Latest Posts by khayltille - Page 9

The Adventures of McCree Holmes and Sigma Watson- Intermediary 1

You’re wondering what my first reactions were to taking the old man under my wing? Y'know, it didn’t turn out to be as straightforwards as I thought it would be. I underestimated his title as the “town madman”, though calling him mad was a bit of a harsh word. The gentle folks of Ironclad weren’t usually the exaggerating type. That should have been my first clue.

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THE BOX IS NABOO

That’s it, I’m doing it, I’m writing that stupid meta I’ve had in the works for two and a half years, I’m sharing it with the world. I promised it for last Thursday, my poll was forever ago, but whatever! I’m writing that freaking thing.

(super duper long post, press j to skip)

Enter my rabbit hole.

First thing to establish: the Box makes no sense whatsoever in-universe.

Recap of the context for the “Box” episode (s4e17): Palpatine is planning his own kidnapping. It was never meant to succeed, and while the plan would obviously benefit him (making the Jedi look bad, pushing Anakin closer to the Dark Side, making Republic citizens more afraid -> more docile, etc…) his actual goal is never explained, and it’s weird that he’d go to such extreme lengths for results so minimal that we’re never told what they are.

So Palpatine asks Dooku to kidnap him at the Festival of Lights on Naboo. Dooku hires Moralo Eval to design a giant box-thingy to test bounty hunters to hire the best of them to kidnap Palpatine. Moralo then gets arrested to alert the Republic that something is afoot, and hires Cad Bane to break him out. Obi-Wan - undercover to learn Moralo’s plan - goes with them. They evade capture and go to Serenno, and Bane and Obi-Wan have to pass the box-thingy test. The level of brainkarked logic here… Truly on par with Megamind, Gru and Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Setting aside the insane plot holes and utterly nonsensical behavior of the villains, the Box itself is moronic from a plot perspective. It’s insanely complex, obviously incredibly expensive and would have taken months (more like years but it’s a short war) to make when it’s not even needed for the dastardly plot! Just hire some guys who have already proven themselves against Jedi! Throw cash at Bane and Embo and a few others! Maybe attack them with your saber and see how they do! 

And after all that, Dooku still ends up trying to kidnap Palpatine on his own. I can’t even… 

So why does the Box exist? Well, apart from giving us a good thrill and being generally awesome to look at, it has actual narrative purpose.

The box is Naboo.

What the Box lacks in plot relevance, it makes up for with its heavily symbolic meaning. It very closely follows Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s experiences on Naboo - but only certain parts, which I’ll explain later.

We start with clean, sterile environments, SW’s favored way of showing villainy.

Then we have the protagonists locked in a room as dioxis, a poison gas, pours in.

And then they escape… this way.

(Okay, here the shaft is down, not up. And it’s not a ventilation shaft per say, it’s the designed escape route. Same difference).

We then skip most of TPM (namely, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon discovering the droid army, finding Padmé, leaving Naboo, landing on Tatooine, going to Coruscant, etc, etc) to come back to Naboo and go directly to the lightsabers and catwalks.

(Note: in both scenes, Obi-Wan has to propel himself from a catwalk.)

In TPM and TCW, the catwalks are immediately followed by ray shields

And we finally end with the last scenes. Now, they don’t look the same but they are structurally identical. 

Obi-Wan is faced with a challenge unsuited for his abilities (facing Darth Maul // shooting three moving targets when he’s far more skilled with a blade than a blaster) on a narrow space above a melting pit/pit of fire. 

He first watches someone die failing to complete the task…

 … and has to do it himself, faring much better than expected (holding his own against Maul // shooting all the targets easily). 

He then almost falls to his death and gets saved unexpectedly.

And then there’s the final showdown.

In both scenes, Obi-Wan is angry. And in TCW Dooku eggs him on, banking on his anger. (More on that later.) In both cases though, he centers himself and is able to overcome both his opponent and his own unbalance. But in TCW, he doesn’t go for the kill, because he doesn’t need to. 

The Box, as a literal character-explorator ex-machina, thus shows us Obi-Wan’s growth.  

In TPM, Obi-Wan follows Qui-Gon’s lead. In TCW, he is the leader. He identifies the gas, makes the plans. He doesn’t fall from catwalks anymore - he runs atop moving ones. He doesn’t stay stuck behind ray-shields, he finds the solution. (Btw, how did Moralo know what blood type Derrown the Exterminator was? There was a 50% chance of him dying - thus killing all of the bounty hunters. Was that an acceptable outcome? TCW I need answers!) He doesn’t slay his foes, because he’s become powerful enough, skilled enough and wise enough to survive (and win) without needing to kill.

He’s grown - and, even more interestingly, he’s also stayed the same. In the previous episodes, we see some of the dark aspects of Obi-Wan. How he - like all Force-wielders, all people - could lose himself if he stopped maintaining absolute control.

But in the Box, surrounded by the worst criminals of the Galaxy, the most ruthless, worthless people, he’s still kind and tries his best to keep them alive.

The Box is a reminder and a reassurance for the audience that Obi-Wan Kenobi is still there under Rako’s face. He hasn’t lost his compassion, his restrain. He’s still a Jedi. And he’s an awesome, badass one. 

And now, for what it tells us about Dooku! 

It’s much shorter, don’t worry. Basically, Dooku considers that the best way to pick “the best of the best” of the deadliest people in the Galaxy is making them go through what killed his Padawan. There, I’ve broken your hearts, you’re welcome. 

More seriously, Dooku is a manipulative ass. It’s pretty clear that he knows Rako is Obi-Wan, or at the very least suspects it. 

He has an interesting reaction upon learning Rako’s identity, he keeps praising him despite his usual distaste for low-lifes, he smirks secretively after Eval says “I’ll show you who’s weak” (not included there because it’s a close-up of Dooku’s lips and no one wants to see that) and he tells Rako he’s very disappointed when he doesn’t finish off Eval.

[Later]

(Look at this smug asshole - I can’t. YOUR GRANDSON IS THE BEST, WE KNOW, STOP ACTIVELY RUINING HIS LIFE ALREADY.)

