#Mirror Ladies

[lesmisscraper]

Five years of those harsh years... I really wonder how Valjean treated this child very well.

This chapter is absolutely heartbreaking. Knowing that Fantine’s situation has gotten worse because she stops sending money as regularly? That she’s still trying to because she thinks Cosette is doing well, even though she’s suffering? Seeing the actual abuse Cosette endures? It’s horrible.

Like we saw with Valjean upon his arrival in Digne, Cosette’s dehumanization is highlighted by comparisons to domesticated animals. She is fed “a little better than the dog, a little worse than the cat,” but whereas Valjean resisted his subhuman treatment to an extent (he cried out upon seeing that a dog had a place to stay for the night while he didn’t), to Cosette, this is just how things are. We see that she eats with the cat and the dog, and from a bowl like theirs, without complaint. She’s obviously not happy, and she has the comparison to Éponine and Azelma to show that this is not the only way for children to live, but can she understand why she’s being treated this way? Does she know that she wasn’t abandoned, or does she think she deserves this somehow? Or is she so worn down that she doesn’t think about this at all? She is only five, and she’s already been made to work.

Cosette isn’t even addressed as a person in letters to her mother. She’s consistently referred to as a “creature” in writing and in speech by the Thénardiers, and over the course of the chapter, Hugo goes from saying “child�� to “creature” (”shivering little creature”) as well. It gives the sense that she internalizes this to an extent? Or that this dehumanizing language is so commonplace that no one thinks anything of it anymore.

 Another point that infuriates me is the attitude of the populace. To some extent, it’s possible that they don’t know the full extent of the abuse Cosette’s enduring, but given that she’s always wearing rags and is sent to work before daybreak - which they know because they call her “the Lark” - they know that her treatment is far from ideal. And yet they praise the Thénardiers for their charity simply because to them, it would be more natural for no one to care for Cosette at all. She’s an object of pity to them, but not of true sympathy; they don’t see her as a person.

The last line is particularly sad. I hope we’ll see Cosette sing at some point.

[lesmisscraper]

The Leaving Mother and the Child Left Behind. Volume 1, Book 4, Chapter 1.

Clips from <Il cuore di Cosette>.

[annachum]

During the June Rebellion,

Both Eponine and Cosette are sometimes ' at war with themselves '

While Eponine's ' war ' is external - scraping for her siblings, literally often physically fighting against her abusers, often resorting to violence as a form of self defense ( and that includes biting and stabbing ), carrying defense weapons wherever she went, even dressing up as a man to sneak into the June Rebellion barricades to help protect Marius

Cosette's ' war ' is internal - battling the trauma demons inside her head at times, fighting to keep peace with herself, literally passionately choosing a more peaceful lifestyle, and sometimes internally battling her inner demons

Both Eponine and Cosette also have a teetering danger to repeat a similar cycle as their biological mothers

Madame Thenardier is one of cruelty and hate

Fantine is one of suffrage, love and martyrdom

Luckily for many, Eponine and Cosette don't have to repeat a similar cycle as their bio mothers

Eponine's story became one of redemption

Cosette's story became one of hope

[nikkinelson1313]

[fifi2930]

Another reason why the #mirrorscene hits differently for me compared to other intimacy scenes in previous seasons (no shade to those either, they all worked really well within their seasons and stories):

There's this moment when Colin gets her permission to touch her, and then his eyes close when his hand moves across her skin. Kudos to the acting by Luke and the way the scene was shot, but the man looks like he is lost in awe and reverence. Like he can't believe he gets to touch her after dreaming of her, like he has to savor every second of it.

And consider it from Pen's perspective. She has been brought up and treated to feel unworthy of love, attraction, taught that she should settle for the first man who'll have her. She was ready to accept a loveless practical match with Debling because she believed true love was a foolish fantasy for someone like her. And then she finds herself with this man who physically aches for her, who is visibly revering her body, who is making sure she knows what an object of sexual and emotional desire she is is.

This is why one kiss from her and sex will never be casual for him anymore. This is why, despite knowing nothing of sex, Pen trusts him completely and lets him guide her through this first time with complete abandon.

Individually, love is a forsaken fantasy for him and an unattainable goal for her. Together, it is worship.

#off for my millionth rewatch

#this sex scene beats all others, fight me

#when he said Lie Down I became pregnant

[anderwater]

Saira : 30, young and relevant

[env0]

Tree Trunk Thighs so big my booty looks small

[crazyrichxplainr]

Amita Suman and Anjana Vasan for Vogue India (ph: Suleika Mueller)

[hollywoodlady]

Bessie Love brushing her hair, early 1920s.

[ourphantomsforeverr]

“Unauthorized duplication will result in gerard coming to your house and sucking your blood”

i love my bullets cd more than anything

[lesmisscraper]

Let children just be children...

[annachum]

Thinking how Cosette and Eponine both been through hell and came put singing. Thinking how both of them once had trouble connecting with their feminity due to severe traumas yet become more comfortable with their own skin as they are healing. Thinking how Cosette finds her purpose through pacifism and visual arts while Eponine finds her purpose through protecting her siblings and those in similar shit as her. Thinking how Cosette chose pacifism as a form of resistance while Eponine chose frontline defenses to protect her siblings, and both are strong in their own ways

[totallycomplexloveandfiction]

this is for the people who don't understand EP:7&8 Colin

https://x.com/venusjmi explains it so beautifully!

[mametupa]

[llutik]

her firstborn

..so ugh you know how once there's been only cat and robb in her scary and not very promising newly married life... and how robb was her whole world

and how he really is her whole world in death???

[fifi2930]

Pen after being fingered: "is there more?"

Honey, that thing in his pants wasn't there for you to hang your necklaces on 😅😅😅

#someone give the ton girls sex ed

#eating cake doesn't make babies, more headlines at 1