i would like to ask 1 and 2 for bahorel please! :D
oh I'm SO overdue on these but let's goooo
off the top of your head: notes for characterization? what are the most essential traits of this character to you (personality traits, important connections/dynamics, voice)?
hooooo oh man this one . took a while.
The things I always have at the forefront of my mind are that he's very smart and perceptive (this is stressed about him multiple times!) and also, at all times and in all ways, A Lot And Possibly Too Much, but with that coming from a good heart and a sharp understanding of things. LONGER FORM:
And that "very smart" includes emotionally/socially; he is one of the most socially and emotionally insightful characters in the book! There's a reason that when Courfeyrac is consulting over Marius' weird behavior he asks Prouvaire, Professional Thinker About Feelings, and also Bahorel. And they're both right in their answers! Geez, Bahorel is like absurdly on the nose, symbolically;he's invoking Marius showing up with the powder keg!
(Bahorel engages directly with the novel's symbolism again when he meets Gavroche and invokes Hercules. Bahorel is tuned into the metastructure of his world in a way I think is actually intentional but also is very hard to access without Being Hugo. still. he should be allowed little a prophecy drop in fanworks sometimes. If people wanna play with the uncanny.)
His background matters; he's a peasant, he is overtly a peasant despite definitely being able to pass for a Parisian, he's on good terms with his parents, however you want to read that-- these things are important, in a group where the only other background signifiers we get are about how people have no other ties. Feuiily and Lesgle's parents are mentioned as being dead, Enjolras and Prouvaire are only said to be Only Children, Grantaire only talks about his own dad to say they aren't close (however seriously one wants to take Grantaire) and even Combeferre's mother is only mentioned in the sense that he's forgetting her! But Bahorel and his family don't just care about but respect each other--it's a wild twist for a character that would now usually be the family outcast or loner and there's so much to do with that!
also so much of why I love him is he's a Weird Arts Nerd, his Romantic Theater Kid-ness is actually the first thing we see him talking about! And as much as he's clearly Aware of fashion, his own is more than a touch of Putting on a Show himself; he is a Conversation Starter just standing there
AND HE'S FUNNY , even Enjolras thinks he's funny in an effective way!! but unfortunately it is. A way that is very hard to write. Because it's not just puns and one liners but a whole approach to the world where he like...gets it's all ridiculous but also he is very earnest about it. It's complicated! Gavroche does it too and it's a very hard thing to get across properly but like. That sense of humor is one of the core pillars here
...Honestly if people understand Gavroche then they understand Bahorel. And vice versa. They are the same spirit, a few decades make the only difference between how they manifest. But hardly anyone really understands Gavroche so here we are.
On the one hand I feel like Hugo sets up a lot of this in Bahorel's intro and surprisingly many subsequent appearances (seriously he is WAY more prominent than adaptations alone would ever suggest!) but also a lot of it is Context ...so...that leads into the next question..
adjacently—do you think fandom does the above traits justice? why or why not?
LARGELY NO LMAOOOO but to a large extent I understand! Like in terms of the theater thing and the Romanticist thing and Bouzingo thing, which is a LOT of the character, Hugo is relying on the audience knowing a lot of specific cultural shorthand--it's not being obscure and arty, it would all scan fine at the time it was published, but welp Cultural Shorthand Marches On. But then once you lose the idea of him as being particularly locked in with the spirit of Paris and Parisian culture like that the whole setup of all the balancing opposites in his introduction starts to get obscure and SIIIIGH
I think that also... more than a trope, there's a social expectation that people who are very outgoing are going to be kind of thoughtless , and people who are smart and socially observant are going to be Calm and Pacifying and Chill. And none of that is true! at all! These are all unrelated character traits! but they ARE tropey social expectations and Bahorel gets hit with them a lot to be written as a loud dumbass instead of what he is: a smart, caring, socially observant chaos demon who is consciously Choosing Violence, and also choosing a weird theater venue you will definitely be telling everyone about in a confused voice tomorrow.
