#Harry Potter meta commentary

[coffeefrenchandhistory]

The Little King Dreams

Regulus Arcturus Black. Younger brother of Sirius, Slytherin, Death Eater, and the man who stole the Locket of Salazar Slytherin from Lord Voldemort himself. We all know his story. He died stealing the locket, saving Kreacher’s life, and his brother never knew that Regulus died fighting the Dark Lord. 

But is Regulus really dead? 

In the cave, where Voldemort hid the locket, we know there are protections. In additions to Inferi (corpses reanimated through Dark magic), the fountain in which the locket is stored is filled with water cursed to cause excruciating pain. But it’s curious. The water doesn’t kill. 

The water causes unbearable thirst. It causes excruciating pain. But it doesn’t kill. Why on earth would Voldemort have a protection that does not kill, when he’s trying to protect something like a fragment of his soul? 

"Lord Voldemort would not want to kill the person who reached this island."​

​Harry couldn't believe it. Was this more of Dumbledore's insane determination to see good in everyone?​

​"Sir," said Harry, trying to keep his voice reasonable, "sir, this is Voldemort we're —"​

​"I'm sorry, Harry; I should have said, he would not want to immediately kill the person who reached this island," Dumbledore corrected himself. "He would want to keep them alive long enough to find out how they managed to penetrate so far through his defenses and, most importantly of all, why they were so intent upon emptying the basin. Do not forget that Lord Voldemort believes that he alone knows about his Horcruxes."​

​Harry made to speak again, but this time Dumbledore raised his hand for silence, frowning slightly at the emerald liquid, evidently thinking hard.​

​"Undoubtedly," he said, finally, "this potion must act in a way that will prevent me taking the Horcrux. It might paralyze me, cause me to forget what I am here for, create so much pain I am distracted, or render me incapable in some other way."​ --- (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 26 "The Cave", pg. 569; US edition)​

So why does Voldemort have water, a potion, that does not kill? And if, like what Dumbledore suggest, he would want to keep the person alive long enough to find out why they were trying to steal his Horcrux... how would he do it? Why would he make a potion which causes unbearable thirst — when the only source of water is Inferi-infested waters? 

Simple. It was mentioned in Philosopher’s Stone. 

The Draught of Living Death. A potion that causes very powerful sleep which, according to the Advanced Potion-Making textbook in HBP, “can last forever”. 

“But Josh!” you might be saying, “What about the Inferi!” 

Yes. There are Inferi. But they are not there to kill the person. No. They are there to drag the person underwater. The person who drank a variant of the Draught of Living Death, and pull them into enchanted waters to bring about a state of suspended animation. At least, of course, until Lord Voldemort can interrogate the person. To find out how they penetrated so far past his defenses. Why they were so intent on draining the fountain. The Inferi aren’t there to kill the intruder. 

The Inferi are there to hold the intruder until Lord Voldemort arrives. And since Voldemort did not realize that his Horcrux had been stolen — since the fake locket was still there in the fountain nearly 20 years after, the Inferi are still holding the intruder. 

And they are still holding him... 

But Harry had his answer before Dumbledore could reply; the wandlight had slid over a fresh patch of water and showed him, this time, a dead man lying faceup inches beneath the surface, his open eyes misted as though with cobwebs, his hair and his robes swirling around him like smoke. 

“There are bodies in here!” said Harry, and his voice sounded much higher than usual and most unlike his own. --- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 26 “The Cave”, pg 565-566; US edition

And meanwhile... Regulus Arcturus Black floats in the water, dreaming... 

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Draco Malfoy and Zacharias Smith are two of a kind

“He saw me hex Zacharias Smith,” said Ginny. “You remember that idiot from Hufflepuff who was in the D.A.? He kept on and on asking about what happened at the Ministry and in the end he annoyed me so much I hexed him — when Slughorn came in Ithought I was going to get detention, but he just thought it was a really good hex and invited me to lunch! Mad, eh?”

Being assaulted by a member of the trio circle for being annoying. And the female attacker is seen as badass for doing so.

Harry recognized Zacharias Smith, a Hufflepuff player whom he heartily disliked.

Draco: Welcome to the club, Smith. Want a Potter Stinks badge? Potter loved his so much that he still has his in book 7. I think scarface gets off on people hating him or maybe it's just exclusive to me 😏

This effectively stopped Zacharias wondering loudly whether the two Weasleys were only there because Harry liked them, and he started on Peakes and Coote instead.

Zacharias being meta. Not afraid to voice his criticisms of Harry.

“And I think Harper of Slytherin’s seen the Snitch!” said Zacharias Smith through his megaphone. “Yes, he’s certainly seen something Potter hasn’t!”

Going out of his way to diss Harry.

“Ginny, where’re you going?” yelled Harry, who had found himself trapped in the midst of a mass midair hug with the rest of the team, but Ginny sped right on past them until, with an almighty crash, she collided with the commentator’s podium. As the crowd shrieked and laughed, the Gryffindor team landed beside the wreckage of wood under which Zacharias was feebly stirring; Harry heard Ginny saying blithely to an irate Professor McGonagall, “Forgot to brake, Professor, sorry.”

His assault being played for laughs. Being attacked for words - a JKR staple of her unlikable antagonists. Ginny is such an A+ bitch. Probably more than Hermione. Gosh, she sucks. It's almost like JKR wants to give Ginny more parallels with Harry as his budding love interest by giving Ginny her own Draco to have beef with.

In fact, the Gryffindors were generally much more interested in the upcoming Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, for many of them wanted to see Zacharias Smith, who played Chaser on the Hufflepuff team, punished soundly for his commentary during the opening match against Slytherin.

Gryffindor students having a vendetta against him.

Zacharias Smith, who had so far failed to maintain possession of the Quaffle for longer than a minute, was suffering from something called “Loser’s Lurgy.”

Performing badly at Quidditch against Gryffindor for plot reasons. Lord knows the lions can't win without their opponents being idiots.

Zacharias Smith was escorted from the castle by his haughty-looking father.

Haughty fathers.

Draco Malfoy 🤝 Zacharias Smith

No wonder Zacharias and Draco are such fun friends in Hufflepuff!Draco fics. He's almost like the Hufflepuff version of Draco. I need to look up some Zacharias fics! Any character that hates Harry is automatically intriguing to me.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

Sorry for more Harry Potter content (I've been on a meta binge again) but I'm just annoyed with this one because as a writer it's another worldbreaking moment: how on earth did Rowling think it was remotely realistic in Deathly Hallows after painstakingly setting up over the preceding six books that a) Harry doesn't work alone to solve mysteries/challenges, but collaborates with his friends and allies, and b) that Harry's minor enemies the Death Eaters and Malfoy have on multiple occasions, both social and battlefield-based interacted with not Harry solo, but Harry with friends and allies (notably, World Cup, COS Diagon Alley, Ministry of Magic OOTP battle) and furthermore never as far as I can remember outside of GOF graveyard come across Harry on anything that could be construed as a 'solo mission' - that anyone from Voldemort to the Death Eaters would believe that Harry would be working on a solo quest now against Voldemort and that Ron would just dip out due to illness and Hermione would disappear, while Ginny, Luna and Neville just went back to school and the rest of the Weasleys went back to work, and out of the narrative focus - yet weren't at any point tortured for information or threatened or assaulted etc. as associates of Harry who were probably working together.

