fanfic-lover-girl

[fanfic-lover-girl]

#writing #writing struggles

[fanfic-lover-girl]

That's why it's so sad that Zuko ended up with the most apathetic girl in the series. And so sad Katara ended up with a guy who is well-meaning for the most part but can't understand her. Zuko and Katara deserved better.

Why Katara and Zuko understand each other’s anger—and Aang doesn’t

Fresh off @zuzusexytiems​’s post about why she ships Zutara, in which she talks about Zuko getting that Katara is a passionate person, and Aang not quite getting that. There’s a reason why this happens: it all comes down to how each of these characters deals with anger.

Katara: I knew you wouldn’t understand. Aang: Wait, stop, I do understand. You’re feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do you think I felt about the sandbenders when they stole Appa? How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?

Aang is usually a gentle, kind soul. He turns enemies into friends, and tries to solve situations without violence whenever possible. This means that when he does unleash his anger, it’s a big deal—usually culminating in the powerful Avatar State that is a danger not only to enemies, but to friends as well.

Katara: What happened?

Sokka: He found out firebenders killed Gyatso.

Katara: Oh no, it’s his avatar spirit! He must have triggered it! I’m gonna try and calm him down.

Sokka: Well, do it before he blows us off the mountain!

When Aang is at his angriest, it is a terrible experience for him. He hates feeling that way—he even has nightmares about it. His anger is something he feels he has to keep under control, or let go, because if he doesn’t, it will undo all of his most cherished ideals.

This is where Katara and Zuko differ from him.

Keep reading

#zuko deserved better #katara deserved better #southern raiders #anti kataang #anti maiko #uncle iroh #iroh critical #the man is not perfect as fandom so lovingly likes to claim #atla zuko #katara #aang #atla #righteous anger #zutara #pro zutara

[fanfic-lover-girl]

#chrisitanity #faith #prayer

[fanfic-lover-girl]

I saw your anti-Jegulus post, and wanted to offer my two cents. I actually don’t personally mind Jegulus as a ship itself (I wouldn’t call myself a fan or anything, but I’m not too bothered by it), but I actually do think a lot of the fanon portrayals of Jegulus have constant hints of misogyny. For example, I’ve seen a lot of Jegulus fics/headcanons about Lily having a baby and essentially abandoning her family in order to leave room for Jegulus raising Harry. It’s a very tired cliche of fans of MLM ships trying to get women out of the way any way they can, as long as they can get use out of them first (in this scenario, Lily giving birth to Harry).

Another common thing I see is the criticism/opinion that Jily is boring (which is absolutely fair, everyone is entitled to their opinion) but then project a lot of Jily’s tropes onto Jegulus (some that I’ve seen are matching patronuses, James being extremely infatuated and pining over Regulus, or making Regulus’ personality identical to canon Lily’s and then turning Lily into a bland, one dimensional character). I think where people are coming from is that because of this, it genuinely feels like these people would in fact like Jily, and the only issue they have with it is that Lily is a woman. I also find myself genuinely wondering if Regulus would be as popular as he is now if he were a female character.

I don’t think people who like Jegulus are individually being misogynistic, I think it’s more of the general concept of Jegulus becoming popular and the treatment of all characters involved has strong undertones of misogyny.

This isn’t meant to be hateful or combative btw, so I hope it didn’t come off that way. I just saw your post and wanted to offer my perspective on it.

oh no worries anon, your message is clear. and you are right, the jegulus fandom is misogynistic in the way that you say that they are, and i dislike that.

but the point of my post is that you can't exactly be mysogynistic towards lily evans, because the author herself is already misogynistic towards her. my point was that jily is no better than jegulus.

think of it this way, lily evans, the mother of the protagonist of the series, whose love saved the protag’s life should have a more prominent role in the series. but instead, her whole life is portrayed to revolve around male characters. her role in ths story is reduced to being a mother. [i'm not saying motherhood is a bad thing, i just wish it was explored with more complexity and nuance.]

jily is also the most basic, misogynistic heterosexual pairing ever imo. james is immature, lily is mature, and james changed for her because he wanted her to like him.

