#jk he relates to the prophecy

[lyssasdrafts]

who’s the cute guy with the shadows and the large bat wings like

[rosaluxembae]

What makes you think Aegon is the real Aegon? I am on the fence on this, because I have seen convincing evidence for both arguments. That being said the people firmly in the FAegon camp completely overlook all the Dornish imagery in Aegon's story thus far. I also think them claiming that the baby swap story is unrealistic is.....interesting considering that fact that Jon was able to pull off a baby swap in a zero birth rate male penal colony, yet Varys, a literal trained spymaster, was unable to pull one off during a rebellion in the most populated city in Westeros? I think Jon will hear about Aegon's existence and be reminded of his own baby swap he pulled. Also, the 'who would watch their own brother be burned' line in his chapters...is.....telling lol. The hyper insistence that he's not the real Aegon is also annoying to me because a lot of just reeks of bitter Jon and Dany stans who know if Aegon is real that no longer makes their fave special lmao.

Also, the Sun's son line in the warning. I do not for one minute believe that refers to Quentyn. Dany thinks it's him which confirms for me it is not him. Further, someone pointed out that the warning was told in order of apperance. So, the sun's son should, in theory, come after the lion and griffin, etc. and, well, Quentyn did not. I think we're in the pale mare phase of the warning. Do you think Aegon may be the Sun's son AND the mummer's dragon?

There's no reason for Varys to lie while he's monologuing to a dying Kevan. It also seems strange that JonCon doesn't suspect anything. From an authorial point of view, I think it'd be bad to have this exciting plot twist that Aegon survived only to go "lol jk no he didn't, it's some random pretending to be him". It's also just kinda the default position and I'd probably be lying if I said I didn't play it up a little because people stating their theories as established canon is annoying.

The Blackfyre Conspiracy doesn't really make sense to me. It'd be like if Manderly's plan to take back the North for the Starks involved disguising Rickon, or a hypothetical kid Arya has, as a Bolton. Any point of putting a Blackfyre (well a cognate, not an actual Blackfyre) on the throne would be undermined by adopting Aegon's identity. Also Toyne is a key person in the conspiracy but kept Connington in the dark despite their closeness.

I definitely think the baby swap is plausible. It was also Varys that convinced Aerys to open the gate to Tywin and I wouldn't be surprised if he had been aware of the sack before it happened (even negotiated to allow it) so he'd have time to prepare. People exaggerate how hard it'd be to find a "pisswater prince" that looks Valyrian, whether they're dragonseed or related to a Lysene sailor or even a Velaryon.

With Quaithe's prophecy, I think a lot about how they are described as coming to Daenerys. Is it literally people seeking her out, or just intersecting with her life? Also are the pairs important, why isn't the griffin with the sun's son or the mummer's dragon? They seem to be different people but I think Aegon could be either and I suppose it's possible that he could be both. One argument for the sun's son is that everyone else (where relevant) is described as their sigil even if they're not the lord so it makes sense that it refers to maternal ancestry, not paternal.

Thanks for the ask :3

[joviantwelve]

watched spiderverse

impressions and theories below!

SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY!!!

ok so

1. glad they made the spot so cool. underrated villain in the catalogue

2. I FORGOT IT ENDED ON A CLIFFHANGER AUGH!!!!!!! SOBBING

3. a lot of moving pieces tho so I can see why that was a necessary decision. matrix 2/3 vibes over here

4. totally called miles getting sent to the wrong dimension. number was wrong, mom's eye color was wrong, she said his hair was different.......tragic tho

5. I always love and hate it when a groundbreaking piece of media uses ideas I've had for a while LMFAO. like it's so frustrating in the sense that "now people will assume I am ripping this thing off" but cool in the "YES THE WRITERS FEEL ME" sense.

my main Rixile story has the "you're an anomaly not supposed to be here, as you are now, to begin with" kinda thing, complete with accidentally getting yeeted to the dimension you technically relate to but isn't your home, where everything is now bleak because history spun away from its course so bad.

so anyway RE: the end of the movie, I take it this is the typical comic book "crime rules the city" kind of dimension cuz there's just no hero at all. always fun!!

OK ACTUAL THEORIES

6. prowler miles will become good after being inspired by spider miles. i hope

7. I'm assuming the main theme is "you CAN fight fate because fate is just a made up concept" cuz they've already talked about the "predetermined events" just being based on their study and models and shit. science is meant to be challenged. prophecies are also meant to be challenged. this is just a prophecy with science on top. and might also be a metatextual commentary on comic book AU-type characters?!??!? maybe??

man we're really into meta movies lately huh. the EEAAO nod was very funny

8. in that vein I'm also assuming whatever happened to that dimension miguel hopped into was not directly related to him being anomalous but rather him mistaking correlation for causation. and showing him you maybe CAN rescue a dimension from collapse would challenge that worldview. and hey we have a collapsing dimension right there already in the story! let's fix that!!

9. it would be cool if there was a spacetime loopy thing going on and spot is what caused that thing to happen tho, and miguel just got the wrong idea from it. though I guess that might be too far from the other message of "shit just happens sometimes and you have to deal" and I don't want them forcing a golden ending or anything. just might be cool if miguel is mistaken. lighten up a little mr. manpain

FINAL THOUGHTS

10. spiders-man was my jokey wish for these movies and he was not there, tragically, but there being a third movie is at least some hope for me.

I don't even need him to do anything big I just want lord & miller to point out how fucking horrifying his concept is in their typical joke style

11. finally I liked all the cute little references here and there. in the best way you can do it which is "unobtrusive but if you know you know." spectacular spider-man finally recognized after all this time. jk simmons recognized as the only actor that is allowed to play JJJ. gotta love it.

[mummer]

i was really all in on varys being the ‘true’ perfumed seneschal in quaithe’s prophecy but like. he’s not really a seneschal is he! he’s not really a steward at all thats NOT his job. huh. well back to the other 10 possible candidates

[i-am-a-scholar-of-magic]

Hogwarts Students in Hexside Tracks…!

Given how wildly popular the Harry Potter books and films have been since their inception, it is common to find fans of other series that sort characters into the student houses of Hogwarts. “The Owl House” has not been immune to this trend, but I think a little inversion would be more fun. 

Rather than sorting TOH characters into Hogwarts Houses, what Hexside track would characters enroll in if given the chance?

The easiest to pin down is certainly Fred and George Weasely, whose trickster personalities would fit right in with the Illusion track. Heck, there’s already a pair of prank-happy twins - Edric and Emira Blight - for them to either war with (oh the horror!) or collaborate with (even worse!)

As for other characters, it gets a little more tricky. However, a few can be narrowed down from their canonical interests. 

Neville Longbottom, for example, has a canonical interest in herbology - which translates perfectly to the Plant track. Severus Snape, in a similar vein, would probably be in the Potions track due to his canon aptitude for the art. And given there is no direct counterpart to Defense Against the Dark Arts, it’s the best fit, I think. 

As for other characters, it gets a little less intuitive. In my mind, the best fit for Hermione would be Abominations - she holds many common traits with Amity Blight, particularly in the start of each series. And as it is implied that such magic is rather difficult and also quite respected, it would likely draw the clever and secretly-insecure Hermione’s attention. 

On the same reasoning, Draco Malfoy would also be in the Abominations track. Not only does he parallel Amity before her character development, but every named user of Abomination magic is either antagonistic (Gavin, Professor Hermonculus) or with rough edges (Amity, Darius). Not to mention the aforementioned implied respect of the track would tie to Malfoy’s elitist leanings. 

A few bizarre connections would be my choices for Dumbledore and Voldemort. JK Rowling once commented that his name, an old term for bumblebee, came to her from the idea of him wandering the castle humming to himself. As such, and given that Transfiguration - the subject he taught before becoming headmaster - has no direct counterpart, the strongest correlation to me would be the Bard track. Which, of course, Raine Whispers has shown can be quite formidable. 

For Voldemort, the tie-in was actually devised by my brother. He suggested the Beastkeeping track. While it may seem far-fetched at first glance, he defended it with Voldemort’s power of parselmouth … which I agree is the most solid connection besides Abominations and Infiri. A young Tom Riddle also mentions in “Half-Blood Prince” being able to make animals do what he wants. 

Due to his general disinterest in schooling, Ron has very few overt skills in magic. As such, a bit of creative thinking is needed. The most relevant track to come to mind is the Construction track. This ties into his family’s economic state that would necessitate building their own possessions, but also to his propensity for Wizards’ Chess. Howe many can say the massive chess set in “Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone” doesn;t bring the track to mind?

