#but you had to go and ruin it with dr*mione?

[lunarfly]

Ok so I decided to finally post the promised: defending Romione (🥺💗💕💖💞💘) against Dr*mione (ಠಿ_ಠ) shippers.

So I've read a few posts about Dr*mione shippers, talking about why their ship is amazing (which had nothing to do with canon btw) and bashing Ron (for no reason) and I'm literally shaking out of anger.

Here are my thoughts:

1. "Ron is too dumb for hermione"

Stop- Just-

Stop.

RON IS NOT DUMB.

Yes, he might not be very interested in school subjects, but 👏 that 👏 doesn't 👏 mean 👏 he 👏 is 👏 dumb 👏.

He is actually very smart! He beat McGonagall's chess game, he is logical and quick-thinking. There's MANY examples of this that I won't name right now, but it's a canonical fact. Ron. Is. Not. Dumb.

And consider he was dumb. So? Would that stop Romione from happening? NO! Hermione didn't mind Ron not being smart. She was just upset that Ron was lazy and wouldn't study anything until the last minute. She wanted to get both Harry and Ron to study according to a schedule.

Is it clear? Intelligence doesn't determine love.

**And this is something that confuses me. This doesn't have anything to do with the point, but why does nobody realize that Harry isn't much smarter than Ron? Yes, he was better at DADA but that requires TALENT, not intelligence. And I'm pretty sure we all know that Ron is talented as well (hopefully everyone realizes that). Nobody uses the fact that Harry wasn't intelligent against Harmione, but everyone uses the fact that Ron wasn't intelligent against Romione. The double standards tear apart the fandom.

2. "Ron bought hermione perfume and Draco could get her something better."

Soooo, you're saying that just because Ron didn't have the money that Draco had means that Hermione didn't deserve Ron?

Wow, this just says a lot about you dr*mione shippers. You only care about the money that Draco has, not his personality. You don't like Ron because he's poor (and I know how FanFics give the "kind Draco" Ron's canon personality so the only "problem" with Ron is his looks and lack of money). And you don't see Hermione nor Ron the way they are. This "point" of yours is literally stating that Hermione should be a gold-digger and get Draco because he can get her the expensive presents that she deserves. Yikes.

3. "Draco can understand the emotional side of Hermione while Ron can't."

Wait

What?

WHERE DO YOU GET THIS IDEA FROM-

Draco is only EVER concerned about his own self, he is a NARCISSIST. He would NEVER care for someone (let alone Hermione) as purely and truly as he cared about himself. He didn't even care about Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy Parkinson etc. He was selfish. The only reason he could express his emotions was because he had to go through a lot since he realized that killing Dumbledore wasn't as easy as bullying Hermione. This would never ever work.

And even if Ron didn't understand her as much, he STILL comforted her. Take the beginning chapters of The Deathly Hallows as an example. You'll see.

4. "Ron is too immature."

I need help.

Of course Ron was immature when he was 11!! Yes, he acted immaturely many times, yes, he made many mistakes, but guess what? He changed! He changed for Hermione!! Draco didn't change at all, not for Hermione, nor for anyone else. He remained the same bratty bully.

If you could reread the books and read prisoner of azkaban vs deathly hallows, you will definitely see how much Ron has matured. He doesn't argue with Hermione anymore, he comforts her, he's there for her. Yes, he made a mistake but he was manipulated by the horcrux! We don't blame Ginny for what tom riddle's diary made her do, do we? So stop blaming Ron!

Anyways, I think if dr*mione shippers have read the books, they'll know what I'm talking about when I say Ron changed for Hermione. I honestly don't know how you could miss Ron's character arc.

5. "Ron would be jealous of the brilliant Hermione."

What?

If I remember correctly, the reason Draco bullied the trio was because he was jealous of them. His jealousy turned into a 7 year torture for the trio and now you're saying that Ron is the jealous one? Please.

