Original screenshot and my pencil sketch! ⬇️

A common reading of Javert’s character is that he’s the romani son of two imprisoned parents. Again just gonna give some brief context just in case anyone needs it, but the romani people are an incredibly persecuted ethnic group who live mostly in Europe. I grew up next to a British Romany community, and modern romani communities still face a lot of racism and violence both from governments and individuals in the present day. If you’re not romani I’d definitely recommend taking the time to learn about the issues romani people in your country and community face because ignorance to these issues only allows violence against romani communities to continue. As a white English man I’m definitely not the right person to talk in depth about any experiences Javert may have had as a French Romani person but I’ll try and give some basic context with links to posts made by people with a lot more knowledge on the topic than I have.

As two people who were most likely in poverty and also possibly both romani, Javert’s parents would have been considered ‘wolves’ before they even ended up in prison, hence Javert is the son of wolves. However, Javert is not a wolf himself, his main Symbolically Significant Fursona is a dog. Javert was born outside of society without much hope of ever being able to enter it himself - ‘as he grew up, he thought that he was outside the pale of society, and he despaired of ever re-entering it. He observed that society unpardoningly excludes two classes of men,- those who attack it and those who guard it; he had no choice except between these two classes’ (1.5.5) He had the choice between becoming a wolf and most likely ending up imprisoned himself, or turning himself the state’s guard dog, aka a prison guard then a police inspector, so he chose to become the dog who devours his wolf siblings. The peasants of Asturias quote makes me crazy and stupid it’s my favourite part of the whole book it makes me rabid and feral!! This bitch gets me so emotional man his whole character motivation comes from a place of trauma and self hatred and trying to escape the same fate as his parents 😭

Going slightly off topic to link some other related posts for a second but! since Javert was born in a prison, he was most likely taken from his mother at a very young age and placed in the care of someone else until he was old enough to work at Toulon. Even ‘Javert’ would be a name given to him by the state to prevent his bio family from being able to find him once he grew up. This post also has an interesting discussion about Javert having internalised racism as a romani person and how that might have affected him growing up, especially if he was taken from his family as a child, and it’s definitely worth a read.

There is a lot of violence in the dog symbolism too like you said!! He is first and foremost a hunting dog belonging to the state, and he gets used by the state to do the dirty work of dealing with other lower class ‘animals’ who are excluded from society just like he is. At a certain point though Javert is choosing this line of work as opposed to just being forced into it, and he derives a vicious pleasure from doing his job! Javert isn’t an exceptionally violent police inspector, he’s actually an unrealistically perfect and idealised police inspector for the 19th century, but his character illustrates that the law itself is violent, and even by following the letter of the law and being incorruptible Javert is a dangerous man.

This is where Javert’s other main symbolic fursona comes in - the tiger! Cat symbolism in Les Mis is A Whole Complicated Thing and cats have a lot of different symbolic meanings but as far as I can figure out, domestic cats in Les Mis represent progress, potential, indecisiveness, neutrality and choices to make/paths to take. Lions are heavily associated with the barricade scenes and revolution and represent an action or person being a force for good, while tigers are associated with dangerous people and Morally Bad Actions. Domestic cats also represent the potential for an individual to become a big cat - when Valjean enters Myriel’s room at night he’s described as catlike, but when he leaves with the silver he’s a tiger. Tiger = merciless cruelty and Morally Bad Actions is actually an established part of 18th and 19th century writing, and Robespierre was often compared to a tiger after his death in order to portray him as bloodthirsty and ruthless. Javert is introduced with both dog and tiger imagery, and this imagery is consistent throughout the book. ‘Javert, serious, was a watchdog; when he laughed, he was a tiger.’ (1.5.5)

In relation to all of the hunting and predator imagery associated with Javert, I do actually think pleasure is the right word to describe what he’s feeling! And, gonna get a lil bit nsfw here but, I think there genuinely is an intentionally sexual subtext to some of the ‘hunting’ scenes!

