#Harry very much has abandonment issues at this point

[dark-elf-writes]

Baby Harry who latches onto Solas and follows him around with big eyes and sits very good for his stories and who has magic coming out his ears is adorable.

(Varric sitting down to teach Harry how to read and praising the kid getting wide eyed reactions that makes sense his hands clench)

Harry is a skittish thing. All but tethered to Lavellan’s side, hiding mostly behind the herald as he takes in his surroundings with wide eyes.

It is Varric’s idea to have Harry sit with him while Lavellan meets with their advisors. “That’s basically torture for a kid,” He claims with no easy smile as Harry looks between him and Lavellan with those same big eyes. Varric’s eyes, however, drift to the team of scouts heading for the Hinterlands.

Harry will have to get used to being without them, and it makes Lavellan want to scream.

Soon others began to offer to watch Harry. Josie set up a space for him in her office, Leliana took him down to the stables to feed the nugs that liked to gather there, and Solas was always eager to have someone listen to his stories.

And Creators how Harry loved Solas’ stories.

(Lavellan was still annoyed with Solas. Still irritated at how he liked down on the Dalish like he was so much better than them. Still wanted to shake him and make him see that culture could change in this world even if it stayed forever preserved in the Fade.

They couldn’t deny their chest flared with warmth when they saw Harry curled up in one of the many furs Solas seemed to collect listening to stories of spirits and ancient elves. Or gods forbid perched on Solas’s hip while the made walked around Haven. Stupid tall bastard who is good with kids and looked so damn good when he smiled and—

Annoyed. They were annoyed.)

Even the new members of their little inner circle took to Harry rather quickly.

Dorian had joined Varric and Solas in teaching Harry. Blackwall had pressed a little carved owl into his hands that Harry treasured like it was carved of pure gold. The Iron Bull was so damn gentle for his size as he led Harry through basic training with a dagger (“Magic is all well and good, boss, but you can’t rely on a fancy stoic all the time”). Sera was always willing to spring Harry from his lessons to cause a little chaos. Cole seemed to make it his mission to make Harry smile.

Cullen and Vivienne seemed to be the only ones who didn’t immediately bond to Harry, but they had still shown they were willing to fight for him when Haven was attacked.

[breakandbuildfiction]

The Danny Phantom Crossover Power Scaling Issue

The existence of the Ghost Zone/Infinite Realms in Danny Phantom should, in theory, make it super easy to create crossover stories between DP and other series. The Ghost Zone is literally a dimension that exists between dimensions and has literal doorways and random portals that lead to random points between time and space and to pocket dimensions. There would be no reason NOT to have Danny just decide to check out another dimension, to have one of his rogues go cause trouble somewhere that Danny has to chase them down. And yet most people here and on AO3 only do Danny Phantom crossover prompts and stories with DC Comics.

Why? Well, for one thing DC Comics is just very easy to do crossover scenarios with thanks to it having so many different original locations, teams, and power origins. But another reason, from what I have been able to gather, is the problem of power scaling.

Danny Phantom, even without adding in fanlore like Ghost King Danny, Eldritch Danny, and Ancient of Space Danny, is incredibly OP both in terms of raw power and because he has a such a wide range of incredibly powerful, useful, and dangerous abilities.

Danny has superhuman strength, speed, and reflexes, he can fly, regenerate, shoot lasers/plasma from anywhere on his body, has cryokinesis and telekinesis, can duplicate himself, can vanish from the visible light spectrum and phase through solid mater and most forms of energy, and more. And there is only so many of those powers you can ignore and how much you can weaken them before it becomes ridiculous and character-breaking.

How can you have Danny become part of a story like Harry Potter without either making it so he never uses his powers or just steamrolls the challenges that nearly get Harry and his friends killed every year? How can you have Danny throw down in the MHA universe without him negating the danger presented to him by becoming intangible and attacking at range or overshadowing his opponents? Or Game of Thrones without making all the dangers and power plays of that world looking like a joke when he can just fly into King's Landing and force Cersei to confess to her infidelity and incest or make Joffrey look so deranged that his allies have no choice but to abandon him? Hell, I brought up shows like Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss on this blog before and I had to be very careful to avoid anything that would boil down to Danny becoming part of the direct military conflict between Heaven and Hell or having to interact with IMP!

To make crossovers with Danny Phantom work you either need to use a universe that has powers that scale to Danny's own, like DC and Marvel, or you need to avoid stories that could be solved via direct combat, which means ignoring the primary genre of Danny Phantom and a severely major aspect of what makes Danny unique as a character. So people, including me, tend to restrict themselves to DPxDC to avoid the problem of powerscaling as much as possible and allow us to have Danny keep his powers and keep having a history of heroics and personality that is in line with protecting and fighting people.

[jaythelay]

Dump's outta ammo.

1. He tried to start a rumor of Biden coming back. He then, very exceptionally poorly, tried to insert this talking point in the middle of a completely different rally. This, made him look like he has dementia. But make no mistake, the issue was nobody believed him literally instantly, and everyone forgot he even said it the week/day prior because he never built it up. He then immedietely dropped the "Biden's coming back" bit afterwards. Making him look far more dementia riddled than previous.

2. He's trying to claim nobody know's Kamala Harris' last name. Only reason to try this angle is because you're outta ammo and wanted to somehow make her name less recognizable in the moment. But soon after, much like with point 1, he went in too early before it could spread and become common, and thus, had to drop that angle entirely aswell, causing more dementia awareness of himself.

It's like he wanted an instant "her emails" or "his laptop" angle without any time or work at fucking all.

The goal is make shit up til something sticks but it's so old and tired and he's incapable of patience. If it doesn't immedietely work, he jumps to another made up point. Much like with point 1 and 2, point 0 was "Kamala ain't black" which he then, also, abandoned when it didn't immedietly stick.

His cohorts are trying to make it stick but if you call them weird they get reeeeeal defensive and forget what the conversation was, so, the points aren't sticking at all.

3. Him almost getting shot by one of his own party absolutely scared the shit out of him. It's partly why he's sending Vance out. Let him get shot next time, not Dump. Regardless of accuracy on that bit, the fact remains, Republican voters Scared Donald Trump from going to rallies, and Vance is a bodyshield for his weak ass.

4. On top of all this is the stunning double fact: One, is that we all collectively moved on from the republican shooting dump situation, because republican violence is so normalized, and second, his rallies are shrinking Because Even The People Find Them Too Dangerous.

Turns out guns are a problem for republicans. But unlike kids in school, they have the choice not to go to a dangerous republican gathering.

All this to culminate in my theory: R's will drop Dump 2 months in and just accept the losses by replacing him with god knows who probably RFK tbh. They know his goose is completely cooked if he loses, and presently? He's losing. Publically and Loudly.

He's scared as fuck right now and R's eat each other for any social weakness they can create. Dump looks weaker than inch thin frozen piss like my god Cruz has more of a spine now and it may be entirely due to age.

You also have his core fanbae (white supremecists) starting to turn on him. There's leak after leak of stuff he's saying none of it new but desperately old and tried and thus nothing sticks for his fanbase. Every poll has him losing hard, worst of all? To a Bi-Racial Woman. His voters hate her but hate a weak man more. (see how they view trans issues)

He himself will never ever drop out. But his party Absolutely Will Kick Him Out Guaranteed. And we'll see a very bizarre flop in the narrative about Dump from R talking heads. Suddenly when he's gone, they can be honest about him. (Like dems with Biden, literally already, as I called it probably a year ago now)

All this to say, Ya'll if he doesn't have a stroke or some shit, it's either his voter base or cohorts that'll ensure one for him. I kinda feel like most of the political violence that'll come out when Dump loses, will turn inward near immedietely, likely, towards himself.

I mean, they didn't make gallows with a dems name on em, and they did kill some cops, just saying they appear to go after their own when they're in crowds. That and a single gunshot sent them all running, and a single black man completely diverted their attention from their actual goals simply by being black. Literal Toddlers are more successful in any of their goals.

NONE of this is to placate. Vote Kamala, vote Third Party. Just don't not vote. Don't let this opportunity slip away, Dems actually trying is a first in a lifetime, keep that momentum going, and stop allowing bullshit based on party affiliation. God damn RFK the starved brain word dude is considered dem, we deserve better than Biden or RFK, and Kamala/Walz is a hell of a start.

Vote. But ensure you crush R's voting spirit.

We don't need nazis voting for nazis. Ya don't have to sell Kamala/Walz to R's, you need to make R's and Dump appear as weak as they've always been, that's what is working best, because their image is actually everything, we saw it with Rittenhouse and Rogan. Immedietely flip flop because their image was made weak.

That's all a theory, a politic theory. Thank. go now.

[saintsenara]

What do you think about Tom Riddle Sr?And your thoughts on Tom Riddle Sr/Merope Gaunt as a ship? I read some of your answers on Merope Gaunt and I just adore your fic 'Enchanter's Nightshade'. I was curious as to what your thoughts are on his canon character, the way that he is treated in fanon and if you have any headcanons on his character

thank you very much for the asks, pal - and i'm sorry that i'd entirely forgotten that i had an answer for the first sitting in my drafts until the second arrived in my inbox...

[thank you also for the very kind shoutout to enchanter's nightshade!]

and i find tom sr. extremely interesting as a character, and he's someone i think quite a lot of compelling stuff can be done with in fanfiction - particularly in how fic writers can take a sledgehammer to how he's treated by the canon narrative...

which - of course - means that there is a trigger warning for a discussion of rape in what follows, which is under the cut.

tom and merope

it's worth starting by emphasising that the series never thinks of tom sr. as a victim. it treats love potions as benign and broadly amusing [the only time we ever see someone under the influence of one - ron in half-blood prince - it's played for laughs], describes merope's drugging of tom sr. as something she would consider "romantic", and never acknowledges that she was his rapist.

