#snape critique

[doberbutts]

Back before Rowling outed herself as a great big TERF and HP became a taboo subject I literally had a [former] friend berate me for several days and then deliberately pick fights about it weeks and months later because I'd let slip that my favorite HP character was Snape. Not because I thought he was innocent or because I wouldn't acknowledge the bad things he's done, but because I like tortured souls and morally gray characters and bad victims and angsty sad boys with tragic pasts. And also Alan Rickman's a snack.

At some point they told me that they just couldn't see themselves being friends with someone who saw any value in the character whatsoever, and I probably should have known our friendship would take the wild downward spiral it did in the years following.

This repeated itself several times with various other media we had in common. Tony Stark. Joker. Every chance they got, they would demand I justify why I favored those characters and not the ones they preferred. Even when we agreed on characters from a specific series, they'd still pick a fight if I said literally anything remotely positive about a different character. Saying I understood where Anders was coming from, even though my choice like theirs was Fenris and I disagreed overall with Anders' methods and extreme behavior, resulted in them not speaking to me for several days and then picking fights every time I turned on my console to play.

Even mentioning my love for Tolkien turned into a fight because they felt the books were unsaveable and unsalvageable because of their lack of POC and LGBT characters (which is a critique I AGREE with) and became a "read better books" discussion.

At some point I had to be like "hey it actually kinda sucks to try to talk to you about anything I like because you're constantly negging on it, can you stop?" and even that turned into an argument because the takeaway was that I was supposed to change the things I like to be morally in line with *their values* rather than be annoyed that they were constantly needling me about how the things I enjoy make me somehow a bad person.

And that I think is why I am entirely done with this stupid fandom bullshit of people trying to assign moral value and purity politics to people enjoying characters or various pieces of media. I know the phrase "let people enjoy things" has been poisoned but also, fucking seriously, let people have their favorites without being forced to justify at every turn why they like something.

[expectopatronum81]

I'll never understand why Lily is always just portrayed as a perfect social justice warrior who's some golden standard for the boys to try and reach up to and who's right all the time instead of an actual, flawed person. We hardly have anything about her in canon, so why do ppl insist on sticking to the same trope? I have often seen lily being portrayed as rather complex, in the sense of examining how the society impacts her, but not in the sense of being her being flawed or not immediately (or ever) right about/ good at everything

Prejudice is ingrained in the wizarding world, those fuckers like to hate on literally everyone, so there's a huge chance that their literature is going to be biased as well. Give me a lily who's trying to understand and navigate this completely new world with mythical creatures from scratch and who believes what the society tells her about them (even decent wizards like the Weasleys had certain prejudices, like against werewolves,half giants, and house elves,it's not just the Slytherins and DEs, so how can she tell what's right or wrong immediately?), and who takes a while to understand that it's the same sort of prejudice she's facing (much like ppl in the real world). Give me a lily who doesn't immediately, or ever, completely understand the complications of politics and the upcoming war as well as, say, characters like Sirius because, well, she's still a child who's new to all of this, and it's not the sort of thing she's ever had to concern herself with (unlike Sirius who grew up in a family that placed heavy influence on social standing). Give me a lily who's ready to make excuses for Snape not out of any reason that would make her look sympathetic, but simply because it wasn't affecting her personally until now (before anyone tries to point to that incident of her calling Snape out on his friends hexing Mary McDonald, she only raised concerns about Snape's company coz they performed dark magic, not because of their racist beliefs).

Or if that's too much to handle, we could at least stick to the few flawed things she does in canon. Like when she doesn't care to listen to Snape's version of the werewolf incident and relies on rumours instead, or when she almost smiles when Snape's pants are being exposed in front of a jeering crowd. People try to spin that around too to make Lily's perspective understandable and sympathetic, and sure, everyone has their own takes, but idk, there seems to be this great necessity to make it such that she's not viewed in a negative light for anything

Hot take, but ppl like to go on abt how women in fiction or in the fandom are critiqued too much, how people can't handle complex female characters, and how much they support women's wrongs, but they always end up confining female characters to being Good and Right all the time and characterize any constructive criticism/negative portrayal of the character as being wrong or mysoginistic.

[whinlatter]

The broken family bond between Harry and Petunia!

wow while usher was dancing his socks off at half-time you were thinking about petunia dursley née evans' malicious treatment of everyone's favourite grouchy knobbly-kneed jock... what does this say about you anon? look inwards

i feel terrible that i do not have too many thoughts about the broken family bond between harry and petunia but i DO have thoughts about what harry represents as a challenge to the nuclear family unit and its associated class connotations that petunia cares so much about. one thing i have been thinking A Lot about recently is petunia's description of snape as 'that awful boy' in ootp (which ofc, at the time, harry thinks is a reference to james), and how petunia's ideas about class and social mobility colour her view of wizards and, by extension, her resentment and contempt for harry. sooo i have talked about that instead......... ctrl + f neoliberal renders 2 results below i'm so sorry

when we meet petunia in the canon timeline, she's a parody of a tory home counties suburban housewife, striving middle class in the very thatcherite neoliberal sense, all about the house prices and the pension pot, with her perfectly maintained peach home decor and pristine garden, with a husband who has made his money through a managerial position in industrial manufacturing, who sends her son to private school and monitors the material wealth of her neighbours and associates very acutely. we know that young petunia wanted to join wizarding society and was rejected by it, and we know that adult petunia now holds wizarding world and its culture in open contempt. we particularly know that petunia hated snape, and that, other than lily, snape was the first wizard she ever really met. to young petunia's eyes, snape had all the visible markers of poverty and of being working class ("They live down Spinner’s End by the river," she told Lily, and it was evident from her tone that she considered the address a poor recommendation.') nevertheless, by virtue of being a wizard, this shabby poor-looking boy was elevated above petunia as something particularly special, and sneered at petunia as lesser than him as a result. i think this is interesting, because i think young petunia processes her rejection from magic by starting to think of magic and wizarding culture as a perverse subversion of the class system she knows and believes in, where a visibly working class person can somehow be special and worthy. (we can speculate what she would make of james potter as her son-in-law - james, while obviously wealthy, is old money posh coded - he doesn't work for a living! - aka not at all invested in the hard-work discourse, keeping-up-with-appearances that the new money suburban types that petunia strives for).