In DH time and time again people are surprised to find Harry working with others, or oddly incurious about who those others might be. (And while this could work as a meta commentary on fame, celebrity, or class status - that's definitely not intended and giving her way too much credit!) JKR would have us believe that the Death Eaters can get into the HQ of the Order of the Phoenix and yet somehow never look for any info or records in there of who they were or whether they're still active? Nobody questions why, after Malfoy Manor, it seemed that someone who looked quite like Harry Potter (on that note, none of the wizards there could magically DNA test him or even cure his swollen face to bring him back to his normal appearance?) was travelling with a miscellaneous Weasley and Penelope Clearwater, a student he was never known for interacting with? Come on JK. You've told us the baddies are evil, they don't have to to a person be cartoonishly stupid as well. You told us you aren't writing for an audience of small children any more, so act like it.

For all that we can (and do, and I will continue to do so!) critique her as a person for her glaring flaws, bullying and bullshittery in recent years, this is just straight up bad plotting as a writer. It increasingly feels like the Harry Potter series of 7 books is in actuality made up of 3 AUs that just carry over the same character names and situations from books 1-3, to 4-5 and finally 6-7.

[saintsenara]

What do you like about Voldemort/Tom Riddle as a character? What elements of the character do you find fascinating?

thank you so much for this ask, @sarafina-sincerity

i have received a flurry of asks about my main boy, lord voldemort, which form a neat triad, so this is part one of a three part meta on him:

1. what is interesting about voldemort's role in the series? 2. how do i write voldemort in my own work, and why? [here] 3. what does dumbledore get wrong about voldemort? [here]

so here we go!

what is interesting about voldemort's role in the series?

let's dive in under the cut:

my general principle as a reader, both in fanfiction and original fiction, is that villains are more interesting than heroes.

i prefer the complexity of characters the audience isn't supposed to root for, and i enjoy the confrontation of realising that people who are capable of astonishing brutality and evil are also simultaneously capable of beauty.

[one of the most heart-breaking passages in literature, in my opinion, is humbert humbert’s final encounter with lolita, in which the reader is forced to sit with the fact that a violent, sadistic, and dangerous paedophile is also a creature hollowed by grief and loss, and that they feel nauseatingly sorry for him.]

the canonical voldemort’s complexity in these aspects isn’t entirely drawn out in the narrative - although voldemort’s own struggle with anger, grief, and loss is discussed in detail in the third part of this series of meta - but thinking of him in these terms provides something that i think is of considerable value to me as an author.

as might be hinted at by the nabokov, my favourite subgenre of original fiction is undoubtedly the american literature of the mid-twentieth century, for its portrayal of the sinister ennui which lurks under the quaint picture-postcard of the american dream life. the authors i feel speak most profoundly to this apart from nabokov are shirley jackson and - and i recommend this enormously not as pulp fiction but as a sincerely raw look at the america of the 1940s and 1950s - jacqueline susann’s valley of the dolls. voldemort has a lot in common with jackson and susann’s famous anti-heroines - he has the jealous, isolated relationship with family and lineage of merricat blackwood; and the childhood trauma leading to obsession, manipulation, and greed of neely o’hara.

all of which is to say, he's a character whose complexity can be used to challenge the reader, to force them to have to sit uncomfortably with their own views and biases [the fact that he’s a self-hating sectarian terrorist has always hit me like a body-blow, given that i live in northern ireland…], and to provide a window into the broader commentary on the world of the story [and the world of the author].

voldemort as a narrative tool

indeed, voldemort is the character who most interestingly straddles the harry potter series’ various different genres and their subtypes - no mean feat, given that the difficulty of reconciling these separate genres is what drives many fans’ complaints about plot-holes in the series.

after all, the series literally wouldn’t function as children’s literature without him - in the first two books, he provides that scooby-doo villain-turns-up-in-disguise-at-the-end flavour which drives the narrative and allows harry to conform to his own children’s lit archetype of the wise-cracking everyman hero who's constantly getting into wacky mysteries.

but voldemort is, of course, at his most interesting after the books undergo their tonal shift following the conclusion of prisoner of azkaban:

he's the series’ most significant and most complex character within the genre conventions it borrows from noir and political thrillers. in goblet of fire, we get the hint of him as a paramilitary kingpin, whose supporters wished to incite terror among any members of the wizarding population who didn't support blood-supremacy and who targeted state institutions and political figureheads who stood in their way. voldemort’s own hypocrisy - he's a supposed pureblood champion despite not being pureblood himself, although his anti-muggle views are undoubtedly sincere - serves as a concentrated metaphor for the ministry’s corruption, which harry uncovers throughout this book.

he's the series’ most interesting folkloric archetype - the fate-driven hunter-villain, whose belief in the mystical value of the prophecy [within a series in which all the other characters - except harry, who we’ll come to below - are surprisingly rational... for people who can do magic] drives the series towards its conclusion. it's impossible for harry to go on his hero’s journey without voldemort - and given that many of the other characters fit more obliquely into their folkloric archetypes [ron is very different from many folkloric sidekicks - the boy is no samwise gamgee - and hermione’s folkloric archetype is closest to the non-human gift given to the hero by a donor-figure], this aspect of the narrative depends on voldemort entirely.

he is, perhaps, one of the less interesting characters within the series’ purpose as christian allegory [the award for the character this applies to most interestingly, for me at least, is either dumbledore - the word of god revealed in a twist to be the john the baptist - or snape - the paul who thinks he’s a judas], since he's the satan allegory. the catholic-coded nature of many of his behaviours, however, does fascinate me, and contribute to my headcanon - discussed in the next meta - that he's raised in a church orphanage.

and voldemort's usefulness within these narrative confines changes many of the other characters, in ways which move them beyond genre archetypes which might otherwise not allow them to grow as the narrative tonally shifts [a fate which befalls hagrid, who cannot stand up to the nuancing of harry’s character as he goes on his hero’s journey]. dumbledore’s similarities to voldemort, for example, hint at the reversal of his omniscience and infallibility before deathly hallows hits; snape’s relationship with voldemort as a terrorist leader, and particularly what voldemort’s terror says about the social structure of the wizarding world, provides an explanation for his actions which is more complex than "tee hee, mudblood", and which gives the reader a space to think about how deprivation drives radicalisation in our own communities.

above all, voldemort’s narrative relationship with harry is fascinating - and not simply for shipping reasons - since, within a story which ends with harry in the guise of the resurrected christ and voldemort-as-satan dead and buried, they are never actually portrayed as black-and-white enemies. indeed, they're the only pair of narrative mirrors in the series whose relationship is portrayed not as diametric, but relational - the only two whose relationship is described as fraternal [something made explicit in their "brother" wand cores]; and the only two whose relationship is described - by a figure no less powerful than the prophecy itself - as equal.

that their shared backgrounds, their views of their own orphanhood, their relationship with their fathers, and their physical appearances are similar is lampshaded by several characters - not least both of them themselves. but the narrative actually goes deeper, drawing out ways in which their differences appear stark, but then loop back to become another similarity they share - their mothers come from opposing blood classes, but both form the key to understanding their characters; their wand woods are both associated with death and resurrection, albeit with different folkloric values of luck and purity attached to them; and voldemort is the series’ "true slytherin" and harry the series’ "true gryffindor", but they both have numerous personality traits connected to the other house.

in contrast, if we take the narrative mirrors of ron and draco malfoy, we find a pairing whose differences stem from similar attitudes and insecurities, but manifest themselves in ways which are polar - both serve the crucial narrative purpose of explaining the wizarding world to harry and, therefore, the reader, but ron exclusively shows its positive aspects and malfoy its more negative ones; their material circumstances are opposites; they both heavily physically resemble the rest of their family, but ron is one of many siblings and strains against that and malfoy is an only child and strains against that; and they are defined in the text by the diametrically opposed nature of their relationship with harry.

