#called out for being a DH fan...

[hollowed-theory-hall]

hello 🤗

As your point about hinny, is Ginny actually so -called 'safe girl' for Harry? Like he knows her and don't need to know smbd else, they have some shared experiences (Chamber of Secrets and fighting Voldemort in general), she's cute and knows how to defend herself, so Harry can't worry, etc

I've always wondered how Ginny even agrees to this kind of relationship where Harry doesn't tell her anything, bc of their interaction in canon I don't see any reason to see them in a more or less healthy relationship after the war, especially if Harry becomes an Auror. maybe Ginny is like Molly in this way, clearly more than she can think for herself, and so is Hermione - they both listen to her as an authoritative woman and accepted her advices

Hello 👋

I think Ginny doesn't see their relationship the way it is. She idolized Harry as someone he very clearly isn't:

“But you’ve been too busy saving the Wizarding world,” said Ginny, half laughing. “Well . . . I can’t say I’m surprised. I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn’t be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that’s why I like you so much.”

(HBP)

I mean, the things she loves about him are just not true about him at all. She is in love with a person who doesn't exist. And honestly, I don't know if love is the right word. I'd even call it an obsession:

“I never really gave up on you,” she [Ginny] said. “Not really. I always hoped. . . . Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more — myself.”

(HBP)

She is so fixated on being with Harry that she changes her own behavior around him so he would like her better. I also mentioned here how I think her interest in Quidditch is relatively new. That she started playing for Harry to like her better. (I mean, she only started showing interest in the sport during book 5, there were no hints of it before that).

Ron describes how upset she after Harry broke up with her, none of which she was willing to show Harry:

“You ditched her. What are you doing now, messing her around,” “I’m not messing her around,” said Harry, as Hermione caught up with them. “Ron—” But Ron held up a hand to silence her. “She was really cut up when you ended it—” “So was I. You know why I stopped it, and it wasn’t because I wanted to.”

(DH)

But that 'so was I', was he? Was he really 'cut up' over it? He didn't think about her until he saw her again, and Aunt Muriel was the one who had to mention Ginny's dress had a very low cut, Harry didn't notice:

“Yes, my tiara sets off the whole thing nicely,” said Auntie Muriel in a rather carrying whisper. “But I must say, Ginevra’s dress is far too low cut.” Ginny glanced around, grinning, winked at Harry, then quickly faced the front again.

(DH)

That aforementioned faked "toughness" is also one of the only things Harry actively mentions liking about Ginny:

He chanced a glance at her. She was not tearful; that was one of the many wonderful things about Ginny, she was rarely weepy. He had sometimes thought that having six brothers must have toughened her up

(DH)

Now, I actually think this behavior is very different from what we see from Molly. While I'm not the biggest Molly fan, I do have to defend her here. Because she may be a housewife, but she's wearing the pants in her and Arthur's relationship. Molly and Arthur have a very different relationship than Ginny and Harry. With them, I believe they know each other well and love each other for who they are. And yes, they argue, but the undercurrent is a love that's always there. Molly wouldn't just accept anything Arthur decided to dish (not that he would) at her and we clearly see she gets mad at him over various things, from getting muggle stitches to enchanting a car to having a fistfight at a bookstore. She doesn't just agree with everything he says/does the way Ginny does.

Hermione, too, is not someone I see willing to deal with Ron keeping secrets from her. I mean, she sent birds to attack him when he made out with Lavender when they weren't together yet, I don't see her as the kind of wife that'll be chill with not being told the important things. I mean, it's not that you have to tell your partner everything, but the expectation is that of trust and understanding, something that Harry and Ginny don't seem to have.

With Harry and Ginny, Harry sees Ginny as a 'safe girl' on whom Harry can have a crush. For Ginny, Harry is her childhood hero crush she's been obsessed with for years. She changed her personality to date him, she dated other guys to get his attention, and once she got him she did everything, accepted everything from him with no argument because she didn't want to lose him and was insecure in their relationship.

To me, this doesn't seem healthy at all, but that's what it seems like.

How jealous Ginny is, not even letting Harry go with Cho to see Ravenclaw's statue in book 7. How annoyed she got when Harry for a second mentioned Fleur is pretty in passing. Again indicates how insecure Ginny is in this relationship, she doesn't trust Harry to stay with her and she is willing to turn her entire life around if it means being with Harry Potter whom she thinks she loves.

This is how Ginny's character reads to me, which is one of the reasons I really don't like her. I don't see her as incredibly brave or badass, I feel she is wearing a facade of the badass girl she thinks Harry wants while beneath she's an insecure, emotional mess who is desperately trying to keep from crying cause she thinks Harry would hate her if she cried.

And I don't think Harry knows this is what the relationship is. I don't think he realized Ginny was trying so hard to fit the 'safe girl' image he projected on her so he wouldn't leave her. I think he misses all her effort and thinks it's just who she is — which is exactly what Ginny is trying to accomplish.

But Ginny doesn't fully realize this is what she's doing. I think, in her mind, she is trying to be a girl "worthy" of the Harry Potter image she has in her head. She doesn't see him as who he is, but as some Chosen One savior of the wizarding world Harry never wanted to be. So she puts all his actions in this context: "It's fine cause he's saving us," or "he's the hero so it's fine," it's not about Harry as a person to her. And she's trying so hard to be who she thinks the girlfriend of the Boy-Who-Lived should be.

So to your question of why Ginny deals with it? Well, she convinced herself she has to be with Harry (or, at least, the image she has of him). She wrapped up herself so much in that fixation that she was willing to deal with anything from him if it meant being with him. Except for him looking at another girl for even a second.

I mean, if she's willing to change her entire personality and date guys she doesn't like to get Harry and be someone she thinks is "worthy" of him, what's dealing with a few secrets to help save the world compared to that?

(It could've been really funny if Harry did end up with Luna who Ginny didn't consider a threat. But this is just me with my "if I had to ship Harry with a girl it'll always be Luna" agenda)

[anshares]

FAKE DATING A ROCKSTAR AU

Continuation art from my Renheng Week Day 4 prompt: Celebrity!

They first met during Summer Music fest, Ren notices a very cute fan in the crowd waving his red light stick.

Full plot under the cut

Dan Heng may not look like it but he is a huge fan of the band Stellaron especially their lead singer Blade.

He simps the man so hard that he built a shrine in his room, rows upon rows of Blade wallpaper and photo cards even the limited edition merch and no he will not divulge the info on how much he spent on this things

He also runs a stan account, and has a huge following since he takes really good fan cams and candid shots and is updated on news about Blade.

The Stellaron band consists of

ren - Main vocals + Guitar

Firefly - keyboard

Kafka - Bass

Silver wolf - Drummer

Elio - Manager

Everyone loves Blade’s deep husky voice, Kafka also calls their fans destiny slaves. Blade doesn't like to be interviewed so whenever they do he just stay silent he is a private person after all and hates it when the media pries into his personal affairs so he lets kafka does all the talking while SW is in charge of their social media.

Stelle is friends with Kafka. Both March and Stelle know DH is obsessed with Blade, he is Blade’s number one fan and biggest simp.

So Stelle gives him front row VIP tickets for each concert he plans to attend (before, he was always just somewhere in the masses) and stelle and march accompanies him for those concerts to support Kafka.

Blade notices the guy who always looks like he hates every second of this and would rather be at home and assumes that he’s just there because of his friends. Since he recognizes Stelle as Kafka’s friend, it’s easy to get in contact with DH to ask him for a favor.

The favor is to be his fake boyfriend so that the media won't pester him and he won't get caught up in dating rumors, he is sick and tired of them. DH asks why he chose him of all people,

Blade tells him it is because he thinks that DH hates him and doesn't want anything to do with him so it's perfect as they wont have the risk of falling for each other. (oh but blade already did the moment he saw DH and his resting bitch face)

When news got out of Blade’s boyfriend at first they were trying to hide his identity as per DH request since he likes his privacy thank you very much and he knows how fans can get crazy over this news.

