#his favouritism is also annoying and inability to treat his daughters the same as everyone else almost got kids killed (and got Alyssa kill)

[alicentes]

I remember you said not long ago that marcel should have had alaric's job as headmaster and you were so right. I don't know if you're up to date but a couple of episodes back a kid told Alaric he shouldn't be in charge of a school for supernaturals because he used to kill supernaturals which is absolutely correct and someone like marcel would be a much better option for these kids.

I saw that episode and I hard agree with gunter (who's family was killed by A) because not only did he used to kill vampires no matter what their circumstances are but he sent kids he couldn't deal with to a prison world with a psychopath and the only reason he opened the school was because his kids got kicked out of multiple schools for setting fires and hurting other kids lmao. I think Caroline was the only one who was passionate about the school itself. Marcel would be amazing though, he actually had helped recently turned vampires like josh and helped them maintain their humanity and can you imagine him mentoring Kaleb and MG? they'd actually have a supportive figure looking out for them who would always be there for them instead some old white dude that just uses them as his minions when he wants to compel people. Hope and Marcel would have been a better family dynamic too since marcel had considered her to be family since she was born and protected her even when he turned on the mikaelsons. I have so many headmaster Marcel headcanons.

[ishipviktorandhappiness]

Luther constantly complaining about being put on the moon isn't really that funny

Here's the thing about being anti-Luther - you probably hate him because he treated Vanya awfully, because he treated Klaus like shit, because he's nothing but a wannabe leader with not a lot of brains to back up that brawn, because he's the one who "triggered" the apocalypse.

I won't argue with you on those counts, because regardless of his tragic past, he is an asshole to his siblings... And so is Five. And Vanya. And Diego. And Allison. And Klaus.

They are all assholes to each other one way or another. Klaus and Diego claiming that Vanya doesn't matter? Assholes. Five treating his siblings like utter and complete idiots and (initially) refusing to share anything with them because he didn't think they matter? Asshole. Allison being a prick to Vanya as a teen, using her powers to get where she is and manipulating her own daughter to do what she wants because she was tired of hearing her child whine? Asshole.

They all grew up emotionally stunted and none of them have any idea how a healthy, non-dysfunctional family works. Luther more so than the others because he never left. When all his siblings upped and left, they had time to see the world for themselves instead of what Reginald told them the world was. They got to see what was behind the veil that Reginald put up and they got to make their own decisions. Luther didn't have that luxury.

Him being on the moon was constantly brought up, and we the fans groan when he talks and complains about it all the time because yes, Luther, we get it. Dad put you on the moon. But you see, being on the moon - being isolated and neglected and forgotten when everyone else moved on with their lives - was the only experience he had outside of being his father's minion. It was the only thing he had to talk about outside of being his father's toy soldier.

We don't laugh when Allison's estranged relationship with her husband and daughter is constantly brought up whenever she's on screen; we don't judge when Vanya repeatedly tells ppl about her father and her siblings' negligence; we don't find it annoying when Five keeps on talking about his time in the apocalypse or the Commission.

We don't do that because we understand that those parts of their lives were crucial to the progression of the story. There was a need to Allison's broken relationship so that she could understand that her powers are dangerous and easy to misuse; Vanya needed to talk about Reginald's complete disregard for her so that she could overcome her own issues and let her powers resurface; Five needed to rant about the apocalypse all the time because duh, the apocalypse.

We felt differently when Luther kept on bringing up his time as the man on the moon because we thought there was no point to that point of his life.

But here's the thing - that part of his life is just as integral to the story as everyone else's tragic past. He needed to connect with the others over their shared trauma under their father's thumb, but they ended up disregarding his pain and his isolation the same way Reginald did.

So why is he the only asshole?

There's also the fact that even though Luther is numero uno, he doesn't seem to know what to do or how to guide his siblings at all when they look to him for direction. Looking back to him as a child, he was probably more confident, more comfortable in his own body that anyone else. He was dad's favourite. That definitely made him cocky as fuck.

But as an adult who's gone through a life-changing, appeareance-altering surgery without his own consent, as a son who got left behind and forgotten by the father he had devoted his life to? He doesn't display a single ounce of self esteem when he's on his own or when he's supposed to be giving orders. Diego takes the reins more often than not because of Luther's inability to step out of his shell and get used to leading instead of following orders. He's a bit more insecure, a bit more clueless but a lot more humble than he used to be.

He's trying. But he doesn't know how to be a good leader without hurting ppl. (He imprisoned Vanya because he thought it was the safest thing to do - to keep everyone safe from her and to keep Vanya safe from herself) He thinks this is the right thing to do because he doesn't know better, not like Diego who was given actual training by ppl with more humanity than Reginald; not like Klaus who has fought in the front lines of war and knows how to differentiate right and wrong a little better. Luther doesn't know because he was never given the chance to.

I know I make a lot of jokes about our favourite apeboy, but let's be real. Almost all of the Umbrella Academy are douchebags. But we love them all the same.

So give Luther a chance. Rewatch the series and maybe think of things from his perspective.

Just because his pain is different doesn't mean it's any less significant or important than anyone else's.

