Deiseach (Guest)
on Chapter 2
Sun 30
Dec 201801:10AM UTC
why does he think that the people he loves best would so easily abandon him??
I think Aramis does have a Tragic Backstory that we never get to hear about, and he does seem to have the air of someone who's been abandoned. He starts off as a twenty year old turning up in Paris to learn how to swordfight in order to kill a man for insulting him, he falls in with Athos and Porthos, spends a year learning to be a killer, goes back and kills his guy, then in order to avoid prison or execution has to head back to Paris and sign up with the Musketeers.
He has this alleged career in the Church that he was meant for, which (for all his professed piety) is more something that a second son or someone with no other options would go for. He ends up in Paris very young with the Musketeers as said, and there appears to be no-one looking for or after him (he does keep his connections with the Church and the Jesuits, though, which again sounds like someone with few to no other ties).
It's entirely possible he has been abandoned young - even if only orphaned at a young age - and so does have this experience of "everyone I love and who is supposed to love me leaves me". The woman who was the root cause of the insult and duel never crops up again, so there can't have been anything veyr deep there, and maybe that is also one "I killed a guy for her sake" (really it was for his own wounded vanity, we all know, but he's still young and romantic and self-deceiving at that point) "and she never cared enough to try and find out what happened to me, you can't trust those who say they love you".
Poor flittermouse is a bit too good at hiding his feelings - he's nowhere near as obvious as Athos with his Tragic Dark Alcoholic Brooding to give hints of a broken heart! So he doesn't get treated with the same sympathy, except for Porthos, who may not be very intellectually clever or even good at reading subtle cues, but does have good instincts and loves his idiot friends.
I agree with you about Aramis' unhappy origin story: I think all three of them have unhappy origin stories, or else they would not have ended up in the musketeer regiment with assumed names and mysterious pasts. (In particular, their contrast with d'Artagnan is marked - he comes to town on a yellow horse with all the hallmarks of his rural family life; complete with (albeit stolen) letters of recommendation from his father to Treville; proudly and defiantly broadcasting his Gasconness. For Athos, Porthos and Aramis, what we have is:
Unfortunately Porthos knew nothing of the life of his silent companion [Athos] but what revealed itself. It was said Athos had met with great crosses in love, and that a frightful treachery had forever poisoned the life of this gallant man. What could this treachery be? All the world was ignorant of it.
As to Porthos, except his real name (as was the case with those of his two comrades), his life was very easily known. Vain and indiscreet, it was as easy to see through him as through a crystal. The only thing to mislead the investigator would have been belief in all the good things he said of himself.
With respect to Aramis, though having the air of having nothing secret about him, he was a young fellow made up of mysteries, answering little to questions put to him about others
And I would argue that d'Artagnan only thinks he knows about Porthos' life, but really he just sees the trappings that Porthos wears, since he never so much as gets invited into Porthos' lodgings for a drink.
My own personal headcanon for Aramis is that he is the younger son of a Marquis who had a fairly miserable and neglected (if not actively abused) childhood before being shunted off to a church somewhere and never contacted by his family again. So I suppose I agree with you, and that some kind of sad childhood or origin story is a good basis for him having abandonment issues, and why he never seems to question things when someone who has seemingly had no issues with him appears to suddenly never want to see him again.
//It's so deliciously OTT and innuendo-laden and also exactly what Dumas would have written; I swear that despite Aramis' and Athos' plot points mostly turning on their dramas with women, Dumas actually didn't really care about their relationships with women at all.//
Yes this is precisely it! Their dramas with women are only interesting in so far as they accentuate how stable their relationship is WITH EACH OTHER. ALSO, the fact that they both end up in bed with Marie to be entirely too intentional. LOL
In other news, I have very similar headcanons about Aramis. I've also assumed he is the youngest son of probably some landed gentry who couldn't afford to feed him and carted him off to the church when he was 9. And this being the Catholic Church and Aramis being exceptionally pretty, I don't imagine he had a fantastic time there either. It's pretty clear Aramis has a lot of dark issues to work through. My poor sweetling :(
Deiseach (Guest)
on Chapter 2
Sun 30
Dec 201802:14AM UTC
Their dramas with women are only interesting in so far as they accentuate how stable their relationship is WITH EACH OTHER.