that's it, that's literally it. the fact that james 'changed' himself is the more important part of their dynamic. lily herself is not shown having any feelings for james, and how she went through the process of forgiving him. james is this manchild, with atrocious behaviour and he's expected to change for lily. it's like lily isn't even her own person anymore!

i don't like the jily dynamics as well because james was lowkey blackmailing lily into dating him and the way that their romance is pprtrayed, it feels like she just eventually accepted it, after he 'changed.'

at this point, even though it was lily's love that saved harry's life, she is such a non-entity in the series. harry is portrayed to be more interested in learning about james, and lily is depicted as having NO concrete friends in canon! the mary detail in canon hardly counts because that scene was more focused on snape! another man. seriously! every aspect of her life revolves around some GUY.

not to mention, after she graduates, guess what. she stays at home to take care of the baby while james becomes a strong auror! are you seeing this?! she's a trad wife. she's literally a stay-at-home mum because she decided she wanted to get knocked up in the middle of the war. the only counter-point to this is if voldemort wasn't after harry, she might have gone to work, but it is iffy, too, because who decides it's a good idea to have a baby in the middle of a war? she could have fought alongside james but nooo she has to watch while james puts his invisibility cloak on to goof around with sirius while her baby's life is in danger.

"it genuinely feels like these people would in fact like Jily, and the only issue they have with it is that Lily is a woman." <- you're right anon, but this doesn't matter to me as i feel that both the ships are equally bad.

tl;dr: jily is also a lowkey misogynistic in my opinion. jegulus is just as bad, and you are right, some of its fans are misogynistic as well.

#anti jily #anti jegulus #lily potter nee evans is a paper thin character #jily is a paper thin ship

[fanfic-lover-girl]

is lucius better as a husband than being a father?

As I told the other anons, you are better off asking someone who has read the books in depth.

I don't know. I think the books focuses more on Lucius and Narcissa as parents than spouses. Their marriage seems strong considering the stresses it persevered through. I see Lucissa as a rich, power couple. I think Lucius was a decent dad - not perfect by any means. He obviously loved his son and was willing to sacrifice for him. Plus, Draco clearly has an emotional bond with his father which rich dads often don't seem to have with their kids.

Hard to tell IMO.

#lucius malfoy #draco malfoy #malfoy family #lucissa #narcissa malfoy #harry potter series #anon ask

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Harry asking Parvati out rubs me the wrong way for some reason

But Harry had just seen Parvati and Lavender come in through the portrait hole. The time had come for drastic action. “Wait here,” he said to Ron, and he stood up, walked straight up to Parvati, and said, “Parvati? Will you go to the ball with me?” Parvati went into a fit of giggles. Harry waited for them to sub- side, his fingers crossed in the pocket of his robes. “Yes, all right then,” she said finally, blushing furiously. “Thanks,” said Harry, in relief. “Lavender — will you go with Ron?” “She’s going with Seamus,” said Parvati, and the pair of them giggled harder than ever. Harry sighed. “Can’t you think of anyone who’d go with Ron?” he said, lower- ing his voice so that Ron wouldn’t hear. “What about Hermione Granger?” said Parvati. “She’s going with someone else.” Parvati looked astonished. “Ooooh — who?” she said keenly. Harry shrugged. “No idea,” he said. “So what about Ron?” “Well . . .” said Parvati slowly, “I suppose my sister might . . . Padma, you know . . . in Ravenclaw. I’ll ask her if you like.” “Yeah, that would be great,” said Harry. “Let me know, will you?” And he went back over to Ron, feeling that this ball was a lot more trouble than it was worth, and hoping very much that Padma Patil’s nose was dead center.

Personal thoughts

Harry is trying to be a good bro and look out for his buddy Ron after his cringe moment with Hermione. But...how he does it feels patronizing somehow? I don't know how to articulate how I feel. Why does he have to hand-hold Ron? Why couldn't they approach the girls together? I know Harry has Champion and the Boy Who Lived cred to carry him but does he think Ron would have made another gaffe or something?

I don't know much about dating (never dated or done anything romantic with anyone) but I would guess that if a teenage girl saw a cool teenage boy asking for a pity date for his 'lesser' friend she would not hold said beta friend in high esteem. Harry is unintentionally making Ron look like a loser.