Finally, the hero Harry is perhaps the most difficult to determine. But running down the list, I can only come up … with the Oracle track. A large part of Harry’s experiences relate to death and to visions. He has frequent dreams that glance into Voldemort’s mind and progresses into visions of the same as the books go on. He encounters the echoes of his parents and Cedric during his first duel with Voldemort in “Goblet of Fire” and is comforted by the spirits of the dead during his walk to death in “Deathly Hallows.” Not to mention, he actually came back from near-death in the same book. Finally, his parents murders were directly caused by a prophecy made about him and Voldemort, one that would continue to influence most of his early life. 

There is no doubt that others have different takes on what magic track would be best suited for HP characters, and that’s okay. I just want to share mine and the logic behind them. There are certainly other interpretations, such as Hermione in Potions, but that’s one great thing about these great series’: their endless potential!

Thanks for reading! More to come …!

[ac-schryver]

So for the Parent Trap AU, I call it Camp Tchoutacabouffa, it means broken pot, it’s the name of a river local to my area. So Satine runs a summer camp for muggleborns and muggle raised witches and wizards. She has the help of Korkie, Ahsoka, Barriss, and a young Han. So Korkie is Satine and Obi Wan’s kid, and he has this huge crush on Anakin. You know the Celebrity crush we all have, much to Ahsoka’s dismay, but Barriss finds it funny.

So Obi Wan and Satine were a thing, but are exes. Satine, being a muggleborn herself, just wants to help kids adjust to having magic around them and pretty much bans her camp councilors from using magic, so kids don’t get over stimulated or discouraged, but also so they learn not to over use it.

Obi Wan after Satine left, not telling him about Korkie, threw himself into being the scholar we all know he wants to be. So his house is filled with books, ancient text, artifacts, and what not. I like academic Obi Wan. He’ll talk you ear off about three things: his studies, Korkie after he finds out about him, and how the local fair folk are doing

For our other and staring parents, that the twins try to get together for all of five minutes , Anakin and Padmé and of course, they met young, married young, fell to the service of the Dark Lord Palpatine, killed the dark lord and took his place, divorced and took a twin: Padmé took Luke and Anakin took Leia.

Padmé would have taken both twins with her to New York, but Anakin, despite their actually easy divorce, caught her on taking them both. Thanks to Thrawn, and some shady meddling from Anakin’s ancient nobody knows how they are related grandfather, Yoda, he got custody of Leia. Probably something about the “Anicent Skywalker Bloodline” and Anakin being the Child of Magic, because why not?

So Padmé, being the amazing Senator that she is, is also the Liaison for Magical Congress with its Mundane counterpart, being a Muggle with a Wizard child. For those of you wondering, I threw out how JK did the magical gov of the US, because it’s really lazy.

Anyway! Anakin is a racer for Wizard Nascar because I’m not making him a quidditch star, it not adrenaline enough for him. When he was young he was groomed for the dark arts by someone he considered a father figure and boom made him a dark lord because of some hacked out prophecy that didn’t actually involve Anakin. So Anakin just stuck with being a dark lord, more or less to keep others from showing up, besides murking Palpatine, which was determined to be self defense, Anakin has never killed anyone else. He just wants his sister and his grandpa to live in peace. Oh course no one knows how Yoda is related to Anakin, he’s like a very distant ancestor that been hanging about for 900 years.

But the best part of this is: Anakin and Obi Wan have the same group of friends and have never met until Satine and Padmé start meddling for the happiness of their exes

[warriorcatsamino]

Yes it is the last week of June, no I will NOT stop posting LGBT content, sue me >:(. Jk, but seriously it is never too late to post wholesome LGBT Warriors content. And @juniperkoi clearly agrees. Here we have a lovely piece done as an Artclan Monthly, about Talljake or Tallstar X Jake! What is Artclan? It’s one of the many creative clans present on the Warriors Amino. ’Creative Clans’ are basically a group of people who share a particular common interest, such as artwork, animation, writing, bullet journaling, cooking, making crafts, analysis, science, etc etc who apply said interest to an assignment or quota that they must fulfill every week, every other week or month to remain in the clan. Most clans LT (or leadership team) will administer a set of prompts all based on a particular theme that relates back to Warrior cats. Artclan is a clan that focuses solely on artwork and it’s creation. All kinds of artists are accepted including both digital and traditional artists. Artclan has monthlies, which are assignments that are completed every month following a prompt. This month’s prompt was to create a piece of art based on Pride Month! The artist decided to create a kind of storyline piece based on Tallstar X Jake. The artist depicted them in their homes watching the same sunset, which is really poetic and sweet! For those who don’t know these two, Tallstar was Windclan’s leader from Prophecies Begins to the New Prophecy and had his own super edition called Tallstar’s Revenge. In this book, he meets a kitty-pet named Jake and the two go on an adventure that teaches Tallstar that he truly belongs in Windclan. Jake is the father of two notable characters, Scourge, the main villain in Prophecies Begins and Firestar, the legendary Thunderclan leader who was our POV throughout Prophecies Begins. Because of the bond Tallstar & Jake shared in this book, many people ship them and I can see why! In fact one of the Erins, Kate Cary, said that Tallstar loved Jake and used to refer to him as ”His Jake”. If that’s not love I don’t know what is! Tallstar never took on a mate or kits and supported Firestar because he was Jake’s son. I hope that these two were able to reunite in Starclan! I want to know what YOU think however Are you a fan of TallJake or Do you find it overrated? Leave all your thoughts, opinions and feedback in the comments below. While you are at it, please consider leaving a like on the original post on amino. Support like that really benefits this account as it motivates artists (and writers!) to continue posting which gives us more content to post on this account. Do you want to see more wholesome LGBT content? Consider joining the Warriors Amino where we have daily posts all about Warriors.

Original Post linked here.

Original Artist linked here.

~ 🍵🥔

[theyarebothgunshot]

ROSE I AM FREAKING OUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE PREQUEL STUFF???? WHAT IS GOING ON, my god... I was literally about to go to sleep, decided to check Tumblr one last time and see this.... what WHAT!! WHATTTT!!!!!! I don't even know if this is good bad or what but just JENSEN IS PRODUCING A SUPERNATURAL PREQUEL AND DEAN'S GONNA BE THE NARRATOR OR Sth LIKE???? -🐸

YEAH i am normal about this <3 (jk i am also freaking out) welcome to: people screaming to me in my inbox about prequelgate ft. j/2 fallout theory. let's goooo!

Another copypasta and suddenly chaos machine is full on gay I love this prophecy

you know whats funny i just checked the j/2 tag and i feel like for the first time in a long time they are starting to realise that maybe THEY should be the ones who are "gutted" *sips tea*

ROSE HOLY SHIT ROOOOOOOOSE ITS HAPPENING HOLY SHIIIIIT

YEAH

Nevermind just read prequel and well good luck I guess but just you know kind of bleh who wants to watch John Winchester well let’s have hope anyways

i know a lot of people are bummed out but i am kind of very excited actually?? i trust robbie and even though yeah j*hn winchester turned into a nasty abusive bastard, it can be interesting to explore how it all started (imo). it's just the first of many stories they can tell.

I can only accept this circus if it’s Dean telling the stories to his and Cas’ kids and then we have a revival to show that the whole finale was in fact the end Chuck wanted there Jensen I fixed it

i would not say no to this

heyloo bee anon here

um- wtf is happening?

jackles prequel series?? why? i want to be excited about this but sheesh im scared

because supernatural is never dead <3

okay, but, jensen... john winchester ≠ jdm, you don’t have to go /that/ hard for him 🙃

true true... though i am waiting for jdm to comment on this, please i need it

WAIT A SECOND J2 FALLOUT THEORY TRUE??

LMAO HELL YEAH BESTIE

Rose you really picked the worst time to sleep for real

bestie it was literally 4 in the morning, what do you expect from me sdfjsfhsf

I can’t literally can’t we were all right LMAO j2 fallout theory is real and cockles (Misha supporting Jensen) is [gunshots] I’m just laughing cause what the hell is this timeline we’re living LMAOOOOOOOOOO

we would always end up here <3

Do we have the copypaste anons to thank for JP basically confirming the J2 fallout? lol 🦚

yes, everybody say 'thanks annoying idiots!'

ROSE, WAKE UP, COME HERE,

THERE'S A LOT GOING ON FFS

YEAH I KNOW BUT I NEEDED SLEEP

Anticipating that there's going to be a lot of yelling about the prequel on here: I am cackling, but also, I mean, the first time Dean got a look into his parent's past, Cas was the catalyst: literally entered Dean's mind and catapulted him to the 70s. So idk, it's not completely unreasonable to expect some Cas cameos, maybe setting up a parallel timeline since Dean is narrating. What I'm saying is, this is Jackles, he's getting JDM and Misha in on this lmao -Honeymoon Anon

you were right lmfaooo also i fully agree. misha's tweet further cemented that thought for me. he knew about this prequel and i dont think he is cas-baiting us, i think he'll be involved. i'd also be obsessed to see jensen and jdm act together again (though idk who jdm could play seeing as it's a prequel and he is way too old to play young j*hn)

longlivethetribbles heeft gevraagd:

Heyyyyyy bestie, are you SEEING the absolute madness going on right now holy shit

well a little late but I SURE AM BESTIE

bestie wake up pls s16 finale just dropped.

