#Tveit!Enjolras is the most complete Enjolras I think

[a-la-sante-du-progres]

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Enjolras's fangirls (gn) 🤝 Grantaire 🤝 Victor Hugo

ENJOLRAS + tags (insp.)

[kuunibal]

I see you mention Les Miz in some of your asks!! Do you like the musical too or just the book? 👀

YES. It was one of the first musicals I developed an affinity for after The Phantom of the Opera (over a decade ago...). I believe most people who decide to pick up the Brick do so due to the musical, and the book has many details and hilarious moments that the musical simply does not have the time for.

I will give you some of my unsolicited opinions complete with links and extraneous details under the cut.

Favourite albums: The 10th Anniversary Concert supplemented by The Complete Symphonic Recording. Some of the songs were shortened or cut in the concert, hence the supplement (such as “Javert's Arrest” with the electric guitar). The symphonic version has full instrumentals and dialogues that typically are not featured. I also think the French album is neat, and I like the different translation nuances.

Favourite concert production: The 10th Anniversary Concert. The cast is phenomenal in general with Colm Wilkinson (the original Jean Valjean), Phillip Quast (one of the best Javerts), Ruthie Henshall as Fantine, and Michael Ball as Marius (I don't like him as Javert in later productions, however), although the Enjolras sounds a tad too American to me. The 25th Anniversary Concert is an honourable mention for its talented cast, including Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean, Norm Lewis as Javert, Katie Hall as Cosette, Ramin Karimloo as Enjolras, and Hadley Fraser as Grantaire (if you are familiar with the 25th Anniversary version of Phantom of the Opera, you may recognise the latter two as Erik and Raoul, respectively). You will hear people complain about Nick Jonas being casted as Marius, but in his defense, he was only 17 years old at the time, and his singing is not that bad.

2012 Musical Movie: My opinion is an unpopular one, but I actually don't dislike the film. The singing isn't as unbearable as everyone says, and it is largely the questionable directing choices that caused issues to be aggravated further. It's nostalgic to me much like the 2004 Phantom of the Opera movie. When I introduce people to the musical, the film is the first thing I show them primarily because the plot is easier to see than from bootlegged stage productions. Also, Russell Crowe's Javert is probably the most pathetic, soggy iteration of Javert (with the 1978 film shortly after), and I think his struggle to sustain notes fits his interpretation of the character. Hugh Jackman's Valjean is a warm-hearted DILF, which I find a lot better than some other non-musical movies/shows that make him unnecessarily violent and aggressive (the 1998 film, and I hear the BBC miniseries). Aaron Tveit as Enjolras is also a fan-favourite, and I enjoy Samantha Barks' Éponine.

My current blog title is actually a reference to "Javert, t'es amoureux" by Jean Vallée. It is not from the musical, but it's wonderfully melodramatic and the fact that the singer played Javert in the original French stage cast is hilarious to me.

[missmis]

I’ve been having a lot of heated debates recently over which actors are the best in certain roles, so I thought long and hard about my ideal Les Mis cast.

For some roles, I have several actors (mainly Enjolras, because every guy who’s ever played him seems to be gorgeous). For some roles, there is only one person who just IS that character to me.

Now without further ado, here we go:

Jean Valjean: Alfie Boe, always. He perfectly conveys Valjean’s transition from angry convict to noble and almost saintly, plus his voice still gives me chills every time. I could write an entire post exclusively on the sheer perfection of his high note at the end of “Bring Him Home”, but that is a subject for another day. Honourable mention: John Owen-Jones because his voice is incredible, too-but he overdoes it on the anger sometimes.

Javert: ooh, that’s a tough one. I’d say it’s probably a tie between Earl Carpenter (who has the warmest and most powerful baritone ever) and Norm Lewis, who does the cold-hearted arrogance perfectly. Honourable mention: Richard Woodford, who used to be Grantaire and Javert’s understudy ages ago. Most people probably won’t know him, but he is honestly amazing- and a lovely guy.

Fantine: Carrie Hope Fletcher. Her voice can be powerful or soft as needed and she really captures Fantine’s pain. Honourable mention: Lea Salonga, whose voice is also gorgeous, but whose acting I find a little exaggerated sometimes.