But anyways, Ron has been jealous of Harry and has made a few mistakes. But there are reasons behind them and I can defend him for each of these with arguments other than "everyone makes mistakes" (cough cough* Draco stans* cough cough).

First of all, Ron has admitted being jealous of Harry's fame because he lives with 5 older brothers who outshine him. But that's not really a mistake because he never let it get in his way. There were only 2 situations in 7 years when he left Harry out of jealousy but I think these have different explainations.

No1 Ron left in goblet of fire. I think the real reason that Ron let his jealousy get in his way this time, was not only because Harry got to participate in the tournament which could bring him eternal glory, but more likely because he was disappointed that his own best friend didn't even tell him that he was entering and didn't even help him participate (which wasn't true, but Ron thought so back then).

No2 Ron left in deathly hallows. This one was 100% because of the horcrux and I think we should all accept this by now and stop hating on Ron for being affected by dark magic.

And just like that, Ron never let his jealousy get in his way of friendships. I can't think of a situation where Ron is jealous of the brilliant Hermione so if you remember, please let me know so I can argue against it. <3

6. "Ron and Hermione would break up and remain friends, it's easy to imagine because they didn't have a strong relationship."

This was actually said, someone actually said this-

I'm just going to say that Ron and Hermione are happily married to this day (which definitely proves that their relationship is strong) and give the dr*mione community a moment of silence.

7. "Ron didn't do anything for Hermione and was just a jerk."

Coming from a person who has read and reread the books multiple times, I can assure you that Ron did many things for Hermione.

Of course, he was immature at first, he was mean to her, but slowly he started seeing more of the good in Hermione and started changing for her.

And even when he was immature, he still cared about Hermione and would protect her no matter what.

Let's remember how many times rubbish Ron stood up for Hermione against the brilliant bully Draco. 🥰

Let's remember how cowardly Ronald faced his fears of spiders to help Hermione (and the rest of the school, just how jerkier can he get?). 🥰

Let's remember how ridiculous Ronniekins stood up for Hermione against sensational Snape and got himself into detention (oh yes, this is the book version of the movie moment where Ron agrees with Snape about Hermione being an 'insufferable know-it-all'). 🥰

Let's remember how rotten Ronny comforted Hermione when she was worried about Hagrid and Buckbeak (and he even let her hug him and cry on his shoulder, how rude). 🥰

Let's remember how revolting Ronald sacrificed himself to save Harry and Hermione in the chess game. 🥰

Let's remember how horrendous Ron attempted to hex Draco when he used a slur that was meant to offend Hermione. 🥰

Keep in mind that all of these were done when Ron was still immature and still argued a lot with Hermione.

And these aren't even all.

8. "Ron and Hermione have a loveless marriage."

What the-

I'm sorry, I'm trying to be respectful here but this is crap. And the fact that the person said they also had "proof" from the c*rsed ch*ld but didn't want to spoil it-

As much as I hate the c*rsed ch*ld, I can tell you that it did its job portraying Ron and Hermione's unconditional love. Even in alternative realities, where they didn't get married, they were still in love.

And why would you even think that Ron and Hermione would marry and have kids if they didn't love each other? I need explainations.

Next.

9. "Ron never listens to Hermione."

I'm sorry, what? I'm genuinely confused??

What do you even mean by this? Yeah, they used to argue a lot, and? Ron thinks Hermione is brilliant and wonderful and he follows her advice. I can't recall a moment where Ron won't listen to Hermione, doesn't agree with her and ruins her plans. Anyone else?

Since this one is a big mess and a confusion, I'll move on to the next one until someone explains the points and arguments.

10. "Draco could make Hermione laugh while Ron couldn't."

....

Do I really need to say anything for this one?

Ron was the funniest one from the trio, that's why Harry enjoyed his company so much! Don't you remember the line in goblet of fire where Harry thinks about how much he misses having Ron as his best friend, because without him there's less fun and less laughs? I do.

