moonsrunes

[moonsrunes]

When you say a fandom is dead, it’s a bit of a blow to people who are still producing and enjoying work for that fandom. You’re basically saying what they’re doing doesn’t matter, doesn’t count, which might discourage them from continuing to participate.

If one person is creating content, the fandom isn’t dead.

If one person is consuming content, the fandom isn’t dead.

If two friends are chatting on skype about their OTPs, that’s fandom.

If someone doodles drawings of their favorite characters on a napkin, that’s fandom.

Just because someone is producing content for one fandom doesn’t mean they have to leave another.

Not every fandom can be the big, new, shiny and popular thing.

Not every fandom *should* be the big, new, shiny, and popular thing.

It’s okay to have small, tight-knit fandoms. They can be just as fulfilling and entertaining as the big ones.

[moonsrunes]

rereading prisoner of azkaban when you're in the marauders fandom is pure comedy because Harry asking about the map makers and Lupin saying 'we've met' with a straight face is the funniest thing to me.

[moonsrunes]

i posted a tiktok about ralph fiennes (an avid jkr supporter) being hyped up by the marauders fandom and the responses were,,, intense. and it got me thinking about how Different your engagement is in this space if you're from a community that jkr has harmed.

and i don't just mean in terms of the things you read or write, or even really the conversations that you have (though there is definitely a Lot to say about the expectation to be an educator rather than an enjoyer) but more so just,,, every tiny action?

take fiennes for example: in my mind, it's common information. if you simply search his name you find articles, it's on his wikipedia page, it takes one quick "ralph fiennes jkr" search to find out. to me, that's common information, right? but the responses i got - very aggressive ones wow - show that actually it,,, isn't.

and it isn't that you should know off of the top of your head every single person who has defended her or not (although, yes, before you unnecessarily attach people to this fandom space and fics within it - don't do that. but if you're Going To - then dare i say the bare minimum is ensuring they aren't bigots before bringing them to a space with people harmed by said bigots?) but it really does put into perspective how different engagement is for those of us that have been harmed because,,, we Have to do that research.

to some, a "fuck jkr" in a bio is a staple, something that's simply Needed to "justify" engagement here so they chuck it in. for me? well, it's a big safety thing isn't it? lest i follow someone who doesn't actually detest her and her views. but then the issue arises where that isn't a good enough qualifier anymore because those with it in their bios can and do still have videos of themselves at the studios or doing merch hauls or talking about the reboot

to some, a "i hate fem sirius" is a headcanon preference and a lot of the time it simply IS a headcanon preference. but then you see how adamantly *some* people detest the idea of a fictional character presenting fem. you see the posts and the arts mocking it, you see people say things like "this man escaped AZKABAN! he would never wear a skirt" as though the clothing on his fictional body dictates his fictional strength. you see how people say it makes wolfstar "straight" and you, as a trans man, will look towards your cis boyfriend and wonder if people think the same about you. am i queer enough? am i in a straight relationship? do people think he's straight for being with me? because i wear makeup? because i'm not manly enough? Do They Really See Me As A Man?

to some, a celebrities comment sections filled with marauders references is a funny haha but to those of us that have been harmed? it's Terrifying to see this fandom space become so public without any education or understanding whatsoever, just "well, why not!" and then you watch as someone like ben barnes who is so renowned in this space says that he would take part in the HP reboot because "it would be a disservice to the millions of fans that have messaged [him]"

and so on and so forth. you have to suss out everything and everyone and every small comment and you have to wonder if the person you're interacting with is With you or Against you or, the secret third option, 'with' you for the badge and the tshirt that says they're an ally but they're unwilling to actually unpack what that means.

and yeah, if i learnt one thing from having all of these conversations on tiktok and trying to make it all make sense to people, it's that it just... doesn't. it just doesn't make sense. and to some extent i get that! because a lot of the time (and really, the times it matters because my discussions aren't aimed to fully fledged bigots) it's people who DO support trans rights and i understand how frustrating it must be to think you're getting called something you're not when someone points out another hidden way you Could Potentially be supporting jkr or spreading her rhetoric without realising.

so i get it. i do really get it. i get it so much and i wish people Got It the other way around because it's never people being nitpicky or overbearing. it's never being over the top or dramatic or making a mountain out of a mole hill. it's just,,, trained survival i guess. years of assessing threats and years of being an Educator and years of knowing the warning signs of harm.

