#that aren’t this bs

[cto10121]

Harry Potter Clown Takes Special Edition—Le Guin Again

In which an old Le Guin quote returns to bring all the HP clown shakes to the yard. Is it better than yours? Let’s find out.

So Le Guin made this comment in a 2005 interview, by which time Half-Blood Prince was published, the darkest and most morally complicated book of the series by that point. Apart from that, her criticism is not very good for these reasons:

1. Rowling never claimed her series was original. I even honestly doubt there were adult critics were calling her books original. Even in its heyday there were plenty of critics and even a lot of cranks suing Rowling for plagiarism for the magical school idea. Most likely the critics were referring to Rowling’s execution, which indeed much more fleshed out than Le Guin’s very cursory and drama-free treatment. At the very least Rowling’s characters have plausible personalities than the symbolic cyphers of A Wizard of Earthsea.

2. I’ve struggled with understanding what “ethically mean-spirited” even means, given the series’ singular preoccupation with morality and the blatant moral complication Rowling develops in the latter half of the books. If Le Guin means the karma potshots at the actual abusive and mean-spirited Dursleys or even Fred and George’s nastier pranks, then I suppose kids rebelling against their tormentors or, er, doing stupid kid shit can be said to be ethically mean-spirited. And even the Dursleys are given a quick and easy exit at the end of Book 7 with not even a loss in pride and a slightly reformed Dudley (!!).

I have a feeling that had the series had framed these petty revenges on the Dursleys negatively and urged forgiveness that Le Guin would have said the series legitimized abuse and ill-treatment. If anything Rowling is a sentimental softie compared to the likes of Roald Dahl. Brad Neely’s hilarious narration even makes fun of the corny coming-of-age tropes Harry Potter exemplifies.

‘90s sensibility is right! Boy, those ethnic stereotypes are a whopper. Cho Chang is a Ravenclaw, a Quidditch athlete, and an easy and sentimental crier, especially when it comes to relationship drama. Lee Jordan is the unofficial trickster pal of Fred and George and offered entertaining if funnily biased Quidditch commentary. Angelina Johnson is a very good Quidditch player, gets almost as fanatic as Wood when she becomes captain, goes with half the twins to the Yule Ball, and has dreadlocks (?). There isn’t much to Dean Thomas (half-blood, father walked out on him) except as a friend of Seamus; he later dates Ginny. Parvati is a girly girl who likes Divination and pals around with fellow girly girl Lavender. Kingsley Shacklebolt is an Order member, excellent at passing as a Muggle, and becomes Minister of Magic. Don’t all these description scream “stereotypical” to you???? I know it does to me.

As for moral sophistication…I guess you could write a whole ass kid series about how the government is not only ineffective and in denial of a white wizard supremacist threat but are actually intimately in bed with them and actually has no problem with their ideas. I guess you could portray the whole of wizard society as supremacist lite(tm) and even have a whole-ass plotline about supremacist attitudes against non-magical creatures. But that will be too morally unsophisticated for the kiddies, wouldn’t it?

Harry, who begins as a mild, polite (if sassy towards his asshole relatives and assholes in general), average and morally wholesome student, definitely ends the series as a mild, polite, and average and morally wholesome student. Nothing in Harry changed at all, nuh-uh, nope. He only just develops a fierce temper, learned how to properly cast the Cruciatus Curse and other war crime shit, learn and forgive both his mentor’s betrayal and a detested teacher who hated his guts, and sacrifice his life for the greater good. See? No change.

I read A Wizard of Earthsea about a year ago and if someone pointed a gun at my head and demanded to tell me what happened in that book, I would literally die. That said, The Left Hand of Darkness had very good style and craft, so I can only assume that Le Guin just isn’t a writer for the elementary set, period.

Because modern America and Britain is not at all characterized by mean and overly aggressive competition and tribalism between arbitrary groups disguised as wholesome fun and don’t have horrible colonialist histories or unethical lifestyles.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too, Clown OP. Either HP is a morally uncomplicated children’s fantasy that is not good representation of our real world ~or it has deeply problematic depictions of Anglo world and culture through the vehicle of fantasy. It can’t be both.

Harry was literally a child. Kids accept all kinds of shit because they don’t have a foundational understanding yet of what normal is! It’s child psychology 101. Hermione is the exception as the actual smart one and blatant author avatar. But prejudice against Muggleborns and half-bloods was never condoned or tolerated by the Golden Trio or anyone that wasn’t a pureblood supremacist sympathizer. And Harry himself did feel enraged over Riddle’s framing Hepzibah’s house elf for her murder and the Ministry easily accepting this.

