Free Lily Evans from people who pretend to love her but donāt read any ships involving her, call her a lesbian just to keep her out of their mlm ships, say they ship her with themselves but only have four posts about her, and claim to love Pandalily or Marylilyāyet, when asked to name a single fic they've read, they go blank.
I absolutely adore your Lily cosplays and I didnāt realise you were on tumblr - a delightful discovery
I mean, i am but i am not at the same time i just had this account for years now but i really dont post anything in here, so I apologize if youāre expecting any content here :(
a humiliatingly long character analysis of lily evans
Someone sent me an ask that briefly mentioned how misunderstood Lily is, and before I knew it I was typing out this monster. I am. sorry. This is literally just me rambling about her, what I find compelling about her character, and why her character is so often misunderstood.
This is long as hell so I'm putting it under a read more lolol
Part of the reason I like Lily so much (other than my being ginger and projecting onto any redheaded female character I see) is that even though she isnāt explored as much as her other Marauders Era counterparts, we know enough about her to start building the framework for her character. And what I see is a girl who was incredibly interesting, kind, and flawed.
One thing I always think about in regards to Lily is that she was dealt with a pretty unfair hand. As soon as she receives her letter, sheās basically torn between two worlds, both of which have been less than welcome to her. On one hand, we have the muggle world that sheās known all her life, but once she starts integrating into the wizarding world, she likely feels a bit of a disconnect with that world. To twist the knife further, her sister- whom she loved dearly and grew up so close with- starts outwardly resenting her with such unbridled hostility that they likely couldnāt even be in a room alone together without major conflict.Ā
On the other hand, we have the wizarding worldā a world sheās not as familiar with and one she soon learns holds a demographic of people who hate everything she is and would rather see her excommunicated or even dead. And even though finding out youāre a witch/wizard is probably such an exciting and life-changing moment, I canāt help but also take note of the difficulties, especially if youāre the only one in your family with magic. Youāre essentially uprooted from the only way of life youāve known at an already complicated age, and now you have to quickly become acclimated to this new world that you only just found out existed. Not only that, but now youāre suddenly attending a school with classes that are primarily focused on this world of magic (which is still brand new to you), and you have to work extra hard to play catch up in order to do well. Like, that all seems likeā¦ a lot for a kid to handle.
And then I remember how young she was when she was thrown into that mess. She was only 11, and kids that age desperately crave any sense of belonging. I mean, thatās something that still holds true for adults, but itās especially critical for a developing child. So imagine Lily, ages 11-15, struggling to stay afloat in this weird purgatory between these two parts of herself, both of which have been the cause for major and traumatic experiences relating to rejection in her life.
(I say it was the ācauseā even though itās obvious that those things were never her fault at all, but when youāre a young kid navigating the world, the only thing youāre able to process is that the common denominator is you, therefore youāre the one who must shoulder the blame.)
So now we have this tween-teenaged girl who has a dysfunctional relationship with two major parts of identity and probably feels absolutely lost.Ā
This is why her hesitancy to end her friendship with Snape makes sense to me. Even though by fifth year heās already well past toeing the line with the dark arts, Lily was willing to overlook some pretty egregious and troubling things in order to maintain the relationship. I kind of interpret that as her way of desperately clinging on to any sense of belonging she has left; her relationship with Petunia has already been poisoned, and now there are people who resent her existence as a witch; if she loses Severus too, what and who else does she have? And what tone does that set for her, if everyone and everything sheās come to hold close to her ends up turning her away?
Itās also important to note that not only is Severus one of her few remaining connections to the muggle world, but heās also a wizard who grew up in the muggle world; he understands her, and I donāt doubt that he gave her some stability at times when she needed it (her finding out about her being a witch, her having trouble acclimating to the wizarding world, etc).
I see this as being one of her flaws and I can actually appreciate how relatable and realistic it feels. Lily is not a bad person; on the contrary, youād be hard pressed to find anyone to describe her as such. Not to get all clinical and boring, but the interesting thing about (unhealthy) coping mechanisms is that it can actually be really hard to identify them in your own behavior. Unless youāre in therapy and/or are actively psychoanalyzing yourself, you likely donāt even realize how many of your common behaviors are born from self defense mechanisms put in place by your brain after past events.
