#no popular fanon! we have surpassed the need for popular fanon

[bluejayblueskies]

someone: haha so cool that [xyz] fandom universally decided to--

me: *immediately breaks out in hives*

[miiilowo]

Me me! I have so many questions about Afton but I'll jsut ask one. How far does his knowledge in robotics go? I thought Henry was the one who built all the animatronics, and that William was only a business partner who managed the accounting and all that stuff, but in Sister's Location he was the one who programmed Circus Baby so now I'm super confused

Sorry if it's basic knowledge for most, I'm still new to the fandom

hey no prahblem i got you covered

The details of the answer for this one will vary wildly depending on who you ask, but as a general baseline, youre both right and wrong. Henry was generally more knowledgeable on robotics, working behind the scenes, and William WAS more of the businessman + social relations type half of their whole schtick. This is partially due to their personalities (Henry being quiet and reserved and haunted looking, William being outgoing and charismatic and a bit weird) HOWEVER !!!!!!!!!

William's skill in robotics eventually DID surpass Henry's; either that, or William simply had more drive for it. There is a popular fanon belief (half-backed by evidence in one of the novels) that he was jealous of Henry, admired his skills in robotics, and purposefully decided that he needed to get better than Henry was. This is partially due to TSE bringing up that William had '...stacks of journals full of raving paranoia, [and] passages about Henry that ranged from jealousy to near worship.'

It can be pieced together based on other evidence in the novels that these journal entries about Henry were specifically referring to his robotics expertise, alongside stuff about his family, but we're focused on the robot thing here. William says on multiple occasions that he thinks his animatronics are vastly superior to Henrys, but also backtracks and sort of contradicts himself by saying that a lot of what he (will) has achieved was purely DUE to Henry.

It can get kind of muddy there, due to the novels getting into illusion disc territory (which, as far as im aware, are not canon to the games and will be ignored effective immediately) BUT we can easily assume that William is mostly entirely responsible for the funtime animatronics. This is for a lot of reasons, but these are the basic obvious ones:

they belong to the afton robotics label, NOT fazbear entertainment

baby is designed after williams daughter, elizabeth, and was essentially built for her as stated by the little lady herself

the blueprints having things in them that william would never let henry know about in one million years (having compartments to store bodies in + ways FOR those victims to be attained by the animatronics)

they have a very different direction than the robots we know henry worked on (mostly in how theyre built; endoskeletons are different, the plates, so on so forth)

william used the funtimes for the express purpose of toying around with remnant/possession. the dead kids from fnaf 1? theyre in there ! im like 90% sure theyre in the funtimes! (remnant is...strange. the souls can be kind of split apart and stored in different places its confusing and fucked. something something memories something something presences idonr.know its not worth trying to explain)

anyways. aside from that. even if we dont take williams WORD for it because im not sure hes the most trustworthy individual, it can be easily observed that the animatronics he worked on himself are leagues more advanced than most anything Henry created. the funtimes are one of a kind, and you can see across the board that anything henry had a hand in tends to stick to the same sort of frame. the og animatronics, the toy animatronics, spring bonnie, the mediocre melodies, the rockstars, so on so forth.

Williams own creations have....More. Going on. And it makes sense for them to, given how their motivations were very, very different; Henry wanted to make robots and entertain kids. William wanted to entertain kids. He also wanted to kill kids. He also wanted to be better than Henry. He had more of a reason to become more skilled, and so, he did. sorry that this is so fucking long btw i have a lot of. information up there

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

I'm so tired of people discrediting Jungkook. This is no shade to any of the members, but seven would not have gotten the same results if it was given to another member. Jimin did a huge western collab with Angel pt1 and that didn't chart high on the hot 100.

Layover is another good example. Everyone assumed it would be on par to seven, but sadly, that's not the case. we will continue to see this with rm and jimin once they release their next projects. I just think people underestimate jungkook's popularity. Just look at bts spotify, 2/5 of their most streamed songs are jungkook's. If his next single doesn't do as well, then I'll take it back, but I have a feeling it'll be just as big since there's so much anticipation.

