#i honestly see lily as more reckless than james weirdly enough. like i think james deep down is fairly pragmatic and thoughtful

[seriousbrat]

what do you think lily's flaws were likely to have been? I hear so many people complain about her being a "Mary Sue" and I feel like it's true that the narrative doesn't really give us problems with her character in the way that it does for James/the other marauders.

Love this question!! I actually think we do see some of Lily's flaws in the narrative, they're just not quite as obvious (or grievous) as Sev's or James's.

In her conversations with Sev in the Prince's Tale, we see that she's willing to overlook pretty unforgivable behaviour because of her friendship with/loyalty towards Sev. He's friends with Mulciber and Avery, he calls the attack on Mary 'a laugh'. In the post-SWM conversation, she displays awareness that Sev calls other people 'mudblood'. Sure, she's not okay with it, but she still tolerates it; it's not until this actively affects her that she decides to end the friendship. I read this as a mixture of naïveté but also just willing blindness. She knows better deep down, but chooses to ignore it because of her love for Sev.

Another thing Lily-haters tend to harp on is her defending James, Sev's bully, to him in this conversation. And I do somewhat agree (although I think it's ridiculous to hold this as worse than everything Sev does to her) but I think it's another sign of her willingness to overlook certain behaviours that she shouldn't. She wants to believe that there's good in everyone because that's easier than facing reality. I don't read this line as 'you should forgive James for everything', I read it more as 'why can't everyone get along because that would be easier than dealing with conflict'. In some ways she's right, because there is good in both Sev and James-- it's somehow both her greatest strength and her greatest weakness. This blind trust is what gets her killed, it's what causes her so much pain in SWM, but it's also what saves her son in the end.

Another thing I think we see in SWM is her temper. Like I've said I think Harry gets his anger issues from Lily rather than from James, and I think she's impulsive, reckless, quick to anger. She leads with her heart. It would have been more rational to get a teacher but she dives into the confrontation personally. She insults both James and Sev pretty viciously in this scene (totally deserved, but still). Her giant squid rant is not some well thought out moral indictment of James's character or actions but an emotional response, a personal attack borne of anger. It's very similar to Harry's numerous all caps rages throughout OotP in which he takes out his anger on the people around him.

When thinking about Lily I think it's fair to extrapolate from Harry's character, because they're meant to be similar. Thematically, DH is largely about Harry realising that he's much more like Lily than he realised. Dumbledore says he was counting on Hermione to slow Harry down: Harry represents the intuitive approach, Hermione the logical. Too much reliance on intuition can't save the day, but neither can too much reliance on logic. It's about balance. Sev is the Hermione to Lily-- his learned ability to put aside his emotional needs and impulses for the greater good is ultimately how Lily protects her son through him.

[fandom-susceptible]

HP Cursed Child

You know something that really sucks?  Many people have experienced feeling like you're the only one in a fandom.  What's worse is being the only one who like a certain part of a fandom.

When you read or watch something in the fandom that was created years later, a show, movie, book, whatever, and you absolutely love it.  There are things you're not particularly a fan of but that was even true of the original.

And then you find out that your entire fandom hates everything about it.

I've been feeling depressed lately and I'm novelizing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for my family, who don't like to read plays (we're American so it's never been performed here than I know of).  I started feeling drained and bored so I looked it up here on tumblr to see some of the memes and connections that the rest of the fandom might have come up with.

And I find out that so many things I loved about it, everyone else hated.

I'm gonna vent about this for a minute.  I'm not going to cover nearly everything and I do acknowledge that yeah, the play doesn't have nearly the same feel as the books did.  But neither did the movies, okay?  Give them a break, it had been years, JK only had so much say over the actual writing.  The basic story was hers but Jack Thorne's to blame for the iffy writing style - plus, in play format, it's really hard to actually see the expressions and the feelings behind everything the people are saying.  It takes a lot of reading between the lines, and I feel like most people that hate it just took it all at face value.  That said, I'd appreciate it if anyone who disagrees with me would please just make your own posts about it and refrain from contacting me.  I've read enough hate rants.

One big pet peeve: Everyone seems to think that Snape is out of character.  WELL OF COURSE HE'S OUT OF CHARACTER.  IT'S AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT TIMELINE.  Yes, it's implied that time only changed from Goblet of Fire onward, but Snape even directly *says* "One person.  All it takes is one person.  I couldn't save Harry for Lily.  So now I give my allegiance to the cause she believed in.  And it's possible - that along the way I started believing in it myself." So yes, he's out of character compared to the original books.  BUT IN THE ORIGINAL BOOKS, HARRY DIDN'T DIE (permanently, or before Snape).  This was a life-changing event for him.  And so I really don't think that his basic personality was changed too badly, with that considered.  Yeah he seemed weirdly close to Hermione and Ron, but he's been literally alone with only them to depend on for years at this point.  You just can't continue to hate someone when you're in a situation like that.

Harry's shouting at Albus "I wish you weren't my son".  Now I'm not saying I loved this part - I really didn't.  But, everyone yells about how Harry would NEVER do this because he'd NEVER let his kids feel like he did.  Guys, he lived under Vernon Dursley's roof for sixteen years.  He was already stressed, tired, and upset.  He even explains later that he was having trouble articulating what he really meant and that in his anger those words were all he could manage.  Yes, he made a mistake.  And yeah he screwed up big time and there's no excuse.  But I do NOT think this is evidence of Harry bullying Albus or acting horribly out of character.  Even in the books we saw that Harry could be insensitive sometimes if he was stressed or distracted.