harry and voldemort, on the other hand, are defined by the divergence of their similarities - like their wands, they have the same core, but their choices affect them profoundly - and they are, therefore, the series’ clearest examples of the value of choice.

voldemort as a social mirror

i also think that voldemort’s childhood and background is one of the series’ most interesting looks at britain and its social dynamics, which i think many readers miss.

how i prefer to write voldemort’s childhood is discussed in the second part of this series of meta, but he provides - like hermione - a look at the profound irony of the class system [after all he's an aristocrat in both worlds - and an example of both types of aristocrat, the rich and snooty in their luxury manor and the impoverished clinging to a name and a lineage - who has no access to the social advantages this should bring because he was born in an orphanage in the muggle world and he has a muggle name and face in the wizarding one].

above all, voldemort spends the first six books of the series as the best cipher for how state brutality and corruption only begets more violence. his unusual tolerance of non-human magical creatures is at odds with the ministry’s benign oppression. his rejection of the patronage networks which sustain wizarding society [he rejects slughorn’s offer to set him up in the ministry because he wants a job he got himself, and good for him] only serves to emphasise that these still exist [the fact that voldemort would not want to rely on patronage canonically never occurs to dumbledore] - while his use of patronage networks for his own ends shows how easily structures considered to be "right" or "normal" can turn malign. his brilliance, but the fact that his name and background would clearly constrain him in an ordinary career, underlines the fate which befalls many characters, from snape to the weasleys. he has a complex relationship with gender in a series which otherwise doesn’t. the ministry’s reaction to him - particularly the suspension of due process in the trials of death eaters [a reference to operation demetrius, one of the british government’s most degrading extra-judicial decisions during the troubles] - deepens anti-government resentment, which - since the wizarding world is clearly not a democracy - has nowhere else to go but revolution.

voldemort causes himself, obviously, but the ministry enables him to exist, and this provides so many avenues in fanfiction to explore.

why we need fanon voldemort

this said, there are things which frustrate me about the canonical voldemort - and this drives many of the traits in my own writing of him which i'm completely aware do deviate from canon [my preferred characterisation of voldemort is addressed in the second part of this series of meta].

i dislike the portrayal of the canonical voldemort - or, at least, the canonical adult voldemort, the canonical teenage voldemort is more layered - as a sociopath, largely because i think it’s quite lazy writing to have a villain whose evil is caused by a [very rare] disorder, which is widely considered to be untreatable. in particular, this absolves the reader from noticing our own similarities to voldemort and considering how that challenges our own views and biases - as the enormous amount of "the class system is good, actually" in death-eater-centric writing shows...

above all, i loathe the argument that voldemort can’t feel love [i'm hopelessly wedded to the idea that he does love bellatrix, in his own little way], not least because it's an extremely cruel interpretation of what is clearly enormous childhood trauma [although the series’ weaknesses in its approach to that topic go far beyond voldemort], and because it fails to open space for a critical look at dumbledore’s own idea of love - that is, not as something which can be luxurious, pampering, and restorative to the self, but as something which depends on sorrow and sacrifice. i detest the fanon - which, i think it’s important to note, is based in something jkr never actually said - that voldemort’s conception is the cause of his attitude to love. i also think the way the text treats both tom riddle sr. - who is never acknowledged as a rape victim - and merope - who, if we take dumbledore’s implication that she could have survived voldemort’s birth at face value, directly justifies voldemort’s view on death by not bothering to stay alive for him - is horrifying.

i think the voldemort of deathly hallows is the weakest, not least because the fact that he's never shown in the previous six books to have an interest in running a government [he spends most of the early books as a paramilitary leader, not a dictator in waiting] means that he has to be shunted off in other directions when he takes control of one. 

and, with the greatest of respect to the wonderful ralph fiennes, who i’ve just paid a huge amount of money to go see in macbeth, the film version of voldemort is terrible. indeed, film!voldemort is the source of so many of the worst fanon readings of the character - especially the idea that he only knows one spell, that he’s insane [the statement of canon is that the creation of the horcruxes does nothing to damage his mental capacity, since the soul exists independently of our free will and rational thought], that he loves to shriek, that he isn’t very scary, and that he doesn’t come spectacularly close to winning.

up next, then, how do i write voldemort?

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

Great conversation already, just to add on the small point that I also believe she is at best unnerved by adult Potter fans and at worst actively dislikes them; reading between the lines of her behavior around them, what she has said in interviews etc.

I might go so far as to argue that she also has an odd view of childhood and adulthood in general compared to most modern people. Just looking at GOF to OOTP to HBP for a low level example. From GOF to OOTP the world is growing bigger beyond the school, Harry is gaining actual skills and influence and acting more like a YA protagonist; setting the stage for what feels at that point for a genre shift or evolution from school story to a story about the broader wizarding world and also the adult side characters and the war; the wider world mentioned in asides and in the margins.

Come HBP, and Rowling clamps down HARD on that possibility. This is a series for CHILDREN set in a SCHOOL with a SCHOOL BASED MYSTERY and no matter how oddly that seems to follow on from two books that seemed to be evolving past that framework, by hook or by crook she will crowbar it back in.

All these marketing lines about the books growing up with their readers? She never meant genre shifting to YA or even adult fiction. Because to JKR, anyone up to 18 - or even older! - is no matter what they say or claim, or no matter what their actions or job role as a child soldier or resistance leader might suggest, is naught but a child that doesn't really understand the real world and needs to be guided; only by trusting unquestioningly in adult authority do they prove their maturity.

The wizarding world having a coming of age at 17? Well, that just shows how SILLY they are compared to the real world where we do things the 'right' way - is likely her intent.

okay so I've been spending a lot of time thinking about Harry Potter recently and trolling the wiki for reasons and I have the weirdest observation about the series.

What is JKR's deal with Ravenclaw women?

I mean consider our main Ravenclaw girls: Luna Lovegood and Cho Chang (and Marietta Edgecombe). Luna in the movies is portrayed as whimsically queer, and that's not inaccurate to the books, but in the books she is more often a punchline than anything. She's a parody of the Ravenclaw ideals of creativity and openminded-ness to the point where she believes crazy conspiracy theories.

But she's our most positively portrayed Ravenclaw. Which is more than I can say for Cho and Marietta. Cho is portrayed as a pitiable character, someone so emotional and loyal that she is sympathetic, but the narrative portrays her overemotional nature and loyalty as bad traits. She's so emotional she'll blow up over perceived threats, and dwells on trauma, and it makes her a drag to talk to. And her loyalty is a bad thing because she chooses to be loyal to Marietta. Marietta is ESPECIALLY treated awfully. Marietta is scared for her mother's job that she rats out the DA and for her choice she is forever branded a traitor at 16, and this is completely justifiable. Like, if Hermione can jinx a paper to disfigure a person's face than couldn't she just jinx the paper to make it physically impossible to reveal the DA, except perhaps under the influence of veritaserum? Like the film did? But no, Hermione is instead more preoccupied with punishing than preventing (an insane thing for me to say, I'm sorry Hermione it's not your fault that your author is kinda insane about women).

(And just as a sidebar but Marietta is also given an illustration that makes it clear she was kinda ugly before the pimples which is so rude, but also so like JKR.)

Then you have very minor characters like Padma who are just generally portrayed as kinda bitchy. Padma gets off better than her sister in terms of being treated as bitchy, but it seems like Padma always carries the stigma of being disappointed by Ron at the Yule Ball.

