AN OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABOUT FEUILLY! thank you friend š
so. heās a complete nerd. like, he really is. His Brick description is not so much a list of personality traits as a list of special interests. That, actually, says a lot about his personality. Heās passionate, and enthusiastic, and a giant nerd.
kind of awkward too? heās pretty confident about his knowledge of said interests, but he talks about them – all the time. even when itās not really related to the subject at hand. He rants whenever someone – willingly or not – gives him the opportunity to. he gets so offended on the behalf of others and injustices and betrayal. every single time. Bless him.
He considers his own education as a way to deliver himself. He learned to read and write by himself, and while this would be impressive about anyone, but itās even more knowing what we do about Feuillyās background. He probably started working/apprenticeship really young, because the orphanage or wherever he was staying wouldnāt – couldnāt – have kept him on forever. But he still taught himself to read, seeing it as a mean to rise up beyond his circumstances. Thatās more than hard work – thatās hope and ambition and dedication and desparation all blended together.
and he never loses that? itās liked to his passion, really – he knows he/the world can be better, and he holds on to that, always strives towards that, even though his life must have been really difficult sometimes.
honestly heās like the opposite of Grantaire in many ways – he has every reason in the world to be bitter and cynical, but heās not. heās so passionate (Iāve said it like three times oops) and heās so. trusting? like. even more than Combeferre, who wasnāt surprised when the generals didnāt come to their aid. Feuilly was genuinely heartbroken over it, like – youād have totally expected him to know that these higher-ups would have let them down like theyāve let them all down before, and heās been let down a lot in his life, but he didnāt. whether heās instinctively trusting or makes himself trust because he refuses to be bitter is a matter of interpretation, but. thatās really something.
itās one of the reasons I picture him as a bit younger than most of the fandom does, really, because 1) being a worker in the 1820s/1830s (or today really) doesnāt at all mean that he has to be older than students, especially if itās such a big deal that he never got to go to school in the first place, and 2) that idealism and trust and enthusiasm sentimental aspect of his personality just seems different than the sort of laid-back experience of the older members like Bahorel and Bossuet, idk.
oh man this is already so long why.
I havenāt even gotten to fanon/improvised traits I like to give him.
heās just. a cutie. okay Iāll try to find other posts Iāve written about this before and reblog them.
my gripes about the way Feuilly is portrayed in fandom is usually when two (often related) things happen: his canon personality gets replaced by a bunch of classist cliches, like grumpy, swearing, fighting, macho, rude, close-minded etc, or when he becomes a sort of Bahorel-lite, with fighting, drinking, swearing, loud, and always mentionned as part ofĀ āBahorelandFeuillyā, never as an individual person (I dislike Bahorelās characterisation in that too, but he usually is at least a little better? closer to his actual personality? anyway)
besides these two frankly terrible trends, I think, as with every character in this fandom, we have some leeway when it comes to personality traits. We have the descriptions in the book, which are frankly both precise and vague at the same time itās kind of beautiful, as well as the way theyāre played in the musical, different movies/shows/etc. so. my take on characters is not more valid than any other thatās done with, you know, some thoughts and consideration for the material and implications.
Useful posts on how to write comments for fanfics – [here] & [here]
On a personal note. Iāve
met wonderful people throughout fandoms and by leaving comments. Iāve made
great friends, some even on comment sections, as we shared our enthusiasm for
the same story.Ā
People who like the same ships often hold similar character
traits and life experiences; theyāre people who would get you. The bonds in fandoms only strengthen when people meet other
people as humans – and there are fantastic humans waiting to meet you.Ā
Leave a comment. š
((Methodology
For Data Collected
For this, Iāve used AO3, currently the most popular fanfiction
website.Ā
Iāve taken the first ranked story in each ship, completed, rated
by kudos – since bookmarks on AO3 can be set to private so the counters donāt
reflect the real numbers – to reflect the stories that had the most positive
feedback in their category.
For the comments, Iāve (falsely and intentionally) assumed the
numbers represented are singular comments from singular, different users
(tipping the scales in favor of the commenters). For Destiel, Johnlock and
Spirk I had to pick the second story by kudos, since for the first the
deviation error (assuming the author havenāt replied and there arenāt
discussion threads included in the comments) was far too high for the ratio to
be accurate, and my initial assumption couldnāt be applied. My apologies to the
authors.Ā
Needless to say, I have so many issues with the prequels. But Bail is
not one of those issues. I love Bail. I mean come on, heās Leiaās daddy.
