#fandom deep dives

[midnightanxietytm]

Types of narilamb content ive observed so far, as someone new to this fandom

The "awwwn" (cute, fluffy, usually trowaways or unserious AUs, very non-canon)

The "oh..." (makes you go "am I attracted to this?", heavily stylized character desings, suggestive, maybe a little toxic but nothing too angsty, more for funsies)

The "oh yikes" (getting into deeper waters here, toxic yaoi/yuri much.)

The "gnawing on the bars of my enclosure" (Themes, poetic undertone, drama, heavily leaning on the religious aspects, the slowest of burns yet the hottest of flames! We love to see it.... also yeah toxic yaoi/yuri much)

Plz add more this silly lamb is all I think about now Edit: An important adition

The "Awwn... wait oh shit oh shit o- Oh okay we're back, awwn!" (fluff that derails to angst than its back to fluff, or as I like to call it The Cult of Rollercoaster)

[hellspawnmotel]

Question: I notice on your Deltarune posts you focus on a lot about relationships and gender roles and such. May I ask why exactly? Just curious as to why find this aspect of this game so particularly interesting? Is there anything else you find interesting about DR?

well. first of all yes I find many other aspects of DR to be interesting lmao. the discarded vessel, the conversations ralsei and kris have when the player isnt looking, the dreemurr-holiday family split, anything surrounding dess, the connections to undertale, what gaster's goals are, susie's potential, kris's whole everything.... but as I've said before, I don't really like making predictions outside of themes and character dynamics. and I feel that for most of these things, I don't have enough information yet to really dig my teeth in analysis-wise, or else I don't have anything interesting to say that hasn't been said already.

as for why I fixate on the theme of gender so much.......

it just happens to be a theme I'm extremely drawn to and interested in

idk if I've ever vibed with a single character as much as I do noelle. it's like she and all her aesthetics were made for me specifically to love. and noelle is..... at least given the context of the weird route, she's kind of a girl of all time? not just in terms of being a great character, but her position represents femininity in fiction to me in the same way as like, rei ayanami or anthy himemiya. she's very much herself but in the eyes of the narrative and the viewer she becomes every girl to ever live. she's turned into a symbol. all girls are like the rose bride. there's just already so many layers and so much to analyze about it- not just from the game itself but how the audience receives and reacts to the game.

I'm a woman

my absolute favorite genre of video games is JRPGs from the 90s and 00s and let me tell you something about that. I could name more games that I have stopped playing after getting hours in specifically because the way they handled their female characters pissed me off so much, than games that I've come out of feeling like the girls were written at all fairly. how women are written in this genre, and in fantasy at large, is something I already thought about all the time. and deltarune is very much based on games like that! it's not the only thing deltarune is based on but it's the thing I personally have the most experience with. and given what we've been presented with so far, I actually feel pretty confident, for the first time in my life, that deltarune is going to continue to do right by its female characters and have interesting things to say about women in JRPGs, video games, fantasy, and fiction in general, if only in the abstract. it's something I've been dying to see done well specifically in this setting, this genre, and this medium for years. and I'm gonna revel in that as much as I can.

......writing this I forgot that you also said "relationships" and not just gender roles lol but that answer's a lot simpler. I just love watching and writing character interaction. and again, it's something I can iterate on a lot despite not having the full picture yet. it's fun and cool.

[rascalentertainments]

Something I just realized about Jack Frost, his depiction and story is actually brilliant.

If you think about the depictions of him prior to the DreamWorks movie, he really wasn't in the media that much until then. Jack had his own Rankin/Bass special, and was the antagonist in The Santa Clause 3. After that, I don't recall him being mentioned or seen in anything afterwards.

Jack Frost being barely talked about or ignored is more accurate than ever. Sandman and Tooth Fairy are active everyday, and Santa and Easter Bunny ALWAYS get attention at the beginning and end of the year. But Jack? We maybe remember the line "Jack Frost nipping at your nose." at best. The movie is right, we DON'T talk about Jack Frost.

No matter what Jack does, the kids don't see him. Even the adults brush him off and he's right in front of them most of the time. So Jack having this whole character arc of being seen and believed in makes a lot more sense. The world had forgotten him because more people got cynical and lost their fun, while he does his best to get their attention.

