#i don't even like harry potter

[widodiangelo]

the chokehold every trans-masc coded, dark-haired, traumatized emo character has on me is insane. like what do you mean i saw one too many regulus tiktoks and now i'm twenty tabs deep into marauders lore i don't even go here

[phatburd]

🧙‍♀️

[qveenofthefullmoon]

I just got a Target ad on Facebook and it's a fucking Harry Potter book. In Latin.

[marigoldwriter]

Seriously... Why didn't anyone tell me that this fanfic existed? WHY?!

Discovering Manacled on Ao3 be like:

[lunarlivs]

harry and friends ◡̈

[atlasdoe]

Are we ever going to talk about how The Marauders fandom is physically unable to like a character unless they're flawless

this is kinda a rant so if your sensitive don't read but i've been seeing a pattern recently

like for example:

The headcannon that Sirius lost all of his friends and regretted the prank when in cannon nobody gave a shit apart from Snape

The headcannon that Mary obliviated herself turning into Dumbledore obliviating Mary. I swear people started noting how selfish it could be to erase the memories of your friends who died in a war and leave their orphaned son so the fandom had to change the headcannon so that Mary doesn't do it but Dumbledore does cause god forbid one of these characters actually does something shitty on their own accord

Any idea of Regulus, Barty or Evan going to Dumbeldore for help and Dumbledore rejecting them. Dumbledore would've jumped on having another Death Eater spy for him. When have we ever seen him turn anyone down???

Literally anything relating to Regulus Barty and Evan being forced to do things

I literally once saw somebody say "what if the only reason why Barty was with Bellatrix was because they were having a memorial for Regulus and he was innocent the entire time"

Any kind of excuse that people give for Remus marrying and impregnating Tonks only to run the moment responsibility crops up

Calling misogyny whenever a female character is a villain in a fic or whenever Lily or Tonks are bad mothers (i've talked about this before but fanfiction does not equal headcannons and just because Lily or Tonks or anyone is a bad parent in a fic or is villaised doesn't mean that the writer doesn't like the character or sees them as a bad person)

Ignoring that Evan was friends with Snape, Mulciber, Avery and Wilkes while at Hogwarts (people the fandom villainies)

Any excuse that anyone comes up with for what James and Sirius did in Snapes worst memory

i could go on and on but my point is that nearly every character in the marauders era that we have information on is in some way morally grey and i am so sick of seeing people excuse their actions or coming up with far fetched headcannons to make them more "likeable" I LIKE THEN FUCKED UP A LITTLE STOP MAKING THEM SO BORING

[calmlyerratic]

Lily Evans headcanon

she keeps her wand in a knot atop her head

and when she draws it, her long hair crashes

like waves in a sea of red

[lilithofpenandbook]

Seriously how can M*r*uders stans like random Slytherins (who tf are Evan Rosier, Pandora (is that Luna's mum and why tf is she Evan Rosier's twin in half of these), and I don't even want to discuss Regulus) and make them Actually Misunderstood Good People Who Were Forced Down That Path when at least one of them *coughreguluscough* was obsessed with Voldemort

And then turn around and make Snape an awful person?

[hotteststar]

HELPP I WAS TALKING TO A FRIEND OF MINE AND I SAID "OMG THATS SO ROSEKILLER CODED" AND I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHYYYYYY BUT I FORGOT THEY R NOT INTO MARAUDERS STUFF SO THEY WERE LIKE "MAN WHY WOULD YOU KILL A ROSE WTF" AND THEY WERE SO CONFUSED I COULDN'T HELP BUT DIE BCS LIKE HOWWWWWWWWW CAN YOU LIVE WITHOUT THEMMMMMMM SO I WAS LIKE "UMMMMMM" AND THEY WERE THERE WITH THE DUMBEST LOOK ON THEIR FACE I WAS FEELING SICK MAN I WANTED TO START TALKING ABOUT ROSEKILLER SO BAD BUT I WAS LIKE NO THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO RN OKAY???

