sunflower-enj0lras

[sunflower-enj0lras]

valvert nation i come bearing gifts

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at some point all the members of Les Amis de l'ABC has/had some sort of crush on Enjolras. Like one day they looked at him and thought "wow hes cute!!" Idk

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Y'all can't tell me Enjorlas doesn't appreciate puns when he literally, canonically, said "Joly will go to Dupuytren's clinical lecture, and feel the pulse of the medical school"

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reading about regency era mattresses today which according to these regency blogs were quite thin, so most people would stack two or more to make them actually comfortable to sleep on.

then realized that when courfeyrac gives marius one of his two mattresses to sleep on, he’s actually not giving him a spare—he’s making his own bed significantly less comfortable for marius’s sake. screaming n crying n punching the wall etc rn

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Incoherent rant incoming but my god I cannot stress enough how much Éponine is not an edgy girl who wants to be edgy!! She wants to fit in. She wants to be socially acceptable and have nice things and be feminine and look pretty!!!!!

(unless otherwise indicated, all quotes will be from Donougher because I'm obsessed with that translation at the moment)

When we see her in Marius's room, we see her behave "with the audacity of a ghost", because, like a ghost, she isn't bound by social norms. She sings "as if she were alone," rummages through Marius's stuff while he's right there, she's "playful and uninhibited." She can do whatever pops into her head, because she is so far outside the realm of social acceptability. But there is more going on here: "Beneath this brazenness, a suggestion of something forced, uneasy, abashed was detectable. Effrontery is a display of shame."

This little passage always breaks me:

'We've had some education, my sister and me. We haven't always been the way we are now. We weren't meant—'

Here, she stopped, fixed her dull gaze on Marius and burst out laughing, saying in a tone that contained every anguish stifled by every cynicism, 'Bah!'

She can't resist showing off her literacy and talking about how they didn't always live like this, but then she stops herself, as though she doesn't see any point. Sure, they weren't meant for this life, but they're in it now, and there's no coming back. By 16 years old, she's already a "fallen woman," and there's no return to respectability possible.

That's why she says this line to Father Mabeuf.

'God shall bless you,' he said, 'you're an angel because you care for flowers.'

'No,' she replied, 'I'm the devil, but I don't mind.'

This is not her being cool and edgy. This is her internalising and accepting society's view of her as fallen, tainted, irredeemable, and Bad, and proclaiming that she doesn't care. But she clearly does care. Of course she cares.

Then we get this devastating scene a few pages later:

After a few steps, she stopped.

'You're following me too closely, Monsieur Marius. Let me go on ahead, and you hang back so it doesn't look as if you're following me. A respectable young man like you shouldn't be seen with a woman like me.'

No language could convey everything contained in that word 'woman', as spoken by that child.

Again, we see that she is very aware of what's socially acceptable and respectable, and how she is perceived in contrast. And we have absolutely no indication that she would she willingly reject social norms, given a choice. She’s completely outside of society, to the point that she’s repeatedly spoken of as an apparition or a goblin or some other inhuman entity. But it’s not by choice. It’s not because she’s just so quirky like that.

But why do I say that given the choice she would love to dress all pretty and feminine? Again, let's look at the text.

She gets very excited when she sees that Marius has a mirror. A bit later, when she's sent to check whether Marius is in his room in preparation for the Gorbeau ambush, she takes the opportunity to smooth her hair, pose, and smile at herself in the mirror.

If we go back to the scene where Jean Valjean and Cosette come to bring charity to the "Jondrette" family, we have this paragraph:

The older Jondrette girl had retreated behind the door and was staring dolefully at that velvet hood, that silk mantle and that lovely blessed face.

This is an indicator of what Éponine desires. She herself is wearing essentially underwear: just a chemise and a skirt or petticoat, and not only that, but these inadequate garments are furthermore so torn and threadbare as to be extremely revealing. Her knees are visible which was not considered at all appropriate, and when she's in Marius's room, her chemise keeps falling open almost to her waist. Especially for the standards of the time, she's practically naked.

A few depictions of Éponine's clothes.

