#the enjolras ones really hit different this time
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
ok so i love les miserables
AND I JUST GOT TO SEE IT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE NORTH AMERICA TOUR (more specifically Montreal! (yes i flew to an entirely different country to see it)) and i am incredibly attached to enjolras and grantaire so here are just things i saw that made my nails dig into my thighs <3 (not just enjoltaire)
oh my dear months old source of no big sad
this is 90% incoherent rambling (SPOILERS)
- Grantaire had long hair and a long coat i think that deserves its own point
- During Red and Black, Grantaire did the old “Don Juan” with the bottle right in Enjolras’ face (he was not impressed)
- In this same song, Enjolras got really close to R’s face during “don’t let the wine go to your brain”
- Again, in Red and Black, when they tossed Grantaire’s bottle to Enj, teasing him, Grantaire grabbed the bottle in a… way… when he was giving it back to him
- Same song 😭 Grantaire was bouncing on a guy’s lap during the first few verses
- In DYHTPS, Grantaire pulled Gavroche aside away from the students crowding Enjolras (this broke my heart, he clearly loves him and doesn’t want him to be in a war)
- “Glad to do a friend a favor” with a very suggestive hand gesture
- In the “dogs will bark flees will bite”, Grantaire pointed a finger at Enjolras, the former getting real close putting his weapon between them. They got REALLY close
- Gavroche pulled the middle finger at Javert lmao
-Eponine fucking died (i knew that already, seen every bootleg and version available, still hit hard)
- During Eponine’s death Gavroche ran onto the stage, closely followed by Grantaire being held onto by Enjolras
- Gavroche tried approaching Eponine (that’s his sister bro :()) but was stopped and held onto by Grantaire. When she died however, Grantaire quickly bent to hug Gavroche, man the grief was so clear with them both.
- After she died, everyone cleared to their positions but Enjolras and Grantaire, seemingly for Enjolras to try and comfort him, but decided against it quickly and pushed past him. Grantaire placed his hand on his chest in mock offense 😭
- When the attack was about to start, Grantaire mocked and toyed with tied up Javert. When Enjolras called for hold, Grantaire threw his arms around Javert with a “yep!” and cue the battle starting immediately when that happened
- During Grantaire’s verse during Drink With Me, it’s back to Enjolras and Grantaire being center stage. Enjolras approached him, held onto his arm and with the same hand moved up to brush R’s hair, which lead to him breaking off the contact and rushing to the other corner of the stage.
-He was followed by Gavroche, who hugged him from behind and then they both fell asleep next to each other :((
- Gavroche fucking died (i knew he did still heartbreaking) and was caught by Enj, who handed him to Grantaire
- During the Gavroche solo, Grantaire stood center stage looking to the crowd, not even flinching when the gun sounded, only turning around when Gavroche was already at the top of the barricade
- He tried shaking him awake :(( then set him down and stared at him :((
- That was until Marius fell, Enjolras rushing to check on him, making Grantaire rush to his side
- R grabbed onto Enj and they both held the back of each other’s necks,, from my angle it looked like their foreheads touched but idk if they would do that but MANNN
-Enjolras fucking died first (no wtf :(( )
- Grantaire fucking died last (BRO.)
- Everyone fucking died bro
- Except Marius and JVJ of course
- Mr Thenardier, instead of singing “This one’s a queer but what can you do”, sang “This one’s a queer, I’ll try it to!” and dipped a guy in the wedding 😭
- The “to love another person is to see the face of god” line always makes me emotional just :((
that’s it haha hopefully y’all enjoy the ramblings, ty for reading this far, i seriously recommend going to watch it if you can it’s truly the most amazing thing i’ve ever seen man 😭 may be biased but i’m serious
#drawer rants#enjoltaire#les mis#les miserables#les miz#victor hugo#les mis north american tour#les miserables north american tour#enjolras#grantaire#les amis de l'abc#jean valjean#javert#gavroche#eponine#mr thenardier#might revive my art blog for this fandom gang#im back on my shit 😭
138 notes
·
View notes
Text
I saw the Les Miserables US tour on Tuesday and am still IN MY FEELINGS about it, so here’s a random assortment of somewhat coherent thoughts/rambles/write up/review.
(Note: I saw the entire principle cast except Randy Jeter (who was out) and two ensemble swings. Andrew Marks Maughan was pulling double duty as both the Bishop and Combferre.)
• I didn’t know anything about Nick Cartell going in, but holy fuck, that VOICE. Tone is immaculate. Lungs of fucking steel.
• “Another story must beGINNNNNN” are you kidding me Nick. Who gave you the right to be this talented. Why is this man not more famous?!
• Preston Truman Boyd as Javert - voice is great, nice deep baritone. I wanted a smidge more from him acting wise though (this improved over the course of his performance).
• Nick and Preston sound phenomenal together, their voices work SO WELL.
• Haley Dortch has the voice of an angel and I loved her portrayal of Fantine.
• I appreciated that when Fantine was attacked/arrested all of the lovely ladies kept trying to stop it/help her. A nice staging touch.
• The whole transition into the courtroom was fantastic. Nick with that ending note of “Who Am I?” 🤯 I feel like I heard a few nods to Colm’s Valjean throughout Nick’s performance, this being one, which I appreciated on a cellular level.
• Confrontation sounded sooo good. It is a little goofy looking because Nick is so much shorter/smaller than Preston, which made the whole Valjean-as-stronger-man thing a bit silly. The blocking here didn’t do much for me. But what can you do. However! The “you’ll wear a different CHAInnn!” *cue Present with the chain hitting the stage floor* was fierce.
• It took a minute but Matt Crowle really won me over as Thénardier. Acting choices were 💯 without going over the top.
• There was a lot going on during “Master of the House” and it was a lot of fun, but also hard to catch everything.
• Gavroche was delightful. As usual.
• I’m not sure why Enjolras’ blonde wig was so bad, but it was really distracting. Devin Archer does a very decent Enjolras, but man that wig was not doing him any favors.
• Marius’ entrance was forgettable. I think this was more a staging issue than a reflection on Jake David Smith maybe? All the students kind of looked the same at this time. I had a hard time telling Les Amis apart all night, honestly. Except for Enjolras and Grantaire, obviously, which brings me to….
• Kyle Adams. You freaking fan-servicing national treasure. Cards on the table, seeing reviews of Kyle’s Grantaire was the single biggest reason I decided to catch this tour, and I was really, REALLY hoping to see him in the role. I did not think anyone would ever come close to eclipsing Hadley as my R of all time, but Kyle is right up there in his orbit. Omg that scene stealing little shit. He really put his all into “the drunk one”. Blowing the kiss to E at the end of Red and Black. Continually slapping people with his coat jacket. The dick-bottle in Enjolras’ face. Constantly goofing around with Gavroche. It was all gold. I really appreciate an actor who’s done their homework, and Kyle is very obviously well versed in both the source material and the rabid E/R fan fiction. His performance is a love letter to the fans - to those of us who have cried over the brick, who have watched every musical version we’ve been able to get our hands on over and over again - and I love that for all of us.
• Anyway, back to “Red and Black”. Devin is great, really brings the sassy Enjolras energy. Marius is….kind of forgettable again. Sorry, Jake. Enjolras when he grabs that flag…Devin is really serving.
• “Do You Hear the People Sing” was wonderfully rousing, as always. One of my favorites forever. The transition to the streets was very pleasing. Again, Devin with that damn flag. I might end up shipping Enj with the flag as much as E and R, he’s that passionate with it 🤣
• Delaney Guyer was a perfectly pleasant Cosette. No criticisms, I just haven’t really ever cared about Cosette much as a character. Her songs do very little for me. But Delaney was lovely.
• Mya Rena Hunter as Eponine was somewhat “meh” for me. Her vocals are killer and “On My Own” got one of the biggest ovations of the night, but I didn’t love her acting choices. Or maybe lack there of, it didn’t seem like there were any. I dunno.
• The staging/choreo for “One Day More” was really entertaining. Much better than the underwhelming marching I saw in the 2012 production. Devin serving sassy, dramatic Enjolras with flair and a rifle is a whole ass mood.
• I fucking love the barricade set. Seeing Les Amis climb all over that thing is such a moment. Enjolras literally leaping off the set multiple times. Dude gets AIR.
• Gavroche flipping off Javert was an audience favorite.
• “A Little Falls of Rain” was underwhelming. The staging was a bit awkward and there was no scene chemistry between Jake and Mya. I really wanted to feel something. I didn’t. Just eh.
• “Drink With Me”, on the other hand, was so wonderfully emotional. Kyle’s stying of R’s verse is an angrier, grittier interpretation and I’m sooo here for it. Enjolras goes to console him and R pushes him away. The pain feels so real.
• “Bring Him Home”….Nick. Fucking. Cartell. I have no words. He cast an absolute SPELL over the theater. His breath control is super human. His last “home” note went on FOREVER. Absolutely phenomenal. Hands down best version I’ve ever heard live. Biggest ovation of the night.
• Gavroche’s death 😭 So sad, so well done. It was very striking how he was shot just as Enjolras’ hand reached up for him as he returned. The timing, the lights, sound everything was excellent. Then he crumpled onto E’s shoulder. E handed his lifeless body to R, who was just devastated. I love the relationship they created between Gavroche and R this production. The entire build up of their interactions made this moment so poignant and believable.
• Christopher Robin Sapp really took his 5 seconds of National Guard Officer/Loud Hailer time and absolutely slayed it. I want to see more of this guy in the future.
• The choreo of the final battle was very satisfying. I totally missed Marius getting injured and just mistook him for another student because again….Marius was just not catching any of my attention this tour, lol. The frantic moment between E and R in this scene was so raw and well done by both actors. R reaching for E’s face, clasping hands so very briefly. Ugh.
