Why Are Molly Haters Always So Rude? 😮‍💨

me when a fictional woman decides not to get an abortion

Yeah I also don't see him as a macho buff guy. I like to think of him as someone strong but skinny (those guys you would underestimate, but they'd break you if you try anything funny).

But we see some things differently sooo, let's wrap this up 😄

describing harry as "an insanely athletic man" while all he does is sit on a flying broom is crazy work

Personal ranking of HP characters based on who did the most to least shitty things during their school years:

1. Tom Riddle: murders, student endangerment, using a deadly creature as a weapon, framing an innocent for his crimes, manipulation of others, encouraging delinquency, school rule breaking and creating a horcrux.

2. Sirius Black: attempted murder, frequent harrasment and bullying of a vulnerable student, intimidation, school rule-breaking, illegal animagi transformation, unauthorized surveillance of staff and students, using an illegal spell, risking his friend's future, belittling his friend.

3. James Potter: attempted sexual assault, frequent bullying and harrassment of a socially vulnerable student, hexing of other students, coercion, threatening, school rule-breaking, illegall animagi transformation, unauthorized surveillance of staff and students, using an illegal spell.

4. Draco Malfoy: multiple attempted murders, affiliation with a terrorist group, repeated use of hate speech, abuse of power, use of an unforgivable curse, school rule-breaking, bullying and intimidation of others, assisting malicious prosecution of an innocent animal.

5. Peter Pettigrew: enabling and participation in rule breaking and unethical behavior, bullying, illegal animagi transformation, unauthorized surveillance of staff and students.

6. Severus Snape: school rule-breaking, use of hate speech against his best friend, affiliation with an extremist group that hates his best friend and practices dark magic on students, invention of a dark spell, ignoring Lily's valid concerns about the company he kept.

7. Hermione Granger: kidnapping and blackmailing of Rita Skeeter, assisting identity fraud, illegal brewing of a potion, theft of ingrediences, school rule-breaking, arson, assisting a prison break, disfigurement of another student, physical assault, unlawful entry of the Ministry, emotional neglect in favor of appeasing Dumbledore.

8. Harry Potter: attempted involuntary manslaughter, physical assault, identity fraud, school rule-breaking, international law violations, aiding a fugitive's escape, theft of ingrediences, invasion of privacy, spying and stalking, unauthorized surveillance of staff and students, unlawful entry of the Ministry.

9. Remus Lupin: continuous enabling of rule breaking and unethical activities, avoidance of responsibilities and duties, unauthorized surveillance of staff and students, allowing a student be harrassed.

10. Fred & George: endangering of students through reckless behavior, unethical experimentation on underage students, school rule-breaking, unauthorized surveillance of staff and students.

11. Ron Weasley: international law violation, identity fraud, assisting illegal brewing, theft of ingrediences, school rule-breaking, emotional neglect in favor of appeasing Dumbledore, betrayal of trust, unlawful entry of the Ministry, enabling of reckless behavior.

12. Lily Evans: dismissing her friend’s struggles, classist behavior towards a vulnerable student, close association with individuals known for illegal behavior and immoral actions towards her ex friend.

The reason some individuals who committed more crimes than others are ranked lower is that I took intent and ethical justifications into consideration, as well as my personal feelings about their actions. Hopefully, I haven't missed anything important.

Dumbledore was clever, cunning, and magically powerful. If he wanted real power, he could have quite quickly brought the wizarding world to its knees. Actually, he feared power and deliberately limited himself from it and tried not to get involved in the most political decisions because he knew he had a visionary side that could make him start deciding people's fates "for the greater good." He knew he could make mistakes. That's why all his positions were not really about power but were more like representative and guarantor roles, where there were many other decision-makers, and his power could be limited by others — from headmaster (from which he was disgracefully kicked out) to the position in the useless magical version of the UN.

Dumbledore didn't seek power, he feared it. That's why he avoided making some decisions and increasing his power even when he could and should have done so (like taking the post of Minister).

At first Harry thinks Dumbledore is almost like a god, but then he realizes that Dumbledore actually has no real power, makes mistakes, and is just an ordinary person with his own flaws, who has been fighting his inner demons all his life and can't forgive himself for a mistake he made in his youth.

Dumbledore is actually a deeply traumatised character who is often afraid to make decisions and avoids doing things because he believes his actions sometimes don't lead to good outcomes. He avoids action even when it's really needed, doing the bare minimum.

He is very distant, closed off, and I think quite an unhappy person. I can almost see the pain Dumbledore went through with the whole Harry situation, but it was a difficult decision that only he could make, and he actually hates himself for it, which is why he distances himself from Harry as much as possible (I don't think it's the right decision. I see it as Dumbledore's weakness.) Dumbledore's death isn't a sad event for him, it's the release he had been waiting for a long time.