So of course she is envious of this young lady who is not only dressed so well, but is also happy and well-cared for. The fact that she hides herself behind the door speaks so much to the enormous amount of shame she feels.

This girl just wants to have nice things like she did when she was small and look pretty and do her hair and be a "lovely young lady" (as she bitterly refers to Cosette) and feel feminine and fit in!! And given the opportunity that's exactly what she would do!! She's a dove by nature, remember.

I don't know. Just rambling. Ignore me.

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cosette was really THAT girl—rich, mysterious, always wearing black. she was “that girl behind the gate.” she heard a stranger insult her and went “we’ll see about that.” she became one of the most beautiful and well-dressed women in all of paris. she took one look at that gorgeous boy at the luxembourg gardens, a boy who had once found her boring, and got him to worship the ground she walked on. when he grew jealous and blamed her for it, she just thought “and what’s his problem?” the first time she met him, she wore her best low-cut gown. “no, monsieur, you’re not allowed to sneeze, because I would be sad if you were sick.” she did this all behind her father’s back. she told both her husband and father to include her in their conversation because why are men so dramatic? and “no, papa, you’re not going to die, I won’t allow it.” so for all that cosette is soft and angelic, don’t forget what her chapter is titled—“the rose perceives that it is an engine of war.”

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Lesgles truly is the character ever because he’s bald and unlucky and that’s pretty much the only thing that anyone really pays attention to but then you start to investigate literally any detail that Hugo ever wrote about him and you begin to unravel like a multiverse of puns and wordplay about French history, religion, and politics and then you start to ask yourself, well, wait a minute, why did Hugo put so much thought into this background character who has a few witticisms and doesn’t really do much and so you start to investigate what exactly his deal is, like, what does baldness mean in a Hugolian context and what’s with his Bad Luck and hey, wait a minute, what do his “persecutions on the part of fate” imply in the broader context of Les Misérables, and so now you’re questioning core tenets of the rules of the narrative and then you look at his role in the book and the way that his misfortune is tied to the fortunes and fates of everyone he interacts with and the impact that he has on the events of the story and then you realize that the Bad Luck bit and the puns are really just a way to distract you from the fact that Laigle de Meaux is in fact some small god of the Les Mis universe.

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nobody talks enough about the fact that marius and courfeyrac are canonically roomates

nobody ALSO talks enough about the fact that marius freaked out because his neighbors were criminals and said yeah i'm not gonna live here anymore

and walked on down to courfs house at 9pm

and knocked on his door and said "i have come to sleep with you"

and that courf was like hey yeah buddy come on in

and just DRAGGED his SECOND MATTRESS off his bed onto the floor

and said there you go homie sweet dreams

and that was that

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you can say that enjolras is in love with france or grantaire or eponine or WHATEVER...you're all wrong. every last one of you. it is very clear that he is in love with Feuilly actually

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every time someone calls grantaire a twink a part of me dies

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it’s so so funny silly. “grantaire is a working class person who inspires enjolras through new perspectives” so close, that is feuilly. “grantaire is enjolras’s intellectual equal who has complicated and conviction-informed feelings about revolutionary violence and his articulations of these feelings round out and supplement enjolras’s perspective” so close, that is combeferre. “If grantaire had joined in the fighting he would have been super awesome at it and earned enjolras’s respect and admiration” so close‼️‼️ that is MARIUS!!

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enjoltaire gift giving???? (fluffy and a little ooc)

“Grantaire, we’re in the middle of a revolution. Christmas has no meaning here.” Enjolras huffed.

Grantaire held the small, messily wrapped gift behind his back in one hand, the other reaching towards his blonde friend’s shoulder.

“But Enj, it’s-”

“Do not call me that.”

Grantaire sighed at Enjolras’s bitter dismissal. He knew Enjolras was a busy man, more focused on his revolution than anything else, so much so that he neglected himself in the process. Knowing this, Grantaire was determined to see this man smile or take a break for once in his life.

“You know-”

“What do you want?”

“Well, this present… it’s something you’d like a lot.”

“I don’t need any… frivolities during a revolution.”

Grantaire paused momentarily, trying to figure a way to get through to the man beneath the stubborn shell. He smiled as an idea popped into his head.