- 🍯

and WHAT a great one it was

I love coming home from work to see all of the chaos unfolding on Tumblr and Twitter. I'm absolutely buzzing right now. I'll probably still be here by the time you wake up and check tumblr 😂 - 🐢

lmaooo and were you still awake?? did you see my freak out??

Oooh bestie wake the fuck up, I know you’re gonna be excited for this one jsnsjsj

god i had SUCH a morning like. it's 12:00 now and all i did since i woke up is check tumblr rip

short summary: jen and dee gain the rights, they post on ig/twitter about a prequel ft john and mary that no one asked for, the fandom loses its everloving shit as usual, they trend on twitter thanks to the beloved twt intern who missed us, misha qt’s jen about cas possibly benefiting from being in the prequel, then j*red qt’s jensen abt how his feelings got hurt by him not being told about a prequel his character as no involvement in & he initially throws a tantrum, and the rest is history - 🦋 anon (ps: i hope this helps a little, i’ve been scattered brained trying to keep up with it all night lmao so pls let me know if i missed anything, bug crew !!)

thank you so much darling i figured it out eventually but this is a helpful summary!!!

I hope you enjoyed waking up to all of this XD -🐢

i sure did!!! also that answers my question about you being awake lmao

I WILL NEVER EVER EVER FORGIVE MYSELF FOR SLEEPING THROUGH ALL OF THIS DRAMA AND NOT EXPERIENCING IT IN PERSON I DIDN'T NEED THIS SLEEP - tea anon

well the party was still going strong this morning so im not TOO "gutted" see what i did there lmaooo

Now that you are caught up with the news... So idk if you remember this but...didn't jarpad tell jackles he was up for a reboot in an online panel? And jackles answered that this was news to him??

-🍯

yeah i think you are right but he was clearly joking and didnt expect jackles to actually be working on something already

J2 anon spare more of those anons let's finish this - tea anon

please, we're having a ball in this bitch

I saw a post on tumblr where someone said now that Kripke gave J&D the rights, maybe they’re starting with a prequel just to end on a reboot in years time and honestly ? I wanna believe that so badly. This is tinhatty but what if this is all calculated in a way that makes it so that Jensen is slowly starting to fix everything that was wrong with spn - now that he has the rights and he’s slowly making spn his own story ?! I mean he did say in his ig post he wants to ‘fill in the rest’ - and maybe Mary and John’s story is only the beginning of spn related content from J&D to come ??? Maybe he wants to give spn the justice it deserves ?? Thoughts ??

i dont think this is tinhatty at all i think this is very possible and not that much of a reach. i could see this happening yeah for sure

want to hear something funny. I found out I had a ruptured blood vessel in my eye because I was sending my friend a video freaking out when the prequel news dropped and I noticed the corner of my eye was red af. and when I got back online jared had tweeted.

DJFHSJD ANON THE CHAOS OF IT ALL, HELP, are you okay? <3

rose.. bestie... how are you feeling about The News? nsfshsf being european is a curse </3 🐞

i feel GREAT im living for it i feel on top of the world tbh (and yeah it really is dsjfhs)

What am I waking up to I can't WHAT I rested my eyes for like 5 minutes help *hits reblog button* - anon anon

yep yep essentially djfhs

“Jensen and Misha are Co workers who barley talk”

I can’t be sure of course but I’m fairly certain that this is the copypasta that brought the j/2 fallout theory back to life. Who’s apparently ‘barely talking’ now? skansjsjsj. It’s almost prophetic, these j/2 anons have superpowers I’m telling ya.

-poker face anon

next time we get one of them we should be thanking them lmaooo

ok, but are we gonna talk about the "When Daneel and I formed Chaos Machine Productions, we knew that the first story we wanted to tell was the story of John and Mary Winchester [...]"-quote because the way this is phrased implies they formed CHAOS MACHINE Productions with the intent of telling this story (first), i haven't been in this dumpster long enough but the name just tickles me in that Misha way, isn't it so sus??? am i missing something???? i mean with this announcement they SURE lived up to that name... 🧩-anon

you are absolutely right, chaos machine SCREAMS misha and we are all here for it!!

hey hey hey. joining the clownverse, there's no way THEE cas girl danneel doesn't know just how much the fandom loves misha and cas. so 2 + 2 = misha in the spn prequel!

AGREED

So I think I finally managed to catch up on wtf happened while I was asleep and my brain melted. What a shit show to wake up to.

Anyway thoughts.

I don't hate the idea of a Mary&John sequel. I think it has the potential to be good (It has the potential to be really bad too, so I'm kind scared).

🕯️🕯️🕯️ manifesting Mary being badass and John being kinda useless🕯️🕯️🕯️

As for the Jensen and J*red thing.

I can see Jensen not telling J*red even if they are still friends, because J*red is kinda good at accidentally telling Secrets. He could have told him right before he announced it so, so that J*red didn't have to find out from twitter. He was on the show for 15 years, he is bound to get asked about it. The public twitter meltdown was really unprofessional so. Like you have Jensen's number J*red. You could have sorted that out in private like a normal person, but instead you choose to act like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

Is it weird that I'm actually going to be kinda that for them if the actually had a falling out, even tho I don't like J*red all that much. They seemed to be really important to each other and while I thought before that the might have triefted apart a bit, I didn't think that the where actively fighting.

- 🐌 anon

the thing is, the polite/normal thing for jensen to do was text him before announcing it on twitter. it's weird he didn't, and that makes me believe that maybe yeah they did have a falling out. especially with the way j*red responded to it on twitter. if he had no other reason to be this upset (no prior beef or falling out) you'd think that he wouldn't be responding like this. on the other hand, the man is a mysterie to me so who the hell knows. i'm not gonna mourn about it if they did/do grow apart because j*red is just.... awful imo.

[hellsbellschime]

Can you do a meta on Severus Snape? He was always one of my favorite HP characters.

Within the wizarding world of Harry Potter, Severus Snape is undoubtedly the most controversial character of the series. And it’s not particularly difficult to see why, because in a world that is almost entirely populated with straightforward, uncomplicated heroes and obvious vicious villains, Severus Snape is arguably the lone character that undeniably fits into both of those categorizations and neither of them.

Regardless of the popularity or enjoyability of the Harry Potter series, it’s difficult to avoid the fact that author JK Rowling doesn’t typically write these characters or stories with an enormous amount of complexity. Most characters fit into classic archetypes and do exactly what is expected of them throughout the books, and even the twists and turns that are meant to be surprises are typically the kind of surprises that the audience has become completely accustomed to after a lifetime of mainstream media consumption.

But, what makes Severus such an interesting character is that he is unquestionably and irrefutably a villain, and he is unquestionably and irrefutably a hero. Thus, it’s not particularly shocking that he is the most divisive character in the story itself.

Nearly every major character in the series is distinctively villainous or heroic, and although there are occasions where they might seemingly cross a line that takes them outside of their chosen character archetype, it’s never anything severe or intense enough for the audience to question everything that they know about that individual or about the moral structures of the entire story itself. But that isn’t so with Snape.

It’s actually incredibly interesting, because clearly Snape’s true allegiance and intentions are meant to be one of the biggest mysteries throughout the story. Both sides of the wizarding war genuinely believe that Severus is working with them, and the question regarding whose beliefs are actually correct aren't even answered until the very last moments of Snape's life.

And, given that the Harry Potter saga follows a pretty stereotypical storyline with the plucky heroes winning out against the fascistic villains just in time for summer break each year, the question of who Severus Snape is and why he does what he does is truly one of the few big enigmas within the novel series. And surprisingly, the answer is almost more compelling and complex than the question itself.

Severus is clearly a character who isn't naturally prone to sharing his feelings, so it's entirely unclear why he's doing what he does until he finally reveals his ultimate motivation at the very end of his character arc. And the fact that his primary motivation is Lily is actually genuinely shocking, largely because while Snape doesn't share his emotions, his feelings are really the driving force behind all of his decisions.

Plenty of Harry Potter fans who have no love for Snape have pointed out that a lot of his behavior towards Lily is classic "nice guy" bullshit. And that is a completely fair critique. But, it's still vital to his character arc and the value of his character within the narrative specifically because it is so self-centered. Snape's attitude towards Lily and the world at large is extremely selfish, which makes him stick out from the crowd in the Harry Potter world but also makes his story more interesting and relatable.

