Jean Valjean pls bring Les amis home too🥺

One fascinating thing about the way Hugo writes Jean Valjean's inner conflict is that we're almost never actually in his POV when he makes his final decisions. We spend chapters and chapters exploring Jean Valjean's thought processes as he agonizes over difficult moral choices, but in the final crucial moment, when he actually makes his choice, Hugo "cuts us off" from his internal monologue. We view what his final choice looks like from the outside, from the perspective of other characters. This is especially significant because Jean Valjean, from the outside, is often pretty unreadable. He is uncannily calm, tranquil, and polite. He's opaque. There's a moment where he's described as a "whirlwind within, calm without;" Jean Valjean uses excessively polite behavior as a defense mechanism, "picking up his calm the way a warrior would pick up his buckler." The most obvious example of this is the Champmathieu trial, where Jean Valjean agonizes over whether to turn himself in. We spend chapter after chapter inside of his POV, exploring his terror and inner conflict as he weighs his options and invents a thousand excuses for himself-- we explore his trauma-fueled reactions to the concept of returning to prison in painful, agonizing detail, from his horrific memories of prison to his surreal nightmares about being buried alive. The tension builds as chapters fly by and he still hasn't made his final decision, as he hopes some unforseen accident will prevent him from making it to the trial and he won't have to make the decision after all-- But in the final moment, when Jean Valjean *actually* makes the final choice...we're not in his point of view. Instead, it's told "from the point of view" of the courtroom, and Jean Valjean's strange heartbreaking serenity is described solely from the outside. At the moment where we most want to hear what Valjean is thinking, we're abruptly cut off from his inner monologue. This becomes even more tragic when the "adrenaline rush" of the courtroom fades away and we witness the aftermath of the trial. When Jean Valjean returns to Fantine, we see him from the point of view of Simplice and other characters. He's described as behaving "mechanically" as if in shock. From the outside he appears eerily uncannily "tranquil" and completely opaque. It is impossible to tell what he is feeling or thinking. Jean Valjean responds to Javert's violence toward Fantine with an icy, eerily tranquil restrained fury: threatening him with a leaden bar, saying "I advise you not to disturb me at this moment"-- but you can feel behind that restraint the weight of all the grief/anger from the previous chapters, which he's incapable of letting himself express openly. He has made this horrible nightmarish sacrifice that he's been agonizing over for thousands of words, he's facing unimaginable violence and grief--- and in the moments where we most want to hear how he's reacting to this, "the line goes dead." We're brutally cut off from his mental state and left to imagine what he might be feeling.

After a few moments of this meditation (Jean Valjean) bent towards Fantine, and spoke to her in a low voice. What did he say to her? What could this man, who was reproved, say to that woman, who was dead? What words were those? No one on earth heard them.

It’s 2022, I’m 21 years old, I am making les mis memes based off of a vine that is at least 7 years old 

Happy barricade day!

Barricade Day Advent Calendar

Day 11: Wolfboy

and a bonus everyone together:

Harry Chandler, Bart Lambert, Stewart Clarke, Josh Piterman (ft. barricade boys) in “Les Misérables”

@westandonshakyground (hadesishere) master.

Barricade boys things.

Originally was going to be an Enjolras gif set, then I wanted to include some Enjoltaire, and then I couldn't leave out a bit of Stewart, and it somehow made this mess. Not complaining though.

Vol.IV - Book.XIV - Ch.V

Love the way Enjolras and Combeferre look at Javert here after Jehan’s death like: YOUR SO DEAD NOW

Okay don't come at me for this but I 100% judge any and all Les Mis adaptations almost completely by their design and characterization of Javert.

Like if he's not on point then I'm sorry, I'm done, I can't.

some of my favorite moments from the 1995 10th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables bc it's BARRICADE DAY and thus tis the season:

the convicts during Look Down all being Valjeans from different countries

the bishop M is baby faced and has an angelic voice

the clips from the fully staged show that they insert whenever there is too long of an instrumental/to explain things

colm wilkinson and philip quast's confrontation makes me want to chew on my laptop screen. so good. so crisp

baby cosette gets spooked by a balloon popping during castle on a cloud but barely flinches and keeps singing

the entire cast in the background of master of the house bopping back and forth in time. they are so here for it and it's amazing

philip quast's stars. he's so fucking good. i'm insane about him

michael maguire as enjolras's little happy dance when gavroche tells them that lamarque is dead

michael ball as marius somehow gives himself literally heart eyes whenever he talks about cosette. i can see them. it's so funny

during a heart full of love, colm wilkinson and philip quast are so invested in the background. they're leaning over to whisper to each other. they are besties

lea salonga as eponine delivers "i know this house i tell you, there's nothing here for you. just the old man and the girl, they live ordinary lives" like a GODDESS she is EVERYTHING

michael ball surreptitiously wiping his sweat on lea salonga's hair during her death scene. mans is dying a little

drink with me features anthony crivello as a fucking stellar grantaire, and after his verse, enj comes over and puts his hand on his shoulder to comfort him for a very long time. complete with a lingering touch on the arm and everything. fantastic exr crumbs 👍

the clips from the full show of the final battle are hilarious. completely different cast (though only obvious to insane people like us.)

