Yeahhh I'm not... fully convinced by the writing style either, from the excerpts I've read. That said, I am intrigued by the plot, which is said to have more complexity than the musical or movie (which I have seen), especially in terms of Valjean's development and moral quandaries.
As for this pairing, I think the initial draw is that it's a double-duty fix-it for sad characters' sad ends: the typical setup for fanfic is a canon divergence where Valjean intercepts Javert's suicide, and consequently distracts himself from his own not-quite-suicidal-but-pretty-close wasting away with a shiny new Moral Imperative to save/fix/tame Javert, which then gives some more time (and/or gives derailed!Javert opportunity to intervene) to get Cosette to figure out why Valjean's distanced himself and fix their relationship. Boom, everyone's alive, redeemed, together, and with the shippy aspect you've also got two very repressed old men finding a very belated release with each other.
That said, this is yet another case of my fondness for shipping not only non-canonical but also canon-breaking ships. By which I mean, even aside from the obvious 19th century attitudes toward homosexuality issue, this pairing absolutely could not work in canon because it'd just fuck up the entire structure/theme if this core character conflict came down to romance, and even more so if the ultimate canonical sad ends were averted by romance. They really have to die in the way that they do for the story to work.
Plus, I think Valjean abstaining from sex/romantic love is meant to be part of his pious self-denial of much of life's luxuries and kind of part of his trying to be almost a monk (actually I'd love more Valvert fic that deals with Valjean having a gay panic and/or earthly sins in general panic; it's usually glossed over with Valjean somehow having a fairly modern love is love and love is good mentality which I rather doubt from a guy so intent on a guilt-driven morality that he denies himself white bread ffs). For Javert, I think it's plausible there's some confused very very very repressed attraction underlying his Valjean vendetta, but I think it's also a bit of the point of the character that he's made himself inhuman, a mechanism of the system, and a rejection of love/lust is part of his rejection of understanding/empathy with other human beings.
But the impossibility of this pairing is exactly why it's so compelling in fanfic! Diametrically opposed mindsets and interpretations of morality (plus, evidently both characters were inspired by one real life man, Eugene Francois Vidocq, who was both an ex-con and first director of France's first criminal investigation agency)! A whole lifetime of enmity! Killing Javert by saving him! :D
Also there is (surprisingly?) quite a bit of well written kinky fic with them. I mean. Vindictive policeman x saintly fugitive...
Cough cough welp there's my tldr, what about you anon? Do you ship anything from Les Mis? Or, what do you like about the story, favorite characters or songs, etc? Do you have a favorite adaptation?
Re: Les Miserables!
As for this pairing, I think the initial draw is that it's a double-duty fix-it for sad characters' sad ends: the typical setup for fanfic is a canon divergence where Valjean intercepts Javert's suicide, and consequently distracts himself from his own not-quite-suicidal-but-pretty-close wasting away with a shiny new Moral Imperative to save/fix/tame Javert, which then gives some more time (and/or gives derailed!Javert opportunity to intervene) to get Cosette to figure out why Valjean's distanced himself and fix their relationship. Boom, everyone's alive, redeemed, together, and with the shippy aspect you've also got two very repressed old men finding a very belated release with each other.
That said, this is yet another case of my fondness for shipping not only non-canonical but also canon-breaking ships. By which I mean, even aside from the obvious 19th century attitudes toward homosexuality issue, this pairing absolutely could not work in canon because it'd just fuck up the entire structure/theme if this core character conflict came down to romance, and even more so if the ultimate canonical sad ends were averted by romance. They really have to die in the way that they do for the story to work.
Plus, I think Valjean abstaining from sex/romantic love is meant to be part of his pious self-denial of much of life's luxuries and kind of part of his trying to be almost a monk (actually I'd love more Valvert fic that deals with Valjean having a gay panic and/or earthly sins in general panic; it's usually glossed over with Valjean somehow having a fairly modern love is love and love is good mentality which I rather doubt from a guy so intent on a guilt-driven morality that he denies himself white bread ffs). For Javert, I think it's plausible there's some confused very very very repressed attraction underlying his Valjean vendetta, but I think it's also a bit of the point of the character that he's made himself inhuman, a mechanism of the system, and a rejection of love/lust is part of his rejection of understanding/empathy with other human beings.
But the impossibility of this pairing is exactly why it's so compelling in fanfic! Diametrically opposed mindsets and interpretations of morality (plus, evidently both characters were inspired by one real life man, Eugene Francois Vidocq, who was both an ex-con and first director of France's first criminal investigation agency)! A whole lifetime of enmity! Killing Javert by saving him! :D
Also there is (surprisingly?) quite a bit of well written kinky fic with them. I mean. Vindictive policeman x saintly fugitive...
Cough cough welp there's my tldr, what about you anon? Do you ship anything from Les Mis? Or, what do you like about the story, favorite characters or songs, etc? Do you have a favorite adaptation?