For real. Imo, to successfully record Seven, a few skills were needed: good vocals (which ruled out Namgi, leaving only the maknae line to choose from), good English pronunciation (which V struggles with still), pop vocals (not V's strongest suit, though I think his voice would fit the song better than Jimin's - but it would sound sweeter and more melancholic than JK's version, so it wouldn't be as commercial), charisma/popularity/visuals/etc. to help sell the song (obviously they all have it in spades). Jungkook's obviously the best vocalist, whose voice is the most suited for easy pop songs like Seven, has the best English pronunciation, and is also the most recognizable member of BTS to the GP - especially after the World Cup and CK, which are both GP friendly. Jungkook also has a more American-friendly image, because of the tattoos, piercings, etc.. He resembles an American male artist the most, so he's more accessible to Western audiences.

Imo, Vmin could not pull off the song like Jungkook, and the vocals are the biggest reason why. I also think, and keep in mind that I love Jimin to bits, but his Like Crazy performances showed he's still a bit timid performing on his own. Compared to BTS stages, his energy was muted, for the lack of a better word. Jungkook was so at ease, he radiated confidence, charm and power in every performance, regardless of the size of the audience (WC or Times Square). He was more nervous in interviews, but RM's the only one who doesn't look nervous often. I think V could pull off the performances and stuff, but his voice and English pronunciation wouldn't be well received.

I don't think anyone assumed Layover would be on par with Seven. It was obvious from the moment the first song dropped that it would not be super GP friendly and wouldn't be able to compete on a global scale with a bright English pop song that was promoted in the US. Tbh, I underestimated V's popularity, because I assumed Layover wouldn't perform as well as Face, but it surpassed it in many regards. V is really a lot more popular than I gave him credit for, and has very dedicated fanbases, though Jimin arguably has much bigger GP recognition. But V really proved his popularity with the streams and sales he pulled for an album like Layover - although the album has 4 versions, which definitely helped with sales. Yet, Jungkook will easily, and with 100% certainty, blow V and Jimin's records out of the water, and snatch that first nr. 1 on the BB 200 for the albums (assuming V hasn't already).

Jungkook's popularity is definitely underestimated. It's practically fanon that V's the most popular member. Even after Seven's amazing performance that's taken as a fact. I'd argue that even in the past it wasn't true or easy to say V was more popular, but since 2022, at least, Jungkook's popularity has sky rocketed. Everyone still insists on V being more popular or on the same level as Jungkook, but his TikTok, YT and Twitter records show otherwise. Plus, like you said, his songs perform very well.

I think JK's next single will be the Butter to his Dynamite, which is Seven. His Vogue photoshoot, more than the Dazed interview, have me actually believing that his next single will be a bit darker, maybe more rock? Perhaps it will be trendier but not as easy of a listen as Seven, which is exactly like Butter vs. Dynamite. The anticipation will be huge, and a lot more people will tune in for his single, so he'll likely outdo himself in many regards, but I doubt he'll beat Seven's biggest records and impact. There's also the issue with very little time having passed since Seven.

Yeah, not to sound like a solo stan, which I'm not, but only Jungkook could do Seven - and Dreamers too.

Thanks for the ask!

[comingoutofthecauldron]

let’s talk about lesbophobia in fandom

i don’t like to use the word “lesbophobia” unironically because of all the gross radfem terfy connotations, so i will clarify right off the bat that i am neither a terf nor an aphobe and that if you are i want you off my blog like, right now. unfortunately, the meaning of lesbophobia has been so warped by alt right lesbians that seeing it in an unironic context makes me, a lesbian, uncomfortable, which speaks volumes in itself. so to clarify, lesbophobia is essentially homophobia with a pinch of sexism thrown into the mix, and it’s running rampant in supposed safe spaces and, more relevantly, fandom. 

/i’d also like to clarify that i’m not only speaking on lesbophobia, but also the general disgust and disdain for all wlw in fandom, and am using it as a sort of umbrella term/

lesbophobia and disdain for wlw has been around forever, but whilst gay positivity, mlm and mlm ships have been steadily increasing in popularity within fandom over time, wlw and wlw ships have remained perpetual underdogs. why? because lesbophobia has become a fandom within itself. both in and outside of fandom, we see instances of casual lesbophobia every single day—from aggression towards wlw to something as simple and prevalent as the complete and utter lack of sapphic ships and characters in media. hatred of lesbians and wlw is practically a trend, and it’s seeping in through the cracks of fandoms who are already facing issues with minorities and marginalized groups (i.e. racism, ableism). if you honestly think that lesbophobia isn’t prevalent as hell in fandom right now, you’re either not a wlw, you’re not all that involved in fandom, or you’re dumb as shit. 

