#and we love a meta doge

[slitheringghost]

Could you expand on the James was implied to be abusive?

So, to clarify, everything in this meta isn’t necessarily my interpretation. Some of it is, but some is in fact the opposite of my own interpretation (esp. re: Snape). But I’m going for a Doylist lens for once and trying to unweave what JKR was trying to do. This isn't normally how I analyze the text - but it's helpful to know so people can develop a more informed version of their interpretations.

I think JKR intended Jily as, at best, a dysfunctional marriage where they weren’t truly in love, and at worst, an abusive one. I’ve seen speculations that JKR based James on her abusive ex-husband - I’m not sure where that comes from or is true, it might be entirely made up, but I’m mentioning it here.

1.0 In Photographs

Photographs are regularly used in canon to show family estrangement and rejection, and in this section I'll demonstrate how they're used for the same purpose with James and Lily.

To start off, we see James and Lily in the Mirror of Erised, standing next to each other - but remember what the inscription on the frame means (I show not your face but your heart's desire), and what Dumbledore says:

[...] he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her.

“It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. [...] However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible." (PS)

What we'll realize via a close analysis is that the image of James and Lily in the Mirror of Erised standing next to each other is exactly what Dumbledore says - it’s only Harry’s heart’s desire, it isn’t the truth. That Dumbledore’s words about the Mirror not being real isn’t just about James and Lily being dead, but the hidden meaning is that it also refers to James and Lily’s marriage.

Next, we get James and Lily's wedding photo, and in that photo James and Lily are standing arm-in-arm, according to Harry's POV Lily looks "alight with happiness", and Lily's also standing next to Sirius. So temporarily, in that snapshot, the image in the Mirror of Erised seems like it's still the truth.

But then we get to the Order photo in OoTP, the book Harry's meant to shed his idealization of his father:

“That’s Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth, only time I ever met him, strange bloke... That’s Dorcas Meadowes, Voldemort killed her personally... Sirius, when he still had short hair... and... there you go, thought that would interest you!” Harry’s heart turned over. His mother and father were beaming up at him, sitting on either side of a small, watery-eyed man Harry recognized at once as Wormtail: He was the one who had betrayed their whereabouts to Voldemort and so helped bring about their deaths. (OoTP)

Most notably, James and Lily aren't next to each other, because Wormtail sits between them.

Note that Dumbledore is also standing apart from Elphias Doge and Aberforth, hinting at the way he keeps emotional distance from his friends with the former and family estrangement in the latter, and Remus is similarly standing apart from his friends - and just as important is where Lily is standing. Also note that the other married couple, Alice and Frank, are implied to be standing next to each other.

This is our first clue that what Harry sees in the Mirror of Erised and in the wedding photo is at least a partial lie.

Then, in DH, Lily sends Sirius a picture of herself and Harry - with her husband out of frame, to the point that Harry initially can’t even tell for sure it’s James in that photo:

A black-haired baby was zooming in and out of the picture on a tiny broom, roaring with laughter, and a pair of legs that must have belonged to James was chasing after him […] (DH) Then he ripped in two the photograph he was also holding, so that he kept the part from which Lily laughed, throwing the portion showing James and Harry back onto the floor, under the chest of drawers (DH)

Very like the following quotes and examples:

Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets — but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. (PS) He couldn’t remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house. (PS) A photograph of the Weasley family stood beside the in-tray. Harry noticed that Percy appeared to have walked out of it. (OoTP) The china, which bore the Black crest and motto, was all thrown unceremoniously into a sack by Sirius, and the same fate met a set of old photographs in tarnished silver frames, all of whose occupants squealed shrilly as the glass covering them smashed. he had also managed to retrieve the silver-framed family photographs that Sirius had thrown away over the summer. Their glass might be shattered, but still the little black-and-white people inside them peered haughtily up at him, including — he felt a little jolt in his stomach — the dark, heavy-lidded woman whose trial he had witnessed in Dumbledore’s Pensieve: Bellatrix Lestrange. By the looks of it, hers was Kreacher’s favorite photograph; he had placed it to the fore of all the others (OoTP) The old man’s eyes traveled to the painting of the girl over the mantelpiece. It was, now Harry looked around properly, the only picture in the room. There was no photograph of Albus Dumbledore, nor of anyone else. (DH)

As displayed above, OoTP in particular introduces many estrangements: Percy's from his family, Sirius's from his family, Aberforth making his first appearance and hinting at his conflict with his brother, and of course the continuous emphasis on Petunia's estrangement from Lily, and all of these are emphasized via photographs... as is Jily's estrangement.

The comparison to the Dumbledores is probably the most apt - Aberforth and Albus both talk of Ariana very lovingly while being estranged from each other, similar to how Lily talks of Harry in her letter while there being minimal references to her relationship with James by itself.

Additionally, right before Harry reaches Lily's letter and the photograph with her and Harry, he views the photo of the Marauders on Sirius's bedroom wall and muses on the group's specific dynamics, and then thinks “or was it simply because Harry knew how it had been, that he saw these things in the picture?”

But the thing is, Harry can't see the truth in the picture Lily sends Sirius, that it's a sign of an broken marriage with James - because he doesn't know how it had been with Lily, will never know, and accepting that is meant to be part of his acceptance of death. (Worth noting that JKR wrote HP while her own mother was dying/after her death).

To summarize, Jily get farther and farther away from each other in these snapshots - they go from first standing next to each other, to standing apart in the Order photo, to not standing together again in the photograph Lily sends to Sirius - because James isn't in the photo at all.

Of course, the evidence here is circumstantial - I'm not going to make a judgment on i.e. Sirius and James's closeness by them not standing together in that or the wedding photo (Sirius and Lily standing together in both on the other hand…).

But since James and Lily are explicitly stated as standing next to each other in the Mirror of Erised, and the narrative goes out of its way to point out they aren't standing beside each other in that photograph in the same book you get stuff like "Lily loathed James and maybe James forced her to marry him", I assume it's significant, especially given the Mirror of Erised explicitly comes up several times in OoTP itself:

A great black dragon was rearing in front of him… His father and mother were waving at him out of an enchanted mirror (OoTP) He remembered seeing his dead parents in the Mirror of Erised four years ago. He was going to be able to talk to Sirius again, right now, he knew it — (OoTP)

2.0 Lily as The Golden Snitch

A very, very important point is that James doodling Lily’s initials with the Snitch was never meant to be romantic - because the hidden, true meaning of this is that Lily is represented by the Snitch and James playing with the Snitch represents James and Lily’s relationship:

Harry stared at Wormtail for a moment, then back at James, who was now doodling on a bit of scrap parchment. He had drawn a Snitch and was now tracing the letters L. E. What did they stand for? “Me too,” said James. He put his hand in his pocket and took out a struggling Golden Snitch. “Where’d you get that?” “Nicked it,” said James casually. He started playing with the Snitch, allowing it to fly as much as a foot away and seizing it again; his reflexes were excellent. Wormtail watched him in awe. [...] James was still playing with the Snitch, letting it zoom farther and farther away, almost escaping but always grabbed at the last second. Wormtail was watching him with his mouth open. Every time James made a particularly difficult catch, Wormtail gasped and applauded. After five minutes of this, Harry wondered why James didn’t tell Wormtail to get a grip on himself, but James seemed to be enjoying the attention. Harry noticed his father had a habit of rumpling up his hair as though to make sure it did not get too tidy, and also that he kept looking over at the girls by the water’s edge. “Put that away, will you?” said Sirius finally, as James made a fine catch and Wormtail let out a cheer. “Before Wormtail wets himself from excitement.” Wormtail turned slightly pink but James grinned. “If it bothers you,” he said, stuffing the Snitch back in his pocket. (OoTP)

Lily is the one James “nicked” aka stole, the one struggling against him, the one trying to escape but being grabbed at the last second by James AKA James finally managing to go out with Lily 7th year AKA James making a “particularly difficult catch”.

Lily as symbolized by the Golden Snitch is a really important part of canon that encompasses the whole text, not just SWM, and I promise I have a lot more evidence on that thread, but I'm writing a separate meta regarding that. (For now note that - Lily is the Snitch and Harry is the Seeker, because Lily’s playing hide-and-seek with him throughout the narrative and Harry has to seek her. Try doing Ctrl+ F + Snitch in OoTP and DH and see if you can spot patterns/hidden allusions to Lily).

3.0 My Analysis on SWM

(This section is most directly my personal thoughts)

It starts off with James attacking Snape specifically to get her attention, or at least, that's one of the reasons (“Snape lay panting on the ground. James and Sirius advanced on him, wands up, James glancing over his shoulder at the girls at the water’s edge as he went”). This is already a red flag. To clarify, in the context of the war and the atmosphere at Hogwarts, imo James attacking Snape even when Lily happens to be nearby isn't the issue, but doing something he knows upsets her specifically to get her attention is.

Second, he asks her out publicly, in front of a literal crowd. This is another red flag. This also goes back to him the imagery of him showing off with the Snitch - a.k.a showing off with Lily, liking the attention of others when he tries to "catch" her.

And the biggest red flag - blackmailing her with "I'll stop hurting Snape if you go out with me".

Now, I will say that it's questionable whether he 100% meant it or if it was a spur of the moment thing. I say this because when she says no, in a pretty dramatic and cutting way no less, he doesn't seem upset specifically by that. He just sort of moves on. (What he is upset by and his reaction to it, I'll get to in a bit). That said, if Lily had actually said yes, and they had had sex, that would've been rape.

Whether James asked her out repeatedly / harassed her, idk, I think it could go either way, from Sirius's words and SWM overall it is at least clear James making his interest in her known in showy and obnoxious ways even if he didn't directly ask her out before, despite her making her disinterest in him known just as much. But the way he asked her out in this scene is bad enough, even if it was just once.

Then James continues to call after her despite her speech making it clear she’s very infuriated and very not into him.

Then James doesn’t get why she’s upset at his behavior and goes “what is it with her” (putting the blame on her for her reaction) and then is so enraged by her rejection that he escalates his attack on Snape. This does not have great implications for what he’d do to Lily at other times when she similarly does something he doesn’t like.

As for Lily’s reaction in the scene, I think every word frankly speaks for itself regarding how much she dislikes James.

Lily compares going out with James to dating an animal at the bottom of the lake - this evokes the idea that dating James is equivalent to “drowning in despair”.

Also see how affectionately she talks about Harry's flight vs. the words about James (and this is a particularly sick burn towards James given Lily has been able to fly unsupported since she was 9 years old and Snape can probably fly unsupported by then too - Lily truly does NOT like this man).

“Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you’ve just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can — I’m surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK.” (OoTP) Thank you thank you, for Harry’s birthday present! It was his favorite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself, I’m enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the ground, but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for Christmas (DH)

“She turned on her heel and hurried away.” - Lily is hurrying away from James, she’s running away from him, she’s the Snitch trying to escape from him.

4.0 Harry's reflections

Harry muses on the Marauders' attack on Snape, and then we have these paragraphs right after it:

Harry reminded himself that Lily had intervened; his mother had been decent, yet the memory of the look on her face as she had shouted at James disturbed him quite as much as anything else. She had clearly loathed James and Harry simply could not understand how they could have ended up married. Once or twice he even wondered whether James had forced her into it... (OoTP)

To reiterate - Harry was just as disturbed by James’s treatment of Lily and Lily’s loathing of him as he was by the extreme violence towards Snape in that scene. The text clearly puts those things on the same level and on par with each other here.

And to reiterate again, JKR… literally had Harry wonder if James FORCED Lily to marry him. There was zero reason for JKR to include this if Jily was ever meant to be read positively. This isn't a "cute hate to love" type of framing, JKR clearly framed Jily as disturbing. The idea of James potentially forcing her, Lily literally saying she wouldn't go out with him if it was a choice between him and the Squid - the language here is consistently of force, of lack of choice.

