would you believe me if I said I got… uh… caught in… traffic?”

“You live, like, a block away. Wait, do you even have a car? Nevermind, I don’t care. What I do care about is you showing up hours late! What is wrong with you!”

“Many things, but the relevant problem would be that my alarm didn’t go off when it was supposed to. Either that or I slept through it.”

Courfeyrac sighed, looking disappointed but not surprised. “At least you came… Well, since there’s nothing left to do, I guess you can just hang out until he gets here.”

Courfeyrac walked away and Grantaire sat down at a table, wondering if it was too early to start drinking. Suddenly, Combeferre rushed in through the door carrying a bag of chips.

“He’s coming! Everyone get out here, quick!”

Everyone scrambled out into the open, smiling excitedly and chattering loudly. After a few seconds, the noise died down as everyone waited in anticipation for Enjolras to walk through the door. Grantaire couldn’t see him come in over the crowd, but he did see the top of the door swing open and everyone rush toward him as they yelled “Surprise!”

The place erupted with laughs and smiles, talking about things they’ve missed out on and things to update Enjolras about. After everyone backed off and stopped crowding him so intensely, Grantaire tried to see him through the crowd with no luck. He wasn’t going to stand and try to push to the front, he wasn’t even that sure if Enjolras even wanted to see him.

He heard Eponine loudly announce how much she’d missed him and how she hated him for leaving her alone to deal with Courfeyrac, earning a very indignant “Hey!” from a fake-insulted Courf. He heard Enjolras and Eponine talk some more, not quite making out what they were saying. He zoned out, tuning back in when he heard his name.

“...Where’s Grantaire,” Enjolras said, sounding… anxious?

“Knowing him, he’s either still asleep or off somewhere drunk already,” Eponine said, trying not to laugh.

“Truly inspiring words, ‘Ponine. I can see how valued and noticeable I am in this friend group,” Grantaire said, voice dripping with sarcasm. The crowd parted as they turned to face him, and he could see Enjolras staring at him, a strange expression on his face.

“God, I missed you,” Enjolras said softly, almost too softly to hear. Grantaire smiled and stood up. He walked over to Enjolras and took his hands in his own.

“I missed you too.”

“Can I kiss you,” Enjolras asked, nervous but hopeful.

“Yeah,” he replied, not quite believing what was happening.

Then Enjolras’ lips were on his and everything else vanished. It felt like they stayed that way for years, but when Enjolras pulled away it was still too soon. 

“I told you something would happen.”

“Shut up Courf!”

Grantaire turned round to see a smug Courfeyrac receiving twenty dollars from a disgruntled Bahorel.

“Wait a second, did you guys bet on this,” Grantaire asked, shooting a glare their way.

“Yeah, and if you’d been here on time like the rest of us, you would’ve known,” Courfeyrac replied with a smirk.

Grantaire looked back at Enjolras who seemed embarrassed but not surprised. Grantaire rolled his eyes at the others, earning a small laugh from Enjolras.

“Alright Grantaire, don’t think that because you two idiots finally did something about those feelings of yours you’ll get to hog Enjolras. Especially because I called first dibs,” Courfeyrac said.

“You can’t call dibs Courfeyrac,” Combeferre replied.

“I can and I will,” he said, skipping over to Enjolras and Grantaire. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to steal my best friend for a moment.”

Courfeyrac grabbed Enjolras’ elbow dragging him away. Enjolras shot an amused look back at Grantaire before being hauled back into the crowd, Grantaire close behind him.