(Dooku… why…)

Now obviously Dooku couldn’t have made the Box specifically for Obi-Wan, because it would have to have been designed months before the Council ever decided to send Obi-Wan undercover, but he has no qualms trying to use it to push Obi-Wan to the Dark Side. Ffs Dooku, making your spiritual grandson relive one of the most traumatic events of his life on the off chance that he’ll join you and (desecrate his Master’s memory in doing so) is not okay!

Final tidbits of analysis: I mentioned that not all of TPM is mirrored in the Box. What’s omitted is the droids (even though Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon fight B1′s and droidekas between the dioxis and the ventilation shafts) and anything pertaining to Sidious (all the political stuff on Coruscant). You’ll also note that the fake lightsabers are orange.

=> The Box distances itself from anything that connects Dooku to Naboo. Red lightsabers are the trademark of the Sith, so they’re not used. The bounty hunters will be facing Jedi, so logically the fake sabers should be green or blue - but no, they’re orange, the color closest to red. It fits with Dooku’s special brand of dishonesty - he always tells bits of the real story but twists them just enough to absolve himself of any fault and to justify his choices. 

(”We can destroy the Sith” -> fails to mention he’s a Sith Lord himself; “the Viceroy came to me for help, that’s why I’m attacking the Republic” -> fails to mention he’s Sidious’ underling and is playing the Viceroy like a fiddle; “Qui-Gon would have joined me” -> fails to mention he’s working for the man who ordered Qui-Gon’s death; “I told you everything you needed to know” -> never said that Palps was Sidious; “Sifo-Dyas understood, that’s why he helped me” -> doesn’t admit to killing Sifo-Dyas right after getting his help)

So we have a twisted version of Naboo, droid-free (as droids are now irrevocably associated with Dooku) and with sabers that aren’t quite red. Keep in mind that Dooku had already fallen by TPM. (We know this because he killed Sifo-Dyas and created the Clone Army - part of Sidious’ plan - when Valorum was still Chancellor, as per the episode The Lost One.) That means Dooku was (in)directly complicit in Qui-Gon’s death. And the Box doesn’t (refuses to?) acknowledge that. 

(Also omitted in the Box are the Gungans and Tatooine. It makes sense, because Dooku probably wouldn’t have the full details regarding those parts of TPM, and would see them as irrelevant if he did. He utterly despises Anakin, and Gungans are the type of people he always dismisses out of hand). 

Anyway, that’s my two cents about the Box. To quote Lucas…

“It’s like poetry. It rhymes.”

Thanks to @lethebantroubadour @impossiblybluebox​ @nonbinarywithaknife @ytoz​ and @kaitie85386​ for voting for this one. Next up is a compilation of the Jedi being casually tactile with each other (because they’re a warm and affectionate culture, dammit).

Also thanks to @laciefuyu​ for giving me gifs I ended up not using ^^; you rock anyway!

it feels very star wars, in the best sense, for dooku to fall deeper into the dark side after qui-gon's death because he becomes fixated on blaming the jedi council so that he doesn't have to reckon with the fact his conspiring with sidious played a far more direct role in what happened than whatever mistakes the council made. sidious calls qui-gon a necessary sacrifice for their cause, which upsets dooku, but not as much as the idea that his death was an entirely preventable tragedy that dooku failed to stop... which is why yaddle telling him qui-gon didn't need to die made him snap. because if that's true then dooku is as guilty and corrupt as the senators he despised for ignoring suffering. and he can't bring himself to face that reckoning, not when it's so much easier to just make it another reason the jedi are at fault.

I think that instead of giving Remus movie-fanon facial scars from his werewolf attack, JK should’ve given them to Snape in the books.

Imagine how much more interesting Snape would have been if he had four jagged claw marks across his face. It would also give a much greater gravity to Snape’s attack during the Marauders’ “prank.”

The first year feast goes like this:

“Who’s that teacher talking to Professor Quirrel? The one with the scars?”

Percy leans in—“Oh, you know Quirrel already, do you? No wonder he’s looking so nervous, that’s Professor Snape. Nobody knows for sure about his scars, but rumor says he had a werewolf sicced on him once and killed it with his bare hands. Then again, he’s so mean he likely sneered at it and the poor thing keeled right over.”

It’s not until Lupin’s term as DADA Professor that Harry realizes why Snape hates him so much: then again, the reason is quite literally etched across his face.

When Snape changes their lesson plans to study werewolves nobody argues, because they see what happened to a teacher and they know better than to argue with someone who has such obvious firsthand experience with them.

Every time Harry gets recognized for his telltale scar he thinks of Snape, and how much worse he has it.

I don’t ship Drarry but with that being said, I will accept no other Drarry prompt than them stubbornly competing to outdo the other for the sheer drama.

It starts off when they’re still enemies in the Goblet of Fire. Draco makes a taunt about who Harry’s going to ask to the Yule Ball and how they must be from the worst of the worst lot and Harry rolls his eyes and says, “Well, fitting you say that, Malfoy, because I was going to ask you.” A perfect zing, Harry. 10/10.

But now the ball’s in Draco’s court and obviously he’s not going to pass up on the chance to humiliate the scarhead so he takes the most logical route of humiliation and calls out his bluff: “Fine, Potter, I reckon we’re going.”

But do you think Harry James Potter is just going to back down? That stubborn teenager is going to stare Draco down and say, “Reckon we are.”

Ron’s confused and Hermione’s confused and literally the entire castle is confused but Harry’s satisfied because he called out a bluffer’s counterbluff with a bluff of his own. And they just keep it up.

“I suppose you don’t even know how to dance, Potter?”

The furious teenager who spent years having to watch soapbox dramas with Mrs. Figg just glares at him in his stupid dress robes. “I know some things.”

“Prove it.”

“Fine.”

It’s like that for days until Draco makes the ultimate power move by inviting Harry to the Malfoy’s Annual New Years Eve Ball, taking out a Daily Prophet ad no less, because oh, oh, he’s got Potter now. He’ll never accept and he’ll be humiliated in front of the entire wizarding world. And do you think Harry’s just going to go down without a fight? God, no, he’s going to win whatever the hell this is because he’s Harry Potter, Draco better be worried, oh boy.

They’re still going at it six months later.

“Err—Malfoy?” Crabbe says. “Potter just sent you a dozen roses?”

“That son of a bitch! Send a box of chocolates. That’ll show him.”

“Um, Draco—?”

“I WILL NOT BE OUTDONE, PARKINSON!”

