'Remus King-of-Self-Sabotage Lupin' Highly Resonates, I Fear.
'Remus King-of-Self-Sabotage Lupin' highly resonates, I fear.
More Posts from Mikailakay and Others
I was thinking about Luffy not wanting to be a hero when I realized something.
His very simple yet insightful line, "heroes share their meat, I want all the meat", very clearly shows that heroes make sacrifices. He doesn't want to make sacrifices. Perhaps it's because he's been the sacrifice himself.
Garp is a hero. He's cool too. But he was hardly present in Luffy's childhood. No matter how much he'd get beaten by his grandpa, I bet he'd still rather have him around than not ("being alone is worse than being hurt."). Yet Garp very clearly makes a sacrifice here. Being a marine being a priority over his grandson in the absence of the child's father.
Later, after Enies Lobby, he finds out that Dragon is a revolutionary. Literally a hero of the people. What's he done? The cost he paid for a greater good? He sacrificed Luffy.
So, while Luffy loves really deeply and fights for this love, he would rather have a death grip on his precious ones by being a pirate than let go and sacrifice and become a hero.
This may very well just be me looking too deeply into it, but the idea of Luffy being the sacrifice just did something to my insides that is hard to explain.
Finished Squid Game 2 and I'm obsessed. It got me so hooked I literally cried so hard at the most random moments because of how impactful and meaningful everything felt and the metaphors for capitalism and class and omggg. Season 1 was great but this one just meant more for me and I'm so excited for this thing to become my new source of dopamine for the unforeseen future.
Two up, two down
We talk about Potter as a timeless series, as quills and parchment will never date, but there are a few key elements which are of their time, and I sometimes suspect that eventually, their original meaning may be lost.
Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is one of these. If you visit Surrey, a house akin to Number 4 on Privet Drive can be found on hundreds of identical estates. Indeed, the three-bedroom house with a garage, and both front and back gardens, situated on a private housing estate in leafy surburbia is one that most British people will have strolled through at some point.
But Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is the opposite of the Dursleys’ aspirational abode, and is somewhere that few modern readers will have seen in its original form with their own eyes. Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is a traditional two up, two down through terraced house, mired deep in a maze of identical cobbled streets, overlooked by a looming mill chimney, and seemingly – by the 90s – entirely abandoned.
The difficulty that some may have in accurately picturing this scene is because these houses, in this state, no longer exist. A large percentage of two up, two down terraces were demolished as part of slum clearance, which should tell you all that you need to know about the state of the houses.
Those which remained have been extensively modified – usually knocking down the privy (outside toilet), and then building a two storey extension across the bulk of the yard to create a third room downstairs, and a bathroom upstairs. Some houses only have a single extension; it is rather common in some areas of the Midlands to have a bathroom that leads off the kitchen downstairs – because the bathroom was the missing room, and it was cheaper to build one storey than two.
Pottermore had an article earlier in the year which explained how the filmmakers originally wanted to film on location, but could not, because the houses simply did not exist in their traditional state.
The houses were typically constructed with two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs with a tiny backyard entry leading to the outhouse. Craig actually considered shooting on location, but even though the buildings were intact, they had been brought into the modern era, with up-to-date kitchens and plastic extensions, so the set was built at the studio.
Throughout the 20th century, cobbled streets were routinely replaced by various other road surfaces, namely tarmac and asphalt – and, of course, the scarcity of cobblestones now means that such streets are aesthetically desirable. However, the cobblestones in Spinner’s End are not an indication of affluence, but an indication of an area left behind. This is further illustrated by the rusted railings, the broken streetlights, and the boarded up windows.
These were workers houses, often funded by the owners of the mill, and therefore tied – meaning that rent was deducted from your wage before you received it. There were benefits to being in tied accommodation, including being close to work and having a guaranteed landlord – but that was as much benefit to the mill owner as the worker. Seeing great competition, some mill owners invested in their properties to entice workers – but Spinner’s End is not an example of this; Spinner’s End would’ve been regarded as little better than a slum even when fully occupied.
The narrow streets are indicative of when these houses were built, presumably in the late 1800s – cars were not a concern, and the attitude was to build as many houses on as small a piece of land as possible.
By the time the 90s roll around, and we see Narcissa and Bellatrix descend upon the street, Spinner’s End appears to be mostly deserted. With the closure of traditional manual industries, families would be keen to relocate to where work could be found. Estates which hadn’t already been cleared by the 60s would find themselves left to rack and ruin, their former occupants long gone – whether seeking a new life elsewhere, or having died.
For once, Bellatrix is not being anti-Muggle when she sneers at the Muggle dunghill; she is unnervingly accurate. It is a slum by her standards, but most importantly, it was a slum by everyone else’s standards as well. By the time Severus was born, work should’ve been well under way to clear the area, or to renovate it. This evidently did not occur – which itself explains how undesirable the area is; nobody wanted to spruce it up - they wanted to leave. There were no jobs, no amenities, no services – and eventually, no people.
