#house elf discourse

[nikomedes]

the last time i engaged hard with fandoms, like. i was baffled and appalled by how getting that many people fixated on one thing spawns dogshit takes, fanon, and trends at a rate that boiled u like a frog if u checked tags every day but was objectively insane from the outside. its so fast. the less of a media to obsess over, the worse it gets. two shippable white dudes? fucking calamity. and yeah, absolutely any challenging material is either sanded off, elided, or examined in the worst faith you could imagine. both experiences started euphoric as i got social engagement that lit up my dopamine-seeking brain like christmas, and then law of large numbers eventually made it so there was no amount of cool mutuals or number go up to outweigh the braindead posting.

all this to say there are maybe 3 people on earth i want to see bg posting from and everyone else i am holding at gunpoint. no trigger discipline. they say anything lacking basic critical thinking about a dnd character and whatever happens, happens

[ihavenomouthandimustmouth]

It seems like a lot of the anti-transmasculinity/transandrophobia discourse revolves around the ideas that either this does not occur, does not occur in real life, or is just transmascs viewing criticisms of transmisogynistic transmascs as oppression, so here’s a story.

I live with some other people around my age, and I stopped using my deadname with them earlier this year. it hasn’t been that long, about 3 months, but generally, they use my correct name with an occasional mistake, usually followed up by a correction. one of them, however, just cannot seem to stop deadnaming me, often without correcting afterwards. when they do notice they’ve gotten it wrong, it’s usually followed up by a big thing about how they don’t know why they’re so bad at it or blaming it on being drunk if they’re drunk, but often not an apology.

an additional piece of this—my partner, who is a trans woman, changed the name they use around the same time, but this person almost always gets her name right. this person knows me a bit better/longer than they do her, but not that much better/longer, and generally, when I am around them, my partner is also there. (adding a cut here because this is gonna be long)

I talked with my therapist about this at my last session. I was seeking advice on how to handle it, but I also spent a lot of time just complaining and running through different incidences of this happening. I ended up telling her about some of the weird things this person said to me when I first started socially transitioning, including them saying that they were sad when I came out because they (direct quote) “didn’t want to stop seeing me as a genderless elf” (???!?) (I had previously identified as nonbinary and used any pronouns) and followed that up by saying that they hated men, which they then followed up by saying “not trans men though” (which like okay but then why bring that up in this conversation).

In talking my therapist, I circled back to the deadnaming issue and said that I thought this person was doing this to me and not my partner because my partner is more feminine than I am masculine (in social behavior and the way we look as two people that have not started medically transitioning). my therapist pushed back on this and said that, based on all the things I said, it seemed more like this person just didn’t want to see me as a man.

this blew my mind a little because I, a transmasculine person who spends way too much time on trans and transmasc internet, did not put the situation in this context while my therapist, a cis woman who is supportive but not super aware of the trans experience, did. it made a lot of sense though, and fit into the context of my other experiences and interactions with this person.

this person is a nonbinary person who has never identified as or been seen as a man. they are supportive of trans people generally and of their rights. they are also someone who believes that woman are inherently better than men. this generally doesn’t have much of an impact on the cis men we live with—for them, this more comes as being around for jokes that might make them a little uncomfortable, but doesn’t stop them from being seen as men. for me, this means I have to deal with the fact that this person doesn’t want to see me as a man and deadnames me accordingly, seemingly because they see me transitioning as a loss.

my point here is that when transmasculine people say that there are issues they face specifically related to them being transmasculine, that’s not a lie or a hypothetical. there is a stark contrast between the way this person treats my transfem partner and myself (and, after talking with someone who’s lived here with this person for longer, other transmasculine people who have lived in the house). they are supportive of trans people as a group, but not of transmasculinity, and I have to deal with the consequences.

[lucvly]

— christmas headcannons with chris. ⸰ 𖥔 ͙

warnings: fluff, cursing, mentions of sex, not proofread as always.

a/n: this is soo self indulgent help !! i love christmas fr.

— he’ll act like he literally doesn’t give a shit about christmas but on december 1 he’s already staying up late thinking about what he’s gonna give you.

— i don’t even wanna hear discourse about this but this man acts like a child around the holidays. he’ll enjoy december like he’s a 10 year old child who still thinks santa’s real.

— my man is quick to hang up those lights. it’ll deadass be mid november and he’s already asking you when you’re gonna decorate because he wants to help you.

— gingerbread house making is a must. he loves it. you do it at least three times in december because it’s by far one of his favorite traditions. of course he ends up building something that doesn’t look nearly close to a house but A for effort.

— you get matching ugly sweaters obviously. it’s your job to get them every year, and they progressively get worse. chris always complains about how itchy they are LMFAOO.

— baking christmas cookies with him is such a chore for real. you can’t even let him open the flour because it either ends up all on the floor, or on your face. don’t even ask him how to preheat the oven because those cookies will end up burnt.

— most times you have to make three or four batches of cookies because the first batch turns out awful, the second one: burnt.

— once your relationship gets really serious, you two make christmas cards and send them to your close family and relatives. it’s corny, sure, but you both love doing it.

— once every year, you go with him and his brothers for a late night drive just to see how people decorated around the neighborhood. chris always ends up falling asleep on your shoulder in the backseat while nick is yelling about how the lights should’ve been hung higher or how the reindeer is out of place.

— you best believe you’re writing letters to santa. it’s unserious but chris loves doing it, especially because he gets to write something along the lines of: “santa, all i want for christmas is my girlfriend under the tree. thx. — C” LMFAOOAOA sorry.