The fact that Snape is one of the youngest if not THE youngest professor is fucking hilarious.

Snape Fic Recs

@scverussnape, I hope you enjoy these!  

Mentor/Teacher:

Harry Potter and the Enemy Within and Harry Potter and the Chained Souls by Theowyn of HPG - aka the holy grail of fan fiction, the first HP series I ever read and thought “I wish this was canon”.  The characterization is so good, it feels as though I’m reading a different version of the actual books. I re-read this series at least once a year.

A Place for Warriors by owlsaway - the caption for this story does not even begin to do it justice.  I cannot do it justice.  The way the relationship between Snape and Harry grows is just *chef’s kiss*.

Emerald Eyes, Emerald Eyes: Fate’s Hand, and Mindful Eyes by JadeSullivan - Snape takes on a mentor role for Harry during his 2nd year.  This author has an incredible way of describing the feelings in each moment that I find captivating.  She hasn’t updated Mindful Eyes in a couple of years, but I have high hopes for her return!

O Mine Enemy by Kirby Lane - Snape is injured and ends up spending some time with Harry at the Dursley’s house.  Once they are able to leave, Snape reluctantly takes on a mentor role for Harry.  Harry begins having dreams predicting the future, causing him to question just how much he actually trusts Snape.  Not only is this story excellently written - the writer just posted two new chapters for the first time in several years!

Walking the Line by hairballl26 - Snape is badly injured and turns up at the Dursley’s.  He intends to hide from the muggles as best he can until he can recover or until help arrives, but inevitably, there is a terrible confrontation, and both he and Harry go on the run, trying to get to safety at Hogwarts and avoid the agents of the Dark Lord.  ROAD TRIP FIC my favorite.  Hasn’t updated since 2011, but I keep re-reading it anyway because I love it so much.

Behind Doors and Masks by dragonwriter24cmf - Headmaster Snape has decided to personally handle the troublemaker Neville Longbottom, but Neville uncovers his secret agent status.  Now he has to help the boy survive an increasingly hostile Hogwarts, and train him to fight back.  Ooooh boy is this fic all of the things I love.  A close look at Snape during his time as Headmaster, and I love love love how she writes Neville.

Sectumsempra Splits the School by thegoldenfirebolt - Harry faces severe consequences for using the dark spell sectumsempra on Draco Malfoy.  He has to work closely with younger students and the staff as part of his punishment.  I didn’t expect to enjoy this fic as much as I do, but it offers this wonderful peek into the daily lives and relationships between the staff members that I greatly enjoyed.

Kept Behind and Dark Influences by LAXgirl - Harry is killed by a death eater, and only Snape can see his ghost.  Through their connection, they try to find out if there is way to bring Harry back.  I just really love any story that has Snape and Harry having to trust each other and work together, and these are really well written.

Severitus/adoption:

All the World’s a Stage by Alexannah - In a bid to gain control over the Boy Who Lived, Cornelius Fudge serves notice that he intends to adopt Harry Potter.  Snape receives the notice, and since no one else is available, he manages to submit the paperwork just in time to adopt Harry instead.  Now they just have to learn to live together.  I very much want more of this story, and it hasn’t been updated in a couple of years, but it ends at a place that isn’t terrible.

The Unexpected Snape by Imablack - Harry Potter arrives for his first year at Hogwarts, but he doesn’t look like James Potter - he looks like Snape.  It takes some time for them to address this fact.  This has the most lovely slow growth of their relationship, from respect to trust to love.

Reading the Signs by goldencompass - During his first year, Harry is attacked and hurt by some older students holding grudges against the Boy Who Lived.  Snape helps in his recovery, and Harry begins to trust and respect him, leading to a deeper understanding and relationship between them.

General Snape Fics:

The Pawn by ReeraTheRed - a short AU version of Snape’s confession to Dumbledore and the growth of trust between them in their early days working together.  Makes me cry actual tears every time I read it.

The Wendell That Wasn’t by opalish - Snape’s ghost is stuck haunting Harry and Ginny, and they (or really Ginny) get their revenge.  Absolute crack fic, hilariously funny.

The 11th Day of Hogwarts by lyras - This story is on livejournal, and is a short look at Snape’s time as Headmaster.  He is supported by the portraits of the other headmasters, and trying to do what must be done under terrible circumstances.  Very bittersweet.

HP META MASTERLISTS

Hey! Here is a big master list of all my favorite Harry Potter character analyses and Metas! I had so many saved and I didn’t know how I should organize them so I figured I put them in a post. I’ll be adding more when I find new metas and will be posting them here.

I DID NOT write these! Please do yourself a favor and check out some of the wonderful and intelligent writers of these metas as they deserve all the praise for their hard and impressive work!

If anyone of the writers for whatever reason wants me to remove their meta from this list just tell me and it will be done!  

Some of these may be contradictory to each other but that is because I like to hear other interpretations. These may not line up exactly with your view of the characters (not all of them line up with mine) but please try to be respectful.

*Almost all of these are from Tumblr except one from reddit and one from a outside blog.

Enjoy!

LUPIN META:

Remus Lupin: in depth analysis

Gentleman Monster: How Remus’s Marginalization and Comparative Privilege Made Who He Is

The Marauders Map scene in POA: Verbal Fencing Between Snape and Lupin

Lupin and his use of pauses and “ers”

Neither Likes Not Dislikes Severus…

Remus And His Use of Language + Sirius’ Dark Humor

Fanon vs. Canon: Remus Lupin Edition (reddit)

Lupin as a manipulator

Lupin is a gold standard for for the male manipulator trope

Lupin and how he presents in front of others

Remus would rather categorize himself with his oppressor than validate his own experiences.

Lupin and how he views himself

Prisoner of Azkaban: When Hostility Meets Passive Aggression

Remus’ “unmistakable signs of trying to live among wizards”

Remus lupin: Repentance vs Regret

Lupin lying to himself and others

Remus did a lot of “growing up” during the lost years

“And I haven’t changed…”

Remus Lupin: ENFJ

If Lupin and Tonks had survived the battle?

Lupin and the boggart lesson

Nearly Always Right: Remus and Harry

Remus with his own special brand of comforting logic

Remus Lupin at his most dangerous

Remus Lupin is so detached from things

Fanon vs Canon: “Remus is always sweet and kindly.”