Then Rise of the Guardians changed everything. Jack Frost's popularity blew up a few months after the movie. Parts of the internet became obsessed with the guy and he became the favorite character of the movie. The movie itself helped Jack become a household name. Now you can NEVER forget him, now he's part of the holiday season with Santa, Rudolph and many others.

Hell, this version is so iconic, no one else has even tried to do their own take. Its kind of like 2003's Teen Titans, its such a perfect version that any other adaptation pales in comparison. ROTG Jack Frost is so good, its now the definitive version of him. No matter what version comes next, THIS is Jack Frost now.

Props to the crew and design team of the film, because they nailed this concept and perfectly updated him. They created the BEST version of this nearly forgotten character, and now he's known worldwide. Even at the end its implied more people will start to believe in him now (I NEED A SEQUEL), and his final words to the audience mean much more now that he's a guardian.

Everytime I keep finding out just how much heart is in this movie, I keep getting obsessed with film every December and its a never ending book of surprises when fans catch more things about Rise of the Guardians.

God, I love this movie

[bloody-heartstrings]

That moment when one second your brother is stabbing you to death and the next you’re waking up a zombie

Jeff actually succeeded in murdering Liu in my AU, which he regretted once he snapped out of his episode.

A few years later, in exchange for Jeff killing for him, Slenderman ‘revived’ Liu. But obviously since Slenderman is a dickhead Liu came back as undead, instead of human.

[the-fictional-wife]

Yall how we feeling about this?

I'm starting to think I'm just a hater lowkey (I am) and before I rant about this let me just say I hate that fuck ass haircut and I don't really like the suit.

Now, huntress. I love her but why did writers choose to only make her relevant again to be a love interest. Furthermore, Why do writers keep using Dick's exes as Jason's love interests? The pattern is WEIRD considering they're brothers.

I had a argument on TikTok about this someone tried to make the point that "oh dick doesn't own them and she can be with whoever she wants" and thats not the point I'm making at all?? It's a generally weird pattern to be with your brother's exes on the WRITERS behalf's, I'm sure with good writing they can be a good relationship at the same time, I've lost faith in good writing from Dc new comics.

In my personal opinion, I think they need to stop treating Jason as this weird ass rebound and branch off from the ex train. It weirds me out so bad like he deserves his own life. I also think we should stop bringing back women characters with the SOLE purpose of being a love interest I'm sooo sick of it, they could just be an amazing duo.

I also don't really see Jason in romantic relationships (Take this with ALL the salt, zero logic in this, only bias because I selfship and I hate to see other baddies winning).

I fear they keep degrading Jason's writing, focus on the wrong shit and love to keep him second to Dick and I hate that for him.

I wanna know yall opinions too though because everytime something new comes out I swear it's a miss but then I see so much hype for it.

[cookiedough77]

about the topic of adrien finding everything out you know... everything

i dont hope its all at once, no i want it slow, i want the slow realization that his father wasnt the man he thought he was, bits and peices piling up, until he cant ignore it anymore

i want it like steven universe, after your parent has passed your given all these good things about them but you keep being proved that they were terrible overtime

i want him to know ladybug is lying about SOMETHING about that day, but he doenst know what, and she wont tell him

yes i even mean with the sentimonster bit, just littles things that he thinks is odd until he connects it all together later on

[rabbidrabbitt]

How on Earth does Sebastian Solace swim???

Spoiler Alert: he doesn’t…. At least not well, hear me out

(Discussion under the cut)

Okay so I was playing pressure with my friends the other night and randomly I brought up the fact that I was very confused on how Sebastian would actually swim. He’s a mix of a lot of animals but the two animals that manifest most in his tail anatomy is sea snake and blue whale.

His tail is very long and, based on how he sits, moves similarly to a sea snake. However he has the tail fluke of a blue whale, which means in order for that to help propel him through the water, he’d have to move his tail like a whale.

It’s possible he does use vertical motion to move through the water, but due to the sheer length of his tail, it seems unlikely. That motion would probably be very awkward for a tail of that length. Whales are not really long for their size, their tail portion is actually quite short and majority of their movement comes from the end of the tail, closer to the flukes. The rest of their spines stay mostly rigid and straight (not fully but, there’s much less movement in the upper body)

This works well for whales, but in Sebastian’s case, his spine is not very rigid or straight, likely making a vertical movement harder for him, taking more effort to move.