Harry is...something else. Parvati agreed to go with him to the ball, saving him from the embarrassment of not having a date. She also agreed to help Ron out by asking her sister to be his pity date. And horrid Harry has to end the chapter by taking a cheap shot about her freaking nose. Sigh. I don't like this kid.

#anti harry james potter #harry potter #ron weasley #goblet of fire #harry potter and the goblet of fire #ron weasley needs better friends #parvati patil #i hate harry as a protag #harry potter critical

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Zutara, romance novels, and the female gaze

Okay so I’ve been thinking about the female gaze a LOT so I checked out a subreddit about romance novels, despite never having read one. I came across this meme (which was initially a Tumblr post and then got posted to Instagram and then to Reddit and I’m now bringing back to Tumblr — Internet telephone, pls never change):

And…what is The Southern Raiders, if not a platonic grovel? Katara’s pain is central to the episode. It’s central to Zuko. Zuko asks Katara what he can do to make up for his betrayal; she demands the impossible. He reads between the lines, cockblocks her brother to get the necessary information, and then waits outside her door overnight (which he also did for Iroh, the one person we know for sure he loves). He basically makes himself a receptacle for her rage, and he holds space for her by coming with her on her revenge quest and carrying their bags and not saying a damn thing about what she should and should not do beyond like…asking her to rest. And obviously the grovel works! She forgives him and then they’re thick as thieves, bantering and fighting and saving each other’s lives, etc.

On a different note, I’ve been told that enemies to lovers is one of the biggest tropes in romance novels, similar to YA lit and fanfic. Here’s something else I found in the romance novel discourse:

And…yeah. In TSR, Katara really does show Zuko her worst self, because she doesn’t feel the need to perform for him. She doesn’t feel the need to perform moral perfection OR cold blooded vengeance. She bloodbends in front of him and he just goes with it. She doesn’t kill Yon Rha and he just goes with it. He doesn’t treat her any differently afterwards. Maybe they talk about it off screen, but I kind of like the idea that they don’t, because Katara doesn’t need to explain anything. And it’s so interesting, because some people in the ATLA fandom have a totally different read on TSR. They think Zuko was encouraging Katara to get revenge (by what, keeping his mouth shut?), and that Aang is the one who acts as her moral compass. I believe that either Bryan or Mike said in the DVD commentary that Aang is the angel on her shoulder the entire time. And this interpretation does make sense if you see it from the male gaze, where Katara as an object of affection is acting in an angry, irrational, threatening way. But if you see it from the female gaze, you recognize that actually it’s probably the most emotionally taxing experience Katara has to go through, and she doesn’t owe it to be nice or perfect to anybody. Katara’s formative trauma literally comes to a head, and she has to make a decision — no, a discovery — about who she is in relation to the tragedy that defines her life and even her identity (as a waterbender, as a parentified child who becomes the mom friend, as a genocide victim), and she’s accompanied by someone who trusts her judgement and validates her feelings.

I’m not saying TSR is explicitly romantically coded, but when it conforms so well to romance novel tropes…is it any wonder that so many people thought “yes this is her man?” And then he takes lightning in the heart for her and reaches for her when he’s literally dying, I will never be normal about that either

#zutara #atla zuko #atla katara #female gaze #southern raiders

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Draco Did Not Laugh

So I have seen anti Draco posts about how he laughed at Hermione being potentially sexually assaulted or how laughed at Cedric's death.

I have been guilty of saying Draco laughed at the prospect of Hermione being attacked. However, both statements are simply not true and they slander Draco's character more than what's due.

Here's the snippets showing that actually happened in book 4:

Hermione

“Granger, they’re after Muggles,” said Malfoy. “D’you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around . . . they’re moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh.”

In a nutshell, Draco is taunting Hermione. He's giving her a very back-handed warning - Draco prick Malfoy style. He's saying if she decides to ignore his warning, he will take pleasure in seeing her suffer because of it. Not gentlemanly by any means, but it's not the same as saying he is actively laughing at the potential of Hermione being attacked. He's not even goading her to stay, he keeps telling them to leave.