He only appears in social media post in stellaron hunters official account like his back or side,Blade and him holding hands or the “candid photo” of them being affectionate but its all staged,

but fans see how soft blade is with his boyfriend (based on the photos) plus how he starts talking when asked about the boyfriend in interviews stellaron and blade fans call it his gap moe.

I’d imagine that DH is the type to show as little emotion as possible while feeling A LOT on the inside, so he’s keeping his resting bitchface around Blade for months while they are fake dating, all while freaking out on the inside because he gets to spend time with his idol (who later becomes his crush, once he gets to know him personally).

The only reaction Blade gets out of him is when they banter, which is when DH smiles ever so slightly, and Blade makes it his mission to get him to smile more often, falling hard in the process.

It takes Blade a long time to realize DH is actually a fan since for the longest time he thought DH was his number one hater not his biggest fan, and even longer until he finds out that DH has developed romantic feelings during their fake dating.

One time dh got jealous because of a hoard of fan girls and boys. Ren was surrounded and tbh Ren wants to escape but he can't so dh takes it up on himself and lays claim on his man (fake dating) so he kisses him in front of them and declares that blade is his.

He pulls blade away cuz everyone was stunned (even blade) so that's the infamous boyfriend that everyone is talking about.

Dh apologized afterwards for doing that suddenly but blade just says they need more practice if they need to really sell this relationship of theirs and so they practice.

The next day it was trending all over the net since blade’s mysterious bf is always not shown fully but he is always there with blade backstage since according to blade he is shy and doesn't like media attention which is true but now his identity is out in the open

Blade finds out DH being a simp because of a limited edition photocard like only 5 exist in the world slips out of dh pocket (cuz he just fought tooth and nail for it in an auction and has just came back from claiming the item)

Before this, DH always came up with excuses as to why they couldn’t hang out at his place because he didn’t want Blade to see his merch collection.

While possessing some merch is completely normal, DH is very much aware that his collection (and the Blade shrine) are excessive and could creep Blade out, even if he tried to explain that his simping was strictly fan-idol type (that is, before he got to know him personally, but Blade doesn’t need to know that this changed)

When blade hangs out on dh home to get away from the fans dh he was confused on why dh wont let him in his room his excuse, Its messy so he’ll clean up said mess is blade shrine, merch, dakimakura etc.

Dh: *panic mode* *cleans in the speed of light* okay you can come in now

Blade: ???? Your room....is very minimalist *stares at the closet with lock and key*

Dh: don't mind that it has a very loose lock

Blade: i can fix it for y-

Dh: NO DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THAT *gives him the death glare* *looks away* i just dont want to clean up again since it'll all spill out

Blade is surprised that DH isn’t using pillow and duvet covers, DH has to lie that he only has one pair that’s currently in the laundry(once he finds out about that he gets jealous of the pillow)

Dh be sweating bullets the whole time

DH: "(Oh my gooood how long will blade stay here, go home already 💢💢💢“Go home so I can cuddle your dakimakura”)

(If Blade knew about this, he would wish that this was him)

He doesn't know how long it'll hold since he knows he has tons of merch by the time blade does get out of the room, that's when the lock bursts. Dh almost fainted his idol and fake boyfriend finding out his biggest secret but he does find out later which is what his situation is right now

Blade does see the shrine and isn't freaked out about it in fact he is quite happy, he will also see the dakimakura

He will also throw the pillow away like why cuddle the pillow when you have the real authentic one right beside you.

DH: The pillow is soft, you aren’t

(Blade ends up convincing him with the power of his tiddies)

When they are on tour DH has trouble falling asleep and the dakimakura’s ain't enough now

According to DH, blade ruined him cuz he cant fall asleep now without blade right beside him.

During the tour Blade misses DH and realized he wants to be with him 24/7 so after he got back from their tour he asked DH to be his real boyfriend and ofc DH agreed.

[sunburnacoustic]

Muse - Q Awards 2007

Some shitty quality but fascinating pics of Muse with other musical stars of the 00s at the 2007 Q Awards, where Muse were seen talking to Shirley Bassey, Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers), Ricky Wilson (Kaiser Chiefs), Ian Brown (Stone Roses), the singer Mika (who apparently really likes Muse!) and Kate Nash.

And Muse themselves, triumphant winners of the Best Live Act award at 2007 Q's, beating Arcade Fire, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian.

Q Magazine did feature their awards in the Nov 2007 edition of Q, so I can sneak in a picture from there too (thanks Musewiki <3)

Here's what Muse had to say about it all (Q interview)

Rate your day on a scale of 1 to 10. Dominic Howard (drums): I'd say pushing eight. When we woke up hung over in Serbia this morning, it was about minus 5. But getting back to London pushed it up a few points and then winning this award pushed it up further again. By the time we get to the party later we'll hopefully have pushed it to 11.

This is the 3rd time you've picked up the Best Live Act Award. Not getting bored of it yet, are you? Matthew Bellamy (vocals/guitar): No, it's nice that we've bagged this again. We're not getting bored of playing live and we're not bored of people liking our performances either.

Your plane from Belgrade landed about an hour ago. you didn't get a nice early night in preparation for today, then?

MB: Not quite. Last night Belgrade was Bel-degrade. It got quite dark. I wasn't involved, but it included a transsexual called Pete. And a dildo. Pete was sat on your knee for quite a while Dom, wasn't that right? DH: (Solemnly) No.

Does visiting new cities give you more licence to misbehave? MB: Yeah, a bit. We've been lucky this year in that we've been able to go to new places - Eastern Europe, Asia, Mexico. Sometimes on tour you just cocoon yourself in your hotel room and keep your head down until gig time. being somewhere new puts you in the mood to get out more and meet new people, just to find new experiences.

So what's the oddest experience on tour this year? DH: Sorry, I can't get the transsexual out of my head now. Indonesia was interesting, mainly because I could've got killed. We'd taken a few silly things and we decided to check out some local bars in a really rough part of town. The houses were all corrugated iron and we had chickens running over the bonnet of the car, people banging on our windows. One of the guys got out of our car and he got shouted at, so we got out of there as fast as possible. But we were told later that we were lucky we didn't get shot, then robbed.

MB: Our tour manager got robbed by three ladyboys in a lift there, too.

Have you had any celebrity fans coming to the shows?

Christopher Wolstenholme (bass): In LA the kid for The Sixth Sense (Hayley Joe Osment) came to see us. I think he crashed his car on the way home.

MB: Paris Hilton to the LA show, too. But she left during Knights of Cydonia, which is the first song on the set. If we're offending Paris Hilton we must be doing something right.

The UK people will see your two Wembley Stadium shows in the summer as the pinnacle of the Muse live experience. How were those shows for you?

MB: I think we did our best. It's an amazing venue and the crowds made those shows. Big shows like that aren't just about the band, its about the whole experience and watching the crowd is part of the fun. It definitely gave us a taste for more of those big shows.

Any outrageous stage props that got vetoed by the council? Ten-foot-high robots and the like?

MB: Well, we wanted to have helicopters doing a balloon drop and circling above us with searchlights spotlighting the crowd, but apparently you're not allowed to have helicopters fly over big crowds in case they fall out of the sky and start mincing up. Which is fair enough, I suppose.

DH: We wanted to arrive by Zeppelins and drop down to the stage, but we weren't allowed to do that either...

MB: We're gonna make that happen next time. You can get these business Zeppelins now, like a private jet, so we could fly from gig to gig, descend for the gig and then get lifted back into the Zeppelin lounge.

So how do you go about topping Wembley? MB: We'll probably start from scratch again and build things back up with smaller gigs. DH: We'd like to do multiple nights in smaller venues. We might have more people onstage.

[Q mishears] Q: Small people onstage? DH: Yeah, more small people. Like Spinal Tap. No, it'd just be good to have the time to evolve the whole musical side of the show.

Is this tour ever going to end? MB: Technically, it's over in December. But there are a few more things that we've been offered for next year, so who knows?

The rumour is that you're going to headline Glastonbury again next year... MB: Ooh, that's a strong question! Very strong. Well, Glastonbury is a festival that's very close to our hearts. And it'll be amazing to play it again...sometime. But next year's plans have yet to be settled upon.

