"According to Heilman, Harry succeeds at being masculine, not only because he is good at sports and accomplishes heroic deeds, but also because he is compared to men and boys who fail at masculinity: for example, she claims that Cedric Diggory is from a lower class and Neville Longbottom is feminized. I disagree with Heilman on these points because it is never clear what social class the popular and handsome Cedric belongs to and because Neville's character is quite complex…”
— Annette Wannamaker, “Men in Cloaks and High-heeled Boots: Men Wielding Pink Umbrellas: Witchy Masculinities in the Harry Potter novels,” The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature, Vol 10, No 1 (2006; published open access, so the link should work for everybody ♡).
……………I would also disagree with her claims here because Rowling literally never makes the two characters in question into moral lessons of what not to do. Arguing about Neville isn’t fair here because both the article I’m reading and the scholarship it’s citing were written before DH came out (the Heilman piece is from 2003, so she only had up to OOTP to work with while Wannamaker had up to HBP), and I mean, Heilman is wrong about Neville either way
but the one argument that I can absolutely work here is that she’s unforgivably wrong about Cedric Diggory
Let’s just start this off by saying: JKR’s treatment of Cedric is complete bullshit. She doesn't do right by Cedric in the slightest and I'm not going to stop saying so — like, she is literally on the record as saying that the point of Cedric's death was to force the readers to acknowledge the reality of how many innocents die in wartime, and more so to force Harry to actually witness a death and come to terms with what it means to die…
and on an in character level, Cedric is turned into a fucking symbol by way of martyrdom rather than really treated like an individual on his own terms since our dearest Saint Dumbledore doesn't actually give a fuck about Cedric; his only use to Dumbles now is as a symbol and a rhetorical point about why more people should trust and support Harry, despite how Cedric deserves better and this isn't even remotely the way Harry wants Cedric and his death to be treated
—but JKR still never demonizes Cedric or turns him into an object lesson of What Not To Do. like, she actually does the exact goddamn opposite of this.
the reason he's in the graveyard is because he and Harry have a reconciliation and a sweet moment of going, "we'll do it together; either way, it's a Hogwarts victory and if we both take it, we win fairly by both of us (and lol both of us embody Gryffindor and Hufflepuff values in this moment, and in pretty equal balance, because both of us have been brave and showed off our perseverance in getting here, and we're being fair by doing this evenly as well as displaying the courage necessary to admit that we've both done more than enough to deserve winning and that we didn't get here solely by ourselves"
this is a moment that JKR presents as a unquestionably good moment for both of these boys. this is a moment she presents as Something That Her Readers Should Aspire To Emulate and as a big sign of Harry’s growth in GOF because he’s stopped seeing Cedric as an unattainable standard of perfection, or as a competitor, or as a back and forth of who owes what to whom — and started seeing Cedric as an equal and as a person
…and then Tom-mort Voldingdong interprets this as Harry bringing in a backup, and he wants to get Harry alone so that he's less of a threat.
(and on a narrative level, JKR probably thought that she had to kill Cedric or else people might believe in Harry's story more in OOTP, never mind that I've found multiple practical approaches here where she could've kept Cedric alive with it being both an in character choice for Voldemort AND not in any way detrimental to her plan for OOTP which is just???
like jfc, Joanne, the Ministry can totally publicly slander and discredit both of the teenage boy witnesses in this equation and I doubt that they'd even break a sweat in doing so. you didn’t NEED to kill Cedric; you CHOSE to kill him due to how you WANTED to tell the story and what you THOUGHT was the best way to do so (which is fair enough, even if you’re wrong about that at other points in the series — but at least be fucking honest with yourself and with your readers, and stop constructing narratives about how Cedric or Tonks or Sirius or Remus or Snape absolutely “had” to die — or about how).
the only monkey-wrench in the plan here is Cedric/Cho vs. Cho/Harry and I mean…… tbh, I haven't even thought about ways that JKR could've worked around that — at least not any ways that she would enjoy or be likely to use — because my way to work around it is kind of like…
"nah, y’know what? fuck your canon endgame ships, Joanne, your take on all of them bores me to death and in general, you wrote them badly or at the very least not as well as they deserved. so, we’re going to change things now okay, and in this changed arrangement, Cedric, Cho, and Harry can all have a shared romantic rough patch for OOTP — possibly involving some Cedric/Viktor on the side…
“because a part of the rough patch will end up being Cho and Cedric "taking a break" and agreeing that they can see other people if they want to. so since they are both into each other, Cho/Harry happens and since Viktor and Cedric progressively get to be friends in this version, they have some nominally no strings or feelings attached hook ups…
“because Cedric is a giant stress ball and a hot mess of feelings after watching the bit in the graveyard back in GOF, all the while being unsure of whether or not he's going to even live to get Harry's corpse back to Hogwarts, which is the plan Tom-mort presented them with, or if they're both going to die here, and is this all his fault for telling Harry to take the Cup, like what if Harry had listened and wound up here without any back up, what then???
