#show this to the blood purists

[the-fuck-did-u-say]

Ok but what the fuck is magic? It’s literally glorified science? When did people decide magic was not real when science is? What if I said everything scientific was magical and science is magic and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WOULD CHANGE?

[jessescatorccio]

sometimes i really wish asoiaf had never hit the mainstream (got and hotd) bc now i have to see so many horrific ridiculous takes about house targaryen

[pomegranatears]

.

[weirwoodsugar]

being a book purist about the asoiaf main series makes sense and is normal because the books are good and the show is not good. being a book purist about fire and blood is crazy because fire and blood isn’t good. hopefully this little explainer has helped clear up any confusion on this topic

[in-flvx]

I truly do not understand how much of the arguments about the marauders intelligence are being tied to their detentions.

It's always "Remus pulled the strings behind the scenes, he was just better than sirius and james at not getting caught" and I have to entirely disagree with this.

We know that sirius and james can keep a secret, and can do incredibly complicated magic in secret, right under the nose of a teacher who had done the same process herself. They became animagi at 15, they snuck out every full moon after that without getting caught, they made a map of the entire castle that nobody knew about, they made the most useful and accurate form of long distance communication known to wizard kind, which again nobody knew about, just to make their detentions less boring.

If they had wanted to not get caught for hexing their fellow students, they wouldn't have been.

Harry mentions that the two often got detention for cruel things, for being bullies basically. And I am not saying that they weren't.

But also, they went to school during a war, and both of them were squarely against pureblood ideology. They were also both proud of their position, and very proactive about it. They were fighting the war in hogwarts, even before joining the order. And both of them maintain a pretty traditional view of chivalry and honor. Sirius outright condemns Peters desire to stay in the shadow rather than being outright about his standing.

So why would either of james and sirius hide away as they hex blood purists. They are proud of it!

Meanwhile, Peter and remus are less often part of the detentions. Peter, as we've covered, likes to stay out of the lime light, and just be grouped in by proximity.

Remus acts differently. We see him operate, and, yes he has a talent to bully in such a way that he doesnt end up punished. He is a trickster, even if he's basically as open in his mockery as sirius and james are.

This isn't about intelligence or capability.

It matters to remus and for remus what being caught could mean for him, how much it would open a target on him if he didn't operate this way.

And it matters to sirius and james to show very openly where their loyalties lie. It matters to them to not hide away when the only consequence would be writing lines or cleaning cauldrons or even getting hexed in turn.

[florisbaratheons]

God, I cannot stand it when people get on their high horse about folks being upset that adaptations defer greatly from their source material. "It's two different canons! You should be happy with what you get! If you're not happy, then go read the book!"

How about no? I saw all of this in the Shadow and Bone fandom, and season 2 suffered from it's great deference from the books and shoving huge arcs from the source material into little 10 second scenes to try and cover everything at once.

Being upset that a character like Rhaenyra is made out to be a goody-two-shoes when she was fucking nuts in the source material is not being a "book purist". It only erases what the story was actually about and takes these characters that are pretty much show inventions and slapping book names on them.

Being upset that Alicent is written as a giant waffler and tying her to Rhaenyra when she should fucking hate her is not being a "book purist". It's called respecting what her arc should be, not this lazy crap that the show is pedaling.

Being upset that Nettles has been cut and her arc combined with Rhaena and likely Addam is not being a "book purist". It's called being upset that the show is writing black people as being interchangable and reducing them down to dust. It also erases the back half of Daemon's story in the war, reduces him to an anime villain when they take all of the rotten choices Rhaenyra made and give them to him.

Fire and Blood wasn't a well written book, but it had a good baseline. But if the HOTD writers cannot even stick with that, then what's the point of calling it an adaptation? Look at how much GOT suffered when they started deferring from the books in seasons 5-6? But course, the show made money, it made GRRM money, so yeah, he's not gonna be upset about it. Of course he's still gonna allow people to adapt his work. That's not the issue here.

Folks are allowed to be upset. Let them be.

[midnightstargazer]

In OotP, when Regulus is first mentioned, this is how he's introduced:

"He was younger than me," said Sirius, "and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded."

The juxtaposition of those two things - younger and a better son - stands out because the Blacks are such an old-fashioned family. Sirius and Regulus seem like a typical "heir and a spare" situation, so for the spare to be a "better son" than the heir is a big deal.