why does this matter? i just think it's very striking that petunia's complaints about harry are so often expressed less in terms of the danger of his magic, than his threat to external perceptions of her and her family, and, especially, as a challenge to their class position

petunia makes critiques of harry's messy appearance, his misbehaviour at primary school (caused by his magic), his association with the criminal (sirius black) and the shabby (the weasleys), and his refusal to respect or show any deference to vernon and the family despite their great attempts to maintain the trappings of respectability. the particular horror of harry's presence in the dursleys' life, in petunia's mind, is that his existence makes her family an alternative blended family, which compromises all that petunia holds dear in terms of the trappings of middle class respectability that puts a great deal of social capital on the nuclear family unit and no deviation from it. i don't mean to suggest petunia only perceives magic as a class threat, or that she doesn't fear harry's magic as something dangerous. her response to dudley's dementor run-in proves how much she fears what magic can do (and, ofc, she knows what happened to lily). but what's striking in DH is that petunia is still umming and ahhing, as vernon is, about whether to go into hiding. unlike movie!petunia in that deleted scene, book!petunia still isn't convinced about 'what these people are capable of'. for this reason, i think petunia has come to think of wizarding culture in terms of a fundamental challenge to the class system she understands and upholds, and to the primacy of middle class new money neoliberal suburban identity that is petunia's entire worldview. and that's really the source of her beef with harry: not his threat to her safety, but to her class identity, which is adult petunia's whole world.

[souryam]

I've recently gotten severus/snily brainrot but I've only found 1 or two good fics about them so far. Do you have any recommendations?

I should start saving the fics I read bc everytime ppl ask I pause 😭 I only remember these now, def my favorites tho!

Seventeen Moons by we_built_the_shadows_here

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15042299

this is my favorite of this author but the other fics are pretty good too (but sad and more dark!snily if i remember well so. be warned). It's a fluff one shot of an AU where Severus becomes a werewolf after the prank and Dumbledore assigns Lily to take care of him. Pretty interesting to me bc the first full moon is post SWM, so it even touches on that. Also, lily characterization is amazing

Come Once Again and Love Me by laventadorn

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13844247

It's the cliche "snape dies and comes back to his 15 yo self" but this time isn't weird bc Lily ALSO came back after she died so she isnt a rlly teenager <3 .My only critique about it is that I think it ends too quickly 😭 It's lovely tho

[writerthreads]

How to write morally grey characters

By WriteAway on Servicescape

Morally ambiguous characters are those that are not simply heroes or villains. They fall somewhere in between, and as such, add a layer of depth and complexity to your story. The truth is that most humans in real life are not pure angels or simply bad people, but rather hold elements of both. Morally ambiguous characters can drive the plot in interesting ways, allow for great character growth, and sometimes end up being some of the most memorable characters in a book.

Morally ambiguous characters can start off with good intentions and then be driven to evil by others or by society, or they can start off evil and come to redeem themselves. Alternatively, they can remain ambiguous and complex throughout the whole narrative, and leave the reader to make up their own mind about them. Either way, these characters certainly make us think about the nature of good and evil and the complexity of the human psyche.

Give them a backstory

Understanding where they came from is important for any character, but it's particularly crucial when your characters are morally ambiguous. Often, the struggles the character went through in the past go some way to explaining their negative character traits now, or at least make us empathise with them a little.

The backstory is important for character development, and it is a great place to explore ideas of personal responsibility vs critiques of society and the results of terrible experiences. Whether your character was bullied as a child, pushed to the margins of society, or something else entirely, give them a rich background that helps us understand why they act the way they do.

Understand their motives

All characters should have needs and desires, and reasons they do the things they do. Often, when it comes to morally ambiguous characters, their motive is exactly what causes them to slip up and do morally questionable, cruel, or destructive things. This can be true whether or not the motive is itself a good one or not.

A morally ambiguous character can be a wonderful opportunity to explore the idea that the ends justify the means, and the corrupting force of power. Whether your character's motives are good but lead them to terrible actions, or whether it is precisely the selfishness of the motives that lead to your character's downfall, give them goals and desires that force them (and the reader) to grapple with choices and dilemmas. And the motives don't have to be as dramatic as the ones mentioned – as with Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, it can be something as simple as a desire to win back a lover that leads a character into moral ambiguity.

Give them a weakness

Going all the way back to ancient Greek tragedies, the idea of the hero with a fatal flaw has lived on in literature for thousands of years. A morally ambiguous character may be fundamentally good, but marred by a particular weakness, such as cowardice, vanity, shame, or anger. The characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are full of fatal flaws. For Daisy Buchanan it is her vanity and desire for wealth and admiration. For Jay Gatsby it is his love for Daisy, as well as his shame surrounding his background.

Your character's weakness doesn't have to be the ultimate cause of their downfall or even their central character trait. The main point is that they have certain elements in their nature that challenge them, tempt them, or cause them to struggle. It doesn't matter what they are, but weaknesses make morally ambiguous characters more believable, layered, and human.