I think the issue for most of the criticism is that HP is still a Bildungsroman at heart, so the plot focus is all about Harry’s education and his rise in power and status. But Harry’s actual power to enact real status-quo busting change has always been limited. As in, you know, real life.

[jesse-pinko]

As someone who works w animals “animals are not mindless automatons, they actually do have feelings and individuality and are capable of feeling acute physical and emotional pain and of forming deep attachments with other animals and people” and “animals are not human infants and have a limited capacity to communicate with humans so you have to familiarize yourself with their boundaries bc if they feel threatened or overstimulated they will fall back on their basic instincts and if you fuck around you are going to find out” are statements that can and should coexist

[ambrosiagourmet]

Not sure how widely recognized this is but it’s fucking wild to me that miss kui just quietly snuck in the fact that most (if not all) of the differences between races only exist because of wishes they made to the Winged Lion.

Dwarves being strong? Lion wish. Elves being good at magic? Lion wish. All lifespan differences???? Lion wish, babey!

Not that the elves superiority shtick isn’t already BS, but it’s even funnier with the context that the only difference between them and humans is that, thousands of years ago, their leaders made a greedier wish to the demon that wanted to eat them.

[kitteecassee]

🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

[michellezagenda]

in order for a woman to still be able to pursue men after realizing how men are, there still must be some naivety and hope at play. You’re basically ‘not all men’ing’ statistics and stories that are laid out perfectly clear to you and you still have hope in men. You’re not ‘using’ them- you like them. you enjoy their company, you’re not fooling anyone. something about you is okay with how men really are because if you weren’t you would simply realize the risks involved with interacting with them aren’t worth it anymore.

[yoshimiilk]

Bitter coworkers…

[caput-medusae]

One thing I genuinely appreciate about the TROP showrunners is that, unlike Star Wars post-TLJ (the best movie of the sequel trilogy), they didn’t back off of their vision, but instead doubled down.

You don’t like diverse characters, even background characters? Fuck you, there’s more and we’re making the camera linger on them extra long.

You don’t like the Harfoots? Fuck you, now we have desert Hobbits. Also we retconned Poppy back into the show because we wanted to.

You don’t like Hot Sauron? Fuck you, he’s the main character now. Also we gave him a wig and a sparkly outfit.

You don’t like non-canon ship teases? Fuck you, Elrond and Galadriel kiss.

You don’t like Celebrimbor? Too bad, we’re giving him Shakespearean monologues now.

Fuck you, we’re giving Adar gay subtext.

Fuck you, we’re stopping the action to sing a song.

Fuck you, Tom Bombadil is here now.

[rivkae-winters]

Happy Loveless opening day!!

This is pertaining to the next little write up I’m working on, coming… Eventually. In reactor 5 when Sephiroth and Genesis talk, Sephiroth refers to Genesis as “petty”. This exchange is relatively accurate to the initial Japanese as well.

Just like last time here is the Reunion version and here is the original English release. [Sorry for the time stamp link, I couldn't find a stand alone video.]

Like previously, this poll isn’t going to influence my analysis- I’ve already outlined my thoughts on the matter. I am simply curious what the general community perception is.

Please tell me your thoughts in tags, replies, or reblogs if you are so inclined! This goes even if you didn’t press the nuance button! I live off discussion, it fuels my being There are no dumb replies 💜

Lil guys courtesy of @thisteaistoosweet

Also sorry this is nowhere as polished as the last poll I had- I’m not doing that hot still but the timing of Loveless opening night was just too perfect.

[delineate-creates]

Y’all. Tyler Childers, an Appalachian bluegrass artist from Kentucky, just released a song with a music video featuring a queer love story between two coal miners called In Your Love. At this point I have no idea if he’ll get backlash for it, but I would really appreciate if you would watch the mv below and maybe give some positive engagement. I have a feeling he’ll need it.

He has a beautiful discography with really thoughtful, poignant lyrics, and imo he does a fantastic job tackling complicated topics. I highly recommend him! With all the Jason Aldean stuff going around, it feels more important than ever that we have empathetic and authentic voices in country music.

(…and unlike Jason, Tyler’s 2020 song Long Violent History actually SUPPORTS the fight against racial inequality. You can listen to it here if you’d like.)

TLDR: Stan Tyler Childers 🖤

[lady-green-sleeves]

If Alicent had slept with Viserys the night of Aemma’s funeral like Rhaenyra and Daemon did the night of Laena’s funeral you all would be calling her so much worse than Alicunt and going on and on about how awful and gross and evil she is even more than you already do. But when Rhaenyra does it she’s a girl boss and you’re cheering her on bc somehow that makes her a feminist…..🤡

[mawrblaidddrwg]

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord

And I've been waiting for this moment, for all my life, oh lord

Can you feel it coming in the air tonight? Oh lord, oh lord

Sons of the Saiyans

[bohemian-nights]

No this fandom is actually insane

Do people think it’s ok to write “he was teaching her how to bathe”?????? I’m honestly scared to go read the post that they were talking about. The lengths that these people will go to just to prove that dettles never happened

Read at your own risk.