But what I don't remember is finding Draco's sense of humor funny. I'm sorry but his intellectual level is almost as low as Crabbe and Goyle's. His insults are none other than Potty and Weaselbee, he only got 3 O.W.L.s and all of his jokes were stupid and dumb and their only purpose was insulting people he was jealous of.

These fanfics have rotten people's brains...😬

Anyways, I'm going to stop here. I've delayed this post for very long and I'm so excited to finally post it!

I read a book on wattpad by a dr*mione shipper and it was nothing but a giant headache. That's where I got all of these statements from. Most of the garbage in the book revolved around Draco and Hermione being inseparable and getting over all obstacles (wth) and other stupid stuff like that which really annoyed me. The book was called "why we love dr*mione" and it was by Bittenwizard. You can read and enjoy! Trust me, you'll have lots of content to post about after that 🤠👍

*I always try to be respectful to all ships, but sometimes some of them really anger me because the ships are either toxic or the arguments are plain trash. I'm sorry if I offend anyone.

Thank you for reading this. If you're a dr*mione shipper, I hope I've convinced you to give up the ship or come up with better arguments for it.

If you're an anti-dramione I hope you enjoyed the post. I'll delight you with more anti-toxic-ships content. :)

Thank you once again! <3

[cherry-blossoms]

I agree with you to a point on the new Higurashi episode. I feel like Higurashi has always done or had "sexual" like content with the kids. I know irl kids sometimes joke about sexual things, but NEVER like how the kids in Higurashi do or how young they are. Like, how Mion was joking with the group about when Keiichi and Satoko left to go to Satoko's house.

Like yes, it's an obvious joke coming from Mion, but at the same time it sits so wrong. Like NO ONE in a normal friend group would/should joke about a whole 14 being sexual in some way with a 11 year old. (Not to mention Dr. Irie's weird attraction to Satoko as well.) I COULD HONESTLY MENTION A LOT OF SCENES FROM THE ORIGINAL ANIME THAT DID NOT SIT WELL WITH ME CAUSE IT WAS LOWKEY SEXUAL.

I actually enjoyed seeing more of the gore this time in the anime, just because it's a horror anime and I HATED the censoring they did for the 4th episode of the series and also because of the improvement in artwork the visuals are amazing. Not saying that it didn't turn my stomach, it definitely did, but that's the feeling I want to have when I'm watching horror things. I want the suspense, confusion, and sickening feeling in my gut. BUT now that you brought up it could have been a fetish thing...I have to go rewatch and HONESTLY see for myself if there were sexual undertones or see if I could notice them. If there was it completely ruins it for me and I'm 100% on board with your post.

I also had an issue with the gaslighting, like Rika was forced to be in Hinamizawa for a WHOLE CENTURY. Why can't she want to leave?? Why does she have to be blamed for bs?? I straight up wanted Rika to tell Satoko to f*ck off. That it was her life and if Rika wanted to leave, she could/should be able to.

I just wanted to explain my view on being a horror fan in general and also bring up how Higurashi has been sexually viewing this characters since day 1. Sorry for the long ask.

You're totally fine for the long ask and your thoughts and opinions are valid!!

There were scenes in the original I hated, it usually involved sexual type jokes involving the younger kids and/or adults flirting with teens. It makes me feel icky so yeah I definitely agree. I skipped a lot of episodes due to the inappropriate jokes with children. What I think is different is that this had sexual undertones (in my opinion) and it wasn't in a "haha laugh it off and keep watching the show" scene, it was a literal torture scene and had such importance that you couldn't skip it.

I did like the horror and gore aspect! I was really excited about it in episode 15. But it felt like showing off in a way?? "lol look how better our animation is, here's a torture gore scene for 15 mins" I just wish it had come more naturally and was done in better taste? Like give me some build up. Normally I agree, I want to feel sick and twisted in the gut from some good horror/gore, but emphasis on the good part lol. (Animated beautifully and definitely a good gore scene, just didn't like the execution of it)

Not to mention, episode 15 just seemed more?? Shock worthy?? Like the whole Akasaka thing had everyone shook and it felt like they were trying hard to keep that going like "BUT waIT, NowSATOKO IS KILLING RIKA TOOO??" It didn't have the same effect though.