..Fandom's still doing better than adaptations though, tell you what.
Thank you for the ask , sorry for the TEXT WALL XD
(ETA: also in my heart he is a werewolf, but that is a ridiculously specific thing I don't expect anyone else to do. AND YET MULTIPLE PEOPLE HAVE, INDEPENDENTLY!!! How!!!)
jahsbsjajs I just saw you reblogged my spider pic I READ YOU ON AO3 I DIDNT KNOW YOU HAD TUMBLR anyway thanks for everything you've written its highkey helped me when life gets sketchy
No wayyy!!! :0 Yeah! >:D I rarely advertise my different platforms now, since my content is so different on each one (by that I mean fandoms.) But I'm glad I've been able to make things a bit easier! Keep pushing through life, because you're kicking @$$! /pos. /gen.
What a lovely blog! I have a question. Were gigot sleeves ever/often worn unplumped? It seems like a lot of stage and film costumes leave them deflated (e.g. Cosette's green dress in the stage production). I assumed it's because super balloony sleeves look silly to a modern audience, the same reason for the lack of period hairstyles, but I'm not sure. I thought the goal was volume next to the waist.
Thank you! 1830s fashion is such a fascinating construct :D
-- I’m not going to say sleeves were never worn unplumped, because any item of fashion is going to sometimes be worn Incorrectly:P But they were designed with the idea that they would have some sort of plumper or support under them, yes! Wearing sleeves designed for supports without those supports ends up a bit like wearing skirts designed for large petticoats without those- certainly possible , but the look will be a little sad. It’s about the excess!:D
Here is a lovely close look at some canon-era sleeve plumpers!
(and Also Yes, unfortunately, those with final say over movie costumes indeed seem to have decided that Modern Audiences just can’t handle the concept of full sleeves and will be quicker to accept a deflated water bag, along with long loose tresses worn under hats that are designed to fit around elaborate updos. My contempt for the contempt shown to the “modern audience” by people who think we will apparently all panic and stampede in the theater if we see a simple twisted bun, let alone a papillote curl, is rampant, but I shall curtail it here for all our sakes :P )
2. How do they wake up next to each other? Ex - Tangled in each other’s arms? Is one falling off the bed? ECT.
Yeah so they always wake up in weird positions because TJ is a super crazy sleeper who sleeps in the weirdest positions. Sometimes, they’re tangled together and Cyrus is afraid to move because he doesn’t want to wake TJ up. Other times, TJ is somehow hanging half way off the bed and still sleeping. But Cyrus is the cover hog. He always is stealing covers from TJ because he gets so cold at night while TJ gets so warm. Many times, he’s left huddling in a little corner of the bed because TJ is taking up the rest of the space.
ML Sugar: Miracle Queen had Chat Noir not only support Ladybug when she was overwelmed, but he also went as far as to temporarily take her role as the strategist - way more successfully than in Reflektdoll! Like, he managed to use the Snake Miraculous after being unable to in Desperada because he wasn't trying to be the hero he thought she wanted, but the one she truly needed. That's wholesome character growth and I can't wait to see their dynamic in season 4
That is so true! He understood her position much better by the end of the season than he previous thought. And as viewers, it was nice to see those conversations in an episode like Reflekdoll to fully grasp how they both viewed one another’s role. This is certainly going to make their dynamic in season 4 unbeatable!
I thought Victor Hugo said the to love another person is to see the face of god thing???
Nope, it’s a musical-only line! It’s a wonderful line, and well in keeping with the story, but it’s not a Hugo quote!
Probably the closest line from the novel is from the letter Marius leaves for Cosette (in the Heart Under a Stone chapter): “God is behind everything, but everything hides God. Things are black, creatures are opaque. To love a human being renders them transparent.” (..translated, obviously:P)
That’s at least in the same general line of sentiment ,but it’s not That Line--lyricist Herbert Kretzmer deserves full credit for the line!