[although it is important to point out that the fanon that voldemort's issues with love come from the circumstances of his conception is something jkr never said. and i also think that it's important, when thinking about tom and merope's relationship, to recognise that all the evidence of canon is that she is subjected to incestuous sexual violence at the hands of her brother and/or father - she is an abused teenager with no meaningful understanding of consent or bodily autonomy, and she evidently views her "relationship", as she sees it, with tom as a means of escaping a life which is undeniable, unrelenting misery.]

[which is to say - i find tom and merope interesting as a pairing because of this inherent nuance, tragedy and violence.]

the series also criticises tom sr. for leaving the relationship - in line both with its broader disdain for absent fathers and idealisation of devoted mothers, and with its prioritisation of love-as-suffering and love-as-sacrifice over forms of love which are more self-indulgent. its view is evidently that tom sr. should have gritted his teeth and remained in merope's life in some way or another [maybe not as her husband, but also not as her survivor] in order to have been involved in his son's life.

indeed, it always stands out to me that - when discussing tom sr. fleeing his abusive relationship - dumbledore refers to merope as "merope riddle". emphasising that the two were married underscores the fact that the text views tom sr. as straightforwardly unadmirable - a husband and father who abandoned his family.

[and he gets his comeuppance. i think it's worth noting that the narrative isn't sympathetic at all about his death - the opening chapter of goblet of fire, where voldemort's murder of the riddles is described, states plainly that nobody likes them - and he finds himself unable to outrun the son he left behind when that son uses his bones in his resurrection ritual... the subtext is clear: abandoning your son was the wrong move, and since good people - like james and lily - don't abandon their son even after their deaths, tom sr. is therefore a bad person.]

that both dumbledore and harry see him like this makes sense within their watsonian characterisations. harry has - as he says when lupin tries to walk out on the pregnant tonks - the view that parents should never abandon their children unless they have literally no choice, which is a perfectly understandable opinion for an orphan who lost their parents in such traumatic circumstances to hold [he also takes a very dim view on merope for dying]. dumbledore, who recognises the dangerous paths overwhelming desire can lead one down, sees himself in merope, and is therefore less willing to examine the cruelty of her actions.

voldemort also thinks of him in this vein - his view of his father, expressed during his resurrection scene in goblet of fire, is that he abandoned merope [with whom he had a consensual relationship] in a fit of pique when she confessed to him that she was a witch. voldemort thinks of his father as a deadbeat who left him to rot - and the series never takes issue with him holding this view, even as it works to prove many of the other things he believes about himself, magic, and power wrong.

tom and voldemort

the role tom sr. plays in voldemort's narrative arc, then, is pretty much unconnected to his experiences at merope's hands - he is not considered by the text to be a warning about the corrosive, oppressive, violent potential of using magic against muggles which voldemort follows his mother in doing, for example.

his role in his son's arc across the seven-book canon is to underscore that voldemort will never successfully outrun his muggle heritage - the fact that his son has his face and his name [and the fact that dumbledore, and then harry, insist on using this name for him after voldemort sheds it, which is - and we should call it what it is, especially given jkr's stance on such things - deadnaming] serves as a way for the text to criticise and humiliate voldemort, undermining his belief that he's something pure and special [and undermining his pride in his descent from slytherin] by making clear that, when all is said and done, he's just an ordinary man with a muggle father.

and so his death occurs purely to enable this narrative treatment of voldemort. he has to kill his dad - because he's trying to eradicate anything muggle from himself - and so the action becomes all about him. tom is basically just there.

but this is something i really like playing with in my own work. i always end up writing tom sr. as not only physically resembling his son - except for the fact, and i'll die on the hill that this is the canon text's intention, that voldemort has his mother's eyes - but as being the source of his mannerisms and many of his non-childhood-trauma-induced personality traits.

partially this is because i think we might as well take the series' belief that voldemort can't escape the riddle genes and go the whole hog with it.

but it's also because i think it's worth skewering the series' view of voldemort's slytherin heritage as - essentially - dooming him to be incapable of change in either positive or negative directions. the way the gaunts are described in canon - violent, unstable, grandiose etc. - is set up to suggest that voldemort gets these aspects of his personality from them, that - like the parseltongue - being a terrorist with delusions of grandeur is just something the heirs of slytherin are bound to inherit.

but i like idea of these traits coming from the less mystical branch of voldemort's lineage - and his decision to indulge them being nothing more than deliberate choice.

tom riddle sr. character notes and headcanons

which leads us to the question of what tom sr. is like as a character separate from merope and voldemort.

we only see him once in canon - where he's talking in a carrying voice to cecilia about how much land his dad owns and correctly identifying morfin as a danger to society - and he's only mentioned a handful more times: his whirlwind marriage; his return home a few months later, which he explains as him having realised he'd been "hoodwinked"; the fact that he's considered even worse than his "rich, snobbish, and rude" parents by the villagers of little hangleton in the period immediately before his death; and that he dies in his evening clothes with a look of pure terror on his face.

his gravestone in the goblet of fire film has him born in 1905, and i like this [although i push his date of birth back a couple of years in order for him to have finished university when he's attacked by merope] because it enables him to be a stereotypical "bright young thing" - the sort of dissolute aristocrat, untroubled both by his father's victorian morals and by the devastating impact of the first world war on men a decade or so older than him, whose exploits dominate our image of the roaring twenties [or - at least - the roaring twenties in britain]. at the start of 1925, before his life all goes wrong, i like him as idle, profligate, bohemian, constantly partying, a keen user of cocaine, promiscuous, vain, and incredibly rude to his servants, tradesmen, and policemen and so on - spending his days in a whirlwind of hangovers, tennis, elaborate fancy-dress balls, modern novels, dining at his club, and piles of liberated flappers, vile bodies [and jeeves and wooster...] style.

and i do think the idea of him as lazy, convinced of his own brilliance, and complacent [personality traits not helped by an education at eton and oxford - he takes a fourth, the lowest-possible passing classification, on a degree in greats - which he has neither the intellect nor the work ethic to succeed at without the power of daddy's money] offers a really interesting side to him being preyed on by merope.

i like him as someone who thinks of himself as rational, cheerfully irreligious, and far too modern and well-bred to waste his time on the silly superstitions of the boring, ordinary people in the village. him mentioning to cecilia about the stories the villagers tell about morfin can be read as him being condescendingly amused by local folklore surrounding the gaunts - a sort of "would you believe it, one of our gardeners is convinced they're wizards! too, too funny!" vibe - and i really like writing him as someone whose total rejection of the possibility of magic and conviction that the gaunts are just pitiable and disgusting, rather than dangerous [the view of the rest of the village], means that when merope offers him a glass of shimmering water he thinks "why, what a lark!" instead of running.

when he returns home, however, i imagine him as profoundly changed - paranoid, beset by nightmares, increasingly superstitious [voldemort's own rather... catholic leanings being mirrored in his father going full sebastian flyte is delicious to me], unwilling to eat or drink anything he hasn't seen prepared [one of the reasons, perhaps, why the servants at the riddle house dislike him so much], unable to go anywhere near the stables and see the horse he was riding when evil befell him, unwilling to talk to anyone or receive visitors [hence his reputation for being snobbish and rude - the villagers interpret this as him thinking them beneath him], unwilling to spend money or give gifts because he's afraid of unwittingly finding himself ensnared again [giving him a reputation for being rather miserly], and so on.

i like the idea of him becoming incredibly reclusive, losing his interest in the social life he once enjoyed overnight, and spending his days sleeping poorly and staying inside. i imagine his parents being supportive to the best of their ability, but that tom's inability to speak openly what happened to him [he, like his son, doesn't like doctors because he fears they will accuse him of being mad] means they can only do so much. their understanding of tom's marriage is the same as the rest of the village's - that tom consensually slept with merope, she told him she was pregnant, he "did the right thing" and married her, and he then discovered she was lying.

[he knows - of course - that she was pregnant, and he is convinced in his bones that the child will one day find and destroy him...]

tom's obvious post-traumatic stress disorder would undoubtedly have been enough to exempt him from conscription when the second world war broke out - although, of course, his medical unfitness wouldn't have been described in these terms.

and i think it's really interesting to consider how this would be received in the village - especially since the riddles would have gone out of their way to conceal his mental state from the public [hence their performance of the rituals of aristocratic life - including taking their dinner in full evening dress - even after he comes home a changed man]. i really like the idea of the general view being that - unlike the ordinary, hard-working men of little hangleton - tom managed to buy his way out of service [not only in the army but also on the home front], and that, to be quite honest, it was no wonder wounded war-hero frank bryce snapped and killed him.

which is a nice segue into the fact that frank bryce/tom riddle sr. is a concept i've recently become completely convinced by. frank staying in the riddle house after he's eliminated as a suspect in the riddles' deaths is something i find really quite moving - not only because of what it says about the disconnect between the historical memory many brits have of the war and the war's reality that a disabled veteran would find himself with nowhere else to go, but because it must indicate a genuine affection for the riddles which nobody else shared. the garden bringing some comfort to tom sr. on his worst days triggering a solemn, steadfast love for him in frank [requited or not] which endured past his death really compels me.