Ā Also itās cool that he got to hang around in the Clone Wars cartoons a little bit, and Iām glad heās shown up in Rebels as well.Ā
i always feel a little iffy about fandom usingĀ āhard-workingā as Feuillyās main quality – usually in sortings or āles amis as ā¦ ā posts, ācauseā¦
okay, itās not that heās not hard-working, because he is! he does so much! and itās a good quality! but with Feuilly itās in large part because he has to, because really for him thereās no other choice.Ā
it might work for other characters (no one ever calls Enjolras or Combeferre hardworking when they most definitely are? I wonder why – except no, I know why) saying the main thing about Feuilly is that heās gounded and hard-working and values hard honest work above everything else, to me, feels like. you take the one guy in the entire group thatās known to be working class, the only one who has to work to survive in a group of privileged students, and the first thing fandom says about this character is likeĀ āoh boy! he works so much. he loves working to survive, itās so deeply intrinsic to his personality as to be his main traits. working fullfills him, it makes him happyā. idk. it feels a little like mocking the socioeconomic inequalities that force him to work himself to exhaustion everyday just to survive. especially when you ignore everything else we know about him, his enthusiasm for the outside world, his knowledge, his compassion and his passion for learning, etc. which are, btw, highlighted way more than the hard-working part in the actual text
combeferre screamingĀ āsomeone hold him backā when courfeyrac is going to where gavroche is on the barricade always gets me and makes me super emotional
Ugh I justā¦as much as I loved the video of Lin-Manuel and Emma Watson sorting Hamilton characters into Hogwarts Houses, I was hoping that we had maybe gotten to the point where we can stop automatically casting the protagonist in Gryffindor without any further discussion because seriously. Hamilton is a Slytherin.
Hamiltonās defining characteristic is his ambition, his burning desire to make a name for himself and to leave a legacy. Itās what motivates just about every decision he makes. Thatās not a Gryffindor quality (I mean, Iām not saying that Gryffindors canāt be ambitious, any more than Slytherins canāt be brave ā itās just a much more defining characteristic of Slytherins [āAnd power-hungry Slytherin loved those of great ambitionā]). From the beginning, Hamilton is obsessed with making a name for himself and while that allows him to make some choices that seem brave or noble on their surface, theyāre all with the goal of rising above his station (consider: anything in the Revolutionary War; the Reynolds Pamphlet; even his death).
In many ways, Burr, who I also consider a Slytherin, and Hamilton represent both ends of Slytherin spectrum ā both would use any means to achieve their ends, though their means are quite opposite. And for both of them, ambition and pride is their downfall, though again, in different and contrasting ways.
And in the Harry Potter universe, it becomes clearer that Hamilton would be a Slytherin. Imagine little eleven-year-old bastard orphan (son of a whore and a Scotsmanā¦) Hamilton rolling up to Hogwarts with no name, just the burning need to make a name for himself. And when he puts the Sorting Hat on his head and tells him,Ā āA nice thirst to prove yourselfā¦You could be great, and Slytherin will help you on your way to greatnessā, how could Hamilton say anything but yes?
(And of course, imagine little Hamilton running up to the Slytherin prefect Aaron Burr, when first-years arenāt supposed to just talkĀ to prefects, to ask him in that piping voice,Ā āPardon me, are you Aaron Burr, sir?ā)
(And then also imagine Burr and Hamilton many years later, facing each other, wands raised, both prepared to do whatever it took ā Hamilton aiming his wand at the sky, Burr firing the curse that would kill Hamilton and break him, in the end.)
Iād go on, including more from Hamiltonās actual life instead of just the show, but instead Iāll stop here and say TLDR – #yourfavoritesareslytherin2k16
luke clearly did not read his han solo guidebook. this is what heās actually saying to him:Ā ācome with me. letās adventure together in the millennium falcon. just you and me and chewie. letās do it, kid. letās go right now. come with me and im being coy and im not even gonna mention leiaā
further translation: āyou are gonna die if you do this
mission and we already almost died like several times in the past few
days. and i actually LIKE you despite the yelling, so please donāt die and come home with
meā
Someone should think about Joly having to deal with his two best friends being the worst at serious emotional talk; one will make everything a joke and the other will rant endlessly and never manage to properly say what he thinks after two hours.
