#because Harry doesn't become a cop

[joannerowling]

The Snape fans are currently whining about the fact that Papa Essiedu is playing him. They're claiming that the reboot will make him unrecognisable or whatever 🙄

I just hope that they handle the race issue properly because there could be troubling implications about SWM because there'd be a racial angle to it (the Snape stans are saying that it makes Harry being a wizard cop that much worse {he hunts dark wizards not dark skin and also, not everything's about America} and Marauders stans are saying that a so called 'incel' shouldn't be played by a white man).

This is just so delightful to me, on my list of worst Harry Potter subfandoms the Snape stans easily take the second spot (only beaten by Marauders stans). Snape is an iconic character, i'm glad a black man is lucky enough to play him, good for him and fuck everyone else.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

ok but i need the evrart claire essay

Okay just be warned that this is gonna be less of an "essay" and more of a loose collection of thoughts, and I don't know how fresh or novel any of these ideas are going to be when it pertains to popular Disco Elysium fan discourse because I don't really do fandom, you know?

Anyway, I think the most obvious factet of Evrart's character is how he very intentionally calls to mind a caricature of corrupt union leaders, the image of a sleazy mobster who only cares about his own personal gain but pays lip service to leftist politics and pretends to care about the interests of workers as a way to obtain and maintain his power. And I think a lot of people straightforwardly read him as such, because that's the way he carries himself and the type of character the game is riffing on. There's also the question of how much of Evrart's manipulative, duplicitous attitude is just how he normally acts and how much of it is him specifically acting that way towards Harry and Kim specifically, it's important to have in mind that your main character is a cop and that would definitely play a role in making Evrart go out of his way to be a bit more of a bastard and toy with you a bit before he decides to actually do anything helpful.

However, once you dig a little deeper into his characterization, it becomes clear that he's pulling a very interesting double bluff, because it becomes apparent that the shady mobster who only cares about his personal gain is an act he's putting on. He's very self-aware about the fact that he's playing the villain, he seems to actively revel in it, but ultimately, it seems like he does it because playing the villain is the way he gets shit done.

This is not to say he's not actually corrupt, or that he's not ALSO involved in all sorts of shady stuff and taking advantage of his position of power, but the game does make it apparent that on some level he DOES have the interests of the people of Martinaise at heart.

For example, it is textually stated that the harbor doesn't need a night watchman, and Evrart created the position specifically to provide a source of income for René. He knows the pension Rene gets is not enough for him to live on, but he's also aware that René is the sort of right-wing guy who would rather starve to death than take a handout (especially from those dirty union commies), so Evrart created a job position which pretty much involves doing nothing for a few hours every night so he could help him with his economic troubles in a way he wouldn't refuse out of principle. René hates his guts, ideologically stands against everything his organization represents, and is generally an unlikeable asshole and a fascist prick, but he's also a disadvantaged member of the community and that seems to matter more.

Even when he asks you to get the signatures to build the community center, which is definitely one of the most morally questionable things he does during the events of the game (as it will improve the community, but at the same time displace the people from the fishing village), his intentions seem to be ultimately good. Due to the very nature of his character and the act he puts on, it's purposefully hard to tell when he's being sincere and when he's being manipulative. However, if Harry's drama and empathy skills are high enough when he's confronted about it, you'll be able to tell that he's not lying about his motives for wanting to build a community center or about the fact that he intends to provide better housing for the people displaced by the project, and that he feels genuine rage about their current living conditions. It can still be said that he's ignoring their self-determination and essentially forcing these people out of their current homes, but he does seem to have good intentions and think he's doing a good thing for them in the long run, even if his methods are morally questionable at best.

In that way, the Union is an extension of him in this regard too. They're pretty unapologetic about the fact that they're openly operating as a crime syndicate, but the game doesn't give you any reasons to believe they're lying when they say they're doing it as a way to muslce out all the more dangerous gangs and crime organizations out of Martinaise, or that their involvement in the drug trade is at least partially motivated by a desire to make sure it's not controlled by more dangerous and violent crime organizations. Again, they're playing the villain as a way to fill that power vacuum and make sure more dangerous people don't fill that role (but of course, that doesn't erase the fact that, noble as their intentions may be, they're still involved in all these shady activities and turning a pretty substantial profit from them too)

Of course, on the other hand, just because the game seems to hint at the fact that Evrart and the Union are, deep down, a force for good, doesn't erase the fact that he's done plenty of bad shit to further his interests, and the game doesn't shy away from this. He's still extremely corrupt, his long-term plan to wrestle control of the harbor away from the company and turn it into a worker-owned operation (which *would* massively improve the material conditions of the dockworkers if succesful) involves endangering the lives of a lot of his own workers, he and his brother Edgar pass the position of union foreman back and forth between each other to circumvent the term limit and keep themselves in power indefinitely, and if you explore all dialogue options with the Deserter it's all but explicitly stated that they rose to power by getting him to assassinate the previous Union forewoman.

These are things that Evrart himself would probably rationalize as sacrifices that need to be made for the greater good. After all, it is implied that the previous union forewoman was also corrupt, except in favor of the company's interests, and might have even been a company plant. However, this doesn't make those things morally right. Good intentions nonwithstanding, it's clear that the Claire brothers are very "the ends justify the means" kind of people, they probably see getting the previous Union leader killed or endangering the lives of the dockworkers to overthrow the company that exploits them as "pulling the lever" in the trolley problem, which is extremely callous at best.

Here's where we get a little more into "disjointed thoughts" territory, but Evrart can also be seen as a critique of the limits of trade unionism and social democrat politics. Something that I completely missed in my first playthrough but was able to catch on during my second is that the people of the fishing village refuse to unionize, and as a result they don't get the same level of support and protection that the union provides to the people of the more urban section of Martinaise. This is apparently widely known enough for characters other than Evrart to comment on (I forget what character I learned this from, but it was definitely not Evrart). So it's clear that Evrart and the Union put their interests of the members of their own organization over those of other working class people, which is one criticism that can be leveraged against the way a lot of leftists seem to treat unions as the ultimate tool for worker class liberation.

Similarly, when Evrart tells you his long-term plans, it's clear that his ultimate goals don't involve complete worker liberation. As far as the game shows, he's a socdem who's still looking to work within the confines of capitalism. There are more radically left wing characters in Disco Elysium, but Evrart is the only one with any actual power to affect change, which kinda speaks to the lack of presence of more hardline leftist positions in mainstream politics. As someone living in Latin America, I kinda ended up seeing a bit of a lot of our currrent socdem politicians in him in that respect, I guess, but i'd need more time to articulate this thought properly, I guess.

Ultimately, I think Evrart is an amazingly crafted character. He evokes a well-known archetype of a shady, corrupt, power-hungry union leader, but he adds a lot of depth, self-awareness, and nuance to it and subverts that characterization in several ways. I think he atually serves an important role of ideologically challenging players who share the developers' and writers' political leanings. I think it would have been very self-congratulatory and autocomplacent to make the most influential leftist character in the game an unambiguously good paragon of workers' rights and working class liberation. By instead giving us someone who's an absolute callous bastard who definitely has a bit of blood on his hands, who's a socdem at best and a self-serving mob boss at worst, but can ultimately be interpreted as a force for good, and asking the players to decide what they think of him I think it brings interesting questions to the table of our commitment to material gains, what sorts of people we're willing to work with, and the sort of acts we're willing to tolerate, and makes the game a lot more thematically rich.

I also think a good analysis of Evrart is incomplete without an analysis of the ways in which he serves a a charater foil for Joyce, but I don't feel like getting into that rn.

