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writing-for-life · 10 months ago

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The Portrayal of Womanhood in A Game of You

I’ll be honest with you: Writing about The Sandman with a focus on (queer) women surely feels different in light of the recent allegations.

This meta has been languishing in my drafts for a long time, and since I’m currently clearing the pile, I will still publish it. Mostly because these views are mine and not someone else’s. And also because they’re critical to a degree. However, if you feel that these are topics that you currently find hard to engage with, this is the exit sign (I totally get it).

With that out of the road, let’s talk about the women of A Game of You (and why it was always one of my least favourite arcs, despite the fact that my literary and thematic preferences should have made it one of my favourite ones)…

Gender roles are a central theme in A Game of You. Before the arc even moves into these themes on a deeper level, we already get this:

Barbie tells Wanda that she wasn’t allowed to read comics when she was a young girl. And that immediately struck a chord with me upon my first reading as a teenager: I was allowed to read comics, but I still remember getting the side-eye, especially from boys. Somehow, you didn’t belong to their club (even if you arguably knew more about Batman than they did 🤣). The reason Barbie gives us is that reading comics supposedly rendered her “unladylike” (yes, comics were considered “boyish”, at least when I was a teenager, and this is exactly the time we’re talking about here). But it’s not just about how a girl is supposed to act—it’s also about actively excluding her from something that’s only for men/boys. And while the topic of, “What’s a girl supposed (and allowed!) to be like?” isn’t something either particularly dwell on in that moment, Wanda faces the struggle of having to define and fight for her womanhood daily: As a trans woman, she feels resistance on a constant basis. When she talks about Weirdzos from the Hyperman comics, this is actually a nod to DC’s Bizarro, who could be described as Superman’s shadow (there’s a whole story why they were called Weirdzos instead of Bizarros in The Sandman, but that’d lead too far here. You’ll probably find it on Google).

Close enough to the “real thing”, but always “slightly off”

And Wanda carries the shadow of her biology. All the time. There’s no escape for her, no respite, no true support.

We also see this in a scene with Hazel, one of Wanda's neighbours who lives in a lesbian relationship with her girlfriend Foxglove. Hazel noticed that Wanda has "a thingie." Despite the fact that a lot of “weird” things are happening in those panels, part of that is definitely that Wanda has not fully (in Hazel’s eyes) transitioned:

What is she, exactly (not who)?

And that question gets answered very painfully when Wanda, Hazel, Foxglove, and Thessaly come together to free Barbie from being trapped in the Dreaming. Thessaly is sure she can defeat the Cuckoo that holds Barbie captive. However, she needs menstrual blood to perform a ritual that will allow them to traverse the Moon Road into the Dreaming. During this process, Thessaly insensitively refers to Wanda as a man and prevents her from joining the journey with Foxglove and Hazel (and no, this isn’t about “Thessaly the TERF”—I already made my position on that clear and think that whole discussion needs a lot more nuance than fandom is often willing to engage in).

Maiden, Mother and Crone

Thessaly's statement, "This isn’t your route. It can’t be," further highlights the discrimination Wanda faces on a daily basis. She “isn’t” seen as a woman now, and she “can’t” ever be, even if she had reassignment surgery—Wanda would still be seen as a man by the ancient powers that be.

Wanda's struggle, more than any other character's, highlights the ongoing conflict between self-identity and societal perception of women. And that’s unfortunately still a struggle most women face. But Wanda’s character is particularly poignant because she is repeatedly forced to reaffirm her sense of self, only to be torn down again and again. Even Barbie, who always supports her and would probably never knowingly hurt her, says this when Wanda reveals her childhood name:

“Alvin? That's your real name?"

Please imagine what it must feel like if even the ones closest to you refer to your dead name as your “real” name, even if it’s without malicious intent (of course Barbie makes good on that later, but…).

Wanda can never truly find comfort in anyone. She is constantly confronted with the disparity between her self-perception and how the world views her. Ultimately, Wanda's exclusion from entering the Dreaming (and there’s more symbolism in that than you can shake a stick at—not just because she’s denied her womanhood, but also because she is denied entering a place of hope and possibility, and not least because she is denied being capable and having agency: Thessaly repeatedly acknowledges Wanda is important, and that she needs her help. But that’s on her terms, not Wanda’s) leads to her tragic death: The storm caused by drawing down the moon destroys the apartment where Wanda remains to watch over Barbie’s body.

And that’s why Wanda’s arc in the comics will always stay problematic to me (I don’t know how optimistic I can be for the TV series, because we’ve already seen her headstone in BTS shots, even if her overall arc seems to have changed): Dream grants Barbie a boon, which she uses to save the women in the Dreaming, but Wanda is not among them. There is no saving her—not in this world, not in any other.

Wanda's conservative parents bury her with her deadname Alvin Mann (and her second name adds insult to injury, because it is the German spelling of “man”, as in “male”. And again, I’m somewhat glad they have changed this for the series, as seen on said headstone, because I never got why choosing that name was necessary in the first place. Or let’s say: I get it, but I don’t think it was needed and was layered on too thick. Sometimes subtle does it, sorry).

Why is Wanda so consistently shamed, while Hazel and Foxglove's lesbian relationship is regarded not a big deal (I’m obviously not insinuating it should be, see my disclaimer at the bottom of this post)? Although I have to admit there are things about that one that always rubbed me up the wrong way, too: The dumbing down of Hazel (honestly, most of us were not that clueless about reproduction in the 80s and 90s, lesbians or otherwise), the play on butch/femme stereotypes to then clumsily try to turn them on their heads (which did not work for me), the still somewhat male gaze applied to Foxglove (she didn’t have to sleep naked with her tits on display, did she?), the implication that all women somehow end up as mothers (if they don’t end up dead), even if just “accidentally”… There’s a whole lot to be said about the topic of motherhood, and how it gets instrumentalised in several Sandman arcs, but maybe that’s for another time...

To explore that question, I want to have a closer look at Barbie, who is a (in my view, often clumsy) stand-in for the gender-identity of many (CIS) women.

A quick throwback to The Doll’s House

The first signs of Barbie's identity crisis don't appear in A Game of You, but rather in The Doll's House. She is introduced as one half of “Ken-Barbie”: They finish each other's sentences, Barbie lacks a distinct personality and is completely overshadowed by being a “traditional wife” (maybe not the type of trad wife we think about today, and yet…). The fact that she and Ken share names with plastic dolls underscores the artificial nature of their identities and their relationship.

Barbie's dream-life always felt more authentic and meaningful to her than her waking reality—that’s why she is only a shell of herself when she can’t dream (after the vortex interlude with Rose Walker). She is passive, conforms to her father's expectations of being "ladylike" and adheres to “good” CIS- and heteronormative behaviour. And then, after her divorce, she feels uprooted, shows little motivation and relies on Wanda for support. Freeing herself from her shackles could have been a story of reclaiming her power without the layer of implied loneliness (I’ll get to that). Instead, she needs to suffer for a bit…

Barbie being trapped in her dream world also traps her in a state of passivity: Dreams are not real. You can make them real, but that’s not what she does—they are a maladjusted escape for her. And yet (or maybe rather “because”), instead of directly confronting and fighting the Cuckoo, Barbie smashes the Porpentine (much to the Cuckoo's delight).

Upon waking…

Upon waking, Barbie's personality hasn't changed much from the woman we first met. When she goes to Wanda’s funeral, she struggles to defend Wanda from her transphobic aunt despite trying.

However, she engages in a small but significant act of rebellion by crossing out "Alvin" on Wanda's headstone with her favourite lipstick and writes her real name instead.

Barbie then recalls a dream she had while traveling to Wanda's funeral. In this dream, she sees Wanda not as she was in life, but as an idealised version of herself—soft, more curved, and wearing a pink dress. Death stands beside Wanda, symbolising that she is recognised for who she truly is.