— you’re absolutely making matching ornaments. they have your initials on them it’s adorable. though decorating them is painful as hell because chris always ends up throwing glitter at you.

— takes elf on the shelf so serious like calm down!!! he better not catch anyone laying a finger on that dumbass elf or he’ll go absolutely insane.

— going christmas shopping with him is adorable. he gets so excited over what to get his brothers and his parents AWW, and he also gets a present for trevor obviously.

— you are never gonna know what that man gets you for christmas. he hides it so well it surprises you each year to be honest. you’re out here thinking he didn’t even get you a present and he’s already packing up at least three.

— definitely an expensive gift type of boyfriend, i’m talking tiffany necklaces, chanel bags, dior, ysl. and he doesn’t even care because seeing you happy makes him 10 times happier. (“baby, you didn’t have to– oh my god.” “i know, but i wanted to. you deserve it.”)

— of course you also get him cute and expensive gifts but you could seriously give him a rock and he’d cherish it as if you just gave him a gold bar.

— you two will absolutely watch christmas movies together, especially romcoms. he loves christmas romcoms LMFAOO. he’s the type to complain about the main character idc.

— he hangs up a mistletoe on his door just so he can tease you and give you a kiss every time you walk into his room. (“look, mistletoe, you gotta kiss me.” “chris i swear to god.”)

— christmas dinners are hilarious bye. he’ll deadass be eating 3 or 4 plates with no shame at all. you’re staring at him in disbelief and he just looks at you with his mouth full like “😊”. at least he’s happy LMFAOO.

— he gives you at least three presents. the first one is marked “from: santa, to: y/n” obviously you know it’s him LMFAO he thinks it’s cute and you just leave him be. second one is marked “from: chris, to: his girlfriend.” as if he wasn’t the one marking up those presents BYE. third one is “from: the best boyfriend ever, to: the prettiest girl.” he’s so cute somebody sedate me !!

— one hundred percent asks nick and matt to figure out what you got him for christmas. you’ve figured this out over the years so you don’t even give them hints anymore LMAOO.

— the worst jokes over the holidays seriously. (“hold on. babe, which cooking seasoning is the most festive?” “chris–” “christmas thyme.”) he needs to be stopped lord have mercy.

— secretly loves decorating. he’ll decorate with you all day fr. ornaments, mistletoes, the tree in general is his favorite. he cannot deal with putting up lights though. it pisses him off so badly– (only because he ends up tangled in them).

— i just know he makes hot chocolate with water. nuh uh. you had to teach him the correct way (with milk) because it was seriously getting on your nerves LMAO.

— he gets so lovey dovey over the holidays. he’s also horny 24/7 but that’s completely besides the point HELP. hands around your waist, arm around your shoulder, hand holding, everything.

— matching pjs YUP. he loves matching christmas outfits with you LMAO especially pjs. y’all have like four matching pj sets every year it’s so cute.

[calandrinon]

@nothingiswrongwithyourarmrests it's not just you! I also got the impression that Hermione's narrative problem was that she was trying to help an oppressed population as an outsider to the society that was doing the oppressing, imposing her own morality without trying to understand the nuances of the context (now that I've written that out I realise I could probably have just said "the white saviour problem")

But then - in my reading of it, anyway - the solution turned out not to be "if you want to help an oppressed population, try talking and listening to them so you can find out how to be most effective" but rather "do not interfere with the natural order of things". I don't know if it's Rowling's shitty attitudes or shitty world building but either way it was disappointing.

In my personal retcon of the series the house-elves have a drive to work (possibly a magical compulsion that nobody can yet figure out how to undo) analogous to working dogs - you might think you're doing them a favour by giving them a day off, but it just gives them such bad anxiety and choice paralysis that you're likely to come home to find that all your potion ingredients have been organised by colour and seed size and the elves are now up on the roof optimising your wizarding radio reception.

I know I'm a bit late to saying this but frankly if I found out a secret society of magic-users were just playing nonsense sports and making up slurs for the rest of us instead of helping us out with famines or leukemia I think I'd apply for a job with my local witch hunters

[greatwyrmgold]

When I was little, I loved the Harry Potter books. I eventually noticed some of the problems with them, and then I noticed how JK Rowling's personal beliefs and actions lined up with the problems in the books. It was easy to separate these two; JKR was doing a good enough impression of a progressive liberal when I was reading the books, and the mask didn't slip until after I'd started to drift from the series.

I wonder what it's like for kids who got into Harry Potter later, kids who are getting into Harry Potter now. Kids born after house elf discourse peaked, who didn't start reading until JKR went mask off, who didn't know better but could have if they'd read the right articles. Kids whose parents have ignored everything JKR has said and done that isn't directly relevant to the Harry Potter series, or who don't care, or who don't want their reservations to get in the way of their kids enjoying some books.

For me, it's easy to separate my HP-fan period from modern JKR. In retrospect signs were always there, but they were subtle enough that you could hardly expect a kid to notice them, and it's not like they were unique, lots of fantasy writers get weirdly hung up on fantasy racial crap, specifically a Jewish-stereotype race, and replacing the slave race with some kind of biologically evil mook race, which is kind of an apples-and-oranges thing. Harry Potter's worldbuilding wasn't uniquely bad, just not-good, and both HP's narrative and JK Rowling's politics seemed progressive.

