#the worst thing is that this show is not particularly tumblr compatible so i feel like there is not much content to look at

[lovethistoomuch]

me starting to watch law and order: it's so nice to just casually watch a show that is mostly story driven, to have the characters constantly change and not get too invested in anyone. i love this feeling of casual entertainment without being hyperfixated on any character/ship.

jack mccoy walks in with his goofy smile and strong sense of justice, immediately forming the cutest friendship with his assistant and being an absolute delight to watch.

me: oh no...

[wowsoboring]

Deconstructing Baseless Harry Potter Arguments#2 (i) : Harmione Edition

Obviously I once again do not mean to target all Harmione shippers. I know quite a few who're very good human beings and tolerant and accepting above all. However these aren't. In this case, you might sense quite a bit of levelheadedness in the beginning, however you must not be fooled as it goes south and takes a nasty turn very quickly. Don't get your hopes up, this is some of the worst shit I've ever seen, especially the way in which it progresses through its course. Naturally, for this post I have picked my own style of writing which will match that of those redditors. Reddit is the perfect breeding ground for all these weird cults, honestly. I shall be resorting to a formal language and style of conversation, very much like a debater would to sound as pretentious as these do. These posts are found on the instagram handle toxicharmonyshippers who gather such toxic musings and sayings for Harmione shippers while respecting the ones that are nice.

1)

Oh yes, let's use words like 'vehemently' to sound smart, why not? Of course, this little tidbit of the highly stupendous post seems more or less civil at the start. They also have the common decency to say "some Romione shippers" rather than generalizing all of us. Very nice of you, how very saint like. Let's wait till they drop the act and show us their true colors. Harkening back to the argument, I have but one question for you, "where do you find these people?". Where's the proof? Who are these radical Romione shippers who worship Ron and dislike Hermione? I haven't seen any such shippers and I am surrounded by Romione shippers on tumblr, instagram and fan fiction sites as well and haven't met the people you speak of. Some point out her flaws, yes, but no one hates her or dislikes her that much. I have seen two or three Romione shippers across hundreds and thousands who're skeptical of Hermione's perfection. Skeptical. Not hating, disliking, or anything. Of course, unlike this person, I have evidence: find these pi charts for your referral (clickable): https://imgur.com/a/QfPnQbB

you can, through these, see the amount of Hermione bashing across Harry Potter fanfiction and you can see that even in Romione fanfiction there's more Ron bashing. Hermione-bashing is a non-issue. That's what it is. Regarding the "nagging" statement, where's the lie in that? "Annoying" is somewhat subjective, I personally don't find her annoying at all. Who are these people and how often do you find them? "Mary Sue" is only reserved for Movie!Hermione. I have only seen book fans call her that. No one has ever called Book!Hermione Mary Sue. The movie does paint her as a flawless, all-rounder who's also drop-dead gorgeous. Only things she's bad at are flying and divination, all of which she denounces as useless, even though flying is like biking for wizards, divination, sure, not that important. with a teacher like Trelawney, even I would denounce it as hokum.

2)

Remember what I said about waiting for them to show us their true colors, well here they are. Bask in the glory of their senseless arguments. Why, I am from reddit, heck I have 25 thousand karma points on there, I just left because it was too stupid for me but I can argue like them very well. And in this case I would like to say that these people are under the impression that Ron is just there in the story for the sake of existence. And he doesn't work hard. That argument is of course, wrong. Because Ron (in no particular order):

1) fights a troll when he's 11

2) is willing to sacrifice himself when he's 11

3) stands up for his friends

4) makes sure Harry feels like he belongs in the family

5) worries about Harry and rescues him from literal jail

6) stands up against Draco rather than by-standing and enabling his behavior

7) tries his level best to make sure Norbert the dragon is in safe hands and carries it out, albeit not in perfection

8) is with Harry every step of the way in his confronting the basilisk

9) sends Harry and Hermione long letters and calls them often to check up on them

10) stands up on a bitten leg to defend his best friend

11) always apologizes for any of his mistakes and is forgiving when others wrong him

12) works his way to join the Quidditch team unlike Draco who most certainly bought his way in

13) destroys at least 2 horcruxes

14) finds out how to defeat a horcrux

15) has an excellent enough memory and observation to notice Harry speaking parseltongue and also using it to his benefit which proves he's resourceful

now since I have 8 more such pictures to rebut and I do have a life, I will stop. These aren't even a twelfth of the remarkable things Ron has done though, so rest assured.

oh wait what did you say about him just existing and not working for anything? If I recall correctly, he did just as well as Harry did in school and didn't score well only in subjects he didn't care about. Which is true for most people except for Hermione who has an eidetic memory which not everyone has, understandably. Rote memorization is not the best way to get by in life, by the way.

what are the "so many reasons" behind why Harry is the best fit for Hermione? Kindly share so I can rebut those too, I'm rather free nowadays, my finals have been cancelled. You say there are so many reasons but don't even give one, yet you want me to take you seriously. I'm afraid that's impossible.

