#cycle-song

[caffeina-felina]

"you bunch of chucks" is probs one of the best insults I've ever heard. 10/10 a+ would chuckle at again.

I’m just glad to hear my efforts at comedy occasionally hit the mark.

[snapedefender]

I send you so many asks I'm sorry lol. I'm also sorry if this has been asked to death before, but since I ruminate on this question from time to time... What do you think the nature of Snape's relationship with Harry would have been had Harry ended up in Slytherin? Like, ignoring the fact that the Sorting Hat was reacting to the Horcrux part of Harry -- say he really did belong in Slytherin. Say no one had been whispering in his ear about how "evil" Slytherin is. (c)

Do you personally think that this would have had any affect with the amount of patience that Snape would have had with Harry? There's a brilliant fan novel that sort of covers this topic -- Aspen's "A Year Like None Other" -- but since I enjoy your meta, I'd actually really be interested in hearing your thoughts, too.

The thing is that Slytherins, by necessity and nature, close ranks around themselves. We don’t see any conflict within the Slytherins and I don’t think that’s necessarily because conflict doesn’t exist - it’s because, unlike the other houses, they don’t have the luxury of airing that kind of dissent publicly. They keep it to themselves to present a unified front, because that’s the way to survive in a school where most of their classmates don’t like them. 

So right of the bat, I doubt Snape’s grievance with Harry in classes would have even happened, regardless of how Snape personally feels about Harry. Any of that kind of stuff would have been kept private, not aired in a public space. And, as we see with McGonagall, it’s difficult for the House Head to be distant from their charges just by nature of the position - McGonagall knows her kids and looks after her kids and I have to assume that it’s the same with Snape, especially since the Slytherins seem to respect him quite a bit. 

So Snape, by the nature of his position, would be forced to get to know Harry on a personal level than he ever really does in the books, even during Occlumency lessons. I’m not sure that would change his opinion of Harry - Harry was still a little shit, without all of the James stuff Snape dumps on him - but I think it would have changed something. Hatred is hard to keep in the face of intimate connection. If Snape really gets to know Harry - and, more importantly, gets to see that he has just as much of his mother in him as his father... It’s possible his hatred might have waned. 

I’m also interested on the effect this might have had on Harry: McGonagall is wily and great and Harry clearly loves her, but for most of his schooling he doesn’t trust her with the things he and his friends are doing. Which is so realistic to Harry’s situation and home life, where adults can’t be trusted with this kind of stuff. But Snape is a little different; he’s wilier than McGonagall by nature and, more importantly, he and Harry’s backgrounds are so similar. I wonder what Harry could have turned into, if he’d been given a chance to trust and know Snape sooner. (This is why mentor!Snape fics are my all-time favorite HP fics, to be honest, and why I love ‘A Year Like No Other.’)

Harry being in Slytherin breaks down a lot of the barriers that are set up between him and Snape - it lessens the connection between Harry and James, it forces intimacy due to close quarters, and it forces a camaraderie due to the antagonism from the rest of the school. With those barriers breaking down, I don’t think it’s out of the question that Snape and Harry could have had a better relationship, one mutually beneficial to both of them. However, I do think that part of that would just come with Harry growing older; I’m just as interested to think about what kind of relationship they could have had in canon if Snape had survived, because Harry outgrows so much of what Snape disliked about him by the end of the books. Would Snape have actually come to respect or even like adult!Harry? 

Finally: I don’t think it was just because of the Horcrux that Harry was considered for Slytherin! This is a kid who spends a lot of time hiding shit from authority figures because he thinks he knows how to handle it better, a kid who is sly and creative and secretive. He may not be the best liar on the planet, but he’s good at misdirecting and using assumptions about him to his advantage; hell, look at the way he and Snape interact when Harry doesn’t want Snape to figure something out! The thing about Harry is that he has such a Gryffindor mentality, but he uses Slytherin methods. Just compare how he and Hermione get things done and it really highlights how much Harry could have been in Slytherin. I do think that part of it was the Horcrux, but I also think that Harry himself is a pretty Slytherin kind of person and would have done well there, as the Hat said! 