Then Harry's misery about the violence towards Snape is again linked to his misery about James and Lily:

For nearly five years the thought of his father had been a source of comfort, of inspiration. Whenever someone had told him he was like James he had glowed with pride inside. And now... now he felt cold and miserable at the thought of him. (OoTP) “How come she married him?” Harry asked miserably. “She hated him!” (OoTP)

The descriptions of the struggling Golden Snitch a.k.a. Lily trying to escape from James is also likened to Snape struggling to escape from the Marauders' attack on him:

He put his hand in his pocket and took out a struggling Golden Snitch. Snape was trying to get up, but the jinx was still operating on him; he was struggling, as though bound by invisible ropes. “There you go,” he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, “you’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus —” (OoTP)

And another hint JKR might've put in is James greeting them both similarly ("All right, Snivellus?" and "All right, Evans?"). Now, regarding Harry's conversation with Sirius and Remus:

“If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean,” said Sirius. Lupin smiled. "He kept messing up his hair,” said Harry in a pained voice. Sirius and Lupin laughed. “I’d forgotten he used to do that,” said Sirius affectionately. “Was he playing with the Snitch?” said Lupin eagerly. “Yeah,” said Harry, watching uncomprehendingly as Sirius and Lupin beamed reminiscently. “Well... I thought he was a bit of an idiot.” “Of course he was a bit of an idiot!” said Sirius bracingly. “We were all idiots! Well — not Moony so much,” he said fairly (OoTP)

Notice the language here when they talk about James in the memory - Sirius and Remus are smiling, they’re laughing, they’re affectionate, they're speaking of him eagerly, they’re beaming reminiscently - even at the stuff that i.e. Sirius was annoyed by in the actual memory (James showing off with the Snitch, etc). You can even feel the affection in Sirius going "we were all idiots <3”.

But then we get to the topic of James and Lily, and that totally and completely ends:

“And,” said Harry doggedly, determined to say everything that was on his mind now he was here, “he kept looking over at the girls by the lake, hoping they were watching him!” “Oh, well, he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around,” said Sirius, shrugging. “He couldn’t stop himself showing off whenever he got near her.” “How come she married him?” Harry asked miserably. “She hated him!” “Nah, she didn’t,” said Sirius. “She started going out with him in seventh year,” said Lupin. “Once James had deflated his head a bit,” said Sirius. “And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it,” said Lupin. (OoTP)

They are not effusive at all. Sirius in fact sounds just as unimpressed and critical of James as he sounded in the actual memory. (“Bad luck, Prongs”, “Reading between the lines, I’d say she thinks you’re a bit conceited, mate”, the double meaning of Sirius telling James to put the Snitch away).

Sirius emphasizes James showing off for Lily and trying to get her attention and "making a fool of himself" (again, not positive wording), and it’s only when Harry brings up Lily seeming to hate him that Lily’s feelings are addressed at all, and all Sirius says is “nah she didn’t hate him”, never saying she liked or loved him and painting it as very one-sided.

This text uses the word “love” very, very intentionally - and it’s never once used for Lily’s feelings towards James (or even vice versa, frankly).

And in this conversation, the emphasis here quickly goes to the fact that James broke his promise to Lily (sort of evoking a broken wedding vow, etc):

“You think you’re funny,” she said coldly. “But you’re just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone.” “I will if you go out with me, Evans,” said James quickly. “Go on... Go out with me, and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.” (OoTP) “Even Snape?” said Harry. “Well,” said Lupin slowly, “Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James, so you couldn’t really expect James to take that lying down, could you?” “And my mum was okay with that?” “She didn’t know too much about it, to tell you the truth,” said Sirius. “I mean, James didn’t take Snape on dates with her and jinx him in front of her, did he?” (OoTP)

Again the language here, it's clearly making an intentional reference to James's "promise/agreement" to never attack Snape if Lily goes out on a date with him.

This is likened to Voldemort's broken promise to Lily - Lily says "Leave him alone" three times before James says "I will if you go out with me", just as Lily offers her own life for Harry's three times (take me, kill me instead, I'll do anything) and says Not Harry seven times and Voldemort seals the agreement by taking Lily’s life, and then “breaks that promise” whenever he tries to kill Harry (Voldemort's broken promise to Lily is brought up many times specifically in OoTP in coded language, part of why the parallel seems intentional, but I’ll get to that in other metas).

To clarify, I don’t think James did anything wrong there - certainly by 7th year Snape would’ve been a marked Death Eater who already murdered people, I’m just pointing out what the text is trying to do here.

5.0 Some comparisons

5.1 Wearing masks with each other

It's emphasized that Sirius is the one James stops showing off for, not Lily, and that James's hair is different and voice is different when he speaks to Lily - basically, that James is wearing a mask with Lily:

Harry had the distinct impression that Sirius was the only one for whom James would have stopped showing off. “Leave him ALONE!” James and Sirius looked around. James’s free hand jumped to his hair again. “All right, Evans?” said James, and the tone of his voice was suddenly pleasant, deeper, more mature. (OoTP)

Again, none of this is positive framing for Jily. In comparison, in the Prince's Tale we have Snape taking off his long coat and is comfortable wearing his mother's clothes in front of Lily. In other words, unlike James who puts on a mask with her, Snape is taking the mask off with Lily.

And as James wears a mask with Lily, Lily wears a mask with him, because in the death scene memory, her face is covered by her long hair while she speaks to James, vs. the Lily from the Resurrection Stone who pushes her hair back to look at Harry.

This is Lily setting the terms of who is and isn't allowed to see her - because similarly, she's letting Sirius see her face (I'm enclosing a picture so you can see - the picture which not only includes Harry but also Lily herself laughing), she's repeatedly described as smiling at Snape, and of course she's letting Harry see her face, yet with James, we have these passages:

“Evans!” James shouted after her, “Hey, EVANS!” But she didn’t look back. (OoTP) his mother had been decent, yet the memory of the look on her face as she had shouted at James disturbed him quite as much as anything else (OoTP) A door opened and the mother entered, saying words he could not hear, her long dark-red hair falling over her face. Now the father scooped up the son and handed him to the mother. (DH)

In direct contrast to:

Harry heard Snape let out a tiny groan. Lily took off the hat, handed it back to Professor McGonagall, then hurried toward the cheering Gryffindors, but as she went she glanced back at Snape, and there was a sad little smile on her face. (DH) “Your mother’s coming…” he said quietly. “She wants to see you… it will be all right… hold on…” (GoF) One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself, I’m enclosing a picture so you can see. (DH) but we've had to pack away all the ornaments and make sure we don't take our eyes off him when he gets going. (DH) Lily’s smile was widest of all. She pushed her long hair back as she drew close to him, and her green eyes, so like his, searched his face hungrily, as though she would never be able to look at him enough. (DH)

This is especially notable given the obvious significance of Lily's eyes and Lily's gaze as a "window to her soul" and most reflective of her true emotions.

This is echoed in the only true James and Lily emphasis in The Prince’s Tale being that of James not paying attention to Lily:

One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked around at the word, and Harry, whose attention had been focused entirely on the two beside the window, saw his father (DH)

Again, James is 11, this is totally understandable and in fact it’d be weird if he was interested in Lily since he was 11, but I’m just pointing out how the language around James and Lily is consistently negative.

5.2 The Bloody Baron

“She sent a man who had long loved me, though I spurned his advances, to find me. She knew that he would not rest until he had done so." Harry waited. She drew a deep breath and threw back her head. “He tracked me to the forest where I was hiding. When I refused to return with him, he became violent. The Baron was always a hot-tempered man. Furious at my refusal, jealous of my freedom, he stabbed me.” (DH) “What is it with her?” said James, trying and failing to look as though this was a throwaway question of no real importance to him. “Reading between the lines, I’d say she thinks you’re a bit conceited, mate,” said Sirius. “Right,” said James, who looked furious now, “right —” There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside down in the air. “Who wants to see me take off Snivelly’s pants?” (OoTP)

A note on patronuses and extracanon statements

I'm aware JKR has said Lily was attracted to James in SWM in extracanon, and has framed Jily's patronuses positively in relation to each other. However, these statements was years after the books were published - and it's clear JKR often changes her opinions about her characters and dynamics very often i.e. the way she framed Ron and Sirius in the early books vs the later books, so it's likely something similar happened with Jily in the other direction.

In the actual books, the doe patronus is only ever shown and discussed to emphasize Snape and Lily’s bond, it’s never discussed in relation to James and Lily. The stag patronus is firmly about Harry’s connection with his father.

As for the argument that Lily noticing James showing off with the Snitch signifies she’s into him - if some boy is constantly trying to get your attention and being obnoxious about it, you’d be hyper aware of his presence regardless if you were attracted to him. Snape is also hyper aware of the Marauders, Sirius was likewise watching Snape, etc. There is, of course the blush in her conversation with Snape - I'll get to that in a separate meta.

This is another meta about Jily as potentially abusive, I don’t agree with all of it but it’s worth reading.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

The Ministry of Magic: Part 2/?

(Part 1, Part 3)

The Wizengamot

So, I always got super curious whenever anything was mentioned about the Wizengamot because I love fictional governments and it seems like the most influential group of people in Wizarding Britain... politically, that is.

So, here is how I believe the Wizengamot functions and who are its members according to book quotes, a few Pottermore articles, and some of my reading about the real-life UK Parliament and House of Lords. This one is honestly fascinating and I really wanted to write about it. So here it is, a little longer than the last one.

Some History

So, like everything in Harry Potter meta, let's start with etymology (yay!):

So, Wizengamot is a play on the term Witengamot — coming from the Old English "witen", meaning wise men, and "gamot", meaning assembly. So, basically the name "Wizengamot" literally means: "assembly of wise wizards".

Now, the Witengamot is a term argued about among historians, since it probably wasn't used contemporarily for the council it refers to. But that council is the King's Council in England. This council, occasionally referred to as the Witengamot, was a council of advisors to the king of England and acted as a cross between a parliament (legislature) and a supreme court. This council existed from sometime before the 7th century and until the 11th century.

In the early 11th century (not far from when Hogwarts was founded), this Witengamot council changed its name to become the House of Lords, which is still part of the UK parliament today.

Because of this history, and the fact we know the Wizengamot acts as both a supreme court and parliament, I expect its history, functions, and members to resemble these older real institutions in British history.

With this in mind, all we know about the founding of the Wizengamot is that it happened pre-1544, but I kind of assume it happened in the 10th century around the same time Hogwarts was founded. It fits with the House of Lords coming into being in the muggle government not long after. Additionally, Hogwarts was founded due to unrest of wizards living among muggles, to create a space and community for wizards to come together, a council like the Wizengamot is likely to be established as a result of these same environmental factors.

This pre-ministry Wizengamot was led by a Chief Warlock who was a member chosen from within the council. This position before the ministry was probably similar to that of the old Lord Chancellor position in the House of Lords. The Chief Warlock was, back then, the speaker and formal leader of the Wizengamot. Not only governing the proceedings but actually holding power over the council.

After the Ministry of Magic was founded, like the House of Lords changed, so did the Wizengamot. The Minister of Magic, along with: the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister and the Special Advisor to the Wizengamot were added to the Wizengamot members.

The Senior Undersecretary to the Minister is implied to be chosen by the minister himself.

The Special Advisor to the Wizengamot during the books, is Elphias Doge, a member of the Order of the Phoenix and a close friend of Dumbledore. This leads me to believe that Chief Warlock selects the person in this position.

The other change to the membership the ministry brought in is a change in the position of Chief Warlock, as now the Minister of Magic has a say in who is selected for the spot, hence why he could remove Dumbledore from the post easily. Additionally, the Chief Warlock doesn't have to be from within the Wizengamot anymore and can be an external person (Dumbledore wasn't a member before his appointment as he wasn't present in Harry's trial as a member of the Wizengamot). So the Chief Warlock post-Ministry of Magic, is less of a Lord Chancellor and more like the modern-day Lord Speaker of the House of Lords. This position is essentially being the main chairman presiding over meetings and making sure to follow formalities along with representing the House of Lords internationally, which is what Dumbledore does as a member of the International Confederation of Wizards.

Now, that we have a basic grasp of the Wizengamot History, what the Chief Warlock does, and the ministry-appointed members, let's talk about the other members and more detailed functions of this council.

