#jkr loves fat shaming characters

[fanfic-lover-girl]

What do you think is the worst case of hypocritism in Harry Potter.

I just realized how many inbox messages I have. Gosh, I need to address those...

It's hard to choose but if I had to choose:

In the story itself

The morality of an action depends on who the character is. The purebloods like the Malfoys and Blacks are bigots for scorning mudbloods but it's A-ok for the Gryffindor characters to discriminate against and endanger muggles and magical creatures. If Draco disrespects Hagrid it's a sin, but when Hermione disrespects Trelawney she's a girlboss. Draco objectively and simply points out that Molly is fat in a relatively mild Yo Mama joke and it's framed as bullying (no complaints there). But Harry describes how obese Dudley is in excruciating and needless detail, it's funny. This is the same Harry who regularly compares people to animals when he describes appearances. Draco bullies Neville - it's wrong (as it should be). Harry and co. bully and degrade Neville - it's funny and ok. There are many more examples. JKR is a disgusting and mean-spirited writer. I have several 'Double Standards' posts because of this.

In HP fandom

This extends to how HP fandom views certain fans. In particular, some Hermione, Romione and other Gryfindor stans will sneer and condescend to you if you happen to like characters like Draco and other Slytherins like the Death eaters. And if you criticize their darlings, they discredit your criticisms because you like the 'morally questionable' antagonist. It's hilarious how these people refuse to admit that THEIR characters are morally questionabletoo. Almost every HP character is morally questionable. They act as if the golden trio and the other Gryffindor characters are heroes who are justified in all their crappy actions. I have seen a disgusting Hermione stan (whom I blocked) condone and justify Hermione kidnapping and imprisoning Rita, erasing her parents' memory, attacking Ron with canaries and scarring Marietta for life. If stans like that don't outright say Hermione was right, they downplay it by saying she's a young girl and/or she had no choice. They say the criticism is overblown. Yet, they have no issue overblowing the actions of the unlikable characters like Draco and Rita. For example, they act as if Draco calling Hermione 'mudblood' is such a devasting crime. When wonder witch herself could care less about Draco's stale taunts. And Hermione being muggleborne has little impact on her for the most part. Total hypocrisy.

Honestly, I would like JKR's 'good' characters more if not for these atrocious double standards in the fandom and the narrative. But it's fine, I'll just enjoy my HP babies like Neville and Draco in my corner.

As much as I feel sorry for the hate JKR gets, I can say that she is partially to blame. She taught an entire generation of kids to believe they have the right to violence if they think they are the heroes in their story. And that their opponents are subhuman if they don't share their views. I hope Joanne realizes that one day.

[wisteria-lodge]

What do you think about Molly Weasley?

I have a lot of thoughts about Molly Weasley. I think she’s a fantastic character,  just not in the way that JKR intended. 

I think the intention was to make Molly kind of a mama bear. Fiercely loving, fiercely protective, hot tempered… but you know. In a cute way. In a warm way. I do think that Movie!Molly threads this needle. (I also think that her bear-ears hairstyle is perhaps intentional.) 

Movie!Molly gets her big duel with Bellatrix, she gets (reasonably) annoyed at the boys for stealing the car. Her only spicy moment is the Howler��� which is softened and made more comedic by 1) including a nice message for Ginny at the end 2) including a tongue-sticking-out moment, which turns the whole thing into more of a joke on Molly. Now it’s your mom being kind of weird and embarrassing… versus her public shaming you, toxic tik-tok mom style. The Howler is much worse in the book: “​​I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN’T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS.”

So let’s talk Book!Molly, because there’s a lot there. She’s a Prewett, growing up in a more *typical* pure blood family as opposed to being a “blood traitor” Weasley. (Cedrella Black was disowned for marrying a Weasley, Lucretia Black married a Prewett no problem.)  Molly also married Arthur really young, and really quickly. It’s even lightly implied they married too quickly - 

“I just think [Bill and Fleur] have hurried into this engagement, that’s all!”  “They’ve known each other a year,” said Ron (...)   “Well, that’s not very long! I know why it’s happened, of course. It’s all this uncertainty with You-Know-Who coming back, people think they might be dead tomorrow, so they’re rushing all sorts of decisions they’d normally take time over. It was the same last time he was powerful, people eloping left, right, and center —”  “Including you and Dad,” said Ginny slyly.  “Yes, well, your father and I were made for each other, what was the point in waiting?” said Mrs. Weasley.

There’s some psychological truth to that. (Also, Molly and Arthur were 100% hooking up while at Hogwarts:)

“[The Fat Lady] was here in my time,” said Mrs. Weasley. “She gave me such a telling off one night when I got back to the dormitory at four in the morning —”  “What were you doing out of your dormitory at four in the morning?” said Bill, surveying his mother with amazement. Mrs. Weasley grinned, her eyes twinkling.  “Your father and I had been for a nighttime stroll,” she said.

And the timeline’s too fuzzy to know for sure…  but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Molly getting pregnant with Bill was one of the reasons she and Arthur got married so fast. 