it's not over the top to point out things that harm us, you simply don't see the harm that those who jkr has targetted in every aspect do. and that's okay, that's why we talk and why we persist and why we post about it.

i just wish that being educated and understanding came from a place of care rather than frustration.

i think the best way i've been able to put this is "the trans discussions in this space are built around us, not for us". people build a fence around trans people within this space and call us protected, but when we point out holes in the perimeter or ask them to monitor the fence gate a little bit more? well, how dramatic of us. how overbearing. how aggressive of us.

you have Got to become accustomed to having conversations without feeling called out or shamed. you have Got to get used to being told that maybe something you're doing isn't the best without taking that as "so you think i'm a massive transphobe?!". you have GOT to get okay about listening to POCs, asexuals, trans people, people with disabilities etc etc etc when we tell you what is not supporting and how you can do better because otherwise,,, what's the point? what's the point of any of it.

like genuinely, what's the point of any of this if you aren't willing to listening and protect those this space claims to??? it's okay to Listen. it doesn't mean you were explicitly wrong, it just means you need a bit more education of the subtler ways you could be causing harm, and that's SO understandable if you do not live as someone that she has harmed and therefore don't have to assess risk in this space in the same ways that we do. it just means you might need another perspective sometimes, and is fandom not all about other people's perspectives??

[moonsrunes]

A cute thing is that the Marauders don't actually call themselves "marauders", but Ron uses the monicker for them:

“The Room of Requirement!” said Harry, smacking himself hard on the forehead with Advanced Potion-Making. Hermione and Ron stared at him. “That’s where he’s been sneaking off to! That’s where he’s doing . . . whatever he’s doing! And I bet that’s why he’s been disappearing off the map — come to think of it, I’ve never seen the Room of Requirement on there!” “Maybe the Marauders never knew the room was there,” said Ron. “I think it’ll be part of the magic of the room,” said Hermione. “If you need it to be Unplottable, it will be.”

(from Half-Blood Prince).

[moonsrunes]

a lil rant about sex, sexuality, and asexuality in the marauders fandom

Can we PLEASE talk about how weird people in the marauders fandom can get regarding the sex lives of these teenagers. I’m not saying teens don’t have sex but the way they’re written is utterly bizarre. Disclaimer that this is just my opinion, and I’m happy to talk further if you disagree with anything I say here. Also that I am asexual so mayhaps I’m not the best person to talk about the average allosexual experience but at the same time mayhaps the best person to talk about how I’d LOVE to see more relationships in the marauders era that aren’t so focused on sex and finding each other physically attractive. You don’t have to be asexual to not be constantly thinking about sex all the fucking time and ESPECIALLY not if you’re in grade school and ESPECIALLY not if you’re fighting in a war.

(Keep reading for full rant)

First of all, to the older content writers; actually stop with the detailed descriptions of these teens' bodies in a very sexual way. I do not give a flying fuck if this is written because it’s how their crush perceives them. I acknowledge if it’s an au or canon divergent where they’re older it is far less creepy but still can be extremely objectifying if not written with caution. For instance stop please I beg of you to stop calling any of their waists “tiny and slutty”. There are SO many reasons this kind of thing is gross to me. To start, there’s a lot of posts that say something along the lines of “the purpose of so and so’s slutty waist is for [insert partner here] to hold it” uhhhh no the purpose of their waist is to connect their hips to their upper abdomen? There is no part of anyone’s body that’s “whole purpose” is to be, for all intents and purposes, “owned” by another? I don’t care if they’re dating, I REALLY don’t care if the characters themselves would appreciate the possessiveness. This is just my personal opinion but I feel like we’re projecting such objectifying and possessive content to a fandom made largely of teenagers who don’t necessarily think about how relationships don’t have to be so cut and dry.

A small continuation of that point, there’s a hell of a lot of content talking about several characters' skinny waists in an extremely sexual way that implies the reason it’s “so sexy” is because it’s so skinny. In what universe should any fandom/ship embody this as a good headcanon or part of the lore? Are the only two options for a character really to either be objectified for their societally considered “sluttyness” or to be dismissed as not slutty, not pretty, not fuckable, not LITERALLY WHATEVER because they don’t hold up to your stupid standards?? Is this REALLY what you want to project to the already mentally shit teenagers in the marauders fandom??