Members

Harry describes the Wizengamot during his trial has about 50 members:

There were about fifty of them, all, as far as he could see, wearing plum-colored robes with an elaborately worked silver W on the lefthand side of the chest and all staring down their noses at him, some with very austere expressions, others looks of frank curiosity.

(OotP, 138)

Something I want to note about Harry's trial in book 5 in addition to this, is that Dumbledore was just removed from his post as Chief Warlock, and Fudge is leading the trial. As such, it seems that for Wizengamot meetings and trials before a new Chief Warlock is appointed, the Minister of Magic acts as temporary Chief Warlock for the proceedings.

So, who are these other almost 50 witches and wizards that haven't been mentioned so far?

Well, it was mentioned by Rita Skeeter in her book about Dumbledore in Deathly Hallows, that Dumbledore, at 17, with his graduation from Hogwarts got the temporary position of "British Youth Representative to the Wizengamot". This is a position that probably a student in their 7th year or a recent graduate gets recommended by the headmaster of Hogwarts to the Wizengamot. I don't believe the youth representative has a real vote or say regarding court cases and is more there in the capacity of an advisor.

The other majority of the representatives are probably, as the name House of Lords suggests, lords.

Membership in the House of Lords is usually not achieved by election and up until 1999, membership in the House of Lords was hereditary. Meaning, the membership passed from father to son. I believe the same thing is going on in the Wizengamot.

We know there are Wizarding families that have a history of nobility, Like the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, or House of Gaunt. The fact an "Heir of Slytherin" exists suggests a title that is passed down hereditarily otherwise the word "heir" has no meaning.

Now, we know that by the time we see the Gaunts in the pensive memories from the 1920s, they lost all their influence and are living in a hovel. This suggests the Wizengamot can vote out or vote in family memberships.

Also, the number of members in the House of Lords can vary for various reasons. I believe even families that have a Wizengamot membership don't have to send in a representative to the meetings, but they're allowed to. Membership in the House of Lords used to be for the duration of the Lord's life, which explains why there are so many elder Wizangamot members. This explains this joke from the WOMBATs about the average Wizengamot member age being above 87 (untrue).

So, which families have a Wizengamot membership?

1. Well, the Blacks, for one. With their title and wealth, I assume they are members.

2. We know the Malfoys don't have a membership. Lucius Malfoy is specifically mentioned to not have been present in Harry's trial.

“The Minister was just telling me about your lucky escape, Potter,” drawled Mr. Malfoy. “Quite astonishing, the way you continue to wriggle out of very tight holes. . . . Snakelike, in fact . . .”

(OotP, 154)

Fudge had to tell Lucius about the trial since Lucius wasn't there.

3. The Potters are probably there.

It was mentioned on Pottermore that at least two Potters sat in on Wizengamot meetings:

Occasionally, a Potter made it all the way to London, and a member of the family has twice sat on the Wizengamot: Ralston Potter, who was a member from 1612-1652, and who was a great supporter of the Statute of Secrecy (as opposed to declaring war on the Muggles, as more militant members wished to do) and Henry Potter (Harry to his intimates), who was a direct descendant of Hardwin and Iolanthe, and served on the Wizengamot from 1913-1921.

(from Pottermore)

This is part of why I believe a family can have a member representing them if they are members of the Wizengamot, but they don't have to send anyone.

4. Ogden family and Marchbanks family (or Griselda's maiden name if this is her husband's name)

They are mentioned to be members in the Daily Prophet and Slughorn mentioned Ogden in HBP as well:

“Wizengamot elders Griselda Marchbanks and Tiberius Ogden have resigned in protest at the introduction of the post of Inquisitor to Hogwarts.

(OotP, 308)

4. Bones family

Amalia Bones is present in Harry's trial, yes, she is there as Head of the DMLE, but the fact she is head of the DMLE suggests she is part of the Wizengamot (I'll cover this in the next section).

5. Crouch family

Same explanation as with Bones.

6. Smith family

As decedents of Helga Hufflepuff, they act very self-important and spoiled, along with an apparent wealth (both Hepzibah and Zacarias), I believe their family has a Wizengamot membership.

Other likely candidates but that I don't have specific proof for:

Longbottom, MacMillan, Flint, Bulstrode, and most other families that were allowed to marry into the Black family (it's just likely for the Blacks to marry in other Wizengamot families).

Functions

So, as I mentioned, the Wizengamot has two hats: The parliament, and the supreme court. Both of these are hats the real Hosue of Lords had up until very recently.

As a Legislature:

In the irl UK, the House of Lords has some limitations regarding the laws and votes it can pass since the UK parliament has a second house, the House of Commons. For example, the House of Commons is the only house allowed to make or change laws regarding taxation. They are also the ones allowed to vote non-confidence in the prime minister to remove him from office.

As the Ministry of Magic only has the Wizengamot, I assume no such limitations are imposed. It means taxation is within the laws and regulations the wizengamot has vote over.

Additionally, this implies the Wizengamot has a final say on who can or can't be Minister of Magic.

As I mentioned in the first post of this series, the main purpose of the Wizengamot as a legislature is to meet up and vote on the bills offered by any office in the ministry. These meetings are called a "Warlock Conventions":

“But it’s against our laws,” said Ron. “Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks’ Convention of 1709, everyone knows that...”

(PS, 167)

"Warlock", in general, seems to be a term used to refer to any wizard with a professional position in the ministry (Perkins, Bones, etc.). So essentially "Warlock" seems to mean "Government Wizard".

As a Supreme Court:

So, this is going to be a little bit about the Wizarding legal system and the Wizengamot's part in it.

Until 2009, the House of Lords was still the Court of Last Resort in the UK, meaning if the lower courts couldn't resolve the issue it went to them. In the Wizarding World it's a little bit different, but there are some similarities with the old functions of the House of Lords.

Essentially, the House of Lords had a group of lords known as "Lords of Appeal in Ordinary", these Law Lords would hear legal appeals, but had quite a few limitations on them.

As the Wizengamot does not share these limitations and a much smaller population, I assume the "Law Warlocks" in the Wizengamot are the only judges to exist in the Wizarding World.

That being said, not all magical cases require a full Wizengamot trial. There is the Council of Magical Law for smaller trials:

“You have been brought here before the Council of Magical Law,” he said clearly, “so that we may pass judgment on you, for a crime so heinous —” “Father,” said the boy with the straw-colored hair. “Father . . . please . . .” “— that we have rarely heard the like of it within this court,”

(GoF, 594)

A council like this actually existed in the House of Lords. After World War II, cases were heard by panels known as Appellate Committees, the minimum number of Law Lords per committee was four, but seven could be present for very important cases.

I believe the same is true for the Wizengamot, even down to the number of how many Law Warlocks you need to run a court.

The fact the trials we see in GoF were run by a Council of Magical Law and not the full Wizengamot explains why they are run by Crouch Sr, Head of the DMLE and a Law Warlock, but not the Chief Warlock who should head Wizengamot proceedings when all members are in attendance.

I'm not sure how many of these "Law Warlocks" there are in the Wizengamot or how many are actually needed for a Council of Magical Law. The numbers here are a bit of an assumption based of the real Hosue of Lords.

Other Functions:

All UK ministers come from the House of Commons, and more rarely the Hosue of Lords. As such, I believe in the Ministry, the heads of all the big 9 departments are chosen by the Wizengamot and the minister from within the Wizengamot. So Bones and Crouch being department heads, makes me believe their families are Wizengamot members.

The big 9 departments are:

Department of Magical Education

Department of Magical Law Enforcement

Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes

Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures,

Department of International Magical Co-operation

Department of Magical Transportation

Department of Magical Games and Sports

Department of Mysteries

(This is not the order of influence of these departments, that's a different discussion of inter-department ministry politics)

This also explains why it's so hard for muggleborns to gain good positions in the ministry and why it's so rare for muggleborn ministers of magic to exist. Because the Wizengamot has a say in these appointments and picks their own members over others for the departments, and has the right to vote non-confidence in an elected minister (how the minister is elected is another matter).

This also creates the inherent problem for representation of creatures and mugglebors legally we see in the books, since, well, they aren't part of these old wizarding families, so they won't have a membership.

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[what-a-messsss]

2x1 rewatch

My poor Netflix is so confused.  I’ll hop on my phone to see if I can find a detail in an ep and then it’ll try to start the show again at halfway through 4x7 or the end of the finale, and I have to figure out what ep I’m actually looking for.

All aboard for “Unquiet Mind.”

Ok, realizing that Jacob and Vic are both ‘play with the radio’ types and Henry and Walt are both ‘or silence’ types is probably a bit funnier to me that it should be.  Didn’t really expect to be finding character parallels between those two.  

BAAAABY!  I totally forgot about the baby buffalo!  Eeeeee!  

Interesting that the prisoner (whose name I have totally braindumped, whoops) knows that Walt would know about the meaning of the white buffalo to the Cheyenne.

$10 says that doctor agent is a redhead because of Starling.  For being 2% of the population, redheads sure do make up a disproportionate part of fictional character real estate.  (I say with lots of love for Cady...)

Also, I feel offended on behalf of both the Red Pony and the Busy Bee by the sign Cowboy’s Corner claiming they have the best food in 3 counties.  Piffle.

“Progress.  Prosperity.  People.  I’m Branch Connally, and I can alliterate.  Vote for the PP People.”  Shut uuuuuup.  Jacob, I’m blaming you for this.  If it weren’t for you, he wouldn’t have had the money to be annoying us even when he’s hours away.  Boooo.  (I mean, obviously also blame Barlow, but that’s more of a ‘with a shovel to the face’ kind of blaming, rather than an eyeroll and calling ‘boooo’ at the screen because your fav was a pain.)

Ah ha, title drop.  I haven’t really paid that much attention to the episode titles, I’ll be honest.  This is the only title drop I can actually remember other than Jacob’s line about “Dogs, horses, and Indians,” although it still bothers me immensely that the episode title doesn’t have the Oxford comma, omGs.  

Durrel’s discoloured eye is really good.  I’m guessing a scleral contact lens?  Just different enough to be noticeable and a little off-putting without drawing too much focus.  It keeps the mental discomfort we get from it just around the unconscious level.

That’s right!  Ruby is out of town!  Min and I decided that she was at a conference in Idaho Falls, since we had already said that her family lives in Texas, and I like the idea of her also doing vocational enrichment training and keeping on the cutting edge of her wheelhouse of policing.  She’s a heckin’ boss, and I adore her.

This is the most random thing in the world, but that’s sort of my wheelhouse... Does Katee Sackoff have a scar on the tip of her nose?  Because I swear at 9:09-11 it looks like it.  Not that it matters, but I’ve never noticed it any other time, and now I’m really curious.

Ope, longer hair Henry in this flashback.  With emotions and it’s killing me.  I also didn’t think about the fact that the Halfmoon’s were talking to the white police instead of (in addition to?) the tribal police.  Though that would have been during Malachi’s reign, since it was 4 years ago.  Oof.

Is that a gas fire?  Because if that’s one of the lines on fire, isn’t the whole place in serious danger of going up in a massive explosion?  There was an explosion like that locally last year and it took out the whole station and killed two people.  Please tell me they called in the fire as soon as they saw it when they were pulling up.  (Of course they didn’t, who are we kidding.  It’s these two.)

So they’ve been driving along with their lights on, pull up maybe 8 feet from the abandoned prison van...  explain to me why he turns his headlights off at that point?  Anybody waiting to ambush them is going to have their eyes more adjusted to the dark, and these two loose the light and there is already no element of surprise because they pulled right up to the van.  Why did you turn the lights off, Walt?  I mean, maaaaaaybe the headlights being on would have reflected off of the van windows and make it harder to see inside?  But that is not particularly good reasoning, I feel.  (Meta guess being that the director/whomever figured that the lights off left them in a colder colour palate and heightened the drama.  Which... they’re not wrong.  But whyyyyyyy would Walt turn them off, not the director?)