[hl-obsessed]

fic rec: january-february | links to the original manip

💎✨ The Green Room by @jasthelarrie

(M, 112k) “For the last time, go away! This is fucking harassment, you know that? I’m well within my rights to call the cops.” Louis wished he could have hidden the tremor in his voice. He knew that it was thick with emotion. He was frustrated, angry, and beyond devastated.

“Uh…”

That was definitely not his ex's voice. Louis froze. Who had he just sworn at?

AKA

Louis has just been through a bad break-up and accidentally verbally assaults unsuspecting flower delivery man Harry.

scent holding me ransom by @the-larry-way

(E, 1,8k) Louis is obsessed with the scent of an omega he's never seen. Harry knows his dirty secret.

✨ all the sins you didn't have by @twopoppies

(E, 99k) It’s 1880, and premier danseur Harry Styles is running out of time. At twenty-five, he’s fast becoming too old for the lecherous benefactors who frequent The Paris Opera Ballet’s infamous backstage, and the only way to ensure he isn’t left penniless or rotting away in a brothel is to secure a permanent patron.

Enter Lord Louis Tomlinson: wealthy, young, handsome. And, unfortunately, a notorious rake. Harry strikes him and his gigantic ego off the list immediately… At least until they realize they have a common set of enemies and a common goal: revenge.

Though their ruse starts smoothly enough, the decadent freedom of Belle Époque Paris gives way to the rigid social rules of aristocratic Victorian London. Can a relationship that started as a calculated deception withstand the harsh realities of societal expectations and family duty to become a love more honest and profound than either has ever known?

✨ Things I Want, Things I Need by @canonlarry

(E, 14k) Most people don't find out whether they're an alpha, beta, or omega until somewhere around their eighteenth year, which means Louis finds out he's an omega long before his best friend and sometimes lover Harry will get a clue. Zayn is the loyal alpha friend who takes care of Louis during his heats. Liam is Zayn's beta mate, Niall tries to keep the peace, and Harry just wants to know what he is already.

✨ To find home (is wherever you are) by CrOminona

(E, 46k) Harry will wake up tomorrow and life will go on as always. They will go out with their friends, they will catch up and have fun. And then one day too soon Louis will pack his bag again, will find a flight to wherever he hasn’t seen yet and he will leave the city.

Harry will stay behind, waiting for the texts he barely receives sometimes, some of them sent at weird hours because of time zones. Days will become weeks, life will carry on in London with little to tell and a lot to do. And one day Harry will stop counting the hours that has passed since he last saw him and just expect Louis to appear whenever he pleases. Could be three weeks. Two months. One and a half. They never know, but Louis always comes back.

Go With It by embro

(NR, 4,4k) Prompt: "You thought I was someone else and started making out with me in a club and you're really hot so I just kinda went with it and now we're heading back to your place and I don't know how to break it to you"

don't let it break your (arm) by @the-larry-way

(G, 816) Louis seems to have forgotten his husband thanks to the wonders of anesthesia. Doesn't mean he's forgotten his attraction though.

Tattoos and Temptations by

(E, 67k) “Love,” he drawled, the word dripping with sinful allure, “I’ve got tattoos that are older than you,” he murmured, his voice a rough whisper, his breath warm against Harry’s lips.

Harry tilted his head, a teasing smirk of his own tugging at his mouth despite the rapid beat of his heart. “What can I say, I like experienced men.”

Louis chuckled low in his throat, a sound that sent heat rushing through Harry’s veins. “Cheeky little thing, aren’t you?” he murmured, his hand sliding up Harry’s back to tangle in his curls. He tugged lightly, just enough to tip Harry’s head back and expose more of his neck.

“You’re the one winding me up.”

don't call me baby by @vintageumbroshirt

(G, 2k) A short and cliché roommates AU inspired by To Be So Lonely, where they’re both oblivious to each other’s feelings and Harry gets sad and jealous over nothing. It works out in the end.

The Only One (when it's said and done) by @londonfoginacup

(T, 6,1k) Louis Tomlinson, alpha, twenty nine years old, is head of the Tomlinson pack.

He's unbonded, and happily so. A trip to the neighbouring Arthur pack certainly isn't going to change that.

Sweet Baby by @jishlerfics

(E, 5,3k) “Haz,” he said, “do you like being held down?”

Taking a shaky breath, Harry finally looked Louis in the eyes. “I think so.”

💎✨ And That Was That by @lightwoodsmagic

(E, 22k) “Okay. When Zayn and I were working on the set yesterday, Liam dropped by and mentioned he had a date. I asked Zayn about it, and he said that they’re ah - poly?”

Harry blinked.

“Oh yeah, I knew that. Li mentioned it when we were playing tennis once.” He ran his hand through Louis’ hair, smiling softly when he nuzzled into the touch. “Is that what’s making you act strange? Because it seems like something that works for them, and I —.”

“Zayn has feelings for me.” A deep breath, and then blue eyes locked on green. “He said he needs distance because he has to get over them.”

Harry hadn’t realised his hand had fallen from Louis’ face until his fingers were being tangled and gripped tightly.

Or, Zayn and Liam have been polyamorous for years, but Harry and Louis are monogamous. When Zayn meets Louis and starts to fall for him, it opens them all up for something they've never experienced before.

.💐💐💐

(okay so i didn't read much and these are some amazing fics that i mostly barely remember reading 🙄 seems like i have to do reread of them all 🙈🙈🙈)

.💐💐💐

all my fic recs

[rawr-mortgage]

On Crown and Weapons and Fighting

Note/s: So I was speculating about which of the Crown members can actually fight, like who among them is actually good at it, has legit combat knowledge, and is capable of punching someone into the next century, and as a result, this post kinda got out of hand.

I initially meant this to be very chill and casual, but it turns out I have a lot to say and the ideas just ran off on their own, and I had no choice but to follow along to see where it took me.

I doubt I'd be able to make a proper headcanon post like this again soon unless someone suggested another topic, but yeah. Hope this turned out well >:3

Dividers and headers are by the super talented @natimiles ⁠♡⁠♡⁠♡

Content Warning/s: Strong language, mentions of canon-typical violence

Might be controversial, but I think William's more reliant on the use of weapons than his actual combat prowess.

As a noble, I think he learned fencing in his youth, and while he was good at it, I don't think he ever took it seriously until the day he decided to kill his father and establish Crown with Victor afterwards. He learned the intricacies of wielding a blade, and he even started to appreciate the art of swordplay during mock combat sessions with Victor.

Most of the time, though, he doesn't even need to use his sword because he can incapacitate someone easily with his power alone. His preferred method of dishing out punishment is still by ordering someone to take their own life because it serves to prove a point; it's to rob his victims of agency the same way they've done to countless innocents before they had the misfortune of being dealt with by him.

He rarely ever deviates from his trademark “Cut your throat”, but when he's feeling extra devilish and in the mood to prolong a target's suffering and instill the fear of God in them, that's when his extensive knowledge on human anatomy comes in handy. He knows all the places to cut that can effectively kill a person in a matter of seconds, so if he purposely avoids them, there must be a special place in hell waiting for you once he finally decides to send you there.

I have a gun-user Harrison agenda, and this is the perfect time to mention it! That sword that's strapped to his hip at all times is nonexistent to me. He carries a gun, bitch (maybe even two), and he's not afraid to use it. Also, his main weapon being a gun is, in my opinion, a perfect reference to his abandoned dreams of becoming a cop and joining the police force (such a real missed opportunity there cybird). 