We also have to take into account that he moves quite fast on land, as stated in his file, he is quick despite his size.

He quite obviously can’t use a vertical spinal movement on land, he has no legs, meaning it’s likely much more natural for him to move laterally (also considering he is mixed with more animals with a lateral movement, sea snake, shark, angler fish, etc).

Now I’m not well versed in physics, so feel free to correct me, but if he’s moving laterally in the water, his large tail fluke would likely cause a lot of drag in the water, slowly him down significantly when swimming.

Okay so why should I care? What does this yap session even mean??

My interest in this was piqued when my friend said to me that this was likely done on purpose to make it harder for him to actually swim.

His experiment was to give him gills, not to advance his swimming capabilities. In fact, creating a giant mutant creature, who you believe is a criminal who killed 9 people, you probably don’t want to give him a huge advantage in the water, you know, what you’re surrounded by. He probably can swim, of course he can, his job was underwater maintenance, he’s still many many aquatic animals. He can swim. But he was purposefully tweaked to be an awkward swimmer to keep a tight leash on him. Either that or because Urbanshade is shitty and they just find it entertaining or see it as a cruel joke…

Not only does this effect his swimming, but having a humanoid torso and a snake tail, it’s not entirely out of the question that he may suffer from spinal issues due to the structure of his spine. But I’m no biologist, I could just be talking out my ass.

Anywaaayyy, that’s all I have for you guys. What do you think? Does it make sense? Am I thinking too deeply about this. I haven’t seen anyone talk about this but I think it could be a sad reality for him. My poor beautiful abomination of an experiment… I love him.

[letmegrabyourcuteass]

Disney Princess Eddie Diaz. Every time this man goes to his backyard and sits to soak up the sun, animals flock to him. He'll find some squirrels chilling, a turtle, and birds. The first time Buck experiences this phenomenon, he's gardening. Pulling weeds out and planting flowers while Eddie sits on the grass, looking cute. Buck gets distracted and turns back to him, and he sees a few bunnies gathering around him, a bird on top of his head, and a butterfly on his nose. There are a few squirrels behind him, too.

"Eddie-"

"Shh, soft, gentle voices."

"Eddie," Buck holds back a chuckle. "What?" he gestures to the animals gathering around him.

"I don't know, to be honest. Christopher said I'm not allowed to sit outside and relax. We were at a park, and a deer came up to me with its baby. Chilled next to me."

"Is that why you don't visit the zoo often with us?"

"I stood by myself next to the exhibit with the gorillas, and they all gathered and followed me. That scared Christopher, honestly, and the big cats all zeroed in on me."

Buck laughs because he really needs to see that now. "Now I need to see you with the penguins. Imagine them all waddling around following you."

"Oh!" Eddie perks up. Buck sees a shadow and is stunned to see a fucking Raven lands on his shoulder. It scares off the other animals, but Eddie's face lights up. "Esteban!"

"Esteban? Eddie, that's a huge-"

"He's cool. I feed him a lot, listen!" Eddie says, turning to Esteban the Raven. "Hola, Esteban."

"HOLA," Buck hears in a deep voice.

"They can talk?!"

[skyfallscotland]

We really need to talk about this obsession with toxic positivity in fandom.

There are corners of the internet (tumblr, reddit, in some respects AO3) that were made for discussion and exploration.

Part of being in fandom is, and has always been, discussing canon through a critical lens. This should be expected, not lambasted as if the creators themselves are going to read every post and be so viscerally offended they skip their dinner for the night.

If you’re required to only “be positive” about something, the community devolves into an echo chamber and that's boring. Going against the grain, believing something different, never used to make you a 'hater'. Where did we go so wrong that it’s perceived as such now?

Everyone has a valid viewpoint to add to any discussion, however my viewpoint is only welcomed if it’s in agreement with the majority of people—which it generally will never be given I am, in fact, a minority and therefore do not view the text through the same lens as most people. My lived experience means I don’t think like most of you, and I'm frustrated that I’m essentially told to sit in a corner and be quiet because of it. Why are you even posting under a discussion flair if any opinion different to yours is met with vitriol? You clearly don't want discussion.

