#but slytherin doesn't fit cleanly

[bee-the-whovian]

I'm not saying Slytherins are the best, but I am saying they have the best aspects of the other three...

Gryffindors are go-getters. They jump into things, sometimes recklessly, sometimes hotheaded, because they believe in it, by any means necessary- Slytherin ambition often leads to the same, ambition to achieve their goals, by any means.

Hufflepuffs are loyal and genuine, they care- Slytherin loyalty is more... narrow, but just as firm. Their people, their loyalty. In addition, Slytherin is defined by traditionalism. Loyalty to well worn and time tested thoughts and ideas.

And Ravenclaw: the researchers, the wise, the knowledgeable - While Ravenclaw can be considered "knowledge for the sake of it", Slytherin sticks with the well-known adage "Knowlege is power."

It pays to be informed. It is imperative to act decisively. And you do it all for your family, blood or otherwise.

[lightningant]

Why's Jeverus and Prongsfoot so rare as James centric enemies to lovers and friends to lovers ships? I never thought about it till now.

Community, timing, style of shipping.

Prongsfoot got a lot of its framework in book 5, two and a half years after book 4, where Wolfstar was already locked in (after being so strongly established in book 3). James was dead and had a wife already, while Wolfstar was alive, single, and living together. Even upon reading in full in current day, Wolfstar is going to be the first thing for one to react to as the first pair of adult men the same age we're meant to root for.

Jeverus didn't lock in until book 7, at the very end, where we learn the bullying was sexual jealousy and there was a mutual obsession at play here. Snape's involvement in Lily gave him guaranteed proximity to James, who is fixated on him because he's standing next to Lily and is ugly about it...You know. Also, most fans start out strongly disliking Snape, and it's a crapshoot on whether the procession of the story is enough to change their minds. For people who do like Snape, their affection often begins because they find the bullying so horrible, so they're not going to give him to James. The 3rd faction is Alan Rickman fans, who prefer to use a character who functions as reader insert to romance him as their own personal Heathcliff.

So the fandom is rapidly approaching 30 years old. Often, you'll find a fandom has common ships where everyone just ships it out of a compulsive need to participate with others. Even after the tendency dies down and other ships gain prominence, you'll still see vestigial trends. Wolfstar gained fucking immortality. Why would you break up Wolfstar and Jily, the Best Ships? They're all paired up!

Do you remember ship wars? Because I remember ship wars. Your cast being neatly paired up used to be best case scenario. Nowadays people don't even use "OTP".

Not to mention they're teenagers and Harry is born a mere 3 years post-grad, so a lot of the most popular enemies to lovers tropes have almost no room to breathe. Sooooo much Drarry is post-war, I remember being on FFnet before the books finished coming out and it was still so much post-war. In the MIDDLE of a war? When James is married weirdly young? Doth our angel CHEAT? IN A WAR?

It's important, then, that Jegulus was a bunch of brand new fans taking the piss. There became a community of taking the piss. Good fics happened. They chatted about their joke fic getting good fics. Everyone wants to be in on the joke. Community is formed. When asked "what's a good gay ship for my boy James", their instinctive reaction will be "well I'm in on this little joke..." I like to lurk on Marauders fandom like an anthropologist and they're doing this exact process to Gilderat right now.

Not to mention Regulus characterization is reconstructed to fit the circumstances; he's a quiet black cat softboy who's beautifully tortured, and he's often presented as a brief relationship James has before Lily, as Lily doesn't date him until like, 6th/7th year, so we got a cross-section of "best friend's brother" trope, black cat/golden retriever, tortured Slytherin boy, sports rivals (seeker/chaser), forbidden love, breakup angst, Regulus isn't related to Lily at all so their wires don't get crossed, and Regulus isn't publicly a friend of James so it's actually possible to cleanly break them up so Jily can function.

Most importantly, people actually like Regulus, and Regulus is 1000x more susceptible to Draco in Leather Pants characterization than Snape, who's glazing trends towards the gothic and byronic, not the dark academia sensitive flower having a moral crisis. It's a very lovingly set playground, and steals attributes from other ships to make a more generically appealing whole vs the other two James dynamics going on here. People accuse Regulus of stealing Snape's personality, but in reality he is stealing a truly galling amount of Sirius' tropes (everything BUT his personality), and honestly I think people underestimate the dramatic potential of Regulus being the one malding over James dating the brother who he hadn't been able to connect with, because the malding is utterly hopeless, and the tragedy hurts worse, and the Wolfstar hits like a home run when Lupin is the dick grayson or whatever the hell that guy from ATYD's name was in this relationship picking up the pieces.

Can I say bad taste? I'll also say bad taste.