#I swear I could write a dissertation on Les Mis

[thatlegallyblondebitch]

ok this is my second time typing this because tumblr hates me but here are some of my takes on Les mis after seeing it for the 8th? 9th? time live

1. stop with the cosette hate! ok so in everyday/heart full of love reprise, Marius is depressed because all his friends are dead and cosette says “don’t think about it”. BUT PLEASE REMEMBER this is a girl who spent most of her early childhood being heavily abused, most of which she seemingly blocks out (i.e. when talking to JVJ she says “in your eyes I am just like a child who is lost in the woods” versus “still just a child who is lost in the woods” - remember, they meet when she is a child lost in the woods, which is why JVJ looks at her like that. so therefore, she presumably doesn’t remember/blocks out her trauma.) and she also moves around quite often in childhood with no warning. she grows up without friends or real stability. the only thing she has is JVJ, who she loves. So yes, when Marius is traumatized, of course she’s going to tell him to not think about it and just focus on the good/what you love because that’s literally what she does.

2a. Marius is not a pencil pusher! stop making him one! he has some harder edges - he is literally in a revolution. yes, he is soft for cosette, but he still is a revolutionary (by musical standards). so when Javert asks for a witness in Confrontation/Robbery, it makes no sense that he would volunteer. yes, he is down bad for cosette, but I don’t think it makes sense that he’d be like super excited willing to talk to the police.

2b. Never EVER have him give the Thenardiers money in wedding (this varies Marius to Marius). they were horrible to his dead best friend. they are trying to blackmail him. he just fought in a revolution, he’s not going to take it lying down and pay them. he’s gonna beat the shit out of them. and not throw money at them after.

3. The Thenardiers are everyone’s favorite and I do love them but the more I see the show and/or think about it too long, the more I genuinely hate them. they are horrendously abusive to cosette and eponine. like they are just genuinely bad people. the interesting thing about the show is that everybody is doing what they think is right/morally upstanding from their set of morals, even though these different sets clash. Everyone has some sort of redeeming quality in that way, except for them.

4. This show is also built on parallels/mirrors in the characters - or at least the core 7 (JVJ, Javert, Fantine, Marius, Cosette, Eponine, Enjolras). the JVJ/Javert one is obvious (godliness - what is right by the standards of god), but there are tons between Fantine and Cosette, Fantine and Eponine, and JVJ and Marius, and a bunch of other pairings. I could expand but I am tired of typing rn and I want to see what other people see/think. the music and motifs are good giveaways for some, but others are more subtle.

anyways I could make like 55 more points about this but these are just what I think are the most important and that I can think of rn.