My understanding of Jegulus is that James and Regulus would likely initially seek each other out specifically because of Sirius, each one wanting to understand the other most important person in Sirius’s life. I just can’t see a Jegulus where Sirius isn’t a key person in both of their lives

This is exactly why I call it "the S variable" because Sirius is fundamental to Jegulus and their relationship.

Regulus and James both see Sirius in each other (Reg sees the hope, the courage, the spirit, the boldness and confidence; while James sees the darker parts of Sirius, the intimidating nature, the willingness to go over and beyond for his people) and they both want Sirius in every way they can have, but can not have him wholly, because he is a brother to both of them, so they kind of seek Sirius in each other.

In addition to this, I also think that no matter how much they genuinely love each other, they would still choose Sirius over one another - which is EXACTLY WHY this relationship works. Because with anybody else, they would expect you to choose your lover over your brother/best friend, but James and Regulus would still choose Sirius every time, and they both understand that, and they would not want to be with a person who would choose them instead.

So like...idk if what I'm saying makes sense, but Jegulus revolves around the S variable and can not exist without it, and the moment you take it out it's just... it's not it anymore.

the copy pasted jegulus manifesto

i think i like it mainly for the very specific tropes but also because of the lack of info on them both. it's a double edged sword basically because on one hand you can do almost anything with them and it would seem realistic but on the other hand wtf you know little to nothing about them and they're dead in canon why would you ship it. it's also a case of my headcanons are better than everyone elses and im the only one who gets it tm because most of the fics don't use the tropes to their full potential and also there are people who are pulling the polyamory card on jily which. no

which brings me to the james problem. i don't... hate him. i also don't love him as much as i love remus and sirius and the fact that those two are alive for a good portion of the canon has little to do with it. like i know he was on the 'good side' all with working for dumbledore and becoming an animagus to help remus and taking sirius in when he left his family but at the same time he bullied snape and bothered lily for years and i don't get how he went for that to getting married and having a child with lily

im mainly salty because jkr pulled the 'hero gets the girl after becoming a better person as a reward' trope which ruined the character for me. the only way james can work is if jily doesn't happen and he realizes he was in the wrong for bullying snape before he became a magical nazi. i think after a certain point he can go from that to antagonizing a death eater which is ok in my book but the mindless bullying because he got a hard on for lily and he was jealous has to go. and the reason why he stops being an asshole must not involve him getting lily in any shape or way. i kinda like to tie this to that moment in canon when he saved snape's life on the full moon so the reason why he stops bullying him can be related to his friends and having to find a way to keep snape quiet about remus being a werewolf. it can involve lily because snape had that weird ass obsession with her but this way instead of james getting the girl because he did the right thing it's james deciding to give up on the girl to keep snape quiet and do the right thing for his friend. so bros before hoes with extra steps. by the time he's good enough for lily to decide she wants to be friends with him he should already be done with his lily evans crush detox. literally going through withdrawal

which brings me to regulus. because if james is over lily and back on the market there's one less thing that's stopping this ship from happening. as opposed to the other 20 things which only make this more interesting imo

so james' best friend is sirius black who's also the older brother of regulus. 2 degrees of separation plus he gets second hand info from sirius regarding his younger brother and their life in the black family. regulus on the other hand probably got info on james from sirius while he was still living with him and maybe resents james for stealing his brother. so they're not complete strangers. they're also both playing quidditch for their houses canonically so they have this in common. he's also not a complete monster despite being a death eater (I'll get back to this) because he tried to destroy voldemort and he was very close with his house elf despite coming from a blood purist family so i don't think james could fall for him unless he knew regulus was a good person at the end of the day. regulus must also have been incredibly smart because he was a black and he had to maintain a certain reputation plus he discovered voldemort made horcruxes before dumbledore did and since lily was also really smart i think this could be another reason why james would fall for him

we have little to no information about regulus so as for him falling for james i think the proximity to his brother plus their shared interests plus james'personality (as far as we've seen in canon) are reasons why he could fall for him

now the drama factor. since we have basically nothing on those two the best thing about their relationship is the potential for drama. so there's the best friend's brother trope plus the complicated relationship sirius has with his brother (and his entire family) which can reflect on the ship. especially when sirius canonically doesn't know about regulus' discovery and how he died so for him his little brother was a death eater sympathizer who became one to please their parents realized it was too much for him shortly afterwards and decided to deflect and got killed for that

there's also the problem that he was a death eater and james was in the order so how would that even work for them. this is turning into an essay so im pulling the citations because why not

"I hated the lot of them: my parents with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal... my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them... that's him. He was younger than me, and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded" - sirius black

"They're all about Voldemort. Regulus seems to have been a fan for a few years before he joined the Death Eaters..." about the photos and articles regarding voldemort found in his room near the family crest

"He was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, more likely. I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime of service or death." - sirius

