BisectedBrioche's Brilliant Bread Random Banter Bthread #243

[Metastachydium]

What things would you have kept in from the book? Genuinely curious.

The freaking chracters, perhaps? I mean:
–Claude Frollo – in the original,

Spoiler: Is This Even a Spoiler? Whatever.

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he's this well-respected, incredibly learned (he's giving the king himself private lectures on alchemy) and ultimately well-meaning clergyman, who might not be a stellar father figure, but who's trying really hard to do the good thing when he saves Quasimodo and tries to build a life for him and in how he attempts to raise his obnoxious little brother; but he's eminently fallible and in struggling with his repressed desires, he rapidly spirals out of control, losing everything. How he falls out with his "children" is very poignant in a way,

which is the main reason why cutting Jehan bothers me. The Disney version, in the meantime? He's some racist jerk, motivated by racist racism tempered with ephebophilia and entitlement.

–Clopin –

Spoiler: As Above

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Book!Clopin is the ultimate badass crime boss; calm, efficient, wise, dangerous and unsettling – but not evil, merely operating by a different ethos

. Disney made him an annoying clown having annoying conversations with a puppet of himself. And that's before we get into the bit with the siege of the Notre Dame (completely neutered by Disney)

Spoiler: As Before

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, a gloriously chaotic and pointless four-way struggle where most participants are more or less subtly sabotaging their own objectives.

–Phoebus. I can't stress this one enough. Disney made him the flick's prince charming who opposes Disney!Frollo's braindead racist racism. Originally,

Spoiler: As Above

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he is the single worst jerkwad ******* of his generation; an excellent and well-liked soldier, this shallow ****head uses his reputation to get into young women's underwear, casting them aside once he's had his way. He's also very petty and wantonly mean.

–Esmeralda – while I can appreciate the whole

Spoiler: As Above, again

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ditching the "stolen as an infant" angle and somewhat downplaying the cringey witch trial bits

, I'm not terribly fond of Mary Sues and Disney!Esmeralda, the wisest, most moral, most fantastic and salivated after paragon of everything (I can't go into that, but the silver-for-her-head bounty stuff is so bad it hurts) is one of those, big time.

Spoiler: As Above, still

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The original version is kind, talented, loyal and a teenager: a bit vain, somewhat flighty and superficial, lacking an unimpeachable mental fortitude which makes it easier for actors of the shadier sort to land her in trouble she doesn't deserve.

–Pierre Gringoire – the Disney version didn't do him quite as dirty as the others, but that's mostly because they removed him and any mention of him from the story altogether. Which is a pity:

Spoiler: As Above

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he's a very flawed person, but his delusions of well-mannered intellectualism, combined with his ugly, cowardly pragmatism is quite compelling in its own way.