[ SECRET POST #4219 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4219 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 28 secrets from Secret Submission Post #603.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm guessing this is about Black Javert in Les Mis? If so, let me offer my take. At first I was a bit put off by the new Javert, but I had to admit to myself that I would've been put off by anybody who didn't match the mold of Philip Quast's Javert anyway.

Then I started thinking to myself that there honestly is not that much reason against having Javert be Black. Javert is supposed to be a person who came from the gutter. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about history here, but didn't France also have slavery? It would stand to reason that POC would've existed there and then, and would be dealt the bad hand that is associated with Javert's upbringing. It wouldn't be too far off to say either that Javert relied on impersonal laws that apply equally to everybody as something that gives him purpose either.

Additionally, I'm okay with adaptations being a bit different, even if it applies to individual characters. What's important is that the basic themes of Javert are utilized properly.

We could have a silent Javert, we could have a vocal Javert. We could have brute Javert, we could have a leaner-but-expert-in-the-legal-minutae Javert. The main point of what makes Javert recognizable is that he's slavishly devoted to the law, and has a black-and-white vision towards the world. Even Quast!Javert (my favorite version) was different than those who came before him since he added physical intimidation to his character.

However, is this new adaptation of Les Mis even good? Who knows. There are plenty enough good reasons to do something different in an adaptation, but execution is another matter.

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

France definitely had POC living there in that era. France had some very famous POC living there in that era.

(Like, say, Alexandre Dumas, who was a contemporary of Victor Hugo.)

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[osidiano]

I came here to say this and you beat me to it!

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

Anon you replied to: There we go! I had even done a (very) brief google search to make sure that slavery had been a thing in France, but I was afraid that still someone would say that POC weren't as common as I was thinking.

Lol, I remember Dumas (love that Count of Monte Cristo~), but it didn't click with me that he was a contemporary lmao. My bad.

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

Okay what rock have I been living under that I didn't know Dumas was a POC?

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

He was 3/4 white, 1/4 black. He was basically a white guy with some blackness in him.

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

He identified as black, and his father led a black regiment, so he wasn't "basically a white guy". If you want "basically a white guy with some blackness in him" try Pushkin.

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

He looked white, though. One-drop rule and prejudice were the reason why he was seen as black, I bet nowadays he would be read as white.

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

One-drop rule was not a thing in France. Prejudice and racism, sure, but there was actually a pretty complex hierarchy of race/shades of melanin in the French slaver colonies in the Caribbean that was not as damningly binary as the US-style "Whites" and "Coloreds".
And he was all over embracing that legacy (granddaddy Dumas as a military general kinda literally overshadowed Napoleon in the Engypt campaign...) and getting up in contemporary racist's faces about it. So.... maybe white-passing but he definitely ID'd as POC by todays's metrics, is how I'd call it.

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

THIS. Thank you.

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

You Americans and your creepy race percentages.

Re: Is this about Javert? Is the new Javert even good?

[(Anonymous)]

I doubt most Americans would see someone who was 1/4 black as "basically a white guy." See: one drop rule, mentioned above. Even a tiny bit of black ancestry makes someone black.