#look at me writing dobby metas

[whinlatter]

Please can you tell us more about your thoughts on the imagery of Dobby's death?

Partly it’s that I think Dobby’s death was worth it for the scenes of Harry at Shell Cottage, digging that grave by hand in that bleak beautiful garden at the end of the earth, honestly. Those are some of my favourite passages and some of the most beautiful writing in the entire series. Because also like, the foreshadowing. Both before he’s freed from the obligations to wizards imposed by his enslavement, and after, Dobby chooses a brave, righteous course of action that ends in self-sacrifice. Harry buries him, grieves him, writes that epitaph - Here lies Dobby, a free elf - and then, in the hours after, sets in motion a path that will, on some level, mirror Dobby’s. With his own free will, Harry picks the horcruxes, not the Hallows: Harry Potter, the Chosen One who actually chooses to be the Chosen One, over and over again, not because he has to, but because he believes it’s right to, and also who will make the ultimate sacrifice. Like damn yes sorry Dobby you had to die that arc is 💥 too good 💥

(I actually am sat on a meta about Harry after Dobby’s death at Shell Cottage lmao - obviously it’s kind of Hinny-focussed because, you know, the hyper fixation with Harry and Ginny is really hyper fixating these days, but kind of about Harry’s grief in the arc of the DH plot… Maybe I will post it? It’s a mess I’ll tell you. I just really love those Shell Cottage chapters, man, cannot get enough)

Thank you for asking friend! ❤️

Update: posted the meta!

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

A hphm character tier list please!! Bonus point if added reasoning/ explanation!

Have a great day :3

I doubt there are any placements on this list that would truly surprise anyone, but let's go through the different rankings. I didn't name them, by the way. Those were the categories that were already offered. I could have renamed or recolored them I suppose, but I didn't wind up doing so. Let's go in ascending order.

"Avada Kedavra." Self explanatory. Three of these characters are absolutely evil and irredeemable pieces of trash. And then there's Lockhart. He's just here because he pisses me off. Granted, so does Rita Skeeter, but she doesn't ruin an entire dating quest. At least when she shows up, it's because it's a quest about her. Fenrir Greyback purposefully infects children and describes them as "delicious" so...yeah. I'd put him even lower if I could. Albus Dumbledore's placement is also not a surprise if you know me. I hate him with all of my hate. Patricia Rakepick is also here and I doubt I need to explain why.

"Send to Azkaban." They don't bother me as much as "Avada Kedavra" but I am still not a fan. The Volde-clown Boggart is personally annoying in presentation but also as a plot device. For Peeves, there is the Prank storyline of Year 5. Enough said. The Weird Sisters creep me out, Filch and Mundugus are generally annoying, I discussed Rita, and the Dementor literally calls Azkaban home. That leaves Wormtail. I don't passionately hate him but he's not exactly a good person either.

"Kinda Sus" This is where I placed all of the characters who I, for whatever reason, do not trust or otherwise find shady, the ones who give me a bad feeling. This doesn't have to be plot related either, for cases like Ethan Parkin or Madam Hooch, it might just mean that their behavior is sometimes questionable. Of course, this is also something of a joke, like putting the Red Cloak on the list. For someone like Moody, it's more obvious - everyone knows I don't trust him. Characters like Bilton and Madam Villanelle are technically on our side, but they could be spies. If a character is a known villain, but their agenda and the depth of their evil is unclear, like The Dark Witch and the White-Robed Wizard, they also go here. Jacob and MC being placed here is somewhat of a joke, but it's also somewhat meta. Jacob is like Moody, his intentions are still unclear to me. And the game keeps teasing the idea that MC may fall to the Dark Side.

"Do you even go here?" Wow, do you ever stop to notice how many characters HPHM actually has? And this tier list included all of them, even the ones I would never have thought of. I literally just used this category to place all of the characters who do not technically attend Hogwarts school, though in a few of those cases like Aurelie, it definitely came off as more amusing. Additionally, I used this ranking for all of the characters who could be considered forgettable. Either by the fandom or the game itself, such as the prefects and poor Elora Dunn. Look, if the tier list has to actually list their name in the picture so that I can remember who they are, maybe they don't need to make the list, that's all I'm saying.