But this goes back even FURTHER, to the oldest Ravenclaw student we are introduced to, Helena Ravenclaw.

In the films, again, Helena's scene with Harry is haunting. She's treated with respect and tragedy (almost all of the dialogue in the film is original). But in the books, yes we actually get her tragic backstory, but she is portrayed as haughty, vain, and prideful.

You can also add in Trelawney there as a Ravenclaw who is treated like a joke (crazy* and alcoholic).

And consider that the two women we know were almost in Ravenclaw, Hermione and McGonagall, end up going to Gryffindor and are portrayed as better off for it.

And like there is more to explore here. The four Ravenclaw men we really get to know are Filius, Ollivander, Xenophilius, and Lockhart. Xenpohilius is a conspiracy theorist (and a death eater sympathizer I just know it) and Lockhart is a buffoon who only really upholds the Ravenclaw wit and is skilled at memory charms.

(There's this crazy part of the Ravenclaw wiki page that actually compares Lockhart to Cho Chang because they both wanted to be popular. WHAT.)

Meanwhile you have Ollivander who is a positive Ravenclaw character, but is also barely in the books and Filius Flitwick. And Filius is a positive character but it is also canon that the Sorting Hat almost put him in Gryffindor, which seems like a pointed attempt to make it clear he's better than most Ravenclaws. Because he's got something of a Gryffindor edge to him.

I don't really know what the whole point of me going on this rant was about, other than just to point out that JKR is weird about Ravenclaws and the women in general. Almost all of them aren't allowed to actually uphold the actual values of their house: Wisdom, Intelligence, Learning. The only traits they ever really uphold is Wit if they are popular and Creativity, which seems to be a nice way of saying they're crazy conspiracy theorists. The only characters that really get anything good out of the house are Minerva and Hermione, and them being hatstalls is only meant to emphasize their intelligence in comparison to their Gryffindor peers. Otherwise Ravenclaw seems to just be JKR's go to bitchy/we need a villain who isn't Slytherin house.

*When I say "crazy" in this post I am referring to how JKR treats the characters. Babbling, loony, conspiratorial, and not in their right minds.

[guess-that-ship]

Guess That Ship Tournament 2: Submission Open! Closed

The concept: You describe your ship* to me, I pick ~32 pairs which I find compelling and pit them against each other without revealing who they are, people vote on them, and their identities gets revealed once they're eliminated.

Submission Guidelines

*For the purpose of this tournament, relationships do not have to be romantic in nature. I'm sometimes going to use "ship" as a shorthand, just know I mean "relationships" in general.

Relationship can be between any number of characters.

Real people are accepted if they've been dead for more than 150 years.

Roleplay characters are accepted as long as the description only pertains to the characters and not the players.

OCs are accepted.

One submission per person. (I cannot enforce this on google form without forcing you to log in. So just be champs and respect this rule.)

Summary Guidelines

Here's the selection process: I'm going to read through the list of descriptions submitted without looking at their names, I'm gonna pick the most compelling submissions, then I check the name to make sure there's no repeats.

Keep your description canon compliant. You don't have to clarify if the ship is canon, just don't say they're married if they only act married.

Avoid identifying information or setting specific giveaways. (ie. Ninja village, space necromancers.)

Keep it concise but bring something unique to the table.

No need to mention any meta commentaries or words of god, like whether the ship is canon. Just tell me their story.

Here are some previous submissions for reference.

Exclusions

Ships from the previous season will not be accepted this month. This includes:

Charles/Erik

Vriska/Terezi

Akechi/Joker

Dazai/Chuuya

I will also not be including any submission from Harry Potter, sorry.

Notes

I will not vet the ships/pairings for problematic content.

If you participate in this tournament, know that you run the risk of unintentionally voting for your nOTP. The mod does not take any responsibility for any distress that may cause you.

Submission will open until May 2nd, 7AM EDT.

Submit your ship here:

[honeydukesheroine]

🙏 18 and 25 for The In Betweens?

Hey Greenie!! 🌿 Thanks for the ask, I can't wait for the next chapter of Chasing 💙

18: What is a line/scene you're really proud of? Give us the DVD commentary for that scene.

Most definitely the last scene in The Antechamber (Harry POV). This is the most Meta I've gotten so far in TIB's 😂 Allow me to go off with this one!

My idea for this chapter was "a day in the life of Harry Potter" as he's reckoning with these two sides of himself: the "Just Harry" versus "The Chosen One". Which is a major theme throughout Half Blood Prince, and I wanted to include that in TIBs as much as possible. Harry is gradually choosing his role as "the Chosen One" more and more throughout the year (some by choice, some by circumstance). For instance: chasing Malfoy around becomes more important than Quidditch, identifying certain personal similarities with Tom Riddle, sacrificing his relationship with Ginny at Dumbledore's funeral.

I picked the title based off the idea that Harry is positioned in the "antechamber" of his destiny. This is the last term of Hogwarts as he knows it before Dumbledore dies and he must fully assume the responsibilities of the prophecy.

So, there are hints to elements of each of the seven books in order throughout the chapter (opens with Dursleys, the mention of Lockhart, etc,etc there's mention of a dragon midway through) and finishes with Harry and Ginny walking away together at sunset! Because, of course.

The title is also pointing to the last scene where he and Ginny are in Myrtle's bathroom ♥️

I would never expect anyone to identify any of this next part... The last scene was meant to allude to Harry's death, return and finding healing comfort with Ginny.

“Last year when he possessed me at the Ministry, I thought I was dead,” Harry said. The cold from the stone wall at his back reached through his clothes, making him shiver. They were both quiet for a long time. Harry felt his chest contract, making it only possible to take slow, shallow breaths.  “Thank you,” said Ginny, barely above a whisper. He was about to ask what for when they heard the hollow, solemn tones of a funeral hymn. A moment later, Moaning Myrtle materialized over her toilet.

OHHH and I forgot about this part!!

Ginny sprung up. Harry tried to follow, but was momentarily paralyzed as blood rushed painfully back into his leg. Ginny laughed, “C’mon old man,” holding out her hand to pull him to stand.  She held open the door for him as he limped over the threshold to exit Myrtle’s bathroom. It was completely dark now, even the wind had died down.

When Harry saves Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets, he helps her up by the hand to stand. So as they're joking and flirting and building a relationship in this scene, I wanted to feel that he and Ginny were nearing a more even, reciprocal relationship. I was obsessed with this idea of having her help HIM up by the hand. Particularly after being momentarily "paralyzed" and then they walk over the "threshold" of the antechamber TOGETHER to go off and live happily ever.

I could go on! But that's the gist.

25. Which idea came to you first in TIBs (The In Betweens?)

This is tough, I've been writing snippets throughout the years whenever I picked up the books. But the specifics of those snippets have mostly been tossed out or improved upon. When I finally decided to commit to this story, all I knew was I wanted them to have a break at the Burrow midway through so that shenanigans could ensue without too much Dean around... LOL!

Mission accomplished, I think 😂

[tozettastone]

In terms of media recommendations, it depends on if you're looking for like a fandom experience or a work that is similar to your fanworks or what.

I've been enjoying going through some of the older popular fandoms various authors I like have written for once upon a time (Stargate, Smallville, White Collar, etc). Ted Lasso had a surprisingly fun fandom despite some uwu tendencies inherent of the source material. The Bear doesn't seem like your cup of tea but has good source + fandom material.

