#anti wizarding world

[hchollym]

Percy Weasley & the Weasley's Homophobia/Transphobia

I wrote about Percy having Oldest Daughter Syndrome in this post, but that got me thinking, and I realized something - out of all the Weasley siblings, Percy is the only one that doesn't fit into gender norms.

So I started going back and rereading to double check, and I was blown away by just how many traditionally feminine traits Percy has in the books that I didn't notice the first time I read them! 😱

It has me wondering if that was subconsciously - or purposely - a major contributor of why the Weasley children disliked Percy so much (given how homophobic/transphobic the Wizarding World is in general).

The Basics/Personality Traits

Percy doesn't play Quidditch (i.e. sports).

He enjoys Divination - a subject that is seen as silly by the popular characters & only people like Lavender and Parvati (i.e. "dumb" girls) enjoy it.

He's not great at chess: "He [Harry] suspected he wouldn’t have lost so badly if Percy hadn’t tried to help him so much." According to many studies, there is a stereotype that boys are better at playing chess than girls.

Percy is more organized and clean: ""Ron hasn't put all his new things in his trunk yet," said Percy, in a long-suffering voice. "He's dumped them on my bed."" This is a common stereotype for women, while men tend to be thought of as messier.

Descriptions/Word Choice

Percy is said to be, "fussy about rule-breaking and fond of bossing everyone around." Fussy and bossy are both sexist phrases that are commonly used to describe women who aren't accommodating enough.

Book 2 said, "Percy swelled in a manner that reminded Harry forcefully of Mrs. Weasley. “Get — away — from — there —” Percy said, striding toward them and starting to bustle them along, flapping his arms." It's not a coincidence that the other Weasley brothers are never compared to their mother.

In Book 4, it stated, "“Mr. Crouch!” said Percy breathlessly, sunk into a kind of halfbow that made him look like a hunchback. “Would you like a cup of tea?”" He is portrayed as being quite submissive and eager to please in his job (traits traditionally used to describe the ideal woman, particularly in the religious sectors).

Later in Book 4, there's this conversation: "“Maybe Percy’s poisoning him,” said Ron. “Probably thinks if Crouch snuffs it he’ll be made head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.”" Poisoning is most often done by women, whereas men tend to kill someone in more aggressive ways.

His Job

Percy worked as an assistant/secretary to Mr. Crouch and then for the Minister of Magic - both of which are considered "women's jobs." This dates back to the Industrial Revolution, when more than 1.7 million women began working in this career, and it is still predominantly held by women (who make up almost 90% of secretaries and assistants).

Even his research was feminine:

“What are you working on?” said Harry. “A report for the Department of International Magical Cooperation,” said Percy smugly. “We’re trying to standardize cauldron thickness.

Cauldrons are generally associated with women because they were also used for cooking, and in paintings, it is almost always witches (women) depicted with cauldrons.

Then, there's this:

“I don’t reckon he’d come home if Dad didn’t make him. He’s obsessed. Just don’t get him onto the subject of his boss. According to Mr. Crouch . . . as I was saying to Mr. Crouch . . . Mr. Crouch is of the opinion . . . Mr. Crouch was telling me . . . They’ll be announcing their engagement any day now.”

A secretary falling in love with their boss and becoming obsessed... hmm, where have I heard this stereotype before? ����

Discipline

A research study on parental discipline found that, "“When it comes to disciplining the kids, there’s been a role reversal in the modern home,” the study concluded, with moms being more consistent in discipline than dads. The researchers found that dads are no longer the strict disciplinarians that they were in the ’50s and ’60s, and are more likely to let children get away with wrong behavior and less likely to talk through discipline issues with the kids.""

We certainly see that dynamic in the Weasley household with Molly & Arthur, and we continue that trend with most of the Weasley sons - Bill & Charlie definitely aren't disciplining anyone; they're the cool, "chill" brothers who contribute to the problem by smashing tables around in the air for fun.

Percy is the only one who disciplines the younger kids - especially at school and in the role of a prefect:

“Five points from Gryffindor!” Percy said tersely, fingering his prefect badge. “And I hope it teaches you a lesson! No more detective work, or I’ll write to Mum!”

&

Fred and George were going the wrong way about cheering her up. They were taking turns covering themselves with fur or boils and jumping out at her from behind statues. They only stopped when Percy, apoplectic with rage, told them he was going to write to Mrs. Weasley and tell her Ginny was having nightmares.

Lack of Humor

“Yeah, well, Percy wouldn’t want to work for anyone with a sense of humor, would he?” said Ron, now starting on a chocolate eclair. “Percy wouldn’t recognize a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing Dobby’s tea cozy.”

It is repeated regularly throughout the books that Percy isn't funny and can't take a joke, which correlates to the sexist idea that women aren't funny (or that men are much funnier).

Mother-Hen Tendencies

Percy has so many instances of looking out for his siblings (or noticing when something is wrong) and worrying about them (i.e. fussing over them):

Her Pepperup potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward. Ginny Weasley, who had been looking pale, was bullied into taking some by Percy.

&

Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I’m pale and I’m not myself. I think he suspects me…

& After the Second Task in Book 4:

Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank (“Gerroff, Percy, I’m all right!”)

Compare this to Fleur's reaction only a few sentences later:

Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister.

(In fact, Percy & Fleur share a lot of characteristics, but that's a topic for a different time.)

Relationships

Percy had a girlfriend, but he still broke the gender norms by writing love letters to her all summer and keeping a photograph of her. This type of romantic personality isn't stereotypically common of most teenage boys (especially in these books), but it is common of characters like Lavender, who bought Ron a gold necklace (and Ron was appalled at the idea of wearing it).

His Brothers

To compare, the only other Weasley brother who shows any traditionally feminine traits is Bill with his long hair (and I guess his one earring, but that became very popular among guys during the 80's/90's). This is a physical characteristic as opposed to an emotional/behavioral one, and Bill doesn't get any negative reaction, because he is masculine in every other way - He had a dangerous, exciting job for many years; he has a career working with money (74% of people working in finance are men); he married a much younger, attractive woman (think about Leonardo DiCaprio not dating women over the age of 25); and he had a completely heteronormative marriage.

To Summarize

Percy has an abundance of traditionally feminine characteristics in the books, as opposed to his brothers, who definitely do not. Given how society is in the Wizarding World, it is very likely that this contributed to his strained relationship with his family. 😥

[quillinhand]

Continue from last ask: like no wonder it was so easy for Voldemort to get so many followers. Hogwarts and the Minestry practical gifted wrapped them for him. Hogwarts and Minestry do not make it safe for kids to even consider for them to switch sides.

Hi! Absolutely, I could go on and on about how the Wizarding World literally fucked itself over with the Voldemort/pureblood supremacy thing. It's just- fucked up. Like on so many levels. We don't even have to get to the humans; the non-humans are proof enough. Goblins are disrespected and stuffed into a banking position; house-elves are slaves, centaurs are given a section of the land and ignored otherwise(sound familiar?), werewolves are feared and treated as subhuman, and the others are treated worse enough that most of them either join voldy(giants) or they're a joke.

Ignoring the real life awful things these reflect; the very structure of the WW lends itself to a hierarchy and prejudice. You literally have nonhumans/muggles < then muggleborns < halfbloods, < purebloods and otherwise rich people. It's fucked up.