I like to imagine he does regular target practice with Roger in the garden. They line up all manners of ceramic and clayware, then use air guns and pellets to avoid accidentally killing someone or themselves. Roger would prefer the target practice to commence at dawn, but he knows he has a better chance of convincing the Queen herself to join him in the flesh than for Harry to be up and functioning during the early hours of the morning.

Roger also probably invites him to go hunting with his dad when it's the season. It's my way of giving Harrison a proxy father figure because God knows he needs a new one, but I also just really like the idea of them being good friends. Just a couple of book-smart intellectuals with a penchant for firearms.

But combat-wise, he's in the same boat as Will in that I don't think he knows anything beyond basic self-defense and how to effectively disarm someone. Like he knows how to throw a punch, sure, but his overall martial prowess isn't anything noteworthy or that impressive, to be honest.

Liam is a bit of a wildcard when it comes to fighting. His greatest strength lies in his ability, which enables him to disappear at will, allowing him to sneak up on enemies and immobilize them even without having to make his presence known.

He can use it from the jump or even in the midst of a scuffle to neutralize a disadvantage in skill or physicality on his part by virtue of having the element of surprise and the unpredictable factor it gives him. Imagine how embarrassing it would be, too, because if he's invisible for most of the fight, it's going to look like you're fighting air and losing.

While I don't think Liam has had any formal martial arts training that would put him a peg above Harry and Will in terms of combat, he's quite difficult to defend against given the no-limit-or-drawbacks-of-any-kind invisibility, not to mention he also moves rather swiftly.

He's light on his feet, has good instincts, and possesses cat-like agility. You'd be hard-pressed not to feel a bit paranoid when you're up against him because he can easily swoop in and go for the kill to stick a knife in your back or slice at your throat, and you wouldn't even be able to brace for it. Although maybe sudden death is more merciful than the unfortunate alternative of being a victim to one of his fits.

Frail Victorian Child™. Bro is an aristocrat with an abysmal appetite. He eats so fucking little, a plant probably consumes more sustenance than him during the course of its much shorter lifespan. Every time he sneezes, the others are probably in awe at how he doesn't disintegrate on the spot.

What combat? This man is fighting to stay alive and not die of starvation and/or dehydration on a daily basis.

With that said, it's my personal headcanon that he probably took up fencing after the doctor incident as a proper way of defending himself in case something similar were to ever happen again.

Despite being constantly at risk of getting blown away by strong winds, he has his moments where the monomania kicks in and the uncharacteristic strength and energy the resulting single-mindedness lends him enables him to accomplish and acquire pretty much anything he sets his sights on (as demonstrated in his route).

I'm just gonna put it out there, this man can't fight. Can't throw a punch, an elbow, a kick—nothing. He can't throw anything, but he's probably very adept at tossing someone's salad.

He doesn't like performing any kind of manual labor because it reminds him of his atrocious childhood. And he harps on Roger for being burly and brutish because one of Roger's hobbies is learning how to beat someone up for fun.

The best he can do is probably bitch slap someone, but even then he's shaking off his hand to get rid of the sting. He's fortunate that his ability is like Will and Elbert's, where he's able to incapacitate someone without expending much effort on his part, because he is not at all inclined to build muscle or learn the art of combat whatsoever.

Can and will punch your lights out; no questions asked. He's been frequenting bars and pubs all his life; it's probably a dream of his to get into a brawl at one of them for any reason at all, but no one's insane enough to pick a fight with him on account of his immense height and intimidating build.

Fun fact: the average height of men during the Victorian era was around 167 cm. Roger's height is 183 cm. Bro is several inches taller than the average English gentleman. Not to mention he's swol as fuck, too. A good deal more muscular than a regular doctor has any right to be.

I'm pretty sure he's capable of killing a man even with just his bare hands. Like just punching someone to death, I'm sure he could do it if prompted, but it's not a level of violence he would ever sink to nor indulge in.

Weapons-wise, I think it's interesting how he's essentially the sharpshooter in Crown despite being one of the few proficient members at hand-to-hand combat. Like it makes sense because he can identify targets at a distance due to his enhanced hearing, so a long-range weapon is a no-brainer. Very practical given his ability, but at the same time, kind of funny because of his poor eyesight. Luckily, that's what the scope is for.

Has demonstrated countless times in canon that he can fight. He's tall and gangly, but swift and agile like an acrobat, and he probably trains with Roger and asks him to give him pointers on top of that.

He's employed by Jude as well as a two-in-one bodyguard/assistant, so I bet he's somewhat motivated to maintain his skills and physicality due to that fact, but I get the sense that he also just really enjoys it.

His natural athleticism gives me the impression of a kid who used to climb up trees in their yard growing up, even though his parents kept telling him not to. I think it's cute to imagine him as a rambunctious kid with a surplus of energy that he had to burn by climbing trees as high as he could and constantly chasing his twin brother around, or else he'd be restless and making his parents lose sleep come nightfall.

Ellis' gentle demeanor actually works to his advantage because it's hard to imagine someone so calm and soft-spoken being able to commit murder so swift and easily at the behest of someone else. Jude could order him to carve someone up like they're cake about to be served at a birthday party, and he'd do it with an air of perfect serenity.

You must have a death wish if you want to square up against this motherfucker. Ellis isn't even necessary, the man is fully capable of winning his own battles. The only reason he has Ellis as a semi-bodyguard is because he doesn't have the time nor the patience to knock someone's teeth in himself.

Like, oh, you have a personal vendetta against him and are looking to settle the score? Yeah, well, so does everybody else; get in line and kindly wait for his assistant to duke it out with you. Very sorry that he can't address your grudge personally; he has places to be and people to extort—I mean solicit.

If you insist on having your grudge satisfied by him and him alone, so be it. Although, truth be told, you might've preferred being handled by his assistant had you an idea of the sheer hell your persistence would be awarded with beforehand. Jude knows how to fight and he's not at all reluctant to get dirty with it.

If you think he's above kicking someone who's already down, you're wrong. If you think he knows when to call it quits and stop to say someone's had enough, you're wrong. If you think lopping off a limb or two just 'cause he can is extreme and twisted and kind of psychotic, you're right! But he doesn't care; this is what you asked for, and he's all too happy to finally silence the buzzing of persistent pests.

Jude is already menacing and dangerous on his own; weapons just multiply his deadliness tenfold. He'd be the type to wear steel-toed boots as his everyday work shoes just to make it hurt all the more for whomever is at the receiving end of his kicks. He enjoys causing pain not only as a result of his Curse, but also because of the cruelty the world has imbued in him. He's looking to repay that hurt to anyone foolish enough to cross him.

Victor is bit of an enigma. He's a weapons enthusiast in canon and has what I assume to be an impressive collection of varying blades and daggers and guns and even unconventional weapons like axes, machetes, and whips. The real question is whether or not he knows how to use all of them or if he's only mastered a select few and is actively working to have the rest down pat.

He doesn't go on missions anymore like he used to when it was just him and Will because it's no longer necessary after acquiring so many new and deployable members, and it's better for him to be able to attend to the Queen's every beck and call as her trusted aide.

But on that front, I like to think that what William lacked in combat prowess, Victor had in spades. Apart from helping Will hone his skills with a sword, Victor taught him how to trade blows, evade punches, and the fastest way of knocking someone flat. It's been many years since Victor joined him on the prowl, but Will is still mindful of his lessons, and he even shares them with the others whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Also, if you missed out on certain events, he has this thing where he touches the back of someone's neck and they immediately crumple to the ground, unconscious. I don't know if that's his special ability or if it's just a neat trick he knows how to do, like the metaphorical button on someone's jaw you can hit in order to make them go cold. Either way, Mister Grim Reaper, sir, please tell us more of your secrets.

