#inspector Javert

[johnatron9000]

More javert……..

[earlgraytay]

Hugo @Javert:

One thing I feel people almost always overlook about Javert is that:

The book’s narrator is usually harsh/sarcastic towards Javert, and that harshness is why his character has pathos. Javert is able to be sympathetic because Victor Hugo has basically no respect for his beliefs. Javert is so pitiable because Hugo mocks and drags him on basically every page he appears.

I’ve mentioned before that the message of Les Mis is (paraphrasing) that ACAB— Javert is the best police officer it is possible to be, and he is terrible, because the laws he enforces are terrible. His law & order ideology is terrible. Everything he believes is fundamentally wrong, and so deeply wrong that it deserves no respect.

Yes, Hugo acknowledges that Javert occasionally has a misguided kind of nobility— the nobility of holding yourself honestly to a set of bad rules, the nobility of following a terrible moral code even when it hurts you. But Hugo has no respect for Javert’s bigotry, or his bootlicking, or his deranged obsessive worship of law and order. Hugo portrays the way that Javert martyrs himself for his ideology as strangely honorable— but the ideology itself is mocked and condemned. Hugo thinks martyrdom is cool, but that Javert is martyring himself for a terrible cause.

In his most sympathetic moments, Javert’s worldview is portrayed as pitiable…. not a worldview that’s worthy of true total genuine respect, but a worldview that’s deeply pathetic in its wrongness.

Without himself suspecting the fact, Javert in his formidable happiness was to be pitied, as is every ignorant man who triumphs.

This is part of why those old 2012-era les mis fanfics always threw me off, if anyone remembers the fandom trends at the time. XD People used to write Valjean and pre-barricades Javert having political debates, as if the two of them could make arguments about law that were equally valid and worthy of respect, and pre-barricades Javert had a worthwhile set of beliefs that Valjean could learn from. But to me it’s personally kinda like, no XD. Nah. The whole thing about pre-barricades Javert is that he does not have any valid points to make. He has nothing resembling a point. He is “ignorant” and determined to stay that way because he literally believes that thinking is evil. He is a violent authoritarian whose worldview is just “mindless self-destructive bootlicking and bigotry.” I joked about it in a previous post but if we want a character who offers a genuinely meaningful counterpoint to Valjean’s philosophy, who could debate him on politics, and who could represent justice while Valjean represents mercy— that character is Enjolras, not Javert.

Valjean has a fascinating complicated relationship with law and politics and violence, but Javert is just a deeply pitiable brainwashed creature who martyrs himself for Wrong things.

Hugo pities Javert, but he does not treat Javert’s worldview --‘authority is always right, rigid social hierarchies must always be enforced, human life has no intrinsic value, the police must violently suppress any kind of crime or rebellion’— as something that deserves to be genuinely respected. It is not something that’s even worthy of debate. It is wrong, it is nonsense, it is an incoherent cruel self-contradicting ideology, and Javert only believes it because (to quote Hugo’s sarcastic narration) “thought was something to which he was unused.” (Or to be more charitable, Javert believes these terrible things because he was born inside a prison and has been brainwashed from birth into internalizing a cruel carceral view of the world.)

And I think Hugo generally does a good job of walking that tightrope — having pity for Javert without portraying Javert’s ideology as something worthy of genuine admiration. He sympathizes with how rigidly Javert holds himself to his own moral code, while condemning the moral code itself for being idiotic. He has empathy with Javert’s sincere self-destructive dedication to what he believes in, while pointing out the things he believes in are all stupid. He pities Javert’s martyrdom, while condemning the nonsense that Javert martyrs himself for.

One of my Top Ten Favorite Pathetic Javert Moments is this one, when Javert recognizes Marius’s body after the barricades:

A spy of the first quality, who had observed everything, listened to everything, and taken in everything, even when he thought that he was to die; who had played the spy even in his agony, and who, with his elbows leaning on the first step of the sepulchre, had taken notes.

Because Javert martyrs himself so earnestly for this terrible cause! He “takes notes” even when he believes he’s going to die and the notes cannot possibly be of any use to anyone, simply because taking notes is the thing he has been ordered to do. He’s so self-destructively dedicated to performing these useless pointless tasks because he believes there is real ~dignity~ to his mindless bootlicking— when there isn’t.

That’s why Javert’s emotional breakdown and suicide hit so hard for me, in a way that it wouldn’t if the narration was forgiving towards his stupid belief system. The contrast between Javert’s sheer pathetic terror and the often harsh/sarcastic narration is just….wild. It makes Javert sympathetic without making his awful ideology seem good, reasonable, or valuable. (And while this is only adjacent to the point I’m making- the harsh narration in Derailed also emphasizes the way Javert has been trained to view his own thoughts/emotions with contempt.) Javert is deeply pitiable/sympathetic without his ideology being framed as correct. And the whole tragedy of his character comes from the fact that he is utterly entirely wrong.