• Then E with the flag again. This scene is so striking and Devin gives it EVERYTHING. Then R climbing up after E once he gets shot and falls off of the barricade. The way it takes a few moments for R to die after being shot and Kyle freaking Adams makes sure the audience knows it…
• I was lucky enough to see a production with the revolving stage back in the day and I’m really glad I did, because the reveal of Enjolras’ body hanging upside down off the other side of the barricade with the flag is one of those theater moments that will haunt me forever. Enjolras’ lifeless body in the cart just doesn’t have quite that same punch, but it’s timed very nicely with the music swell, and the way his body shifts/almost falls out of the cart when it’s carried away again is quite effective.
• Ok so the sewers. That was cool. I felt like this production used just enough of the screen to really assist the set design without relying on it too much. It worked really well for the orchestration and gave depth to Valjean just dragging Marius across the stage 3 times.
• Thénardier dragging in that corpse by his ankles for “Dog Eats Dog” lol. Matt really showed up for this scene. I think he did a good job of dipping into the “comedic” aspects of Thénardier as well as balancing the really rotten parts - this was a really great rotten part. I thoroughly enjoyed his turn as the infamous innkeeper.
• Javert is such a little drama queen.
• “Stars” was A++++. One of my forever favorites anyway, but Preston took this song to church. Also, I do NOT remember this staging, if it’s what I saw in 2012 (I don’t think so?!) and holy shit. I was not expecting what they did, which got quite a few gasps from the audience. The falling/floating/reaching while holding that last “ONNNNNNN” was a fucking MOMENT. Props to this production set up. Major props to Preston. Just wow.
• The transition from “Turning” to “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” was beautiful, and I love love love the candle choreography. When Les Amis blow their candles out….ugh 😭 This number was a bit of redemption for Jake David Smith, who until now had kept slipping into the background. I found his Marius to be a bit uninspired and unrecognizable for the most part. He did not bring much of a presence to the role until this moment. But his vocals were great here, and the anguish felt genuine.
• I don’t have much too say about “Beggars at the Feast” because I was too busy watching no one but Kyle Adams as Major Domo for the entire scene 🤷🏻♀️
• But omg the change of Thénardier’s lyrics from “this one’s a queer / but what can you do?” to “this one’s a queer / I might try it too” and then he dips that random wedding guest dude was a giant yes from me.
• Finale left a touch to be desired blocking/staging wise. I remember feeling that way with the 2012 production as well. Les Mis is just such a powerful musical, I feel like it deserves a bigger ending than basically everyone just standing in two lines behind Cosette and Marius. The cast’s vocals made up for the lack of production though. Truly so, so good.
• In conclusion: Nick Cartell has an otherworldly voice and Kyle Adams is the Grantaire we all deserve. I am so, SO glad I got to experience this cast.
24 notes
·
View notes
Text
- I was not prepared for this ending. It really hit me.
- This chapter is a painful one. It begins with Valjean acting childishly. His jealousy renders him pathetic, and it's almost laughable how he imagines that wearing a general's uniform and having guards show respect to him would make Cosette forget about young men. And then, Hugo takes a sudden turn and beautifully describes the idyllic habit shared by Valjean and Cosette: taking walks in the outskirts before daybreak. For a brief moment, this description of their strolls brings back the sense of lost tranquillity in their lives. Cosette “became a little girl once more, she could run and almost play; she took off her hat, laid it on Jean Valjean’s knees, and gathered bunches of flowers.”
- And then comes October morning of 1831 near the Barrière du Maine. Isn’t it a cursed place? It’s the same site where, half a year later, Enjolras would risk sending Grantaire. This time, it becomes the location of Jean Valjean and Cosette’s encounter with an extremely sombre caravan of carts loaded with convicts. Hugo provides a lengthy and eerie description (of course, we get another comparison of convicts with the wolves: they are “darting glances like chained wolves”). And Valjean’s reaction to this spectacle is agonizing to read about: his eyes “were no longer eyes; they were those deep and glassy objects which replace the glance in the case of certain wretched men, which seem unconscious of reality, and in which flames the reflection of terrors and of catastrophes.” Cosette, on the other hand, experiences a different kind of terror—that of any bourgeois facing criminals. Her reaction is that of any person Jean Valjean had encountered on his way from the galleys. She murmurs, “if I were to find one of those men in my pathway, oh, my God, I should die merely from the sight of him close at hand.” I’m afraid these words would influence Valjean’s decision to cut himself from her in the last chapter.
- The final part of this really lengthy chapter demonstrates that Jean Valjean does not fully grasp that Cosette is not a carefree girl whose attention can be easily redirected. He tries to divert her attention, and it seems that his plan worked. I so much like this tender depiction of Cosette: “Cosette, in a wrapper, was standing erect in that negligent attire of early morning which envelops young girls in an adorable way and which produces the effect of a cloud drawn over a star; and, with her head bathed in light, rosy after a good sleep, submitting to the gentle glances of the tender old man, she was picking a daisy to pieces.” She appears melancholic yet serene, catching Jean Valjean off guard when she enquires, “what are the galleys like?”
30 notes
·
View notes
Text
Forged Divinity Chapter 17: Leannan Learns the Plan
1925 words
CW: institutionalized slavery, religious themes, aftermath of whump, nudity, noncon
Previous, Masterlist, Next
~~~
Psalm 41:9
Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
~~~
Leannan lay on his stomach, and just focused on breathing.
Breathe in (he deserved this). Breath out (it would be okay).
His skin was inflamed all down his back, from his shoulders to his knees; burning, pulsing, aching, pain burrowing down into his bones. The night was cool enough for blankets but the texture and warmth would have been hell on his beaten skin, so Leannan lay on the bed uncovered.
He cursed himself for being such a baby. Iowans were supposed to have a resistance to pain – maybe that gene had skipped him.
Phineas had left a while ago. Leannan wished they hadn’t.
He was fine with enduring the punishments he deserved, but did he really have to do it alone?
Maybe that was part of it.
Breathe in (he deserved this). Breath out (it would be okay). At least none of his skin had broken.
A soft knock startled him, made him twitch, made the pain flare up. He grit his teeth as the door opened, praying that it wasn’t James or Brochard.
“Leannan?” It was Maeve, hunched and whispering.
“Maeve,” Leannan breathed with relief.
She entered, a clay mug in her hands. He couldn’t make out her face in the dark, only her silhouette, but he could hear the blush in her voice as she realized he was naked.
“I, well, I brought you willow bark tea.” She set it on his bedside cabinet and quickly backed off. “Do you have enough ointment? I can…”
“Maeve,” Leannan interrupted her, as much as it pained him to do so. “I don’t think we should be friends.”
“Oh?” Maeve sounded confused.
“I don’t… I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Leannan said.
“Oh,” her voice was faint, unreadable, “I see.”
“I’m sorry,” Leannan whispered earnestly, “I’m really sorry.”
The head of her shadowy figure bobbed.
“Okay. Goodnight, Leannan.”
“Goodnight, Maeve, I’m really…” Leannan started, but Maeve was already out the door. He sucked in a shaky breath around the lump in his throat.
He didn’t want to drink the tea.
He deserved to feel all of it.
~~~
Leannan was left alone for the next two days. He could only assume Phineas had warned the other Council members off, to give him time to recover. Leannan was grateful for that. Phineas always looked out for him. A rotation of different servants brought him his meals – never Maeve. He covered his back in lotions and balms and laid around feeling like a slimy slug.
It gave him time to think about the conversation with Enjolras. He came to the conclusion that Enjolras hadn’t intended to kill him – if she had, she could have, and if she was going to, why put so much effort into trying to convince him to run away with her?
No, she must have wanted Leannan for herself.
Or maybe, just maybe, what she said was true, and La Libra wanted to complete their collection of Iowans.
He tried not to think of that option.
Gradually, movement became easier, though he still couldn’t sit down. The marks turned dark. Ugly. He covered the vanity mirror up with a blanket.
It was too warm now to need blankets, anyway. It got hotter every day.
The third day brought a dry lightning storm – and James.
Maeve didn’t warn him. Maybe that was something she only did for friends.
He barged in, shouting in alternating French and English about how no one wanted to do their jobs anymore. He summoned Leannan to stand in front of him, just to knock him to the floor. He knelt and ripped open the back of Leannan’s shirt.
Leannan liked that shirt.
“You will do your job, by God,” James hissed, grabbing Leannan’s hair and pressing his face into the rug. He ground his hips into Leannan’s ass, before being hit with one of his spells of apprehension. He released Leannan and stood.
“Do whatever it is you need to do,” he ordered awkwardly, “To get ready.”
That was how Leannan ended up silently fingering himself with oil while James ranted and raved, breaking Leannan’s perfume bottles and dumping his makeup out onto the floor. James gave no reason for this; they were just random acts of violence to punctuate his deranged bilingual speech about laziness, loyalty, duty, and obedience. Leannan watched, each loss of a small joy or trinket a needle in his heart.
While James may not have known what exactly bottoming entailed, he certainly knew how to stick his dick in a hole and fuck it. When he finally dropped trou and fell upon Leannan he was like an animal, mounting him from behind, knocking Leannan’s knees apart and shoving his head down. He gripped Leannan’s hips and pressed his thumbs into the belt marks, refreshing the bruises, slamming his own hips into Leannan’s ass with wild abandon. When Leannan cried out in pain from the rageful fucking, it wasn’t a performance. He pressed his face into the mattress, dampening it with his tears.
No one came to check on him, after James left.
He laid there, listening to the thunder, and wondered how long it would take someone to notice if James killed him.