I can't speak of the fandoms of these communities, but you may enjoy: dungeon meshi (very strong world building, humor + drama, interesting ensemble cast), Scott pilgrim takes off (snappy dialogue and meta commentary), A deadly education (written like a fanfiction, but nostalgia of Harry Potter with an interesting moral dilemma explored later in the series), do revenge (stupid, but fun), GLOW (ensemble female cast being fun and stupid).

I think I missed this one. I have seen some of these and not seen others. Thank you for your recommendations.

[comradesbooks]

Fanfiction is underrated tbh

Fanfiction is a written story based off of an existing media, consisting of new takes on the original work, whether it’s meta commentary through characters, alternate universes with different plot beats than the original, or material that is used for the shameless entertainment of reader and writer alike. Producers and consumers of this material know who they are. It’s not necessarily a genre in and of itself, and there is some stigma over fan works as a whole. Personally, I, an active writer of fanfiction, approve of it, and I’m gonna go on a tangent as to why, even though no one asked for it. 

My points will mainly boil down to one umbrella concept; that fanfiction is excellent practice for newer storytellers. 

The best part about fanfiction is that it’s low pressure. It’s not graded, there aren’t deadlines, there are only basic guidelines provided by the original work, and, most importantly, it’s (mostly) anonymous. Unpublished fanfiction authors, such as those on Fanfiction.net or Archive of Our Own, use pen names to protect their identities. An adult writer’s real name doesn’t have to be traced back to the cringey Self-Insert/Levi Ackerman one shot they wrote when they were twelve. Because of that low pressure and lack of deadlines, a newer writer ought to feel more comfortable in getting their feet wet in the writing community.

When it comes down to it, fanfictions, whether they are 2,000 word one-shots or 300,000 word epics, are just works of fiction, and like any work of fiction, need framework. The key difference in the framework between original fiction and fanfiction is that the fanfiction already has the basic framework done. All the fanfic author needs to do is alter and add what they like to the existing template, which is (usually, hopefully) a strong foundation to be built upon. It’s not unlike an artist tracing the contours of a portrait in order to learn how to render colors for a more realistic style. It should never be treated as an original work, but a template for sake of self-improvement, which is perfectly acceptable. Original works of fiction all begin as a blank slates, and it can take a long time to do the worldbuilding necessary to tell a good story. To give a quick and well-known example, J.K. Rowling took over a year just plotting out the foundation for the Harry Potter series, and went on unemployment to do it. In fanfiction, newer writers have the ability to skip the lengthy worldbuilding process, learning by example as they utilize the world that has already been built to their advantage. 

One of my favorite parts of writing fanfiction, especially for a larger fandom, is that there is no shortage of critique, if one knows how to look and ask for it. In this age of the interwebs, ignorance is a choice. Writers of fanfiction don’t have to worry about building a fanbase before they can get any commentary because the creator of the original work already did the heavy labor. All the writer has to do is write their original work, tag it appropriately, and ask for critique, and they’ll eventually get some, sooner or later. With access to so many different viewpoints, thanks to the internet, constructive criticism couldn’t be more accessible. (I will note that some fandoms have some individuals who are absolutely monstrous for a variety of reasons and may not be the most wholesome or supportive sources of criticism.) Critique can be a hot take, especially in the art and writing community where people are known to be a tad sensitive, but no one can improve themselves without a little criticism. Not only do internet-based writers have virtually unlimited access to good, constructive criticism, but they also have access to negative opinions and comments, which will harden them to the real world. Let’s be real here, if you publish a book anywhere, I don’t care how perfect it is. Someone will find something wrong with it and will try to cancel it. 

And that is my extremely informal, blunt, and unstructured opinion on fanfiction that is completely correct in every way. If anyone wants me to elaborate on a specific point, I have no issue with that. I like standing on my soap box because who doesn’t love an inflated sense of importance?

[coffeefrenchandhistory]

The love potions headcanon and why Ginny used them

So. We all know what love potions are, in the HP universe. They are potions which can cause obsession, or infatuation, in the drinker with the person who gave it to them. And of all the love potions out there, none are more powerful than Amortentia.

This is important for us to know, since Amortentia is the strongest of the love potions, it implies there are weaker or less powerful forms of the potion as well. What would very likely be aphrodisiacs.

Before Half-Blood Prince, here's what we know about love potions (bolded for emphasis):

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!” beamed Lockhart. “They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn’t stop here! I’m sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you’re at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I’ve ever met, the sly old dog!" ��� Chamber of Secrets

They [Ron and Harry] headed down to breakfast, where Mr. Weasley was reading the front page of the Daily Prophet with a furrowed brow and Mrs. Weasley was telling Hermione and Ginny about a love potion she’d made as a young girl. All three of them were rather giggly. — Prisoner of Azkaban

"She's really ugly," says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year student, "but she'd be well up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I think that’s how she’s doing it."  Love Potions are, of course, banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potter’s well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart on a worthier candidate. — Goblet of Fire

And then we get to Half-Blood Prince. Where potions, but specifically love potions, take center-stage. In the course of the book, we see:

Merope Gaunt use a love potion on Tom Riddle Sr to steal him away from Cecelia, his fiancée;

Romilda Vane attempt to dose Harry with love potions in chocolate (and that love potions grow in strength the longer they sit, as what happens when Ron eats the chocolate instead of Harry)

The Weasley twins sell love potions in their shop in Diagon Alley.

And most importantly, Horace Slughorn introduces not just love potions to the class, but as well introduces the class — and us by extension — to Amortentia. The strongest love potion there is in the Wizarding world.

I'm not alone in saying that the Harry/Ginny relationship came out of nowhere. There was no real build-up to it from a Doylist perspective. Harry interacts with Ginny in Chamber of Secrets, barely at all in Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, and only really starts to have any kind of interaction in Order of the Phoenix. She's in one book, all but disappears for two more, and then only starts having any kind of interaction with Harry in the fifth book.

It's a very sudden thing, Harry falling for Ginny.

Then there's the "monster in his chest" nonsense.

Yeah. Unfortunately we have to talk about it. I don't like it, but we do.

Compare and contrast Harry's crush on Cho, which we see in Prisoner of Azkaban, versus what we see for Harry regarding Ginny in Half Blood Prince.

Prisoner of Azkaban (emphasis bolded):

They walked out on​to the pitch to tu​mul​tuous ap​plause. The Raven​claw team, dressed in blue, were al​ready stand​ing in the mid​dle of the pitch. Their Seek​er, Cho Chang, was the on​ly girl in their team. She was short​er than Har​ry by about a head, and Harry couldn’t help notic​ing, ner​vous as he was, that she was extreme​ly pret​ty. She smiled at Har​ry as the teams faced each other be​hind their cap​tains, and he felt a slight jolt in the re​gion of his stom​ach that he didn’t think had any​thing to do with nerves.

Half-Blood Prince (emphasis bolded):

Harry hardly noticed the sound of shattering glass; he felt dis- oriented, dizzy; being struck by a lightning bolt must be something like this. It’s just because she’s Ron’s sister, he told himself. You just didn’t like seeing her kissing Dean because she’s Ron’s sister.... But unbidden into his mind came an image of that same deserted corridor with himself kissing Ginny instead... The monster in his chest purred... but then he saw Ron ripping open the tapestry curtain and drawing his wand on Harry, shouting things like “betrayal of trust”... “supposed to be my friend”... “D’you think Hermione did snog Krum?” Ron asked abruptly, as they approached the Fat Lady. Harry gave a guilty start and wrenched his imagination away from a corridor in which no Ron intruded, in which he and Ginny were quite alone —

It's night and day. Cho is butterflies in his stomach, nervousness, apprehension even. Noticing that she was "extremely pretty". With Ginny? It's quite different. And sure, you could make the excuse of it just being age, but throughout HBP we see repeated and repeated reference to the "monster in his chest", of wanting to take Ginny in a very intimate manner. It's a very specific reference. Later on that page, how Harry wants to rip Dean limb from limb.