“Come on out and I won’t shoot you!” prisoner McGoober yells, having just tried to take Vic out with a shot to center mass.  Ok, sure buddy, we believe you.  The laser sight catching the falling snowflakes does look cool.

Good use of an elbow, Walt.  I’m not actually sure if it was supposed to be a punch but wasn’t lined up great with the camera, but I’m ruling it an on purpose elbow, because Walt is absolutely a dirty fighter, and an elbow is more likely to lay somebody out if you’re close enough.

Oo, what amazing precautions you’re taking.  You actually grabbed a scarf.  And my gods, gloves.  ...work gloves?  Which I know from experience save next to no heat, what the hell, Walt.  I just... why hasn’t he closed his fucking coat??  ::screaming::  Staving off hypothermia isn’t emasculating, you KNOB.  Well at least the snowbunny actually brought a flashlight.  How forward thinking of him.  And has zipped up his coat.  Lawd.

Ew, I just agreed with Branch.  :(  How dare the writers make that happen.

And in strolls Agent Pretty von Douche to make everything just that much more annoying.  Special Agent in Charge Towson, FBI.  Burrpaderrpaderp. Myeh.  

Such special, very agent, much in charge, wow.  >insert doge meme here, lol<

“Whose in charge in his absence?”  Hmmmmmmm.  They ended the shot on Vic, and the look on her face is just... prophetic for how I figure she handles being in charge when Walt abruptly decides to fuck off into the wilderness for the Treasure Hunt portion of his Manly Midlife Crisis, before they can have an election.  Lol.  Womp womp.

Dang, spit strings dangling from your stubble is... uh, a look.  >.>  Did you know that your nose is one of the first parts of you that tends to get frostbite?  And that we know you have a scarf?  (Yelling at Walt is my new hobby.  It’s not a good hobby, but it is mine.)

HI HENRY.  Great, you’re at the hallucinating part of the fieldtrip.  Not that I’m complaining, because even your imaginary Henry is more sensible that you will generally let yourself be.  (Also, he’s pretty, and I am very shallow.)

Yeeee, one of the only poems that I actually have memorized.  Lovely Robert Frost.  Though Robert Burns would also be quite apt.  And miles to go before I sleep and all.  

“The cavalry has arrived.”  Henry is so fucking droll.  I can just imagine the little kernel of muted glee he has at the irony of using that phrase.  I adore him.  “We ate,” says von Douche.  Honey.  Booboo.  

Fuck off, von Douche.  He’s so In Charge.   Burrpaderrpaderp, pthb.  “Any request for activities will go through me.”  That’s so cute.  And Henry’s look would kill you at a thousand paces.  

It does annoy me that Vic keeps calling him Walt when talking about him with the fibbies.  Like, we get it, you’re real close with your boss, but you might get more traction with them by reinforcing the fact that he’s a fellow law enforcement officer and the head of your department by calling him the Sheriff rather than broadcasting how unprofessional you both are.  

Bless Ferg for actually speaking up, though.  Branch just falls in line without a peep (though if I remember, he’s plotting his own little insurrection.)  And Henry is just quietly in the background, gathering data and being invisible as he decides to be.

“I don’t like your tone.”  Well I don’t like you FACE.  That’s actually a lie, it’s a very nice face.  But you’re just such a douchecanoe.

For all that Branch is a rusty wingnut, he does occasionally have decent observational skills.  And he is less emotionally riled, so he sees that Henry is planning something while Vic is too busy fuming.  I’m wondering how that lands with Ferg/why he doesn’t notice, and I think he’s still just isn’t very good at thinking out of the box yet.  Or seeing stuff that’s out of the box.  He definitely gets better about it as time goes on, but it’s an interesting thing to think about as far as his character development.  He’s focused on what he can think of to help, and isn’t expanding that to see thinking about what others might be able to do to help, which Branch does, but Vic doesn’t.  

The gunshots in the cabin and the lever action rifle and all are taking me straight to the beginning of Red Dead2.  Sadie, is that you?  Nope, it’s Omar, aaaaahahaha, I forgot he was in this.

I love that Henry keeps his saddle at home/the bar.  I don’t know why I’m surprised, though.  Maybe figured that he’d keep it where the horses are stabled, I guess.  But I can imagine him keeping it close in case, and cleaning the tack and oiling the saddle as a way to unwind after a hard day or something.

Heeeeehehehe, the look on Henry’s face when he leans in to Branch and goes, “...supporting the FBI.”  Such a beautiful way of expressing how very little he thinks of Branch without ever having to say it.  “Right now, I am the sheriff.”  You are so deeply obnoxious.  And do not play nice with others.

And here’s Walt with his circumstantial evidence, laying out his assumptions, and being right, which is all good and such now, but he is so in the habit of doing this shit and being right that he cannot accept when he isn’t right about things.

Well at least Omar has his place stocked for the weather.  I know I fall farther on the ‘over prepare’ end of the spectrum, but Walt not having better gloves in his truck in the dead of winter makes me roll my eyes so dang hard.

This hallucination of Fales is a fascinating bit of character study both for Walt and for Fales.  Walt’s subconscious effectively calling him out for his suicidal tendencies with not there Fales asking him, “Are you looking to get yourself killed?” is more honesty than it seems like Walt tends to allow himself.

ASAC Hall is actually better at dealing with people like a human, but von Douche isn’t actually wrong.  Vic is understandably pissed by the withheld information, but she does stomp around like a bull in a china shop and pretty much never stops to think.  Maybe they all would have gotten farther if von Douche or Hall had asked the night before if the locals had other options, but unlikely.  

I FORGOT SHE PUNCHED HIM.  The look on Hall’s face was priceless.

Eeeeeee, I do love that Walt left a trail, knowing that Henry would be coming after him.  Branch’s comments to Henry show that while he can observe people and sometime predict how they’re going to act, he can’t really understand why they’re doing it, if it’s beyond his own lens of experiences (which are pretty fucked up).  Whether it’s cynicism or just stunted empathy, conceiving of someone’s motivations being selflessly altruistic are just beyond his ken.  That’s pretty sad, honestly, and makes me hate Barlow even more.  Everything in Branch’s life has been transactional, calculated.

Oh, and now he pulls something up over his mouth.  Ok.  Great, into the water.

I fucking love Ferg.  His gleeful awe over Vic hitting Towson literally made me press my hands to my face, giggling.  And he’s such a good friend.  And she’s such a pill.  I get that she’s feeling guilty and hurting, but it takes no effort not to take it out on Ferg.  How easy would it have been to say, “Somebody has to keep working on finding them.  Go back inside, Ferg,” instead of “You have to get out of here,” and just running him off like a jerk.

Cady having cut off contact with Walt gives me life.  AND THEN his shitty self-protecting LYING brain comforts him by having her say, “You were only trying to protect me, Dad, I get that,” because that’s what he keeps telling himself to excuse taking her agency away and lying to her for at least a year, and continuing to manipulate her!  GAAAAAH!  “I can’t lose you...”  THEN CHECK YOUR DAMN SELF, DISASTER BOI.

I’m not sure if hallucination!Theo telling him that there was nothing he could do is a sign of a healthy recognition of that, or the same kind of lying to himself because it’s what he wants to hear that he’s done with Cady?  The “...but I knew someone was coming to help me,” rather smacks of the latter, since earlier in the ep Walt says that that’s what he would want to know if he were held hostage.

I have decided (with my shippy goggles firmly in place, if not molecularly fused to my face) that him doubting that Henry is coming to help him is what makes him realize that he’s getting hypothermia.  Because the idea that Henry wouldn’t be coming to get him is so utterly ridiculous that clearly his brain is on the fritz.

The fact that the phone works after his dunking is also a minor miracle.  I know I said earlier that Walt is a dirty fighter, but oof, he’s the one who just took a dick shot.  I mean, that’s one way to use a cell phone.

Again, not super sure what it says about Walt for him to imagine Theo watch him in the process of killing Durrel.  Poor Henry.  That whole mess would have been incredibly stressful.  Your jackass boyfriend is way high maintenance in rather spectacular ways.

[cowopuffs]

Kirby headcannons

Any random kirby headcannons! I'll (probably) reblog with more later! Most of these are just little thing I find funny or fitting ^^

Kirby tried to eat a scented candle once. He tries to eat everything, but it was particularly hard to get him to not eat the candle because it smelled like cookies.

Taranza is fluent is flower. He knows the meaning of literally every flower that exists. 

Magolor is a pro at poker. He is exceptional at lying and at reading people. So he wins poker nearly everytime he plays it. He and metaknight play it a lot. The amount of things maggy has gotten meta to do because he won is honestly too much. Meta play's everytime though. And yet, is still surprised when he looses.

Bandana dee has a swear jar and whenever someone swears, he makes them put a coin in the coin jar. Meta and marx have the most coins in the swear jar.

Prince fluff wears heelies, and just rolls around dreamland causing minor problems.

Kirby, Prince fluff, and bandana dee are inseparable. Their best buddies. The trio. They cause a small amount of mischief.

Sometimes dark meta will just come over to dededes castle to fuck with metaknight. He just annoys him and thats all he does.

Meta is actually lighter than he seems and can be picked up very easily. He makes sure no one knows about it except for dedede, magolor for some reason, and his crew.

Often times while meta and his crew are on patrol together they just fuck around the entire time. Meta tries to be serious, but eventually just fucks around too.

Dedede forces everyone in the castle to do karaoke nights or movie nights often. And their honestly a blast for everyone, even meta. Even though he'll never admit it.

Marx will do commentary on whatever is happening around him in a dumb announcer type voice. Sometimes it's hilarious, and other times its the most annoying thing. Most the time though, its a good mix of both.

If something interests magolor, he will have the urge to touch it. No matter what. It can be a rock, he'll still touch it if he finds it interesting. This can sometimes lead to awkward situations, meta had his wings out and magolor just. Grabbed them and began studying them, without even realizing. Meta was mostly just confused.

No one knows why, but sometimes galacta knight and morpho just show up for a while and just vibe. Then leave for a bit, and come back. But they're always together.

Marx plays pranks all the time. Magolor helps him, but is mostly there to make sure marx doesn't do something stupid enough to destroy the entire castle.

Everytime metaknight and susie even see the other. They insult each other. They hate each other with such a passion its concerning.

Magolor knows where meta keeps his candy stash. Which he will steal from. Whenever meta catches him, its always is an interesting situation.

Taranza never knows whats going on. He's just painfully oblivious in every single situation.

Dedede plays golf. He usually drags meta along. And meta actually hates when he does this. He wants to break every single golf club dedede owns

Dedede also likes picking on people. He do find out a very specific thing about someone. And tease them relentlessly. One time dedede somehow found out magolor was small enough to fit into most dresses, so he tried to force mags to wear a dress. Which didnt work.

Magolor would totally wear a dress though. He just didnt want to wear one for dedede's entertainment.

Metaknight loves to just, be confusing. He will do things, purely to piss people off or to make them confused. He finds it to be the best form of entertainment.

Prince fluff owns clout goggles.

Prince fluff is T R A N S ftm and we support him.

Marx likes to freak people out by taking off his arms because they're prosthetic. He barely wears them. They're heavy and mostly get in the way. Who needs arms anyway?

Kirby tries to hug-attack meta everytime he sees him. But meta always doges the hug. Kirbys gotten close though.... One day...

Susie and marx are like, best friends for some reason. They just enjoy being assholes together. They also know any and all drama. They also have infinite blackmail on almost everyone.

Kirby is emotional support for almost everyone. He doesn't mind though, in fact he enjoys it because he's helping people :)

Everytime they have a Holliday party, it just goes straight to hell. Something always happens and it just turns into utter chaos.

Magolor and prince fluff will just recite memes to each other everytime they see one another. They could just be passing by, but they will stop in their tracks just to meme. No one knows how this began. It just did.

Metaknight secretly loves musicals and will bop to them all the time. Sometimes he'll quietly hum a song from one while he works.

Magolor can play the violin and will just walk around dreamland playing it. Everyone loves it. It fills dreamland with pleasant music and gives magolor something to do thats not in front of a screen.