#Enjolras #Grantaire #Enjoltaire #Granjolras #ExR #Courfeyrac #Combeferre #Bahorel #Eponine #tw intrusive thoughts #Les Mis #Les Miserables #Les Amis #Fic Shelf

[meta-squash]

Brick Club 1.3.2 “Double Quartet”

According to wikipedia, a double quartet is a musical composition made for eight voices or instruments, or made up of two string quartets, that are often written in a call-and-response style. Also, I’m not quite sure if this is relevant, but wikipedia specifically mentions German composer Louis Spohr in the section on double quartets. Spohr wrote an opera in 1816 called Faust (which was drastically different from Goethe’s plays), to which wikipedia gives this synopsis:

Faust is torn between his love for the young Röschen and his desire for Kunigunde, the fiancée of Count Hugo. He makes a pact with the devil Mefistofeles which allows him to rescue Kunigunde from the clutches of the evil knight Gulf. Faust obtains a love potion from the witch Sycorax which he gives to Kunigunde during her wedding celebrations. Outraged at the sudden passion his bride shows for Faust, Count Hugo challenges him to a duel. Faust kills Hugo and flees. Meanwhile, Faust's first love, Röschen, drowns herself in despair. Mefistofeles seizes Faust and drags him down to Hell.

Again, I don’t know if that is relevant, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. Especially considering the “lover flees, young woman is ruined” motif. I have no idea if it was popular or even known in France at the time, but it was part of the Romantic movement, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was part of Hugo’s repertoire.

But it’s interesting that Hugo names this chapter after a call-and-response style of music. This chapter specifically is set up that way: we get information on the women, and then the men. Their affairs later on seem to also line up with this call-and-response, at least until the end of the dinner, when one half of the strings drop away and the other four are left on their own.

I don’t know enough about the different areas of France, so I’m wondering if where the men are from is at all important?

Also, who is the “Oscar” Hugo is comparing the group to?

Hugo establishes the men as “insignificant,” which I think is actually quite significant. To the other grisettes, and probably most other grisettes in their circle, these men are (as Hugo explains) common little flings. So to make someone who is insignificant to most, significant to Fantine is an interesting move. Hugo kind of does this with all his characters, on a larger scale. Aside from Valjean and Enjolras, who are exceptional, most of his other characters seem to be relatively normal people who aren’t necessarily special in a big way. The fact that he decides to focus in on them is what makes them special. And yet here it’s Tholomyes’ insignificance that highlights how unusual Fantine’s attachment to him is.

“...and in their souls that flower of purity which in a woman survives the first fall”. I don’t really know what to make of this line considering how a paragraph later he seems to insinuate that all but Fantine have already “fallen” due to their many affairs. (Which he then softens by blaming society for the women’s problems.)

“Poverty and coquetry are fatal counselors; the one scolds, the other flatters, and the beautiful daughters of the people have both of them whispering in their ears, one on each side. Their ill-guarded souls listen. Thence their fall, and the stones that are cast at them. The are overwhelmed with the splendor of all that is immaculate and inaccessible. Alas! Was the Jungfrau ever hungry?”

Hugo referencing the fall of man here, although this time it seems like only the women are punished, and not the men. Also, another Faustian reference, this time Marlowe, with the “good angel and bad angel” imagery. More references to life choices and the whole concept of having two potential paths and choosing the “wrong one.” Like with Valjean’s original crime, Hugo seems to criticize this behavior here while simultaneously pointing out the way that society demonizes these women and hurts them. I’d love to know why he uses the German “Jungfrau” here instead of just saying “maiden” or “virgin.”

We get a lot of information on Favourite in this chapter, and not that much on the other girls. She’s the eldest at 23, born out of wedlock, and has her own home. I love that she’s like Jehan--adding an extra letter to her name for the fanciness of it. We basically get an illustration of her as the sort of “leader” of the group, with everyone else looking up to her. She’s then contrasted with Tholomyes, the men’s “leader,” who is also the eldest of his group, I assume. Favourite seems closer to Bahorel’s “laughing mistress” or Musichetta than the other three; aside from her mother barging in on her life and being a nuisance, she seems much more stable than any of the others, financially (she’s been to England!) and emotionally/socially (her friends all look up to her). (I think it’s interesting that she’s not paired with Tholomyes, who seems to be her masculine counterpart?)