[and i also think that frank having some deeper connection with tom sr. - rather than just being his gardener - provides a more satisfactory explanation for why voldemort uses him as a horcrux murder than we get in canon. voldemort seeing - in his father's mind or frank's - that the two were entangled in some way would only increase his fury that tom sr. abandoned him and his mother...]

i'm also hugely convinced by the potential of shipping tom sr. with dumbledore. i don't particularly like stories in which voldemort is collected from the orphanage and raised by his father - firstly, because most of the things i find interesting about him are so heavily rooted in his orphanhood, and secondly, because i think that tom sr.'s move would be to place his son as the ward of someone he felt certain he could pay to keep quiet rather than bringing him up himself. but i can see dumbledore becoming aware of a magical child lurking in a london orphanage years earlier than in canon, having some sort of misguided belief that he should track down said child's family, turning up on the doorstep of the riddle house with a sinister toddler glowering in his arms, and insinuating himself into tom sr.'s life in a way which is either very funny or very dark.

cecilia is also an incidental character i'm unjustifiably obsessed with. i like her as tom's casual girlfriend in 1925 - with neither of them imagining for a second that the relationship will ever be serious - who then turns into the only friend from his glamorous set who remains in contact with him when he comes home.

and - i'm afraid to say - the plot-bunny of cecilia deciding to try and unravel the mystery of what's made tom so ill and scouring london orphanages until she discovers tom jr. has now bounced into my head... joining the other tom sr. fic i would pay cash to see, a rebecca-style caper where the second mrs riddle is haunted everywhere she goes by the spectre of merope...

[ashesandhackles]

what are your thoughts on the Harry/Dumbledore relationship?

hello! so most of my feelings about harry-dumbledore equation are captured in these metas:

A cold blooded walk to destruction

the lightning struck tower

my favourite moment of Harry and Dumbledore's relationship though is captured in the Life and Lies chapter in Deathly Hallows. I am obsessed with that chapter and obsessed with Harry's feelings in those chapters:

here are my notes from the chapter, cutting it down to Harry-Dumbledore stuff:

The chapter opens with the smallness of Harry against the vast sky, a bird's eye view shot to really highlight how vulnerable he feels. On the heels of the chapters where he sees himself and his family immortalised in statues and have their old home preserved, it feels so stark.

The throughline of connection Harry makes from "People don't like being locked up! You did it to me last summer" to Dumbledore's apparent confinement of Ariana. Unresolved abandonment issues from OOTP, Sirius grief all coming to the surface here.

I am especially struck by the image of Harry's angry shouting making blackbirds fly into the pearly sky, and spiral over him. Blackbirds are associated with mystery, secrets and are seen as messengers to netherworld - this combined with the image of pearly white sky (heavens/God) seems intentional.

Harry and Hermione throughout Dh have oppositional positions: faith vs rationalist (hallows vs horcruxes), acceptance vs fear of death, and here Rita's book lies between them, a line on the ground.

"Look at what he has asked from me!: :The image of Harry, arms flung over his head - "trying to hold in his anger" or "protect himself from the weight of his disillusionment" is the thing that stays with me from this chapter. (it is reminiscent of Snape's "you have used me! I have spied for you, lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you" - basically, "why have you forsaken me?" moment. The chapter being set in whiteness and emptiness, reminiscent of King's Cross chapter where Harry does get his answers from Dumbledore is very striking)

Hermione, who has modified her parents memories, can confidently assert that "He loved you, I know he loved you", because her love for her parents, for Ron can also be sacrificed at the altar of greater good, even if it means doing things that would hurt them and dismiss their agency (as is with her parents). It doesn't mean she doesn't love them. Harry dropping his arms when she says this - he wants to believe it, he hopes to believe it but doesn't. But with Ron's return in Silver Doe, Harry will be on his path to be Dumbledore's man again.

From the Silver doe chapter: The discussion on Dumbledore with Ron shows the nature of faith Harry has in the moment: "Dumbledore's dead. He's definitely gone" vs in Chamber of Secrets where he says, "he will only be gone from the school when none here are loyal to him". With the faith in Cos, he was rewarded with Fawkes and Sorting Hat. Further illustration of where Harry is - Ron not thinking the Grindelwald stuff was a big deal ("he was really young") vs Harry ("he was our age").

Malfoy Manor chapters: In keeping with the faith aspect of the book, when Harry is at his most helpless- he asks the shard of mirror, where he kept thinking he is seeing Dumbledore's eye -for help. Dobby comes through.

Shell Cottage chapters: Harry understands the path Dumbledore laid out for him, but wishes he could understand Dumbledore himself. ( Ron and Harry's conversation about Voldemort - "You really understand him." "Bits of him -- I wish I understood Dumbledore as much.")

By the chapters where Harry meets Aberforth, Harry gains an understanding of Dumbledore's emotionality - "He was never free... never. The night your brother died - he took a potion that drove him mad. 'Don't hurt them-please, hurt me instead' " Harry points out how watching Aberforth and Ariana being hurt was torture to him, and emphasises his commitment to Dumbledore's cause, "Because sometimes you've got to think of the Greater Good! This is war!"

King's Cross chapter - Harry gets his answers. :)

Harry's journey to understand Dumbledore is extremely profound, and Harry's forgiveness of what Dumbledore put him through (with regards to his agency - which is Harry's main issue) comes from a very reflective, thoughtful space. Therefore, he names his second son after the two men riddled by guilt, seeking to atone for the harmful things they had done by committing to a greater cause.

[kbrick]

Peak Drarry: Celebrating Incredible Writers - aibidil

Peak Drarry is a series of posts celebrating the absolute treasure trove of talented writers in this fandom, and a reminder of how lucky we are to have them here with us. I’m kicking it off with one of my all-time faves, @aibidil​. 

✨AIBIDIL✨

I’m guessing there are very few people involved in the Drarry fandom who haven’t heard of aibidil. Aibidil has been showering us with quality fic since 2017 and has over sixty offerings on AO3. Her works were some of the first I consumed when I fell headfirst into Drarry during covid, and had a lot to do with my desire to write my own. I still distinctly remember being blown away by A Hag, a Hex, a Tale of Redemption, by how aibidil had managed to create such a compelling, funny, and heartfelt fuck-or-die fic, one that stood out from the rest. So, why should you read aibidil’s fic? Here are a few reasons:

They are creative and get you thinking

Sometimes there’s a trope or two thrown into the mix, but even then, the trope is merely a jump-off point into something much bigger. Trope: Ginny and Harry break up and Harry finds solace in and then love with Draco. Aibidil comes along and says, okay, fine, but make the problem Ginny’s unwanted pregnancy, have Harry experience emotional turmoil over that fact (not that Harry-Abandonment-Issues-Should-Be-My-Middle-Name-Potter identifies with an unwanted fetus, no, of course not), have him spend the rest of the story sorting through his complicated feelings, and make the whole thing a testament to reproductive choice (this fic is called (Un)wanted, by the way. It’s incredible). Trope: Malfoy wears a skirt and Harry goes feral. Aibidil’s take? Malfoy wears the skirt because he and Hermione are leading a protest against the gendered, outdated Ministry dress codes (Beards, Booty Shorts, and Binaries).

Abidil’s stories don’t always skew political (although I love when they do), but they always have something to say. In A Hag, a Hex, a Tale of Redemption, Draco must come to terms with what it means to love someone, and how consent plays into that (does a lie negate consent?). Truth and love also play a role in When Times Are Dire, when Harry and Draco must pretend to marry to save the world. But is it pretend when they really are joining their lives and families together?

Beyond the deeper moral and ethical questions present in these stories, aibidil’s fic always manages to be creative and interesting. Abidil comes up with some of the most inventive sorts of magic (you really have to read her latest, Always Already, for one of the most thoughtful depictions of magical time travel I’ve ever read). Her premises can be angsty, like what if Astoria tells Scorpius—on her death bed no less—that he is actually Draco’s child with Harry (when by now and tree by leaf)? They can also be downright silly, like what if Draco can’t stop hiccoughing for days (Upside Down, Holding One’s Breath)? But one thing of which you can be certain: they’re never, ever boring.

They’re a master class in characterization

So, aibidil can dream up interesting, different, thought-provoking storylines, yes. But she also gets it right when it comes to characterization. Her Harry and Draco are always recognizable to me, no matter how evolved and changed they’ve become. There is something essential there, something true to the characters we know and love, that is ever present. And I think that’s because aibidil truly empathizes with and cares about her characters. This knack for getting in a character’s headspace means that aibidil is able to create some of the most fully formed, well rounded and realistically portrayed versions of Harry and Draco I’ve read. Whether it’s Harry in When Times are Dire enjoying the way his children sort of take his love for granted (because Harry wants that for them so badly, wants to be a constant, unquestioned source of support in their lives) or Draco in Always Already shoving down his snark in order to be as inoffensive as possible as a sort of penance for the war, you both recognize and feel for these characters. They’re flawed and imperfect, but they’re trying, and you love them for it.

There are moments in aibidil’s fic that leave me breathless because of how well they nail down the essence of a character in just a few words, or a single exchange or situation. For instance, in When Times Are Dire, Draco and Harry take a trip to the zoo and Draco buys Harry an absurdly enormous ice cream sundae after Harry recalls a time his aunt and uncle bought one for Dudley but not him. “Harry found himself at a loss for words,” aibidil writes. “He thought he’d worked through his childhood zoo issues. He’d been here so many times as an adult, without the abuse of the Dursleys. He had so many wonderful memories here, so many trips with his kids. But no one had ever bought Harry an ice cream before [emphasis mine].” The way Draco understands Harry, and the way he helps Harry to understand something about himself in such an everyday sort of scene is beautiful.

In Pure Imagination, Harry and Draco, experiencing depression after the war, are given a potion that allows them to tap into their imaginations completely, the way a child would. They have an excellent time on the potion together, imagining all sorts of things, including taking a trip to a Muggle skate park (together), which they agree to do at a later date. But afterward, Harry retreats and doesn’t go to the skate park (a decision that gives us incredible insight into the Harry of this story, come to think of it). In their joint trip to the counselor’s office later, Draco tells the counselor that imagination is dangerous because it opens people up to disappointment. “It’s smart that I don’t allow myself delusions like thinking I can somehow have a fulfilling career, even given my past,” he says. “It’s smart that I don’t allow myself the delusion of thinking Potter might want to spend time with me when he’s not high on a fucking imagination potion.”

