#Mimsy thinking about fandom

[mimsyaf]

Someday I would like to write in-depth about how badly Season 5 of Cobra Kai damaged my ability to engage with that show, TKK, or even the fic or meta or fannish works around it.

It feels silly to talk about damage, because IT WAS A SILLY KARATE SHOW. But it was a silly karate show with moments of deep exploration of some of the things I’m most interested in and curious about: intergenerational trauma, restorative masculinity, the allure and danger of violence, found family and love, and finding joy and meaning in middle age - never too late to find your way.

And the writing that this community was doing, fic and meta, around those characters and topics… it was incredible. Inspirational. Deeply meaningful to me during the hardest time of my life — keeping me alive despite the isolation of the pandemic.

The fandom didn’t change. The people - whether they are still into CK or not - remain truly awesome. But the show itself did something that hurt my ability to find joy in it or anything connected with it. Someday I’d like to write about that, because as silly as I feel, admitting that hurt, there’s something I’m curious about and want to explore further: why does some writing do that, destroy a show for me, while other uneven writing I can just shrug off? What is the relationship of canon to transformative works in my brain, and how can canon sour me on transformative works in that fandom?

Also, frankly, what do women and queers see in these shows/films/video games that allows us to hurl powerful and graceful rockets of writing into the cosmos from somewhat meager source material launchpads? What are the stories we are looking to tell, and who are the creators who are equally interested in telling those types of stories? And who are the creators who traveled the same path as us for a bit, but seemingly unintentionally? Completely uninterested in the stories and narratives we go so feral for?

[michealsbiggestfan]

🄾🄽🄴 🄷🄴🄰🄳🄲🄰🄽🄽🄾🄽 - 🄾🄽🄴 🄲🄷🄰🅁🄰🄲🅃🄴🅁

fandom: South Park

characters: team stan, craigs gang, nathan & mimsy, the goths, la resistance

genre: platonic fluff

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stan can be incredibly lazy. he always gets pimples, has greasy hair, and forgets to use deodorant. it’s a very big part of the reason wendy broke up with him in the “raisins” episode, but she didn’t want to be rude.

kyle is one of the most sane tween boys you’ll ever see. he always washes his hands, remembers his manners, and helps his parents with cleaning sometimes. unless it had something to do with cartman’s schemes, he usually doesn’t get into much trouble.

kenny is the most rational out of the whole group. sometimes, he still thinks about what’ll happen when trent boyett gets out of jail. but since he’s still a little bit of an idiot like the rest, he doesn’t worry about it too much.

cartman is much more smart than everyone else. he just doesn’t use it for good. he uses his intelligence and his talent in manipulation to get people into trouble, or to do dirty work for him. he doesn’t feel remorse for what he does, either.

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craig doesn’t show much emotion because he doesn’t really care too much about other people apart from tweek, stripe and himself. if he sees something that he really does care about, he’ll show emotion. but in reality, he just doesn’t give two shits about getting in trouble, people like clyde who just whine about girls, and literally anything else in the world.

clyde isn’t actually that much of a crybaby. cartman people just purposely poke at him and annoy him so he cries, therefore having an excuse to call him a crybaby. although he is emotional, he’s not a crybaby.

jimmy spends a lot of time in the library, reading the blurb on books with people, then making fun of it, which usually makes people laugh. it also helps him to come up with new jokes, which is pretty helpful itself. that way, he’s making people laugh, and also coming up with new jokes to make at the same time.

tolkien originally was only friends with clyde. but then clyde started taking tolkien to hangouts with the rest of craig’s gang, which helped tolkien get into the group and find more friends.

tweek has slightly curly hair. wavy, more like. his hair isnt a birds nest because he doesnt take care of himself, his hair is a birds nest because he doesnt dry his hair after he washes it, which makes it all frizzy, so it looks like hes just been electrocuted.

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nathan is very lonely. notice how he always complains about jimmy getting all the girls? hes a very jealous person, and despite being young, cant help his jealousy towards jimmy, since jimmy "gets all the chicks". although jimmy is also just a child, hes more popular and gets more attention from girls than nathan ever has, likely because of nathans disability.

mimsy and maury, the raisins bodyguard, are siblings, hence the names sounding similar. theyre both opposites in a way, however. mimsy admires maury, but maury doesnt really notice it. mimsy wanted to be more like maury, and have a "job" of some sort, so thats why mimsy "works" for nathan.

