#Javert KNOWS they won't . he wouldn't want them to

[pilferingapples]

Every since @fremedon and @everyonewasabird suggested it, every time I read this chapter I'm just more convinced that ., you know...

Javert's bosses sent him to die, right? They sent him out to be Acceptable Losses.

This guy CANNOT lie and also won't . He may currently allow their fun corruption schemes but he doesn't play along. He's not Clever enough to play the politics they want him to play and he's not tuned out enough to miss what's going on. He's definitely loyal enough to just say nothing forever , but who can know that for sure from the outside?

So they sent the Worst Liar In the World to be their spy. If he gets info, hey, useful and good. If he doesn't....

the fact that after he escapes the barricade--after he's been out in combat duty, without sleep or food, for days-- they send him right back out on patrol? It's obvious that of course they don't Care about him, certainly not the way the Amis care about Prouvaire , but... I think they actively don't want him back.

[pianocat939]

Random Ideas of Yan Les Miserables Characters

Cursed ideas I thought of since I'm in this musical for my school's drama

If people like it, I might add more..I'm really interested in Marius.

Tw: mention of murder, kidnapping, Marius is a little freak and breaks into your home, manipulation, Eponine literally hates her life so much

(Know that this won't follow the entire plot of the book/musical. Nor do the ages of these characters- Ex. Javert is not an old geezer)

(MC/Reader is in some ways Cosette I suppose- not following her complete character though)

Marius

Type: Obssessive + Protective

The definition of sweet. Ever since he met you, he's been wanting to hold you in his arms and gently kiss you. His mind is filled with thoughts of you- just you. At night, he writes in a journal about his undying love and how no one else could make him feel this way.

If you deny his love for too long, he'll take drastic actions: when you're sleeping in your bed at night he'll slide in next to you to give snuggles and kisses- he just can't contain his yearning anymore! He also leaves gifts and letters on your window sill, a nice present for you to look at when you're all sad and need comfort! Or really, you could just come to him for comfort...

That being said, when he goes to fight the monarchs the entire time he thinks about protecting you, and nothing else. He's crazy when he fights to go absolutely batshit feral to keep you safe- and to ensure he'll be the one to return to you; that he'll be the only one confessing his love.

If there's another suitor, he'll first try to get you to love him. If that doesn't work, he won't hesitate to kill them.

He actually is quite possessive, he just doesn't show it as much.

Javert

Type: Possessive + Violent

(He is not an old geezer in this-)

Oh wow, out of all the people you decided to garner the attention of- it decided to be his. At first, he tries to deny his adoration for you but comes to a realization when he witnesses you interacting with someone else. He HATES it when you talk with someone that isn't him. You should only talk to him, you should only love him! He's your true love, your future spouse!

At first, he'll try to be normal and court you, but if you deny...Hell breaks loose. He'll kidnap you without hesitation, saying you're a criminal and need to be taken to prison under the laws of the government- only for the prison to be his home. There, you'll stay as his spouse. Don't worry about the world outside, just think about loving your rightful husband!

I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to use marriage as a way to tie himself with you. Oh and-

He'll kill anyone who tries to help you escape or if you try to talk to anyone else.

Eponine

Type: Manipulative + Stalker

Instead of being in love with Marius, she's in love with you! If Marius is also in love with you, she'll try to push him away by manipulating both you and him. For example, with you, she'll try to say how much of a fool Marius can be at times and how he isn't fit for a role as husband. With him, she'll try to tell him that you're already in love with someone else or that you're in a relationship with someone else.

All her life she hasn't been gifted a single good fortune- shouldn't she get a happily ever after too?

If you deny her, or just simply don't notice her all that much she'll follow you around. She makes sure no one tries to court you and that she has a good chance of obtaining your love. Despite being poor, she's learned to be good at one thing- observing. She can memorize any piece of information of you and remember it for years- a true sign of love, no?

Please, just love her! She can't stand this suffering any longer! She doesn't wish to be the daughter of hated innkeepers', she wants to be known as the lover of someone so beautiful and etheral- which is you!

——————————————————

Ngl, Marius being all soft and sweet is really indulgent of me-

- Celina

[bunn--y]

I've been watching Les Miserables: Shoujo Cosette. Ie, the World Masterpiece Theatre version of Les Mis. I probably wouldn't have given it a chance if it wasn't for the fact that it is WMT since seeing Cosette as the main character wasn't something I was looking forward to. I should also note before continuing that my attempts to read the book have only got around 20 or so pages in. I might try an audiobook at some point.

Anyway, I'm enjoying this anime version. I'm currently midway through episode 21 and it's interesting. The censoring for kids is well done. Usually I prefer laugh at badly done censorship but there is something of value here. There's certainly a debate to be had on if it is right to censor Les Miserables if it is to be shown, but right now I'm not really interested in that.

