#armand as in chauvelin

[ruthscarabae]

this really is going to get me blocked and i don't care. i think they should be siblings. i think the dynamic should be unhealthy. i think things should be so confused and muddled and desperate and torn that marguerite had to run away but also could never stop wanting to go back.

[margueritestjusts]

finally got pulled out of art block

[burnsopale]

A Scarlet Pimpernel conundrum that lives rent free in my brain:

According to Sally Dugan, Orczy continued to write Pimpernel books mostly because her publishers kept asking for them and they were paying her bills (I call it Conan Doyle syndrome)

Dugan says that Orczy couldn't keep using Marguerite as the protagonist because convention demanded that she stay at home as a good little wife (boo!)

In her search for other potential POV characters, Orczy usually used one of the innocents that Percy is going to rescue, but matching them all in frequency is, unusually, recurring villain Chauvelin

(Quick aside to mention that the members of the League are usually out as POV characters because they know too much, note that when they are given the POV, they tend to be chafing against Percy refusing to share the details of his current plan with them. Percy is almost entirely out as a POV character because he's a trickster type hero and having access to his thoughts would kill the tension. That's also the reason why having the villain as a main POV character works; the question is never IF Percy will win, but HOW, so we must know all the difficulties in his way but not how he intends to overcome them.)

Once Chauvelin becomes a POV character he is immediately written much more sympathetically, from his very first scene in Elusive where he is shown to be vulnerable (threatened by Robespierre), cool (doesn't care about the threat) and admirable (his motivation is contrasted positively with Robespierre's). From this book onward, he has stopped taking snuff (trauma lol), stopped cackling evilly, and the hand-rubbing has gone from a diabolical gesture to a sign of his excessive nerves. He is shown to be increasingly traumatized by Percy's almost superhuman luck and skill, he is constantly exhausted and almost hysterical with nerve-strain, and he is continually contrasted as a true believer in the cause against his power-hungry, selfish, stupid colleagues. In Elusive especially he is heavily paralleling Marguerite. What I'm asking is, did Orczy miss her female protagonist so much she started writing Chauvelin the same way???

[hiraethstar]

Chauvelin: *appears in any scene*

Baroness Emmuska Orczy: HE'S SHORT! This man is TINY! You can sling him over your shoulder like a bale of goods, he's so smol!

[couldtransitionsaveher]

ARMAND CHAUVELIN from THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL

JUSTIFICATION:

"Is said to be like a 'pretty woman' by Percy Blakeney/The Pimpernel as an insult, but she takes it in stride and doesn't protest this whatsoever. It is also noted that in the sequels Chauvelin's daughter calls her 'Bibi' instead of any of the usual words for father. 'Bibi' is a term which has more a feminine association in many parts of the world." - Anonymous

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[captain-will]

posting my chauvelin and percy designs so i remember to DRAW THEMMM

[fictionturnedherbrain]

Bruised and alone: mon petit Chauvelin

[starsfromtoulon]

sorry but i think The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999) would be good... if I had never seen or heard of any other adaptations or read even two pages of the book.

[desdasiwrites]

– Baroness Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel

[yourmissionistofinishyourwips]

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Song lyrics from the Logos Theater 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' part 1/16

I went to see the Logos Theater 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' musical last week (for the second time), and I was again blown away. The story is fairly close to the book, apart from the now-obligatory past Marguerite/Chauvelin and the Dauphin. I could go on about the play as a whole forever, but I'll just going to talk about this specific song now.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

This is the first song and scene in the play and essentially performs the same role as 'Madame Guillotine' from the Broadway play. It sets the scene and shows us the horrors of the Revolution. Here are some slight explanations for the format of the lyrics: parentheses mean background vocals, the capitalized names are characters, (?) means I'm not 100% sure of the lyrics so that word is my best guess, and italics equal the spoken word. And now, on to all my thoughts about the song.

The title is great, referencing the tagline of the Revolution.

The character Celeste is actually Celeste St. Cyr, the daughter of the Marquis de St. Cyr, Armand's nameless former lady love in the book and movies. She has a semi-significant role in this play, so keep watching for that.

The conversation between Percy in disguise and the soldier at the gate is a good representation of how the scene goes in the books.

'Blue blood' is a phrase Orczy used a lot in the books to talk about the aristocrats

Armand's line "A surging, seething, murmuring crowd who is only human in name" is basically word for word from the book.

The part where the aristocrat recites the Lord's Prayer actually happens as he is being led in chains (through the audience) to the guillotine. It's pretty horrifying.

The back-and-forth between the crowd and the aristocrats awaiting execution is phenomenal.

In short, go watch the play, and if you can't, listen to the music on Spotify or Apple Music.

[songandflame-archived]

“i’ve been worried sick! where the hell were you!?”

@covrroucer || thank you!

Fantine wasn't expecting to meet Chauvelin outside the building she called "home". In fact, if it was anyone Fantine was more prepared to meet there, it would be her landlord. More often than not she could sweeten his rage a little by offering herself in exchange for the money she owed, but that only went so far.

Bewildered, she couldn't help but trip, only able to catch herself against the wall. What did it matter where she was?

"I-." she had slept the most of the day away in a dingy, barely ventilated opium den. And what of it? Everyone had their sins, even him. "I was out."

