Left to Right: Eponine, Marius, Cosette, Enjolras, Valjean, Javert (though they are designed from right to left)
They are mostly based on the musical designs, but I do put a lot of effort into adding my own meaning to it (see read more for notes)
Everything revolves around Javert and Valjean
First of all, Javert and Valjean are designed to be polar opposites to each other
Tall vs short
Hair slicked back vs at the front and sides
Long hair vs shoulder length hair
Side burns vs beard
Thick cravat vs thin tie thing (one is a leash, the other is a cross/arrow)
Gloves vs no gloves
Coat closed vs coat open (the opposite is true for the back side of the coat)
Boots vs shoes (even the shape of Javert’s boots is pointer than Valjean’s rounded shoes)
Everyone else is designed to have a combination of Valjean and Javert’s traits, plus some additional traits from Enjolras
Enjolras: Tall, long-ish hair (shape reminiscent of Javert’s pony tail), partially tied up at the back with bangs, parted at the side, a long face and sharp jaw, nose with a minor dorsal hump, and black shoes and pants
Cosette: Long, curly blonde hair, bangs parted at the middle, partially tied up at the back with a black ribbon (in the same shape as Valjean’s tie thing), green dress, lace gloves, blue eyes, curved nose, and short boots. The two curls by the side of the ear is meant to mildly evoke Javert’s sideburns
Marius: Short, spikey brown hair (where the silhouette mirrors Enjolras’ hair at the right side), where the hair at the top is slicked away from the forehead, brown eyes, light blue coat closed at the middle, asymmetrical vest, similar face shape to Enjolras, but much rounded and softer, thick bow/ribbon, black pants and shoes
Eponine: Dark skin and medium length hair, a long open trench coat, with a thin belt and short boots. For her barricades appearance: she has two symmetrical hair strands at the side of her face which resembles Javert’s side burns, and the way her hair is tucked up is to give a similar shape to Javert’s hair above the pony tail, and her coat is closed then
Everyone besides Valjean and Javert definitely felt like Valvert fanchilds to some level lol.
Enjolras as Valjean but in Javert’s body type, who fights for people like Valjean but with Javert’s type of conviction
Cosette as Valjean’s daughter but with some of Javert’s traits shining through (eg height and eye colour)
Marius as someone with Valjeans socio-economic status (Post M-sur-M), but is a bit of a Javert fanboy
Eponine as a daughter/female parallel to Javert mostly
Colours
A few colours are intentionally reused, which I find super fun
Valjean’s yellow being repeated on Eponine and Javert -> Valjean’s connection to them both (him seeing Eponine when he dies, his whole thing with Javert)
Cosette and Javert having the same eye color, which is the same as Marius’ coat -> Javert fanboy lol
Cosette and Enjolras with the same height, similar skin and hair shades -> Idk I kinda like the Cosette Enjolras twin idea, even if not canon at all
Eponine having the same skin tone as Javert -> self-explanatory parallel
Eponine’s coat colour being a complete opposite of Javert’s coat (light vs dark, blue vs brown/orange-ish, saturated vs pale) -> contrast to make their parallel more fun
Eponine’s hat and shirt being the same colour as Enjolras’ flag and belt thing -> representing her being the first to fall at the barricade
Marius and Valjean having the same skin tone -> if god had granted me a son
Marius’ hair is literally a saturated version of Javert’s hair -> Javert fanboy lol
Marius’ book being the same colour as Enjolras’ flag -> Marius’ involvement with the ABC
The blue on Enjolras’ belt is the same blue as Javert’s coat -> that shade represents the state repression (?)
Other notes that I can think about
The reason I gave Enjolras green eyes instead of blue, and generally kept blue outside of his colour palette is to give him a vibe of incompleteness. He is the revolution, but he is missing the tricolour. Marius has blue, but its more of a teal/light blue than the blue/cobalt that represents freedom in the french flag, and he sheds the blue coat when he is at the barricades. If I were to design Grantaire his eyes would have the missing blue. Enjoltaire shippers you’re welcome 😂
Enjolras is a bit of a dirty blond/has darker hair roots. I like to think it makes him feel a bit imperfect and more human.
The backside of his vest is black, because red and black. Also this means when he falls off the barricades (in the musical version) the last thing his comrades see of him is not the red of the revolution, but black, the dark night that did not come to dawn.
The three spikey bits of Enjorlas’ hair at his right side is also somewhat translated to Eponine. It’s the barricades hair thingy lol.
Javert is the only one with light(er) coloured pants. Thenardier is probably going to get pale leggings. I like to think those two facts are connected, though I don’t know how.
Height from tallest to shortest: Javert, Enjolras and Cosette, Marius, Valjean, Eponine and Valjean.
Marius’ coat back is a combination of Valjean and Javert’s - it opens, but it doesn’t split/remains as one piece
Eponine’s outfit without the coat made me think of Hornet 😂 Silksanity.
