I finally found a relatively decent map of Montfermeil in more or less canon era! This is part of a military atlas (I think) that you can check out [here], and it also has other towns like Montreuil-sur-mer (look for “62170 Montreuil”). Probably very useful for fanfics too! 😀 At least if you have any need to have the characters go anywhere outside of the big cities.
I might still keep looking for even better maps but this is way more than I’ve found before 😀 You can also see the shape of the land which Hugo describes in the Brick (2.3.1: The Water Question At Montfermeil):
Montfermeil is situated between Livry and Chelles, on the southern edge of that lofty table-land which separates the Ourcq from the Marne. (…) it was a peaceful and charming place, which was not on the road to anywhere: there people lived, and cheaply, that peasant rustic life which is so bounteous and so easy; only, water was rare there, on account of the elevation of the plateau.
MORE UNDER THE CUT BECAUSE THIS TURNED OUT A BIT LONG (surprising nobody who knows me)
OH MY DUDE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING ME THIS I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS!!!!
Enjolras realizes he’s trans because he was going through his father’s clothes to try and find something to make him look masculine so he would be more respected. He ends up frequently wearing male clothes and is just accustomed to being recognized as a man. He doesn’t realize that he’s male tho. He just thinks he’s a really good actor.
Finally, someone at a protest realizes he’s female and calls him out on it. He automatically yells “CITIZEN I BELIEVE YOU ARE MISTAKEN, FOR I AM AS MUCH OF A MAN AS YOU ARE A HUMAN!” He only realizes later that what he said was facts. He begins to take away all traditionally feminine clothes from his wardrobe and replaces it with clothes his father doesn’t want. He does keep around a few dresses to keep up the act for his parents.
Courfeyrac and Combeferre are a bit weary when they find out. They are supportive, but they just don’t understand. Their friend group is very different from anyone else and they just don’t understand. Enjolras tries his best to explain but he’s not the best with emotions and it’s hard to say “I feel like a man.”
It’s finally Jehan who is like, “I am not a man, nor a woman, yet you all seem to understand. I know you think it’s because I am a poet, someone who observes the world around them, yet does not participate, but no. I am not a man nor woman, for I am just me. You must understand that our dear friend Enjolras is as man as Adam. He was born as Eve but no, the universe has made a mistake, and now he is correcting it.”
Everything cleared up after that. When it comes to his relationship with Grantaire, it’s complicated. He never denies the man anything, for he truly loves him, but he is unsure if he can provide for what Grantaire is looking for. It’s only when Grantaire wants to die along side him does he realize that physical form is not what Grantaire was looking for. He was looking for Enjolras. In his last moments he prays that in whatever comes after life, his spirit, the whole being of Enjolras, can be alongside Grantaire.
(I love it whenever you come into my ask/interact with my blog, bc it’s amazing. I hope this satisfies your needs 🙂 )
Okay, so sticking with the idea of “unpopular” as just “not something I see a lot of” rather than an argument
there is really nowhere NEAR enough discussion of how hilaritragic Enjolras’ entire existence is?? I don’t mean like, in terms of Suffering–none of the Amis lead the pack on that one in the Brick– but in terms of narrative structure, like
If you want me to correct the writing in the pic, then it’s:
– Tu n’as envie de rien
– J’ai envie de toi.
Else, @theshiwolf’s traduction of the comment is correct.
This post is honestly a blessing?
I mean.. between the french people freaking out about how grammatically wrong it is, les Mis fans laughing sweetly, the aesthetic accounts reblogging this without any doubt it is a love declaration, and that one person just above me who has basically read:
I know I said this the last time I read the book, but it gets me, every time, that Hugo takes the time to show us how scared Cosette is, how everything around her is utterly terrifying, how she fears the shadows of the wood, and she fears the hand of Madame Thénardier, and then, then –
“Il y a des instincts pour toutes les rencontres de la vie. L’enfant n’eut pas peur.”
Look. It’s so important. It’s not like Valjean isn’t scary, that huge dark man, suddenly here besides her when she was alone a moment ago. But Cosette isn’t scared of him a single moment. It takes one question of him, one hint of interest, for her to babble about her home life, eager for more sympathy.