Her words still came slowly despite having been greeted the fresh, evening air; it seemed her brain remained foggy as she tried to keep it together in front of Chauvelin.

"I'm sorry if I worried you, but I can assure you I'm fine."

Why did he care anyway? That's what puzzled her the most. Why did he care?

[burnsopale]

And sometimes, on special occasions, she calls him "sable-clad".

Cause he's a li'l weasel.

tbh it's absolutely hilarious how much orczy stresses that chauv is always wearing black. without fail, every single time he's in a scene, she'll mention at least three times that he's wearing black. did you know he's wearing black? he's wearing black btw. did she mention he's wearing black. if you're wondering what colour he's wearing, it's bl

[margueritestjusts]

the scarlet pimpernel social media things, part 3 (part 1/2)

[burnsopale]

We're back with another Chauvelin villain song except this one is sad and also set in a hypothetical bad ending after Sir Percy Hits Back. It's the kind of thing you post at 2AM or never.

I watch the sky darkening beyond the bars Wish I could stay to see the stars But their time to shine will be my time to dim I go to Madame on my country’s whim They think to deal me the mortal blow But they don’t know what I know

She will be alright She will be alright That's all that matters to me tonight She will be fine She’ll forget she was mine Look to the future, leave me behind She will be fine

Now I can hear them talking in the courtyard below It's almost time to go My heart beats peacefully even so They don't know what I know I close my eyes and see her walking with her beau

The tumbril trundles through the city There are people everywhere None of them have space for pity All along the road they cheer But this is not my darkest hour Though they might think it so They don't know what I know

She will be fine She will be fine Safe and happy, that was my saviour's line She will be alright Her days will be bright Sheltered by her gallant Scarlet knight She will be alright

Each victim gets his final speech I know what I will say On some fair beach, on some fair shore In a country far away There walks a little woman hand in hand with her good beau And as I lay me down to die, this happy thing I know

She will be alright She will be alright That’s all that matters to me tonight She will be fine She’ll forget she was mine Child of my heart, may your future be kind You will be fine

[bellatrixnightshade]

Scarlet Pimpernel- SGE AU poll update

If you can say who you voted for and why, that's welcome but it certainly isn't necessary.

We have a tie with our main trio!! I will do another vote.

Percy/TSP: A tie with Rafal, Rhian One, and Rhian Jr!

Marguerite: A tie with Sophie, Agatha, and Nicola.

Chauvelin: A tie for Rafal, Midas, or Japeth.

Choose wisely, and don't vote for the same person twice.

Confirmed (for now):

Sir Andrew, Sir Percy's best friend: James Hook

Armand St. Just, Marguerite's brother: Aladdin

Suzanne: Kyma

If it helps, use the comfirmed to possibly influence your choices.

[burnsopale]

Trying to analyze Orczy's writing as I read these books has me in a state of acute crisis, but let me try to mumble and wumble some thoughts I've had?

The description of him being a "high born gentleman" comes, I realised in retrospect, from Louise, and is not, as such, trustworthy. She "knows" that he is secretly an aristo, but Amede says to Percy "Little is known of him in the neighbourhood, save that he is a widower and apparently has influence with the government", so this idea of Louise's is seemingly not shared by the citizens of Laragne, who surely would also have known?

It is also significant that Orczy doesn't return to this seeming bombshell of a revelation, especially that she does not reveal it to Percy (which would have given it actual dramatic impact). It isn't confirmed by another source. It's like Orczy introduced it, but then didn't want to go there after all. She could have removed the whole mention of it of course, but she is often careless with her prose like that, saying things only for dramatic effect; she writes several times that Fleurette is "the only being in all the world whom [Chauvelin has] ever loved", but that surely can't be true, for one thing because he seemed to have loved her late mother.

The idea of him having blue blood, as you say, is only carried on in one way that I can recall, and that's in the descriptions of Fleurette:

"[The crowd's] attention was fixed on the accused whose modest bearing and spotless attire seemed to arouse their spite and their derision ..."

"The crowd did not like the prisoner's attitude, what they called her aristocratic airs and disdainful ways; even the children pointed grimy little fingers at her and hurled the poisonous darts of loathsome epithets at the aristo."

So are we meant to understand that Chauvelin is an aristo because Fleurette has *heavy sigh* clearly inherited their virtues? As you say, that checks out with Orczy's whole vibe.

(Except when it doesn't cause she does sometimes write aristos who are bad because they are aristos, like Devinne and Rodiere from Sir Percy Leads the Band, and there are plenty of good non-aristo characters, and it's not like Chauvelin is actually portrayed as a good guy even in Sir Percy Hits Back; he is punished by the narrative (meaning Percy) for throwing Adele to the wolves to save Fleurette, and is left absolutely broken and alone in the end, and this is why I am in a state of absolute agony over these books, Orczy cannot even be a consistently bad writer and every time she seemingly expertly nuances her ridiculous world-view I get to have a small seizure wondering whether she actually knew what she was doing all along.)

I always took Chauvelin being dressed in black constantly as being a reference to the Third Estate being mandated to wear black at the Estates General, which is why it read as one of the many, many retcons/continuity errors of the series to have him described as "a high born gentleman" in Sir Percy Hits Back to me.

That or the minute he displays any kind of positive character trait, the author decided he must be blue blooded which tbh checks for the whole vibe of Baroness Orczy.