This is such a simple idea that I really don't understand how people see him as a character who fought Voldemort just to keep his kinda pathetic power.

I think they were friendly and maybe even friends like they would stand up for each other and protect one another because they shared the same loved one - James - and had similar values etc. but I never felt like they were close. From what we know Lily and James started dating in 7th year, I imagine Sirius to be kind of resentful towards Lily because she stole James's time/attention from him so there was never a healthy opportunity to get close even tho they were friendly, I imagine they started to become friends during the time when Lily and James were forced to stay at home. Lily never mentions Remus so they were even less closer atleast in the final years of her life and I imagine she included Peter a lot because she pitied him or hell maybe he was funny or smth. But I still prefer to imagine her as James's girlfriend and wife only and that's how the marauders viewed her.

Lily's dynamic with the marauders (unpopular opinion)

Am I the only one who feels that lily wasn't as close to the marauders as the fandom makes her out to be?

Now before u jump at me, it's obviously fun to explore the dynamics btw different characters thru hcs and fanfics. However, i m only considering canon facts in this post.

First off, we never hear sirius or remus speak about lily when james isn't involved in the conversation. James was obviously a close friend, more lyk a brother, so its only natural that they reminisce him often. Both of them remark on harry's resemblance to james pretty often. It's literally the first thing sirius mentions when he sees harry for the first time in poa, saying james would have taken risks for him the same way harry came for ron. Remus compares harry's humor and unflinching belief in his friends to james aswell. There are constant little mentions post gof of james by both of them.

But lily? Absolutely nothing. We obviously can't expect her to be mentioned as many times as james coz she wasn't in their original friend group, but she isn't mentioned at all. The only time she's spoken about is post swm, and that's still in relation to her getting together with james. We learn more about lily from snape, someone she cut ties with when she was 15, than from her supposed besties. Heck, we learn more about her from Slughorn, her school teacher, than we ever did from sirius and remus.

Ik lily addresses sirius and peter by their nicknames in that letter, but i honestly always saw it as a casual thing, obvs in a fond way but not an indicator of their relationship.

There is obviously potential for a close friendship, there's often potential for a lot of things in fiction, but that doesn't make it canon. Apart from fighting the same war these characters don't seem to have anything in common. Yeah, both lily and sirius have complicated relationships with their siblings, but I would hardly compare a failed relation to having your sibling be brainwashed by your abusive family into following a cult that's trying to get u and ur friends killed.... Besides, lily is portrayed as this pure, perfect mother in canon while sirius and remus are both massively flawed characters, and that leaves little room for understanding between these characters.

Now, this isn't to say that the didn't like each other ofc, but the way lily's only mentioned with respect to james, they probably liked and respected her as their best friend's wife. There's no way I'm believing that they were super close when she isn't mentioned on her own even once after she's dead, it makes it pretty clear that the relationship was only because of james. There's nothing wrong with that ofc, it happens in plenty of friend groups and families, i just wish there were more fics representing their relationship the way it was originally written( although fanfics exploring their relationship are LIT in their own fanon way).

Yes! Leaving will do nothing progressive. Of course I understand those who do, for their personal and mental well being, but I love the HP world and I want the fandom to be a better place and to advocate for trans rights and make the fans as much different from the author as it's possible. So I will always stay.

i find the “don’t even THINK about anything even remotely related to harry potter, because that’s aiding and abetting jkr’s terf agenda” is giving abstinence only sex education vibes

Yeah it's stupid. And it's not confined to Harry Potter. There's this whole idea that there are the Bad Problematic TM works that must never be engaged with and the Good Virtuous works that are approved reading. And nope. Good people can write bad stuff. Bad people can write good stuff. Problematic works can still be meaningful and enjoyable. The key is to think and read critically. I love Shakespeare. It doesn't mean I agree with all the 1600s attitudes that color the works.

I also think too many people try to engage in bullying online by calling it "activism" so they can indulge in their basest desires while avoiding the work of doing any real actual activism.

Bigotry will always exist. Even if we banned all thoughts of Harry Potter it wouldn't end transphobia or make trans people safer. What WOULD help trans people is enacting tough laws that protect their rights and penalize discrimination and also educating people about trans issues and promoting inclusiveness so that over time society becomes more accepting. But all that takes work and is about actually helping people. And for some people that isn't the true goal.

Now I have the urge to read Tonks/Snape for the first time in my life.

When Snape told Tonks her man was weak and she could do better, he ate.

I'm starting to get really interested in exploring the depths and realms of a sub Voldemort...

How did you get into harrymort?

I read the books

i actually never ever want AO3 to be censored bc nothing is more fun than reading the tags on a fic and going “huh. didn’t know there was a market for that.”