Éponine: Samantha Barks will always be the one true Éponine for me. Her voice is incredible, she looks right (because in my head, Éponine is always dark-haired) and she portrays the whole unrequited love thing to perfection. And yes, I may possibly have a tiny crush on her... Or a big one.

Cosette: Honestly, Cosette always annoyed the heck out of me until I discovered Lily Kerhoas. She’s completely lovestruck-as the character should be- but she manages to turn Cosette into an actual person and not just a one-dimensional teenager who was put in to make all the guys look better. And that is honestly a huge accomplishment. Honourable mention: Amanda Seyfried, although her incredibly high soprano is a bit too much for my ears.

Marius: I loved Eddie Redmayne’s portrayal in the film version. His general adorable shyness steals my heart every time. I also love Rob Houchen, who has a gorgeous voice and who captures the innocence of the character. And Gareth Gates does hands down the best version of “A Little Fall of Rain” I’ve ever seen, because he actually seems to care that Éponine just died, unlike many other actors who’ve played this role.

Enjolras: As I said, there are so many amazing people who have played him. But if I had to choose one, it’d probably be Bradley Jaden (and no, I’m not just saying that because his man bun is a blessing to this fandom). I love his passion and the sheer power he brings to the character. Aaron Tveit is also up there with my favourites-he may not be the greatest singer, but he looks exactly like Book Enjolras and he gets that coldness and indifference-especially towards poor Grantaire- just right. Then there’s Killian Donnelly whose Irish accent I absolutely adore. Oh and lastly, Ramin Karimloo, of course-he may not look like your classical Enjolras, but the light of rebellion is ablaze in his eyes :)

Monsieur Thénardier: the one and only, the inimitable Matt Lucas. He is simply hilarious, which is actually kind of an ethical issue, because he almost makes me like Monsieur T. And every time someone says “Cosette”, I now hear “Courgette” in my head, which is entirely his fault.

Madame Thénardier: Katy Secombe. She’s mean, she’s funny, she’s brash, her facial expressions are everything and her voice can knock you off your feet. Especially great in combination with Matt Lucas. Honestly, I’d pay to see these two do stand-up comedy together.

Gavroche: Also a tough one. My favourite is probably Daniel Huttlestone in the film, just because he’s so adorable I want to adopt him. I also love Robert Madge’s mischievous and cocky Gavroche in the 25th and recently, Logan Clark, whose antics give me life.

Grantaire: He’s my favourite character, so I’m kind of picky about who plays him. Only two guys have found mercy before my eyes. One: George Blagden, whose pining for Enjolras was the only thing that kept me watching the film. I will never stop being pissed that they cut his solo in “Drink With Me”. Two: Keith Anthony Higham. He has the richest voice ever and he just gets Grantaire-the cynicism, the drama and the unrequited love thing. If you haven’t already, watch his 2008 version of “Drink With Me” with David Thaxton. Thank me later.

Courfeyrac: Fra Fee- I love his passion and his friendship with Gavroche in the film. Plus, he has a beautiful voice. Also the guy from the 2019 staged concert- I believe his name is Michael Sheehy, but I could be wrong. He is honestly hilarious.

Combeferre: Killian Donnelly. He gets the whole slightly-exasperated-by-all-of-these-irresponsible-idiots professorial vibe. And he has a very powerful voice.

Feuilly: Matthew Gent because of his lovely soft singing and his funny-as-hell facial expressions.

Joly: Jamie Muscato, who is just such an adorable goofball.

Bossuet/Lesgles/Laigle/the dude with a hundred different names: I don’t know the guy���s name, but he’s in the 25th. Firstly, because he’s actually bald and thus, about ten times more accurate than most other portrayals and secondly, because his voice is warm and soft and it’s actually a shame he hasn’t got more lines to sing.

Bahorel: Again, the dude from the movie- Iwan Lewis, I think he’s called. Just the right amount of recklessness.

Jehan Prouvaire: I haven’t really found anyone I like in this role yet. I’m not that big a fan of Alistair Brammer for some reason, so if someone could help me out here, I’d be grateful.