Give them redeeming qualities

This goes without saying, but you can't have a morally ambiguous character without giving them some redeeming qualities. Whether they are primarily good but are driven or tempted to wicked acts, or whether they are basically villains with good motives or elements of kindness, there needs to be some level of balance.

Severus Snape is often cruel and sometimes corrupt, but he ultimately makes the right choices where it matters. The Artful Dodger is a thief and ultimately betrays Oliver in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, but he also helps Oliver and displays feelings of sympathy towards him. Moreover, his actions can be understood in light of his circumstances and experiences.

In the end, it doesn't matter where your character falls on the scale of morality. The important thing is that they have a believable and interesting combination of motives, flaws, and redeeming qualities. If you can get these elements right, you will have yourself a really fascinating, morally ambiguous character.

Let them grow and change

Character arcs are essential to good storytelling. No character should be exactly the same at the end of a book as they were at the beginning. The mechanics of plot are important but are ultimately meaningless if they don't cause development on the part of the characters. However, when it comes to morally gray characters, the way they change throughout the narrative is particularly important.

George R. R. Martin is a master of the character arc. Both of the Lannister brothers are not presented as particularly praiseworthy at the beginning of the series. Tyrion, while harmless, is shown to be philandering, selfish, and lazy. Jaime Lannister, on the other hand, is an outright villain, as he pushes a young boy out of a high window just to protect the reputation of him and his sister. Both go through redeeming character arcs, with Tyrion becoming a paragon of thoughtful justice with a commitment to seeing good prevail. Jaime has perhaps the most striking redemptive arc of the series, but his love for his sister is the fatal flaw that spells disaster in the end.

Many supervillains and other characters experience the opposite type of character arc. In the recent Joker movie, we observe the Joker not as a simple villain, but as someone who was pushed to evil from his experiences and the cruelty he suffered at the hands of society. He begins as a sympathetic character, but by the end he is without question a villain. However, it need not be as black and white as this. Jay Gatsby's weaknesses certainly lead to his downfall, but it is up to your interpretation whether he is ultimately a tragic character or someone who has received his comeuppance.

As we can see, a character arc need not be simple or go only in one direction. Your character can struggle continuously with moral questions, leaving the reader unsure up until the finale what side they will end up on. You can end your book and leave it ambiguous whether the character was ultimately good or evil, or perhaps a very human combination of the too. The main point is that the experiences they have and the actions they undertake throughout the novel must affect them in some way, so that they develop as a character.

Keep the readers guessing

The previous point touches on this, but one way you can keep readers fascinated throughout the whole book is to keep them guessing about the true moral nature of the character and what they will do next. Severus Snape is a prime example of this. We as readers are left unsure right up until the end of the series whether his loyalties lie with the Death Eaters or with the Order of the Phoenix and those fighting Voldemort. In fact, people still argue about whether Snape really redeemed himself enough to be the namesake of one of Harry's sons or not. If your character causes arguments, you have done something right!

There are multiple literary devices you could use to keep your readers guessing. You could pepper little hints throughout the narrative that show the possibility of redemption or allude to potential disaster. Instead of revealing what the character is thinking, you could merely show us their actions, leaving us to interpret them. Alternatively, you could be explicit about the mental struggles the character is going through when making moral decisions. Whatever your method is, leaving things uncertain and keeping various possibilities open is what makes the audience want to keep reading.

Give them difficult choices

Choices often drive plot and character development, and difficult decisions are a central way in which authors can allow ambiguous characters to struggle with moral questions and keep readers guessing. The choices that these characters make can redeem them or be the catalyst for their downfall. Snape's decisions to join the Death Eaters and later to leave and join the fight against them, is the cornerstone of his character development and much of the plot of the Harry Potter series. Jay Gatsby's initial decision to lie to Daisy about his background is the key choice that leads to his life of dishonesty and unhappiness.

In many cases, the choices that characters make are key events that determine the shape of a book. They are also great opportunities to explore difficult moral questions and dilemmas. Maybe your character has to choose between the greater good and personal desires. Perhaps they are faced with a decision that hinges on loyalty to loved ones versus making the moral choice. They could be tempted by greed, vanity, cowardice, or anger. There are so many difficult choices you can force upon your characters.

Not only can such decisions drive the narrative of a book, but they can also make readers think about very real dilemmas they face in their own lives, and broader questions about the nature of "right" and "wrong." A really good book doesn't just entertain us, but makes us think and forces us to come to our own conclusions. It makes us consider things we may not have before and leads us to apply ideas to the real world, no matter how magical the setting of the book is.

Focus on relationships

Often, the decisions that a character has to make and the experiences they go through are closely linked to other characters. In the case of Frankenstein, the central relationship is between the monster and the scientist who created him. It's not a relationship that involves much contact, but it is what the narrative revolves around. Relationships can redeem, such as Snape's love for Harry's mother Lily. Alternatively, they can cause a character's downfall, such as Jaime Lannister's incestuous relationship with Cersei or Gatsby's obsession with Daisy Buchanan. Relationships are a great motivating factor for morally ambiguous characters, whether they lead to temptation, redemption, or other moral challenges.

In addition to that, it's important to consider the conflicting motives and forces informing all of your characters. Although not all your characters need to be morally ambiguous, they should all be complex. Even the most heroic character can struggle with temptation and can make the wrong choice from time to time. Even the evilest villains should have elements that we can empathise with or moments of kindness. Otherwise, they are nothing more than a caricature. That does not mean that you cannot have people who are essentially good and those who are essentially evil. However, inserting a little ambiguity into all of your characters makes them more authentic and human. Each character should be well-rounded, believable, and multifaceted. Writing explicitly morally ambiguous characters can help you make better characters all round.

