#so at least this isn't a sentence

[locatislunaticolupin]

RIP my dumb ass because I do like talking about that scene in Deathly Hallows, so here's a different post about it.

What's interesting about Remus leaving Dora (or "his pregnant wife", since people like to rob Dora of her humanity and name) isn't the shallow moralizing the fandom likes to do. Doing that makes that scene easier to understand for people who don't like engaging with their own weaknesses or failures, and I understand flattening complex scenes and characters is what fandom does, but it still grinds my gears that that's how fandoms dedicated to books pretend to win arguments.

I was a kid once too, I felt betrayed by him in that scene too. What that storyline forced me to do was try to understand what could lead a person like him to make a bad decision like that. Older now, I don't pretend to excuse him of his wrongdoings, but that scene did force me once, and forces me again now, to genuinely engage with the complexities of not only Remus, but Dora and Harry. It's not a scene that exists in a vacuum: it's the culmination of a lot of different storylines, from Remus' marginalization to Dora's desperation to Harry's relationship with family and the past (and I'm absolutely not engaging with all of that here. These are the cliff notes at best of some of that stuff).

Remus leaves Dora and his unborn child because he hates himself so much that he genuinely thinks that's the kind thing to do. He's not running away from conflict (he's running straight at it, actually), he's not scared of raising a kid: he genuinely thinks staying means he'll destroy their lives, just like his own life was destroyed.

Ever since then, taking himself out of the equation has been how he fixes things: his family used to move around a lot so people wouldn't suspect them and he resigns from the DADA position because staying would land Dumbledore and the school into trouble. He's not running from confrontation, he's thinking his mere existance is bringing trouble to those he loves and attempt to help him. When he's avoiding confrontation (with Dumbledore or his friends), he does it because he doesn't want to lose their love. However, he's under no illusions that Dora won't be angry at him for doing this. He's not expecting to keep Dora's love. He's expecting to make her life better. Engaging with those contradictory ideas is way more interesting than being comfortable with surface-level, easy to digest analysis.

We can compare Remus' decision to Harry himself, who attempts to run away from his loved ones whenever he thinks he'll bring harm to them. He tries to leave everyone behind in Order of the Phoenix, later on he tries to leave Ginny, he doesn't even want to take Ron and Hermione with him in Deathly Hallows. That doesn't make him any less brave or good: we understand that he genuinely thinks that's the best way of protecting the people he loves.

Harry's reaction when he finds out about Remus' decision is very much the same one as the reader's: anger and disappointment. That's one of the themes of the book: in the process of becoming an adult, a child will (even must) be disappointed by the adults he knows. He'll find out they're not perfect, that they can't protect him, that they'll make bad decisions. Dumbledore is the biggest example of this, but we also have Harry realizing Sirius was deeply flawed, just like he'd found out before that James was as well. I could write a whole aside about Severus and Peter and how Harry walks the opposite path with them. Realizing that people aren't completely good or completely evil is a big part of the saga.

So Harry calls Remus out, just like any friend of Remus would have. What he says has more to do with Harry himself than Remus (what Harry values, what has hurt him up to that point. He even talks shit about Sirius), but it gets Remus to react and pushes him back on the right track because Harry's forcing him to see how his actions are really affecting others. It's not better just because he's not there. Harry gets Remus out of his self-hating, spiraling thoughts.

Remus is so thankful and appreciative of it that he names him godfather. He's thankful he was called out on his flaws and mistakes, and he goes out of his way to fix them. We see him being a dad, we see it makes him deliriously happy. He dies with his son's baby pictures in his pocket. It's the first thing Harry says to him when he brings him back with the Resurrection Stone. For them, that scene is a breaking point: not only does Harry go through a milestone towards becoming an adult, but he's also seen as one by one of his mentors. Remus is the only one of that friendship group that gets to see Harry as an equal, as an adult.

I don't think I've said anything controversial up to this point, so here it goes, because I absolutely adore Dora, but I rarely see people honestly and genuinely engaging with her character.

Remus and Dora got together under pressure from the war, their friends, Dora herself and the desperation born from Dumbledore's death. Remus' concerns (he's too poor, too old, too dangerous) are all legitimate, both in the sense that they're real and that they could prove to be significant obstacles in a relationship, but they're brushed aside when they get together by both Dora and the Weasleys. They're all well-meaning and supportive, of course. Molly had brought up before that her own marriage was born from the desperation of war, so it makes sense that she'd be so supportive and encouraging of them. What they can't quite see, however, is that Remus' life is getting harder by the minute: discrimination against werewolves is at an all-time high due to the war, both because of Greyback and because of the Ministry (Umbridge's law that makes Remus' life harder was put in place after Severus outed Remus in Prisoner of Azkaban. Chances are there's a correlation there). Dora's life becoming harder because of her relationship with a widely-known werewolf isn't a far-off posibility born from Remus' trauma and low self-esteem, it's a real thing.