And then ofc you have Hogwarts, the breeding ground for this shit. Look, I don't have a problem dividing kids up into houses. I have a huge fucking problem with letting rivalries develop between the houses, letting those kids be defined by their houses for the rest of their life, letting hierarchies like the above one define the workings of a school. it's horrid.

seriously. it's fucked up, and I hate that dumbledore, someone who's supposed to have so much influence, literally do nothing about it and instead play an elaborate chess game with kids. he's not the only reason for it, but he could have done something and he didn't, and it's so fucked up.

and honestly, voldemort made full use of this. his whole taking over thing was very strategic; he emerged in a time where rights for those considered lesser were pushed as an attractive idea, and there was change(however little) socially. Purebloods didn't like that, their kids grew up hearing that and then go to Hogwarts, where they are all essentially shoved together to let those beliefs develop. if you're rich, this is your life. if you were poor, same thing, except the whole shoving together thing just became a whole lot dangerous for you, and forget it if you were anything less than a pureblood. might as well plan your funeral.

so now what do you have? dangerous non-human magical creatures who think voldy is promising them freedom and rights, poor and socially disadvantaged ppl who think voldy is gonna help them, purebloods who think voldy is going to eradicate social reform and make a world where anyone less than purebloods are essentially slaves, and the odd ones who just want to want to watch the shitshow. and shitshow it is. and ofc, by the time some of these realize no, this is fucked up, voldy is too powerful to be defied.

they might as well given wizarding britain to voldy on a platter.

[fandoms-rants]

On this blog I’m just going to be asking and talking about things I’ve always wondered about some fandoms and posting some fanfic ideas I would love to read but sadly for me I can’t write.

So less start off with a soft ball rant. I’ve always been of the opinion that if I was in the place of one of the child heroes like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson or Danny Phantom I would tell everyone to kiss my ass and they can save themselves.

Like I know Harry and Percy got their prophecies and Danny probably feels guilty about turning on the portal and their kids and easy to manipulate. But I’ve always had a habit of self inserting myself into fics and characters I like. And if I was them I would say fuck the prophecies, fuck the Gods and Dumbledore and fuck Danny’s parents they can clean up the mess that wouldn’t even exist is it wasn’t for them in the first place.

It just always seemed unfair that Harry had to fight in a war he never even had a chance not to be apart of. Percy and the other demigods were seemingly doomed to die and painfully from the moment of their creation. And Danny was just fucked over by his neglectful parents. Children should not have to pay for sins they didn’t even commit.

And I personally am determined not to pay for anybody’s sins but my own. And with that in mind I’ve imagined various ways of leaving the magical, gods and Fentons to clean up their own messes with myself self inserted as Harry, Percy and Danny. And I’ve read plenty of the typical fics with the relatively same theme. You know the typical Harry leaves the wizarding world/calls magicals out on there bullshit or Percy ditches the Gods or Danny leaves Amity Park.

So? What are other peoples opinions on this? I’m curious if others agree with me. Might reply might not, I’m not good with talking to people; I’m just shy(read antisocial) so don’t think I don’t want to reply if you’re nice. Remember please be polite, if you’re mean I will have to block you.

Because in the word of my good bitch T.Swift “Say it in the street, that's a knock-out. But you say it in a Tweet, that's a cop-out.”

[sparsilees]

the blacks aren’t an incestuous family

you can say sirius is rather unhinged and depressed from prolonged dementor exposure and the violent tragedy of betrayal and loss. you can say he’s traumatised by his upbringing and the first wizarding war. or that the horrors™ have done a real number on him. that bellatrix lestrange was too brilliant, too enchanted with the dark arts, or too broken from azkaban.

don’t blame it on ‘black family madness’, it doesn’t exist in canon. don’t blame it on inbreeding.

the pureblood families generally intermarried between ‘suitable’ bloodlines (sometimes they brought in halfbloods, too). the blacks are no exception—why marry your silly cousin when there’s a wider pool of eligible pureblood contenders? because according to the back family tree *checks note* walburga and orion are the only cousins known to have married in canon—specifically, they’re second cousins.

the black family tree roots are far-reaching and expansive. there’s always a black daughter that’s married into every other notable family—the burkes, the crouches, the lestranges, the longbottoms, the malfoys, the prewetts, the potters, and the weasleys—the wizarding world is built on the black bloodline.

everyone’s related in some capacity to the blacks, with certain individuals more closely than others, like how sirius black and arthur weasley are second cousins once removed, with their closest common ancestor being former headmaster phineas black.

the black family members featured in the books descend from either arcturus (the main branch) or pollux. this means that, due to their parents’ union, sirius and regulus have black, macmillan, and crabbe ancestry. whereas the black sisters are entirely removed from the heir line and share black, crabbe, and rosier bloodlines. sirius and regulus, and bellatrix, andromeda, and narcissa share exactly one set of grandparents and one set of great-grandparents.

(also, if you subscribe to the alternate canon that james’ parents are dorea and charlus, it means sirius and james are first cousins once removed; james and arthur are second cousins; and harry and ron are third cousins, placing them in the same generation as the black quintet and closer to phineas black than draco or tonks.)

canonically, it’s the gaunts who were “a very ancient wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins”, and even nearly pulled off sibling marriage to continue their line.

unlike the gaunts, the blacks did not bring together first cousins into a union and added various bloodlines into the family, so the ‘black family madness due to incestuous practices’ theory doesn’t hold water, bye.

[nyxshadowhawk]

A Retrospective on Harry Potter

Why did I like it in the first place? What about it worked? Where do I go from here?

I have decided to give up Harry Potter.

J.K. Rowling’s reputation now stinks to high heaven. At this point, she is quite indefensible. And even if that weren’t the case, she is not someone that I would want to associate with anyway. Meanwhile, the internet has not only turned against her, but against Harry Potter itself. An innocent question on Reddit, about which Hogwarts Houses the ATLA characters would be in, got downvoted to oblivion. Innumerable Tumblr threads insist that fantasy fans should get into literally anything else (suggestions include Discworld, Earthsea, The Wheel of Time, and Percy Jackson). And now that Harry Potter is no longer a sacred cow, there has been a recent slew of video essays that rip it to shreds, attacking it for its poor worldbuilding, unoriginality, and the problematic ideas baked into the original books (like the whole SPEW thing), etc. Those criticisms always existed, but now they’re getting thrown into the limelight.

It pains me to see such an ignoble downfall of Harry Potter’s reputation. If Rowling had just kept her damn mouth shut, Harry Potter would have aged gracefully, becoming a beloved children’s classic. I'd still plan to introduce it to my own kids one day (after Rowling dies and the dust settles). It’s not surprising that not all aspects of it have aged well, since it’s been more than twenty years since its original publishing date, and everything starts to show its age after that long. I acknowledge that most of the criticisms of the series that I’ve seen lately are valid, and I’ve read plenty of better books. And yet, when I return to the books themselves, even with the knowledge of who JKR really is inside my head, I still really enjoy reading them! There’s still a lot about them that I think works!

None of the other things I’ve read have had as collossal of an impact upon my identity, my values, and my own writing as Harry Potter. It’s hard to move on from it, not just because it’s something I enjoy, but because I have to literally extract my identity from it. I don’t know who I’d be without Harry Potter. I don’t know what my work would look like without Harry Potter. I don’t know how to carry it with me as just another piece of media that I like, as opposed to a filter for who I am as a person. So, with all that in mind, I have to ask myself why I liked Harry Potter so much in the first place. If I’m going to move on from it, then I have to be able to define and isolate the things about it that I want to keep with me. Something about it obviously worked, on a massive scale. So what was it?