And I get it: The idea was to say, “She was always a woman, even to the cosmic powers that be. Eat that, Thessaly and everyone else.” But there’s also the part of me that wants to say, “You know what? She was good the way she was. Perfect in her imperfection. We didn’t need to affirm her womanhood by showing her as a stereotypical woman.” The use of “perfect” and “drop-dead gorgeous” always really rubbed me up the wrong way in relation to the way she was portrayed in that panel. Because it portrays a stereotypical woman: That’s what you look like if you need to/want to pass. And this applies, sadly enough, to all women in one way or another, no matter what gender we were assigned at birth. But if that scene holds meaning to people, I also get it. My more critical take on it is maybe down to my own history (again: disclaimer at the bottom of this post).

Simultaneously, the destruction of the Land in the Dreaming grants Barbie a newfound independence. She is now alone, without her best friend or the friends of her dreams, but these losses have given her freedom. And for a moment, loneliness becomes the ultimate resolution to Barbie's identity conflict. And I found that idea horrible, I’ll be brutally honest with you:

On the final page of A Game of You, Barbie is shown alone, waiting for a bus to an unknown destination. She reflects on her dream of Wanda, where she had the chance to say goodbye to her past life. For a moment, she stands rigidly still, and that moment feels… really long? Separated from her past and facing an uncertain future, she is free from anyone's expectations or desires. And maybe, in that simplicity, she finds freedom.

And maybe, A Game of You challenges the idea that we have full control over our identities. Our self-perception and how others perceive us are always influenced by external factors. And somewhat, I could never quite shake the feeling the story equates the removal of the ties that bind us (in this case: relationships) and/or death with freedom: Wanda only fully realises her identity in death, and Barbie feels most liberated when she is free from past entanglements and future obligations. Whether that notion is truly rejected in the end is probably down to the reader: Barbie turns and runs towards her bus, heading into a future that, while uncertain, maybe also holds a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, none of the women of The Sandman get off particularly well in that department, and that is a common theme…

Disclaimer: I write this as a CIS bisexual woman in her 40s who has been in relationships with both women and men for 30+ years. Two of them led to marriage/civil partnership: One with a CIS woman, also bi (we were together for 10 years, 3 of them in a CP), one with my now husband (CIS straight man, married for 10 years, together longer, and we have a kid together). I don’t need to tell you this, but I am because I think it is important to disclose my own bias and experiences as a queer woman in the 90s, which include coming out, experiencing bi-erasure and misogyny from both inside and outside the LGBTQ+ community. As such, they will definitely colour the way I read and interpret A Game of You.

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gaydragontournament · 1 year ago

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It's the Year of the Dragon, so what better time for a Gay Dragon Tournament!

This may take a while, I actually have some responsibilities this year, but I hope you can stick with it until the end

Rules:

Full dragons, half dragons, quarter dragons, dragons that mostly stay in human form, etc. are all accepted so long as they are a dragon and some flavour of gay/gay coded

Gay is an umbrella term here. Dragons that fall/are implied to fall under another lgbt identity are accepted

I reserve the right to reject characters from media that is uncomfortable. And you, the people, of course, can tell me why you think certain characters shouldn't be included in my ask box and I will take it into consideration

Adding to that last point, I feel like it goes without saying at this point, no terf wizard series

Propaganda is important! Tell me why they belong here. A character will be more likely to get in with a good explanation. Ex. A character from an obscure series with good propaganda in submissions will have more of a chance than a popular one with nothing

'Crack' submissions will be considered. If its a gay dragon it's a gay dragon

Anti-propaganda is okay, since it can be funny, but keep it that way. This is for fun

Enjoy yourself

Submit your Lizards: HERE

#tournament poll #lgbtqia+#dragons #gay #dragon

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blackfemmecharacterdependency · 3 months ago

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BFCD Masterlist: Black Female Book Characters

Followers of BFCD may know that I don't read very many books that are not about Black women or Black girls and most of them are written by Black women, and sometimes Black men, others quite infrequently. In Black books, there are generally multiple Black characters, as we aren't generally tokens in our own communities and stories.

But, the list also includes some characters of nonblack books, whether or not I have read them, and those are usually tokenized characters. For the ones that are not, I have decided to place the main character as the alphabetized character and other characters that are represented in those books on this blog will be in the same section of the main character's name.

For example, all Legacy of Orisha Characters with BFCD links will be listed under Zélie Adebola's name on this masterlist.

Agatha of Woods Beyond: The School for Good and Evil, Professor Dovey (Not Black in the books, but because of the movie, much of the fanart now is)

Akasha: The Vampire Chronicles (The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned) Merrick Mayfair

Alice Kingston: The Nightmare Verse (A Blade So Black, A Dream So Dark, A Crown So Cursed)

Amari Peters: Supernatural Investigations (Amari and the Night Brothers, Amari and the Great Game, Amari and the Despicable Wonders)

Amarie "Amma" Treadeau: Beautiful Creatures *I did not read this, but Viola Davis was the character in the movie and I have never known anybody but a Black femme/woman to be an Amarie, so she staying on the book list, as well.

Angelina Weasley: (Harry Potter Series) Now... This is a difficult subject. I was one of the Potterhead from my college years into after my brain fully developed. I did see all the movies in theaters and the last thing I enjoyed was The Cursed Child on Broadway. ONLY TIME I have ever seen something on Broadway... i think the last thing I saw was the first of the Fantastic Beasts movies, and shortly after that, I think was when I first found out about the TERF. For the most part, I hardly feature Potterverse things here, as it makes me upset to see the universe continuing. BUT, this page with book characters felt like I should go head and include it for this particular list. Hermione Granger, Rose Granger Weasley, Lavender Brown, Roxanne Weasely, Lally Hicks

Anne Elliot: Jane Austen... Idk Jane Austen books. I think I tried to read one or two and promptly realized they weren't for me, so if this section is messed up, I think you'll pull through. The characters probably weren't even canonically Black, so idk what to tell you. Sometimes I see aesthetics and reblog them.

Ardelia Mapp: Silence of the Lambs

Arrah N'yar: Kingdom of Souls (Kingdom of Souls, Reaper of Souls, Master of Souls) Efiya, Essnai

Autumn Knight: Pinned

Beloved: (Beloved) Sethe, Denver

Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka of Namib: Binti Trilogy (Binti, Binti: Home, Binti: The Night Masquerade)

Bree Matthews: The Legendborn Cycle

Briseis Greene: This Poison Heart (This Poison Heart, This Wicked Fate)

The Brown Sisters: (Talia Hibbert..So, I haven't read any of these either, though I do run into aesthetics from time to time. From my perceptions, they seem to be swirler romance fiction of some sort. Not necessarily my genre, but including them because they do wind up on the page at times.) Dani Brown, Eve Brown

Camellia Beauregard: The Belles

Carmel Schneider: Nine Perfect Strangers. Idk if she's in the book because I only watched the series and I didn't care enough for the series to go read the book, but here she is, if she is in there.

Celie: The Color Purple Shug Avery, Sophia, Squeak. The Color Purple has various adaptations and interpretations. Originally a book, it belongs on the book list, however, most Tumblr content for the work come from the movies and the play.