~~~
Leannan left the shower room, his curls damp and heavy, wrapped in his linen robe and trying to make himself look as small as possible. His feet shuffled, slippers catching on the ancient cracked linoleum as he made his way along the corridor. A guard sprinted past, and Leannan pressed himself against the wall, watching them run. They paid him no mind. Leannan barely had time to wonder why they were running when Maeve rounded the corner, also moving quickly.
“Leannan!” She slowed to a stop next to him, panting. “Leannan, lightning struck the Farm de Renard, there’s a fire, everyone’s…” She stopped, seeming to realize who she was talking to. “You should stay here, out of the way, okay?”
“Renard, that’s…” Leannan recalled the people he had become familiar with at the market, their names, where they hailed from. “That’s off-island, it could spread to the forest.”
Maeve looked surprised that he knew that.
“Yes, yes it could. I have to go, Leannan, please stay out of harm’s way.”
“You should, too,” Leannan spoke impulsively, “One less person won’t make a difference.” He couldn’t bear the thought of Maeve caught up in a fire.
“And how many other people could be thinking that right now?” Maeve snapped, “I’ll be okay.”
She ran off, giving him no chance to argue further. Leannan stood, conflicted, considering following her; but his whole body ached and trembled, and he knew without a doubt he would be utterly useless.
He was a fairly useless person, after all.
He trudged back towards his room, but as he passed Jeanette’s door, he saw that it was open, and her voice called from within.
“Concubine! Come watch the fire with me.”
Leannan’s head shot up.
“You can see it?”
He entered her room, finding her seated next to the window in one of the armchairs. He could smell the faint scent of smoke now, wafting in through the open window.
She waved him over with a languid hand, not taking her eyes off of the view.
“Yes, come see, isn’t it exciting?” she said, her tone just this side of bored.
Leannan hurried to her side and looked out the window. The structures of the city on Donda Island blocked their view of the fire itself, but a plume of black smoke marred the horizon.
“We’re probably to only ones left in the building,” Jeanette remarked, “Even my brother and uncle have gone to pretend to help.”
“I’m sure they’re doing what they can,” Leannan replied, empty automatic words to fill the space.
“It might be their last chance to make a good impression.”
Leannan looked away from the hypnotizing smoke to frown at her in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
“I believe your master Phineas will use this to finish what they’ve started,” Jeanette said.
“I don’t – I don’t understand,” Leannan stammered.
“I guess I can’t expect you to be in the loop,” Jeanette sighed, “You’re quite a stupid little thing, aren’t you?” She finally deigned to turned her face away from the window and grace him with a look. “Phineas intends to unseat the Council and become the sole ruler of Donda Island and its holdings.”
Leannan stared at her in shock. “How?”
“They will paint my brother and uncle as secret heathens. I will agree, to avoid being thrown to the wolves myself. The people will see Phineas as their savior, and welcome them as their new… king, lord, chancellor, however Phineas wishes to style themself.”
It clicked for Leannan, quite suddenly; there was Phineas’ remark about the Council being ‘just them’ soon, nearly lost amongst the painful memories of that night of punishment. The crux of it all had to be the books; they were truly Jeanette’s, which was why she was bound to take Phineas’ side lest they use them against her, and if Phineas had them they could claim they belonged to James and Brochard.
“It only works…” he finished his train of thought out loud, “It only works if you testify against your brother and uncle, and the people believe you.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, then looked back at the smoke with a scoff.
“The people will believe me. Everyone loves an invalid,” she paused, “Everyone loves an invalid until you have to take care of one.”
“They’re your family,” Leannan said, unable to keep the disbelief out of his voice.
She stared out the window, something in her face softening, slackening.
“I haven’t laid eyes on my brother in two months,” she said quietly, “They’re not my family.”
Leannan shook his head, another distressing though occurring to him.
“It still won’t work!”
“Why’s that,” Jeanette asked dully.
“People… People don’t like Phineas,” the urgency in his voice rose, “They’ll never accept them as their new ruler, they barely know Phineas!”
“Oh. Wouldn’t that be a shame.”
“I have to warn them!”
“They’re at the fire, and I forbid you from going.”
“Jeanette, please!”
“Wouldn’t your life be better if I were in charge?” she asked sharply, her gaze flicking to him. “I’ve never beaten you, like the rest of them have.”
Leannan was suddenly confronted with the question of where exactly his loyalties lay. All four Council members were his masters; didn’t he then owe it to James and Brochard to warn them? Or did Phineas take priority, somehow? He couldn’t stand the thought of anything bad happening to Phineas. James and Brochard, on the other hand – but that was a horrible thought, Leannan shouldn’t wish harm on any of his masters.
He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. Realistically, would Phineas change or stop their plan because of Leannan’s input? Of course not; they were stubborn as a mule, and a touch irrational to boot. The most likely way to change the outcome of the plan would be to warn James and Brochard, but doing so would bring down consequences on Phineas.
And not doing so would mean James and Brochard would be… gone.
Phineas would be alright – but if the people didn’t accept them, they wouldn’t be Leannan’s master anymore. Jeanette the heathen would be.
Leannan dropped to his knees, clasping his hands.
“I’m going to pray,” he said, only half talking to Jeanette, “For the fire, and for… what to do.”
Jeanette laughed, quiet and hollow.
“As you wish.”
~~~
Previous, Masterlist, Next
Taglist: @angst-after-dark, @sunshiline-writes, @flowersarefreetherapy, @thecyrulik
Let me know if you want on or off the taglist!
#whump#whump fic#whump writing#forged divinity#cw slavery#cw religion#cw aftermath of whump#cw nudity#cw noncon#cw abuse
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
went and saw the les mis nat tour. thought i maybe wouldn't cry so much this time, was wrong. having lots of thoughts and feelings. i'm gonna dump them here in whatever tangle they come out in because i want to document some of it while it is still Fresh.
act 1
did not expect the prologue (esp on parole) to hit me that hard. i almost cried and that was when i knew i was in for it tonight.
there were!! little brick moments esp in the prologue!!! that i really loved!!!
valjean stealing a coin from a kid. this has to be a petit gervais reference even it it came early during on parole instead of the brick-accurate what have i done
baptistine and mme. magloire were there with myriel!
fauchelevent got his leg wrecked by the cart and specifically had to be carried off, which doesn't feel like a detail i've seen often
the entire town coming out with pitchforks to see valjean arrested was A Lot.
they didn't do the parole slip rip-to-the-beat thing!! they just did one (1) at the end i miss it.
they gave?? most of the factory girls solo over to the foreman??? that was a weird choice
they made fantine's firing more personal for valjean, mainly by having her try to talk to him and be brushed aside during the factory fight. valjean also paused to look back before he walked offstage. i dislike this.
lovely ladies was so brutal. oh my god. i felt her degradation and despair in the lovely ladies descent a lot more viscerally than i usually do. and but god i wanted to punch bamatabois so bad. good work to the actor, but fuck that guy
tiny tiny nit but they kept saying monsieur mayor which was driving me nuts. pick a langaug dammit!
runaway cart continues to feel choppy bc of all the lines they cut out of it.
it's not by the face, it's not by the voice, no, it's by the lifting that you recognize a man. this will always be funny to me.
there was!! a french flag!!! flying over the courtroom scene!!! it had words on them but i couldn't see all of it. the middle looked like egalite as you'd expect, but the far right was justice?? fraternite seems like a weird one to replace with justice, so maybe the whole thing was different? I couldn't even see the left where liberte would go bc of the stage lights.
little cosette was so good. oh sweet child you desrve all the hugs.
surprisingly managed to mostly enjoy master of the house. hated the opening more than i ever have before, specifically watching the audience laugh at mme thenardier abusing cosette. i realize it's not entirely the audience's fault, the show is absolutely playing it for laughs, but the ick was high today.
i will never not find show me where you live funny
look down broke in while jvj and cosette were stil having their sweet moment. idk if it was intentional but it felt very ominous and it worked
oh god gavroche was so tiny. i've never seen a gavroche feel so viscerally young, with all the invincible courage and rashness and childness bravado. i almost cried when he first appeared just because he was so small and so young and i knew what was coming.
i did a lot of crying in not-technically-sad scenes because i knew what was coming. oh god.
gavroche seemed to have a bit of hero-worship of enjolras, a la his relationship to bahorel in the book. this did become relevant in the most painful way that i feared.
i love enjolras's red waistcoat in look down
on the topic of enjo's costuming, i make fun of him for being half naked a lot. but i realized today that all the students are fully dressed (buttoned up, waistcoat + cravat, jacket) in act 1 but end up at more-or-less enjo level of (un)dress on the barricade.
is?? state of (un)dress being used as a visual shorthand for revolutionary fervour???
i think??? enjo almost got arrested after the look down scene. i missed the actual onset but i looked back towards him to find an officer waving a truncheon menacingly in his face, so.
in my life felt very ick!! which is not what was expecting. mostly it's the staging where cosette is trapped inside the courtyard pushing out at the bars, valjean comes in, unlocks the door for himself, and then locks the two of them back in. it brought back beeblemis trauma honestly.