It’s not the worldbuilding. The worldbuilding is objectively quite terrible, especially in comparison to that of other fantasy writers who knew what they were doing. At best, it’s inconsistent and poorly thought-out, and at worst it’s insensitive or even racist. Is it the characters? The characters are, in my opinion, one of the stronger parts of the story. But I felt very called-out by one of the many online commentators, who said that anyone who identifies with Harry is too cowardly to write self-insert fic. (I do not remember who said it or even which site it was on, but I distinctly remember the phrase, “Reject Harry Potter, embrace Y/N.”) The reason why people get so invested in Harry Potter’s characters is because they’re easy to project upon, and it’s possible that my love of Harry comes more from over a decade’s worth of projection than anything else. The incessant arguments over characters like Snape, Dumbledore, and James Potter ultimately stem from the fact that these characters do not always come across the way Rowling wanted them to. As for the writing itself, it’s decent, but not spectacular. Harry Potter is something of a sandbox world, with less substance than it appears to have and a crapton of missed opportunities, making it ripe for fanfic. For more than ten years, I’ve been doing precisely that — using Harry Potter as a jumping-off point to fill in the gaps and develop my own ideas, some of which became my original projects.

So what does Harry Potter actually have that sets it apart? Why are people so desperate to be part of Harry Potter’s world if the worldbuilding is bad? What, specifically, is so compelling about it? I think that there’s one answer, one thing that is at the center of Potter-mania, and that has been the underlying drive of my love of it for the past decade and a half: the vibe.

Harry Potter’s vibe is immaculate.

You know what I mean, right? It’s not actually a product of any specific trope, but rather a series of aesthetic elements: The wizarding school in a grand castle, with its pointed windows and torches and suits of armor, ghosts and talking portraits and moving staircases, its Great Hall with floating candles and a ceiling that looks like the night sky, its hundreds of magically-concealed secret doorways. Dumbledore’s Office, behind the gryphon statue, with armillary spheres in every single shot. Deliberate archaisms that evoke the Middle Ages without going as far as a Ren Faire: characters wearing heavy robes, writing with quills and ink on parchment instead of paper, drinking from goblets, decorating with tapestries. Owls, cats, toads. Cauldrons simmering in a dungeon laboratory. Shelves piled with dusty tomes, scrolls, glass vials, crystal balls, hourglasses. Magical candy shaped like insects and amphibians. A library with a restricted section. A forbidden forest full of unicorns and werewolves. That is the Vibe.

There are five armillary spheres just in this shot. They are unequivocally the most Wizard of tabletop decor.

There’s more to it than just the aesthetic, though. The vibe is present in something that writers call soft worldbuilding.

There’s a phrase that writers use to describe magic systems, coined by Brandon Sanderson: hard magic and soft magic. Sanderson’s first law of magic is, “An author’s ability to solve problems with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.” A hard magic system has clearly-defined rules — you know where magic comes from, how it works and under which conditions, how the characters can use it, and what its limitations are. Examples of really good hard magic systems include Avatar: The Last Airbender and Fullmetal Alchemist. If the audience doesn’t understand the conditions under which magic can work, then using magic to get out of any kind of scrape risks feeling like the writer pulled something out of their ass. It begs the question, “Well, if they could do that, then why didn’t they do that before?”

You may come away from that thinking that having clearly-defined rules is always better worldbuilding than not having them, but this isn’t the case. Soft magic isn’t fully explained to the audience, but that doesn’t matter, because it isn’t trying to solve problems — its purpose is to be evocative. Soft magic enhances the atmosphere of a world by creating a sense of wonder. If your everyman protagonist is constantly running into cool magical shit that they don’t understand, then the world feels like it teems with magic, magic that is greater and more powerful than they know, leaving lots of secrets to uncover. Harry Potter, at least in the early books, excels at this. The soft magic in Harry Potter is what got me hooked, and I think it’s what a lot of other people liked about it, too.

The essence of soft magic is best summed up by this scene in the fourth film, in which Harry enters the Weasleys’ tiny tent at the Quidditch World Cup, only to find that it’s much bigger on the inside. His reaction is to smile and say, “I love magic.”

That’s it. That’s the essence of it. You don’t need to know the exact spell that makes the tent bigger on the inside. You don’t need to know how Dumbledore can make the food appear on the table with a flick of a wand, or how he can make a bunch of poofy sleeping bags appear with another flick. You don’t need to know how and why the portraits or wizard cards move. You don’t need to know how wizards can appear and disappear on a whim, or what the Deluminator is, or where the Sword of Gryffindor came from. You don’t need to know how the Room of Requirement works. Knowing these things defeats the purpose. It kills the vibe, that vibe being that there is a large and wondrous magical world around you that will always have more to discover.

One of the best “soft magic” moments in the books comes early in Philosopher’s Stone, when Harry is trying to navigate Hogwarts for the first time:

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk. —Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 8

Many of these details don’t come back later in the series, which is a shame, because this one paragraph is super evocative! It establishes Hogwarts as an inherently magical place, in which the very architecture doesn’t conform to normal rules. Hogwarts seems like it would be exciting to explore (assuming you weren’t late for class), and it gets even better when you learn about all the secret rooms and passages. The games capitalized on this by building all the secret rooms behind bookcases, mirrors, illusory walls, etc. into the game world, and rewarding you for finding them. The utter fascination that produces is hard to overstate.

Another one of the most evocative moments in the first book is when Harry sees Diagon Alley for the first time, after passing through the magically sealed brick wall (the mechanics of which, again, are never explained). This is your first proper glimpse at the wizarding world and what it has to offer:

Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, “Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad....” A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium — Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand — fastest ever —" There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon.... —Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 5

What works so well here is the magical weirdness of wizardishness juxtaposed against normalcy. Eeylops Owl Emporium is just a pet shop to wizards. A woman makes a very mundane complaint about the price of goods, but the goods happen to be dragon liver. Broomsticks are treated like cars. All of these small moments contribute to the feeling of the wizarding world being alive, inhabited, and also magical. It gets you to ask the question of what your life would be like if you were a wizard. What do wizards wear? What do they eat? What do they haggle over and complain about? What do they do for fun?

In Book 3, Harry enjoys Diagon Alley for a few weeks when he suddenly has free time, and we get to experience the wizarding world in a state of “normalcy,” when he isn’t trying to save the world. He gets free ice creams from Florean Fortescue, gazes longingly at the Firebolt, and engages with delightfully weird people. He’s a wizard, living a (briefly) normal wizard life among other wizards in wizard-land. And that is fun. It’s so fun, that people want that experience for themselves, enough for there to be several theme parks and other immersive experiences dedicated to recreating the world of Harry Potter.

One of the greatest things about Universal was its phenomenal attention to detail. You can hear Moaning Myrtle’s voice in the women’s bathroom, and only the women’s bathroom. The walls of the Three Broomsticks have shadows of a broom sweeping by itself and an owl flying projected against the wall, so convincingly that you’ll do a double take when you see it. Knockturn Alley is down a little secret tunnel off of the main street, and that’s where you have to go to buy Dark Arts-themed stuff. It’s really well done.