So when Dora begs him to understand that she loves him, she's not quite grasping that that's not the problem (or at least not the whole problem): the problem is that love's not enough to make a relationship work, especially in such a hard context. Ultimately, what we get as to why he changes his mind are Arthur's words:

“But she wants you,” said Mr. Weasley, with a small smile. “And after all, Remus, young and whole men do not necessarily remain so.”

(with a little push from McGonagall's after).

"But she wants you" is Arthur pointing out that Dora's her own person and she's making her own decision. She's an adult and she's choosing this. Remus' objections aren't acknowledged, and are therefore still there, still a problem, but he can't choose for her. People making their own decisions and dealing with the consequences is also a big part of the saga, so alright, the relationship's a go. They're both choosing this. Remus can understand that (and part of what he likes about Dora is that she's a daredevil).

A big criticism of their relationship is that Remus was "pushed into it". I don't think he was: he's clearly interested in Dora and he wants to date her. What was pushed aside were his concerns: in the middle of a war, neither Dora nor the Weasleys want them to lose time or even the opportunity to be together when they don't know if they'll still be alive in a week. So Remus' fears were never laid to rest and, on top of it, the relationship developed fast. According to Pottermore, they were never together before that hospital scene, so in less than a year we go from a reluctant/concerned Remus to a kid.

Once Dora gets pregnant, the situation changes: that child isn't choosing his parents or the life he's being born into. All of Remus' concerns, which were never acknowledged or put to rest, arise with even more force than before. The lack of acknowledgment of his well-founded fears was part of why his reaction's so big and so cruel. He's alone in his understanding of what being a werewolf and living with a werewolf really entails. He couldn't prepare with Dora or the Weasleys about it. If past experiences are anything to go by, they won't acknowledge that being with a werewolf does bring drawbacks to someone's life, and he can't do that to a child.

Of course it's Harry's perspective that makes him "see the light". Harry's talking from the point of view of an orphan of war, he's paralleled to Teddy at the end of the book. Harry, in that moment, can be seen as Remus' son talking to him if he goes down that path. Of course Remus goes back to him. Of course he faces his biggest fears and goes back.

[nattikay]

the constant inner struggle of a Na'vi speaker/teacher browsing Na'vi OCs

[caluupin]

Finished TGAAC around 2 1/2 weeks ago but only finished the doodles today. but still, here ya go!

[kara-knuckles]

I'm honestly baffled by how many people seem to get "Manfred is freethinker, Ascalon is sheeple" from Babel and "Manfred outsmarted Hoederer" from 14. I can at least begrudgingly understand the former, because the narrative goes out of its way to invalidate Ascalon's every decision so you need to be invested enough to take a step back and see it's actually bullshit, but with the latter W outright mocks Manfred for acting exactly like Hoederer predicted, and this is despite Ulsulah's advanced warnings about the situation on Lifebone. Hell, the fact that Hoederer doesn't even try to fight (presumably because he is acting as a bait and this minimizes his potential injuries) and complete lack of reaction from everyone else suggest that everything was still proceeding according to plan B (separate Manfred from his men so you don't fight them at the same time), even if plan A (intercept him) got Damazti'd.

[nightskylonging]

Whose idea was it to make a kirtle out of flannel bedsheets in 29C weather?

Oh yeah, mine.

I'm merrily calling this project 'my descent into madness' and I'm having a grand old time. I'm engraining the metric system in my brain (American down, folks), I'm delighting in how comfy this thing is going to be (I did a quick pinned fitting with the side gores in, it is so soft and so flowy, and it'll be even more flowy once I get the front and back gores in), and I not only definitely have enough fabric for the sleeves, scary as they may be, but probably one or two kerchiefs as well! I won't wear those with the kirtle, that's too much dark blue in one go, though.

[locria-writes]

why is the first trashman male lead i write after my nice good boy spree so....lacklustre? bitch doesn't even have enough trauma for a freudian excuse, nor does he have any real beef to explain his behaviour. he's literally a lukewarm mess for no reason other than vibes

[thedreadvampy]

like clockwork someone who's been openly a sex pest for decades gets named as a rapist and sexual predator and we all get to play the hit parade with such classics as:

oh my god oh my god did you know this industry full of rich people who are rewarded for exploitative and abusive behaviour...has an issue with rape and abuse??? CAN YOU BELIEVE THERE'S ABUSE IN THIS INDUSTRY???? (yeah man we know. we've known for quite a while actually. for longer than I've been alive for sure.)

oh my god I can't believe there are rapists among us (1 in 3 women have experienced rape, who do you think is doing it?)

but he seemed so nice! (not really tbh)

well I met him and he never raped me and like, I'm really hot so if he was really a rapist he would have (Jesus fuck get help)

is it really rape to fuck 16 year old girls when you're in your 30s? (yeah it is if you fucking rape them mate)

can't believe everyone knew but never said!!! (they literally did say and also hey imagine if you will what reasons there might be too not say anything, such as, say, it's not your story to tell and the victim had expressed a wish to not be at the centre of a whole shitstorm)

Real Victims wouldn't go to journalists they'd go to the cops!!! (hey guys I have some upsetting news about the experience of reporting rape to the cops)