Now, I've been a teenage boy. And in all of the crushes I've had, I've never wanted to rip the boyfriend of the girl I might be interested in "limb from limb". I might be jealous, sure, or even a bit put out that he's getting to experience what I would want to — but what Harry is going through reads far more like obsession. Harry is infatuated with being with Ginny. Having her with him. Imagining all the intimate moments between them, with no one interrupting. And it comes all out of a sudden. Even Harry is surprised by the feeling.

But Josh, you might be saying! Love potions cause the person to act like an idiot! We see this with Ron!

Incorrect, but points for attention! The experience you're referring to is when Ron Weasley ate the chocolates that Romilda gave to Harry which were laced in love potion. Which had been sitting in Harry's trunk for months, stewing and growing in strength (but also, gross, Harry). Which implies, or outright states, that love potions have a more subtle approach to how they interact with the consumer. Like a boiling the frog approach.

But Josh, you might be saying again! Why would Ginny use a love potion? She was pretty, she was popular, all the boys wanted her!

Yes, she is. Even Blaise Zabini, a noted blood purist in Slytherin, notes that Ginny is attractive.

"I never really gave up on you," she [Ginny] said. "Not really. I always hoped... Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more - myself."​ "Smart girl, that Hermione," said Harry, trying to smile. "I just wish I'd asked you sooner. We could've had ages... months... years maybe..."​ ​"But you've been too busy saving the Wizarding world," said Ginny half laughing. "Well... I can't say I'm surprised. I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that's why I like you so much."​ — Half-Blood Prince, Ch. 30 (pp 647, US edition)

It's a very weird thing to say. "You wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort". Either Ginny meant that she knows Harry has something hanging over his head that he has to deal with or it'll ruin his life, or she knows the Boy-Who-Lived is a Dark Lord Vanquisher™ from the stories she read about as a child.

But it's the first line she says that solidifies it for me.

"I never really gave up on you".

Even after dating Michael Corner and Dean Thomas, even after being involved with these boys for months, she never gave up on Harry. She effectively strung Michael and Dean along in the hopes Harry would realize his feelings for her. Hermione most likely wanted Ginny to date someone, and realize that her crush on Harry was a silly childhood crush. She strung those two boys along in the hopes that Harry felt something for her too. And when he didn't appear to, when he didn't seem to reciprocate, well... her brothers sell love potions in Diagon Alley.

And remember that Ginny Weasley was browsing the love potions section of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes in HBP and asked Fred if they worked.

Near the window was an array of violently pink products around which a cluster of excited girls was giggling enthusiastically. Hermi- one and Ginny both hung back, looking wary. “There you go,” said Fred proudly. “Best range of love potions you’ll find anywhere.” Ginny raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Do they work?” she asked. “Certainly they work, for up to twenty-four hours at a time de- pending on the weight of the boy in question —” “— and the attractiveness of the girl,” said George, reappearing suddenly at their side. “But we’re not selling them to our sister,” he added, becoming suddenly stern, “not when she’s already got about five boys on the go from what we’ve —”

Ginny had basically set her sights on the Boy-Who-Lived since before she even met him. The moment she found out that Harry was going to Hogwarts, and was on the train, she wanted to see him like he was a thing at a zoo. And yes, sure, we can excuse that as her being 10 years old. But it's still not a great start for the relationship.

Harry is great when it comes to dealing with something in front of him. A villainous professor, a basilisk, dementors, dragons, Death Eaters in the Ministry. But someone surreptitiously dripping something into his pumpkin juice? Harry's not Mad-Eye Moody, he's not paranoia made flesh. He wouldn't think someone would be so bold as to try that.

And Ginny Weasley was plenty bold.

[hydralisk98]

Writing my way up to H.G. Wells + J.R.R. Tolkien-tier and beyond

I mean, I would like to get a few short stories / poems / animation shorts / short films / "software toys" going and by far. So may as well pitch a few of my current narrative draft ideas for initial practice...

I guess I will make it clear that I feel a powerful need to write down immersive / cohesive yet oxymoron Axis victory set of stories. Most likely with some cultural & technological nuances (not about making Nazism, Fascism and others legitimate but definitely challenging some assumptions we societally made from the world wars) & conflicted characters as far as emulating dystopia-writing with a humane / relatable touch.

These are not the only narratives I would like to convey, far from it. I got a couple more related to historical "mysteries", my constructed world(s?) slice-of-life-s and overall making optimistic meta-narratives. Like some about my hometown, a couple around specific tools / challenges / design contraints, much about far far away alternate futures and a few drop-in "clef" replacements for some existing works with strong satirist-ic commentary & nuanced intrigue politics...

Here are a couple of such media I hope to express some opinions onto through these "clef" keys.

(Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Warriors, Chronicles of Narnia, A Song of Ice and Fire, Silmarillion, Bible, standalone X-Men movies, Naruto / Boruto, Tarzan, Conan The Barbarian, John Carter of Mars, Terminator, Predator, Alien, Degrassi, Star Wars, Star Trek, Half-Life, Stargate SG1, How To Train Your Dragon, Frozen, Pirates of the Caribbean, Matrix, Rio, Jurassic Park, James Bond, Homestuck, Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron, Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Helluva Boss / Hazbin Hotel, Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken, Shrek, Coco, The Book of Life, Ice Age, Mulan, Lord of the Rings, Megamind, Treasure Planet, Atlantis, Lilo and Stitch, Pokemon, Sonic The Hedgehog, Cyberpunk RED + 2077, Halo, Destiny, Pathfinder, Outlander, Genship Impact, Starcraft, Grand Theft Auto, Bioshock Infinite + Burial at Sea, Animal Crossing, Fable 2, Earthbound, Metroid, Splatoon, Bionicle, Chronotrigger, Dishonored, XCOM, Turning Red, Luca, 300, The Time Machine, Brontë, Ethan Frome, Death in Venice, The Hired Girl, Tintin, Watchmen, Jour J, Hellboy, V for Vendetta, Ghost Rider, Asterix, Lackadaisy, Zoophobia, Danny Phantom, Avatar The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, Code Lyoko, Kim Possible, Powerpuff Girls, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Animaniacs, Boondocks, Totally Spies, Futurama, 6teen, Stoked, Wakfu, Hot Wheels, Discworld, Forgotten Realms, Quake, Coran, Tanak, mythologies, historical fiction, ancestries, Hypnospace Outlaw / Sword Art Online, Zachtronics ('TIS-100' & 'Shenzhen I/O'), Ace Combat, Overlord, Bloody Good Time, Resistance Fall of Man, Perfect Dark, Zelda, God of War, Kaisha...)

Not exhaustive by any margin but yk, the first few up to Alien are definitely deserving some strong reworks...

But yeah, that's kinda my type of creative bar setting (I still am casual but yk I shall outshine Tolkien with all the tools available nowadays), aka making bronze age literature lineage-ing type of timeless works.

Don't mind me if I get started some onto the promised Jucika-derived comic strips and get the ball rolling on my open source workflow (first onto Kate + LibreOffice and eventually in the terminal with Tmux/Fish/Vim and all the other creative writing goodies...)

Be not afraid...

