hi haha i’m the girl who sent u that long ass anon and ty for ur answers and time😭 i js feel like something inside of me tells me that i cant like both of them

omg hi girl!! You're welcome of course.

Ignore that thing! That thing is probably years of weird moralising tumblr discourse around fictional characters eating your brain. There's no reason why you can't like both, plenty of people do, and what characters we like shouldn't be dependent on which ones are in the right or most 'ethically pure'. That would just be boring and, to me anyway, kind of defeats the whole point of fiction.

I mean you're allowed to like unambiguously evil characters, and both James and Snape are far from evil. Right now I'm writing a fic about my favourite characters from buffy who are vampires and kill people for fun and drink their blood. Clearly I'm personally against killing people and drinking their blood. You can like characters who are terrible in general or terrible to each other, their terribleness can even be the reason you like them and it doesn't say anything about you as a person. Tbh I think the whole "if you like this steve universe cartoon blob you support abuse" era really did a number on us, haha.

James and Snape are important characters to each other! To me it actually seems pretty logical to like both (not that anyone has to obv) because neither would be who they are without the other, for good or ill. To me James is so bound up in Snape's story, and Snape is so bound up in James's, and both are stories I like, so I just like them both and I don't find that difficult to do.

you said james changed but did he? no apology in sight... still tricking lily and going behind her back to hex snape.. leaving his wife and newborn alone in their secret hiding spot to mess with muggles..

genuinely lol what is this 'leaving their hiding spot to mess with muggles' thing, I think you're the second anon who has claimed something like that recently and it's like.... where lmao. when did that happen? who r these muggles? 😭

if you're referring to the prequel, that was almost certainly, like 100% certainly, before harry was born when lily and james were fighting for the Order along with the rest of the Marauders and not in hiding. This is what Lily says, years later, in her letter to Sirius:

James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell -- also, Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much.

doesn't that imply he wasn't sneaking out? and if he had left the hiding spot in the past it was "little excursions" with Lily's full knowledge and approval, with the safety of the cloak. I don't see the big deal, and it's possible that Lily was leaving the house on occasion too when they had the cloak.

people are so determined to see things in the worst possible light it's kind of funny. It's not enough that James was a dickhead and a bully in canon, he has to be this insidious abusive master manipulator guy who somehow conned Lily "you make me SICK" Evans into marrying her and having a kid with him. Like, no offence but it's just not that deep.

We don't see how he changed because the story isn't about him, it's about his son, but there's plenty of evidence that he did, a BIG example being that a girl who couldn't stand the sight of him and was extremely vocal about the fact ended up marrying him. Something changed, and it's just highly unlikely that James, a fictional character, constructed an elaborate ruse behind the scenes that we see no evidence for to trick Lily, and every other character, into thinking he was an entirely different person. If that had been the author's intent for these characters who, btw, do not exist outside the text we're given, there would be proof of it. Rather, we're given evidence he 'deflated his head' and that lily fell in love with him and that they were happy together.

I've already said it but I don't think James not telling her about fighting with Snape (who, let it be said, at that point was also instigating) is a good thing. Obviously. It's dishonest and he should have told her. But I also think a likely reason he didn't tell her was not wanting to hurt her. That doesn't make it okay, but there can be problems and slip-ups and things to work through in a relationship without it being some big evil insidious manipulation.

Sev hid all sorts of things from her too, important things like "I'm thinking about joining the Death Eaters btw lol". People lie and hide things, especially teens. Maybe the simplest explanation here, rather than this weird jamespiracy thing, is that a seventeen year old boy was kind of shit sometimes but ultimately dedicated his life to protecting others, fought bravely in a war, grew tf up, and sacrificed himself to save his wife and child.

idk like to me it's not that deep, and it's continually bonkers to me that some snape fans will have wildly different standards for their innocent baby boy (idk him) than they do for every other character. bro did way worse stuff than not telling his gf he was getting into fights, james did worse stuff, and yet I still love them both and u wont convince me not to

isn’t it funny how everyone says james hated the dark arts while the only time we saw him was when he used a dark spell🤔

did he? unless I'm missing something lol, he used a jinx. Invented by Snape, not that James knew that. Not exactly the dark arts even though it was offensive magic and he used it in a particularly nasty way. There's a difference in canon between hexes, jinxes, and curses, like dark magic is a pretty specific thing in canon. Hexes and jinxes can definitely be used cruelly or nefariously, but I think on the whole they're kind of meant to be whimsical, less harmful and not permanent in damage. There's a significant breach between that and something that has the sole purpose of maiming, torturing, controlling, or killing.