I don't know if this was intentional or not, or if a 19th century French reader would have taken this meaning or not, but Dumas puts this in the mouth of Athos:
Are you not aware that we are never seen one without the others, and that we are called among the Musketeers and the Guards, at court and in the city, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, or the Three Inseparables?
And I found by accident that in French les inséperables is a name for what in English are called "lovebirds" ;-)
Oh my god, that is the greatest thing! <3 and I love that even though d'Artagnan is the protagonist of the book he isn't mentioned in the title and when people think about the Three Musketeers he doesn't come to mind, because it's actually about the love fest between Athos, Porthos and Aramis <3
I agree; their dramas with women also just serve as a backdrop to the dramas that they engage in together, but none of those relationships are as enduring as the one they have with each other <3
And now I want more tragic but still in-character backstory for each of the boys. Or better yet, Aramis scheming against and soundly defeating his old tormentors in the church with the level of vengeance and thoroughness that only Aramis is capable of and finding some kind of vicious catharsis through it <3
Well you know the story he tells about training for a year so that he could go and ruthlessly murder.... Uh... I mean heroically and honorably kill that one guy who insulted him? Imagine what he'd do to people who may have dared lay hands on him? It would be vicious and cathartic indeed! *thumbs up*
Something occurred to me last night when I thought about poor, abandoned, friendless Aramis, all alone in the world, and I feel you need to know that: I remember I discussed in one of the Immortality comments that I'm convinced Aramis doesn't have any family because if he had any sisters he'd place them in Marie's household and try to marry them off strategically etc. etc. And last night I realised: Aramis would totally try to marry off his sister to the Comte de la Fère! "My dear Madeleine, the comte is the most noble man and a dear friend of mine. Do not be alarmed on your wedding night when he insists you keep your chemise on. In fact, if you wish to produce an offspring and heir to the comté and to the title within these twelve months, do consider dressing up in men's clothes. No reason! This is just the fashion in Paris. Why, I myself would enjoy it if my - hypothetical, for I am a man of God - paramours dressed as men occasionally..."
This is... I feel like this should happen. In an AU.
This is one of my most favourite thoughts about Aramis. I even wrote (or better, started) a whole story just around the "Aramis and his Thesis" chapter and I never want to be done with it.
Oh hello, nymph friend! How lovely to see you in this new year!
One of your favorite thoughts about Aramis is how he must've been molested and then destroyed those who molested him? I'm not at all surprised! Madam is as bloodthirsty as Flittermouse ;)
It's entirely possible he has been abandoned young - even if only orphaned at a young age
Well, I talked about it before, and I am still convinced that Aramis didn't have any family (or Family), because he would otherwise have used his brothers, sisters and cousins for social advancement, i.e. by placing (younger) siblings in the households of his ladyfriends etc. The only other alternative is that his family was so embarrassing that he abandoned them and lived under an assumed name until they all died, sadly and tragically and sometimes quite suddenly, and it was safe to admit to the family name d'Herblay again. I know we discussed this option at some point too!
Deiseach (Guest)
on Chapter 2
Sun 30
Dec 201807:27PM UTC
The only other alternative is that his family was so embarrassing that he abandoned them and lived under an assumed name
Oh my gosh, wouldn't that be hilarious? We're inventing all these Tragic Backstories for the flittermouse, and the truth is that he's the youngest of a strapping family of twelve, and his parents are hale and hearty and irredemably common; his brothers are all big bluff huntin' and shootin' types with mud on their boots from trudging around the fields after the plough and his sisters are all plump and married young and popping out squalling babies of their own, and everyone is happy and loves everyone else, and they're so proud of their Smart Talented Baby Brother all the way up there in Big City Paris mingling with all the fancy folks and getting on successfully.