It’s hard to say, because you never get a great sense of their relationship, but I’m actually not sure how compatible the two of them are, or if they would have gotten married at all if it hadn't been for the war and all these external factors. There is an ongoing conflict between them: Arthur is a political radical who seems to enjoy upsetting the Malfoys - he’s not playing nice, he doesn't have a prestigious job, he’s not getting a promotion anytime soon, and he’s fine with this. His interest in muggles is fringe counterculture stuff, and his hobby is illegal. And Molly… is pretty establishment. She wants her sons to be Head Boys and Prefects, and then she wants them to get jobs at the Ministry:

“Mum went mad at [Fred and George after finding their prank candy.] Told them they weren’t allowed to make any more of it, and burned all the order forms. . . . She’s furious at them anyway. They didn’t get as many O.W.L.s as she expected.” “And then there was this big row,” Ginny said, “because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop.”

Like we hear about this interaction secondhand, which softens the emotion, but I’m sorry? Molly burned their order forms? She wants them to do jobs they very clearly have no aptitude for, instead of being entrepreneurs? Arthur sides with the twins, and of course he does. They’re anarchists just like he is. But it *really* bothers Molly, and this conflict just keeps coming up. 

[sidenote. You cannot tell that Arthur Weasley, once he was in his late 20s/early 30s, once he had grown into himself a bit. Tell me that this man didn’t once think “you know, I really should have married a Muggle. That would’ve been perfect.”’]

But back to Molly Weasley, nee Prewett. She wants a big family, and there is no way this doesn't have something to do with the fact that both her brothers were just brutally killed. She’s trying to distract herself, fill some void, find some meaning. The fact that it doesn’t work (because how could it, she’s got just buckets of unprocessed trauma) is maybe why she is so set on having a girl. Maybe a little baby girl is what she needs. 

In the main timeline of the book, Molly 100% needs enrichment. She needs to start breeding alpacas or join a book club or get a job. (Job could be cool, especially since she has no kids at home and money is an issue.) Like come on, Molly is intense, Type A, and powerful. Possibly one of the best duelists in the entire series. She takes out Voldemort’s number two, and Bellatrix has already defeated Sirius - incredibly talented and powerful in his own right. I do think that the reason JKR made this choice (instead of letting Neville have a confrontation with Bellatrix, which would have been more narratively straightforward) is because (whether consciously or unconsciously) she doesn’t like the idea of one of her good-guy GUY characters hurting a woman. So Molly defeats Bellatrix with magic mom powers, which is the same reason Narcissia can lie to Voldemort’s face I guess.

What Molly definitely does NOT need to be doing is obsessing about her kids' significant others. Like take Fleur. (Who I think we as readers were meant to dislike more than we actually did?)  Fleur is great. So when Molly has a problem with her… then starts trying to matchmake Bill with Tonks… until Tonks (another fan favorite) also starts annoying her… it makes Molly looks really unreasonable. Also, let Bill have his long hair and earring. 

She gets weird about Hermione in Book 4, after she believes Rita Skeeter’s write-up that she's some sort of temptress playing Harry and Krum off each other. Instead of, idk, asking Harry (who she thinks of as a surrogate son) she sends Hermione a passive-agressive comically undersized chocolate egg. Harry and Ron get huge ones. That’s not cute, or funny.

Also, Percy and Penelope Clearwater. I know the real-world reason Percy hides his relationship in Book 2 is so he can be a red herring acting all suspicious… but in universe, I guess Percy just wants to date someone without his mom being weird about it? Like Penelope Clearwater is nice and normal and fine. Why is he hiding this relationship?

Then there’s Molly the disciplinarian, which we mostly see in the context of Fred and George (although there is also Ron being public-shamed by the Howler.) She is constantly giving the twins a hard time about their life choices, their jokes. Ron says “I remember Mum walloping Fred with her broomstick." Then yeah, she burns their order forms. She does feel bad about this later, and after the whole thing at the Quidditch World Cup hugs them and says, “What if You-Know-Who had got you, and the last thing I ever said to you was that you didn’t get enough O.W.L.s?” It’s meant to be a sweet moment, but this would annoy me just a little. It’s a little like saying, “I’m glad I don’t have to think of myself as being a bad mother.” 

I also want to point out Molly's pretty clear favoritism. Fred and George are the problem children, Ginny is the baby (although we almost never see her and her mother interact, so it’s actually very hard to say what their relationship is like), and Percy is the golden child. We see how this sort of sets him apart from all his siblings, how he's described as pompous and full of himself, but also how he’s secretive and hides things from his family. It’s kind of precarious being the golden child, and when he finally does stop pleasing his mother he falls hard. (Although I will always be a big believer in Daddy Issues!Percy. That has to be why he commits that hard to Barty Crouch Sr that fast, and then ignores that many red flags.) 

And of course Ron is the invisible child. Almost the first thing we hear him say is, “She always forgets I don’t like corned beef.” That one can slide. Molly’s got five kids at home, she made corn beef sandwiches, not everyone is going to be equally happy. But Ron’s clothes.  Molly makes her own clothes, she's defined by her facility with household magic. She knits Ron sweaters... but at least two of them are maroon despite the fact that Ron hates maroon. His room is  plastered top to bottom in bright orange Chudley Cannons merch. She couldn’t make him an orange sweater? There’s also the issue with the dress robes. Ron clearly doesn’t like them (“Mum, you’ve given me Ginny’s new dress.”) But he is the one who cuts off the lace trim later, and he doesn’t do an amazing job. I know that it's a joke, but like. That sounds like a job for Molly.

We do get Horcrux!Hermione telling Ron that he is the “Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter,” so this idea of Molly picking favorites is *kind of* in the text. But Horcrux!Hermione is wrong about Harry/Hermione being a thing, so maybe we’re meant to read this as Ron’s baseless anxiety? It doesn’t feel like that though. What it actually feels like is an unresolved plot thread. 

