The Importance Of Enjolras Softness

The Importance Of Enjolras’ Softness

and why i’m iffy abt most adaptions of les mis i’ve encountered so far 

the great leaders of our world have virtually always been men. leadership is manly. to rule and guide and order other people around is manly. 

anger is manly, too. rage. shouting, yelling, beating people up, fist fights. exerting power with violence, exposing muscles as a sign of strength, not showing fear or pain or tears. bracing oneself up, never asking for help, showing no emotions. all this is what we’re taught to think is manly. 

what we’re taught to think real leaders are supposed to be. 

try applying for a job in a leadership position. try doing it with smiles and kindness and devotion. now try doing it with ruthlessness, with fierceness, with your mind ruling over the heart, killing the heart, mocking everyone else’s hearts. the second one looks like a leader in your head now, no? the first one is, at best, a hufflepuff.

now was happens in les misérables? in this story about compassion, love and hope, where the protagonist is a protagonist because he is so good that he changes other people’s lives for the best - nothing else. he’s no action hero. no speech-giver (at least officially, cough cough), no soldier or king. his plot revolves solely around the people he encounters, and his life ensues by where his kindness leads him. this is jean valjean. this is who victor hugo decided to have as a protagonist. 

what else did victor hugo write? a group of revolutionaries. and a leader. 

but his leader isn’t abrasive. his leader isn’t cold. his leader doesn’t lack emotion or thinks himself perfect or faultless or high above his group. no. his leader, my beautiful, beautiful enjolras, is soft. 

he is soft and so, so full of love.

he grouped those people around him not because he uses their abilities, their deaths, or because he wants power. he grouped the amis around himself because he loves them. he admires them. he trusts them. they’re his friends, not his minions. 

enjolras sits by their discussions and listens, learning from their wisdom, their jokes. in the famous marius-loves-napoleon scene, enjolras doesn’t scoff or towers over marius to scold him, not at all, he crouches down by his side, makes himself smaller than his friend, and teaches him with patience and smiles. later on, he gives him a second chance. enjolras always gives second chances. he wants to send the fathers in his group home when he learns that they are all going to die, that there is no way out, because he can’t bear the idea that there will be children growing up without their fathers. enjolras is so full of compassion. an angel, who turns terrible, not because he can, but because he must - because the intruder poses danger to his friends. and even then he doesn’t rage. he’s calm and composed, even allows the intruder a last prayer.

every person is flawed, that is what victor hugo tells us. but every person also has the ability to be good with the good influence of others. enjolras’ influence is not on others, but them on him. he’s the leader not because he is loud and people group around him mindlessly. he’s the leader because he groups people together who are already so full of light, and he merely shows them the way. 

there’s a reason he’s described to look like a girl, why victor is so careful to subvert expectations. by making enjolras cold and heartless - manly -,  every adaption proves that they’d never be a jean valjean, but a javert. a victim of society who doesn’t question what they’re taught, who doesn’t listen to others, who are blinded by their ideas of how certain aspects of society simply have to be. 

enjolras is soft. he is full of love. he leads because he hopes, not because he fears. please, i beg you, write him as such. 

Maybe if he was a little less fuckable we wouldn’t be in this mess

i just saw someone say dabi called his noumu (i think the chainsaw one, not high end) little kitty!! do you know if thats that true?

This is a great question!

The short answer is yes, but there’s more to it than you might think.

First of all, here is the panel from chapter 81 in both English and Japanese:

As you can see, the English translation says “‘ittle kitty” - so a slightly cut off version of saying “little kitty” which is additionally written in a much weaker font than the normal speech to signify that this isn’t clear audio, but rather one coming through a low-quality transceiver.

Meanwhile, the Japanese line reads 「ネホヒャンッ」- neho-hyan. At a first glance, this doesn’t say cat (neko), but knowing the audio quality isn’t great, we basically have to translate this into its high-quality counterpart, which would then become 「ネコチャン」- neko-chan (= so the ‘harsher’ sounds k and ch have been softened into their h counterparts; additionally, there is a ッ at the end of the word, which functions as a glottal stop - meaning the speech suddenly cuts off).

While neko means cat, -chan is a cute honorific that is usually used for kids, close friends, etc. but can also be used for other cute things like animals. While the pro heroes are more than ready to kill any Noumu on sight despite knowing they are basically human, Dabi once again proves to have more compassion than any of them by considering the Noumu cute.

So if you consider yourself ugly: congrats!! - Dabi thinks you’re cute!

Anyway - so how is there more to this?

Well, let’s take a look at the Noumu this is referring to:

As you can see, this Noumu has eight arms, which then reminded some people of the Next-Level Villain “Octopus Villain” from Vigilantes (honestly, I’m not familiar enough with Vigilantes to explain this properly, so if you’re a little lost I recommend reading through this bnha wiki article) who first appeared in chapter 39 -

He returns in chapter 65 after having the Trigger (a quirk-enhancing drug) he was injected with removed, and gets properly introduced as Ikajiro Takobe, who just so happens to love cats and has an Octopus quirk that gives him eight arms -

Technically, Takobe started out as a villain that was turned back into his former self so there isn't much evidence in canon that he was turned into a villain again later on.

However, due to his love for cats and his appearance/quirk, and the Noumu from the summer camp being referred to as neko-chan and having eight arms people started theorizing that the Noumu and Takobe are the same person.