We often ponder why Snape remains at Spinner’s End, but perhaps there lies the answer; he wasn’t just hiding from the magical world, but he was also hiding from the Muggle world as well…
Something about the men who turned Harry's life upside down...
The default question “do video games cause violence” is loaded, but with a bit of rejiggering it becomes clear that the answer is closer to ‘yes’ than ‘no’. & I think a lot of us on here have been dodging this topic for a long time because we like video games and we want to protect their reputation
"Men are struggling" to not ruin my day for once
"Men are struggling" yeah men are struggling to impress me
Collection of Harrydore Recs
1. Stripping someone to their underwear, while choking them and assaulting them beforehand, in public, is definitely sexual assault.
I compared it to groping because it's essentially mild sexual assault, but both have the same effect on the victim: lack of consent, sexual humiliation, and exposure, in Snape's case. And in real life, forced exposure is considered sexual assault.
2. No, it was James starting the fights, with Sirius. Snape was only fighting back. The Marauders targeted Snape for their own amusement, and he merely retaliated in self-defense. Should he just take it? This is victim blaming.
3. It's because his whole life he never had power and respect. At home, he was abused and neglected. At Hogwarts, he was bullied, assaulted, and gaslighted by both his abusers, his best friend, and the authorities, who failed to intervene plus Dumbledore, who protected his abusers. No authority ever prevented James and Sirius from attacking Snape. He needed power, he needed to feel respected, because he never was, and it's perfectly normal to crave that. His agency was always taken away. Cults target people like Snape because he's insecure, seeks community, acceptance, and a sense of power, and he's useful at that. He also shared a dorm with Slytherins every day, so it's no wonder he got sucked into their camaraderie in some way. He merely sought agency, since everyone around kept stripping it from him. James essentially contributed to Snape's social alienation, disrespect, ostracization, and indirectly was partly responsible for Snape's radicalization, though not completely.
4. I'm not saying what Snape did was good, nor am I justifying his actions. I'm simply saying that James and Sirius were a pretty big contributor to him getting sucked into the Death Eater circle and that they both abused him, and Snape was the victim in their dynamic.
I'm talking about social power and those who were constantly neglected of it - of course, people want to reclaim their power. James was a socially popular, accepted, wealthy, powerful pureblood who had a stable home, whereas Snape was often ostracized, humiliated, a poor, ugly half-blood in Slytherin where status is everything. He was also neglected and abused by his family at home and abused at Hogwarts, literally everywhere. His pursuit of power was about protection, belonging, and self-worth, which he didn’t get anywhere else. And teenagers need those things.
All of your arguments ignore context, as well as how oppressive systems work and affect the oppressed.
can snape stans for the love of god please shut the fuck up
here are some things i’ve GENUINELY seen snape stan’s say today and i have receipts:
1. that lily only fell in love with james because he gave her a love potion. i…i don’t even know what to say other than that this is obscene.
2. that james’ actions could be compared to what death eaters do. i’m sorry, has james ever killed or tortured anybody purely due to their race/ethnicity? does james think that all minorities deserve to die or be controlled? and do i need to remind people that snape literally WAS an avid blood supremacist and death eater?? jesus fucking christ…
3. like 3000 people saying over and over that james sexually assaulted snape. first of all, comparing pantsing to sexual assault is extremely disrespectful to anybody who’s been s/a’d, myself included. second of all, that only happened in the movies, dipshits. clearly you didn’t read the books if you obsess over that argument.
4. that lily, sirius, remus, james, and peter are all worse people than snape. i’m sorry, did any of them grow up to torment innocent children? did any of them grow up to find pleasure in the pain and suffering and fear of little kids, using their position as a TEACHER to express prejudice? did any of them grow up to use a child’s DEAD DAD’s actions from DECADES AGO to justify cruelty? peter grows up to be awful, but the other four make childhood mistakes that they learn and grow from in adulthood. snape never learns and grows. he just gets worse, and that’s nobody’s fault but his own.
5. that minerva and hagrid are just as bad as snape. first of all, hagrid never discriminated against students for their race or identity and neither does minerva. hagrid and minerva are tough but fair. they don’t enact cruelty. when they see bullies or cruel students get what’s coming to them, then they turn away because they’re witnessing natural consequences. i won’t deny that minerva and hagrid have favorites but they aren’t blatantly cruel to people who aren’t favorites and their only acts of cruelty are ones in which the students ACTUALLY INSTIGATE something worth punishing. snape punishes neville for existing. he punishes hermione for daring to participate in class. and malfoy goes off scott free because he’s a pure blood.
moral of the story, snape stans are delusional. if y’all weren’t so INSANE, then maybe i’d actually like snape. but you are. so i don’t, and i doubt i ever will!
