#serious era

[socialbutterfly19]

To whom it may concern

[dangeroustaintedflawed]

[tossawary]

This is petty fandom salt, BUT... I've been chewing on this phenomenon that I've been calling "Fandom's Darling". It is related to things like "Author's Darling" and "Mary Sue / Gary Stu" and "Protagonist Halo" and all that jazz, where one character gains a peculiar narrative weight in a story.

"Author's Darling" is when a writer has a favorite character, and the world and all other characters sort of get... warped to put the Darling in the spotlight. It's most noticeable in TV shows with multiple writers, when a character you personally like suddenly has their previous characterization destroyed to make another character look good somehow. Every other character might become weirdly incompetent. The Darling's feelings are treated as The Most Important Feelings in any given situation. The logic of the fictional world seems broken past suspension of disbelief in order to validate this one character's beliefs or skillset or some other fantasy. And so on.

"Fandom's Darling" is what I've been calling the pattern where a fandom essentially crowns a New Protagonist for their fanfiction stories (it's often a side character rather than the original protagonist, but it can also happen to protagonists). This character becomes the self-insert for all sorts of indulgent fantasies, gaining special powers or backstories, and/or becoming the focus of extreme whump, and/or hooking up with all the various hotties, starring in all sorts of tropey AUs, and so on. They're not always an obvious Mary Sue version of themselves, but the character's original personality and interpersonal relationships tend to get warped or dropped completely, and other characters tend to become a little flat around them. I call it "Fandom's Darling" because it's not just one self-indulgent fantasy fic (you do you! Have fun!) with characterization choices that I don't vibe with (I have neither the time nor the desire nor the authority to police anything, I am just venting), but rather a prolific mini-fandom of sorts revolving around this empty doll / fanon version of the chosen vessel character, so it becomes a little unavoidable.

I am salty about this (mildly frustrated) (imagine a soft sigh of disappointment before I just go do something else) because you are FUCKED if you actually liked the canonical version of this character and their interpersonal relationships. It's almost worse than liking an obscure character that no one cares about. There's about a thousand fics starring your fave, but maybe only about a dozen of them are actually rooted in any kind of recognisable canon.

[wolvesandshine]

Barty: I’m going to kill my dad

Evan: Sure we can kill my dad too my house is on the way

Regulus: I volunteer killing my parents as a trial run

Everyone else:

[aithusarosekiller]

Imagine Sirius finding out about Jegulus through one of James' REVOLTINGLY sappy pet names because we all know that James is a mean little shit who thinks he's hilarious.

Like James only uses the pet names so he can irritate Regulus because 'James, I have a reputation to uphold that shall not be sallied by your foolish ludicrousity' and he finds it hilarious to watch Regulus scowl and grumpily swat at him whenever he says something gross like 'baby' 'my angel' 'angelface' 'honeybun' or my personal favourite 'babydoll'. It's just his sense of humour, he never uses normal nicknames anymore because the stupid ones are ingrained in his mind to an irreparable degree.

And it becomes such a habit that one time he just forgets that Sirius doesn't know and by that point, Regulus is so used to simply tuning it out in the hopes he'll eventually get bored and stop (he won't) that they don't realise for at least 20 seconds that James just walked into the brothers' flat and said 'Hi pads, haven't seen you all week! Hey babydoll, ooo, that really is a nice new jumper'

They both realise at the same time and it takes a further second for Sirius' face of morph into DISGUST. And it's not at the fact they're together but at the ABYSMAL name choice. Regulus is instantly fuming and desperately trying to explain that it's James being pathetic and making an idiotic joke but Sirius doesn't even buy it. He goes the rest of his life telling people about it and Regulus goes mad. James finds it so fucking funny but apologises for accidentally making it bigger than a joke between the two of them. He is eventually forgiven but he's banned from saying half of the silly names ever again.

[wykonii]

I’ll never let them

[ultravioletbrit]

“hold” - Jegulus microfic - @into-the-jeggyverse - 289 words

Regulus comes home to find James sitting on the couch, leaning back into the corner, fidgeting with his fingers and staring blankly at nothing. Regulus sits on the couch beside him—close, but not touching yet.

They sit quietly for a moment before Regulus breaks the silence that fills the room. “Are you okay?” He whispers.

James continues to stare and nods his head numbly. “I just feel…” He starts after a moment. “…off… weird… I don’t know.” He continues with a sigh.  

Regulus nods understandingly, and they fall into silence again.

“Is there anything I can do?” Regulus says softly after a few minutes.

James is quiet for several long moments. “Can you just hold me for a little while?” He asks, barely above a whisper.

Regulus’ lips tick up in a tiny smile and he shuffles over to wrap his arms around James. “I’ll hold you for as long as you need me to.” He whispers.

James melts into Regulus' arms with a sigh. “Do you know how much I love you?”

“Almost as much as I love you.” Regulus tells him and James lifts his head to fondly narrow his eyes at him.    

Regulus breathes a soft chuckle as he maneuvers them to lay down on the couch. James has his head resting on Regulus’ chest and their legs are tangled together. One of Regulus’ arms is wrapped around James’ shoulders and his hand is continuously carding through his hair, his other hand is running up and down James’ side.

They lay on the couch, talking about everything and nothing and just existing together. Regulus kisses the top of James’ head or squeezes him tightly or whispers sweet reassurances over and over. And Regulus holds James for as long as he needs.