Someone should also think about Bossuet and Grantaire staring at Joly and loving him a little bit more every time heās being a sensible human being capable of telling them how much he likes them (also, how damn frustrating they can be)
This all goes hand-in-hand with the wholeĀ āNO ONE CARES ABOUT BROADWAY ANYMORE~~~ /SADFACEā BS spewed by Broadway industry/NYC tourism board people.
Like, theyāve got this narrative in their head that people just suddenly lost all interest in theater one day and are trying to paint themselves as the victims of an uncaring public completely oblivious to the fact that attendance went down around the same time that ticket prices started inflating into the hundredsĀ for seemingly no other reason thanĀ āthey felt like it.ā
Back in theĀ ā90s you could get orchestra seating tickets for a popular new Tony Award winning show for somewhere between $80-$100.
Now? Ā Theaters are charging the same amount for seats in the nosebleed section with an obstructed view. Ā Itās ridiculous. Ā Orchestra seat tickets these days are going for as high as $500. Ā Thatās a 400%Ā increaseĀ over the course of twenty fucking years.
ImagineĀ spending ~$1000 on a night out with your partner and that doesnāt even cover the cost of dinner.
Outside of lotteries ā which not every theater does, arenāt highly advertised, are not easily accessible to people who work/are visiting ā Ā itās literally impossibleĀ to buy a pair of tickets without ending up spending somewhere between $200-$400 unless youāre seeing a show thatās been running for over ten years.
People canāt affordĀ to go to Broadway anymore. Ā
Or if they do, they have to save up or wait for a sudden influx of money and then choose one showĀ that they reallyĀ want to see that year and hope anything else will still be open by the time they get the money to see that.
You cannotĀ continue to price more and more people out of Broadway theaters and then 1) complain that no oneās coming anymore so they must not care, and 2) complain that people are finding other waysĀ to try to experience these unnecessarily exclusive shows.
The film industry was partially foundedĀ on the idea of making theater more accessible to people who couldnāt patronize Broadway. Ā When did the theater industry decide that film was its enemy?
No wait, Iām not done.
People want to see the shows.
Thatās why bootlegs exist! Ā Not because people are selfish, but because they canāt afford the onlyĀ means of actually seeingĀ them.
You really think that people who pay for bootlegs wouldnāt happilyĀ pay for a legitimateĀ professionalĀ recording?
Why do you think Andrew Lloyd Webber is slowly working his way through his entire catalogue and putting out DVDās? Ā Of even the FAILED projects! Ā And people are watching them! Ā Theyāre watching them so enthusiastically that heās in the process of revivingĀ at least one of those epic failures!
For fuckās sake even the Metropolitan OperaĀ has a partnership with one movie theater chain to livestream their productions because they understand this very basic conceptĀ that people will pay to experience something they really want to but not if they canāt afford it.
Also, What does it say that every time a musical is filmed and released, it always has big named stars attached to it, itās always labeled withĀ āmovie of the yearā and always tops the box office for the weekend itās released?Ā
The fact that Phantom of the Opera with gerard butler earned back more than twice itās budget despite heavy criticism. Hairspray from 2007 earned almost 3 times. Mama Mia earned back 12 times its budget.Ā
Because i can afford ten dollars to see a movie, i might even be inclined to see a movie twice or three times in theatres, and still buy it on DVD for 25$ when it comes out. which, all in all is less than 60$.Ā
Clearly the point insāt that musicals arenāt popular, despite what pop culture would like to tell you about theatre kids. Ā Musicals are always popular, and movie musicals almost always do well financially, and id bet money its because itās a lot easier to take a chance on seeing a new movie for less than the cost of a dinner than to see a broadway show for the cost of a mortgage payment.
I can think of three live shows filmed, off the top of my head (Rent, Shrek and Cats) and theyāre all very well done, (i mean, cats as a show is kind of generic) I own a copy of all three, and to be honest Iād rather have copies of these shows as filmed on stage then the ones i have that are actual movies. Stage performance is an entirely different medium than film performance and you canāt really encourage people to embrace a new art form if youc ant expose them to it.
eirenical17 