Which also brings me back to the fact that canonically many of these characters died very young and are therefore very young. If you want to write/read character x reader fics as a teen fucking go ahead, but as an ADULT is so fucking weird. If you’re 25 you should NOT be writing an explicit y/n fic with, say, Regulus as a 15-year-old (if you absolutely have to, just make him older, it ain’t hard). Writing an explicit jegulus fic from James’ pov is a few steps removed from that, but still in the same realm of creepy if not carefully written. We as a fandom need to stop making these teens do freaky ass shit just because it’s fun for you and treating it like it’s just a part of fanfiction. 

And on a related note can we please stop making them naturally incredible at kissing/sex? Like I said, teens can have sex and teens do have sex but oh my fuck we need to stop having them do very erotic shit when they’re like SIXTEEN. Sometimes younger! Not to mention most of these teens’ only knowledge of sex comes from upperclassmen and each other (not like Walburga and Orion were giving their kids sex ed). Make their first time awkward. Make them have to have awkward conversations beforehand. Make them really fucking scared because they haven’t been dating for all that long and what if this is too much too soon. But MOST importantly make them ask for consent, both the first time and EVERY time after that. I love ATYD, but it’s a great example of a fic where wolfstar truly does whatever the fuck they want (and luckily for them the other if very receptive) but that is NOT how real life works or how real life should work. AND I should say, this includes not having them kiss while disgustingly drunk or high (especially ESPECIALLY not for the first time, god) because they certainly can’t be consenting then.

Which brings me to my next point, I will not suspend my disbelief if their first kiss is when they’re drunk at a party. That’s not because miscommunication is annoying (though it is), it’s because whether you like it or not it’s such an overused plot device. It can be written well, but most of the time it honestly feels like a way to move the story along without having to actually write nitty gritty conversations about feelings. Please just give me a story where they talk about their feelings first, including boundaries, before kissing each other, and ask for consent when they do. Is that so much to ask?? (This isn’t even mentioning the fact they're often as young as 14 or 15 when their ship starts sailing, so why are they getting so absurdly drunk in the first place? Like yeah, some teens like to try forbidden shit, but this is not a universal teen experience and should not be treated as such.)

Okay, trust, I WILL wrap this up soon because I have been yapping BUT I have one last point, which is bringing it back to asexual characters and how the fandom treats ace headcanons. I personally prefer ace Just Lovers/Intermission Evan over every other version of Evan I’ve read, and basically any other character, if written right, I’d be thrilled to read a fic with them as asexual. That being said, pray don’t make a character aroace because you’re too lazy to write a ship for them. Yes, that was targeted at the aroace Peter headcanons, which are almost always a cheat out for not having the ONE canonically heavy set and not conventionally attractive character be in a relationship. 

This all connects back to how so many of the ships in this fandom get easily diminished to what the fandom perceives as “hot together” or whatever. Not only does it take away from their complex personalities, backstory, and lore by reducing them to simply their appearance and what makes them physically attractive, it implies that the only thing that matters in a relationship is just that. Side tangent I hate the “casanova of Gryffendor” Remus thing, it pisses me off because wolfstar hits so much less when they’re both confident and flirty, not to mention it’s so far removed from the Remus I connect with (to be clear this is just my opinion… no judgement if you see him this way). Anyway, continuing with what I was saying, I think there’s a point when we need to take a step back and think “do I like this ship because it’s good… or do I just find both members hot and like reading fics where they fuck?” Not to say there’s anything necessarily wrong with the latter. Depending on who you are, casual fuck buddies may be a representation of your own experiences that I personally can’t relate to, but I’d understand if it’s something other people relate to, or simply enjoy reading. There’s enough fanfiction stigma and judgement from people outside of fandoms for people in fandoms to join in on it. However, it starts to become problematic when only very specific archetypes of people are considered hot within the fandom. It becomes problematic when it’s hard to find any fics with well written romantic chemistry. It becomes problematic when the sexual aspects aren’t consent based, when they’re unrealistic and idealized, when ignorant teenagers are treated as experienced adults. It becomes problematic when fics that do feature asexual characters, or simply sex isn’t a major part of the story, are dismissed as boring or prudish. There are so many ways to be in a relationship, or not be, and this desperately needs to be reflected more in the fics we read.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk, probably no one will actually read through all of this but kudos to you if you did :3

[moonsrunes]

i fear all my obsessions remain only vaguely dormant at any given point bc wdym I rewatched the owl house for the first time in several months and I'm already more emotionally attached than ever? like does anyone actually just... completely grow out of their hyperfixations... forever? like no judgement but I can't imagine.

