Discourteous Genius

mollymcgiftens:

helly-watermelonsmellinfellon:

So a lot of people want to give the Marauders a free pass for all the shit they pulled because they claim, ‘so-so deserved it’ which is victim blaming rhetoric that is not acceptable at all. Or they claim ‘they grew up’ which isn’t necessarily proven and does not excuse their actions at all.

James died at 21. He was a wizard cop. People try to claim that because he didn’t like Voldy and was a cop, he’s obviously a good guy. Well Barty Crouch Sr. was also a cop and hated Voldy and he was not a good guy. Being a cop doesn’t automatically make you a good person. This should be obvious by now.

Peter was a back-stabbing fiend and a coward who didn’t in any way change. He was constantly looking out for himself only and means nothing.

Sirius was immature, and that did not change much in those couple years after graduating. And then spent 12 years in isolation being borderline starved, unclean, and with no doubt poor sleeping habits, on top of the Dementors that he barely managed to avoid the attention of. Sirius is still stuck in a teenage mentality since most 20-somethings don’t feel like adults for quite some time after high school.

Remus is the only person to show actual growth and it’s mostly because of the trauma of his situation and the shitty lot he’d been dealt in life. So he had to mature or else.

So no, the Marauders as a whole didn’t ‘grow up’ or ‘mature’. Half of them didn’t get to and ¼ of them chose not to.

So since the fandom loves to hold Severus’ actions as an adult against his 15 year old self, and claim that is why he deserved to be harassed and sexually assaulted, I refuse to accept people criticizing me for holding the Marauders accountable for their shit. I am holding teenagers accountable for the shit things they did as teenagers. Unlike some individuals who would blame a 15 year old character for something his 38 year old self does way into the future.

Sirius and James are my main issue. Remus and Peter are bullies by association for not stopping the other two and are just as to blame. And Remus was made a prefect to keep control over his friends, and he didn’t do his job, and he admits to it. And his reasoning that he thought they’d abandon him doesn’t make James and Sirius look good. Especially if we take into account how they treated Peter in SWM.

Sirius’ immaturity can only go so far as an excuse. At 15 I was very aware of myself and the world around me. I wasn’t in the best of situations either. I was not the brightest but I wasn’t stupid. Teenagers are not stupid. But this fandom likes to act as if teens are dumb and unaware of anything going on so that’s okay to excuse them. They do it with the Marauders and Draco Malfoy who are very much alike. They’re given passes with ‘just being boys’ and there are claims of ‘it’s unfair to hold their actions against them, they’re just teens’. But if we talk about Tom Riddle’s actions as a teen, Severus Snape’s actions as a teen, or hell, even Harry Potter using a spell he didn’t actually know the effects of, people will riot about how terrible those things are and how they were all very much aware of what they were doing and people are ashamed of those actions by those teens in particular!.

Double standards for the Marauders always. Why?

It’s not that hard to hold a character you like accountable for their shit. I do it all the time. I tend to like the antagonists, villains, and rude characters. And I will also trash them as much as I praise them. I can admit that Voldemort is problematic as fuck and there is no way around it. I can admit that Hannibal Lecter is creepy and one hell of a villain. I can list their negatives as much as their positives.

But Marauders fans can’t be bothered.

And the truth is, Sirius sent someone he hates after a creature that could kill him. Only half of this situation is immaturity since he obvioulsy didn’t consider how Remus would feel knowing he’d been used in such a way. Sirius was in no way too stupid to realize how dangerous the situation was.

And you may wonder why I would think that? How could he possibly know?

Remus admitted in PoA that there were many times in their teens, where they had some close calls while out gallivanting at night. And Remus felt guilty for betraying Dumbledore’s trust and not just staying in the Shack. He admits to the fact that his friends couldn’t keep control of him even when they were in their Animagus forms. Hermione gives him a few stern words for it. So how would Sirius not know that a transformed Remus would go ballistic without his friends there to control him?

This is why we call it a murder attempt and not ‘just a prank’.

And on James’ side. James is jealous of Severus for being friends with the girl he’s lusting after. To the point where he targets him constantly for it and even tried to blackmail her into a date by holding Severus’ well-being over her head.

So James saved Severus just in the nick of time. But he wasn’t doing it to be a hero and save a classmate like his fans seem to think. What would have happened if Remus either killed or bit/scratched Severus?

Severus would either be dead or turned.

And what would happen to Remus if he killed or turned another student, especially when Dumbledore was allowing him to attend the school and no one of importance knew he was a werewolf? What would happen to Remus and Dumbledore both?

Remus would either be killed immediately or imprisoned for life in Azkaban. And Dumbledore, the Light side’s only hope against Voldemort;s growing terrorism, would suffer some shit by the Ministry and his own following who are pretty prejudiced against ‘Dark Creatures’. Which is why Severus was forced to remain silent about the situation when it was brought to Dumbledore. Because everyone cared more about how it would affect everything else, and no one gave a shit about the boy who just nearly died.

And no, James didn’t suddenly become a good guy and a shining knight in white armor. Because Sirius and Remus admit to him still bullying Severus exclusively while Lily remained completely unaware of it. She dated him because he claimed he changed. But he didn’t and his friends confirmed it. And if his own son is disgusted with his actions, but you aren’t, then there is something wrong with you.

So yes, I will openly criticize a bunch of teenagers for the shit they did as teenagers. Because they did horrible shit as teenagers. If we hold Tom Riddle accountable for his actions with the Chamber, and Severus Snape accountable for his ‘mudblood’ slur, we can do the same with the Marauders. 

Bravo. I too get very weary of the constant double standards applied to the marauders vs Severus. It grates on me when Severus is pilloried for passing on a partial prophecy, he is held up as being entirely responsible for the death of the Potter’s. Neither Voldie who did the deed, Peter who set up the attack nor Dumbledore, who knew enough to make an attempt of sorts at protecting his own fighters from a known threat are considered as responsible for it as Severus in the eyes of certain parts of fandom. He should have known it meant them apparently and even if he didn’t it still means he was fine with targeting a baby for death so it’s all his fault.

But somehow Sirius gets a pass for setting up attempted murder because despite knowing and running about with a werewolf, including the close calls Remus confessed to in POA, he didn’t really mean it to be murder so it’s all just a nasty prank, childish spite that should be swept away and forgotten. Enough of these double standards.