Mother writes letters all the time worrying about his delicate health and sending him scratchy knitted woollens so he'll wrap up well and keep warm and wondering when he's finally going to get ordained, and Father adds in good advice of his own about avoiding the kind of people that Aramis is going out of his way to meet and make influential friends of, and he gets pots of home-made jams and pickles from his sisters and whatever carcasses his brothers shot or trapped, and he is so embarrassed about his plebian coarse uneducated lower-class family and how they don't at all fit with his image of himself as this delicate-sensibility natural aristocrat :-D
Oh yes, this is a backstory worthy of the Bishop of Vain! He so wants to be an Elf but was born into a family of Hobbits.
When he "disappeared" mysteriously after 3M, he just went back home, and mummy gave him hugs every day and baked his favourite pie, and his sisters made him hold their babies (at least three of them are named after Uncle René), and his brothers took him fishing. Even the local curate likes him, because he was the first one who instilled a love for the Church into little René and taught him how to read in an old book of hours. He once painted his room black, but when he came back from school, the walls were whitewashed again.
There's just too much peace and harmony there, and poor "René" goes mad and wants to stab something very much.
Deiseach (Guest)
on Chapter 2
Sun 30
Dec 201808:00PM UTC
*tries to start drama while rusticating in the bosom of domestic harmony*
Mother: Darling, you're so pale and you've hardly eaten anything! Is anything the matter?
René: Oh, nothing, it's nothing *wan smile* I mean... I would hate to disappoint you and Father, you've both so set your hearts on it - no, never mind, it's nothing at all!
Mother: But sweetheart, if anything is bothering you, tell us!
René: *staring off into distance distractedly* I think - no, well, perhaps, oh dear I shouldn't say this... I think I might not have a vocation after all! Thre is this - but it's absurd, no no, I'm being foolish, ignore me!
Father: *who has been listening quietly in the background all the while* Is it a girl, lad? Just tell us yes or no!
René: *smiles, blushes, remains silent*
Mother and Father: *look at one another, in some dismay, then silent communication of twenty-five years of marriage takes place*
Mother and Father more or less in unison: Darling, we only want you to be happy. Is she a nice girl? Does she like you back? Have you spoken to her family yet?
Mother: You know, it may be old-fashioned but June is such a lovely month for weddings, four of your sisters were June brides and so beautiful, and three of your brothers had June weddings as well!
Father: You can always come back home and settle down, you know that, I can have a word with old Herbert about that cottage and bit of land if you like?
René: *argh! no! why are they always like this! internal seething*
*tries to stand dramatically and windsweptly and gaze across the moors at dusk*
Father: *hearty slap on the shoulder*: See those vast tracks of land over there, son? These could be yours.
René, woefully: Alas, I have given myself to the Church, my father.
Father: I could have a word with young Michel, he'd have to send his cows to pasture across the stream, it'd be no bother.
René: ... cows
Father: Young Michel's cows give the best milk and the best manure in the county. He married a dairy maid, very nimble at milking.
René, through gritted teeth: I remember. They made me godfather to their firstborn.
Father: Little René-Etienne, a strapping lad! And so proud of his uncle. Says he wants to be a monk too.
René: I'm a Jesuit, father.
Father: Yes, yes, and a very fine one, I'm sure. Here, m'boy, your mother told me to bring you this woolly shawl, the night chill is something awful this time of year.
Deiseach (Guest)
on Chapter 2
Sun 30
Dec 201808:26PM UTC
*returns from the wildy windswept moors and sits by fire, delicately coughing into a cambric handkerchief*
Mother: There! I knew you'd take a chill, you were always so delicate!
*stirs up maids to boil water and makes René sit by blazing fire with three blankets around him and his feet in a basin of scalding hot water with various medicinal herbs which smell like the rotting bog infused through the water*
Mother: Oh look at that, you're pouring with sweat! Tsk, tsk, you've taken a fever and I'm right out of Grand-Aunt Seraphine's nostrum! Here, Michel, Georges, Phillipe, run round to your sisters and see if they have any on hand!