"Don't care." Mostly interchangeable with "Do you even go here." Again, the cast is so huge, that I'm not going to go through every character that I placed here. These past two rankings can mostly act as a summation for the majority of the characters for whom I don't particularly like or dislike. Emily Tyler hasn't returned or been developed as an antagonist in a while, so I don't care. Trelawney giving another prophecy is boring and conflicts with canon, so I don't care. Cedric Diggory is one of the most in-your-face examples of fanservice I've ever seen, so I don't care. But again, not all of these are negative. I think the Red Cap is funny, even if his storyline is brief. I love seeing Dobby, Arthur and Molly. I always love seeing them. I could go on.

"Ok." For the characters who, when I look at them, my immediate reaction is a generally positive one. I could probably get interested in a fanwork about these guys. For many of them, there is great potential to be explored but it just hasn't happened very much. Diego would not have been this high a year ago, but he's been fleshed out. Characters like Andre, Duncan, and Tonks...whenever they're in the spotlight and get genuine development, I'm interested. It just happens so rarely. The same goes for the Weasley boys, for Badeea. Other characters go here because I personally like them, even if they aren't that relevant. People like Aberforth and Percy. But two people can wind up here despite being very different and my having completely separate feelings about both of them, like Alanza and Ben.

"Like." Everyone that I would probably write a fanwork about someday, if I could actually motivate myself to finish my current WIP. Talbott, Chiara, and Jae are genuinely interesting and compelling. They might not make my top five, but they would make my top ten. I will always love Flitwick and what HPHM has done for him, I don't even care. Keep in mind, this doesn't mean I condone everything that the character has done...Ismelda has a lot to answer for, but it doesn't mean she's not interesting. And Penny can be very interesting too, but usually only when she's put under intense stress. As heartless as it is to say. You may also be surprised to see Myrtle here, but similar to Flitwick, I just love what this game did with her. Some of these could rise or drop a ranking pretty easily too. Like in hindsight, maybe I should have switched Duncan and Myrtle. It's not a big deal either way, I guess.

"Must be protected at all costs." Self explanatory. For the most part, these are all my favorite characters in the game, and the ones who I would lay down on railroad tracks for. Another character who climbed higher over time is Skye. If it wasn't for how much people message me about her, I may not have gotten quite as invested. My love for Orion is well documented, Rowan is the reason I started playing this game, Beatrice was the breakout character of Year 6, and Tulip x Merula is my OTP for this game. I could gush about any one of these kids for six paragraphs but the bottom line is that they are my favorite characters. It is at this point that we have entered "top five" territory.

"GOD TIER ~ ALWAYS" Characters who reign supreme and are factually flawless. It's not surprising to see characters like Dennis and Fang up here because critters are, generally speaking, leagues above humans simply by default. We can also see her majesty Queen Bean ruling from the sky, guarded by her champion, the arbiter known as Erika Rath. You are entitled to your wrong opinion if you fail to see the divinity of these characters.

[onhersleeve]

the (in)validation of jonsa

never in my many years of fandom experiences (over two decades i might say) i encountered such hostile reaction towards the existence of a ship like the asoiaf/got fandom has towards jonsa. and for fucks sake, i've been in the internet long enough to know that they were smut fics written about dobby that met less hatred and disgust than jonsa.

  people within the jonsa fandom have to constantly encounter animosity of strangers who are appalled by the fact that people like jon and sansa together, and constantly make us justify why we ship them as a couple, even though that doesn't happen to other couples in the fandom.

  it is not because they were raised as siblings, otherwise jonr/a wouldn't be a thing and they don't meet not even a tenth of the hate jonsas do. it's not because they are related either, otherwise jon/rys wouldn't exist either and we all know a grand majority seems to belive they are the acceptable couple to ship.