Fanon vs Canon: “Remus is always sweet and kindly.” pt. 2

Snape and Lupin parallels

Harry/Remus dynamic

Lupin isn’t the middle ground in Mrs Weasley vs Sirius argument

Remus and what his friendships represent

Power game that goes on between Lupin and Snape in POA

SIRIUS META

Shame of My Flesh: Reading into Sirius’ Thoughts on Crouch Family

The Hogwarts Express scene in Prince’s Tale: A Sirius and Snape analysis

Sirius and Molly Argument in OOTP

Someone Like A Parent: The Beginning of Bond in POA

Snape, Sirius, and revenge Arrested Development – Sirius, Snape, Obsessions and Blind Spots

Why Sirius hated Snape so much

Padfoot and Prongs: an analysis of the friendship

Sirius and Walburga: the passive-aggressive Sticking Charm

Sirius and Walburga’s similarities

Regulus and Sirius’s relationship

Sirius and Lily

Sirius and Orion Black

Sirius Black and Complex trauma

Grimmauld Place: Azkaban by a different name

The worse thing Sirius Black has ever done || The ‘Prank’

Sirius Black, Mental Health and Masculinity

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Padfoot and the Liminal Space

Sirius was not an immature man -child

Sirius is both emotionally and academically intelligent

Sirius’ sense of humor

Sirius Black the Loner

Sirius Black and Acts of Service

Part one: Sirius and the shadow of being a Black.

Part two: Sirius Black: the victim of the system he was born to rule

Sirius and Snape both want to be part of a world that they will never truly understand.

Fanon vs canon: James and Sirius are either very saintly or very evil.” pt 2

Sirius’s views on Death-Eaters: The world isn’t split into good people and Death-eaters.

James, Sirius and Snape: privilege and intelligence

Sirius and Regulus’s relationship is Kreacher

Sirius is not as explosive as he is often characterized.

JAMES META

James and Sirius had the best friendship in the story

“the marauders’ is essentially just three people wanting to be james’ best friend but only one of them actually achieving it”

Too Deep for the Healing

How does growing up with elderly parents affect James’s personality?

“the marauders’ is essentially just three people wanting to be james’ best friend but only one of them actually achieving it”

Ashes thoughts on James

Fanon vs canon: James became a reformed character for Lily’s sake

Fanon vs canon: James and Sirius are either very saintly or very evil.” pt 1

James Didn’t Suspect Remus - First War edition

James inner sense of nobility prevents him from killing

PETER META

Peter Pettigrew is emotionally intelligent and uses it in a strategic manner.

Peter is a Beautiful Scum Bag

Peter Pettigrew and the Werewolf Incident (Not as Much of a Key Event for Him)

Peter and Remus

MARAUDER META

Reading Marauders Dynamics in SWM

J/S vs F/G: different types of troublemakers

The rifts that made it possible for the Marauders to fall apart were evident even as far back as Hogwarts.

An Analysis of the Snape’s Worst Memory Pensieve scene

The marauders recklessness

The marauders individual relationships

Fallout of the “prank”

LILY META

Lily’s weakness is her fondness for being the exception

Lily and Altruism

Lily’s cold anger

Lily and her friendships

Slughorn’s favorite student

“Friendzoned”

Lily Evans is attracted to James Potter in Snape’s Worst Memory.

Interpretation of Lily’s blush

Lily and internalized misogyny

Fanon vs canon: Lily is either very saintly or very evil.”

Lily intended to break off her friendship with Severus before SWM

Harry’s relationship to the Prince as a blueprint for Lily’s friendship with Snape

Lily never hated Petunia

What’s Up with Petunia’s Resentment of Lily?

Lily is blind to the flaws of people she admires/loves unless it explodes in her face.

Lily’s feelings for Snape are more complex than fandom gives them credit for.

“Lily in nature”

SNAPE META

Snape and Class

Lily and Sev

How Dumbledore’s death speaks to Snape’s moral evolution

Feminist reading of lily/James/snape

James and Snape were rivals? Nah.

Snape was really traumatized by SWM

Snape being female coded

The extremely dysfunctional friendship of Snape and Lily

Trolly problem: Snape and Lupin

Snape: class and power

Lily Potter’s Son

Two up, two down

Snape and the Order confrontation of the Dursley’s

Severus Snape or the Importance of Body Language

Snape and the prince nickname

Snape was not upset over the lost of the order of merlin

Snape had to practice being a person

Spinner’s End (white hound)

Snape as a “bad victim”

Snape and queer coding

Dumbledoor, Snape and the werewolf incident.

Snape was his own man

a matter of perspective

Snape, Sirius, and revenge

Snape doesn’t want revenge

Snape and lily’s shared spirit

Snape’s use of language

Why does Spinners End matter?

HERMIONE META

Hermione and Ron don’t blindly trust harry

Hermione “character growth” with SPEW

Hermione wouldn’t like fiction

Harry and Hermione understand each other

Hermione can be very ruthless

Hermione and internalized misogyny

Book Hermione

Cool Hermione Things: Magic Under Pressure

Hermione IS soft

Hermione was born a leader and diplomat

Harry is in awe of Hermione

Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins: A Closer Look into Hermione’s Modification of Her Parents’ Memories

Fanon vs Canon: “Hermione is always sweet and kindly.”

HARRY META

Deconstructing Harry: The boy we meet in Philosopher’s Stone to the man in Deathly Hallows

Harry And Personal Conflict: A Meta On Evolving Dynamic With Ron and Hermione

The Resurrection Stone Scene: Culmination Of Harry’s Emotional Arc

The Resurrection Stone Scene: Culmination Of Harry’s Emotional Arc

The Dementors and Harry’s Complex grief

Harry’s intuitive, empathy related approach to morality

Harry identified with and reluctantly admired Snape even before ‘The Prince’s Tale’

Harry and Hermione in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

Harry and The Dursleys: Examining His Response to his Abusers

The Mirthless Laugh: Sirius and Harry

Harry and intellectual curiosity

The Potters and class

Harry-Hermione Friendship

On Harry and the adults in his life

Harry and masculinity

Harry’s quirks

RON META

Ron and the Horcrux: An Alternate Reading

Ron isn’t a strategist, he’s the heart

GOLDEN TRIO META

Gender Dynamics in the Trio, Part One: Gender and Subordination

WEASLEY META

“Lucky you”

Percy with F&G and Bill

Percy fell through a big crack

Is Ginny Upset That None of Her Family Noticed Her Disappearances/Serious Health Problems/Posession in her First Year? (If She is, They Still Don’t Seem to Notice)

Molly Weasley is a Misogynist

That Time Fleur Exploded at Molly and Became a Member of the Family

The Weasleys Aren’t Evil, Or Anything, But They’re Not Saints Either

Ginny, the diary, and her family’s reaction

Does gender plays a role in Harry and Ginny’s respective interactions with Voldemort?

