#sorry but i do want 2 gatekeep the black sisters a little bit LOL

[rollercoasterwords]

What do you think of bellatrix/pandora??

Or pandoratrix (this one was a fun ship name to smash together)

hmmmm honestly. i'm not a huge fan of....any of the ships for bellatrix i don't think lol. at least not in a canon-compliant or canon-adjacent fic.

like, i don't really care if other people want 2 ship bellatrix with people + have fun doing that, but to me her story is kinda antithetical to any sort of romance, at least in the way i read her. like i very much view bellatrix as a character whose entire life was focused around her family + her sisters, who grew up essentially sacrificing herself in the name of duty to the point that it just. completely traumatized her + drove her insane as i talk about here

and to me her story is so interesting because of the way she was so isolated + devoted to a family who just...didn't really love her back. like i think her sisters did love her, but it was never in a way that really like...acknowledged her personhood, if that makes sense? just bc she was always this sort of mother/big sister figure to them and couldn't ever really be just like. human and vulnerable.

and so for me the idea of bellatrix falling in love with someone just doesn't really work--like, i think it changes her character to the point that she is no longer my bellatrix, in the way i conceive of her. i think if the devotion to her family was stripped away then bellatrix's first priority would be to herself, and to her own freedom. i don't think romantic love is something i could ever see her prioritizing or even really seeking out; in fact, i think that based on the way she's been raised the idea of falling in love would almost be like...nightmarish to her. and while i've seen people talking about "omg what if bellatrix was in love with this character and that's what drove her insane and death eater angst etc etc" i just....idk. sometimes i think putting a character in a romantic relationship can really contribute to their story + add a lot of really interesting angst, but with bellatrix i kinda feel like putting her into a romantic relationship flattens some of (what i view as) the nuance to her character. like for me bellatrix's story is about bellatrix, and nobody else.

i also think i just. don't entirely understand this tendency within the fandom to desperately search for ships for a character the second people start to pay attention to them. like obviously people have been shipping bellatrix around with different characters forever, but i feel like the black sisters in particular are having a little ~moment~ on like. tiktok right now. and so suddenly everyone is going "we need a ship for bellatrix!!" and i'm just like...no we don't? like she's SUCH an interesting character without romance. i don't really understand the need to pair everyone off in order to care about them.

(also....a lot of the shipping i've seen happening for bellatrix is like. happening in the most boring way lmao. sorry 2 be a hater but why is everyone suddenly trying 2 turn her into part of a ~girlboss~ power couple. she was one of the most unequivocally evil characters in the series and personally i think that is crucial to her character. obviously people can write whatever they want + i will just stick to my own corner of the internet, but most of the shipping i've seen happening recently surrounding bellatrix involves watering down her character in some way, and personally i do not enjoy that.)