‘Then he began the game. He experienced one ecstatic and infernal moment; he allowed his man to go on ahead, knowing that he had him safe, but desirous of postponing the moment of arrest as long as possible, happy at the thought that he was taken and yet at seeing him free, gloating over him with his gaze, with that voluptuousness of the spider which allows the fly to flutter, and of the cat which lets the mouse run. Claws and talons possess a monstrous sensuality,—the obscure movements of the creature imprisoned in their pincers. What a delight this strangling is! Javert was enjoying himself. The meshes of his net were stoutly knotted. He was sure of success; all he had to do now was to close his hand’. (2.5.10)

Like?? ‘one ecstatic and infernal moment’?? ‘Monstrous sensuality’?? This is very intentionally intense language!! Hugo even literally says ‘Javert jouissait’ in the original French!! Which is modern slang for orgasm!! I joke that Javert is into vore but you cannot make this shit up!! :’D

There are like Actual Academic Discussions about this word choice that aren’t just me screaming on tumblr dot com lol, and a 2 second google search brought up this passage from Richard D Burton’s book ‘Blood in the City: Violence and Revelation in Paris, 1789–1945’ - ‘Hugo’s inspector Javert stalking Jean Valjean from afar, delighting sadistically in the godlike power he exerts over the unwitting object of his gaze, postponing the moment of capture as a lover defers the moment of orgasm’ (p.285)

I’m also gonna bring attention to this post that talks about this scene - ‘these combinations having been effected, feeling that Jean Valjean was caught between the blind alley Genrot on the right, his agent on the left, and himself, Javert, in the rear, he took a pinch of snuff’ (2.5.10) - as reading very much like a premature post-coital cigarette, both bc it’s funny and because everything wolfsbaneblooming says is really interesting 😌

Of course you don’t have to read anything in this scene as sexual pleasure! Like any kind of literary reading there are so many different ways to interpret the text, but I personally get joy out of reading this scene as Javert being very horny about hunting Valjean down in the streets of Paris and I personally think he would benefit from quitting his job and getting involved in the kink scene instead uwu

Last tangent I’m gonna go on I promise but you also mentioned the dog imagery in Javert Derailed and that means you’re gonna be subjected to my Javert Is Canonically In Love With Valjean reading of Les Mis 😌

I’ve talked about this reading in more detail before in this post here, but a lot of Javert’s animal imagery is used as a way to show how he emotionally reacts to things. Javert is going through a whole lot of complicated emotions during the derailment chapter and a lot of this is reflected in the dog symbolism!

One example I’m absolutely insane about of Javert’s conflicted feelings is this passage here - ‘when he had so unexpectedly encountered Jean Valjean on the banks of the Seine, there had been in him something of the wolf which regains his grip on his prey, and of the dog who finds his master again’. (5.4.1) He still has the ‘hunting instinct’ telling him that he’s supposed to capture Valjean, but now he also feels that to do so would be ‘wolf’ behaviour - it would be violent and malicious and serve no greater purpose. Now ‘the dog who finds his master again’... Javert’s ‘master’ up to this point has been the state and his superiors in the police - he’s belonged to and dedicated his whole self to the state for his entire life, but this quote implies that he’s now starting to see Valjean as his ‘master’ instead. I don’t think Javert is in the right emotional state to be forming healthy normal bonds with anyone at this point (or arguably at all?? King u need community support and so much therapy :’3), but I read this scene as Javert starting to almost replace his devotion to state authorities with a devotion to Valjean and protecting him from harm. Also like!! A purely surface level reading of ‘dog who finds his master’ immediately suggests feelings of excitement and adoration and relief!! Sounds kinda like love to me, as weird and canid as Javert’s love is!!

But oh no!! Javert’s weird canid love strikes again!!

‘A terrible situation! to be touched. To be granite and to doubt! to be the statue of Chastisement cast in one piece in the mould of the law, and suddenly to become aware of the fact that one cherishes beneath one's breast of bronze something absurd and disobedient which almost resembles a heart! To come to the pass of returning good for good, although one has said to oneself up to that day that that good is evil! to be the watch-dog, and to lick the intruder's hand! to be ice and melt! to be the pincers and to turn into a hand! to suddenly feel one's fingers opening! to relax one's grip,- what a terrible thing!’ (5.4.1)

I’m!!!! Hhhh!!! The tenderness!!!! The gentle adoration and devotion!!!! The resignation to what he already knows must be true!! God I’m never gonna get over this paragraph!!!! He loves Valjean like a dog loves its master!! He’s in awe of him in the same way that men are in terrified awe of angels!!

A benevolent malefactor, merciful, gentle, helpful, clement, a convict, returning good for evil, giving back pardon for hatred, preferring pity to vengeance, preferring to ruin himself rather than to ruin his enemy, saving him who had smitten him, kneeling on the heights of virtue, more nearly akin to an angel than to a man. (5.4.1)

What could this be but weird canid love from this man? Javert spent his whole life devoted to system that placed no value on his life and ended it devoted to the man who cared enough to save him.

