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| INTRODUCTION MEDIA WRITTEN FANFIC/FANART L'HOPITAL OTHER LES PAUVRES E-CARDS POLL VIRTUES TEST OBSESSED? DISNEY MIS MINUTIEA LAST WORDS MARIUS EPONINE v COSETTE SITE BRING ME HOME |
| NAVIGATION ~ |
| OTHER All the random, miscellaneous stuff that goes no place else. |
| IN DEFENSE OF MARIUS Many people say bad things about Marius. But he's not stupid or cowardly. He's actually pretty cool. Poor Marius. People are so mean to him. Second only to the despised Cosette, he's the Les Mis character that gets the harshest denunciations piled on his poor young shoulders. Contrary to popular belief, Marius is not an idiot, nor a coward. Many people, including myself, have created and/or supported scandelous untruths about Marius' intelligence and breavery. He is silly, impetuous, and lovesick, but he is not stupid. Nor is he a wimpy scumbag who hides behind his friends' backs. I will not even attempt to deny the fact that Marius is lovesick and pretty much oblivious to anything besides Cosette, but he is, in fact, a very intelligent young man. Not only does he manage to get into, but he also passes, law school. Not an easy thing to do, by any measure. Furthermore, he is smart enough to know that he needs to conserve money rather than waste his precious francs trying to find Cosette. Not to mention the fact that he's trilingual - fluent in French, English, and German. Another common misconception about Marius is that he's a wimp. What about the whole barricade sequence? Does he hide under a table or behind Enjolras' back when the guns start going off? No. He saves the entire barricade with his powder keg scheme. Taking that keg of powder and threatening to blow up the barricade with it, including himself and his friends, was no act of cowerdice. Even in his suicidal Cosette-is-leaving-me state, that was no mean feat. So no, he's not an idiot or a coward. Nor, as a lot of people think, does he get out of the whole barricade thing unscathed. Yes, we're all sad that Marius lived and [insert your favorite barricade boy] died. But what about what Marius went through? In the midst of blubbering for your beloved barricade boy, have a thought for Marius. He lived, and all his best buddies died. Not moved to America or Russia or anyplace, died. Dead. Gone. Never coming back. Imagine what he was going through, right after their deaths, knwoign that Enjy, 'Ferre, etc, and all their ideals were forever destroyed. Especially since he actually saw them killed. The poor boy's probably going to have nightmares for the rest of his natural life. After the fighting and the killing and the blood and gore and such, doesn't he deserve a little happiness? Enjy and Les Amis all died heroically, but they're dead. They aren't still aroudn to remember the horror of all the killing that happened on the barricade. Marius is. And Marius has to live with the knowledge that he lived while all his friends didn't. He has to live with the survivor's guilt. Quite apart from his (quickly healed) physical wounds, he has a lot of emotional trauama and turmoil going on inside him, and no doubt will beyond his happy ending with Cosette. So give the guy the credit he deserves. He's smart, brave, and has a high endurance to put up with all the anguish of watching his friends get killed. Go ahead and make fun of him in fanfic and such, because it is fun to tease Marius, but at least admit that he's not a bad guy. |