So here’s my take on Molly Weasley. This is someone who is pretty high-powered, who suffered a period of emotional upheaval, then got married and started having kids because she kind of thought that was what you do - and it wasn’t as fulfilling as she thought it would be. I think a lot of her comments come off as *meaner* than JKR intended, because let’s face it - JKR has a kind of mean sense of humor. And if I want to speculate further… I think there are quite a few parallels between Molly Weasley and JKR. I don't think she put them there consciously.

[haunting-hufflepuffs-basement]

Welcome to the Basement:

I am both tired and a coward and have made a separate account to interact with the Marauders/Harry Potter fandom without having to deal with the TERFs every time I open tumblr. I must make it clear that I DO NOT support JKR in any way. I WILL NOT tolerate bigotry and WILL block you and tell others to block you too if I see any.

You can call me Spectr. My pronouns are she/her, and I'm aroace. I'm older than 18, but I'm sex repulsed so I basically won't ever reblog smut or NSFW. Minors are welcome, but I swear a lot, so maybe don't stick around if that makes you uncomfy.

This blog is for all my Harry Potter and Marauders headcanons, hot takes (and ice cold takes), art, fanfic if I ever get around to it, and general discussion. And yes, I consider the Harry Potter fandom and the Marauders fandom to be two wildly different beasts.

LINK TO MY MARAUDERS ERA SHIPNAME SPREADSHEET

More about me under the cut:

I'm a LOUD AND PROUD HUFFLEPUFF! BADGERS UNITE! Seriously, literally every test I have ever taken, Pottermore or otherwise, good and bad, has put me in Hufflepuff. I am so agressively Puff it's not even funny. My secondary house is Ravenclaw, and my Ilvermorny house is (probably) Pukwudgie.

I put waaaaayyyyy too much in my tags, seriously (siriusly. Heh). Check the tags of any post I put tags on, and you will find at least half of them are disorganized rambling.

I currently cannot pick a favorite marauder. I love them all too much. My favorite HP character is probably Ginny Weasley.

I am very much a book fan, not a movie fan. I've read all the books at least 5 times, but have read the Sorceror's Stone and The Prisoner of Azkaban more times than I can count. I have watched the first 3 movies all the way through once and have only seen the later movies in bits and pieces. I don't hate them, but they're not my favorites.

In case you didn't catch it in that last paragraph, I'm American, and nothing I write will be Britpicked. Sorry.

I love Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but I don't watch them on official platforms because JKR sucks. I don't have a favorite character; Newt, Tina, Queenie, and Jacob are all favorites.

While I loved Harry Potter as a kid and have a deep emotional attachment to it, it is a children's book with a LOT of worldbuilding and story issues. I like to use the world and magic as a sandbox to play in, less as a strict rule.

I don't really care too hard on ships. My aroace ass honestly says "the less you focus on it the better," but if you write it well, any dynamic can be good. That said, my usual likes are as follows:

Marauders: wolfstar (I'm basic trash), jily (again, basic trash), peter thinks everyone is hot but never gets to seriously date anyone r.i.p., marlene mckinnon/mary macdonald (although marlene has a fat crush on Dorcas Meadowes that never really goes away), Dorcas Meadowes/Pandora Lovegood, and optional Rosekiller but I get sad if we spend too much time with the Slytherins.

HP: Ron/Hermoine, Ginny/Harry if you like or Ginny/Luna if you don't, dislike Tonks/Lupin but I don't care that much, and I really really don't give a shit about anyone else.

I hate muggle AUs with a burning passion (no shame if you like them, just not my cup of tea), but I do like it when we get to let the wizards use muggle tech and in general be more integrated into the muggle world.

Peter Pettigrew is a marauder and I will DIE on this hill. I will defend this slimy turncoat disaster rat man to the end of my life. Please fight me, I'm excited.

[artemisia-black]

Do you think Sirius had any sort of mental condition like BPD or bipolar like some people headcanon? I'm enjoying your Pietas story btw :)

Thank you for both your question and for reading Pietas ( legit my labour of love)

Most psychologists and psychiatrists can’t diagnose fictional characters because a diagnosis requires interacting with a patient.

So this is just my personal opinion.

I read Sirius as someone who has C-PTSD.

While PTSD is caused by a single traumatic event, C-PTSD is caused by long-lasting trauma that continues or repeats for months, even years (commonly referred to as "complex trauma").

Although C-PTSD, mainly focuses on childhood events, the brain is still developing up until 25 and the majority of Sirius’s trauma happens before then.

A brief overview of his history

We only get three glimpses of him as young man/teenager:

1. The train scene in the Prince’s tale

2. The scene in Snape’s Worst memory

3. The Elvendork prequel

I’m not counting the prank/willow incident in this as there’s not enough canonical insight into the incident or context (it’s mainly been filled in my fandom).

So there’s not that much to work with from these scenes alone but we do know that his home life gets so bad that he runs away and looks after himself from 17 years old.

He is then thrown into a war where he is on the opposite side of his brother.

He experiences the death of comrades from the Order. And I know the fandom likes to paint him as James’s sidekick, but I’m sure he had other friends within the order. Maybe he didn’t love them quite as much as he loved James, but no person is only about one other person.

