aches & mistakes

20s | crying ink over tragic heros.

[achingless]

ᴀᴄʜɪɴɢʟʏ, ɪ ᴄᴀʀᴇ

Achilles. 20s. She.

Newbie artist and poet. Aching over fictional characters, so I draw and write poetry to ache less. Sometimes I vent about fandom things—mostly Severus Snape.

Please, DNI if my posts make you want to argue in defense of the characters I dislike. I don't want to argue, I want to vent.

✦ {harry potter} harry | severus | regulus

✦ {greek mythos} achilles

✦ {all of my art}

✦ {all of my poems}

[achingless]

severus snape, the marauders, and the definition of words.

[achingless]

the mauraders didn't make severus bleed. they did worse than that.

[achingless]

Snaters and Marauder stans all value words more than actions. They'll tell you James was a good-hearted Light wizard. James would say he is and condemn the Dark Arts. But what did James do? He regularly bullied and humiliated his peers using so-called Light magic all because "it's fun."

They tell you Lily defended Severus in Snape's Worst Memory and Severus cussed her out. But Lily said some choice words to James; she didn't do anything to help Severus. She didn't use her wand to help Severus get down or cover him up or at the very least put up a ward that prevented the other students from seeing Severus half-naked and humiliated. She didn't fight off James, or call for a teacher. She said things like "put him down, let him go!" but she didn't do anything.

Then they'll tell you Severus was a bad friend because he called her a mudblood. They won't mention how Severus stood up to Voldemort who was at his prime, put his life on the line when he found out Voldemort targetted Lily. Then he went on for the rest of his life holding her memory in high regard, fighting tooth and nail to protect her son. He says crude things to her son, true. But what he always does is take every necessary action to protect him, even at the cost of his own life.

Actions are louder than words. It's so easy to say something. It's much harder to actually do it.

[mermaid886]

PSA - hanging someone upside down, exposing their genitals, and laughing at them in front of a large crowd of onlookers is uh, you know, considered unacceptable behavior…….regardless of the victim’s or the aggressor’s race.

The number of people I’ve seen complain about Snape’s new casting solely because the Prince’s Tale “now” looks “bad” solely because of the race swap is astounding.

If you think that James was justified in his actions towards Snape as long as Snape is white……wwwwwoooooooowwwwwww.

[serpenera]

I've gotta say, I'm not a fan of the new Snape casting either but that's for one reason and one reason only: dude looks nothing like the Snape I know, like, not even vaguely. Then again, it's not like I even care since I never expected much from this reboot to begin with. I am, however, deeply entertained by marauder fans having a full blown meltdown over it especially because you could make a solid argument that there has always been a racial factor involved in their bullying alongside the classist and lookist one.

All four marauders were undoubtedly white boys. Yes, even James who, if I recall correctly, is sometimes headcanoned as poc. There is not a shred of evidence that he could be even mixed race. He looks exactly like Harry who is explicitly described as pale/white-skinned. There are no other descriptors for either of them like specific hair texture or facial features that might indicate they were anything other than 100% Caucasian British. Now try to guess whose description has such indicators?

Now, I'm not saying Snape was non-white, let alone that he was black, but he had features that could indicate mixed ancestry. His hooked nose could mean he had either a Jewish or maybe Middle-Eastern ancestry on the side of his father whom he inherited the nose from. His jet-black hair and eyes and sallow skin tone could suggest South-Asian ancestry from the side of his mom whom he apparently resembled a lot. And even if he didn't have any non-white ancestry, he still looked as if he might have, which would be more than enough for the other kids to perceive him as lesser, especially when his somewhat "exotic" looks went hand in hand with poverty and neglect.

I would know since I had a classmate who was undoubtedly white and who was called a monkey just because his complexion was half a shade darker. He didn't even looked mixed, just permanently tan, but that was enough for a bunch of rosy-faced boys from well-off families in my class to target him.

So yeah the racial factor isn't necessarily anything new if you think about it. The only difference is that now that the actor is black, it becomes explicit and as such can't be easily swept under the rug alongside the classism and lookism.

[moonlightdancer26]

Notice how whenever you bring up James bullying Snape, people are always quick to point out Snape’s actions and make Snape look worse so they can uplift James? They never bring up any discrimination or trauma James faced when he bullied Snape. The only way for them to defend him is to mitigate his actions—not by bringing up the circumstances he was under, but by making Snape look bad so they can pretend he “had it coming.”