(obligatory???) acknowledgment that vlajean does kind of become cosette's jailor in the brick, but the musical doesn't really have the room for that kind of nuance. not when we see so little of them.
courf just?? randomly grabbed a gun at the from nowhere?? at the end of red and black???
enjolras then shouted to the streets! raising said gun right before do you hear the people sing. this isn't the baricades yet!! this is a demonstrably bad choice like one (musical) day before your planned rebellion. especially if he's already been almost arrested. boy, what are you thinking???
i miss the revolve. they had to do some weird snaky maneuvers to keep marching without walking off stage. it looked stupid honestly.
garoche & enjolras's deaths area also elevated by the revolve imho
also the barricade revolve is just cool
oh god how am i not at the end of act 1 yet.
the one day more overlapping medley at the end felt werid disjointed and i'm not sure why?
one day more also made me cry not bc the song itself is particualrly sad but i couldn't stop thinking in one day more most of you will be dead which was. heartbreaking.
okay now i'm done act 1
act 2
i have less to say about act 2 i mostly just cried a lot
the tragedy of on my own really struck me, i think bc eponine felt more defiant?? like more angry about her fate, less lovestruck.
i cried at now we pledge ourselves to hold this barricade. more anticipatory grief knowing what was coming.
enj felt like a very good leader which i always appreciate. i love him, my boy.
javert's uncovering felt so violent in a way that i'm not used to seeing on stage. they fought. several times. it was very physical and tense.
also gavroche was so fucking proud and i was so fucking proud of him too and so fucking sad.
the audience laughed at now hat i know that you love... me as well which was. weird??? is that normally a laugh spot???
a little fall of rain wrecked me, partly for eponine's death, but partly for gavroche showing up just in time to see her die. musical gave no indication of their relation but i know and i was sad.
the progression from they will see the people rise to the people too must rise to the people have not stirred. god!!! this is not new but it did strike me anew today!!
courfeyrac??? told valjean well done, sir and like banged his gun against the barricade as a gesture of respect/praise??? that was weird on so many levels. idk where that came from.
i started crying near the end of bring him home and basically did not stop for the rest of act 2. only lessened in intensity at times.
grantaire's verse in drink with me was very belligerent and enjo was not putting up with it. i'm used to seeing this as a moment for enjo to comfort/soothe r (at least in the last ~10 years of productions) but this enjo was not fucking having it. it was more hostile than comforting. gavroche ran off to comfort r after.
oh my god gavroche's death. sans revolve they obviously couldn't show him on the other side of the barricade. so we just hear some shots, and then he throws the ammo over, and then he gets to the top of the barricade -- and then he gets shot down, right into enjo's arms. he then gets passed to grantaire, who stands there holding him for the entire lead up to the final battle.
enjolras was?? the first to die??? he ran up to the top of the barricade not to shoot but to wave the red flag, and then was the first to get shot down. then the rest of the amis in the standard cross-beam of spotlights thing. and then, last of all, grantaire puts down gavroche, runs up to the peak where enjo died, and is shot.
i'm not exactly upset about grantaire getting that moment, but him getting it alone -- esp after enjolras was the first to die -- felt like a weird choice.
the oboe solo pause after the final battle continues to be my downfall
thenardier says [God's] as dead as the stiffs at my feet while standing over marius. i have yet to decide if this is an intentional staging choice as commentary on "God may look dead but he's alive, i promise" or just a coincidence
they dropped valjean's there is a life to save line, no idea why
javert was so unhinged during his suicide. he was waving a pistol around for the first half and i briefly but genuinely feared they were going to restage his suicide to be by gun. thankfully it was an unfounded fear.
the candles are still my undoing!!!! i knew exactly what was coming when they brought them out during turning and yet. and yet. the simultaneous blowing out made me bawl.
side note, ghost!grantaire and enjolras appeared flanking gavroche and my first thought was are they his parents now??
dear god please do not let them parent anybody. they're bad enough individually but as a pair??? unthinkable.
i almost laughed during valjean's confession bc all i could think was ahh yiss story time with papa. i was still crying but it did not stop me from snorting.
can we cut that weird opening to beggar at the feast. you know the one.
this one's a jew is more ick than usual given current events
tacking on i might try it too after this one's a queer does not, in fact, make it gay liberation!!! it just makes it gross!!!
you've already cut so many lines from this show, why is this bit still here
take it away and give me back the i remember eponine lines in the same damn song!!!!
i think that's all for act 2??? even if it it's itls fucking late and this post has exceeded 2k words so fuck it.
general notes
i can trace the 2012 movie influences in places, that was unexpected
splashing waves as the opening imagery of work song
were the msurm factory uniforms always that blue?
did fantine's death always have that white curtain?
fantine spitting on valjean was a hathaway thing, wasn't it?
gavroche gets to keep his this is the land that fought for liberty line! i'm torn about this bc i love those lines but also this is my school, my high society bit was good too
the harmony at the end of red and black!!!! it was like my favourite music change for the move i love that they kept it
entire master of the house scene staging felt very movie-ish, just in the ~vibes~ of it
nose boops!! valjean boops cosette like four times i'm p sure that's a movie popularization
actor / character interpretation thoughts
valjean was good! i liked him better in the first act 24601/madeleine side than on the act 2 fauchlevent side, but still good
fantine was angry and i liked that.
thenardiers were mostly good. weird that they made mme obviously lust over other people??
marius was fun! good balance of earnest lovable genuine and idiot himbo booby.
did not like cosette. this is the first time i've actively disliked a portrayal of cosette and it was a big pity. the musical does enough infantalizing of adult!cosette already, i really did not need the actress to play that up.
mixed opinions about javert. honestly i think he's a fine musical javert i just like my book javert too much. obsessed with jvj, openly defiant to madeleine, very Godly, that kind of thing. but his voice was good and his suicide was extremely unhinged in a good way.
i fucking adored enjolras. he felt older?? which is not exactly the right vibe but it came with the right vibe of authority and calm that i super super appreciated. also he sounded beautiful and his hair was a glorious mane of curls.
grantaire is a delightful garbage bastard man.
i've already talked about gavroche but god gavroche!!!
courfeyrac kept catching my eye in both good ways and bad. kind of felt like he became ami #3? (after enjo and marius, per the musical). very often on enjolras's left, the first to seize a gun, the first to praise jvj on "killing" valjean (that was weird, what was that), etc etc.
song list in playbill was not incorrect but kind of weird. notable mentions:
the entirety of prologue was just listed as prologue
both what have i done and javert's suicide were just listed as soliloquy (not even x's soliloquy)
confrontation wasn't listed at all?? i'd think it was folded into come to me, odd as that seems, except that just has fantine and valjean listed.
drink with me became drink with me to days gone by???
all the little bits and pieces of song missing was expected, but seeing none of the battles listed at all felt a little weird. not even the final battle.
the spotlights on stage were mostly yellow/warm white, except for when someone died/was near death, where they got bright cold white spotlights. except javert -- he got the cold white spotlight in stars, too, and in one day more.
was this an intentional choice to make a statement about javert??
was this just an accidental coincidence??
did other non-dying people get the white spotlight too and i just didn't notice??
#les mis#oh god this got so long#2100 words.. help...#i had to go back and update several times bc the wordcount is making tumblr editor unusable on my browser rn#and i was afraid of losing 2k words#so i had to write and save in chunks#did you know there's a 4096 character-per-block limit???#i sure didn't until today#if anyone wants to Talk To Me about this PLEASE DO#sylvie says
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Days Gone By
On the eve of battle Grantaire drinks with his friends, and wonders what his life has meant.
Word Count: 2k
Warnings: Discussions of death; implied character death
Author's Note: Crawling back from months long no fic hiatus to drop Les Mis angst onto you all. Saw Les Mis this past December/January and it did something to my brain - even more so than joining the fandom at like 12 did. Whoops. Anyways, thanks for anyone who's waited for me to post fic in a while. I hope you guys enjoy!
Drink with me, to days gone by
Why was he here? Grantaire couldn’t quite remember. Normally he would chock that up to the liberal amount of alcohol that he drenched himself in on any given day, but tonight he was feeling quite sober. Not for lack of trying to be otherwise.
How did he get here? Why had he walked into that café that day? There were plenty of cafes in Paris after all. There were too many cafes in Paris in fact, and one always seemed to be going out of business right next to another that had just sprouted up. Fate? It would be a nice idea, except Grantaire didn’t really believe in fate.
Setting foot into a café was one thing, but joining a ragtag group of cohorts determined to change the world was another. Now what on Earth could have compelled him to join in that? Sure, his fellow compatriots – if he could be called a compatriot himself – were nice. Joly and Bossuet were great drinking partners. But you could be drinking partners with someone and not join a revolution.
Was it him? Sometimes Grantaire couldn’t tell. Sometimes he thought he might become a bona fide Jacobin, if only for the smile of Enjolras. Enjolras, who didn’t really seem to notice he existed.
Of course Grantaire usually wised up soon after those thoughts. Yet here he was. On the barricade.
Sing with me the songs we knew
Feuilly was singing an old drinking song. Grantaire had heard it first when he was quite young. Though some of the words were different than he remembered. Go figure. Nothing ever seemed to be quite like he remembered it. Even the light of the sun seemed different than he was young. Now everything seemed shadowed. Now he always remembered his apartment as darker than it was. But the house of his childhood continued to be suffused in sun.
Grantaire began singing along, not truly realizing that he was until he hit a word different than the one the others sang. He wondered if anyone was looking at him. They only looked at him when he was playing the fool. Sometimes it was on purpose, and sometimes it just happened. Grantaire didn’t really care either way.
He glanced over at a corner of the barricade, saw Gavroche playing with a bit of rope. The activity was so childish. It was peculiar to that time in someone’s life when grownups talked of silly things and the bangs and flashes of guns were much more exciting. But if there were no flashes and bangs to be found, there were always scraps of rope to make up for it.
Something in Grantaire’s chest tightened. He felt a sudden disgust for the planks of wood protecting them from the soldiers. He felt disgusted by himself. He felt disgusted that he’d not managed to keep this child away from here. He’d tried, he had. But he hadn’t tried hard enough. And to Gavroche guns were just spectacles and bullet wounds merely battle scars.