Albus being in Slytherin and how he's treated after that.  Alright - who came up with this crap about him being treated as an outsider or a pariah by his own family?  Yeah, there were cruel kids at his school.  But Harry fully supported him.  His screwup was telling Albus that he'd get to choose his House.  The Hat wasn't sure about Harry - it was sure about Albus, and so he went to Slytherin despite what he wanted.  Still, Harry comforted him, Harry and Ginny never stopped supporting him.  Lily Luna wasn't in the play much so we didn't really see her reaction.  Rose got in her fight with him over SCORPIUS, not his Hogwarts House.  Now James - he was a bully, but honestly, as the third of four kids, both older ones brothers, he's actually a painfully accurate portrayal.  He's honestly way nicer than my brothers would've been - all he did was tease in words and ignore Albus.

There's complaints that they were just trying to make Harry as little like Harry as possible.  Well of course they were.  James was a mix of Harry and his namesakes through and through - of course Albus took after the Weasleys' side.  I do have to admit that making him so spectacularly bad at Quidditch was a bit much, but it wasn't a big plot point, and honestly how else were they to show how different he was in the very little time they had?  Quidditch was unnecessary for the plot and so it was exploited.  I'm not a huge fan of how they handled it, but it wasn't horrible.

I've seen a couple complaints about how Albus doesn't seem like he fits in Slytherin, and how Scorpius' personality seems to be flatly based on breaking the Slytherin mold.  Well ladies and gentlemen I have a harsh reminder for the lot of you.

HOGWARTS HOUSES ARE DETERMINED BY THE TRAITS YOU VALUE NOT THOSE THAT YOU POSSESS.

This is why bookish Hermione who seemed like a Ravenclaw went to Gryffindor - because in reality she valued bravery, chivalry, selflessness over her books. "There are more important things!" This is why gentle, hardworking, loyal Neville went to Gryffindor in favor of Hufflepuff. This is why cunning (if a bit stupid at times), Parseltongue, survivor Harry went to Gryffindor over Slytherin.  Because the Hat was confused by Riddle's presence in him, and Harry's real values rested with Gryffindor, like Ron's.

Albus clearly isn't impressed by his father's bravery and selflessness.  He's grown up hearing stories about how great his dad is and he's just tired of it.  What kid wouldn't be sick of being told oh your dad's so great he's amazing can I meet him.  Being side-glanced and pushed aside when they realize he's not like his dad.  Albus grew up with Harry, he knows how much of a reckless dork that Harry can be, about all Harry's dumb little quirks that endear him to a reader but are so, so different than the stories the wizards tell of his heroism.  So of course Albus is more intrigued by Ginny's intelligence and the way she survived, how resourceful and clever she is - things that are Slytherin traits, not Gryffindor.  And yeah, intelligence and cleverness are Ravenclaw traits too, but really, each House is a mix of other Houses.  The lines aren't perfectly clear.  Slytherin is Ravenclaw and Gryffindor in one.  Hufflepuff is Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.  Gryffindor is Slythern and Hufflepuff.  And Ravenclaw is Hufflepuff and Slytherin.  Long story short, it makes perfect sense that Albus is in Slytherin.

Now let me start on taking apart why Scorpius is actually written very well.  This is a child who grew up knowing his grandfather loathed his existence.  His mother was chronically ill since at least his first year at Hogwarts.  He has a father who was bullied and coerced into becoming a Death Eater like his parents, but who married a Muggle-born and tried his hardest not to be like Lucius.  Draco is shown on numerous occasions to care deeply for Scorpius.  After Harry tries to keep Albus and Scorpius apart - which I'll get to in a minute - Draco comes to him, even still being furious with him, with this line "I'm not here to antagonize you.  But my son is in tears and I am his father and so I am here to ask why you would keep apart two good friends." He didn't hear this from a teacher.  This says to me that Draco sits there and actively listens to Scorpius and is there as a shoulder to cry on.  He will do ANYTHING for Scorpius.  So of COURSE Scorpius isn't as bitter and cynical as the previous Slytherins we're shown.  However, he also did grow up with Astoria and Draco, both of whom were SLYTHERINS (anyone who says there were only pure blood Slytherins can fight me).  He grew up knowing the stigma against his family's usual Hogwarts House and against his family itself.  Draco and Astoria would know that and I feel they would've tried to prepare him for that.  Scorpius is clever, he's resourceful, and no he's not your typical Slytherin, but he knows how well those values will serve him as a Malfoy.

Harry trying to keep them apart.  Okay.  Yeah.  That sucked and the first time I read it I thought it was completely out of character.  But then I read it again.  Harry was stressed, upset, he'd just been told there was a curse around his kid.  He's still prejudiced against the Malfoys because of his childhood rivalry with Draco.  He's frustrated, he knows Scorpius was involved in how and why his son went missing, and Harry, for all his good points, is very impulsive and simultaneously very stubborn.  We saw in how he treated Snape during the original books that he jumps to conclusions about people.  Of the Golden Trio we saw Harry jumping to conclusions, Ron generally having to think a little longer but backing him up, and Hermione holding out until she was sure.  So when Harry panicked over Albus' fate, and Scorpius was there as an easy scapegoat, of course he picked the Malfoy to blame.  It isn't as if he and Draco have patched things up.

This is ridiculously long now and I'm tired and upset and depressed, so I'm gonna end it here.  If anybody wants my thoughts on anything else in the play, or my response to any other opinion, shoot me a polite ask and I'll post it later.