Cedric

He jerked his head at Ron and Hermione. ‘Too late now, Potter! They’ll be the first to go, now the Dark Lord’s back! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first! Well – second – Diggory was the f–’

Draco is not laughing here. However, his pause could be interpreted as mocking. But it sounds equally as dismissive and offhand to me. Like Cedric was an unimportant afterthought. And this makes sense. Draco has no beef with Cedric and he does not care about the Hufflepuff either. Cedric is a nobody to him. It's the same kind of tone you have when you mention someone dying that you don't care about. It's not necessarily Draco mocking Cedric but more an indication of his indifference in the heat of the moment while confronting Harry. If people want to interpret it as a hurtful dig at Harry, then it seems valid to me. However, I don't think Draco would use Cedric to attack Harry considering how Cedric and Harry were rivals, not friends. Does Draco have an indicator to suggest otherwise? Let me know!

I never said Draco was a tactful boy or a saint! But anyway, Draco will always be my baby.

PS. I don't go searching for Draco anti posts. But these sentiments are in the Draco tag and form the basis for Dramione anti posts.

#pro draco malfoy #hermione granger #cedric diggory #harry potter and the goblet of fire #goblet of fire #draco malfoy #harry potter books #canon draco > fanon draco

[fanfic-lover-girl]

So pretty!

Why is Katara there twice?? Shouldn't Ty Lee have one of her spots instead?

Imagine how awesome it would have been if Zuko & Katara (Zutara), and Toph & Aang (Taang) ended up together ?!

#atla fanart #princess yue #atla sokka #atla aang #katara #atla mai #prince zuko #toph beifong #atla suki

[fanfic-lover-girl]

You don't READ the books but hate on the characters?????? Wtf

So? Sue me.

#lol #anon #harry potter critical #I was going to give a more indepth answer but anon is not worth my time

[fanfic-lover-girl]

are bill and charlie weasley also terrible?

I am really not the best person to ask. I didn't read the books. I know the plot very well and I have read snippets but still.

Personally, I have no problem with Charlie or Bill. They are pretty neat characters and definitely earn the cool bro title. Not a huge fan of Bill x Fleur but I think that's my only peeve with Bill.

#bill weasley #charlie weasley #anon ask #bill x fleur critical

[fanfic-lover-girl]

which one harry hates the most among this three? riddle/voldemort, snape, draco?

Overall, Snape 100%. Harry loathes Snape more than Voldy for real. Harry is a joke.

#harry potter #severus snape #voldemort #anon ask #harry makes me feel very salty

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Kinda funny that dramione has more fics that romione when its the canon ship and also romione is usually a side ship to drarry so the actual romione ones might be lower

Jegulus from what I've seen is just drarry in maurauders era like from what I see from some that I have followed how jegulus is written has drarry elements that was slapped into jegulus

But why Jegulus?? I can see the appeal since Reggie is Sirius' brother. But if you want a Drarry ship for the marauders' era, you have Jeverus and Snack right there!

Well, Snack more than Jeverus.

I think Jeverus is more like Dramione. Like Dramione, James' bullying of Snape was partly due to Lily. Part of the reason Draco even notices Hermione is due to Harry.

But Snack is perfect! Snape and Sirius have entertaining exchanges as adults and they are so toxicly obsessed with each other. Sirius' attacks on Snape just seem way more personal and vicious than James'. Of course, James has his SA moment but Sirius reads like a more malicious person when it comes to Snape. And just like with Drarry, when Snape and Sirius are in the same space, their focus is solely on the other. Plus, the dynamic between the two as adults seems way more equal.

And Snape fits better too than Reggie. He's halfblood and grew up in an abusive household. While Sirius is the well cared for cocky pureblood who comes from a rich family.

Snack should be more popular than Jegulus! At least with Snack, bitch Evans can be the trophy wife for her rich, asshole husband and poor Reggie can be left alone to have a personality outside of James and being a Snape copycat. Justice for Regulus!

#anti jegulus #anti jily #sirius black #severus snape #snack #severus snape x sirius black #regulus black #justice for regulus #anti lily evans #anti james potter #drarry #anon

[fanfic-lover-girl]

i never read and care for the Epilogue book but are Hinny's kids horrible too?