Grantaire wanted to cry very badly. Too bad he wasn’t drunk enough.
Drink with me, to days gone by
It was time for him to do something. If he didn’t do something right now he would cry. And he’d suddenly decided he didn’t want to cry. It wouldn’t do to cry. Everyone would look at him strangely. And no one would trust him with anything after this. Not that Grantaire really wanted to be trusted with anything. He’d never fired a gun. He didn’t plan on starting to now.
After all, what did he have to fire a gun for?
Grantaire stood up, noting pessimistically that his feet were quite steady. He seemed to be cursed to spend tonight far from plastered. And what if tonight was the last night? There was no point in spending your last night on Earth sober. In spending your last night on Earth getting some of the worst sleep of your life.
After all, this dirty Parisian street was hardly the most comfortable bed in the world. Had Feuilly been singing about beds? Grantaire couldn’t quite remember. His version of the song talked about beds. Who knew if everyone else’s was different. Probably.
Can it be you fear to die?
It started out alright. He was laughing, just as he always did. He was dancing just as he always did. He was winning the cheers and chuckles of his friends. That was his job. After all, what other job could be given the sad sot who wasn’t even a full Ami? Clown. That was Grantaire’s job. To be a clown.
Too bad he’d grown careless. He’d forgotten to practice. The words just slipped out of him.
Will the world remember you when you fall?
Why did he even care if anyone remembered him? It didn’t matter. He’d be dead. Nothing mattered once you were dead. Hell, nothing really mattered when you were alive either. He knew that. He lived by that. So why was he asking himself this? Why did he feel like screaming? Why did he want to cry again?
People were looking at him. Someone was reaching for him. Joly, Joly was reaching for him. Joly was looking at Grantaire like he was something fragile. Something to be pitied. The way that Grantaire sometimes looked at the rest of Les Amis, pitying them for their love for the world. Envying them.
No one envied Grantaire. Least of all himself. And yet.
Could it be your death means nothing at all?
Was he going to die? Was he going to die for something he didn’t believe in? He realized all of a sudden that he didn’t really understand death anymore than Gavroche. Grantaire didn’t want his friends to die. He didn’t want to die himself. But he didn’t really understand it.
Death didn’t happen to you. Not really. It was something you feared, but it never actually happened. He wasn’t going to die, right?
Death seemed like some cruel gift life forced upon you. And he didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to die on a dirty Parisian street for something he didn’t even believe in. He didn’t want to become some poor drunk bastard who met his end for no reason.
Is your life just one more lie?
He already knew that though. He already knew that this whole thing meant nothing. That it was ridiculous. That it would fail. That he should never have stepped into the god forsaken café. That he should have kept Gavroche away from here. He knew that. He knew that.
All these thoughts spung around in his head. He tasted gall in his mouth. It was all so repulsive. What had he done with his life? What happened to the light that suffused his childhood? What happened to the warmth?
Why was he shouting?
He hated these thoughts. He hated them. He didn’t want life to be worth nothing. Wasn’t that why he kept chasing a man who would never look at him, who would never trust him? Wasn’t it the hope that he might, even only by proxy, be bathed in light? The light that could only belong to those who believe in life fully. Who believed in the world, who believed in fate, who believe in their fellow men. Didn’t Grantaire want that? Even when he said he didn’t, he secretly wanted it. He coveted that light.
Enjolras was looking at him now. Why now? Why now of all times did Grantaire have to be noticed. He wasn’t playing the clown right now. He’d obviously forgotten how to. And yet Enjolras was looking at him. Staring down from his perch on the barricade.
Even in the darkness Enjolras was full of light. It emanated from him as if he were some faraway angel. Come down to rouse the people of Paris from their beds. Come down to show people into the new dawn.
But he wasn’t here for Grantaire. He never would be. Grantaire could not, it seemed, even touch that light. All he could think about was death. He didn’t believe. He wanted to, so very badly. But he didn’t.
Enjolras climbed down. Fell down. Floated down. Graceful, so graceful. Like a dancer. He reached out towards Grantaire.
Grantaire didn’t really remember lunging away. Only for a moment he thought, he knew. How could an avenger of the people touch a man who didn’t even trust in them?
He needed to clear his head. He was drunk.
Even if he still didn’t feel like he was.
Drink with me, to days gone by
Spindly arms circled themselves around Grantaire’s waist. Tried to. Gavroche was still little. His hands only made it to the pockets of Grantaire’s tattered coat.
He turned around. He looked at the kid. Grantaire had promised to himself that he’d protect Gavroche. That he’d make sure Gavroche came out of this unscathed. That Gavroche would not come out fearing and hating the world the way Grantaire did.
But now Gavroche was the one looking out for him. How funny. How strange. How topsy turvy tonight was. Grantaire let out a shaky breath. Maybe it was a sob. He wrapped his arms around Gavroche, practically engulfing the kid. Inexplicably, he felt a little better. Little people indeed. Gavroche was a good kid.
God, Grantaire didn’t want Gavroche to die. He’d give anything, to make sure Gavroche didn’t die. Gavroche was much too young to die. It would be unfair. It wouldn’t make sense. Not even in this world that didn’t have much logic in the first place.
Grantaire wasn’t really the praying type. The last time he’d gone to mass he’d dirtied his best shirt and his mother had scolded him until he’d cried.
He prayed anyways. He wanted Gavroche to live. Even if Grantaire died. Even if he had to meet what he feared, what he didn’t understand. Even if he had to, there was no reason Gavroche did too. He was just a kid after all. And wasn’t this what they were all here for? The future?
Enjolras always talked about the dawn. The new day. Grantaire could never imagine it. There was nothing beyond today. Nothing even beyond this minute, this second.
If Grantaire had to imagine the future, he figured it probably looked a lot like Gavroche. Just a kid, a thing that had to be looked out for. That had to be protected. That didn’t understand things like guns and armies and revolutions. But that still managed to make its way to them.
And you had to protect it. Even if you didn’t think you’d succeed. You at least had to try.
Grantaire fell asleep staring up at the sky, Gavroche huddled against him for worth. Parisian nights could be surprisingly cold. The clouds hung low in the sky, trapping in the damp. Grantaire imagined reaching out and pushing them away. They’d part easily, like bits of mist in his hands. They’d feel like paint brush bristles against his skin.
Somewhere next to him was Enjolras, watching. Not sleeping, or probably not sleeping anyways. Did angels need sleep? Grantaire wasn’t sure. He wanted to apologize to Enjolras. He wasn’t sure why.
The night was filled with the sounds of gentle breathing. His friends were piled up around him, also trying to find their way to dreams on the cold cobblestone of the streets of Paris. Maybe some were trying their luck on the barricade. They were all trying their luck, in one way or another.
The tune everyone had been singing earlier came to Grantaire again; he hummed it softly. Tomorrow they might die. Tonight might be their last night. What could any of them do? They were at the mercy of life. Of fate – not that Grantaire believed in that.
At least they were spending it together. At least they were not alone. At least they’d spent some good times together. Maybe that was enough. Maybe that meant something. Even if nothing else did.
Here’s to you, and here’s to me.
20 notes
·
View notes
Text
Oh man, so I got to see Les Mis again tonight (a bit over a month after seeing in it Charlotte), this time with my friend Heather in Greensboro.
It was the same production, of course, but we did have a different Valjean this time (he was an understudy, but holy shit, he might have been BETTER than the usual one?) and I have more yelling to do.
Also, I will forget all the details I don't write them down, so here goes:
We had an understudy Valjean, which worried me after my last understudy Valjean who couldn't hit the high notes on Bring Him Home. This time we had Randy Jeter, who was the Bishop when I saw it in Charlotte. But holy SHIT, he was AMAZING. He might have been better than the regular Valjean, Nick Cartell.
He had just a slightly more powerful voice, maybe, a bit more contrast and depth, I don't know. He was incredible. His Bring Him Home absolutely hit me harder than last time. Maybe I was just paying closer attention because I was worried once we saw we had an understudy but from his first line I was like "HOLY SHIT he's good!!'
Most of the same notes from last show still apply, Once again Gregory Lee Rodriguez was particularly good as Marius - and I don't even especially like Marius, but he makes him somehow a little more likeable, and like, you think he's just likeable and a perfectly good singer and then Empty Chairs comes around and he finds a whole new level with his voice and emotion and blows you away.
And I still just want to give all the awards to Kyle Adams as Grantaire. Because he's so spot on perfect, but it's subtle. Like probably a majority of the audience don't really know who Grantaire is or his motivations or character, he's just another barricade boy, so they don't pay him any particular attention. But the fans who do know more of the backstory, if you watch him in particular, he's so good.
The way he keeps to the edges of the barricade boys crowd, always a bit apart, the mocking touch to his gestures and mannerisms even when he has no lines, the undercurrents of bitterness and devastation...just so good. Like when Gavroche arrives and says Lamarque is dead, he kind of drops into a chair abruptly and slumps, like he's realizing "oh shit, this is about to get real."
And after Gavroche died, in the final battle on the barricade, Enjolras comes down for a moment to comfort him about Gavroche, and when Enjolras turns to climb back up, Grantaire grabs at him as if to stop him. Enjolras goes anyway, of course, and Grantaire kind of makes some abortive efforts to follow him but the battle intensifies and he falls back to the ground. A moment later though, he climbs up again; he still doesn't make it to Enjolras, who falls on the far side of the barricade as he's shot, but Grantaire is one of the last to fall.
Anyway I just love his Grantaire. It's probably unnoticed by a lot of the audience who don't know the story and characters as well, but if you do know to look for it, he's spot on.
And a random nerdy note - I never noticed before that there's a blink-and-you-miss-it nod to the Petit Gervais bit from the book. I definitely missed that last time.