So we'll take that as a "yes" then? MB: No, don't take it as anything. DH: It's a maybe. CW: It's a flat "no".

Back to today: is there anyone here you really want to meet? MB: I'd love to say hello to Paul McCartney. But so would everyone here, I bet. We'll not be allowed near him.

Are you pretty sociable when you're at parties without musicians? MB: It's like when two dogs meet in the park: they eye each other up for a bit, then have a sniff around each other. So we'll see who's smelling OK later. Who's that? (Points at Damon Albarn posing for Q's photographer) Damon Albarn? (Unimpressed) Oh...

What do you want for pudding? DH: What's the obsession with pudding here? Someone else just asked us that. CW: We'll say something classic. Bread-and-butter pudding. Can't go wrong there.

So what are you doing next? MB: I have a meeting with out lawyers. Very rock'n'roll. But we'll be out at the party later. These days if we're in London it usually means we have to work, so one of the ideas in coming to this was to have a big night out.

Pics - microcuts.net archives | article - MuseWiki.

[yearofthesnvke]

I'll be a rare one - I strongly disagree with angry anon that DH is innocent in all of this. He posted in support of buying from her. He signed items for her to auction off and pushed his fans into her grimy arms on streams. He still stayed connected to her after allegations came out about her, proven by the ren faire pic. Like it or not, he stuffed her presence down his fan's throats as someone they should support on his word. He can't avoid responsibility because of his on-camera persona. Is he himself guilty of what she's done? No, but he has continued to cling to her in spite of it all and fans have a right to feel well off about all of that. It's not "parasocial" to be confused or worried why your fan fave supports a weird criminal and won't say anything about it. What about the fans who did pay her after he supported her openly or who chatted with her trusting she was normal because he said so? Keeping private is just a way to rephrase "avoidant" but he's done that before. I know this might be harsh to read but he's a 34 year old man himself, he can own up to backing someone and being wrong about it. Last point, I'm going to give angry anon a humble pill. You don't know everyone watching this blog now either, mate. Cheers.

You make some very solid points, Anon. He was warned by close friends and other voice actors waaaay before the call-outs. But I think some of us are reserving our judgement because we know fuck-all from his perspective, while we know the entirety of Chel's.

[married-to-a-redhead]

Baseball is back. That used to mean something to me but not anymore.

Once upon a time, I was a huge baseball fan. I lived in Atlanta for years and went to about 25 Braves games a year at Fulton County Stadium and later Turner Field in the mid to late 1990’s. I was in the stands 10 rows back when the Braves won the world series in 1995. I was pretty hard core and I would even keep score with pen and paper. I appreciated the subtleties of the game, watching the count, the pitches thrown, the movement on the field, the cat and mouse game played when a runner was on first. While most people would call the game too slow, there was always so much going on without the ball actually being in play. You just needed to know what to look for. I loved sitting in the stands, drinking my beer, eating a hotdog, and just soaking it all in. The amazing tradition and history. It was magical.

And then they changed the rules.

Some of those changes I suppose I could understand, the biggest one being the pitch timer. The game can be slow for the average fan and that was probably needed. But other rule changes just killed the game for me. Specifically, limiting the number of throws over to first. Making the bases bigger. Making the DH mandatory in the National League. Not allowing the shift. Limiting the pitching changes. But the worst offender was the extra innings rule changes. Now, once extra innings start, there magically appears a runner on second. WTF?? Incredibly unfair to both teams as why would you not let them slug it out fair and square in extra innings?

I can’t get past these new rules that fundamentally change the game. Maybe I am just old school but I am OK with that. I no longer follow a team or even watch baseball at all.

I am sad that my summertime vice is now dead to me.

[lorelune]

LORE I must know your rock paper scissors dynamic with jingrenheng..... or actually what's their ship name when they're in hcq? with danfeng and yingxing??

anyway I need to know what your thoughts are about who doms who in this trio..... 👁️👄👁️🎤

hello bitti <33 YOU'RE ASKING THE BIG QUESTIONS... i have read so. So much jingrenheng fic (and jingxingfeng (unsure if that's the official ship name but backs haven blown out both pre and post hcq) ) and the conclusion i come to is that they are all in fact switches. with the following distinct temperaments:

yingxing:

prefers topping, dom leaning

masochistic streak that dan feng entertains

dan feng

switchy

has a dommy mommy tendencies

BUT more often than not ends up bottoming and subbing

mainly for yx. they have that whole vibe u know

jing yuan (specifically hcq era)

switchy. true switch at his core

indulges df's mommy dommy tendencies which often times involves jy being fucked by yx in any number of ways.

atp prefers topping, but enjoys bottoming almost as much.

gets in hard-headed standoffs with yx about who is topping and domming (when df is really making those calls :3c)

(tbh i'm such a huge bleeding heart fan of jy/yx/df that i have like... ten different formulas of dynamics for these three. true jingrenheng is harder bc it is just more SAD)

...

dan heng

service top or pillow princess. no in between.

will fight it out with blade for dominance (literally)

cries whenever he tops and/or doms. dont ask him about he gets SHYYY

blade

dom, top leaning. will bottom but struggles to be fully comfortable.

HUGEEEE masochistic streak that neither dh or jy will indulge unless they are feeling truly self destructive

jing yuan (post-hcq)

prefers bottoming, will top without complaint however

doesn't enjoy subbing. he can understand the allure of subbing, and even wants that emptiness sometimes, but struggles to reach that state and be comfortable within it

small masochistic streak.

he usually lets blade and dh scrap for who is going to dom but has like... an invisible leash on the two of them. he can reign them in sooo easily if he tries but gets off on the fighting and personal attention

[bibliophilicstranger]

What if Snape was killed by Lupin when he transformed after Sirius sent Snape there/James was too late?

There's definitely enough for a long fic here and I think there are a few different ways it could go (this is not exhaustive, there are so many domino consequences of this).

The implication from the books is that if Snape had been killed by Lupin, that Sirius would be sent to Azkaban and Lupin killed. James and Peter would have been the only Marauders left and they'd probably have been devastated. It well could have brought them closer together, or it could have driven them apart. Either option could have thwarted Peter's betrayal, either by making him more willing to stand up for James or by eliminating him from James' trusted circle.

I had always assumed (as many fans did) that the werewolf prank was in the Marauders' sixth year, but apparently there's something in DH (the book I'm least familiar with) that suggests it happens in fifth year, before O.W.L.s. This could mean fans were wrong, or it could be that Rowling messed up her own timeline.

If it did happen before Snape called Lily a "Mudblood" then she was still friends with him, and she might well refuse to ever talk to James again, especially if he ever tried to defend Sirius. This would certainly derail the whole series and maybe Neville would have been the Chosen One instead. Conversely, their grief over the death of their friends could bring them closer together if she knew James tried to intervene or he was sufficiently remorseful and they might end up closer earlier.

If it took place in sixth year, Snape's death would be less impactful on Lily. They wouldn't actively be friends and while she might not think Sirius was in the right (absolutely she would not), I think Remus' death would hit harder than Snape's at that time. Any ire against James for supporting Sirius might be less (especially if she knows of Sirius' struggles and separation from his family) but there's still the same possibilities as above.

Dumbledore would have taken a massive political hit. There would have been huge backlash to having allowed a werewolf to attend Hogwarts and he may well have lost his job. He might not have lost the confidence of the Order, but it would have hampered his ability to recruit. Even if Dumbledore kept his job, no werewolf would ever have been allowed to attend Hogwarts again, even secretly.

Now for the more interesting variations.

