edwarddespard:

elritch:

I love Enjolras’s arc bc his rejection of the personal/domestic/non-ideological was explicitly portrayed as a character flaw and it’s an arc i’m familiar with because it’s alive and well in modern times it’s just less Deep
it’s the arc usually given to the driven, career/cause oriented woman in a rom com who realizes the ‘error of her ways’ and that a man and a family is what she really needs to be fulfilled

it’s nice to see a man in this role instead and instead of giving him a hetero love arc that leads to a wife, 2.5 kids and a dog, Enjolras becomes complete by virtue of noticing and valuing other people’s domestic attachments, and the own attachments he’s formed with his friends: mothers holding vigils for sons, men that need to be sent away from the barricade because they have dependents, his willingness to trade Prouvaire for Javert, his smile at Grantaire

the arc doesn’t consist of him finding a New Person and abandoning his ideals/former life, it consists of him finding all of these things in the lifestyle he’s been leading this entire time, a life that still ends in revolution and sacrifice

there’s no condescension from hugo towards his character it’s so refreshing

Nice point – it’s an expansion of his world view, not a rejection of his ideals and priorities.