Thanks for reading! Reblogs and comments are appreciated (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠) ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ

[kryaaas]

Some thoughts about Harry and Jean’s partnership

on a related note of my post that Harry only started to get worse in the last 4 month, I think that Harry & Jean partnership were like...not that bad? I think they bonded over of being sad depressed "old men". They were probably codependent but mostly from Jean's side because Jean felt insecure thay he cant be as good of a detective as Harry but overall they worked fine. Maybe they drank or took drugs together on the weekends but nothing too bad

Then Harry's burnout worsen and thats where majority of issues start: Harry starts to wear disco clothes, scare away coworkers, not coming to work etc., and Jean needs to cover for him, which obviously makes him angry and frustrated

But definitely dont think Jean was "abused". Why is Jean so hurt when Harry told him to fuck off during the bender if Harry was always terrible to him? It doesnt make sense to me

Now if we can consider that Harry was mostly a “good”, responsible cop for the most of partnership and Jean always looked up to him - now it makes so sense why jean is so upset and is in denial of Harry's amnesia. Jean's image of the Perfect Detective has shattered and he cant face the disappointment. He is in denial that someone like Harry, a cop he admired, could stood so low and become the laughing stock in the precinct and doesnt want to accept that, maybe, something like that could happen with Jean himself in the future

So to me their conflict comes from that Jean wants to be a more respected cop while Harry doesn't want to be cop at all anymore

Jean dressing in a wig and sunglasses does show some nice things about their relationship where Jean wanted to make up with Harry and that they used to have inside jokes

But it also shows how Jean, despite knowing Harry for a long time, still cant understand the full scale of Harry's mental breakdown

Oh he is on a bender and crying and screaming? He just needs time off, I guess, he will be fine. Oh Harry still hasn't returned from Martinaise? Thats weird. Maybe I pretend to be G Bevy that would cheer him up? yeah that would be funny (Meanwhile: Harry committed at least three suicide attempts and and experiences the horrors beyond the human comprehension)

[lightningant]

both your fanart and analysis posts are so awesome :’) i especially like what you say about the comparisons of harry dumbledore snape and voldemort, i think that’s one of the strongest aspects of the series. One thing i’ve always had trouble with coming to terms with though is harry’s future - while i understand he’s incredibly duty-driven and dedicated to wiping out “the forces of evil” lol, i have trouble accepting that he would settle on auror as his permanent career path. That seems to me the remnants of a pre-sirius’s death harry, a kid who still had naive pipe dreams like that. Same goes for harry/ginny as a pairing though of course that’s a separate topic. Would you mind explaining your thoughts on this? Sorry if this is a tedious ask, no pressure to answer <3

I honestly need an explanation of why you think Harry/Ginny doesn't make sense, as the series goes out of its way to define what Harry values in a romantic partner, and Ginny has all of those traits, even the stupid ones (shorter than him - it is underrepresented that one of the only descriptions of Cho Chang we see when she's introduced is that she's significantly tinier than 13-year-old Harry). You have to seriously interrogate whether you really think this ship doesn't work or you're just annoyed that Harry is dating someone he doesn't take as seriously and who contributes little to his journey, which isn't an issue of compatibility, but rather dropped character arcs and Harry's personal character flaws. He walked to his death thinking of her. He brought his dead family's ghosts to help and when the moment came he was willing to make the final step by thinking of her!!!

As for Aurors - he still wants it in book 6, and there's no reason to NOT want it until book 7 when the ministry collapses, which I think will make him want it even more. When corruption happens he wants to square up, he's a pretty direct person. It's a bit myopic to go "cops bad, character I love who represents good would never do the bad thing", and more helpful to think "why are cops bad? What would Harry's reaction be to seeing those reasons play out in front of him?"

I think with the amount of good he feels he can do, Harry is incentivized to assume that any wrongdoing is single bad apples left over, but I do think ten years is more than enough time for him to realize the system is structured to protect and enable bad actors and have some feelings about it.

In my fic this happens shockingly early into his career (just barely making two years) when he has very little time to intellectually prepare himself - he doesn't make value judgements of 1940s Aurors after time travelling - but it could take a while for him to see a pattern! Maybe the auror position is initially populated by those with a strong sense of justice who can control the temperature of the room, but over time this value consistency is eroded by the nature of what Aurors are, and this process could take a long time!

Harry is a very...well not passive, but reserved person who stays in his lane. He prefers being the fly on the wall, and we see he displaces his anger a lot. If someone says it took fifteen years for this to become an issue for him, I'm willing to believe that too. And feel really sad about it.

The important thing is that I also believe that once he DOES observe a pattern and a structure to an auror's position in society, he would challenge it. He'd chafe, feel out the limits of power, become more curious about the influence of policing, and be willing to give up on the job if he's not permitted to challenge that. And that will still be an enormous sacrifice for him, because he benefited too. Let him make this mistake!

Someone's status as a cop can be very uncomfortable, and we should sit in that discomfort, and think about how our favourite characters would sit in that discomfort too.

[dillemmah]

TL;DR: if you care about trans people, you should boycott harry potter and other rowling stuff. Also, you should read discworld because I need to see more fanart of it. K? Thanks. Luv u.

If you know trans and gnc people are real, have always existed and will always exist and deserve basic respect and rights as human beings and you are also looking for something to fill the harry-potter-shaped void in your heart (please for the love of god just boycott harry potter stuff its not hard) then might I happily reccommend you get into Discworld!? What the hell is discworld I hear you ask. Well, the world of Disc is a flat planet being carried through the stars on the backs of four elephants which in turn are all standing on the back of a massive turtle. But none of that is really important to most of the plots and honestly it doesn't even come up much. The discworld series is a sprawling tale that follows, not one 'chosen' boy, but dozens of characters from different backgrounds within the world, characters of all sorts of gender expressions and sexualities (though romance takes a backseat, adventure is driving and friendship's called permanent shotgun). You can follow specific groups of characters if you like, you can find lists online for the different thru-lines within discworld. But, you can truly just pick up any random book and start reading if you want. You won't be any more lost than if you started with the first book he published and went chronologically or the beginning of any one characters journey. One of the best things about discworld is getting to know it slowly and through the lens of vastly different but relatable people living all over it.

One of my favorite 'series' is The Watch, which centers on a middle-aged night watchman named Sam Vimes and his struggles with alcoholism, corruption in the force, corruption in politics, racism, multi-culturalism, colonization, class desparities, addiction, war and bigotry. It does NOT glorify cops, and we see Vimes grow as a man and a person of authority in his community and eventually the city and country at large. Also, he falls in love with a big middle-aged woman from a higher class who's been kind of shunned by her family for being 'unmarriable' and who keeps dragons as a hobby and they eventually have a child together and it's all very endearing to see Sam become this endlessly devoted husband and father. He's gruff, he's not perfect, but goddamn if he doesn't friggin love his wife and kid.

Another series centers on Tiffany Aching, a very clever young witch from a family of sheperds and her adventures with The Wee Free Men in the sheep-filled countryside. Tiffany's books cover topics like sexism, inclusive feminism, nature, pastoral life and disrupting the patriarchy.

The series centered on 'ex' con-man, Moist vonLipwig (real name), starts with Going Postal wherin the main character is hung as a thief in the first chapter but goes on to be conscripted by the patrician of the city to resurrect the dead and rotting postal service (or else be hung more successfully next time he's caught in a grift). In following books Moist turns his con-man skills of smooth-talking, keen observation and ability to make connections to kick off the production of paper money and the steam-powered locamotive.

