#I'm at a point in my life where i mull over so many career ideas with no conclusive decision

[bodywhorror]

this might just me having passing interests and passions but man...sometimes i think about how cool it would be to be able to make a career in the practical special effects world

[ala-baguette]

If Harry couldn’t be an Auror for whatever reason, what Job do you think he be happy doing instead?

I’ve been mulling over this Ask for some time, trying to come up with an appropriate answer.  But I just… can’t.  Harry’s an Auror. 

(Very minor KWTL spoilers in that to know my opinion on this is to know where I'm going with the story, but I think we're mostly past that anyway)

I know the fandom has assigned him several other alternative careers—most commonly, I think I have heard Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts professor and professional Quidditch player.  I see their merits, but… that’s just not my Harry. I would love him to be in a nice, safe profession like a professor.  And yes—I think the DA proved that he would be great at it.  But honestly, Harry started the DA to stick it to people like Umbridge and Fudge.  Not because he found teaching fulfilling in its own right.  It was his way of fighting back while he was feeling his most powerless.  After Umbridge was gone, Harry showed no interest in continuing the DA.  Neville and Luna even asked him to at the start of HBP, and he still just brushed them off saying there was “no point.”  Maybe he would have come by for the occasional guest lecture gig, but I don’t see him happy sitting behind a desk, grading papers, docking house points, planning lessons, writing exams…  The boy’s just not that patient.  It doesn’t feel like his calling. As for becoming Quidditch star, we all know my boy’s got the skills, and we know he feels passion for Quidditch and for flying.  But in a post-war world, I think that level of fame would be off-putting.  Throughout his youth, Harry has moments where he seems to enjoy being the centre of attention when he feels it is for something he deserves (Quidditch matches, Triwizard Tournament wins), but I do feel stepping into the Quidditch world post-war is a different level.  This is willingly accepting more fame that there’s no turning off or stepping away from.  And while Harry would never consider Quidditch frivolous, I do think he wants his career to mean something more.  While preparing for their career advice in OotP, Hermione scoffs that she doesn’t want to be an Auror because she doesn’t see it as adequately “worthwhile.”  Her scope is big.  She wants to change the world in a more systematic way.  But to Harry, I think being an Auror is “worthwhile.”  To him, saving that one person is worthwhile.  Offering justice to someone who was wronged is worthwhile.  He's not looking to fix all the problems in the world and prevent future ones like Hermione wants to.  He wants to help people directly.  Being an Auror to Harry is about being able to stand up for the little guy.  It’s about being able to protect people from going through the things he’s been through.  It’s about having the opportunity to solve puzzles and track clues and satiate his curiosity.  And let’s be honest, it’s about getting that nice little kick of adrenaline.  Honestly, there’s nothing more “Harry” than all that. I do understand why so many people dislike the idea of Harry becoming an Auror so much.  I get it.  I do.  I understand the reluctance to unite him to the Ministry after all they did to wrong him.  But, at least in my headcanon, this is Kingsley’s Ministry, not Fudge’s or Scrimgeour’s.  While it may have taken a while for Kingsley to prove it to Harry, I have to believe things changed post-war.  And of course, I understand the feeling that Harry went through so much, he deserves to be able to step away from all that pain and fighting and death.  Of course, I want that for him too.  But…  Does Harry deserve the quiet life?  Yes, undoubtedly!  Does Harry want the quiet life?  Possibly.  Sometimes.  Does Harry do what’s good for him?  Never. So I’m sorry, kind Anon.  I suppose all of this is me telling you I can’t answer your Ask.  Harry is an Auror.  He was an Auror in my head before JKR even came out and said he was an Auror, and I’m terribly stuck in my headcanons.  (Though, regarding him going on to become Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to hell with that, Cursed Child!)

