#But then again dragons are solitary by nature so it literally doesn't matter

[radiance1]

So, I have thought about something funny regarding my lil phoenix king Vlad au.

Is that he genuinely, just doesn't want to king.

He did at first, but after being the king of phoenixes for a prolonged time he, well. He hates it to be frank. They're stuck in their old way, old ways that make quite hard for Vlad to do frankly anything really, and they keep snubbing him for doing human things when he's something as glorious as a phoenix.

And they kept inviting themselves in unannounced at the most terrible of times to take with him, which has left Vlad a lacking of sleeping as well.

So Vlad uh, well.

He ran.

He just decided that he deserved a break from all of this, so he shrunk down to bird size (still relatively large for a bird), carefully contained his magical aura and then flew to what he was sure would be a great idea.

Daniel Fenton.

The boy himself did not seem all that amused by his appearance, amused at his reasoning but not all that when he was asked to hide him for an undetermined amount of time.

Dan? Currently still getting his feet under him after being turned into a Raiju (And nobody decided to inform him that the clone he was going to liquidize was the current vessel of a world destroying fusion of him and Daniel until he found out himself).

Danielle? Currently somewhere out in the goddamn sea and, well. Fire elemental, water elemental, mass amounts of water?

You can already see how that would go down.

And what about that man he caught Vlad in bed with a few months ago? They already knew about him, and he's currently indisposed at the moment with some magical shenanigan or scamming someone probably.

Point is, Danny has to hide Vlad from the phoenix council and their very terrible way of doing things and since Danny was a dragon, he would be the last those dull feathers would check.

Luckily, Danny agreed. So long as he didn't blow his cover as a non-human to the new family he found himself with.

The Wayne family.

Yea, they were a bunch of rich guys and maybe emotionally constipated but Danny likes what he's got going on here. They don't have any secret basements or labs, helpful to Gotham city itself and they're just totally normal people!

Emotional constipation notwithstanding.

Vlad agrees, he scratches Danny's back and Danny scratched his.

Vlad kept to Danny's room for the first few days, and would've kept to said room until he was forced out by Damian Wayne, who quite frankly scared him. The creepy boy was literally watching him sleep and he suddenly decided that Daniel's room isn't all that safe anymore.

The Wayne Mansion is big, so there should be at least one place Vlad could hide.

[crimsonbastard]

“What is better, To be Born Good or to Overcome your Evil Nature through Great Effort?”

The above Quote is said by Paarthunax, A Dragon from Skyrim. And I've been thinking about this quote a lot honestly, especially since this quote applies to Snape or literally every character who went through a redemption arc.

For Context let's Start with Paarthunax:

Paarthunax is a Dragon. Dragons or Dovah, as they're called in Skyrim are beings created solely to Dominate and Subjugate life. They're inherently "evil". I'm using the word pretty loosely here because we cannot blame the Dragons for acting upon their inherent nature. A Wolf cannot be blamed for eating meat but that doesn't mean that we'll let them eat our livestock. Same goes for Dragons, They were made to Dominate other life but that doesn't mean that we'll sit back.

Paarthunax also acted upon his inherent nature and subjugated humanity eons ago but he eventually saw the error of his ways and isolated himself from others of his kind and flew far into the icy mountains to meditate. And in that solitary exile he did the impossible. He dominated his will to dominate. He Overcame his "evil" nature and started helping humanity. He helps the main protagonist by helping him or her defeat Alduin, the very Dragon alongside whom he attempted to subjugate humanity with.

Let's move over to Snape:

Snape is a character who had a lot of Complex Entangled Reasons behind some of his questionable decisions that he took in his youth.

He joined the Deatheaters knowing that they were out to purify the Wizarding World by killing people whom they considered as filth. However he didn't join them because he believed in their ideology, He joined them because he wanted some form of companionship. All those years of bullying and isolation made him so desperate that he was willing to latch on to the first group who were willing to extend a warm welcome to him. The Death Eaters supposedly offered him that.

The Abuse at his Home, The Bullying he suffered and that coupled with the Non-Existent Empathy he recieved alongside the grooming he went through at the hands of his dorm mates pushed him to the driving point.

It's easy to sympathize with him, However that doesn't mean that we're gonna excuse his role as a DE. If he remained a DE then his life would've been a cautionary tale of how someone who's a product of a bad environment can make regrettable decisions. But Snape's Story didn't end there.

Yes, Initially his motivation was personal. He only sprung into action when someone with whom he had an emotional connection with fell into danger. However this event acted more like a catalyst to his change than simply being his primary motivation.

Snape had an entire Decade to reform before Harry turned 11. Yes Snape isn't perfect. He's Vindictive and Bullying. He can even come off as Nasty at times. But that's the point. Redemption doesn't mean that you turn into all nice and fluffy. You'll still have issues that'll take a long time to deal with. Snape's behaviour with children is un-acceptable. But if you only judge a person by looking at his faults then you're basically a part of the Cancel Culture for Fictional Characters(most of them).

It's Snape's actions in the Second Wizarding War that lead to his redemption. He could've turned tail and ran. He could've joined Voldemort again. If his motivation was Lily alone than he could've ditched Dumbledore's plan after he learnt the truth about Harry. But he didn't, Instead he stayed put and fought the good fight and gave it his all. By choosing the Wizarding World instead of Harry's life and by Killing Dumbledore thereby signing his Death Warrant Snape showed his new found selflessness. It showed that he cared about the greater good. His line "Lately only those I couldn't save" is a testament to that. And I believe that's what matters the most.