Here’s the thing—you don’t love this book more than me just because you don't have any critiques. Your opinion is not more valid than mine (or anyone else's) because you lack the ability or the inclination to imagine, to explore, to question.

You (we, if I may) can love something and still believe it can be improved upon. Generally, if you love something, that is what you want—you want it to be the best it can be.

And even if you don't think the same way I do, here's the thing—ultimately, how the hell does it affect you if I don’t agree with an aspect of the text or your interpretation of it? My criticism of the way certain books are lauded for bare bones disability rep or their inclusivity when they have *checks notes* a character of ambiguous skin tone, should have no bearing on your enjoyment of the book. My opinion that a character has ambiguous morals should have no bearing on your enjoyment of the character.

You wanna know what I think it is? (You don't, but I'm going to tell you anyway)—people seek to find themselves in stories. We want to feel seen, that’s normal. But now, especially in these fandoms, people are getting the lines blurred. They’re getting their identities completely entangled with these books.

It’s ok to love something, but to become so entrenched in it that you can’t separate the book from your own sense of self? That's dangerous.

These unfortunate people need you to say only ultra-positive things about it because anything else is perceived as an attack on them and who they are—because they think they are the things they enjoy. Positive opinions on the text and its characters, in line with their own, are self-validation for them.

Enjoying something doesn’t mean it has to be a part of your identity. Things can be beloved and formative without affecting your self-esteem and sense of worth.

And I think, for me at least, it all trickles down to this: at the end of the day, if I disagree with something, I attempt to counter the opinion, that's how my brain rolls—people who disagree with 'being negative' (and I say that with the utmost derision, because usually it’s not negativity at all) don't have an argument that you're wrong, they just don't think you should talk about it. They go straight to attacks and vitriol, and telling you to get out.

You can still like something and admit it’s flawed.

There are a great many things I love about my fandoms, I just don't always mention them because it's been covered already 😉 Why bring up something ten other people already have day in, day out?

In closing, I'll leave you with this:

Even when fandom is being critical, it ultimately comes from a place of optimism and devotion, one that centers on the hope that a beloved property might stop fucking everything up and start being good again, x

Oh, and no, I won't "quit reading fantasy" just because I want to see a protagonist with my physical limitations. That's ableist as fuck. Have the day you deserve!

[wordssricochet]

something i stole from pinterest

[starlighttaylorsversion]

i want to read best friends to lovers slow burn smut

[marylily-my-beloved]

Mary Macdonald was not a simple person at all. From the outside she looked like the prettiest girl ever, styled curls, make up always done, nails done, her accessories always look the best on her, you’d think she’s one of those self-centered girls who only care about hair, makeup, and making fun of ‘ugly’ people. You see her and you’re jealous of her, you think she’s rude and annoying just because she looks confident. It’s the complete opposite

Mary Macdonald tried her hardest to be kind to everyone she could, she complemented people when she could, and she never thought people were actually ugly, just their words or their actions. She was always very hard on herself, especially whenever she got a bad grade. She worked hard to get into top 5, her motto ‘As long as you’re in top 5’ because top 5 is enough. You can be 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, or 1st and you’re in the top five, you are good enough. She had to be up there in the smart people, the pretty people, the athletic people, she had to be at least top 5. She had to be seen, and if she was in top 5, she was seen, and she was loved.

She was always worried about the subjects she couldn’t do, but she found herself weak if she tried to ask for help. She couldn’t ask for help from her teachers, her friends, and especially not anyone in the top 5. She struggled by herself if she ever did struggle, she never told anybody. She couldn't, it would make her weak, it would make her less than everyone else. She started struggling with her body image, but instead of telling anyone, she struggled alone. She pretend she thought she was the best, and the prettiest (or in the top 5) and nobody realised. Nobody could realize.

She tried her hardest to hide the part of her she hated, and instead made everybody see the parts of herself she loved. She fell into making her body the perfect body, but nobody realised that she wasn't. Nobody knew enough about her, to know how she struggled, she hid the sadness and anger and hatred from everybody. Even if all her friends were her friends, and they all loved her so, she couldn't show that to them, it wasn't fair.