Fantine is “wise” while the other women are “philosophical.” Also, Hapgood translates “sage” as “good” instead of wise, for some odd reason. It seems as though Fantine is wise in the same way that Valjean has that divine element of goodness that can be kindled and relit. It’s something that she is not necessarily aware of. I’m also wondering how Hugo defines “wise” vs “philosophical.” I’m guessing that wisdom is closer to intrinsic, instinctual knowledge, while philosophy is more thought out and pondered upon. (Perhaps these definitions are based on a popular philosophy at the time? If so I have no idea which one.)

In any case, part of what makes Fantine wise is her capacity to passionately and loyally love. Which I think is an interesting move, to praise someone’s social (and possibly emotional) naivete as wise, only for her to be completely ruined because of the person she’s devoted to. Her capacity to love is also the vulnerability that manipulative men see as a good opportunity to latch on to and use her.

This “wisdom” thing is also a weird call considering Fantine’s utter lack of pretense. The other three grisette’s go by fake names, have had a number of affairs and seem more playful than thoughtful when it comes to the affairs with this group of men. Fantine is just...Fantine, and she’s the youngest, and she hasn’t had the experience the other girls have had, and she’s about to make a huge mistake (rather, by this time she already has, and Cosette is an infant). Presumably the other three women learned somehow that their affairs were just affairs, why didn’t they clue Fantine in on this game? Later on we see Favourite thinking that Fantine is “putting on airs;” but she’s also the only one tu’d instead of vous’d and they all know she’s the baby. Are the other three just wrapped up in their own stuff and too preoccupied to think that maybe Fantine doesn’t realize this isn’t a real, permanent thing? Or is this a situation of three older girls being latched onto by a younger one who doesn’t really know what to do, and aren’t really a fan of the burden of being teacher? She’s been in Paris at least 4 years and yet she’s never had friends like these grisettes? I don’t exactly know the social mores of back then, but I assume that having friends then was similar to having friends now: gossip and talk about relationships and flings and one night stands. Interesting that she either never really learned by inference that this might be that, or that perhaps she just blindly assumes that this isn’t like that because this is real.

And here we get Fantine’s backstory, and her symbolism as the Universal Grisette. So many of Hugo’s characters that are blatant “universal” symbols are either orphans or abandoned quite early in life. And so many we get a certain period of their life, then a jump, then more. What happened between infant-Fantine being found and her working on a farm? Hugo does this time-jump with Valjean and the Thenardiers, and Marius, too. I think Fantine’s about 19 when we’re first introduced to her, if my math is correct? Hugo also foreshadows the sale of her teeth and hair here.

“Fantine was beautiful and remained pure as long as she could.” An interesting callback to a few paragraphs ago. Hugo seems to imply that the other girls gave in to those “whispers” quite quickly, while Fantine did not. Part of her purity, too, is her trust and devotion to Tholomyes; she’s not giving in to promiscuity or shallow affairs like the other three, she is genuinely in love.

The way Hugo uses beauty and ugliness is so interesting. “Beautiful” Fantine paired with “ugly” Tholomyes, as with Enjolras and Grantaire, and even to some extent Cosette and Eponine.

What stands out to me is Tholomyes and Grantaire both specifically being characterized as “doubting” and also described as ugly. Grantaire gets the actual word “ugly” while Tholomyes gets this horrible description (weirdly tempered by the fact of his humor and gaiety). I know that technically Courfeyrac is paralleled with Tholomyes, but I always seem to see more similarities between him and Grantaire. The difference being that Grantaire changes and Tholomyes does not. There also seem to be bits of each of Les Amis in Tholomyes (Grantaire’s doubt and ugliness, Bossuet’s irony, Bahorel’s age, Courfeyrac’s womanizing ways, Joly’s illness, etc) but all from the negative.

