EPONINE. (a.k.a. Les Miserables)

[osprey_archer]

EPONINE.

I finally saw Les Miserables! It was epic! There was lots of singing! I never got the revolutionaries’ names straight, sorry. Actually, I think most of the revolutionaries never got called by name.

Except Marius. We got waaaaaaay too much Marius. He’s a total jerk! I do not require that he fall in love with Eponine (Eponine!), but it would be nice if he at least noticed that she had feelings, Jesus, and didn’t use her as a go-between with his One True Love. Ugh, he’s thinks he’s such a revolutionary. Eponine twits him for falling for a bourgeois girl because she’s jealous, but she has a point: his revolutionary ideals clearly don’t reach his heart, because he doesn’t even notice the lower class girl.

OH EPONINE.

But despite her tragic song about her broken heart, Eponine saves Marius’s One True Love (Marius’s One True Love is Cosette, played by Amanda Seyfried, who was Lily in Veronica Mars and thus forever holds the keys to my heart), despite her father’s threats! And later, Eponine cross-dresses! She mans the barricades! She takes a bullet meant for Marius because SHE IS TOO GOOD FOR HIM.

EPONIIIIIIIIINE.

...as you can see, I acquired a favorite character.

And also there was, like, this Jean Valjean guy. Also Javert the stubborn policeman who clings to a black-and-white dream of morality. And revolutionaries and stuff! I am sad I do not know their names.

In conclusion: EPONINE.

Comments

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think most of the revolutionaries never got called by name.

They do not! There is some Secret Coding in the costumes, but only the already-obsessed would notice.

Hahahaha, I have fixated on different characters, clearly, but my initial reaction was basically ENJOLRAS GRANTAIRE JAVERT GAVROCHE FEEEEEEEELINGS, so I totally understand. :-P I do like Eponine, though, although I think she's more interesting and complex in the book (and Marius ignoring her makes...more sense there. OTOH, he's also more of a dick in general there).

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I have heard that book Marius is one of those 19th century heroes who is totally baffling to the modern eye. My friend Emma read the brick, and she has a fifteen-minute rant about all the flaws of Marius.

And whyyyyyy do they never call the revolutionaries by name? I realize they have a limited time span, but it would not take very long for someone to be all "GRANTAIRE. YOU HAVE A NAME."

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

There's a little more in the way of names in the stage musical, but they cut a lot of student stuff. And even then, it's hard to follow without a libretto. (I think they did keep "Grantaire, put the bottle down!" but it's easy to miss.

[ghosted.livejournal.com]

ENJOLRAS GRANTAIRE JAVERT (and Gavroche too I guess) are pretty much my feelings as well. Terrible tragic boys!!

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

I suuuuper identified with Eponine when I was a child (and listened to the soundtrack over and over and over). And now, I don't know exactly what's happened, but as an adult I understand Marius a lot better. And I actually suspect that he knew that Eponine liked him, and is like, "Well, haha, she will get over it!" since he is not privy to her Emo Walks of Emo. His "If I could close your wounds with words of love," was like, "Okay, Fetch was never gonna happen, but GODDAMN, you deserve better than this."

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

But if he knows, why is he using her as a go-between? That's a reasonable action if he's oblivious but just cruel if he knows how she feels. (Also not very bright. He's lucky that Cosette's final letter was the only thing she kept from him.)

[ghosted.livejournal.com]

Marius is such a flop. I spent five minutes after the film ranting at everyone about him, and about how silly Eponine was for crushing on him when she could've been crushing on Enjolras instead. (I may have been a little blinded by Aaron Tveit's attractiveness.)

I don't even know where I lean on Eponine issues any more. I got tired of her ~tragic love story~ pretty quickly because I think I saw a lot of people identifying with the unrequited love aspect, and because I'm a horrible cynic I just went "boooring". Also Eponine fans have a tendency to hate on Cosette, which, no. But aside from that, as you point out, Eponine herself is pretty awesome.