She loved her friends as much as she could, she valued quality over quantity, she didn't care about romantic partners if she didn't have friends. In her mind, the people she surrounded herself with were the parts that reflected her the most. She tried to make herself very enjoyable to be around, so she eventually became a big people pleaser. She noticed the little things about people, and eventually the people around her noticed the little things about her. She tried to make everybody better before herself.

[laurelwen]

Daddy Issues in Like Minds: Sally and Martin Edition

As a fandom, we have extensively discussed Alex and Nigel and their daddy issues from a number of different angles. The other day I was considering this central theme and the post I made about it here: The Sins of the Father.

It occurred to me that both Sally and Martin are also caught in the same trap, unable to escape the legacy of their own fathers.

Martin McKenzie:

By inheriting his profession from his father, he is in some ways simply a copy of his own dad, following the same path and attempting to follow his dad's moral and professional code. At the same time, he also inherits membership in the Order and the expectations that come with it. When Dr. Forbes presses him to release Alex, those expectations come into play. Dr. Forbes chides him for not following along with the script, as his father would have done. Martin asserts that his father would have done his job properly, abiding by the rule of law. In the end, it's not clear which of them has the correct assessment of Daddy McKenzie, and given what we know of the Order, I think either thing could be true--or both are.

While Martin chooses to adhere to his faith in his father's sense of duty to the law, either way he chooses, he's still caught up in Daddy McKenzie's legacy--and perhaps, his sins. Ian's confidence that Martin would help a fellow Brother indicates that this IS a standard practice among members of the Order. The way he phrases it even suggests that he personally knew Daddy McKenzie and perhaps had examples of Dad's past behavior as his basis for the assumption and the belief that Martin would behave similarly. Martin might have an idealized version of his father up on a pedestal when it is entirely plausible and even probable that the man was guilty of bending and breaking the law to aid the brotherhood.

Is Martin upholding or subverting his father's real legacy? Can Ian presume to know the son by the actions of the father? In the end, Martin renounces membership in the Order, but does he actually escape his father's sins? Isn't he just as willing to bend the law to suit his own purposes? He takes an immediate disliking to Alex, decides that Alex is guilty, and charges him with no solid evidence to avoid having to let him go. He calls Sally in and pressures her to "find him culpable". This is a gross undermining of the due process of law. He won't break the rules for the sake of the brotherhood, but he has already broken them extensively for his own purposes. He has deluded himself into a self-righteous belief in his own ethical rectitude, but he merely repeats his own father's sins in the service of a different cause. Perhaps that IS his father's true legacy...and sin.

Sally Rowe:

We're given much less material to work with pertaining to Sally and her father, but the key piece of info we do get feels very illuminating. When Sally is trying to go home and her car won't start, she opens the hood herself and tinkers with what seems to be the distributor cap*. From her lack of hesitation and confidence in pulling the cap off, we can guess she's had this problem before and fixed it herself. Dr. Forbes offers assistance and they have a brief exchange in which she explains that she inherited a passion for difficult cars from her dad.

Sally's dad imparted both a knowledge and a love of cars, including a particular fondness for types that are prone to frequent mechanical problems. She doesn't just have an interest in these cars, it's a "passion" for them. One can surmise this was a pastime they shared as a bonding activity, Sally shadowing her dad as he fixed the latest problem in his favorite car. One might be tempted to say that Daddy Rowe's legacy then was one of empowerment for his daughter, encouraging her to occupy traditional male spaces and giving her the skills to solve issues that most people need to pay a skilled professional to handle.

I think this trait gives us a window into Sally's psyche far beyond just an automobile hobby. Her passion for "difficult" cars--cars that break down frequently, cars that are tricky, unreliable, and temperamental, cars that can turn on you and leave you stranded a hundred miles from home--feels like a character trait that applies to more than just cars. It gives us a window into the inner forces that led her to choose a career in forensic psychology. Her job duties entail a careful examination of "difficult" people in order to diagnose problems and offer an assessment to law enforcement to determine legal next steps. Sally is effectively opening the hood and tinkering around with the complex human mind to determine the functional status of each patient.