“What if I told you it wasn’t ‘frivolous’ at all?” Grantaire bantered.

“From you? Highly unlikely.” Enjolras responded, clearly not detecting the playful tone.

“You won’t know if you don’t open it.”

A flick of curiosity passed over Enjolras’s face for the first time in the entirety of the conversation. He tried to peek around Grantaire, trying to spy what the man had hidden behind his back.

“I don’t like surprises,” Enjolras grumbled.

Grantaire gave a crooked grin, taking the poorly wrapped package from behind his back. He gently shook it in front of the other man, the present making no sound at the sudden jostling.

“It’s nothing bad. In fact, it’s something I’d think you’d enjoy quite a bit.” Grantaire said with a chuckle, amused at his attempt to create an incentive for Enjolras to take the package.

“What is it?”

“Do you want to find out?”

“Tell me.”

Grantaire doesn’t respond, just handing Enjolras the package. The blonde shakes it gently; the package still doesn’t make any sound. He pokes and prods around the package, trying to determine if it’s yet another of Grantaire’s horrid pranks. After determining that it may be an actual present, Enjolras slowly unwraps the gift, still on high alert. After a moment and a slight unwrapping of the paper, Enjolras looks up at Grantaire for only a moment, a glimmer of something in his eye Grantaire couldn’t identify at the moment.

“You found it,” Enjolras mumbled, his voice uncharacteristically soft.

“I did.” Grantaire smiled.

“How did you know? I’ve been looking…” Enjolras trails off, lost in thought.

After waiting a moment, Enjolras finishes unwrapping the gift revealing a small book. The book, a small compilation of written works from the French Revolution, seemed to be enough to make the corners of the blonde’s lips twitch up in a barely visible smile.

“Not frivolous?” Grantaire teased.

“Not at all.” Enjolras responded, entirely sincere.

Grantaire began to leave, before Enjolras gently grabbed his arm.

“Thank you,” Enjolras mumbled, his sincerity almost palpable. “I really do appreciate it.”

Grantaire smiled, giving a nod, not trusting himself to speak. His heart was racing with excitement and pure, unadulterated joy at seeing even a hint of a smile from Enjolras. 

Enjolras, however, believed the other man was starting to understand what he was fighting for. The thought that the man he cared for more than he wanted to admit was finally understanding what he had worked so hard for was enough to fill him with joy. And maybe something else. Something he would never, could never admit.

Affection? Definitely.

Love? Absolutely.

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YES, everytime i here "enjolras and grantaire kissed in musical!" I always think its a bit out of character for Enjolras to just do that. Idk

😭 iiii don't like when productions of the musical portray enjolras as (kind of) reciprocating grantaire's love cause (TO ME!) if it's not unrequited it's not exr. like who is that

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Request from @autumngracy . I dont really have designs for either of these two yet.......

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Obviously I have a deep appreciation for anything involving height differences, but I feel like Short!Enj is extremely underappreciated by my little corner of the fandom. Consider, if you will:

Enjolras having to stand on tiptoes to tell Grantaire to “BE SERIOUS!”

Bahorel putting Enjolras on his shoulders so he can shout at large crowds

Combeferre having conversations with people right over the top of Enjolras’s head just to annoy him

Grantaire using Enjolras as an armrest

Courfeyrac being incredibly awful about it because “I may be short, but at least I’m not Enjolras short.”

Enjolras having to buy skinny jeans from the tween section because they’re the only pants that fit him

Grantaire lifting Enjolras out of danger with one arm while shoving people out of the way with the other when rallies go bad

Gavroche making a point of measuring himself against Enjolras, even after he gets his growth spurt and becomes waaaaaaaaaay taller

Enjolras climbing on tables to make announcements, or just to talk–it becomes a force of habit

Courfeyrac, Joly, Bossuet, Musichetta, and Grantaire singing “Stick to the Status Quo” whenever he climbs on a table

Just…short!Enjolras

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Twins!verse where Enjolras was born at 11:52 pm, July 13th, and Cosette was born at 12:04 am, July 14th.  And every single fucking year Enjolras bitches and moans because she was born on Bastille day and he was not, by 8 fucking minutes. 

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