These books offer insightful and witty commentary on topics like labor rights, equality, entrepeneurship, corrupt governments, corrupt businesses, corrupt systems in general, industrialization, and morality in business (or lack thereof).

There's also several standalone books that exist outside of these multi-book storylines, but often include familiar characters and settings in the background. I just finished listening to Monstrous Regiment (the version I listened to was narrated by Katherine Parkinson (with footnotes read by Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz) good, but not perfect. She does all the voices which is wonderful but sometimes carries the wrong voice thru a line during dialougues which can be a bit confusing, but in her defense it can sometimes take a couple read-thrus for me to understand who's saying what in a back-and-forth in some of Pratchetts books. Not often, but often enough that I'm not surprised Katherine had the same problem here and there) which is a great standalone book (Vimes and a couple other recurring characters play minor rolls, but mostly it's new people and settings). This book centers on Polly Perks who cuts off her hair, dresses as a boy, and joins the army hoping to track down her brother Paul (an autistic-coded young man with a special interest in birds) and bring him home (Polly's love, compassion and worry for her older brother are evident in the way she thinks and talks about him throughout). Polly as Oliver, joins a rag-tag group of new recruits and as they get to know each other better, Polly finds she's not the only one there with a secret that could get her killed (the country they fight for has a lot of strict and esoteric rules regarding gender roles). This book has themes like censorship, religious zealotry, blind nationalism, the horrors of war, the horrors of being born a woman, questioning gender identity, sexism, patriarchy, bigotry, abuse, trauma, cross-dressing. This book has real lesbians, at least one for sure transman, and the main character offers many critical observations on gender throughout the book. To be fair, it was written by a cis man over a decade ago so words like lesbian, trans, non-binary are not used, but for those of us who know, Polly's experiences and thought processes are relatable. And it's all written with so much heart and human empathy that it's honestly incredible. I have to assume that Terry was someone who listened to others well and endeavored to represent real people with real experiences within his fantastical world. It is a world of fantasy with a solid anchor in humanity (though that 'humanity' is often displayed by people like dwarves, trolls, werewolves, vampires, golems, etc.).

And if you really just can't get enough of young male wizards then Rincewind is your guy. He's not very good at magic, but that's okay because in discworld most of being a wizard is knowing that you absolutely shouldn't use magic if you can help it. The first book he's in is The Color of Magic, which is also the first published discworld book and the first one that I ever read. I had no idea what was going on for most of it, but it was a good time. Later I reread it and, having gotten more familiar with discworld, it was easier to follow. That may be a slight barrier to entry for the discworld series, kind of no matter where you start you're going to be at least a bit confused and it will probably take time to get your bearings, but once you get going you'll just want to keep exploring this weird, impossible world. Its silly and serious at the same time and very reflective of our own world in all the ways that really matter while being far enough removed from reality to offer a reprieve from it.

Having said all this I recognize that Discworld is really nothing like HP, its much more deep and multifaceted. Also, I think they are slightly more challenging to read, theyre just at a higher reading level, which I know is tough for some but a lot of them are available as audiobooks and it's good to challenge yourself to a book with some new vocab words sometimes! But anyway, I need more people to read some Discworld books because I personally need to see a lot more fanart of it. I need that. Ok. Thanks. Love you all. Take care of yourselves and each other.

[hedwigette]

I think there is a misconception in the fandom about how some of the jobs in the Wizarding world work.

I don't quite agree that Harry shouldn't be an Auror because it's not OOC for him. And the police system in the Wizarding world might be similar to the muggle one but there are differences.

And saying that he's like a cop, exactly as how it's viewed in the muggles world (especially American) isn't really true either.

There is a separation between Aurors and Hit Wizards (a bit like barristers and solicitors).

Just gonna summarise the wiki:

Aurors chase dark wizards like Hit wizards but unlike the latter, they are highly trained law enforcement who primarily deal with investigations. They are trained intensively for 3 years and only few can join. They must have "Exceed Expectations" (2nd highest grade) in basically everything. They also have a series of characters and aptitude tests. They're magically trained (not physically) especially in defense magic.

It's a special member of the ministry that is highly regarded. It's extremely difficult to qualify as one.

They must have knowledge on Dark Arts because they're investigating crimes related to it. And they apprehend Dark Wizards and Witches.

Though, they do have a sort of military training which relies on discipline and intelligence agency.

In conclusion, they're a specialised unit trained to investigate and occasionally fight against Dark Wizards and Dark arts. That's it.

Hit-wizards however, deal with highly dangerous combat situations, such as high-risk arrests and riot control. They back up Aurors to capture dark wizards. They're the ones arresting suspects (like Sirius) and most of their work is about maintaining the public order and dangerous situations.

Unlike Aurors who have abilities that are far beyond arresting suspects or investigation skills, Hit wizards are primarily a fighting and controlling force, not trained to investigate.

The stark difference is that Aurors are trained extensively in methods of criminal investigation, intelligence gathering and crime prevention (not repression at least not always), Hit wizards, again, are a force made for fighting and controlling the mass.

The equivalent for the Muggle word would, roughly, be like Homicide and Major Crime command/FBI equal to Aurors and Metropolitan Police/SWAT equal to Hit Wizards.

As we all know, Harry isn't someone who enjoys fighting because it's always life and death for him. But, he loves putting his nose into other people's business and investigating what's going on. Moreover, Harry is someone active: he would not just stand arms cross behind a DADA desk, watching the world burn down. He would partake in what's right, no matter the law. And lastly, Harry has always viewed the wizarding world as his home. Unlike with the Dursleys, Harry felt safe there. There is no scenario in which he wouldn't do everything he can to protect his home. He would fight against the corruption of the ministry because he would not stand back against injustice, he would face it.

That's a fundamental part of his character.

So no. Saying it doesn't make sense for him to become an Auror is to not know what an Auror is like and who Harry is. He definitely would become one. The right job, and qualification people look out when they talk about Aurors is actually, Hit-wizards, and yes, It wouldn't make sense for Harry to be one.

[roseglazedlens]

I lieu of October coming up, how would some of the resident evil characters spend Halloween with the reader? ♡♡♡

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗡 ✧.*

┇LEON S. KENNEDY┇CARLOS OLIVEIRA┇ETHAN WINTERS┇ ┇CLAIRE REDFIELD┇ASHLEY GRAHAM┇ADA WONG┇ content: SFW! Ada's part is slightly suggestive! a/n: thank you for the request! I had problem with some of these for a while, but with halloween around the corner i found the festive vibes for this!! hope you enjoy, dear! thank you for requesting again!! « masterlist┇reblogs appreciated! »

LEON S. KENNEDY

Leon doesn't usually dress up. It's out of the way for him to do so usually. But he can be bribed with a good meal and hug.

Old man thinks he's too cool to enjoy Halloween. But he actually really enjoyed dressing up in his low budget vampire suit from the discounted section of a Halloween store.

This is the only time in the year he would slick back his hair with gel in spite of how you think it looks really good on him, framing his features and accentuating his blue eyes. He is very stubborn and likes his hair down.

Now he wears the same costume every year. So much that you're getting really sick of it. He insists that it makes him look good (and it does)

He tries to act cool, but he hates horror movies. When you are watching it together, his hand will be clasping your arm tight, shaking a little.

"Are you sure you don't want to watch something else?" You would ask, and he would respond with: "Pfft. Me? I'm not scared at all."

CLAIRE REDFIELD

Halloween is Claire's favourite holiday! She LOVES it.