His father dies and his brother disappears and is presumed dead. The fact that Sirius has such a detailed theory about what happened to Regulus, means that he spent time both thinking about it and investigating. There is an excellent book called the Red Parts (see references) , which explores how an unsolved murder effects the way family members grieve for the victim. And I truly believe that Sirius grieved deeply for his brother ( he threw out heirlooms yet left Regulus’s room untouched).

He then loses James and Lilly and finds their dead bodies. Witnesses the death of 12 people in what is essentially a terrorist incident. In this context, I read his laughing as a trauma response. Psychology today, has a really interesting article about why people laugh when talking about trauma:

“ Laughter can be a defense that protects the trauma survivor from feeling the depth of their actual pain.”

He is then placed in solitary confinement with poor hygiene and tortured for 12 years.

A large body of research shows that solitary confinement causes adverse psychological effects and increases the risk of serious harm to individuals who experience it. According to an article in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, isolation can be as distressing as physical torture.

He then lives in near starvation for the next two years. After which he is then locked away again, with large periods of isolation. And has to reconcile that he’s a pariah in the wizarding world, and everyone in the order once thought him a mass murderer. Even if exonerated that infamy will continue to follow him.

In conclusion, I think the books skate over how bad Azkaban is and even JKR called him ‘embittered’ but as a character he has lived though multiple traumatic events. And that’s even before we dig into the deep emotional wounding he suffered from his families rejection.

Sirius and complex trauma

According to the NHS, these are the symptoms for complex- ptsd:

* feelings of shame or guilt

Example: the guilt he feels over James and Lilly’s death

* difficulty controlling your emotions

Example: He has a temper. Slashing the Fat Lady’s portrait etc. He also has depressive periods

* periods of losing attention and concentration (dissociation)

I can’t think of any examples

* physical symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, chest pains and stomach aches

Not enough info in cannon

* cutting yourself off from friends and family

He withdraws several times in OoTP

* relationship difficulties

This is hard to judge as he’s a fugitive who’s main support network is dead

* destructive or risky behaviour, such as self-harm, alcohol misuse or drug abuse

He definitely uses alcohol to self soothe.

The way I interpret Sirius in Pietas

I’m glad your enjoying Pietas. And within the story I write him though the lens of complex trauma.

That’s why his anger is always just below the surface;

“ He knew he should rein in his anger and was keenly aware that Kreacher would report his outburst to Orion.”

“ He paused, catching sight of Regulus laughing and talking with a group of Italian Slytherins and anger surged through him, cutting off all sense of reason.”

Plus he often feels overwhelmed by his emotions:

“ The silence that seemed to be a feature of all his recent interactions returned, and Sirius felt a tiredness that caused his bones to ache.”

“ He felt as though a current was pulsating across his skin, a slipstream of restless energy that he longed to vent.”

I also frequently write him as feeling dizzy and having physical symptoms of his emotions. Yet he longs for his family’s acceptance and love and is deeply wounded by their rejection of him. This is best exemplified by the first scene of chapter 6:

“ His thoughts spun wildly as he took a moment of solace, because fulfilling his duty would mean that Regulus would stop hating him. That perhaps being the perfect scion, however suffocating, might make his parents look at him with pride once more. That maybe he would be his mother’s son again instead of her biggest disappointment. A brief image of her lovingly stroking his hair flashed across his mind as dizziness overtook him.”

And then later on:

“ He had halted once more, looking over at the girl still seated on the bench with an undisguised fondness that made Sirius ache with a profound sense of loneliness. He could not remember the last time any member of his immediate family had looked at him with anything but anger or dissatisfaction and to his embarrassment, his eyes began to sting.”

To conclude, literature is always open for interpretation and people often frame characters within their own experiences. As long as his mental health isn’t equated to his morality, or not used as proof that he is irreparably ‘ damaged,’ or ‘broken’, then I live and let live.

It is always possible to live with mental health issues and have a rich and fulfilled life.

References

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/healing-trauma-s-wounds/201509/why-clients-smile-when-talking-about-trauma-part-1%3famp

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/complex/

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/02/the-red-parts-autiobiography-of-a-trial-maggie-nelson-review-murder-trial-family-grief

[sapphicwhxre]

i understand how people like draco because he was attractive in the movies and i believe that he genuinely deserved to have a redemption arc but he wasn’t really a nice person like he fat shamed molly weasley and called hermione a slur. i’m not agreeing with jk r*wling because she’s a piece of shit but sometimes draco stans make me uncomfortable when they act like he’s perfect. i hope that everyone that shifts for him scripts that he’s nicer because i don’t know if they’d like the “real” him. once again this is just my opinion and everyone can do what they want :)

oh no, i agree. he's far from perfect and i'd never excuse those actions. but my point here is more that i think it's funny how pissed she gets over people liking a fictional character. they all had faults (some more than others) and she gets bothered when people like/empathise with someone she wanted people to dislike or point out that someone she loves had faults. i hate jkr overall and it's really amusing when she's mad over something so small. miss ma'am thinks it's ok to be transphobic, homophobic, fatphobic, racist, and all that good shit but god forbid people connect with characters she created. and with the shifting thing, i never scripted that he'd be nicer (especially since he wasn't one of the people i actually wanted a relationship with) and what i found, in my experience, is that with positive influences he actually can be better ─ which actually included some of the other characters talking to him. i wouldn't say he's a saint or anything but i do think he became loads better as a person. i'm not sure how it's gone for others but again, that's my experience. i sort of lost what my point is but yea that's what i have to say about it.