Christina: Divergent Series

Coco Monvoisin: Serpent & Dove

Cresseida: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Daja Kisubo Circle of Magic (Daja's Book)

Eadaz du Zāla uq-Nāra: The Priory of the Orange Tree

Farah Hauville: Wayhaven Chronicles

God: The Shack

Greta Goblin: The Tea Dragon Society

Hazel Levesque: Heroes of Olympus

Jordan Hennessy: The Dreamer Trilogy (Call Down the Hawk, Mister Impossible, Greywaren) Hennessy, Jordan, June, Madox, Farrah, Alba, Brooklyn, Jay, Octavia, Trinity

Jam: Pet

Jane McKeene: (Dread Nation, Deathless Divide) Katherine Deveraux, Big Sue, Lily Keats, Ida, Callie, Auntie Aggie, Jane Mama

Juniper Andromeda: Crescent City

Imabelle:

Karina: (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin) Bahia Alahari

Keisha Taylor: Alice Isn't Dead

Lady Death: The Hanged Man

Lady Fire: Graceling

Lucy Pevensie: The Chronicles of Narnia

Maia Roberts: The Mortal Instruments, The Shadowhunters Chronicles

Meg Murray: A Wrinkle in Time (One day, I absolutely will separate books & movies)

Melanie: The Girl with All the Gifts

Merrick Mayfair: The Vampire Chronicles, The Mayfair Witches, Merrick

Missandei: Game of Thrones (There are multiple books. I am not a reader of them) Nettles, Daenerys Targaryen, Laena Velaryon, Baela Targaryen, Rhaena Targaryen

Nasuada: Eragon

Natasha Kingsley (The Sun is Also a Star)

Nehemia Ytger: Throne of Glass (There are multiple books. I am not a reader of them)

Onyesonwu Ubaid-Ogundimu: Who Fears Death

Rae Sloane: (Star Wars) Korr Sella, Ciena Ree

Red Riding Hood:

Rue: The Hunger Games

Rue Jelani Akintola: Wings of Ebony

Serwa Boateng: Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting

Sierra Santiago: The Shadowshaper Cypher (Shadowshaper, Shadowhouse Fall, Shadowshaper Legacy) Trejean "Tee," Izzy

Simidele: Of Mermaids and Orisa (Skin of the Sea, Soul of the Deep)

Simmaa Aldajah: The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats & Piracy

Sophia Grimmins: (Cinderella is Dead) Constance, Cinderella (Until further notice, the all Cinderellas tag will be used for the CID Cinderella tag. Hopefully, I can attach a specific CID Cinderella in the future), Erin, Liv, Amina

Starr Carter: The Hate U Give

Sula Mae Peace: Sula

Sunny Nwazue: The Nsibidi Scripts (Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Akata Woman) ChiChi

Syenite: The Broken Earth Series (The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky), Damaya, Essun

Tarisai Idajo: Raybearer, Redemptor

Thea Muldani: All For the Game (There are multiple books. I am not a reader of them) Dan Wilds

Vida Bautista/Conner: The Darkest Minds

Voya Thomas: (Blood Like Magic, Blood Like Fate) Keis, Alex, Keisha, Aqua

Wendy Darling: Peter Pan, Darling

Winter Hayle Blackburn: The Lunar Chronicles (There are multiple books. I am not a reader of them) Iko

Zélie Adebola: Legacy of Orisha (Children of Blood and Bone, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Children of Anguish and Anarchy) Amari Olúborí

Children's Books Tag

Fairy Tales

#Black Female Book Characters Masterlist #BFCD Masterlist #Black Female Book Characters #Black Female Characters #National Reading Month #March #March 2025 #books #book characters #reading #masterlist #tags masterlist #long post #Girl That's Queuedt

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cydonia-the-dragon-thing · 14 days ago

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Welcome to the Cydonia's lair !

This blog is a rp blog, and the mod's main blog is @silvashapeshifter (you can refer to the mod as "The Mod", "mod dragon" or "Silva"). i'll here roleplay as my character and sona Cydonia.

Some infos about Cydonia :

(it has wings !)

• it/its, they/them and xe/xer pronouns mainly, okay with other pronouns but more comfortable with these.

• their personality is heavily inspired from mine but isn't exactly the same.

• a huge Muser because it ain't my sona for nothing (Origin of Symmetry is their favourite album)

• doesn't have a set age, but in human age maturity it would be more between 17 and 20s. xe's young but not a kid neither.

• is in the same fandoms than me (UTMV, WoF, TOH, Warrior Cats, etc...)

• kind of a mix between an anthro dragon and a bug-like creature

• named after the song Knights of Cydonia (my muser ass wasn't inspired)

The two ways i may answer :

→ headshot with adapted facial expression and speechbox. (asks more likely to be answered like this)

→ quick drawing with text above or below in the post (this kind of answers depends on the ask, and the necessity. the quality may vary also depending on the needs of the ask)

{other character featuring in this drawing belongs to @vanitythevantropist/@seek-of-the-serpent}

DNI list :

basic DNI (no hate. racists, terfs, lgbtqiaphobes and other bigots, fuck off ! → includes anti-therian, anti-neopronouns, anti-xenogenders and that kind of hate. if you hate on vulnerable people who identify/does harmless things because you find it weird, you aren't welcomed here). i'm also uncomfortable with people who romanticizes problematic ships and post it online, so please DNI. also DNI problematic people (non-exhaustive list : radqueers, pedos/MAPs, zoos, abusive people as a whole). also i would like to NOT be involved in discourse of any kind. ragebait and drama-seekers in asks will be blocked.

this blog may contain violent or suggestive content —never straight-up porn, don't worry. not for now, but can happen later. so i would highly suggest to people under 15 to not follow this blog, or if you do it's at your own risks.

on this, Cydonia and i wish you a good experience on this blog !

#oc: Cydonia #silva draws #silva talks #masterpost #rp blog #original character #oc RP #oc rp blog #fursona #sona #persona #dragon #dragon sona #dragon OC #ask blog #oc ask blog #cydonia #cydonia the dragon

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dumpster-fire-sapphic-failgirl · 6 months ago

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If there are any trans girls out there who are like “I couldn’t watch Misfits and Magic Season 1 bc even though it was a deconstruction / call out of the source material I don’t want to watch anything that has to do with the terf wizard lady” that is totally valid, I get it.

But please be aware that is not an issue with season 2. The school is gone. The few referential characters are so minor and/or stripped of their context as to be no longer relevant to what they once referenced. There is a couple of mentions of specific spell names, but they are rare. The old tools of their magic are mostly only useful in their breaking. It is a story about a changed world and a changing system of magic. It has truly evolved into its own thing.

I don’t know if the season stands alone?

But it is a really good exploration of kindness and belonging and performative work vs actual work and tearing down old systems and what it looks like to start building new ones and allowing yourself to heal and be loved.

#misfits and magic #dimension20

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theinfamousmaybelle · 5 months ago

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Old pinned post

Hello! Welcome to my blog! I'm Maybelle, at your service!

Aliases: Maize, May, Belle, M

I joined on August 12th, 2024!

I like writing, and I'm currently working on a story called @masm-forgotten-memories with my friend @that-one-unknown-artist!

Some people you should follow are @multifandomcutie13, @deyisacherry, @dagh0stking, @silly-a-777, @mrdairyy, @coastxlwaters, @ohgodallthefandoms-backup, and others!

My PFP was drawn by @deviouscrackers!

I have multiple OC's, such as Oort Cloud, Mercury, ect.

My favorite characters in TSAMS are Ruin and Eclipse, and my least favorite are Gemini and Earth! Come at me, I'll block you

My Bluesky - AO3 - Quotev - Character.ai - Wattpad - Roblox

RULES:

Don't Like, Don't Look.

Be Kind. Don't be a jerk.

Ship and Let Ship.

NO NSWF OF THE SORTS!

No harassment, vaugeing, or name dropping!

Anyways...

My IRL BFF is @murder-drones-3!

I'm apart of a group called the @gardenview-gang! I'm the Boxten and Cosmo!

My favorite Dandy's World Characters are Boxten, Looey, and Bobette! I don't have a least favorite!

I got Vintage Bobette on February 14th, 2025!!! Valentine's Day!!!

I got Shelly on March 3rd, 2025!!! I got her vintage on March 5th, 2025.

I got Pebble on March 6th, 2025!

SOME OF MY CLOSE POOKIES: @murder-drones-3, @stardustandsixshooters

Respective Tags: #md3 💚💥, #allie 💛💫, #stardust ✨🌠

VENTING BLOG: @maybelle-needs-hugs

DW BLOG: @theinfamousmaybelle2

SPRUNKI BLOG: @sprunkiposting

Please be kind and not a weirdo! Now enjoy!!!