The characters in Harry Potter are all wonderful in their own way, but one thing that the cast of characters is largely lacking are people who aren't doing something because of some grander design or belief system. Most of the people who follow Voldemort are doing so because they sincerely believe in their own supremacy and think that they have a right to power over others, and most of the people who fight for Harry are doing so because they sincerely believe in the rights of non-purebloods. Or, because their lives literally depend on Voldemort not seizing power.

Ergo, Severus is truly a deviation from the norm. Obviously that could never excuse or explain his terrible choices, but it is actually emotionally resonant and relatable specifically because of how mundane it is. Snape didn't become drawn to the dark arts because of some ideological devotion to evil, he did it simply because he was a bullied kid with no friends who finally found acceptance through dark magic. And, he didn't start fighting to take down Voldemort because he suddenly realized that it was the morally upright thing to do, he did it because he lost someone that he loved as a result of following Voldemort in the first place.

Every one of Snape's choices is deeply personal and driven by his own feelings, and he often doesn't understand the gravity of those choices until it's too late. But in a story that is built within a framework of good versus evil, it has never been about good versus evil for Severus.

Unsurprisingly, this duality makes Snape more appealing to some fans and less appealing to others. A character who seems to have little interest in broader philosophical ideas of right and wrong and whose actions seem to be purely driven by their own passions and prejudices is not what most readers expect from fantasy characters, but the banality of Snape's choices also makes him undeniably more understandable than many of the other players in the Harry Potter universe.

The reality is, most people in the real world can likely relate to Severus more than nearly any other character in the series, purely because his actions are so self-motivated. Most people certainly have their own morals and beliefs, but Snape's decisions to do what he wants when he wants for his own reasons are far more understandable than characters who are constantly putting their lives on the line for some larger purpose.

Snape is also sympathetic in a more frightening and unsettling sense too, because his character arc is a perfect example of the reality that most people don't know they're making the biggest decisions of their lives when they're actually making them. Severus did nearly everything he did simply because it made him feel better or because he thought he could get something he wanted out of it, but the ripple effects of those choices were completely cataclysmic. He told Voldemort about a prophecy, which was a decision that got the only person that Severus ever truly loved killed. And although his decision to switch sides was primarily driven by a desire to avenge Lily and provide some penance for his horrendous mistake, that choice may have literally saved the entire wizarding world.

It's interesting how that selfish motivation dovetails with the larger themes of the Harry Potter series as well. Because while love is meant to be the greatest and most powerful magic of all, Snape is an ironic insight into the fact that the magic of love doesn't always yield beneficial results. Lily's love for Harry may have saved his life, but Snape's unrequited love for Lily is what inadvertently ended hers. It's not even clear whether or not that irony was intentional, but Snape's entire story is a poignant example that while love is powerful, that power doesn't always end in happiness and rainbows.

Severus Snape is an incredibly divisive character because he's a genuine villain and a genuine hero, despite the fact that he never intended to be either. That notion in itself is terrifying but also feels very real, as it's frighteningly believable that the fate of the world could rest in the hands of someone who isn't acting on behalf of some higher purpose or duty, but is simply doing what they want or what feels right for them at the time. And whether Harry Potter fans love him or hate him, there is no denying that Severus Snape's feelings irrevocably altered the wizarding world.

The nature of Severus Snape was one of the biggest questions in the Harry Potter saga, and while the answer to that question was straightforward, it wasn't simple. His character development exemplified the fact that one person can be capable of genuine good and genuine evil, and it's entirely possible that these benevolent or malevolent acts can sometimes be driven by neither kindness or malice.

Considering the end of the Harry Potter story, it seems safe to say that JK Rowling always intended for Severus to be a hero. And while he was a good guy, he was irrefutably a bad guy too, and that is truly what made him an interesting and dimensional character.

[siren-of-redriver96]

Who Credence is, was and could be (theory - updated)

Hi there :)

Made this because I noticed that people still like and share this post ... and I didn’t really check if the content was still fully valid information.

Some of it is a little outdated already, but much isn’t ... I’m going to try and structure it right :)

(spoilers)

Firstly : I stand by that I think he’s a Goldstein (things have exploded surrounding his extended family heritage, I’ll put a link to what I’ve discovered following a hint to it ...) and that “golden, gilded”, the meaning of Aurelius.

JK Rowling has even posted a hint on Twitter, about “Marcus Aurelius Antoninus” - aka pretty close to Anthony Goldstein, Harry’s schoolmate, whom we know is canonically related distantly to Tina and Queenie.

But let’s get to it!

The prophecy

Firstly, this is important:

what we have can’t be the word-for-word prophecy, but a poetry version of it . The real one’s wording may have had different implications still.

A Son Cruelly Banished

Despair of the Daughter

Return, Great Avenger

With Wings from the Water

“A son cruelly banished”

A lot of things have changed here :

Since the Goldstein spouses, canonically, died of dragon pox (as far as we know, assassination via them is still possible and has happened across Potter canon), they must have both been half-blood, which means they wouldn’t have faced any persecution for having a third child in America. There’s also the mention of an owl-breeding grandfather, but nothing more.

Yet, as they are related to the Goldsteins in Britain, that does beg the question why they would move to America of all places ... and it’s still possible that they originally attempted to send their son to safety, intending to sonly follow and avoid the prophecy, which yet ended in what seemed to be him dying at sea.

More on the why you can find in my Illvermorny theory :) (link far below)

Plus, of course, the ship he was on was not the Titantic - it was, in fact, a random ship in 1901 - Tina’s birth year.

Also, if there ever was an Aurelius and he was in that orphanage, dying of malnutrition, it’s still possible, also saying that Mary Lou just gave him the same name, much like the Lestranges did - but I can’t imagine a way in which he could have ended up there yet.

I think it’s significant that she was offering adoptions, but only three children live with her by 1926. I think many of them died in the years leading up to the incidents of New York, or ran away … Credence stayed with his sisters to protect them.

“Despair of the daughter”

This is the greatest hint so far – Tina’s despair is constantly inferring with his story. She attacks Mary Lou, she keeps an eye on him, she follows him to Paris – that’s not entirely her humanity, I think … something deep inside her knows he is her family. Also, Queenie has been shown to be very desperate in different ways as well during the sequel – so much so that she joins Grindelwald, and enters Credence’ near. Coincidence? No. She might sonly feel a connection as well.

But that’s not a necessity - I’d actually love it if they felt nothing more for him than for anyone else they’d really want to help out of their heart.

Even visually, you can make some connections … Credence kind of looks like a mix between Tina and Queenie, if he stood between them ...

And isn’t it odd that none of the Dumbledore children looks like him? Kendra does, I know, but … it’s 3/4 visually. But interesting that the sister’s facial remarks can be found in his face combined.

Plus, remember how Grindelwald said, very insistently to Credence, that his mother is dead? Interesting 50/50 for the families in question.

Only it isn’t. I have to make this clear:

I’ve researched far and wide whether he could be a Dumbledore - and biologically, there is no way. Magicwise maybe, but even that explanation stuggles when it comes to context, and still begs the question still how he ended up on a ship to America, with a muggle relative.

“Return, Great Avenger”

Credence did return once already … the question is if he is an avenger yet. I think he doesn’t really trust Grindelwald – he wants to know his identity, and never claimed he was devoted to the actual course … we should keep that in mind. He isn’t stupid, and has been betrayed too many times … we’ll see about that. I think he will return to the good side.

Plus, I do wonder if he believes Grindelwald at all - it would be an interesting plot twist if we found that he didn’t miss the strange coincedence of him being rejected as an ally, but then immediatly accepted when showing his powers, and suddenly being the brother of the man Grindelwald’s rise to power is most threatened by - but just went with the lies because he had nowhere else to go and this was the safest option, at least for now.

“With wings from the water”

“With wings from the water”How does the water fit in here? I believe this is one of the points still to happen … and this is where Newt and maybe even Theseus come in. The name “Scamander” means “God of the River” – water. I think if Newt managed to gain his trust again, he would have a chance to return to the good side – with water wings.

Plus, at this point, we must also consider

Grindelwald could claim that he is the wings, as Dumbledore/him are allegedly connected to the phoenix, aka wings of fire

Tina, as the poem, after all, doesn’t state clearly if the son is the Great Avenger, could be a candidate ... plus, again, the real prophecy may even be more specific :) And in this case, it would make sense that Newt is, in a way, also vaguely what’s going to lead to her “return” (finding her true heritage - again, Illvermorny theory)

Also, I wouldn’t put past that someone embracing him (Theseus, Tina, Newt, or actually, anyone from the group), but honestly, or just being there for him in a similar way, is going to play a part.