Another thing that contributes to the vibe, in my opinion, is that the wizarding world is slightly macabre. They eat candy shaped like frogs, flies, mice, and so forth, and they have gross-tasting jellybeans. In the film’s version of the Diagon Alley sequence above, there’s a random shot of a pet bat available for purchase. In the third film, when Harry is practicing the Patronus Charm with Lupin, the candles are shaped like human spines. In the first book, this is Petunia’s description of Lily’s behavior after she became a witch:

Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school, and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak! —Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 4

I remember reading this for the first time, and it just kind of made intuitive sense to me. I suppose it fits into the “eye of newt and toe of frog” association between magical people and gross things, but somehow it works. Unfortunately, this is retconned later with the knowledge that wizards can’t use magic outside school, but before that limitation gets imposed, the idea of Lily amusing herself by turning teacups into rats seems like an inherently witchy thing to do.

That association between magic and the macabre shows up elsewhere, as well. In The Owl House, Luz’s interest in gross things is one of the things that marks her as a “weirdo” in the real world. When she goes to the magical world of the Boiling Isles, weird and gross stuff is absolutely everywhere. That world’s vibe leans more towards the macabre than the whimsical, but it works because you sort of expect the gross stuff to exist alongside the concept of witches, and that they would be an intrinsic part of the world they inhabit. You don’t question it, because it’s part of the vibe.

(The Owl House is one of the few things I’ve encountered that has a similar vibe to Harry Potter, but it’s still not the same vibe. In fact, The Owl House outright mocks the expectation that magical worlds be whimsical, and directly mocks Harry Potter more than once. The overall vibe is much closer to Gravity Falls.)

The Harry Potter films utilize a lot of similar soft worldbuilding with the background details, especially in the early films that were still brightly-colored and whimsical. For example, the scene in Flourish and Blotts in the second film has impossibly-stacked piles of books and old-timey looking signs describing their subjects, which include things like “Celestial Studies” and “Unicorns.” When Harry arrives in the Burrow in the same film, one of the first things he sees is dishes washing themselves and knitting needles working by themselves, taking completely mundane things and instantly establishing them as magical. In that Patronus scene with Harry and Lupin, the spine-candles and a bunch of random orbs (and the obligatory giant armillary sphere) float around in the background. One small detail that I personally appreciate is the designs on the walls above the teacher’s table in the Great Hall, which are from an alchemical manuscript called the Ripley Scroll:

It’s all these little things that add up to produce The Vibe.

Obviously, much of the vibe is expressed very well in John Williams’ score for the first three Harry Potter films. The mystical minor key of the main theme, the tinkly glockenspiel, the strings, the rising and falling notes that mimic the fluttering of an owl, the flight of a broomstick, or the waving of a wand. That initial shot of the castle across the lake as the orchestra swells, as the children arrive at their wizarding school:

If you grew up with Harry Potter, just looking at this image gives you The Vibe. The nostalgia hit is definitely part of it, but The Vibe was already there, back when you were a child and you didn’t have nostalgia yet.

In my opinion, only Williams’ score captures this vibe — the later films, though their scores are very good, do not. But the soundtrack of the first two video games, by Jeremy Soule (the same person who did Skyrim) absolutely nails it. This, right here, is Harry Potter’s vibe, condensed and distilled:

This is why I feel invalidated by the common advice “just read another book.” I have read other books. I’ve read plenty of other books, many of which are wonderfully written and have left an impact on me. But there’s still only one Harry Potter. To date, there’s only other book that has filled me with a similarly intense longing for a fictional place, and that is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. That book deliberately prioritized atmosphere over everything else in the story, and actually lampshades this in-universe. The Night Circus has a plot and it has characters, but it’s not about its plot or characters. It’s about the setting and its atmosphere. It swallows you up and transports you to a fictional place that is so evocative and so magical that you just have to be part of it or you’ll die. And even then, The Night Circus has a different kind of vibe from Harry Potter. In this particular capacity, there’s nothing else like Harry Potter.

The thing is, I don’t think Rowling was being as deliberate as Erin Morgenstern. (In fact, given many of Rowling’s recent statements, I question how many of her creative choices were deliberated at all.) She was throwing random magical stuff into the background without thinking too hard about it, which works when you’re writing a kids’ story, but stops working when you try to age it up. Actually, scratch that — soft worldbuilding is definitely not just for kids! The Lord of the Rings has a soft magic system, for crying out loud, and Tolkien is the original archmage of worldbuilding. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that prioritizing atmosphere over meticulousness is bad worldbuilding. That is a valid way to worldbuild! Not everything needs to be clearly explained, not everything needs to make sense. The problem is that Harry Potter doesn’t balance it well. Certain things do have to be explained in order for the magic to play an active role in the story (and the setting of a magic school lends itself to that kind of explanation), but no rules are ever established for the kinds of magic that need rules. When you begin thinking about the rules, you’re no longer just enjoying the magic for what it is. At worst, you begin running up against the Willing Suspension of Disbelief.

It wasn’t actually the “aging up” of the story that did it in, per se, but rather, the introduction of realism. The early books were heavily stylized, and the later books were less so. A heavily stylized story can more easily maintain the Willing Suspension of Disbelief. That’s why, for example, you don’t ask why the characters are singing in a musical — you just sort of accept the story’s outlandish internal logic, and the inherent melodrama of it doesn’t take you out of the story. Stylized stories are more concerned with being emotionally consistent over being logically consistent. The later Harry Potter books changed their emotional tone, but without changing the worldbuilding style to compensate.

In addition to the more mature themes and darker tone, Harry Potter introduced more realism as it went, but Rowling did not have the worldbuilding chops to pull this off. There’s the basic magic system stuff: When you begin thinking about it too hard, something like a Time-Turner stops being a fun magical device, and starts threatening to break the entire story. Then there’s the characters: Dumbledore leaving Harry on the Dursleys’ doorstep in the first book is an age-old fairy tale trope that goes unquestioned, but with the introduction of realism in the later books, it suddenly becomes abandonment of a child to an abusive family. The exaggerated stereotypes of characters like the Dursleys become tone-deaf. The fun school rivalry of the House system is suddenly lacking in nuance. And then there’s the shift in tone: The wizarding world that we were introduced to as a marvellous place is revealed to be dystopian. You start thinking about how impractical things like owl messengers are, you start wondering if Slytherin is being unjustly punished, the bad history appears glaringly obvious, the quaint archaisms become dangerously regressive. Oh, and the grand feasts are made through slave labor! The wizarding world suddenly feels small and backward instead of grand and marvellous. J.K. Rowling’s bigotry throws it all into an even harsher light.

This is why I’ve always preferred the early books and films to the later ones. There’s a lot of things I like about the later ones, but they’re not as stylized — they don’t have The Vibe. Thinking about things too hard is just a necessary condition of adulthood, but it’s still possible to tell a dark, mature story that is highly stylized. I really think JKR could have better pulled off that shift if she was a more competent worldbuilder. But it is painfully obvious that she did not think things through, and probably didn’t understand why she had to. In her defense, she did not know that her story would end up being one of the most scrutinized of all time. As it stands, her strength in worldbuilding was in the softer, smaller, deliberately unexplained moments of magic that were there just to provide atmosphere. And there were less and less of those as the books went along.

Pretty much all the Harry Potter-related content released since the last film — including Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts, Hogwarts Mystery, Hogwarts Legacy, Magic Awakened, and that short-lived Pokemon Go thing — have been unsuccessful attempts at recreating The Vibe. In fact, the only piece of supplemental Potter content that I think had that Vibe down pat was the original Pottermore, back when it was more of an interactive game. And of course that got axed. That was right around the time things started going downhill.