And doesn’t this cut right to the heart of Draco? Whether he’s being cruel the way he was in canon, or being cool and indifferent, the way he is at the beginning of Pure Imagination, he is someone who struggles to believe in his own self-worth, and has found an entire arsenal’s worth of methods to hide this fact, even, sometimes, from himself. 

They’re just so damn funny

And finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the absolute best things about aibidil’s stories. Because on top of incredible storylines and beautiful character work, aibidil is fucking hilarious. I don’t think I’ve ever read through anything of hers without laughing out loud. Oftentimes, the humor is situational, like in When Times Are Dire when Harry and Draco tell their children that they’re in a relationship (when they’re actually not) and proceed to have one of the most awkward exchanges of all time with them, which leads to Harry clarifying that they are together ‘sexually’ (He says that. To his children.). Or in Auld Acquaintance, when Harry comes through the floo looking like a teenager and Draco finds himself torn between the ghost of attraction his own teenaged self had for this version of Harry and the fact that to his mature, grandfatherly eye, Harry looks “doughy…like an underbaked infant.” Or in Starve Your Distractions, Feed Your Focus, when a coupled-up Harry and Draco have to work out with a very sexy Neville, who is wearing joggers that leave little to the imagination.

Sometimes, though, the hilarity is in the form of amazing dialogue (her Harry and Draco banter is always top-tier) or of others’ observations of the Drarry dynamic, like when Neville says (in Always Already) this about Harry and Draco’s teasing of one another: “Don't mind them. It's like their little traumatised child-warrior foreplay or something.” Aibidil is always aware of the story she’s telling, and of the Drarry-ness of it all. These are not simple men, and theirs is never a typical, simple relationship, and you know what? That can be funny. As Harry says in When Times are Dire: "Ah yes. I'm a cheap date. All it takes to get me in bed is to almost kill each other, survive a war together, work together over decades, have children who fall in love and get married, get married for political reasons, pretend to be in love for two years to all friends and relatives, become grandparents together, and take a controlled substance to open up enough to tell each other the truth. That's all."

See? Easy.

Finally, I shouldn’t leave out the fact that aibidil’s acronyms are the best of all time (her most recent fic’s C.O.C.K. is my new favorite, but there are oodles of excellent ones).

Recommended For…

Everyone. Listen, if you enjoy laughing, or exciting and original storylines, or fic that makes you think, or fic that reveals the beating hearts of our favorite characters, aibidil’s catalog of work is for you. There is angst in places, there is smut in places, but that’s not really the point of her fic. The point is the journey, the character development, and the ridiculous amount of joy and energy contained in all of these stories. Here are a few you might want to check out, but honestly, you can’t go wrong with anything she’s written.

Top 3 Fics Over 25,000 Words (by kudos)

Dating for Dads in Denial (25k) - In which one wizard designs and another reluctantly patronises a magical matchmaking service, amidst the chaos of children and parenting.

when by now and tree by leaf (46k) - When Scorpius Malfoy is saying goodbye to his dying mother, he doesn't expect to hear her confess, "Your father slept with another man and became pregnant with you." 

Moldova’s Magical Tea (32k) - Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and—to everyone’s surprise—Draco Malfoy are opening a magical tea shop to revive wizarding tea culture. Harry, who is unemployed and trying to find his way in post-war society, wants to help his friends with their new business—but that means spending a lot of time around Malfoy. 

Top 3 Fics Under 25,000 Words (by kudos)

Back to You (8k) - The eighth years make Harry and Malfoy go head to head and back to back in a question-and-answer drinking game. The worst that can happen is they end up drunk, right?

The Usual (9k) - Harry finally tries the new magical coffee shop on Diagon Alley. A story in which Draco is Up To Something™ and Harry is going to get to the bottom of it, and to the bottom of that sixteen ounce to-go cup.

Beards, Booty Shorts, and Binaries (9k) - Harry was hoping for a quiet day at the office, but Hermione and Draco are waging a war on discrimination with beards and skirts.

Kbrick’s Picks (in order of obsession)

When Times Are Dire (130k) - Magical Britain is screwed, and it's once again up to Harry to save it. This time, by marrying Draco Malfoy.

Always Already (170k) -  It's 2004: Harry teaches primary school and loves his job and friends; It's 1980: Harry has to fight Voldemort, again; It's 2004: Draco is a trainee Healer and reformed member of society; It's 1980: Draco has to face his father's cruelty; It's 2004: Harry and Draco definitely aren't lonely or depressed or traumatised; It's 1980: Harry and Draco listen to Kate Bush and watch Dallas and drive a 1979 Ford Cortina; It's 2004, it's 1980, it's...

Pure Imagination (15k) - An eighth-year tale of depressed happiness, reluctant imagination, and conflicted hope. And skateboarding.

.

[liskantope]

Do you think that a more successful version of 1/6/2021 (either via more violence or successfully pressuring the Vice President not to certify votes) would not be a threat to democracy? To me that seems like the most likely way for Trump's general antagonism to liberal democracy to manifest itself.

A fair question.

So first of all, I would say January 6th was the biggest embarrassment to MAGA people, and to Republicans in general, of the last seven years or so. You can see this just by listening to the political discourse surrounding Trump. Democrats love to bring it up as much as possible, while Republicans find every possible way to be on the defensive ("Yeah, it was bad, but its badness is exaggerated -- it doesn't technically fit the definition of coup or even insurrection -- nobody brought guns or was actually killing people -- you just want to make everything about January 6th -- what about the BLM riots around the country the previous summer?"). I once was confronting a previously staunchly liberal friend who started voting Republican and seeming to abandon most of her left-wing stances on a variety of issues following being pissed off at how Democrats in California dealt with school closures during the pandemic, and asking her whether her new convictions really outweighed the horrors of another Trump term; when I brought up January 6th, the best response she had was, "That was terrible and the truth is I think most Republicans feel terrible about January 6th."

My point being that January 6th, 2021 was a disaster for MAGAism and the Republican party in general (if Harris winds up winning narrowly in November, I'm going to say that if January 6th hadn't happened, she would have lost, and that is truly a silver lining), and most Republicans know it. Unfortunately, Trump himself and his most impassioned cult followers are among the only ones not wise enough to know it. So yes, I expect a worse version of January 6th could occur, which would be an even bigger disaster for the Republican party and likely spell the death of MAGAism altogether (as opposed to, say, turning us into a one-party state under Trump and the MAGAists) but be a very, very horrible event in and of itself. I guess my point is, what effects would this have beyond the immediate? I guess the worst-case scenario -- which is admittedly historically bad for our country -- would be that that the VP is willing not to certify votes this time, that a constitutional crisis is triggered which has to be decided by various courts now stacked explicitly in Trump's favor, and a Trumpist president (which could only be Trump himself if he managed to ram through an end to term limits and if his health is holding up at 82) and/or members of Congress wrongly get elected.

This would be a highly, highly undemocratic event in the history of our country, but not much more undemocratic than, say, Bush's election in 2000 was; meanwhile, I predict that Trump himself will be not much longer for this world, that a very solid majority of Americans will be awake to the dangers of MAGA and fight against it like nothing we've seen before, that an actual focused policy agenda would fail to come to fruition, and that the political backlash would be decisive (the basic form of our government and mechanisms for elections would still be in place, and could those in power really fix the results if they were losing by a true landslide rather than marginally? I tend to think not.)

Would this worst-case scenario be an absolutely appalling sequence of events? Yes, and plenty of reason to fear Trump's return to power (even though it still relies on a lot of "if"s). Would it unravel the structure of our government to turn it into something more like a dictatorship, or in other words, "destroy democracy"? It's hard for me to concretely imagine a way that it would.

I suppose I'd prefer that phrases like "insult to democracy", "degrade/undermine democracy", and "antidemocratic" be used over phrases like "destroy democracy" and "make himself a dictator". But, I don't know, if the latter are doing a better job of turning swing voters against Trump than they are at giving Trump supporters more ammunition for diagnosing half the country has having Trump Derangement Syndrome, then I guess I'm in favor of that rhetoric for the short term of the next three months.

[littlerosetrove]

HOLY SHIT!!!!! 🩷💜💙 I have a lot to say.

My initial Spoiler Thoughts for 7x4 in no particular order.

The Bachelor stuff, as expected, was cringe. In a fun way, but still cringe. Chimney definitely has a little crush on Joey (hello bi Chimney? 👀), and clearly Maddie and Josh are huge Bachelor fans. I learned that it was Jennifer LH that loves the show and so pitched this crossover to the writers. Good on her since she helped create Madney and Buddie. <3

Eddie gave Buck a look at Buck's comment of, “Sorry, I have a rule that I don’t date anyone I meet on a call.” 

Bobby could tell something was off with Harry… from the waffles? Also, was that the same actor who plays Harry? It’s been a couple years, so no surprise he’s grown a lot and looks a bit different since we last saw him I think in maybe season 5A.  

That has to be a low-key dig at Buck with Eddie saying “...it’s like that thing when you meet somebody and you just, click.” A reference to the cemetery scene and Buck saying the nonsense about how Natalia, after talking twice, sees him. As Eddie should. 

Ravi is back! He looked fantastic and beautiful. Heh, loved the brief comedy bit of him asking who was gonna go into the sewer. 

Eddie had Marisol babysit Chris twice in one week? ……..I feel mixed about that. I know Eddie is in a better place than he was with Ana, but for him to leave his kid with his, as far as we can tell, casual girlfriend? What confuses me and makes this harder to even analyze for why Eddie is comfortable with this is that, hi. We still know jack shit about Marisol. We just know she and Eddie are casual boyfriend and girlfriend, but not serious. And because we don’t know anything about Marisol nor their relationship, there’s too much to guess why Eddie is, again, cool with having Marisol babysit Chris. I’ve also seen some Latina folks, in the past few days, comment on the stereotype of people like Ana and Marisol playing “the perfect” girlfriend, being motherly and such, and there not really being anything else there. I have no further comment on that, but something to put out there I guess.  