Romione shipper here, i don't dislike Hermione. I haven't met or seen many people in the book!romione fandom who dislike Hermione (except for Movie!Hermione). The question of someone you like ending up with someone you dislike doesn't particularly make sense. In Friends, Chandler ends up with Monica: now I'm not the biggest Monica fan (I don't hate her but I don't like her very much either) but they are my favorite couple because they make sense. It's about compatibility and character traits, not liking or disliking because that's just a set-up for a ghastly invitation for people to pair up hideousness. "Oh yeah, I like Harry and I also like Hagrid, they should be together. I mean it would be very very disgusting but that's my logic, now, you can't fight it. "- that's how you sound. Please read what you write. Your logic is just...abysmal. That's all I can say without breaking my resolve and berating you with colorful profanities.

3)

This is without the doubt, the easiest one to rebut. It's a delight to see such terrible arguments at my disposal. Come on, dear Harmione shippers, write something that makes me question my choices, not things that make me scoff in disbelief.

In this case, you're essentially providing us with theories. Unproved theories and speculation of what you believe because you'd say anything you like. Where's the proof of your theory, though? Where is that crazy radical Romione shipper who does this? Kindly show me these people. Oh yes, you wanna say we objectify Hermione and disrespect her and view her as a prize. This aches me, that you believe this. No one has ever insinuated this, ever, in the history of anything. What is this winner-loser theory? How do you round off Harry Potter to "an alpha-male ends up with lead-lady" trope and still say you're a fan of the series? Harry Potter doesn't fit in with that format. Ron, Hermione and Harry are co-heroes. Similar to how there's no main character in Friends or the Heroes of Olympus series or the Avengers. We're not living in the 80s anymore. Hermione will be a hero, invariably whether she ends up with Harry, Ron or no one. She ends up with Ron and that's it. Talking about her like this doesn't make you sound any better either. Now you're calling me a misogynist because I don't support the ship of two people who describe themselves as siblings. That's very mature of you. Well here's the thing- I'm not a misogynist. It's as simple as that. I believe that women are capable of anything and everything. I believe Hermione is an amazing person and she is a hero and a different person. I believe the series would be impossible without her. I believe she is no one's prize. There's no requirement of a prize. I just think, similar to canon and the truth and her romantic interest, she will have a great relationship with Ron. There's nothing complex or deep about it, really. No personal weird-thing, no psychological complex, no internalized misogyny. There's nothing deeper than what I said. I am not sexist. I am a feminist. I am all for women empowerment. I love women with the fabric of my being. I love Hermione. I think she's amazing. You only become sexist when you ship people with unstable power dynamics, a bully-victim relation or something of the sort. Neither Romione, nor Harmione are sexist. Heck if you paired Neville with Hermione you wouldn't be sexist. And I hate talking about this so much, I can't even tell you. This talk does make it sound like I treat Hermione like an object and I assure you I respect her and I normally won't talk like this unless someone just outright calls me sexist for something that's not sexist. And this is that situation.

4)

in the case of Romione, no one is too good for anyone. Both are amazing people who're heroes and have done amazing work. That's all I have to say. There's no league, they are romantically interested in each other. I have no intention on sounding lame, but, in love there is no league. As long as you're not putting in any effort and are extremely lazy and leech off of your partner, there is no such concept and no, Hermione is not "too good" for him. Unless of course you're talking about movie Hermione, who is too good for anyone.

5) (halftime!)

oh yes they try to pull this off and wonder why we hate them. Classic. This person likes to sound british, so let's switch up our language, yeah? At least then I won't be out of my element. Let me correct ya, Ron at his best is an amazing, loyal, friendly, brave, strategic hero. There you have it. Ron and 'git' can't be used in the same sentence. Now if you talk about Ron's achievements, I re-iterate you to point two. If it's too much work, here:

1) fights a troll when he's 11

2) is willing to sacrifice himself when he's 11

3) stands up for his friends

4) makes sure Harry feels like he belongs in the family

5) worries about Harry and rescues him from literal jail

6) stands up against Draco rather than by-standing and enabling his behavior

7) tries his level best to make sure Norbert the dragon is in safe hands and carries it out, albeit not in perfection

