Comment on A Cabal of Paris

  1. //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 :(

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    1. 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" ;-)

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      1. 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

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        1. D'Artagnan whomst? LOL

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          1. It rings a bell... I seem to remember a fierce moustache

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      2. I'm really fucking embarrassed for all of them right now. And of course Alex had the Gay Disaster say this. *SMH*

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        1. Can't you just hear the Cardinal's Guards saying "Oooh, here come the Lovebirds!" :-D

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          1. And this is how the duels happened :D

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            1. Now we know the truth: the Cardinal's guards were homophobic!

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              1. But of course. They're true evil.

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            2. But of course! And why M. de Tréville did not forbid them fighting such duels and was so eager to hear that they had indeed beaten the Cardinal's men; after all, they had to defend their Manly Honour and the Honour of the Regiment.

              How dare those filthy Cardinalists besmirch the noble bonds of brotherly love that bind warriors! :-)

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        2. They Knew No Shame

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      3. And I found by accident that in French les inséperables is a name for what in English are called "lovebirds" ;-)

        I thought that this was known, as even those little parrot birds, Agapornis, are called "love birds" or "Inseparables" in many languages as well. XD

        But the French wording is maybe a little more ambiguous towards the friendship of the 3 overall than the English one...

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    2. 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

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      1. 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*

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        1. 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.

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          1. Well AS IT HAPPENS, I have strategic headcanons ready for how Aramis could've had a sister that he knew nothing about. That is, she would've been born after his embarrassing family sent him away because they couldn't afford to feed him. They would've given the new baby away too but they were so guilt ridden already over tiny René and then the baby turned out to be a GIRL and his mom just couldn't do that because lbr everyone knows it sucks even more being an abandoned orphan girl.

            And were she not married already, he would absolutely try to marry her off as a beard to his dear old friend. Ha! (Athos would PROBABLY not kill Aramis' sister?)

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          2. If Aramis had a sister, I feel she would be entirely delighted with the idea of dressing up as a man.

            And then going out and seducing all the female tenants of the estate.

            I think Athos would be quite insistent that one trip to the altar in holy matrimony was sufficient for a lifetime, and since he already had offspring that was his duty to perpetuate the lineage fulfilled, and certainly Aramis' sister could not fail to be a lovely girl with a fine intellect and dazzling personality but she would be thrown away on an old reclusive country-bred dull boring rustic like himself, much better to let her have the chance to make an impression on Paris and exercise her manifold talents to the furthest ;-)

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            1. She would certainly be a very spirited young lady, with the most beautiful hair and dazzling teeth.

              Ah, but Aramis wants to ensure that his sister marries well and wealth, and it should be someone he trusts, because he knows what those Parisian men are like. And Aramis can be quite persuasive - I mean he made Athos leave retirement and go spring a duke from prison, there was some silver-tongued talk there!

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        2. 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.

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          1. 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 ;)

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            1. Hello and a happy new year to you, dear El!!

              I just wrote how much I missed your and Donna's writings on my comment to chapter 1.

              Yes, I know, I should be ashamed, but Aramis getting high on blood has always been my favourite thing. I wrote one of my media law papers about the Japanese Catharsis theory in media culture (games/books/movies/music) with which I can totally justify myself (as well)!

              *coughs and retreats inconspicuously*

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              1. Aramis getting high on blood has always been my favourite thing

                He's not very subtle, the abomination from the pits of Hell worthy abbé.

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            2. P.S.: Originally, it used to be "Aramis spilling blood" like written in canon before your true lore, but Aramis actually getting high on (sucking) blood fits me just as well... :D

              Last Edited Mon 07 Jan 2019 12:33AM UTC

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              1. Haha and of course Aramis mainlining Godblood, as one would. He's nothing if not consistent, in every universe 😉

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    3. ALSO, the fact that they both end up in bed with Marie to be entirely too intentional. LOL

      Well, the nymph is very persuasive, so.

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