just look at ships. in almost every single fandom, the ratio of mlm ships to sapphic ships is ridiculously unbalanced. people are quick to ship male characters who so much as smile at each other (and i don’t condemn that) but would never do the same for two women—even on the rare occasion that the ship is actually canon. i once wrote a wlw fanfic for a [predominantly straight] fandom, and received messages like this gem:

on the flip side of that, if there is a sapphic ship in canon or fanon, it is often fetishized and sexualised to a disturbing degree. there will be double the amount of nsfw art and fics, and ninety percent of it will be derogatory and fetishized as hell. having been actively involved in several fandoms over the past few years (and currently a content creator in one), i’ve seen instances of all this hundreds of times. people go crazy for mlm ships, but the second you say you ship/prefer a wlw ship, there’s always someone at the ready with, “i think all ships are great!” or “it’s not a contest” or “i prefer [insert m/m or m/f ship] actually” or “they’re my brotp!/why can’t you just let them be friends?”. not only do lesbians and wlw not get to have any rep in media, any rep that they try to create for themselves in fandom just gets attacked or ruined. this is so detrimental not only to all wlw, but especially to younger wlw who will end up being indoctrinated into this belief that their sexuality is something dirty, something that can never be tender and sweet but rather something that deserves to be preyed upon. 

building on that, let’s talk about engagement. i run an instagram account (where i have a significantly bigger following) as well as this blog for my fandom, where i post the content i create (mainly text posts). when i first started creating content, i made a lot for a relatively unpopular wlw ship, in which both girls are canonically romantically involved with a dude—though one of them is canonically pan. their canonical m/f ships are both very popular, and i noticed that my engagement was dropping every time i posted them, so i eventually just stopped. it wasn’t even a conscious decision; i merely resigned myself to the fact that the fandom didn’t want to see sapphic ships, and some people would even go as far as to condemn them. for reference, my instagram posts get an average of about 500 likes per post (popular ones usually exceeding 1k), but when i post this ship, my engagement drops to about 250 likes. similarly, my tumblr text posts have an average of about 140 notes per post (popular ones usually reaching up to 750), but my wlw content rarely surpasses 100. this just feeds the cycle of wlw never getting rep: if, like me, content creators become disincentivised by the lack of engagement with their sapphic content, they’re more likely to stop making/posting it, leading to further lack of rep—and when new content creators try to rectify that, they face the same problems. 

and then, of course, there’s the treatment of actual wlw in fandom. my best example of this is when my friend and i made an anti account on instagram (the first instagram anti account in that fandom), our bio saying something like “salty and bitter lesbians being salty and bitter”, and received an onslaught of lesbophobic insults and threats from angry stans within hours. (tw: r*pe) one commenter even went as far as to tell us that they wanted us to get r*ped. as well as this, i’ve seen so many instances of people using slurs against lesbians in arguments/in anons, often for no apparent reason other than they feel that they have the right. when i first mentioned i was a lesbian on instagram, my account only had about 200 followers, and within a day i lost 20. i also lose followers whenever i post f/f ships, not quite to that extent but enough for it to be noticeable, on top of the aforementioned engagement dips. in the face of all this adversity, i think a lot of wlw turn to mlm ships because they’re the closest thing we have to actual rep, but when we do we get accused of fetishizing them by the same people who fetishize us. there’s an endless list of double standards that non-wlw have been upholding for years, and i can firmly say that i’m really fucking sick of it. because of our sexuality, we will never be allowed to enjoy something without someone labelling it or us as dirty or otherwise problematic, when to them, the only problematic thing about us is that we aren’t pleasing men. 

as i mentioned before, the lack of rep for wlw in media is appallingly consistent, and part of that stems from tokenism. in a lot of modern mainstream media, you’ll have one, maybe two lgbt characters, and nine times out of ten those characters are white cis male gays. of course, there are exceptions to this, but generally, that’s it. script writers and authors (especially cishets) seem to have this mentality of, “oh, well, we gave them one, that’s sure to be enough!”, which means that on the off chance you do get your gay rep, the likelihood of also receiving wlw or any other kind of rep becomes practically non-existant. this belief that all marginalized groups are the same and that one represents all is what leads to misrepresentation on top of lack of rep, which is what makes tokenism so dangerous. if you treat your only gay character badly, you are essentially treating every single gay person badly in that universe. so not only is lesbophobia and disdain for wlw harmful to sapphic women via their exclusion in media, it’s also harming those minorities who do get rep. when people try to defend lesbophobic source material, that’s when fandom starts to get toxic. the need for critical thinking has never been more apparent and it has also never been less appeased—and wlw are getting hit hard by it, as always.