8) is with Harry every step of the way in his confronting the basilisk

9) sends Harry and Hermione long letters and calls them often to check up on them

10) stands up on a bitten leg to defend his best friend

11) always apologizes for any of his mistakes and is forgiving when others wrong him

12) works his way to join the Quidditch team unlike Draco who most certainly bought his way in

13) destroys at least 2 horcruxes

14) finds out how to defeat a horcrux

15) has an excellent enough memory and observation to notice Harry speaking parseltongue and also using it to his benefit which proves he's resourceful

hey, see, I like Ron and I took the time to copy-paste this instead of asking you to scroll up. And I'm a lot of bad things but I am not lazy. I stick to my deadlines like Hermione. I start my homework in library class and continue it during phys ed the day its given. And I am not exaggerating. Bloody hell, I wish I was. I'm the ceo of deadlines, mate, don't tempt me! So you can see that Ron is much more than just a "nice bloke". And being a "nice bloke" isn't a bad thing either. He's all the things I said: intuitive, strategic, helpful, loyal and on top of that he's also a nice person. Yes, I do see a bit of myself in Ron. I do. I see the insecure side. I waste my time hating myself and criticizing myself and undermining myself, telling me I'm no good. But Ron overcomes that. He inspires me to appreciate myself. Is that a bad thing? Are you going to shame me for having a low self-esteem? Do you want to worsen my low self-esteem and make me feel more like shit?

Now the person who replied to your comment saying, "he isn't a nice bloke most of time.", he is. He is not being nice twice in a span of 7 years. How often do you act rudely or with jealousy? Wasn't Harry yelling at everyone in caps lock in OOTP. Now I don't condemn him for that because he's a fucking hormonal teenager like me and that would make me a hypocrite, but by your logic why don't you condemn him? Or why not condemn Hermione for saying "I only date good Quidditch players" and shoving canaries at Ron's face because someone else kissed him, while she kept using Krum and Cormac to make him jealous. She wasn't being a nice girl, then, was she? Now, once again, i don't dislike her or hold that against her because guess what, mate, I'm a hormonal teenage girl who gets jealous most of the time and would probably react in a similar fashion in the spur of the moment (Not defending her actions here, just putting myself in her shoes.) In short, Ron is a nice bloke MOST OF THE TIME.

6)

It would be misogynistic to think that. The thing is, NO ONE DOES my dear friend! My dear daft friend. I have never heard anyone say that! why are you so hell-bent on portraying us as misogynists when no one ever says that? Stop assuming. Just stop. You are crossing a limit here, aren't you? Yes you are. You cannot say these sort of things. We never said that or believed that, no one ever said this to be a reason to ship Romione. God what is wrong with you? Literally, stop fucking ASSUMING god damn it! Do you want me to assume things about Harmione shippers? Do you want me to go there? Because I will go there! I will go there the moment you tell me to. Just challenge me.

Ron is not a perfect best boi , the reason why so many of us like him is that he's imperfect and tries to become better through the course of time. You are once again assuming and I am once again asking you to stop.

Ron might be an ordinary wizard. He might be poor, sure, but he's a pure-blood and won't face much if he chose not to fight. But he did. He fought. Now I identify with Ron's attitude a fair bit, but I am also likely to spend my day in a library without noticing. People aren't one dimensional. Stop trying to act like you're a psychologist, i know you're not. I don't even think Hermione's overbearing at all! You just insulted someone you're a big fan of. Jesus.

Both Hermione and Ron are strategic, jealous, passionate, feisty, argumentative, intellectual...

that's like 6 similarities. They aren't polar opposites in the slightest. Their differences are just: workaholic, not workaholic. Nerd, not a nerd. Like that's fucking it, man!

8)

being relaxed doesn't make you less independent or driven. A relaxed and levelheaded Hermione will think through things, not be impulsive, not panic etc. She doesn't need Ron. I don't understand your obsession with acting like we ever insinuated that. Then she doesn't need Harry either lol. Stop shipping her with Harry, then or like shut the fuck up. Being a bit relaxed won't stop her or anyone from hitting great strides. Just don't get relaxed to the point you're lazy and casual about everything, that's it.

9)

What do you mean? Ron is balanced. He does finish his work on time. And even if he does procrastinate, she could also help him not and be more driven. Of course, this is an open invitation for you to call me a sexist bitch because I said that she could help him and now you'll think her goal is to help him become better yada yada yada. Fuck off. Defeating the horcrux taught him enough. He respected her. He remembered about the elves when she didn't. He begged to be tortured instead of her. He wouldn't need it because school work and jobs are different and the same person might perceive those differently. Calmness and relaxation doesn't hinder your potential. Not caring and laziness does. You can't function if you work and are stressed 24/7 with zero breaks. Period.