“—and basically, he wants to get out of his head, which… uh yeah, I would too, so.
"and on Viktor's end, he's kind of hurting after things with Hermione didn't work out because he really did love her, and he's psyched to still be her friend, but he can't pretend that it he's just emotionless, or that it doesn't hurt, seeing her when he comes up to Hogsmeade and/or Hogwarts to meet up with Cedric, and seeing a lot of accidental glimpses of her and Ron, and not even being able to hate Ron like he wants to because…… Viktor likes Harry and Hermione so he trusts that they have a good reason for how important Ron is in their lives…
"and the one time he and Ron actually met, Ron was nervous and awkward but he seemed like a good guy? so… Viktor just has a lot of feelings and he just really likes intimate contact with other people, so his and Cedric's ~liaisons~ do make him feel better about things :(
“—then in a more immediate sense of things, Viktor really, truly sees friendship as a form of love in its own right, and different from but ultimately equal to romantic love in terms of its importance and its significance, so… yes, Viktor would say that he does very much love Cedric, definitely as a close friend — and one of the only people in Viktor’s life who actually sees him as a real person and as Viktor, and not as VIKTOR FUCKING KRUM: BULGARIAN BON BON AND INTERNATIONAL SUPERSTAR SEEKER
“—and maybe? like, maybe he loves Cedric in other ways too? Viktor's not entirely sure?? but regardless here, helping Cedric to get out of his head by having sex with him is something that Viktor doesn't even bat an eye at really, like. his friend is hurting. he can help. doing the thing is enjoyable for him and not something that he's uncomfortable with, so yes, he can do that…
"—and eventually, Cedric, Cho, and Harry work stuff out so that they actually get to go, 'screw this love triangle; OT3 instead.' and I kinda go back and forth a lot on the other endgame ships but Fleur, obviously, still falls for and marries Bill (and maybe we actually get to see this play out, with less of JKR’s unfairly demonizing Fleur until Bill's in an infirmary bed at the end of HBP),
“and the big issue for me is that I'm kind of okay with Hermione and Ron being endgame because JKR really did set that one up as early as POA, maybe even CoS or PS/SS depending on who you ask, and I take issue with some aspects of her writing the ship because there are things that she really needed to do a lot better here, but she put the work into it and it makes sense for both of them and their character arcs, and I don’t ship it, but I get where it’s coming from?
“like, tbh, my major point against endgame Ronmione is just that, personally, I can't romantically and/or sexually ship any of the Trio together except as part of an OT3 — the golden triOT3, if you will. because if it's just any two of them in the ship, they end up feeling really unbalanced for me? like… they’re Harry and Hermione and Ron. having any two in a romantic relationship without the other one just throws off the beautiful balance in their trio relationship and having two without the third just makes me feel weird. which is also my major point against having endgame Harmony or endgame Harry/Ron. :/
"so how about… Hermione/Luna, Ron/Viktor, Ginny/Neville, Dean/Seamus, and Lavender/Parvati for our endgame ships here, in addition to Cedric/Cho/Harry and Bill/Fleur, Joanne? I think that's a good mix personally. ……and uh, Draco can just go do whatever, because I really don't care. :3")—
but anyway, as I was saying: Cedric doesn't die because of what he did or because of some failure on his part — arguing this about him is actually exactly what the Ministry does in OOTP when they're being shits and explaining away his death with, "oh yeah uh, it was a tragic accident, such a shame, what a waste of such a young heart sad" (OOTP 245; Umbridge's exact words are, "Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident").
they don't recognize murder by Lord Voldemort as a valid cause of death and in the way they construct their version of what all happened to make Cedric turn up dead, they pin the blame for his death on him, but in a way where they still have plausible deniability here because they don't just say the thing outright — that’s how the Ministry works in OOTP and frankly, it’s how the person that the author of this article disagrees with is working too because Cedric is not in any way blamed for his death in-text, EXCEPT by people who are very clearly in the wrong.