Some of the art from Pottermore’s original Sorting quiz.

So what now? Well, that’s the question.

I think I can safely say that The Vibe was the reason I liked Harry Potter. It’s the thing I still like the most about it. I’ve spent years chasing it, like an elusive Patronus through a dark wood. If I can capture and distill that Vibe, and use drops of it in my own work, then perhaps I won’t need Harry Potter anymore.

I'm gonna write the story that I wish Harry Potter was, and when I'm a famous author, I won't become a bigot. I'll see you on the other side.

[dinarosie]

Even if Snape's inner motivation for joining Voldemort was a desire for acceptance, control, power and belonging, surely to achieve that he must have harbored some toxic beliefs about muggles and muggleborns? I cannot imagine someone as intellectual as Snape would not try to justify the dislike for muggles and muggleborns of the other purebloods in his head? He probably thought muggleborns were lesser in some ways to purebloods and muggles were ruining the world or something. He couldn't rationalize Lily's hatred for the dark arts and people like Mulciber, therefore I think he held delusional and negative beliefs towards muggleborns and muggles because his mind distorted the truth to fit his selfish narrative. He was moving in pureblood circles, heared their opinions all the time I believe he started believing some of that stuff too even if he wasn't violent about it. He tried to appease Voldemort, strived to be his follower he must have internalized some of the anti muggleborn beliefs in order to do that. What do you think?

Prejudice in the wizarding world isn’t something exclusive to the Death Eaters or even to one specific time. It's woven deeply into magical society, and even after the Second Wizarding War, we don't see convincing evidence that these biases are completely eradicated. Throughout the books, we see that many characters even those like mcgonagall, Hagrid and Weasleys, who oppose Voldemort's ideology still display some prejudice toward Muggles and other magical beings. They may not condone Voldemort’s tactics, but for example they actively try to sever all ties with their Muggle relatives as if they don’t exist at all or they show amusement at using magic to fool Muggles (think Ron, teenage James and Sirius). This reflects a norm and heritage within wizarding culture, a subtle acceptance of superiority that has been passed down for generations. This societal undercurrent of prejudice was so pervasive that, in the early days of the First Wizarding War, many actually supported Voldemort’s rise, at least until his methods became excessively violent. If the prophecy hadn’t intervened, he might have won, showing how ingrained these biases were.

When it comes to Snape, I get frustrated with interpretations that try to paint him as some "mini-Nazi" from age nine. Looking at his childhood, it’s clear that young Snape didn’t have a love for the Muggle world—and honestly, can you blame him, considering the harsh, painful reality his family life created there? To him, magic was a ticket out, a lifeline. But what’s interesting is how he responds to Lily’s magic, a Muggle-born witch. Instead of seeing her as “lesser,” he immediately recognizes her as one of his own:

“You are,” said Snape to Lily. “You are a witch. I’ve been watching you for a while. But there’s nothing wrong with that. My mum’s one, and I’m a wizard.”

Here, he embraces her as part of the magical world. He doesn’t see her as an outsider; instead, he’s excited to introduce her to magical world and help her feel like she belongs. This moment shows that even from a young age, Snape saw her magic as normal and valid (natural and valid like him and his own mother), even if she was Muggle-born.

I think it’s reasonable to believe teenage Snape (like most of the wizarding world) had some biases, especially given the difficult conditions he grew up in and the House he was eventually sorted into. But I don’t think these biases were the main driving force behind his choices. His prejudices weren’t extreme enough to fuel violence against Muggles or Muggle-borns. There’s no evidence that he ever wanted to actively harm someone simply because of their heritage, even in his Death Eater days. So, while he likely absorbed some prejudices from the pureblood-dominated world he was in, it’s clear that these beliefs didn’t reach the fanatical level they did with the other Death Eaters. And as he matured, these biases seemed to fade even further, to the point where he ultimately sacrificed his life to protect people.

Part of the differences between Lily and Snape’s perspectives on the Dark Arts, I think, can be traced back to Hogwarts’s own black-and-white view on magical disciplines. In some wizarding cultures, Dark Arts are studied and understood as a form of complex magic, not inherently evil. Interestingly, these communities, despite their engagement with Dark Arts, don’t necessarily produce other Voldemorts, so perhaps the Dark Arts have legitimate applications beyond harm. This difference in perspective is, I think, part of why young Snape couldn’t fully grasp Lily’s rejection of Dark Arts. To him, the Dark Arts were an area of knowledge, filled with awe and potential power, rather than just danger and malice. He believed that by mastering these aspects, he might impress her. Rowling’s narrative makes sense this way; Snape wasn’t trying to seduce her with dark ideas, but rather to share something he found fascinating and intellectually rich, even if misguidedly so.

[superfallingstars]

Personally I think jily is supposed to be idealized (like how James and lily were idealized) to Harry. James gets knocked of his pedestal in swm and so does jily by Harry questioning if his father forced his mother into marriage. Later when talking to lupin and Sirius James and Jily get a slight defense and Harry is back to feeling alright but with the knowledge that things weren’t perfect.

I personally don’t read Jily as abusive (even though I read James as being abusive to snape at school, but I don’t think that violent, physical behavior was extended to Lily) but I definitely don’t read them as a “good” couple (whatever that means). I think you can read it in many different ways given there is so little of them and I think an interpretation that their relationship wasn’t the healthiest is perfectly plausible with the scant information we’re given.

Yeahhhh that’s probably what JKR intended. James and Lily are the fridged parents who are dearly mourned and missed, and as a result, their flaws are completely smoothed over in everyone’s memories. But in Snape’s Worst Memory, Harry learns the hard lesson that things aren’t always what they seem, and that nobody is perfect, not even his dead father. Hurrah.

My problem with this is that I think it’s very boring, LOL. Like it really is probably exactly what JKR intended (given her middle-of-the-road takes on every moral and political question that happens in these books), but man, it feels like such a cop out. James basically ruins Snape’s life for no reason, and the conclusion we’re meant to draw from this is just, well, people are complicated! NO!!!! Bad answer!!! Like, Snape also did some terrible things, but at least he spends a ton of pages actively suffering/atoning for his sins. But James, on the other hand, is only somewhat implied to have changed maybe slightly a little bit somewhere off-page, and we just have to take #1 James Potter fanboy Sirius Black and serial understater Remus Lupin at their word. So if James was supposed to be “redeemed” – or even just excused – wow, it really doesn't work for me. You can't go as dark as "protagonist questions if his father forced his mother into marriage" and then just brush it off like no big deal, Joanne! And it’s so frustrating, because all it would've taken to fix this would've been to show James being a good person instead of just telling the reader that he was one (proof: trust me?). Ugh.

So because of all that, I agree that from what we’re given, it’s quite difficult to read Jily as “good.” We rarely see them interact, and when we do, James’s behavior is wayyyy too similar to the trope of “terrible guy eventually gets the girl even though she seems to hate him with every fiber of her being because his persistence and not taking no for an answer is just toooo romantic to resist.” Which sucks, lol. It feels like JKR is basically being like, “eh, James was young and dumb, whatever” and giving him a huge out for all the grief he caused Snape (and Lily, for that matter) – and she expects that the reader will agree that that is a legitimate excuse for his behavior, and by extension think that it's reasonable for Lily to forgive and eventually marry him. And man, I am just not sure if that is enough to convince me. (And evidently, I'm not alone, considering the “Jily is abusive” meta post that likely sparked this ask!)