He did hate the dark arts, that doesn't mean he wasn't a dick. I don't think levicorpus is a dark spell even if Snape invented it, there's quite a difference between hoisting someone up by the ankle and causing gashes to keep opening up all over someone's body. Levicorpus is used on Ron by Harry and they both find it funny, whereas there's no situation where Sectumsempra would ever be anything other than utterly fucked up to cast on someone.

Various 1970s photographs by David William Holdsworth

people are reblogging my old anti snape posts and I'm no longer anti snape, so I'm going to argue with myself (i am op) because I think that's an amusing thing to do.

we (the royal we) have changed our mind. First of all, I don't need Snape to be a good person. He's a great character and he did great things and also some shitty things.

"a woman had to die in order for him to protect a child" ok girl first of all nobody's perfect. but I put it to you (me) that maybe why we do things doesn't matter so much as what we do. Do good deeds still count as good deeds if they're done for the wrong reasons? If not, wouldn't that mean that bad deeds done for 'the right reasons' actually don't count as bad deeds? An interesting question. That ethical quandary aside, it's a pretty severe misreading of Snape's entire arc to think that all that he did was out of selfish love for a woman, even if that was the initial motivation.

"Lately, only those whom I could not save" is crazy im just saying...

In DH we see Snape accept that Harry, the only thing that's left of Lily, the one thing he's sworn to protect, needs to die in order to defeat Voldemort. Snape sacrifices himself to be able to lead Harry to his own self-sacrifice. If his motivation was just about Lily, that would make no sense. We also have this:

that is character growth!! Circa DH Snape is true selflessness, doing everything that he could and ultimately laying down his life to make the world better, knowing he wouldn't be around to see it. I think it's worthy of admiration. He gave everything in his path to redemption-- whether or not snape was redeemed or deserved to be redeemed is irrelevant ultimately because that's the thing about redemption: if you 'deserve' redemption then you aren't someone who needs to redeem themselves. And redemption in my mind isn't something that is achieved, being a better person is something you keep striving for because there's no alternative- and if your actions are motivated by an end goal of personal redemption that's still selfish, after all. Snape did the right thing because that's all we can try to do, and I think that matters!

"and he couldn’t even bring himself to treat that child decently" that's true haha. idrc though. I'll never claim he was nice and, not to 'no true scotsman' (no true snapesman) this but anyone who insists on downplaying or excusing snape's flaws isn't rly a fan of the character anyway, so idk who these 'people' are that you (I) speak of but many of us accept the good and the bad because that's what makes his story powerful. Snape isn't a character worth liking because he never did anything bad, he's worth liking because he represents the struggle to be better. That's something everyone can learn from, including you (me.)

bye!

so people are always like ‘snape protected Harry at Hogwarts, that makes him a good person’ but ok

the fact that a woman had to die in order for him to want to protect an innocent child

and he couldn’t even bring himself to treat that child decently

bye

How do you perceive Lily Evans? I would love to hear your thoughts.

I have talked about Lily here and more about her flaws here

If there's something more specific you want to hear thoughts on feel free to ask! I love talking about Lily :)

This is my personal opinion on the prank and Sev’s relationship with the Marauders and I’d love to hear your thoughts because you like both James and Sev.