The person who wrote that is actually Black(or so they claim), but is willing to throw Black characters and Black fans under the bus and promote negative stereotypes about us for their mostly (racist) followers in defense of a racist characters desirability.

Sir/ma’am, if you are reading this, get some self respect. I’m actually embarrassed for you cause this shit is actually pathetic. You’re better than this.

Case in point they wrote this crap a while back with 100% sincerity:

(I should also note that I actually had a run in with them about a year and some change ago and they threatened to block me after I asked them if Corlys bathing with Rhaenyra would be normal father daughter figure bonding time so I blocked them first😊).

Like you don’t have to like Dettles, but when you are pushing harmful ideology and stereotypes (Black people are so stupid/dirty that we need the white mans help to civilize us) as a way to discredit them and make those who ship it look like angry Black women jealous of the poor helpless white woman and her stans, you’ve gone too far.

Let’s keep in mind that this poor helpless white woman was actively trying to kill a Black girl for a crime she claims she didn’t commit and that despite claiming that Nettles definitely didn’t sleep with Daemon her stans spazz out everytime you mention her name and actively want her cut from the show.

Or how about the fact that these same stans actively stalk and harass Dettles shippers whose only crime has been pointing out y’all’s bullshit.

Let’s keep in mind all of this shall we:

So who is actually jealous of who here? Who in this scenario wants racial revenge?* Who is the problem in this hellhole of a fandom?

Is it the people merely pointing out Nettles importance to the Dance and Daemon’s arc or the people who hurl racial insults and stereotypes? The people who want her erased from the narrative in its entirety cause she disrupts the status quo?

(The fact that someone would even fix their mouth to say that when Black people have been beaten, raped, enslaved, terrorized, tortured, disenfranchised, abused, subjected, and not even given common decency and respect for centuries by these people. If we wanted racial revenge it damn sure wouldn’t be off the back of a fucking fictional character).

The fact that they can’t see Nettles value and only see her as some irrelevant Black girl and reduce people liking her down to a gotcha/“woke” moment is fandom misogynoir in action.

They forget that she comes from nothing, claims a dragon, has a prince willing to give his life for her(six men or sixty remember that since y’all claim to be capable of reading🙃), survives the Dance and becomes a firewitch worshipped by a group of people, because they don’t want to acknowledge her importance.

It makes them uncomfortable to do so because she doesn’t look like them, but people like I’m not like those other Negros cover up for them so that when they are called out for it they can go see this n-I mean this Black person agrees with me.

Imagine being this butt hurt about a fictional character that you can’t even leave your racism or tap dancing at the door for five seconds.

Nettles doesn’t fit the mold, but that’s the point of her story.

They can recognize maester propaganda and scream about feminism when it comes to their white faves, but when it comes to the Black girl who is actively being stereotyped and maligned for her gender, race, and social standing in the source material they believe it no questions asked?

Again, what does it say about you that you are so willing to believe that a Black girl who was clever enough to claim a wild dragon doesn’t know how to bathe herself? What does it say about you that you think Daemon would never touch her with a ten foot pole just because she’s Black?

What does it say about you don’t want her on the show because of her race? What does it say about you that a fictional character who just so happens to be Black has you worked up into a tizzy.

Y’all claim to be for women(real or fictional), but in reality you only care about the women who look like you and shit on women you see as beneath you. Women who you think are a threat to the status quo. You’re no better than the men who oppress you.

[pastelpousay]

MORE OF THE SILLIES!! 💪🐺

Reference image:

[phin-tastic]

i cannot describe the rage i feel when i click on a fight club deep dive youtube essay, and it’s just… some dude, talking about how this film is the purest portrayal of masculinity and how “men love it because it’s so relatable”.

i mean, i love it because it’s relatable. but not in the way those sigma film bros do.

i love it because i’m gay, hate capitalism and would like to recreationally get beat up.

[pencilnewt]

if someone correctly guesses what orchestral instrument i play (based entirely on vibes) i will draw them a sketch of their fav nhler im serious

[duckwnoeyes]

[image from btvs tie in book, Sins of the father, (1999) p.67]

No one talk to me I’m currently obsessing over this scrap of acknowledgment of Buffy and Merrick’s relationship. He’s the first person she couldn’t save!!! :(