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michael's cane belonged to his biological mom. before he was a goth, and his mom left, he begged her to just let him keep one of her things. since she had narcolepsy, she needed a cane to help her stay standing when she became incredibly sleepy during the day. she had gotten a new one just before she was going to leave, and decided to give it to michael. once he became goth, he decided it was a good accessory, so he carries it around daily.

pete has a cat. well, its a cat that usually sits near the caravan he lives in. its one of those hairless cats, but it has black-ish, grey-ish skin. since most people dont like hairless cats, and theyre considered ugly, he likes the cat a lot. he named the cat "licorice", since licorice is black, and also his favourite kind of sweet.

henrietta doesnt actually care much about conformists. she could give two shits and a cigarette about some kids who dont dress the same as her, dont listen to the same music as her, and dont have the same political views as her. she cares more about vamp kids, since theyre total posers trying to copy her if her and the other goths were censored.

firkle is secretly jealous of mike makowskis piercings. mike has an eyebrow piercing and a nose-bridge piercing. although firkle isnt jealous of the eyebrow piercing, he is very much jealous of the nose-bridge piercing, and promised himself to get one when he grew up and became an adult. but then he was like, "well, im already smoking, so why not now?", but then he looked in the mirror and remembered he had a baby face, so he just decided to wait until he was fourteen.

bonuses for pete: he has a sweet tooth, but he wont ever admit it. he likes baking too, but his mom isnt the richest, and his dad isnt around, which is why him and michael get along pretty well, and also why he can't afford ingrediants. pete was the only goth who wasnt born in south park. his mom was a druggie and slept with other guys whilst dating his father, so she grabbed pete and got in their caravan, driving away to south park, but at least he made friends. he didnt really have any friends where he was originally from.

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gregory is a fantastic actor, and that can be used in a both good and bad way. however, sometimes, his true sass can sometimes come through, showing how two faced he really is. his friendship with christophe is kind of two faced as well. in reality, gregory thinks christophe is kinda gross, filthy, and his british tendencies makes him annoyed at christophe's accent too.

christophe likes flowers as much as he liked digging. he doesnt like reading much, but when it comes to books about flowers, he cant help himself. his favourite kind of flowers are lilies. sometimes he puts them on his shirt, which makes gregory a bit confused, but christophe refuses to elaborate on it.

[terrainofheartfelt]

You're really good at writing imo. Are their any fanfic authors or any books you recommend that helped you improve your writing?

Thank you so much! That’s very kind!

And oh boy DO I

For years before I actually wrote anything I was a fanfic lurker and I read a lot. My last church choir job in the Before Times was during the final seasons of GoT and I read a lot of fic during the sermon. Which is just to say, that I think there are a lot of fic writers — both within and without the GG fandom that have influenced me and inspired me. I wouldn’t say anything has directly improved in an instructional sense, like “this is how you should write, yadidiyadda…” but reading a lot has let me learn by osmosis: what I like to see, what I don’t like to see, and a lot of it has inspired me, particular tropes and story premises and things like that, so! Let’s have some lists…

First, in the non-Gossip Girl category, there are writers in different fandoms whose works I think about a lot and really enjoy and kind of…look up to, if that makes sense. In the Shadowhunter Chronicles, the media that has had as much as an obsessive hold on my heart as GG, one might argue, I really admire @themimsyborogove and revisit her work often. And—we’re not mutuals so I’ll refrain from tagging bc I’m shy— ashesandhoney writes some awesome fic (and, if I may be so crass, they write very good smut—is it weird to cite a smut influence? Oh well, too late). TSC is a fandom that’s been racked with both a poor movie and poor TV adaptation, so finding fic that satisfies a books-truther just as myself is a tall order, but these two both are lovely (and Mimsy writes showfic too that I just know is wonderful bc she wrote it). And tsc & these writers opened me up to the magic of trying to write the ot3. I’ve used ashesandhoney’s herongraystairs fic as a frame of reference for writing d/b/n (not that the characters are the same, or the relationship dynamics between the three are the same, it’s more a…vibe thing? Like, how do you illustrate this love and how these three connect to each other?) 