If Eileen Prince was dead by the time that the werewolf prank happened, then it's possible that Severus' death could have been covered up by Dumbledore. Tobias, as a muggle and one not fond of magic, probably had no idea of how to contact Hogwarts and probably wouldn't have cared much if Snape went missing. He could have assumed Snape was staying with friends, or had left school to get a job (the school leaving age being 16 in the muggle world in the 70s). Snape's friends' families could have been more of a problem but it's possible Dumbledore could have explained Snape's disappearance by his father pulling him out and moving to another country, his father calling him home for a family illness and/or even his father killing him while he was home visiting. It wouldn't have been difficult to take one muggle and change their name, move them, and make them forget they had a son. Unethical, certainly, but not undoable. Tobias also could have been dead by this time. If so, there would be no one to miss him in the muggle world and estranged relatives who'd assumed his guardianship taking him to live elsewhere could be the excuse. If it's fifth year and Snape was still friends with Lily it would be harder to handle, but as long as Tobias was gone before her parents could check, then Dumbledore could probably pull it off.

Remus killing a student would have been bad for Dumbledore politically, as explained above. Dumbledore could have decided that instead of exposing Remus to punishment, the whole matter should be hushed up. Remus was 'chronically ill'; it couldn't have been difficult to fake a worse illness that required him to leave school. Alternatively, if it was being hushed up, Remus could have stuck around, but with even more indebtedness to Dumbledore and stricter regulations. I also wouldn't put severe mental health consequences out of the question to desolate ends.

In this case, dealing with Sirius could have taken several forms. Dumbledore could have used guilt and the threat of having him arrested to push Sirius to leave Hogwarts on his own, having him run away. He could have punished him for a false reason, such as being out at night or a prank that he was caught in the midst of setting up, something that would lead to massive points loss and detentions, even expulsion if a suitable excuse could be found (though it seems very hard to expel students, considering what characters have gotten away with in the series without such an occurence). Alternatively, Sirius could have escaped punishment entirely, were it too suspicious to punish him.

The interpersonal relationship changes however, would be immense. Even if hushed up so that only, say, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, Sirius, Remus, and James knew what had happened, there would still be outward signs of the aftermath. Sirius and Remus' friendship would likely be permanently broken. James and Peter would be caught in the middle between them if Sirius remained at school. James wouldn't approve of what Sirius did, but if Sirius was significantly contrite, I find it possible that overtime their friendship could mend. Would Sirius still be allowed to stay with James the next summer? If James doesn't tell his parents, they'd probably still welcome him home.

Although she and the rest of the school would know that something happened from the way the Marauders were behaving, Lily probably wouldn't know what happened unless someone involved told her. She might never find out, or might only find out much later. James would probably sober up and mature quite a bit because of the incident. An estrangement from Sirius might pull James and/or Remus closer to Lily. One of them might tell her out of guilt, but if they were admitting it freely and they were at odds with Sirius, she probably wouldn't take it out on them (though she might well take it out on Sirius, even without being able to say why).

Beyond all this, it does have interesting implications for the prophecy. If there is no Snape, it's possible the first half is never given to Voldemort. If it's never given to Voldemort, he never has reason to target Neville and Harry specifically, they never go into hiding and they die or don't die/are attacked and vanquish him depending on if he attacks their families for the other reasons he already had to go after them.

If it's heard by another spy, perhaps they hear all of it because they're sneakier, or less of it, or exactly the same amount. If all, then Voldemort knows not to attack them, or attacks the parents and steals the children to raise as his own. If less, maybe he has more options and chooses a different family to attack.

Another spy likely wouldn't have turned double agent over the decision made by Voldy, so Dumbledore wouldn't have had a spy in his ranks. He would have operated with less information, though as he knew the contents of the prophecy, he could have figured out who the likely targets were and worked to draw the conclusion he wanted out.

Snape has a large impact on the later events and putting a hole in the narrative where he is would have fascinating consequences. You'd have to fill the gaps in some how, with different characters, different relationships, different series of events. Beyond setting up the Voldemort-Harry conflict, the life of every Hogwarts student from 1981(?) onward would be changed as Snape wouldn't be the potions professor.

Feel free to tag me or send an ask if you have a story that addresses this!

[wordrage]

Hi! So I was going through your snape tag (btw sorry for the million notifications you probably got), and I noticed you weren’t very much a fan way back on the early days of your blog. Feel free to completely ignore this if you don’t feel like answering (it is truly none of my business), but I’m always fond of hearing people’s “how I came to like this character” or “why I changed my mind about this character” stories and I was wondering what yours was :)

Hiii! Thanks for the ask! (No worries on the notification spam lol) and I appreciate that you reached out!

Yes! I think he was one of the characters I had the most difficulty empathizing with because I had such a strong, emotional reaction to him. Especially after OotP forward. He's divisive! (Also looking back through my Snape tag has me internally cringing a bit with how little grace I extended to the poor guy...ah well. With age/maturity comes wisdom...? D: )

I'm ngl, after reviewing some of the earlier posts, my immediate reaction is to delete them as my opinions have definitely changed, but maybe it's good to leave it as a record of my evolving mindset towards the character? lol

Ok, so what changed?

Well, it certainly helps I'm now closer to adult Snape's age from Book 1 than Harry's age when I was first reading the HP series as it was being published. I didn't give much thought to Snape beyond he was a mean teacher and a bully, for the first four books at least.

I got into the HP fandom around when GoF had been released so I was discovering plenty of fanfic and fan meta. Snape was one of the more ... well ... fans reactions to him that liked him or even wrote him sexually with the cast confused middle-school me, to be honest. I was more interested in the child characters than the adults, so I was vaguely aware of how he was portrayed in fandom but didn't really engage.

This changed after OotP was released, and we finally got some explicit Severus Snape backstory and history with the Occlumency lessons. I had a really an emotional reaction to SWM and some of the memories we got a glimpse of. I was empathetic and not completely surprised to learn Snape was from an abusive home, that he had possible trauma and issues that explained his actions and why he was so cold and angry. Like Harry, I was really disappointed in how his father and Sirius treated Snape. There's just no excuse for how they sought him out to pick on him for fun. I was on Harry's side with confronting Sirius and Lupin about how his dad and they acted.

Also, I read everything with shipper eyes, and immediately felt there was more to Severus and Lily's relationship beyond her just coming over and reacting to James actions lol. They called Jily a crack!ship but it looks like they were validated in the end lol.

However what really made me emotionally react with anger was that we are basically being shown that Severus knows what it's like to be a scared child being abused and tormented by authority figures and other children, but he does it to his students?? I could not understand his actions at a time but I would get genuinely angry when I did think about it. To child me, this felt like a betrayal, both for a fictional character and when actual people did this. Looking back I was reacting so strongly due to my own personal experience with trauma in the home and with authority figures abusing children.

I recall not caring much about him in HBP or DH. I was much more upset with Sirius' death than Dumbledore's, so Snape's "betrayal" was just not something I recall reacting emotionally to. In DH, I definitely remember reading his memories and just feeling irritated with him. To me, he was a guy with trauma and emotional issues, sure, but I felt his behavior towards Harry, Hermione, and Neville was not excused for me. At most I felt begrudging respect for him and acknowledged he was not a completely terrible person. Harry naming one of his son's after him felt so bizarre, and I just could not understand why Harry wanted to honor him. Forgive him, sure I could understand Harry doing that, but naming his child after Snape just left me feeling confused. I could not understand how Snape could have loved Lily so much, but treated her son like he did.

I know I'm basically rambling, but it really has been a journey. :P

When I grew out of HP and the fandom after DH was published, I never gave much thought to him or his circumstances until I (unexpectedly) returned to the HP fandom last summer. I reread all of the books as an adult and I had the life experience and maturity to understand that:

A) Snape was funny! A lot funnier than I remember.

B) His actions throughout the book were too subtle for teenage me, but they made me really question my previous feelings for the character.

C) Everyone Dumbledore was kind of terrible to him!

I read a lot of really well written meta on the characters and HP. Specifically I think it was @pet-genius posts on reddit I found that really helped me put my thoughts and feelings regarding HP, primarily Harry, in order. And I can't help but compare and contrast Harry and Severus as characters and how they each approach their trauma and grief.

@ashesandhackles metas on Snape was also really helpful in highlighting the examples in the text that showed how Snape's actions sometimes directly contradict with what he said, especially to Harry. He's always presenting himself as this cold and controlled person, disparaging emotional reactions and connections. Yet he's one of the most emotionally reactive characters in the series next to Harry!