[redheadspark]

7. falling asleep on each other for your February Prompts with Oliver

A/N - STELLA! I love this request for Oliver, thanks to this, bestie!

Break

Summary - Oliver reminds you to take a break

Warnings - Small angst and mostly fluff :)

“Come on, Oliver.  We need to focus,”

“How can I focus when this is boring?”

“It is, but our marks can’t mirror that,”

Oliver rubbed his temples in exhaustion as you were thumbing another page in the Potions book that you two were sharing.  The Common Room was quiet, with only two other students there while you and Oliver were sitting side by side in the front of the fire on the floor, your backs against the couch, and two butterbeer that were halfway done on the small coffee table to the side.  With a massive exam coming up, thanks to Snape and his thirst to make the student’s life miserable, you wanted to make sure you weren’t going to fail in that course.  All of your other classes were easy, except Potions.  

Luckily, your friend and fellow Gryffindor Oliver Wood was in the same boat as you.  He too was struggling a bit in Potions and needed a study partner.  No matter that he was the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, he too was under Snape’s watchful eye and critique.  He thought of the bright idea of you two studying together after dinner when you two had an open night.  Outwardly, you were remaining cool and calm when he asked you at lunch in the Great Hall, but inwardly you were giddy and almost too excited.  

Simply because he’s been our crush since you two were first years and got sorted together.

Of course, he didn’t know, barely anyone knew that you had a massive crush on him.  The only person, or people to be specific, were the Weasley Twins.  How they found out about your feelings for Oliver, you had no clue, but you were mortified and pleaded with them not to say a word.  They swore to secrecy, and though they’ve had a streak of playing tricks and pulling legs on their friends in the past, you knew they wouldn’t say a word to you.  You were grateful to them keeping that secret to themselves, and simply being your good friends through and through.

“What are the ingredients again?” Oliver asked groggily as he took a long sip from his butterbeer mug.

“I don’t even remember,” You mumbled, sighing in defeat as you planted your forehead on the book in a huff.  Oliver smiled, thought you were feeling stiffness in your neck and along your backside. Your head was filled to the brim with potion ingredients and portions that you were seeing double, if not triple.  

“Hey, come on.  Ya said yourself we gotta focus,” Oliver said to you as he was sitting next to you as you huffed.

“I’ve read the same sentence now at least 6 times…I wanna either cry or throw this book against the wall or set it on fire.” You mumbled into the book, “Or maybe I’ll cry, that might be better,”

Oliver placed his hands on your arms to get your attention, you felt his calloused fingers and palms through the thin shirt that you were wearing and it made you shiver a bit.  The way his hands were on your arms, being gentle like you were made of glass, it made you feel flushed in your cheeks.  Even when you knew how fierce he was with his hands when he was on his broom playing quidditch, or how he would use his hands widely when talking about Quidditch between classes with his classmates.

“Let’s take a break,” he said softly, giving your arms a very gentle tug to have you sit up and rub your eyes tiredly and with a hint of frustration.

“I don’t need—“ you were about to argue when Oliver shook his head and pointed to the book.

“This can wait, we need to take a breather,” Oliver explained as you were learning back a bit against the couch as he slammed the book closed to toss it out of the way, “The last thing you wanna do is get in over yer head,”

You eyed him, seeing him give you a reassuring grin as he placed his hands in his lap.  The soft glow of the fire on his face made his brown eyes brighten in the cozy common room, it made your heart go a bit faster while Oliver spoke again.

“I get stressed out at Quidditch too,” he admitted to you in a shrug,” But sometimes I needed to take a break and take a deep breath, ya know?  Plus, it’s just Potions we’re dealin’ with here, nothin’ important,” 

You snorted, a small smile on your lips as Oliver cracked a grin and then gestured to the fire, “I think we should get our minds off of Potions for a few minutes and just…talk.”

“Talk?” You asked in an unmasked tone, Oliver nervously laughing.

“Yeah, since I figured askin’ ya to study with me was more of an excuse to spend time with ya,” he admitted, you looking at him with a hint of shock as he bit his lower lip and looked at his hands that were fiddling in his lap, “You’re great friends with Fred and George so I figured I wanted to get to know ya a bit more, ya know?”

You never figured that Oliver would want to spend time with you, you two were simply housemates and classmates at best. He had his own circle that he hung out in and you had yours, in the end, it seemed like your paths would never be intertwined.  But now, seeing next to him in front of a cozy fire and feeling as though you two were the only being in the castle, your heart was shifting.  

“What’s your favorite sweet at Honeydukes?” You asked him suddenly, Oliver pausing for a brief moment from the random question before breaking out into a massive grin.  In that smile along, being shoulder to shoulder with him, Oliver Wood looked beautiful.

“Chocolate Frogs,” he said in a breath, you giggling as he spoke again, "I don’t have a massive card collection like Ron, but I just like eatin’ them.  How about you?”

“Lemon Drops, I prefer the sour over sweet anyways,” You said to him flawlessly.  You both fell into a conversation about everything you wanted to know about one another.  It felt better to talk about your hobbies and how you felt about certain professors, laughing throughout the night and finding the comfort level of each other getting better. It felt like you were gaining a new friend with Oliver, someone to lean on and someone to confide in.  And it was the same for Oliver, finding the small amount of time with you memorable.

Fred Weasley would sneak into the Common Room in the wee hours of the morning to fetch his jumper he left askew on a chair, finding you and Oliver asleep with your head on his shoulder and Oliver’s cheek against your hair.  The fire was long gone now with simply the embers glowing and glittering, but you two were snuggled together and not caring that you were curling up not the couch.  