Buck complained to Maddie about Eddie having a new friend. And Maddie saying that Buck probably kept digging at Chris for questions. Buck is definitely feeling very insecure that Chris finds Tommy cool, and has some kind of connection with Tommy already (though we know nowhere close to what Buck and Chris have or will ever have). I feel for Buck, I do. Cause y'all, this guy is going to have abandonment issues probably the rest of his life. Yes he should know his place in Eddie and Chris's life by now, but....idk, it's still hard for Buck to trust his place in peoples lives. Buck go back to therapy, please.

Oh so Eddie has wanted Buck to hang out, like with the basketball games, but Buck has passed on that. Thus Eddie invited Tommy. And Eddie had looked so excited at the prospect of Buck getting to come watch the fight as well. 

Ohhh really interesting scene with Athena and Harry. Harry even brought up the incident of years ago, of a cop pulling over his dad and pointing a gun at Harry. Harry in this scene was asking, basically, which is more important being a cop or my mom. Harry has the impression Athena cares more about being a cop and………. well………. history shows she does “”understand”” the cops side. 

Honestly? I really think Eddie was talking to Tommy on the phone at the station. Given the episode, it probably was. Some may say it could be Marisol, but given how miniscule a role she’s played *gestures* in everything? Nah, it was Tommy. Even from his dialogue I could catch, idk, I still say Tommy. And goddd Buck was trying So Hard to get Eddie’s attention. Buck honey…. you’re embarrassing yourself. 

The scene with Athena and the mom who accidentally shot her son got me. Well done, I cried. Let me also just say I’m so happy to have 911 calls that aren’t longer than necessary, but more so just right. Season 6 had an issue of dragging out the calls. 

Ha! Chimney covering for Buck at the court and calling himself a beard. Chimney knows something is up, especially with Buck. 

Can I just say, I loved seeing Eddie look so happy?? Being more at ease looks fantastic on him. <333

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Eddie act so broey with someone. Tommy really brings out Eddie’s “hey bro man dude what’s going on” side. Interesting interesting… But I am glad that Eddie has someone to connect with about the army, his interest in fighting, and apparently cars???? Stuff like that. 

Tommy called Buck Evan, the entire episode. *squints* I’m not mad about it, but I’m a little ?????? about it. I don’t recall any past girlfriends of Buck who called him Evan. Always Buck. And Buck always introduces himself as Buck to everyone, sooooooo what? The only people to ever call Buck Evan is his parents, Maddie, and Eddie once in the memorable and iconic Will Scene. Like having Tommy call Buck Evan certainly sets him apart from everyone else and definitely past love interests…...

Good on Maddie for rightfully being pissed at Buck for, even though he’s not sure he did it intentionally or not, but for hurting Eddie. I’m a bit pissed at Buck for that too. Like Maddie said, you don’t hurt the people you care about. 🤨

Well I’m glad that Athena stuck by Harry’s side through the whole process, buuuut I still think Athena needs to retire. (we know she won’t, especially with the confirmed 8th season, and who knows how many more. maybe in the last season.) 

Eddie feels bad? Nah see it’s explained in this post by @bihoebuck about how neither Buck nor Eddie are right or wrong. It’s a quick post, read that and it’ll make sense. 

I can't wait to see and hear more from Eddie next episode. Buck may now be focusing on his queer awakening instead of figuring out his feelings about Eddie (spoiler: he's in love with Eddie, we know this), but all of this must get Eddie thinking too. And not just "oh Buck was feeling left out, and I feel like I may have left him out too." Nah there's gotta me more to shake loose in Eddie's head, you know??

BI BUCK IS CANON BABYYYYY!!!! I gotta say the build up to the kiss was really good. And? Like y’all. I really liked how confident Tommy was. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders, saying a lot of right things to clear the air about Chris (that Chris couldn’t stop talking about Buck) and Eddie and such. Tommy even admitting that he’s a bit jealous of the family at the 118, since we know it was Not like that when he worked there. I’m guessing it’s not like that even at the station he currently works at. Now. Once again though we have another case of Buck Misunderstanding the mother-effing Assignment. And I do feel sorry for Tommy because Buck is… basically pivoting in his jealousy about Eddie - feeling like he’s losing Eddie and Chris because Buck will probably forever have abandonment issues - and instead of continuing to really think about why he’s feeling jealous in any regards about Eddie, he’s now thinking, “Oh. I was just wanting to spend time with Tommy. And oh holy shit I’m into guys? Yeah. Yeah I am!!” And so Buck’s queer awakening is kinda clouding his judgment and perspective. Don’t get me wrong! Buck is definitely bi, BLESS, but now he’s going to focus on this part, focus on Tommy, instead of figuring out his feelings about Eddie. I think Buck is still afraid to truly look close at his feelings for Eddie and untangle what it all means. I really wonder just how long Buck will consciously and subconsciously avoid thinking about what Eddie really means to him. I just hope Tommy doesn’t get hurt along the way. =|

PHEW. I got most of my thoughts out, but I’m sure I missed some details. Another really good episode in my books. Not perfect, but pretty dang awesome. 😎

[endversewinchester]

This is Kings Cross station today, September 1st 2023. 11 years after the last HP movie came out.

Harry Potter as a franchise became a worldwide pop culture reference. It’s reached levels very few franchises do (I can only think of Star Wars, honestly). It is even mandatory reading material at many schools worldwide now, and has been for years. There’s a reason that game made WB a billion, thus becoming the most profitable Warner Bros game ever.

The thing is, it’s been 11 years. So many of you were either too young to be part of the “potter fever” or to witness it. That is why it is incomprehensible for you that HP still brings out this much support, despite JKR’s fast descent into madness.

Fact is, Harry Potter has surpassed her by far and for a very long time. Even before she begun sharing her views, fandom had already been splitting from her over controversial topics concerning the franchise, like the bathroom thing. And cursed child (this one I actually like, but I am in the minority here). The Harry Potter fanbase hasn’t been JKR’s in years, and that gap widens everyday.

My point here is there needs to be dialogue. I’m sure it would be very comfortable to pretend the world is black and white, and all HP fans support her views (which Voldy herself said is not the case, mind you), but that’s not reality. In fact, most of the current fans are very vocal about not supporting her as a person. It’s not one or the other, and I’m tired of pretending that it is.

When you shut out the people that decided to reclaim instead of abandon the universe you are throwing away a lot of genuine support. Not to mention the bullying techniques so many of you resorted to don’t work. Sure, you can force people into hiding their love for the franchise and be performative in reblogging a few social media posts with zero real life impact, but at the end of the day they will still be consuming HP in secret. How do you think the game made a billion?

Like it or not, the best way forward is dialogue. It is coming to understand that yes, people can still love HP, because it is culturally far more than a silly book saga for kids, but they can also support trans people in actual meaningful ways past the “let me reblog this not to be cancelled” stage. Otherwise people will continue to be very loudly supportive of HP (hence the vid), and extremely important trans issues will continue to be ignored past social media performative behavior.

[vvindication]

8, 17, and 20 annnyyy ocs for the suffering asks

ily ghost thank u for sending me oc asks (platonic) 💖💕💞 im gonna answer for multiple bc I CANNOT be stopped

8. Do they feel glee at the sight of blood? this is such an pointedly edgy question and I love it for that. do any of my ocs ??? generally no, but circumstantially yes

this doesnt fit with my planned Disco OCs answers because I can easily say no for them off the top of my head without much thought, but I do think my Cyberpunk man Vance gets some sort of fucked up thrill from drawing blood when fighting with knives in close combat. the smell makes him sick for trauma reasons (best friend died horribly) but he's a vengeful & impulsive adrenaline junkie, ofc he likes getting into risky fights and making his enemies bleed

funny thing is he almost always feels guilty about hurting people anyway. hes just very good at hiding it under a sarcastic veneer <3

17. What little regrets do they have? ohhhh okay this ones gonna be more difficult for me. I always think about the big hard-hitting stuff (as seen below . um) lets see ...

Vincent regrets not being able to identify unclaimed deceased. does that count as little? actually compared to everything else he's got going on, yeah, im counting that. he regrets plenty of social interactions, not being comforting enough for distraught civilians, not being supportive enough for fellow officers drudging through the same soul-sucking work he is. he always wishes he could do MORE to help others, but hes just one neurotic little man surviving day to day in a war-torn city, in a barely functioning police force

I know for sure theres shit im not thinking of with my other beloveds but now im super stuck thinking about codependency cause I wrote that answer first. oops. codependency ..........

20. Are they codependent? Do they have abandonment issues? YOUVE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD !!!!! this is one of the fun new characterizations im leaning into hard for Mr. Travart and his very apparent relationship problems. hes been abandoned A Lot (both by choice and by tragedy) and it fucks with him so much. he wants to be loved so bad that when he finds an ounce of it he'll give his soul for it. yaaaaay codependency !!! 🎉💖🎉

this is a big reason he falls for Arcelis so hard when flirted with. he wants to think somebody actually wants him for who he is, even if he is a corrupt politician blatantly manipulating him, and it (obviously) gets him into a fuckton of trouble.

basic history behind this is he and his mom were abandoned by his father before he was even born, his mom died as a teenager, the uncle who took him in literally only did so as a favor to his sister who'd died and treats him like shit. I think part of him thinks he has to Make Up For Something because people keep leaving and he wonders why HE hasnt been a victim of circumstance yet. why does he have to stay and suffer?? not even to mention Arcelis breaking up with him and Joakim dying for him ...

he doesnt unlearn this by the time he gets involved with Harry OR Kim. thats a point I particularly want to make. he isnt magically fixed by these relationships and would sacrifice his own life for them in a heartbeat whether they appreciate it or not. something something ... life without them would be more painful than dying. at least he wouldnt have to face more loss that way

... can you tell Ive been writing some heavy shit lately. hehe ^_^

[kinddivinity]

I do genuinely want to thank JK Rowling.  She’ll never see this, but more and more I find myself grateful to a woman who I never thought a great deal about until recent years.  I liked Harry Potter well enough, I read the books and watched the core movies and enjoyed them, but it was never a defining part of my childhood because I was always more of a history nerd, so when I strayed towards fantasy I tended to go for more medievalesque settings.

