laura/antoine, 18, intj, from italy (but half french). bigender (she/her/hers - he/him/his) and hellenic polytheist. history, art, social justice. also les misérables and star wars trash. ( )

edwarddespard:

I’ll…probably regret posting this. But it just makes me so sad to see how fanon has reduced Enjolras to a caricature of the character Hugo created, nothing but a compilation of tropes that stress naivete, cruelty (however unwitting), emotional constipation, etc.

I’m becoming increasingly bemused by the pervasive fanon that depicts Enjolras as a complete arsehole towards a vulnerable Grantaire (who, of course, only exhibits any arseholish behaviour as a manifestation of mental illness and/or alcoholism), and who has to apologise – often repeatedly – for being so very misunderstanding and insensitive to the special, talented, troubled, tormented, gifted man that Grantaire is. And while we’re at it, we often get a medley of various Amis all-too-ready to tell Enjolras what a flawed, cruel (even unwittingly cruel) person he is, completely emotionally stunted or with his head-up-his-arse, who needs to apologise to poor Grantaire. And while we’re at it, we’ll have a side order of Grantaire and his bestie Eponine (we never actually see them together in canon, but hey-ho, Fandom decided they’re besties), with Eponine prepared to kick Enjolras’ arse because he’s so very, very mean to Grantaire.

I get the desire to identify with Grantaire, and in doing so, mold him into a more sympathetic character and gloss over his flaws. I think one of the positive things fandom does is make characters figures that one can identify with – I suspect reinterpreting and writing about Grantaire has been cathartic for more than one fanfic author, working through their own pain and issues.

What I find rather upsetting is that in reworking and reinterpreting R, so many fandom writers utterly gut Enjolras’ character, and make him into a completely unlikeable caricature of the figure we meet in canon, or into a figure that bears no relation to his canon origins – so many read more like OCs that happen to share his name, appearance, and some sort of vague interest in social justice.
Change, for example, their dynamic into a modern setting so that Enjolras retains every ounce of his privilege, but Grantaire becomes a tormented struggling artist who is trying to earn a living while he battles personal demons and a troubled upbringing, and you twist or leave out the fact that the Grantaire of the book is a privileged young man who has the time and the wherewithal to spend his days wandering around Paris indulging his passions for good food, good drink, good company and an array of bourgeois sports. He is not a tragically disappointed idealist defeated by the struggle of life – he’s the equivalent of the modern dude-bro who spouts Evo-Devo crap as an argument for human nature just being what it is (“sucks, man, but chicks are always going to go for the rich dudes”).

Enjolras is not a big meanie to him because he tragically fails to understand Grantaire’s tormented struggle. He is frustrated because Grantaire actively acts like a prick (e.g. singing royalist ditties for the express purpose of annoying his friends) and actively disavows their cause. The only times we see Enjolras respond harshly to Grantaire is when Grantaire is actively disruptive, e.g. of a key meeting and when they’re building the barricade. At other times, we see Grantaire rambling/ranting at will, and Enjolras saying nothing about it, any more than he does about his other friends. Enjolras is harsh, yes, and frankly he has every reason to be – at the barricade, for example, it is a matter of life or death.

Their mutual friends, far from siding with Grantaire and admonishing Enjolras for how he treats Grantaire, try to reign in the excesses of his behaviour – be it Bossuet when R is pawing Louison, or Courfeyrac telling him to STFU when he’s ranting and raving at the barricade. I think there are fair arguments to be made that Grantaire’s sometimes obnoxious behaviour is born of depression and/or alcoholism – that’s a possible interpretation. His complete drunken disruptiveness at the barricades could, arguably, have derived from over-imbibing due to anxiety at events that were rapidly unfolding. But Enjolras does not know that, and – given 19th century understandings of mental health and addiction – it’s a bit much to expect him to show insight into the most constructive way to respond to someone who exhibits behaviours associated with that. He lets him remain with their group, even allowing him access to important, secret counsels. He does not silence him when they’re not meeting on official business. But to fandom that’s not enough – he has to understand and show remorse and repentance for not understanding.

And somehow that gets translated into modern fic, and Enjolras gets hauled over the coals for not properly understanding Grantaire. Seriously – as someone who has been involved in political activist groups from before my university days right up to the present, if someone was as prone to drunken interjections, heckling, mocking etc as Grantaire is often depicted as doing in modern fic, they’d last all of one meeting. That behaviour is disrespectful to everyone, not just the person leading the meeting. It is really, really shitty behaviour. Even worse, in their way, are the fics that depict Grantaire as being helpful, or offering valid, insightful criticisms of Enjolras and the Amis philosophy and methodology. This would run contrary to the canon version of Grantaire (who does neither – nor does he offer any insightful observations as to why their movement will fail, and that’s another topic I’d like to write on at greater length). If he did, his entire dynamic with Enjolras would be different. Write him like that in a modern day fic, and you just make Enjolras look like a jerk and Grantaire look like a martyr.

I apologise for the length of this, but it’s so frustrated to see Enjolras’ character so butchered to enhance Grantaire’s, and to turn Grantaire into the insightful critic who corrects Enjolras. He’s not. His dynamic with Enjolras is extremely important for both their character arcs, but it’s not because Enjolras comes to realise Grantaire is right. I always feel a bit ill by the approval fanon bestows upon Grantaire’s cynicism by suggesting that he was more insightful than Enjolras and that he is correcting Enjolras’ naiveté, or by positing his position as “realism”. Privileging the cynical idea that progress is naïve and activists who strive for it lack the realism of those who decry social activism or say can’t really make a significant difference, which is the subtext of so many depictions of the E/R dynamic, revolt me. They’re often linked to reading the final moments to these characters purely in terms of a personal interaction, and ignoring the whole soaring, searing beauty of Grantaire finally rising to embrace belief.

Apologies for the length and emotion of this. I’m just so very, very tired of seeing Enjolras’ character butchered and warped to accommodate a particular interpretation of Grantaire. I love both these characters.

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