With that said, I agree that it’s a stretch to say that James was abusive (or even implied to be abusive) toward Lily. It’s not a completely unfounded take – it could probably be written well in a fic, and even be canon compliant – but you would really have to extrapolate that dynamic from the little information we’re given (as you pointed out). And more importantly (at least, re: that meta), I don't think JKR intended that interpretation at all.

Personally, I just don’t think it makes sense for the narrative for James and Lily to have been in an abusive relationship. And by the narrative, I mean Harry. If Jily is an abusive (or even just bad) relationship, that would have massive ramifications for the way Harry sees his parents. Ideally he would have to come to terms with that at some point – I don’t think it makes sense for James’s and Lily’s relationship to have been this way and not have significantly affected Harry – but imo JKR clearly does not want to deal with that. Like you said, the point of SWM – aside from foreshadowing Lily and Snape’s relationship – was to knock James off his pedestal and basically go, See, nobody’s perfect. <3 And the story is not interested in engaging with James’s behavior on a level any deeper than that lol. Which ok, I don’t love it, but if we’re not going to spend time dealing with morally gray James, then it doesn’t make sense for him to be even more morally gray (or rather, have him fall face first over the line into becoming a downright despicable person) by making him abusive toward Lily.

So that's my Doylist analysis: no way in hell did JKR intend Jily to be an abusive relationship, but she also didn't do a good enough job defending and/or redeeming James after SWM, so we're just left to speculate about how much he really changed. Still, I don't think "JKR is a bad writer" is a very satisfying answer. After all, the only reason that I'm engaging with this text in the first place is because I'm a fan of it, so I think it's also worth looking at it from a Watsonian perspective – or at least, to accept the events of the book as they're written and try to fill in the blanks. (Imo so much of the fun of fandom is trying to fill in those blanks in a satisfying way, to expand upon a character and try to reach a more interesting conclusion than the author did... And I would be remiss not to mention that, because it undoubtedly influences the way that I (and probably also you, if you're on this side of tumblr) engage with the text.)

So for me, as a Marauders era fan, I’m faced with: ok, I don’t really like the idea of these two characters together, but they canonically got together, and I think the story is better because they got together, and it’s better if they genuinely like each other, and it all had to happen somehow – so how can I explain it in a way that both makes sense with the story and is satisfying to me? And my answer to that is twofold.

First, I imagine that James was not always quite such an awful guy (as in, not always as showy, combative, and cruel as he was in SWM). After all, there is a glimmer of goodness in him when he chooses to save Snape’s life during the Prank, revealing that somewhere deep down, he does in fact have a moral compass. And second, I think that he has to have changed. And I mean a genuine change – one that might not have resulted in completely different behavior (after all, he was still hexing Snape through his seventh year) – but regardless, something that makes him seriously reflect on his actions and reconsider his motivations. His behavior in SWM is just too inexcusable for him to get with Lily – partly because Lily is generally framed as a Very Good Person, and partly because regardless of how she is framed, James was still awful to her – without any self-reflection or growth. Of course, the problem then becomes explaining this in a satisfying way!

And I have some ideas in mind – but they’re definitely more speculation than fact, and omg this post is long enough already. Luckily, I received another ask on this topic, so I will save my self-indulgent headcanons for that.

There is one last thing I want to mention, which is (part of) my reasoning for why James may not have been such a bully all the time and why I think he has the capacity for change, and it's been nagging at me ever since I read that meta post (which again, presumably started this whole thing). I think one thing that bothers a lot of people (including me!) about James is that it seems like he chooses to pick on Snape in SWM because of Lily’s presence. He wants to show off to her, so he keeps looking over to the girls by the water, he ruffles his hair, he deepens his voice, and he tries to get her attention by targeting Snape. Following this logic, we can presume that James wouldn’t have done any of this if Lily hadn’t been there – and that’s the part that got me thinking. I have to wonder if Lily was perhaps not the only person who James wanted to impress in that scene… in fact, I think it’s incredibly likely that James would have acted differently if the Marauders hadn’t been there! (Harry has "the distinct impression that Sirius was the only one for whom James would have stopped showing off," and Sirius saying that he's bored is the inciting incident for James spotting Snape...!) Yes it’s going to be a James masculinity analysis because this is what happens every time I talk about these fucking characters apparently. So idk, stick around if you’re into that.

And of course, thank you for the ask!

[original-username42]

Can cishet liberal "allies" please just let harry potter go already, like, you've condemned JKR, so stop giving her money already, if you actually cared you'd boycott anything harry potter related, no one cares about your nostalgia, let the racist right wing propaganda books go

[just-an-enby-lemon]

"The kid seems scared.

Tip had always been a little nervous. Or at least that was the reality when the two had met.

It was fairly obvious for everyone that met them that the child had not been treated well by their formar guardian and in a way that Elphaba sadly recognized still seemed to afraid of facing the same pain and rejection again.

Still lately the kid seemed more relaxed and open, treating her with the same easiness and earnest they did Jack. More determined to learn than eager to please. Following her around with questions and vibrating with excitement as she turned wooden sticks into dolls and toy swords alike. It made her think of Nessa in a very bittersweet way.

She failed her sister and she would not allow herself to fail another young person she became responsable for.

That's to say Tip's strange turn to the same scared kid she met soon after leaving her behind and being declared and enemy of Oz scared her.

"Miss Elphaba, I have something very serius to tell you."

Maybe they want to leave. They are not in fact different in the same way Elphaba is. Tip is a normal if deeply magical child who just ended up in the care of a horrible woman. Being her aprenticce is actually the only thing turning them into a dangerous and hated figure.

"I understand."

The kid takes a deep breath. Elphaba tries to think on the best words to explain that of course they can leave if they want to and that they can take as many provisions as they need. Tip will never again be a prisioner.

"I don't think I am a boy? Wait no. I now I'm not a boy. Like the idea of it is still a bit scary because it seems like it will be a big deal but I'm fairly sure I'm a girl actually. I just never though about it before but Jack called me she accidentaly and it just makes sense. I am still the same Tip and please let me keep being your aprentice." She says in a single breath.

"What?"

The girl looked scared. "I'm a girl." She says. Than in a smaller voice. "I can try to be a boy if you want?" It does not appear to be something she wants and the fact she still sugests it breaks Elphaba's heart a little.

"Oh! Oh. No, no, that's fine. Do you want to be called something else?"

Her eyes go huge and she stops deep in thought before answring.

"Uh. I guess so, but I'm still thinking on it. I don't mind Tip for now."

"Okay, tell me when it changes?"

"Will do."

"Anything else?"

Tip looks a bit shy for half a second before a excited smile covers her face. "Could you let me borrow a dress?"

Elphaba laughts.

"You are too tiny for my dresses, kid. But I can help you magic one for yourself. "

Her eyes shine. "Cool!"

[...]

"Morrible says you'll marry some prince soon." Dorothy says making a face.

"I don't see why you are soo distraught, my dear, I'm pretty sure she'll find me a great prince." Glinda says with false cheer.

"I doubt it. Princes are all very dull."

"Met many princes did you?" She jokes lightly, trying to find a way to change the subject. She loves the kid dearly and for all it's bleak consequences will always be glad the tornado ended up bringing the girl into her life but she would preffer not to discuss those subjects. Specially not in her own bedroom in a rare moment of relaxation.