And in GoT I will never forget ashleyfanfic and justwanderingneverlost they made this amazing au where the Starks are prohibition bootleggers and it reads like an hbo miniseries hatfields and mccoys kind of epic and I think about it alllllll the time. And it is one fo the first aus that left an impact for being so out there when held up against the source material, but so inventive and grounded in the characters and I just think about it at least once a week. Also ashley’s pop star au fic is god tier and lived rent free in my mind for a loooooong time. Also a smutspiration. 

In the same vein of aus I never could have imagined but took over my heart, welpthisishappening’s hockey au of OUAT. before these works I was pretty much a canon-compliant/canon-divergence only kind of fic reader, and these works and these writers got me to see outside of that view and gave me permission to imagine characters in worlds outside of their own, and how exciting that can be, and without that I definitely wouldn’t have written all that I have. And lastly, I have to give a shoutout to a writer of the other GG, MrsMess and their Gilmore Girls fic. Harvest Moon healed the wounds of the revival to me and is canon in my heart, and it’s so beautifully and thoughtfully written and how could I not be inspired by it?

And as for the dair fandom itself….god I mean pretty much everyone I’ve read has made me a better writer and made me want to write and keep writing. In the beginning of the dairaissance in mid 2020 the tag on ao3 was much smaller (I think we’ve grown it by like 50%??? Just looking at it roughly??? Good work team!!!) and of course I was inspired by the great revered fic standards written by audrina (she’s retired from gg but secondaudrina is the pseud where most of her fic lives on), and bookglue aka @windowsandfeelings (I only got into her gilmore girls works through gossip girl but damn she’s a hero), and nevertothethird aka @scabopolis — like seriously I wouldn’t have written anything at all probably if not for the existence of Wrapped in Ribbons, and @pseudowoodo as well, who wrote thee seminal role-swap au. 

And then of course there’s my heavyhitters, my ride-or-dies. I’ve told them multiple times, but I’ll tell em again, Nads @mysteriesofloves and Ivy @mrs-nate-humphrey were writing and posting and creating pretty regularly when I started poking my head in to the fandom, and their stories were so brilliant and well thought out and compassionate to the characters that it turned on something in my brain and made me want to write too, so I did. Then not long after I found S @strideofpride, my most beloved enabler and peer pressurer and reading what they make and talking to them about it has unquestionably made me a better writer. I have grown a lot in the year and however many months it’s been since I started doing this and I owe it to all of the above <333

As for not-fic writing I read….just everything. Everything I read informs me as a writer, directly and indirectly. Though I don’t write it, I find poetry very inspirational. Devotions, No Matter the Wreckage, Open Me Carefully, Leaves of Grass, have all informed me. Some prose writers I—not necessarily aspire to, bc how could I ever be as brilliant? But maybe…revere and internalize are: Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Isabel Allende, Vladimir Nabokov, Kevin Kwan, Emily Henry...

[lizardrosen]

WIP meme

tagged by @eirenical

Make your own post, and post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it!

Tagging: @all-mimsy, @trans-peridot, @suits-of-woe and @butchhamlet, and of course if you'd like to do this, then consider yourself tagged!

bold of you to assume i have a dedicated WIP folder, but let's see what we've got! many of these are just word docs for a specific fandom, and i put a bunch of little snippets all together without titles, and many of those snippets will never be posted anywhere. and it's going under a cut because there's a ton

Miscellaneous

Arendelle

Blood Like Glitter

Cinna

Dorian Gray

Flutter

Go big or go extinct

Kit Kat

Leap of Faith

Metaphorical Resonances

Princess Tutu

Silent Seas

Tangled

The Awakened Mermaid

Umineko

Walls

WCKD Is Good

Welcome to Disc Vale

When the Fire Nation Attacked

Doctor Who

Always

Awful Lot of Running

Donna Nine Pilot

Question Theories

Three Rights Make a Left General Notes

Three Rights Make a Left Season Outline

Friends at the Table

Red Jack

Restless

Perforated

Rain Mode

Good Omens

The Constancy of Water

I Want to Break Free fanvid

Split Reality AU

Revolutionary Omens

Les Mis

SINGING THE SONG OF ANGRY MEN

resurrection?