Fred had to smile, dropping a massive maroon quilt over the pair of you before he snuck back to his dorm to leave you two be.

The End.

February Prompt Session

[dogstarmoonheart]

my beatiful boy

Sometimes, I let my baby brother read through my stuff/go through my account.

He’s 16 and so I feel he’s old enough to understand and appreciate "the marauders era".

I’ve lately realized that age isn’t the problem..

He’s my biggest critic of all.

“Haz, this is cringe..” “Hazel, this doesn't even make sense.” “Hazy, you do realize they’d never say that”. 

Most wips I’ve written have been thrown out because of the little bastard.

He's speaking from the perspective of a 16-year-old boy who thinks Wolfstar is stupid, James Potter a bastard and Severus Snape a hero. Still, nobody's critique affects me more.

he’s a bit like that food-critic in Ratatouille

[celestemagnoliathewriter]

#26 for any hogwarts professor 😁

Thanks for the ask, @evesaintyves!

Since 26 is a freebie question, I'll go with #8 and Severus Snape.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

All right, so laying out the cards right away: I am truly very neutral about Severus Snape. I don't hate him and I don't think he's an evil bag of evil. I also don't think he's the greatest character, though he is certainly one of the most interesting ones in the series.

I would say that what I hate that the fandom does with Snape is swing too far in either direction of worship or hatred. I think hatred is where I see a lot of people land, and though I'm not Snape's biggest fan, I don't think the hatred is necessary. Dislike, yes, but outright hatred and writing him to be an evil gargoyle stuffed with tons of evil little slugs that all poop evil, is just not right to me.

It also speaks volumes to me that Snape is not conventionally attractive by any means, and while he is hyper complex, I don't see people woobifying him or making him into a soft boy like they do with Regulus or Barty Crouch Jr. Or Evan Rosier. Or any of those "Slytherin Skittles." We have a truly grey character on our hands, and the best I see from a lot of the Marauders fandom is hatred and dismissal of him, in favor of conventionally attractive boys.

Anyway.

Snape is arguably one of the most interesting characters in the entire series. He's a dick, but he's got a clever and dry sense of humor. He's a potions genius, but he's not a kind man. He's not a fuzzy or cute character, but he plays a pivotal role and he plays it well.

I have compassion for Severus. He grew up poor alongside Lily, and then he got sorted into the worst possible house for his social situation. Not only was he a half-blood, but a poor one, so he would've had to work hard to get to the point of being socially accepted. Even then, he was never truly going to fit in because of his blood status and poverty. I'm confident he had a difficult time as a young Slytherin, who was BFFs with a Muggleborn, and that was made worse by the terrorizing Marauders.

No, Snape isn't innocent, either. Remus (a VERY flawed character, we all know) said Snape gave as good as he got. But remember how unreliable of a narrator Remus is - he's going to say and do whatever it takes to save face. Snape created some truly nasty spells and presumably used them. He called Lily a Mudblood, but to put that in context, it was after James put soap in his mouth, hung him upside down, and threatened to take his pants off. Pants = underpants, so that's even worse to expose someone like that in front of a crowd.

My issue with adult Snape is that he's a gigantic shithead at the kids. On the one hand, I totally get the need to be strict in an environment like the potions lab, where one mistake could literally melt people's faces off. On the other hand, it's extremely cruel to make fun of children and bully them. I'm sure he had lots of amusement from his own quips, which are legitimately funny sometimes, but it's still such a dick move to make fun of kids.

That doesn't make him evil. It just makes him human (and petty AF). I don't write him often because I don't feel I get his voice right, but when I have written him, I try to have some compassion, as well as some critique, because while Snape is not a bucket of sunshine and rainbows, he has a critical role and without it, Harry couldn't have succeeded.

Character Ask Game

[rollercoasterwords]

about those prank thoughts... well i’d love to hear them sooo if you needed an excuse to write another essay here it is

kissing u on the mouth anon ok here we go here's the prank rant (warning it got super long):

ok so this is limited in scope because as i've said before, i've only been in this fandom for like ~1.5 years, so idk anything about how the prank was talked about/handled before this. BUT. what i personally have seen. is essentially:

atyd gets super popular via tiktok -> it becomes sort of "canon" (at least, amongst newer marauders fans) that The Prank was like...this really devastating event that tore apart the marauders friend group, because that's how it was characterized in atyd--despite the fact that in the actual canon, it honestly doesn't seem like as big of a deal -> since it becomes the New Canon that The Prank was Such A Horrible Thing, suddenly people begin talking (mostly on tiktok) about how awful and unforgivable it was for sirius to do something like that. this devolves into this big discussion of people saying either

it's completely out of character for sirius to do The Prank and he never "really" would have done it; we should just ignore that part of canon

The Prank is so unforgivable that it makes sirius a completely irredeemable character

The Prank is so awful that anyone writing it in a canon compliant fic should be showing every single marauder turning against sirius and everyone hating him/telling him what he did was so awful and wrong, and it should take a really long time and a lot of apologizing/changed behavior before remus ever forgives sirius

and this then got extended into debates about james' characterization; I saw sooooo many people talking about "james would NEVER just forgive sirius for something like that" "james would side with remus" etc etc etc

and the end result of all these conversations was that i saw tons and tons of people saying that the way The Prank was written in atyd was Bad. not just--oh, i didn't like it, though there was plenty of that too, but people acting as though the way it was written was a moral failing, as though mkb had failed to convey how Horrible and Awful of a thing the prank was, and in doing so she had allowed people to Sympathize with sirius's character, when he should have been Punished. suddenly everyone was climbing on their high horses about The Prank, talking about how unrealistic or out of character or "problematic" it was to write it the way it was done in atyd--which was ironic to me, because from where i was sitting, it seemed like it was atyd that had solidified this fanon idea that The Prank was Such A Bad Thing in the first place (again, at least amongst fans brought in by tiktok).

