Grantaire - Blog Posts
The Olympics opening ceremony has sparked my enjoyment of Les mis once again and would love an enjoltaire roleplay. I’m 25, he/him, looking for 20+ roleplay partners. Semi-lit/advanced lit depending on the person, the plot, and the vibes. On a good day my replies break discords word limit.
Please just try to match reply length as much as possible. I’m looking for someone to play grantaire, as I’m used to playing enjolras. Other than that I’m not picky. Feel free to like or dm me if interested. We’ll do some plotting and then migrate over to discord.
ᴍᴏᴅᴇʀɴ ʀᴜssɪᴀɴ ᴀᴜ! ɢʀᴀɴᴛᴀɪʀᴇ ᴍᴏᴏᴅʙᴏᴀʀᴅ
However, this sceptic had one fanaticism. This fanaticism was neither a dogma, nor an idea, nor an art, nor a science; it was a man: Enjolras. Grantaire admired, loved, and venerated Enjolras.
I don't know if this is something anyone cares about but if you like fandom history you might find it fun?
I've been slowly and painstakingly digitizing all of my sketchbooks from 2015 until now and sorting the pages by fandom, so here's approximately 5 years of Les Mis sketches, starting in 2016 and with a few unknown dates. These are only some of MANY. ID in alt text for all of these. For any screen reader users, there are a LOT of sketches, so it's a lot of alt text to get through.
Paris was set to explode.
Enough spark to light a fire
I was so inspired by les mis manga by Takahiro Arai, and decided to make my own piece of manga.
💥🇫🇷🇫🇷💥🇫🇷💥HAPPY BARRICADE DAY 🇫🇷🇫🇷💥🇫🇷🇫🇷💥
English class is fun sometimes
A03
I posted my first Les Misérables fanfic on AO3! It ships several couples, mainly Enjoltaire, but also Courferre. Here's the link: (title name) idk (1790 words) by mayaruinstheinternet
every time i consume a new piece of media there's gotta be that one silly little goblin man who just like,, runs around and does stupid shit and im completely obsessed with him.
some modern AU headcanon stuff
Grantaire, Musichetta & Jehan have movie nights and watch shows together.
when R chooses the film, it's usually 80s horror. He loves the old special effects from The Thing, the Evil Dead films (also likes the comedy elements of Evil Dead II), Scanners and American Werewolf in London. He also likes the Bill & Ted franchise, The Lost Boys and What We Do In The Shadows (both film and series)
Chetta loves science fiction. Some favourites include Alien, Aliens, and Metropolis. Alsoo the Truman Show idk what genre that is. She's a big fan of Doctor Who, particularly episodes/serials that explore interesting concepts, like Genesis of the Daleks, Fathers Day, The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, Waters of Mars, The God Complex, and Under The Lake/Before The Flood. To make up for my inability to think of films, she also loves sci-fi books, such as the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, Day of the Triffids and War of the Worlds.
Jehan loves fantasy, especially darker films, such as Pan's Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and Coraline. Alsooo the Labyrinth and the BBC's Merlin series because of course. of course they love Merlin, are you kidding me?? and Ghosts, Our Flag Means Death, and Good Omens. Also Magical Mystery Tour. the spaghetti dream sequence is wonderfully horrifying and Blue Jay Way has this weird haunting energy like,, I could talk abt this film so muchhh aghhghggghhghgh (inevitable mention of the Beatles)
theres definitely more stuff i just cant think of anything atm
The 60s AU thingy is finished!!
from left to right, Cosette, Enjolras & Grantaire.
This was super fun to draw! I've been meaning to make 60s AU art for a while now, like I came up with the idea for the AU a full year ago cos that's when I first started listening to the Beatles (omg so much of the 60s AU is just me being a massive Beatles nerd)
Cosette's outfit is inspired by the 1966 outfit from this Gabi's Vintage video
also Grantaire has long hair bc it's the late 60s and that's when the Beatles had long hair absolutely loved drawing his blazer thing i love the pattern
i have like,, so many more ideas for 60s AU art, i will definitely be doing more at some point
Beatles songs that remind me of Grantaire
because I can and will mash together all of my obsessions something something 60s AU.
this is already long so i'll be shortening some quotes but also it's. it's abt les mis ofc it's super long
also thank you Genius.com annotations on Beatles songs
Do You Want To Know A Secret - im a sucker for cute enjoltaire shit.