It seems there will be new Japanese Les Mis Manga focusing on ABC👀 It says that it started in 2024 spring on Comic Growl👀

Information from Manga artist:

Source https://x.com/a_k_i_511/status/1737787538407039244?s=46&t=Amij9UDgAWYXA31k1YslMA

Information from Comic company:

Rough Translation:

“To the friends of Eve of Revolution (Rule blue) -from Les Miserables-“

In the story of Les Miserables, young students from ABC rose up in the June riots, together with Marius. How did they meet, come together and meet the day of the revolution? Original interpretation of their unknown youth!

Source https://x.com/comic_growl/status/1737749629813641419?s=46&t=Amij9UDgAWYXA31k1YslMA

He's just came to my mind when I heard that.

OK, EXPLAINING DABIS SCARRING because @good-lord-not-books asked

*note these are just my hcs and some medical research

I'm putting this under a cut because it's long as hell, and I apologize in advance for any typos or if it's confusing. I have no problem explaining further♡

His scars are hypertrophic. which 1) explains the discoloration. It's what happens when the smaller blood vessels become partially or fully obstructed with scar tissue. They typcially start off pinkish or light red. (like when he woke up from his coma.)

Typically the treatment for this is laser removal. But if you don't have access the color may naturally shift with age/as it natueally heals. But with continuous damage to the areas.. the scar will get darker as the veins and tissue is further injured (the deeper into the skin and possible muscle it damages)

most hyrpertophic scarring can take a year + to heal. but obviously Dabi just keeps making his worse. The scars themselves are cause by the body over producing collagen for wound healing and not actually being able to break all of it down.

Which leaves collagen fibers in the skin to harden and thicken. Hardened skin doesn't allow much give, lessening the skins elasticity over all. Which can be shown in the way his unscarred skin pulls along the edges where the dermal rings line said scars. (my thoughts on his staples acrually being dermal rings will be at the end)

That's not even going into the nerve damage systemically for him considering hes covered in that kind of scar. So when he says he can't feel a thing it's literal as the nerve endings are shot to shit. And that is only going into skin deep level.

Interal organ nerve damage is a whole other mess due to the scaringbeing from burns. As severe enough burns cause systemic damage. (will also go into atfer the scarring part)

His skin looks TIGHT on him. If he did have and semblance of sensation in his nerves it might feel like hella tight/dry skin. Also I think hypertrophic scars are an inflammation response to the body healing.

His body is literally misshapen from it. (and yes we love him the way he is) You can see in panels where the skin is probably softer where there's lack of muscle definition but can see where it's tighter or pulling over his arms/ shoulders/ribcage because the skins elasticity is non-existent. The instances where it's sifter looking is probably due to his body trying to retain as much body fat it can to keep healthy (or as healthy as it's going to get in his state.)

As far as it going right up to his lower lids and having zero tear ducts. that man has chronic dry eye like it's nobodies business. so itchy and possibly bleeding eyes isn't a shock. he probably has several counts of grand larceny in artificial tears alone.

Ok so as for his scaring being from burns, burns affect the whole body and how it works depending on the severity.

It can effect muscle tissue/muscle mass, bone structure and interior organs.

Given he seems to be perpetually giving himself 3rd degree + burns .. his respiratory system and cardiovascular system are probably shot to shit. Just from smoke inhalation and perpetual injury. (hypertrophic scars fill the veins with scar tissue remember) Assuming how deep the burn and scar tissue goes.

But we haven't seen him with much breathing issues so I'm assuming it's whatever. He has mentioned motion sickness and we've even seen him turning down food. So I can at least go into it's affects on his GI tract.

In the GI tract, burns can result in increased gastric secretions, reduced intestinal motility, decreased nutrient absorption, increased GI mucosal permeability, bacterial translocation and increased intra-abdominal pressure. If it's bad enough he may have ulcers or gi hemorrhaging. Severe burns also cause liver and intestinal damage.

The fact that he's been alive this long is wild if he's been homeless this whole time and just committing small crimes to not die. One thing that irritates me is when people think he would be incredibly unhygienic due to the scars and such.

Like do you understand how CLEAN you have to keep burn injuries to keep them from getting infected?? Even if it's layered over already damaged and scarred skin. He might smell like burnt flesh but I doubt he's letting wounds fester.

Yes he could probably just cauterize himself but that's still just burning burn wounds. Especially with 0% health insurance. I always assumed he kept breaking into the Todoroki family home when he knew no one would be there to do basic things to make sure he didn't die on the street over the years.

Quick add on to my thoughts on his staples just being dermal rings to homd his skin together/as a form of human Kinstugi.

They (the rings) are pretty rounded in the manga, surgical staples aren't nearly that large either so I always assumed human Kinstugi regardless of metal color (between manga gold or anime silver) and it was both decorative and necessary for his skin.

I just assumed wherever the rings weren't, it was just spots he couldn't reach.

it's also shown in the manga that he's adjusting/adding more along his scars.

als, in case anyone is unfamiliar with the term Kintsugi, it's this

Kintsugi (Japanese: 金継ぎ, lit. 'golden joinery'), also known as kintsukuroi (金繕い, "golden repair"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with urushi lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. The method is similar to the maki-e technique. Its the Japanese philosophy that the value of an object is not in its beauty, but in its imperfections, and that these imperfections are something to celebrate, not hide.

which I think suits his character very well when his piercings and dermal rings are gold looking in some of the colored manga art.

ok, I'll shut up now, ♡