SO. my problem with this. setting aside the conversation of whether The Prank was actually That Bad in the first place (because i think it can be written as a more or less serious event, depending on how you interpret canon--but personally, i tend to interpret it as something Very Bad, so let's start with that premise) and operating under the assumption that it was, in fact, a really horrible thing that put not only snape + james in danger but also remus, since he could have been exposed as a werewolf--the thing that drives me up the fucking WALL about The Prank discourse is that it is, to me, just one example of this obsession with Morality and Punishment when it comes to "literary critique" (using that term loosely, because i'd argue that a lot of what these people are doing actually isn't literary critique) in the marauders fandom (post-tiktokifcation, at least).

like. specifically, it's this idea that something like The Prank would make sirius, as a character, irredeemable, and that it would be unrealistic for his friends to forgive him. that, to me, is just....such a strange interpretation!!! because if you are friends--close friends, childhood friends--with someone for long enough, they will hurt you. you will hurt each other. it is an inevitable part of being human that getting close to each other and staying close to each other often means hurting each other. and the closer you are with someone, the more they can hurt you. i have a childhood friend who is essentially like family to me, and i was cruel to her when i was fourteen. i was dealing with a lot of shit, and i was young, and i was mean. and we've both been cruel to each other in the nearly two decades we've known each other, and we've had explosive fights, but we have always found our way back to each other and forgiven each other, because that's the kind of friendship we have. i have another childhood friend who hurt me so deeply when we grew older that despite having my literal handwriting tattooed on her arm, we haven't spoken in five years, and will probably never speak again. that kind of hurt is a risk you take when you let people in.

so to me, the idea that a teenage boy raised in an abusive environment who has just run away a few months earlier, who is dealing with all that shit as well as the regular shit of just being a fucking teenager, would thoughtlessly and deeply hurt his friend--that isn't out of character! in fact, i think it's entirely in character, and i think it's a crucial part of sirius's relationship with remus and the other marauders. because the fact that remus is able to forgive sirius says something important about their relationship. what exactly it says will vary, to a certain extent, depending on the details of how you write the prank and characterize the characters, but overall--it's important because it's showing that their relationship is strong enough and close enough and important enough to both of them that they are able to move past this deeply hurtful event. and that, to me, is a WAY more interesting and impactful relationship to read about than a relationship where two people are always good and never hurt each other.

and regarding james--personally, i love the characterization that james forgives sirius "too quickly" or "too easily" after the prank, because i think it's an opportunity to explore one of his most important character flaws, which is that he cannot imagine that his friends would ever purposefully do something bad/harmful. like--this loyalty and belief in his friends is literally what gets him killed. what amazing foreshadowing to show that even when his best friend does something blatantly wrong, james still thinks--well, he didn't mean it. his intentions weren't bad. and obviously he's sorry--and he's a still a good person, because he's my friend, and my friends are good people. like THAT is how you write a character flaw!

and speaking of character flaws--this is also one of the best opportunities, if you're following canon, to really explore some of sirius's character flaws! and again, it's gonna change depending on how you're writing certain details, but in some way shape or form this is a very important mistake for sirius to make in order for his character to grow--obviously, something has to change afterwards, because otherwise how could remus forgive him? but what has to change? how does it have to change? good characters aren't meant to be static!!

it's just. !!!! The Prank is truly, genuinely, one of the BEST opportunities from canon that you can use you really explore these characters and their flaws and their relationships with one another. so it is genuinely BAFFLING to me to see sooooo many people condemn it and act like it's this atrocious thing, because i feel like it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what literature is meant to do. like--i've talked about this before on my blog, and i'll keep saying it til the cows come home, but fictional characters do not exist as moral blueprints. good literature should engage your critical thought, and "character does Bad Thing -> character is Bad" is not critical thought!!! like!! fiction isn't telling you how to live, it's asking you to think about the human condition--and part of the human condition is that people make mistakes, and they hurt each other, and they have to figure out how to keep living in the wake of that hurt!! The Prank is this plot point where you can bring up really tough questions, like--how does closeness with others leave us vulnerable to them? is that vulnerability worth the closeness? what role does intent play in measuring harm? what can we forgive? what can we not forgive?

i get that sometimes with fanfiction you just want fluffy happy brain-off fun, but you can find that if that's what you want, y'know? like--it's just so so strange and honestly concerning for me to see people act as though something like The Prank shouldn't be written just because it means giving characters flaws and exploring them.

in conclusion, The Prank is one of my favorite parts of canon, and i truly think it is so worthwhile to explore when writing and thinking about these characters, especially sirius. also--it is important to understand, both within and outside of literature, that having flaws and causing harm does not automatically make a person irredeemable. if we are going to live with each other we need to learn how to respond to people fucking up in ways that are not just: You Are Bad And Must Be Punished.

[bookcub]

discussion of harry potter under the cut

i was surprised how much i enjoyed rereading harry potter for class. it was so nostalgic for me, there are sections i have memorized . . .it was so pleasant to return to, i thought my feelings on jkr now would have made it unenjoyable but no, i was able to enjoy it

i will say there were things i noticed now as an adult reading that either had me excited or very 😬. the fatphobia of the 90s and 2000s was sooooo present, the way the text is so anti muggles (which is soooo counterintuitive!!), snapes behavior being allowed and not throwing him out were all upsetting to revisit.

i did love the friendships, they were adorable, mcgonagall is still a queen, all the mysteries woven together, the weasley family dynamics, harry being full of sass. . .it was fun!

i am glad i went back to the text, it felt illuminating about my opinions of the book and i still am interested in reading more critiques of the books (there are a lot of issues). it really proves that life is complicated and you can enjoy media you have critiques of.