Anyway, I'm both on cloud nine because it was so good and also sad because it's over and I don't know when I'll get to see it again and it's just honestly one of my favorite things on earth.
Anyway, I suppose I'm off to read some Valjean/Javert fic.
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
ok so let's flesh this out a bit.
Enjolras is an investigative journalist with a long history of getting into trouble. He's a bit ruthless, will do whatever it takes to uncover injustice. Unfortunately, that's landed him in a bit of trouble; he's in some legal trouble for his methods, and the paper he works for is sending him away just as the big case is blowing up to let it blow over. It's an ultimatum - go be a consultant for this podcaster who's doing a show for the paper and lay low, or quit, or be fired.
Grantaire had one big hit a while ago, documenting a very personal moment in his life, and has been struggling to keep up momentum. He's relying on this podcast working out, because he's out of money and out of friends. True crime is popular these days, so he's pivoting. He's found a story in a small rural town - some disappearances 20 years ago that were never solved. It's scenic, it's bound to be full of personal intrigue and small town gossip, it's perfect. He doesn't have to solve it, just make it into a good story.
Enjolras thinks true crime is morally bankrupt. It's profiting off of people's pain for no real purpose. He and Grantaire clash repeatedly, over methods, over values, over work ethic, as they investigate in town and talk to the locals, none of whom seem particularly interested in having a podcast made about their small town. Grantaire is all about people, and their stories, while Enjolras is all about the truth.
It's not until someone threatens Enjolras to keep his nose out that he starts to think there really is a story here - not a 20 year old disappearance, but something ongoing. From there, they continue to clash, but now Enjolras is on the case for real. Over time, they uncover evidence of false identities, smuggling, and eventually, solve the case. In the process, they start to gel - they both push each other in different ways. However, the heat is also picking up on Enjolras from across the country, and now there's a deadline - they have to solve it before Enjolras is extradited and arrested.
In the final confrontation, they save the day, prevent the bomb from taking out the villagers, but Enjolras thinks Grantaire has been blown up. There is an emotional reunion, a resolving of the romantic tension, but with the threat of Enjolras' arrest still looming over them.
Anyway........... could be a neat story.
Started watching Bodkin, and now I want a Les Mis au where R is a true crime podcaster and enjolras is an investigative journalist who is sent to help R in a small town while some controversy blows over with a bigger story.
31 notes
·
View notes
Text
getting very emotional about the end of The Final Battle in this chili's tonight
i've been watching some videos and man i especially love how it is on rotating stages. the barricade slowly turning so you can see gavroche on the ground and enjolras hanging upside down from it, lying on top of the flag. it's just. damn. especially with the way the music swells with the same melody as "the summers die one by one". it really hits me, y'know
...and as i was typing this i realized how perfect it is that it's those two. the leader who filled everyone with hope for a better future and a child who is the perfect example of who they were fighting for. a heartbreaking snapshot of the rebellion and its failure
and. y'know what i'm already rambling lemme do it some more. i love the way javert comes in silently surveying everything. like yes he's looking for valjean but. he isn't heartless. did he wish death on each and every traitor? yeah. but it's different seeing a battlefield of dead schoolboys. schoolboys who, during his brief time as a spy and their prisoner, he saw hopeful and youthful and lively and courageous. he's absolutely mourning these lives cut short, even if only on the inside because they were traitors and his morals say they deserved it
it feels like... a first moment of softening. and it makes him letting valjean go just the littlest bit more emotional than it already was. because here's valjean who let him go. and i think he'd already let him go anyway because of that. but then he's got one of those schoolboys, still alive. i think, if there was any hardness left to him before that moment, marius was what washed the rest away. like i said, i think he would've let valjean go anyway, and valjean is of course the source of his subsequent crisis, but i think in that moment he did consider marius in the equation
#it's also giving me even more appreciation than i already had for that part of the movie#we get a combination of 'do you permit it' and enjolras becoming the hanged man on the barricade#(which if you don't know tarot. like i didn't. can mean sacrifice)#and then we get javert 100% mourning the boys#maybe he is for sure on stage too but i can't tell because u know how *ahem* slime tutorials are#speakevie#les mis
1 note
·
View note
Text
Tagged by: @theheirofashandfire thanks boo!!
Rules: List five things you never get tired of writing or drawing; it can be tropes, themes, characters, phrases, whatever brings you joy. Then tag five people!
Hummm ok so first off im gonna go with:
1) World building! I love sitting around planning out how aspects of society would work in AUs. Religions, cultures, mixing my lore in with canon lore, gender and sexuality norms and customs etc. Actually now that I think about it, world building anthropology lmao. I never really post my world building, but in high school I filled up sketchbooks expanding on the Shapeshifter people in LotR and how Magic would work with different cultures in Harry Potter that didn't use wands or magic words and I've rambled at my friends loads of times about transformers world building ideas lol
2) Angst! My therapist told me its good to write my feelings and I often projected them onto my blorbos to do so and its really cathartic. For my job (and with my family) I dont often get a lot of outlets to showcase negative feelings, so when im feeling low i tend to write, which means that a lot of my stuff has angst in it. Sometimes I'm making my characters go through my hurts or just the feelings, but either way I enjoy writing it. I'm trying to be kinder by including more happy endings or hurt/comfort, but the comfort part never feels as good to write as angst -shrug-
3) story retellings! My culture has a lot of oral storytelling, and I personally see myself as a storyteller (i teach history, which are just stories) and so I love taking a story and ploping my blorbos into it! This is why a lot of my metas/ficlets are just retellings but with something different, like a concept from my culture, or a piece of history that I really like, or a trope that I really enjoy. Sometimes they're just straight up crossover aus like my transformers/velveteen rabbit fic. Sometimes I dont get to the part where its the actual story retelling, but I've done a lot- raven steals the sun (silm deamon au), Greek tragedies (that one ficlet i have about mae and nienna actually was a retelling of achillies grief over patcrolus), The Cat Came Back (i made it that huge coswave idwxtfp crossover), etc. I got a bunch more that I forgot and/or haven't posted
4) Song Fics! I grew up on old 2000s amvs and I love spinning the blorbos in my mind while listening to something. I'm pretty sure I have adhd or something but taught myself to make up fantasy stories instead of moving around to stay still like my parents asked so I always have to have music on. Almost all my ficlets/metas/actual fics are written to the plot of 1 song, or a playlist. You can actually tell with some of them what song I was listening to lol
5) Devotion. There is something nice about writing people who just, will stay by you. Or come back because they realized they csnt be without you. Or what happens to that person when the person/thing they devoted themselves to is Gone. Maedhros/Fingon hits all my buttons for that, and so does cosmos/soundwave, and grantaire/enjolras, or remus/sirius, or steve&Robin, and I've made tracks/raoul that lol. Devotion whether its platonic or romantic im so fond of know that my characters have or has had someone that sees the world in them
Im not tagging anyone cause idk any1 that wouldn't mind being tagged BUT I AM FORCING @tracks-and-raoul bestie babe u gotta do it!
1 note
·
View note
Text
damn I know by this point its just on brand for me but really how many fucking slow burns can one person write??
#yeah im starting a new project dont @ me#and yeah its another exr slow burn#i... listen#enjolras came to me in a dream and yelled at me last night so it had to happen#on the plus side i woke up pumped to write so lets go girls#this isnt a bit btw enjolras really did show up in my dream last night and yelled at me for not writing#the ssri dreams hit different#its exr time bois#time to finish some existing wips while starting a new one#someone tell my brain to chill
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
Les Miserables US Tour 2022 (Philly)
Probably some spoilers I guess if you really don’t want to be spoiled!
Wow where do i begin. It was phenomenal. Every single actor up on stage blew me away. The staging was just absolutely amazing and involved. I had the best time and will 100% be looking for a bootleg of it later as the tour progresses. Now for some of my favorite things.
-The opening. Just w o w. Nick Cartell as Jean Valjean was absolutely perfect. He hit every note and made me cry four times just himself. Valjeans Soliloquy was also absolutely amazing
-After the opening before At the End of the Day they projected “Les Miserables” on the thin screen and the applause lasted the entire time up until they started singing
-Every piece of the set moved and it was awesome. They were climbing up and down the barricade, Marius climbing over Cosette’s gate, the houses moving together, just it was all amazing
-Haley Dortch as Fantine. That’s it.
-Lovely Ladies was great and had amazing energy
-Master of the House was so funny and just all around amazing. Thénardier and Madame Thénardier were s o funny and they had the best chemistry
-LITTLE COSETTE WAS SO CUTEEEE SHE SUNG BEAUTIFULLY
-Jean Valjean and Little Cosette were adorable. He gave her a little doll and then picked her up in a hug and spun her around and my heart was just so full.
-Gavroche
- Gavroche was so small he was amazing and adorable
-After The Robbery and before Stars when Javert was clearing the streets Gavroche went around saying “You heard the man” and chases the rest of the people off the stage including another officer. Then he turned to Javert and saluted him while Javert just stared at him like “Who is this child”
-Stars was just amazing Javert was awesome he was just wow
-Eponine has a p o w e r f u l voice and blew me away every time she opened her mouth
-Marius was perfect
-Enjolras, Grantaire, Courfeyrac, and just all of the rebels were perfect
-Grantaire and Enjolras though 😚
-During Red & Black Grantaire got his drink stolen and passed around the men and he tried to like fence them it was really funny
-After Gavroche stood on the table to announce Lemarques death Enjolras grabbed him by his armpits and yanked him off the table it was so cute but funny cause of how small Gavroche was and how hard Enjolras picked him up
-Grantaire and Gavroche
-Do You Hear the People Sing was fabulous. The red flag is just so good.