Tholomyes is described in a really awful way. That “he had a play refused at Vaudeville” and “doubted everything with an air of superiority” always has me reading him as this MRA type loser who thinks he’s better than everyone else and that that’s why people hate him. He’s charismatic, but in a slimeball sort of way. Hugo tempers Tholomyes’ awfulness with gaiety and then immediately turns around ruins that “but he was funny!” by telling us this awful prank.

Oh, and then Hugo stops to interrupt himself with a question about linguistics regarding the word “irony” and whether it’s based on the English word “iron,” like, the metal. Which...???? I don’t really know what to make of? Is he trying to say something here, because if he is, I don’t get it.

“Saint January” is Januarius, the patron saint of Naples, whose “miracle” is the annual liquefying of the phial of his blood. Apparently people gather to witness this annual miracle three times a year (as well as during things like papal visits). Interesting that Tholomyes compares his rather unpredictable and cruel “surprise” with the predictable, annual miracle of the blood liquefying. It makes me wonder whether this is not the first time he has done this (he is 30, after all, and I assume has had many affairs), just with a different group of friends.

We are just as in the dark about the surprise as the women are. Hugo does the same thing here that he often does with Valjean’s thoughts. He remains an outsider to the thoughts of any of the characters in the scene, and remains in a specific location within the scene, so when the characters leave, any following dialogue or action or thought is obscured from him as a narrator.

#les miserables #les miserables meta #brickclub #lm 1.3.2 #les mis #les mis meta #i started writing this at 2am instead of 4am! progress! #except then i went to sleep and finished it at 2:30pm the next day

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

Hello your idea for a modern Les Mis adaptation as a series of John Oliver-esque comedy-laced deep dives by various characters is GENIUS and I Wish To Discuss Your Concept

For others' reference, this is the tag Pilf is referring to:

I'm not even sure it'd be that comedy-laced, depending on who the person is. I definitely envision Les Amis as each having their own societal problems that are nearer and dearer to them and affect them more personally.

Based on the HCs from this ask I answered a couple of months ago:

Courfeyrac would Hasan Minhaj the fuck out of immigration

Combeferre would do the most cutting read on the public education system you have ever seen, perhaps with follow-up episode later on on its embedded systemic racism and the school-to-prison pipeline

Musichetta would do a segment on discrimination within the health world against WoC (much like the existing John Oliver segment--Wanda Sykes would absolutely make an appearance, and off-camera there would be hugs and Musichetta would cry at least once)

Cosette would do a segment on fat-shaming and the targeting of vulnerable audiences in advertising (a la Dulce Sloan)

Joly would spend a whole minute of one episode saying nothing but "death is not worse than autism, and if you imply it is you are a terrible person" (this episode would be on vaccines specifically, but they'd show up frequently doing pieces on the predatory nature of Big Pharma, the ins and outs of Universal Healthcare and why it needs adopted yesterday, ableism, and they are featured as an expert on many other health-related episodes like Cosette's and Musichetta's)

Jehan does a thorough explanation and tear-down of gender and sexuality, the history behind it and the community and the terminology, and what safe spaces are for and why we need them; comparatively-speaking, it's much softer and less accusatory than most of the other episodes/topics, but every once in a while ey sweetly says something extremely straightforward that makes the viewer feel extremely guilty for everything they've ever thought wrong

Feuilly does a heartbreaking segment on the foster system as it currently is, how complicated adoption can be, and all of the difficulties that can arise for the kids, with the system and emotionally; the episode becomes standard viewing for uni students studying education to understand what some of their students are going through; he also does an episode on the care and treatment of the elderly (elder abuse)

Éponine takes forever to get enough anonymous sources willing to go on the record, but eventually she does an episode on corruption within the justice system, later coming back to do another on predatory sale practices/companies and also joining Feuilly in his on the foster system with the broken abuse reporting system

Marius does an episode on invisible disabilities with a focus on autism; the feedback is so overwhelmingly positive that he joins with Combeferre for an episode on disabilities in school and Feuilly and Joly on ADA and disability accomodation in public spaces

Bahorel does the most threatening tear-down on the modernday treatment of indigenous peoples you have ever seen, grinning the entire time