But JKR has doubled down on all the worst aspects of Harry Potter's worldbuilding for the past 15 years or so, and has also openly supports TERFs and fascists for the past few years. JKR's progressive platitudes feel hollower every month. The only excuse kids today will be able to come up with for supporting JKR is that they were just too ignorant to realize they were directly funding transphobia. Is that enough?

It's not really my problem, but I still wonder about the people whose problem it is.

[firstknightvulion]

Now, there is some discourse regarding Minthara and her romance. Specifically, that it feels out of character for her to romance a Masculine presenting Tav. I respectfully disagree.

Minthara is all about power. Ya gotta prove yourself to her. Be vicious and direct. She don’t give a hoot about your gender identity, she’s looking at your kill streak.

But it did give me an idea. Minthara has spoken about going back to Menzoberranzan and burning that fucker to the ground to spite Lolth (paraphrasing). My Seladrine Drow Tav (half Drow/half moon elf) would join her because he’s got a hate boner for the religion of Lolth that’s been turgent since his family and friends were killed by a Lolth Warband’s attack on his Eilistraeen compound.

Now, I imagine her first target would be her house. Minthara would want to twist the knife. Make them suffer.

Minthara’s Mother stands in the great hall of her house. Two of her daughters stand by her side. They are the last of their house. Hours before a shadow descended into their home and started systematically killing every living thing inside.

The great doors to the hall fly open with an explosion. Shrapnel and smoke fill the space. A heart beat later, two arrows fly through the air with deadly intent. They find their marks in the two daughters. One is hit through the eye, she drops instantly. The other is struck in the throat. She does not die quickly. She gurgles and grasps at her throat, feebly trying to stop the escaping blood. Her hands fall limp as the sound of deliberate footsteps fill the hall.

Minthara’s Mother looks away from her daughters’ corpses and up at the dark figure walking towards her. It is dressed in Drow leathers, a hood and mask covering the face. Two green eyes stare at her from shadow of the hood.

Minthara’s Mother: What pit spawned you!?

A chuckle is heard from behind the figure, a deep and dangerous sound. Minthara walks in, blood and a wicked smile painting her face.

Minthara: Hello, mother.

MM: Minthara?! You heretical traitor! Why haven’t you had the decency to die?!

Minthara: The Spider Bitch’s webs will burn, mother. The house Baenre will be the first of the kindling.

MM: You would have us become ash for the sake of such blasphemy?! Deeper and deeper you fall into a pit of shame!

Minthara: To feel shame, I would need to feel remorse. I assure you, mother, I feel only joy. The fact that you were cast down by one so low shall keep warm and smiling for many decades to come.

Minthara pulls back the figures hood. The scared face of Drow male greets her. His eyes a green and while sporting the dark skin of a Drow, it is very pale, almost ashen.

Minthara: This male is of the traitors that stole away to the surface to follow Eilistraee!

MM: How?! How were we defeated by such an inferior being?!

Minthara: Stealth is very broken in this game, mother.

Tav: Minthara! The fourth wall!

Minthara: He was conceived by a loving union that bridged the gap between Drow and our surface kin! In the missionary position!

MM: *gasps*

Tav: *giving Minthara a very confused look*

Minthara: He is not only a third son, he is a sixth son! You were beaten by a third son times two!

MM: *clutches her metaphorically pearls*

Tav: *is an only child but knows enough of Menzoberranzan culture to be slightly offended*

Minthara: He is my romantic partner! I treat him as an equal!

Tav, somehow, feels the sensation of someone vomiting in his thoughts.

MM: You disgust the Spider Queen! Next you’ll tell me you don’t even peg him!

Tav: No, she does.

Minthara: Mother, please. I’m a genocidal conqueror, I’m not debased.

Suddenly, Minthara pulls the sword out of the scabbard hanging from Tav’s back. Within a blink of an eye, it is driven through her mother’s chest. Minthara leaves it embedded in her mother’s body half the blade sticking out of her back. With a gasp, she falls over.

Minthara: *kneeling down to whisper in her mother’s ear* The blade is of Eilistraee. Fitting, don’t you think, mother?

Minthara stands, throwing her head back and raising her arms, as if soaking up sunlight. She begins to laugh.

Minthara: The first conquest is done.

She walks over to the Matriarch’s throne and sits down.

Minthara: Come, fuck me.

Tav: Now?

Minthara: What better time and place than this? My former house is ended, my mother dead-

Tav: She’s not dead.

Minthara: What?

Tav: Still gurgling.

Minthara: Oh, for the love of-she can’t be long for this world.

Tav: Do you want to wait? I don’t want to pull out the blade in case that kills her. I’ll be hearing about taking the honor of killing the mother for years after.

Minthara: No, I don’t want to wait!

Minthara quickly jogs over and pulls the sword out of her mother’s chest. She plunges it in again, hitting the ground underneath. With pure malice in her eyes, her mother reaches up to clutch Minthara’s leg.

Tav: Wow, she is resilient.

Minthara: Enough of this!

Ripping the sword out of her mother’s chest, Minthara makes a wild swing and cut the Drow’s head clean off. The pair watch it roll down the length of the hall. Before another snarky comment can leave his lips, Minthara’s mouth collides with his. They stand, kissing, amongst the skeleton of Minthara’s old home for several moments.

Minthara: Come, there is a duty to which you must attend.

Tav: You have a thing for thrones, don’t you?

Honestly, I should get an Ao3 account cause my posts are looking like fanfiction chapters.

This post was all to get to that line Minthara says about the sixth son. That and the 4th wall break.