The Bishop: Also Earl Carpenter, because his voice is-for lack of a better description-like a nice, warm blanket. And I like Colm Wilkinson in this role, too.

I hope I haven’t missed any characters. If I have, please do point them out to me. I hope you’ve enjoyed my analysis- I tried to make it about more than just “Oh, I like this person because they’re hot”. Feel free to share your own opinions and remember: these are just my subjective ones.

[ilovemybarricadebabies]

My incredibly personal story of how I fell in love with Les Mis, and by extension, Enjoltaire.

I was first introduced to Les Mis through singing “Castle on a Cloud” when I was an 8th grader in my junior/high school choir. At this time, the film of the musical had just been released. After hearing my choir director talk about it, I had an interest in seeing it in the movie theatre, but was never able too. However, that summer, on either July 12th or 13th, 2013 (I only remember the date because I distinctly remember watching it, and then learning about Cory Monteith’s death (despite never watching Glee), my mother came home with the DVD of the film, and we watched it. At first, I didn’t really understand what was going on, but I ended up falling in love with “Do You Hear The People Sing?” and I listened to that song on repeat for days following. Apart from “Castle on a Cloud”, “DYHTPS?” was the first song that I truly knew from the musical.

Then, my freshmen year of high school, we sang “Bring Him Home” at our Fall Festival concert, and then, in the weeks following leading up to Christmas/holiday break, we watched the film in choir class. But that still wasn’t what made me fall in love. I enjoyed the music, but at this point, I wasn’t big on musical theatre. But that all changed that holiday break.

When holiday break came around, I sat down with my laptop, and pulled up The Phantom of the Opera from my iTunes account (now, I know this my LM story, but we need to go through my POTO phase first), and I absolutely fell in love with POTO. It was like a switch flipped and my whole world had came into focus. POTO was my segue into the world of musical theatre. Everything revolved around POTO for weeks. As I went through my POTO phase, I introduced myself to more musicals. I started first with the more mainstream (POTO, Wicked, Les Mis, and so many more that are considered mainstream) and then, I found the musicals that weren’t as popular. And I went through a time were I felt that my love for theatre needed to remain a secret because there was another girl in my school who was obsessed with musical theatre and I felt somewhat intimidated by her, so I kept it secret from everyone except my family. There wasn’t a day that went by that I wasn’t checking the Playbill website or reading about musicals on Google. I followed all the musical accounts on social media that I could. During this time, I had listened to the entirety of Les Mis and I had also understood the story better thanks to Google. Les Mis quickly became my second favorite musical, but nothing was going to take POTO from this spot.

But as I entered my sophomore year, my POTO phase had pretty much ended, and my Once Upon a Time phase began, but that only lasted for about six months. I was still obsessed with musicals, but my main focus was know OUaT. Then, I was in between phases for a while. Finally, that spring, after begging my parents for months and months, they gifted me with a trip to New York City in May 2015 (my second time going to that city, my first was in June 2013 with my mother on a mother/daughter bonding trip, where we saw the musical, and my first Broadway musical, Once), and I was able to see POTO on Broadway.

However, nearing the end of my sophomore year, my entire world turned upside down when my parent’s divorced and everything that I knew had changed.

But then, on Saturday, June 6th, 2015, I found my way to FanFiction.net (I had been reading Wicked fanfiction, but I was getting tired of it), and I found my way into the Les Mis category on FFN.net, and I found my way to reading Enjoltaire fanfiction. Granted, I soon learned that most of the fanfiction on there was Enjolras/Éponine, and that wasn’t at all what I wanted.

Now, when I first watched Les Mis way back in June 2013, I didn’t really care for the characters, yet. I watched it for the entertainment reasons. However, once I entered the world of musical theatre, and I watched Les Mis again (this time it was the 25th anniversary concert), my eye caught on to the dynamic that Enjolras and Grantaire had and what Hadley Fraser and Ramin Karimloo did with said dynamic in the 25th anniversary. That was when I started shipping it, and it became my Les Mis OTP.