"Well no." The girl pouts. "But most boys are dull and I can't imagine liking to marry even the ones that aren't. I guess I just thought you were the same? I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize. And I sure hope marriage is unimaginable for you, you are way to young for it."

The girl smiles a tiny bit before frowning.

"I can imagine myself marrying a girl one day."

"Oh!" Is all Glinda says.

"I told Aunt Em once she told me to never say it again, she told me I was too young. But I'm ten now and I feel the same. " Dorothy rarely talks about home, sometimes Glinda tricks herself into beliving it is because her the kid just loves Oz better, that she forgot all about it, but she knows deep down that Dorothy will always miss Kansas, always miss her uncle and aunt and Toto, she just accepted home as a place she'll never return to. In the good days Glinda knows Dorothy would also miss Oz, would miss her munchkin friends and mostly would miss being Glinda's apprentice. In the better days she thinks about bringing Dorothy's family here. After all Kansas always seems sad and hungry. "Girls don't marry each other in Kansas." She continues. "But I though maybe they did here. "

"I think they do everywhere, Dorothy, is just some people pretend they don't because the different scares them."

"Like the Wizard and the animals?"

Glinda had only recently convinced Dorothy to only speak her very dangerous beliefs on the Wizard in private and even there she sometimes corrected the kid. But right now it felt too much like liying to Elphaba she couldn't do it, not when she knew Dorothy to be right.

"Yeah. Just like that."

And after a second she adds.

"Between us, I would also like to marry a woman".

Dorothy smiles, just a little bit.

[...]

She knows she should not be here.

But it's fun, she likes the dancing and the food and the small chance of going back home with something that can actually help Elphie. Maybe a magical item or even just some usefull information.

Besides the girl she is talking to is very pretty and fun and smart and she is not open about it but she's definitivaly not the biggest fan of the Wizard either. Oh and a great dancer.

"I'm sorry" the girl says "but I think I did not catch your name?"

Now it's the moment to say something clever like 'i never gave it to you' or maybe just invent some fake name. She can't say her name. It's too easy of a conection to make. But she doesn't need to lie. After all it was never really her name. And she has a name now. Has had it for days and just keept it a secret in some weird form of fear. But it felt like time. She would tell it to Elphie and Jack when she went back.

"Ozma. I'm Ozma. What's yours?"

[...]

Dorothy had never had so much fun at a party before. Her new friend was the most beutifull girl she ever met and the funniest and cleverest and it had never felt so easy to talk to someone before. In fact the only thing Ozma didn't appear to be was a good dancer but Glinda had teached Dorothy well and she found herself leading the other girl steps into the best dance she ever had.

She noticed Ozma did not gave any surname but it was not her place to pry. She just hoped to mert the girl again.

"Dorothy." She says and takes the hand. For a second she considers continuing in the way she was instructed to (Dorothy Upland at your pleasure and a kiss to the hand) but while she loves Glinda that's not really her. And she somehow trusts Ozma enough to be honest. "Dorothy Gale." She shakes the hand just like Uncle Henry used to.

[nuninho2000]

Wow, harmony lovers are so salty that the pair they love would rather choose Weasley siblings than each other is hilarious. It makes them so salty that they have this need to go onto hinny posts and shit on the ship. The lack of reading comprehension that blogger showed was hilarious 😂. I’m not sure what they were trying to achieve, but they just made themselves and their ship look beyond stupid. Harry was never interested in Hermione, and Hermione was never interested in Harry. Ron thinking something was between them made both of them cringe because they thought of each other as siblings. Harmony shippers are so insecure LOL

I simply ignore them , if they don't like it it's their problem and point of view.

I'm not worried about their opposite opinion other than my one , if they don't like Harry and Ginny together it's totally indifferent to me but for their unfortunate it's canon just like Ron and Hermione are.

About Harry and Hermione's friendship i simply love their bond because their friendship is one of the things I admire in the Wizarding World. The fact that a boy and a girl can love and admire each other so much without romantic attachment is really thoughtful. People mostly bend the relationship of a boy and a girl as close as Harry and Hermione towards love affairs. The friendship of Harry and Hermione proves that such pure friendship exists in the world.

Hermione's love for Harry is just too beautiful. I don't know, but I see it as almost maternal. She gave him advice from girls and made him eat his meals (healthy meals, not too many sweets because they are bad for his teeth) and would do his homework, I'm sure she sent him to bed when it was getting late and he was still playing chess in the common room. She would be extremely protective and if a student said something mean about Harry (like spreading a stupid rumor about him being secretly happy about Cedric's death because he can now date Cho) she would make them wish they weren't born because no one messed with their brother newest. As if she took on the role of big sister, but as the two have no biological parental figure in the magical world (yes, there are Molly, Arthur and Sirius and Lupin , but they do not live with them on a daily basis), she feels like she has to take on that role too. Lucky that Ron was always there to help her raise her younger brother and stop her when she was going too far.

[hopeymchope]

Oh GOD the fiendish David Zaslav is rebooting Harry Potter with a new "extremely faithful" adaption of the seven books. J.K. TERFling is heavily involved, she's executive producing, and they've made a TEN-YEAR COMMITMENT already.

Five Rapid-Fire Thoughts I Had in Reaction to This News:

Fuck Zaslav. (Btw, did I mention that — after deleting half of HBO Max's original content — Zaslav has now announced a price hike to the newly christened "MAX" service? As if giving a shitload of money to the planet's most notable TERF wasn't enough fuckery. FUCK that fucking shitheel.)

See below.

3. All y'all who were like "Boycott Hogwart's Legacy or You're Automatically a Terrible Person" or whatever because Rowling was going to make like a 1% royalty off of that game had GODDAMN BETTER boycott HBO MAX (....uh, sorry, it's just "MAX" now, I keep forgetting bc that name sucks — "HBO MAX" wasn't all that good a name to begin with IMO, but now it's worse) from here on out. YES, I know it's harder to boycott an entire streaming service that may contain OTHER content you want, but c'mon now, just bootleg anything you want off MAX in the future. (I'll help! I will send you a link or whatever if you need assistance. Message me. It's cool.) Because this is going to make her SO MUCH MORE MONEY due to involving her FAR MORE DIRECTLY. FUCK. WHY. Why did they fucking do this.

4. There are so many things in the books that are either A) poorly explained workarounds for continuity/logic issues or B) extremely problematic that the movies were actually BETTER for ignoring them. Can't wait to see the scene where every single known Time-Turner gets accidentally broken shortly after Prisoner of Azkaban in order to ensure the characters can never use time travel to fix their problems again! SUPER excited for the plotline where Hermione has to learn that she's silly and wrong for trying to free slaves because the slaves are fucking happier being enslaved! OH BOY!

5. God, a ten-year production commitment UP FRONT. I hope they lose so much money on this stupid-ass project that they wind up dragging their feet to produce future seasons for so long that the contract runs out before they've gotten farther than like, the third novel, and then it just dies on the vine. Would be HILARIOUS.

[maxdibert]

Voldemort wasn’t that bad guy, at least he killed James Potter.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

the takeaway from all the hinny asks is… where are the hinny divorce fics

*bangs gavel* *adele voice* DIVORCE BABES, DIVORCE!

Anon is referencing these posts: this, this, and this.

