hufflepuff javert and slytherin valjean is the only thing i care about
Please explain, as an Hufflepuff you piqued my curiousity
ok so these are just my personal interpretations but
hufflepuff values hard work, dedication, patience, and loyalty, which is. pretty much javert in a nutshell. he’s so dedicated to the law and his own morals that he’d rather kill himself than break them. he respects authority and is incredibly honest which are also hufflepuff traits
slytherin valjean i like mostly bc of how cunning and resourceful he is like? one of the unofficial mottos for slytherin is “whatever means to an end” which is absolutely valjean. ruin your life to save some guy you’ve never met? burn your arm with a hot poker to intimidate your kidnappers? he’s obviously willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve his goals. he’s also a good leader and always thinks every action through completely he’s such a slytherin
@kohsette this is the post that convinced me but obviously opinions can differ
this is … fucking valid & I didn’t think abt it that way
So I have no source on this but apparently in France it’s illegal to mix red wine with white wine so now picture a les mis adaption where Valjean puts red wine and white wine in one glass because there’s not enough in either of them and either way it’s better than stolen bread and then Javert just bursts through the door just
There should be more about about the less well-known symptoms of Obsessive-compulsive disorder, things such as
hyper-morality (extreme black and white moral reasoning)
hyper-responsibility (feeling responsible for everything to a self-destructive degree, even feeling responsible for events which have nothing to do with you)
intolerance of uncertainty, (feeling very uncomfortable if you do not know everything about a given situation).
Excessive and persistant desire for reassurance
Extreme bouts of anger
Everyone who has OCD has it in a different form, so they might not show all of these symptoms but for others it can be a defining part of their illness.
I have ocd and this was v informative
Why do I suddenly feel like Javert has OCD
Because he probably does!
The thing that absolutely sealed it for me in the brick was how he had a button wrong on his coat when he confronted Valjean at the hospital.
“Seeing Javert in the infirmary’s entrance hall, anyone not knowing him could not have guessed what was going on, and would have thought he looked quite natural…But anyone who knew him well and had looked him over carefully would have shuddered. The buckle of his leather collar, instead of being at the back of his neck, was under his left ear…For his collar buckle to be awry, he must have just had one of those shocks that could be called inner earthquakes.” (Fantine, Book 8: Counter-Stroke, Chapter 3: Javert Satisfied)
It’s
most common in religious people, but it can occur in people who aren’t
particularly religious or even in atheists. (One possible symptom is avoidance of religious services, actually). It can manifest as unhealthy adherence to law or one’s moral code, too.
You could say it’s an obsession with being irreproachable.
Wait, no, I take it back! Sort of.
While it’s totally possible to have both, but if it’s just one, Javert is more likely to have OCPD. There are a lot of fans with OCPD that look at him like “totes one of us.”
What’s the difference? There are a few, but most importantly, OCD suffers are distressed by their symptoms while OCDP sufferers are more distressed by the impact their symptoms have on their life and/or relationships. Also, people with OCD often perform compulsions to keep anxiety at bay while people with OCPD typically have an obsession with perfection.
Both have relatively high comorbidity with autism, and depression is a real concern.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that Javert suffers from intrusive thoughts or compulsions that we as readers don’t get to see. He might not even recognize them as such (ex. does Javert stand so close to stoves because he’s actually cold, or is it just a Thing He Has to Do?); was there a specific route he took on patrols that Had to Be the Same, at least at the start or end or some point in the patrol? I know I (I have OCD, not OCPD) Do Things when I don’t actually know why, just that if I don’t I get anxious or feel super uncomfortable.
The way he touches his sideburns could be a compulsion, or stimming (comorbidity with autism).
However, OCPD tends to manifest in adolescence or early adulthood while OCD can frequently begin in childhood. And, well, it’s hard to imagine Javert ever not having obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
So, could be both. Could be that OCPD and autism tag-team in such a way that it looks like some symptoms of OCD.
(Okay, that’s the last addition to this post. For real.)
Valjean: You’re entirely literal. Metaphors go right over your head, don’t they?
Javert: Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it.
Jean Valjean: “I have saved a life.”
Javert: “You fucked up a perfectly good police officer is what you did. Look at me! I have existentialism!”
What she means: I hate adaptations that turn Javert into The Villain™
because they act like Valjean’s suffering isn’t caused by a corrupt society that oppresses its most vulnerable members, but by One Guy Who Is Mean. It’s not that “Book-Javert never did anything wrong uwu”: it’s that these adaptations shift Hugo’s criticisms of society at large onto a single dude
Hugo is like: “wow we as a society are really cruel to poor people and ex-cons!”
While these adaptations are like “wow that one guyJavert is really cruel to poor people and ex-cons! and what do you mean this is actually a larger social problem caused by underlying issues of historical systemic oppression and institutionalized prejudice that affect everyone??!”
It’s a way of… stripping the deeply-political Les Mis of its political message, and it’s kinda creepy tbh
¯_( ಠ_ಠ)_/¯ 