I was able to see clearer a lot of things I liked about him. That he's an incredibly skilled and hardworking person. That he cares very deeply for people he does allow himself to have feelings for and connections to. That he was scared, so scared, probably all the time after Voldemort's return to power, but he never wavered in his determination to continue to show up and fulfill his duty. Him making the Vow with Narcissa to try to protect Draco. The incredible pain he must have been in when he used the Killing Curse on Dumbledore, the one person left that knew everything about him and still valued him. That he dies keeping silent about the Elder Wand ownership, protecting Draco from becoming Voldemort's next target.

I also viewed his relationship with Lily as so much more complex than unrequited love. There's a meta out there (I will edit this post and link it if I find it again) that argues Snape wasn't really in love with Lily, and that "Always" quote is so much deeper than a romantic, or sexual, type of feelings for her. I think it argues that Snape elevated Lily to a symbol of Good, or at least used her memory to guide him on morality. I felt so much more respect for the guy that he had dedicated his life as penance, basically, for betraying his once-best friend once more.

This is getting long, I hope this wasn't too much. I have changed my feelings on how Severus treated Harry and the other kids close to him in that year's class. Looking at how he acts to others and comparing to how he acts with Harry, I now now I feel Harry was a very specific trigger for Severus and he showed Harry and Harry's potions class a side of him that he generally did not show to anyone else. This is just my personal interpretation based on how other adults, from Dumbledore to even Lupin, and kids speak of Snape as a professor and seem to think Harry is just exaggerating that Snape hates him. When, no, Snape really is projecting his hate and rage and grief about James and Lily onto Harry and he does actually hate the kid. Which, it's probably easier for Severus to think he hates Harry rather than hates himself.

I could keep going but I will stop here for now. I hope that answers the question? But feel free to chat more :) I hope you don't mind I responded with a blog post, I can take it down if you would rather it be answered privately lol.

I suppose the tl;dr version is that Snape makes me angry because he makes me feel things about myself that I don't like, but with age and reading other people's thoughts on the character has definitely made me come around to they guy!

[padfootastic]

“the way they acted around him in third year is the biggest eg of this for me. so yeah, i think that plays in here a bit too” <- do you have any meta regarding this? like, im curious about what specific examples stood out to you the most, but i also just really like reading your meta lol

ooh hello anon!! (also,,,this is the literal first time anyone has called my ramblings a meta i am squealing rn)

but okay, bear with me, because i’ve not….really thought this through haha (+ it’s been an Age since i’ve read the books so source material knowledge is spotty)

it’s just, the entire PoA arc made me so uncomfortable on behalf of harry because no one ever told him anything? like, yes, that is the theme of his life and ootp is another example of how shitty it was for him and how devastating the consequences were but on like. a personal level. picture this, right?

you’re trying to escape ur abusive hellhole by going to the only escape available to u (which is, not so coincidentally, also a murderous cesspit but alas) but surprise! there is a magical mass murderer on the loose. cool, okay, that’s everyone else’s problem, ur literally just trying to have a normal year, maybe learn some magic, fly some brooms, play quidditch, and try to make it to hogsmeade (another big fail bc boo orphans amirite?). but nope, everyone and their grandma keeps trying to lock you up and warning u to stay away from this serial killer because….? clearly the reasons aren’t important but harry has to stay inside, shit his gob, and not do anything. the definition of ‘shut up, sit there, and look pretty’

literally the only person to make an effort is mr weasley and even he has to do it in secret lest he get reprimanded for…telling a kid to take care of themselves? i don’t think i’ll ever understand why so many adults in the WW think basic info is so dangerous but ok. right, so, on top of all this not telling harry, he’s also being treated like some reckless, adrenaline junkie ass fool?? like people are out here ominously going ‘promise you won’t go after sirius black’ while our boy is just confused like?? WHY??? he literally does not know anything and honestly, if everyone hadn’t stoked the fans so much, he probably wouldn’t have either.

this is partly why i think they just looked at him like a symbol or something, not an actual person, because if they genuinely cared about his safety, they would try harder right? but it seems to me like they just didn’t want the boy who lived to be hurt, or for voldy’s right hand man to come back and finish the job. terrible for public safety & spirit, that.

and then, the cherry on top of this shitcake is just. remus mf lupin. that man in poa was in fine form (beat only by his incredible cameo in dh during the trio’s hunt). with audacity lining his entire form, he not only manages to keep everything a secret from harry (including his parents, sirius’ animagus form, and their relationship), he also somehow scrounges up the gall to shame harry?? and for what, trying to do something everyone else is, that he’s been denied for no discernible reason (he doesn’t know why sirius is a threat, all he would see at that point was his head of house reinforcing the dursleys)? and not only does he do this in an extremely personal way (and not as a professor calling him to task for breaking rules) but he also tells him he’s disgracing his parents SACRIFICE???? the first time he brings up harry’s parents with him and it’s to tell him, famously an orphan, that they’d be ASHAMED OF HIM??? lord on earth. i would throw hands.

so *clears throat* ignoring how i went off the rails for a second there, that’s largely it. all the professors acting like he should take informed decisions with the maturity of an adult when they haven’t told him anything, while at the same time treating him with this weird dichotomy of too familiar and like a stranger? which i think harry gets a lot from everyone around him. they act like they’re close to him but they don’t actually treat him like that. it’s extremely on the surface. i feel like this also reinforces snape’s idea that harry gets special treatment, is seen as a celebrity etc etc. because on the face of it, yeah, they’re all centering him, but they’re not doing it in any meaningful capacity ykno?

sure, harry should be safe but why? what makes him any different from the others? and really, if they actually cared about his safety, why is he in danger every couple minutes? where are the adults then? i don’t think harry is ever seen in the entire series, not by anyone but sirius, which really just makes him that much more important in the grand scheme of things (and harry’s life)

[amphiptere-art]

I might do a silly today??

Basically I want a celestial family/team/group. That isn't Tsams.

So why don't I just make one?

This might be a little based off tsams. I might use the Tsams names because they don't own them. But I kind of just want to create my own little team.

Plenty of people have done it before. This isn't the first time somebody's copied the idea of the Sun and Moon show and made a group of celestial beings having fun doing random shenanigans. The only difference is that those random shenanigans are different.

So why don't I make my own? I have plenty of Tsams characters that could be stripped of that context. Like I could have black star. I just take away his villain is back hood with Tsams, and replace it with something similar but different. As long as I get his core personality traits back by the end of it it doesn't matter.

Why do I want to do this? Well essentially why wouldn't I? I haven't watched a show in weeks. Not unless it's a smaller clip or I purposely searched out myself. And it's usually for older videos. The most context I have for the show right now is what people tell me.

Plus hell I was already doing that. Sure the cast was smaller cuz I didn't have an idea of a large cast like the Sun and Moon show or the celestial idiots. But now I do and I can do it all over again. It wouldn't be the first time to make a group of idiots doing random shit.

What the hell do you think the original arcade version of Blue Moon was? Arcade Blue Moon and everyone who was in arcade storyline was essentially a group of celestial people, living in a semi-normalized robot human world, bumbling around trying to figure out how life is. Arcade red blue black was essentially one of these groups. I just changed it to be Tsams because of my stupid mental rule that if you borrow just a little bit you have to borrow it all or go way south.

I don't have that mentality anymore. I've made so many AUs I understand I don't have to subject myself to making something so holy unique It doesn't feel like any sort of rip off. I know now that there's millions of shows around the Sun and Moon doing random shit. It isn't some unique card that the Sun and Moon show has. I can use it without feeling like I'm stealing.

So yes. I might make a group of my own. I'm not a fan of the Sun and Moon show. I'm a fan of what has come out of it. The fan of the AU's. I'm a fan of The creative characters I made. I'm a fan of everything else but it. Would it really be a surprise If I just made my own group of characters that felt like my own group of characters.

Like I said I might take some characters and transform them to be less Tsams and more my own. Blackstar is already on that list. Blue Moon was literally the personification of me removing him off of that list. I like DH Earth. She's probably going on there. Some version of my sun and moon is probably going to be put on there. I'm going full in on this idea.