In DH, when Harry visits the top floor of Grimmauld Place, one thing he notices is that Sirius had the larger bedroom. To me, this suggests that, at least when they were young children, their parents showed more favoritism to Sirius. He was, after all, the oldest and the heir. Given that Bellatrix and Walburga didn't have quiet, passive temperaments either, I doubt his personality would be seen as a problem until he ended up in Gryffindor, befriending the wrong people and rejecting everything the family stood for.

Regulus's more dutiful and obedient attitude was no doubt something they appreciated once Sirius really started rebelling, and it's easy to imagine them pitting their sons against each other: look at your brother, he's in the right house, he's rarely ever in detention, he's got friends we approve of - why can't you be like him? But still, they didn't disown Sirius until he ran away at sixteen. This suggests to me that any favoritism towards Regulus was, at least at first, an attempt to bring Sirius back into line and get him to behave the way they expected.

Even after Sirius ran away, they kept his room exactly as it was. Even if everything on the walls was attached with a permanent sticking charm, it shouldn't have been too difficult to cover it up. Furniture and personal items could certainly be gotten rid of. The fact that the room was still pretty much untouched tells me they kept holding out hope he might come back.

However, I do think that things would have changed for Regulus after Sirius was Sorted into Gryffindor and after he ran away. In both cases, there would have been more pressure on him to live up to the family's expectations. The impression we're given of Regulus in the books is of someone who didn't really think for himself and was very proud of his conformity. It seems reasonable to me that that would have come from growing up with an older brother who constantly defied their parents and, as a result, had lost their favoritism. And knowing, of course, that their love for him was just as conditional.

(That's not me saying he was forced into anything. I actually don't think Orion and Walburga would have forced either of their sons to join the Death Eaters. But I do think Regulus felt he had something to prove, was taught basically the same ideology at home, and was therefore easier to radicalize. And I think that feeling of having something to prove probably came, at least in part, from watching Sirius go from favorite son and heir to scapegoat to disowned.)

Both brothers, I think, ended up living very different lives than their family would've chosen for them. They would've been expected to marry pure-blood women and have kids, to support the blood purist ideology but not actually risk their lives for it, and either to live off their inherited wealth or to work in relatively safe, prestigious careers. So, in different ways, they both fell short.

I do think there was definitely a scapegoat and golden child dynamic, but I think it's a bit more complicated than that: changing favoritism through the years as it became more and more obvious that Sirius wouldn't fall into line with the family expectations, first to pit them against each other and then to cut Sirius off and replace him with Regulus.

[anxiousnerdwritings]

(God this is so all over the place but I just needed to get these thoughts out😅)

I can’t find the exact ask it was but someone had sent something in a while back about yan!Bellatrix moving into Spinner’s End and making a version of the Black Family tree on one of the walls of the house for the Reader and ever since I have fallen in love with the idea. I think it took place in the scenario of Muggle!Aunt!Reader getting her letter and attending Hogwarts or being an obscurus and getting to still attend Hogwarts later on thanks to Lily. And with one of the last asks having the Evan’s home being a safe haven I just can’t let go of the idea of the Marauders Era doing the same in their time resulting in them having their own makeshift family tree wall at the Evan’s with everyone on it cause they had become this sort of blended friend group/family. Honestly, it ends up being more of a tree of obsession for the Reader.

I, of course, will forever stand by the thought of Andromeda and Ted being friends with the Reader and the Reader even getting the two together in the first place if she went to Hogwarts. It starts out by the Reader giving their house out to Andromeda and Ted to meet and be able to hangout with each other. I just love the idea of the Reader (especially Hufflepuff!Evan’s!Reader) being a total wingman for her bestie and fellow Hufflepuff Ted (maybe there even ends up becoming a poly thing later on since the Reader has been so involved in the two’s relationship, it would end up being a little off without the Reader there with them👀🤷🏻‍♀️). Eventually the Evans home ends up becoming a safe place for Andromeda (similar to the Potter house being a safe place for Sirius) and she ends up hanging out there even when Ted isn’t over and really builds a bond with the Reader. If that were the case then you can bet that Andromeda would have gotten out of the Black family a hell of a lot sooner and she would have gone straight to the Evan’s house.