And so does the kids in her neighbourhood. She always has a huge smile on her face with trick or treaters, will compliment everyone's costumes and give away extra treats.

I see her going all out for Halloween parties. She learnt SFX makeup and a bit of sewing so that her costumes and make-up are really scary.

Which is a stark contrast with her brother, Chris. He thinks dressing up is a chore and a waste of time. When he does dress-up, it's always in uniform (e.g. firefighter, cop). He thinks it makes him look cool. (He's not wrong but, what is up with Chris and uniforms?)

Already planned out her costumes for the next five years (Ideas keep changing too). She definitely wishes there are more days in Halloween because she has so many ideas.

CARLOS OLIVEIRA

Carlos is a menace during Halloween.

In no way is Carlos the best at making costumes or doing scary make-up, but Carlos is very creative.

Years ago, Carlos disguised himself as a stuffed doll sitting on the porch. Gave all the kids the fright of their life. He will watch them scram away in fear, and bellows a laugh. (traumatising kids is his favourite pasttime)

Another year, he devised a mechanism that springs up a shadowed figure anytime someone rings his doorbell.

He became infamous in his neighbourhood for his antics, and it's now an attraction for both kids and grown-ups every Halloween.

I also see him and Claire becoming really good friends from their united love for Halloween!

ASHLEY GRAHAM

I headcanon Ashley to crochet, so with Halloween coming, I see her crocheting a spooky themed sweater top, or a granny square bag to embrace the season.

I think Ashley loves to host Halloween parties. With the size of her dad's house, she can accomodate a lot of friends. Often going over the top with themes and decorations.

This year's theme is Harry Potter. She custom ordered a 3 metre (10 feet) tall animatronic of a Dementor in her party and everyone loved it!

She also loves bingeing spooky movies during Halloween. Ashley loves horror movies so much! I don't see her screaming at horror movies, she has grown an immunity to them from watching too many.

ETHAN WINTERS

We already know Ethan has meticulously planned for Halloween almost a month in advance just for Rose.

He is determined to make Rose experience the best childhood, and that includes Halloween too.

Ethan loves matching costumes (would never admit it though), especially with Rose and you too.

When he finishes dressing up Rose, he snaps a million pictures of her, claiming he will show it to Rose when she's all grown up. And Rose will say "Dad, I don't want to take any more photos. The treats are gonna run out!"

Very protective. If anyone has a scary costume, he will steer Rose away from the scary man. Same for people who are underdressed, or is just generally creepy. Not on his watch.

ADA WONG

Halloween is not Ada's cup of tea. She goes out of her way to avoid going out during these days.

For trick or treaters, she leaves a candy bowl on her porch for kids to help themselves. Ada enjoys seeing the silly costumes the kids wear, but she despises interacting with them.

If you are special to Ada, she will put on a sexy Halloween outfit in the privacy of your quarters just for you. She won't take responsibility for whatever you guys might do afterwards. But those are just for your eyes only.

Ada watches horror movies with a blank face. At this point, nothing phases her anymore. I think she'll find them boring and slightly frustrating, with the stupid things the protagonists do to get themselves in danger. She rather watch true crime instead.

thanks for reading! come check out my other works. —yours truly, rose. tags: @valsthea @kennedyswhore @emilzke @daydreamrot @j3llyd0nut @ovaryacted @obsolescent © roseglazedlens — please do not repost, plagiarise, or feed to ai.

[lupiinist]

i've been on a bit of a dc brainrot for a while, but i also have the non-binary urge to make everything about the marauders, so here i'll be leaving my marauders x dc headcanons

regulus is batman. no, i won't hear anything about it. he didn't lose his parents tho, he lost his brother (sirius' alive, he just doesn't know it yet, lazarus pit, yada yada yada), he grew up with his buttler (not sure if it would be kreacher?) and ends up becoming the dark knight (rich, moved by vengeance, out for blood, but no killing)

james is superman, and i doubt anyone can argue with this one. (look at that man's big brown doe eyes and tell he wouldn't be the biggest superman fan). he was raised by effie and monty, but is the same old kryptonian we know. he rescues kittens on threes, shoots lasers from his eyes and is a big old softie

lily is lois lane. this woman has pulitzers and can change an entire country's point of view about something with 1 (one) column on the planet. she could be the president. she's beautiful. she's smart.

(also, this could be both a clois or superbat situation, doesn't really matter)

remus is jimmy olsen! tired alien bestie, likes to take pictures, wonders how no one else caught on that james is superman because that man can't lie to save his life??? he doesn't even look that different without his glasses??????

back to gotham, narcissa would be batwoman (reg's cousin, full of rage, wearing a bat mask to punch people on the streets? besides, BUFF NARCISSA? yes, please), dating her lovely future wife detective fortescue (alice is montoya, yes), i think she would still be married as narcissa for a while (she Will dump lucius' ass) and go out with alice as batwoman

on the other hand, bellatrix is absolutely harley, i don't think there's even another option? and yes, tom riddle is the joker (ironic for someone called riddle, i know), but who cares about him, honestly?

anyway, rita skeeter is poison ivy!

barty is catwoman, this man steals from the rich people, pisses off his father (crouch sr. would be gordon in this), and gets to flirt with big scary batman (he finds regulus so hot it's a bit pathetic)

pandora is babs, batgirl and future oracle, and i don't know if evan would be the first robin? the timeline in my head couldn't find a kid to be the first robin besides like, nymphadora, but i think circus evan and pandora who lost their parents, and one joined batman while the other became a cop is sort of nice?

on the robin situation, draco is jason todd (it gets progressively more angst the more you think about it), future red hood, and harry would be conner (yes, i know, 'why isn't harry jon?' because i don't want him to be :])

luna would be tim drake. she would one hundred percent manipulate regulus into letting her become robin after the previous robin's death, and she has what it takes to be both a genius and the next ceo of reggie's company. she's just that good.

and last but not least, my favorite ladies:

marlene mckinnon as supergirl, and dorcas meadowes as lena luthor. they hate each other. they find each other hot af. they pin after each other. why aren't they together yet???????

[sparrowsortadrawzzz]

LEMME JUST RANT ABOUT URINETOWN FOR A SECOND NOW THAT MY ROLE IS OVER CUZ ITS SO GOOD-

see the crazy thing about urinetown is the paralells. like, we don't see Hope as this master manipulator, yet...she is???? she went to the most expensive university in the world for it?????

it first occurs in follow your heart, she practically plays with his feelings to get him to like her back (see her validating his feelings and using the "Why, my heart was saying the same thing just the other day!!" card), and from there, yes, the two are genuine, but you gotta admit, in follow your heart is she does use a bit of a persuasive direction.

then we see her manipulate again in the end when she leads the poor to UGC headquarters and. yknow. kills everyone 💀 she eventually becomes worse that her father by denying them any other option than. die from lack of basic needs, and leads their demise. ALSO SHE COULDVE AT LEAST LISTENED TO THE RESEARCH?? CONTINUED IT??? AND SAVED EVERYONE LIKE BOBBY AND CALDWELL WANTED?????? anyways-

also, Caldwell and Bobby were the same at one point. they had to have been. a poor boy in the midst of crisis has dreams to help the people of his community, so he rises up with the support of his people, and becomes a martyr...sounds like two people, doesn't it?