In fact, I think everyone showing him true affection, true care for his survival and not wanting to use his powers, is going to be a turning point in his story. Maybe even by tears - all heroes we’ve seen have cried to some degree in this series, it may be important later.

Anyway, that’s the updated version :)

Here’s the link to the full theory that’s also on tumblr:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FantasticBeasts/comments/kqaxxa/the_history_of_illvermorny_is_the_key_theory/

[foxymoxynoona]

Hello again, dear author. Question about Amended!JK. We know why Belle has low self-esteem (I think we understand Isabella better than JK), but where is the source of JK low self-esteem? I've noticed how he keeps saying that he's stupid and will fuck up things. Physically he's confident but emotionally I would say he's even less confident than Bella. What happened? When did it start? Is it something related to his dad?

I always love your questions, it's fun to talk about the characters like this!

Jungkook has a couple source areas for his insecurity:

1. His birth father, like you suggested. His deep fear that he inherited something inherently evil from him.

2. The struggles he faced moving to the US at 11, knowing no English and struggling to fit in with the other kids in a predominantly white town. He had Isabella, but Taehyung early on mentioned too that they faced bullying about things like their food at school. JK was an uncool, nerdy kid until he got into sports. And then he was "popular" only because of athletic performance, not because of some real acceptance of his self. And then he acted like he rejected popularity, but actually desperate to be accepted by the new (troubled) crew he hung out with, who demanded worse and worse behavior to accept him.

3. His perceived rejection by Isabella (alluded at but not yet dug into), while also confusingly believing she may be the only woman who can ever accept him because she befriended him first when no one else would

4. The resulting shame of reflecting on how he behaved in high school and early adulthood, and a (very mistaken) belief afterwards that he can't ever truly make amends and is in debt to everyone. He just sees that as a time in which he was "an asshole," and doesn't recognize it as an identity crisis.

5. The self-fulfilling prophecy of thinking he's "not a marrying guy" but then making sure to not let his relationships get serious enough to get there (Miranda was the most serious of them all, and he still pushed her away from seeing his "true geek" side.) He prided himself on being hot and loose, and shunned committed relationships, only to also feel like it's because no one wanted that with him.

So in the end, I would say JK's major problems are that he needs to forgive himself and accept himself. Isabella's insecurities have a lot to do with her internalizing abuse; Jungkook's insecurities have a lot to do with him projecting his own self-doubts and shame.

[patchdotexe]

explorers of arvus: heading back / 3.11.21

zoom and enhonse

LAST TIME ON ARVUS taure passed out and we are now down a healer! also we met a disciple of halvkar, and surprisingly did not murder her. this is fine. we have instantly gotten distracted by our various carts. cats. our various cats

DID ANY OF US CATCH TAURE, SHE FELL OVER sieron tried to catch her and smacked charlie+thorne in the face (he rolled a nat1, f) BUT the catboy is to the rescue bc silje is the designated Not Incompetent of the group today

CONSULT THE CHILD hewwo yrel yrel: her mind is being consumed by the serpent of nightmares. :D charlie: HELLO?????//

so, dendar(?) the night serpent is imprisoned beneath arvus! she was formed from the nightmares of the first sentient being, and sometimes she eats people's nightmares. if she's exceptionally hungry, she'll force nightmares onto people for her to feed off their fear. yrel thinks taure will Probably wake up. there's a thing on arvus mentioned by the locals called a "sleeping sickness" where people will fall asleep for a few days, sometimes longer, but will wake up. its magical in cause, the people afflicted by it have horrific nightmares, and its just kinda. a thing. wowza

(i have gone back to spelling yrel's name as yrel bc i think it looks nice)

OH HEY SOMEONE POSTED A THEORY ON ONE OF MY STICKMOLUS ANIMATIONS man i should get back to stickmolus sometime. once dsmp releases its awful grip on me.

i keep getting distracted by seeing myself in the camera preview. i have a tooth gap! what the fuck its cute?? K I KNOW WE'RE SUPER BLURRY IN FRONT RN BUT PLEASE HELP ME STAY FOCUSED I SWEAR -leo

we're gonna build a sled! to put taure on. thorne: i have a good strength score. ....i say, out loud charlie: i am four feet tall. [cue argument between thorne & sieron about them both being horcs but sieron has a +0 bc strength is his dump stat] OH, OKAY, THORNE ROLLED A NAT20 TO CARRY TAURE. NICE

[discussion about what to tell everyone at camp vengenace] thorne: the last thing we need to do is a witch hunt charlie: --and we already hunted the witch! the witch has been hunted.

time to discuss strategy! we need to figure out how to head back to camp vengeance, eg if we want to follow the path we already took or if we wanna do some trailblazing. looks like we're gonna try and take the most direct path! which means we'll prolly risk tangoing with some undead but im willing to risk it TINY HUT STAIRCASE sorry i just remember it now and then

nyx: [meowing at his cats] thorne: uh... why is silje meowing? jorb: silje's food bowl is empty jorb: you look at silje's food bowl and there's a divot in the middle and the food is all on the sides emotionally, we must bully the catboy silje saw something interesting and started meowing

thorne: ill take first watch silje: ill also take first watch. charlie: [quietly] gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy (but, like, extended for 15 seconds)

silje: [takes watch] [rolls a nat1 and gets distracted by looking at his crush]

THORNE HAS LOCATED A DOG the dog does not give a shit about the tiny hut. THE DOG HAS PEED ON THE TINY HUT goodbye dog

EVERYONE IS ROLLING AT LEAST 1 NAT1 thorne: wow! that sure is a dog. thorne has drawn the worst possible dog. thorne has erased the worst possible dog. we dont speak of the worst possible dog its the dog version of honse. DONSE

sieron is now on watch! MAN we are havin trouble rolling today. at least kali's here to make sure sieron doesnt stare at a rock for 50000 years sieron sees a mouse! bottom text

charlie is now on watch! kali is havin a big ol thonk. nothing meaningful has come of this

i am perceiving some deer. sieron is not perceiving some deer. silje is perceiving some deer, but better the deer are fucked up and undead! silje has gone from "we should hunt these deer for food" to "we should hunt these deer for sport"

charlie: i do not feel like being jumped by five thousand skeletons

charlie takes first watch with sieron! WHY ARE OUR ROLLS SO TERRIBLE taure is super cursed right now. that's not very pog charlie: this place sucks. thorne: to be fair, we havent-- charlie: YOU'RE ASLEEP, SHUT UP

oh hey coolname galvanic finally partied. nice.

thorne is at watch! solar: hey, is leomund's tiny hut an orb? there's a critter digging around! AH, THE CRITTER IS UNDEAD. this could be a problem

solar: hey michael, how much does the horrific sin against god dog i drew look like this creature michael: [dice roll noises] about 50%.

michael: if anyone likes, they can make a nature check-- solar: ME MEMEMEMEME ME ME ME

its a bulette! aka a land shark. problem: they are not normally undead. this one is undead.

jorb: imagine if you could tame one of those and use it as a mount. leo: IT WOULD JUST DIG UNDERGROUND AND LEAVE YOU THERE

we are just calling it a weird dog

we're going to mail a letter to the heart of arvus. HEY, CHECK OUT THIS WEIRD DOG,

JORB FOUND ART OF A BABY BULETTE. WEIRD PUPPY!

solar: hey guys, check out this sick art of a bulette i found

silje kept a lookout for the weird dog but its just fucked off. goodbye, weird dog give it up for day 3!

man there's been like, three incinerations today in blaseball. what's up with that. I SWEAR IM MOSTLY PAYING ATTENTION its just been an eventful day in blaseball. also im wearing my garages bomber rn. jaylen is home wooOOOO the wind smells stinky. this is fine.

we're actively avoiding whatever combat michael keeps nudging at us bc we're carrying around an unconscious person and i SWEAR hes gonna throw something directly at us once he's done with our shenanigans

UHH MICHAEL ASKING FOR PASSIVE PERCEPTION LOL

huh. this place used to be inhabited? we're in the woods rn but there's some like, stone ruins? like, VERY ruins. like, not really any structures standing, but enough evidence to show there Were things. WE FOUND A STATUE charlie: i want to smash my face against the lore.

used to be a circle of standing stones, but most of em fell over or got overgrown. inside of the circle has been cleared, although v roughly-- ground's torn up statue is of fjolnir! warrior holding up a spear and shield. AH, THERE ARE CORPSES, a human got REAL fucked up here. one of the corpses is straight up impaled on fjolnir's spear. n ... not pog.

i am trying so, so hard to pay attention. but i also kinda wanna take a nap.

charlie: [stares at statue] [rolls a 4] i wonder if he had a dick.

okay so something rolled in, tore up the overgrowth inside the circle, and murdered a couple dudes. and was also super tall and human-adjacent. hrm.