Usually, when you bring up a character’s wrongdoings, their fans are quick to explain their behaviour by bringing up what they went through that led to said wrongdoings. With Draco, they’ll say “but he was raised and spoiled by his blood prejudiced parents.” With Sirius, they’ll say “but he was wrongfully imprisoned and emotionally stunted by Azkaban.” With Snape, they’ll say “but he was severely bullied and had abusive parents.” With Remus, they’ll say “but he came from a marginalised community.” What can they say about James? What possible explanation is there for his wrongdoings? What hardships or emotional distress did he face during that time that might resonate with some readers?

James was as privileged as one could be, he was a rich, white, good-looking, pureblood, smart, athletic, and popular Gryffindor who was loved by his parents. His fans, knowing this, will do everything in their power to twist the narrative and victim-blame 16 year old Snape, just so they can argue that all the bad things James did to him were well-deserved.

James’s insane privilege is what makes his character so notably cruel, because, unlike some characters, he had EVERY opportunity to be kind to his inferiors. And he failed miserably.

[achingless]

beaten at home / bullied at school

when you make me bleed, all you succeed at achieving is making my body weak. i sit there and wait for it to heal, feeling starkly mortal and human, breakable. i wait for it to pass, plan, scheme, sit up and go press on the wound, staunch the bleed, wipe it clean. all shall pass. on it goes. when they make me into a joke, bruising not my body but my ego, lock onto my insecurity, turn it into a weapon, turn it against me, breaking not my bones but my spirit, piss on my opportunities, make my name synonymous with shame, stain my reputation with public humiliations— why, I'd rather break and bleed a thousand times than suffer this emotional pain. it cannot be wiped away. it cannot be cleaned. it doesn't pass, not so simple to heal. i lay awake, body burning with shame, fever-bright with no infection to speak of, turning over every laugh, every detail, feeling bare and seen even fully covered. worse yet, no one thinks it's a big deal. no one thinks daily humiliation is as serious as a cut that bleeds. when you make me bleed, all you succeed at achieving is making me feel starkly mortal. when they make me into a joke, bruising not my body but my ego, i feel distinctly like an animal. subhuman. naked. preyed on, gawked at. worth less than a person. hide me, don't look at me. your eyes burn, burn upon me. break me, bruise me, treat me like an enemy to beat, an honorable duel or a dirty fight, glory in might and clever manoeuvres, but don't— don't humiliate me. don't dehumanise me. flay my skin from my bones, ply my nails from their beds, there's a certain diginity to be had in surviving that, but don't defile me. don't debase me for everyone to see. the body heals and forgets, but the mind still remembers how it felt when you dehumanised it.

severus snape, the kind of pain that heals, and the kind that won't.

[juderuo]

Another young corporate Gurathin, because I am almost done with the books and I am so happy the tv series made Gurathin a bigger part of the story and I love the books so much

[juderuo]

I think the corporation rim wouldn’t allow black nail polish. That seems like a level of self expression that he got when he joined the preservation alliance, but he looks weird without it

[cococid]

🦌

[achingless]

the mauraders didn't make severus bleed. they did worse than that.

[achingless]

tmw you're so angry and hurt by the things done to Snape in SWM you make a whole blog about it.

[lilithofpenandbook]

You know what, I firmly believe Severus Snape was in love with Lily Potter solely because I'm sick of people acting like him being in love with her was something wrong and perverted of him.

Shockingly enough, that's not something evil and unforgivable. In fact, in the story? It is literally the antithesis of evil.

[dinarosie]

It honestly breaks my heart that even within Snape's own fandom, his feelings for Lily are being dismissed or erased just because we're all exhausted from hearing the tired old "he was obsessed with her" argument. But deleting that part of his character doesn’t fix anything. It just takes away something deeply human and meaningful.

I’ve said it before in this post : Snape’s idealization of Lily, his attachment to her memory, was a survival mechanism. Something his mind built to hold onto, to keep himself upright in a life that demanded too much from him for too long. That love—messy, painful, unresolved—tells us something essential about who he is. And it matters.

Yes Snape loved Lily. It was one-sided. It was rooted in insecure childhood attachment And yes, Lily wasn’t the perfect angelic figure Snape imagined. But… so what? Honestly, it just makes him human. Isn’t that exactly what happens to so many of us in real life? Who hasn’t projected childhood wounds onto someone they loved? Who hasn’t clung to an idealized version of a person instead of the real one? Who hasn’t struggled with anxious or unhealthy attachments at some point in their life?