  it all comes to the underling point: sansa and the fact that jonsa is not a ship that punishes or ‘humbles’ sansa in any way or form and is not there to teach her a lesson. otherwise why people don't bat an eye for her being romantically shipped with men twice/trice her age, who are clearly predators and/or had a hand on her family's deaths?

  jonsa seems to cause more dislike and the feeling of aversion than sansa with men who tried (or thought of) raping her or have no sense to be with her narrative wise (i mean, the amount of grown ass adult men i see people shipping sansa with is ridiculous). but why is jonsa that brings the fury?

  to me it is the fact that for years sansa had been villainized by the fandom and people simple accepted the collective headcanon that sansa stark was nothing but a vain and unimportant character who is to blame for the bad things that happened to the stark family, and not the grown ass adult men (in which many are shipped with her) who actually caused it all.

  this is why sansa and jonsa fans are know as the “worst” by some people of the fandom. because for so long in the past it was okay to spill hate towards sansa and no one would bat an eye, they would just add to the list reasons why she suck.

  but then sansa fans grew strong and confident, and many of which shipped sansa with jon (for many different reasons) and that started to piss off people, because jon is a good guy. jon is the hero. how dare people give sansa a hero to love and love her back, she needs to be taught a lesson, she needs men who are old enough to be her father, who look at her as a piece of meat and property and who narratively wise will keep her as a lesser, in a low position where she belongs.

  and with this comes the invalidation from the fandom. because we cannot just ship them just because, which is the most valid reason to like and ship a couple: you like them together and that is it. but no, we have to justify it over and over, from people who do not ship it and post in our tags demanding to hear a good reason we like such ridiculous couple, to people reblogging our work and metas to say how wrong and delusional we are or the bombarding of anons jonsas seem to get, no matter how big or small their blogs are, to shame or insult them for shipping the couple.

  i mean, how many times we, sansa and jonsa fans, have our opinions invalidated not only about our favorite couple and characters in the books/show, but anything else related to the fandom because we are sansa/jonsa fans? in fact, even those who are not sansa/jonsa stans but that seem to go against the grain of what the majority of the fandom believes (or against the fans or a certain character and house) they are labeled sansa/jonsa fans and hence unworthy of being heard.

  that actually is something i see often, not only on tumblr or on twitter, the use of being a sansa/jonsa fan against others, but recently i saw it happen in another place, where a person in an extremely respectful manner had answered why they didn’t think dny deserved better (it was about a buzzfeed article who mentioned characters that were ruined by the writing out of nowhere) simply because they believed that while the last two seasons were rushed and terribly written, the narrative of the character’s downfall was something that had been hinted previously. someone had the rude reaction of simple going “lol you are clearly a sansa stan, can’t be taken seriously” before attacking sansa and the starks (and no, that person was not a sansa stan/fan).

  why, why does it matter if i like character x with character y so much? what does that interfere with their fandom enjoyment? how does the existence of jonsa affect them so much to the point they cannot believe people like them and decide to ridicule anyone and everyone who likes them, stalking their blogs and tags, screen capping their posts to laugh at and share with their friends over how ridiculous these delusional jonsas are and how they and sansa fans suck and are the worst part of the fandom.

  why do do we have to constantly validate our love for these characters, together and apart, justifying the reasons why? is there some mythical jonsa forefather/foremother creature that in the no so distant past were the fandom was created committed atrocities and henceforth besmirching the good name of those who came after? i think not. 

  so why is your ship valid and ours not? why do we have to perform to you, cater to you and explain to you why they are relevant to us? so good lord let us be, we are not here for you.