Gray Is Okay

brietbart online

"Please Come Inside"

Friendlier Skies

Narnia

Gallivanters

once a king or queen

Theory of Narnia

To Fill Different Lives

Pathologic

Cruel Light (space opera)

No Mere Auditor

Pathologic Micro Fic

Seafaring AU

Things of Small Value

When the Head-s Full of Snow

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Take My Revolution

The Sunlit Garden

Violet Surprise

Star Trek

Ghosts

Genesis of Horror

The Frenemy Within

Beam Me Up Grantaire!

Trek Misérables

Things To Do With Your Space Boyfriend

Uhura

Bonus because i published this one but really like the working title Land of Wastes (Les Mis)

Star Wars

There Will Be Light

Qui-Gon lives (and somehow everything is worse??)

Obi-Wan after Revenge of the Sith

Putting all the Shakespeare plays together for convenience!

Hamlet

Is There Not Rain Enough

think of us as of a father

your drunken kisses as light as the air

almeida rey/laertes

Despised Love

Bonus Horatio

Truant Disposition

fennel and columbine

not all the world

I'th'church

hollow knight

hear you, sir

spendthrift sigh

dumpling fic

Horatio/Fortinbras

Melt Thaw and Resolve Itself

Foils

subspace

Claudia

Latin America Hamlet

Hogwarts AU

Changeling AU

The Good Place

Ohtori AU

D&D AU (ropefic)

claudius/laertes/oswald

Ariel

weaver of lies

double death

Othello

Female Othello

Evil Unicorn Temptress

Di of Demon Eyes

Twelfth Night

Fluidity

Adored

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Taymor Midsummer

In The Park

permutations

Performance

Much Ado About Nothing

Trans Benedick

demi beatrice

Lady Conrade

Romeo & Juliet

Playing Space

Dreamers Lie

Church doors

Man of Wax

silly things

Henriad

Henry stories

Follow thou the wars

TennisBalls

European Tour AU

As You Like It

Haircut

The Tempest

the land and sea's embrace; the land and sea's divorce

King Lear

Thunder

Nonbinary Edgar

presented nakedness

Shakespeare Crossovers

Moon Letters

Songfic

Ben-Mal

Directing Concepts

Madness Tips the Beam

Laertes/Benedick

Guil/Edmund

[brave-braveman]

PS chp 7: The Sorting Hat

 - First off, I love the fact that McGonagall is wearing green robes. There’s a lot of colour symbolism in the series and we’ve seen some of this already in chapter 5 when Harry’s wand let out gold and scarlet sparks. But here we see the Head of Gryffindor house wearing the green of Slytherin. It’s our first clue that she is a just person.

- I don’t understand why none of the parents told their kids about the sorting. Clearly Harry also thought this was stupid as he does later tell his kids about the Sorting Hat. I think it may be a part of the ongoing theme of adults not telling the truth to the kids. This comes up a lot throughout the series (all of OOTP for example), but I think it’s disturbing to see how ingrained it is. Thankfully Harry doesn’t follow this way of thinking.

- “he thought they looked an unpleasant lot”. And so we see more of the house bias. There is A LOT to say about this but I think it’s important to note what the houses value. Gryffindor, which has been labelled the “best”, values courage and daring. It’s very clearly meant to be the heroic house and a lot of the imagery surrounding the house is reminiscent of Arthurian legends (Gryffindor sword, Sir Cadogan, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington, etc.). Hufflepuff, which Hagrid described as a bunch of “duffers”, values fairness and hardwork. They’re often portrayed as the leftovers, the ones who have nothing remarkable about them. Ravenclaw, which Hermione said wasn’t “too bad”, values learning and creativity. They want to know more about the world and are generally people who are willing to think outside the box. And then there is Slytherin, the house which is described as being full of dark and “unpleasant” people. The Sorting Hat’s song doesn’t really describe what the house values - at least not explicitly like the other houses. It says: “Or perhaps in Slytherin You’ll make your real friends, Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends.” It implies that Slytherins are loyal to their friends (”real friends”), that they are smart (”cunning”) and ambitious (”achieve their ends”). Put like that it doesn’t sound like a bad house. What I find most interesting about the bias between the houses is which ones are praised and which aren’t. The “best” house is the house of the brave and noble. Number two is the house of the creative and curious. At number three is the house of fairness and hardwork. And last is the house of cunning and ambition. What’s interesting about this is that the two houses most likely to put in effort to get somewhere in life are the two that are derided the most. Also, they are the two who value loyalty. The two hosues that are praised value more fairytale-like traits - bravery and curiosity. They are far less grounded than Hufflepuff and Slytherin (interesting considering where the house dorms are located).