This is a conspiracy to make this irrelevant celebrity look bad! (please touch grass)

it's all just a bit of fun innit (no)

and every time we all over again have to go to this place where rape is simultaneously a significant threat and common experience (agreed) but also everyone who's ever talked about being raped is lying, and nobody's ever done a rape even if there's 20 years of documented evidence and on camera confessions and also their whole public persona is 'cheeky sex pest' (fucking. what?)

and then that guy hopefully gets cancelled and people feel a bit more guilty about watching him. and then they'll go HOORAY THE EVIL IS DEFEATED WE HAVE GOT RID OF THAT GUY THAT DID THE RAPES. OUR WORK HERE IS DONE. COMEDY/FILM/MUSIC/TV IS FREE OF PREDATORS NOW

and then 6.5 seconds later allegations will come out about someone else and we will start the whole thing again from scratch OH MY GOD CAN YOU BELIEVE THERE'S ABUSE IN THIS INDUSTRY???

[demifiendcruithne]

i am not sorry for making my personal helper program pull a demi-fiend if i try and leave its folder

i thought it was funny. now if only terminals supported orange text

[bumpscosity]

if sam esmail announces the mr robot comic this 5/9 im going to punch thru a wall (excitedly)

[whatudottu]

Hey, I noticed your post on Ectonurite religious practices, and I thought the concepts were very interesting. I’m a big fan of the Anur System myself, to the point I’ve learned how to make languages for them, if that’s not too weird…

In reference to this post-

The 'having a favourite fictional setting' to 'make a conlang' pipeline is all to real Pilgrim, my linguistics teacher let me use mine for my end of term project instead of the assigned analysis (transcribing a conversation between yourself and a friend, which probably would've been useful to study); you wouldn't believe what planet I based it on (don't look at my icon that's cheating :P)

But nah yeah, the Anur System is to me one of my favourite parts of Ben 10 Omniverse since I love horror and horror themed things but hate being scared of them so- the Anur System and the movie monsters that influence their design always has a special place in my head!

Even in my mutants and magic au where I retcon even OS to include more mutants and more magic users and presence where I made the Mummy an actual mummified priest who's attempt at resurrect worked (to the detriment to waking up to the grubby mitts of the British museum) and making Viktor an actual frankenstein's monster who's functionally mutant both to parallel Gwen and Max better (Gwen for magic obviously, Max for being a not-so-ex-Plumber who dealt with more than just alien phenomena but humans doing weird things inspired by old books and other stuff), I can't not still have the entirety of the Anur System still exist! I can't remember who but someone made thep khufan siphonophores and well- riding the coattails of my fulmini posting I got excited over them :P same goes for transylians though I haven't thought much about their potentially interesting biology other than the thought of 'how weird can scar tissue adaptations in biology become' so :P :P :P

[luv-again]

making shit make senseeee <3

[gregoftom]

oh ok

[e77y]

Working on a final draft of my literature review for my research class and this guy who wrote HIS literature review completely wrong (and I told him as much in my peer review in the kindest words possible 😭 I was SO careful to be gentle about it and was just like "oh I would love to see more of ___") decided to be such an asshole on my paper??? Like dude you didn't even write YOUR paper correctly... It's fine. It just made me a little sad lol bc I am overly insecure about criticism but ALSO LIKE... literally 90% of his criticism is just Wrong bc he doesn't understand what a literature review is supposed to be

[mad-hunts]

okay, so from what i've gathered, just for those who uhh. might be curious about what barton's type is for no reason in particular (yeah, it's for shipping purposes JSJSJ ) — he is probably simultaneously the least picky person whenever it comes to who he's willing to date out of all my oc's and i honestly find that kind of ironic, because of the fact that he's literally a SERIAL KILLER but... anyways, like i was saying (,: barton does seem to have a certain penchant for liking people / beings who are literally different in any way? and i mean different in a good way, OFC. oh, and he also seems to have a thing for redheads as well as blondes, but i'm going to be talking about the first thing for today 💀

this could also range from being just like different as in having an 'unusual' appearance / having mutant abilities or being able to practice magic. and, of course, being something a little bit more... significant, i guess you could say. because he would get with a supernatural being and fawn over them in a way that would make you think 'well, maybe they've known each other for a while, so that's why he's acting like he's completely whipped for them?' but nope. in reality, barton just sometimes seems to take one look at a being — who, for example, might be an eldritch horror creature or something — and thinks ' damn. i am in between wanting to study them in a clinical setting and wanting to study this species's courting rituals because i am trying to WIFE them up ' SKSKSK LMAO

nooo, but if any of my moots on here were to want to ship with me if you aren't already, but are nervous about asking me about me whether i'd be interested in doing so because they're like a supernatural creature or something... then please don't be afraid to HMU because barton is literally the most shameless monster hand-holder + monster kisser if i'm being honest

[green-mountain-goose]

whatever happens i cant fail is an *abysmal* strategy for living life. and yet rn....

[nostalgia-tblr]

i am once BEGGING someone, ANYONE, involved in making the MCU to please look up some impact craters vs the size of the thing that made them