I don’t think the Marauders ever cared for it, not even Remus, he only felt sorry for himself but he didn’t care for Sev. I think for Sev it was the day he learned for certain who he was to other people, how much his life mattered or the lack of its significance, I’m not gonna lie this is one of the reasons I hate when Sev forgives the marauders in ffs, not just because he’d never do it but because no matter how much Sev hates them they quite literally have no sympathy for him, his circumstances, his life, the sacrifices he’s made or have they actually acknowledged any wrongdoing. Sev needs to be the bigger man to them even though neither Remus or Sirius care about him, nor have they gone out of their way to make sure his good health while Severus has (reluctantly) done so for both multiple times.

hmm, I guess I somewhat agree! James didn't save Sev out of sympathy imo, rather out of an understanding that it was wrong no matter who it happened to. And I'm sure all of the Marauders blamed Sev in part for the prank, because after all it was his obsession with exposing Remus's secret that led him down there. Since clearly Dumbledore's intervention was the only thing stopping Severus from exposing Remus and likely getting him kicked out of school, I doubt that would have won him any points with James and certainly not with Remus.

I don't think Sev needs to be the bigger man to them! And, in general, he isn't. lol. Like outing Lupin as a werewolf is fairly petty and vengeful, as is mistreating an innocent 11 year old child, not that I care lol iconic Snape behaviour, but he very clearly never puts his feelings for the Marauders aside, he just grudgingly does what he has to because his mission is more important. And Severus understands that. I don't think he would have forgiven any of them rly, nor would I expect him to.

Tbh the only one who makes any effort to reconcile, albeit somewhat half-heartedly, is Remus. Likely out of a sense of guilt but he does defend Severus pretty often as an adult, he attempts to be polite and reason with him, unlike Sirius. And he does express regret for how they treated Sev at school (where Sirius lowkey kind of justifies it, despite saying he isn't proud of it). Like was it enough? Probably not but I doubt anything would have been enough-- however it's not true that they never acknowledge any wrongdoing.

re: Remus and the prank, why should Remus feel guilty about the prank? Like, at all? He was as much a victim of it as Sev, moreso tbh. Like I said, Sev was determined to expose Remus and ruin his life, hence why Sirius was able to manipulate him into going down the willow, so I can understand why Remus wouldn't feel sympathy for him in that particular situation personally. Although, given Remus's self-hatred, to me it's likely he was the only person involved who did feel guilty about it even though he's the only one who shouldn't. that's remus for u. not intervening while his friends tormented others is shit but 1. that's exactly how sev behaved with mulciber and avery 2. it doesn't warrant being publicly outed as a werewolf imo.

so out of all of the marauders Remus has the least reason to feel sympathetic towards Sev and yet he's the only one who does at all. idk kind of admirable if you look at it that way. as for the marauders not caring about sev's circumstances/tragic emo life, they mostly don't know. Sev doesn't show much sympathy for Remus's circumstances either and he DOES know. I can understand why he doesn't but there it is, we can't hold Sev to a different standard than everyone else.

I have written more about the prank here also but anywayyy they all suck and hate each other :) fun!

this is exactly it!!! great addition, thank you! I was going to say in the original post, they're basically doing the same thing to each other without realising it. neither really grasps the seriousness of what the other is facing so they're dismissive.

to add on lily’s flaws she also believes james and the marauders rather than severus (which is just bad writing imo) and she tells him to be grateful james saved his life, she also who quickly bites back once you annoy her, she also gave cheeky answers to slughorn when he suggested she could’ve been in slytherin, (i personally hate her sm for her trying to tell severus he should be grateful to james would like to hear your opinions) but yes even her, a briefly mentioned character, is very flawed!

tbh my feeling is more that she just believed a rumour that was going around the school rather than having heard it directly from james. idk obviously we dont know. but teenage girls (and boys) often believe rumours. not that weird. I actually think she wouldn't have believed it coming directly from James given how she acts towards him in SWM, but if the school generally seems to agree that it happened then it's more believable.

re: her telling Sev he should be grateful, I've talked about this before (I think in that very post about lily's flaws) but I don't read it as "you should forgive james for everything he's done" but just this kind of desperate, naive "can't we all just get along and stop fighting" sentiment. it's still not a great thing to say, absolutely it's insensitive and tactless.

however it's always interesting to me how Snape people despise Lily for that singular comment (like that's the worst thing anyone could do lol) when Sev is pretty atrocious to her in that conversation too. He completely dismisses her feelings-- like how is Lily saying he should be grateful any worse than him writing off what Mulciber did to Mary as 'just a laugh'? Sev literally ignores her because he's too focused on his hatred towards the Marauders to hear his muggleborn friend's very valid concerns about the death eater wannabes he's hanging out with.