- I think it’s been convered, both in fandom spaces as well as in the canon as to why what Seamus’ mother did was risky. We see it more clearly what the risk was with Snape and McGonagall. That being said, I wonder if Seamus’ father did end up leaving as we never hear about him again. Seamus only ever mentions his mother from here one out (and once a magical cousin, suggesting his only in contact with his magical family).

- The pressure that’s put on Neville is honestly horrific and falls under child abuse. It’s shown more in his Gran in later books but here it is clear that the whole family are leaning hard on the kid and trying to force him into the ideal image they have built up in their minds. They think he may be a squib and keep trying to force magic to occur which doesn’t happen until he’s 8. They almost drown him. And 8 isn’t that old. It’s never made clear what age magic begins to make itself known in children (McGonagall was a baby, Harry’s escapades all seem to occur when he was school-aged, Lily was performing magic at 9, Fred turned Ron’s teddy bear into a spider at 5). I imagine it must come as a point of pride for parents and that would explain why Neville’s family are so keen to scare his magic awake - we all know how his Gran, and probably the rest of his family, are so eager for him to be like his father. 

Other Observations - The Great Hall is to the right of the castle doors - Hogwarts uses gold plates and goblets - Hannah Abbot is described as pink-faced and blonde - Morag MacDougal doesn’t exist on the list of the original 40 - that’s Isobel MacDougal - Hagrid sits at the end of the High Table closest to Gryffindor table - Harry is not a fan of mint humbugs - Neville’s grandmother’s house is near a road (”bounced all the way down the garden and into the road”) - McGonagall sits next to Dumbledore - Quidditch trials are held in the second week of term - the beds in Gryffindor tower are hung with deep-red velvet curtains

Favourite Quote: “You could be great, you know, it’s all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that—no?”

[kanadabiscuits]

3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48

Whoa... **cracks knuckles** 

Alrighty then, let’s dig in!

3. What is your favourite all-time fic?

Ooohhh that’s really tough. There are some fics like 100 Days by the glorious Mimsy ( @borogroves ) that I LOVED reading as they came out, chapter by chapter, panting for each instalment and revelling in each twist and beautiful angst filled moment. And some I keep aside to read when I need imagery and beauty... but I really have to say that All the Other Ghosts still awes me to this day. That was a an epic story that deserves to be a real comic or graphic novel. Crazy good.

6. Do you prefer long fics or short fics?

Long fics. I mean, I love a bite-sized morsel too, but I like to get lost in a fic and if you find a beautifully written long fic it’s like striking gold.

9. Do you read smut?

Oh yes. Yes I do. Yup, yup, yup... MmHmmm...

12. List a few of your favourite AUs.

Does this mean specific fics or AU tropes? Because I’m not sure I have a favourite kind of AU (coffee shop, high school, etc) except when it comes to the MCU and then I have one favourite that stands above all the others: And They All Lived in Stark Tower Happily Ever After. And sometimes there are gardens and bees....

15. What makes you pick up a fic, what makes it sound interesting?

Oh gosh, I don’t even know any more. I usually just start on AO3 with the pairing I like and start with filtering by most Kudos, then most Comments, then most Bookmarks. I start reading and if the writing is good and the characterizations resonate with me then I stay until the end. But if an author has poetry in their heart and can woo me, make me swoon with their imagery and wordsmithery, then I will read everything they have ever written and then everything they have ever recommended.