oh my god why are we rolling so shit today. time to stealth away and hope we dont get casually dismembered

k: jorb's hair is so long... leo: K, PLEASE,

time for a break! i am very tired but im gonan see if i can push through a little further. nyx is petting his cat why do orangatangs look like that

first watch is thorne and sieron! have they even, like, talked thorne unhabby ): thorne's worried we were tresspassing when checking out the statue, meanwhile im thinking about that one time when sieron got bit by a groundhog

(oh my god this is from late 2018)

leomund's tiny hut, aka the anti-sea bear circle we are getting SO much mileage out of the tiny hut. SILJE HUMS A SONG WITH KALI cute........... FINALLY I HAVE ROLLED ABOVE A 14 wait no i rolled a 16 twice. anyway we are not dead

nearly at camp vengenace! boy howdy i hope camp vengeance didnt get burned down. AH FUCK TAURE IS UNCONSCIOUS SO WE CANT CAST FOR DETECT POISON kaepora nearly made us all shit ourselves but its okay he just saw some bison and thought it was cool Michael Is Consulting Several Tables

WHY DOES JORB'S CAMERA ZOOM LIKE THAT why am i hungry. i have so many questions

HEY, TALL GUY [smacks sieron]

camp vengeance looks better! like, nobody's Obviously Sick anymore, the medical tents arent overfilled, we did it! we saved the dayyyyyy time to report to ryder! taure's getting dropped off at the medical tent

man remember when charlie didnt wear pants

oh man, with taure unconscious charlie is now taking point with social interaction. wild. jk im making jorb do it bc im tired HAHA NAT 20 PERSUASION BC OF ME HELPIN SIERON man ryder is such a cock. he was totally ready to keep throwing troops at heaven's brazier to die until we managed to persuade him out of it. jorb: did we tell ryder about the vision? michael: you kinda just took a look at him and went STINKY BOY!

okay yeah anything that dies on arvus will just pop back up as undead. man, arvus sucks.

ryder: alright, dismissed. charlie: seeya, soldier boy! :D hahahahaha im gonna eat his knees.

SILJE NEEDS ENRICHMENT IN HIS ENCLOSURE

charlie: ive decided he sucks. silje: we've already arrived to that, you're late!

LMAO WE WALKED IN ON INGRID AND HER CRUSH they fuckin. nice. you go, you funky lesbian

jorb: we've got the tiny hut, we could go anywhere leo: we could go to SPACE! nyx: we could not go to space. leo: WITH A TINY HUT STAIRCASE, WE CAN,

we are 320 miles away from the spaceship that exists on arvus. nice.

michael: justin sees you-- roll a strength saving throw. leo: i cant wait to die! [rolls a 3] I AM CRUSHED BY MY DOG michael: he rolled a nat20.

BOSS ENCOUNTER: CHARLIE'S DOG (the small circle next to him is one of the medical tents.)

THORNE IS PACT OF THE GUN solar: PARRY THIS, YOU FUCKING CASUAL

sieron, to ingrid: seems like youve been doing well charlie: i punch sieron. sieron: sieron: the camp, of course.

man we have no idea if the heart of arvus is actually related to the prophecy or not. theres a Lot of stuff lining up, but not enough, and its hard to say how much of it couldve been literal?

solar & michael: [discussing exposition] me: [cracking up bc penn sent me a funny dsmp joke]

prophecies are weird.

charlie is just s she is just sitting here SILJE PLAYED CARDS REALLY GOOD AT ME nyx rolled a nat20 and took all my money

oh cool we can talk to yrel telepathically! time to hoist yrel. THIS IS SO SCUFFED thorne mentioned yrel and now we're trying to explain to ingrid that we have a magic talking snake charlie: I WANT TO GO HOME. thorne: we cant go, we have a GOD-KING to kill! "i think theyre insane, theyre talking to a snake" "ingrid, druids exist" "oh. im gonna go back to getting railed by my 7 foot tall girlfriend"

[thiswomanshouldbewriting]

Book related asks: author and addendum

Author: What is a book you really regret buying?

I bought a book which is really just a transcript of a speech JK Rowling gave I don’t remember where. Aside from the fact that I no longer want to hear/read any speech of JK Rowling, it’s ridiculous that this book which has like 3 sentences per page to make it long enough was sold at nearly 20 euros. Wasted money.

Addendum: What is a book trope you can’t stand?

Uuuuh, this one is hard because I do have tropes I don’t like (plenty of them) but I’ve mostly seen them in movies/tv shows. 

One that is not really a deal-breaker for me but that does bug me is the over-use of prophecies. While I do appreciate the poetic cinema™ of characters doing their best to stop prophecies from coming true only to fall right into them, I do not like how prophecies can take agency away from characters. Like, if the chosen one was meant to defeat the great evil™ all along, doesn’t this take their accomplishment away? Destiny put them on this path and destiny make them fulfill it… it’s kind of boring. Plus I do not particularly like the idea of a “chosen one” to begin with. Like, why them? Why doesn’t fate mind its own business?

Let’s just say prophecies are a very dangerous tool, one I do not always like. 

And I’m gonna list a second one (which is mostly seen in tv shows, but shhh) because I can: the overly dumb character. Think of Donald Duck’s weird cousin (not the lucky one, the other. I refuse to learn his english name because he’s Paperoga to me) or Goofy, or Brittany from Glee, Aimee from Sex Education, even Jason from The Good Place. 

Now, some of these characters are dealt with better than others, but I just don’t like how there’s so often a character that just… breaks the tone of the story to make absolutely unbelievable observations that no person would ever make. It shatters my suspension of disbelief. I have had a problem with this trope since I was a kid and this is a stupid hill I will die on. 

[hforhonesty]

Book Review #1 | Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

“Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.” [official synopsis of the book]

Full title: “Carry On: The rise and Fall of Simon Snow.”

Or, as I often refer to it, the death of me.

I can already hear my friend A. complaining that I read this book at least twice a year – which is odd, I get it, but I also can't help it. She says that I'm obsessed with it...

... She’s right. But there's a reason if the motto of my brand new blog is "H for Honesty", so I promise that I won't let my obsession take over the review. Scout's honor!

Anyway, we have to straighten some things out before we settle down to work, since I know that there are people out there who are not appealed by this book because of its similiarities with the Harry Potter Saga.

The Chosen One and the prophecy themes, the analogies between characters such as Penelope Bunch and Hermione Granger, the Drarry vibes, the English school of magic...

So if you want to complain about these similiarities, then stop reading, watching tv shows and movies or even breathing because, guess what?, it's literally impossible not to be influenced by others, especially if you are a writer.

I think that inspiration is good; it means that you've reached the heart of your readers and left a permanent mark on it. As a wanna-be writer I can only aspire to do such a great thing as inspiring someone to the point that they want to share their own stories.

Speaking of Rainbow Rowell being inspired by Jk Rowling, well, it doesn't mean that she plagiarised her work – far from it. Rainbow's World of Mages is something fresh, modern, unexplored. It has cliches just like any other great story, but instead of running in circles it goes beyond them.

This is why the first character I want to introduce is Agatha Wellbelove, who’s supposed to play the role of the protagonist’s love interest. I’m gonna be honest with you guys – I didin’t like her at first, like not at all.

It’s hard to explain without spoiling the book but I’ll try my best, alright?

Agatha is the only daughter of one of the richest and most important families of the world of mages. Her father is a doctor and her mother is very invested in the social part of their community, hence the charity works such as having poor, orphan Simon stay at their house during Christmas break.

Beautiful, popular, kind. She had to be all these things for her whole life because everything had already been set up for her. Even her relationship with Simon was inevitable. I know it’s silly but think of Shrek: like Fiona, she had to play the role of the damsel in distress locked in the highest tower of the castle, awaiting for her knight in his shiny armour... only to be his reward at the end of the story, when the magical war is over... if he manages to survive.

But Agatha is more than that.

“Lucy disappeared?” I say.

“Worse,” Mum says. “She ran away. From magic. Can you imagine?”

“Yes,” I say, then, “no.”

She wants to spend time with her normal friends, go to a normal school, be a normal person without the burden of magic on her shoulders. But she can’t, of course, because everyone would think that she’s insane, so she’s stuck in a world where she doesn’t belong.

Magic is a religion.

But there’s no such thing as not believing – or only going through the motions on Easter and Christmas. Your whole life has to revolve around magic all the time. If you’re born with magic, you’re stuck with it, and you’re stuck with other magicians, and you’re stuck with wars that never end because people don’t even know when they started.

I honestly didn’t understand her character at first, because c’mon, if someone came to me and told me that I could attend Hogwarts/Watford and have magical powers if I wanted, I wouldn’t even hesitate to answer hell, yeah. But this is another matter, ofc.