I have characters that are my own and I basically just took a backstory. I can make my own backstory and still have those characters. There is nothing wrong with doing that. As long as they are distinct enough from the Sun and Moon still it's fine.

We'll call this... Arcade! As Arcade was essentially this before I stripped it of its unique place.

This is the Arcade project.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Hermione's Appearance

I'm writing this becouse a lot of fans like to headcanon Hermione as dark-skinned, and even JKR has stated that in the books Hermione was never mentioned to be white outright (for CC), but, contrary to JKR and the popular notion, Hermione's skin tone was mentioned in the books, multiple times, and it's white.

(I don't really care if anyone headcanons her as not white, and you can draw/write whatever you want, but I do want to mention what the canon actually is since it seems many of the fandom (and JKR) have forgotten like with Harry's height and appearance).

First, I want to talk about the skin tone, and then the rest of her features since many insist her skin color was never mentioned (including JKR). But Hermione's face is described as white multiple times:

Hermione’s white face was sticking out from behind a tree.

(PoA, ch21)

“Saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam.” “But — but where? How?” said Hermione, whose face was white.

(OotP, Ch32)

Hermione gave an almost inaudible sniff. She had been exceptionally quiet all day. Having hurtled, white-faced, up to Harry outside the hospital wing and demanded to know what had happened

(HBP, Ch19)

And pale:

There were footsteps down the passageway and Hermione and Ginny came into the kitchen, both looking pale and drowsy.

(GoF, Ch6)

Hermione was wrapped in a borrowed dressing gown, pale and unsteady on her feet; Ron put an arm around her when she reached him.

(DH)

Hermione is pale enough to visibly tan over the summer:

They were there, both of them, sitting outside Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor — Ron looking incredibly freckly Hermione very brown, both waving frantically at him.

(PoA, Ch4)

This line about Hermione looking brown is usually used as evidence for her skin being brown, but the context is that she returned from summer vacation in France. The context and why Harry mentions it is because Hermione is tanned. This is the only way it makes sense her skin is referred to as white in literally every other context and why her skin being darker is something Harry comments on in this way (when he usually doesn't. He doesn't call any dark-skinned character "very brown". This is because it's different from Hermione's norm. And yes, some white skin can tan to the point of appearing brown and not just get a sunburn).

And when she blushes her face turns pink, not something usually described with darker skin, since blushing would usually not appear pink:

Hermione threw her book aside. She was still pink in the face, but stood up and faced Ron defiantly.

(PoA, ch11)

“Of course, they want to be free!” said Hermione at once, though her face was turning pink.

(OotP, Ch13)

We all know she has bushy hair and large front teeth (at least until later in GoF):

Harry looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. She ran down to meet them, her bushy brown hair flying behind her.

(CoS, Ch4)

One, with very bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth, was Harry’s and Ron’s friend, Hermione Granger.

(GoF, Ch5)

Hermione's bushy brown hair is always said to be bushy, not curly (the term JKR uses whenever a character does have noticeably curly hair and never once used for Hermione's hair). It means her hair is thick and likely quite dry. This actually could exist with straight hair, but I think Hermione's hair is more voluminous. The book illustrations (left) and the old Pottermore art (center & right) of her give her hair some waviness, but it's not really curly:

I usually imagine her kinda like the main character from the beginning of the Princess Diaries movie:

(The image on the right is not from the movie, but a good irl example of wavy dry frizzy hair)

It has volume and is bushy, dry, and wavy rather than curly. It just seems more in line with her book descriptions and official illustrations. Basically, it's wavy, dry, thick, and frizzy, but not curly-curly.

(Bellatrix, notably, is also never mentioned to have curly hair. Her hair is described as long and thick, not curly, and it's likely her hair isn't curly either).

Hermione's eyes are brown:

Her spirits were greatly improved by the fact that all the hair had gone from her face and her eyes were turning slowly back to brown.

(CoS, Ch13)

Honestly, I mostly made this post for the hair and skin, since Harry mentions nothing regarding her eyes beyond "brown". Nor does he mention any of Hermione's facial features besides her large front teeth, so we don't really have much to go on there.

Regarding her height, as I mentioned in my post on Harry's height, both Harry and Hermione are about 5'1 (155 CM) when they are 13 (shorter than Pettigrew).

By book 7, she is shorter than Harry noticeably and mentioned alongside Mondungus, so I think they're likely similar in height:

Hermione and Mundungus were shooting upward;

(DH, Ch4)

In book 5, she is clearly taller than Ginny (who's around 5'1 even when she's 17):

“Very well — take the smallest one,” she ordered the Death Eaters beside her. “Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I’ll do it.” Harry felt the others close in around Ginny.

(OotP, Ch35)

So, I estimate her to be around 5'4 (163 cm) or 5'5 (165 cm).

Again everyone can headcanon/write/draw whatever and I'm gonna be the last person to tell you what to do, but I just want to remind everyone what canon actually says.

[neverenoughmarauders]

Prongsfoot headcanons?

​I am going to be so disappointing! 

Also, why answer in two sentences when I can answer WITH AN ESSAY?! Headlines provided to at least make some sense of my ramblings!

Canon

Sirius and James are SUPER close; they are being described as inseparable. Sirius is never shown to have any interest in girls despite it being very clear that he's spoilt for choices. 

All we learn about his life post-Hogwarts pre-Potters' deaths are that he was James' best man, James' son's godfather, that he was in the Order with James (and his other friends), that James wanted him to be secret keeper and that James trusted Sirius to use Peter as secret keeper (and even just writing that breaks my heart). Upon finding out James is dead, Sirius' first reaction is to try to take care of James' son, and the second is to go after the man that betrayed James (and Lily, Harry and Sirius).

He spent 12 years in Azkaban, blaming himself and escapes once he's worried for James' son's safety. The rest of his life is dedicated pretty much to keep James' son as safe as possible, and he dies protecting James' son. I will note though that he speaks more about Lily than say Remus speaks about Lily, and there's that letter in DH. It's fair to call it canon that the two of them cared about each other.

You know this... I just feel like it needs saying over and over because there's so much love there without any interpretation! <3

Headcanon

My headcanon has never been particularly creative. I've just always imagined that Sirius was in love with James (James was aware), and while James couldn't return those feelings, James obviously loved Sirius to pieces. Just as James accepted Sirius' feelings, Sirius accepted James'. I believe that if Sirius and Lily hadn't gotten along, James would never have married Lily, but I also believe Sirius mourned Lily too and cared about her deeply, obviously driven by how happy she made James.

Anyways, that's why I suck at writing ACTUAL Prongsfoot (apparently I can't write things that break my own headcanon except to write stricter canon stuff), but I love reading about it and seeing fan art because I just want my boys to have a good time.

Some Headcanons/moments

I've heard people say Sirius couldn't cast a Patronus because of Azkaban. My headcanon is that it was because he lost James - the light of his life.

Ignoring (1) I believe that if Sirius had been able to cast a Patronus after 1981, it would have been a stag and I even have a one-shot about that called: I can't love you back to life but I can live your love.

James and Sirius went to the 1974 Quidditch World Cup together with James' family. When Sirius opened his letter from Harry in the summer of 1994, which obviously did have some concerning news about Harry's scar hurting, he couldn't help but smile nonetheless at the hurriedly scribbled addition that Ron's family was taking Harry to see the World Cup.

Speaking of letters, Sirius re-read and re-read and re-read (...) Harry's letter where Harry provided a 'blow-by-blow account of exactly how he had swerved, circled and dodged the Horntail', all the while thinking back to the many occasions James would sit in the common room providing similar accounts of his own flying (which he didn't need to, Sirius had it all memorised already).

[marta-bee]

News of the Day 5/16/25: First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers

.... or in this case, the regulators.

Paywall-free.

Rachel's talking about the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which deals with normal products we use rather than food and medicine we put in our bodies. I've been thinking more about the groups that look out for food and drug contamination, like the FDA and CDC. I could add other bits of alphabet soup that help protect us citizens from unsafe or unfair products: the EPA, APHIS, CPSC, even DHS. It's a patchwork system and it's never enough, but it's still better than the alternative.

