I'm not a musical theatre person, but goddamn can a good rendition of The Confrontation from Les Mis give chills.

For context, Inspector Javert has finally located ex-con Valjean (aka Prisoner 24601), who he'd been hunting down for years after Valjean ran out on his parole and began living under an assumed name. Valjean asks Javert for mercy, to give him three days so he can tend to the…

…needs of Cosette, the lost daughter of Fantine, a former employee of his who fell into poverty and sex work and died, out of a) guilt b) his pledge to be a good man after the mercies of a bishop allowed him to run and assume said fake name and become a capitalist pig. But…

…Javert is all "are you fucking kidding me??? You're a criminal! You've already run away once, and lied, there's no way I can trust you, and I've been hunting you for years! People like you, 24601, do not change, and my duty is to the law above all other considerations!", and…

…Valjean is all "don't fuck with me, Javert! I'm just as strong as you remember me from the hard labour camp where you presided over me years ago! I WILL fight and kill you if I have to, in order to protect this woman's child!"

And then they fight.

VIA SONG!!!!

(also, like, via trading the leitmotifs associated with power and authority back and forth)

I Dreamed A Dream and Castle On A Cloud tend to kill me too.

(I Dreamed A Dream is just Fantine meditating on how her life turned out completely shit and she's lost all hope and nothing turned out the way she thought it would; Castle On A Cloud is Cosette, an abused child, just dreaming of peace, quiet, and love: FUCKING RELATABLE)

Like, seriously? A kid who's big imagined hopes are just for SOMEWHERE THAT PEOPLE'S AREN'T YELLING AND CRYING hits me square in the PTSD.

Oh also The Confrontation happens IMMEDIATELY after Fantine's tragic death, where all she talks about is Cosette, and deliriously hallucinates her presence…

And a timely little Brechtian comedic ditty now that evictions are being reinstated…

My mom was a huge fan of Les Mis, and adored Master of the House…

I knew we were poor, but it took me til my own clusterfuck adulthood to really understand WHY she loved it, and what she was getting out of it.

God this musical is an eerily topical listen in a LOT of ways fuck…

And fuck I haven't got to The People Sing yet…

Like the part where the young revolutionaries worry about facing the National Guard…

Man I forgot what a badass Eponine is. She's more heroic than ALL the other young characters combined. :P

And she sacrifices SO MUCH to do the right thing. ;____;

(Context: Eponine is a friend of the revolutionaries, but she's in love with Marius, the leading man of the youthful side of the cast, and Cosette's love interest. He doesn't reciprocate. After doing lots of cool shit to protect Marius AND Cosette AND Valjean, like stopping the…

…looting of Valjean's home and disguising herself as a boy to join the revolutionaries at the barricade and running messages for the others, all because her love for Marius is GENUINE AND SELFLESS enough that she just doesn't want to see him hurt - similar to Valjean's love…

…for Cosette - she finally accepts, in this song, that he'll never be with, and that he should just be happy that he'll be happy with Marius.

She really is like the equivelant of Valjean in the young people's half of the story)

*never be with her
**she should just be happy (though she is a TEENSY bit genderqueer :P )

Oh and finally she even fucking DIES helping bring Marius and Cosette together, and to safety.

Also yes The First Attack is LITERALLY the army and national guard firing upon protestors, sooooo… ummmm…

LOL I forgot all about Javert and Valjean running into eachother again outside the sewers while latter is trying to save Marius. :P

The thing about righteous revolution is that sometimes you lose. :(

Just thinking now how it's actually AWESOME that the Thenardiens are still there, unrepentant and even *thriving* at the end? In the sense of showing that the fact of predatory, exploitative, opportunistic humans is UNIVERSAL, they are a fact of society that doesn't get…

…neatly resolved with karmic comeuppance and narrative structure - even in a METICULOUSLY structured narrative. They get away because they aren't the villains… THEY'RE THE FUCKING SETTING.

Thank you for coming with me on this brief detour through one of the soundtracks of my 1980s childhood. :P