Maybe his feelings don’t quite fit the modern 2025 standards of what a “secure, mutual” relationship should look like. But does that make them invalid? Unnatural? Shameful? Something we should erase? Absolutely not.

And here’s what often gets overlooked:

love isn’t what broke him. Trauma did. Guilt did. Trauma wouldn’t let him move beyond the past. Guilt wouldn’t let him fully live in the present.

[dinarosie]

When you're chilling in your cozy Snape corner of Tumblr surrounded by brilliant metas, stunning art, and actually cool people and then suddenly remember that people on TikTok are still making "If Harry were a girl, Snape would assault her" videos... and they go viral. With top comments like: "Well he was a terrorist and a Nazi."

[achingless]

Reposting something I wrote in a reblog because it bears repeating:

It astounds me how people sometimes brush over the social ramifications of SWM. The sexual assault took place publically. People were laughing. He was suspended in the air, so even people at the back of the crowd had a good view. Hell, people in the castle could glance out a window and perfectly see what was happening in the courtyard. And if you didn't manage to catch the live show, you can bet everyone at school will describe it to you in explicit, embellished detail.

It's a nightmare. A living, horrific nightmare. Worse than The Prank. Fifteen year olds are already insecure about their bodies. Imagine being violated and exposed in such a way, your body used against you, each scar and pimple displayed, genitals and arse and belly seen and mocked by everyone for two years.

And already Severus' social standing was iffy because he's a low-class boy in a bigotted school. If he had had any respect before this, James and Sirius good as killed and buried it with SWM. The studious kids who might've been neutral about him won't touch him with a six foot pole now because he has become an eyesore and a joke. Those studious kids are the future Healers, Aurors, lawyers, etc, and they will always remember how back when they were in school that Snivellus kid was "pathetic" and "flashed" the whole school. It's horrible and sick, but this is how these things are regarded in life.

And I can guarantee you Severus was getting no invitations to the Slug Club after this. Which means no connections in the Potioneer community, no future sponsors. Nothing but exclusion and vicious ridicule by people he had to sit next to and share meals with every day.

You know what's the worse part? Lily was one of the people who mocked him when he was at his lowest.

Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile

“I won’t bother in future. And I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.”

“I don’t want you to make him apologize,” Lily shouted, rounding on James. “You’re as bad as [Snape] is.”

I can't believe this girl is treated like the paragon of empathy and good morality. Her old friend is being publically humiliated and sexually harassed and she:

1) Almost cracks a smile.

2) Tells him oh what a great bother it is to be constantly helping him and how she won't do it anymore.

3) Calls him the same name his bullies use to break down his confidence and sense of self. A name Severus himself has probably gone to Lily to complain about before, when they were 12 or 13 and comforting your friend over their bullies' namecalling was things friends do.

4) Tells him to wash his underwear before leaving him there. He's poor. He wears his mother's and father's hand-me-downs. He probably has had the same three pairs of underwear for years and he has to rotate between them, and laundry day would render him naked. There's nothing shameful about this. Lily knows these things. She knows the living conditions of his house. His rich bullies have mocked him for years over his hygiene and clothes. And Lily uses the same insults when Severus is a kicked-down cornered animal, lashing out.

5) Tells Severus he is as bad as James. Severus is as bad as his sexual harasser? Severus is as bad as the rich boy who bullies his peers for no reason?

You expect your bullies to beat you down and string you up. But you never expect an old friend would beat you down too.

[juderuo]

Every time I draw Snape he looks different. Here we have version: cluster headache from a student asking a question.

[achingless]

Two times I've posted about how reading Snape's worst memory makes me physically ill and unable to sleep. Both times I got people in the comments saying he deserved it. What is it about "this event makes me physically ill" makes people think I'm absolutely fit to hear about how horrible Severus was and how much he deserves it?

No, tell me how it makes any sense to go to a person obviously in emotional turmoil and compound it by saying, 'Hey, you know this guy you feel bad for? He deserved everything that happened to him. Hey, you know the sexual harassment you read about? He brought it on himself.'

What the fuck? Have people lost all empathy? All sense? Do I need to spell it out? I feel like I'm breaking and I don't want to discuss whether public humiliation and sexual assault are deserved.

[achingless]

Fucking reblogging again BECAUSE PEOPLE WON'T STOP TELLING ME ALL THE SHIT IN SWM IS JUSTIFIED. I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK IS JUSTIFIED. DON'T TELL ME ABOUT IT.