[whitewolfofwinterfell]

Can you do Merlin (I know again but I like reading your metas) and Harry Potter for the ask meme? 😊

5 things I’d change about Merlin:

1. Morgana’s entire arc. I briefly discussed this in the previous ask you sent where I talked about characters I couldn’t sympathise with, but I feel like Morgana’s entire arc across the series was handled terribly. The idea of Morgana transitioning from a protagonist to an antagonist was interesting and I’m perfectly happy with that, but it needed to be written so much better than it was. I think more attention needed to be given to Morgana’s internal processes and motivations. How did she change so drastically from such a compassionate and caring person to such a hardened and ruthless villain? I can’t pinpoint what specific event caused that rapid change and I think that’s the problem with Morgana. The development needed to unfold a lot slower and there should’ve been a clearly traceable line of events and growing of thoughts and feelings that led her to where she ended up. I know that she did have certain pivotal events that changed her - meeting Mordred, discovering she had magic and living with Uther’s hatred for magic, Merlin poisoning her, finding out Uther was her father and had been lying her all those years, meeting Morgause - but I still feel like none of that fully justified the sudden change in her character. I think the writing of her character in the later seasons needed to be more sympathetic and instead of reducing her to a villain, there still needed to be some level of insight into Morgana as a person. Ultimately, Morgana’s actions were driven by her desire to make magic legal, put an end to Uther’s persecution of those with magic and take her rightful place on the throne. All of that is completely understandable and even reasonable, but it gets lost in the mess of trying to make her the worst villain in the world and Merlin and Arthur’s archenemy. 

2. Arthur finds out about Merlin’s magic before the finale. We all knew from day one that Arthur had to find out about Merlin having magic at some point, but to make us wait until the very last episode was cruel and a pretty poor decision. There was so much development involved in Arthur discovering Merlin’s secret. It was the one massive barrier that was constantly between them and by making Arthur find out in the finale, they had to cram an entire season’s worth of disbelief, confusion, angst and acceptance into one episode. Arthur learning about Merlin’s magic represented the turning point for him. Already throughout the series we saw that he didn’t hold the same harsh beliefs that Uther did about magic and that he was a lot more open minded and forgiving than his father. To find out that Merlin had magic would’ve completely turned his world upside down and make him question the beliefs, morals and principles he’d carried his entire life. The prophecy of Merlin and Arthur creating a golden age never truly happened because it couldn’t happen as long as Arthur was in the dark about Merlin’s magic. It’s only through finding that out and coming to accept Merlin’s magic as being part of who he was that the two of them could’ve truly become a partnership and worked towards building a better and brighter kingdom. It’s only through understanding Merlin’s struggles and experiences with magic that Arthur could’ve come to make the decision to make the practice of magic legal in Camelot and stop the persecution of those that practised it. The central conflict throughout Merlin is essentially one between those with magic and those without it, and Merlin and Arthur are the embodiment of that. Arthur is the king, he’s the one with the power to govern the kingdom and make the laws that Camelot lives by, he doesn’t have magic and has an ingrained prejudice against those that do that’s passed down to him from Uther. Then there’s Merlin, the most powerful warlock of all time that has so much magic yet is completely powerless when it comes to making the decisions that impact the kingdom. Like the show said, they were two sides of the same coin and only together could they bring the peace and balance between magical and non-magical people. But as I said above, in order to do that Arthur needed to know everything and have his eyes opened to the fact that magic was not the enemy, and that if it hadn’t been for Merlin’s magic he would’ve been dead in the pilot and the entire kingdom would’ve fallen to ruin. 

3. ARTHUR LIVES, Gwaine lives, Lancelot lives, everybody lives! I appreciate that Arthur’s death was temporary and there’s some level of comfort to take from that, but it still felt like everything that happened was for nothing. All of the blood, sweat, tears shed and sacrifices, pain and devotion Merlin endured to protect Arthur and fulfil their destinies felt utterly pointless. I don’t even care if it’s too idealistic and too much of a fairytale ending, the finale should’ve been Arthur and Merlin side by side in the castle looking out over Camelot, the sun setting in the sky and Kilgarrah narrating that they fulfilled their prophecies and it truly was the beginning of a golden age of Albion. Killing Arthur was unnecessary and a very unsatisfying and devastating conclusion to the story. The only ending that would’ve made sense to me is Merlin and Arthur together at the end, having overcome all the obstacles and evil they’d faced and created a united Camelot where magic was able to thrive in a new way, with the future ahead of them and endless possibilities for all the good they’re going to do together. As for Gwaine and Lancelot, I think they both should’ve survived until the end. Gwaine’s death was even more unnecessary than Arthur’s, there was just no impact or reason for it. I’ve always loved Lancelot and think he was killed way too prematurely, and should’ve been a part of the round table. I also disliked the way he was resurrected by Morgana to be used against Arthur and would completely scrap that plot.