[xx-thedarklord-xx]

Dear Cousin, Love Regulus

In 2018 I participated in a Big Bang and had the amazing opportunity to go into the fest with @celila-reblogs who is immensely talented and created the wonderful art in my story.

Dear Cousin, Love Regulus

This story has recently hit 200k hits and nearly 4k bookmarks which is something I never anticipated. I had never participated in a Big Bang before and was worried about making it. Especially as I changed the idea halfway through the fest and went with this fic instead. I sometimes get asked where I got the inspiration for this story and it's honestly a silly answer.

@rieraclaelin had once asked me what I thought Draco would name his dog if he ever had one. I said Regulus because Regulus was the one who was so similar to him. Both came from Dark families, both made choices that defined their entire future at the age of 16. And what burned me and always has, is that no one knew. No one fucking knew what Regulus did. No one knew.

I wanted to create a story that changed that. I wanted to create a story where not only did Regulus' story get told, but that Draco got a shot, got a chance at having choices. The option to be someone else if he wanted to.

I want to thank everyone that has read this story. I am so grateful to all of the sweet comments that I have received throughout the years. They have meant so much to me. More than you will know.

Thank you for giving my story a chance. Thank you for letting Regulus' story be told. Thank you for letting Draco be who he wants to be. Just thank you for reading it.

Thank you!

Ao3

[reverie-darling]

been in maruaders tiktok lately, depressed and pissed off

[haunting-hufflepuffs-basement]

Already commented this on someone elses post, but it's unpopular marauders' opinions time:

Regulus was never called Reg or Reggie. Instead, his friends all called him R.A.B. or Rab. This is why he was 100% convinced Voldemort would know who the hell R.A.B. was with the note he left in the locket, even though he doesn't seem to be a particularly important death eater.

[averagecygnet-blog]

you have two wolves inside you. one recognizes that the point of the hero's journey is to go on the journey and return having changed, and therefore respects suzanne collins for having gregor leave the underland behind him forever. the other really wants gregor to go back to the underland and stay there and marry luxa and be king of regalia in a time of lasting peace. you are gay

[thefloatingstone]

Not to be like "haha I'm better than you guys!!!" or elitist or anything because that very sincerely is NOT the point of this post.... but I never really understood people extremely love for Harry Potter.

I read them as they were coming out. Most of the time they came out soon enough that I was the same age as Harry. I liked them. They were cool. Goblet of Fire was my favourite and I was always happy to see what story the next book would bring but that's all it was. Interest to see the next story whenever it came out. Like a sitcom you enjoy but you didn't set your tv to record for you in case you missed it.

And then the word "Chosen one" was uttered and, just like that, I fucking lost all interest. Honestly there was "Chosen one" talk in the 4th book and already I was like

Honestly I think I liked Goblet of Fire the most because there was no friggen Quidditch. And there was less focus on the SCHOOL part of Harry Potter and more this weird Video game Quest setup which just appealed to me more.

In retrospect, I think that might be a big part of why I enjoyed it but never LOVED it like other people.

Like

"Oh boy my absolute biggest most favourite fantasy! THE BRITISH EDUCATION SYSTEM!!!!"

The fact that the books take place in a school seemed like a default to me because, well, most teenage focused cartoons and shows I watched had the main characters at school. Because they're teenagers. But the school wasn't why I enjoyed the books. The school was just a location. No I didn't want to go to Hogwarts. No I didn't want to get attached to a specific school house (although I feel it worth mentioning that when I was 13 I did the online house quiz thing on the official site and it said I was Hufflepuff so make of that what you will).

I really disliked whatever the one was that came after Goblet of Fire. So much so that it completely killed any and all enjoyment I had in the series. Which, considering I was only mildly entertained by them wasn't a massive loss or anything.

I know I read whichever book it was where Dumbledore died but I very genuinely cannot remember one single thing that happens in that book whatsoever. I read half of the Deathly Hallows after coming back from College and gave up because I wasn't enjoying any of it and I never picked the book up again.

I saw the first movie in theaters when I was 13 and I did not like it. It was visually very very dark and gloomy and just... extremely uninteresting to me. Idk how to explain it. The first book just felt so much more vibrant than what I was watching on screen.