After making my way through the Enjoltaire category on FFN.net, I made my way over to Ao3, and that was where the rabbit hole began. Every spare moment of my time was spent either reading Enjoltaire fanfiction on Ao3 or in the Enjoltaire tag on Tumblr. If my phone was in my hand and my eyes were to my phone chances it was Enjoltaire fanfiction that I was reading. I went to the lake with my mom’s side of the family at the end of June 2015, and while I did chat with my family, most of the time my phone was in my hand while I continued to read Enjoltaire fanfiction. I had also shown my cousin the 25th, someone who had never seen it, and even she started to low key ship it. Also, at this time, I had watched the movie more times than I could count, and I had also gone down the rabbit hole that is loving Aaron Kyle Tveit. I had learned everything that I could and I had watched everything that I could get my hands on that had him in it. I also discovered that while the dynamic that Hadley and Ramin had in the 25th was nothing compared to what the movie portrayed, or I should say what George Blagden portrayed, in the movie. My Tumblr account was covered in all things Enjoltaire, it was wonderful. My life revolved around Enjoltaire. I started writing and gaining many, many, many ideas for Enjoltaire fanfiction (I have 8 stories on Ao3. One in the process of being published, seven are complete and available for reading). I loved both Enjolras and Grantaire, separately (Enjolras I loved just a little bit more because he was my favorite character, still is and will always be my favorite character of the musical and of all-time, but nevertheless I loved them both) and I loved them as a couple. They were, and still are, my babies and OTP of OTP’s. They are the couple that I have stayed with the longest. When I’ve entered my fandom phases in the past, I usually lasted with the couple that I shipped for about six months. I still loved them after that, but not to the extent of what I had. My love for Enjoltaire has stayed for over four years and is still going strong. These two will probably stay with me forever.

Now, by this point, I still hadn’t seen it live. It had been revived on Broadway in March 2014, with Ramin as Valjean. At this point, the show in London didn’t hold any of my attention because I had had no hope of ever seeing it there. I did my best to keep up to date with it, but I failed miserably at that. Most of what I knew about the London production came from Tumblr or Google. I did follow the London actors and the Les Mis London account on Twitter. I was also aware that it was the original production in London, but like I said, I had no hope whatsoever that I would be able to see it there. I would have loved to see it, but living in the U.S., I doubted that I would ever see it. The only version that I wanted to see and could afford to see at the time was the one on Broadway, and I wanted to see that version BECAUSE of the fact that Ramin was Valjean, and I had already loved and adored him because of POTO and the 25th anniversary. I followed this production as much as I could. I was rooting for it during the 2014 Tony Awards and was absolutely pissed when it didn’t win. I had had the opportunity to see Ramin as Valjean at the same time that I saw POTO in May 2015, but instead, I decided that the other show that we would see during that NYC trip would be Wicked because Matt Shingledecker (the Fiyero (who is my favorite Fiyero) at the time was someone that had caught my attention through Kara Lindsay’s Broadway.com Wicked vlog, “Think Pink”) and I just wanted and was desperate to see and meet him, so I chose Wicked, a decision to this day that I still don’t regret. And overall, to me, I didn’t care that it wasn’t the original version, to me it was a story that I loved and adored.

Now, we are getting into the personal part of the story. My junior year of high school, my parent’s divorce had grown to the point where I think the best word to describe it would be bitter. My dad was butting in to my mom’s business, and my mom wanted nothing to do with my dad unless it had to do with me and my two siblings or my two nephews. My dad would drag me into the middle of all of it because I was the only one of my siblings still at home. My parent’s divorce was a mess. Some of my teachers knew about the divorce, but they didn’t know that I felt like I was drowning. I had kept up with my schoolwork and still had good grades, but I didn’t talk about the divorce because I didn’t want to drag people in to something that they had no reason to be part of. I was clearly in pain and I felt so alone, but I was good at hiding it, that no one knew. The one thing that I clutched to, the thing that was my absolute fucking lifeline was Les Mis/Enjoltaire.

Whenever I needed it, Les Mis was the thing that was there for me. To be honest, it felt like it was the only thing that was there for me. The story, the music, and of course, boatloads of Enjoltaire fanfiction. The only thing that got me through the day was repeating the line: “Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise”, every minute of every day. If I was having a bad day or cheering up, the only thing that would pull me out of it was either Les Mis or Enjoltaire.