[witchygfsgf]

everything i hate about the modern marauders fandom ✨✨

characters are stripped of all defining traits. example: In POA, Remus is overall, a kind person. He has faced huge adversity, and despite this, proves society wrong by being a good person, by helping, by listening, time and again. But in fanon, he is aggressive, rude to friends, believes himself superior to the dumb, weak Sirius, he hurts people physically and verbally, he sides with bigots, he is quick to anger etc. He is not allowed to be gentle, supportive, meek and kind.

by assigning a villain character an LGBTQ+ sexuality, they are protected by any criticism. It's seen as homophobic if you so much as point out canon actions, much less make theories/headcanons about them that aren't positive, or negative but "hot." Everyone's personality is either warped beyond recognition or sanitised to the point they did nothing wrong, or both. Creating a ship for them, especially a character who we've only seen do terrible, unjustifiable things, only romanticises them, watering down their personality to create an aspect of their life that isn't so terrible, all in the hope that this will "make up" for their actions. "Barty didn't torture Alice and Frank, silly. He was too busy getting railed by his hot crazy boyfriend." "What do you mean Regulus is a fascist? Tell that to his husband."

extreme misunderstanding of canon backstories. example: Fanon perpetuates the idea that Regulus betrayed Voldemort in the end, which must mean he held no bigotry to begin with, he hated his parents and his upbringing from birth, and his crimes weren't that bad because eventually he changed. In reality, he had clips of newspaper articles about Voldemort hung on his walls, a literal shrine. He did betray Voldemort, but there is no implication this is because his beliefs changed. The fact it was likely due to the fact Voldemort planned to leave his house elf to die is ignored every time people theorise. What was well-known information is know deliberately cast aside in favour of popular headcanon, even if it doesn't fit the character. Barty wasn't Imperiused when he first joined the Death Eaters! He did that by choice! But fans remembered his daddy issues and now that's all that matters. Your father being an asshole doesn't give you the right to join a supremecist cult.

women are neatly paired off in wlw ships to avoid them affecting plot. example: A Jegulus shipper feels bad that Lily has been sidelined. Instead of investigating why they never allow women to prosper with their canon love interests, they find out about Mary, and decide that she will do, so no one is lonely. In most cases, Mary and Lily's relationship is defined by a) being a softer, drama-free counterpart to Jegulus and b) that's it. But they will rarely further the narrative in fanfiction, let alone provide more than background diversity.

shipping is prioritised over all else. there is no headcanon, no fic, no piece of art, that depicts one character without making it extremely clear that they are soulmates with another, and any attempt to depict characters separately, to show their own traits and individual stories and familial/platonic relationships instead, is pushed to the side. similarly, any discourse is less important when not related to shipping. talk about how jegulus makes no sense and how jilys better and get 100 notes, but talk about the evans sisters and get none.

the ableism. example: Remus' condition is very similar to a disability or chronic illness. He is constantly exhausted, especially nearing full moons, appears prematurely aged from the stress on his body etc. And then there's the societal stigma. For example, he is unable to get a stable job because he will be fired for missing work for rest/a full moon (reminiscent of needing frequent days off for flare ups). It impacts him in every aspect of his life. Many fanon fans have decided to erase all of this in favour of creating the two symptoms that impact him at all. One being horniness, and the other being anger. He doesn't have extreme fatigue and even pain, he just wants to rail Sirius twice daily. He doesn't hate himself because he will never be viewed as more than a beast by society, he yells at his close friends, hurts people he loves, and is forgiven by those weaker than him, because he is first and foremost powerful and intimidating. Instead of allowing the reality of his condition to be portrayed, it must become sexualised in order to fit in with his fanon characterisation.

"there's no information about them in canon, we have to make it up." I guarantee you there is. You can gather a lot from a small piece of information while still having it be accurate, and then, you can expand on that and build on those ideas by creating headcanons. Headcanons should not contradict canon, that's an AU. But if you're talking about canon-compliant universes, and you claim there's no information on Sirius Black, who has a whole book named after him, I have to laugh. For rarer, smaller characters, it's more complicated, but she still exists, and you can still take certain things from her character. Take Mary MacDonald. She was assaulted with Dark Magic by Mulciber, a friend of Snape's who later became a Death Eater, and he was described as "creepy." Despite that being her only mention, you can infer plenty from it, and build your own ideas that could fit with her character given those roots. To say there is no information, you have to have tried to seek it out because I promise (without having to give money to the TERF) you will find more than you thought was out there. If you prefer to ignore it, be my guest, please don't let a stranger on the Internet tell you how to live your life. But that's a choice, not your only option.