You know what would really shock me?? If they gave Satoshi some screentime

I was also kind of disappointed that Rika didn't stick to her 5 last loops? Like why throw that out there and have her counting down and everything just to have her be like "ehhhh wellllllll, one more time"

Maybe I'm just a Rika stan and bitter lol

Obviously make up your mind for yourself! To me, it definitely came off fetishy and had sexual undertones to the whole thing, but maybe I'm a little fucky wucky and just took it that way. My partner thought the same, but not until after I said something so I could've easily swayed their opinion! Get back to me if you rewatch and have any other thoughts! I love hearing what others have to say ^^

[galwithalibrarycard]

Ew ew ewwwww apparently someone made a webseries centered around Hermione Granger having a quarter life crisis and getting with Draco Malfoy and I’ve never been so offended in my life don’t touch my girl she’s married to Ron, her best friend who she loves and who treats her with love and respect, and not to the death eater guy who bullied her for her whole adolescence and viewed her as scum because of her blood status you just guaranteed your version of her is ooc right there fuck off

[nickgerlich]

Dining Car Blues

Two of the coolest family road trips I took as a kid weren’t on the road at all. They were by train, and, in both instances, from Chicago to Amarillo. My mother had family living here at the time, and little did I know then that I would wind up living in the area after my university years.

Of course, that was when Amarillo was serviced by passenger rail. The first trip, in the 1960s, was on the famous Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, while the 1970s trip was on Amtrak. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed the private compartment for sleeping and the double-decker cars for sightseeing. The clickety-clack of the long passenger cars on those rails provided a rhythmic flow as they swayed gently from side to side.

As for the dining car, it was almost like going to a fancy restaurant. White linen table cloth. Fancy china. Real silver utensils. I felt like my parents had won the lottery.

Amtrak took over the nation’s passenger rail services in 1971, consolidating what had historically been a very unprofitable, albeit mandated, service offering. Freight had always been the profit center for the railroads, but the government thought better. Never mind that Amtrak has been a money-losing entity ever since. I am not exactly sure what the government was thinking, taking over a sinking ship. I think they call that good money chasing bad.

And now comes word that Amtrak, losing more money than ever, is going to eliminate the dining car as we know it on all trains in the eastern US. Say hello to microwaved food and snacks. Whereas the old dining cars often asked passengers to share tables with complete strangers, the newly imagined feeding stations will be more open and airy, and not require people to--you know--have to mingle too much.

The effort is an attempt to woo more Millennial passengers, those people born between 1980 and 1996, and now with enough adulting years under their belts to be able to afford travel that does not include driving all night long to avoid a motel bill. And Millennials are not all that big on fancy schmancy, you know. It’s good if it looks like an artisan somewhere hand-crafted it from unrefined grains and so forth, but only if it is served without pretense.

Which is too bad. I rather like sharing tables with strangers. Call me old fashioned, but I think you broaden your horizons by doing so, and you might just make new friends. But if you’d rather sit in a cheap IKEA chair and play with your phone (because WiFi), knock yourselves out.

Actually, what Amtrak is doing sounds a lot like what Hilton did with its new Millennial-friendly chain, Tru. I have stayed at one before, and I felt like a grandparent chaperone to the young adults slathering Nutella on their multi-grain bagels. To be honest, Tru is how it would look if IKEA went into the hotel business, but the customers did not have to assemble anything. (Check out my photos here.)

Now don’t get me wrong. I am not one of those folks who bashes Millennials for every little thing, or blames them for ruining all the things we hold dear. I’m cool with them. But the dining car on a train? Stop it, please. Passenger rail is on life support as it is; let’s don’t kill it entirely. After all, for us old timers, it is a throwback experience, and one that needs to be done with period accuracy.