Personally, I'd prefer it if Harry and Ginny just didn't get back together at the end of book 7, but if they do, and if they do get married, yeah, that's headed towards a divorce in my opinion.

(Actually, we never see any divorced couples in the wizarding world, at least in the books. I know it's probably a JKR thing or a children's book thing, but it's interesting from a Watsonian perspective to consider wizards' outlook on divorce.

Perhaps they are old-fashioned about marriage (like many other things) and therefore it's very difficult and frowned upon to annul a marriage. I mean, Tobias and Eileen Snape stay together as the "right thing to do" when they have a kid, even if it's worse for them and their kid. All the older, unmarried people we see are implied to have either never been married or have had their partner die (like McGonagall). Dumbledore speaks about Merope hoping Tom Riddle Sr would stay with her because they had a child like it was expected like he was wrong to leave a woman who raped him because they had a kid together.

All of this paints a certain image of how marriage and family are treated in the Wizarding World, and it seems like divorce would be very uncommon and discouraged in their society. At least, that's what it seems like to me.

Although, Pottermore states divorces do happen:

Celestina’s personal life has provided much fodder for the gossip columns of the Daily Prophet. An early marriage to a backing dancer lasted only a year; Celestina then married her manager, with whom she had a son, only to leave him for the composer Irving Warble ten years later.

(From Pottermore)

And Umbridge also had divorced parents according to Pottermore (that being said, her mother was a muggle):

Both Orford and his daughter blamed Ellen for Dolores’s brother’s lack of magical ability, with the result that when Dolores was fifteen, the family split down the middle, Orford and Dolores remaining together, and Ellen vanishing back into the Muggle world with her son.

(From Pottermore)

It still seems uncommon in the Wizarding World, I'd guess it is since it fits their whole shtick, but it's still clearly possible.

You can use it if you ever write that divorce fic if you wanna make it more dramatic, or just ignore the implications we see. Fic can do whatever.)

[highonincense]

One thing I absolutely despise in drarry fics —and by this I mean a specific subset, not like in general cause there are many amazing fics— is the characterization of harry (and draco), the way he's an absolute fucking doormat!!!! I get it y'all are tryna portray him as a social dimwit, it can be done in a normal way without making him seem like a piece of cardboard! Are we talking about the same dude here?? You don't actually have to completely demolish a character, take away their key traits just to make the other half of the ship look better.

Let me give a pointwise description:

1. Dude stutters after every bloody sentence, like he's so overwhelmed talking to draco "smirking, smooth as butter, sardonic, sleek, godly" Malfoy who keeps insulting him every fucking second. Do you really think that harry would entertain that bullshit, especially in post-war fics!!! Like he'd just take it and not put him in his place?

2. I read this fic long ago and I don't remember the name, but good god it was unbearable. Basically the golden trio apologizes to draco for his tragic life that they were responsible for after the war? Like wtf? Why is there even a need to do that? 😭 That was too much and I stopped midway

3. Again, draco "3 OWLs" Malfoy, some supersmart / second coming of tom riddle, keeps patronizing every action of harry, the amount of times harry's intelligence is insulted? Immediate no from me, like are we still doing the whole "harry dumb mf potter is unobservant, slow, stupid, can't function without some rat hissing in his ear that he's an idiot 24/7"? Don't you think it's lame?

4. Harry has to always put up with his shitty attitude, I am all for character development, I know characters are multi dimensional and complex, and showing draco having a difficult personality is well and good, but it starts to get annoying when there's no real growth in him. I've read fics where he's absolutely despicable until the end which is covered up as him being a dickhead in general and harry "fondly" keeps up with his shit. *gag* canon harry would NEVER

5. I think it genuinely wouldn't make a difference if harry was there or not, I am not kidding or being dramatic, those fics might as well be character × y/n fics

All of this leads me to hate draco's character more! You portray him as this insufferable bastard who has a heart of gold apparently (where?) who has no real growth, shows no humility or regret or even pretends to and you think harry will put up with that?

It would be interesting if he starts out that way, works on himself and grows and changes, that would be more tolerable and interesting!

But no, he's always this annoying guy who hurls insults, keeps mocking harry or his friends every other line, you might argue it's in his character, but aren't those the traits which make him unlikeable? like those aren't cute or quirky? wouldn't it make more sense to show him grow out of it? It's really annoying

And harry, let's not go there, he's a completely new character, might as well be an oc atp, you can't even compare him to canon harry, that's how bad it is! I still haven't completely discussed it cause it's already getting long, but he's this wet bloody blanket and I can't stand it, the gryffs (except Hermione) in general are shown as some bumbling buffoons who can't differentiate between their hand and foot!! And the slytherins are all savvy, masterminds, geniuses... I really don't know whether it's admirable cause it's weird seeing them pushed into these moulds where they can only behave a certain way!

I'm so tired this is still going on like?? Why are their characters such caricatures? All of this sounds like it may have been a thing of past, but I am appalled it's still happening!!!

This is not directed at all drarry fics out there, cause there are some gorgeous fics written by amazing authors who fucking get these characters and make it about them, about their relationship and explore it in a depth and nail their characterizations without making either one of them boring. There are a good number of fics that I actually enjoy cause of the way they write drarry's characters, which makes or breaks the fic imho

[greenerteacups]

thoughts on Ginny and Harry as a couple?

There are a lot of people who find their romance in HBP forced. I don't think it's forced so much as underwritten, and the books don't get the chemistry quite right (though the movies certainly don't, either). There's potential, but they just don't get enough actual scenes of substance (besides Harry thinking she's pretty or feeling jealous of Dean) for a lot of readers to buy that they're not only in love, but deeply enough in love to break up, get back together, and wind up married.

That's not to say I don't see the appeal. There's a very cool scene in Book 5 where Harry's doing a woe-is-me-Chosen-One act, and Ginny effortlessly puts him in his place about it by reminding him that she was possessed by Voldemort at eleven, which is a rare glimpse into her character and also a great synecdoche for their relationship — Ginny is a grounding presence who, like Ron and Hermione, isn't going to be awed by his past adventures because she knew him before they happened. In that respect, Ginny's probably one of the few women Harry could feasibly wind up with, because he only ever seems comfortable around people (let alone girls) who can see past the Chosen-One schtick and treat him like a normo (see: Ron, Hermione, the Weasleys, Luna, Hagrid). True to type, he doesn't get interested in Ginny at all until she's ditched her celebrity crush and ceased to view him as an idol, because in his heart of hearts, Harry wants to be a normal boy, and it's stressed over and over that part of what he likes about his relationship with Ginny is how normal it feels. He kind of has a horribly supercharged version the celebrity dating problem: after the Battle of Hogwarts, anyone he meets is going to know him first as Harry Potter, Chosen One, Boy Who Lived, and Actually Fucking Resurrected Messiah of the Wizarding World, which is... I mean, it's possible that there are witches out there who could get over that, but Harry's not an extroverted guy, and I'm not sure how he'd go about finding them. Ginny's the one who's been there since the beginning, doesn't need anything about him or his past explained to her, and actually likes him for who he is.

When you look at it that way, it's not surprising he married his high school girlfriend. She's one of the few people still alive who doesn't see him as a demigod.

[sneppu]

Tis illegal to Slander The Sneep in my presence when that man literally carried the whole damn series on his scoliosis back several times over. That man dragged the entire wizarding world kicking and screaming to safety on his actual living carcass. idgaf about no neville toad, brother, im putting respect on his goddamn name