the fatphobia. For a fandom that claims to be inclusive and diverse, their attitudes towards plus size people imply otherwise. Peter is canonically fat, and while in the original context of the books this is done for fatphobic reasons, erasing this representation lets plus size fans know that you don't think they should have a place in your world, that you'd rather they were skinny so that they match your standards of "hotness" that you change every character to fit in with. For example, since the 2010s, Dane DeHaan has been the primary fancast for him, despite being slim, and this detail is rarely looked upon as anything other than standard altering of characters' appearances - e.g. it's treated similarly to people who use Ben Barnes (an actor with brown eyes) to portray Sirius (a character with grey eyes), a minor mistake that can be excused based on preference. If Peter is allowed to remain fat, many fans treat him worse than those who make him thin. His only hobbies include eating excessively and baking/cooking. He priorities food over people, is lazy and greedy/selfish in regards to food, he is always seen eating something or thinking about food out loud. Any angst about him pre-betrayal is focused on the idea of giving him an eating disorder, which fans claim "makes so much sense." That reflects how you view real fat people, and it can make us feel uncomfortable to engage in content about an otherwise very interesting character, because this will almost always be coloured by society's negative perception of fat people. He is also held to a higher standard than other Death Eaters, such as Evan Rosier. I would say that this applies to all fan-favourite DEs but for sanctity's sake, I'm only using one example. Rosier is heavily romanticised, his actions are excused or diluted, and he is given a sob story and angst unrelated to his appearance. His canon friends (Snape's gang) are replaced and any attempt to remember his true affiliation is ignored. Peter is villainised from a young age, he is never shown to be more than a traitor, he never gets a backstory let alone one that attempts to explain his personality and choices, and all angst in related to his appearance and weight. His canon friends (The Marauders) do not care about him in fanon, as if they were gifted with the knowledge that he was always a traitor. The only difference between them is that one is viewed as conventionally attractive and the other isn't. Also, any attempt to imagine any of the characters as plus size, even those with no physical description, is shut down or ignored. Fans hate fat evil characters because it's "fatphobic" but hate fat, good characters more because it's ruining their idealised, perfect version of the series, in which everyone is thin and hot.

heteronormative ships. example: In canon, both Remus and Sirius are fairly masculine, for example in terms of the way they dress. However, Sirius has shoulder length hair, while Remus' is short. This is his only "feminine" trait, and is definitely part of why fanon later decides to feminise him. In fact, as Remus is gentler, more mild mannered and kind, you could argue that of the two of them, he is more stereotypically feminine. Fanon has latched onto the idea that Sirius is feminine, whether that be transfem or an identity under the non-binary umbrella, and therefore their personalities have been altered to fit this. Remus is no longer as described in the books, but aggressive, tough, rude, hot-headed and dominant. He has also changed physically. Whereas canonically his height was never mentioned, and he is described as having prematurely aged, and as thin and weak looking due to exhaustion and poverty, he is now muscular, tall and conventionally attractive. Sirius is no longer careless, mean, immature and selfish, he is weak, submissive, dramatic, stupid and obsessed with Remus, who seems in most cases to not care about him, or at least find his personality annoying and make it very clear. He is also short, his hair is even longer, he dresses in short skirts and low cut or cropped shirts with heels and jewellery, he wears makeup, and he is referred to with feminine terms. These are all stereotypes of women. Men can be feminine, and non binary/trans identities are of course valid, but by stripping him of all masculinity and increasing the stereotypical masculinity of his partner, fans effectively suggest that there should be "a man and a woman" in the relationship. Further, sexist ideas of what a man and woman should be like when dating are ingrained into the fandom version of the ship, for example Remus is almost always the aggressive dominant top, and Sirius is almost always the weak submissive bottom. This is true, though not to the same extent as Wolfstar, in every MLM ship in the fandom. I will say that it seems to be different for the WLW ships, but I'll elaborate on that later (see "the palatable kind of lesbian.")

shipping the oppressor with the opressed. example: At the point most fan works are set, Regulus is a Death Eater or close to becoming one. He shares their beliefs of Muggleborns and Muggles, and worships Voldemort. Lily is a Muggleborn girl. She has been called a slur for her background, and I'd say she likely faced similar if not worse oppression to Hermione. Shipping them together, despite the fact that Jegulily/Regulily isn't as popular as other ships, betrays their entire personalities. Would Regulus date someone he views as inherently inferior? No he wouldn't, but his character has been so butchered it becomes impossible for people to remember what would be realistic for him.

the palatable kind of lesbian. Marlene/Dorcas. Masc*/Femme. Typically 2 Cis girls. Skinny. Conventionally attractive. Relationship rarely interferes with the main plot. Lily/Mary. Femme/Femme. Typically 2 Cis girls. Skinny. Conventionally attractive. Relationship rarely interferes with the main plot. Pandora/Lily. Femme/Femme. Typically 2 Cis girls. Skinny. Conventionally attractive. Relationship rarely interferes with the main plot. Emmeline/Mary. Femme/Femme. Typically 2 Cis girls. Skinny. Conventionally attractive. Relationship rarely interferes with the main plot. Alice/Narcissa. Femme/Femme. Typically 2 Cis girls. Skinny. Conventionally attractive. Relationship rarely interferes with the main plot. Do you notice the theme?

*Marlene is often presented as "masc" but in a way that conveys that the fandom views her as the butchest they'll allow a character to be. She has long hair, wears skirts and dresses, wears elaborate makeup and excessive jewellery, and yet many people seem to claim her as representation that they don't view femme lesbians as the only "good" ones. These are all things that butch lesbians can do, but when a fandom that claims to be diverse doesn't allow their lesbian characters to stray outside of the acceptable standards for womanhood, when the most masculine female character there wears leather skirts, lipstick and has long hair...Their efforts to be inclusive aren't succeeding.