A piece of advice from a practicing forensic psychologist to those who are considering the career:

You have to be able to convey your thinking into well-written, well integrated, and professional reports that will be read by judges, attorneys, clients, and other professionals involved in the case. You need to have a complex understanding of personality adjustment, psychological assessment, the law and the legal process, the relevant literature, and be attuned to one’s limitations in forming opinions.

I find the last portion particularly relevant here. While her instincts led her to choose this profession, they also present a type of limitation to her ability to objectively assess patients. She doesn't just want to fix a car when it breaks, she has a "passion" for the ones that break down often. Most people would want to get rid of a car that had frequent issues, deeming them more trouble than they are worth. But Sally is drawn to problematic cars--and people. There is a subjectivity inherent to her interest in the cars/people with frequent problems which drives her to remain attached when others would give them up as a lost cause.

This trait underlies her entire interaction with Alex, and I think it plays a major role in her downfall. In this post, I examine all the ways that Martin and Alex are very much alike. I would also suggest that their similarity is why Sally was/is drawn to both of them. We know Sally and Martin were previously in a relationship, though that has ended prior to the film's events. Regardless, Martin demonstrates that he at least still knows Sally well enough to push her buttons and enlist her help with his cause. Upon meeting her, Alex immediately starts to probe this woman in an attempt to find her weak spots so he can manipulate her for his own ends. Sally has a similar reaction to both of them, essentially conveying that she sees through their patently obvious attempts to influence her. Her ability to recognize their problematic behavior doesn't actually stop her from caving to their wishes--she cannot resist the "difficult" cars.

It seems likely that most others in her position would have given up on Alex after hearing even a part of his frankly preposterous claims, deeming him beyond the point of any repair. Sally is blind to her own limitations - the tenacious to a fault need to figure out the problem and fix it - and this impedes her ability to remain objective. Her satisfaction at solving the problem is on display as she presents her analysis to her peers--she basks in the pleasure of diagnosing this complex psychological dynamic and preens at the recognition she receives for it. And with poetically perfect timing, while she stands at the highest point in her professional career, Alex reveals that she has been deeply deceived. All her satisfaction at having solved the problem and "fixing the car" comes crashing down in the realization that she was so very wrong. The instincts instilled by her father, rippling outwards from this simple hobby into her personal and professional life, are what cause her downfall.

In Like Minds, there is no escaping your father's legacy.

[*Distributor cap source: I was raised in a family of mechanics including my own father, and I have pulled off a distributor cap to check the cap and the spark plugs when my car was having trouble starting. Feel free to look up pics of the distributor caps to verify my assertion (you won't).]

[Like Minds Masterpost - Main]

[prosperdemeter2]

I know everyone is all "I hate that they're pushing the everyone forgives the Buckley parents" agenda, including me, but also I think we're just accepting something at face value that doesn't need to be accepted and missing what could be really good character nuance (and something so much more miserable and realistic in some parent-child relationships): Buck hasn't forgiven them, he's just stopped expecting more than they'll give. Maybe expecting isn't the right word, maybe I mean hoping for.

He's stopped hoping for his parents to be anything more than what they will always be... and that in itself is such a hard, heartbreaking, detail if you stop to think about it.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Look okay I would never be so gauche as to tag a youtuber on a post of mine unprompted; youtubers are like wizards in that they cannot be called, but show up suddenly and unexpectedly at a time of their own choosing to throw your life into disarray

But I woke up to a message from my best friend linking me strange aeons' post about doing a dramatic reading of the PPCC and y'know I gotta make sure they got the most complete and up to date version of it

[fannedandflawless]

The Wand That Yielded to Grief: A Snape Wand Theory

Darling, let’s talk wandlore—not the polished kind with Phoenix feather packaging and eager eleven-year-olds. No, no. We’re diving into Severus Snape’s wand. And the story? It's neither charming nor convenient. It’s charred.

Let’s begin with what little we do know.

The Canonical Silence

Official sources—wand replicas, Wizarding World merch, and the occasional lore snippet—suggest:

Wood: Ebony

Length: ~13.25 inches

Core: ?

That’s right, love. The core has never been confirmed. J.K. Rowling left it blank, the movies skipped it, and the books said nothing. Silence. Total silence. Which, frankly, is suspiciously on brand for Severus Snape.