I don't think it's fair to hold Lily to a different standard than Sev, that's my opinion. If she's insensitive towards her best friend then god is he ever. and idk teen friendships are often like that- immature. they have yet to mature

they are so dysfunctional lol. and i love them for it personally!

hi this may be long so sorry in advance but

i always loved hp and when i got into the marauders i started caring about sirius, remus, and james more (peter hater till i die unfortunately i can’t get behind him) and like every marauders stan i despised despised severus, i thought that since he was in a known death eaters friend group and called muggle borns mudblood he was unredeemable. but then i saw more and more pro snape content and it made me feel bad for him, james bullied him (which i’m still not even sure if it was classified as bullying because james didnt have any power over him and it wasn’t even 1 vs 4 it was 1 vs 2 so i’d like to know your opinion on that as well) and he had an abusive parent, but then i saw snily shippers (i am a major jily shipper fyi) saying how james basically manipulated lily into marrying him by not telling her he still bullied snape, how the prank was the best thing to happen to james because their “fights” wouldn’t be seen as bullying but as a teen rivalry, how james was the rich boy who got everything he wanted and he got the poor girl as well, how it was him constantly asking lily out and her always saying no etcc, so ik this may sound stupid but i love ur takes like ur always sooooo fucking real so if u want to share your opinions on these like if u think any of these things are wrong 🙈 id be glad bc i dont know how to feel about severus and idk how to feel about jily either which is just making my small world inside of my head crumble bc i used to love them so much

Of course and thank you! First of all as I've been saying I don't think it's necessary or even really a good idea for us to base our preferences or interests in fiction with our moral beliefs. so we can accept that snape or james did bad things and still like them. Fiction gives us that freedom to delve into aspects of humanity that in real life we might try to avoid. So I don't think you should feel bad for liking james or severus or jily or whatever. Ok, that being said let's get into it:

First it's normal to feel sympathy for Severus, he's a sympathetic character in many respects! That's what makes a good anti-hero (or even villain. we're even supposed to feel sympathy for voldemort and barty crouch jr at certain points)

what james and the marauders did was definitely bullying. there's no way around that. you say james didn't have any power over him but he did; social power. You touched on economic class, which is a big factor, but James was a popular student and Sev was deeply unpopular. whether it was 1v4 or 1v2 or 1v1 doesn't really matter in terms of whether it was bullying, though tbh it was really 1vthe whole school because the spectators also participated in Sev's humiliation.

However, in my mind there's almost no way that Snape wasn't instigating just as much, possibly more, in seventh year. Like you think he was just going to sit around and accept that his worst enemy was dating Lily? lol. I tend to believe Sirius when he says that Sev "never lost an opportunity to curse James" like good for him get his ass. But I think it was definitely a different dynamic in 7th year than in 5th. there's this tendency to portray Sev as being a meek little helpless victim his whole life but personally I feel that's a disservice to his character-- this is the guy who invented sectumsempra 'for enemies' like three guesses who 'enemies' was.

re: jily, I really doubt that James manipulated Lily into anything, I think that's such an overdramatic reading lol. We don't know much about the way they got together-- although many fic writers have taken it upon themselves to fill in the gaps-- but everything points to them having been happy and in love, that clearly was the intention by the author. If James didn't tell her about duelling Snape that isn't great, but there are a lot of things that can be imperfect in a relationship without jumping to manipulation and abuse which require a specific pattern of behaviour that we have no evidence for. We also only have the external perspective of Sirius and Remus, which is likely incomplete.

(also James 'always asking Lily out' is fanon, we see him ask her out ONCE albeit spectacularly badly. it seems more likely to me that lily 'you make me SICK' evans simply saw james grow into someone she rly liked rather than gave in and gave in so fully that she married him bcause he was pressuring her. idk she didn't read like a pushover to me.)