[moonsrunes]

it's both funny and annoying when i like a character that has two or more popular enough appearances within the fandom.

cuz when i have a strong preference, then i have to deal with half the fandom portraying them the other way, so when looking at fanart half the time I'm like "I know this is fanart for this fandom but who tf are you." "oh. oh wait. you're THEM." "HOW ARE YOU THEM."

but when I don't have a strong preference how tf am I supposed to decide when creating content? how do I draw them? how do I describe them? wtf am I doing not even knowing what one of my fav characters looks like?? yknow???

[moonsrunes]

wolfstar my beloveds !!! I love them a normal amount ;w;

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Regulus "I don't have friends, I have people I tolerate" Black and James "everyone in the universe and their mom is my friend" Potter

[moonsrunes]

how are people having secret relationships when they have a map that shows everyone’s location at any point in time?!?

sirius: I wonder where James keeps sneaking off to *finds out on his own easily because those two have no sense of privacy and have each other fucking airtagged* what the fuck...

[moonsrunes]

platonic prongsfoot gives me faith in humanity agh

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Harry: OH MY GOD PROFESSOR LUPIN FORGOT TO TAKE HIS POTION HE’S TURNING

Sirius: MAYBE IF I KISS HIM HE’LL STOP

Harry: SIRIUS WTF

Sirius: DAMN HARRY I DIDN’T THINK YOU WERE HOMOPHOBIC

Harry: NO I JUST MEAN HOW IS THAT GONNA HELP

Sirius: POWER OF LOVE IDIOT

[moonsrunes]

this is your daily reminder that James Potter DID in fact strut,, happy birthday to our favorite prongsie!! 🦌🦌

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six of crows is the marauders of the grishaverse and sunrise on the reaping is the marauders of the hunger games. no I will not explain further argue with the wall.

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non marauders ships if they were named in a "marauders way":

drarry ~ lightningferret

romione ~ smartweasel

grindledore ~ phoenixkiller

scorbus ~ timesnakes

[moonsrunes]

"your outie ships sirius black and remus lupin" I wonder what my innie thinks about my outie being obsessed with dead gay wizards

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oh my fucking god wtf just happened. watch severance they said. it'll be fun they said. no one warned me it would ruin my life.

(spoiler rant ahead for season 2 finale)

so, who else wants to scream some sense into innie mark? bc istg he rlly is not thinking ahead. but on the other hand he wants to live and has NO reason to trust his outie with reintegration so in some ways he is absolutely justified in going back with helly. but speaking of, wtf was she doing? she TOLD him to go and get gemma but then happily went with him when he chose her over helping his outie (which was justified, like I said, but so fucking stupid). the problem is rlly that this whole time we've (at least I have) been thinking abt mark as one person, but rlly he's two separate ppl with VERY different motivations and ideals. so as far as we know there is no way for both marks to have a happy ending which is just fucked up, considering over the course of the past 2 seasons I've gotten so attached to both versions of him.

also,, we still know next to nothing about gemma's situation? we know they were refining her tempers but what does that even mean? why were they making so many innies for her? why did they kidnap her and then tell the world she was dead? not to mention why is she and mark so special-- why them? why was cobel watching mark and devon so closely throughout season 1?

my little pet theory (mostly a crack theory) from earlier this season was that helena, and by extension the eagans, were trying to make a "messiah baby" by having her "magically" get pregnant (from innie mark, so there's no father in the main world). this "magic" baby would become the next kier eagan and lead them into a new age of lumon or some such. why does mark have to be the father... no idea, but maybe he has a special gene, answering the question why him. though this theory is possibly busted by the finale... it made less and less sense as the season progressed.

all that to say I have no clue what's in store for the future but I am SO excited for (and freaked out about) season 3.