[expectopatronum81]

Unpopular opinion☕☕

There's no doubt in the fact that the marauders era consists of the most flawed, complex and interesting characters in the entire series( excluding Dumbledore ofc). Sirius, Snape and Remus are arguably the most multi layered characters in the books. James and Regulus, despite being mentioned only for a few paragraphs, are remarkably well written keeping in mind that they are both dead before the series even starts. Each of these characters are layered, and have their flaws openly acknowledged and critiqued by those within the story, while simultaneously being loved for their good qualities and heroism. The books do such a beautiful job in showing this neutrality, which is miraculous considering they are all side characters and have limited amount of interaction with harry, who's perspective we get the story from.

And then there's Lily....

She might not be as complex as the rest, but she clearly isn't flawless either. She very nearly smiles while her supposed best friend is being assaulted in front of a huge crowd, and yet she's never called out on it by the characters in the story. Even harry, while in the stage of accepting that those he looks up to are flawed people (tho arguably he doesn't completely accomplish this), does not comment on this, choosing to believe that his mother had been decent as she had intervened. She also believes more in the rumors flying around the school over her supposed friend's personal account of the werewolf incident, which is again never addressed in the story ( in fairness we don't get harry's opinions on anything we see in the prince's tale; tho this is especially annoying with respect to lily as we don't get much from her in the first place).

We barely know anything about her apart from the fact that her sister hated her and that she was friends with the unpopular kid in school until he showed his true colours. Her character seems to solely exist to further more important, well rounded characters' narratives( ie snape's and petunia's). Everything we get about her (which are only positive attributes btw) is mere hearsay. Despite having a lot more scope, she's painted as this perfect character who's only job is to love her son (which, incidentally, James does as well, yet we do get to see characteristics outside this; we get to see both his good and bad qualities).

Which is why I don't really like the character of lily evans. Not because of anything she does per say( the others have done much worse stuff), but because of the way she's written. She's just this perfect mother whose flaws are never acknowledged or given any backstory for, thus making her an incredibly boring character and providing very little scope for a deeper analysis. And while I solely blame the author for this, it does nothing to make me care about or further my interest towards this character whatsoever.

[sophsicle]

hello

I don't mean this to be rude - I was just wondering what made you change your characterisation of barty and evan from your previous work in choices to kill your darlings?

I mean in choices, I think barty expecially was very antagonistic- what with him being an almost r*pist and an enthusiastic death eater, pretty happy with murdering

i was just wondering what made you change their characters to be more sympathetic? I don't understand it personally, but I know rosekiller as a ship has gotten extremely popular and its just flummoxed me

im just not sure what redeeming qualities they could have, especially with barty in canon being an absolute lunatic

although is that because this isn't a canon universe?

sorry if this comes across as rude or anything im just genuinely confused as to where all the hype and romanticisation around those 2 characters came from

your writing really is lovely though, i look forward to all other povs, and am especially excited for any future marylily!

Y’know I was literally talking about Barty earlier today

But why did I decide to change their characters? Cause it's a hockey/college AU so their canon characters would make no sense here?

Like I suppose I could make them alt-right-Nazis-incels or some variation thereof, but like, I very much did not want to do that, for so so many reasons, but partially because dealing with those very heavy themes was exhausting in Choices, and dealing with people’s reactions to those difficult themes was also exhausting and, idk, did not lead to healthy productive conversations. And kyd was supposed to be ... not that? Like with Choices, I very much had things that I wanted to try to tackle and dissect and deconstruct and complicate and critique and ALL of that. And like I said, it ended up being really very not a good time for me. But kyd was never supposed to be that.

So yeah I wanted to tone them down, and then Evan in Choices had elements of the dumb jock in him and I thought it would be fun to write that in a different context without the horrible parts of his character and so it kinda snowballed from there.

Look, I agree that in canon they have no redeeming qualities, this is just not remotely close to canon so I don’t see how it applies?

I mean I’ve taken elements right? Barty’s overbearing and controlling father, the idea that he’s leading a double life, his mother’s death etc.

As far as I know we don’t really have any information about Evan other than that he was a death eater so, take that away, and I feel like he’s basically a blank slate,

But there would be no point, to me at least, in writing another fic only to tell the exact same story with each character you know?

Obviously there’s crossover, but like, Snape and Regulus are also very different from how they were in Choices. Writing everyone the same would just be boring to me.

[crystal-lillies]

A Rambling First Thoughts Review + Critique of "Peter Pan and Wendy" (Disney+ 2023 movie) Spoilers ahead.

Okay for being called "Peter Pan and Wendy" I think aside from prequel iterations, this movie had the least bit of connection and bonding between Peter and Wendy that I've ever seen.

Wow okay, not even sure where to begin on the rest of my thoughts but certainly that was the first one. I didn't feel much connection between Peter and Wendy at all, and the story had very little justification for the emotional moments between them it tried to eke out, which is actually very difficult to achieve since the original source material has it baked in that all the adaptations, even the ones that twist the formula, have been able to adapt and grow off of.

Oof and I gotta say the movie rushed the beginning to really crawl through Neverland. I was shocked at how fast it was that they were already going, and it didn't really seem like an urgent event. Just like, oh yeah Peter's just gonna show up at your window and take you to Neverland one day kthxbai. Rather than it being a motivated decision for Wendy to say "I'm growing up tomorrow" (leaving the nursery, going away, etc.) but I don't want to, so I'm going to go and never grow up.