Kirby is baby. We cannot change this

Marx, magolor, metaknight, taranza, daroach, and ddd all have a bois night out at least once a month where they cause trouble and just vibe.

The girls also have a gals night out because its fun. They also just vibe and goof off. A lot of tea is spilled during this.

Susie loves just, going up to people and just, makeover time. Gives them a new outfit, makeup, the whole thing. Marx helps with this by rating it 1-10. He also lets her do makeup on him all the time. His lack of arms make it hard for him to do it himself.

Metaknight is the master of eyeliner. Not even susie can compare to his eyeliner. Its too beautiful. He just learned how to do makeup out of pure spite to be better at it than susie. Just to piss her off.

It worked.

[ante--meridiem]

Oooh! Albus Dumbledore :D

How I feel about this character: Am I expected to be able to say something snappy and coherent here? I have far too many feelings for that. I didn't really feel that much beyond "mild fondness" about him until I watched CoG. The change wasn't so much due to the film itself as that it reminded me to look back on the character with a more mature eye. He's a complicated mess of a person and I honestly haven't loved a character this much in a while. I admire his self-control and ability to make the right choices regardless of emotional cost, and I admire him all the more knowing his past - a character who's been drawn to darkness and rejected it will always be more interesting to me than one who's just effortlessly good. I love the constant tug-of-war between emotion and reason we see in him. I can also relate to him very deeply on an emotional level in some ways. (I think I mentioned in the tags on a meta from a different fandom that my trend in favourite characters is "emotionally repressed and deeply lonely" so uh... yeah, that applies here all the way.)

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Gellert Grindelwald. I can also see Elphias Doge having a one sided crush on him, though I wouldn't really say I ship them.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Um. I love his interactions with most people, so... Newt, McGonagle, Harry, Snape? Any of these.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Looking at the fandom, I think me liking him at all is an unpopular opinion across the board. So yeah. I don't think he chessmastered every single thing that happened in the books either - he gave things some helpful shoves in the right direction but he's not omniscient. Also, I think most of his more manipulative behaviour is because he (very understandably, I'd say) has trouble trusting others and feels responsible for handling everything himself.

...If we're going to go for a potentially unpopular opinion among the people that like him, I think portraying his teenage self as a sweet, innocent kid who just got manipulated by Grindelwald weakens his character arc. The point is for him to have been genuinely tempted by power and I'm not interested in seeing that erased.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: It would have been nice for him to have had some closure with Gellert while he was still alive. I don't necessarily narratively think it should have happened but a part of me still wishes.

[writcraft]

I know Snape is always a controversial figure, but the more I look at Dumbledore it occurs to me that he isn't really as great as he's cracked up to be given the situations he allowed Harry to be in. Thoughts?

OMG you are coming AT ME with this (and I love it). I think what gives people pause with Dumbledore most of all is hindsight. Reading back over things he said, knowing he had the full arsenal of knowledge with Snape, Harry and others, shifts perception of his character completely, but ultimately Harry went into his final battle fully equipped with the knowledge of what he needed to do. To take that from him reduces Harry’s autonomy, the way he bravely took the decision to do what he had to. 

One thing I often say to my friends who don’t veer into Snape fandom, is how perspectives on Dumbledore become a hell of a lot darker when you’re a Snape fan and I think you see a much darker Dumbledore in Snape fic than you do in Drarry for example, but I think that’s kind of cool. I think it’s interesting because there are a multitude of ways to read his character and frankly you can take Dumbledore to some seriously dark places. For me personally, I see Dumbledore as a general in war, the ultimate Utilitarian, where he advocates for the result that produces the greatest good for the greatest number. I think he and Harry conflict on that because I think Harry is more driven by heart than strategy, more idealistic than Dumbledore. I’m neither in the ‘Dumbledore was evil’ camp, nor am I in the ‘Dumbledore was a twinkly-eyed lovely old man’ camp. He’s a super complex and fascinating character and I am SO EXCITED that you asked me to talk about him. 

I’m going to post a piece of age old meta I put up on Ye Olde Journals about Dumbledore below the cut, if you’re curious about my extensive thoughts on him and I should caveat all of this with the fact I’m going on the books and have not been following Fantastic Beasts stuff so this is all book related. 

Ultimately, I think he’s a fascinating character and one that invites much discussion.

Albus Dumbledore: A Man More Sinned Against than Sinning?

Fandom is not alone in its confusion about the Hogwart’s Headmaster. Even Rowling herself seems conflicted at times. She has described Dumbledore as both “the epitome of goodness” and “Machiavellian.” Some fifteen years after the publication of the final book, Rowling named Dumbledore as “the character who was hardest to leave” yet has also previously confessed she views him as both “isolated” and emotionally “detached.” Rowling confesses:

“Although [Dumbledore] seems to be so benign for six books, he’s quite a Machiavellian figure, really. He’s been pulling a lot of strings. Harry has been his puppet…When Snape says to Dumbledore [toward the end of ‘Hallows’], 'We’ve been protecting [Harry] so he could die at the right moment’ — I don’t think in book one you would have ever envisioned a moment where your sympathy would be with Snape rather than Dumbledore.”

With such strong yet seemingly opposing views, it is no surprise that fandom too, can be conflicted over the extent to which Dumbledore was a Machiavellian puppeteer on the one hand and a genuinely good man who made some mistakes with the enormous burden he carried on the other.

The extent of Dumbledore’s omniscience becomes abundantly clear when reading of the canon with a full arsenal of knowledge. With the benefit of hindsight, the seemingly innocuous steps Dumbledore takes to equip Harry for his eventual task – such as giving him his father’s invisibility cloak and allowing him to see the Mirror of Erised – are far more noticeable when reading with the knowledge of how canon ends. This is all part of Rowling’s deft touch when it comes to foreshadowing later events from the earliest possible moment, yet it forces a returning reader to view Dumbledore through a more critical lens. Harry comes to Hogwarts with certain core attributes which stand him in good stead for his future tasks, but Dumbledore enforces those – encouraging his bravery and capacity for love, and emphasising how Harry is capable of making the right choice when faced with challenging dilemmas – perhaps all in preparation for the final decision Harry must make. He understands that Harry is the better man and tells him so. Harry was truly worthy of possessing the Hallows while Dumbledore was worthy only to own the meanest of the three, to tame the elder wand and not kill with it.Dumbledore’s omniscience and his status in both Harry’s life and the Wizarding world at large, makes him something of a god-like figure. One of the reasons Rowling seems so attached to the character links in with this reading and explains how he has been portrayed in such a manner. Rowling states that “I feel like I wrote Dumbledore from the back of my head. Sometimes he said things and told Harry things that I only knew I knew or believed until…I saw that I had written them down in the voice of Dumbledore.” For the author, Dumbledore was her own confidant – he was the one character she wrote who knew as much about the inevitable conclusion of the series as she, and this shines through in the way she presents Dumbledore and has him interact with others around him. Just as Hermione is used to impart knowledge, Dumbledore is used to foreshadow and push characters gently towards their inevitable conclusions. The reader, and Harry too, need to trust in Dumbledore even when they have seemingly been abandoned.With the knowledge Dumbledore has, he carries a heavy burden. Even those he trusts (Harry, Severus, Minerva) are not given the whole truth, simply a handful of jigsaw pieces which don’t make a complete puzzle. Rowling notes that Dumbledore regretted that it was he “who had the burden of knowing.” She has said in interview that if he had the choice, he would “rather not know.” The burden carried by Dumbledore is indeed a great one, and with this burden he can, perhaps, be afforded some sympathy. Rowling reinforces Dumbledore’s burden, stating that “…his wisdom has isolated him….where is his equal, where is his confidante, where is his partner? He has none of those things. He’s always the one who gives, he’s always the one who has the insight and has the knowledge.” It is precisely this knowledge which Dumbledore uses to try to fight the good fight, yet it is also this knowledge which has cast Dumbledore in the role of a villain with some readers.In terms of fandom’s interactions with Dumbledore, the revelation of his past mistakes arguably do far less to tarnish the character than the actions he takes over the duration of canon. He has clearly repented for the mistakes of his youth but it is a pivotal moment for the reader, and for Harry, when Dumbledore’s history is unveiled. In Deathly Hallows we finally see the fallible and human side to Dumbledore, along with the darker aspects of his character as we learn his secrets. By the time these secrets are revealed, however, we hear them from Rita Skeeter – a character the reader (and Harry) has been taught not to trust and thus we can assume her view is an exaggerated one. Through the introduction of Elphias Doge the reader is treated to a different perspective, and Doge allows Harry and the readers to understand that Dumbledore’s “early losses endowed him with great humanity and sympathy.”Dumbledore is not a terribly emotional character – he is not prone to wild emotional responses and can exhibit signs of emotional detachment, yet Doge is correct that Dumbledore displays a keen understanding of human emotion. This understanding of humanity can be read as a tool Dumbledore wields to manipulate people into doing his bidding – all, of course, in the belief he is doing so for the greater good. In the case of Harry, who comes to Hogwarts desperate for a family, Dumbledore takes on the role of a father figure who imparts knowledge and wisdom. In the case of Severus, Dumbledore poaches him at his most vulnerable and distressed to earn himself a loyal lieutenant for the war against Voldemort. There is certainly canon support for those positions. Yet there is also canon support for Dumbledore having repeatedly offered the hand of human kindness to those who most needed it. His motives are to rid the world of great evil – he is not acting for self-serving purposes, and he will go on to sacrifice his own life for the cause. He willingly consumes the Drink of Despair so Harry doesn’t have to and acknowledges if it would benefit the greater good, he would be prepared to suffer a very different sort of death to the one which claims his life, if it were to serve any purpose.The knowledge Dumbledore has, is both his strength and his inevitable weakness and the one thing which causes him to fall so dramatically in the eyes of those who read Dumbledore critically. It is what makes him the most culpable, because he doesn’t at any stage allow anybody else to share in the entirety of his knowledge. Harry learns more about Dumbledore’s tendency to be economical with the truth when he meets Aberforth, who tells him: “Secrets and lies, that’s how we grew up, and Albus … he was a natural.” Dumbledore states that to tell Harry the truth would have been too much of a burden, and perhaps he is correct. It is Severus in the end who equips Harry with the full knowledge he needs and who shows him exactly what he must do in order to conquer Voldemort. It is Severus, not Dumbledore, that imparts the critical truth to Harry, which allows him to make his decision to walk into the forest and to do what he must.It is not terribly surprising, perhaps, that those most aggrieved by Dumbledore’s actions are those that feel a connection to Severus. Snape says it very well himself when finally confronted with the truth: “You have used me…I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter’s son safe. Now you are telling me that you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter….”Dumbledore’s response to Severus is somewhat interesting - rather than react to the intense emotion he is confronted with, Dumbledore is almost teasing and cold - a stark contrast to the man we see in King’s Cross:“But this is touching, Severus. Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?”For so much of canon, Albus has taught Harry the importance of love and in Snape’s response to his somewhat flippant statement, he is reminded once again of the power of human emotion.Dumbledore: “After all of this time?”Snape: “Always.”This exchange drives Dumbledore to tears, because perhaps despite his insistence that Severus is loyal to him, he might have forgotten how such loyalty was initially born. Severus longs for validation and purpose, and thus his revelation is all the more tragic when he feels his quest has been for nothing.Dumbledore also asks Severus to kill him, and it is not the regard for Severus’ soul which is worrisome (Dumbledore again seems to know Severus’ soul would not be tainted by the act) but rather his neglect in explaining to Severus the significance of the Elder Wand. Perhaps this was very deliberate - Severus has been known to be swayed and persuaded by Dark magic, yet the fact that winning it from Dumbledore will mark Severus in the eyes of the Dark Lord remains a mystery to Severus. The mastery of the Elder Wand commits Snape to his death, and one has to wonder if Dumbledore knew all along that Snape would die. Was Snape collateral damage for Dumbledore in his quest for the greater good?I have to admit to feeling as conflicted about Dumbledore as a person could be. He is both admirable and not, both good and flawed. Rowling herself clearly did not intend for Dumbledore to be a dark and politically reprehensible character - he turns down jobs at the Ministry of Magic and he uses his considerable powers for good, rather than evil, yet even she admits he is Machiavellian and manipulative. He does what has to be done (with the knowledge he has) to successfully win a war the Wizarding world feels it has no hope of winning. Perhaps he ‘grooms ‘ Harry to be brave, but in a world where people are frightened of a name, that can only be a good thing.It is quite easy to see where Dumbledore went wrong. He betrayed those he was supposed to be protecting by not telling them the truth. Despite that, I have to wonder what might have happened if things were different. If Severus had known Harry was destined for death, would he have bothered protecting him at all? If Harry had known he was going to have to die at age fourteen, would he have fought so valiantly against Voldemort and ended up in a position where he could finally defeat him?