finally, a pretty big driving factor of lesbophobia is, ironically, lesbians. my lesbian friends and i often joke that though everyone seems to hate us, no one hates lesbians more than lesbians do. though i’d say it’s most prevalent on tumblr, i see traces of it all over the internet. the growth of alt right lesbian movements is not only reinforcing hatred for lesbians, but also reinforcing hatred for bi and pan women. here you have these terrible lesbians using their platforms to express their disgust for bi/pan women, for aces and aros, for trans women/nb lesbians, and people see them and say, “gosh, lesbians are just awful.” and just like that, all of us are evil. occasionally, lesbian blogs that i follow get put on terf blocklists for no other reason than the fact that they have “lesbian” in their bio. and the lesbians that actually deserve to be on those blocklists? they’re too busy spewing misinformation about trans women and bi women to care, boosted up by their alt right friends in an ever-expanding movement. i’ve found that this heavily influences fandom on tumblr, lesbians often getting branded as “biphobic” when they hc a female character as a lesbian rather than bi or pan. this criticism of both lesbians and wlw by lesbians and non-wlw alike only ever allows lesbophobia to grow, both in and out of fandom. that said, lesbians aren’t to blame for their own discrimination; rather, many of us have been conditioned into subconsciously endorsing it after spending our entire lives hearing heterosexual platitudes about lesbians and sapphic relationships. homophobic cishets are and always have been the nexus of this oppression—the only difference is that now they can hide behind alt right lesbians.

one thing has been made apparent to me throughout my time in fandom, and that thing is that no one likes to see men “underrepresented”. people hate sapphic ships and lesbians so much because there is no room for men, and men Do Not Like That. so, like the worms that they are, they slither their way in, be it through fetishization or condemnation of wlw characters and ships, and they ruin whatever good things we have going for us. the thing about worms, though, is that they’re easy enough to crush if you’re wearing the right shoes.

so to all my bi/pan gals and lesbian pals: put on your doc martens, because we’ve got ourselves some lesbophobes to stomp on. 

[dykedistortion]

Let’s compare wlw and mlm content in the tma fandom :)

Hi, I’m a bitter dyke, so let’s look at the disparity here. I’m using fic numbers on AO3, and looking at both the total number of fic for a pairing and ones where that ship is the only pairing present (because of the way AO3 filters, this excludes fic where this pairing may be the main one, but has side ships). This isn’t a perfect analysis because of the way ao3 filters and such, but I think it gets the point across. 

First of all, the three most written about ships on AO3 are all mlm, with it being Jonmartin, LonelyEyes, and then Jonelias, followed by Dasira and WTGFS. Those two are the only wlw pairings with enough fic to rank in ao3s filtering system. (These numbers are from August 2nd and have probably changed since then).

Dasira Total: 397                                                         Dasira solo: 125

WTGFS Total: 305                                                       WTGFS Solo: 91

LonelyEyes total: 487                                                   LonelyEyes Solo: 267

JonElias Total: 428                                                        Jonelias Solo: 242 

Jonah’s “Regency Harem” (no solo applicable, yes I added all these up myself): 200

Intershipping between the “””””regency harem”””””: 22 total

Let’s break some of those numbers down, shall we? 

In terms of solo fic for both, Jonelias has almost 3 times as many fics as what the girlfriends. Barnabus Bennett, a character mentioned in exactly one statement, and Jonah Magnus have 74 fics, in the same range as what the girlfriends. Lonelyeyes is the second most written about pairing on AO3 and overall very popular, despite the fact that Peter Lukas only became a major character at the very end of season 3 and through season 4. For both Lonelyeyes and Jonelias, over half the fics written about them have them as the only pairing, and more undoubtedly have them as the main ship with side pairings. This is not the case for either wlw ship. I wouldn’t be surprised if the “regency harem” pairings reached or surpassed the total number of wtgfs fic within a few months. Sure, Dasira is doing much better, but how many of those fics do you think focus mostly on them, and how popular are those fics? Do they get as many comments? Fanart?

But even without the specifics (which do depend on what ships you compare specifically), it’s clear that mlm ships are just more written about. But they aren’t just more popular, they are popular regardless of their basis in canon. Nobody has to ship only canon things, I get that, I bring this up to just really highlight how much more people faun over male characters/ships compared to any wlw. 