-In My Life and A Heart Full of Love were both so beautiful. Cosette had an absolutely incredible voice and a beautiful vibrato
-One Day More. Wow. The formation of the rebels, marching in an out of each other was just amazing. Again Jean Valjean hit every note. The end with the acapella “Oneee Dayyy” literally made me burst into tears and cry even harder at the flag in the back. Such a powerful part of the show.
-The barricade looked amazing. It was set so nicely. Also the lighting was insane for everything
-Did not recognize Javert when he came dressed as a rebel it was kind of funny
-The shooting between the rebels and police was so cool. They had lights flashing everywhere, the guns actually fired like fake rounds so it was actual gunpowder, it was so loud and ugh it was amazing
-Lots of people started coughing after the shooting started. Thought that was really funny
-On My Own was beautiful and I cried and the end opening up to Eponine being in front of the barricade with like 10 spot lights shining down on her from different directions was just 😚
-Gavroche flipped Javert off and it was just so funny. He was so small
-A Little Fall of Rain was so sad but beautiful. At one point towards the end of the song everyone at the barricade realized what was happening and started watching Eponine and Marius on the ground. Gavroche ran over and stopped in front of them and Grantaire came up behind him and wrapped his arms around him and it was so sweet. After Eponine died and they took her body away, Gavroche leaned down and gave her hat to Marius 🥺
-don’t know what he did with the hat
-Drink With Me was so sad but so good. Grantaire drunkenly tried to
fight Enjolras and was just so sad. Gavroche was behind the two of them trying to stop Grantaire from his drunken babbling. Grantaire then walked away to the far wall and leaned against it, facing towards the wall and away from the barricade, and Gavroche ran over and hugged him from behind 😢 They then fell asleep together, with Gavroche curled up next to Grantaire.
-Bring Him Home ding ding here comes the tears. Wow. Best version I have every heard.
-Gavroche :’(
-Gavroche’s death was so so sad. He slid down behind the barricade and allll of the rebels tried to grab him. It was sweet. While he was down there Grantaire looked away from the barricade and out towards the audience. After the first gun shot everyone started to look away sadly, but once Gavroche started singing again they all, including Grantaire, looked up and went towards the top to see him. Gavroche made it to the top of the barricade, but got shot and fell right into Enjolras’s arms. He gently handed him to Grantaire, who stared at him in utter disbelief.
-Before the final battle, Grantaire laid Gavroche’s body towards the front of the stage and sat there with him.
-Before Enjolras went to the top of the barricade to die he went down to Grantaire and grabbed his arm gently. Grantaire reached out and cupped Enjolras’s cheek with his hand 😭
-When Enjolras got shot he just fell of the barricade
-Mans literally just fell face first off of this giant structure
-They shone a spotlight down on every rebel who got shot, showing their deaths
-Grantaire was the last one to die, and he died the exact same way Enjolras did, by climbing up to the too of the barricade and getting shot. He fell back down on the barricade though, into like a sitting position
-They brought the barricade away with all of the rebels, so it was literally just Gavroche lying on the stage. Javert and another officer cane on stage after that
-The officer was pulling a cart and in the cart was Enjolras, upside down facing the audience, lying on the red flag. instant tears
-Javert kneeled down next to Gavroche and crossed himself before gently touching Gavroche’s arms and signaling for the officer to get his body and he was put next to Enjolras. As they were wheeling them out, Enjolras’s other arm that was on his chest or something, fell limply down and it broke my heart
-Javert’s Suicide was really sad but reallyy well done. The projections and animations were so cool and it made it look like Javert was actually falling. Awesome visuals. Dog Eats Dog was really good as well
-Turning was really pretty. They all brought out red and white candles and placed them on the floor and it was really nice
-By far the best Empty Chairs at Empty Tables I have heard. So much emotion and beautiful vocals. All of the rebels came out during the song and stood behind Marius, watching him. They moved to pick up the candles, still while watching them. Marius then kind of lashed out with heavy emotion and kind of scared them all off. They all went off except Enjolras, who watched him for a couple seconds more
-Marius and Valjeans confession was so good and heartbreaking
-The wedding was so prettyy they all had on such pretty dresses
-And of course Thénardier and Madame Thénardier stole the show again by being absolutely hilarious
-Valjean’s death was so sad :(
-Fantine and Eponine showing him the way to heaven was just beautiful
-Everyone coming out at the end, standing behind Cosette in Marius’s arms, singing Do You Hear The People Sing was enough to make me cry the rest of the show. The last chord made me cry even harder
-Don’t think I’ve ever cried that hard at a curtain call. Maybe in Hadestown or Hamilton. but i don’t think so
Just all around I’m so happy I finally got to see my favorite show live. And it was absolutely fabulous.
Thank you for getting this far and reading! And thanks for letting me rant!
12 notes
·
View notes
Text
Soft badass Jehan headcanons
A few days back @earthbound-in-doubt was complaining that fandom roll with Jehan’s gentle nature and forget that he’s also a radical, and I decided to give it a try. It’s a hard balancing act, but I hope I did him justice. Hope you enjoy!
Jehan comes from a rich progressive family, what are usually called in France “bobos” (”bourgeois-bohèmes”). So as a teenager he really is a flower power, “the right way to treat societal problems is love and organic food” kid. He changes pretty quickly once he gets to university and starts meeting people from different backgrounds, though. His more snobby side still comes through at times, especially when it comes to clothes and food. The boy has Expensive Taste.
Jehan has the longest rep sheet out of all of the Amis, Enjolras excluded. Not because he’s violent or confrontational, like Bahorel tends to be, but because he just Won’t Back Down. He’ll have a policeman ordering him to leave the premises, and he will flush bright red, cross his arms, and just go “no” and not bulge. If you need a cornerpiece in a human barrier, Jehan is your boy, he cannot be cowered.
In one memorable occasion, he got cornered by a bunch of neonazis spouting homophobic and antisemitic slurs at him, and who told him they would go easy on him if he compiled with what they wanted him to do, and he just spat at their faces and told them to go fuck themselves. Luckily the rest of the Amis got there in time...
He constantly gets underestimated. It doesn’t help that’s he’s usually next to Bahorel, who looks a lot more threatening at first glance. People see a soft-spoken person in a puffy skirt next to the loud-mouthed punk in the leather corset, and immediately assume Jehan is harmless. Oh, boy, are they wrong.
While he has mellowed considerably on his stance on violence, it’s still not his first instinct when it comes to protests, like it is for Bahorel. But don’t get fooled, that doesn’t mean he’s all about sending strong worded letters to your representatives. His brand of peaceful protesting is inspired in the “throwing bloody entrails to anti-abortion politicians” feminists of the 70s and the “using actual AIDS-dead people’s ashes in protests” Act Up activists in the 80s and 90s.
Going to a poetry reading where Jehan is performing is a Russian roulette: maybe you’ll get half an hour of flowery metaphors about love and the beauty of the sky and nature... and maybe you’ll get a breakdown of the ills of society (still full of flowery metaphors, he has a brand). He’s also a master in the art of making you think a poem is about a romantic relationship, or about friendship, or something along those lines, only to hit you on the last section with the revelation that it’s about Revolution or Progress or anti-Colonialism (to all my homies who like Silvio Rodr��guez, yes, he likes to pull a “Madre en tu día” on people [a song that sounds like a nice gift for Mother’s Day, until in the last verse the singer goes “Motherland and Mother Revolution”]
He is also the best reference for political writers. Not about political theoreticians (noone beats the Triumvirate on that), but political novelists and political poets? That’s his Jam. If you need a quote for a pamphlet, Jehan has you covered. If they talk about politics or have a political stance, Jehan has read them.
I hope you enjoyed them! Keeping Jehan nice and soft while also being true to his “Vive le futur” death is hard!!