[degenderates]

Harry Potter for the ask game

1: sexuality headcanon

harry is so bi omg. chaotic fucking bisexual!!

2: otp

tomarry <3 i just love the protectiveness, the sharing of souls, the possibilities for canonverse & time travel aus...yeah!

3: brotp

the golden trio! and luna!!

4: notp

ummmm snarry. that’s just definitely not my thing:/ like i understand how people *can*, but i don’t:/

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

harry quits after a year after being an auror. it reminds him too much of the pain in his past and he can’t quite get behind the black-and-white morality mentality. so after a year of auror-ing and a few more years after that in the ministry, he becomes the DADA professor, because he can still use his skill in a fun, happy way

6: favorite line from this character

“there’s no need to call me sir, professor” i mean WHAT OTHER LINE COULD YOU CHOOSE?? HARRY IS A SASS KING.

7: one way in which I relate to this character

um i’m also a chaotic bisexual, i guess? and i’m lazy and procrastinate my essays too:P

no but in all honesty harry was the first character i really related to growing up--like anakin, loki, and nova, he was a character who i both wanted to be and be with, you know?

8: thing that gives me secondhand embarrassment about this character

i hate the way he fat-shames dudley in the books, but honestly i think that shows more about jkr than harry anyway

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

95% cinnamon roll, 5% problematic fave:)

thanks for the ask!!<3

[toujourspur13]

What’s so interesting about Sirius Black... apart from the obvious?

Well…I feel obliged to jump into this discussion about Sirius and his family.

I actually think that canon Sirius Black is a good example of multidimensional character with a complex personality (rare thing in hp series)…at least the way JKR wrote him implies some psychological depth (hp is mainly teen literature about friendship - the marauders friendship, the golden trio are all great examples of it - but let’s face it - this literature has a tendency to a very specific narrative - maybe that’s the reason for popular Sirius fanon - I mean…Sirius being part of the Harry’s story is seen through the lens of Harry’s problems). The thing is that usually Sirius is greatly simplified when, in fact, he’s one of the most interesting and complex character in the whole series.

OOTP is the longest hp book - it contains huge amount of text about Sirius’s family incl. RAB who’s indeed very important to the story; and it also contains excessive amount of Walburga Black content. Why excessive? Well because she is not even important to the plot…I mean, at all. Harry (and the whole 7-books journey is Harry’s POV) doesn’t even care about her. But she is important. To Sirius. To the extent that he can barely shut up about her.

And as Sirius’s important to Harry we got all those extra pages about The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

When he’s showing Harry the family tree, he keeps going back to her - she did this and she did that, she removed him, she removed Andromeda, Uncle Alphard…

I saw how he managed to squeeze her in one passage in two different contexts. She’s clearly weighing heavily on his mind. Grunted, he is very angry about everything she did - but can you really disagree that he is super fixated on her.  Frankly speaking, you could’ve expected that he’d be talking so much about James (in Flitwick’s words ‘You’d have thought Black and Potter were brothers’) - but in fact he doesn’t talk a lot about James - it’s his family he seems unable to shut up about. Cross out all his rant and the book becomes significantly shorter. Sirius shows Harry all of his relatives because he wants to.

Remember Araminta Meliflua…his mother’s second cousin?! Is it of any interest to Harry - I doubt it. Harry’s more interested in the Malfoys at the tapestry - but then again Sirius pays little attention to them - and only answers the direct questions. The only one about who he truly doesn’t want to talk in that scene is Bellatrix.

Btw if I remember correctly, he’s even distantly related to the Potters…but for some reason he chose to ignore this. So let’s just say that his thoughts in that scene are clearly one-sided and family-centered.

Even in POA Sirius is mirrored to his mother (we can only understand this after reading the 5th book though) - Sirius slashes the Fat Lady portrait when she refuses him the entry to the Gryffindor Tower - Walburga burns holes in the family tree. Angry management is what they both clearly need. They are so extremely alike that I am almost sure it’s all deliberate and JKR used her as a way to show deeper levels of Sirius’s personality (and not the abusive nature of his childhood).  Loud, high-strung, passionate and very emotional.

Sirius says that he ‘hated the whole lot of them’ and that’s why he ran away and instead of saying something like ‘I got so fed up with my parents lecturing me how I should avoid mudbloods at all the cost/ hate them/ whatever fits the profile of pure-blood maniac’ he says in the next sentence that he was constantly reminded that Regulus was a better son. This is a very jealous remark. It’s pretty obvious that what he wanted is unconditional love - ‘either you take me with all my extreme political views or I’m gone’. The things Sirius says are often contradictory and half-truths and sometimes he just chooses to withdraw certain information at all.

I sometimes come across the strange ideas that JKR tried to parallel Harry’s life with the Dursleys to Sirius’s childhood - I mean, do we really need to go there? You’d be better off trying to parallel him to Big D rather than to Harry. It’s fairly obvious that the odd ideas about Sirius’s abusive childhood are used for the sole purpose of helping him to bond with Remus (in terms of being subjected to physical pain) where he wouldn’t be able to relate to James (you know what popular phenomenon I mean).