*Two of his older sisters show up and pour various home-brewed remedies down his throat, while Mother rubs his chest with goosefat mixed with garlic and stinging nettle - "Your father's mother swore by it, René, now stop making faces!" - and his brothers are dispatched to catch and skin rabbits so she can wrap the fresh furs round his little pink tootsies*
*wakes in the morning wrapped in three woolly blankets, mustard plasters wrapped around his legs and three strapping lads bouncing up and down on his stomach to screeches of "Uncle Renée! Uncle Renéeee!!"*
Aramis: I have gazed into the abyss of Hell.
And this is how Aramis decides that he has to become Pope.
Deiseach (Guest)
on Chapter 2
Sun 30
Dec 201808:46PM UTC
Aramis' Big Loving Family is immensely entertaining notion; I'm sure the flittermouse would love to be the Hero of a Tragic Backstory but sorry, you being the swan among all the geese is too much fun, dear chorytik!
*returns from country loaded down with new home-created waistcoats, shirts and undergarments, medicinal remedies from tinctures to ointments, several wicker baskets creaking full of game, preserves and home cooking, and Father slipped him a purse before departing since "Son, I know these Big City expenses are a lot to keep up, here's a little something to help out". Has to immediately get Bazin to arrange cold compresses for his wrists which have been sprained from all the handshaking by his brothers and the hugging of his sisters*
Bazin: Your Eminence, I was so worried when you departed and left me behind without a word! Where have you been?
Aramis: *darkly* Suffering penitential tortures whilst mortifying my body and soul, Bazin. You cannot imagine the hardships I have endured, nor would I drag you along to undergo such pains.
Yes, this is all very good and made me cry happy tears (of the kind I'm sure Aramis shed when he had to say goodbye to his mum, dad, elven loving siblings and their respective spouses and a battalion of nieces and nephews, whose names he never remembers and whom he can't tell apart anyway).
Bazin: Your Excellency, there appears to be... something moving in this wicker basket here.
Aramis: Don't open it!
Bazin: Too late!
Aramis: You infernal fool! Now look what you've done!
*a very young, very lively and very floppy-eared puppy starts leaping up and down trying to lick Aramis' nose and pees on the carpet in his excitement*
Aramis, in tones of a funeral bell: It will be your duty to walk him every morning, Bazin. Nothing is to happen to him, I had to make a solemn vow to "take good care of the little fellow". His name is Abbé Frou-Frou.
Deiseach (Guest)
on Chapter 2
Mon 31
Dec 201801:21AM UTC
Well, Richelieu had his cats, Aramis has Abbé Frou-Frou :-)
Ah, all the fun of chewed slippers, pee everywhere, and the whining of a young puppy that wants to play, Aramis will have a constant reminder of the happy bucolic background from which he arose like a phoenix!
Little Jean-René (or possibly René-Jean?), Charles, Jacques-Louis, Louis-Henri, and little Marie, Sophie, Louise, and Marie-Louise insisted that he writes them letters about how Abbé Frou-Frou is doing at least twice a week. They send him specimens in jars (frogs; Jacques-Louis is an aspiring naturalist) and pressed flowers in return.
Deiseach (Guest)
on Chapter 2
Mon 31
Dec 201801:35AM UTC
Both. Jean-René is his sister Mariette's third eldest (or fourth youngest, depending on from which end you're counting) and René-Jean is his brother Georges' third twin (twins run in Georges' wife's family and now in George's). René-Jean's twin sister is of course Marie-Louise-Sophie, after her aunts :-)
The latest post brought an invitation to his brother Michel-Jean's wife Marguerite's cousin's wedding. The cousin is also called Marguerite, but her fiancé is Jean-Michel, and they would both wish so much for the abbé d'Herblay to marry them, and mother was saying he was about to be ordained very soon, could he possibly make it by November, because they really need to get married before advent, because it'll be too late in January, if you know what I mean, René, and they will name it after you.
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