Cedric does not die BECAUSE of some “failure” on his part. Cedric Diggory dies DESPITE the fact that he does all of the things that JKR wants her target audience to learn are Good Things to do, because a sad truth of life is that you can do all of the right things and be an overall good and innocent person and do your best at everything and embody and live out a lot of values and ideals that are positive and constructive………
and you can still get screwed over because the world isn’t fair and some people are malicious fucking bastards who don’t care about ~silly, petty little things~ like how killing other people is usually wrong
(I say “usually” because here there’s a very clear difference between a fucking murder like Wormtail commits on Tom-mort’s orders, and say, killing someone in self-defense while they’re trying to kill you)
and that’s really the message that the text creates with Cedric’s death — like… is it kinda blunt? yes. is it kinda harsh? yes.
does my recognition of this textual message mean that I agree with how JKR imparted it to her audience? no, that isn’t what it means, because I don’t agree with that — I mean, this whole post has basically been a lot of reasons why I’m of the mind that how JKR did the thing was bullshit.
does my rejection of how she shared this message with the readers mean that I reject the message? no, it doesn’t mean that, because I don’t — that message is a harsh truth but it’s still a truth, and it’s better for young people to learn this truth sooner rather than later, if you ask me, because they need to develop the coping skills to handle things before the results of getting screwed over like this are truly devastating
I just… I don’t like the way that JKR chose to create this message, but I can still acknowledge that this is the message she was creating when she killed Cedric off — and for all I wish she’d done this in some other fashion? I’m still aware enough of the basics of textual analysis to understand that she never once CONDEMNED Cedric Diggory, let alone blamed him for his own death or stacked him up as a “failure” at performing masculinity as opposed to the so-called “success” embodied by Harry, jesus tap-dancing CHRIST
Scott Mccall, dragons, alpha Kali, meta in your tags, and laheycest
………I was trying to think of a good rebuttal for the last one, in which I pinned the blame on Astrid in a very, "well yes… but if you think about it, she's done more here than I have, so……… :3" kind of waybut then I got distracted sorting out my hoard of "files that I can use in aesthetic edits when I finally get to making some" — specifically, trying to parse out all the stuff in the one huge folder that I pretty much used as dumping ground for everything before I realized that it was getting way oversized and image previews were loading way too slowly, and divvying things up into categories like… "dude fan-casts," "ladies fan-casts," "art, graffiti, etc."…………………and I started mentally trying to map out what I'd want a Camsaac/Laheycest aesthetic edit to look like, and I'm pretty sure this is just evidence of why you're 10,000% right in that association xD
aaaand it’s over!! …i.e., I am finally done going through battles over 350 ships from the ship sorter thingy that Astrid lysaacs was having me do a test-run of for her, and… ffs, this thing took me long enough to do, I’m totally posting a full list of them because I can and I feel like it and it’s nice to have around.
nb: the twrpe rules allow for any type of relationship to be requested — romo, sexual, romosexual, platonic, familial, queerplatonic, pack-bond, any and all the relationship types — so the ships herein are not necessarily romo-sexual, but i also don’t have the patience to go through and specify how i like all of them.
if it’s parental incest, I can guarantee you that it’s a ship I like EXCLUSIVELY in a a familial way and this is also true of most adult/teen ships (at least those that involve adults other than: Braeden, Camden, Derek, Laura, and Parrish). and all of the exceptions to that statement are definitely somewhere on my ships page
also, Astrid made the sorter with the lists of requested ships from rounds two and three of the rarepair exchange, which means that the end results don’t have S*terek, Skittles, or S*tydia in them.
this is because TWRPE always nixes S*terek, because it is the Ship That Ate Fandom; and the other two were on our nix list for round two’s, “rarest of the rare” theme, then nixed in round three based on all of the evidence and our analysis of it, and our conclusions, which I will summarize thusly: “teen wolf ships have 167 fics on average” factoid actually just statistical error. S*terek is an outlier and should not be counted).