As an adult, though, especially recently, I find I have more of an appreciation for her—especially recently.

There are very, very few people in the world who can take a stand against TRAs and their ideologies like Rowling can, and we know that because for years, we (women) had to sit down and shut up and feed into it.  While at the beginning it was harmless enough (”we want to be able to legally live our lives in peace”), the TRA movement became the epitome of “give an inch and they’ll take a mile,” to the point where the LGB’s have been forced to splinter off in order to not be associated with the lunacy that has dominated the trans movement in recent years.

Women became “chest feeders” and “birth givers” and “uterus havers” and were mocked and bullied and threatened if they didn’t capitulate 100% to whatever the trans movement asked of them.  Not wanting to see male genitalia in our own spaces lead to cries of “TERF” and “transphobia” and that was enough for many women to keep silent for fear of losing their jobs or being otherwise “cancelled”—something that happened to many people during this time who spoke out against trans ideology, the dehumanization of women, and biological reality.  When regular women spoke out against housing male rapists in female prisons, the trans movement denied it was happening and attacked women for speaking out against it.  When lesbians at UK pride marches declared they didn’t want to sleep with biological males with their intact male genitalia, they were the ones punished and “cancelled” and forcibly shut down. The list goes on, and on, and on.

But JK Rowling isn’t cancellable like most of us are.  JK Rowling has more money than many countries, with no end to her revenue in sight, and she’s spent much of that money donating to charities and doing everything she can to fight for women’s rights because she knows what it is to be a woman in a bad situation and feel like there’s no one or nothing that will help you.  She has been a dedicated advocate to women for years, even when other people would abandon women, and she’s faced lots of criticism for it.

And she could choose not to do any of it, easily.  She could take her money, invest in several castles, and spend all her time living the life of luxury and doing whatever she wanted, resting on her laurels and the lauding of the public that she’s enjoyed off and on, but instead she chooses to take a stand against these issues, knowing it can (and has in the minds of many) damage her reputation.  She’s received rape threats, death threats, she’s had people come to her home and doxx her address, she’s had articles mocking her, been criticized this way and that, all for saying stuff like “hm, uterus-havers, I swear there used to be a name for that…” and pointing out the erasure of biological women, and the reality that biology exists, and she can double down on that without the fear of being cancelled or of losing her job or of being left destitute and afraid for having an opinion that goes against the current, rabid iteration of the trans movement.

The rest of us don’t really have that luxury, and she could easily decide she doesn’t want to deal with the TRAs, but she keeps fighting for women’s rights anyway, and I’m deeply thankful for it.  I don’t know if Rowling is aware, but I think her standing up to the TRA ideology is really what tipped the scales.  Before Rowling, people were afraid, and the few who tried anyway were swiftly dealt with by the trans mobs and their “allies”, but I’ve noticed a marked difference in people criticizing the TRA ideology before Rowling spoke out and after.  Before, most were too afraid, but after Rowling spoke out more and more people started to add their voices to hers, and I don’t think the importance of that should be understated.  There’s been a massive shift since Rowling took a stand, with more and more people finally saying enough instead of just mindlessly accepting everything—especially from women, who are often conditioned to be “accommodating” even to our own detriment.

I could go on, but this post is long enough.  My point is this: thank you, JK Rowling.  You’ll never see this, but I am grateful all the same for what you’ve done and what you’ve continued to do, even with all the slander directed at you.  Many thanks from this minority woman, and many like me who were unable to speak up, and thank you for what you do for women worldwide as well.

[aylinnworld]

What do you think about the chalice? What do you think will happen in Yona now?

Dear anon

From my understanding dromos have found a chalice underground and decided that they should take it with them even though they had no idea what it is. Also, if you remember in the past Soo-won and Lily entered the tomb, I remembered because it was one of the few scenes that Soo-won and Lily had. Nothing apart from Hiryuu's tomb seemed to be there back then and no chalice was mentioned.

There are plenty of issues to address here:

Firstly, I would expect elite assassins on a special mission to have a good idea what is their aim, what they need to achieve.

Secondly, I would expect that their goal would be more prominent and better thought-up. I would expect something different then bothering to burn an abandoned shrine that was not in use for 10 years and lost its relevance.

Thirdly, since 3 characters entered undergrounds with Hiryuu's tomb in the past I would expect at least one of them to mention this chalice. But I guess in the future chapters they will suddenly and conveniently remember seeing the chalice and it will turn out they just suffered from a collective senior moment till now.

Fourthly, I would expect Kai to have spies and diplomats who would realise that Soo-won doesn't give a damn about religion.

Last but not least, from a manga that has more than 200 chapters I would expect that it would try to make use of what plot threads it already introduced instead of keeping introducing new things. You cannot keep introducing new stuff to the story without consequences. It is a good thing at the beginning of the story and I would say Kusanagi has a talent to introduce something that appears promising, which is why I think this story did so well at the beginning, but at some point it has to stop and the rest of the story should be about using what was already introduced, especially if it is the main plot.

First of all, readers are mostly invested in the plot threads introduced at the beginning and do not care much about the new ones.

Secondly, if you are introducing something important at a later stage, it is very easy to create inconsistencies and plot holes. I remember reading Harry Potter and how Harry's invisibility cloak turned out to be special and thinking how strange it is that neither Ron nor Hermione nor Harry ever realised that it is different and special and they did not realise it for 6 or 7 years.

Thirdly, a lot of time introducing new stuff is done to surprise the audience. The problem is it may not work if you do not do it well. It is safer put your effort into evoking emotional response from the audience, as good climax of the story should provide a good deal of emotions than hoping that adding another new thing will not bore the audience who will lose patience when the plot threads they cared about are put aside or worse it makes them angry, because what you introduced just doesn't make sense with what happened earlier and they dislike it. Yes, I am looking at you Game of Thrones season 8.

I would take a story that is good at evoking emotions and does not have plot twists any time over story that is a try-hard at trying to surprise me.

[chubbycaucasianchristiancloseted]

Are Democrats tired of being lied to yet?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/21/us/politics/biden-drops-out.html

Are Democrats tired of being lied to yet? “Biden is hard to keep up with”, “Biden does more in an hour then most people do in a day”? How much did Kamala know about Joe’s cognitive decline? Joe’s tune changed very quickly on dropping out of the race, was a deal made?, were pardons promised for a Biden? Does Obama still  have that much power over the party?

I never want to be lectured again about democracy from a Democrat. Their entire primary process was just thrown out the window and elite Democrats have hand chosen the Democrat presidential candidate.

Why did he have so many people come visit him in Rehoboth if he has covid?

Good to see the New York Times take a few swings a Trump in an article about Biden dropping out of the race. They are able to work in “convicted felon”, “tried to overturn the last election” and characterized his commented about his main political opponent dropping out of the race as “caustic”. They even attempt to compare Biden’s obvious mental decline and how Trump “has confused, dates”

Direct Quotes:

President Biden on Sunday abruptly abandoned his campaign for a second term under intense pressure from fellow Democrats and threw his support to Vice President Kamala Harris to lead their party in a dramatic last-minute bid to stop former President Donald J. Trump from returning to the White House.

Biden officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations, said the president began changing his mind on Saturday while in Rehoboth with family members and three aides: Steve Ricchetti, his counselor and longtime aide; Annie Tomasini, his deputy chief of staff; and Anthony Bernal, the chief of staff to Jill Biden.

At some point in the day, Mr. Biden also summoned Mike Donilon, one of his longest serving advisers and closest confidants, who rushed to Rehoboth to join the conversation, one of the officials said. Still sick, the president opted against making an announcement on camera and instead crafted a letter with Mr. Donilon, author of many of his public speeches.

No sitting president has dropped out of a race so late in the election cycle in American history, and Ms. Harris and any other contenders for the nomination will have just weeks to earn the backing of the nearly 4,000 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. While the convention is scheduled to take place in Chicago from Aug. 19 to 22, the party had already planned to conduct a virtual roll call vote before Aug. 7 to ensure access to ballots in all 50 states, leaving little time to assemble support.

Instead, a flood of Democrats quickly endorsed Ms. Harris, including former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Former President Barack Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both of whom were privately concerned about Mr. Biden’s ability to win this fall, notably did not back Ms. Harris in statements they issued welcoming the president’s decision, but there was no indication they were seriously looking for an alternative.

In her own statement, Ms. Harris praised Mr. Biden for his accomplishments and for “this selfless and patriotic act” in putting country ahead of his ambitions and implicitly addressed critics who said she should not simply be given a coronation.

Mr. Trump responded to Mr. Biden’s announcement not with the grace typically offered in modern American politics when an opponent drops out, but with a characteristically caustic statement. “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve — And never was!” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site.

Democratic congressional leaders petrified by dismal poll numbers mounted a concerted effort to persuade Mr. Biden to gracefully exit as angry donors threatened to withhold their money and down-ballot candidates feared he would take down the whole ticket. Polls after the debate showed that even most Democrats preferred that Mr. Biden cede the nomination to another candidate.