4. Merlin and Morgana’s relationship. By this, I don’t mean I think Merlin and Morgana should’ve had a romantic relationship, but I think there was sooo much potential where Merlin and Morgana were concerned. Just as Merlin and Arthur’s destinies were entwined, so were Merlin and Morgana’s, and I think there were so many layers to their relationship that could’ve been explored. Morgana’s number one fear was Emrys and in keeping her in the dark about Merlin being Emrys, it simplified the storyline a lot and made something that could’ve been incredibly interesting pretty boring. I think Morgana should’ve definitely learned about Merlin’s magic before Arthur and that Merlin should’ve been there to try and help her adjust and teach her about how to control her magic. I also think that Morgana’s transition to the dark side could’ve involved Merlin a lot more with Morgana trying to turn Merlin against Arthur by preaching that Arthur would never accept him for who he really was and that only with her on the throne would they ever truly be free and magic not be a crime. This could’ve also provided some interesting development for Merlin with him being genuinely torn between his loyalties to Arthur and Morgana, and his desire to protect Arthur and maintain his duties to Camelot and his want to be free and for magic to have free reign too. By maintaining that friendship between Merlin and Morgana for longer, it also would’ve created much more conflict when Morgana found out that Merlin was Emrys. This would also tie into the first point I discussed about Morgana’s arc, because it would’ve kept Morgana more human by building on that relationship with Merlin and having her connect with the protagonist on a deeper level. It also would’ve complicated her role as a villain, because she would still have loyalties and affection for Merlin. Whether or not that relationship could’ve gone to the romantic level, I really don’t know. I’m not a Mergana shipper, but I’m not opposed to it either. I think it would’ve worked incredibly well whether it remained a friendship or if it turned into a romance. 

5. Gwen and Arthur have a baby. This is quite a simple one in comparison to the others, but I always felt like Gwen should’ve been pregnant at some point on the show. I don’t think it necessarily would’ve made sense for the baby to be born in the middle of the series because it would’ve detracted from the main story, but there definitely should’ve been an announcement that Gwen was pregnant in the last season. The reason for this is that it would’ve been a huge celebration of the continuation of Arthur’s family line and provides a nice image of a future with mini Arthur’s and Gwen’s, but also it would’ve been another huge milestone that Arthur and Gwen had overcome after facing so many obstacles and being told that their love could never be. 

5 things I’d change about Harry Potter:

1. REMUS, SIRIUS AND DOBBY LIVE. I understand that death is part of life and in a series like Harry Potter where there’s an actual war there’s inevitably going to be casualties but not Sirius and Remus. Sirius was killed way too prematurely and still had so much to offer. He’s one of the best written and complex characters in the series and would’ve added so much to the story if he’d have lived. It’s exactly the same with Remus. He was such an interesting character that was an unnecessary sacrifice and I will never accept that Teddy had to grow up an orphan just like Harry. It’s too tragic. As for Dobby, why would anyone ever want to kill Dobby? It’s too sad and although I do think his death is effective in evoking the kind of emotion JKR wanted us to feel, I just love Dobby too much and can’t help but wish he’d lived. Also, poor Hedwig too. Let her live. Poor baby.

2. The entire epilogue. I’m pretty sure every HP fan will agree with me on this one. The epilogue in Deathly Hallows was just so awful. After everything that happened to write such a wishy washy happy ending like that was ridiculous. It wasn’t necessary for us to know that and it would’ve been so much more effective if what came afterwards was left to the readers’ imagination and interpretation. We were already given a happy ending with the defeat of Voldemort and there really wasn’t any need for JKR to take it that step further. 

