#there’s just something

[secretmellowblog]

I feel like the scene where Valjean has dinner with Bishop Myriel and his sister has so many echoes of Valjean’s broken relationship with his own sister? It's like Myriel and Baptistine are who Valjean and Jeanne might have been, if they’d had wealth and privilege.

Both Myriel and Valjean’s families were scattered— the Myriels by the French Revolution, the Valjeans by illness/poverty. But after everything fell apart the brother and sister stuck together. They took care of each other. They stayed by each other even in the midst of poverty (although yeah it is important to note that the Myriel household’s poverty is voluntary, and is extremely different from the actual poverty of the Valjean household.) 

  It feels like a commentary on the way the revolutions/Napoleonic wars/upheaval of the past decades affected different classes very differently. You have the Myriel family representing the trauma of the aristocrats, and then the Valjean family representing the trauma of the peasants. 

Both Valjean and Myriel were also in a situation where they lost contact with their family for a while and had to survive by laboring– Valjean during his imprisonment, Myriel during the Revolution. Valjean's family was broken in 1795, Myriel's in 1793.  “Our family was ruined….In ‘93 one had no relatives,” Myriel says to Valjean about his experience. “One had only one’s arms.” He’s trying to reach out to Valjean by implying that he understands something of what he's going through— that the pain aristocrats like him experienced during the revolution has something in common with the pain that peasants like Valjean have experienced as a result of poverty. Myriel’s also been separated from his family, he’s also been exiled from the places where he used to live, and he’s also been forced to labor in order to survive. And If he survived it then there’s hope for Valjean too. 

But because Myriel is an aristocrat and Valjean is a peasant, Myriel’s situation was and is radically different, less painful, and less dire. And Myriel seems to understand that, but it’s still… well, it’s still a thing!  I don’t think Myriel is doing anything “wrong” here, but there are clearly limits to how much he actually understands. He talks about how he had “no relatives” during the Revolution, but a moment before he was talking with his sister about their many many relatives. He talks about laboring and having nothing but his arms— but he’s never been in the galleys; has he really experienced that? Like yes, Myriel’s family has been through terrible trauma. Myriel’s wife died in exile, for reasons we never learn, and his family was scattered/broken in a way that utterly changed him as a person.  But he doesn’t know what it actually means to lose everyone. He doesn’t know what it means to lose everything. Myriel might have felt like he did at one point, but he doesn’t. 

Because Myriel’s sister is still here.

1.2.4 is written from Baptistine’s point of view. She happily describes her brother to one of her friends, and seems content to be living with him. 

But Valjean’s sister is gone. She might be dead, or might as well be dead— he will never see her again. 

I don’t think Myriel is doing anything wrong here at all. He’s being a perfect kind host. He’s doing all he can to help Valjean without being condescending or preachy. He’s talking to him as a friend, and trying to help Valjean talk about his own past without shame by revealing some of the struggles he’s been through. But at the same time…when Valjean says he has nothing, it doesn’t mean “he’s lost a lot” it means he has nothing. When Valjean says he has no family, it doesn’t mean “he has some distant cousins he rarely talks to” it means that literally everyone he has ever loved is dead or gone forever.  

Myriel’s aristocratic family may have lost a lot in the Revolution, but it's not even comparable to what Valjean’s family has lost as a result of poverty and prison. 

Myriel’s original plan was to give Valjean a good night’s sleep and breakfast, then send him on his way to Pontarlier and hope he’ll get hired to work with the cheesemakers there. And that was a great plan! It was probably the best thing he could do in that situation. But like…would the people of Pontarlier have been any less bigoted towards Valjean than the people of Digne? Valjean probably doesn’t have hope that will happen. Again, I think Myriel was doing everything “right”-- it’s just that he’s only one person and doing everything he could might not have been enough. It’s like that earlier scene where the Bishop helped the man who was on Death Row. The Bishop thinks the Death Penalty is a moral evil, but he doesn’t have the power to get rid of it or even the power to rescue someone from it. He does all that he can to help the man on death row, by comforting him…. but it isn’t enough. And Myriel's aware that it isn't enough, that there are limits to how much he can help.