BANNED NAMES (if you talk about them I might crash out and block you):

Alexandraisyes, Artoutoftheblue, Loud-kid2, Frankie-funked, Witchysolfan, Mothytheghost, Mxnivinny, Cer-ber-iii, Cirrcusbun, Foxboidrew, Peachpopfizz, Starheirxero, That-starry-freak, Kuuchaos, Kingxgarm, Dragoncxv360, Eclipsedcrystalstar, Milky-shea, Basilbots, Pixel-chills, Cephalonghost, Chilldust, Zayaayame, Emrystheblue, Enerevune,

Don't confront them about it, do not ask them about it, do not ask me about it, do not confront me about it, none of that. Reasons are either because they, 1) Rubbed me the wrong way, 2) blocked me for no reason, or 3) brought up incidents from the past. Also warning you that I hate them all with a burning passion.

DNI:

Biphobes || Transphobes || Homophobes || Overly religious people || Pedophiles || Assholes || Terfs || Radfems || Ableists || Racists || Stalkers || Political Yappers (this is a POLITICALLY NEUTRAL BLOG!)

Everyone else can interact <3

Bonus(s): LIST OF PFP'S, WATERMARK EVOLUTIONS,

ART TRADES (I draw you something, you draw me something) OPEN

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

(GIF belongs to @reflectmirror!)

#new pinned post #new pinned #pinned intro #pinned post #pinned info

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c4rl4-k1nn13 · 2 months ago

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So, I realised my "no.1 Carla Fan" title hasnt been holding up to well on here so uhm, time to share my rants i made about her :D (+carlonty rant)

Home Life.

Since ive come to the conclusion that how the kg kids act its how their parents act, im going to use carla as an example and go into her home life a bit more on how i see it!!

I see carla being raised by a single parent, represented by how she believes she can do most things alone and turns down potential romantic partners, shees seen a parent do most things alone and gone "hey, if they dont need anyone, neither do i." And officially decided she doesn't want anyones help unless necessary, because she has an iconic single parent who manages to work, look after their kids, and handle everything else. Does she have any siblings? I've established this hc before, but yes. In my mind, shes a.middle child amongst 4. My reasoning? She keeps to herself, knows how to hide things and doesnt get along with other kids. Middle children tend so isolate themself and their belongings, after having siblings in a poor household. (Coming from a middle child). Two younger brothers and one older sister, an older sister to look up to who teaches her how to do things like pick pocketing and creating gadgets, and two younger brothers to essentially make her learn its a "fight for yourself" world and to make sure you keep things in your own vision to ensure no one else has to help you with it. Carla knows its a fight for yourself world, she knows that if she doesnt teach herself how to make it out there alone, she might not make it when shes older. I also believe her parent has connections with the upper class purely for more money and trade deals so they can look after their kids better, just like how carla has loose connects with felix (which we see when kidd needs the key to the janitors closet and she fetches it off felix)

___________

Common Misconception.

I think a common carla misconception i see is when people simmer her down to somewhat smart chaos junkie (ill admit, im guilty of this too, done it before), but carla is calculating, smart, she knows how to get around the school in better, less noticed ways. She did that alone. I wouldnt go as far to say shes smarter than monty, but she is one of the top 3 smartest kg kids at the very very least. Shes one of the few characters where she doesnt need to resort to violence to solve her issues, the most she does is ask you to break montys wheelchair just to teach him a lesson and get him off her terf, and if i was her, i'd probably just wheel him near the bins and take off a wheel and leave him there but you do you girl. Carla isn't a chaos junkie girlboss, shes incredibly smart and knows how to utilise it in her environment. Carla has what (majority) of the kg kids lack, control. Lily, Monty, and Billy have it too, but Monty kinda goes off his rocker at the janitor but for a good reason, Lily and Billy have an actual moral code they abide by too. Carla knows what she needs and knows she can't lose her mind and get violent to get it. The angriest she gets is when Ted puts gum in her hair, and lets be honest, if some fuck ass blonde richy rich shoved GUM in my hair, i'd be yelling too. She was in her right mind when getting annoyed. The times she acts out, she's very much aggravated to do so, but keeps her shit down. She doesn't express her anger irrationally, she doesn't resort to stabbing someone if they disagree, or pushing someone in a hole, or choking someone, or exploding someone. She has no ticking time bomb in her mind. Again, might i add, the worst thing she did was probably kill kid during dodgeball (but that was a minigame ok we dont count that) or disable monty further. She's not a violent child, she sees beyond it, as i started with, shes calculated. She isn't the kind of girl to get all a's, shes more of an A and B's kinda girl, but she's intelligent in every aspect you could be. Socially, she keeps her composure around people as to not make life long enemies (even tho this is kindergarten). Academically, she can read, hell yeah! Street smarts, shes full of it.

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Bonus - Carlonty and why I like the ship!

So, first things first, similarities. Both of them i view as "support characters", characters who you will need more than you wont. characters who are there to assist you more than they arent, a favour from carla, an item from monty. They both also know the worth of money, monty knows it to an extent of that he needs it, carla knows it to an extent of that its scarse and how much it can be worth, offering differing to money. (carlas part is a very thin hc with minimal connections to the game itself). They are both also one of the lesser violent characters, the only time we see monty kill is.. the janitor, for a good reason, and stevie, but who gives a shit about stevie IM KIDDING SORRY STEVIE FANS, but its a bit of a better death count compared to the others, plus hes going through things so it ok we forgive the poor boy, hes only pissy when provoked. ive talked about carlas lack of extreme violence so uhm, yeah go look at my carla rants if you care or not heh.. i dont care.. /tough guy

ANYWAYS, thats just a couple things they have in common, but my main reason for shipping them? "elliot, is it the running trend in your mind to ship those stupid one sided ships or the toxic ones bc you dont stay true to chappel roan" shut up, yes, but also theres more. quoting monty here, they would be UNSTOPPABLE. like dawg, okay, carla and monty are hands down the two smartest characters in the kindergarten franchise (-any of the adults duh), fight me. actually fight me on this topic. they are the smartest, both of them have extensive knowlegde on things they shouldnt, they both think outside the box, they both know how and what they need to do survive in the kind of environment they are in. carla and monty, are frankly, an amazing power couple or friendship, monty is right, their alliance or relationship would literally be a game changer. i just really like them ig,,, heh,,, did i mention i liked carlonty..?

Also shes the first kg character i actually drew (for my abandoned au) so pls

#kindergarten 2 #kindergarten game #kindergarten 1 #kindergarten #kindergarten carla #kindergarten monty

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voidpacifist · 9 months ago

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potter-verse headcanons that I choose to view as canon bc fuck jkr <3

*I redid these bc james' lineage was pointed out to me in a previous comment and I don't wanna disregard it so I tweaked a few things to keep it true to the lore while also spiting the terf

this will be very long btw

starting with the marauders era (sorry this is basically an essay now)

adding onto that, I just would love to see his inner conflicts and hopes and ambitions and dialogue more flushed out, because I really don't think him being rejected by an old flame is at all cause enough for him to suddenly just hate children. even his rivalry and bullying with/from james doesn't feel like the push that comes to shove idk

severus snape is not an abusive man. in my opinion, the way that he's written makes him seem like a very cause to effect character without much complexity to him other than that he was in love with lily evans. in my mind, he's lily's closest friend and defender for most of their growing up together at hogwarts, especially after he begins unlearning blood purist ideologies. he tries to protect her from james potter, who's antagonistic of blood purists by nature, and also a massive troublemaker. thinking it will get lily hurt is what ultimately fuels his hatred of james (that and the fact that james is just kind of a dick to him the whole time they're at school together)

an earlier commenter pointed out to me that james' grandfather invented fleamont's hair potion, so the inheritance of that success would make james' family quite well off. and while he grows up with a very good home life and very loving parents, I imagine james also feels quite stifled sometimes, being that he's an only child with a lot of room in his house and a lot of legacy to carry. it's not like he has a complex about it, but he's sort of a steve harrington-esque kind of character. he's not a complete asshat, but he does experience a lot of growing pains and contentions to his worldview on multiple levels when he first becomes acquainted with lily and severus, and even when he first meets the other marauders. it adds a lot more interest than just making him the charming class clown, and james being desi adds another layer of complexity to him too. (I'm quite curious about how desi metaphysics are practiced, and how that would be a shift for him going from eleven years of his own household magic to hogwarts magic)