It was because of this that Les Mis became my absolutely favorite musical of all-time because it was the reason that I was still living. The story and music gave me hope and it was because of those two things that I knew that everything was going to be okay.

All while I was feeling like I was drowning, it was announced on December 2nd, 2015, that the Broadway revival was closing (by this time, Ramin bad left the production, Alfie Boe was Valjean, and John-Owen Jones has been announced as the replacement for Alfie once he left and would continue with the production until it closed) on September 4th, 2016. After this was announced, I told my father that he had nine months to take me to see the show, and he did because on May 14, 2016 at the Imperial Theatre, I was witnessing for the first time ever the story and hearing the music that I loved so much live. I was absolutely in awe of what I was seeing. To me, it didn’t matter that it wasn’t the original production, all that mattered was that I was seeing the story and the characters that I loved so much play out 100 feet in front of me. I was sobbing and my breath was taken away. My eyes didn’t leave the stage, once. I loved and adored every moment of it. On the day, the revival closed, I was working, and I was taking my lunch break when they live streamed the curtain call for the final performance on Facebook. I was sobbing as I watched it.

Then, I started my senior year of high school, and unlike my junior year, it was so much better. My junior year was my worst year of high school. Part of what helped me make it through my senior year was that my sister (who hadn’t been talking to my family for over 12 years) came back to the family. I now had someone to talk to about what had happened, and it made me feel so much better.

Now for the last year or so, I knew that my father had been planning to gift me with a trip to anywhere in Europe that I wanted to go for my graduation present. It was originally that I wanted to go to Italy, but then I changed my mind and decided on Paris and London. I chose Paris mostly because it’s one of my favorite cities in the world and it’s the settling of my favorite time period in Les Mis. Then, I chose London because I had always wanted to go there too, plus like Paris and NYC, it’s one of my favorite cities in the world. While we were planning the trip, my dad asked me what shows I wanted to see. The only shows that I knew for sure were Les Mis, POTO, and Wicked. Now, like I said earlier, I knew that Les Mis was the original production, but while that was part of the reason why I wanted to see it. The other reason, the much, much, much bigger reason, was because I knew that I would be once again witnessing the story and characters that I loved so much come alive 100 feet in front of me. And I got those three shows, as well as seven more, on the trip itinerary.

On June 5th, 2017 at the Queen’s Theatre, I was able to witness, my favorite show and characters that meant so much come alive, once again, 100 feet in front of me. While I was amazed with the revolving stage and how the original production was put together, it wasn’t what made the story special for me. Like the Broadway revival and every version of the story that I have listened to/watched, I was sobbing by the end and my breath was taken away. At the end of it, I didn’t care that what I was seeing was the the original production. All that mattered to me was that it just my favorite musical. On the plane ride home from London, I needed to experience it again, that I watched the movie on my iPad through Amazon Prime. Like with Broadway, I had been in a Les Mis slump, that all I wanted was too watch/listen to anything regarding my favorite show.

As the next year went on, I started college and I had to deal with people asking me why such a mainstream musical was my favorite, I didn’t know what to say. They had no business in knowing why it meant so much to me. Before I started college, the announcement of the U.S. tour cast was announced, and while I had already been hoping to see it if it came anywhere near me, once I discovered that Matt Shingledecker would be playing Enjolras, I was more determined than ever to see the tour.

When it was announced that the tour would be coming at the Orpheum Theatre in December 2018 in Minnesota which was the closest that it’s come to me, it took quite a lot of convincing from me for my father to get me tickets to see it for my birthday in December. He was reluctant because I had already seen it twice already, but all I needed to say was that it was my favorite musical and he got me the tickets.

And on December 29th, 2018, I saw my favorite musical for the third time, and once again, not caring what production it was, I was seeing my favorite characters and story come alive in front of me. I was sobbing and breath was taken away. After the curtain call and the lights came up, I cried for like another five minutes. And once again was in a Les Mis slump for days afterward.