 In 1.2.4 Baptistine praises her brother for treating Valjean as an equal. At the same time, in her own narration, she portrays Valjean in the same pitying kinda-condescending way that she praises her brother for avoiding. 

Valjean spent nineteen years in prison because he was trying to help his sister and his sister’s children.

Myriel calls Valjean his “brother.” Myriel’s sister seems amazed that Myriel treats Valjean as his equal; it’s as if she doesn’t think that anyone could have ever genuinely treated Valjean as their brother.

[ickypuppi3]

you know when you read a fic and the characterisation of a minor character you love is just so perfect it changes your life

[titleofpersonage-p01]

[evidently-endless]

i think we should remind musicians they can absolutely make up little stories for their songs btw. it doesn’t have to be about them at all. you can invent a guy and put him in situations to music. time honoured tradition in fact.

[thelaurenshippen]

watching bridgerton and obviously there were a lot of things wrong with the way socializing has worked in the past, but honestly the idea of a "calling hour" is so appealing. office hours for friendship. you can show up unannounced at my home between 1 and 3pm. you must leave by 3pm. I may give you a pastry. lets bring that back

[sheepydraws]

The secret Dungeon Meshi sauce that's getting people to eat better is that it's so non-judgmental. Senshi and the rest of the gang never talk about what not to eat besides things that taste bad and literal poison. They don't even talk about "health" that much besides the importance of a balanced diet. It's so much easier to eat well when you think of food simply as something your body needs, and that it's often worth the extra effort to make it taste good, especially when you understand how to connect "things your body needs" with "things that taste good"

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The math just adds up!

[gahhhb]

[ Devour ]

[wasabi-gumdrop]

local ladies man’s signature move totally useless against autistic monster enthusiast. more on Kabru’s fumble era at 6

[badolmen]

WARNING 18+

19

[pigswithwings]

the angel staying over at my house asked for a nightlight in their room and i told them buddy, don't you produce your own light? what're you gonna do with more? and they said they wanted to see why people like it so much. and also that the nightlight i own is blue and they've been trying to understand color. anyways i think they've stared at it for an hour now

[edgebug]

the thing that sucks most about Joanne Rowling being a terf is that she is actively hurting real life trans people every day.

the second worst thing about joanne being a terf is that the Harry Potter intellectual property is So Much Larger than her. look at the credits for just one of the harry potter movies. every single one of those people put YEARS of time and effort and dare i say love into those films. think of all the people involved in theme park design and operation who put together the wizarding world park lands and detailed them so lovingly and fully

and yet even though the intellectual property of harry potter is so much larger than joanne, she's poisoned the whole well

i feel so. so immensely sorry for every person involved in the harry potter ip who isn't jkr. doubly sorry for every trans person involved. it's fucking sad

[bluuscreen]

one of the chocolate guys videos appears on your dash. you pause your scrolling to watch it, trying to guess what he’s making because this doesn’t seem to be one you’ve seen before. as the video goes on you get more unnerved and impressed — he seems to be making a whole human being this time, and it’s uncannily realistic. it’s even filled with candied fruit and sweet pastries in place of organs, red velvet cake and a cherry reduction making up flesh and blood beneath the chocolate. but something feels off. the person he’s making seems strangely familiar. upon the final reveal, you know why. amaury guichon has created a perfect replica of you

ETA:

[cronenfag]

as far as i'm concerned all gore is necessary

[hanjoj]

their ship name might as well be theseus the way there's not a single original characteristic left there

[baristabomb]

...weird amount of dunmeshi fans have been saying being a caretaker in a relationship is the worst thing ever..marcille must want to killl everyone soo bad because doing things for people suuuucks sooo muchh

it's an act of love, not just a job i promise. we all want someone who's willing to take care of us in some way, just like how senshi shows care for others by cooking for them :'|