highlights include one of les amis right on the middle of the barricade doing like. a backwards worm he's so into his death throes. he always has me losing my shit

empty chairs at empty tables includes the fucking cruel choice to have the entire les amis cast of actors line up on each side of michael ball and just a step behind so that they're in shadows, all staring sadly at him for the whole song. gives the impression of all the ghosts of marius's dead friends looking on from the afterlife and demanding answers. heart wrenching. THIS IS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE A CONCERT, WHY ARE U DOING STAGING LIKE THIS

beggars at the feast has everyone in the background clapping/tapping along again. love seeing the thenardiers get their due appreciation

the 17 valjeans from other international productions enter after the finale and they all have their gavroches holding their country flags it's so fucking cute

and of course final encore with all the additional valjeans and the whole cast is fucking ACES

ANYWAY if ur looking for a production to watch that is good af this is the top of my list even though it isn't fully staged. it's sooooo. it's some good fucking food. happy barricade day!!

Question for Javert Fans

Do you think it’s likely that part of the reason Javert committed suicide was because he felt guilty about the students at the barricade dying when he could have put a stop to it, or at least helped to?

I think this is one of many reasons besides the disruption of his single minded world view, his likely lifelong battle with depression and anxiety stemming from his childhood and perhaps some deeper personal regret that he hadn’t had much of a life outside of his career as a man of the law and justice.

While I think (I haven’t got to this point in the book yet so this is an assumption of sorts) he thought the students where idiots for putting themselves in that position and wasting their lives he probably had a rush of negative emotions on seeing them dead and started wrestling with his conscience over it. Then Valjean’s final act of mercy in saving Marius pushed his sanity to its final breaking point.

I know I’m reading very deep into this and I can’t help it. Like a dog with a bone I chew on this part of Javert’s story for a while then I stash it away in my mind until I find it again when I’m not looking for it then I chew on it a bit more.

They're back at Tesco!

After a while of no Tesco images, I'm back with more images of the Les Mis cast at Tesco- because why not?

I promise I'll make more sometime soon!

black sails (2014-2017) / les misérables, lyrics by alain boublil and jean-marc natel 

In the musical, Jean Valjean and Javert's final confrontation is a climactic shouting match. But in the book it's different? Javert is obviously ridden with doubts from the moment he sees Jean Valjean, doubts he can't live with-- he's hesitant, uncertain, and passive. He speaks "as if in a dream," he dutifully asks the questions he's supposed to ask of criminals but doesn't hear any of Jean Valjean's answers, his mind is obviously wandering elsewhere, and he doesn't even verbally threaten to arrest Jean Valjean at all. He never says 'yes' to Jean Valjean's requests for favors, but he also never says 'no." It's like he's in so much confusion he's forgotten how an arrest is supposed to work. It's fascinating how much Jean Valjean "takes the lead" throughout their final confrontation. Javert is busy short-circuiting like a malfunctioning robot, while Jean Valjean walks him through the "script" for how arresting criminals is supposed to go, reminding him of how arresting people is supposed to work, while Javert primarily just passively follows Jean Valjean's orders. Their conversation is literally just: Javert: who is there? Jean Valjean: it's me Jean Valjean Javert: *Computer fans whirring, overheating, Windows error noise* Jean Valjean: You are going to arrest me. Javert: *bluescreen* Jean Valjean: I am going to come quiety. Javert: *404_file not found* Jean Valjean: But first we are going to take Marius home Javert: 01000001 01001000 01001000 01001000 01001000 01001000 01001000 01001000 00100000 01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 01110100 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 0010

June 7th 1832 <3 Javert’s Final Message 💕

Whumptober 2023 - Day 12 | Red

Les Misérables (2012)

Stewart Clarke, Josh Piterman (ft. barricade boys) in “Les Misérables”

@westandonshakyground (hadesishere) master.

Barricade Javert and a little bit of Valvert.

I was desperate to make a Barricade Javert gif set. He just looks really cute in this fit. And of course, I had to include some Valvert "bonding" <3