Now, not to bring up a bad subject, but with the change that is occurring in London, while I am heartbroken over it, I also don’t really care. The staging of the show doesn’t hold any sentimental value for me, not like I know it does for some people. What part of Les Mis that holds the sentimental value for me is the story, the characters, the music, and of course, Enjoltaire. Without the story, without Enjoltaire, I wouldn’t be on this Earth anymore. This story had already meant so much to me that when I saw it live, it was just the cherry on top of a beautiful, wonderful, delicious ice cream sundae. I have/will watch/listen to the musical no matter what staging it’s given, or even lack of.

Now, while I am slowly, like snail’s pace slow, making my way through the book. I am determined to finish it one day. All of my knowledge that I know from the book is from the people that I follow on Tumblr, who have read it. While I’m slowly making my way through the book, I have read other passages in it, and from just those I know that I will love the book, and it will give me even more reason to love it more than I already do.

This musical has meant to so much to me that when I finally get the money for my first tattoo, it will be “Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise” on my upper arm between my shoulder and elbow, written in the logo’s font. That quote is my favorite in the musical and it’s the quote that has meant the most to me. It was my mantra my junior year. And after that tattoo, I want to get another Les Mis related one, but I want that one centered on Enjoltaire, but I’m not sure. Either way, I know that I will get the first one for sure.

And I think that pretty much covers why this musical means so much to me. And this story is obviously incredibly personal, just like I’m sure everyone else’s story regarding this musical is. But this one is unique to me because it’s my story.

[brightbeautifulthings]

Les Misérables: Part II, Book IV - Part III, Book VIII

Once again, I'm great at reading and bad at posting updates about it. I can consistently manage one thing on my blog--book reviews--and everything else gets fit in at random. I'm still reading Les Misérables regularly, and I just finished the Marius section this week so it seemed like a good time to post an update (although last month would have been better). This is slightly over half the book, which I'm really excited about because that means I'm slightly ahead of my schedule, and the prognosis is good for actually finishing it before the year is over.

Somewhere a while ago, I was starting to warm up to this book and actually look forward to reading it, and then I hit a bunch of dry sections including Terrifying Nuns & Their Living Habits, and the warm feelings went away. I've never had a book go so far in either direction as far as my feelings about it. Sometimes I can barely get through a section, and other times I'm completely drawn into the plot and the characters. I feel like there's probably a better way to balance this, but I don't know what it is. Maybe there's just no way to make boring historical things less boring. (In the novel's defense, history has never been my subject.) In those sections, I typically feel like I need another book just to explain to me what it is Hugo's getting at. There are probably some really good companion books out there, so I'm open to suggestions if you've read one.

"The bishop had taught him the meaning of virtue; Cosette had now taught him the meaning of love."

It's difficult not to love Jean Valjean as a character, and the contrast set up between him and Javert is one of the best I've ever seen in literature. Valjean is an ex-convict, but he's pretty much always the most (or the only) morally good character on the page. Javert is a police inspector, but he's so rigidly committed to the law that morality escapes him sometimes. He's the danger of a doctrine that only sees in black and white. The chase scene when Javert first discovers Valjean's identity is very tense. I wished the narrative hadn't moved away from describing Valjean and Cosette's relationship over the years in more depth. The next time we see them, a lot of time has passed.

Things pick up again with the introduction of Marius and Les Amis de l'ABC. I found Marius easy to identify with, since he's like a lot of academics I know. We're terribly committed to whatever theory has caught our attention lately, have difficulty resurfacing from our books, and have absolutely zero chill when the person we like is nearby. I nearly died laughing in the chapters where he walks by Cosette (again and again and again) and basically acts like a super-kook whenever she's around. Hello, my name is Marius. I am a Dork Fish extraordinaire. Except he'd never make it past hello, as most dork fish do not. If that isn't my college love life in a nutshell, I don't know what is.

I'm still having trouble distinguishing all the members of Les Amis de l'ABC. In typical Hugo fashion, they're introduced in great detail and then not mentioned again for two hundred pages. Alice and I were making each other laugh sending videos of Aaron Tveit coaching people on how to pronounce Enjolras (very helpful). Then there’s the obvious romance between him and Grantaire. "He was austere, seeming not to be aware of the existence on earth of a creature called woman." There's a word for that, Hugo. It's called gay. "But, skeptic that he was, he had one fanatical devotion, not for an idea, a creed, an art or a science, but for a man - for Enjolras. Grantaire admired, loved, and venerated Enjolras." As if it needed more angst, Enjolras kind of hates Grantaire. Ships are built on way less than that, and I can see why they're the couple who have launched 10,000 fics on AO3. I think I care more about their potential love story than Marius and Cosette's actual one.