I'm a Javert-and-the-revolutionaries fan, though. (Not as a team. That would be... odd.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

But it is not Cosette's fault! It is Marius's fault for being such a ridiculous dolt! Cosette and Eponine should gang up and fight crime in an AU. Somehow. Maybe Marius got run over by a vegetable cart and they come together to comfort each other.

Also, I don't think crushing on Enjolras would help Eponine much, because he is clearly married to France or at least the Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite version thereof. But it would nonetheless make more sense than her crushing on Marius, because Enjolras is a) more beautiful and b) full of fiery passion.

[ghosted.livejournal.com]

I would 100% read that AU. It's quite unusual for the ladies not to be my favourite characters in a thing, but I'm sure crime-fighting duo AUs would convert me.

Marius does have freckles, but what else does he have going for him that Enjolras doesn't have in spades?! (I'm being flippant, but still.)

Also I wouldn't feel too bad about not knowing the revolutionaries' names. My bff has read the book and he still claims to not know who Grantaire is.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

how silly Eponine was for crushing on him when she could've been crushing on Enjolras instead.

Which might be even more tragically unrequited, if one goes by book characterization, heh. But I guess Enjolras at least won't be pining after anyone else except FRANCE.

I wish the musical had kept a bit more of Eponine's non-love-related storyline/character.

[ghosted.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I'm well aware that France is Enjolras' girlfriend, haha. But I figure if you're going to have a tragically unrequited crush on someone, don't go for a loser like Marius!

I wish I could just put the whole Brick to music, but alas, it'd go on for days.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm okay with the unrequitedness. It's the fact that she's unrequitedly in love with Marius who is kind of a twit that just kills me.

Also, talk about unrequited: FRANCE clearly does not love Enjolras back. I mean, it can't, being an abstraction. But the common people of France are not rising to his cri de coeur against injustice either.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Marius, in my mind, has ever been the hypocrisy of the upper class/bourgoisie. Sure, he was willing to fight before he met Cosette--what else did he have to do to piss off his grandfather?--then after he thought her lost to him. It was all ideal and no substance--just like Cosette.

In the end, he sits in the blasted out room singing "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables," bandaged and tragic, only to go back to his rich grandfather's house to marry beautiful, barely-a-character Cosette. I never bought his sorrow, and never will.

"My friends, my friends, don't ask me what your sacrifice was for... Empty chairs and empty tables where my friends will sing no more."

Don't ask him, indeed, because he has no clue. Sorry, boys. And thanks grandpap, for a great wedding spread and the villa in the country, the apartment in Paris, and the world cruise you're sending me and my bride on.

Much as I LOVE Les Mis (and Eponine is also MY favorite character) it is aptly named. Everyone is miserable from beginning to end, thus proving Hugo's views on life that you are born, you suffer and you die! :)

BTW--can you tell me WHY Gavroche had a south London accent? Cockney? Whatever the hell it was, when neither his parents, brother or sister did? Well, Mdm Thernardier a little bit, but JEEZ!!! I hate that!

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

OOps, the brother wasn't in it. I mistook one of the revolutionaries for a brother. (He did have two younger brothers and two older sisters, Gavroche being the middle child.) My goof.

Enjolras! He was the main revolutionary guy with the foppish hair. :) I cheated, and looked it up, but only because it was on the tip of my tongue!

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Hugo's views on life that you are born, you suffer and you die

I...actually think Hugo was a lot more optimistic than that.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...optimistic. More pragmatic, I think. He lived a life full of conflict, lots of loss. He had high ideals as a young man, and lots of disappointment to look back on as an old man. I have always seen him (and, granted, I have not studied the man or his work in any great detail) as a little Valjean, a little Enjolras, and a little Marius all put together. Were these men optimists? Another hmmm...I suppose darkly optimistic. One can see the world through some pretty dirty glasses and still never give up hope.