women are avoided at all costs to prevent them effecting gay ships. Now forgive me that this isn't 100% Marauders Era, but i like to rant so you're getting context, if anyone's reading this that is. Tonks. She is constantly treated as if she shouldn't exist by predominantly Wolfstar shippers who want to justify pushing her aside. "Well (insert TERF) made her up to stop people shipping Remus and Sirius." Not true. Wolfstar didn't become popular until after the release of the POA film, in around 2009, and even then it was around 2015 when the Marauders Era itself became less underground and 2020 when Wolfstar started getting all-colnsumingly popular. Before that, Snupin was more popular by a long shot. If she created a whole character to stop gay ships, it would have been that one. That being said, it's not. Tonks existed as her own person in OOTP onwards. When the TERF decided not to kill off Arthur in the Department of Mysteries she wanted to kill off Remus instead, and so he was not only a semi father figure to Harry, but a biological father to Teddy. It's likely that because this child and death were "needed" Tonks was put with Remus to fulfil those themes of loss. And yet, despite not existing to prevent them, many Wolfstar shippers treat her character as if she's in the way, as if she doesn't have a place in the story etc. She is treated like a child who can't make her own decisions, even at the big age of 24, and portrayed as a victim of Remus. In reality, she holds all the power in the relationship that an older man would. She has reputation, money and she's an Auror (Wizard cop). Remus however, has had any reputation he did have stripped in Book 3, he is poor and unable to get a job, and he's a werewolf, a minority that is heavily discriminated against. And yet the age gap is suggested to be the only thing that matters, and the primary reason their relationship shouldn't exist, and as a result, why Tonks shouldn't be acknowledged. According to fans, her relationship and very existence is problematic, and she destroyed Wolfstar. Two crimes that cannot be forgiven. She has to go. In fact, her own child isn't her's now. In fanon, Teddy is more of Sirius' son than he is her's. She is never even grieved.

basically, it's a beautiful fandom, and i love being in it, creating for it, discussing with people. sometimes people just need some critical thinking, but they refuse to do so because thinking deeper about canon characterisation apparently makes them a jkr supporter. it doesn't. don't give money to the bitch but enjoying characters as they are is not the same thing. not basing all headcanons off of stereotypes and instead caring about how they realistically would act based on their previous actions is not the same thing as hating on trans people. you can make up as many trans headcanons as you want while still appreciating the fact that lycanthropy shouldn't be sexualised, or more importantly, that plus size people shouldn't be mistreated.

anyways, do what you want im not your mum.

[harrypotterfuryroad]

house elf discourse is a weird holdover from that period where yourfaveisproblematic medievalpoc and cracked.com listicles about 10 Times Your Favorite Series Was Kinda Fucked Up If You Think About It were encouraging everyone to come up with hot takes unburdened by things like nuance or context

and then its corpse got exhumed by gendies who realized they weren’t getting anywhere by screaming that the wizard lady thinks that women are people so they needed to spice up their platform

at least it’s more grounded than “seamus finnigan is a caricature of the ira” but not by much

[skymagpie]

Man it's not that the Alliance is not bad, because they are and they could be worse, but homogenizing the Alliance when you mean to say "human" is just as annoying as homogenizing the Horde as "irredeemable savage war criminals".

But let's be real, the way Blizzard (in their infinite racism) wrote most of the Horde races is pretty bad, like we have alien invaders who actually came to colonize, we have a group who constantly uses chemical weapons, a whole civilization built upon sacred troll land and genocide and we have a guy who built Mount Rushmore on native Night Elf land... like it's not a good track record. These are things as bad as the stuff the Alliance has done, if not some being worse.

Saying "Well Horde actually good and Alliance bad" is equally stupid as saying the opposite. The trolls, tauren, vulpera etc, haven't done anything terrible, or have done very little just how the draenei, gnomes and who have you from the Alliance have nothing to do with Stormwind politics.

I think faction discourse is the most annoying thing both tumblr and twitter produces, because we argue which faction is bad and which is good, instead of discussing why Blizzard shoved the majority of the non-white coded races into the faction that they write to constantly commit terrible things while the other one does moderately terrible things. Maybe the racism call is coming from inside the house.

[regheart]

regulus becoming a death eater at sixteen is something that i have a hard time wrapping my mind around, mostly because i can't imagine him doing a lot between joining and dying

the only other case that we know for sure of this happening is draco malfoy, but under very different circumstances. draco was marked after nine death eaters, including his father, were arrested, and tasked with the seemingly impossible task of killing dumbledore. the main purpose of this was to torment his family and, later on, ensure his collaboration

i think something similar to this secondary goal might be involved in recruiting soldiers so young

at sixteen, your brain is not fully formed and it's hard to see nuance, hard to structure arguments, you don't know enough of the world and it's easier to get attached into worldviews or political parties or philosophies or cults

i think that, to voldemort, ensuring the collaboration of these boys when they were at their most eager would guarantee their loyalty later on

because, realistically, there's not much he could have done with teenagers inside hogwarts. spy on dumbledore? he would know. have them sneaking out at night to hogsmead and side apparating to go kill some muggles and then be like oh sorry gotta comeback i have charms in the morning

so young death eaters — in 'padfoot returns' sirius lists some names he knew who were friends in hogwarts and later were arrested or killed — would have little use in the killing and torturing, but they still could be potential recruiters, feeding discourse into their colleagues, radicalizing other children, creating the illusion for other people that they are already winning and there's no point in fighting against it

so for the specific case of regulus, i can see him growing up with parents who believe in pureblood supremacy, his brother gets chastised for acting out and he doesn't want to be like sirius, does he? everybody in slytherin is talking about the dark lord and his oldest cousin who is so smart says he is the greatest wizard to ever exist — and he falls into the trap

he's obsessed, he's only sixteen, he's got his parents approval for his politics (what does a sixteen years old knows of politics?), sirius left and he feels lonely, he fills up a wall with paper cuts of everything that's it's being talked about the dark lord, because the dark lord is all people talk about these days

finally, he's attractive to voldemort because of his name. he must be reasonably smart. and bellatrix recommends him. that's it

i can lay it all in a way that makes sense to me, not only from what we know of regulus, but also from what voldemort might do as a military leader. ultimately, i believe sirius was right in assuming regulus was unimportant to voldemort, that's something i've always assumed from 'kreacher's tale,' volunteering a house elf was his first chance of being properly useful and that was why he was so eager to do it