[socialjusticefail]

Here is the commentary that the anon who submitted this provided:

Opening blurb: "Boot up Elder Scrolls or Elden Ring with a (relatively) clear conscience." 

What if I think "Elder Scrolls" and "Elden Ring" are overrated trash and sure as s*** don't need an influx of social justice freaks giving them even more undeserved support? Why tf would a first person shooter or a management simulation game be good alternatives to "Hogwarts Legacy" other than the shallow reason that they happen to be magic and wizard themed & didn't involve JKR in any way? What if I've already played "Breath of the Wild" to the point of boredom (the game is several years old at this point)? And you're saying we should support Meta by playing one of their Oculus games instead? Meanwhile, by the Stephen Johnson (the author of the article's) own admission, the Oculus game in question has "no exploration or story to speak of" but of course the mere fact it's magic and sorcery themed qualifies it as a "good alternative". 🙄 Tolkien's world was "way more badass than J.K. Rowlings’" until it went woke (and why do I get the feeling that "Middle-earth: Shadow of War" wouldn't be on the list at all if it weren't for "Rings of Power"?). And of course they had to make the "Dragon Age: Inquisition" entry all about how "inclusive" that series has always been (I'm not "anti-inclusvity", but when how inclusive something is tends to be its foremost if not lone selling point the less I'm willing to play, watch, or read it). 🙄

"Each of these games will scratch your Harry Potter gaming itch." Yeah, right. 😒 

P.S.: The writer's use of Potter terminology (referring  to "Lichdom: Battlemage" as a "first-person abracadabra-er"/"FPA", multiple uses of the word "muggle") kind of undermines their point.

P.P.S.: I really wasn't all that interested in "Hogwarts Legacy" myself because the last three books/last four movies were IMO a sharp drop in quality from the first four and I had zero interest in "Cursed Child" and the "Fantastic Beasts" series. But I'm sick of people trying to steer others towards shallow "alternatives", especially for social justice purposes.

This anon also sent this image in a second submission:

With this image they included this:

Yes, this the same person who submitted that ""games you should be playing instead of Hogwarts legacy" article and my rebuttal. There were comments I wanted to call attention to, so I'm submitting screenshots of them. If I could have embedded them into my initial submission, I would have.

They also sent another two screenshots related to the article:

They are sent in this screenshot of a long comment that they created with two screenshots:

[falling-violet-petals]

Thoughts on Star Wars after watching the movies for the first time (contains spoilers)

So I just binged watched all the star wars movies for the first time (I had watched the original trilogy before but never really paying much attention) and I don't know if I like them or not. I have a similar problem as I do with harry potter where there's a million tiny moments where I just see so much potential and it would've been so good if only they would have done some things differently but at the end there are so many things I would change that it would end up being a completely different thing and not star wars anymore. Which I think just means they're not really for me, and that's ok, but I did still like them, I thought they were fun. I don't know, maybe it's too soon to tell and I need to give myself more time to really process it.

I think one of the things that made me feel like this is that the movies themselves really confused me as to what they were trying to be. It is clearly not a science fiction story because all the cool technology is more of a background prop than a theme, but despite what a lot of people say I don't think it is a space opera either. The interpersonal relationships of the characters only really matter and affect the plot in the final act of each trilogy where the bad guy and the good guy face each other and are forced to acknowledge the connection that they have, and in the original trilogy it isn't even that big of a connection. To be honest I felt like the movies were just trying to be both a space opera and a war story in a way that just felt like it didn't accomplish either of the two, I couldn't tell if the characters were an attempt at justifying the need for a final battle for every single movie or if the battles were an attempt at making character arcs end in a more epic or meaningful way (is George Lucas even aware that there are other ways to end a film?). Maybe I should have taken a hint from the title and known that I wouldn't like this because of how I don't like most war metaphors because of how poorly constructed they usually are.

Speaking of poorly constructed war metaphors, I really don't get the whole dark side vs light side thing. It seems extremely reductive to me. I know that you could argue that the Jedi are shown to have flaws in how they handle emotions and that there could be a Sith that was good and just used their feelings in order to use the force, and I would actually agree with it, but my problem with how it's depicted is that all of that is just meta commentary and it is not at all what the actual movies show. No movie actually delves into those topics, there are some hints towards that being the case, yes, but if your fictional world has a group of people that is evil and a group of people that is good, and you spend no actual time dealing with the question of what the words evil and good even mean in the first place or engage in the conversation of how evil and good can coexist or even be the same thing because they are subjective, then you're not doing that topic justice. And Anakin and Kylo Ren aren't enough of an answer when both of their storylines end with them just choosing one over the other. The truth is, every single Sith that is in the movies is a bad guy and every single Jedi is a good guy, even if they are shown to have flaws or they sometimes change sides, and to me that still feels reductive. I just wish there was more of an exploration of the possibility of being both dark and light simultaneously, Kylo Ren seems such a lost opportunity for that, he was so close to it until they just decided to revive Palpatine instead. And the whole good/evil thing isn't even the only moment that is like this where it could be great if only they had just decided to expand on it a bit more, there are slaves and sentient droids and genetically modified clones being used and killed left and right with no more than a few minutes in 9 whole movies that actually acknowledge the morality of it, and I understand that they didn't intend for it to be science fiction and that is what science fiction is, but the lack of interest of engaging in deep topics just frustrated me. But once again, I get it, I am expecting too much of these films, I get that most people that watch them do it for the cool futuristic sword fights and for the blowing things up and for the dopamine of watching the good guys win another battle at the end, whatever that means. Maybe Ursula K Le Guin has just given me so much that now I have too high of a standard for blockbuster movies that are just meant to be marketable and fun. And they are fun, so I don't see why I can't fully bring myself to say I like them.

Another thing that just irked me was how incredibly male these movies are. It is obvious in the lack of lead women characters but it is not just that. There are many many moments that are directly influenced by a more masculine world view. Both the Jedi and the Sith seem to be based on ideals of masculinity, one being the stoic rational emotionless men and the other being anger-driven oppressive men (I could write a whole essay about this). I laughed at Luke's reaction to his uncle and aunt dying because of how emotionless it felt, he only seems sad for a minute and immediately gets over it and doesn't think about them ever again in any of the movies. I also dislike that star wars is so explicitly about families and love that it is the beginning of the entire plot but it has a very narrow view of families where it gives so much importance to blood ties and legacy and such and it really seems like it all revolves around the patriarch of the family. Luke's insistence on calling Darth Vader his father and insisting on him still having a good side is quite weird to me considering he really doesn't know him at all. And although I do get Vader's hesitation in killing Luke because he knows it is the last thing of Padmé that is left, I think that it was such a wasted opportunity that he never gets to know that Leia is his daughter. He could have had an even more justified emotional reaction if he realized that the girl he had literally tortured before was his daughter and that he could have killed her without even knowing it just like he had killed Padmé without knowing it. But it is all wasted because the writers could just not conceive a movie where the climax is between a daughter and her father instead of between a son and his father because in their patriarchal view of family that is the only relation that matters, because sons are the ones that inherit a father's power because women have no power, and so Luke gets everything while Leia just sits back and looks pretty. Leia is the one with knowledge in politics and who grew up being a part of this fight but Luke is the one that is chosen to be trained as a Jedi despite both having the potential for it, he is the one that is told about his father and trusted with the information and he is the only one allowed to face him at the end and he is the only one who turns him and he is the protagonist. Again, lost potential. And at least the sequels seem to fix this issue somewhat and they give Rey power and authority and they give us characters with no blood relations until they then fuck it up and make Rey a Palatine and make her power come from her grandfather's power, a man's power. But even then they do show more moments of genuine care and love that escape these two options of being either stoic or angry, I think one of my favorite moments of all the movies is in the last film when they all hold each other's hands, it is such a sweet moment that I think would be impossible in the other two trilogies.