Percy and Arthur were close without actually knowing each other’s true selves,

Ginny and writing failures

fred and george could be weirdly brutal towards ron

Percy, Fred, and George

Weasley siblings reacting to the expectations put upon them

Weasley analysis

OTHER CHARACTERS META

Bellatrix: Mental health and the feminist lens

Dumbledore as a Mentor

“all draco wanted was to be loved” debunked

Walburga Black: the madwoman in the attic

General Thoughts on the Black Family

Fanon vs canon: “The Evans family treated young Snape very warmly.”

Albus Dumbledore Has Done Great, Generous, Things for People (Though He Also Uses These People as Pawns Later)

Albus Dumbledore is not only respected and feared, but also loved

Trevor and Neville’s Boggart

Wandlore: Remus and Lily

Neville’s Boggart

The Abandoned Boy And His Problematic Fathers: Snape with Voldemort & Dumbledore

The Blacks are a family in decline

WORLD BUILDING

Hogwarts School Uniform

Why the Wizarding World Didn’t Oppose Voldemort

The Blitz Paved the Road to Voldemort

Hogwarts Houses by Muffin

How Old is the Bias Against Slytherin?

No, Really, the Hogwarts Houses Are Awful

House Elves Are Slaves

A History of Magic Brought to You By The Carnivorous Muffin

Light and Dark Magic is Stupid: Here’s Why

The Wizarding World Lacks a Key Understanding of Magic

The Wizarding World and Its Profound Ignorance of Muggles

The Slug Club is Actually Very Necessary

The Order of the Phoenix is a Useless Joke

MISC. META

Harry Potter as a colonial fantasy

Death as one of HP’s themes

The “not like other girls” syndrome in the Harry Potter books.

HP series being ‘ethically mean spirited’

Marauders era and the 70s aesthetic?  

JKR and chirstianity

Harry potter series and how american readers can understand classism a little better

Slytherin and Eton: A Primer on the British School System.

JKR’s absolutist way of seeing the world: gryffindor and slytherin

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Snape’s Supposed Great Love

Here’s an old HP meta post about Snape I wrote right after The Deathly Hallows came out. I scavenged it from my deleted LJ and I’m reposting it here. Before you send me nasty asks, remember I wrote this over ten years ago!

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I’m writing out my headcanons about undertale metatextual metaphysics because I’ve been sharing bits and pieces of it by insinuation but haven’t clearly laid it on the table yet.

here’s the biggest contention that I want to make: we interact with undertale by way of a… proxy in the gameworld. but that proxy isn’t frisk, and isn’t exactly chara either. and that proxy isn’t specific to undertale.

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So I noticed this during my final Pacifist Run...

Here’s Sans as a Lost Soul. Notice anything unusual about his speech text? Let’s compare to this GIF of Alphys.

And here’s a close-up on his speech.

It’s hard to tell when it’s not in motion, but the letters are shaking. No other Lost Soul does this. Not even he does this at any other time; not even when you face him in Genocide Mode. His text never shakes like this at any other point in the game. And what does he say? “just give up. i did.” “why even try?” “you’ll never see ‘em again.” When Sans faces you as a Lost Soul, he can’t hide the emotion in his voice any more. Killing his brother won’t get this reaction, being killed by you won’t get this reaction, because to stop himself from being hurt any more, Sans has made himself numb. Even if you’re Genocidal and you commit atrocities like he’s never seen, he’s too far gone, so deep in despair that he’s dead inside. But if you play pacifist and befriend Sans? He sees you tread the same path as he did, trying to make things right despite overwhelming odds. He looks at you, and he sees the innocence he’s lost. And suddenly he’s out of Snowdin, he’s following you across the entire Underground, and he’s rooting for you, kid. You’ve given him hope. You’ve given him a reason to break out of his rut and actually care about something, and that something is you. Behind that glitchy mess as a Lost Soul, he’s crying. And given this is the guy who’s disguised his pain with laughs for the entire run, that’s a pretty huge deal.

one of sans’ unspoken, but actually rather prominent flaws is overprotectiveness, and I think it shines through exceptionally well in the king papyrus ending.

sans deliberately lies to papyrus about the death of his friends in an attempt to protect papyrus’s innocence.  The problem here?  Well one is that Papyrus isn’t innocent.  He’s a grown adult, a king now, in fact.  He needs to know the seriousness of the situation if he’s ever going to rule properly.  But beyond that,

not telling papyrus that his friends are dead isn’t just irresponsible, it’s downright cruel.  We already know that papyrus had very few friends to begin with, and now?  He probably thinks the one friend he did have has abandoned him.  And while I doubt sans consciously intended this, the fact remains that sans’s overprotectiveness has hurt his brother, in a way that sans doesn’t seem aware of (probably because papyrus purposefully hides this from him, as shown when he waits for sans to leave before he says this).  Sans lies to his brother in an attempt to protect his positive outlook, but in the process of doing it he’s effectively forcing papyrus to internalize his sadness for the sake of what he perceives is best.  He does not allow papyrus to judge for himself what is best for papyrus, because he’s so scared of ruining that positive outlook he relies so heavily on.

and this is not the only instance of sans hiding information in order to “protect” the people he cares about

while maybe this one’s more understandable, it’s still wrong.  Eventually toriel is going to find out what happened, keeping the information from her does nothing except prolong both sans and toriel’s suffering.  But sans doesn’t think about this, because in his mind, he’s protecting her.  He equates keeping loved ones safe with keeping them in the dark about anything that could hurt their feelings.  Which is… not healthy for relationships at all.

