#i love Brick Javert for the horrible cruel Creature he is

[secretmellowblog]

What are your favourite pathetic Javert moments? I read your post, and now I'm curious

(CONTEXT: a while back I made a post where I jokingly promised to list my top ten pathetic Javert moments. It is finally that time. Thank you anon and @revolutionaeternam.)

I had trouble writing this post because there are way too many moments in the Brick where Javert is a horribly pathetic creature.  So here are the Top Eleven Pathetic Javert Moments I Am Currently Thinking About:  #11:

“This man was at the barricade,” said he in a low voice and as though speaking to himself. “He is the one they called Marius.” A spy of the first quality, who had observed everything, listened to everything, and taken in everything, even when he thought that he was to die; who had played the spy even in his agony, and who, with his elbows leaning on the first step of the sepulchre, had taken notes.

This line really encapsulates the tragic pathetic side of Javert for me. His entire existence is built on mindless groveling and performing useless tasks in the service of an authority that does not respect him and never will. He is the kind of person who will waste his last hours alive pointlessly ‘taking notes’ no one will read simply because it is what he has been ordered to do, and he cannot disobey orders.

#10. The entire “Punish me, Monsieur Le Maire” scene. No explanation needed. 

#9. Every moment when Javert expresses vehement hatred for some random inoffensive thing that no reasonable person would ever hate. (Ex. Thinking, kindness, facts, books, stoves, etc.) 

#8: Javert recognizing Eponine's body right before his execution,  and saying “It strikes me that I know that girl.” The Javert/Eponine parallels, and that way Javert-Eponine are the failed  “shadows” of Valjean-Cosette....

#7. Every time Javert is compared to a dog. It’s always easier to feel sorry for a furry. 

#6. The moment when the National Guard has an opportunity to trade Jehan’s life for Javert’s --and doesn't. (And Enjolras telling Javert that "your friends have just shot you.") Like?  The way Javert is serving a society that does not value his life; the way the National Guard could have easily rescued him, but didn’t know or care that he had been captured! And the fact that "your friends have just shot you" is immediately followed by Eponine, Javert’s narrative foil, dying of a bullet wound as she begs for attention from a man who doesn't even recognize her...the way both Javert and Eponine made themselves the “guard dogs” of someone/something that barely remembers they exist...  

#5. All of Javert’s behavior at the barricade in general, and the way it parallels Jean Valjean's behavior. It’s fascinating how Javert acts so similar to the way Jean Valjean acted while captured by Thenardier — they both ‘do not utter a single cry,’ and remain utterly calm even when tied to a post awaiting death. They are superficially polite, save for a few passive-aggressive insults. It’s one of the few moments where you see “oh yeah, Javert was born in a prison, and like Jean Valjean he’s learned how to 'properly' behave in situations where he's trapped and has no autonomy, to the point where it’s second nature for him.” Fanfic writers often portray the barricade as uniquely traumatizing for Javert, but the sad thing is that Javert is pretty “eh this is just Tuesday for me” about it until Jean Valjean saves his life.

#4. Javert’s inability to lie at the barricades. He cannot lie to save his life. At the barricade they ask him who he is and he responds “my name’s Javert and I’m a cop.” Who made this man a spy???? Why did they did they send HIM on the spying mission???

#3. Javert IS SO BAD at lying I'm putting it on this list twice. 2012 Les Mis Fandom often liked to make Javert a ~closed book who secretly has a soft heart and hidden depths~ but to me…, one of the most pathetic things about Javert is that what you see is what you get. He is physically incapable of pretending to believe things he does not believe or feel things he does not feel. He’s described as someone whose eyes are so clear you can see the very depths of his conscience in them. Javert can be stoic and level-headed while dealing with severe emotions, but he cannot lie, and the one time he attempts to lie (“I will wait for you here”) he’s so bad at it that even a very distracted Jean Valjean notices something is off. And idk, to me it seems like there can be a really painful vulnerability to that.

#2. “You annoy me. Kill me rather.” ICONIC. And the tu/vous switch that happens here, where Javert is trying to act harsh toward Valjean but is incapable of concealing the fact that he’s developed a new terrifying respect for him!! Because he is a terrible liar! Something is wrong with him. <3 The entire 'execution' scene is a beautiful farce.

#1. This is cheating but: everything involving Javert's final confrontation with Jean Valjean after the barricades, including all of Derailed. These brief chapters are the only time when we see how a doubt-ridden post-barricades Javert interacts with other people, especially Jean Valjean, and it’s all deeply pitiable. His characterization in these chapters is fascinating, and is almost never captured in any adaptations. He isn’t shouting at Valjean or violently threatening him with death; for the first time he’s lost, wandering, and uncertain, speaking "as if in a dream" and passively allowing Jean Valjean to decide where they go and what they do. It's Javert at his most wet and pathetic. Javert sees Jean Valjean and is torn between feeling like quote "the wolf which regains its grip on its prey and the dog that finds its master again...." and he deals with that by Bluescreening. I have this theory that Javert is at his most 'likable' when he has the least power. When Javert has power, he is terrifying. But when he's powerless, when he’s been “declawed," when he's incapable of doing harm, he's just this strange pitiable Creature.  And these last chapters are peak Declawed Javert.