adding onto that, it's why he and sirius become such fast friends - sirius feels estranged from his own family, and james' only family are his parents and grandparents. they're closer than sirius and his own brother are. this does certainly make things strange and angsty when regulus takes an admiration to james that sirius notices, when sirius himself is constantly being compared to his more "ideal wizard archetype" younger brother his entire life

in fact, regulus' admiration of james starts as more of a scientific sort of reverence - he wants to understand how a pure blood can be so defiant of the ideas that suggest he's more worthy of practicing wizardry, let alone a pure blood who has come from so much. he learns quite a lot about james through sirius, and when he actually meets him for the first time, he's nothing like the troublemaker prince charming that everyone expects him to be. it's the first time reg experiences real endearment to someone who isn't in his own family, and even that kind of love is conditional at best (shout-out to walburga and orion black for their a-plus parenting)

it makes it that much more painful when he sees that james, while kinder and more considerate than he seemed at first, only thinks of him as sirius'-younger-brother-who-isn't-actually-that-terrible-perhaps; when he sees that james only has room in his heart for lily evans, who by black family standards isn't worthy to have any knowledge of the magical world, let alone belong in it. and he's trying to be better and to understand, but even the kindest blood purists are still blood purists, and it will take him years after this heartbreak to rectify that mindset - even as he's defying voldemort himself

lily grows up in scotland, and while her parents love her and petunia very much, they're constantly fighting. she and tuney often spend time together, and when lily's magical talents start to emerge, she at first asks her big sister, her protector, her closest friend, to keep this secret from their parents. so imagine the heartbreak when lily's owl comes in the mail, and instead of the magical announcement being a complication for their parents, the evans' are overjoyed. imagine the betrayal that petunia feels when, after years of borderline neglect to the both of them, lily leans into the praise and attention she's now receiving. and she tries to make it up to tuney - she even grows a flower in her own hand hoping to make peace with her only real role model in life, only to have it shut down by being called a freak. things only get worse as tuney is left at home with quarreling parents while lily gets the privilege of being away from all of it. the number of letters she sends to dumbledore begging to learn magic, then simply begging to see her little sister more than just during christmas, should be enough to convince the old man to have some leniency, but dumbledore doesn't

now let's talk about peter pettigrew. we all blame him for the downfall of james and lily that kicks off the tragedy of harry's childhood, which we should. but the why of it feels important to me, so personally, this is how I see his psyche playing a role: what if he grows up in a religious household? now I know how that sounds, but hear me out. peter grows up in a religious family because his parents carry some sort of shame surrounding their magical lineage. maybe it's because their squibs, maybe it's because of other trauma from being discovered by muggles, etc. regardless, he grows up discouraged from using his magic, but instead of suppressing it and developing an obscurus, he learns how to hide it. he practices his abilities in secret, until he's a very good liar with the worst case of people pleasing. so when his owl comes with his hogwarts letter, his parents are less than happy about it. he's sent to live with his aunt when he's not at school. in the meantime, he hides as much as he can about his family from the marauders. remus has his lycanthropy to worry about, and sirius already has an even rockier home life to begin with. so it's no wonder that peter latches onto james - ironically, james becomes a secret keeper of sorts for him. but peter is never close to him the way sirius is, or even remus. he's forgotten by his friends, disregarded by his parents, and written off as soft and submissive by his other peers and even the teachers. it makes him all the more suggestible when he's sought out by voldemort, who promises him a place of belonging, which is all that he's ever wanted since he was a child. he's hidden things from the people closest to him once before, so he can do it again, right?

until of course, voldemort actually physically manipulates him with an imperius curse. and all it takes is one curse for the dark lord to convince peter that his friends can never take him back, not when he's killed and maimed and cursed and destroyed lives as much as he has. "not when you're my most trusted servant, wormtail." in short, peter pettigrew is and always will be remembered as a coward. but before he was a coward, he was in pain. and voldemort used that pain to turn him against his only friends before his only friends could turn on him

speaking of other death eaters, let's talk about regulus again for a moment. in an audience-sparing plot, regulus lives. in an angst driven plot, regulus drowns. so for the sake of compromising realism for emotional lenience, let's say nobody actually knows what happens to him. there's all kinds of rumors about the missing black brother, but the truth is that regulus doesn't drown. he's badly hurt in his attempt to destroy the locket, because not only is that thing messing with him psychologically, it's also a pain in the ass to try and get rid of. brutally injured and looking for a place to hide, he enchants a supply cabinet in a muggle cafe to expand into his own flat, which looks to non-magic users like any old closet, even if they try to open it. kreacher is left the locket along with regulus' note, because he doesn't want to be found (great opportunity for him to make a sneaky little appearance in the first half of the deathly hallows though, when the golden trio are debriefing in a muggle cafe...)

remus grows up in a really good home, but like james, he feels a sort of isolation. not because of his class status but because of his condition. as his body begins to mature in his teenage years, his lycanthropy also "matures," taking a bigger and bigger toll on his body until by the time his third year starts at hogwarts (between growth spurts and growing pains and the intensity of his transitions), he can't walk without using a cane. he's pretty sickly as a child anyway to begin with, so more often than not, he spends a lot of time in his bed in the gryffindor common room. this means when a lot of the pranking and troublemaking is happening, he's either in the background unable to do much more than try and dissuade his friends, or he isn't there at all. it isn't until a little way into his fourth year that he begins actively participating in marauders shenanigans, including helping with the construction of the map. I imagine he and sirius both have feelings for one another during this time, but these feelings cannot or do not go acknowledged until the later years (like, year six or seven)

when it comes time to meet sirius' family, sirius has already been disowned by his birth parents and is extremely distant from his brother and cousins. all of course, except for his cousin andromeda, who reaches out to him after the news of his erasure from the family tree makes it to her. this is actually how remus meets tonks in my mind - because during the whole "meet the parents" thing, he meets ted, his wife, and their daughter nymphadora

that's all I've got for now from the marauders era but the golden trio era is a whole different ballgame (and probably way longer sorry in advance)

let's start with harry. petunia is not near as strict with him as vernon is, but they're both abusive to him in ways that are physical and psychological. dudley, of course, is given everything by his parents to the point of spoiling, while harry is forced to feed off of the leftovers. and while he definitely inherits his father's "fuck around and find out" personality, he's a lot less likely to fuck around with the dursleys. in fact, he's much more quiet until he gets to hogwarts and blossoms. I also think his scar is much more noticeable and does much more alteration to his face. because it's the aftermath of the killing curse, it makes him much more likely to die just from a physical standpoint than from simply a plot device standpoint. voldemort is obsessed with killing him, and incidentally, he's a very easy person to kill

however, this doesn't make harry a weak wizard by any means. his magic is incredibly powerful and he's incredibly cunning with it. it's why the hat finds it equally appropriate to sort him into slytherin, other than the obvious connection that he and voldemort share. but this does mean that other people's perceptions of him are that he is weaker. draco thinks he can easily manipulate him. ron underestimates his understanding of the wizarding world and how to defend himself. hermione even has her moments, though hers are more a concern for his well-being as a target of all sorts of evil wizardry. even still, it's a shock and a half to go from being consistently neglected and abused to being coddled and handled with kid gloves all the time. it's no wonder his "fuck around and find out" attitude we see in the books and films also comes to life due to the way he's being mistreated - whether that's with good or ill intent

ron is not only his first friend, but also the first person harry is formally introduced to. he's harry's gateway to what the wizarding world looks like outside of school. of course, molly weasley immediately decides this makes harry her son as well as ron, and it's nice for ron to have a brother his own age. but as the youngest son in a family of seven kids, with one of the honorary offspring being famous in the wizarding world, it's easy for him to get swept up in the idea that he's the afterthought of his friends and family. as a result, he tries emulating harry's attitude towards the world, but whereas harry's is built up by his upbringing and those around him, ron's is built up out of spite. it creates resentment when they're horcrux hunting together, because ron not only hates that harry is refusing to be taken care of - he also hates that nobody's taking care of him