Also sidebar, Wendy my love, being an ass to your brothers is not endearing to your plight and is definitely new for this adaptation which was a Very odd take. And it could be argued by the end...or even the middle...she realizes her responsibility to take care of them and look after them in Neverland but that's a weak sauce character arc for someone who HAS one built in that's just as valid.

A really odd take for them NOT to double cast Jude Law as Mr. Darling and Hook. I actually would have liked to see his take on Mr. Darling. But RIP Mr. Darling had barely a personality at all or anything to do here.

And RIP Nurse Nana. Now you are just a dog with nothing to do, and no reason to be put out in the dog house.

And then Neverland, oh my dear place of literal dreams, what they did to you! Now, I am somewhat a fan of the Home Under the Ground being a castle ruin in this version, that's actually something close to how I've seen Neverland at least once. But it felt very empty, both the Home and the island. It was too...empty. And even though every iteration we know only the pirates, Lost Boys, Peter, the Indians, the fairies, and the mermaids live in and around the island, plus animals, all the other versions haven't felt so barren. Is it because Neverland became one large same-y landmass rather than a place that has mountains and lagoons and tropical forests and literally anything children dream of? Maybe that's part of it. But it's hard to place precisely. It doesn't feel lived in. The castle ruins didn't have beds or a table for meals. It had a neat rope swing and a fireplace yes, but it still just looked visually and felt empty, when a badass castle hideout could be so cool!

And regarding Hook and Peter having a history, having a tragic background. First, I'm not opposed to the friends to enemies take. Saw it done pretty well in the prequel special Neverland, though it was from a Fagin+Snape-like mentor to an orphan Peter who looked up to him, rather than two kids and one who grew up. But again, it may have worked with a different story. I don't think it was the right choice here, or at least it was not properly executed. The voice in my head kept saying, if Hook was a lost boy and Peter's friend and he KNEW where Peter's hideout was all along, then WHY hasn't he tried killing him before? The whole sticking point in the source and other adaptations was that he had NO IDEA where Peter's hideout was, otherwise he would kill him there!

Tiger Lily being a badass is never bad in my book, but once again, her service in the story feels unearned. I don't feel the bond between her and Peter, honestly. She had more of a connection with Wendy (and it caught me off guard how I immediately thought, "okay I would ship that" after their conversation en route to the hideout.) And then her tribe is just sort of there. Without much connection to the island, or to Peter. Tiger Lily calls him "Little Brother," but taking the movie as it is without reference of any other Peter Pan media, it doesn't feel earned from what we are given up to that point. It just feels like Tiger Lily being Peter's deus ex Machina, which really historically has been Tinkerbell, and that made sense given Tink and Peter's shared history and friendship. (Something that's also sadly toned back in this movie as well)

"Peter Pan and Wendy" is not even a poor live action adaptation of a Disney animated movie, it's just... a strange and lackluster adaptation of Peter Pan, which had been done successfully as a Disney animated movie. And I think that feels a bit more disappointing.

[urupotter]

Popular hp hot takes that you disagree with? (Nothing snape related, thats too easy)

I think the people who dunk on the JKR tweet about how wizards used to just shit on the floor and vanish shit away really don’t understand the universe at all. Is it silly and ridiculous? Yes obviously, but that’s a feature, not a bug. From the very beginning HP is meant to be a series with serious themes inside a ridiculous world, the world-building is purposely ridiculous and always was. It’s like complaining about them having a ghost as a history teacher. Is it silly? Yeah, but it’s part of the charm, it’s an intentional choice by the author.

I also disagree that Harry not being a revolutionary or challenging the embedded inequalities in the wizarding world is bad, Harry is already too much of a messiah. Harry defeats reactionary fascism and then goes on to live his life. This is critiqued for Harry being a lib, but liberalism is good. The series would be worse if Harry had ended the series a communist. (The House Elf plotline is bad, but not because Harry isn’t a revolutionary, it’s bad for other reasons, mainly lack of self awareness.)

Another one is that I don’t really think that Harry as a protagonist manages to embody the series theme about choices defining who we are all that well lol. Harry doesn’t really have much of a choice, he has to oppose Voldemort or die, he couldn’t really choose to be a Death Eater no matter how evil he was, you could transplant Lucius Malfoy’s brain into his body and Lucius!Harry wouldn’t be a Death Eater, evil as he is. The series tries to address this by saying that Harry would make the same choices even if he wasn’t hunted by Voldemort, but that doesn’t land either because a Harry that isn’t hunted by Voldemort isn’t really Harry anymore, he’s an entirely different person, Voldemort killing his parents basically derailed his life and fundamentally changed his circumstances since he was 1. So we don’t know if he’d make the same choices. Maybe a Harry raised by Lily and James is a spoiled brat with no empathy, maybe he’s an even better version of himself, it’s something we fundamentally can’t know.

I probably have more but that’s about it. Tried to pick ones that I believe my followers would find unpopular but who knows if I’ve gauged them correctly.

[shostakobitchh]

Ok so I know you teach music, what instruments do you think would work for the characters? Piano for Snape? Violin for Lily?

Snape is 100% a piano player, and he’s the worst kind, the kind that critiques other instrumentalists: “why can’t they just play in tune?” while he literally has an instrument where intonation isn’t an issue 🙄

Lily would definitely be a flutist. I don’t see her having the patience for a string instrument.

[mendely]

friendly reminder I'm not posting Harry Potter content. especially not anymore. enough is enough. best I can do is critique what the author says/does/chooses to give a platform to. other than that, sorry, I just am not a fan and I don't see myself ever becoming one.

P. S. Esdras is NOT Snape, thank you very much.