"For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns... and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord." - kreacher

and im pulling the unreliable narrator card on all that shit

because if we go with what the narrators say regulus has always treated kreacher with respect despite his background. he essentially treated the lowest of the low as an equal when everyone around him treated house elves as slaves but at the same time he followed his parents' wishes he worshipped voldemort and he got the mark at 16 then realized it was a mistake and decided to sacrifice himself to save his house elf and destroy one of the horcruxes. how

i mean considering the circumstances and how smart he was and the fact that he was a slytherin it makes more sense he fooled everyone into thinking he was a sympathizer. first his entire family because he saw how they treated sirius and he didn't want to get the same treatment. then later on when he realized voldemort has a high chance of winning the war he decided to go all out with the death eater fanboy charade and remain on the down low out of self preservation. it would make sense because his parents were only sympathizers themselves and narcissa never got the mark despite being in close circles. afaik belatrix was the only one in the family who got the mark beside him. we know he got the mark at 16 so maybe he was obligated to take this final step because otherwise his loyalties would be questioned and he couldn't do much else as an underage wizard. at one point between age 16 and 18 he decided to ignore his self preservation instinct and sacrifice himself for the greater good after seeing the horrors of the war. i like this better than the "friend to all house elves to magical nazi to proto harry potter" pipeline. still better than snape's arc tho

imo the best way the ship would work is if james started dating regulus in secret so sirius wouldn't find out then had an ugly fall out when regulus got the mark then both went on their separate ways on opposite sides of the war then regulus started his horcrux hunt. preferably he survives the cave and reunites with james and he finds out about regulus' true plan regarding voldemort but that's just my preference. some like it better when reg dies and james finds out the truth after reg's death

so tldr this ship gives me brain diseases because no other gives off this flavor of "in love with my best friend's brother from a highly disfunctional family" but also "i blame you for taking my place in my brother's life" but also "sports/house rivality" but also "we're both teenagers and im in love with you but we're on different sides of the war and you're slipping further and further to the dark side and this can't go on so im breaking up with you and licking my wounds alone because i can't tell anyone about our relationship not even my best friend because you're his brother and a death eater then i find out after you died/after you almost died that all this time you were on our side and you've been doing all this on your own and now i regret everything i thought about you and how i couldn't save you" but also "we're teenagers and we're on different sides of the war and i though i could go through with my survival plan and have you too but now things are getting out of control and im in too deep and my brother hates me and you hate me and im surrounded by magical extremists and they're gonna kill me and i have nothing else except my theory on how to stop the dark lord and i can't involve any of you because I'd put you in danger and i can't trust anyone so im doing all this on my own and decide to save my house elf and sacrifice myself for the greater good because i got nothing else left" and then they die. maybe

wow, you have thought about this A LOT. it seems youve thought about how everything would work out. jk rowling bless you and your ship

i dont know you (yet) but just wanted to say that i love you (already)

hello!! Yes please offer up your jegulus anti jegulus (tm) ship manifesto 💕💕💕

and feel free to let your loving opinion change. We are vast and contain multitudes 😂😂

I have to agree with your addition to the recent jegulus post - I think jegulus could be and sometimes is such an interesting dynamic, but it's often so poorly executed that I've been put off the ship, mostly. the way sirius is sidelined is absolutely abhorrent, and the flattening of their characters into stock tropes is so infuriating. I saw someone compare perciver to jegulus, that's how bad it has gotten! nice to see some nuance in fandom, that's all. from the posts I've seen of yours you always have balanced takes, which is great.

you are all making me cry tears of joy. i'm so happy that i'm finding my people, i usually feel so alone in all of this.

also, really had to do a double take when you mentioned perciver and google it to make sure i'm not confusing the ship with something else because...what?

i think my biggest issue with Jegulus(tm) is how it completely murders their character, in the absolute worst way possible.

Regulus as an uwu sad boy who is forced into taking the Mark and doing bad things, and just needs to be reassured and cheered up all the time. Instead of Heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, RAB, Prince of Slytherin, the boy who figured out what took Dumbledore several decades by the time he was 18, the boy with an absolute lack of moral compass who joined the Death Eaters at 16, but also had no problem betraying the Dark Lord once he realised what his true intentions were, and when he hurt Kreacher, someone he was particularly fond of.

James The Sun Potter, a golden retriever whose only purpose is to cheer up and console people around him, who somehow just accepts all of Regulus' biases without fighting him on it? Who does not hold anything against him for all that his family has done to Sirius? James, who has the most black-and-white view in existence; James, who has the sharpest moral compass of them all; James, who is literally Snape's worst memory (not Lily's death, not his childhood, not the Dark Lord, Snape's worst memory is James motherfucking Potter); the author of the "it's more the fact that he exists" line.

The Sirius variable is always an issue too. Because no matter how much they love each other, Sirius is always Number 1 for them both. Regulus will always hold James taking Sirius away from him against him, and James will always hold all that's been done to his best friend and brother. It's a reoccurring issue in most fights.