18. Do you have a fic recommendation page or master list?

No. I really should have. I always meant to but honestly? I never really figured out the sidebars on my Tumblr. I am An Old. It is amazing I am here in the first place. LOL!

I will say, however, that I tagged fic religiously so my fic rec tag is searchable on my page, and extensive. I miss the days when I would write effusive odes to fic writers and raves about their fics. It’s not that do not appreciate them just as much, but that was in the blush of my first years of discovery. I was so awed by the fact that fic existed and was so damned GOOD. 

21. Do you read crack!fic?

Not a lot. Once in a while I stumble across one that suits my humour, but I don’t seek it out. But sometimes you need silliness. And sometimes you need to just admire the chutzpah it takes to write truly, spectacularly so-bad-it’s-hilarious-and-possibly-genius Klaine caveman porn...

24. What’s the longest fic you’ve ever read?

The longest fic, the first multichapter I ever read when I got into the Glee fandom, and the longest lasting WIP (still being written): Immutability and Other Sins. It is an extraordinary fic that uses the familiarity of characters from Glee to carve out its own quite unique trail through the history of gay and civil liberation, beginning in the fifties and theoretically continuing through the decades to present day (the current arc is set in the seventies). I do not know if it will ever be finished, but it is broken up into arcs, each as long as a book, and each arc is incredible and now that I think about it, I may need to change my answer about favourite fic. This is a WIP but it is probably one of the smartest, most savagely angry and achingly beautiful fics in the Glee fandom. This was a fic that felt important.

27. Name a type of fic that you wish there was more of.

Really good gen fic. No romance to speak of, just the intimacy of close friends and their adventures together. As much as I love and seek out my favourite pairings, sometimes I like a good misfits drinking and causing mischief kind of fic. In the MCU I recommend The Hell’s Kitchen Survivors’ Group and Drinking Club. So many disaster children all in one place. 

30. How often do you read fanfiction?

I read SO MUCH and then I may go for months without really reading any and then suddenly I am devouring it again like there is no tomorrow. But over the years I have read so much fic that I have trouble with this meme because it is sometimes hard to remember specific titles and so many of them are enjoyable reads but blend into one another after a while.

33. When you read a good fic, do you go to the author’s page?

Always. I want to know not only what else they’ve written, but I am always fascinated to read the fic that excites and inspires an author whose writing excites and inspires me. So I love wading through their book marks and fic recs. I do not, however, always go to their Tumble if they have one. I used to, but it has on occasion ruined a fic for me (sweet fic, raving tinhat author).

36. Has a fic ever left you unable to fall asleep or think about anything else?

Not really, although, in my heyday of Glee I was pretty obsessed with Mimsy’s 100 Days and passed much time trying to guess where it was going and sussing out her imagery and meanings.

39. Name a fanfiction author that you’re scared to talk to because they’re so amazing.

No one. I am not scared to approach someone who has written something that has given me joy. It is why I joined Tumblr way back when, so that I could reblog fic and send love at the authors whose work I devoured. I held @the-cimmerians in AWE when I first found my way onto this site and the first fic rec I wrote was for one of her works. And you know what? She was one of the first ten people who followed me. I still think she is an amazing lady who possesses the ability to craft words into singularly beautiful works of art who also happens to be savagely smart and probably one of the coolest people I have met on this site. 

42. Name a fic that you wish was longer.

I rarely wish a fic was longer. I save my regret for when there is a magnificent fic and it turns out to be the only one the author ever wrote. Nooooooooooo!!!!!

45. Do you read fanfiction about Anime?

Nope. Nothing against it, just not my thing.

48. Have you ever read a fic containing character death?

Yes. While it’s not something I seek out, if it is crafted into the story or reflects canon, I have no problems with it. But it’s not what I look for... I am usually seeking escapism and achy angst that you can revel in because you know that it will get better.

[shinylitwick94]

Since we’re all having fun complaining about the HP fandom today, please allow me to vent about my #1 HP Fanfiction Pet Peeve:

other than plain old poor writing and character bashing

“Lord” Anything

1. Why it’s not real in canon

At NO POINT in the entire series is anyone other than Voldemort called a Lord in HP.