(he died in '79, either still on school or in the first semester after graduating, not older than eighteen)

note 1: barty crouch jr was described as a teenager at the time of trial, later in 1981, meaning he was also recruited very young. he would have been attractive to voldemort for the possibility of spying on crouch sr, and he was one of the most fanatical followers

note 2: it's safe to assume regulus became a death eater not long after sirius ran away and while i think the aftermath played a role in his mental state leading up to that point, putting the blame on sirius doesn't make any sense because there were many other factors, sirius was right in leaving a place where felt unsafe and he had no responsibility to calculate all of the possible repercussions of his actions in influencing his already blood supremacist brother of joining a cult

[consistentsquash]

5 meta recs for monday

the humanity of creators by @danpuff-ao3

A brilliant short essay on parasocial relationships/separating creator and art.

Creation is such a personal, vulnerable experience. Art, music, writing, etcetera. Creation itself is deeply personal, but so is the experience of those creations. It creates a point of connection, in a way. Connection to the creator, connection to other fans. But experiencing these works does not mean you know the creators. You know a piece of them, perhaps, but not the whole of them.

 

Must-know for Japanese fandom: the meaning of "proship" and the concept of "proshippers" in Western fandom by Maromi

Really well-written essay about Maromi's experiences with antis. Especially love the perspective of cultural differences and how folks can use literally anything to harass you if you are making some problematic art. Link is English translation of Maromi's actual essay in Japanese.

Proship-antis (hereafter referred to as "antis") began to claim that the "pro" stood for "problematic," and expanded their scope beyond a specific ship war to instead begin attacking all "proships." As the definition of the word became muddled, the number of young antis increased, especially among teenagers, who would attack people who supported any kind of problematic ship. This has sometimes escalated to bullying, to the point that one might become a target for harassment if they don't prove that they aren't a proshipper, or might be ostracized for not putting "proship DNI" in their profile. It's also used as a tool for racism―asking someone whose primary language isn't English whether or not they are a proshipper, and if they can't prove that they aren't, they may become a target for harassment. (This is what happened to me.)

  Mumbles by eldritcher

A really poignant look at fandom changes esp HP slash fandom changes. Incisive and resonates a lot.

LJ fandom was criticised often for its cult of nice that was a facade hiding all manner of nonsense. There’s truth to that, but what I’ve seen in the days after I find magnitudes more unappealing. The polemics of identities conducted so effectively and continually in modern fandom and fandom-adjacent publication genres is quite extraordinary. It's wicking out voices and stories, and it’s become an exercise in walking on eggshells. New authors, or new to English authors, or authors unfamiliar with or uninterested in Anglosphere cultural discourse, may not be able to do what I could do in the aughts, because of everything they’ll have to fear tripping on. 

  House elf plotline: A Critique of Author Choices by @ashesandhackles

HP meta in 2023??? Trust me! I really liked this meta and definitely recommend reading it even if you don't normally go for meta. It's just an incredible summary + observations of the worldbuilding. Definitely one of the most objective metas I have read in HP. You should actually think about posting it on AO3, @ashesandhackles.

With a character that had this much thought and agency in Chamber of Secrets specifically because of what it meant for house elves as a whole (and one whose presence made Hermione excited in GOF and hope that other house elves look at his example), one must ask ourselves: why?

  cringe by lierdumoa

The Revenge of the Pearl Clutchers That's what "cringing" is. It's pearl clutching. When the pearl clutchers turned cringe into an adjective, they turned a reaction into an accusation. The pearl clutchers don't want to take responsibility for their own kneejerk emotions. They want to blame YOU.

I feel like there's a lot of folks who are trying to reclaim cringe. But some newer folks are kind of missing the history context behind a lot of fandom vocabulary like this.

[anthonycrowley]

genuine. okay genuine question no one get mad at me for bringing up the wizard book i simply know the lore. is george subjecting me to house elf discourse dialogue in his twelve hundred page book. is he making me witness his own youth chosen one be faced with slaves who are happy in slavery and going huh okay i guess you can do that :/ and i’m guessing it will go Differently than with mister potter just so he can stick it to joanne for losing his hugo. if so. scream. good for him.

[plzandspanku]

a big argument in the looks discourse is precisely that while david thewlis is tall (he's also skinny as hell, to the point you can see the bones in his chest —not his collarbones, his chest— in several pictures), in the books sirius is described multiple times as tall while remus' height is never mentioned

Oh I am completely aware which is why I specified the way I did

But regardless of how it's viewed it's quite reductionist because the dumb bitch who wrote the series is the average height of a a cisgendered female in the region she lives and frequently describes anybody over 5'10" as very tall throughout her writing. However, it's also very important to remember that the dumb bitch who wrote the series has bad opinions on many fronts.

Personally, I find it difficult to trust her take on anything, even her own intellectual property, based on how shitty her opinions are. So how she chooses to describe the characters she created means nothing to me.

That being said, Remus Lupin could be 4'0" and be a house elf's identical twin and I would still think he's the Casanova of Gryffindor Tower and hot as fuck.

