#I’m sure there are more but I’m high

[stickmeinhornyjail]

Yes, sometimes I am attracted to the just totally awful villains. Like little to no redeeming qualities. My vagina sadly does not have morals and therefore does not care.

[catsnakes]

Some of the posts I’m seeing about the new fantasy high junior year episode makes me think that some people don’t get that it’s a comedy d&d series.

“They shouldn’t have killed the rat grinders”

The rat grinders were literally helping end the world, what else were they suppose to do? Like d&d is a combat based system, when you’re fighting the big bad you usually also kill their minions, because the big bad having a bunch of little guys around can be really bad for you.

“They shouldn’t have been so vindictive with how they killed them”

Comedy show

[superfallingstars]

Personally I think jily is supposed to be idealized (like how James and lily were idealized) to Harry. James gets knocked of his pedestal in swm and so does jily by Harry questioning if his father forced his mother into marriage. Later when talking to lupin and Sirius James and Jily get a slight defense and Harry is back to feeling alright but with the knowledge that things weren’t perfect.

I personally don’t read Jily as abusive (even though I read James as being abusive to snape at school, but I don’t think that violent, physical behavior was extended to Lily) but I definitely don’t read them as a “good” couple (whatever that means). I think you can read it in many different ways given there is so little of them and I think an interpretation that their relationship wasn’t the healthiest is perfectly plausible with the scant information we’re given.

Yeahhhh that’s probably what JKR intended. James and Lily are the fridged parents who are dearly mourned and missed, and as a result, their flaws are completely smoothed over in everyone’s memories. But in Snape’s Worst Memory, Harry learns the hard lesson that things aren’t always what they seem, and that nobody is perfect, not even his dead father. Hurrah.

My problem with this is that I think it’s very boring, LOL. Like it really is probably exactly what JKR intended (given her middle-of-the-road takes on every moral and political question that happens in these books), but man, it feels like such a cop out. James basically ruins Snape’s life for no reason, and the conclusion we’re meant to draw from this is just, well, people are complicated! NO!!!! Bad answer!!! Like, Snape also did some terrible things, but at least he spends a ton of pages actively suffering/atoning for his sins. But James, on the other hand, is only somewhat implied to have changed maybe slightly a little bit somewhere off-page, and we just have to take #1 James Potter fanboy Sirius Black and serial understater Remus Lupin at their word. So if James was supposed to be “redeemed” – or even just excused – wow, it really doesn't work for me. You can't go as dark as "protagonist questions if his father forced his mother into marriage" and then just brush it off like no big deal, Joanne! And it’s so frustrating, because all it would've taken to fix this would've been to show James being a good person instead of just telling the reader that he was one (proof: trust me?). Ugh.

So because of all that, I agree that from what we’re given, it’s quite difficult to read Jily as “good.” We rarely see them interact, and when we do, James’s behavior is wayyyy too similar to the trope of “terrible guy eventually gets the girl even though she seems to hate him with every fiber of her being because his persistence and not taking no for an answer is just toooo romantic to resist.” Which sucks, lol. It feels like JKR is basically being like, “eh, James was young and dumb, whatever” and giving him a huge out for all the grief he caused Snape (and Lily, for that matter) – and she expects that the reader will agree that that is a legitimate excuse for his behavior, and by extension think that it's reasonable for Lily to forgive and eventually marry him. And man, I am just not sure if that is enough to convince me. (And evidently, I'm not alone, considering the “Jily is abusive” meta post that likely sparked this ask!)

With that said, I agree that it’s a stretch to say that James was abusive (or even implied to be abusive) toward Lily. It’s not a completely unfounded take – it could probably be written well in a fic, and even be canon compliant – but you would really have to extrapolate that dynamic from the little information we’re given (as you pointed out). And more importantly (at least, re: that meta), I don't think JKR intended that interpretation at all.

Personally, I just don’t think it makes sense for the narrative for James and Lily to have been in an abusive relationship. And by the narrative, I mean Harry. If Jily is an abusive (or even just bad) relationship, that would have massive ramifications for the way Harry sees his parents. Ideally he would have to come to terms with that at some point – I don’t think it makes sense for James’s and Lily’s relationship to have been this way and not have significantly affected Harry – but imo JKR clearly does not want to deal with that. Like you said, the point of SWM – aside from foreshadowing Lily and Snape’s relationship – was to knock James off his pedestal and basically go, See, nobody’s perfect. <3 And the story is not interested in engaging with James’s behavior on a level any deeper than that lol. Which ok, I don’t love it, but if we’re not going to spend time dealing with morally gray James, then it doesn’t make sense for him to be even more morally gray (or rather, have him fall face first over the line into becoming a downright despicable person) by making him abusive toward Lily.