Eventually, other Marauders end up showing up to the Evan’s home. Lily has no idea how a good majority of the other Slytherins outside of Andromeda know where her and the Reader live. James and Sirius are completely under the belief that Snape told them cause Andy would never, and eventually Lily starts to believe it too resulting in her becoming even more overprotective than she already was of the Reader. Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Evans are running out of space for all these kids showing up on their doorstep.

First, it was Andromeda, then maybe Regulus showed up looking for his cousin and ended up staying. For a time it’s just those two being there and Lily’s friends/housemates hanging out during breaks and whatnot. Then one day, Bellatrix is on the Evan’s doorstep talking about being there to bring her sister home but really she just uses that as an excuse to be there herself and getting to see where and how the Reader lives. She ends up leaving without much of a fight or anything only to show back up later with a suitcase of her own and Narcissa in tow. The next thing Lily knows her whole house is full of magical blood purists who are for some uncomfortable and frustrating reason being extremely territorial of her precious sister. And apparently Rita Skeeter found her way there too.

I do love the idea of some of the parents coming to collect their children only to end up sticking around at the Evan’s house too. Unlike their children, most of the adults don’t quite move in but visit often. Except Walburga, she full on moves in. With or without her husband, most likely without him.

I have this concept of Walburga becoming extremely obsessed with the Reader, whether they’re an obscurus or not. I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s the innocence and naivety of the Reader that stirred something in Walburga, maybe they reminded her of when she was a child before she became the person she is today. Whatever it is Walburga wants to clutch onto them and never let go. Like, I have this scenario of the Reader ending up at the Black house for dinner and them offhandedly thanking Kreacher for their meal or something and Walburga inquires about it, asking why they would thank the servant for doing their duty only for the Reader to reply with it being mannerly to do so in the muggle world. And everyone’s reaction in this situation is so stressed and on the edge of their seat waiting for Walburga to fly off the handle but she surprises everyone by thanking Kreacher too. Albeit, she is completely rigid and monotone doing it but after, Walburga looks to the Reader and asks if she did it right. I just like the thought of the Reader nodding with a little smile and Walburga looking so proud with herself. Hell, Walburga would even try to get the Reader to stay the night at Grimmauld Place that very night but Orion, Sirius, Regulus, Andromeda and Bellatrix are able to put it off and get the Reader back home. Meanwhile Walburga ends up at the Evan’s house days later and basically kidnaps the Reader only to have them be her guide and show her around some muggle shops and whatnot out of pure curiosity and wanting to spend more time with the Reader.

[luv-lock]

I'm so tired of being labeled a "book purist" just because I prefer the source material. Believe me, honey, when I say this: I couldn't care less about two spoiled brats squabbling over a throne they’re both woefully unfit to sit on.

Like, are we seriously going to pretend that when we've got titans like Aegon the Conqueror, Maegor the Cruel, Daeron the Young Dragon, and the Great Bastards, I'm supposed to give a damn about a catfight between two weaklings? Please. That's like putting a schoolyard slap fight next to a gladiator brawl. And don’t even get me started on the people who only crawled out of the woodwork when the House of the Dragon dropped, acting like they've been die-hard fans from day one. Bitch, shut up and spare me your pseudo-expertise. You probably couldn't even tell me who Septon Barth was if I handed you Fire & Blood on a silver platter.

And oh, the takes these people have—God, it's actually funny. They'll call Helaena "useless" while stanning show-Rhaenyra, who's basically a cheap mash-up of Daenerys and book Helaena, minus any of the nuance. Make it make sense, because I’m lost.

And then there's the blasphemy about Daeron. Like, excuse me, but what in the Seven Hells are you even talking about? Daeron was the only one of Viserys' children truly worthy of the throne. He was perfect—kind, gentle, brave, loving, capable, strong, and intelligent. In other words, everything his siblings weren’t. Daeron would've actually made a good king, which, funnily enough, is probably why he gets ignored.

As for the show? It’s a steaming pile of trash. The only reason I’m still tuning in is because the actors are hot. That's it. I’m just being honest here—call it shallow if you want, but at least I'm not pretending there's some deep, compelling narrative worth sticking around for.

[konstantynowitz]

Noble and Most Ancient House of Black — Headcanons

Pollux Black was thirteen when he had his eldest child Walburga.

Irma was forced to drop out of Hogwarts by her in-laws due to her pregnancy with her daughter.

Because of how young her parents were when she was born, Wally was nursed by Kreacher’s mother during infanthood and early childhood.

Melania Black was not a blood supremacist, nor did she follow the societal standards expected of women at the time.