Ebony, for the record, is a wand wood known for loyalty, strength, and an affinity for those who live by their own rules—individuals who walk away from the crowd without looking back. Sound familiar? Oh, absolutely.

But let’s go deeper.

⸻

Was That Wand Always His?

Remember the infamous scene—Snape hanging upside down, humiliated by the Marauders? The Severus in that memory didn’t fight back. Not with magic. He thrashed, cursed, but did not cast. Some fans assumed cowardice. But darling... I can’t help wondering if it might have been something else.

What if the wand in his hand wasn’t truly his at the time?

Perhaps it was a borrowed wand. Possibly his mother’s. A hand-me-down, serviceable but stubborn. It could cast spells, yes—but not instinctively. Not like a wand that had chosen its master in a moment of absolute clarity.

At fifteen, Snape was still divided. One part aching for Lily. Another drawn to the shadows of power. His identity was not yet forged, his inner world fractured. And from what we understand of wandlore, no wand of serious character would yield fully to a master it couldn’t read with certainty.

So when James struck without warning—Levicorpused him into the air—there was no duel. Only shock. Scramble. Exposure. And possibly... a wand that didn’t respond.

It’s just a thought, of course. But perhaps that wand wasn’t his. Not yet.

⸻

The Turning Point: The Half-Blood Prince

When did that change? Oh darling. The moment ink hit parchment and a boy wrote:

"This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince."

That was it. That was the baptism. He hadn’t yet started anything with anyone—no romance, no allegiance. Perhaps Lily was already slipping away, and maybe, just maybe, resentment had started to take root. It might’ve been the first time he truly felt seen within Slytherin—not for being clever or strange, but for doing something that others there deemed right. If there was a turning, it wasn't toward someone. It was away. Away from the pain, the disappointment, the fruitless effort. Maybe that’s when power began to shimmer—not as a prize, but as the only thing that might still answer back.

From that moment on, his mind sharpened. Cunning replaced confusion. The grief hadn’t come yet, but the isolation had—and he began to wield it like a weapon. That’s when he would’ve acquired the wand we now associate with him:

Ebony wood

Inflexible

Cold to the touch, but alive in the hand of someone who never asked to be warm again

⸻

Post-Lily: The Emotions That Forged Obedience

Now, fast-forward. Lily is dead. And Snape is no longer fractured. He is hollowed. The core that once wavered with longing is now filled with singular, punishing clarity. Let’s break it down:

1. Grief (but not the weeping kind) This is grief weaponised—steady, silent, permanent. He does not mourn. He functions. Every breath is penance.

2. Resentment Towards himself, Dumbledore, James, the world. And perhaps—even Lily. Not out of hatred, but from a wound so deep it blurred blame and pain. For choosing James. For becoming unreachable. For dying before he could make anything right. He might not have resented her directly—but in a heart that no longer knew how to grieve cleanly, every loss left behind a trace of bitterness.

3. Control Emotion stripped to its most minimalist form. No outbursts. No chaos. Just tight, merciless control.

4. Duty The unasked-for vow. The boy lives, so the man must serve. Not because he wants to. But because he no longer permits himself not to.

5. Emptiness The absence of desire. Nothing left to want. Only actions left to take. He becomes function incarnate.

And the wand? Oh, it submits.

Because by now, Snape’s emotional register is so sharpened, so pared down, that there is no room left to resist him.

He doesn’t ask the wand to obey. He tells it—and it does.

Because if it didn’t? The wand itself might’ve felt it—some deep, ancient knowing—that failure to cooperate wouldn’t lead to a scolding, but a fate worse than irrelevance. Not snapped in punishment, but surrendered to fire, repurposed as kindling for something colder. That’s the level we’re at.

⸻

Final Word: The Wand That Yielded

Snape didn’t earn his wand’s loyalty through brilliance. He bled it out of himself.

"He didn’t tame his wand with greatness. He subdued it with grief."

Darling, if I were that wand and I so much as twitched against his will, I’d snap myself in half out of shame.

Now pour the tea, snap the fan, and tell me I’m wrong. I won’t argue—just raise a brow, maybe. But deep down, we both know how this ends, don’t we?