To me, it makes sense why she avoided actually confronting the idea that Snape was too far gone. We know that she was aware of the path Severus was taking, but it almost seems like she was still convinced that she could save him, and could possibly steer him back in the right direction. Itās only when she becomes the target of his bigotry that she realizes that the Snape who called her a āmudbloodā was not the same Severus who was the one who held her hand and introduced her to this new, exciting world.
In a general sense, yes, it is selfish, to only take a stand when something starts affecting you personally. But I also think itās important to note that itās unlikely that this was a conscious decision on Lilyās part. In my eyes, it was easier to delude herself into thinking she still had a chance to save him before it was too late when she was able to separate him from his actions (considering, a lot of the time, she was only hearing about them after the fact, rather than seeing them firsthand). But the elusion is shattered once she sees that the Snape she grew up withā her friend, Severusā is, in fact, the same person whoās out there calling other students slurs, dismissing the malicious use of Dark Magic on others as just āa laughā. There we see a Lily who is actually revealed to have been somewhat aware of Snapeās involvement with the darker side of magic, and genuinely feels pretty ashamed about her inaction.
Also, this is in no way me being a Snape-anti, and I actually could do an entire separate analysis on his character alone and why I find him so interesting.
Anyways, that moment in SWM is probably somewhat of an epiphany to her. Itās like a dam thatās been broken, and now sheās overwhelmed with the realization of exactly how much she overlooked in order to keep their friendship afloat. And for someone like Lily Evans, someone whom we know is opinionated and unafraid to call others out on their bullshit, that can be hard to swallow and feel pretty mortifying and shameful. And I think this was a huge turning point for her- at that point, she doesnāt have the luxury of avoiding uncomfortable truths anymore and now that sheās getting closer to graduating and being thrown out into the world on the brink of war, this was probably a really sobering discovery.
This is where we donāt have as much info to go off of, and a lot of it is up to interpretation. But we actually have little crumbs to go off of following her graduation and leading up to her death.
One of my favorite little tidbits isnāt in the books, and @seriousbrat's post reminded me about it. Here's the actual entry on Pottermore for anyone who's interested, but I'll summarize: after James and Lily began dating, Lily brings James to meet newly engaged Petunia and Vernon. Everything goes downhill, because Vernon is a smarmy asshole, and James is still pretty immature and canāt help but mess with him (whichā¦ fair, I guess). Petunia and Vernon storm out after Petunia letting Lily know that she had no intentions of having her as a bridesmaid, which causes Lily to break down into tears. I mention this because I also think itās a pretty important aspect of her character; like weāve seen in her past friendship with Snape, Lily seems more than willing to forgive others most of the time. Petunia is a bit of a complicated character herself, but she was objectively very cruel and unfair to Lily once it became obvious that she was a witch and Petunia was not.
Something that always stands out to me is just how desperate Lily is to earn Petuniaās trust and approval again. Even up until her death, she was more than willing to mend the relationship, were Petunia ever to consider.Ā
This is a detail about Lily that I feel is misunderstood quite a bit. Iāve seen a lot of instances of her character being reduced to a one-dimensional archetype with little to no complexity. And often, that archetype is āknow-it-all, prudish, self righteous bookworm who is also a goody two-shoes with a stick up her assā. What annoys me is that the reason for this is most definitely the scene in which she blows up at James in SWM for bullying Snape, and hurls quite a few insults at him directly after an extremely devastating and overwhelming situation for her. This frustrates me because we know for a fact that sheās the polar opposite of this archetype Iāve seen her reduced to.Ā
In actuality, sheās referred to as popular, charming, witty, bright and kind. From flashbacks we also are shown that sheās opinionated, bold, and not afraid to challenge others. With other context, like her interpersonal relationships, we can also see that sheās pretty emotionally driven and wears her heart on her sleeve.Ā
(I know Remus didnāt mention Lily much in the books, but I really love how he described her in the movies. He tells Harry that the first thing he noticed about him was not his striking resemblance to his father, but his eyes, the same eyes Lily had. He also calls her a āsingularly gifted witchā and an āuncommonly kind womanā.