She was independent in nature and had a mind of her own.

Melania did not wait around for men to tell her what to do and that was probably something that attracted Arcturus.

If you’ve watched the show Versailles then you’d be familiar with Princess Palatine who I’d say has the same personality.

She just gives off that kind of energy, ya know?

Melania was a very worldly woman with a bright mind, which made her intellectually dangerous.

And this discouraged Arcturus’s family from giving their blessing to let him marry her.

This also made Melania quite undesirable amongst other pure-blooded families who didn’t want to take on a bride who could potentially challenge their traditional values and expectations.

Her headstrong personality caused people to perceive Melania as difficult and untamed.

She came from a family of Hufflepuffs and bore their kind-hearted and warm disposition.

Melania refused to conform to the purist beliefs of her in-laws and remained accepting of all blood statuses.

She was against muggle hunting and muggle persecution, which obviously made it hard to be married into the Black family.

It took many years for Sirius II to accept Melania into the family and give his blessing for Arcturus to marry her.

Her own disdain towards the bigotry and racism displayed by her in-laws towards the muggle race was what set her aside from the rest of Black family.

Melania stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of her husband’s relatives and that made her an easy target.

I’m sure on multiple occasions Arcturus’s parents had attempted to convince their son to divorce Melania.

But obviously for Arcturus what they were suggesting was out of the question.

Melania was never truly accepted into the Black family and would always be referred to as the “Macmillan girl” by Hesper Black.

Which upset Arcturus greatly as Melania was his wife and therefore was entitled to the Black family name.

Mel was the favorite grandmother of Sirius and Regulus between herself and Irma.

She was the only one who expressed pride towards her grandson Sirius getting sorted into Gryffindor.

When Sirius ran away, Melania still remained in contact with him and if it wasn’t for his disownment from the family then she would’ve allowed him to live with her and Arcturus.

But Arcturus wouldn’t allow it, saying that Sirius had disgraced the family and their reputation.

Besides Alphard, Mel was the one to financially support her grandson, even when he went to go live with the Potters.

She would also still call on Sirius for weekly tea dates at fancy restaurants or smth and then update Orion and Wally on how their son was doing just to rub it in their face that even though they disowned him they couldn’t keep Melania away from her grandbaby.

Like out of nowhere she would drop a comment about Sirius while crocheting a blanket like: “oh yes, your son is doing quite well, actually. He’s been made head boy, just like you Orion when you were his age.”

Oh those comparisons would strike a nerve for both Orion and Walburga.

Some days they would be upset, almost infuriated to hear of their son; their blood traitor of a son, the one who was as good as dead to them.

On other days — when Melania would tell them about how successful their eldest son had become, the one that ran away and never came back, the one they hoped would come back but never did, their pride and joy, favorite — their hearts would ache with loss and sorrow because all they wanted was for their family to be whole again.

When Melania died she left all of her assets to Sirius.

Walburga despised her mother-in-law for this, it was almost like one last “fuck you” from Melania.

Marius Black was eighteen when he was disowned from the family.

He was closest with his nephew Alphard who at the time was only seven when his uncle was forced to leave home.

Marius was a Squib, so he wasn’t a very valued member of House Black.

In spite of this, his parents kept him around even if his very presence brought them shame.

Oftentimes they wouldn’t even mention that they had a second son, or a third child.

Cygnus II and Violetta had kept their younger son away from the prying eyes of society, nor would they allow him to interact with his siblings much.

Not many people knew that Marius existed besides his relatives.

The only records of Marius that there is exists within some newspaper dating back to 1916 announcing his birth, as well as his identification and registration documents within the Ministry.

What really got Marius disowned from the family was participating in the Muggle Rights Movement and advocating for muggleborns.

He was cast out of the Black family tree and went to go live with his Uncle Phineas who willingly took him in.

Phineas had been disowned for the same reason as his nephew years prior.

Before Cygnus was engaged to Druella, his parents had originally planned to betroth him to his cousin Araminta.

Cygnus had hemophilia due to the Black family’s constant inbreeding.

He was treated as fragile as a child and he was often sheltered because of his condition.

Whenever his cousins came over to play, he couldn’t participate in certain activities such as a simple game of tag because his parents feared that he would fall and hurt himself.

His marriage with Walburga was an abusive one and once she slapped him hard enough that it started up his hemophilia.