10)

No i do not want (nor does anyone want) Hermione to become Ron. Being slightly calmer doesn't change up your personality. I'm sure many people dislike those sort of fanfics without a doubt. I hate OOC and I don't want Hermione to lose her intellect with Ron because that makes no sense. Ron himself is intellectual and loves arguing with her. They'd boost each other, more like it.

-------

okay thats it i am exhausted as fuck. thanks for reading, i appreciate it. notes and reblogs are appreciated, this takes work.

[oumakokichi]

Hello! I want to tell you that I absolutely love your metas and I want to thank you for writing them. Ouma is my favorite character and it really hurts to go through his tag and see people hating on him without any solid reason. I loved your Amami/Ouma meta (I ship Oumami and now even more thanks to your meta), tumblr user komaedamnit wrote a similar one and it's wonderful how many parallels exist between them. What do you think their interactions would've been like if Amami hadn't died first?

Thank you, anon! I really understand the feeling. One of thereasons I wanted to start this blog was because I saw so many people coming toconclusions or making assumptions based only on incorrect information,sometimes without even having played the game yet. And I thought maybe if Icould clear some of those misconceptions up, people might be able to come totheir own conclusions with more of the facts in mind!

I’m glad if you enjoyed my meta on Ouma and Amami! Oumami isa really, really good ship—I’ve found myself growing pretty fond of quite a fewships involving many of the ndrv3 guys in particular, and I feel like given themany similarities and parallels that exist between them, there’s reallyexcellent room for theorizing as to how they might’ve interacted if Amami hadn’tdied so early on. I definitely have a few guesses as to how it might’ve gone—granted,these should probably be taken with a grain of salt since sadly there’s stillnot much canon information on how the two of them would actually interact.

Still, I can definitely see at least a partial-alliancehaving been struck up between them, had Amami survived Chapter 1. Assumingthere had been some twist in which maybe Kaede or Saihara, or both were stillinvolved and framed but Amami had lived, I wouldn’t even be surprised if Amamihad been the one Ouma fixated most of his attention on after the first trial.After all, Ouma is drawn to people who he can’t quite figure out, and there’s alot to do with mystery and intrigue regarding Amami, with everything from histalent to his backstory to his memories.

It’d be particularly interesting if Amami still intended toexpose the ringleader at some point in this scenario, too. His desire to endthe killing game once and for all, and without relying on an actual trap orattempted murder, is one of the most interesting and admirable things about himin my opinion, and it’d be fascinating to see some kind of scenario in whichthe 2-day time limit is offset by someone else dying (therefore postponing his attemptto expose the ringleader the first time around) and he keeps the whole planclose to the chest while trying to figure out the most opportune time to put itin action later.

Were he to give anything away in the Chapter 1 trial abouthow he’d planned to go to the library, or if he dropped any lines at all aboutperhaps having more information on the ringleader than the rest of them, Ithink Ouma would zoom in on that particular bit of information and decide thatAmami was absolutely essential to his plans to try and end the killing gamehimself.

Ouma’s not beyond putting aside his doubt and skepticism atleast partially if the other person he’s teaming up with is clearly an asset.He absolutely hated Miu’spersonality, for instance, and still could recognize that her talent was usefulenough that it would be stupid of him not to at least attempt working togetherwith her, and their partial alliance lasted presumably all the way fromprobably the beginning of Chapter 2 to midway through Chapter 4. If it camedown to teaming up with Amami, whose personality never posed any issues ofcompatibility unlike Miu’s, I think he’d recognize that it was a good decision.

The two of them would have made for quite an interestingpower dynamic starting around perhaps even as early as Chapter 2. Amami hasmore reliable information on the ringleader, and his research lab with thevideo message he left for himself provide the best possible clues as to whatthe other killing game shows were like. Ouma is an incredible strategist, andif he were still drafting diagrams of inventions for Miu to build, he’d haveaccess to and be able to share all of that super useful technology with Amami,meaning they both might have been able to piece quite a few clues together.

The other interesting part, and also the sad part, is this:both of them are ultimately not very good at trusting other people. Ouma is, ofcourse, a skeptic through and through, but even Amami was unable to trust inothers when it came to asking for help with his plan to expose the ringleader. Bothof them are constantly trying to shoulder the entire burden and huge secretsand plans on their own shoulders—in Amami’s case especially since he’s such abig brotherly figure, he does this out of undeniable protective urges.