Another popular idea - that the 1st year fiasco with Sirius’s Sorting was a big deal. I admit we have very little info about this BUT the fact that he put Gryffindor banners and pictures of  bikini-clad Muggle girls into his room makes me think that the parents were clearly disturbed and disappointed but not to the extent that it became something crucial in their relationship. Clearly Sirius used that as a means to annoy them. To tell you the truth, I find this attempt to go against fanatical blood purists quite feeble and certainly below Sirius Black’s level - it feels more like «hey, mum, look I stick posters of barely-clothed girls on the wall in my room - let’s see what you can do about this».

Btw the interesting thing is that it somehow feels that Sirius’s relationship with his mother (unlike the ones with his father or brother) was the relationship of equals which is odd because she was older and his mother. The explanation for this can be that they were very much alike and she in fact allowed it…maybe (well here I agree that it’s vague and can be just because it’s only the portrait and not the real person but still there is something about this).  And they have this you-hurt-me-now-I’ll-hurt-you-back attitude that implies equality and a certain degree of exclusivity. They both very clearly are not careful with words and actions.

And thus we’ve come to the very touchy subject - her psychotic portrait - her little ‘welcome home’ present. I grant her that - very impressive and colorful vocabulary.

She definitely wanted to be sure that in case Sirius had come home he would never have a moment free from her. Very dramatic.

“Yoooou!” she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man.

“Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!”

“I said — shut — UP!” roared the man, and with a stupendous effort he and Lupin managed to force the curtains closed again.

They match each other really well. (All the drama aside, if we consider this matter seriously - it’s just a portrait of hers and she was insane and alone for years after she lost everyone. But yeah - pretty nasty thing to do - I agree).

Frankly speaking, her personality isn’t really that significant in this case - it’s more important how Sirius feels about her, the way he can’t let her go. He’s relatively okay in the 4th book while on the run in the cave eating rats and arguing about Crouch, Bertha Jorkins, Karkaroff, Snape etc. But his severe depression in the OOTP clearly has everything to do that he’s locked up in ‘the house of a dying person’ (the very last one from their family) - like in the case of his mother’s true personality we’ll never know for sure what’s that about - Sirius’s real feelings are impossible to decipher - he says one thing - does another - feels maybe something completely different - for all I know, it could be about plenty of things one of which is that seeing her awful portrait, sitting in the rooms where they used to be together is a constant reminder that his family is gone and no matter what he feels and wants, he can’t fix anything about that - it’s all lost for good.

Of course, Sirius wouldn’t like to be there - a man of action trapped in his own past without any hope to ever overcome his unresolved issues with his family. The way he’s fixated on his mother is so intense that it’s almost unhealthy but I guess it’s just the visible (most explicit) tip of the iceberg.

Sirius with his hidden and repressed feelings is a great and very interesting character - he’s so much bigger than just James Potter’s best mate with a cool leather jacket. His relationships with his family is what makes him such a deep character (and not those ideas about how fluffy little angle was magically born in the family of twisted and deranged warlocks - well, it’s a little bit naive). After all it’s an internal conflict that sells the character.

Upd 2020

I think it is worth mentioning that since we’re discussing fictional world and fictional characters it only makes sence what the author implied and what the author did not. Yes, there is no absolute truth because it is all not real but the way character is written usually allows us to make certain assumtions about his or her inner world and motivation. So called ‘canonical evidence’ only matter in terms of what the author wanted to show us. I’ve never had any problems with fanon and headcanon - the only thing that bothers me is saying some things were in the main text when it is explicitly implied that there was nothing of that sort.

[airagorncharda]

About My Blog:

Name: Nate Age: 29 (I’m bad at updating this, I was born in 1990) Pronouns: he/him/his.

It’s been ages since I’ve updated any sort of info about myself or my blog, oops.

Dfab nb trans guy, genderfluid. On the aro/ace spectrum. Queer. Gay. Neuroatypical (ADHD among other things; possibly dyslexia or else it’s just my ADHD that makes reading The Worst). I have chronic pain. I’m chubby. 

Privilege: I’m white, I grew up with financial security while I lived with my parents, I live in a liberal area of New England in the USA, I am able-bodied, I can pass as neurotypical. If I make false assumptions or fuck up because of any of these things please call me on it. I will do my utmost not to make this necessary, and to listen if it should ever be necessary.

I blog about social justice, social issues, whatever fandom I’m currently hyperfixated on, DnD, and plenty of other stuff.

My views have evolved since I started blogging, so if you go far enough back in my blog you’ll find posts that I no longer agree with.

I use my “likes” as storage for things I want to respond to later, or save to my computer when I’m on the mobile app, or research more thoroughly before reblogging when I have time/attention, etc. Do not assume I agree with everything in my likes. View my likes with caution.

I’m a writer and an illustrator, and am a Personal Care Assistant to a really cool lady. I play a lot of DnD and I love my dnd group. I’ve been in a relationship with one of my best friends since we were 15. We are engaged, live together, play video games and DnD, and have cats.

I post my thoughts here. I post my art here. These are my cats. This is my face.

I am not always right. I am still learning.

Do not cite me as an expert or trust my implicitly. I am happy to give my thoughts on and discuss any issue, and I do try to research my points before I make them, but I am not an authority.

My ask box is always open. I will respond privately if you ask me to. If I respond publicly I will tag it with your URL so you can find it easily (unless you ask me not to). I tag all asks with “ask” and all anons with “ask” and “anon”. If you send me an ask and I don’t respond it might be because Tumblr ate it, and I never received it, or because I have ADHD and sometimes I forget to respond to things. In either case feel free to send the ask again. I do not consider this rude.