that said, this list also comes with the standard, “blah blah, this is just reflective of the way I feel today, not necessarily how I feel overall; I tried to avoid using the buttons for, ‘I like both’ and, ‘no opinion’ as much as I could” disclaimer of mine — actually, I only used the “no opinion” button of those two, and I mostly used it toward the end, when it got to be, “pick between these ships that you dislike more or less equally”
I thought about approximating where I’d put the three nixed ships on this list… but then I decided that it was probably in my best interests not to break myself in half trying to figure out the ship calculus here beyond, “well, one of them is pretty high up, another one is in the middle but closer to the bottom than not, and the third is down in the, ‘HARD pass’ category”
also, I put little ☆ characters next to the ships that, to me, got the most notably screwed over in the numerical ordering stuff because I love them more than the number might indicate, even when in the context of, “X out of 350”
camden x isaac
isaac x scott
jennifer x kali ☆
camden x derek ☆
allison x kira ☆
kira x scott ☆
jackson x scott ☆
allison x kate ☆
boyd x erica x isaac
danny x scott ☆
allison x isaac ☆
danny x isaac ☆
allison x isaac x scott ☆
danny x isaac x scott
braeden x kira ☆
derek x scott ☆
allison x braeden ☆
laura x lydia ☆
kira x malia ☆
peter x scott ☆
braeden x laura ☆
derek x laura
braeden x derek ☆
camden x danny x isaac
isaac x jackson x scott
isaac x jackson
boyd x isaac x scott ☆
allison x braeden x kira
erica x isaac ☆
boyd x isaac ☆
kira x scott x stiles
malia x scott ☆
isaac x malia x scott
kali x noshiko ☆
allison x isaac x kate
boyd x erica x isaac x scott
deaton x scott ☆
isaac x parrish
isaac x lydia ☆
laura x marin
braeden x parrish
braeden x scott
allison x malia
boyd x danny x scott
braeden x kira x malia ☆
nogitsune x stiles ☆
erica x kira ☆
malia x stiles ☆
kira x malia x scott x stiles
isaac x lydia x parrish
allison x laura ☆
malia x scott x stiles ☆
braeden x isaac x kira x scott
danny x jackson x lydia ☆
braeden x marin ☆
boyd x scott ☆
isaac x lydia x scott ☆
erica x lydia ☆
boyd x erica ☆
braeden x kate ☆
derek x kate ☆
braeden x kali ☆
isaac x malia ☆
erica x malia ☆
jennifer x kate ☆
allison x isaac x kira x scott ☆
kali x marin
isaac x jackson x lydia ☆
erica x isaac x jackson
nogitsune x scott ☆
cora x lydia x malia ☆
kali x kate
cora x laura x lydia ☆
boyd x kira ☆
allison x scott x stiles ☆
kate x laura ☆
erica x laura x malia
allison x erica
kate x violet ☆
danny x jackson ☆
allison x kali ☆
jackson x matt ☆
cora x erica x malia ☆
jennifer x lydia ☆
braeden x isaac ☆
peter x stiles
jennifer x kali x laura ☆
nogitsune x scott x stiles ☆
erica x isaac x lydia
cora x laura x malia
deaton x marin
braeden x erica
allison x scott
allison x cora x lydia
jennifer x laura
liam x scott ☆
erica x laura
danny x parrish ☆
allison x lydia
danny x scott x stiles ☆
allison x nogitsune x scott
erica x scott ☆
kira x malia x scott ☆
parrish x scott ☆
allison x isaac x lydia ☆
melissa x noshiko
jennifer x kali x lydia
isaac x kira x scott
kate x victoria
erica x kali
allison x erica x lydia ☆
allison x cora
cora x lydia ☆
danny x ethan
kate x scott
boyd x erica x kira ☆
boyd x braeden x erica
allison x kira x lydia
danny x kira x scott
lydia x malia
braeden x derek x scott ☆
isaac x kincaid ☆
allison x kira x scott ☆
marin x melissa ☆
derek x kate x jennifer ☆
derek x scott x stiles
allison x harley
melissa x natalie
erica x kate
kira x lydia
cora x derek x laura ☆
melissa x scott ☆
lydia x scott ☆
lydia x parrish
allison x lydia x scott
danny x derek
ken x noshiko
lorraine x maddy
boyd x danny ☆
cora x isaac
allison x cora x erica x lydia
boyd x cora x erica
derek x jennifer
jackson x malia
liam x mason
jackson x lydia
allison x erica x scott
allison x nogitsune
deucalion x talia
liam x malia
derek x jackson
aiden x danny x ethan
braeden x malia
melissa x parrish
allison x lydia x scott x stiles
ken x melissa x noshiko
allison x melissa
kate x melissa
allison x nogitsune x stiles
danielle x harley
jennifer x melissa
boyd x cora ☆
isaac x jennifer