āShe had a way of seeing the beauty in others, even and perhaps most especially, when that person could not see it in themselves.ā
I know there are mixed feelings on whether or not the films count as canon source material, so take it with a grain of salt, but I personally cannot see a world in which Lily and Remus didnāt become close friends.)
Here we have a direct description of what she was like and who she was, corroborated by recounting of memories of her, and yet for some reason, this feels like the thing that is most commonly lost in translation.
I donāt think I can say why I think that is without mentioning the dreaded M word (misogyny- itās misogyny), but I also donāt want to get too off topic so Iāll be brief: female characters are typically not given the same grace as male characters. When we have an undeveloped male character, heās awarded the assumption that despite his lack of depth, there still exists a complex and multifaceted characterā itās merely just potential that hasnāt been tapped into. Whereas when we have underdeveloped female characters, they are taken at face value, meaning that not much exists beyond the little information we have of them. They are not presumed to have a life or a story that exists beyond the surface of what we know like male characters are. Thatās why I think characters like Regulus, Evan, or Barty (just to name a few) are more popular than Lily, despite being less developed than she is.
(Before anyone gets defensive, no, I donāt think itās an individual problem that you alone need to be shamed for. I think itās the result of a deeper issue regarding misogyny in media as a concept; these are things that weāve all unknowingly internalized and while itās not our fault, we still have to do the work to deconstruct those learned prejudices.)
What I find really cool about her character is that despite how much sheās been hurt, sheās also still known as one of the most loving, kind, and considerate characters. There were so many times in her life where the love she received was conditional and ripped away from herā and I think thatās what makes her sacrifice even more poignant. She was able to protect her infant son from an extremely powerful dark wizard, wand-less, knowing that her husband was just murdered in cold blood, just from how much love she felt for Harry. Her love was a force of nature on its own, and I just think thatās such an amazing thing about her.Ā
I know Iām biased, given that sheās one of my favorite characters, but even upon delving into this, I still just find it so incredibly hard to understand how anyone can actively hate her (not indifference, but actual dislike). In my opinion (again, no one is unbiased, and she is a favorite character of mine, but trust me when I say that Iām trying to be objective as possible when I say this), sheās probably one of the most likable characters of the Marauders Era. I think perhaps a lot of people havenāt given her a chance or really taken the time to learn about her character, but it could be a myriad of other reasons that Iāll never understand.Ā
There's so much more I could say but this is long enough and I will stop myself
As some of you might be aware, tomorrow the general sales for The Eras Tour in Brazil start and it's a complete MESS! This is a cry for help and our attempt to reach as many US fans as we can, since it's easier for them to be noticed by Taylor Nation!
If you're a US Swiftie, bear with me because we desperately need your help!
Scalpers are mass buying tickets on site and online and T4F (Tickets For Fun) the company responsible for bringing Taylor to Brazil is being complicit with them.
There are also scalpers finding ways around the website system and buying 100+ plus tickets when the maximum was 4 per social security number!
General sales start tomorrow and scalpers are already camping at the stadium box office and threatening the fans who are pressuring them to leave and T4F continues to do NOTHING.
Now the situation has got even more dire and fans are being THREATENED with violence and even suffering homophobia! Two girls were also physically assaulted and a boy was beaten up with a BEER BOTTLE! WE ARE FEARING FOR OUR LIVES!
In this tweet fans are updating in real-time their account of what is happening!
We're trying to reach as many news outlets as we can, but up until now we haven't heard back from anyone and the police just got to the scene but it appears that NOTHING has changed!
The stadiums, Allianz Parque and EngenhĆ£o are ALSO silent about this.
We are also using the hashtag T4F QUEREMOS RESPEITO to ask for respect and to pressure the company into doing SOMETHING!
We're hoping that if it reaches Taylor Nation we have a higher chance of resolving the situation before people start to get MORE injured.
PLEASE HELP US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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