So that's my Doylist analysis: no way in hell did JKR intend Jily to be an abusive relationship, but she also didn't do a good enough job defending and/or redeeming James after SWM, so we're just left to speculate about how much he really changed. Still, I don't think "JKR is a bad writer" is a very satisfying answer. After all, the only reason that I'm engaging with this text in the first place is because I'm a fan of it, so I think it's also worth looking at it from a Watsonian perspective – or at least, to accept the events of the book as they're written and try to fill in the blanks. (Imo so much of the fun of fandom is trying to fill in those blanks in a satisfying way, to expand upon a character and try to reach a more interesting conclusion than the author did... And I would be remiss not to mention that, because it undoubtedly influences the way that I (and probably also you, if you're on this side of tumblr) engage with the text.)

So for me, as a Marauders era fan, I’m faced with: ok, I don’t really like the idea of these two characters together, but they canonically got together, and I think the story is better because they got together, and it’s better if they genuinely like each other, and it all had to happen somehow – so how can I explain it in a way that both makes sense with the story and is satisfying to me? And my answer to that is twofold.

First, I imagine that James was not always quite such an awful guy (as in, not always as showy, combative, and cruel as he was in SWM). After all, there is a glimmer of goodness in him when he chooses to save Snape’s life during the Prank, revealing that somewhere deep down, he does in fact have a moral compass. And second, I think that he has to have changed. And I mean a genuine change – one that might not have resulted in completely different behavior (after all, he was still hexing Snape through his seventh year) – but regardless, something that makes him seriously reflect on his actions and reconsider his motivations. His behavior in SWM is just too inexcusable for him to get with Lily – partly because Lily is generally framed as a Very Good Person, and partly because regardless of how she is framed, James was still awful to her – without any self-reflection or growth. Of course, the problem then becomes explaining this in a satisfying way!

And I have some ideas in mind – but they’re definitely more speculation than fact, and omg this post is long enough already. Luckily, I received another ask on this topic, so I will save my self-indulgent headcanons for that.

There is one last thing I want to mention, which is (part of) my reasoning for why James may not have been such a bully all the time and why I think he has the capacity for change, and it's been nagging at me ever since I read that meta post (which again, presumably started this whole thing). I think one thing that bothers a lot of people (including me!) about James is that it seems like he chooses to pick on Snape in SWM because of Lily’s presence. He wants to show off to her, so he keeps looking over to the girls by the water, he ruffles his hair, he deepens his voice, and he tries to get her attention by targeting Snape. Following this logic, we can presume that James wouldn’t have done any of this if Lily hadn’t been there – and that’s the part that got me thinking. I have to wonder if Lily was perhaps not the only person who James wanted to impress in that scene… in fact, I think it’s incredibly likely that James would have acted differently if the Marauders hadn’t been there! (Harry has "the distinct impression that Sirius was the only one for whom James would have stopped showing off," and Sirius saying that he's bored is the inciting incident for James spotting Snape...!) Yes it’s going to be a James masculinity analysis because this is what happens every time I talk about these fucking characters apparently. So idk, stick around if you’re into that.

And of course, thank you for the ask!

[thelilylav]

I’ve gotta admit as much as I know Darabella is a flawed ship (and some of the ppl who are anti for it have legit criticisms I love y’all for pointing it out cause it frustrates the hell out of me too trust) they’ll always just kind of be it for me.

Because as much as it was an “I can fix him” trope, as much as Rosabella could be selfish and Daring’s flaws got cranked up to 1000, she was also the first person to look at him after his destiny, the thing he dedicated his life to, failed, when people were questioning him as a prince and putting pressure on his and Apple’s relationship and tell him that, like, maybe it would be alright? Maybe this wasn’t his destiny, and maybe that was okay.

And the part that really gets me? She’s the first person after this happens to tell him that it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside, which as much as you can like other Daring ships or him whatever he desperately needed to hear. Not even cause he was selfish, that’s not what I’m saying, but bc he placed his whole identity on this image that people concocted for him based on him appearing the perfect prince. He was handsome, he was talented, and he was handsome! So who cares about him as a person?

Idk man. You spend four seasons (I watch the specials on Netflix so that’s why four idk if it’s three to some ppl or whatever tho) watching him be praised for his looks, watching girls fawn over him, and of course he enjoys it so nobody really questions how much he enjoys it. And then you get this girl, this girl who owes him nothing, this girl who (contrary to popular belief apparently) has a life of her own and people she cares about outside of him, and she’s nice to him. And she’s the first person after everything happens to just be nice to him, for the sake of being nice. Something about that will always hit different for me

[stuckinapril]

I’m happy for the little life I built for myself

[inumbrapugnabimus-maybe]

Behold some very messy sketches of @margindoodles2407’s Star Wars High Fantasy AU Ahsoka design!!!!

[mollusken]

[janamensch]

Aerois did not have enough Spellclash and Sky jousting, so I need Altheya to make up for that with lots of knights and tournaments. Therefore I present to you Altheya knight AU!