"In the animal world no creature born to be a dove turns into a scavenger. This happens only among men."

I hope there's more Eponine later in the book, since she's my favorite character in the movie. She's played a much smaller role so far, and I'm interested to see how she moves from barely knowing Marius to being in love with him and how Marius moves from distracted bookworm to revolutionary (and I'm going to be sad if that's purely an invention of the musical). Hugo proves once again that he can build tension when he puts his mind to it, but Marius's crisis of conscience when Thénardier corners Valjean is much less satisfying than some earlier in the novel, given the outcome (trying not to be spoilery). I'm back to having mostly good feelings about the book, but also nervous about how many more sections might be passionately dedicated to a single day in history or the minutiae of the Paris sewer system.

[midautumnnightdream]

The random number generator suggested I ask you about Enjolras.

Enjolras you shall have!

First impression:

Okay confession time. The very first Enjolras contact I had came from a crossover fanfiction (with one of my previous fandoms (not saying which one, because AFAIK this the only crossover of it’s kind and this is not a callout post). The premise was interesting enough to stick to my memory, but the impression of Enjolras I came away with was, well. Good-intentioned and admirable, but judgmental, always angry and utterly uninterested in any viewpoint that conflicted with his. I’m sure you have seen one of those in the wild.

The first ‘real’ impression I had was the DYHTPS scene from the 2012 movie. And there is A Lot to be said about that movie in general and Aaron Tveit in particular, but that scene is honest to god perfection? I had been hesitating about getting into Les Mis for awhile, because I knew it would take over my life for a few months at least (HA!) but it took me about ten seconds from hitting the play button to decide that I needed to know everything there is to know about this bookmusical thingy that produced this.

Impression now:

Amazingly successful attempt of combining “seriously earnest hard-burning idealist” with “complete and utter nerddork”. I’m in awe. Also he kinda makes me want to be a better person, which should feel more ridiculous than it does.

Favorite moment:

A hard decision between the “Love future is thine” speech (+plus circumstances leading up to it) and Quel Horizon speech. Still, “Here the misery encounters the ideal. Here the day embraces the night and says "I shall die with you and you shall be born again with me”“ might be my very favourite passage ever written.

… That from the hard-burning idealist side. Total nerddork side should be represented by that little spat with Gavorche.

Idea for a story:

Oh, um. Maybe some kind of crossover where after dying on the barricade, Les Amis wake up in a different universe and immediately disrupt all the established narrative expectations by teaming up with an underdog that the local heroes (and authors) of the other universe have been sidelining. Idk how to avoid turning this into some kind of pretentious moral anvil-dropping, but lbr, there’s something deeply delightful about the idea of Les Amis as a primal force of social upheaval, travelling from universe to universe and turning everything sideways.

Unpopular opinion:

Lol every Enjolras opinion is unpopular.

Real talk tho, I don’t think any of my opinions are particularly uncommon in the corner of the fandom I make my nest in, though the fandom at large might disagree. That is to say, he’s not an asshole, knows what he’s talking about, is definitely not Wrong to be what he chooses to be and (perhaps most likely to cause argument), the idea of him and Grantaire having an actual “normal” sort of romantic relationship makes very little sense and would likely be very bad for both of them. (They do, however have that proven capacity for brilliant moments of mutual understanding that could make them profoundly important to each other, and I kinda wish for more fic that could explore that without following the prescribed recipe for a happy ending.

Favorite relationship:

With Les Amis as a group and each of the individuals separately - his fanboying of Feuilly in particular gives me all the warm fuzzy feels. Also I really find myself wishing for some interaction with Mabeuf while he was still alive and - oh wait i suddenly had a fic idea…

Favorite headcanon:

Printshop Enjolras continues to be a delight - it just fixes so many things? And he has a teeny paper hat okay.