Enjolras – Made a group chat purely to bitch about Rousseau. Frequently refers to him as ‘That Punk Ass Bitch’
Courferyac – Spent forty minutes applying body glitter to go to a Eurovision watch party
Combeferre – Added footnotes and academic citations to his protest placard
Grantaire – Roamed the city covered head to toe in red paint. Had a photo shoot like this in front of the landmarks purely to confuse the tourists
Bousset – Missed out on Halloween because he fell asleep at 7pm after eating too much pot noodle
Joly – Keeps a box of human bones in his room to study, and failed to mention this until I’d used it as a chair all evening
Bahorel – Had a light saber battle in the post room, complete with cloaks and Duel of the Fates blasting from his phone. Made lifelong enemies with the porters in the process
Feuilly – Becomes 300% more sassy when he puts a certain pair of sunglasses on. No one is quite sure why, least of all him.
Jehan – Only owns one suit and it’s made of bright purple silk
Marius – Turned up to a supervision in exactly the same outfit as their supervisor (of the opposite gender) Neither of them mentioned it for the whole hour. Hasn’t worn that shirt or jacket since, just in case
Bonus:
Cosette – Broke into three separate colleges just to leave chocolate anonymously in their friends’ pigeon holes and cheer them up
Eponine – Turned up to a protest (same one as Ferre) with a sign that just said “Fuck Off”
Musichetta – Names all the locusts and worms she has to experiment on in labs. Refers to them as ‘her children’ and has a family photo album
Valjean – Sends a homemade meme to notify all their friends whenever the cafeteria is serving garlic bread
Javert – Dragged the entire group out to a field at midnight to watch a meteor shower. It was cloudy
here’s the third gif from the set that i posted last night, of george singing the last line of “drink with me.”
i didn’t make it then, but i wanted to post it now, because you can really see — even in this shitty quality — how great george’s acting is. like, even from this angle, it’s absolutely clear that his grantaire is singing that line to enjolras: watch the way his eyes stick to a single point beyond the frame, even as his body begins to turn. then, as he finally looks away from enjolras, he puts the bottle to his mouth, as if to say, “fuck it.” when aaron talks about this scene, he describes enjolras as being unique in realizing that they’re all about to die, but i think it’s crystal clear here that grantaire knows it too.
and what makes it so fucking brutal — and different from the stage versions i’ve seen — is that grantaire walks away. we see it, right here; he takes one last, longing look at enjolras, and then makes the decision to leave the barricade. not because he’s afraid, or because he’s abandoning them, but because he cannot bear to watch enjolras — or any of them, but especially enjolras — die. so he takes that long look that you see in the previous frames:
and goes into the café.
i guess some people might call this cowardice, or abandonment (and maybe that’s how enjolras sees it), but i think it’s intensely human. grantaire wants his last image of enjolras to be as the valiant leader; he wants that to be the memory that he carries of him. not what will inevitably follow. so he drinks his fill of enjolras, so that he’ll always remember him that way, and then he literally drinks, so that he won’t remember anything that comes after. if everyone else is doomed, enjolras deserves to have even one person carry the memory of him as a hero.
this whole moment makes their last interaction so much more poignant, too. because now we know that enjolras saw grantaire leave the barricade; he knew grantaire had gone, that grantaire hadn’t fallen when the barricade did and that he was somewhere alive. how did he feel about that? was he glad to see him go? did he feel betrayed, like i said above?
also, note the sway in grantaire’s steps as he walks away. to me, that’s very reminiscent of the way he drunkenly walks to stand beside enjolras in front of the national guard. there’s a common physicality, an almost balletic movement. it’s nice foreshadowing, for me.
speaking of foreshadowing, as much as i’d love to see this full song (please please please let me get what i want), i’d also love to see the full “one day more,” because there’s a third moment to add to this mix, a third place where grantaire is called upon to stand with enjolras:
think about how that might play out onscreen. it’s the same staircase that grantaire is in front of when he comes to stand with enjolras at the very end. when grantaire wakes up, and sees enjolras about to die alone, that becomes his last image of him. and rather than let it happen, he joins him — this time, without even being asked. he willingly takes his place beside enjolras, completing the character arc we’ve seen develop (or, i guess, we haven’t seen, thanks to edits).
¯_( ಠ_ಠ)_/¯ 