[just-antithings]

post/724626133761540096/i-know-its-been-a-few-days-but-thank-you-for Yeah anon, people wilfully misunderstanding the house elf thing is the number 1 HP discourse that drives me crazy. I hadn't thought of them being based on brownies but it makes sense & makes the discourse even sillier if true. 'Hermione's the only one who doesn't support slavery & she's villainized for it!' No, she's criticized for being self-righteous, bossy & failing to consider others' pov. The takeaway is supposed to be 1/2

[imakemywings]

Rarely do I go to any discourses nor read one so forgive me for this but frankly, it is so in-character of Elrond to prefer Elwe's lineage, you know, the lineage that has no ban. Having read LotR, his behavior has so much Thingol energy, his homely house has so much Sirion energy, his greyness has so much Sindar energy, like do you get what I'm saying? The moment I've read that one line where he prefers Thingol over Turgon, I was like yeah that makes more sense and more canon than him aligning himself with those exiles who committed genocidal acts against his mother's kin.

The thing I think is interesting about it is that the case could be made--and I'm sure has been by people in-universe--that Finwe's line is the more illustrious Elven half of Elrond's heritage. You might expect him to identify more with the High Elf Amanyar Calaquendi High Kings of the Noldor etc. portion of his heritage, but he doesn't. Just like people might expect Elros to identify with the powerful Elven immortal part of his heritage--but he doesn't. It's so interesting to see which parts of their heritage speak to them, especially since they had so little chance to hear about most of it growing up.

The recurring theme of gray as associated with the descendants of Thingol in Elrond's story is actually sooo interesting in terms of symbolism. Armenelols has a great exploration of that here!

I don't think Elrond doesn't identify with the Noldor or the Edain parts of his heritage though. That he prefers Elwing's lineage doesn't mean that he disdains Earendil's and he has a lot to be proud of on that side of the family as well. Turgon founded and held Gondolin for hundreds of years; it was the last of the Elven strongholds to fall, and went down largely due to internal treachery rather than Morgoth's own ability. Idril foresaw the threat and it was only thanks to her amazing preparation that any of the Gondolindrim survived. Tuor survived the trauma of his childhood, escaped from slavery, managed to find Gondolin, and fought like hell to protect it during the seige. Earendil was courageous enough to try what no one had succeeded at before, trying to sail to Aman and he later defeats the biggest dragon ever seen in Middle-earth. And that's not getting into the earlier rungs of that lineage, like Fingolfin, Huor, or Finwe.

However, given his decision to remain in Middle-earth at the end of the War of Wrath, I think his particular interest in the Sindarin portion of his heritage makes sense. He chose the place and the people that felt more like home, and stayed until he had to leave.

[harrypotterfuryroad]

Can you explain to me the "Hermoine tries to fight for house elves to be free or whatever" plotline, please? I never read Harry Potter but I'm thinking about giving the series a shot and I want to prepare for whatever discourse I'll come across on this hellsite.

so before getting to that we gotta go over how a fish-out-of-water character works in a series like this. it's usually the protagonist, and it's usually a way for the author to explain details about the setting in a way that doesn't completely halt the narrative. it can be simple and straightforward, or the author can use the juxtaposition to drive conflict or character development

harry potter has two fish out of water characters: harry and hermione. they're both viewing wizard society as outsiders, but harry's perspective is influenced by the fact that he knows his parents were famous wizards (and the fact that he's a famous wizard) where hermione is coming in with no preexisting connections

this means that harry interprets everything about wizard society as though it's normal, or at least he thinks he's supposed to think it's normal. through harry's eyes everything is novel and exciting, but because of his preconceived notions he doesn't really stop to think about why things are the way they are. also probably helps that anything is a major step up from living in a closet (and he's usually too preoccupied with not getting murdered to think too hard about stuff)

hermione however has nothing stopping her from pointing out the hypocrisy or otherwise weird traditions present in wizard culture. this leads to her highlighting the mistreatment of house elves in goblet of fire. the first major discourse point is that this writes her as shrill or abrasive or otherwise in the wrong, since that's how the people around her respond to it, but it's pretty clear that this is actually done to portray everyone else as too blinded by tradition to see what they might need to change

this all kinda ends up with a misread of the series (more a miswatch really, more on that in a sec) where everyone loves oppressing house elves and the house elves are grateful for their mistreatment. there are plenty of other moments in the series that also get this treatment, but it's because people read ron telling hermione to stop making a big deal about something as the text endorsing the thing in question, where instead it's usually to use ron as the stand-in for entrenched wizard society traditions. when ron says "don't worry about it, they like helping out," it's very obvious that you're supposed to find him callous and insensitive for thinking that

the biggest thing driving the dumbest parts of the discourse is that the movie adaptations largely drop the house elf plotlines after the second movie. if you watch the movies and that's it, you'd be totally right to come away thinking that the series uses abuse of domestic servants as a source of comic relief. and then you hear about hermione's house elf plotline and figure that it's also more about comic relief, leading to an uncharitable read of the series. if all you need is ammunition to say wizard lady bad, then why would you dig any deeper

but ultimately hermione being a house elf activist is used to show her as being able to stick up for her values even when she's going against a thousand years of ossified tradition (gryffindor 10000%, ravenclaw hermione truthers can see themselves out), and to show that tradition isn't inherently valuable

so yeah anyone who comes at you with "lul the series says house elves love being slaves" is just straight up not paying attention because the entire point is to break that down