So no need for world crumblage! It doesn't sound stupid at all, but I think it's important to keep in mind that we can enjoy fictional characters/relationships that aren't perfect, in fact those are the ones that I find more enjoyable. It's totally possible to be a fan of snape and james and jily and snily all at the same time, fandom tends to create conflicts or 'shipping wars' or whatever lol but idk if that's necessary. I don't see it as a moral debate or an either/or, I just find all the characters and the dynamics between them interesting.

For instance, you mentioned the class differences between Lily and James, and I always thought that was probably a point of contention in the relationship; but to me it's one that makes it more compelling to explore. Relationships irl are rarely perfect and evenly-matched from the start, they take work. Similarly people are never perfect- they learn and change and grow. James did, Snape definitely did. otherwise they would be boring and unrealistic as characters.

Swinging London 1969. Deborah and Claire sit outside a boutique at Kings Road in Chelsea, London, United Kingdom, 1969. Photo by Susan Wood

to add on lily’s flaws she also believes james and the marauders rather than severus (which is just bad writing imo) and she tells him to be grateful james saved his life, she also who quickly bites back once you annoy her, she also gave cheeky answers to slughorn when he suggested she could’ve been in slytherin, (i personally hate her sm for her trying to tell severus he should be grateful to james would like to hear your opinions) but yes even her, a briefly mentioned character, is very flawed!

tbh my feeling is more that she just believed a rumour that was going around the school rather than having heard it directly from james. idk obviously we dont know. but teenage girls (and boys) often believe rumours. not that weird. I actually think she wouldn't have believed it coming directly from James given how she acts towards him in SWM, but if the school generally seems to agree that it happened then it's more believable.

re: her telling Sev he should be grateful, I've talked about this before (I think in that very post about lily's flaws) but I don't read it as "you should forgive james for everything he's done" but just this kind of desperate, naive "can't we all just get along and stop fighting" sentiment. it's still not a great thing to say, absolutely it's insensitive and tactless.

however it's always interesting to me how Snape people despise Lily for that singular comment (like that's the worst thing anyone could do lol) when Sev is pretty atrocious to her in that conversation too. He completely dismisses her feelings-- like how is Lily saying he should be grateful any worse than him writing off what Mulciber did to Mary as 'just a laugh'? Sev literally ignores her because he's too focused on his hatred towards the Marauders to hear his muggleborn friend's very valid concerns about the death eater wannabes he's hanging out with.

I don't think it's fair to hold Lily to a different standard than Sev, that's my opinion. If she's insensitive towards her best friend then god is he ever. and idk teen friendships are often like that- immature. they have yet to mature

they are so dysfunctional lol. and i love them for it personally!

ok it's Kreacher Hours apparently.

So my idea of Walburga and Orion is that they were jobless parasites socialites who were basically haemorrhaging the family money while attending dinners and fancy parties and trying to pretend they were still as wealthy as ever. Personally I see Orion as kind of absent, always out "on business" (arguing with goblins at gringotts, smoking cigars with other self-important losers, possibly gambling, possibly having affairs) whereas Walburga was the more present of the two, hence Kreacher being more attached to her than Orion.

But I think for Regulus, Kreacher was probably the most stable figure he had in his life. His best friend. Imo Sirius was the golden child up until he was sorted into Gryffindor, and Regulus was somewhat neglected in comparison; so while Walburga steered Sirius around proudly to show him off at dinner parties and focused on his refinement etc, Kreacher was kind of given the role of nanny to Regulus. It's so cute to think about him as playmate/companion/confidante to baby Reg, playing make-believe or gobstones or chess, making him porridge :(

And for that reason I think Kreacher was the one who truly saw and understood Regulus. While I think Walburga did love her sons she was too obsessed with the Black legacy to ever let them be who they were and not what she wanted; when Sirius talks about Reg it's extremely disparaging and he specifically calls him stupid, which Reg clearly wasn't, given that he figured out the horcrux. Meaning Sirius really didn't know him that well. So it was Kreacher alone who saw how clever and diligent and hardworking Regulus really was, and Kreacher who had this fierce pride in watching him grow up...