it's why I think he and luna lovegood make an excellent pair. luna is an uncommonly kind person by nature, and we already know in the books that she takes a shine to ron. I wish we'd seen more of them in canon, so it's my personal philosophy that they should have been together instead of ron and hermione. luna really softens the resentment in ron, because she takes so much in stride that it sort of rubs off on him. and ron brings out something very protective and fiery in her. if she weren't a ravenclaw, she'd make an excellent gryffindor, though honestly she's such a multitudinous character already that she'd do swimmingly in almost any house, in my opinion

more on luna: she and hermione were actually quite close as first years, but grew apart because while luna was accepted for her neurodivergence, hermione was singled out. there's not much difference between the two of them other than the two factors that luna doesn't mask her traits, and is a pureblood. at the time that they're both eleven, I imagine eleven-year-old blood purist logic would muddy a friendship rather quickly, especially when you're trying to seek acceptance from your peers. this isn't to say that luna is a cruel person by any means - it's just that hermione has to work harder for her fitting-in-ness. naturally, being in different houses and different circles of peers along with all the other factors, they grow apart. four years after they've met, luna is simply "looney lovegood" to hermione

hermione's parents are very eager muggles to integrate hermione into the wizarding world. the two of them meet in college, when both take an interest in metaphysical studies and the history of witches and witchcraft. though it starts as a scientific fascination, hermione's father turns out to be a rather superstitious man in the first place. when their daughter receives her owl, both of them are overjoyed at the possibility of there being a world where their fascination with magic and the occult is real. the only reason they both go into dentistry (and together at the same office, no less) is because they're ridiculously in love with one another and want hermione to have a stable childhood

snape ends up being a very protective teacher over harry. the reason he hides it is because he knows dumbledore is on the hunt for power and control, however much the man tries to disguise it as working for the greater good. the headmaster simply believes harry is the perfect conduit to attain those things, and rather than view him as a threat, dumbledore views him as a tool. snape is desperate not to see harry become a pawn, the way he did, but he also sees so much of james in him that it's hard for him to reconcile any outward respect for him. this makes snape a very cold man for harry to cross (and he's already cold enough for several other reasons), but in my personal opinion, it does his character a disservice to make him outright abusive. he's dismissive and intense and extremely aloof, but never does he use it to punish harry himself. snape's only seen as a shifty, mean person by harry because of how similar he is to petunia and her dismissal of harry at home so by god do those trust issues jump out between these two. it's by no means a father + son dynamic, but it's certainly a begrudging guardian + clueless guardee dynamic, if that makes sense

in fact, when snape realizes draco is also dealing with abuse in the home, he makes it a goal of his to do what he can to make sure their time in his class is as easy as possible. of course, true to severus snape fashion, he does this in such a way that it seems like he's going to single them out when in reality, he's only breeding an environment where draco and harry start having a tentative, mutual respect for one another. this is at first very confusing for hermione and ron, as well as draco's circle of friends. but these two are nothing if not stubborn, which means cycle breaking is what they're destined for

this paves the way for draco and hermione to be in each other's circles. mutually indifferent to one another at best. detestable to one another at worst. very much enemies to lovers, until hermione bests draco in a dueling practice and draco gains some respect for her. he learns that she is a very well schooled person when it comes to traditional witch traditions and rituals; that she recognizes the holidays that christmas and halloween are bastardizations of; that she does in fact "respect her betters," because she respects her magic as the sacred gift that it is. at that point, does it become allies to lovers. and when the second wizarding war rolls around, he does everything he can within his power to play the roll of double agent. snape becomes his mentor in that regard in more ways than one (he has to kill dumbledore and he has to outsmart voldemort, homeboy is stressing)

hey speaking of pairings, the only original pairing that I tend to keep the same within the golden trio is ginny and harry. it is the sole good pairing that jkr brought to the table. I still have a few notes on it — I just wish there was more development with them. I wish there was more canonical tension than "brother's famous best friend," because while ginny is a wonderful character on her own, she doesn't seem the type to be besotted by someone because of their fame. in fact, an enemies to lovers hinny would almost make more sense to me. they're both incredibly stubborn, it's a wonder they don't butt heads more during canon events, with the fact in mind that ginny is quite soft spoken around him. she's very do-no-harm-take-no-shit, and I wish we saw more of that in their interactions. in my head, their pipeline is as follows: younger sister figure -> academic rival/enemy -> allies during the order era -> confidants -> lovers. if this makes sense. I know it's similar to the canon pipeline for them but please I need tension I need depth I need conflict

I also have got to talk about cho because first of all, what the fuck kind of name is "cho chang" for the only visibly asian character in a franchise? said it once and I'll say it again: fuck jkr. she didn't put thought or depth into this character even one bit other than making her ditsy and boy-obsessed and I hate that shit! with all my heart! in fact, all of the POC women in this series she writes specifically to be obsessed with harry, and that makes my blood absolutely evaporate because they could be so much more than one dimensional figures. I digress

as I see it, "cho chang" isn't her real name at all. it's chao-xing zhang, and the first name means morning star. she hails from a family where her father is chinese and her mother is irish. if I had to give her a middle name, it would be siobhan. she grows up with strong roots in both her irish and chinese heritage, and she's the pride of her family, since she's the only child her parents are able to have. when she arrives at hogwarts, she is quite shy and reserved. but she's brilliant, so of course she's in ravenclaw. but it's in an atypical sense that she is brilliant, not in the I-come-fom-an-asian-family-so-I'm-clever kind of way (I think giving her the gift of clairvoyance would add a really good layer to her arc). she tries to fight off visions of harry potter dying, but she cannot shake them, so instead she vows to fight with him, especially after voldemort kills the first person to show her love and affection for who she is, not for the "cho chang" that her peers think she is. it's only natural for her to take a shine to harry when he's the one who saw cedric diggory murdered

while we're on the topic of horseshit naming, parvati and padma aren't called parvati and padma in my personal mindscape of the potter-verse. they're instead named drisana and salena, meaning "daughter of the sun" and "moon" respectively. not only are they fraternal twins, they also have entirely separate personalities and magical gifts. they're as different as the sun and moon are different, but they also both reflect each other's gifts quite well, just like how the full moon is an expression of both itself and the light of the sun. of course they're both enamored by the boy who lived and his best mate, and of course they say yes to them when they need dates for the yule ball. but to say either of them are actually in love with or interested in either of the boys isn't true by a long shot - salena much prefers her own company and drisana has been eyeing the pretty ravenclaw, chao-xing, for as long as she can remember (I also think they would take harry under their wing and help him reconnect with his desi culture because I can't imagine being raised by the dursleys gave him too much opportunity for that tbh)

now onto more world-buildy types of things

in fact, I'd say the only stereotypical twins at hogwarts are fred and george, and even then they only play into it for the bit. they think it's wildly funny to confuse anyone who doesn't know them well enough to tell them apart, which is a very small number of people (I mean come on, even their own mother doesn't always manage to tell them apart). one of them is probably just a little bit fruity, and the other one is either none the wiser or not the least bit surprised. they pretend like they're carefree people, but they both feel the pull of the war on their morale, even before the war truly sets in motion with the death of dumbledore. they don't have any older sibling figures present as far as we read until bill becomes part of the plot, but I like to think he and charlie are the ones they go to when they're needing someone to talk to about the state of the world. even then, they have to be careful about it in their correspondences.