I Want To Hold Your Hand - cmon. cmon. you know why.
Yesterday - feels like "let me sleep here until I die" like R thinking abt how a couple days ago he was just hanging out and joking with his friends and now he's forced to process the fact that they're not going to survive the barricade.
Nowhere Man - this song is based on John not being sure of who he was, "doing nothing and going nowhere" which is very R. also features the line "he's as blind as he can be" which reminds me of "no one loves the light like the blind man".
With a Little Help from my Friends - R cares abt his friends. I think that, while he wouldn't admit it, Les Amis mean so much to him. He needs them. "I get by with a little help from my friends" "he took no pleasure anywhere but there; he followed them everywhere. His joy was to see these forms go and come through the fumes of wine."
Fool on the Hill - "Day after day, alone on a hill, the man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still. But nobody wants to know him, they can see that he's just a fool" ok this is reminds me of "All those words: rights of the people, [revolution, etc.] came very near to signifying nothing whatsoever to Grantaire. He smiled at them. Scepticism, that caries of the intelligence, had not left him a single whole idea."
Blue Jay Way - (omg i need more people to listen to this song i love it so much) similar to yesterday. "and my friends have lost their way. 'We'll be over soon,' they said, now they've lost themselves instead" again, thinking about how his friends are going to die. "Ask a policeman on the street, there's so many there to meet" mk so the song itself is about George waiting for the other Beatles to come to his house but they are lost in a fog. Blue Jay Way overlooks an area called the Sunset Strip, where a series of riots took place. "please, don't be long, or I may be asleep". he falls asleep at the barricade.
Hello, Goodbye - oh nooo Enjolras and Grantaire arguinggg. smth smth uhhhh Grantaire's laid-back nature compared to Enjolras' austere nature. which one is "you" and which one is "I"?i don't know, i think it sort of changes depending on the line. "You say yes, I say no, you say stop, and I say go, go, go. You say goodbye, and I say hello." "You say 'why?' and I say 'I don't know'."
Something - R and Enj "Somewhere in her smile, she knows that I don't need no other lover." "He had need of Enjolras". also "Something in the way she knows ... something in the things she shows me" "That chaste, healthy, firm, upright, hard, candid nature charmed him, without his being clearly aware of it. His soft, shapeless ideas attached themselves to Enjolras as to a spinal column. His moral backbone leaned on that firmness. Grantaire in the presence of Enjolras became someone once more." edit: alsoo R being in love with Enj but being afraid of getting closer to him because he knows that Enj is going to die. "You're asking me, will my love grow? I don't know, I don't know. You stick around, now, it may show, I don't know, I don't know" "I don't wanna leave her now, you know I believe, and how."
because I can and will find parallels between anything I like and the Beatles
Controversial opinion, probably?
I just feel like they have very similar personalities, but widely different roles and symbolisms (at least in the books...)
“Among all these glowing hearts and thoroughly convinced minds, there was one skeptic. This skeptic’s name was Grantaire, and he was in the habit of signing himself with this rebus: R. Grantaire was a man who took good care not to believe in anything.”
— — —
I’m rereading Les Mis and I always forget how much I love Grantaire so I put together this little sketch of him! It’s also available as a sticker and some other merch over on my redbubble! (sans watermark of course)
https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/The-Skeptic-by-itsasimpleshop/78477070.EJUG5?asc=u
redbubble || ko-fi || instagram
“Among all these glowing hearts and thoroughly convinced minds, there was one skeptic. This skeptic's name was Grantaire, and he was in the habit of signing himself with this rebus: R. Grantaire was a man who took good care not to believe in anything.”
— — —
I’m rereading Les Mis and I always forget how much I love Grantaire so I put together this little sketch of him! It’s also available as a sticker and some other merch over on my redbubble! (sans watermark of course)
https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/The-Skeptic-by-itsasimpleshop/78477070.EJUG5?asc=u
redbubble || ko-fi || instagram
My first zine piece for @lesmiszine !! Featuring the amazing Les Amis plus friends! I love them all and they love each other (even those who have never met in canon) and I’m happy they’re here!
comes back from the grave just for barricade day (it is in my timezone at least)
i didn't prepare anything for it, unfortunately, so have a little grantaire doodle i just did
god les mis is reabsorbing me whole again
edit: version with the colored lineart
have a modern grantaire
kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss
enjoltaire fic idea
(ik it’s wrong, it’s just a first draft)
enjolras starts out as political activist in the same way that lindsay bluth is from, “arrested development.” until he meets his first love, who shows him true faith & passion. eventually their relationship ends somehow, (i haven’t figured it out yet, but i’m thinking something tragic.)