Bossuet's seems like it's a fun tour of Thailand, except all of the comments about the terrible effects of the tourist industry and sexpats

Grantaire is usually camerawork and editing, but once they get big enough to hire other people that he oversees he's convinced to do an episode and just shits all over Bolsonaro, most especially his absolute disregard for the Amazon and the indigenous peoples who live there

Gav isn't allowed to host it, but he plays a big role in writing/researching an episode on the NRA and the second amendment and is credited for it

Enjolras is the showrunner. People run ideas by him to get approved, he sets deadlines, and he does a lot of publicity stuff but mostly leaves the reporting itself to the experts on the matter. He did do the first episode, though: an exposé on the lives of the wealthy and how no one needs that much money a la Abigail Disney.

Every episode ends with a bunch of additional resources for follow-up research, relevant bills to contact your representatives about, and organizations to volunteer time/money/resources with.

#I might have invested some.time.in thinking about this #tbh I could come up with like three seasons of episode topics and who would host them right off the top of my head #this became much bigger than I anticipated #les mis #les amis #shitposting @ me #documentary AU #answers and shitposts #pilferingapples #shitposting sometimes writes

[eposettemyass]

Feuilly x Bahorel?

1. My take on their canon relationship:

god i fucking love bros. thicctor hugo really said bro rights in the year 1862 huh;;. but anyways i found their playfulness sweet and really authentic and you can tell that they’re close friends and I can def see why a lot of people like them together

2. Do I ship them:

yeah

3. Reasons why I do/don’t ship them;

they’re the epitome of giving your homie a goodnight kiss which i am a sucker for. also i really like the aesthetic juxtaposition of mad lad bahorel with his calm and cool smart boy boyfriend

4. Headcanon, if any:

and they were roommates (oh my god they were roommates...)

also in my giant modern au that i never published i had bahorel open a gym for the physically disabled and became licensed as a PT and feuilly became a social worker. idk why that’s relevant but i like to imagine they both love kids

5. How much do I ship (%):

65%

#thanks love! #anonymous #answered #bromos #there needs to be a better name for that ship fr

[gascon-en-exil]

Octopath Traveler, Dimidue, Enjolras

Whew, that’s a lot.

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character:

Primrose, her story is among the more compelling and the content is surprisingly honest in its maturity for a T-rated JRPG.

Least Favorite character:

Lyblac for having next to no relevant setup for the person who’s technically the game’s central villain. The whole ending is just painfully clumsy.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

I don’t read much fic for OT, but any combination of the male travelers,  Alfyn/Zeph, Olberic/Erhardt, and Therion/Darius all have their moments.

Character I find most attractive:

Olberic, he’s barely even past his prime and he’s a knight, yummy.

Character I would marry:

Probably Olberic again. Therion is inconstant, Alfyn is a country bumpkin, and Cyrus would be deeply annoying after a while and likely wouldn’t understand sex.

Character I would be best friends with:

Primrose, because we know all about those kinds of men.

a random thought:

Would have liked to see more of the dark cult in Ophilia’s story, and more on Orsterra’s pseudo-Catholic religion in general.

An unpopular opinion:

H’annit’s dialogue doesn’t sink her character for me, although she’s not someone I would have been much interested in in the first place. It’s ridiculous and clearly artificial, but not the worst thing ever.

My Canon OTP:

Alfyn/Zeph, lategame no homo sidequest or not. They carry each other’s satchels all game, which is both sweet and possibly the strangest allusion to ball play ever.

My Non-canon OTP:

Any of the aforementioned pairings among the male travelers, although I don’t care for how Alfyn/Therion is the overwhelming fandom favorite.

Most Badass Character:

How many scenes does Olberic basically solo? That said, I think H’annit is overall the strongest character.

Most Epic Villain:

Simeon, for staging a play about his ex as she’s coming to kill him, and then making the boss fight a part of that play. It’s such a thematically resonant set piece for the final boss of her story.