I always get the feeling Walburga had to suddenly switch her focus to Regulus when Sirius dipped and was always lowkey resentful about what she'd lost-- Reg is described as smaller, uglier (lol) than Sirius, his room is smaller, Sirius himself describes him as dim which implies his intelligence wasn't as obvious as Sirius's was. Sirius was probably that child that is an absolute delight at parties, wittier and more charming than he has any right to be at that age, while Regulus just kind of disappeared into the background. Not to Kreacher though! They were both in the background. I can see child-Sirius being kind of haughty towards Kreacher as he was probably taught to be, then as he grew up and diverged from his family outright hateful, as Kreacher would obviously side with Walburga.

Meanwhile there was Regulus! Quiet, well-mannered, studious, on the quidditch team, perfect penmanship, doing everything to live up to his parents expectations, doing everything that nasty brat Sirius failed to do. And I imagine Kreacher's wrinkled little heart just burst with fondness and pride whenever he looked at him. :')

Kreacher/Regulus is the ultimate otp

I really want to support you anon but to me its so very much a parent/child but also best friends thing 😭 kreacher's old af and he probably swaddled regulus as a baby and did a lot of the work raising him, especially emotionally. i just wrote a wall of text about this hang on

What's the deal with Regulus/Jegulus?

Who knows! The girlies are just doing their own thing and having fun I guess, not my thing personally but let's leave them to it and talk about the real problem here which is Kreacher Erasure!!!

It's all about Kreacher! Kreacher my beloved! I cannot stand idly by while he's left out of his own story. That miserable old elf in his miserable old loincloth was the most important thing in the world to Regulus and the real reason why he did what he did... this is a teenage death eater who has grown up entrenched in bigotry and pureblood supremacy with his murder pinterest board.... and he sacrifices himself for his house elf. because they couldn't get to him, not fully, they couldn't make him not believe that kreacher was family and someone worth showing kindness to and fighting for. and I think that's beautiful 🥺 perhaps most tragic story in all hp certainly one of the more powerful ones in terms of love and loyalty and sadly, oft overlooked

we may complain about this fandom but really, we could be like the dragon age fandom. i just reblogged someone's post with a mild disagreement and immediately received an anon like 'that person sucks!!' ok?????? 😭 they r so confrontational over there like lets calm down ladies

hi, i was looking through your blog a bit and i saw that you said lily’s flaws could’ve been her overlooking snape’s problems because of her love towards him.

many people say that lily would’ve divorced james had they survived and one of the reasons being that she was very annoyed that james was hanging out while they were supposed to be in hiding. and the james not really maturing thing (because he never did if we’re keeping it real).

do you think lily also overlooked many of james’ flaws but had they survived she wouldn’t have took it for much longer and would’ve divorced him/what’s your take on this?

hello! what do you mean hanging out when they were supposed to be hiding? iirc in her letter lily asked sirius to come hang out with them because james was getting bored and antsy when they were in hiding.

we don't know conclusively if or how he matured because we don't ever see him as an adult. I tend to believe he did, and he would have continued to do so. if you mean he became a perfect flawless human being-- probably not lol, because most 21 year old men aren't. I suppose Lily probably did overlook some flaws of his but that's what you do when you're in love with someone, after all. but we know he fought in the Order and risked his life, ultimately sacrificing himself to save his wife and child. remus and sirius tell us that he 'deflated his head' and everyone apart from snape, people who knew him as an adult, speak fondly of him. lily married him and whatever her ability to overlook flaws i doubt she would have married the bully we see in swm, so something had to have changed.

the 'would she have divorced him' question is always so funny to me haha. maybe? idk they're dead. i haven't looked this up but realistically i imagine many teen marriages end in divorce lol. on the other hand, they are jkr's creations and therefore probably not because her teen couples seem to stay together. personally I think they really did love each other, they were a good match, both decent people and loving parents, and I can't see any obvious reason why they wouldn't work long term.

Do you have any Sirius recs?

girl i wish i did. I'm pants at recommending fic apparently.

I did really like this lesbian prongsfoot (my weakness) fic by @plecotusauritus recently: A bright future ahead and both srs and jms were very well written here imo.

but that's all I can think of off the top of my head right now. Again if anyone knows of anything please share! Once I'm done with my current series I have vague intentions of writing a version of PoA from Sirius's perspective because that's always something I wanted to see.