[myfavcharacterdidntdrown]

Sirius: Hey Prongs, I hope our children will get along just like cousins, you know not like me and my cousins but like other cousins that get along so well, I always see cousins having a really good bond

James: Yeah I hope so too

*5 years later*

James: Hey Pads, you know when you told me about that cousin thing with our children *sweating nervously*

Sirius: Yeah what’s up with that?

James: I took your words too serious

Sirius: What do you mean?

James:

Sirius: James what do you mea- oh no no no no. Please don’t tell me that-

James: Surprise?

Sirius: JAMES FLEAMONT POTTER, YOU’RE DEAD YOU LITTLE BROTHERFUCKER

[that-bitch-kat3]

james and sirius really do match each others freaks and i love them for that

[lezbigarf]

i saw this palette and was like "i know who you are"

[actuallyregulusblack]

"he looked at me like i was father!" regulus choked out, pulling his knees up against his chest.

barty exchanged a glance with evan, eyes wide with concern.

evan gently put a hand on regulus' shoulder. "you're not him, reg. you never will be."

"but i hurt sirius!" he cried, burying his face into his hands. "i hurt him, ev. and he's scared of me, he's scared of his little brother! i'm so horrible!"

[secondbeatsongs]

going through some old logs, and I need you to understand just how truly unhinged early 2010s RP omegle was.

genuinely you could stay on there for hours with just one person, hashing out complex traumatic backstories, drawn-out love confessions, detailed action scenes...collaboratively describing graphic violence, past abuse, comfort, hurt/comfort, hurt/no comfort, any number of sex acts...and then one of you would be like, "oh haha it's 2AM! I have to sleep :(" and the other person would say, "omg saaaame. :( gnight!!!" and then you'd exit the chat and never speak to each other again, and this was. fine.

you could just spend an entire evening shoving your wretched, bleeding soul into a chat log with someone you'd never meet or learn the name of, achieve some form of emotional catharsis, and then go about your day or night like this was an average way to spend your time.

I'm really normal about this, actually

[padfoot-lupin77]

Remus: I’m not joking guys I’m fucking serious

James and Peter: *Le gasp*

Sirius: *grins*

Remus: oh fuck the lot of you that’s not what I meant and you know it

Sirius: is it not true though? *winks*

Remus: *sighs* I suppose it is

Peter: Pay up James

James: couldn’t you guys have waited until after Christmas? I would have won the bet then

[sparsilees]

the blacks aren’t an incestuous family

you can say sirius is rather unhinged and depressed from prolonged dementor exposure and the violent tragedy of betrayal and loss. you can say he’s traumatised by his upbringing and the first wizarding war. or that the horrors™ have done a real number on him. that bellatrix lestrange was too brilliant, too enchanted with the dark arts, or too broken from azkaban.

don’t blame it on ‘black family madness’, it doesn’t exist in canon. don’t blame it on inbreeding.

the pureblood families generally intermarried between ‘suitable’ bloodlines (sometimes they brought in halfbloods, too). the blacks are no exception—why marry your silly cousin when there’s a wider pool of eligible pureblood contenders? because according to the back family tree *checks note* walburga and orion are the only cousins known to have married in canon—specifically, they’re second cousins.

the black family tree roots are far-reaching and expansive. there’s always a black daughter that’s married into every other notable family—the burkes, the crouches, the lestranges, the longbottoms, the malfoys, the prewetts, the potters, and the weasleys—the wizarding world is built on the black bloodline.

everyone’s related in some capacity to the blacks, with certain individuals more closely than others, like how sirius black and arthur weasley are second cousins once removed, with their closest common ancestor being former headmaster phineas black.

the black family members featured in the books descend from either arcturus (the main branch) or pollux. this means that, due to their parents’ union, sirius and regulus have black, macmillan, and crabbe ancestry. whereas the black sisters are entirely removed from the heir line and share black, crabbe, and rosier bloodlines. sirius and regulus, and bellatrix, andromeda, and narcissa share exactly one set of grandparents and one set of great-grandparents.

(also, if you subscribe to the alternate canon that james’ parents are dorea and charlus, it means sirius and james are first cousins once removed; james and arthur are second cousins; and harry and ron are third cousins, placing them in the same generation as the black quintet and closer to phineas black than draco or tonks.)

canonically, it’s the gaunts who were “a very ancient wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins”, and even nearly pulled off sibling marriage to continue their line.

unlike the gaunts, the blacks did not bring together first cousins into a union and added various bloodlines into the family, so the ‘black family madness due to incestuous practices’ theory doesn’t hold water, bye.

[marauderswolf22]

i genuinely think that harry calling remus proffesor lupin instead of uncle moony is one of the most tragic things in the whole harry potter. the fact that he REMAINED proffesor lupin and was never called uncle moony? just a constant reminder that he had lost everything?

PS: i know that it's not completely harry's fault, I'm frustrated at the whole outcome and remus' fate

[rudamaruda520]

[in the corridor]

Sirius: Hey! Nearly headless Nick! I mean- sir Nicholas! Wait!

Sir Nicholas: What do you need, child?

Sirius: I need to know how to become a ghost!

Sir Nicholas: Why would you want that?

Sirius: ...

Sirius: I have a great punch line that will work only after my death...

Sir Nicholas: And that's it? That's the whole reason?! Are you serious?

Sirius: Dead Sirius.