Everyone seems to focus on how sans’s lies hurt sans, but it’s also important to acknowledge that his lies hurt the people around him.  It’s why pacifist endings are more important to sans than he even realizes in-game; a chance at the surface means a chance to recover, a chance to recover means sans stops relying on the (not so) blissful ignorance of others in order to deal with his own issues.  It means his relationships begin to be built on trust, rather than lies and internalized emotions.  And I think that’s better for everyone.

The most striking thing about Papyrus (aside from his limitless positivity) is the fact that it is literally impossible to die in a fight against him. Even Toriel, who starts purposefully missing you once your health gets low enough, can accidentally kill you, but Papyrus? It is literally impossible. Papyrus has incredible control over his power! Wow, what a great and impressive skeleton. And, even though he could probably deal some legit damage to you on the murder run, his only action is to spare you, because he’s heckin worried about this little emotionless murder child.

A lot of people like swap aus where Sans is the one that dies and Papyrus is forced to shed his naivete and face you going all-out, which makes sense, but also, Papyrus is just so. Papyrus. I feel like if Papyrus had to be the final murder-run boss, it’d be more like, “After losing Sans, the world seems like a different place. I can’t imagine what you must’ve gone through for you to see the world the way you do.”

He only has one attack, but it’s a really long one and powerful one (kind of like Sans’ before his ‘special attack’), plus he talks during it, which would be pretty distracting. whenever he gets your hp down to 1, combat automatically stops and you’re ejected back into the judgement room. if you try to talk to him without healing, he’ll just say you’re too hurt - a gust of wind could knock you over! after you heal at the conveniently placed save point and go back to fight him, he has stuff to say about how you don’t have to be alone, you don’t have to do this, you might think there isn’t any good in you and it’s too late to change, but there is and it isn’t! After a few of those, he’ll talk about Undyne and Sans, and they always tried to help him, even when they thought he wouldn’t notice. He’s got a ton of stories about that. After he says his piece there’s an option to either fight or don’t fight, and every time you pick fight he looks disappointed, but he goes all out. He’s always able to be spared.

if you survive his attack, he goes down in one hit. his last words would probably be an apology, even though he tried really hard he still couldn’t show you a better path

This might be a weird idea but

What if Sans’s telescope prank wasn’t only a prank, but also a test?

Normally, the kind of prank where you trick someone into getting a mark on their face is a stealth one. The embarrassment is through them not realising the mark and going on with their lives until someone else decides to tell them, or they look in a mirror eventually. They also realise they were the ones who participated, unknowingly, in getting a silly mark.

In this scenario, everyone basically yells SANS and tries to call him on it, resulting in him joking about a refund. But there’s no way Frisk would know about the eye blotch. The normal run of the joke would be for Frisk to obliviously carry on until they find a mirror somewhere. Instead, most people confront Sans immediately.

Maybe he was testing to see if we, the player, really were there. Frisk could’ve turned on him and called him on the prank… despite having no way to know they’ve got a pink eye. That’s what WE know. We outed our existence to Sans.

Though I prefer Barry and Ross’s voices for the skelebros. - this moment was just too perfect not to animate!!

More Undertale thoughts:

Am I the only one who’s a bit confused when Sans is made out to be this great, chummy guy?

Out of all the main characters (except Mettaton I guess) he acts the least friendly towards you. Undyne tries to kill you at first, yeah, but she’s never seen a human before and she’s just trying to do what she’s been told. When she’s had a chance to hang out with you she turns right around and is more than happy to talk to you. Toriel takes care of you with no hesitation, because that’s just Toriel. Papyrus and Alphys quickly find out that you’re alright and are happy to chat and share their thoughts with you as well.

I can’t recall Sans ever doing anything like that. He helps you out in the beginning, but it mostly seems to be to make Papyrus happy and pull some stupid pranks on you. He only really talks to you twice - At Grillby’s and at the restaurant in the MTT Resort. Both times that seemed to me to be with the intention of getting some information out of you and figure out what kind of person you are. He asks you some questions, says what he wants to say and then he just leaves. He never really talks about himself other than to say things that are obvious or that the other characters will tell you as well. He’s lazy, puns are great, Papyrus is cool, yadda yadda. The other times you meet him he just “happens to be around” and maybe he’ll comment on something you did or say something funny, but he isn’t really helping or cheering you on.

All in all he doesn’t seem very interested in being your friend. It didn’t seem so weird to me on my first playthrough that he’d tell you he had the intention to kill you if it weren’t for Toriel, since I actually killed Toriel (didn’t catch on to the fact that you can spare her). But he says the same thing even if you haven’t hurt a single soul. That’s.. pretty uncalled for? Especially at that point in the game. If it was meant as a warning, he’s putting it out there way late. So I don’t know what to interpret it as, other than sheer spite.

And that brings me to the fact that I’m 100% sure Sans killed at least one of the other humans who fell into the Underground. Apart from the old characters (Toriel, Asgore, Gerson) he’s the only one with any real knowledge about humans. He’s certainly capable of killing a human. He’s following you, and again, he did outright tell you that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. Causally, like it was something he’d done before. How else could he sound so confident about it?

But if he did, if he really did help kill the other humans, nobody appears to know about it. So did he act on his own? And why? We know so incredibly little about Sans that everything just becomes guesswork, based on small hints and offhand comments.

I also fully support the theory that Sans used to be a scientist, because there are simply too many hints pointing in that direction for it not to be a thing. The -most- suspicious one is in the pacifist ending, where everyone is gathered before leaving the Underground. In one bit of dialogue, Alphys will make a pun before Sans can and then she laughs about how she knew he’d say that. To which Papyrus says that he didn’t know Alphys knew Sans and Sans just brushes it off with a “doesn’t everyone”. Papyrus! Papyrus who otherwise knows pretty much everything. Why is it a secret that they know each other? Was Sans also involved in Asgore’s shady science experiments? Did he also have a hand in researching Determination? Is that why he has some of the same powers as Flowey? Because really, that’s just what Sans is. A “Flowey Light” - Not quite aware or powerful enough to break out of the game world entirely, but enough to be able to mess around with things.

Sans is… complicated. I’m definitely not saying he’s malicious or unfriendly either, but he’s extremely reserved and when he watches you like a hawk throughout the entire game, I don’t exactly think it’s out of concern for your wellbeing. He might take a liking to Frisk in the end too, but never like any of the others do.