[saveloadreset]

Mew Mew Parallels In Undertale

It’s been forever and a day before I did a pure meta post, but Toby’s latest tweet planted a thought I wanted to articulate.

Recently, Toby shared with us a picture, an image visible for barely a second in the special edition trailer. It appears to be a blurred ad for Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2, which brought back an old idea I had, about how Mew Mew and Undertale seem to almost mirror each others’ stories.

And since Mew Mew Kissy Cutie is a rough sketch of Undertale’s journey from several angles, this take on Mew Mew 2 interested me. Now, before we go into depth on that, the question I need to answer is: why does Mew Mew Kissy Cutie match up with Undertale? Well, I have an answer, but I wanted to go full hog on screenshots this time, so I think I’m going to put the rest of this argument under a cut.

Before we talk about this screen, we must first talk about what we know of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie already, from the game. There are several incidents where Alphys talks about it, but only two where we get a glimpse of what the actual plot of the story is about. The first is in the ‘Bad Opinion Zone,’ where we see her talk about her distaste for Mew Mew 2.

Now, this doesn’t tell us much about the show, except that Alphys thinks that she thinks that Mew Mew 2 betrayed the premise, themes and lessons of Mew Mew, as originally taught. We would need to learn more to get a grasp on her idea of what the show was meant to be. 

Luckily, we are provided with that a little later when she essentially spoils the whole plot of the show, giving us great insight into its nature. It’s really had to screenshot since it autoscrolls, so I captured a .gif of the conversation instead of just taking a screen.

Transcript:

It’s so good!  It’s, um, my favorite show!

It’s all about this human girl named Mew Mew who has cat ears! Which humans don’t have! S-so she’s all sensitive about them!

But like... Eventually!

She realizes that her ears don’t matter

that her friends like her despite the ears!

It’s really moving!

Whoops, spoilers!

Also, this sounds weird, but she has the power!

To control the minds of anyone she kisses!

She kisses people and controls them to fix her problems!!

They don’t remember anything after the kiss I mean!!

BUT IF SHE MISSES THE KISS!! THEN!!

then, uh and, uh, also I mean, of course

eventually she realizes that controlling people

OKAY WELL I almost spoiled the whole show, but

Uhh, I think you’d really like it!!!

This gives us deeper insight into what Mew Mew Kissy Cutie means to Alphys, and gives us a lot of context for how its story parallels with her personal arc as well as the human’s. 

Alphys

Alphys is steeped deeply in the secrets and shame of the result of her DT experiments. She feels deeply horrified of the idea of anyone finding out what she has hidden, to the point where she believes her friendships are entirely built around lies, and that her friends would immediately abandon her were her mistakes revealed. 

The acceptance of Mew Mew’s friends after she comes clean about her ears would resonate deeply with Alphys, so it’s not wonder that she’s latched so firmly onto the Mew Mew story.

The Human

One thing that doesn’t resonate with Alphys, though is Mew Mew’s ‘special power.’ The ability to control those she kisses and, in particular, erase their memories in order to solve her problems doesn’t really apply to Alphys. But the human’s ability to SAVE and LOAD allows them to control others through perfect knowledge of how they act and manipulate their memories by moving backward in time. 

There’s some argument to be made about the regular rhythm of play, however, I think that assuming a player walks into the story with no outside information, we can expect the progress to move from a neutral run to a pacifist run, wherein the hero first uses their powers to move through a hostile world and out the other side, with dust on their hands...

And then tries again, moving backward in time so as to use their powers for good, culminating in a moment where their powers over time are useless, but that the love and friendships that they have cultivated throughout the Underground can be leveraged by bring happiness to the Underground.

Happy End. But...What about Mew Mew 2? Alphys believes the central arc of Mew Mew was Mew coming to terms with herself, enjoying the love of her friends and, upon accepting their love, no longer feeling a need to manipulate people with her powers. So, in Mew Mew 2, it seems that Mew Mew would have backtracked. She would have likely used her powers, maybe even abusing her friends.

Source

This is blurry and I had time reading it, but luckily @doge-w-a-bloge​ went through the effort of transcribing it all here.

B4D 0P1N10N A dark Masterpiece!

Mew-Mew Kissy Cutie 2 - DVD Video - 16 hr director commentary - includes 18x4 poster of the creators apologizing From The Original Creators Mew Mew’s Pissed Off And Ready To Mew AVAILABLE ON THE UnderNet [Mew Mew] Should be about whimsy and kindness not edgy self-indulgent garbage. Sometimes there are flashes of the original, but they’re greatly what makes the sequel hurt so much. And God does it hurt so much. -The Anonymous Anime Lizard TESTIMONIALS: My GF really likes the first 1 but I noticed she doesn’t have the sequel. So I just bought six of them 4 her!!! Heck yeah!! Five stars!!! -Strongfish91

Setting aside how hilarious Undyne is for a moment, (I know it’s hard) this gives us insight into Mew Mew 2. It’s apparently a much, much darker story. Alphys takes issue with it because it takes what Mew Mew was about in her eyes and threw it in the trash. Kindness and whimsy, gone. And in its place? A dark, ‘edgy’ story instead. 

Not only that, but if you take the summary as reflective of the game, ‘Mew Mew’s Pissed Off And Ready To Mew,’ it paints our main character as very aggressive. Considering how Alphys says it throws away her character arc, it could be that her learning that she shouldn’t control people was ultimately cast aside in Mew Mew 2, making Mew Mew herself the messenger of the ‘edgy self-indulgent garbage’ that Alphys spends her testimonial decrying.

In a way, it almost mirrors the way that people look at the different runs. Sometimes treating the worst run as an ominous hypothetical that only exists to make a true pacifist ending brighter and happier, sometimes decrying the people who play the worst run as too edgy, masochistic or ignorant of the games’ overall theme and resenting the worst run for existing to blemish their ‘perfect ending.’ 

I bet Chara, Frisk and Asriel would have liked it.

[radramblog]

VGC Series 10 Restricted Pokemon

So the new series of Pokemon Sword and Shield competitive is about to launch (as in, it starts on Sunday). The rules are pretty interesting, and as a result a lot of the metagame is being thrown on its head.

-Dynamax is off. They just up and got rid of the games’ gimmick. I’m sure Smogon DOU players will be right at home.

-Each team is permitted one Restricted Pokemon, as in Series 8.

There are 24 Pokemon listed as “Restricted”, just about all of them the intentionally overpowered “cover legendaries” the series has stuck with since Gold and Silver. Each of them is extremely powerful, and would be a worthwhile addition to any team.

But, which one should you run? Find out in this entirely serious guide.

(I was going to attach funny meme images to this like but I ran out of time sorry just imagine doge memes next to Zacian and stuff you get the idea i might edit this later)

Mewtwo

There are two types of people running Mewtwo. People with nostalgia, whether it be just because it’s one of their favourite mons or because the infamy of it being the “ultimate Pokemon” stuck in their heads too long, or because they know how good it actually is but they want to try it anyway.

I mean, it’s not bad? Obviously that Sp.A don’t quit, and Terrain-boosted Expanding Force is kinda nutty. Plenty of coverage, too. But without the Megas, Mewtwo just isn’t good enough anymore, I think. And unfortunately, there’s another thing on this list that kinda just does the same thing, but better.

 Lugia

While Mewtwo is unquestionably a fast offensive threat, Lugia represents the opposite end of the spectrum. It’s faster than I had assumed, actually, but most of why you run it is for that sweet sweet chonk.

I understand wanting to use Lugia. The second movie is my favourite too. But 90/90 offenses don’t cut it these days, you don’t want your Uber/Restricted to be a supportive mon, and setup strategies are both risky and done better by other things. Sorry? Aeroblast is a lot cooler when you can turn it into Max Flying, I’m afraid.

 Ho-Oh

I actually don’t have anything bad to say about Ho-oh. It’s actually kind of great, and possibly underrated- it is able to check some of the biggest threats in the meta, and is dummy thick enough to take hits and clear out the remainder.

It is in the 90 Speed group, which a surprising number of these Restricteds are, so you might suffer from speed creeping issues. Or just run bulk, because Regenerator and Recover make it nigh-unkillable if you invest hard enough.

Look I’m biased I just built a Ho-oh team what do you want from me?

 Kyogre

One of the two Weather restricted things. Just about everyone running Rain is going to want one of these, and it’s one of the most popular mons in the format as a result. It’s not quite meta-defining, but it’s the first of what I reckon are going to be the Big Four of the format.

Water Spout and Origin Pulse hit like an absolute tank off this thing. It doesn’t need much else. This is why you run Wide Guard, people.

Kyogre is very good, which is what makes it very boring. We will be returning to this concept.

 Groudon

The Other Weather Setter, and inexplicably a way less popular one. It might be that Eruption isn’t STAB and doesn’t come off it’s superior Physical Attack- Fire Punch doesn’t quite hit as hard.

That, and there actually is another solid Sun setter in Torkoal. But why not both, though?

I ran Groudon in Series 8 and I was pretty impressed by its performance. I mean, it’s Kyogre but awkward and Physical. You could do a lot worse.

 Rayquaza

I love Rayquaza a lot, as a result of both Emerald and the anime, so it’s with a heavy heart that I must say that Rayquaza is, like, not good in this format.

The key issue Rayq faces is that it’s statline is really awkwardly distributed. It has 150 in both offenses, but that leaves it’s other stats somewhat lacking compared to the other restricteds on the list. That and it’s ability, Air Lock, implies it’d be good at beating Groudon/Kyogre, but it kind of just loses to them 1v1. They’re bulky enough to live a hit, and don’t have to go out of their way to clonk it for SE damage. And what the fuck, it only has 95 speed? It feels like it should have much more.

 Dialga

I haven’t seen much buzz about Dialga, which is actually kind of surprising. Like, Steel/Dragon is a great typing, it’s a Dragon that isn’t weak to Fairy or Ice or Dragon, and it’s statline is pretty solid- 150 Sp.A and 100/120/100 defenses. What’s not to love?

Oh it probably just dies to Zacian doesn’t it. Or Landorus, of whom both forms are super popular right now. Sigh. One day.

 Palkia

Looking at the Pikalytics data, apparently a bunch of people are running Trick Room Palkia? Which makes zero sense to me, seeing as it’s actually a bit faster than a bunch of these mons.

It’s relatively less bulky, but BEEG DRACOVISH here is probably pretty decent. I’ve heard, however, that calling something decent basically just means it’s bad. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that turns out to be the case. Two of the Big Four just lay this fucker flat out, so.

 Giratina

Despite being bulkier than Palkia, it’s weaker to an additional member of the Big Four, which probably just makes it unusable. Whoops.

And as cool as noodle Giratina is, it dies to even more things, isn’t any faster, and means you don’t get to run a funky item to make it runnable. Prooobably just stick to Dragapult?

 Reshiram

Reshiram presents an interesting question, because it’s typing and moveset are kinda great for the format. It’s another Fairy-neutral Dragon, which is nice and good, and Blue Flare hits like an absolute truck.

I’m convinced Reshiram has a place in the meta. I just don’t quite know what it is yet.

 Zekrom

Zekrom strikes me as like, Reshiram but it’s worse against Zacian and better against Kyogre. It’s interesting, because Fire is a type you kinda want right now, but Electric is pretty good as well? Like, Regieleki cannot fucking touch this thing.

