Like wanting to prove yourself to others? Yeah

Wanting to be seen as a hero? Yeah

That whole thing where he felt intimidated by Eddie in the first episode of season two because he was “more masculine”? Yeah

Looking up to the older male figure in his life (Bobby)? Yeah

i would say it's great and I have never been happier in my life.

but if you asked me on a deeper level...

-valjean is a trans man, who changed his identity to remain cut off from his previous self. when he first stopped at the inn and noticed cosette looking longingly at eponine and azelma and their doll and cosette's own cloth doll, he's sort of reminded of himself

-he buys cosette the doll at the store and mme thenardier makes a comment about it not being a boy's toy, but when valjean keeps pulling out money and she just stops talking

-anyway, when valjean and cosette are on their own, he notices how much cosette prefers feminine things and such and it kind of clicks in his head that this might be the perfect kind of disguise. if javert is after him, he'll be looking for a woman and a little boy, not him and cosette

-so this is perfect. this is genuinely perfect.

-during their time at the convent cosette presents totally feminine and gets to wear her hair braided back and wear pretty lil dresses and it makes her really really really fuckin happy

-over the next couple of years, valjean isn't sure what will happen. cosette is happy being cosette and not [redacted] and he has no issue with it. they're both sort of a person in the wrong skin. but a part of him worries about when she'll get older and if she likes women what would happen or if she liked men and a man fancied her enough to want to marry- would they? he's worried about her safety

-when cosette turns ten, valjean asks her about it.

-"do you like being cosette?"

-cosette nods and returns to playing in the garden. valjean watches for a moment before asking again.

-"would you rather be [redacted] and be a young man?" -cosette does think this over. she likes playing in the dirt and she likes to run and play and do the sorts of things the nuns tell her little boys like, but she also likes to play with her dolls and wear her pretty dresses and be cosette. that's her- she doesn't particularly want to cut her hair short and wear trousers or anything of the sort. she tells valjean no and he nods once more. that was cosette's decision and he's willing to honor it. she's as much of a girl as he is a man- there's a sense of solidarity in their relationship as father and daughter.

-in paris, cosette continues being herself. puberty is a really awkward stage for her. when her voice stops being high it messes with her a bit and sort of throws off toussaint but she doesn't ask questions when cosette gets tall and doesn't develop as teenage girls normally would

-cosette feels ugly. she feels so ugly. all the fucking. time.

-she sees other young girls at the park and around paris and she is not like them. she is nothing like them. she wants to be petit and have soft, thin hands and pointed features and curves where she's completely straight and it hurts. she cries until she's run ragged because cosette is different and she doesn't understand why

-all the while, valjean tells her that she's a lovely young woman and still braids her hair and teaches her to shave- promising that facial hair happens to everyone, cosette is no different. valjean tells her she's beautiful and cosette wants to believe it but she just isn't like anyone else

-toussaint sort of understands after a few years and notices how depressed cosette gets over her appearance and how she feels and she gives her lessons on womanhood and teaches her what every young woman must know. it actually cheers cosette up, surprisingly enough. she learns posture and elegance and dotting her cheeks with rouge and helps her heightening her voice as well.

-"it's all just a skill we learn," toussaint tells her. "all women do."

-there's a point after cosette turns sixteen when she stops hating herself as much as she does. she uses oils to make her skin soft and nice and smell like lavender and she can braid her hair on her own now. it's all really just skill, like toussaint had said. cosette feels prettier than she did before now that she lets herself be a bit more confident

-then when a young man perks up at her at the park she is FLOORED. cosette can't sleep, tossing and turning and thinking about someone thinking she's pretty and wanting to spin her around hold her hand and kiss her, maybe. oh my god. it's overwhelming. cosette holds the pillow up to her face and grins until it hurts because oh my god. a boy might like her.

-this is also exactly what valjean was afraid of! he notices that little boob at the park making puppy eyes at her and he notices cosette smiling, all pink in the face for the rest of the day. this is a nightmare. this is his literal nightmare. he is so frightened of

a: cosette getting killed over this and

b: valjean getting left alone if cosette falls in love

-anyway, marius is absolutely smitten for this girl at the park and thinks about her for weeks. when they finally do speak in the garden, he's totally a bit confused when she speaks and when he sees her up close, but she's not like any girl he's ever seen before and he is so convinced that they are literal soulmates. oh marius wants her so bad

locks people up without proof of crimes or even trials in some cases

covers up genuine threats to human life in order to seem ‘in control’

conducted a smear campaign against the people pointing out said huge threat and then asked them to be mascots when it turned out they were right

put abusers and white supremacists in positions of power over children

ignored accusations of mass-murdering terrorism because the people being accused were in the Old Boys’ Club

controlled what was reported in every news outlet that wasn’t literally a tiny independent publication that couldn’t afford to pay their contributors

enforced mass poverty on people suffering from a manageable condition and refused to give them the help they needed by writing laws that reduced their humanity and their right to life

and were then surprised when it resulted in a lot of those people being manipulated by a terrorist group into helping them with the offer of rights in return

got taken over by terrorists and white supremacists in less than four months without even mass staff replacements because so many people already working there were on board with terrorism, false arrests and executions as long as it was the right kind of people dying and even made jokes about it

like. dude. if you read Harry Potter, which goes into GREAT depth about propaganda and government control and how just because someone with power says something it doesn’t mean it’s true (which is really. Incredible irony), and you STILL can’t read critically into Rowling’s fucking twitter posts and defend her because “she should be the queen of britain blah blah blah”.

Dude.