ALSO², PENNY AND CALDWELL ARE SO TRAGIC????? this young woman (who is perhaps a prostitute just to get by) and (probably) poor boy are in love, and once the water table drops and keeps dropping, they take a chance to give into their feelings and have their night together, which leads to their daughter Hope being born, and once that happens Caldwell has possibly already started his revolution, company, and rise to the top. so he takes their daughter (possibly so that she doesn't have to go through what he went through as a child), makes her promise to never tell Hope who she is, and becomes this hard, cold shell of a man he used to be, becoming someone Penny doesn't even recognize anymore. she doesn't love Cladwell, she loves Caldwell, the dreamer who once cared for all the people. and that's probably why she calls him such, to try and get her beloved back.

also erm lockstock how dare you just reject barrel like that-

HARRY AND BECKY ARE TOGETHER???? AND ARE ACTUALLY RABID??????? couple goals <33 /j

who tf is tiny tom, like, is he Harry and Becky's kid????

im obsessed with imagining what Penny and Caldwell were like before UGC

REMEMBER WHEN OUR NIGHT WERE STARRY????

arent you sorry..? (translation: "Are you sorry about loving and listening to me?")

..sure, I'm sorry.. (translation: "You probably want me to say I'm sorry for loving you because you no longer love me, and regret me.")

im not sorry.. (translation: "I STILL FUCKING LOVE YOU AGHHH-")

JUUUST UNNNNSOUNDDDD (translation: "WE STILL LOVE EACH OTHER AND NOW ONE OF US HAS TO DIE-")

all the original broadway cast photos are 2001 crunchy 😭

HAIL MALTHUS

making fun of and calling out the government and twisted cops >:)

the harmonies make me wanna ascend

okay that's all for now 💀💀💀

[d4rkpassengerz]

IT'S ALL ABOUT FAMILY.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are DEXTER MORGAN. You are born to a mother, LAURA MOSER, with no memory of the man who used to be your father, conjoined to an older brother - a BRIAN MOSER who loves you dearly. You are born, as any man, to some kind of family. A family that only had each other. You would sit in the living room scribbling nothings into paper with broken crayons or fiddling with counterfeit barbie and ken dolls with your brother as your mother painted her nails opposite you in funky little patterns. You don't remember much of her besides this, not anymore, not after you've been overtaken by the incident that turned the world 'round and expelled you from it at full force. Shipping container and a loving brother's lullaby, that's where you now say you were born, in blood and in death with the brother who so dearly loved you and from which's arms you were ripped to the embrace of HARRY MORGAN : foster father, the good cop. You had forgotten the loving brother. You were only three when the world split you down the middle, when Harry did. But you have that foster father who sees the darkness in you and propels it in a direction so odd, so deliberate, yet very much yours now and forevermore. A gift from a loving father and a curse from a misguided cop - your CODE comes from family. And to make it all work, to make the world reach out to you just a bit, there is DEBRA MORGAN. Little sister. Feelings, if you could have them, are rightly hers. She is your conscience and your responsibility. She is your world and you, Dexter, in being unlike Harry, are hers. You are tethered to family. You venture to make yourself look normal. You date, just for the ruse of it. You look around and around for a woman who doesn't want too much of you or might be damaged just enough to be tolerable. And you find her in the form of RITA BENNETT. Radiant, kind-faced Rita Bennet who comes with a family of her own. ASTOR AND CODY, the bundles of abused innocence you want so inexplicably to protect. And that's when she becomes a part of your life, too, because she comes with family. Because you cannot grasp love or care or affection, but you can make view of its semblance in familial energy. You say, you linger, and you have, with her, a child, HARRISON MORGAN. Light of your life he is, and the cement to make that feeling so close to love blossom in your bosom 'round Rita.

Dexter Morgan, hell-bent he is on saying that he is unfeeling and firm in his inhumanity, is a family man. He's a son, a brother, a husband and a father and he does them all very well. Unlike every other part of his ruse, while still imperfect in their sincerity, these dynamics are the closest to being real in his life. He truly loves his sister. He cried when he had to murder his brother. He started to care for Rita when he was truly integrated into her family. He would give his life away for Astor, Cody and Harrison. He lives and abides by everything Harry told him, even beyond the lies and the omissions. Dexter has always been GROUNDED BY FAMILY. It's the primary element pulling him back from being the very thing he calls himself: A MONSTER.

[lizbethborden]

I think the point these people make is that thinking that Harris is better than Trump is an illusion. They're two sides of the same coin, funding cop cities, funding racist anti immigration programs, funding Israel's genocide in Gaza, spreading dangerous islamophobic antisemitic misogynistic etc rhetoric. Trump is just doing it in a vulgar style. Harris has been vice president for a while now and her administration has not undone much of the work of Trump, when it hasnt prolonged or amplified it. So I think lots of people are feeling defeated, disillusioned, and like they are being manipulated when the 'at least she's not Trump' argument is brought forth. If she's not Trump, but signs off on the same policies and budgets, and represses protests the same way, there is no difference on the ground. Also I think more people are becoming radicalized and hope for a global change - third party candidates, the people's revolution, whatever. It's a rejection of the establishment altogether rather than rejecting just one - I understand the frustration but I can't fault people who refuse to participate in a system that they feel is working against them regardless of the outcome.

I take issue with a lot of the framing of this response.

First of all, it's not Harris' administration; it's Biden's. I'm not going to argue she has no agency as a political actor, but the way the system works is that he is the central driver of action and policy. Arguing that she, personally, should have accomplished more is frankly silly, both when 1) they HAVE accomplished quite a lot and 2) where they have struggled to accomplish goals, it is often because of deadlocks in the legislative branch, where Republicans hold a majority in the House and Democrats only the slightest majority in the Senate (and considering one of their number is Joe Manchin, it kind of doesn't count).

To the point that they HAVE accomplished a lot:

Established the Office for Gun Violence Prevention and signed anti-gun violence legislation into law

Passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which has significant climate change and drug price provisions

Approved literal billions in debt relief for people with student debt, with still more to come

Signed an executive order to regulate AI usage and to scrutinize use of AI for potential discriminatory effects

Passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, allocating over $400 billion for infrastructure works

Pushed protections for consumers re: airline travel and its exorbitant fees and delays, via DoT and Pete Buttigieg

Achieved a 3.5% unemployment rate, which is the lowest in 50 years

Harris also has, explicitly, called for a ceasefire in Gaza and in fact had her intended statements about the humanitarian crisis there "watered down" by officials, ostensibly so that she didn't seem to be breaking away from Biden's approach to Israel and the genocide. I am not going to argue that the Biden-Harris administration is perfect, does no wrong, or does not have significant responsibility for dangerous, violent policies and political actions. That's the nature of Western government and it would be deeply offensive to suggest otherwise. But to suggest that they're just Trump but more polite is inaccurate and honestly shows a significant degree of political ignorance. Also very odd to suggest that a Black woman is like, equally as racist as Trump?

Moreover, the head-in-the-sand, I-would-prefer-not-to, "the revolution will come soon so no worries :D" approach is simply not helpful in the day-to-day. So, I, for one, absolutely can fault people who choose not to participate in the actions that will have significant effects on the day-to-day governance of the country in which they live. If the idea is to sit around and complain until all the oligarchs get beheaded, nothing will get done. This is the exact attitude taken during the 2016 election, which actually got Trump elected and resulted in the policies that killed large numbers of people during COVID, exacerbated racist and islamophobic violence, and nearly led to a white supremacist Christian nationalist coup that overthrew the government. If you're fine with that, good for you. I, personally, am not.

[stormsbourne]

<presses your mad about modern journalism button again> may I request a rant

Happily though I'm going to try and avoid talking about what happened last night/this election cycle specifically because it's still too raw.

