Meaning no disrespect to the Archmage, has he considered that letting them write a constitution would be more productive than teleporting them to watch some sort of Galtan theatrical production.

I guess if anyone talks during the show I'll tell on them?

His god really is the best god.

(Because obviously a cleric of Nethys would know the premise of whatever omake they’re in, as long as they also know enough decision theory* to not prematurely spoil it for everyone else)

*which, as of 30 seconds ago, he does

As Long as the Badgers are Entertained I am Strongly in Favor, Eriape thinks

The musical opens on a group of convicts who have been sentenced to some form of hard labor. One of the convicts, Jean Valjean, is released from his sentence after nineteen years — five for stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving relative, and fourteen for trying to escape — to be supervised by a Watch member named Javert. He starts trying to find work and shelter, but when he presents the papers indicating that he is a convicted criminal on parole, they turn him away, attempt to stiff him for work he's already done, or in some cases attack him.

Eventually, a local priest offers him food and shelter for the night. Valjean accepts, but in the middle of the night, he steals some valuable silver cookery and flees. He is almost immediately rearrested and dragged back before the priest, having attempted to defend himself by claiming that the priest gave him the silver willingly. The priest confirms this story to the watchmen and tells Valjean that in his haste to leave he must have accidentally forgotten a pair of silver candlesticks, which were even more valuable than the rest of what he'd taken. The watchmen departs; Valjean attempts to return the silver, but the bishop tells him that he should use the silver to "become an honest man" and says that he has bought Valjean's soul for God. (The specific god in question is unspecified.)

Valjean sings a solo about the events that just happened, as well as the preceding two decades that shaped him into the sort of person to do this kind of thing, culminating in him deciding to start a new life and ripping up the papers marking him as a criminal.

Oh wow. (Good job Unspecified Religion Priest for not being up your ass about Law, it's working really well for you here.)

They're going to find out what happened to his sister and his nephew at some point, right? Probably the nephew will show up as an important character later on, it's been nineteen years so he's a grownup now. You don't leave it that vague if the kid died.

This guy is making his soul extremely expensive. It's certainly nice of the priest to try to buy it - so to speak, he assumes that's a sort of careless way to put it to make it metrical in this language and the priest is not literally claiming to own the soul? - but it is not efficient. Maybe unless this takes place in a setting where prophecy works. Probably it sometimes made sense to do things like this when prophecy worked.

(It doesn't really occur to Blai to identify with Jean Valjean. His misdeeds vastly outstrip a stolen loaf of bread and are thoroughly different in character from an escape attempt, and his ongoing badge of reformedness is much more convincing and to completely different people than is that piece of yellow paper.)

It seems pretty valid not to hire the guy you know is a criminal who keeps getting into fights with other workers, honestly. Especially given the thing where the first thing he does when someone takes a chance on him is steal from a church!!!

This would be more exciting if people were actually getting hurt in the fistfights, but it's still pretty exciting! He wouldn't have expected a bunch of singing to be this fun.

Fernando is studying the musical intently!  Whoever teleported them here (probably the Archmage) probably had some grand intent behind it, why use a (mass greater?) teleport otherwise.

It seems a standardly neutral Good message?  Not really Iomedaen, they would be more efficient about saving a soul, but still Good.  If someone gave Fernando a load of money he could pay off his debt then pay to free the people he’s sold into indentures and pay off the debt he resold to the Abadaran and he’d probably clear Lawful Neutral pretty comfortably.

Who the fuck kidnaps a guy for trying to feed his family? Someone needs to drop this Javert guy on some sharp rocks. Except, no, there's no point in doing that when apparently whatever the fuck is going on with those pieces of paper suggest that this is a Human Civilization Being Fucked Up problem, not a specific isolated bad actors problem. The bit with the candlesticks is sort of confusing, but she understands the part where the priest lies to protect Valjean. Good job, priest, your civilization is fucked up but you're cool. 

Why doesn't the guy simply stop showing people the Symbol of Hate Me Now. It seems to be causing him a lot of problems.

As a matter of general policy, it seems unwise at best to lie to the government to cover for a violent convict who just attempted to steal from a church, however sympathetic his original crimes may have been.

Lisandro likes the music, that first song was catchy, but he isn’t sure about the plot. 

Either this is something more complicated than the typical Andorani redemption narrative, or it’s a really novice one. Can’t have a proper turn-from-evil moment if your hero has only ever done good things for good reasons. That’s something total novices do when they’re afraid to show their precious hero doing any actual evil. 

This is still in the first act, though, so likely it’s something more complicated. Looks like it might even be a story about how lying to the authorities is often good, actually. Those are great!