3. Snape’s entire arc. As a writer myself, I can just feel that not much thought was put into Snape’s character. JKR wanted to create a villain that wasn’t really a villain but failed spectacularly. The idea that Snape was always on Harry’s side and protecting him behind the scenes completely undermines his behaviour and actions across the 7 books. And his reasoning being that he was in love with Lily just has no weight to it. Is he really so pathetic that he spent the rest of his life obsessing over a woman who never wanted him and married another man, and waded into her son’s life because he somehow felt that brought him closer to her? There’s just something incredibly disturbing about it and it’s a weak character arc. 

4. The general portrayal of villains - particularly Voldemort and the Malfoy’s. JKR has tried to defend herself numerous times about the way she wrote the houses, with the general opinion being all Gryffindors are pure hearted heroes and all Slytherins are evil whilst Ravenclaws are somewhere in the background reading and Hufflepuffs just go with the flow. JKR falls into the trap of using stereotypes and makes her villains one dimensional. Voldemort is the obvious example here. What made him become so utterly evil? I mean, there really is nothing redeemable about him yet from flashbacks we learn that he was a pretty normal, even charming child. What could possibly cause that drastic turn to the dark side? The idea of wanting to create horcruxes does not in itself mean he was evil, in fact, it’s pretty in-keeping with the ambition associated with Slytherins - he wanted to be as powerful and strong as he possibly could be. Yet the moment he learned what had to be done to make it happen why didn’t he decide against it? Why did human life mean less to him than being immortal? Draco is another example. Draco is arguably one of the most intriguing characters in the series, but his struggles are not gone into in enough depth. Obviously, there’s restrictions with how far JKR was able to go with it since the books are from Harry’s POV, but just how I discussed Morgana and Merlin’s relationship, Harry and Draco’s relationship had a very similar dynamic and could’ve been built upon so much more to make the story even more interesting. Even though Draco was supposed to be Harry’s archenemy, there’s a bond there between the two boys, a sense of familiarity and obligation that means when Harry first understood the extent to which Draco was involved with Voldemort it could’ve create so much more conflict than we got. JKR did go there, but she just didn’t take it far enough. Similarly, the rest of the Malfoy’s are portrayed as being evil but why? You’ll notice that I’m one of those people that just can’t accept someone being evil and the only explanation being because they are. Very few people are actually born evil, only psychopaths, but surely all of these villainous characters can’t be psychopaths? So what is their drive? What went so wrong in their past that they behave this way? In my opinion it is so hard to write a realistic and strong antagonist and JKR is one of the many writers that fails to do any villain justice. 

5. The time-turner. Although the time-turner was great in that it allowed Harry and Hermione to save Sirius and Buckbeak, the introduction of time travel completely detracts from the entire story. I saw this meme years ago: 

and distinctly remember laughing out loud because it’s so true. JKR can preach whatever philosophical crap she wants about how messing with time could have disastrous consequences and that’s why they couldn’t use the time turner for any other purpose, but with the power to time travel why wouldn’t the characters simply go back and change the key events in their lives that they want to erase? Why wouldn’t Harry go back to the night his parents were killed to save them and kill Voldemort for good in the process? Any rational human would and say to hell with the consequences. From Harry’s perspective there was nothing to lose in doing that, in fact, it would solve all of his life’s problems. It’s just ridicilous that McGonagall would give such a powerful and potentially earth destroying object (if it fell into the wrong hands) to a young teenage girl just so she can take on extra classes. There is no logic in it and there is no satisfying or adequate reason as to why Dumbledore thinks it’s perfectly okay to go back in time to save Buckbeak and Sirius but that it would be abhorrent to use it for any other reason. 

Wow, so that’s it. Sorry this got so long, I really wanted to put a lot of thought into it. It’s so hard to narrow it down to just 5 things and to cast my mind back to the entire series to recall what I didn’t like. For Harry Potter I was going to say I’d change all of the romances, but then the point about the epilogue kinda does that for me. Anyway, thanks for asking again, Tasneem, you know how much I love writing these kind of metas! :)