[castiel-left-his-mark-on-me]

Hi, Ary, very inactive ex-mutual(i think???) here. Good to see you thriving! ♥ It's been a while since I've dipped my head into cockles stuff. Could I perchance maybe ask uuuuum tf is going on??? lol I see Mish apparently confirmed he used to stay over at Jensen's in Van, and heard newbs were apparently freaking out about it and getting a bit messy, which I get that, business as usual. But I'm also seeing shit about spin-offs? And Jared getting in a twitter fight with Jensen, causing/resulting in stans to going feral and sending hate?? I know you're not as big a fan of Jar, but that's part of why I figured I'd ask you, you usually have a really level head about this kinda stuff. If you don't wanna answer publically, or at all, that's totally chill!

Hey, Rhi! We're still mutuals! Of course we're still mutuals! When I saw the notification of your ask, I was like "Hey! I haven't seen you in a while!" and my husband was like "???" and I said "Tumblr" and he said "Oh."

It was a wild time haha.

In any case, welcome back to the dumpster fire! We are obviously still a mess. So to catch you up, I guess I will start by summarizing both before and after the finale (not sure where you left off so this might be redundant for you) ... basically, it became obvious as the end of the show neared that Jensen was not on board with the plan for the finale; although Jared never stopped singing its praises.

We got confirmation of this during a zoom interview where Jensen said that he actually went into the writers room as well as called Kripke to basically voice how he didn't agree with the direction the final season was going, but he was shot down on all fronts. In another interview, he was asked "What would you tell your younger self going into this career?" And Jensen responded with: "I would tell myself to just keep your head down and do the work" meaning, "Don't try to change things because you can't." I also think that this whole situation is what he wrote "Let Me Be" about for his first Radio Company album, but that is just my own speculation. All of his reluctance, even though he always followed it up with "But I eventually saw the value in the script" or "I came around in the end" (which never sounded sincere, and I don't think he was really trying to sound sincere) made us all very nervous about what was to come for 15x20; and of course, when the last two episodes aired, we saw just how badly they fucked it up.

After the awful finale, the entire fandom became aware of the CW's heavy handed role in the thing, basically squeezing all the life out of SPN to shape it into a ramp from which Walker could launch itself. They not only erased all the love and joy and representation that Cas's love confession gave us, they also tore apart the things that made sense about the bond between Sam and Dean, making it really just about Sam-- and therefore Jared, which of course, Jared seemed to be fine with ... even though no one else was. Misha barely said anything during the finale, and a few of the other actors talked about the show ending in various posts, but Jared tweeted up a storm ... and Jensen? Jensen just sat in sexy-silent resentment of the whole thing. He didn't tweet, he didn't post, he didn't say a word once he no longer had to, and I think that's because he was already going full-steam-ahead on his plans for redemption.

Which brings us to Chaos Machine-- Jensen and Danneel's new production company that is being run by a queer creative director and has a mantra of inclusivity and representation woven throughout it's fabric; and apparently, the first story that Jensen wanted to tell through this new platform is the origin story of Sam and Dean's parents; so last week (?) he announced the upcoming production of "The Winchesters" -- the untold love story of John and Mary. Obviously, John is not the most likable character from the show, so the idea was met with a lot of resentment when it was first announced, but Jensen has gone on to say that he is excited to take on the task of telling the "true" story behind these characters-- the one that makes sense with the pre-established canon and doesn't reject it. So, given that, the idea is being mulled over with a bit more optimism from the fandom.

Who isn't being optimistic though?

Jared Padalecki.

When Jensen made this announcement on Twitter, many of his friends and coworkers congratulated him, but not Jared. Jared responded with a passive aggressive: "I'm happy for you, man, but I wish I didn't hear about it through Twitter." This of course, sent all the die-hard Jared fans into a tizzy and they immediately began asking him if he was serious (hoping it was just a joke-- we all hoped it was because there would be fallout no matter what one's opinion on Jared is). Instead of leaving it there though or just deleting that tweet, Jared went on to tweet some more, saying that he was being serious that he didn't know about the plans for the prequel, and that he was "gutted" that Sam apparenlty wouldn't be included (mind you, this a prequel to SPN... meaning BEFORE Sam and Dean were even born, so how could Sam be included? But Dean is apparently narrating this story so maybe Jared thought Sam should be helping to narrate it? I don't know). But Jared being Jared couldn't just leave that there, he then went on to tweet at Robbie Thompson who was announced as a writer for "The Winchesters" so then Jared went off on him too, calling him "Brutus" and a "coward" acting like Robbie betrayed him (speculation is-- Robbie refused to write for Walker, so Jared is pissed that he essentially chose Jensen over him). He did fairly quickly, remove that tweet attacking Robbie, but of course the damage was done at that point. And it truly only took his first tweet calling out Jensen for some people to be like "Jared-- that sucks if you didn't know but why are you saying any of this publicly?"