I am planning to do a short Amtrak trip from Las Vegas New Mexico to Winslow Arizona, staying at the historic hotels on both ends. La Castaneda just reopened in Las Vegas, and La Posada has been back in business since 1997. Both are owned by husband-wife Allan Affeldt and Tina Mion, who painstakingly oversaw every last aspect of the renovations of these historic Harvey House hotels.

Sure, I could drive, but that is kind of missing the point. These old hotels were originally intended to attract customers from the railroad, not the paved road. And while I doubt there will be a meal on such a short trip, I can at least pretend and reminisce, and then have a fine meal at my destination.

Because everyone should take a train trip at least once, and experience things as they were, not as they are. You can spend the night at Tru if you must do that, and knock yourselves out with the Nutella.

Dr “Train Kept A Rolling“ Gerlich

Audio Blog

[lunarfly]

Defending Harmione part 3!

I'm back to defend my fav ship!

I have a part 1 where I debunked some of the most popular arguments against Harmione and in part 2 I debunked the "siblings" argument. Time for part 3! This one is going to be about a video on YouTube titled "Why Harry and Hermione Wouldn't Work - Harry Potter Video Essay" and I'll go over the points the YouTuber made and try my best to debunk them. 💘

Also, I accept that there's still a few minor flaws to the ship, but these little flaws and obstacles make every ship beautiful. 🥀

1. "It would be too cliche. The hero gets the smartest and prettiest girl as a trophy."

This is a fair argument to the whole story itself, but it doesn't defeat the ship in any way. If you put it in other words: "Harry and Hermione wouldn't work together because they're both very powerful and great and that would make it very cliche." That's silly. But even that isn't right. The situation isn't exactly how people make it seem.

Hermione isn't the all-perfect girl, the most beautiful, the most intelligent, everything perfect. She has flaws, many flaws (which weren't portrayed in the movies) and she is a very realistic character. She is intelligent and productive, she is a perfectionist in a way, but that also causes her to be very anxious and stressed out at moments, she puts too much pressure on herself, and she's also insecure! Who said Hermione was the most beautiful one? Just because Emma Watson was gorgeous doesn't mean Hermione was too. Of course, Harry thought she was pretty according to OotP, but it's clearly stated in the books that she wasn't the prettiest girl in the series. Fleur, Cho and even Ginny were much more beautiful. Hermione is NOT the perfect superstar.

You might say that even if she's not perfect, she's still the female lead. But the actual "cliche" part is about the hero ending up with the perfect superstar and not necessarily with the other lead hero.

So back to Hermione being the brightest witch of her age. But her being very bright and powerful doesn't make her a bad match for Harry. Ginny was very smart in fact, she was beautiful and funny, very sassy and confident. Why isn't she considered as a trophy for Harry?

The point is, NO, Hermione is NOT a perfect all-star and their relationship wouldn't even have to be built on the hero and the heroine being perfect, their relationship would be built on trust and loyalty.

2. "Harry and Hermione's relationship prove that a male and a female can be friends without having a romantic relationship, so we shouldn't ruin that."

Yes, it's truly a beautiful demonstration that a male and a female can be best friends, but this says nothing that's actually against the ship, just like the previous one. If you put this in other words, it would sound like this: "Harry and Hermione were amazing best friends so they can't date." I understand that their friendship was amazing, but that in no way means their relationship would be bad. Of course, you don't have to see their relationship as romantic just because they were good friends, you can see it as platonic, but I'm just saying that the argument makes no sense.

Besides, was Hermione really the only female friend Harry had? What about Luna? What about Ginny (if you consider Harry and Hermione start dating and Ginny remains a friend, she was clearly very included after OoTP)? What about Ron's friendship with Hermione? What about Ron and Luna's friendship? What about Neville and Luna's friendship? What about Harry's quidditch teammates (Alicia, Katie, Angelina)? Why does everyone always make it seem like Hermione was the only female friend he had? Surely she was his only BEST friend but then Ron and Hermione were best friends too...