then flash forward to a few months, or years into the les amis. he knows about grantaire’s feelings, & grantaire is doing that’s thing, that for some reason, guys do in tv shows where he’s trying to convince the girl, (well in this case the guy, but u all know what i mean,) to fall for him, & it kinda works after a little while. but enjorlas is confused by his attraction to grantaire, because he’s so different from the guys he’s dated before. he even feels ashamed that he could ever fall for someone like grantaire.
then he, “realizes,” that he must do the same thing to grantaire that his first lover had done to him. r thinks of it as just some playful banter, & their relationship evolves into something more serious.
r takes enjorlas to go stargazing one night, upon a beautiful hill covered with hyacinths. grantaire throws down a blanket right by a laurel tree. they look towards the stars. enjorlas’ pale golden ringlets lay within correspondence of one another, upon grantaire’s chest. r plays w/ each curls whilst expressing his adoring love for this beam of warmth & light, composed of a flaming crimson. finally resting his powers upon a cynic’s heart. not even truly saying the phrase, for it had felt almost as another breath. something he hadn’t the need to think about, something that was just done, “i love you, enjolras.” that’s how you knew if he was serious, if grantaire ever used the name engolras, which was infact an absurdly rare occasion. as brown met blue, with the slight upwards tilt of thou’s blonde head, the secrets in which it had been keeping began to spring out. “as do i for you.” although the cynic was poor, he had felt the power of all the king’s riches in his possession; once having seen that slight, yet enriching smile spread across a prophet’s face. “even though your progress aa been stunted due to your cynicism. i am willing help as we claw our way through, & i am extatic for the end result”
“my progress?”
“why yes, you’re progress.”
“enjorlas, what do you mean by my progress?!” enj could have sworn he had seen the flowers wilt, & the tree branches shake, as result of grantaire’s anger. “well, i thought i could help with create an exponential growth in your faith, your faith of the cause.” you could see the sense of betrayal consume r’s eyes, “i-i should’ve known,” that same betrayal had spread, creating a ripple through his voice, “i knew this was all too good to be true!” “how could i have let myself believe that you would ever truly be attracted to me?”
“no r, it’s not like that!”
“what then? what was this some beauty & the beast stalkholme syndrome bull crap? you know, you can leave the flat whenever you’d like! no one is keeping you there! you’re the one who insists on staying put to work on the cause, not me, not combferre, not couferyac, just you!”
“taire, you don’t understand!”
“i’m not your test subject, enjorlas! i’m not your next project!”
“r, you where born broken, & you don’t know how to work fixed. i just want to help you, & show you.”
“broken?” enjorlas had realized what he had done. his eyes widened with shock, as a result of his actions. “no no, not like that,” he started to stumble, “y-you know what i mean.”
“oh ya, i know exactly what you mean. oh & by the way, dr. enjorlas. you made an error in your last report,” “the patient’s faith did in-fact increase, it just wasn’t for the cause. it was for you.”
Enjoltaire Head Canons
-grantaire is a comedian. he loves his job. however with being a comedian you kind of forget how to function with normal people, so for example saying things at mildly inappropriate times, & constantly saying dirty things at the “wrong time.” Not to mention offending A LOT of people. Enjolras likes to sit on his high horse & act like he’s love all of that (he’s not,) sometimes he giggles or just smirks & to r it makes it all worth it.
-R’s main news source is John Oliver & SNL’s weekend update (& Enjolras’ twitter feed.)
-Sometimes they’ll watch Comedy Specials together (E’s favorite is George Carlin.)
Les Mis Fun Fact
Ok so as you all probably know by now I am in love with the Jewish Grantaire hc. I would like to state the fact that a good portion of people who have played Grantaire on Broadway/tours/etc. are Jewish, including George Blagden (the guy who plays Grantaire in the movie).