and while I like to think that molly and arthur are all very present in the lives of their children, I also believe that arthur's work in the ministry keeps him quite busy, and molly can't always be there for each individual child without totally burning herself out. long story short, the weasleys are there for one another as much as they can be, but mainly as a whole. and of course, every weasley brother would level london for ginny if the need arose for it, since she gets little sister treatment (as she should, we love her for it)

it is in my humble opinion that each house has some elemental magic attached to it. some of these are more obvious, for instance, gryffindor would likely have many ties to fire magic, whereas with hufflepuff's patron being the badger, they'd have many ties to earth magic. ravenclaw and slytherin were a little bit harder for me to parse out, but a raven for me would signify air/weather magic while a reptilian, cold blooded patron would be symbolic to water. and while of course, any magical student can have a proclivity for any element of the four, many gryffindors will have a higher aptitude for fire magic. it's why (in my opinion) seamus finnegan is so talented with pyrotechnics in the first place - it's no accident that gryffindor is where he was sorted with that level of fire magic

so then, liv, how does that explain dumbledore's weird water orb and voldemort's fire serpent featured in the order of the phoenix film? actually that's a quite easy answer - remember how I said not every gryffindor has fire magic tendencies? this is actually referenced with neville longbottom's talent for herbology. if anything, he's more inclined to work with earth magic. we don't see a lot of deviating from house elements at all in canon, but aside from the main main characters, jkr also doesn't divulge much on it to begin with. even then, neville still has the inner fire of a gryffindor. and even though voldemort's raw magic takes the form of a serpent on fire, we see his former self most comfortable with the basilisk, who lives in the dank underbelly of the hogwarts plumbing. water snakes, anybody? dumbledore's is a little trickier to explain, but I do think in his conquest to be more powerful than voldemort, he also ended up mastering all four elements. he does certainly favor fire though, considering his animal companion is a phoenix, and his raw magic is displayed with fire in the half blood prince film during the sea cave scene

beyond the elements and patrons of each house, there's also astrology, runes, divination, etc. basically magic that isn't necessarily assigned to an element, but the elements can be present in each practice. for instance, astrology is a very planetary practice, and it relies on the position of the earth itself in relation to the stars and other celestial bodies (or vice versa). the moon oversees the tides (water), the sun provides warmth (fire) as well as nurtures greenery and living things (earth). all three interacting in different manners affects the weather (air). runes can be written or carved anywhere, but are best written either with something fluid like water and inked, or etched into a solid surface such as wood or stone. divination, particularly scrying, is best done with a reflective surface, however tea reading involves some herbology when it comes to making the tea itself. I digress, the point is, different aptitudes mean some students will have a higher proclivity for one practice than another outside of their "inner element" or which element works best with them (also jkr why didn't you include something for the crystal girlies?? for the fellas who love the pretty rocks???)

onto the topic we all love (said sarcastically) the most: wizard racism. rowling really thought she could paint a complex narrative about blood purity and the differences thereof when her own writing is inherently racist? miss me with that horseshit, anyway here's my personal take on the whole blood purity smorgasbord:

the only difference between muggleborns and regular old muggles is that some have the aptitude and skill for harnessing magic, and some don't. I don't actually know the science behind it. maybe the stars aligned just right. maybe it's a distant genetic thing. regardless, muggles have a very whimsical view of magic itself. we have our holidays like christmas and halloween and easter, and our cutesy packagings of the aesthetic for each holiday. but the holidays that they originate from, such as yule and samhain, have been celebrated by pagans and witches long before this christ-ifying of them, and even longer before making them palatable to a consumer culture. meaning it is real culture that has been taken and warped and accepted by society as normal, when it doesn't credit the original practicers in the first place

and considering the salem witch trials and other witch hunts (some of which are still happening in places around the globe, mind you), it's no wonder that, taking the canon of harry potter into consideration, purebloods (in this case, those from pagan families who have kept the practices for hundreds of generations and have only married within magical bloodlines) are at least mistrusting of muggleborns. does it excuse the blatant mistreatment and alienation of muggleborn witches and wizards? absolutely not. does it at least explain the disparity? yes it does

it gives salazar slytherins perspective of only allowing purebloods into his house an entirely new layer as to why. if only he didn't go about hatching an ancient bloodthirsty beast to hunt down the muggleborn students!

it does also add a very archaic level to slytherin house culture, though - they're not only the most cunning house (and most misunderstood), they're also the most observant of traditional paganism. dumbledore is so dead set on the belief that slytherin breeds evil wizards and witches, however, that his favoritism to his patron house (which happens to have the opposite mascot and element, mind you) creates an environment where slytherins are either feared or outright disrespected by the other houses. here's a hot take: dark and light magic can exist within the same space and still not have any moral attachment to them. crazy, innit

which means that not only is dumbledore a more "accepting" headmaster of muggleborns - they too, are a means to an end in this vendetta he has against tom riddle; a vendetta he's had against a child since he realized this child (who mind you, was already isolated as an orphan and a wizard growing up surrounded by muggles) was the heir of slytherin. and while yes, this made him a threat to the safety of muggleborn students, dumbledore also ensured the creation of the thing that which he vowed to overthrow. his mission in life as a wizard with great power and responsibility was a self fulfilling prophecy

(enough said about albus dumbledore. I hate that man. no wonder jkr paints him as such a hero figure in the series though like damn)

more world building! I think it should be canon that a modified obliviate spell exists so that trans witches and wizards can erase the memory of a dead name from the minds of anyone who isn't them. use this headcanon how you must, it may be the biggest fuck you to the author I could come up with <3

phew! that was a mouthful, but on that note, those are all my thoughts/headcanons/other things that I've conjured so far. some of them may be based off of headcanons I've already seen (like, we've all basically confirmed james is desi at this point), but I did wanna drive a little deeper into those existing ones as well as add thoughts of my own. I am planning on using most if not all of these to write my own rendition of the potter-verse canon, but feel free to use any of them you see in here! I'd love to invite more dialogue, particularly about more thoughtful name changes (like seriously if y'all have anymore suggestions on that front please send them to me, I don't want to be totally ignorant or off base so any feedback is super appreciated)

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brightside-brigade · 2 months ago

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★☆~Welcome to the Brightside Brigade!!! This blog is run by the host of the system, though a few others occasionally post. If you want to read more about the system and it's members, click the post linked after the intro and byf stuff!~☆★

★ psst. Seen us posted on a cringe sub or site? Let us know, so we can add to... the "rent free" Tally! ★

🎉Rent free Tally 🎉 [/]

Hiya!! My name is Jack, but you can call me Bright or Brighteyes! I'm a Dr Bright fictive and this is my blog! I post just about anything here, various interests, stuff about my alterhumanity or our system, shit post, and all around just be me! (《Please note I have autism, anxiety, and depression! So if my posts are ever erratic or sound off, that's why! There may also be slumps in posting! Thank you for understanding 》)

I'm bodily 22, and transmasc, plus neo/xeno hoarder. My pronouns are he/him, they/them, nya/nyas, and... probably more neos to come!

I'm arospec due to autism (not feeling/understanding emotions the same way an NT being might), and omnisexual with a masc lean. I'm currently in an in-sys relationship and I'm uncertain about adding anything external at the moment! However, playful flirting is allowed via anons so long as you're also 18+. I'm a grown ass man.

I love my source, mascot horror and analog Horror, or digital horror, resident Evil, and horror in general! Especially things like Welcome Home! Non horror things I love include pokemon, minecraft, Steven Universe, mlp and more!! I also like toys, such as lps and plushies! I hoard both. I like to draw and make bracelets! But I'm not the best at them, the knots are hard to tie. ^^"

I'm also a furry and age regressor. My agere blog will be linked below as well.

I'm alterhuman!!! Both physiologically and spiritually, and possibly physically as a way of fully rejecting this body I'm stuffed in. That's right, Dr Bright is also... a creatures. A certified #1 Critterboy

My ID's for that are as follows:

🦂 Las Plagas (think the fanart you see of infected Leon, one of those bad boys.)