Thanks for making me think!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I did feel a little sorry for Marius in that scene with the empty chairs, because after all he just saw all his friends die and nearly died himself. I think we're meant to think Marius is so overcome by grief that he can no longer remember the ideals that undergirded their struggle?

But in the wider context of his character, it really seems more like Marius never knew what they were fighting for, but just went along because being a revolutionary seemed like a fun thing to do with his friends.

(IIRC his friends are also bourgeois - they're all students - so Marius reflects a particular bourgeois type, not the bourgeois as an undifferentiated hypocritical entity.)

I'm assuming Gavroche has a Cockney accent because filmgoers are trained to think small children with Cockney accents are adorable, therefore raising the sadness factor when the troops shoot him.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming Gavroche has a Cockney accent because filmgoers are trained to think small children with Cockney accents are adorable, therefore raising the sadness factor when the troops shoot him.

This made me LOL really loud.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Most of the students are bourgeois (or come from bourgeois families), but not all--although that's practically invisible in the musical since their roles are so curtailed. Feuilly always wears a worker's cap, but that's about it. Marius being a revolutionary because he has any republican ideals at all was pasted on for the musical, not terribly convincingly. (I find Napoleon-worshipping Marius a little hilarious, though.)

I do not know WHAT is up with Gavroche always having a Cockney accent, but it drives me up the wall.

[anomilygrace.livejournal.com]

But - to be pedantic - that is not how Les Miserables translates in this context.

And I think that fact is v important because Hobbes' 'life is nasty, brutish and short' is not really Hugo's belief. Hugo's writing Les Mis because he believed we could and ought to do better. I dont necessarily believe authorial intent is worth much, but from my reading - Valjean's arc is one of redemption for a purpose. It's not to prove humans are all and always will be miserable.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Hugo's writing Les Mis because he believed we could and ought to do better.

Yes, this.

[silksieve.livejournal.com]

Aaron Tveit as Enjolras (the student leader) was the best thing about that movie.

I don't hold Marius not taking an interest in Eponine against him. He does notice her, but as a friend. He depends on her. It doesn't have to mean he should be in love with her. I think he used her as a go-between to get her out of harm's way as well (I might be extrapolating form the book.) And she does withhold Cosette's note to him. But yes, she's very tragic!heroine, and I do like her a lot.

I get it when people say they don't like Cosette and to a lesser degree Marius, but we have to see Cosette as a child of Fantine and Valjean--the people they could have been and who they chose to be instead. And the fact that Cosette can be the person who inspires love-at-first-sight in someone like Marius (and vice-versa) says something about the journey about the miserable.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Enjolras is adorable, even if they never actually bother to tell us his name in the movie, WTF filmmakers. I was hoping to come out of it knowing how to pronounce his name but no such luck. :(

I don't think Marius needs to be or ought to be in love with Eponine, but I think the fact that he doesn't notice she is in love with him reflects poorly on him - and in the movie, at least, there's no evidence that using her as a go-between to Cosette gets her out of danger. If anything, it puts her in more danger: her father threatens to beat her if she warns Cosette and Valjean that they're about to be robbed.

I do like Cosette. I think she's a bit underdeveloped (and I'm not sure what their love-at-first sight says about the journey of the miserable? Where are you going with that?), but she's sweet, and she's not responsible for any of Marius's actions towards Eponine.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

Oh God, Marius! Yeah, he's throughally and absolutely useless, pretty much right up until the end. YOU ARE NOT IN LOVE YOU SAW HER FOR LIKE TEN SECONDS WHY WHHHHHHHHHY? *sobs* Epoine should totally have fallen in love with the gorgeous revolutionary with the red coat instead, he was the prettiest of them all (they do actually mention his name somewhere in there and I have forgotten it. Ealjoras perhaps? Something like that ...)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Handsome Red Coat Man is Enjolras, but I've only picked that up by reading other peoples' comments on the movie, and I still have no idea how to pronounce it. They needed to mention it more prominently! Possibly repeatedly! Because he is pretty and needed a name.