#and their problems

[caramel-covered-apples]

the issue with drarry

before you get angry, hear me out.

[ has mentions of sex, although not explicit; don’t read for younger audiences ]

i am a huge drarry fan. i’ve always loved the rivals-to-lovers trope (if you wanna call it enemies-to-lovers, go ahead, the line between rivals and enemies is so blurred in fanfiction) and drarry sets it up perfectly - draco, a normal boy (not some sort of miniature devil baby) who grew up surrounded by bigoted views and a controlling father (not entirely abuse, although i’m not defending lucius here, I’m just saying we don’t automatically have to make lucius abusive because he was on the wrong side) and ended up biting off more than he could chew. he joined the wrong side, and we know that draco sees this, particularly in deathly hallows and the cursed child. then we have harry, the golden boy who was automatically born into the light side, who was forced to believe the world is either inherently evil or inherently good; a black-and-white picture, if you will. either way, draco is the supposed ‘enemy’ and harry is the ‘hero’.

and while this works perfectly fine - both are compelling characters, although harry, in my opinion, isn’t as well-thought out as draco - the way the fandom pushes them into certain characterizations drives me insane.

draco is almost always the mastermind, the trickster, the feminine sub, the one who doesn’t need anybody else because they’re lesser than him, the smooth one, the one who always apologizes to the golden trio when the golden trio did some shit things too, the one who’s despicable but also has a great heart and ‘my dad told me no’, the one who never grows out of insulting harry and his friends. why is draco portrayed like this? why does he always, post-war, suddenly join the golden trio and get on his hands and knees to ask for forgiveness? where are his slytherin buddies? i thought draco saw the slytherins as his friends, not the shit image of them that dumbledore painted when the bastard was alive. yet, he almost never spends time with them in fanfictions, especially post-war. he IMMEDIATELY runs to the golden trio and gets wrapped up in the whole weasley family. what happened to his family? i do know that his parents (or just lucius) are thrown into azkaban, and half of his family is shit, but that doesn’t mean he has to completely dump them, or his friends.

speaking of family, why does harry have SO much more family lore (especially with the Blacks) than draco? draco’s the one who’s related to them! shouldn’t he have some memorable experiences with his family that aren’t just outright abuse? it drives me insane.

and why are draco’s sectumsempra scars sexualized? harry fucking outright attacked him with a spell he didn’t know how to use (kudos to hermione on this one) and then 19 years later, they’re fucking each other and moaning about how pretty his scars look. harry ATTACKED him. draco somehow ALWAYS forgets about his scars until they’re in bed together, and then when harry sees them, he’s like “oh sorry” and draco IMMEDIATELY forgives him, or doesn’t even say anything. What? this also leads towards the helpless, overdramatic princess draco who needs everything done for him. no. draco might’ve been helpless when he was younger, but that’s because his parents - especially lucius - were so controlling. he literally couldn’t do anything. draco knows how to take care of himself.

now. harry. harry is always the masculine golden boy who can’t determine his broom from his glasses, who always needs draco to apologize to him and doesn’t see the world beyond black and white, even after the war. and while harry was forced to believe this by a whole number of people (mostly the order), he never grows out of this. but at the same time, draco is always the one exception to this. draco’s the one who “isn’t like the other girls” and who harry somehow manages to forgive every time. I’m not excusing harry and the golden trio for their behavior, as they did some fucked up shit too, but draco also wasn’t a great person either. he called hermione a mudblood on several occasions, but for some reason, it’s always ron and draco who can’t get along. why is hermione so willing to forgive? in the books, ron should be the one willing to forgive, and hermione the one who doesn’t like draco. and dramione is a whole other post, along with how women are portrayed in the hp universe and in the fandom.

harry is also always putting up with draco’s shit behavior. draco calls his friend a racial slur? well, he doesn’t mean it because that’s how he was raised. draco insults his intelligence every other word he speaks? well, that’s just one of his quirks. no. canon harry would get up off of his ass and say something, but for some reason in the fandom, he’s always this doormat who can’t get over draco’s fucking nose shape when draco is actively insulting him. fanon harry never stands up for himself. he’s always saying how draco is just trying to change, he doesn’t mean to call hermione a mudblood or actively insult the weasleys and the fact they can’t afford a whole fucking mansion like draco can.

and then, for some reason, harry’s always this himbo quidditch jock. while harry isn’t the brightest (��why is roonil wazlib written on the inside of your textbook?” “ah, that’s my nickname” WHAT 😭) he certainly isn’t a complete and total idiot. he’s the chosen one, and i would like to think that harry had to learn a great deal of things to protect himself. maybe harry never studied in school, but god, did he learn expecto patronum quick. just because harry was never really seen traditionally studying doesn’t mean his brain is smoother than ice. give me a harry that is constantly looking for more protection spells to protect himself and his friends, even if it isn’t through traditional means (think hermione the bookworm, if you want an example). give me a harry who spends time with neville studying the healing properties of plants in case he doesn’t have a potion on him. give me a harry who could list out how to brew a polyjuice potion off the top of his head. while i don’t like auror harry that much, i can certainly see that aurors need to have some level of intelligence if they’re actively fighting dark wizards. they need to know the aftereffects of this spell and the cure to fix it.

anyways that’s it for today because my post is so long wtf. i need sleep.

[rudamaruda520]

me as a writer

[my-castles-crumbling]

Me at age 13, exhausted at school after staying up all night to read fanfic: I can’t wait until I’m an adult and I can stay up reading without any consequences!

Me, an adult, exhausted at work after staying up all night reading fanfic: Fuck.

[pangur-and-grim]

also I got a tattoo partially re-coloured today and they bandaged me in veterinary wrap like I'm a sick horse

[hangsawoman]

it’s so evil when you have a beverage and you drink it and then there’s no beverage anymore

[donnieisaprettyboy]

“what if kids identify with something and it ends up just being a phase-?” good. stop teaching and expecting kids (and adults honestly) to formulate permanent traits and ideas of themselves. everything in life is a phase. that doesn’t make it any less legitimate while you experience it. let people explore themselves and know it’s okay if what you think about yourself changes.

[bipolarmango]

My doctor and therapist: now with this autism + ADHD diagnosis you need to learn to unmask because masking all the time will make you burn out again and feel like shit

Other people: well it's just interesting how after getting the diagnosis you suddenly start behaving like that I mean I'm not saying you're faking it's just funny how you suddenly cannot be normal like you were before

[vilea777]

sorry i cant hang out i forgot how to mimic human like behaviour

[kenapiece-main]

Can you believe I'm having to make this meme even after successfully finishing up taxes and applying to job

[nondelphic]

sometimes the best writing advice is "just let it be bad." revolutionary. terrifying. but it works.

[victusinveritas]

[scribefindegil]

being a writer leads to a genuinely helpful but also very stupid kind of mindfulness where you'll be having a sobbing breakdown or the worst anxiety attack of your life and think "okay, I really need to pay attention to how this feels. so I can incorporate it into my fanfiction."

[rhynee]

people who dont experience it cannot comprehend how awful executive dysfunction is. I WANT to do the task, i have the resources TO do the task, i will feel better having DONE the task

but i cant fucking do the task

[dspressed]

I highly recommend a clingy, lovey-dovey partner. Life’s too short to be with someone who acts like showing love is a chore