The point is that Rainbow Rowell’s characters are what I’d like (and dare) to define «the apotheosis of relatability». They are not just fictional characters. When they think, when they talk, when they act... they seem extremely human in my head, they seem to bloody exist, as if they weren’t made of paper...

I think that this effect is mostly due the fact that the book was written in first person singular. Yeah, I know that most people avoid this type of point of view like the plague, but believe me when I say that Carry on is 100% worth it.

Every chapter mirrors the thoughts of the main characters, from Simon’s to the Mage’s, and is shaped by them. For instance:

When Simon is talking, his words are articulated in short and/or mostly broken sentences.

He doesn’t reply – he must still be working up to a bluster.

Snow blusters like no one else. But! I mean! Um! It’s just! It’s no wonder he can never spit out a spell.

When he’s thinking, the pages are filled with long and elaborated phrases, which can be seen especially in the first chapters of the book;

Baz, on the other hand, has the opposite problem. He comes up with the most complex sentences when he’s speaking, while his thoughts are often interrupted by the use of round brakets, which is undoubtedly of my favourite features of his chapters.

So even though he seems this cool and charming and extremely confident and super duper talented and handsome magician, this is just his façade. In reality, he’s the type of guy who would rather be alone during meals because he’s too self-conscious and doesn’t want his family to see the fangs that come through when he’s eating.

It’s no secret that Baz is very secretive when it comes to his feelings or anything that concerns his private sphere, as he always weighs his words before he speaks up. But when the crosstalk is between him and Simon, there’s literally nothing in the world that Baz loves more than teasing him.

“I know what you are,” I snarled.

His eyes locked onto mine. “Your roommate?”

I shook my head and squeezed the hilt of my sword.

Baz stepped into my reach. “Tell me,” he spat.

I couldn’t.

“Tell me, Snow.” He stepped even closer. “What am I?”

I growled again and raised the blade an inch. “Vampire! I shouted. He must have felt the force of my breath on his face.

He started giggling. “Really? You think I’m a vampire? Well, Aleister Crowley, what are you going to do about that?”

I love the dynamics between Baz and Simon because their relationship is so genuine and thriving, absolutely compelling. You can see the deep impact that they have on each other from page one. Yes, they are roommates (oh my god, they are roommates), but they are enemies too, so they don’t really know how to deal with each other beyond their rivalry, especially when they have to team up against a common enemy.

These dynamics are way funnier when you consider that they concern a third character too. Yes, this is the moment I introduce you to the person that was recently hospitalized due to severe back pains caused by the burden of carrying Simon Snow’s bullshit on her shoulders from day one: Penelope Bunce.

She told me later that her parents had told her to steer clear of me at school. “My mum said that nobody really knew where you came from. And that you might be dangerous.”

“Why didn’t you listen to her?” I asked.

“Because nobody knew where you came from, Simon! And you might be dangerous!”

“You have the worst survival instincts.”

“Also, I felt sorry for you,” she said. “You were holding your hand backwards.”

As you can see, I love Penny. She’s clever, she’s talented, she’s this amazing young woman who is not afraid to walk with you toward eternal damnation or help you hide a corpse or do both at the same time. Because she’s all that – and more than that. She’s everything.

Penny is the kind of person who, right after you say that “curiosity killed the cat”, would rejoin that “satisfaction brought it back”. She is exactly the character that I needed as a role model during both my childhood and my adolescence: stubborn, curious, terribly ambitious... For some time I had been convinced that these were negative traits, but it’s mostly thanks to Penny that I’ve started to realise that they are good qualities instead.

I see a lot of myself in Penelope, and I could never thank Rainbow Rowell enough for creating her characters.

I could never thank Rainbow enough for writing about this amazing world and sharing it with us. And I will never stop thanking her for deciding to give us a sequel, Wayward son.

In the meanwhile, thank you. Yes, you: the person reading this review. I hope you enjoyed it! If so, follow me for new pieces :)

With love,

M.C.

P.S. I apologise for the inappropriate use of the editor but it appears that tumblr hates me.

P.P.S. My friend A. says hi – and wants you to know that the only reason she can stand the Mage is because his name is David... you know, like David Dobrik. I can’t even.

[jimintomystery]

To Infinity and Beneath

I recently watched a video attempting to explain why there are so many Toy Story fan theories.  They had some interesting ideas about fan theories as a general concept, but never really attacked the real question: Why Toy Story in particular?  So I guess I’ll give it a shot.

I think the hallmark of fan theories, across all forms of fiction, is the assertion that the text deliberately withholds a central premise from the audience.  The text is comprehensible without noticing this hidden/missing element, but a deeper understanding of the work can be achieved by uncovering the secret.  This concept extrapolates from the technique of foreshadowing--if an author can leave subtle clues hinting at a plot point that appears later in the text, then an author might also hint at a plot point that never appears at all.  (All the “shadow” with none of the “fore,” you might say.)

A classic example of this is the fan theory that the gum wrappers Neville receives from his mother in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix constitute a coded message, which the reader can supposedly decrypt for secret revelations about the overall story.  JK Rowling later denied the existence of this code, and there was never any evidence to support it in the first place.  But a sufficiently dedicated fan might argue that these problems are designed to make the secrets more challenging to locate, making the theory unfalsifiable.  The truth of it depends on your faith in the author to leave unexplained phenomena in the text for the audience to discover.

With Toy Story, however, we already know there is unexplained phenomena in the text, because something has to make the toys alive.  The films depend on the premise that toys come to life when no one’s watching, but they can’t explore the hows and whys of that premise without distracting from the story.  Since that’s not an in-universe answer for various plot holes (e.g., Buzz Lightyear does the “play dead” thing even when he doesn’t believe he’s a toy), the text all but invites the audience to conjure their own answers.

Once you start making headcanons to explain why the toys are alive, all sorts of weird ideas become plausible.  Attempts to put all the Pixar movies into a single shared universe, for example, can quickly escalate into a thesis on which arcane forces instilled life in the toys (witchcraft, zero point energy, time travel), and the chilling implications of toy-human relations.  It sounds bonkers, but since we’re talking about a universe where Forky can exist, it’s totally in bounds.  I think this unusually wide latitude is what encourages Toy Story fandom to let its collective imagination run wild.

One consequence of the canon giving fandom so much room to work with is that Toy Story fan theories tend to get rather dark and foreboding.  Some of this is just a typical desire to juxtapose lighthearted children’s fare with horror tropes.  But I submit that spookiness is fundamental to the enterprise of fan theories.  The whole point is to unearth secret lore that no one else has noticed before, hidden for reasons we must deduce. This evokes our uneasy fascination with the unknown, not unlike cursed tombs, UFOs, lost history, and ominous prophecies.   The most compelling fan theories tend to play on this, teasing out increasingly strange insights as we descend further down the rabbit hole.

(My two favorite Toy Story theories, incidentally, propose that the Andy we meet in the first movie is 1) the son of the Andy who wrote his name on Woody’s foot, and 2) the father of the Andy briefly seen in Toy Story 4.  Technically the two ideas are unconnected, but taken together they suggest a total of three Andys, and I don’t know what that means but...whoa. It adds literally nothing to the movies, but it hits the same parts of my brain that spend all weekend reading about the Lost Colony of Roanoke.)

That formula for compelling fan theories is significant, because it just so happens that internet algorithms tend to herd users down rabbit holes.  Would-be influencers and BNFs are eager to achieve deep engagement with minimal effort, creating a sort of arms race for the most mindbending suppositions about the most unassuming subjects.  Sooner or later this trend will lead someone to blow up the internet by refining a weapons-grade hot take on Peppa Pig.  Until then, though, Toy Story is convenient fodder because the unrealized weirdness is already prepackaged with the source material.  In terms of generating clicks on the internet, it’s like microwaving mac-and-cheese when you don’t feel like cooking an actual dinner.

[cedarmoons]

do you have tips for creating memorable oc's? yours are always great

this ask is perfectly timed because I’ve recently played the mobile game Stellamore by @willowishstudios (available now on iOS and Android!) and I’ve FALLEN IN LOVE. Cipactli babe… call me… (jk i’ll call u 😏😘)

So! Let’s go overboard in answering this ask and create a brand new OC for Stellamore, step-by-step! Under the cut for length. :)

My method of creating OCs is like a toddler fiddling with building blocks. I start with a base and build from there, adding rooms, removing towers, etc., as I see fit, until I have a basic structure that passes as a castle. It should be mentioned that @vide0-nasties has been instrumental in helping me develop my MCs in various ways, and I love her to pieces!