Questions have been raised about Mr. Trump’s own cognitive decline. He often rambles incoherently in interviews and at campaign rallies and has confused names, dates and facts just as Mr. Biden has. But Republicans have not turned against him as Democrats did against Mr. Biden.

In bowing out, Mr. Biden became the first incumbent president in 56 years to give up a chance to run again.

His announcement signaled the end of an improbable life in public office that began more than half a century ago with his first election to the New Castle County Council in Delaware in 1970. Over the course of 36 years in the Senate, eight years as vice president, four campaigns for the White House and more than three years as president, Mr. Biden has become one of the most familiar faces in American life, known for his avuncular personality, habitual gaffes and resilience in adversity.

Yet the backslapping deal maker has struggled to translate decades of good will into the unifying presidency he promised.

Among other measures, he pushed through a $1.7 trillion Covid-19 relief package; a $1 trillion program to rebuild the nation’s roads, highways, airports and other infrastructure; and major investments to combat climate change, lower prescription drug costs for seniors, treat veterans exposed to toxic burn pits and build up the nation’s semiconductor industry. He also signed legislation meant to protect same-sex marriage in case the Supreme Court ever reversed its decision legalizing it.

He also appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court and installed more than 200 other judges on lower federal courts despite the razor-thin control of the Senate, more than any other president to this point of his tenure in the modern era. Roughly two-thirds of his choices were women and roughly two-thirds were Black, Hispanic or members of other racial minorities, meaning he has done more to diversify the federal bench than any president.

His decision to withdraw makes him an outlier in American history. Only three presidents have served four years or less without seeking a second term, all of them during the 19th century: James K. Polk, James Buchanan and Rutherford B. Hayes.

[kingweaslee]

Not to be ranting about harry and Ron again but like... Harry understands ron in deep instinctual level that even Hermione cannot touch. Both of them take this understanding for granted which is why they fail to communicate well at times ..and it is case of 'I thought you would understand that'. - all their fights and fall outs arise from this.

The fight in gof is a case in point and it frustrates me so much because it always gets put down as ron being jealous and insecure. Insecurity will always be a part of ron's character but that is not all that there is to him - here more than insecurity ron was pissed about that fact that (as he thought) harry went ahead and put his name in the goblet and didnt tell ron about it. He was angry because harry didn't rope him in on the plan and felt left out and deserted by his best friend. Harry in turn felt justifiably betrayed by that fact that the person he loved and trusted most in the world would misunderstand him like that ..that ron would know him so little to think he would want to put his name in the goblet and go through everything else that came with it. His best friend should know him enough to know that the last thing he wants in the world is fame and attention.

it's a classic case of miscommunication arising from unspoken expectations they had from each other. It is Hermione who put jealousy and insecurity into the mix (and in the reader's head). Jealous was the last thing that ron was and that is why harry was so surprised when Hermione mentioned it - the reason it had never occured to him that ron could be jealous of him in all the four years that they have been together was simply because ron was not jealous. Insecure, yes. Like I said Ron's insecurity and abandonment issues will always be a very important part of his character and crucial to understanding his relationship with everyone else.. but the way Hermione interpreted in book 4 atleast is way of the mark.

Another example is the Felix Felicis episode in book 6. Hermione never believed in ron abilities enough to believe he could do it on his own, but Harry knew Ron well enough to know that ron had the skills and that his real problem was nerves...and he knew Ron well enough to know how he could work around it. Just the fact that Harry never doubted Ron's abilities for even a single second is just. The unchanging, and unwavering love and support that Harry has for ron is what still swoops me in the guts after all the years ..there is something so stubborn in that love but also it's very instinctive. The way he always chooses to defend ron against Hermione and doesn't even think that he is taking sides. Refuses to indulge Hermione's frustration against him even when Ron is clearly at fault. The way he simply forgives ron in book 7 without a word of reproach. my heart is so full of love for harry today.

[snifflesthemouse]

Harry’s the Problem. His wife is the symptom. He is the real Diana 2.0 Wannabe...

         Since the Oprah interview aired, my whole perspective regarding the spare and his spouse has shifted. It would seem that I’m not alone in my thought process as more and more media outlets start reporting similar stances. Just recently, there was an article suggesting Harry didn’t change; but rather, he is only finally revealing his true self. The more I think about it all, the more I’ve come to the realization #6 is the real culprit behind everything.

         I’m not saying that his wife doesn’t have her own agenda or shares responsibility for her part in all this. Her hands are far from clean. What I am saying is it’s finally time for all of us to consider the cold, hard truth. Harry is his mother’s child. Harry is the bad egg, and his wife is only a side effect of the real problem here.

         Had it not been for the Oprah interview, I would have never put it all together. The problem with oversharing is too much information gets put out in the public. Most assume PR firms would worry about oversaturation in the press, but the real problem comes from personal interviews they cannot control in real-time. Puff pieces can be edited before publishing so facts and statements align; live interviews cannot. Over time, one of two patterns form from this oversaturation. Consistencies, repetitions, and similarities can be found in oversaturated truth-telling. Inconsistencies, changes, and huge differences result from those like Harry who prefer their trousers scorching hot from bursting into flames from deception. When you consistently lie, the only constant is the inconsistencies. 

         Now, those of us who have been following these two already know by now inconsistencies and changing stories should be expected. But the Oprah interview really highlighted some interesting things I had previously missed. The interview with Dax Shephard only solidifies my theories. Up until lately, those two have been together through most everything. Very seldom have we seen Harry alone in an interview or speech. There’s never a time where the missus isn’t popping up. James Corden proved that. Then we have the Oprah interview where she was supposed to be the star of the show. But, that was the moment it all changed. That interview was the moment she became the understudy. 

          Think about it. Who is the one being used in the media lately? Most people would suggest that the impending delivery of child number dos is why the missus is absent. One would then argue the Apple + special with Oprah started production well before the second child was a topic for discussion. The missus is being used less and less on camera or in the media. Everything is all about Harry. Forget about when Harry met Sally; Harry Met Hollywood! 

         Harry is the one doing the interviews, dropping projects, and talking with big Hollywood names. Even their announced Netflix projects are focused on one of Harry’s pre-married concepts. All the wife has going for her is a book that’s only number one in the “Books written by ex-Royals who couldn’t hack it” category. Seriously though, as of this posting the Bench is #2130 on the Amazon Books list, #12 in Children’s Black and African American Story Books, #73 in Children’s Emotions Books, and #167 in Children’s Family Life Books. Being pregnant isn’t a disqualifier for being interviewed. But, apparently being just the wife is.

         So, if it was his wife’s plan from the beginning to marry Harry, get him to abandon his family, move to California, and become a big star with a Prince for a husband, her plans have been ruined. And if you think about what she said in the interview with Oprah, you can actually see the moments she told us all exactly that. She clearly tells Oprah Harry was her direct link and source to the Royal Family and everything she needed to know. She didn’t misspeak or misunderstand a thing; she was telling us that Harry’s next to be markled. In every weird answer or revelation where she gave her versions for why their child(ren) were without title, saying they wed three days before the chapel, or having to cry out to HR since Harry failed to help her while she was so depressed she wanted to kill herself and her unborn child... all of it. It was all just the beginning. It may seem like she is attacking her husband’s family, but Harry’s the real target now.

          In just a couple sentences, she managed to reveal who Harry really was. Harry, of all people, should (and does) know how to navigate the press. Clearly, he failed to not only help her acclimate to Royal life, but it could also even be argued he set her up for failure for the get go. Let me give you an example. When my husband introduced me to his family for the first time, he told me little tidbits of information he found important for me to know. He essentially prepped me for the meeting so things went well. He wanted his family to like me because he loved me. I wanted them to like me because I loved him, too. So, I took to heart everything he told me. Yet, Harry’s wife shared with the world how little Harry cared about that. She credits Fergie with teaching her to curtsey, google for teaching her the National Anthem, and even said Her Majesty made her feel especially welcomed. So how did Harry not do more? If they started seeing one another in the early Summer of 2016, how is it Harry failed to teach or explain anything to her prior to meeting his grandmother, the Queen, when he had months and months of time to do so? How is it he failed his wife so miserably, she didn’t even understand basic UK custom, laws, or protocols? Why might you ask?

         Simply put, Harry is so much like his mother, all he knows is how to play the victim narrative while using the link to the Royal family as a nonstop ATM machine. Many people aren’t honest with themselves when it comes to Diana. She wasn’t the Mother Theresa everyone makes her out to be. Mother Theresa wasn’t a Mother Theresa either, though. Did Diana do some great things? Absolutely. Did she do them only because they were nice or great? Absolutely… not. Diana’s PR team would even have her switch up her charity causes whenever they felt it was getting to martyrdom level. They’d refer to her PR stunts as flavors. Does that sound like an innocent woman?

         Not to me. This whole time we all have seen his wife as the root of all issues, but she’s the side effect. It’s becoming more clear by the day that Harry searched out her. He wanted someone with the basic Hollywood connections that he could capitalize. Someone that seemed so controlling and ambitious it would be easy to believe they were controlling him, too. Of course he knew she would invite all the celebs she did. He probably inspired that guest list. Instead of guiding her in the press and in British society, he leads her to slaughter. He hides behind her repeated gaffes and wokeness to keep on his own mission.

         You see, Harry is obsessed with his brother eventually becoming king, being the “Second Son of Diana” and being the misfit. He is obsessed with his brother and father. They are all he talks about. When you obsess on something like that, it is more revealing than anything you say. Harry’s true motives aren’t protecting his wife and children. His real motive is making a name for himself like his mother did. If he can manage to get some revenge by making the Firm feel some backlash, hey that’s a bonus. 