38 notes
·
View notes
Text
modern era enjoltaire hcs:
-it takes them a really long time to actually start going out because grantaire has the LOWEST self-esteem you've ever seen in a person and enjolras is too prideful to admit that he has it bad. it takes six years of knowing each other to start dating, but the fact that they get together when they're in their mid to late twenties honestly is a lot healthier for their relationship because they've grown a lot more as people
-grantaire is an animator and enjolras is an attorney and together they both work absurd hours and it doesnt occur that it might not be healthy until joly talks about how he balances hospital work with his domestic life and they kind of look at each other like ("is that a problem?" "i have no idea, do you think it's a problem?") and it takes a while to balance their priorities and schedules and now they're both a lot happier both in their relationship and their lives in general (and they both went to a massage place because oh my GOD the tension in their shoulders-)
-grantaire is usually their date coordinator because he knows every possible activity to do in paris. they have a bucket list of ideas he came up with that they tore out onto little slips of paper that now sit in a jar in their kitchen. enjolras adds a slip every now and again too when he comes up with an idea but is too shy to tell grantaire to write it. whenever they're bored, one of them will close their eyes and fish for a slip in the jar. whatever is written on the paper has to be done unless it's closed, not the right season, etc. they've done a lot of stuff together- bouldering at the gym, ice skating at a christmas market, going on a wine-tasting trip, and even people watching at a hookah bar. they have fun together no matter what the slip says
-enjolras is really big on reading. he's been a reader ever since he was a kid and it's a portion of the reason why he needs glasses so bad. it takes them a year or two to start doing this, but enjolras always reads in bed and grantaire gets kind of curious of what he's reading and after a while he asks enjolras to read out loud. enjolras has a really good reading voice and he's always been good at reading out loud, so he'll play with grantaire's hair and read until he notices that grantaire's fallen asleep. then he marks the page and turns out the lights- they can finish the chapter tomorrow night
-they're a judgy couple. the funny thing with them is that they're both judgemental in different ways, but it's perfect to have the other around because if somebody does or says something stupid, they are absolutely turning to give each other The Look and cross their arms over their chests at the same time
-enjolras finds himself being anatomy practice for grantaire a lot. if he's working on animating a certain action and it just looks wrong, he'll ask enj to do the action in real life. most of the time, he'll take a video so he can replay it a ton see frame-by-frame what this should look like, but other times enjolras will willingly do it over and over again to give him different examples, or just because he's bored
-they both have very similar very curly hair types and mooch off of each other's hair products. grantaire has a really good hair diffuser that enjolras absolutely uses every morning before work because it feels so good on his scalp and enjolras has a really good hair mask that grantaire likes to use because it smells like coconut and His Man and it makes his hair shiny and soft
-they're both also just fuckin grumpy old men before they even hit middle age. grantaire gets the worst heart burn ever and he has carpal tunnel and enjolras has old man eyes and a bad back from his posture and sitting at a desk all day and everyone compares them to the old guys from the muppets that sit in the booth and heckle everyone (but never to their faces. bossuet is so tempted to say it but everyone tells him not to)
-they mellow out a lot with each other. grantaire learns to be more open minded and less pessimistic and enjolras loses his saviour complex and they both kind of help each other realize the good and the bad things about each other. grantaire helps enjolras with his service projects now and goes to meetings and when he disagrees he doesnt sit there and call them losers under his breath and drink, he speaks up and brings a new perspective to the table. at the same time, grantaire helps enjolras calm things down when he's working too much for one person. he can help him take the time to sleep and eat and relax because yes enjolras wants to fix the world, but he's a person and not a robot. they help each other
-grantaire watches lotr with enjolras and lets him talk about how cool middle earth is without calling him a lame nerd
-enjolras watches animated movies with grantaire and lets him talk about different animation styles and techniques without getting bored
-being on opposite ends of the spectrum works more than everyone expected. at first they're intense and fight and don't know what they're doing, but they also balance each other out. both of them go to therapy separately and it's helped them both as people and as a pair
#les mis#les miserables#les mis headcanons#relationship headcanons#modern era#modern au#enjoltaire#exr#enjolras#grantaire#les amis de l'abc#les amis#this one is pandering#but also i wanted to write it as well#i think tomorrow i might do either courfius or bahorel and feuilly or jehan and combeferre#then maybe enjolras and combeferre#and grantaire and combeferre#i just like combeferre#i'll be honest i wish it was me x combeferre#but that's cringe so im not saying that#if you have a random ship u want just tell me and i'll do it because i dont have hobbies
175 notes
·
View notes
Text
Anyone else have words they were scared of saying for a long time because they didn't know how to pronounce them?
When I was a freshman in college, I really wanted to try a chai latte from our campus coffee shop, but I wasn't sure how to pronounce it (didn't want to come off like an uncultured swine-- I'd never been in a hip fair trade coffee shop before and didn't want everyone to know I didn't belong), so I kept hoping that the person in front of me in line would order one and then when they didn't and I got to the front, I'd be like, "Uhhh... I'll have a hot chocolate, I guess!" :( I feel like it took me like 2 months of weekly visits before I finally heard the coffee shop workers say 'one chai latte,' and I knew they must be correct. I could have looked it up, but the internet is sometimes wrong! A fair trade coffee shop is fair in the sourcing of its ingredients, but it might have a mercilessly unfair policy of excluding outsiders who can't say the names of popular beverages!
For literal years, I didn't know how to say "Pret a Manger." It didn't come up that often, but I would just point to the store and say, "Why don't we go in there?" When I went to London, people just called it "Pret," which at least answered half of my question (is it a silent T?), but British people also sometimes pronounce words from other languages VERY different than Americans, so I still wasn't confident enough to call it that when I came back to America. I finally caved and asked a French-speaking friend, who, amazingly, did not hit an ejector button to escape from my inferior presence.
I also went through a short period of time where I called Enjolras from Les Miserables "Enchiladas" as a joke because they never actually sing that dude's name in the musical and I had only seen it written down, so I figured I might as well say something deliberately wrong rather than try and fail.
Oh yeah, and also it's been 10 years and I still don't know what to call my fiance's parents, so I just call them 'you.'
24 notes
·
View notes
Note
longtime listener, first time caller, I gotta know how you feel about high school and college aus
...You know, I was about to say “not my jam,” in the same way that most modern, what-if-they-had-boring-jobs-and-no-superpowers AUs are not my jam. (And especially not high school AUs because I am just Too Damn Old for teenage drama.) But in thinking about the one high school fic that is my single exception to that rule -- and realizing that almost everything else I read in that particular fandom was a college AU -- it turns out the real answer is: it depends on the canon.
Case study: Les Miserables vs. The Witcher
So first off, Les Miz fandom has very little bearing on the actual source material—instead of the main story that the book/movies/musical tells, fanfic tends to focus on a group of minor side characters, the Les Ami, a bunch of idealistic young revolutionaries fighting for change and social justice.
The most popular pairing is Enjolras, the group's intensely passionate and charismatic (and really hot) leader, and Grantaire, a cynical alcoholic artist who shows up at meetings to be a smartass and troll Enjolras. Pretty sure the following is paraphrased from canon:
Enjolras: [to Grantaire] Why do you even come to meetings??
Grantaire: Cuz I lurrrrrve you.
Enjolras: [to everyone else] Why does he even come to meetings???
Everyone else: Uhm. Because he is like, ass-over-tits in love with you. Dude, he's not even subtle about it.
It's not that Grantaire doesn't support the group's aims, but he's a pragmatist in a sea of idealists, which makes him one of the few people willing to challenge Enjolras in any meaningful way. Moreover, Grantaire desperately wants Enjolras to notice him—and he'd rather have Enjolras riled up and yelling at him, if that's what it takes to have his attention, than to be just one more adoring fan lost in the crowd. It's a great dynamic.
(And I'm given to understand that regardless of whether Enjolras ever reciprocated his feelings, Grantaire was pretty overtly gay for Enjolras even in the original. And Grantaire—despite all his professed cynicism—does ultimately show up for the revolution, and he and Enjolras die in each other's arms, because it's that kind of book. (If I'm wrong, don't correct me. ✌))
But the thing is, “idealistic young revolutionaries fighting for change and social justice” is really easy to transplant into a different time and place—there has never been any shortage of social justice to fight for, and there have always been idealistic young people stepping up to the plate. Which is why most Les Miz fanfics are modern AUs, and mostly college age or recently graduated (with that one salient high school fic), because that's the age at which people have the most passion and resilience for challenging the system and trying to change the world. The specific issues the group is championing may be new, but the personalities, motivations, and dynamics remain identical -- the only difference is that now they've got iPhones.
It's great fun! I have zero familiarity with Les Miz canon, but I've nonetheless read a lot of modern/college AU fic of it, so clearly I do enjoy that trope under the right circumstances.
On the flip side: The Witcher.
It's pretty easy to translate Jaskier into a modern/college setting—his parents want him to be a responsible viscount business major, while he is causing them immense disappointment with his bardic aspirations music degree. It can hit all the same beats—staying true to himself in the face of parental pressure, rich parents threatening to cut him off financially if he doesn't come to heel, being a no-name musician struggling to hit it big, trying to find his niche as an artist.
But the other characters in the witcher universe just do not transplant into a mundane setting. Full stop.
Geralt, for one, is not a character who can be divorced from the context that created him—the central conflicts of his character, the elements that shaped his personality, are all entirely rooted in him being a witcher. What it took to become one, and all the intergenerational trauma of Kaer Morhen. How society treats him, how he struggles with having his humanity constantly denied by the people around him, and the staggering isolation inherent in that. Having already lived multiple human lifetimes, looking down the barrel of living who-knows-how-many-more, and how that's alienating too. Being the last of a dying breed, and feeling kinship with the very creatures that his entire reason for existing is to kill.
Without that, all you've got is an introvert who likes horses.
And sure, if it's an author I enjoy, and the story is ~10k words or less, then I'll read their bubbly musician + introverted horse-nerd romcom—but at that point, calling them Jaskier and Geralt is little more than a hook for getting readers into the story.
When a character is that much a product of their specific circumstances, even attempts at modern analogues invariably fall short—growing up in the foster care system is not comparable to growing up in Kaer Morhen; being a forest ranger might be Geralt's dream job, but it's nothing like the job he has. (Not to mention that they're trying to cram a hundred-year-old character into a college student, and my brain breaks at the idea of Geralt being younger than me.) It's changing too many variables—he's either not the same character anymore, or if he is, he shouldn't be, because he no longer has the history that shaped him in those specific ways. He's no longer grappling with the same conflicts; you're having to invent an entirely new set of issues for him, and his resemblance to his canon self grows ever more attenuated.
*
Anyway, all of which is to say that I only like high school/college AUs when it doesn't take the characters too far afield from their canon incarnation. There are other people who have a greater tolerance than I do for characters-taken-out-of-context, and that is A-OK, it is literally nothing but personal preference.
And it's not like fanfic requires any justification for its existence beyond “I wanted to,” but high-school/college/modern AUs do have some practical benefits. It lets you channel your investment in the blorbos into writing what's essentially an original story with original characters, while still having a ready-made readership for it. It has a much lower bar to entry for young writers, because it doesn't require enormous amounts of research or real-world experience. And if you want to file the serial numbers off and publish it someday, you can do that too.
So yeah. This got kinda off topic from high school/college AUs specifically, and veered into Modern AUs, Part II, but them's my thoughts on the subject. :)
(Trope game! Send me an ask with some time-honored fanfic tropes, and I will share my opinions on them)
15 notes
·
View notes