—

I am careful to always tag for things like racism, transphobia, ableism, etc., as well as death, blood, horror cops, spiders, etc., so people can blacklist them.

I am usually happy to add to this list if you have a phobia or trigger and need me to, just ask. If for some reason I’m uncomfortable tagging a particular subject, I will not be offended if you unfollow me (I’ll also just NEVER be offended by that; you do you)

Some navigation help for my blog:

current events - this tag is reserved for whatever the most recent important (and awful) thing happens to be.

Disney’s Frozen - this tag is referencing all of the problems with that movie (the first one), including general discussion about the sexism in how women are animated. It accidentally became my “misogyny in animation” tag, sorry!

Statistics - this tag is for all posts with specific statistics about social injustice.

real talk - this tag is for short posts that I feel most clearly and succinctly summarize issues of social injustice.

Boost - any post that involves petitions, fund raisers, sales, or other things I want people to not only see but interact with.

Fandoms:

I’ve been in fandom for a long time. I’m here to have fun, and am not comfortable with the current online purity culture of throwing shame at people who enjoy harmless things that you don’t. Fandom is not always about what we wish was real or canon; sometimes it’s about the opposite of that on purpose. 

I’m a polyshipper and a multishipper, though I definitely have OTPs and sometimes don’t enjoy seeing those pairs with other people. This is personal preference, and not a judgment on others. 

I try to stay out of fandom discourse and mainly reblog art I like. Occasionally, though, I do reblog criticism of fandom specific bigotry. 

Just because I reblog stuff from a particular fandom doesn’t mean I necessarily like everything about the piece of media, where/who it came from, or the direction it went. I value fandom because of the power to make the stories we’re given into the stories we wish we’d been given, AND the power to turn stories we love into whatever we’re vibing with at the moment.

Harry Potter was a formative fandom for me, so despite hating JKR I will still engage with fanworks related to it. I tag anything Harry Potter with “hp”. I tag everything relating to JKR with “fuck you JKR”.

Anything related to Tolkien’s Middle Earth stories is tagged “lotr”, anything about the MCU is tagged “Avengers”, and anything related to Avatar the Last Airbender is tagged “Atla”. 

I tag anything from the Tales of series with “Tale of” as well as their individual game titles. Anything from MOST Fire Emblem games gets lumped together under “Fire Emblem” but Three Houses is “fe3h”. Similarly, Most Final Fantasy games get “Final Fantasy” while 14 gets “ffxiv”.

Other media I particularly love off the top of my head (and their associated tags), or at least that I often reblog about, includes: Critical Role (and CR2), Phoenix Wright, She Ra (tag: “shera”), Saiyuki, Yu Yu Hakusho (tag: “yyh”), Undertale, The Good Place. Mad Max, Naruto, Miraculous Ladybug (tag: “miraculous”), Legend of Zelda (tag: “zelda”)

Personal tags:

My favorite meta (good meta makes the world go ‘round)

My favorite things on this whole damn site (I love this)

Stuff that’s purely positive (decency, and wholesome)

Things that remind me of my friend group (me and mine and ours)

Mron (things that remind me of and inspire me to work on my sci-fi story about androids)

Embalar (things that remind me of and inspire me to work on the fantasy story/video game/dnd homebrew setting I’m actively working on)

The Fog (things that remind me of and inspire me to work on my fairy tale story, which includes mermaids)

recipes

lifehacks

poetry

art refs (specific tags for: costume design, character design, god design, monster design, creature design, hands, feet, muscles, anatomy, facial expressions, hair, body types, clothes, dresses, fat art, etc., and specific tags for mythical creatures: mermaids, centaurs, vampires, demons, dragons, gryphons, sphinxes, harpies, etc.)

art (specific tags for: sculpture, painting, illustration, music, art history, installation art)

books, games, shows, and movies I wish existed (tumblr books)

furniture, appliances, and house stuff that I would love to have the money to have (want)

pretty jewelry that I want but would never wear because I don’t wear jewelry (for my dragon hoard)

–Nate

[yumenouveau]

1, 11, 23. Btw i love your blog! :)

Oh goodness thank you ^3^

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?* 

Already did this one

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? 

This one is tough, I really don’t think so?  The Wolfstar fandom seems pretty in sync.  I guess a character it’s not popular to like is Tonks, and I really love her, she’s brave and unique and (hopefully) queer, AS LONG AS SHE STAYS AWAY FROM REMUS HE’S NOT YOURS!  

23. Unpopular character you love?  

I already did Kreacher, but I’ll do another!  I can’t say I ‘love’ her cause not much is known about her, but damn I think JKR did a disservice to “The Fat Lady.” WTF, can she not even get a name?  And instead just body shaming her, wonderful! Other portraits get actual names like Sir Cadogan.  She’s brave and guards the common room from Sirius when she thinks he’ll kill the children inside, despite getting damaged.  Brave woman, JKR you’re an ass

[avese23]

TWs: mentions of s*lfharm, abuse, homophobia, sexism, classism, fat shaming, xenophobia, slavery, antisemitism, transphobia, mind-r*pe

TL;DR I discuss JKR which is why most of those triggers are relevant to this post

This post discusses ATLA, The X-men movies, Harry Potter, and She-Ra (2018). I’ve marked spoiler warnings when appropriate but if you’re very particular then don’t read.