[snapedefender]

Sirius always came off to me as someone who decided never to leave adolescence. He never really gave a shit about Harry's well-being. He cared in the "I have feelings of love toward you" way, but he never did anything that remotely would keep Harry out of harm's way. Dude loved to engage in risky behavior and wanted nothing more than to have Harry join in with him. I think this really evident when you look at Molly being protective and restricting to Harry. (c)

She's an adult, a mother of many children, and she knows what's best for him. Doing shit like joining the Order at fifteen years old is simply not safe. She isn't willing to indulge in anything that would put Harry in harm's way. Harry might feel adult and ready at his age, but he's simply not, and she knows that. Sirius, on the other hand, refuses to see that. It's nearly a blessing that Sirius didn't end up his guardian, simply because he wouldn't be a good parent. (Molly would've been great.)

It’s funny, when I was a kid and reading OOTP for the first time, I was completely pissed off at Molly for insisting she knew best and completely on Sirius’ side. Whenever I re-read it though, I realize that Molly is 100% in the right and Sirius is actually really fucking reckless with the safety of a kid he knows looks up to him and imitates him. Harry, however capable he may be, is fifteen fucking years old and as the events of OOTP show us, he’s not ready to participate in the war effort. He’s not ready to join the Order because he’s just a kid. And yeah, he’s been through more than any other kid could possibly imagine, but that doesn’t make him superhuman or incapable of making rash mistakes. I think this changes after Sirius’ death - hell, because of Sirius’ death - but in fifth year he’s still too young and too immature to be capable of joining the Order; and Sirius should know that.

I mean, I generally approve of telling Harry important shit that, you know, has to do with him and his life. But I don’t approve of Sirius trying to get his fifteen year old godson to join an organization that will likely get him killed and puts him in harm’s way because... what? I don’t know if Sirius just thinks Harry is mature enough to make his own decisions about this (he’s not) or if he just thinks Harry is James so much that he doesn’t realize how much danger he’s putting Harry in, but it’s irresponsible and reckless to say the least. As his godfather, Sirius has some obligation to not be a fucking dumbass and be the adult in his relationship with Harry - which Molly clearly gets and Sirius clearly doesn’t. And that is, in part, because Sirius sees Harry as James 2.0 and not his own person. James 2.0 doesn’t need protection! He’s James 2.0! Sirius doesn’t get that Harry is a kid who is his own person and, therefore, vulnerable and young and in need of someone who doesn’t throw his safety to the wayside just for some thrills.

Molly and Arthur are Harry’s parents in all but name by the time OOTP rolls around and I would trust Molly Weasley with Harry’s safety and well-being above almost anyone else, to be honest. As much as I’m iffy about Harry and Ginny’s relationship (getting married right out of HS is always iffy, in my opinion) I’m so glad he has Molly as a mother in a concrete way, because if any kid deserves Molly Weasley, it’s Harry. 

Sirius’ problem is that, like Snape, his emotional growth is stunted at around 20 or 21. He goes to Azkaban when he’s young and that takes a huge toll on him. Like Snape, who also went through some hard shit at that age, he can’t really move past that period of his life or the “golden days” before it (for him). So yeah, he never really moves out of that stage where he’s a reckless teenager, which is unfortunate when he’s supposed to be an adult looking after reckless teenagers.