[laurasauras]

so, i think the main thing that bothers me about crimes of grindelwald is that it reinforces this idea that’s been bothering me for a while and that’s my growing disillusionment with jk rowling. this is a loooong post, so i’m chucking it under a cut. tl;dr, i've fallen out of love with the series and much like falling out of love with a person makes you realise that they were always kind of annoying, that’s what’s happening to me with her.

everyone and their dog (with the exception of jk herself) has realised that her inability to leave the books she wrote alone has stifled a fandom space that was one of the first wide spread communities that was outright encouraged to create and this is objectively a bad thing. the fact that her fans are being told the “correct” and “canon” answers to their big questions in the series is objectively a bad thing. fandom as a concept is a collection of people dedicated to consuming media in a deeper way; we reject the notion of passive viewing and search for meaning in the way that our high school teachers would be delighted in. i think enough people have talked about that that i don’t particularly need to.

here’s the thing that’s just hit me though: the saying “don’t meet your heroes” used to feel like a far off concept, because i wasn’t doing anything special enough to justify ever meeting my favourite author, and for over a decade if you asked me the “who would you have dinner with if it could be anyone in the world?” my answer was probably her. except now that has happened.

to clarify, i haven’t had dinner with jk rowling. but thanks to twitter, it kind of feels like i have. and the story goes the same way the cautionary “don’t meet your heroes” story always goes in sit coms. for the first half hour of dinner i was delighted to hear more about her thoughts when writing the harry potter series and learn tid bits that she never included. she mentioned the charity work she does, said she supported me no matter what and highlighted enough issues that gave me the impression that not only was my favourite author just as engaging in “real life”, she was also a good person. for the next little bit she showed me what else she was working on and i have always loved her writing style, so i enjoyed that too. i looked forward to seeing where she was going from there, to what new stories i could enjoy as i grew older.

and then she started talking about harry potter again. i was glad, at first. i thought i could never hear enough about it. but cursed child was bad. i like reading plays, i knew that wasn’t the issue. i decided that she had put her name on it but she had delegated the story to other people because i couldn’t quite connect the baby’s first fanfiction storyline with the woman i had grown to know over the rest of the dinner. and fantastic beasts was ... good? but so wholly unnecessary. i decided that she just wanted to keep giving to charity and this was how she was doing it. 

and then, just when i was starting to hint that the dinner party was over and she could leave now, five minutes ago (really i just wanted to go to bed and pretend like the only things i’d ever heard for her were the words written in her books), it all clicked into place.

they’re all the same story.

harry potter was so successful because children connected deeply with the idea that one day a giant would knock on the door and take them away from the bullies and the boredom and into a world of magic. harry was an average boy who made mistakes and yet did remarkable things. and harry potter is, really, a very long, very detailed fairy tale. once upon a time there was a boy who lived with his wicked aunt and uncle. this is how he saved the world.

(i could easily make this argument for the casual vacancy and the cormoran strike books as well, but i’m going to stick with the newly franchised “wizarding world” for clarity.)

spoilers below for cursed child, fantastic beasts and crimes of grindelwald.

in cursed child, there were a lot of minor problems that niggled at me that are very similar to the things that niggle me about the twitter feed of jk rowling, she seemed intent on retconning her novels to have more meaning, in name dropping this, that and the other as if providing her fans with the ability to go “oh! it’s the trolley lady! i remember her! how cool that she’s significant and also a horrifying monster!” but my major grievance was with the “twist” that voldemort had had a daughter with bellatrix lestrange (in what time, seriously, when did she have the 9 months to spare) and she was going to bring her daddy back to wreak havoc. and this to me seemed like yet another “the ordinary person is more significant than you thought!” story, which seemed lazy. why did delphini have to be related to the two biggest villains in order to want to bring voldemort back? could she think of no other reason for someone to want that? (no, she couldn’t, she couldn’t think of any reason to siding with him in the first place other than “they’re the bad guys, the slytherins”.)

(another grievance i have is that jk rowling has no idea how to write a realistic villain. or rather, when she does succeed in empathising with why someone would hurt another person, she refuses to see them as a villain. snape and dumbledore would make very interesting antagonists, but she’d much rather have “he was conceived under a love potion and therefore is incapable of love” be a reason for doing great harm than “people have been telling him he was a fantastic person since he got top of his class in transfiguration and he is sure that he could make the world better if only people would do as he says without questioning him ever”. side note: jude law absolutely nailed the manipulative dumbledore vibe in crimes of grindelwald, that was literally the only good part of the film, that and the jangly cat toy thing.)

and okay, that was fine, i was just going to pretend that cursed child never existed. i think i am not alone in that camp. and the first fantastic beasts story was pretty good, nothing to write home about or like, remember after you’ve watched it, but a fine way to spend a couple of hours. and then she pulled the same move with crimes of grindelwald!

oh, guess what, this boy who was the main character in the first movie and now has no personality in the second movie, yeah, him, the one who was abused and who tried to hide his magic but it came out in explosive ways, yeah, he was dumbledore’s little brother the whole time.

because he couldn’t just be any abused kid. because again, the fact that it doesn’t make sense and the timeline does not fit is irrelevant. it’s punchy, it’s another name drop, it’s gonna make the audience gasp. i mean, it made me and the friend i saw the movie with laugh out loud, but the intention was there.

how could the perfect dumbledore family abandon a child like that? hey, this is starting to sound exactly like the tragic and complicated backstory we already got in deathly hallows! and hey, wasn’t that already kind of a reference to the way harry himself was treated?

i’m just tired. i’m tired of this new laziness making me re-examine the original series and realise just how shallow that was too. i’m tired of liking fanfiction more than any of the things she’s written. i’m tired of well meaning family and friends buying me harry potter mugs and slippers and whatever else for christmas because i was in love with this franchise from the age of 7 and i don’t have the heart to explain that the increasing consumerism of it is one of the many reasons that my love is firmly in the past tense now.

so, i don’t think i’ll be touching my harry potter fanfics for a while. it sucks to officially abandon projects i spent so many hours on but i went to try and reread so i could continue one and i’m tired of that world. i hope it isn’t forever. the books were such a huge part of my childhood and have absolutely influenced me as a writer. but for now, we’re on a break.