I tried not to repeat myself too much because this is already obnoxiously long but I did go into more depth with my Javert loves Valjean reading here if anyone hasn’t already had enough of me going ape about dogs or whatever uwu’’

Just to get this out of the way first, I did genuinely enjoy reading COM. I thought it was a really fun book and I think if I’d read it when I was 14 it would’ve probably been one of my absolute favourite books! There’s animal symbolism and imagery everywhere, political drama, an awesome criminal underworld and a cast of really fun main characters! Sure it’s kinda dumb sometimes in a ya fantasy kind of way but that’s part of the fun!

I am however reviewing this book on my Les Mis blog because it’s also a les mis and jungle book retelling, so the les mis aspect is going to be the main focus of this review. I think court of miracles is a good book (or well bad in a good way ;3), but a bad les Mis retelling.

The way Kester Grant veiws Les Mis has the same energy as a 2013 Enjonine shipper? She thinks Cosette is a boring bland character, she identifies with Eponine in a not-like-other-girls kind of way, Enjolras is reduced exclusively to his revolutionary enthusiasm and she hates Marius because he loves his girlfriend, he’s a little bit pathetic and he doesn’t care about the revolution as much as Enjolras does. (I’m getting all of this information from an interview she did with scifinow btw) She’s clearly read the brick but the way she views the characters feels like she’s looked at mainstream musical interpretations of them, shook them through a sieve then taken the remaining one character trait and built her les mis-based characters around said single character trait.

The COM characters themselves are more than just one single character trait they all have their own personalities and character arcs! But because of this they also end up being nothing like their les mis counterparts. To make things even more complicated, the main characters Nina (Eponine) and Ettie (Cosette) are also Bagheera and Mowgli respectively. Even Thenardier is also Tabaqui! I think the only characters who are solely based on les mis characters are St. Juste (Enjolras - yeah I know I’ll get to it ^^’), Grantaire, Montparnasse, Javert and Valjean.

Despite my criticisms I actually think COM is a really good ya jungle book retelling! In my opinion the strongest parts of the book were the parts that were inspired by the jungle book! The worldbuilding itself was super fun and engaging and the idea of the guilds was something that was inspired by the jungle book too. The main storyline of the book, and the strongest and most engaging one, was also part of the jungle book retelling! And Lord Kaplan (Shere Khan) was one of my favourite characters and one of the most interesting to read about! At some points it even felt like the Les Mis inspired plotlines took away from the story. The Les Mis inspiration mostly just appeared in the names of a few characters and the setting being Some Point In Fictional Revolutionary France, but even the French nobility were part of the jungle book side of the retelling as the bandar-log.

I think the last kind of general thing I could put here is that the story is broken up into sections with pretty big time skips in between, and I think this was meant to be similar to the way the jungle book is written but it did make the story a little bit hard to follow at the beginning ^^’

COM is clearly Kester writing something very self indulgent for herself - and this isn’t a criticism you go girl write that borderline self insert enjonine jungle book au! It’s just a comment about how it reads to me ^^’

Okay I’m gonna get more into the les mis side of COM now bc that’s obviously what people following me want to read about most and what I want to talk about most too 😌

Aside from perhaps Montparnasse and Thenardier, all of the Les Mis characters were so out of character that some of them didn’t even bare surface resemblance to the characters they were based on. I am. Having some Especially Strong Feelings about Javert in this book But I’m gonna start by sharing some thoughts about the amis!

Okay first I have to just. His name is Enjolras St. Juste. He gets referred to as St. Juste the entire book. St. Juste. The man’s a dumbass your honour I rest my case 😌 He’s clearly supposed to be Enjolras, but he feels more like Enjolras from a 2010s canon era enjonine fanfic that someone wasn’t really taking too seriously and present day modern au fanon Enjolras got smushed together then got handed some cue cards with some facts about canon Enjolras on them. He’s an obnoxious revolutionary student who wears a red coat and lives eats and breathes The CauseTM 😤 St. Juste is actually a pretty fun character and I did genuinely enjoy all the scenes with him in! But as the story progresses he ultimately starts to feel more and more out of place and his RevolutionaryTM side story begins to feel like it’s more for The Les Mis Aesthetic than being properly integrated into the story. There’s a plot to overthrow the government but it gets called off at the last minute because it turns out it was a trap laid by the royal family. There are barricades but all the barricade fighting happens off screen and St. Juste and his friends are never really involved in it. He has a will they won’t they kind of thing with Nina so I really wasn’t kidding about the enjonine thing either :’3 He survives to the end of the book though and apparently this is supposed to be a trilogy so I really hope he gets to be his own character a little bit more instead of just providing the Les Mis Revolutionary Aesthetic because as much as he’s kind of sheltered and obnoxious and dumb as a brick I liked him! He’s a terrible Enjolras but a really enjoyable character!