[snapedefender]

I think one of the things that bugs me about Snape hate is the rather toxic idea of Good Victimhood, which literally disregards people of abuse who do end up making mistakes later in life due to the fact that they've had no real chance for proper development. I don't condone any of Snape's actions with joining the Death Eaters, but I don't blame him for it either. We're talking about a severely abused boy taking the only hand offered to him (Voldemort, DEs) when no one else was going to (c)

support or assist him. The four boys that almost got him killed were never really reprimanded and none of the abuse he endured at home was ever resolved, so in what way was he allowed to flourish and develop naturally? He couldn't have. He didn't have the chance to. And this is very familiar for people in similar trauma-filled situations who end up going through a period of time where they are lost and hurt and make a lot of wrong decisions. And then you've got the haters who will hold a severely abused boy responsible for past mistakes MADE in the mindset of being traumatized, regardless of the fact he spends a good amount of time later on making better and more selfless decisions, but not hold that same standard to the four boys who spent a good deal of time victimizing this kid for no fucking reason at all. We can completely ignore the fact that James and Sirius basically tortured Snape because.... They were Order members later? Gryffindors? What? It's just so clearly unfair to try to old a severely abused and traumatized person to the same standard as the abuser. Like yes, the Marauders grew up later on and perhaps became wonderful people, but Snape took strides of development as well. But apparently we're going to vilify the latter for making understandable mistakes considering his circumstances and disregard the fact that he improved himself later in life. But we can completely forgive James et. al. because... ??? who knows.

Yes, yes, yes! The fact of the matter is that fandom is hypocritical as hell and, the worst part is, they don’t seem to realize it at all when it comes to Snape. There’s a very black and white mentality in HP fandom which, I think, is caused in part by the semi-black and white mentality of the earliest books; JK definitely does away with it by, I’d say, book four, but there’s always that idea of Slytherins are bad, Gryffindors are good, etc. etc. and I think it infects the fandom a little. (However, to be honest, a lot of fandoms have a pretty black and white mentality about characters - if a character does one thing wrong, they are condemned forever, in many cases, despite the fact that they try and make up for it again later.)

Honestly, anyone who insists that Snape is the Devil and the Marauders (esp James and Sirius) are Saints is not only.... really fucking biased, but also doing a disservice to the narrative JK gives all of these characters. The whole point is for us to realize that - hey, the Marauders were not just Saints, as Harry thinks for a good portion of his life; they also did a whole lot of fucked up things, such as bullying a kid for no reason and treating other people unkindly, and so on. And maybe they grew up and grew out of it (or maybe they didn’t) but the point is for us to realize that they are NOT angelic good guys. Likewise, the point with Snape is to realize that - hey, he’s had a fucking hard life, his “bad behavior” and past mistakes didn’t grow out of a fucking void, he made a lot of errors but he’s atoning for them. He’s doing what he can to rectify them and change himself for the better. (The fact that ANYONE can yell at Snape for being a racist and then completely ignore that pivotal moment when he yells at the portrait for calling Hermione a ‘mudblood’ exposes how biased they are!!) Their narratives are meant to complicate them as characters, to allow us to realize that the world is complicated and people are not always what they seem to be, and yet fandom insists on keeping them in their neat little boxes simply because they can’t fathom having James Potter as a douchebag and Severus Snape as a good person. 

And, as you’ve so eloquently pointed out, victims of abuse, victims of bullying are stunted. I once had a discussion with my brother-in-law, who teaches young children, about the fact that kids who come from abusive situations often have their fight-or-flight response messed up - the need to fight or flee is ramped up to the point where they can’t tell what a normal response is anymore. That’s part of the reason that their actions can be so excessive or extreme - they don’t know how to reign it back in because their brain growth has literally been stunted. I could list a dozen other reasons of why Snape’s development has been stunted, not only during his childhood and his time at Hogwarts, but also with his time with the Death Eaters. Frankly, the fact that Snape managed to claw his way out of there is a testament to his love for Lily and his own perseverance. (Much like how we applaud Sirius for managing to escape the pit that is Azkaban to save Harry, we should applaud Snape for getting out of the DE to save Lily. They’re not exactly the same, but the difficulty and the emotion behind them are extraordinarily similar.)