So I graduated with a journalism degree in the late aughts. My specialization/emphasis is in print, the dyingest of all journalism, but to any journalist who gives half a fuck about the concept of the industry, it's clear that a lot of things are fucked. And it was obvious then, too!

Here's the big ones:

24 hour news fucking sucks. It's resulted in a world where even minor issues can get significant coverage and the journalists involved are always scrambling for something to keep people watching. Facts become tenuous in a setting like this and corrections to shit you got wrong become extremely easy to miss, so it turns out you're often just spreading misinformation and the people swallowing it will regularly miss you saying it wasn't true. There was an incident when I was in college of a hobby pilot accidentally crashing a plane into an apartment building in NYC and this got turned into a multi hour story about whether it was another 9/11. This problem has only been exacerbated by things like the advent of social media and the integration of the internet into absolutely fucking everything.

The concept of objectivity is broken. In an ideal world objectivity means that you report the facts without bias or prejudice. Modern journalism has scrubbed the first part of that out with an eraser and highlighted the second part. Climate change, vaccine effectiveness and safety, how COVID functions, it doesn't matter what issue you pick, if you look at how modern journalism covers it, it's all about remaining impartial, not about telling the truth. And this gets turned into representing both sides. Well we've got a climate scientist on. We've also got to have a climate skeptic, right, to remain objective? No, you fuckers, your job is not to get two people on the air to argue about whether it's raining, your job is to look out the fucking window and tell people if it's fucking raining!

Obviously, capitalism. Big money folks have their fingers in the pockets of newspapers and news networks and are using them as hand puppets accordingly. Wapo can't endorse Harris because Bezos wants Trump to be niceys to him. Sinclair sends its networks objectively false stories and requires them to put them on the air or get sanctioned and punished.

The media isn't innocent in any this; they aren't merely a victim of what's been done to the industry. They often go to bat for the upper crust, for the military, for cops. Donald Trump won 2016 (and maybe this year too) off the back of all the free airtime he got because the media could not stop paying attention to the circus, putting the circus on the air, yelling about the circus being in town, talking about how many people like the circus. They repeat false information and hype up studies that don't actually say anything. They often hide corrections or retractions out of embarrassment. Newsrooms have private secret rules about how to cover international politics and what side should be depicted as sympathetic. They post cop pr statements unedited and do shit like go to diners in Ohio to interview racist white guys about their "economic anxiety." Everything that's destroying journalism, they are complicit in, and often happily.

The media in its best form should be a way to examine and dismantle oppressive machines, like how much journalism was involved in helping tear down McCarthyism. But nowadays the media is gleefully complicit in all of it. The revolution will not be televised, or maybe it will be but with a headline of LOCALS CONCERNED ABOUT RASH OF CRIMES.

fuck, man, it blows!

[bonehilda-deactivated]

Spoilers ahead. For the ending of the game. So. 👍

I've seen people complain about how the killer wasn't really teased beforehand at all and how it was essentially impossible to solve the crime yourself and while with the information you're given it is impossible to know that the murderer was a communist sniper on an island, it really doesn't matter for this game? Like idk it never has bothered me.

One of the reasons is because Harry comments on how unrealistic the detective genre is, so it'd be stupid to make the game unrealistic in the exact same way. He mentions how the books leave out a lot of the tedious stuff and I personally felt the tedious parts (and the red herrings) of the game was a direct response to that. And in real life, the perpetrators aren't always one of the people in the suspect list either. Sometimes you just stumble upon the killer. You can't always rely on the logic skill and the information that you have.

Besides this game doesn't feel like it's about solving the mystery. That's the main reason why this never bothered me. This game is about capitalism and imperialism and war, but also about portraying people affected by this system as real and with compassion. That is what I felt the game was most about to me. The people. There is such a heavy focus on Harry as a person and how he interacts with the world, as well as how other people deal with the same conditions that the crime solving part becomes secondary. It becomes nothing more than the catalyst. When questioning people it never felt like I was questioning possible suspects of a crime or witnesses, it almost always felt like coming to understand them as people and how they became who they are. "We are cops and this is official police business" feels like just an excuse. This feeling may also be caused by Harry rarely staying on topic and getting involved with quests that aren't even sidequests, they're quests in the complete opposite direction of the main quest.

The moment you meet the killer in the game isn't about catching the killer anymore. It becomes about who the deserter is and why he is that way. One of the reasons why it feels like that is because the RCM in Martinaise does not embody the role as law enforcement, like the police do in other detective stories. They're very clearly made out to be foreign. Essentially powerless. In Martinaise they have become a vessel for us to learn the story through. That is also emphasised by Harry and Kim feeling almost deserted in the game? Like as if they were left behind by the RCM in no man's land. And of course Harry's amnesia.

Idk it's 2am and I am thinking about this game again. I could talk forever about this.

[sweatertheman]

Even though Harry is completely unjustified in hating Dora as much as he does, I can understand emotionally why he can't help but see her as "the bitch that fucked him."

If I recall correctly, Harry only became a cop because of the influence she had on him. And it was becoming a cop that fucked him. He became a heavy-duty case solving machine, incapable of turning off, incapable of talking normally to people. He started drinking heavily, started coming apart at the seams. Being a cop turned him into a bad person (or worse, if he was already shitty) and made him lose his mind.

Thing is, there was no way Dora could have known that Harry would become the unstable man he became. She was just an average middle class woman, she didn't know how bad working as a detective could be, didn't know that Harry was someone suceptible to coming undone, likely didn't have the political education to understand that All Cops Are Bastards, and that Harry becoming one would make him into a bastard. Even if she did tell him he should become a cop, she can't be blamed for what he turned into. She had every right to leave when things crumbled.

But Harry, in the low point of his life, can't see that. He needs to blame Dora for making her love him, for encouraging him to become the man he became, and leaving him when he hit rock bottom. Because in his mind, its either that, or it's HIS fault, and everything bad that happened is because of him and the pain he did to others. A battle that goes on endlessly between Harry breaking down apologizing to everyone for being such a piece of shit and telling everyone to go fuck themselves for wronging him. A battle that continues because Harry, as a mentally unstable cop, can't concieve of the idea that both he and Dora are just flawed human beings who made mistakes, and that if he has to blame anyone, it should be the system.

It wasn't Dora's fault that Harry became a cop, it was the system's fault for glorifying the police. Both Harry and Dora here had good motives, wanted to make a difference and help people. But the police are just the lackeys of capital. They don't protect or serve anyone but the interests of the government and of each other. Police are given power over the people and encouraged to abuse it so long as they and their bosses get what they want. And Harry persisted, maybe because he still thought he was doing good work, maybe because he didn't want to let Dora down, or maybe because he just loved having power. And at the end of the day, the experience warped him into a broken man. And when Dora left him, all he had was his detective work, and some fading memories. It pushed him to drink himself to the point he forgot everything. And what thoughts can pop into his mind as soon as he wakes up?

"Officer? Am I millitary personnel?"

"Who would let me be an officer of the law?"

"I don't wanna be a cop anymore."

"Please come take me home. I don't want to be here anymore."

Free from (most of) the baggage, Harry can't fathom the idea that HE of all people is a cop. He wants to leave. He has to ask questions even if he doesn't want to. Harrier Du Bois is at war with the cop inside him. The thing that happens during the game is the process by which Harry rebecomes the thing which was killing him.

It was the Moralintern that fucked Harry. He could have been a real person. A revolutionary, a feminist, a father. But because of the Moralintern and general pro-police propaganda, he became a detective, lost everything, and slowly rotted into the unhinged bastard we know and... love..?????