I just Crtl+F’d the entire text for this and can confirm it again.

“Lord” applies to Voldemort exclusively, either as LV or “The Dark Lord”.

Interestingly the character who calls him Lord Voldemort the most outside of Death Eaters is Dumbledore. Also, Hermione in her big “finally saying Voldemort thing” also uses the whole phrase.

As far as we are aware, nobility as such does not exist in the present day Potterverse.

What exists is some pureblood families that are obsessed with their names and blood status and maybe have money.

None of this is ever implied to be legally recognised as a specific category of people.

To quote the part of the text that most directly addresses the issue:

“Have you ever heard of someone called the Half-Blood Prince?”

“The Half-Blood what?”

“Prince,” said Harry, watching him closely for signs of recognition.

“There are no Wizarding princes,” said Lupin, now smiling. “Is this a title you’re thinking of adopting? I should have thought being ‘the Chosen One’ would be enough.”

HBP, Chapter 16

There are no wizarding princes and, as far as we can tell no wizarding lords and the few times that Voldemort’s choice of name is brought up, it’s read to be self-aggrandizing BS:

“There he showed his contempt for anything that tied him to other people, anything that made him ordinary. Even then, he wished to be different, separate, notorious. He shed his name, as you know, within a few short years of that conversation and created the mask of ‘Lord Voldemort’ behind which he has been hidden for so long.

HBP, Chapter 13

There’s also Harry ruminating on the similarities between “Half-Blood Prince” and “Lord Voldemort” as chosen aliases, but it’s less relevant to what I want to say here.

Which is that it’s really easy to read Voldemort’s choice of name as something that sounds grandiose to him (who grew up in the muggle world), but is really quite foreign, perhaps even gauche to most wizards. It’s, ironically enough, one of the few things that marks him out externally as someone who doesn’t get it.

But what about the “noble and most ancient House of Black” ?

“Noble” as an adjective is pretty rarely used in HP. Most frequently, when used it is referring to nobility of character and is applied to either Dumbledore or Harry. Usually Harry.

Occasionally it’s also used to refer to other things, like the Hogwarts houses, “the noble art of Divination”, boxing, the Hogwarts founders or the profession of teaching.

None of these uses fall into the “belonging to the aristocracy” use of the adjective.

There are only three cases where it can very easily be read as meaning “aristocratic”.

The first is by Sir Nicholas, referring to his own blood:

“Terrified? I hope I, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, have never been guilty of cowardice in mylife! The noble blood that runs in my veins —”

Which I think we can take at face value, since Sir Nicholas is also, well, Sir Nicholas. That would indicate that maybe at some point a wizarding nobility did exist, but gives us nothing about the present.

Then we have the “noble and most ancient house of Black”, which is written over a tapestry (and is not the motto) depicting the family tree and is also used by Kreacher.

The Blacks, as we know, had a...pretty inflated sense of their own importance as a family. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had aristocratic aspirations, but that doesn’t translate to them actually being aristocrats. No one in the Black family is addressed by an aristocratic titlte, no one has any special Wizengamot seats for being a Black or any such things. So maybe they do at least think they are aristocrats. Or maybe they’re using the word in the same way that it is used to refer to the “noble Hogwarts founders” or “noble art of Divination”, i.e virtuous/honorable/something like that. Regardless, nobody else seems to see them as aristocrats.

And, of course, finally, we have Voldemort again.

Who refers to “Salzar Slytherin’s noble work”; “my noble ancestor Salazar” Slytherin and, in his address to Neville in DH says this:

“You show spirit and bravery, and you come of noble stock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. Weneed your kind, Neville Longbottom.”

Which is interesting because no one else says that about Neville, ever.

I do get where the confusion comes from.

“Pure blood” vs everyone else in HP has elements of both racism and classism and kind of mashes it together. 

And people like Malfoy certainly behave like they belong to some sort of aristocracy.

But there is really no indication in the text that being pureblood actually gives you some sort of legal special status with the whole package of titles and positions of power and so on.

The only person who seems to think that it does is Voldemort.

Pureblood does kind of work like aristocracy but only Voldemort makes the mistake of thinking it’s the same thing.