Part of what’s so tragic about Snape’s story - and what JK tells us, point blank, is so tragic about Snape’s story - is that he never really had a chance to grow up naturally, to choose for himself. Instead, he was an abused little boy who grew up ridiculed and alone apart from Lily (and no wonder he latched on to her, the one person to ever show him kindness or respect...?) who then turned into a severely bullied teenager who took the only option he saw available to him to get some semblance of power and respect... the kind he had been sorely lacking during the seven years the Marauders tormented (and nearly murdered) him. Once again, the very fact that he was able to pull himself out of that, that Lily was enough of a motivator to get him away from the path that he had been following because he saw no other choice (and no other choice had really been offered to him; I’ve made posts on this before) is a fucking miracle and we should treat it as such. The fact that he spends all of his adult life atoning for the sins and mistakes he made as a teenager is, in fact, commendable and brave. 

Usually, when people do bad things in their past and try to make up for them, people laud them. It’s very revealing that no one does this with Snape because they’re too wrapped up in their biased hatred for him to analyze his motivations and actions more clearly. It’s also a shame that everyone is intent on propping up the Marauders as saintly heroes, when their purpose in the narrative becomes more complicated - and more interesting - by the fact that they were arrogant bullies in their youth. (And, as far as we know, James and Sirius never grew out of it.) 

Anyway - thank you so much for your message - it beautifully articulates the insane double standard people have when it comes to Snape and the Marauders.

[elderparaiah]

Another (different) “Get to know me” meme

Tagged by the always lovely @cycle-song

Birthday: May 23 Relationship status: single Zodiac: gemini Favourite color: black or red. or both. Pets: one cat, Lissi Wake up/ bed time: Week days: 10-10:30 bed time, 6:30 wake up for work. Weekends, whenever for both Cats or dogs: I’m definitely a cat person, but dogs continue to grow on me (it would be easier if I wasn’t allergic to dog dander) Coke or pepsi: I drink coke, but I’ll also drink pepsi if there isn’t any coke Day or night: definitely a night person by nature. Having to go to bed at 10:30 for work is slowly killing me inside Texts or calls: Texts. I hate talking to people over calls, I’d rather talk to you in person Makeup or natural: I can do either, really, but I wear makeup more than I go natural Meet a celebrity: In a “shake their hand and wish we were bros” sort of way, I’d like to meet Tom Hiddeston or Emma Watson. In a “I’ve loved you forever, nbg” sort of way, I’d like to meet Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, and Johnny Depp. In a “oh god please marry me” sort of way, I’d like to meet (also) Cate Blanchett, Lee Pace, (also) Orlando Bloom, Oscar Isaac, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Charlize Theron Intelligence or attraction: ?????????? Chapstick or lipstick: lipstick City or country: city, I guess?  Last song I listened to: Demolition Lovers - My Chemical Romance

[elderparaiah]

I have never heard of this movie omg how bad is it

It’s an indie film directed by Mary Stewart Masterson, starring Kristen Stewart. It’s actually not terrible, and imo the best movie Kristen has ever done, aside from The Runaways. She plays an underage girl with Friedreich’s ataxia, and my god does she try. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever watched, and god know’s I’m not into indie movies or Kristen Stewart.

[elderparaiah]

wtb au where padme hooked up and had a healthy relationship with obi wan.

👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌th 👌 ere👌👌👌 right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my selｆ 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ💯 👌👌 👌НO0ОଠＯOOＯOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌Good shit

[elderparaiah]

can you blame her tho. I think she realized her mistake after she got anakin in the sack.

tbh i don’t even see how it’s like a difficult decision. 

Obi-wan is snarky. He’s grounded in who he is. He’s kind and has respect for personal boundaries. He’s an outrageous (for a Jedi) flirt. His qualms regarding flying is adorable.

Anakin is whiny, he’s moody, he has no emotional breaks, he has the emotional maturity of a raisin. “You’re exactly the way I remember you in my dreams” should have been the first red flag of creepy, inter-personally inept behavior.