And I think against most people's opinions that the sequels are probably my favorite for this reason, it fixed some of the things that had to be fixed. And I think having a sequel in order to fix it was so necessary, but honestly I would have liked it to take a completely different direction. I both like and dislike them. I like Rey and I like Finn and Poe, they are my favorite trio in all the trilogies, and I like Kylo Ren because until then all of the talk of turning darksiders to the light side didn't feel that well thought out, but I truly don't like how they just go back to the exact same thing that the original trilogy was, movie 7 is the same as movie 4 and there is still too much time spent on battles and too little on actually engaging with the themes the movies are supposedly about, and the first order being so powerful honestly makes me feel like the ending of movie 6 was worth nothing. I would have liked it much more if the trilogy dealt instead with the aftermath to what happened in the originals and the lives of ordinary people like Rey and Finn. And even with how they are I didn't like the last movie, Palatine just came out of nowhere and it seemed to me just a cheap way to give Kylo Ren plausible deniability by having a superior to respond to so that people wouldn't get mad at his redemption and I also hated how they killed him immediately after redeeming him when in my opinion one of the most interesting parts of a redemption is the following arc of a character learning to accept what they've done and making amends and learning that not everyone is going to accept it. Him dying is just a way to be able to immediately make him a hero and not deal with the consequences of his redemption, and I feel that is quite cowardly for a movie to do. Every step of these movies I just keep seeing ways to evade delving deeper into the topics that they themselves bring up.

The original trilogy I don't know how I feel about. Maybe it is because they are the star wars movies that are the most praised for their originality which as someone who is an avid fiction reader is something I don't see in them, or because most of the people praising them do so from a deeply nostalgic feeling which I do not have having watched them only just now, or maybe it is because I see in them that weird outdated world view that old movies that talk about the future have. I do have to say they are better written than the prequels, and I like their pacing a lot more, though I don't feel any emotional connection with the characters even after 3 movies with them. I do like Han and Leia's romance, and I think it is an interesting set up for a fantasy world (because it is fantasy), but it is not much more than that.

The prequels I didn't like much either, but they did succeed at something that I really needed after watching the originals first (I watched them in release order) and that is giving context. I don't think they do a great job at world building, but however cool the mysterious aura of the originals was, they left so many unanswered questions like Leia somehow being a princess and a senator (for what senate we don't know) or who their mother is, and I finally got my answers here. I did also get more questions like what even happens during the clone wars but I think I'll only get answers for that in other adjacent star wars shows which I don't know if I want to watch yet. And I felt that the prequels were so strongly trying to give context and backstory and depth to the originals that they were often dealing with too many things at the same time and expanding on them too little. I also felt Anakin's switch to the dark side was too abrupt and didn't happen at the right moment, there are indicatives of him having been tempted by the dark side way before, yes, but they were too distant in time to make them feel relevant then and his scene when he switches sides is too sudden. It feels completely in character for him to kill Windu, but I would have expected for him to show at least the smallest bit of resistance afterwards, I think I would have been happy with even half a minute of hesitation or guilt before he surrenders, but that never happens. I do have to say the fight between Anakin and Obi wan was quite good, it was properly paced, it felt real to the characters and made sense, so even if I don't like ending a conflict with a battle just this once George Lucas can have it, I did like that fight scene, which honestly quite surprised me.

So, those are my thoughts for now, I might watch some of the other movies and shows that are out there because I did feel like I was missing a lot of context and lore, or I might wait a while and then rewatch the movies and maybe by then my opinion might have changed, I don't know. Also for clarity I have to say that I did not watch these movies in a good moment at all, I read Earthsea just a month ago which is a series that is not afraid of delving into deep philosophical questions and I think it made my expectations for other media way too high, and I also watched these movies right after I finished reading The Bell Jar, which in my opinion probably made all of the emotional moments seem milder in comparison, watching a boy consider the possibility of having to kill his own father (that he's known for 5 minutes, mind you) doesn't really seem that extreme after reading 200 pages of a woman in an asylum describing how she wants to kill herself.

[strangestcase]

Like as someone who’s read the comics, I know that Harry Potter being the antichrist is actually tongue in cheek meta commentary on Harry Potter being the poster child for commodified modern fantasy stories made bland by the liberalism both benefiting from their sales and permeating the writing, therefore making the HP series, in Moore’s eyes, symbolize the end of decent urban fantasy and popular literature, the advent for trashy mass produced YA.

Which ended up being somewhat true, overlooking the fact that Moore is a grumpy old man and that his writing is fueled by him being a grumpy old man that really, really loves satirizing popular literature with varying degrees of taste.

This commentary isn’t wrong per se, but I find it very ironic, now that not only JKR’s interest in puppeteering the corpse of Harry to make nostalgia money, or her funneling of that money towards promoting bigoted causes and Tory drivel, but also her writing of increasingly shitty increasingly right leaning stories, is evident.

So in a sense Moore saw it coming from a mile away but he also didn’t.

for all of his many faults as a writer I would like to say that maybe Alan Moore was right when he put Harry Potter into the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics. As the antichrist (he shoots deadly lighting from his penis).

[guess-that-ship]

Guess That Ship Tournament S5: Submission Closed

The concept: You describe your ship* to me, I pick out the submissions which I find most compelling and pit them against each other without revealing who they are, people vote on them, and their identities gets revealed once they're eliminated.

Submission Guidelines

*For the purpose of this tournament, relationships do not have to be romantic in nature. I'm sometimes going to use "ship" as a shorthand, just know I mean "relationships" in general.

Relationship can be between any number of characters.

Real people are accepted if they've been dead for more than 100 years.

Roleplay characters are accepted as long as the description only pertains to the characters and not the players.

OCs are accepted.

1 submissions per person. (I cannot enforce this on google form without forcing you to log in. So just be champs and respect this rule.)

Summary Guidelines

Here's the selection process: Me or another judge is going to read through the list of descriptions submitted without looking at their names, we're gonna pick the most compelling submissions, then we check the name to make sure there's no repeats.

Keep it concise but bring something unique to the table.

Keep your description canon compliant, omit headcanon. (Eg. You can say "they love each other" instead of "they're lovers" if their romantic nature is debatable.)

Use canonical pronouns. (If a character's gender is popular fanon or often debated, then I kindly ask that you omit explicitly stating it in your summary.)

Avoid identifying information or setting specific giveaways. (ie. Ninja village, space necromancers.)

The more popular your ship is the more vague the description should be.

No need to mention any meta commentaries or words of god, like whether the ship is canon. Just tell me their story.

Here are some previous submissions for reference.

Exclusions

Ships which were previously selected will no longer be accepted. You don't have to go through the whole list, just hit ctrl+f and search for your characters' names before you write a submission.

I will also not be including any submission from Harry Potter, sorry.

Notes

I will not vet the ships/pairings for problematic content.

If you participate in this tournament, know that you run the risk of unintentionally voting for your nOTP. The mod does not take any responsibility for any distress that may cause you.

Polls will be up around the 9th of July.

[yangsejongs]

the mirror of longing was an EXCELLENT plot device like the way it was able to show all the different ways outsiders see mudeok (and show how we as people are reflected through others’ perspectives!), the way jang wook sees himself, and also telling us that there’s still more to see in our leads...i loved it so much this was a really good episode