It was so bad that he was bedridden for a whole week, half-conscious, and fighting for his life.

In bed, Walburga was top. She would never let herself be dominated by a man, especially Orion.

Their intimate moments together were fickle ones and far from passionate, nor were they very loving.

They never shared a bed together. The both of them had their own separate rooms far, far away from each other.

[ineedtherapydesperately]

@valengory1234 you just sent me down an endless path imagining chloe speaking like shakespeare and being a shakespeare purist and shit like imagine the way she confessed to red or like flirts with red, or when she makes dirty jokes that nobody quite understands

like imagine chloe quietly confessing romeo and juliet style like but soft, what light through yonder window breaks? it is the east, and red is the sun. arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief, that thou, her maid, art far more fair than she all because red dragged them onto a random rooftop on auradon prep to stargaze?? and red is just laying there, staring at the moon in complete shock, slowly attempting to translate everything because what the fuck, was that shakespeare?? and holy shit chloe is such a nerd?? because red NEVER bothered to learn shakespeare but it's so familiar and she feels like that little monologue was important?? and chloe is sat there, looking down at red lovingly, straight cheesing as she watches the love of her life attempt to understand her words

i already headcanon bridget calling red 'rose', but imagine chloe calling red that because of shakespeare?? because the man LOVED using rose imagery to talk about love, and just imagine chloe saying like a rose by any other name would smell as sweet which leads me to another idea about glassheart/charminghearts that i may post later if anyone is interested

like imagine chloe just sees red one day and starts reciting sonnet 18 at her, just because?? shall i compare thee to a summer’s day? thou art more lovely and more temperate- and red is just here, steadily growing redder, face absolutely matching her name because chloe, isn’t that like a love poem??? and chloe is here like well yes, i am trying to confess to you here if you don’t mind

ugggh imagine chloe fondly watching red scale the walls of auradon prep, running along the rooftops which is absolutely against the code of conduct, but chloe can't find it in herself to care because it's red, because red, you draw me, you hard hearted adamant, but yet you draw not iron for my heart is true as steel. let's ignore how this is contextually where helena is crying to demetrius and pretend that it's just chloe lamenting quietly to herself about her (not so) unrequited crush <3

imagine chloe rereading much ado about nothing (because she would absolutely reread shakespearian plays) and when red asks her how the play is, chloe says i mean, i'd much rather there be some to do about your nothing and red is confused because that didn't make sense?? only it makes sense if you take elizabethan era slang into account, which chloe, face completely straight, suggests red searches up, only to burst into borderline maniacal giggles when red's face once more flushes horrendously because chloe what the actual fuck?! because this is so out of chloe's character??? whether this happens before or after they're dating is anyone's guess

@blood-carnation here you go :D i have so many more scenarios in my mind hehe (my english nerd is showing 😔)

[lurveinn]

I’m so curious about Wizarding fashion. JKR isn’t very physically descriptive- we just know that wizards wear robes, which are outlandish to muggles, and pointy hats, but what does that really mean? What kind of robe? Magical fashion clearly isn’t very gendered, since Harry remarks on a man at the Quidditch World Cup wearing a dress and insisting that it’s unisex (certainly not the case in Britain at the time), but we don’t have any other parameters. Keeping in mind the uniform from the movies, and the fact that in SWM, Snape isn’t wearing any trousers, here’s what I think wizards wear:

1. Flowing silhouettes and cloaks; clearly, wizards love a good statement cloak. Think tassels and frills (not like Ron’s Yule Ball fit!), massive extended sleeves and lots of draping.

2. Skirts: let’s be honest, just one singular robe, without any layering, doesn’t give us much to work with. Skirts go with the general silhouette, explain why the World Cup wizard thought muggle men wore dresses, and keep with the no-trousers thing from SWM. I’m South Asian, so I like to have a little fun with it and think of wizards in ghararas (my favourite item of clothing); the Wizarding World is quite insular, travel is relatively unrestricted (hello, they have magic!), everyone has a common enemy in muggles (and other species- goblins, house-elves) etcetera, so race probably doesn’t function the same way and I headcanon a lot of cross-cultural exchange. Plus, wizarding fashion isn’t restricted by weather- they have warming charms- so wearing clothes made for hot climates in England, for example, wouldn’t be a problem.