The reality is, the Trump administration sees regulations as the enemy of business growth, and they've clearly sided with businesses. To be sure, there's a balance to be had, and red tape for red tape's sake is never helpful. But at the end of the day we all have to trust the products we use, food we eat, even the air we breathe is safe when we can't actually know what's happening in the R&D labs or at the factories. Sadly, under Trump, that trust's often a lot less earned.

Get your shots, wash your hands, talk to your doctor, and be as careful as you can with what you eat without turning into a complete basketcase. & here's hoping we get bac to being able to trust someone good is keeping an eye on all this for us!

PS- "Let's kill all the lawyers" is from Henry VI, Part 2. LitHub has a good look at the different ways of reading it. Certainly it's worth thinking about in the age of Trump.

More Stories on Regulation, Inspection Cuts, and Other Food and Drug-Related Shenanigans

Explainer: How does US food safety work, and what cuts has Trump made? (X)

US farm agency staff warn Congress of food safety risks, political interference (X)

The FDA is planning to rely on generative AI to make decisions about food, drugs, medical devices, and diagnostic tests. (X) 

More Than 15,000 USDA Employees Take Trump Administration's Resignation Offer (X)

Experts Warn of Public Health Risks as the Trump Administration Eliminates 2 Critical Food Safety Committees (X)

HHS announced a new “10-to-1” rule: “For every new regulation introduced, at least ten existing regulations must be eliminated.”

FDA stalls in posting food safety warning letters amid staff cuts (X)

Trump has nominated a very fringe surgeon general. (X) MAHA still doesn’t think she’s quite fringe enough. (X)

The FDA is pulling authorization for fluoride pills for children, which it claims are harmful for kids. Researchers disagree. (X)

A chemistry nobel laureate warns of an “exodus” in scientists as we cut research funding. (X)

They’re also issuing new vaccine approval guidelines, driven by questions about COVID vaccines. (X)

HHS approves three new natural food dyes while pushing to phase out synthetic food dyes. (X) Not a bad idea, necessarily, but hardly our priority with everything else going on.

“Farms and Families in Crisis: The Trump Administration’s Assault on America’s Food System” (X)

Tangentially-related, Trump announced a big plan to lower drug costs

Paywall free version.

Trump promises to lower prescription drug prices by 80% by forcing drug companies to charge US customers the cheapest price of any “similarly developed” country. (X)

The text of the executive order.

He actually tried the plan in his first administration, and it didn’t work then. (X)

Washington Post wasn’t a fan. (X) Fox went so far as to call it price controls. (X) You know, that thing that had them labelling Kamala a communist.

Wall Street Journal argues the plan is “more bark than bite” and will have a limited impact. (X)

The NY Times questions Trump’s legal authority to set drug prices. (X)

The Center for Global Development on how Trump’s model would impact global drug prices.

And finally, an unrelated bit of candy if you've gotten this far. :-)

Paywall-free.

[impishtubist]

I'm just telling you that finding your blong and works cheered me up *so much*, as a fellow person who loved Sirius back in the 2000s. Finally some food to eat!! What happened??

Well, the character assassination that Ootp unreliable narrator and the wired choices made in Hbd and Dh, of course.

Sirius being tall is mentioned a LOT in the books. He is a big scary dude and a big scary dog, and i miss punk Sirius listening to the Crush and Sex Pistols. Brilliant and wild and with a healthy tendency to question and defy authority. He clashes so hard with conformist characters like Molly and authority-respecting characters like Hermione bc he learned that questioning what you are taught and the people teaching you is important. He isn't irresponsible. PTSD up the wazoo, probably constantly triggered by being, well, imprisoned back at the site of his childhood trauma and suffering constant verbal abuse from the portrait of his original abuser, but not irresponsible or erratic.

Also, ppl who blame an older sibling for escaping abuse, wtf. As someone who's sadly familiar with how it goes, IRL, that's usually the narrative pushed by the abusive parents to divide the kids and push away the responsibility. All children in abusive homes are children, and the adults are the responsible ones. That is so ugly, as a person who has been there to see the struggles siblings like that go through.

Bonus:

Remus is gay little piece of wet tissue paper with self-esteem issues. He's a pathetic man who is very affected by social pressure, a chronic people pleaser who's afraid of genuine connections. He thinks no one can ever love his authentic self, so he will do everything to not let ppl know him, and so afraid of rejection, he will preemptively cut ppl out. He makes bad choices and then uses the guilt he feels as proof of being right. And I loved him like that. I read the coded gay when POA came out, and I called pathetic gay man with thinly vailed HIV metaphor.

You know what? I don't care, I'm putting this in the Sirius Black tag. Starting 2024 with chaos!

This is the greatest ask I have ever received. Yes, you get it! That is Sirius, not whatever is being portrayed in art and fic and headcanons these days. That is an OC who I do not know. Same with Remus! Prior to HBP and DH, yes, he was absolutely coded as a gay man and also a HIV metaphor (the latter of which is extremely fucked, but others have written tons of meta on that so I will not touch on it). But then of course JKR had to retcon that real quick when she realized what fans were writing, so of course Sirius had to die and Remus had to end up with a woman.

My first anon of 2024 is also now my favorite one, I'm not sure how anyone is going to top this 😂

[dufferpuffer]

Unpopular opinion: had JKR died after writing OotP, the series would have been better that way. The last two books have rather poor pacing, do not add much to the setting or characters, destroy all of the credibility of Voldemort as villain (for the adult leader, at least), and probably do more harm than good to Severus Snape's character. Yes, we wouldn't have had Grindelore (or Grindelwald in general), Snily and Kreacher redemption, but... these are still not enough to redeem the existence of HBP and DH. And fans would almost certainly came up with a better series continuation/finale.

I read this as "Unpopular Opinion: JKR died after writing OotP"

For HBP - I'd say that is unpopular. I like that one, I like how everything went in it, I think she finally worked out how to write a decent mystery... and it was great for Dumbledore's arc.

I'm not saying the Author is particularly good, she was just fine - but she did a decent job in specific ways I don't trust fandom to: I like that she is a nasty, biting, distrusting, traumatized little weirdo that knows what its like to suffer and be trapped. I like that she knows what its like to be deeply mentally unwell, crippled by it - and how fame and money don't change that. I like that Harry Potter is a miserable, nasty, darker version of the Muggle world - and I think most things since the books ended just... forget that. Make it cozy. The love softens the hurt. But she never did that. She made Love a theme - but allowed her characters and her world to be brutalized at every turn. It's great!

This fandom? Handling Dumbledore after OotP? Handling Draco Malfoy? Handling the recent death of Sirius Black? Handling the sheer concept of Harry being a doomed child-soldier...? Shit, we can't do that now, with all the hindsight. All the expanded world-building we got in the last two books, now that Harry was older and given more independence...? Gone? Like 70% of who Snape is and why he does things is in those last two books. And he was one of the few things done perfectly: He is the thread knitting the entire story together. it might be called Harry Potter - but the story is about Severus. He was everywhere doing everything, and you don't realize till right at the end... yet can go back, through every book, and see it quite clearly, now that you can look back on them with Harry's adult eyes and not his kid eyes. She pulled it off really well. It makes a re-read of the books almost mandatory just to go WOAH. It's not One Piece, but it's good - especially for childrens fiction. I'm pretty happy with what we got, especially in HBP.

DH... eh. That one dragged its feet... I like most of the ideas and set-pieces: Starting the book with Moody's death shattered the entire concept of the Order - Hedwigs death was a nice touch, Harry's complete loss of 'Home'... the death of Charity... the wedding getting interrupted... the idea of these kids camping and starving and getting captured over tiny mistakes... But yeah - the way they are executed and tied together is lackluster. Especially the final conflict and the goddamn epilogue. It feels like it was rushed. That there were dot-points and they were strung together and said 'good enough' - because ending something is hard. But HPs ending was unsatisfying. We can do better.