scott x sheriff
boyd x lydia
boyd x erica x lydia
chris x kate
cora x malia
braeden x derek x parrish
kira x lydia x scott
erica x jackson
allison x violet
isaac x kira
danny x mason
danielle x heather
laura x paige
braeden x lydia ☆
aiden x ethan
kira x lydia x malia ☆
allison x jackson
boyd x lydia x scott
boyd x jackson
allison x boyd
allison x boyd x erica x scott
malia x marin
marin x talia
peter x talia ☆
erica x isaac x scott
allison x boyd x lydia
lydia x malia x scott x stiles
derek x isaac x scott
brett x mason
kira x noshiko
claudia x melissa
boyd x derek x isaac
garrett x violet
brett x liam
melissa x stiles
caitlin x erica
lydia x marin
chris x isaac
deaton x sheriff
derek x peter
ken x marin x noshiko
erica x melissa
boyd x derek
derek x nogitsune
derek x kira x scott
danny x liam x mason
allison x stiles
cora x kira
allison x marin
derek x kira
otpack ☆
isaac x liam x malia
danny x stiles
allison x boyd x stiles
derek x kira x stiles
kate x peter
caitlin x malia
melissa x tara
danielle x scott
allison x boyd x erica
kira x stiles
chris x derek
chris x scott
isaac x meredith
allison x jackson x stiles
allison x caitlin
isaac x melissa
aiden x jackson
boyd x stiles
deucalion x peter
melissa x peter
jackson x peter
allison x liam
derek x parrish
derek x paige
braeden x derek x kira
derek x isaac
allison x derek x scott
chris x victoria
melissa x talia
derek x malia
danny x sheriff
aiden x lydia
aiden x isaac
braeden x derek x isaac
cora x erica
aiden x danny
malia x parrish
lydia x scott x stiles
derek x natalie
allison x derek
isaac x peter
cora x scott
jackson x malia x stiles
claudia x melissa x sheriff
derek x sheriff
cora x derek
kali x kincaid
lydia x meredith
coach x greenberg
allison x braeden x derek
derek x malia x stiles
cora x jackson
allison x derek x lydia
sheriff x stiles
allison x chris x isaac
boyd x derek x erica x scott
allison x deucalion
derek x kira x lydia
allison x derek x stiles
braeden x derek x lydia
derek x melissa
derek x lydia
chris x melissa x sheriff
natalie x sheriff
chris x peter
parrish x stiles
jennifer x peter
jackson x stiles
allison x boyd x cora
claudia x sheriff x stiles
chris x stiles
harris x stiles
sheriff x talia
parrish x sheriff
aiden x ethan x stiles
braeden x derek x peter
lydia x peter
chris x melissa
derek x parrish x stiles
lydia x parrish x peter
derek x noshiko
chris x peter x stiles
isaac x scott x stiles
liam x stiles
derek x jackson x stiles || parrish x peter (tied)
chris x talia || claudia x derek || derek x lydia x stiles || melissa x sheriff (tied)
rafael x stiles
cora x stiles
cora x deucalion || boyd x derek x erica (tied)
chris x sheriff
jackson x lydia x stiles || derek x jennifer x stiles || isaac x lydia x stiles || boyd x erica x stiles (tied)
allison x chris || allison x lydia x stiles || allison x isaac x stiles || cora x derek x stiles || cora x lydia x stiles || isaac x jackson x stiles || lydia x parrish x stiles (tied)
lydia x peter x stiles || erica x isaac x stiles (tied)
allison x laura x stiles || derek x sheriff x stiles (tied)
chris x laura
allison x chris x stiles
deucalion x peter x stiles
allison x peter || braeden x peter || erica x stiles || isaac x stiles (tied)
hi hi, this is mod!astrid/lysaacs from allydiareversebang. i apologise for the delay in replying - mod!rogue has stepped down due to rl and i've taken over again, but that was only a few hours ago. a post with more details is available on the arb blog. just confirming that your submission has been received and you're all good to go. :)
lysaacs replied to your post: lysaacs replied to your post: i just m...
yeah, that’s such a trap, and i also have a bunch where it’s like… i’m okay with most of the set but there’s 1 or 2 gifs that just bring the whole set down but i don’t know what to do instead so it just sits there? blaaargh
lysaacs replied to your post: i just made a graphic but it was ugly ...
yeah i’ve had things sitting in my drafts for months because i’m just like ’….no’ siiiighs
yeah!!! and i think my problem is that i’ll make something and then i’ll stare at it for too long and i’ll be like............yikes what was i thinking lol