It was especially painful for Amami in Chapter 1 because notonly did he not know the rest of the group well enough to trust them or ask forhelp, but he didn’t even know himself well enough. The memo he left for himselfon his extra Monopad told him vital clues and things he needed to know, butbecause he couldn’t even remember writing it, and because he didn’t know hisown talent, he was incapable of really, fully trusting his own advice. Hecouldn’t make full use of the things he knew, because he didn’t understand howhe knew them, and because while he would have liked to open up to people andperhaps rely on them a bit more, he’s very much the type of character who willconsistently try and shoulder things on his own if it means minimizing damageand keeping the others safe.

Similarly, Ouma also lacked an ability to fully trusthimself. While he could count himself as the only person he knew for a fact wasnot the ringleader, it clearly became progressively harder and harder for himto rely on his own plans and trust that he was doing the right thing as thegame became more and more brutal. By the time he had to sacrifice Miu and Gonta’slives in order to keep going against the ringleader, he felt that he hadcompromised one of the only moral codes he has left to him that were inherently“part of himself,” and it clearly took a toll on him. By violating his and DICE’smost important “don’t kill people” motto, even if he didn’t directly killanyone with his own two hands, he became so disgusted with himself that heembraced his villain role more thoroughly than ever, because he honestly felthe was no better than the ringleader by that point.

While I don’t doubt Ouma and Amami both would’ve been ableto form a spectacular alliance that would’ve shed light much, much earlier onmany things about the killing game and the ringleader, I feel like their inabilityto fully trust would’ve been a major obstacle to this alliance actuallyfunctioning to its fullest capacity. It’s doubtful Amami would ever have brokencompletely and decided to try to kill to get out the way that Miu did, butthere might well have come a point in which they decided to call it off,especially if the game was progressing far too long for comfort and neither ofthem was completely sure whether they could actually trust or rely on the otherone.

There’s also the added downside that Tsumugi woulddefinitely have tried targeting them if she’d realized what they were doing.While Ouma put on a super good act of not going against the ringleader andmanaged to successfully pretend he was enjoying the killing game for fiveentire chapters, Amami doesn’t really strike me as the kind of person capableof feigning that enjoyment. And he’s not the most subtle with his plans. Hisattempt to expose the ringleader was so transparent that that’s exactly whyTsumugi took him down early on, for sniffing around so close to her lair. Andif it seemed like Amami’s adventurous, almost heroic attitude was going to makethings worse, Ouma would likely cut ties with him.

It’d be far too easy for Tsumugi to try and frame either oneof them as a suspicious figure too, or make them into a potential ringleadersuspect for her game once she started breaking out the remember lights. Oumawould still be a prime candidate for her to pin the whole “Junko 2.0” ploy onto,and Amami’s inability to remember anything about himself would only workagainst him—moreso since he clearly remembered things that the others didn’teven early on, like the SHSL Hunt. If she’d realized that either or both ofthem were trying to work against her, she’d have struck back hard, just thesame way she did against Ouma in Chapter 5.

Still, I think there’s very fascinating potential hereprecisely because of all these obstacles and problems that would arise. If Oumaand Amami could work past those things (which I would say is not impossible,given that Amami clearly wants to trust people deep down), they would perhapshave actually been able to end the game with considerably fewer deaths. And itwould have been very satisfying to see them reach an ending in which they bothwere actively working against the killing game as a concept the entire time.

That point in common is exactly what I think would interestthem about each other the most, because the killing game itself is really thebiggest, worst obstacle of all, and the root of the problem. Individual people’sactions, both the good and the bad, pale in comparison to the system itself inndrv3. Ouma and Amami are both people who recognize that the system is exactlywhat needs to be targeted the most, rather than individual culprits or cases,and I think they’d have really found their stride in working together for thatkind of purpose the whole way through.

Finally, and on a much lighter note, I feel like a lot ofthe interactions between them whenever they were simply interacting with thegroup at large would’ve been incredibly fun. Amami clearly was fairly laid-backin terms of his personality and likely to go along with silly antics orshenanigans (probably as the result of having so many little siblings). AndOuma’s pranks and desire for attention meant Amami probably would’ve playedalong with that kind of thing. The two of them would’ve probably just enabledthe other’s silliness all the more, and it would’ve fallen to someone likeMomota or Maki to play tsukkomi probably.

Anyway, this was a lot of fun to write about, and I hope Iexpressed my thoughts well. I really enjoy getting to write about Ouma andAmami both, because they’re both super interesting as characters, and I’d bevery interested to see people’s fanfictions when it comes to these AU ideas!