First Step: Inspiration

So before I decide anything about my OC, personality, name, etc, I look at inspirations: what is in the game, and what can I build off of it? The devs have helpfully provided some inspirations for the Stellamore world, so that’s what I’m going to use as a launching pad. Initially, I looked at Halle, who has clear Scandinavian influences, and I was like “nice… viking girl…” but I did further lore delving and I don’t think Halle is human lmfao so THAT was out! Back to the drawing board.

Ooh, okay, so there’s Roman influences, clearly seen in the character Seneca, who is human… okay. Great. Let’s make this MC fantasy Roman! That gives me my foundation of building blocks.

Second Step: Name

So the Oracle, Stellamore’s MC, receives visions from the stars. Knowing this, I was like, “Dope… let’s look at some mythology names, because Roman influence, and try to narrow those down to celestial/sky deity names.”

So I went to good ol’ Wikipedia’s list of names, and here were some of my initial impressions:

Aditi’s a pretty name, but that’s the name of a Hindu goddess, and MC’s fantasy Roman. Questionable decision. Out.

Urania’s the muse of astronomy, so it fits thematically, but there are unfortunate implications within the name. I can name her Ourania to get rid of the unfortunate “ur anus” implications, but that’s a bit of a mouthful? Hmm. No. Next.

Asteria is an old Greek goddess of the stars… nice… wait, I already have like 3 OCs with A names. Let’s diversify. Out.

Phoebe is a Greek Titaness of prophecy and related to Titaness Theia (!!), mother of Asteria. Good placeholder name, but a little too modern for my tastes. We’ll see.

Eventually I settled on Maris, which means “of the sea” and has nothing to do with the stars or astronomy &etc. I don’t know how I jumped to Maris from sky deity names, but it’s pretty and it’s Latin, so Maris is her name! 

Third Step: Faceclaim/Appearance

I always try to find faceclaims for my OCs as a springboard. Back when I was thinking “hhh Viking Gorl” as my baseline, I found pictures of María Valverde as Lucrezia Borgia and I was like “oh,,,, nice,,,” and looked up María outside of that role. María is still not a lock in for Maris, but she’s influenced her looks! Outside of that, I wanted to make some tweaks.

One thing I wanted for sure: black hair and brown eyes (romanticize brown eyes!! every one of my OCs has brown eyes except Ziah and I will regret not giving her brown eyes to my dying day)

Second thing I wanted: thanks to Ms. Valverde, I wanted Maris to have a big beautiful nose and oval face!

Third thing I have just as of right now decided about her appearance, suddenly and without warning: she’s gonna have moles on her face. no freckles, just moles. (bonus: Cipactli counts them and LOVES THEM ALL. My babe…… I’ll call u….)

Rags (@vide0-nasties) was kind enough to let me pick the height for her Oracle, Petra, so she picked Maris’s height, which is now 5′8″.

Fourth Step: Personality and/or Backstory

This is the least fleshed out because I decided to make Maris yesterday (11/12) after replaying Stellamore and trawling through the blog’s Cipactli tag for that sweet sweet lore about my newest love. But here were my initial goals for Maris:

Theia make an OC who’s not an ice queen (at the start) challenge

Theia make an OC who’s not depressed and/or anxious challenge

Theia make an OC who’s not an introvert challenge

Theia make an OC who’s not afraid of her emotions challenge

So that’s fine. Again, I need a springboard for Maris. I’ve decided since she’s an Oracle, and Oracles have connections to the stars for unknown but undoubtedly cool reasons, she will be an Air sign (completing the cycle of Ziah’s Earth, Ariala’s Fire, and Adelaide’s Water) – which limits me to Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini. Okay, well, let’s google some “basic traits” of all of these signs. I want Maris to have sun or star symbolism, because Ziah and Adelaide are my Moon Girls and Ariala’s my Sun Girl, so I can either balance it (making her a Sun symbol) or complete the triad (making her a Star symbol). 

Here was my thought process researching this:

“Libras can be emotionally cold” oof… no… that would fail my non-ice queen challenge, let’s move on to Aquarius (who can also be cold I have discovered through another search with Google Images)

Oh, Aquarius seems extroverted! I like these basic traits, and it makes sense since Mukondi is Maris’s friend and an extrovert. Both succeeds my “non ice queen” and “non introvert” challenges. Depression and/or anxiety… I’m coming for u bitches…

Oh hey what’s Cipactli’s sign

OH HE’S A LIBRA

OH AQUARIUS AND LIBRA ARE COMPATIBLE JACKPOT

I put a lot of stock in astrology even though I know I shouldn’t

Okay I’ve decided to give her Sun iconography to balance it, I can make Star ocs later. This means she will wear a lot of gold/summer tones.

Also hey Cipactli’s religion focuses a lot on the sun

U know what this means………….. religious iconography during sex…… symbolism……..

anyway Cipactli my love i’m so sorry idk if ur religious or not and if u are I apologize for the blasphemy

But if ur not….. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Ms. Valverde’s smile in many pictures is kinda smirk-y, so maybe that’s something to incorporate about Maris: she doesn’t smile, she smirks. What kind of sense of humor would that give her? A wry one? A dry one (which isn’t the same thing necessarily)? What does this phrase – that she doesn’t smile, she smirks – imply about her character? Is she smug? Self-assured? Sarcastic? Detached from others? (NO! She can’t be detached because then I will fail my “don’t make an ice queen” challenge!)

Her personality will still need fleshing out – I will need more to work with than “oh she’s extroverted!” and “oh she’s friendly/sunny!” She will need flaws that are more complex. Since I chose the “bold” option when approaching Cipactli, maybe… HMM… okay, let’s make Maris bold. This makes her unafraid of conflict, but can also make her brash and/or arrogant and/or potentially hot-tempered! She can also be insufferably smug when she’s right, which is often, because of her Oracle abilities (idk!)

Another springboard I’ll use is looking up MBTI types, but those usually come after I’ve made my OC and just need more development.

As for her backstory, here were some things I decided upon, fiddling with my growing castle made out of wooden building blocks:

Okay she’s fantasy Roman… what if… she grew up on a vineyard & winery

And her dad was the vineyard’s owner

A mom? No. Single dad. Who knows where the Mom went. No, that could give her mom issues, let’s not do that. Mom died in childbirth or illness?

So now Maris is the daughter of a vineyard owner, which means she would probably know a fair amount about wine, which means she has excellent (and/or: snobby) taste in wine.

She also loves nature because she grew up in it, which means she would LOVE Huatzintepec. Oh hey, Cipactli’s room is full of plants, another reason for Maris (and me) to love him

I’ve just decided she has an older brother

No, younger

No, she has two brothers, one older and one younger. She’s the middle child. This means Mom died in childbirth to the younger brother and made Dad a Single Roman Dad.

Dad funded her education because if she was educated she could a) help her brothers operate the winery/vineyard after his death; b) make a career in politics and further the family name (haven’t decided a surname yet, let’s google Roman surnames, ooh here’s a list of ancient Roman surnames on Wikipedia – OKAY, I have it, Maris Viridius of the Gens Viridia); c) marry a well-off fantasy Roman businessman??

Instead Maris became a diplomat, which is how she met Mukondi, and since they’re both friendly extroverts they became fast friends

Since she’s a diplomat and educated she probably speaks a bunch of languages,,, oh look here’s a list of how many languages the cast speaks [clicks tongue] noice,,, okay so she would speak at least 3 (three) languages: Latin, Common, Greek, and know some basic Nahuatl

How does her backstory influence her personality, because pasts always have a vast impact on characters’ (and our own) personalities? Well, maybe she’s a little bit elitist because of her upper class upbringing. Maybe her work as a diplomat has allowed her to visit every one of the human kingdoms, and has made her down to earth. Maybe she was so cooped up in her studies that she became sheltered, or a bookworm, or both – which would give her another point of commonality with Cipactli.

All of these are reasonable possibilities, and all of these are little building blocks I can assemble together to shape my OC and develop her further!

So now I have Maris Viridius, of Gens Viridia, who:

has black hair, black eyes, lots of moles, a big beautiful nose and an oval face (thus, rounded features)

is an Aquarius

is unafraid to be bold, even if it comes across as arrogance; is unafraid to challenge authority; is also aware, as a diplomat, when to hold her tongue or when to be polite (her job might also make her a good liar? things to ponder for the future!) 

is an optimist and an extrovert; thrives off of meeting new people and making new friends; has a good, albeit sarcastic, sense of humor

is gonna cash in Cipactli’s v-card, but tenderly, because soft otps are my jam

I have to do more development with Maris, but here is her skeleton, built out of blocks! I might just write some stuff for her and Cipactli in the future because I have seen two (2) Stellamore fics, one on Tumblr and one on Ao3, which is a tragedy.

Anyway, I know I went overboard, but I hope this helps and gives insight into my process as to how I write my OCs! :)