I Regret NOTHING.

i like the lore that piandao trained zuko but i don't think it was exactly the wholesome adoption that people like to do with zuko and any father figures. like in my mind piandao receives a letter from the fire lord like "the crown prince sucks at firebending and you're the best swordsman in the nation so we are sending him to be trained. this is non-optional" and piandao's legitimately contemplating committing treason rather than compromise his values and then the end of the the letter is like "we know you're usually selective we'll pay whatever" and piandao's like. okay FINE please pay me an absolutely ridiculous amount. and ozai agrees bc anything to get his failson out of his hair and piandao sends the money to the white lotus to fund a resistance group in the earth kingdom

and baby zuko, that turtleduck-loving mama's boy theater nerd, arrives on his doorstep and this is where most people would have him change his tune but piandao's just like "sure he seems cute now but he'll grow up to do imperialism". he teaches zuko the dual swords, a commoner's weapon, bc the ideal path for this kid who seems way too nice to be part of the royal family is to give it all up. but he doesn't think that's gonna happen. like iroh comes for a visit and he also seems nicer than the rest of the royal family but he did the siege of ba sing se so like. what does it matter that zuko likes theater and turtleducks and his mommy? he can still hate the earth kingdom and water tribes.

all of this is going on in his head, of course. in his actual interactions with zuko he's a very kind and patient teacher. he knows ozai's a bad dad and he wants to at least try to help this kid onto a better path. but it's not until he hears about the banishment and reports of a guy in a theater mask with dual swords committing treason that he's actually like "oh shit maybe there's some hope for this kid after all"

and he only really adopts him post-canon when iroh fucks off to ba sing se and SOMEBODY needs to help this poor kid navigate fire nation politics and i guess that's gonna be me. okay actually i like him now :) maybe i'll set him up with sokka

the sillies

Another thing that probably dismantles the whole "Snape is abusive" argument, or rather the hypocrisy behind it.

Filch.

That man insults the children far, far more than Snape does, and constantly threatens physical punishment (and apparently only stopped by Dumbledore very recently).

And even he's not treated as abusive by the narrative, just nasty and unpleasant (and a little ridiculous in his extremity).

If people care so much about the children being abused, they should focus on Filch. Yet nobody ever brings him up in those conversations, because it's not about discussing what's qualified as abuse to the wizarding world (as Filch isn't considered abusive, while Umbridge is, even though he sucked up to her too he's not nearly as hated by the fandom nor by the students iirc), it's literally just people choosing to bash on Severus Snape (and god knows why they have so much hatrid for him)

Little spoon Talis❤️

rawr xD

Katara is so REAL for this :D

You know what I can't get over about the angst the Marauders fandom has for The Prank?

None of it is to do with the fucking victim

It's all about Sirius and Remus and their "fractured" relationship and Sirius' "guilt" and Remus being "angry" or "guilty"

But it's never about the actual fucking victim

It's never about the victim who got tricked and nearly killed. The victim who was silenced by the adults around him. The victim whose own best friend didn't even believe his version of events.

Severus Snape is the biggest victim of the Prank. Out of all the people with any right for angst, he's got the biggest right. For goodness's sake, his abusers didn't even regret what they nearly did, James just was aware the consequences would be nasty for him and his friends. And I don't think even Remus truly cared enough either to truly feel bad about it.

But nobody ever discusses that.

Funny how Marauders stans always come back to the old:

"And again, I never have pretended that James is this all knowing, goodie two shoes saint. You cannot deny that James does evolve and have character growth. Because i am sure that Lily would not have given him the time of day otherwise… "

- From your comments section on the recent jegulus post.

Saintess Lily in all her infinite wisdom would never marry a bully - he evolved like a pokemon and now doesn’t bully people behind her back at all, he showed his character growth by leaving his wife and child all alone while a mad man is after their heads to have fun with Sirius - cursing muggle police officers.

Oh Great Hero James Potter, your own besties must have being lying when they said that you were still bullying Snape behind Lily’s back. And Lily must have being lying in that letter when she said you were leaving her alone with the child to have fun outside while a psycho wants to k*ll your son - and Dumbledore had absolute no reason to take the Invisibility cloak, after all The Great Hero Potter must have his daily dose of fun by tormenting innocent bystanders.

Oh wait...

Ah yes, the classic “if a good woman loves you, you must be a good man” nonsense. Go say that to all the good women who ended up with abusers. I don’t think any woman chooses a man thinking he’s a piece of shit—but a lot of men are very good at hiding their true nature.

It’s canon that James lied to Lily. It’s canon that behind her back, he kept being a bully. But of course, that’s only if you’ve actually read the books. And clearly, a lot of people in that fandom haven’t—they’ve only seen the films, or worse, they’ve just skimmed fanfics and TikTok summaries. So what we end up with is a bunch of people talking like experts when they don’t know the first thing about what they’re discussing.

And honestly, there’s nothing that gets on my nerves more than people preaching like they know it all when they haven’t even done their homework.