Plus, I actually think saris are a natural fancy dress option- flowy, drapey, colourful. Speaking of which-

3. If there’s one fanon idea that I hate (aside from fanon!Sirius, of course), it’s this image of wizards (specifically high society wizards) as reserved. Sorry, did we read the same books? Wizards, even posh, rich wizards, like the Malfoys and Blacks, are camp and very outlandish. They do house-elf taxidermy, they keep their wands in canes. Just because Hogwarts uniforms are black doesn’t mean that people dress like they’re in mourning all the time. People can be total snobs and obsessed with their image and still wear bright pink, insane robes, because guess what? They have different social conventions than we do. Men and women dress basically the same, so there is no reason to believe that a man wearing a flowing robe would be against the norm. I say this as someone who believes misogyny and homophobia are well and truly alive in Wizarding society, especially in pureblooded families where the emphasis is on continuing the line; they definitely exist, but they probably look different.

4. My personal obsession and headcanon: rich wizards wearing bones. Look, I might not think of them as racist in the traditional sense, but they are undeniably speciesist, if that’s a word? They think of themselves as superior, and other sentient magical species either work under (goblins) or are enslaved (house-elves) by wizards. We only see Veelas very briefly, but despite them being admired for their beauty, I doubt wizards treat them very well. So- show me blood-purists wearing corsets made of goblin bones and teeth. Show me Veelas being hunted for their blood to stain and dye clothes with. Show me exotic “magical creatures” that are humanoid and capable of reasoning and should have rights, like mermaids and werewolves, being hunted for their scales and pelts while also being ostracised for being ‘non-human’. It’s terrible, but that’s the kind of archaic jewellery and fashion the old families that the fandom likes to fetishise would like to wear.

[saintsenara]

I’ve curious about something you said… you mention that you believe 💯 that Barty Crouch Jr was a full on DE/Blood purist Before being sent to Azkaban but to me the trial scene made me think otherwise- could you elaborate on why you think he was faking and is a true DE?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

barty crouch jr. is - obviously - a fascinating character. but this doesn't override the fact that his primary purpose in goblet of fire is to be a narrative device: the plot twist of the century at the denouement of the book, when "professor moody" is revealed as an imposter; and a man everyone assumed to be dead is revealed to be alive; and a man many people [including harry and, it's implied, dumbledore] suspected - on the basis of his performance at his trial - might simply have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, rather than a fanatical death eater, is revealed to be... a fanatical death eater, who has been working for a full year to facilitate voldemort's resurrection.

like in a murder mystery, the narrative purpose of crouch jr.'s unmasking at the end of the book is to reveal that several things the text presents as clues before harry [the reader surrogate] has all the information are actually red herrings once he does.

the first of these is that, like philosopher's stone, goblet of fire goes out of its way to suggest that the faithful death eater at hogwarts is snape - which it does magnificently:

A grim smile twisted his lopsided mouth. “Oh if there’s one thing I hate,” he muttered, more to himself than to Harry, and his magical eye was fixed on the left-hand corner of the map, “it’s a Death Eater who walked free...” Harry stared at him. Could Moody possibly mean what Harry thought he meant?

harry - and, therefore, the reader - is, of course, immediately primed to interpret this as the real moody suggesting that snape is still suspected of being a loyal death eater. what we learn later, of course, is that crouch-as-moody is actually accusing snape of being disloyal:

“I told you, Harry... I told you. If there’s one thing I hate more than any other, it’s a Death Eater who walked free. They turned their backs on my master when he needed them most.”

and the second is that goblet of fire treats barty crouch sr. not as a villain - per se - but as one of the long line of civil servants who appear in the series whose commitment to doing everything by the book - being precise, bureaucratic, inflexible, and so on - only ends up making them extraordinarily cruel. crouch is the precursor to how percy will behave in order of the phoenix, and he also has numerous things in common with how dolores umbridge [an unambiguous villain] and rufus scrimgeour [an antagonist, but not a villain] are written.

the text suggests on multiple occasions prior to its denouement that crouch's rigidity made him incapable of mercy [a virtue the series really values].

but, in addition to this, it suggests that crouch's cardinal sin isn't that he didn't show mercy to the genuinely guilty... but that he didn't show mercy to the innocent.

how do we know this? because he's the man who's responsible for the miscarriage of justice which defines the series:

Sirius’s face darkened. He suddenly looked as menacing as he had the night when Harry first met him, the night when Harry still believed Sirius to be a murderer. “Oh I know Crouch all right,” he said quietly. “He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban - without a trial.”