Hi there, as a Jew (who LOVES Les Mis) I thought I should add in to this discussion. Regarding the statement that Grantaire being Jewish is harmful, in all honestly you’re over thinking it, trust me. Most of the time whenever I see things relating to Grantaire being ugly it is usually him calling himself that, which for me (& a lot others) is a common way of looking at myself. Because of Conventional European Standards of Beauty Jews are not seen as conventionally attractive, which shows its effects in me whenever I look in the mirror. I end up suffering from derealization & all I can see is everything I am told not to be. Also Grantaire’s numbness to social justice is another thing a lot of Jews suffer from, due to the fact that no matter which side of the political spectrum you go on either way people still hate us. On the far right its just n@z!s & on the far left its just a bunch of people blaming us for the Israeli & Palestinian conflict. Not to mention the fact that there has literally been almost no progress made in ending anti-Semitism it just ends up going back to how it was after a few years. A lot of us don’t really feel safe on either side because both of the radicals hate us. However even though we haven’t been getting much (sometimes if any) help with our fight for equality we are still going to help others. A lot of Grantaire’s struggles do reflect a lot of struggles a good amount of Jews have to go through has well. For me the hc of Grantaire being Jewish is very important to me. Considering the best representation we have (that I can think of off the top of my head) is Puckerman from Glee, oh god plz let us have Grantaire lol. Also regarding the nose thing, the more we normalize different noses the less likely a lot of Jews are to feel insecure about, but the making his nose cartoonishly abnormal is a lil problematic. However I do think we should normalize “uglier” traits outside of race/ethnic stereotypes, I just don't think it should start with Grantaire.
Jewish Grantaire really gets me. I say we should have ugly Grantaire!!! I'm an ugly person! I don't think that's a bad word, it's of my personal opinion we shod destigmatize it, not attach morals to it, but that's my own rant. BUT. Having the ugly canon character be fat and Jewish? Why are you thinking of those traits as ugly?
GOD anon i have,,,,,, so many thinks and thots about “ugliness”??? I’m torn between LET CHARACTERS BE UGLY and THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS UGLY, ONLY NOT MEETING CONVENTIONAL STANDARDS OF EUROPEAN BEAUTY!! (Also, pop OFF abt that ugliness =/= morals rant, if you ever flesh it out send it MY WAY)
But until we can de-colonize the beauty industry, YEAH. UGLY RIGHTS. I’m ugly! It be like that! It’s not a bad thing! But It’s when we do things like equate ugliness to racial/ethnic/cultural stereotypes (for example, by equating characters described as ugly as Black, or Jewish, or any marginalized race/ethnicity) is when shit gets real harmful. Like you said, anon, “Why are you thinking of those traits as ugly?”
(Also, WOW, I have not taken the time to fully consider the harmful stereotypes of Jewish Grantaire. R’s thing with his nose, Fat R - not inherently ugly things in the slightest! great things to represent! But we have to ask ourselves why we don’t represent those things outside of the races/ethnicities they’re stereotypically linked with. )
I've always hc R as Jewish so that makes this 1000 times sadder & 100 times sweeter
Some angst specifically for @definitelygrantaire (you know why!)
Les Amis organize a blockade against a Neo Nazi march, protesters clash with the extremists and fighting breaks out. Couple of the Nazis try to target Enjolras, R intervenes but it all goes badly wrong when someone throws a smoke bomb into the middle of the crowd and armored police goes in…
(R might or might not be getting beaten up, but Enj is always on thin ice with the police, so Bossuet is trying to drag him tf out while Bahorel, Jehan, and Eponine rush to help Grantaire)
DONATIONS FOR GAZA
As you probably know, the situation in Gaza gets worse every day. At this stage, every donation, no matter how small, might make a difference between life and death for someone trying to escape Rafah.
Donate as little as 7$ today and you get a sketch or a small illustration of yourself, an animal, a friend - whatever it is that you want.
You can find the full spreadsheet of families here: Operation Olive Branch
or you can donate to one of the randomized gofundmes from here: Gaza Funds
Send me proof of your donations and the details for the artwork you desire. YOU CAN SEND IT THROUGH DMs OR EMAIL ME (email and useful links here:)
Depending on how busy this gets, commissions might take two days or more.
*Biggers commissions are available for bigger donations! You can see illustrations I did in the past here.
LES MIS CROSSOVER STORY IDEA
It's basically Les Mis set in His Dark Materials, but the only major thing is the daemons. It's a story shipping Enjolras and Grantaire also. Basically it's "What if they escaped the barricade and also had daemons". If you don't know His Dark Materials, it's okay, because the concept of daemons isn't hard to explain so I can help you out! I need help with les amis and picking daemons for everyone. Please message me if you want to hear about the story/ if you want to help!