I am also kinda bothered how James and Regulus not telling Sirius and keeping it a secret from him is the default in all fics? I do love reading "Sirius finds out" tropes, it's hilarious, a guilty pleasure of mine, but I hate how it's the default. Because I do not believe for a second that once Regulus and James were past sorting it out and were sure about what they're doing, the FIRST thing James would do is go and tell Sirius and they would both have an entire freaking out session over that. Also the two of them being heartbroken and consoling each other when Reg takes the Mark is too good to miss it <3

by the way, obligatory disclaimer where it is due: i believe the term JegulusTM (as opposed to good old James/Regulus) was coined by @thistlecatfics, that's the first time I've seen it used

I’ve literally never read a James/Regulus fic, I only recently got half into HP and it wasn’t popular when I was last in it (also, hilarious to me how popular it is when we’ve got 0 canon interactions between James and Regulus, just pure comedic gold right there), but nobody can convince me that Sirius would not be the third person to learn about the relationship, only after James and Regulus themselves. James is his best friend, James literally trusted Sirius above all others in canon and put his family’s lives in Sirius’s hands, they are canonically referred to as a “double act” and “inseparable,” I’m expected to believe James wouldn’t immediately tell Sirius he’s dating his brother the second he realized this was a serious thing? Regulus is Sirius’s little brother, I’m expected to believe Regulus wouldn’t automatically want Sirius’s approval in his relationship? That post about James and Regulus both thinking of Sirius in their last moments is 100% right

My main issues with modern Jegulus(tm) are:

the sabotage of James' and Sirius' canon brotherhood and friendship as their closest bond for the sake of the ship (also my issue with a lot of wolfstar, but that's another point for another post)

the sabotage of Sirius and Regulus' relationship as a stand-alone, complicated bond independent from James, which has existed 10 years before Sirius even met him

the "Siriusification" of Regulus. see common Jegulus(tm) tropes: Regulus running away (?? can't stand this one don't get me started), Regulus being forced to take the Mark, Regulus having an equally bad relationship with his parents

James and Regulus keeping it a secret from Sirius in the long-term

the woobification of them both and stripping their character of any nuance. see common Jegulus(tm) characterisations: James as a careless happy golden retriever with no negative flaws (vs canon James being a borderline bully [another rant incoming about the use of this word for him, bare with me]), Regulus as a sad depressed damsel in distress that needs saving (vs the Heir of Black, highly respected among his peers, the boy who discovered Horcruxes all by himself at the age of 18)

I am willing to drop any fic, no matter how good it is, over any one of these points. And it is nearly impossible to find a Jegulus fic today that doesn't have at least one of the above, hence: endless suffering for picky me.

Shameless self-promotion right here, but I am working right now on a long Jegulus war fic (Lethe) that is everything I have ever wanted to read and never found anywhere. I am going to start posting it soon this month, and tbh I'm not really expecting anyone but me to fully read it, but if you feel like you agree with what I'm talking about it, I think you might enjoy it

Do you still keep up with mainstream Jegulus? The tags keeps getting more followers but at the same time it feels like it’s dying right in front of my eyes, haven’t found a good Jegulus post in forever and it feels like there are fewer posts in general…

I am doing my absolute best not to keep up with Jegulus(tm), because I just end up getting pissed off or frustrated, and we are here to have a good time, you know? I also don't wanna be the kind of person who goes around telling people they are shipping things "the wrong way" so I mostly keep my thoughts to myself.

Thing is... the way Jegulus blew up in the past year is veeeery superficial. I'm not a Tiktok expert but from what I gathered, this wave of popularity came after Timothee Chalamet got fancasted as Regulus Black on Tiktok?

So it absolutely makes sense that people who got drew into it for the cute boys edits and aesthetics and not the actual content, do not actually contribute anything of essence to the fandom.

You go on the Jegulus tag and over 90% of the content there is just very low-effort text posts that don't even remotely sound like them? Most of the popular fics are AUs too, ones that keep nothing of their original story, which makes sense, again - because people are NOT interested in their actual story or character.

Compare it to Wolfstar for example - it's a ship that has gradually built up a fan base from nothing over a timeline of more than 20 years. It takes time and effort to build a fandom.

My prediction is that this popularity wave will blow over soon enough, leaving only the people who actually like the ship for what it is, and then it will be back to being a rarepair with 3 new fics per month at best, BUT there will actually be a solid fandom base and quality content. (amen)

highlights of the day bc its been eventful:

adhd James and bpd Sirius (and thanks to @padfootastic i am writing a drabble for this now instead of working on my wip)

James/Regulus vs Jegulus(tm) (i need to write that Jegulus manifesto we were talking about)

some good old fandom drama (ty lovely anons <3)

the Walburga Thoughts anon and several other people asked for

Wanna type up that anti-Jegulus (TM) manifesto? I really want to know your thoughts on everything

This has been sitting in my head for ages. I have several drafts and notes with all kinds of points I want to make, but they are scattered across Tumblr and my phone and they are mostly incoherent word vomit that needs to be heavily sorted and edited so I could call it an actual Manifesto without being embarrassed about it.

(((I'm also really really trying to not get distracted and work on my main WIP (which is also a Jegulus fic, by coincidence) as much as possible at the moment, because I want to finally start posting it this month. I'm on 80K already now, but I want a specific number of chapters before I start publishing it)))

But I do have a halfway decent draft called "cliche tropes and the common misconception about Jegulus" that talks about some aspects of it, that I could post right now? If anybody cares about this kind of stuff? I feel like I'm talking to myself here most of them time, honestly