If I were to summarize the pathos of Javert, I wouldn’t say “he’s sympathetic because he’s a noble anti-hero with good strong morals who makes some valuable points about the importance of law” or w/e. I’d say that you can feel sorry for him because he’s a wretched brainwashed creature who’s never done anything right even though he wants to, and is deeply ridiculously pathetic without ever realizing it.

As Hugo puts it: “without himself suspecting the fact, Javert (…) was to be pitied.”

[syrups-against-enver-gortash]

I have sooooo many fucking thought comparing the different versions of the musical with the concept album so I'm going to fill up my queue part by part

Valjean and Javert

Gonna start with the beginning, the concept album is COMPLETELY devoid of songs regarding Valjean's background. I'm guessing the staging was meant to explain all of it via talking but it was still quite a shock. Valjean and Javert are put at a background role to make more room for Marius, Fantine, Cosette and Gavroche. Speaking of Fantine, Valjean's the one to fire her in this version ! It's explicit ! I haven't read the brick yet so idk if this is more book accurate but it felt like it gave a very different image of mr Madeleine then what is usually done. Generally speaking he lacks that very soft, kind feeling ; he isn't mean per se but does a lot of dry remarks, and isn't particularly kind nor does he seem to believe in the good of humanity. Maybe the spoken scenes would prove me wrong though idk I haven't found any way to read/listen to those. No confrontation song :( a shame it's my fav one and with the singers it would have sounded phenomenal I'm sure. Javert and Valjean only interact once (there's no Valjean sparing Javert song either) during Fantine's arrest, which told me that, yes, Javert's little "but monsieur le maire 🥺🥺🥺"s are in fact an og feature of the musical.

On Javert's part, his only solo song is "Black or white" which is the equivalent of Javert's solliquoly (no stars 😔). The lyrics put a shit ton of emphasis on his status as worker of the state ("fonctionnaire") which makes sense but I thought it was funny lol. He's pretty much the exact same, except that, like the rest of the musical his song feel a lore more raw and crude. I would say this version of Javert's suicide is my favorite ; it transpires Javert's spiraling really wall : first he tries to reinforce his beliefs, calling himself the righteous and the good, then doubt comes in, and then he goes fucking insane. It also features a description of him drowning during which the music remains really intense and angry and oughhh that made me a little sad :(

[minty-didoodle]

I did say I was going to maybe try making this trend work for Javert as well (ti ti ti ti, it was on tiktok maybe a month ago)

His life does not receive the light this trend on tiktok uses, (It usually goes from really dark to really bright from left to right) but for him I decided to just keep everything dark, the brightest point being him being a successful inspector, because in his mind that would probably be the highest point he could ever achieve.

From left to right, we have: kid Javert, young guard Javert, Inspector Javert, derailed Javert and Javert in the Seine

[you-must-me-think-me-mad]

Javert: You’ve been curt and sobby with my guests. You’ve been needling for Gillnormand so much you practically made him a new suit.

Valjean: “Needled him a new suit.” See even when we’re fighting you’re hilarious. Stop it. Stop it.

[casy28art]

Plot ideas are happening slowly.. If you have any suggestions for this au I'd be super interested

[ratsinatrenchcoat29]

Javert mood board edit :D

I wanna make some more of these

[johnatron9000]

Javert with snaggleteeth bc um… bc . Because yeah

[corvidcantina]

“i was born afab!” “i was born amab” well i was born inside a jail I was born with scum like you I am from the gutter too

[livingfungicorpse]

I'm a chronic Enjoltaire shipper but I do have a lot of love for other characters in Les miserables. So other than Enjolras and Grantaire who else should I draw fanart of?

Feel free to suggest any prompts or ideas in the comments! I'd really appreciate it<33

[ghastlychamber]

actually guys victor hugo came to me in a dream and named me his spiritual successor and told me that the REAL TRUE ACCURATE™ ending of les mis consists of valjean and javert being besties and eating marmalade every morning in valjean's garden

[fagtron2000]

Who the fuck is javel

[micksmansion]

"I'm gay" "I'm straight" ok????? I am reaching, but I fall??? And the stars are black and cold???As I stare into the void??? Of a world that cannot hold??? I'll escape now from that world??? From the world of Jean Valjean??? There is nowhere I can turn??? There is no way to go on????😒😒😒

EDIT: wow this post still reaching people ermm please check my fanfics on ao3 i write stuff about les amis... (micksmansion is the username on there...)

[diioss-art]

The pair of grumpy, elderly homosexuals you meet at the beach

aka that one post of mine randomly started getting notes again and I felt like redrawing it

[secretmellowart]

“Give to this dog son of a wolf a human face, and the result will be Javert.”

I think a lot about the folkloric story that Victor Hugo describes (or invents) in Les Mis, that uses dogs/wolves as a metaphor for that way that Inspector Javert betrays his own social class. It feels very fairytale-like, so here’s a Lotte-Reiniger style adaptation. Many thoughts, many emotions. I may animate this eventually. (And thanks to @valvertweek for the motivation!)