TL;DR: noble titles don’t exist in HP; pureblood =/= aristocracy; but Voldemort thinks both of these things are true

2. Why I hate it in fanfic

The fact that Voldemort is the only character to systematically use a noble title should give you a hint: obsession with lineage is not a good thing - not in the context of the series.

I’ll be shorter here, but essentially the series goes out of its way to point out that pureblood ideology and lineage BS sucks and I tend to agree.

So “Lord Potter” doesn’t make Harry sound cool, it makes it sound like the author totally missed the point. And makes Harry sound like a snotty nosed idiot.

I’m aware that nobility-fantasising is a pretty common thing, though, so I get that people like it. They like the idea of fancy titles and fancy manners, and fancy balls and fancy inherited secret goblin vaults.

I can understand that. To an extent, it’s fun.

It just feels very un-Harry Potter to me and tends to creep up on fics that don’t focus on the fancy stuff as if it’s canon when it definitely isn’t.

So it ends up getting on my nerves.

[consumptive-sphinx]

11 brides for 11 questions

I was tagged by @imindhowwelayinjune

If I gave you $20 and told you you had to spend it right now, what would you spend it on?

D&D dice! 

If you waved your foot in the air to the immediate left of you what would you kick?

My window

There’s a new spider in my sink. Name it.

Edward Skitterhands 

Describe one thing you’d like to create (eg a specific story, art, type of pancake, etc)

the fourth chapter of Akshaya a longfic! 

Describe one thing you’d like to consume that someone else created (eg a specific story, art, type of pancake, etc)

I am always thirsty for Temeraire fic that isn’t a Temeraire fusion with characters I don’t care about

If you were a cartoon character, what outfit would you always be drawn in/what features would make you identifiable?

Black skinny jeans, my big faded Costco hoodie, and glasses. 

Tell me some gossip about someone I definitely don’t know

someone I thought I was friends with was bitching about reylo on discord and when I mentioned that went against our “no ship discourse” rule, they got passive aggressive and bitchy with me before sending the mods cropped screenshots to try and get me banned. 

they were then surprised and hurt when I left the discord because I didn’t like the atmosphere there. 

Without checking to see if it’s correct, type something you have memorized (a line of poetry, a lyric, an equation)

twas brillig, and the slithy toves / did gyre and gimble in the wabe. / all mimsy were the borogoves / and the mome raths outgrabe. 

I have the whole poem memorized-with-an-error-margin, but I’m not going to type it all out because I’m not that kind of person 

I am totally the kind of person but I’m still not going to 

Go to the elf name generator, generate a name, and tell us what the parts of it mean

the name generator does not appear to be working for me but a name I’ve had floating around is Miraear, meaning “jewel of the ocean” 

It didn’t have a person before but it now belongs to one of the Teleri in Valinor before the Flight of the Noldor 

he argues for teaching the host of Feanor to build their own ships, right up until the Kinslaying at Alqualonde, at which point he rushes in to defend his city and is one of the first casualties of the battle 

What’s something that made you laugh out loud recently? 

the town name “Artois”, which is pronounced how it’s spelled even though it really shouldn’t be 

What trope do you secretly love that people like to say you shouldn’t? (eg self-insert characters, purple prose, chat fic, pumpkin lattes - you know, whatever the latest fun is that we’re not supposed to be having) 

morally dubious incest shipping! 

I tag: nobody because I can’t think of 11 people who definitely wouldn’t be annoyed by it, but if you feel like answering and asking random questions you can pretend I tagged you and answer these ones! 

which d&d class would you play? which d&d class would you be? 

if your favorite song had a color scheme, what would it be? 

what is your most morally dubious ship? 

if your favorite character was alted into another fandom, what are the traits they would have to keep, and what’s mutable depending on circumstance? 

if you could change anything about your body what would you change? (this could be “I want to be three inches taller” but it could also be “I want wings”, feel free to do whatever you want) 

is there a ship/trope/fandom you used to love and now can’t stand? 

would you rather befriend a mermaid or a centaur? why? 

would you rather “”””befriend”””” a mermaid or a centaur? why? 

what’s your dream date and who would you go on it with? 

who was the last person you said “I love you” to? 

what does your URL refer to?