Look at if the character was specifically written to be annoying or offensive but the text doesn’t excuse that behavior. For example, ATLA deals with sexism and genocide and classism and recognizes the reality of systems and acts of oppression but in most cases doesn’t try and put them in a good light. Sokka learns to respect women, Zuko sees the harm his nation has caused to people around him, in Ba Sing Se the segregation of poor vs rich people by a literal wall is called out as problematic. On the flip side elements such as Aang being offended by a woman portraying him (whereas Toph being played by a manly man is seen as desirable). While gender is complex and very personal, the double standard can come off as insensitive. There’s also the fatphobia against Iroh which isn’t called out, or the issues with the Eurocentric voice acting and animation. Despite the heavy Asian influence. The latter points are biases or oversights that happened behind the scenes.

Another relevant example of the writer being problematic rather than a character is with Harry Potter, where many of the problematic elements are either largely ignored by the cast or in the text itself. The fat shaming of the Dursley’s, the fact that any character we are supposed to hate is dehumanized and compared to animals (pansy, dudley, umbridge etc), the lack of diversity of any kind, the female characters being “shrill” or “nagging”, the way that ptsd is hand waved away, Ron’s sexism and mean tendencies being excused and ‘rewarded’ with relationships with girls who he verbally abuses, the fact that besides Hermione the characters are perfectly fine with slavery, the fact that JKR is a huge transmisogynist, the antisemetic depictions of goblins, the lack of knowledge around ANY foreign country or culture (indigenous peoples, egypt, even other European countries). I could go on forever.

An example of a hateable *character* would be Umbridge (though recently many people have compared her to JKR)

Slight spop s5 spoilers

A good example of a hateable character would be Horde Prime from She-Ra. While they aren’t perfect, Crew-Ra is generally in a good light in the spop fandom. I wish there was more racial diversity in the writers/animators but my ability to be critical doesn’t stop me from being appreciative of the creators, especially Noelle. Characters like Horde Prime were designed to make you angry. That’s why he’s such a powerful villain. Unlike narratively weaker villains such as Voldemort, for example, Horde Prime caused not only wide scale harm (which shows he’s a huge threat) but personal harm to the BFS and other characters the audience lives (which makes us angry). Hating him makes the ending to the show more satisfying, as well as justifiable (as it’s a kids show so comeuppance is gonna be generally less intense). Then there’s shadow weaver who is also very hated by fans. What I especially love about her character is how even though some people loathe her too much to interact, narratively she’s engaging. Terribly abusive, but in a way that’s addressed. Provided she isn’t a trigger, she’s a character with potential to dissect. Redeemed or loveable villains are fun and all but truly terrible people can be as well, if handled properly.

Another example of well done characters versus not well done is in X-men. (MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD)

Hateable character: in X-Men The Last Stand, Warren Worthington sr is a human who tries to “cure” his son Angel of being a mutant. The X-men (despite poor diversity) is an allegory for queerness. Angel in the beginning of the movie attempts cut off his wings before they can out him to his father. He later escapes from his abusive family before they can “cure” him without consent, only reuniting with them to save his father from being killed by the other mutants. His father ends up being saved by Angel’s power, which he had attempted to destroy.

Problematic creators: THE 👏🏽DISREGARD 👏🏽 FOR 👏🏽 CONSENT

Prof. X mind raping people, especially young prof X and especially when it comes to Jean.

Characters randomly touching unconscious people, usually of the opposite sex. Jean does it multiple times (not just as the Phoenix), Wolverine does it, etc

The emphasis of skin-on-skin contact in sex or intimacy in general. The fact that the boring ice kid is accused by Rogue to only be interested in sex purely because he’s a boy and this is never challenged. Or how he neglects her instead of using communication if he wanted to cut things off or be with Kitty instead. Just...ahhh. So much heteronormative and problematic bullshit in a queer allegory

When you're angry at the characters, the story is well-written. When you're angry at the writers, it is not.

[dykemcg]

like.......... i fucking love hermione so much but ummmm. she. she hates most women she comes into contact with its like. true lol. like honestly the only girl she has a close relationship with is ginny and we are barely shown any of that which is. really a shame. the only other girl i can think of that she wasn't immediately dismissive of is cho??? and uhhhh it's a problem when the main girl character of a super popular children's series hates the other girls/women/treats them super dismissively.

then there's lavender brown and parvati patil's treatment which. wow. they're literally just there to make hermione look better lol it's TERRIBLE.

and then there's fleur delacour who got. so much fucking unnecessary hate from her boyfriend's/fiance's own FAMILY which is like. fucked up.

and idek what to say abt cho bc that was all....... such a mess lmao. just. wow.

and then there's angelina johnson. ummmm. literally just used as a love interest for the weasley twins. which is a) kind of weird tbh and also just sad bc like...... she could be a cool main/big side character. i'd say she should have been the tri wizard tournament champion but uh!!!!! then she would have died and we really don't need more dead black girls so hm. Yeah.

oh also millicent bulstrode is literally just the "mean fat girl" stereotype lmao??? like. of course. the mean, violent girl is also fat. mhm. that's like, not a harmful stereotype at all. of course not.

and yeah p@nsy p@rkinson is objectively terrible but umm. she's literally just "mean shallow girl who Cares Too Much About Her Looks, that utter bitch" so thats. Bad. Lol.

all of this is bad and jkr has some explaining to do lol