I know I saw the 2nd movie although I have no memory of where or why. And I... THINK I saw the third one??? I think??? I'm actually not sure. But that's about where I just stopped and completely lost interest.

Because it wasn't very good.

They just weren't very good books.

They weren't TERRIBLE or anything like that but they were just so.... blah. The earlier ones 13 year old me enjoyed the one time I read each of them but I don't think 13 year old me had the best taste considering I also disliked the Princess Bride at this age.

But I was reading other books because I was a kid with ADHD in high school who desperately needed something stimulating to stop myself from going insane. And frankly, there were just far better books out there. Books I actually re-read. Books I borrowed from friends which ere just... so much better and more interesting.

So I just don't understand this insane appeal so many people have for it, even if they have severed that connection due to Jowling Kowling Rowling's bufoonery and showing herself to be a withered old crone with a shrivled heart and mind every time she opens her mouth.

I grew up with these books the same way as a lot of people. I was the exact age to go through the series' highest popularity and I just did not click with them despite reading them.

So seeing so many people my age or a little younger try and do their best to re-analyse and de-tangle what the books actually are and that... maybe.... just maybe.... they might not have been very good?? Maybe?? is very weird to me because I'm just like.

"Yeah they're overrated as hell and not that interesting."

It's a very weird thing to live through because it's like looking into a bizarro version of the world you remember living through... but not like THAT. I remember the Pokemon craze and yes, it was like that. I remember when anime started to become big and yes, it was like that. I remember DBZ airing and yes, it was like that.

But this insanity around Harry Potter while it was releasing?

Yeah I don't remember it being like that at all.

They were just mediocre books I read because I needed something to occupy my attention and eventually they got worse and worse and I just stopped reading them. That's all.

[clfixationstation]

I just remembered the time I was a summer camp counselor and I tried to read the first Harry Potter book aloud to my campers, and I had to skip over so many fatphobic lines

Because why would I just expose these perfectly nice kids to a bunch of mean comments, played off as comedy, that they would use as ammunition against other kids and themselves? It's just plain cruel. Joanne was incredibly fucking weird for that

[greenerteacups]

Thanks for your answer about Remus & Tonks!

I read both posts attentively, and yeah, I agree with pretty much everything. That plot point always baffled me, I always wondered why JKR went there. Was it a way to thwart the fandom, which was already start to annoy her at the time? IDK. I'm not judging the relationship (in Canon), I'm neither pro nor con, it's just that it always mystified me. But I like your take about Tonks being a v. realistic 23 y-o, a lot!

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to answer. Have a lovely day! :3

Of course! You have a lovely one, too.

If we're talking about Doylist interpretations of the story — i.e. why the Author as a person whose to do something, as opposed to what's going on purely inside the text — I don't have the history to remember if Wolfstar was big enough at the time for JKR to notice or want to respond to it. Sirius dies in Book 5, which seems like enough to sink the ship in any case. My theory is that she decided during the outlining process of Book 5 that she wanted the series to end with Harry being the guardian of a child whose situation paralleled his — a war orphan whose parents were killed fighting Voldemort — to demonstrate that the story had come full-circle.

At that point, I think she looked at the characters she'd sketched out for Book 5 and decided Lupin would be the best candidate, since he would be the only person likely to name a seventeen-year-old Harry as godfather (my read of that scene is Lupin's deep in the textbook Marauder project-my-relationship-with-James-onto-Harry coping mechanism, which is why he's so shocked when the Literal Neglected Child rips him a new one for attempting to neglect his newborn child). At that point, Rowling needs to find Lupin a wife, and Tonks is one of the few female characters who's (a) unattached and (b) potentially of the age to be considering marriage and children. So she spends the next two books setting up the marriage, childbirth, and eventual martyrdom at the Battle of Hogwarts.

Like you, I don't take this as a point in favor or against their relationship; I think that most dynamics can be interesting if done well, and there was a lot to explore in Tonks and Remus. But the later books got really fucking crowded, and you see the toll in plot lines like this, where the scenes they have together just aren't enough to establish two people who are falling in love.