         While his wife may think in her mind she will be the next Diana 2.0, the truth is we all missed who really will be. Harry is the one wanting to be Diana 2.0. If that’s the case, then that means the much older spouse for whom there are two children with, aka the wife, would be his Charles. Remember, Diana lost her HRH and titles. And we have Harry being very aggressive and pushy, to the point it seems he is trying to get ahead of a Palace announcement of them losing their titles. But it makes sense now.

         They aren’t trying to lose anything, but instead Harry keeps opening his mouth to create pressure in the media. He knows his wife does not want to give those titles back. But if he himself keeps saying outrageous things, then it would put everyone in ultimatum mode. Either Harry will push hard enough that Parliament and the Queen will have enough, or the press will get so critical of the two, Harry will push his wife to agree to returning the titles.

         Harry is following the Diana business model. While in the Royal Family, they both were seen as rock stars who had more star power the the Sovereign, which was an issue. Then, they couldn’t take all the abuse, coldness, and inhumanity, so they bolted for freedom. Instead of putting the past behind them, they use the past to monetize grief and trauma in such a way, they become their own brand. Right now, the trauma being monetized comes from the past, but the problem will soon come when that trauma is tapped out. He will need a source of new pain or victimhood. Enters the wife stage left.

          The wife is a tool. She of course has her own plans and thinks she is the one in control or the genius. She thinks she is the one everyone wants to work with. But it’s becoming clear to her that isn’t the case and she’s been played by her elite buddies. They all want him, not her. They all duped her for him. If I can see it, and I can see her already finger pointing that Harry is the failure here, then she can see it. And that means paradise will soon be lost in those Montecito hills. His wife won’t go down without a serious fight here. I wouldn’t even be surprised if she eventually causes him to lose his special visa. 

         Overall, Harry hides behind his wife like a beard or shield protecting him from the press’s glaring lens. He lets her do and say whatever she thinks is great so he can keep plotting his own plans. He allows her to take the fall, look stupid, pull stunts people can see through, etc. for a reason. He isn’t completely sure he can make it in his new California life. He knows he can’t if he keeps her for too long, but he also knows he needs an exit strategy in case it blows up. So, he pins the press to attack her as the true culprit. If they split and he has to, he can return home and play the victim of her. If they split and he is doing okay in Hollywood, she can be the reason he plays victim to big named people like Oprah and Gayle. 

         I can see it now. An Oprah Special with Harry tonight on Apple +. Something cheesy or corny that is almost plagiarism. Like Narcissus and the Prince or something. Watch. Mark my words. Oprah talking to Harry about surviving the marriage while trying to rescue two small kids, being in the spotlight as a Royal while being gaslit by a narcissistic wife… yes I can see the green screen set up now.

         I know this is difficult to digest, but I do ask you to try. While his wife is not innocent, she clearly is guilty for her own part indeed, his wife isn’t the true problem. The true problem here is a man who has a serious issue with living in the shadow of his future-King father and future-King brother, and his future-King nephew, that he has chosen to use the same exact attack model his own mother used to merch and marginally disrupt the institution that made her a star. Harry and his mother both wanted the entire spotlight, but both knew they could never have it the way they wanted it. So, they wrote their own victimhood narrative.

         And here we are now. Mark my words. Harry will keep pushing until those remaining titles are removed by them forcing the hands of Parliament and the Queen. Or, they’ll push and push in the press so much the outrage and hypocrisy will leave them no other option but to renounce and re-gift those titles and rights to the line of succession. That is what he wants, even if his missus doesn’t. Also make no mistake about it. Harry is the real Diana 2.0 wannabe, not his wife. Keep an eye out. I have this gnawing feeling that soon enough, there will be plenty leaks from the wife about the husband. She won’t go quietly into the Beverly Hills… but neither will he.

[kiefbowl]

I wanted to get some more thoughts in about ootp before I moved on with hbp. some of my issues with this book I can't full out deny that they're intentional choices by jkr, bc the book is definitely about Harry's loneliness and isolation, it's really the first real dive into his fraught fate that's been foisted on him since birth. So the length, the drawn out pacing, the priority of exposition over character beats could all well be very intentional. however...I get the sense that maybe some of it isn't. My theory is that the manuscript was longer, and she was asked to make edits. Probably a mix of both intentional writing and some editing woes.

one of the reasons I think this is that Ron seems almost absent from the book. Especially the back-half, it's just so weird. IMO, the best part of these books are Harry, Ron, and Hermione working together, and the second best part of these books are Harry, Ron, and Hermione working through conflicts with each other. Every book is about the 3 of them being unlikely heroes because they are teenagers, and what's more Harry has little choice but Ron and Hermione are simply loyal to him. They could have normal school years but they won't, they've made their choice very young to be a part of Harry's team.

OOTP, Hermione is very proactive. She is the inciting action of almost everything. The DA is her idea, Harry giving a interview is her idea (more on that in a bit), and it's her idea to not rush into danger at the end and her idea how to trick Umbridge. Ron on the other hand is barely part of the main narrative. It almost feels like she's not even that interested in what's going on with Ron's life all that much, which I think is very odd since he is one of the main characters and heroes. And even so, I feel like she sets up something very interesting and then doesn't pay it off, which is that Ron becomes prefect and Harry is very jealous. Harry has a moment of working through his feelings about it at the very beginning of the book, and we see Ron have a few moments early where he's a little out of his element with it, but by mid-way through the book the storyline is dropped. Considering the 3rd book both Harry and Ron have a conflict with Hermione, the 4th book both Harry and Hermione have a conflict with Ron, and this book Harry is set up to be on edge and hard on his friends, it feels like a moment is missing in this book as if this book was supposed to be Ron and Hermione have a conflict with Harry and the tension is set up but we don't actually see the conflict unfold. Ron having a moment where he rises to the occasion of his new prefect role mid-year, and Harry undermining it out of anger and jealousy, seems like the perfect opportunity for this moody book. In fact, it could be a foreshadow of Ron's later conflict in book 7, perhaps he is angry with Harry but comes back to him, not too big to say sorry (which willingness to admit they're wrong is a character flaw they all have but Harry and Hermione have it worse imo. Ron is hot-headed but ultimately willing to admit his wrongs and do what's right).

I do think that Ron's character growth-points are highlighted more frequently and more cringe-y in these books primarily to set up Ron's future failure and then triumph vis-a-vis him abandoning and then returning to his friends. It's my opinion that this camping trip conflict is one of the earliest things JKR had plotted out, and it essentially where she plays out all her themes of the macro story to their full effect within the micro story of the trio (I made a post earlier about this earlier around book 2). It's essentially the climax of the emotional story before the plot is then kicked into high gear and we race to the finish line to final battle. It's not a surprise to me that kids and fandom readers (I don't mean that derisively, I don't think...) might have a hard time liking Ron if they're reading the book at a superficial level of just spending time with characters. I've always liked Ron, and maybe it's because his stupid moments are my stupid moments, and his stupid moments pale in comparison to his moral fiber...but whatever, I'm not going to make a long ass winded essay about why people should like Ron, I just want to make the point that I think JKR knew she had to set up Ron having the ability to leave his friends in a dire situation, because one of the 3 have to leave and come back, and it makes sense it's the wizard not the 2 de fact muggles (Harry and Hermione).

That being said - Ron doesn't have a whole lot to do in this book, and it seems like there's a lot of missed opportunity with Ron becoming prefect and joining the quidditch team and Harry struggling to feel included in his own world. I think it would have been really fun and heartwarming to see Harry go out of his way to be an ass to his friend, and that friend saying no I forgive you I'm your man. Good Harry development, good Ron development, good OOTP story development, good DH foreshadowing...was it once there but got cut? It seems even more bizarre since Dumbledore ends his long-ass exposition chapter where he explains the prophecy to Harry with "btw I didn't make you prefect because you had too much on your plate." It's literally the last line of this linchpin chapter and all I could think was "huh??? what???" Harry hasn't thought about it not ONCE since before the school year started. Dumbledore just told Harry he is the lamb to be slaughtered and then he says "also I should have made you prefect." *cue laugh track* We don't even get Harry's POV about that, all I can imagine him thinking is "okay so?" I could get it if Harry had more conflict about it with Ron (and Hermione), but it's a plot line that just gets dropped. He spends that entire chapter angry about Dumbledore and Sirius and Voldemort and himself and has more than one moment that he doesn't understand how trivial things could ever be important again and then Dumbledore starts crying that he didn't make him a prefect, it just feels like a comedy beat. Like it's referring to something that didn't happen.

I also get the sense that this book was meant to be Ron and Hermione have conflict with Harry to tie in with the conflicts of the previous two books in that Hermione is this very proactive character to get the plot going, and Harry has virtually no thoughts or arguments about any of it what so ever. My biggest beef with this is that Hermione sets up an interview with Harry and Rita Skeeter, and not only refuses to let's him in on this idea, but basically ambushes him to do it. It felt like the bones of a conflict brewing, as if Harry was going to say how could you do this to me and not even ask, but the story just keeps going and we get no insight into how this makes Harry feels as if we just gotta keep this book going going going going move move move move. Hermione is brilliant, and also her character flaws are clearly intended to be that she is sometimes a little too confident, a little foolhardy despite her thinking of herself as very logical, a little too prideful...and there is so much set up for her to be caught in this but it never backfires for her, not truly. She thinks she can just use Harry to get an interview going bc she knows it's a good idea, she thinks she can just use the centaurs to solve her Umbridge problem, simply because these are clever ideas that pop in her head. I love her dearly for it, I think she's a wonderful character, and I think JKR probably meant for this to be explored more at the beginning of the series (and especially in this book with the introduction of Luna Lovegood, who introduces an important epistemological concept regarding proving negatives that Hermione is immediately dismissive of), but I feel as if ultimately these character pain moments were minimized and cut down to make way for exposition.