For his surprise value and importance to Undertale’s themes and his incredibly subtle writing I think Sans is the best character in the game, but also because he isn’t just a great, chummy guy. He does an admirable job of keeping his comic relief act together, but here and there the facade cracks and what’s underneath isn’t all that pretty. I kind of wish there had been shed a little more light on all the baggage he’s obviously dragging around, but then again, maybe it’s another strength to his character that we’ll probably never know. Let the little skeleguy keep his secrets I guess.

down n’ dirty lipsync for animation class. i will never again hear sans with anything but ricky’s voice.

Congratulations, you found the GRIDDY’S DOUGHNUTS Secret Menu! Order wisely.

A Case for Reed Richards’ Asexuality: Aphobia and Amatonormativity in Marvel and its Fandom

I have been thinking quite a lot about how fandom’s rampant aphobia factors into Reed hate, probably because I recently discovered that a Marvel artist had vilified Reed in the past over on Twitter by claiming that he is an asshole who thinks of his wife as “just a friend,” as though it somehow would make his love for her less valuable or important if he did. So I’m going to talk about the ways in which Reed has been coded as ace within Fantastic Four canon, and how he is troublingly framed as strange, abnormal, and Other both by official FF canon and fandom over this ace-coding. To be clear, Reed has never been explicitly called ace in canon, but there are moments where it’s been made abundantly clear that he does not experience sexual attraction and that he is fairly ambivalent about sex. 

It does bear pointing out that Reed DOES love his wife romantically—if you’ve ever read FF comics, that much is fairly obvious:

I love you, Susan. You bring light…and life…and joy…and meaning to my days. Now and forever.

Marvel Knights 4 #21

But the fact that he doesn’t behave like a stereotypical heterosexual man—in possession of a high libido, sexually aggressive, obsessed with sex, constantly sexualizing and hitting on and competing over women the way Ben and Johnny do, etc.—means that, in many people’s eyes, Reed’s love for his wife is somehow lacking and not really love. Personally, I think it factors quite a lot into people’s arguments that Reed is “abusive” for “neglecting” his wife, which he simply is and does not do in canon. The implication is that it’s because of his lack of sexual attraction and low sex drive – Reed “owes” Sue sex because he’s her husband, the thinking goes, and his failure to provide it consistently means that he is failing in his husbandly duties. The aphobic notion that aces are abusive to their allo partners because they “withhold” sex is, unfortunately, old and familiar, and it is coercive and, worst of all, encourages rape. Unfortunately, it’s not an interpretation of Reed’s behavior that hasn’t been encouraged in official FF media – take, for instance, this exchange:

Just think of the technological marvels that ancient spaceport might hold, darling!

[sighs] I can see a bikini doesn’t stand a chance with you.

Fantastic Four: The Animated Series: Ep 2x12: The Sentry Sinister

Discussion of aphobia below the cut.

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Stan never really had a guy interested in him the way he was with them, so it was a bit difficult for rick to make his point clear to stan. After their first night, rick left to get some morning donuts, which freaked Stan out. He really thought he messed up.

Imagining maxwell with tons of dogs around his house makes me fully happy

Had an idea that max transforms into the shadow monsters sense its part of his own world or nightmare?

ImJustUpToDrawMonsters

Commission for my friend @nikodavisartwork !

Blizzard didn’t give me the Sigma skin I wanted so I made it myself u_u

Sigma Icons

Feel free to use! Likes & reblogs are appreciated~

Play me a memory--A sigma fic

Summary: Sigma hopes to transcribe the universe’s melody, in hopes of awakening his true powers, but gets more than he bargains for when the government facility he has escaped from has found him once again.

Read it here, or find it on AO3

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Sigma sits in front of a piano. Not the Bechstein studio grand piano that used to sit in his apartment in The Hague but a cheap, upright Yamaha instead. He knows it is old just from the touch, the damp thud of the keys and the slow responsiveness of the pedals. Most aggravating of all is the tuning, the way the notes sound off to his ears. He does not have perfect pitch, and he never will, but if he concentrates hard enough, he can feel the shape of a note. Middle C is a yellow circle, and if he rises it up to a D, it transforms into an orange triangle. He hypothesizes that his abilities over gravity have given him a sensitivity to the electromagnetic waves that make up sound, but he cannot test this without rigorous testing. The beauty of these powers is that there are so many potential experiments and possibilities.

It’s been a long time since he’s played. Or at least, he thinks it’s been a long time. The last time he had touched a piano was one week before he went up to the international space station that caused his accident, but time is no longer linear and memories no longer make sense and he cannot say how many years have already passed since then. Has it been three years or longer? He cannot say.

He very much prefers listening to music rather than playing it, but he does not have that luxury. Talon is many things but it is not a musically inclined organization. His previous request for an parabolic microphone must have fallen upon flat ears for the next day he gets a regular microphone, the kind used for karaoke parties. It didn’t even have the batteries in it. So it is a miracle of sorts that his request for a piano got through. It was probably salvaged from a nearby dump, but it is still in working order, and he is grateful for whatever gifts Talon bestow upon him.

His body suddenly stiffens as he feels a shift in the air. He turns his head slowly, eyes wide as he finds himself staring back into his face. Only it’s not his face but another version of him, decked out in the orange jumpsuit that government facility crafted specifically for him. His copy smirks sinisterly.

 “Gravity is like sanity. All you need is a little push.”

“W-w-what?”

 “They called the geniuses of old insane back in their times.”

He is frozen in fear, staring into a face that is his but not his. The other approaches him and places his hands on his shoulders. He can feel the energy being sapped away from his body, his twisted mirror image growing larger, impossibly larger than him. As the energy leaves his body, he can feel his mind clearing. As his mind clears, he can see this twisted alter ego for what it truly is. It is sin, the devil in disguise. And behind that disguise is the black hole that destroyed his career and his mind. And it laughs. It laughs so viciously.

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Cacophony | An Overwatch Story

Summary: A single note topples down the stave, and the symphony descends into a cacophony. When the theories are correct, gravity is a harness. But one note out of place turns the harness into a cage. Dr Siebren de Kuiper is no stranger to cages, but he never though his life’s work would turn against him so.

—✧—

“I’m starting to consider you something of a hypocrite, Dr De Kuiper.”