(Lisandro is only paying attention to the play because detect magic didn’t show anything intelligible. He could try arcane sight instead, but that spell makes his eyes glow, and so would be very rude to cast in a theater.)

Jordi has never had good seats at an opera before, where he could actually hear everything. He’s engrossed in the show, really hoping Jean manages to get away with it and start a new life. 

He's been spending nearly all his waking hours praying, the past few days. He starts to pray for Valjean's soul before remembering that this is a story, Valjean's soul isn't actually in danger.

Sending someone to the... galleys?... for nineteen years because they stole one loaf of bread to feed their family is fucked up! Back home they'd have probably just cut off some of their fingers or something. But stealing from a random Good church that didn't have anything to do with sending you to the galleys is also fucked up, and she's definitely expecting the priest will just tell the Watch what happened—

—maybe the priest just... doesn't think it was that bad? Or wasn't bad enough that the man deserves to go back to the galleys? Stealing is usually wrong but it's not as bad as, like, murdering innocent people, or anything like that.

He kind of reminds her of Feliu, when he explained to her that burning down the school would make it harder to track down the Asmodeans running it and told her she'd do better next time, even though it's really not the same situation at all.

And then he's singing by himself, and—

And have I fallen so far and is the hour so late

That nothing remains but the cry of my hate?

Take an eye for an eye

Turn your heart into stone 

This is all I have lived for

This is all I have known

He told me that I have a soul

How does he know?

What spirit comes to move my life?

Is there another way to go?

—There is really no reason at all for this to be upsetting, only her chest is getting all twisty, and some part of her keeps trying to cry like she's a child—

She kind of despises all redemption narratives. In the real world you just go on and nothing is ever forgiven though eventually everyone who remembers it is dead and the best you can do is not do it again.

This Jean guy seems like an asshole. There are places you compromise your principles but robbing someone because they gave you a gift really feels like it should be way down on the list.

Is this what Andoren opera is like? Maybe it does end up bland.

Why. Why is this happening. Why is this overlong exploration about the horrors of civilization and food scarcity being expressed to her through song. If you want to tell a story or a parable, just do that. Don't... do all of this. What is the point of all of the this??? There is so much this.

The civilized world is so fucking weird.

Timeskip! Valjean is now a wealthy factory owner and mayor of a small town. The factory workers are mostly very poor. The factory's foreman attempts to get one of the workers, Fantine, to have sex with him, which she refuses. Another factory worker steals a letter from Fantine and reads it out to the rest of the workers, revealing that Fantine secretly has a child, Cosette, and is paying another family to take care of her. Fantine and the other woman get into a physical fight over the letter, which is interrupted by Valjean, who asks the factory's foreman to sort it out. Fantine and the other woman argue about Fantine's sexual decisions; ultimately, the foreman fires her.

Fantine sings a solo about how she used to be hopeful and optimistic and has since realized that this was A Mistake, and also her ex was an asshole. She tries desperately to earn enough money to pay for her daughter's care, and ultimately ends up becoming a prostitute.

A man approaches Fantine and attempts to hire her. She refuses him; he gets violently angry, tells her that prostitutes have no right to refuse anyone, and attacks her. She fights back, and he declares that he intends to make her "suffer" for it. She immediately apologizes and begs him not to report her to the Watch, but he ignores her and summons Javert. Javert immediately assumes the man is in the right and Fantine is in the wrong, even before hearing the man's incomplete and highly misleading explanation of what happened. Fantine begs for mercy, saying that her child needs her; Javert doesn't care. 

Valjean shows up, says that he believes Fantine, and declares that she should be taken to a doctor rather than arrested. Javert is unhappy about this. Valjean belatedly recognizes Fantine, sort of; she gets upset at him and spits in his face. Valjean declares that he never intended this outcome when he intervened in the factory, and has her taken to the hospital over Javert's objections.

This is why women need people willing to perform assassinations on their behalf!  Thea isn’t sure how to fit that in with being lawful neutral and devoted to Irori… maybe she can support women in need and outsource the actual assassinations to Calistrians.  Unfortunately Victoria seemed kind of opposed to assassinations, maybe Thea should network with some other Calistrians?

Victòria is in favor of assassinating this particular asshole, actually! She's confused about a lot of things in this part (why is everyone treating Fantine like a whore even before she actually becomes one?? Trusting that her boyfriend would stay with her was a dumb idea, but it doesn't seem like the same thing at all) but she is not at all confused about the idea that the guy singing about how he has the right to force himself on any whore he pleases deserves to get stabbed for it. She's rooting desperately for Fantine when she attacks him — and of course it doesn't work, and of course the Watchman doesn't listen—