sirius also tells us that crouch was power-hungry and corrupt:

"Crouch’s principles might’ve been good in the beginning - I wouldn’t know. He rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort’s supporters. The Aurors were given new powers - powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn’t the only one who was handed straight to the dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence, and authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side."

and he also gives the reader a nibble at the other half of this red herring, when he suggests that barty crouch jr. might have been nothing more than a victim of his father's ruthlessness, just like winky - the innocent house elf whose cruel treatment at crouch sr.'s hands not only infuriates hermione, but is also given by sirius as proof of crouch's near-villainy:

“Was his son a Death Eater?” said Harry.  “No idea,” said Sirius, still stuffing down bread. “I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I’ve found out since I got out. The boy was definitely caught in the company of people I’d bet my life were Death Eaters - but he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the house-elf.”

when harry ends up in the pensieve a couple of chapters later, then, he and the reader are primed to view barty crouch jr.'s hysterics on the stand as authentic, to be horrified that crouch sr. could send his son to azkaban with such brutal ease, and to highly suspect that his conviction - like sirius' - was illegitimate.

but - of course - the twist at the end of the book is that harry [and sirius] is completely wrong about this.

barty crouch sr.'s decision to send his own son to azkaban was the right one. and the thing that ruined him was not making a ruthless decision, but making a merciful one.

because, as barty crouch jr. tells us, his father breaking him out of azkaban, around a year after sending him there, meant nothing to him... other than the chance to return to voldemort:

“And what did your father do with you, when he had got you home?” said Dumbledore quietly. “Staged my mother’s death. A quiet, private funeral. That grave is empty. The house-elf nursed me back to health. Then I had to be concealed. I had to be controlled. My father had to use a number of spells to subdue me. When I had recovered my strength, I thought only of finding my master... of returning to his service.”

these are not the words of someone who was anything other than a sincere death eater when he and the lestranges attacked frank and alice longbottom.

and they are, therefore, the words of someone whose performance of horrified innocence - just in the wrong place at the wrong time - at his trial is one hundred percent fake.

[metalomagnetic]

(sorry to fill your inbox with nonsense)

does anyone else have some crack plot wishes for It Runs? Mine is that Voldemort gets resurrected and goes upstairs in Grimmauld, Walburga sees him and immediately fires the killing spell, and his unstable soul fractures again and the bit goes on and attaches itself to the closest living being it finds: Kreacher. Hilarity ensues.

in all seriousness, I want to point out how I love the almost inside-jokey parallels that you manage to weave through the chapters and the derived fic e.g. Sirius inwardly making fun of Lily for thinking magic is what does Hogwarts’ laundry but having the same thought process for the radio and the chores at Voldemort’s house. Having that continuity reaffirmed gives so much depth and dimension to the story and makes it feel so alive.

Oh, my god, you have no idea how close you got to an abandoned plot! At some point, even if it was not in a crack way, and it would have made sense, Voldemort possessed Kreacher for about 5 minutes!

It's discarded, but seeing your first paragraph made me finch in surprise and also laugh so much, because in your scenario Kreacher would be a Horcrux and that would have been the funniest thing ever.

Ah, so happy you caught on to the dissonance going on in the head of a blood purist, even one as mild as Sirius, who truly isn't hateful and is generally accepting of non-pureblood! I just wanted to show, here and there, how this sense of superiority purebloods have is never based on logic, so it always falls so easily apart if anyone would look at it too closely.

[lemonhemlock]

The thing that's getting lost in the weeds when it comes to talking about being a book purist vs. a show HOTD fan is that the main issues, imo, aren't necessarily the departures from the text, it's the REASONS why Condall and Hess made those departures. Maelor not being included, and having Helaena have a Sophie's choice moment between the twins would have been fine if they also kept all the other details in Blood and Cheese and Helaena's grief after the fact. If you want to use child labour laws as an excuse, fine, altho Condal went on a podcast and said that they changed B and C because of Alicent's 'propaganda' lol. But let's take Condal's words at face value for a moment. Then why cut out the maid being strangled? Why cut out Alicent being tied and forced to watch as it happened? Why cut out the threats to Jaehara? Why cut out Helaena offering her life? Why were Criston and Aemond not shown trying to get in the room as it happened? None of those changes involved having a toddler on set being subjected to triggering scenes, so the that excuse no longer works, and none of them involved spending more time or money on the scene. They simply should have cut out the buddy comedy between Blood and Cheese and that stupid dog to give more time to Helaena and the kids.