None of the mlm ships discussed here are canon, particularly not as romantic relationships. None of them. Lonelyeyes has been addressed by the cast and members of rusty quill, sure, but it’s not actually romantic in the text. A very similar ship is Dasira, in terms of not being canon but popular fanon. But guess what! Lonelyeyes is STILL more written about and more popular, despite its recent introduction and the fact that Daisy and Basira have been around for two more seasons. Jonelias isn’t even remotely canon, and yet! Do I even need to talk about the popularity of Jonah Magnus being shipped with a bunch of dead white men mentioned in ONE statement each? The massive amounts of content produced for these characters in comparison to wtgfs, a canonical, healthy romantic relationship between two primary characters with their own individual arcs, who not only give statements but play an important role in the plot? 

Like. My personal feelings on these ships don’t matter, that’s not the point, and I’m only discussing their basis in canon/lack thereof just to illustrate the disparity here. It doesn’t matter if the male characters involved even have actual characterization, or how much importance and nuance the female characters actually have. Without a doubt, mlm ships are more popular and more written about, No Matter What.  

I’m not saying you can’t like these characters and write about them, I have no power over you!!! Frankly, I’m genuinely impressed with the amount of character and story people have created around the Victorian statement givers, even if they’re not my cup of tea. I’m just asking non-wlw/lesbian TMA fans to put even a FRACTION of the effort that goes into mlm pairings towards the ladies. Like, just make an active effort. Be conscious of it and work to do better, please. 

[saevrusarch]

A hodgepodge-y analysis of why Severus fits the doe patronus very much, why he and Lily shared the same patronus form, and why perhaps the doe patronus might not be the best for Lily.

So, it is pretty much fanon knowledge that a patronus is a representation of a wizard's soul, and everyone knows that Severus' patronus is a doe ━ more specifically an albino doe. Now, I will start by describing my reasons for as to why he and Lily share the same patronus form. From the moment they met, Severus and Lily were immediately drawn to each other; aside from the whole magic thing, there was a connection there that they hadn't felt with anyone else. Almost like something had finally settled within them, like they finally belonged.

A single soul cannot inhabit two bodies, but the situation with Lily and Severus is that his soul is an echo of hers. In the same way a vengeful spirit is the echo of the person it once was in life, Severus' soul is an echo of everything Lily's is. They are two sides of the same coin, so while Lily is the positive ━ extroverted, happy, all bright colours and sunshine ━ Severus is the negative ━  introverted, melancholic, softer colours and moonlight. Severus' soul being Lily's echo is the reason why his patronus is an albino doe; this being represented by the fact that his patronus is lighter, a lot less silvery and more white ━ haunting, eerily beautiful.

The deep connection and friendship they experienced was these two parts coming together, an eclipse of sorts. Now that that's out of the way, I will point out why Severus fits with the doe patronus much more than Lily does.

There are a lot of particularities belonging to female deer that do not match with the personality Lily was given, but fit very nicely with whom Severus is described to be. There are also things that can explain their childhood and why they were so at ease with each other and became such good friends.

Let us start with the things that do match.

Does live differently than males do, they are more social, and often live and travel in groups. In these groups, they look out for one another ━ for example, a white-tail doe sensing danger will flee the area with the white of her tail exposed, serving as a silent warning signal to the others. Each social group is led by a matriarchal female, this alpha doe is in charge of the herd, and warns the others when danger is approaching by snorting loudly or stamping her front hoof.

Here we can link to their first years pre and during Hogwarts, where it was Severus and Lily against the world. Also his great respect and willingness to do whatever Lily told him to do ( him perceiving her as the alpha doe ). Lily standing up for Severus whenever James antagonized him, and how they were generally very protective over each other.

Unfortunately there is where the similarities end.

Social and shy, deer have a rigid social structure that determines territory and breeding rights as well as ensuring their safety. A doe's social status can determine her responsibilities within a herd.

From the very beginning, even before Hogwarts Severus was incredibly aware of his social status and position in which it left him, and he unlike Lily, did not try to fight it directly. He climbed his way to the top slowly, battling his way up silently. He knew his place when he arrived at Hogwarts, and acted accordingly; keeping his head down, trying to make himself useful to his housemates. And when he left, now with a better status, he no longer accepted to be mistreated.

Deer are alert to danger and will respond quickly, usually by running away and/or seeking cover but sometimes lying up in or running into wide open areas where they can assess threats.

This clashes with Lily's very confrontational personality, she would not run away from a fight, standing up to James the most popular guy and not backing down. Contrasting with Severus, who knew when he needed to back off, who was not opposed to running to reassess a situation.