3. "It ruins the dynamic of the story. Harry's relationships were never meant to be the main focus, just a demonstration of his maturity. While Ron and Hermione's relationship developing in the background is nice to see."

I really didn't want to drag Romione into this because it's my second favorite ship from the entire Harry Potter universe. Just a disclaimer that anything I say here is not meant to bash Romione and hate on it because I'm truly a big fan of them and their love is undeniable.

I also mention Ginny and Harry's relationship in this and I have to say they're ALSO one of my favorite ships in the entire hp universe so no hate to them either. 🥺

Okay, so, basically every point he made in his video was about the story and not their actual relationship. The title is wrong, this doesn't show why Harry and Hermione wouldn't work, he's just saying how it would change the storyline. But I think we are all already aware that Harry and Hermione getting together would change a lot in the story. But I'll go over it anyways.

First of all, I don't entirely agree that Harry's relationships weren't the main focus, I mean half of the half-blood prince was about him developing feelings for Ginny-

But anyways, if Harry and Hermione were going to end up together, it would still happen in a similar way. We have all read the beautiful moments they shared together throughout the books, and those would've been enough for them to develop their feelings, but just not realize it until the last 2 books. We wouldn't have to add in any scenes that would change the story massively to lead them to falling in love, honestly, we had enough already in the books. So the only thing that would change would be probably Harry not developing feelings for Ginny, but instead slowly realizing his feelings for Hermione. Simple!

And as for Romione, I agree, the slowburn was beautiful, but we could've had the same thing, same development but as a friendship! Ron's character arc is one of my favorite things about the series and nobody can convince me that it wasn't amazing. Instead of Ron changing for Hermione to become her lover, we could have Ron changing for her to become a better friend. His character arc remains the same and Ron Hermione become best friends. Of course this would change many scenes and the storyline would've changed a lot as I already mentioned, but hey! At least we wouldn't have Ron haters who bash him for mAkInG hErMiOnE cRy. 🤡 And JKR could add different scenes instead of the ones hinting at Ron and Hermione's romantic relationship. We still would have had a beautiful story with a VERY SIMILAR dynamic.

4. "Harry wasn't the kind of guy Hermione was looking for. She already made a mistake with dating Viktor Krum, and she realized she didn't need a hero. She was a hero herself. Although Harry ≠ Viktor, they have very similar qualities like: bravery, loyalty and they are both heroes."

This is probably the best argument of the entire *almost* 5 minute video.

But there's still so much wrong with this.

Bravery and loyalty are literally Ron's best traits lmao. That's exactly why she chose him. 🤣 Every Romione shipper knows she doesn't value intelligence and looks, she values bravery, courage, loyalty. That's exactly what she said in the first book and stuck by it until the end.

She didn't need a hero? She was a hero herself? - Then why are we forgetting that Ron was also a hero? Everyone always makes it seem like Harry and Hermione are the mighty heroes and Ron is their goofy sidekick. He was also a hero! I believe he is even on the chocolate frog cards (correct me if I'm wrong)! And we all know that's the biggest flex. 😌

But besides that, Ron and Harry are very similar in many ways. They're both brave, they're both loyal, they both like to have fun, they're both lazy, they're both amazing at quidditch, they're both talented (Harry is very powerful and he's good at DADA, while Ron can do many impressive things like mimic voices and come up with quick solutions even when he's under pressure and his life depends on it!). So if Hermione liked one and thought he was her "type", then there's a hight possibility she liked the other too. In canon, she only likes Ron obviously, but I'm saying that since Ron and Harry are so similar and share the same traits, Hermione could've chosen Harry too.

Anyways, that's all that the video included, it was very nice hearing different opinions and I actually wasn't writing this out of anger like I wrote the post about defending Romione against *the ridiculously stupid* arguments that Dr*mione shippers like to use.

Once again, if it isn't clear, I STAN both Romione and Hinny, but Harmione definitely could've worked. :)

Thanks for reading! ~ Lia <3

Art: Asha47110 on DeviantArt :)