Zekrom also has a kind of insane moveset to work with, and if you want to try a Dragon Dance set, it’s a great spot for it. So, basically, maybe?

 Kyurem

I guess you could technically run Base Kyurem as your Restricted. I don’t know why you would, it’s kind of awful. Typing sucks, moves suck, stats don’t make up for it.

 Kyurem-Black

Kyurem-Black was given it’s greatest gift since its release- actually getting Physical Ice STAB off it’s ludicrous 170 Attack. Unfortunately, this alone does not a playable mon make, and it’s still weak to frankly too many types. Ice is just so completely awful defensively! Please fix this, Game Freak.

35% of people trying this format out early are running Power Herb Freeze Shock, and I salute you crazy, crazy bastards. But also that sounds awful tbh.

 Kyurem-White

Reshiram, but you trade a great defensive type for a bad one, and gain monstrous stats in return. If you can find a way to stop Zacian from hitting it, it probably one-shots it back. Also, it gets Freeze-Dry for Kyogre, though even with 170 Sp.A I don’t know if you one-shot that thing.

 Xerneas

 We’re finally getting to member two of the Big Four. Xerneas is an old standby of restricted VGC formats, and kind of a one trick pony. Er, deer. But that one trick is very solid, so fair enough.

If I’m honest, I think that One Trick is going to make Xerneas take a hit in usability, because the moment it gets good, people instantly know how to counter it and add that into their teams. The thing barely ever runs non-Fairy attacking moves, for fuck’s sake! Put a Steel in front of it and it just cries.

 Yveltal

 Yveltal is awkward, because it’s fighting for a spot with the Very Good Moltres-Galar, which doesn’t take up the restricted slot. But Yveltal does have a space to work within, I think.

It’s got an absolutely phenomenal support moveset, which again isn’t really want you want on your Restricted, but it’s natural offenses are good enough that you can probably just get away with it. STAB Oblivion Wing and STAB/Dark Aura Snarl are incredible for bulkier builds, and it even has incredible damage with a priority Sucker Punch. Basically, it’s got some things going on.

 Zygarde

Zygarde is the most awkward ‘mon on this list, methinks. It’s entire bit is trying to get to low HP in order to trigger Power Construct and get into it’s super mode, but the statgain…isn’t incredible? It’s HP doubles and it trades 10 Speed for Special Attack. Which you might not even be using? And this is all predicated on it getting to particular HP values, which is a lot harder now that you can’t Dynamax it.

This thing is scary as hell in the Max Lair, but not so much here. Signature moves are fucking wild though.

 Cosmog/Cosmoem

I know they’re preevolutions of two restricted species, but why are these restricted? Was Z-Teleport really that good?

You have to be a serious memelord to play one of these, and a very good player to actually win with them. In other words, if I see one of these on ladder or in a tournament, I’m going to start sweating.

 Solgaleo

Solgaleo has the same problem as Yveltal, but moreso. Because just about anything it can do, Metagross can do just about as well and without taking up a restricted spot. Sure, Meteor Mash is a bit worse than Sunsteel Strike, and technically Full Metal Body and Clear Body aren’t identical (FMB is immune to ability-nullifying effects, apparently), but come onnnn. Are you really running Sun Dog when you can run funy robot man and also your choice of restricted beastie? Come on now.

 Lunala

 As much as I love Lunala’s design, it’s not particularly good. It has the same typing as Caly-Ghost, and significantly worse stats, ability, and movepool. And conveniently, due to that shared typing, Caly-Ghost just lays this fucker to waste. A shame, for such a cool design.

 Necrozma

Similar to Kyurem, you could run this, if you wanted a worse Mewtwo. I guess it is better than the Ice Dragon, but like, don’t bother.

 Necrozma-Dusk-Mane

The other reason not to run Solgaleo is because this exists. Just, the same, but way better. It’s a lot slower, but that just makes it playable in Trick Room, so.

NDM over here is competing with Zacian for the throne of Nuts Steel/X Physical Dog. Unfortunately, because Zacian is, frankly, completely fuckbusted insane, and doesn’t require setup like NDM does, it’s not going to win that fight.

 Necrozma-Dawn-Wings

Again, Lunala but slower and bulkier and hits harder. If you can get a Troom up, it’s probably kinda nuts, since then it actually can just cap Calyrex in its dressage-looking ass. Plus, you’re probably already running Indeedee, so Psychic Terrain goes off.

I wanna see someone kill things with Meteor Beam/Power Herb on this. It’s probably pretty decent. But it’s still a lot of work, and I’m not convinced the payoff is worth it.

 Zacian

 I’m not even going to bother writing about uncrowned Zacian, even if it probably will see more play than some of the other things on this list.

Let’s run it down. Patently absurd stats- 92/115/115 are average defenses for a Restricted (maybe a bit above average?) but it has 170 Attack, and unlike the Kyurems it actually has the speed to back it up at 148. To be clear, that’s the second fastest Restricted, and only 3 other Pokemon in the game (Regieleki, Ninjask, Pheromosa- Deoxys, Electrode, and some Megas are faster but aren’t in Gen 8) outspeed it. It’s got fucking bonkers typing, arguably the best two in the game, along with an ability that effectively pumps that Attack to 255. Oh, also very good STAB and coverage moves.

Zacian is almost certainly the most important Pokemon in the entire format. It’s that good. You don’t have to be smart to use it, especially as you don’t actually get the choice of item. It’s an idiot beatstick, and that’s kind of all there is to it. Every team needs to have an answer to it, and since it gets Imprison, you can even just run it as an answer to itself. What a fucking joke of a mon.

 Zamazenta

And then there’s The Other One. Zamazenta is significantly more balanced than Zacian, being surprisingly bulky even without that +1 Defense, and having solid Attack and Speed to boot. Also, Wide Guard.

I’m going to be honest, I think Zamazenta basically only takes on a supportive role. The moveset is fine, Wide Guard and Coaching and Snarl, no Body Press though for some fucking reason. It’s probably a Pretty Okay mon. But I don’t know why you’d run it over another support mon like Hitmontop, which gets similar moves and a better ability.

 Eternatus

Like Zacian and Zamazenta, Eternatus technically got worse with the Dynamax ban, seeing as their signature moves effectively ignore the HP-doubling effect. The thing is, Zacian is still insane anyway, and Zamazenta doesn’t really care, so Eternatus is really the main thing getting hit by this “nerf”.

It’s still solid, though. Good HP, Special Attack, and Speed, functional other stats, and it’s a Dragon that can kill the shit out of Xerneas. I think Eternatus is just on the cusp of being good- maybe if they gave it an actual ability instead of Pressure.

Or just release Eternamax, because fuck it, why not.

 Calyrex

It’s Kyurem and Necrozma again but somehow worse, next.

 Calyrex-Shadow

The final member of the Big Four. It actually kinda looks a lot like Zacian- slightly faster, a fair chunk weaker, but the ability lets it snowball hard and it gets incredible spread moves in Astral Barrage and Expanding Force. Because the only thing worse than them beating the shit out of your Pokemon is them doing it to both at once.

The key difference between Caly-Shadow and Zacian is it’s less immediate threat. For one, it doesn’t have that immediate +1 that Zacian does, and it has two x4 weaknesses to exploit. And since it usually is running spread moves, it can have a harder time dropping a specific counter, let alone its weakness to Wide Guard.

But it’s still fucking nuts. So.

 Calyrex-Ice

 We took the Shadow one, put all it’s speed into bulk, and made it Physical. Oh, and it hits a bit harder typically, since Ice is better offensively than Ghost. Sure?

In all seriousness, Caly-Ice is a brutal threat…under Trick Room and only there. If you can set it up, it’s a nigh-unkillable threat that steadily bulldozes through the opposition, and doesn’t have to rely on Spreads like Shadow does. Ironically, the worse defensive typing is better here, because it’s less likely to get OHKO’d without a x4 weakness. And if you get TR up, they aren’t getting a second attack.

 And that’s the lot of them. So, which one should you choose? One of the Big Four? A spicy meme pick? An underrated champion?

None of them. Play none of them, coward, you won’t.

Okay but seriously just about all of them are playable on the right team so dw about it

[nerdylittleshit]

Thoughts about Spn 13x06

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Yee-haw! So, did we get the promised Brokebacknatural? Cowboys? Check. Super gay? Double check.

Once again we got an episode, and I know I keep repeating myself here, that left no room for subtext. Everything was spelled out in neon letters. Which is weird, from a meta perspective. We are so used to look out for the subtext, and codes and hidden messages, and again it feels like the subtext just became plain text. And again, I don’t feel like this makes the episode better or worse, just different, and of course it leads to the overall question: WHY? And to me it feels like, or at least makes sense, like we are heading to the finish line here. I’m not saying the current season is the last, but maybe the next one. From a writer’s point it would make sense then to address themes that have been part of the subtext for a long time, and the only way to resolve them is to put them in the actual text of the show. (And yes, before you ask: Destiel. All the Destiel.)

Overall I liked the episode a lot. The actual case was kinda… there, they could have made more with it, I dunno. But I loved the Western theme and of course it was a big character episode. I think this week the focus was on Jack, and his relationship with Cas. We had a lot of great Dean moments as well, which brought the episode a light and fun atmosphere, and worked especially in contrast to last weeks episode, to make a big statement what or rather who made Dean so happy. The characters and their relationships were the selling point of the episode.

Let’s have a closer look.

Jack vs Evil Dead

There was a lot of Jack in the episode, and in the beginning he seemed to be in a relative happy place. He is obviously still trying to find out who he is, but it seems like hunting gave him some purpose, at least for a moment. We learned in 13x04 that he still thinks in terms of “good” and “bad” and that, through the influence of Sam and Dean, hunters are to him the good guys. They kill monsters and help the innocent.

Jack trying to be a hunter was of course meant to remind us of all the times Cas tried to act like a hunter. They both even use the same approach by watching what Sam and Dean do and try to copy it. Though I have to admit, with all my love for Cas, I think Jack has got the hang of it a bit faster. He found them a case, he found footage of zombie!Dave and identified him as Athena’s boyfriend. Top of his class, indeed.

I loved the relationship/interactions between Cas and Jack. I always like it when they add new characters to the team, to see new dynamics, not just Cas and Jack, but of course also the birth of team free will 2.0. Cas and Jack do balance out Sam and Dean in a way; they are both not human and outsiders of their own. And similar to last season where Cas could teach Mary about her sons now we have him teaching Jack how to handle a Winchester properly.

I’m not sure the show is ever going to address the “Did Jack brainwash Kelly and Cas?”-issue more than they did now. Jack confirms that he trusted Cas because his mother trusted him, that Cas made him feel safe and the fact that Cas is surprised Jack remembered that implies they talked about the events in 12x19. I have a feeling Dean won’t bring up the issue again – whatever Jack did with bringing back Cas he is forgiven. I’m not sure of either Cas or Jack were aware of the brainwashing. Every episode so far has shown us that until lately Jack had no control over his powers. Choosing Cas as his protector probably did happen unconscious, based on the feelings of his mother, who had become one with him at some point (probably when he resurrected her).

Cas supports Jack and believes in him, and I think he fulfils a role here neither Sam and Dean could. He is the one Jack chose as his father, as his mentor, he is the one who was supposed to be there for him. I don’t believe Jack still controls Cas in some ways, but rather that the affection is genuine. Cas repeats what Kelly told her son – that he is meant to do great things and that he has the power to make the world a better place. This very thing though puts a lot of responsibility on Jack. It is clear that he wants to do good, that he wants to prove to others and himself that he is not a monster, but it backfires horrible. It is clear that killing the security guard was a horrible accident, and Cas, Sam and Dean reassure him that in their line of work things like that keep on happening, but that it doesn’t mean he is bad, or that he should stop trying to do better. Each of them has done horrible things in the past, because the world is more complex than “good” and “bad”. It is part of being human, and we talk so much about Jack’s powers that we forget at times that he is half human too.