Instead we have Alicent having sex with Criston, Helaena not offering life, Helaena not feeling any grief and getting over it almost immediately because heaven forbid Daemon and Rhaenyra look bad because of a grieving mother.

Every single change to Blood and Cheese was done to white wash Daemon, by extension Rhaenyra, and by further extension to white wash team black. I'm not a book purist by any means, but almost every single change to the source material that isn't due to budget constraints is done to cynically white wash Rhaenyra and push the agenda that you are a misogyny loving Woman for Trump if you side with Alicent and the Greens.

Other changes like Rhaenys choosing to go fight instead of being ordered by Rhaenyra, Laenor not being killed by Daemon so he could marry Rhaenyra, Rhaenyra not ordering Vaemond to be killed and eaten by her dragon, Nettles being cut because the writers can't have their Girl Boss 'lose' to another woman and be humiliated by her husband cavorting with a teenager, Helaena not feeling grief because that would make Rhaenyra/Daemon/TB look bad. Maelor wasn't cut because of budget or kid issues, he was cut because his storyline made Rhaenyra look bad. THAT's the issue here. I don't for a minute buy that they cut Maelor because of child labour laws, there are in fact ways to have kids in scenes like that where they don't have to see or hear anything offensive using smart editing, etc. That's my problem here, all of this was a very cynical and transparent way to whitewash TB and further demonize TG.

Any time people in the fandom are baffled as to why certain changes were made, just ask yourself how it serves Rhaenyra and you will get your answer.

^^^^^^^ i don't really have anything more to add, anon, you spelled everything out! 👌

tumblr user maglors-grief even recently commented that they actually aged down aegon iii and viserys ii, so, if using toddlers is such a hassle and a problem, why didn't they age them up instead? it's just a invented pretext to wave away their bias

[insanityclause]

As the third of Jamie Lloyd's three-in-a-row Shakespeare adaptations, Much Ado About Nothing is as bright and engaging as the other two were ill-judged and boring.

The radical revisionist's take on Romeo & Juliet brought in young audiences thanks to the casting of Spider-Man star Tom Holland. But it was devoid of scenery and passion, and in its stark black-and-whiteness with sudden splashes of blood red it was derivative of the director's stunning Sunset Boulevard minus that show's dramatic heft.

Then came The Tempest, which, some comic business aside, was even bleaker and more barren, and featured Sigourney Weaver as Prospero in a performance that felt phoned-in.

Like his other Shakespeares, Lloyd's version of Much Ado About Nothing doesn't have much in the way of scenery - just a table and chairs and a giant red heart, the walls and wings of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane's stage laid bare.

There are no costume changes either, unless you count Tom Hiddleston ripping open his shirt to reveal abs of steel.

What the director's third bash at The Bard does have is Hiddleston's magnificent flair for comic timing as Benedict, a solider back from battle, and Hayley Atwell's cleverly conflicted turn as Beatrice, who is engaged in her own war with Benedict.

In this gloriously giddy take, the alliterative pair are sparring partners who insist on bitching and bickering when it's clear they are made for each other.

Meanwhile, everyone around them is meddling in the forthcoming nuptials between lovesick Hero and her suitor Claudio, while bumbling constable Dogberry is nowhere to be seen; he's been completely cut in a streamlined two-hour show that only flags a little when things take a dark turn at the start of act two.

Dance classics from the 90s are pumped into the auditorium before it starts. Pink confetti is all over the stage and rains down from the rafters. Benedict and his bros come on to Fight For Your Right To Party in an hilarious bit of dad dancing.

There's a masked ball with giant animal heads that could have been borrowed from The Masked Singer's prop room. Mason Alexander Park's Margaret belts out a song or two.

It's like a hen party, stag night, wedding and reception all rolled into one, and it's an absolute blast. Everyone in the cast is having a ball, with Hiddleston and Atwell as energised leaders of the pack. He's a peacock milking the audience for applause as he spoofs his heartthrob image, she's a spitfire with a supreme skill at making Shakespeare's words sound thoroughly modern.

What emerges is an amusing musing on their reluctance to give in to love, in an absolutely fabulous night at the theatre where everyone is encouraged to get up and dance at the end. Purists will probably hate it, but I loved it. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️