I don't really know what you mean by it destroying Voldemorts credibility as a villain. Like he wasn't the most compelling villain overall, but I don't know what in the last two books was particularly bad. Maybe I'm forgetting something. I don't think about Tom much... But as an egocentric manipulator, only interested in his life story, using prejudice that already exists in the world for his own gain despite not caring for it himself...? I think that went ok.

Please don't take this wall of text as like angry at you or anything - I just blab! It's an interesting idea, Harry Potter without the final two books. You're right in saying 'not wanting HBP' being an unpopular opinion... I dunno if the same can be said about DH :^9

[tumblydovereviews]

Donkey Hodie: Season 2 Review + Season 3 Predictions

About 2 years back, right after Season 1 of Donkey Hodie came to an end, I made a long post reviewing the season, discussing my favorite and least favorite things about it and speculating things for Season 2! Well, now that Season 2 has come to an end, it's time to do the same all over again.

First of all, I've just gotta say, Season 2 is a MASSIVE step-up from Season 1 in every regard. With the pandemic out of the way, the cast and crew were able to embrace their true potential in crafting an amazing season. There were no more restrictions in their view; now that the pandemic has fully ended, I only hope Season 3 grows on this. Believe it or not, but Season 3 will be the very first DH season to be filmed completely out of the eyes of COVID-19.

Duck Duck finally received her given justice! She was done SO WELL this season, much better than Season 1. She got more episodes, more attention in general, more funny moments, and basically proved her worth into the cast. Grampy Hodie was redeemed too- from his measly few episodes in season 1 to basically becoming a recurring character this season.

Speaking of cast, it expanded like crazy this season, with new characters galore. From Frannie, to Cousin, to Trolley, and even Jeff, this season didn't sleep on growing the cast. I just hope they all stay into the next season!

I really struggle with choosing a favorite episode this season- not because the episodes aren't good, but because most of them are peak. Here are five highlights:

Ruff Night: I was HYPED for this one, mainly because of us seeing Bob Dog's house for the first time; it was beautiful! Sure, I wished they didn't re-use the Sleepover song, but the rest of the episode was solid and a great expansion into the relationship between Donkey, Panda, and Bob.

Hee-Hee Hider Seekers: We have been waiting for this episode for almost a year, ever since Jeff (formerly Mike) was revealed via a casting call, and it did not disappoint at all. Jay Manuel does amazing voicing him, and the tribute to Jeff Erlanger was so touching. The re-used songs don't bother me as much because the episode makes up for it in every other regard. I really, REALLY hope Jeff appears in Season 3 as a recurring character and not just Hider Seekers and New Year. He's such a fleshed out, developed character, and I love him already!

A Donkey Hodie New Year: Speaking of New Year, why not discuss the second half-hour episode of the series! This special gave us everything we as a fandom have ever wanted- the largest cast in a singular episode IIRC, more character lore, a MRN song rendition, and plenty of great scenes too! This will definitely become a holiday classic for me when I find specials to watch in the winter.

Play This Way: This episode explored the dynamic between Donkey and Panda, and brought back the Tater Buddles! Tater Buddies is not a very great episode IMO, mainly because of the mischaracterization of Purple Panda, but this episode makes up for it. Yes, Panda's behavior is a bit reckless, but at least in this episode he can SEE what he's doing wrong and doesn't have to be lectured by Donkey about it, especially when his literal character bio has the word "EMPATHETIC" in it. Why would Panda need to learn empathy if it's a LITERAL PERSONALITY TRAIT of his? In Play this Way, on the other hand, he understands that he's at fault, and we get a really heartfelt scene where he apologizes to Donkey. Panda really grew on me this season; not being thrown into every single episode really does wonders for a guy.

Pet Rock Problem: This episode on its own wasn't anything too special, but it gave us the debut of the legend, the chad, the man himself: COUSIN HODIE. Cousin Hodie, who has won the show Emmys and gave us even more fans of his adorableness. He was amazing in this one; Mel Campbell is phenomenal. Hoping for more Cousin fun in season 3! (if only Dodie didn't have to die for him....)

And now that we've gotten the good out of the way, time to discuss the... not so good.

Stanley was kind of thrown out into the dust this season. He only had one (two if you count Speedy Delivery) significant roles this time around. Heck, he didn't even speak in the New Year special. I can understand why they chose to push him away a little considering the growing cast means some characters will have to be shafted a little, but it still hurts to see his abandonment.

Season 2 also contained some repetition of past morals, more notable in some episodes than others. I don't mind this too much, all as long as the crew keeps on producing more good stories with the bases Season 1 created.

Finally, we need to talk about the season's worst episode by a longshot: Mousy Hodie. Oh my god.

You'd think that to celebrate Alice Dinnean's debut on the series, that they would create an episode with great characters, a good moral, and an engaging plot. They do the exact opposite. Mousy is an entitled brat who receives no punishments for her actions. Only Donkey suffers, and she's forced to deal with all of Mousy's shenanigans throughout the entirety of the episode. Poor, poor Donkey. If you ask another DH fan why they hate Mousy Hodie, they'll give you an answer similar to mine: limited characters, bad plot, annoying debut character, etc. Easily the worst episode of Season 2 by far, and one of the worst episodes in the whole show.

Outside of those few fallacies, Season 2 was great! 8.5/10, a step up from Season 1's 7/10!

Here is the complete bingo card I made for Season 2. Sadly, I didn't get a Bingo, but the season was still peak nevertheless!

And now, it's time to discuss my predictions for the third season, and MAN, do I have a ton!

Note that this part WILL dive into leaks from Season 3 and other public BTS info. If you don't want to be exposed to that stuff, here's your one and only warning.

We already have 5 confirmed episodes for the season: Rock and Roll Feelings Detectives, Speedy Delivery Helpers, the crossover, a wizard-themed episode directed by Joey Mazzarino, and an opera episode.

Looking at this first glance, it seems as if Season 3 will have... a LOT of rehash episodes. Not sure how to feel about that, to be honest.

Here are some sequel episode I DO hope we get:

Sleepover (this time, at Duck Duck's nest! We've gotten ones at Donkey's, Panda's and Bob's- her next!)

Everything Explorers (with Jeff, of course)

Another episode on Planet Purple

Another opera episode to make up for the mid Cow and Potato Bug Opera (I want to see EVERYBODY in it.)

Another Yodel Bird episode (none in Season 2 was a CRIME)

Another game show episode with Game Show Gator! (we even got, of all characters, lore for GAME SHOW GATOR this season. Talk about peak.)

The return of Wiz-Kazziz-Kazaam (PEAK Bob Dog episode for all my bow-wowee peeps)

Another Crunchdoodles episode (this time with another one of those elaborate dance sequences)

Example:

Even if the concepts are being reused, the morals don't look that bad. They're along the lines of 'it's okay to feel two feelings' and 'it's okay to take a break.' I have a theory that those 'hee-hawfirmation' videos they post are just episode morals disguised as cute reels. The 'taking a break' moral was one of them. The reels in general are just hints at new episodes- we've gotten hints for Scooter Blues, Plain Old Day, and Birdie Beach Concert. Now that Season 3 is over, they've probably recorded the batch of reels for the season too- maybe it will drop some special stuff relating to the Season 3 episode too!

The crossover better be peak. We DH fans have been awaiting this day from the very start. I hope they don't bring in the cheesy strategy songs and the general baby-core DTN is ridden with. Make Dad and Daniel as goofy and fun-loving as the pals are! Also, the songs better be peak too. we didn't wait this long to hear Donkey and Daniel give us a trash duet.

But what I'm REALLY excited about are the 10 original music videos and the short-form content. Bedtime Stories was absolute peak, and we need more content like it! Hear me out- DHBS Season 2 with the new characters (ie: Cousin, Frannie, Jeff) and the old ones too! Now THAT sounds great! I wonder what the music videos will be focused on. I think they could be from old MRN songs, which would be so cool! I'm hoping they release this year- the same month as the crossover does (most likely August).

Well, looks like that's all the stuff I have to cover for Season 2 this time around. First post of 2025- let's goooo! Hoping to see you all again soon (when I get motivation and time to upload here frequently again!)