#also genuinely not sure where the idea that i prefer jvj/am biased against javert is coming from? i really like both of their characters

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

If you actually believe suicide is punishable by eternal damnation and that applies to Javert as well, you must invariably also apply this logic to Valjean, who starved himself to death. A passive suicide is still suicide; it doesn’t stop being so just because you prefer one character to another. To pretend like Valjean didn’t commit suicide and goes to heaven but that Javert must go to hell is just outright incorrect and biased on every level. They either both went to heaven or both went to hell, but you can’t have it two different ways.

Hey thanks for the ask /gen!

I don't believe suicide sends you to hell. I've been pretty careful to specify that *Catholic doctrine in the past* (as I'm not aware of their current position) has taught that suicide is a mortal sin (you can even see this attitude in Hamlet, in which the characters are Catholic), but I am not Catholic, nor do I believe that doctrine was ever true.

Your salvation is not gained or lost by your virtue or sin. Salvation is given by God: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, so that no man can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Narratively, how this applies to Valjean vs. Javert is that Valjean accepts his salvation and the mercy shown to him, while Javert, because of his pride and shame (among other reasons) rejects it and instead commits suicide. Neither of them "deserved" a second chance, but both of them were offered it; Valjean took it, and Javert did not.

God will not force you into heaven, but He does make the Way (through faith in Christ) available to everyone. The tragedy of Javert is that he is unwilling to accept that God's path is not the path he thought it was, and instead of living a new life in light of this truth, he ends his life in rejection of it. And in doing so, he condemns himself, when mercy was right in front of him--as so many choose to do.