With a sharp inhalation and a painful jolting of his back, Siebren lurched up from where he had evidently fallen asleep at his desk. His face twisted as he stretched out the stiffness in his spine from having been hunched over, bones popping and reminding him that he really wasn’t of the age to be sleeping in his lab anymore.

A lithe hand quite unlike his own reached out to peel a stray document that had stuck to Siebren’s cheek — his rather poor excuse of a pillow for the previous night. “How many nights have you chased me from my research to go and sleep, yet here you are. Drooling into,” his research partner glanced at the paper she had removed from Siebren’s face, “…my research paper.”

“Hmm, then the blame lies in your writing, Dr O’Deorain,” the man offered by means of rebuttal. “I did not mean to fall asleep in the lab. Your research paper sent me to sleep, no?”

Moira O’Deorain was not a scientist who accepted constructive criticism. Siebren had been told this years ago when the 25-year old brilliance had applied to the role of research partner he had posted out into the scientific community. Apparently, this included criticism in jest.

A single eyebrow arched. Despite having worked together for three years now, Moira had not warmed much to Siebren’s humour. She often told him she did not laugh simply because “you’re not funny, Siebren, you’re rude.”

“I could hardly expect an astrophysicist to appreciate the finer details of science a little closer to home,” Moira noted curtly. “Not all brilliance and beauty must be found in the stars, Siebren. There’s universal wonder to be found right within the human body too; a whole universe of potential.”

“I hope that there is,” Siebren smiled, trying to smooth over the jagged edges of Moira’s frayed patience. He shoved his feet back into his shoes, having kicked them off the moment he had sat down to work the night before; a habit of his whenever he was working that often irked Moira as well. The man then got to his feet, stretching out the last of the restless and uncomfortable sleep he had subjected himself to. “Or I will have wasted your time bringing you here.”

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wow so cool;;;; 

I wonder if they are able to have a normal conversation, What is it like? From prison to prison. In his view, there is no difference between talon and governments.

Overwatch: Vertigo

“I c-can’t stop.”

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Look, I think it’s pretty clear that the border-crossing people secretly really like Héctor. Evidence for this includes:

• How happy the border guard looked when he finally got through. • The fact that when his Frida Kahlo disguise fails he admits that “actually I am Héctor”, not giving any last name. Clearly he’s gained enough of a reputation with these people that he knows they’re not going to confuse him with the  twelve thousand other  'Héctor’s that they’ve met doing this job. • The other border guard not locking him up, despite Héctor begging him and trying to bribe him and just generally pushing his luck (I remember sitting in the cinema thinking that I would have locked this guy up by now. But it makes sense if they’ve known him for ages and are all slightly amused by/sorry for the guy).

Probably they loved him for providing some much-needed entertainment every year. The border guarding gig on Dìa de los Muertos can’t be the best job in the world, since it mainly involves standing around, watching other people head off to their own families while counting down the hours until you can see yours.

The knowledge that, at some point during the night, Héctor will show up in some crazy disguise or with some convoluted plan to get through (I suspect that the year he met Miguel was the first time he dared to just make a dash for it, since that’s the only reason I can come up with for why he wasn’t better  prepared to stop himself from sinking into the bridge. Probably he was just desperate with the knowledge that this could very well be his last chance), which would then cause some excitement and give you and your coworkers something to talk about, was probably the one thing that kept them from dying (again) of boredom.

And of course, once he got through, this all stopped, since there was obviously no need for it anymore. Sure, Héctor still regularly got butterflies moments before the crossing, convinced that this was the year that they somehow forgot him again and he had to stay behind (one time he freaked out so badly  that Imelda had to physically push him in the way of the scanner), but even he never thinks of sneaking through.

And the border guards, weirdly, kind of miss it— the Dìa de los Muertos night shift is just so boring now— and somehow, word of this reaches the Riveras.

And that’s how The Game begins. The ‘try and get Héctor through border control without them realising it’s him’ game. Thought up to amuse the border guards and, though nobody mentions this to Héctor, to distract him and keep him from getting too nervous before a crossing.

Héctor absolutely loves it— though a large reason for this is  that it’s an excuse to spend more time with his family. Felipe and Òscar in particular get really into it and have been known to spend weeks before the crossing plotting their next attempt. Coco — who most definitely takes after her father in this respect— joins in.

Rosita helps out as well, but less with the inventive side and more with the practical side (where are they going to get the stuff for the disguises? Who’s going to play what part? When are they going to carry it out?), while Victoria makes it clear that she disapproves but then joins in anyway because somebody has to be there to point out the obvious flaws in their plans. Rosita and Coco together then persuade Julio to get involved, though he mainly just sits there offering only the occasional suggestion, and doesn’t have much to do with the overall planning.

Imelda, for her part, thinks that its stupid and childish and will have no part in it whatsoever, thank you very much. Oh, except for providing any materials that they need, and coming up with ideas, and helping them pull it off… other than that, she’s not going to have anything to do with it. (Wisely, her family avoid commenting on the fact that, for somebody who isn’t involved, it’s strange how often she ends up taking over the whole thing.)

Elena, when she dies, takes the same line as Imelda. “This is idiotic and I’m not going to do it— but here are some detailed instructions on how to do it and woe betide you if you do anything else without consulting me first!”  Miguel’s father is happy to help out and his mother, to everybody’s surprise, throws herself headlong into it and has great fun working on all the details and coming uo with zanier ideas each year.

When Miguel himself dies, he finds the whole thing hilarious (him being the only one of the younger Riveras who ever witnessed one of Héctor’s original, more madcap escapes) and insists on sneaking across the border with Héctor. He even manages to convince them to try Héctor’s old idea (apparently mentioned in the novelisation) of dividing himself up into baskets and getting carried across that way.

That’s the one year they call it a draw, since their skeletons start to reassemble at the point of crossing but, technically, both Miguel and Héctor had gotten through before that happened (or, rather, Miguel’s forearm and foot and Héctor’s hand, ribcage and straw hat got through in Imelda’s basket).

The border guards claim to find it a bit annoying— though, last time they brought him in for it, Héctor noticed a large scoreboard hanging on the wall (so far the border guards are winning, but the family’s help has finally allowed Héctor to score a few points of his own). A similar scoreboard hangs on one of the walls of the villa (oh yes, guess who ended up with Ernesto’s villa?) in the room where, once a year, the whole family gather to make their plans.

What if…