As you might know, Jared has had issues in the past with posting hurtful things on social media, and has even used it as a tool for attack before-- calling out customer service agents and public workers that he felt have wronged him, which is bad enough ... but for him to then do the same thing to his best friend of well over a decade? Many people who had once liked him or at least gave him the benefit of the doubt (I used to ...) stopped after this latest twitter tantrum.

However, some people have suspected for some time that J2 had a falling out either shortly before the finale or just after. Their public/social media interactions have seemed awkward, stilted or even non-existent in moments that they normally wouldn't be. In the past year, when Walker premiered, Jensen didn't say much about his friend's new venture other than a "Congrats. buddy" here and there. Later, we learned that Jensen refused to work on the show ... Jared said he make him do it, drag Jensen to the set "kicking and screaming" which made many fans quirk up an eyebrow because, why would Jensen put up a fight unless the two weren't as close as they used to be? And then Jensen moved his family to Colorado (either permanently or for an extended period at least) which is notable considering how he moved to Texas seemingly to be closer to Jared, even buying a house that was near his. All this was just speculation though; but it wasn't until Jared's tweet complaining about not knowing about the prequel that the theories behind them falling out, became less theory and more fact.

The day after his twitter tantrum, Jared tweeted again-- not retracting his statements or apologizing, but instead saying that he and Jensen "talked" and were "all good". Jensen then tweeted too, parroting this statement to some degree, which only made the whole thing even more sour in the mouths of the fans. The fact that Jared didn't apologize for his outburst and throwing his friend under the bus, and also the fact that Jensen-- Mr. Sexy Silence, Mr. Never Tweets, Mr. Tech-Ignorant-and-Proud, actually had to POST SOMETHING saying that he and Jared made up, it just screamed OPTICS. It was obviously the work of agents and PR firms and lots of people going "Look, if you two keep beefing, that will mean the death of both of your projects. Even more people will stop watching Walker, and this SPN prequel will never get picked up due to the scandal." So, the two "made nice" publicly to quell the chaos, but in my opinion, it's all too little too late. Jared started a storm that he can't contain now with a little tweet, and it seems like he knows that too because before he talked about him and Jensen making up, he asked that people "not send threats". He could have just as easily said that he shouldn't have made this a public issue and that he's sorry, but instead, he continued to play the victim and stoke the flames by alerting us all to the damage he's done.

Now, like I said before-- I used to give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't think he's an awful human or that he deserves to be attacked or anything, but he is an adult man with very poor judgment and an obvious selfish-streak a mile wide. He should know better, and he should have more respect for his so-called "friends" and "brothers" than to make them targets to public ridicule. I have a hard time believing that Jensen still sees Jared the way he used to, and I wouldn't blame him a bit for wanting to pull away-- especially when he's moving on to so many new and exciting things. Jared certainly deserves happiness just as much as anyone else, but he went on twitter and basically asked for a scandal, and he got one.

The question is now-- was there a motive behind it? Was just looking for a reason to bring his and Jensen's falling out to light-- while making himself looking like the victim in the process? Or did he genuinely not know about the prequel and just decided to go about "not knowing" in the most toxic and hurtful way he could manage?

In any case, that is the drama ... that is the J2 insanity in a rather lengthy nutshell ... that is the tea ... and I hope it all makes sense.

But the good news out of all of this is, Cockles is thriving-- they are happy and in love and Jensen calls Misha "Babe" and Misha misses waking up to see Jensen in the morning, and they are just as cute and wonderful as can be.

So, I will end that there. I am so glad to see you back, and I hope I answered all your questions in a way that made sense ... I tried anyway!

💖💖💖