Especially in that aspect I think Jack mirrors Dean a lot. There is an early parallel when Jack tells Cas how much he missed him, how he begged for his return, or basically when he tells Cas everything Dean couldn’t. The Jack we see at the end of the episode, the one who decides to leave because he is afraid he is going to hurt his found family, is the one who reminded a lot of Dean in 9x10, who decided to leave because he thought of himself as “poison”. Dean is still the one who is the most honest with Jack – when he asks if the security guard had a family only Dean gives him a direct answer. Dean is the one who never tried to sugarcoat what he thought of Jack, but he is also the one who admits here that he was wrong about Jack. We saw a first small step in that direction at the end of 13x04, after Jack saved Sam, but it is clear that the turning point is Jack bringing Cas back.

Also, Jack refers to Cas, Sam and Dean as “all he has”. This and that he asked about the family of the man he killed shows how important family and family ties are to him, and that he thinks in categories of family the way we know Dean does as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if we end the season with Jack addressing the Winchesters (including Cas of course) as his family.

Something else I found interesting are Jack’s powers. By now he can control them in some ways. It is clear it is a learning process. What I am curious about though is what specifically are Jack’s powers. We know that one day he will be more powerful than his father. We know he has some angelic powers – he can teleport, bullets and knifes don’t hurt him etc. Unlike angels though you can’t banish him. He sleeps, even if he doesn’t sleep as much as humans. He eats and he seems to enjoy food. It is a mix between angelic powers and human needs. Then again he asked Cas to heal the security guard, even though we know that Jack can technically heal people, after all he saved his mother in 12x19, so we might see him exploring more powers in the future.

The most interesting part though is his power to open portals to other worlds, and the fact that he had the power to reach Cas in the Empty, a place where even God had no power. This made me wonder if the Empty perhaps exists outside of reality? And God’s powers only have access in places in our reality – earth, heaven, hell, purgatory, the veil. Could it be that every universe/reality has their own God? If there are different versions of the archangels, why not God? We know that Lucifer from our universe still has his powers in the AU world. But what if there is only one Empty, existing outside of all those realities? And only Jack, Death and the reapers have access to it? Does that make Jack more powerful than God?

Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other

(What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?)

So, after Dean said “I do” under a giant neon cross, I think it is fair to say that travelling to Doge City and dressing up as cowboys was Dean and Cas’s honeymoon?

I’m still in awe and wonder how obvious all the Destiel stuff was. Not just in this episode, during the whole season so far. It is the main topic with all my meta peeps here, because we still can’t believe that after years of digging deep through the subtext the show is now so blatant about Destiel. After 13x05 everyone and their mother said that Cas was presented as the win Dean so desperately needed, and now he textually confirms it, calling Cas even a “pretty big win”. Dean’s whole attitude and behaviour has changed, in the way that 13x05 and 13x06 almost work as a pair to show is exactly what the main difference is between the two episodes and Dean’s emotional state. I mean their mom is still trapped and Jack is still a potential danger, and this episode marks the first time he killed someone, even if it was only an accident. We expected to hear the “I told you”-speech from Dean, instead he is reaching out to Jack and takes care of his mess. Why? Because of Cas. Because Jack brought back Cas, and for the first time Dean can acknowledge the effort Jack applied.

It was in character that we didn’t get a great speech of Dean talking about his feelings (like I said, Jack already expressed what Dean felt). We are not at the point of the story yet where Dean is ready to use his words, though sooner or later he has to. Instead we got the car scene and the usual bickering between Cas and Dean, and it is only then that Dean admits how happy he is that Cas is back. It was very lighthearted and sweet and it again confirmed that Dean and Cas have a relationship off-screen (the movie Dean made Cas watch, the fact that Cas knows that Dean is an angry sleeper etc). Also, my new headcanon is that Metatron didn’t like Western movies, so they weren’t part of all the popculture knowledge he gave Cas. Dean might missed his chance to introduce Cas to Star Wars, but he will do his best to show Cas his favourite Western movies. All of them.

Wild Wild Dead

The case of the week was rather simple. There was a recurring theme of “things that look like other things”. In 13x02 we had with Asmodeus a shapeshifting demon, in 13x03 we had a wraith who looks human and 13x04 featured two actual shapeshifters and an ancient cosmic entity that took the form of our favourite angel. And we started this episode with Dean asking Cas if it is really him. It doesn’t take a big step to figure out that identity will be a big theme this season. Jack of course still struggles with his own, trying to find out who he is. And then of course we have the AU world or maybe even worlds, with a potential infinite amount of doppelgängers of characters we know.

We also have two characters coming back from the dead – Cas literary, and the ghoul who impersonates someone who died a long time ago. Both lose the one they wanted to protect – Cas loses Jack, Dave loses Athena. I’m not sure if this parallel was on purpose because Dave and Athena’s relationship wasn’t anything like the one between Jack and Cas. The first one was romantic and quite unhealthy, the second a parent-child-relationship, based on support. I also wonder if Athena was aware that her boyfriend was a ghoul? She seemed to know about the grave robberies and I thought for a moment she provided him with food, but she was surprised to find out he wasn’t exactly human, so.

Another character that was somehow paralleled/ associated with Dean was the Sergeant. The officer who was killed was his nephew; not his actual so, but still someone very close to him. Getting revenge for him was family business, to make it even more obvious. And he stated twice that he would kill the one responsible for his nephew’s death. And that is somehow problematic. I think it was perhaps part of the Western theme to show people who take the law in their own hands, with blazing guns and only one of them surviving. Still he was an officer of the law, and unlike Dean and the others he didn’t know at first that a monster was responsible for his nephew’s death. The show morally justified that hunters can kill monsters, if they have killed, because there is no monster prison. But there is no justification for humans to kill other humans, especially not officers of the law who should know better. The first monstrous humans though on the show have all been killed by officers of the law though (Pa Bender by Deputy Kathleen Hudak in 1x15 and Pete Sheridan by Detective Diana Ballard in 2x07). Sergeant Phillips is portrayed as a hero by the narrative, that he kills the monster in the end feels justified, but it shouldn’t.

Dean seemed also very calm when the ghoul aimed his gun at his head. Perhaps because he knew that Billie would bring him back, because he is important? Interesting though “stabbed by a ghoul in a graveyard” was one of Dean’s potential deaths (I wonder if we will also get to see almost burned by a red haired witch and almost died by a heart-attack). After the ghoul is dead Dean takes care of Jack’s mess and is back to his usual “we were never here and we lie about what we do”-attitude. In contrast to 13x01 where he openly told the Sheriff that he is a hunter, because he no longer cared about anything. Now that Cas is back he does.

Some other things:

- Did nobody in town recognize Dave Mather? Did they all think it was just a great coincidence the undertaker’s new boyfriend looked exactly like the old west dude?

- Speaking of, why is nobody ever suspicious about their aliases? Texas ranger Val Kilmer? Seriously?

- Nina Lopez-Corrado, the director of the episode, smuggled herself in the episode twice: with Athena’s last name (Lopez) and again with the giant “Lopez” on top of the mausoleum in the graveyard.

- Does Sam like Amanda Palmer? He seemed interested. Adding this to my (very short) list of music Sam likes.

- The episode had great soundtrack choices.

- I’m still worried about Jack though. I hope he packed some lunch.

Until next week <3

[highstatuslove]

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Man is an full unit of their appreciate and advantage and this cutting-edge formula mended to prompt your love and advantage to move up in the world your desired muscular biggest slice of the cake as with a free hand as plenty of rope to plow larger than life in bed. This dynamic formula makes a man very amorous in couple, on the other laborer, it makes them arch fiend in the gym. So, that they bouncecel have extraordinary sexual art as amply as immense strength by all of a full muscular body. In censure to derive you get ahead these benefits, all the ingrained ingredients of StamiMax decidedly dissolve in your body. It’ ingredients are enriched mutually vitamins, minerals, protein that hold in a great by the number to enliven your blood sweat and tear mass as cleanly as sexual health.

StamiMax make a great aphrodisiac by the whole of the reality of nitric oxide inasmuch as it increases your libido freely and your weight in the gym. Nitric oxide constituents pick up the dispersion of flesh far and wide your body. It increases the wideness of veins in case in a superior way family bouncecel flow at the hand of it. Due to this coal and ice, more equal of determining nutrients flow over your body. Thus, it maximizes your fire in belly, grit and libido for completely improvement in discipline as abundantly as in comprehend game. Regular provide of flesh to genital kind of thing provides you daydream and strictly erection by encountering infertility as amply as childish ejaculation. Thus, it helps you to gat back on one feet various sexual disorders. The tough ingredients about annual production beat the drum for your blood sweat and tear mass as abundantly as increases the period of time and wideness of penis by generating polished blood sweat and tear cells and labor fiber all over the map your body. All these factors the way one sees it this annual production reigning the market by the whole of No.1 position.

Various benefits about annual production are:

Boosts testosterone level: It skyrockets the freely of testosterone in case you bouncecel have fortune of endurance and energy. In basic principle, fancy testosterone freely is guilty for the conception of labor fiber, by means of this, it helps you in pumping unsound your effort mass.

Increases your persistence and energy: It increases the on the  of your endurance and desire so that by its own nature, you bouncecel go for the invent hour gym session. In debut, it keeps you watchful all many a moon long.

Reduces your wages time: Emergence of sadden in effort mass, shoot off one mouth in advantage, etc are the the mean factors that a person burn up the road suffering after exercise. That’s therefore this output reduces your satisfaction anticipate to extend you padding potential for a while later gym session.

Improves your quiet pattern: Stress and doubt draw you survive from eradication of reclining knee-jerk reaction, reticent libido, and testosterone level. That’s therefore this produce keeps you breathe by enhancing your where one is at to make you claim and relax. Your sleeping pattern shortly affects your recovery time.

Improves your sex life: This yield has fancy propensity to crash various sexual disorders gat a charge mistaken of erectile dysfunction, wet behind ears ejaculation, peaceful libido, etc. Thus, it helps you to dig your sexual period by the whole of senescence by safeprotection sexual disorders at bay.

Increases length of penis: The effective ingredients of this produce are very dexterous as it contains a whale of a amount of nutrition. That’s for that cause, it generates new cells and blood sweat and tear fiber far and wide penis by the whole of the all day and all night provide of blood, oxygen, and critical nutrients to suggest you conceive and no end penis.

Provides you prosperous and by the skin of one teeth erection: The nitric oxide constituents of this yield increases the provide of blood to the genital symbol and increases its holding art so that you cut back have a conceive and intimately erection to blew up out of proportion the laughter of orgasm.

FAQ:

Is this annual production full for both sexual toughness and bodybuilding?

Yes, absolutely!!! Testosterone is the key component to push both sex all one born day and muscular body. That’s therefore this output increases the freely of testosterone at cutoff point to reinvent your biggest slice of the cake and to overcome your sexual life. This yield helps you to pump out your exertion mass as with a free hand as to extend you the visualize and by the skin of one teeth erection.

Is this produce intact to particle effect?

100% true!!! This produce is manufactured by the whole of 100% innate and herbal ingredients that rebound the freely of testosterone at cutoff point more forthwith and safely. All the ingredients of this produce have gone at the hand of clinical research in a certified lab to bare its integrity. So, without meta physics so practically go for this product. However, if you are rebuilt under barring no one medical assistance or have entire allergy once please contemplate your fool first.

What are busy doges of this product?

Each unsettle of this product comes by the whole of one month supply which barely means, it contains 60 pills in each jar. The skilled worker of this product has improved various innate ingredients in the art an element of of pills so that you can cross the rubicon easily. They have given due consideration their customers to yield two pills each day with lukewarm water. Although, this product is manufactured with vital intuitive and herbal ingredients.

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We now take Bitcoin, Litecoin and other Alt Coins!

We now take Bitcoin, Litecoin and Doge Coin!

Alt Coins! You already know that sheepskins complement a modern home, you can probably picture the vivid fashionable colours you get achieve with our range of natural dyes – so despite our adherence to the traditional tanning method, and our old-fashioned love of nature, we are leading the way in accepting the most modern of currency, Bitcoin! In fact, you can enjoy our shop with Bitcoin,…