Pairing I am not a fan of:

Zeph/Mercedes, an obvious last ditch effort to attempt to prove that Zeph isn’t Alfyn’s boyfriend.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):

Just...everything about the combined final boss.

Favourite Friendship:

Olberic and Alfyn, even if they’re not having sex. Good simple tank/healer fun.

Character I most identify with:

Primrose, again. Fallen aristocrat forced into sex work and obsessed with vengeance? I don’t really get her hints of lesbianism for the same reason I don’t get Dorothea’s in FE16, but that’s beside the point.

Character I wish I could be:

Probably Cyrus for that cushy teaching gig in the largest city on the continent.

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

When I started shipping them:

Had my suspicions as early as the Blue Lions promo video when Dedue’s dislike was revealed to be anyone hurting Dimitri. Started shipping them hardcore as soon as the text dumps started coming in, and the canonical backing has only grown since.

My thoughts:

My followers know how I feel about Dimidue. It’s a nearly perfect iteration of the lord/knight dynamic I always enjoy in FE, with not one but several variations depending on route that all call back to previous pairings in meaningful. While I understand why it remains underrated (Dimileth, mostly unfounded hangups about the racial dynamic and power imbalance, Dedue’s just not that conventionally attractive) it’s downright criminal that this pairing and its broader implications for Dimitri’s character go so so frequently ignored.

What makes me happy about them:

I am not by nature a very romantic person, but their interactions can be so tender that it’s hard not to find them insufferably cute - ferocious murder husbands though they are capable of being.

What makes me sad about them:

Misinterpretations of their dynamic that stem for people not reading their supports very well and/or making assumptions based on their respective skin colors that don’t hold up to close scrutiny vis-à-vis the actual dynamic between Faerghus and Duscur.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Not much, but the occasional assertion on Twitter that only fanon Dimidue is acceptable because canon did them dirty. Do these people even read their supports and other interactions? “Dedue can’t think for himself in canon” my svelte French ass.

Things I look for in fanfic:

Solid writing as always, but I really like it when fics capture them as equals in private even in they keep up the professional relationship for the general public. Fics where they get a big wedding and everyone acts like there’s nothing at all unusual about it might be better wish fulfillment, but they don’t work as well for the setting in my opinion.

My wishlist:

Combination with the other male Lions for an OT5. There’s already porn of it, now someone other than me write it. All your favorite paired endings in one!

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

The game offers easy alternatives in Felix and Ashe, plus the aforementioned Lions orgy. Not Byleth, that’s for sure, with Dimitri because it’s clumsily written and has weird thematic implications or with Dedue because I’m pretty sure he’s not into women all that much. m!Byleth with either of them just feels like a solution to something that wasn’t a problem.

My happily ever after for them:

Their Azure Moon ending, although hopefully Dimitri won’t die too young and they’ll have many years together to adopt a bunch of orphans like in the ending tapestry and have a happy little family where no one dies violently. They’ve earned it after all they’ve been through.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character:

In book canon he’s a glorious if very pointed allegory for the values of the Revolution, which can be hard to relate to an actual human and even harder to translate into adaptation...so for the most part they kind of don’t.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character:

Grantaire to complete the allegory, but all of Les Amis are fair game for a big gay orgy.

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character:

Combeferre and Courfeyrac form a fantastic triad with him even if they’re not romantic, and a solid friend dynamic.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I strongly lean into Hugo’s androgynous descriptions for my mental picture of what Enjolras looks like, and I believe his natural feminine characteristics are intriguing and just about essential elements of his character although again they’re dropped from almost all adaptations.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

More Amis interactions are always good, especially for the ones he doesn’t spend as much time around in canon like Bahorel and Prouvaire.

Favorite friendship for this character:

Combeferre and Courfeyrac, see above.

My crossover ship:

None really? I don’t do crossovers much.

#Octopath Traveler #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Dimidue #Les Misérables #Enjolras