I don't like Hinny so I don't give a damn about the Hinny kids.

When I went over the epilogue, none of the kids were endearing to me. James Sirius was obnoxious and reminded me of James from the get-go. He's obviously the spiritual reincarnation of his namesakes. I doubt he's as disgusting as them but wasn't fond of him either way. As much as I feel sorry for Harry being an orphan, I think it was for the best. If James Sirius is any indication, I think Harry would have been the Gryffindor version of Draco if Jily were alive and no one can prove to me otherwise. Harry is nasty already without James and Lily's influence.

Lily Luna is just there. Nothing special about her. She's kind of similar to Ginny when she was young (crying because her brothers are leaving). I just hated her line about Teddy becoming family if he married her cousin.

And Albus Severus...the main kid. First of all, I hate his name. I don't like the ring of it. Secondly, the kid is kind of annoying to read and he does not act like a wizard. He grew up in the wizarding world and going through 9 and 3/4 makes him scared? Plus, he is clearly meant to be the emo kid being sorted into Slytherin. Like Lily, I don't hate him and he's not bad. But he's just kind of meh.

Anyway, none of Harry's kids are horrible per se. They're just bland and boring with no original names. And James is annoying.

#anti jily #anti hinny #anti harry potter #james sirius potter #albus severus potter #lily luna potter #hp epilogue #anti hinny family #anon ask

[fanfic-lover-girl]

A big problem with Hogwarts is that they don't have enough teachers, creating an absolute killer squedule for them. Snape and Macgonagall have the worst of it. It might explain why they couldn't do an investigation in the second book, although cancelling some of the exams and extending the christmas holidays would probably give them time to investigate. Or hire more teachers so that the dark art expert teachers can have the necessary time to investigate.

Dumbledore cancelling the exam at the end of book two does make sense: because of the climate of terror and less free time in the library, teachers would have to either significantly lower their standards or simply have no exams at all. Because, realistically, very few would be able to study.

A big problem with Hogwarts is that they don't have enough teachers, creating an absolute killer squedule for them.

Hogwarts as a school makes no sense. I don't know how many teachers there are and I don't care to research that. But it must be tough to teach a subject for 7 different year cohorts. Of course, the OWL and NEWT classes would be smaller but that's still a lot of work.

On top of that, Snape and Minerva are house heads. No wonder these kids are running wild and their caregiving is lacking. On top of this nightmare, Minerva is ALSO deputy headmistress. It's a miracle Gryffindor house is not in shambles! No wonder so many Slytherin!Harry fics feature Snape being a more competent and active head of house! Canon definitely supports it given how much the Slytherins love and respect the man.

I have been skimming scenes from the books but I have no intention of fully reading them. What happened to the OWL and NEWT exams in book 2?? It's also very telling that the basilik only became an emergency when Hermione was petrified. Got to love that main character syndrome.

No guidance counsellors. No proper career advice counselling (giving career talks in year 5 is dumb as hell). Only one nurse? The student-to-teacher ratio is insane. Hogwarts is the boarding school from hell.

#anti hogwarts #minerva mcgonagall #severus snape #harry potter series #chamber of secrets #hogwarts is a bad school #harry potter books #ask

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Stop comparing all the enemies to lovers ships you hate with Zutara. Stop pretending Zutara did not end as a close friendship. Stop pretending season 3 did not happen. Stop pretending Zuko did not have a redemption arc. Stop pretending that Zuko is another douchebag who (theoretically) gets the girl because of his tragic backstory and his looks.

Zutara is not Dramione or Drarry. Zutara is not Reylo. Zutara is not whatever canon toxic ship you hate. At the very least, keep your Zutara hate in the anti tags.

You know that your interpretation of a ship is bad when you have to ignore the significant character and relationship development in the narrative (especially in later parts) that makes the ship work. You also know you're misinterpreting it when you're comparing it to characters and ships that have nothing in common with it.

#anti dramione #anti reylo #enemies to lovers #zutara #pro zutara #leave zutara alone #anti bad faith zutara antis #anti drarry #i like drarry as a guilty pleasure ship but its not like zutara at all!

[fanfic-lover-girl]

La speranza é l’ultima a morire …

#zutara #zutara fanart