This one’s going in my St. Juste cringe compilation though lads

Okay moving onto Grantaire! Literally the only similarity between Les Mis Grantaire and COM Grantaire is that he’s an alcoholic. But he’s a fun alcoholic y’know! Liver failure but make it charming! It’s romantic and he’s less of a bummer now! See what I said about it reading like bad fanfic sometimes :’3 COM Grantaire is St. Juste’s Vice President and is also Fully On Board With The Cause 😤 even though he sometimes gets on St. Juste’s nerves by being drunk or teasing him 🤪 Can you tell I’m not a fan? :’3

The only other named ami is Feuilly, but the character is more like Combeferre and Jolly combined. A background character is also referred to by the name Jolly in one scene.

I don’t think I really have much to say about Nina and Ettie. I really like Nina!! She’s a lil bit edgy and a lil bit not like other girls in a transgender kind of way and she really loves her sisters and I’d like to giver her a hug 😌 I love Ettie too and I really enjoyed reading about both of them! They’re not Eponine and Cosette but they also weren’t supposed to be just Eponine and Cosette in the first place and I can see where the different les mis and jungle book inspirations are in their characters so I’m more forgiving of the fact that they’re pretty different to their les mis counterparts. They also get to be their own people more than St. Juste does and I think that was good for their characters too! As always Montparnasse is my sweet baby murder boy and I love him and I’m team ninaparnasse out of Nina’s three very handsome and talented love interests who drink respect women juice hashtag young adult fantasy 😌 I also really liked Thenardier!! He’s just the same asshole but he gets quite a few scenes and some awesome animal imagery so I was totally on board with that!

Okay. Now it’s time to talk about Valjean and Javert :’3

Jean Valjean, also known as Monsieur Madeleine and le Maire, is a member of the Guild of Letters. For the most part I really love his character!! The guild of letters specialises in record keeping, extortion, forgery, etc. and Valjean is infamous among the criminal underworld for how good he is at disappearing into different roles whenever necessary. We first meet him when Nina helps him escape from prison and he shows up at different points in the story to help Nina and Ettie out in order to repay the debt he owes her. I love him and I would maybe give him a little kiss 👉👈 One thing that bothered me a lot though was the absolute lack of positive relationship Ettie and Valjean had. They’re not even just indifferent to each other - at one point in the story, Ettie spends two literal years living with Valjean in order to hide from Lord Kaplan and they both actively dislike each other. Ettie even thinks she’s been kidnapped and spends a full two years trying to escape because no one ever bothered to explain anything to her and it’s just?? The coldest possible take on a Valjean Cosette relationship?? He’s not some random man who kidnapped her he’s her dad and they love each other how could you do them both so dirty like this!! Two years and they just hated living with each other and didn’t talk to each other at all!!

This take also bothers me a lot?? Like I know Valjean isn’t Actually a predator in COM but I don’t like the implication that their relationship Could be like that being in any kind of Les Mis adaptation or retelling! It annoyed me a lot when the same implication was put in beebmis and it annoys me a lot here. Valjean and Cosette’s story is one about radical love and healing and I don’t think we need any grimdark predatory Valjean content anywhere at all! Don’t slander my Valjean like that >:// If I just pretend that scene didn’t happen though Valjean’s a really great character and I did enjoy most of the scenes with him in 😌

Mm Javert though...... Kester Grant where are you I just want to talk 🙂 Javert is a white woman with red hair and blue eyes. Okay, fine, you can genderbend Javert if you want I don’t really care, but what I absolutely Do care about is that Javert’s one (1) character trait is that she’s Valjean’s bitter heterosexual ex who’s obsessed with capturing him because he broke her heart. Genderbending Javert just to make her boring and heterosexual is a hatecrime specifically against my gay ass you could’ve at least let them be gay!! I don’t care if you genderbend both of them or leave them both as men gay people can have boring petty character arcs too!! Why is Javert the one who always gets genderbent so they can be het too?? If you have to make them het at least give me a buff lady Valjean I can simp for sometimes :/

I still can’t get over this Kester Grant girlbossed Javert :’3 Miss Javert isn’t like other girls she’s an obsessive misogynist uwu

This is just genuinely embarrassing for me to read how could you do this to me :’3

Anyway Miss Javert would call me the f and t slurs gaslight gatekeep girlboss 💞 /j