I'm more into just collecting some random little thoughts than anything else.

Sister Samplice feels like an anime original and I was surprised to found out that she's from the book. Chou Chou would have been a bigger surprise but no, he's as much of an anime original as he looks like.

Cosette is very much the sort of moe character who I don't like, but there are a few things that I like so far. I like the fact that we see clear cut signs of PTSD from her abuse from the Thénardiers. I have a vague memory of reading once that she doesn't in the book. Considering that even decades after the book was published it was believed that child abuse couldn't lead to PTSD, I find that believable, though i have not been able to find the source that she didn't again. I also like that more focus (in comparison to the musical) is put on her relationship with Jean Valjean. This does allow the annoying parts of her moe characterisation to at least have justification. I should note that according to all sources, they didn't change how moe she was... though I doubt that her riding a dog was in the books. But that was genuinely cute (because she's an anime girl and hence won't break the dog's back) so I count it as the third thing that I liked.

I suppose I'd better address the elephant in the room. I dislike the character designs. I want to like them, especially when I checked out the book illustrations and found them to be quite cartoony too. For the most part individually I have no issues with them. However, when put together, there's too much of a 'beauty equals goodness' feel for me to like them. It's particularly annoying since The Book has a good sense of creating morally complicated characters. Javert has always fit into the idea of a anime villain even though he predates anime by so many years. Seeing him made out to look so obviously like a villain was disappointing.

A few months ago I came across a video on how Avatar The Last Airbender isn't popular in Japan and China due to existing in an uncanny valley but culturally rather than aesthetically. I feel something similar with this series, which is odd because it's often with things that I've been impressed with WMT for portraying well before like Christianity. I don't know how much of this is due to it being an anime and how much is due to it talking about catholicism when I'm used to protestant conversations. There's a lot of little bits though that just feel really off.

You know how I said this is censored and in this case, I'm amused by it though it's done well. I'm going to explain that now. It's things like Fantine not becoming a prostitute so she has instead work really unpleasant jobs, including one with dead fish bones. There's more of a focus on her feeling that she can't trust anyone and we get to watch her homelessness and abuse get to her. Again I'm comparing to the musical and not the book here, but I did enjoy that she got to attack those two men who attack her. (They put snow down her back). Yeah, let the abuse effect her, please. This censorship is well done since it's taking elements that kids haven't had the experience to understand and turns them into ones that kids do. While as an adult, I'm like 'fish bones and selling your body are two very different things' on a level of 'this is a gross thing to feel forced to do for money' it is a stronger idea for kids. Kids aren't supposed to know about sex on the level of understanding how sex work could effect Fantine and most of them wouldn't. At best they might understand that this makes her hard to employ, but she is already a begger on the streets just for having a daughter, so what difference does it make? As an adult who tries to understand children, it could even be argued that this is a stronger way of showing the sexism of the time.

That said, I'm hoping that the kids who grew up with this version went on to either the book or more adult adaptations.

There is another type of change that was made that I actually have a more solid ground on my feelings on. For anyone reading who isn't familiar with WMT they tend to do three things with their adaptions: make them slow, keep as much of the depressing stuff as possible even adding stuff sometimes and make them beautiful. So it wasn't a surprised that this is a slow adaptation. It also wasn't a surprise that there's a lot of focus on the abuse Cosette and Gavroche go through form the Thénardiers. WMT likes to focus on child abuse and not necessarily in a good way. It can often be guilt tripping in the attitude of 'look at what this child goes through and they're not making a fuss'. From what I have seen of this adaptation so far, this attitude is not here. In fact, the show goes out of its way to show that there are good people in the world who will look out for abused children. When Cosette goes off with Jean Valjean, we get to find out that the blacksmith and his wife who took Gavroche on for work is kind so we don't need to worry about him having to stay with the Thénardiers. Another example is discovering that the anime original character Alain is going to be taking over as mayor in the city that Jean Valjean had helped as mayor for so many years. This lighter and softer feel really stresses the hopeful nature of the story without undermining the sadness that it is also very important.

The thing that I like about these more hopeful additions is that they're small. From what I've read spoiler wise, the show still keeps a lot of the character deaths and has already kept Fantine's. As much as I think that doing a kid's version of les mis is interesting and that toning down some aspects is understandable in this instance, I would like to as a les mis fan see as much of the story kept as possible. As a WMT fan though I'm happy that they are showing restraint.

I imagine that I'll have a lot more to say once I finish the series. Especially considering the changes to some of the character deaths I've read about. One of the spoilers I'm already having real concerns about a big one involving an adult character.