Deer are great escape artists, and that is another key to their successful strategy for survival. Their style of escape is a high speed sprint which puts obstacles between themselves and their pursuer. They can also play cagey tricks: they might hide and remain hidden until the predator is very near, and then make an explosive escape —they're gone down a well known escape route before the confused predator knows it. They will cross their own path — sometimes circling and crossing many times — to make their trail confusing. They will slink away on their bellies. They will walk in water to delete their trail, and will even hide by submerging themselves in the water, using their noses like snorkels. They are also known to run near other deer trying to shuck off the predator onto another unlucky animal.

This here is the biggest divergence from Lily's personality to Severus' and why he fits so well with the doe patronus and Lily doesn't. Severus at his very core is a survivor, everything in him is about  self-preservation, it is one of his most basic and core instincts that never really faded and only got exponentially bigger as he grew up. It is what makes him the best and only spy of the Order, it is what makes him 1/3 of Voldemort's best and brightest Death Eaters. He is a master at fleeing, at running circles around the most dangerous and smart wizards of his time and he has constantly succeeded. He keeps allies close and enemies even closer, and has no qualms about throwing someone under the bus to achieve the end goal.

Female deer also display aggressive behavior. Does, like bucks, use the ear drop, hard look, and sidle body language. However, since they don’t have antlers, they use their front feet to determine their dominance. If the preliminary body-language threats are not effective, the dominant doe lunges at her adversary and then strikes out with one or both front fee. As a last resort, the fighting does stand up on their hind legs and slash out at each other with both front feet. Their sharp hooves are wicked weapons, and the does do not bluff or fight mock battles.

This ferocity can be seen in Lily too, but not to extent it is seen in Severus. Lily is essentially a very good person, she is very idealistic in the way that her world is black and white, good or evil. And so I doubt she'd kill someone if she thought she could make them see the "light" or bring them to their side. Severus has no such issues, he fights to win ━ always. And he is brutal, you won't get mercy from him if you cross him, or if you're in a life or death situation and your life stops him from reaching his goal.

And here we enter the post Lily part of Severus life and how her death affected him and his behaviour.

Mother deer know that their presence near their babies alerts predators to the fawns' existence, which puts them at risk. In order to keep her young safe, a doe will leave her fawn in a secluded area, often for as long as 12 hours, distracting predators away from her baby while she forages for food.

The alpha doe of the herd is the one that teaches young deer necessary survival skills, where to find water and food and where to seek cover.

While he took the role of secret "guardian", Severus knows it is not wise for him to be close to Harry; not that he would want to anyway, but it can put him at risk. The sight of them being anything but unfriendly to each other could raise suspicion within the Dark Lord and that would ruin everything Dumbledore had planned. Severus is a teacher, he has been teaching Harry everything he had to know to defeat Voldemort and the trials he’d find since his very first day at Hogwarts whether Harry realized it or not, those were survival skills he passed onto Harry ━ the fawn. 

A doe will sometimes protect her fawn if the predator is small, but more often she will not. Many fawns are lost to predators and does frequently must stoically move on without the fawns they produced, this breeding season a loss. The mother-fawn bond can also be broken in cases of starvation in which a doe will drive her own fawn away from a food source. That is nature's strict law for the species: the most likely to survive come first. A doe can make more fawns, but she must be fed, alive and healthy to do it.

Again, a Doe's survival instinct can surpass its motherly instinct, and that is why Lily shouldn't have a doe as the representation of her soul. This is the woman who laid her life down at 20-something to save her child, with no guarantee that it would work. Severus however, is much more representative of a doe, his survival instinct is incredibly high more so than anyone, and he makes sure he is always the most likely to survive. Here we can exemplify Severus pressing down on Quirrel, but remaining "passive" against the Dark Lord and his assaults to Harry's mind until the very last possible moment. Also the fact that he killed his own father to ensure his position within the Death Eaters, securing a more stable financial situation.

The Doe patronus may look soft and cute, motherly even, and I suspect that is the reason Lily was given this particular form ━ not only to match James' and his stag, but to represent her fragility ( which she had none, being a mother and a woman is not being frail ). Though the reality is very much the opposite, Does are ruthless mothers and will leave their fawns if it means they cannot survive. And that is representative of Severus, who will leave any situation that is not beneficial to him, who only allowed himself to die because he had to, otherwise the plan wouldn't have worked and Draco and Harry would have died.