[hsslilly-blog]

brigette's fashion show: the girls through the decades!!!!!!! indirectly inspired by @hssprimefan's "brigette's happy ending".

i’ve been meaning to do something like this since 2022 but i never got around to it. but here we are: 20s katherine, 30s mac (@ih8harley’s mc), 40s sakura, 50s kallie, 60s blair, 70s mia, 80s koh, 90s autumn and 00s payton!! i tried sticking to their colour palettes because i thought it’d be fun.

[skelecentral]

I attempted the evil art style challenge and it was very hard 😭😭

[fizzytoo]

made a bottoms (movie)/“fight club” inspired oc :D —leah dawn (she/her, 21, physics major) joined her university's "secret" self-defense (fight) club to impress girls and get pussy 😞

[communistkenobi]

people have brought up that andor has not treated its Black characters very well and like, the weird thing is that for a very long time Star Wars has not really grappled with the racial elements inherent to fascism, all the while drawing heavily from contemporary white supremacist fascist movements (Lucas stated that the rebels were inspired by the Vietcong, making the empire both an analogue of the United States and Nazi Germany, etc). and in general I think Star Wars has not really had a strong historical perspective about its own canon, presenting it almost like a history that came from nowhere - the empire rose to power because of a dissatisfaction with a declining republic and unnecessary war, sure, but like, the ideological bits that make up a fascistic empire have not really been well established, nor have they been situated in a proper historical context. I’m not saying this never happens, but in the mainline canon (ie movies and live action shows), this is not really a subject given any real thought.

and Andor seems to be explicitly trying to rectify that in some way by showing the course of history and how revolutions are started. It seems to correctly diagnose the base ideological components of the imperial machine, it explicitly deals with how history produces new forms of political thought - Cassian listens to Nemik’s manifesto right before going to Luthen and formally joining the rebellion. This is a story of a man being radicalised and that is a textually political one. It’s also a story that is impossible to divorce from the modern political climate in the real world. Tony Gilroy, the director of the show, has even mentioned that Andor is drawing from historical events like the Russian and Haitian Revolution. But where this falls a little flat is that, again, Andor is building from this haphazard history that lacks political dimension, and so like. I’m struggling to put this fully into words, but even when we see Star Wars canon framed in political terms, it doesn’t seem interested in including the racial elements of those politics. I’m not laying the blame solely at the feet of Andor because this is a wider issue in SW - this idea that fascism does not have a racial character to it, and further still, that humanity is post-racial and all racial antagonism is actually disputes between species. So you’re in this weird place where Star Wars sort of refuses to engage with race properly, doing it only in these coarse “what if aliens were racist to each other” kind of storylines, while still being narratively racist in casting and writing decisions. So again this history from nowhere appears, apparently agnostic to the racial elements of fascism while devaluing the Black characters they have in the story without that devaluation being a textual part of the story. So really you get this double whammy where racism is like, not a thing space Nazis care about but the writers creating the space Nazis are being racist.

Anyway I think that on the whole this does temper the story andor is telling, and it’s shitty because a story that seems to otherwise be fairly aware of the material it’s dealing with seems uncaring about, like, the role Black people play in modern antifascist movements in the west lol

[hanzajesthanza]

dandelion is indeed the worst but if he’s not present in the next book i would legitimately be sorrowful as the whole thing will become a slog . you basically cannot have the “short stories” era-of-the-timeline iteration of geralt without dandelion, it would be like eating unbuttered bread.

though it’s not like season of storms did them dirty, i wasn’t disappointed with it (… with regards to them), but since it’s literally been over 20 years since the saga was finished i’m trying to prepare for any potential reality

[greatestwizardofthisage]

I personally like to believe that the first instrument fig learned to play was the ukulele back when she was a preppy cheerleader type but once her horns started coming in she gave it up for the bass because it seemed more punk

[cripplepunkbarbarian]

Brennan can slap as many big red stickers that say “evil” onto Porter as he wants I will always derive more enjoyment from the idea that Jace is evil but knows that he comes across as infinitely more unassuming when standing next to the scary strict barbarian and thusly used him as a scapegoat until the day we get the actual reveal.

[t4tozier]

thinking about disabilities in dnd. like. mages with tics that adapt their spells to use more somatic/verbal/material components to accommodate for when their involuntary movements/words would typically get in the way of casting. vampire students who get extensions into the late afternoon because it’s their late night and holograms of teachers to teach classes when they’re awake. or better yet, teachers who take the graveyard shift to teach their nocturnal students so they don’t feel left behind. creating magical subtitles that automatically adapt to everyone’s preferred language and communicate the same subtext, not just translating the script word for word. artificers creating multipurpose wheelchairs that attune to the users’ needs and desires. service familiars. you agree