🐈 a Cheshire cat (as in the species, not the character)

🍂 an unknown (for now) forest entity

💞 I also feel strong connections with wild canids, deer, not-deer and not-animal cryptids, dragons, demons, and angels! 💞

Stances:

Pro lgbtqia+

Pro mspec identites

Aro, ace, and apl spec belong in LGBTQIA+

Pro slur reclamation

Pro mogai, liom, ect. This includes xenogenders and neo pronouns

Pro endo and all system origins

Knows there's no such thing as a "bad person disorder"

Supports Pro recovery and anti-c paras

Believes in and supports survivors of RAMCOA, TBMC, OEA, programmed systems, ect.

Alters don't need to separate from, apologize for, or denounce their source, or their actions in source

Radqueer apathetic (burned out from discourse), VIOLENTLY ANTI XENOSATANIST, BASED/LACED QUEER, ECT.

YKINMKATO

supports all non human identites, including physical, p-shifters, and CLCZs

Thought crimes don't exist

You can enjoy media with problematic themes. You don't need to "acknowledge" or "enjoy it critically,"

Shipcourse is fucking stupid.

I don't give a shit what someone does or enjoys within a fictional setting

DNI:

Basic DNI

Terfs, swerfs, radfems, gender crit, transmed, ect

Any form of ageplay or sexualized age regression

IRL nsfw blogs

Don't believe in or follow our stances if you're going to start shit (IE: sysmeds, ect)

Pro-c or neu-c harmful paras (you deserve to rot)

if your blog is heavily discourse centered

Anti agere/petre

Anti alterhumanity

Believe in narcissistic abuse or demonize personality disorders in general

Harm beings that cannot or do not consent in any capacity

☆ do not refer to Jack by Elias or any other rewrite name. He is not them, they are not him, and he has no intention of source/name separation. If this bothers or upsets you, block this blog.

Warning: This blog will mostly be discourse free, but Jack Bites Back™️ and will go after those who Start shit on positivity posts or make posts defending groups or identites his friends are or are a part of.

Have a question or want clarification about the above? Just ask! ^_^

vvv LINKS vvv

System intro post:

Jacks age regression blog:

~more to come~

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citizensun · 2 years ago

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Queerness and the House of Usher (spoilers!)

See I just added these Thoughts to the tags in @quecksilvereyes 's post but now I have Feelings too

TFotHoU (or HoU, as I will refer to it here), as expected from a Mike Flannagan show, has a bunch of Queer Rep™ to talk about. HoU is, also, about remarkably evil people - amoral capitalists who'll step over anyone if it means they'll get something from it. And look! Some of them are queer! Kinky too!

That's bad queer representation... right?

The show isn't that clear when stablishing sexualities, but we see that at least three of the Usher kids - Napoleon, Camille and Victorine - have same sex SOs/assistants with curious job descriptions. Prospero's taste for orgies probably implies queerness too, but honestly I don't remember if he gets it going with any guys in the story. I honestly have no idea about Tamerlane's voyerism thingie and Frederick is the only one with a "traditional family" going on.

Unrelated, but: Leo is definitely cheating on his bf Julius. Completely dismissing about his worries for him too. And for his cat. That's objectively evil, clearly. Vic literally killed her fiancée Alessandra, though she didn't stuff her under the floorboard, which is an L when compared to Poe's original. Cam doesn't believe in true love. Perry blackmailed his sister in law. Mean. He's also got a surprisingly high kill count for the family's disappointment, but since unlike Roderick he only killed rich people, we stan. I don't belong in Kinky spaces so I haven't got a big take on Tammie, only that - well, she's completely dismissing of her husband and sees him as a prop, just like the sex worker she hires.

Huh.

See, the nature of a story called "the fall of X family" is that X family is going to be the main character. The title kinda implies that they're falling for a reason, ergo, they're despicable fucking people. And they're queer! They're very queer. Many flavors of gay. They're the main characters, and they're monsters, and they're gay.

No, that's not bad rep.

Queerness as a movement, a community and a theory is very focused on scaping a cisheteronormative society's binaries (ie man/woman, husband/wife, public/private) and creating living conditions to those who fall outside of these categories - mlms and wlws, the trans, the nbs, the aros and aces... we are all queer, strange and estranged from this weird and limited worldview. And so we create a community for ourselves. It's very focused on care and anti-stablishment. Since a cisheteronormative society tends to be very white, rich and western, it's also focuses on anti-racism, anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism. Y'all know that, this is Tumblr and we love leftist Discourse.

I also know many, many gay people irl who are not like that at all. Libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, terfs, completely apolitical people and the like. Sexuality at it's core is personal, not political, so there are gay people out there who are perfectly comfortable with their sexuality on an individual level but do not see the point of getting involved in the broader context. They're queer, but are they...?

Well—

Not to mention there's lots of asshole gays out there! Don't you have a shitty ex? Have you never been almost run over by a drunken butch who blew cigar smoke into your face? I have! Life experiences are just like that. Maybe you should touch more grass. You'll probably find a lucky gift from your neighbour's dog, who is an astrology-obsessed bisexual and also really hot but stopped making out with you at a party once she found out you're a pisces (the neighbour, not the dog).

(Granted, none of this is as bad as implanting an experimental heart contraption into the fiancée you just killed because she dared to have ethical principles and then being so consumed with grief you stab yourself in front you'd your dad but you know how it goes. We're not the 1%.)

My point is, queer people are people. We are complex. We fuck up, and sometimes there's still times to fix things and sometimes... there isn't. We're consumed by jealousy and regret and sometimes we're so locked into our own head we stop believing the rest of the world is real too. Just like any other people, because unfortunately, queerness isn't a sign of morality.

And even if queerness does mean community, kindness and acceptance, tell me... Where the hell would the Usher kids get those from? The people around them are not really peers – they're ass-istants, blowjob-giving apartments, orgy mates, heart surgery providers, hired fitness moneybags, perfect housewives. Even if the partners are all shown to care for the Ushers, there's still a distance, a power gap, that makes the relationships fundamentally wrong.

And the partners? Arguably they're the good queer rep in the show, but look – even when Julius and Alessandra are shown to be good people (or at least people with an ethical boundary), they're not the good gays, they're simply the good SO's to a family of psychos. Exactly like Bill and Morrie, who afawk are straight people.

Which leads us to HoU's parameter of morality - Auguste Dupin. He refuses to drink the Amontillado, symbol of all the Usher opulence over the years. He got screwed over by the Usher twins and by the Raven herself, but he refused to cave in (except for the informant part, admittedly). He's not a good gay guy; he is gay and he is a good man.

The fundamental difference between our show's main tragic yaoi couple isn't that Auggie is a happily out gay man (and therefore is good) while Roderick is a sad divorced hetero (and therefore is bad). Auggie is the richer man because he is a good man; he has a spouse and children and grandchildren he loves with all his heart. He has a family and a community and he has found a sort of happiness no money can buy. Roderick owns the world – but what does he really have? What do his children even have? How could they ever build communities for themselves if they were never in one? Their father made them compete for his love. He never nurtured their bonds, he just showered them with money and excess until it was too much for them to handle. Juno herself pointed out - they were never a family. The House of Usher was only that. A house. It is empty and soulless.

What is queerness without a community? How could the people who represent the relentless corporate normativity and cutthroat capitalism ever be good queer rep? How can they even be queer?

Hear me out: on the most individual, simple level, being queer is still about not fitting in. These kids are bastards. They are are PoC and women in a predominantly male and white dominated space. They're on top of the world, but they're still outsiders to their own House. How could they not be queer?

And yes, I know this discussion takes a different turn when it comes to representation in media, but it's not like Flannagan fell into a Hays Code-era flamboyant villain trope. Queerness is just there. Just like Victorine and August are both black people in (arguably) the opposite ends of the morality spectrum, there are queer characters of many kinds here. The story just happens to be about the fucked up ones.

HoU is a poignant critique of capitalism and a surprisingly funny adaptation of Poe. We'll judge it by that. It happens to be queer – more things should be.

#the fall of the house of usher #TFotHoU #victorine lafoucarde #camille l'espanaye #napoleon usher #prospero usher #tamerlane usher #roderick usher #queer theory #queerness #lgbtqia #edgar allan poe #mike Flannagan #sun o' mine

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