#canon analysis

This post looks at those scenes closely, in order. The order matters.

The Hogwarts Express The first scene we get of Lily and Severus together at Hogwarts is the only time she chooses him cleanly.

James and Sirius mock Severus on the train. Lily doesn't argue, doesn't negotiate, doesn't try to manage the situation. She gets up and leaves with him. "Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment." He is the priority. Everything else can wait.

She will never do this again.

The Corridor

The next time we see them together it is fifth year. It is Severus who says best friends—his word, his frame, his need. Lily confirms it—"we are, Sev"—but the confirmation lasts exactly two words before the but arrives. He is asking about the relationship. She is already onto the grievance.

Her complaint is legitimate. Mulciber used dark magic on Mary Macdonald and Severus dismisses it as "a laugh, that's all." That defense is weak and Lily is right to push back on it.

But then the Shrieking Shack comes up.

Lily tells Severus he is being "really ungrateful" to James Potter. This is the only thing she says about it. She goes straight to the social transaction—he was saved, therefore he owes gratitude.

Gratitude is a cold frame to apply to your best friend's survival. For most of us, the emotional response would come before the social accounting. For Lily it doesn't.

Severus's read—that James was protecting himself and his friends, not playing hero—is almost certainly correct, and Rowling never contradicts it. Lily doesn't engage with it as an argument. She calls him ungrateful and when he raises his werewolf theory she goes cold.

The obvious defense is that she is protecting Lupin's secret, but she is not close to the Marauders at this point, and the text gives us no reason to think she knows. The secret was closely guarded enough that Severus only figured it out through his own investigation.

This is the most unguarded window the text gives us into where Lily actually stands. Best friends. Nearly died. Ungrateful. Cold. Not the coldness of someone whose warmth has turned. The coldness of someone for whom it is simply no longer present.

Snape's Worst Memory

This is the same year. Possibly weeks later. Severus is sitting his O.W.L.s—the text places us there explicitly, he has just finished an exam—when James and Sirius spot him across the grounds.

As James and Sirius advance on Severus, James is "glancing over his shoulder at the girls at the water's edge as he went." He is checking she is watching. This is a performance and Lily is the intended audience.

What follows is extended and escalating. Severus is disarmed. He is knocked off his feet. He is held by invisible ropes on the ground while James and Sirius mock his appearance, his hygiene, his exam performance, in front of a growing crowd.

Lily only intervenes when the humiliation tips into something physically degrading. But look at what her intervention actually is. Every exchange is between Lily and James. Go out with me and I'll leave him alone. She refuses. He returns to Severus. She tells him to stop again. He makes it about her again. Severus is on the ground between them, the occasion for a conversation that has reorganized itself entirely around whether Lily will go out with James Potter.

On the Hogwarts Express, four years earlier, she didn't negotiate. She didn't engage. She got up and left with Severus.

She doesn't do that here.

James hangs Severus upside down, "his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants." Lily, "whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile," says: "Let him down!”

Rowling doesn't let her fully smile. But the twitch is there and the text makes sure we see it. Rowling was probably writing this as a signal that Lily finds James compelling despite herself—that his performance lands on her even as she tells him to stop. What she has actually written is a girl whose best friend is being humiliated in front of a crowd and who almost smiles at it.

Eventually, when Lily draws her wand, James backs down.

"You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus."

This is not generosity. In the social world of a 1970s boarding school, being rescued by a girl is its own humiliation. James knows this. The line is one more blow on the way out: you needed her, you owe her, a girl had to speak for you.

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"

"Fine. I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."

Rowling probably thought this read as sharp and self-possessed—the cool girl walking away with the perfect line. What it actually is is a girl deploying her best friend's humiliation as wit.

The Apology

Severus has been threatening to sleep outside Gryffindor Tower until Lily comes out. She is in her dressing gown when she appears. She only came because Mary told her.

"I'm sorry." "I'm not interested." "I'm sorry!" "Save your breath." He keeps trying to find a way in and she shuts each attempt down before it can become a real exchange. When he says he never meant to call her Mudblood, that it just — she finishes his sentence for him. "Slipped out?" There is, the text tells us, no pity in her voice.

"I've made excuses for you for years."

Everything she says next is true. The wannabe Death Eater friends are real. The dark magic is real. The slurs are real.

But none of it is new. Those things were already real in the corridor when she confirmed the words best friends. They were already real at the lake when she watched the disarming and the jinx and the prolonged mockery. She knew exactly who he was and what he was becoming and she maintained the language of best friendship over the top of all of it—until he directed a slur at her specifically. That is when the moral inventory arrives. That is when the years of excuses are finally over.

"I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."

The text gives us one last detail about how she leaves. Not with sadness. Not with grief for something real that is ending. With a contemptuous look.

What The Text Shows

None of what this post has described is hidden in the text. It is just easier to miss if you have already decided she is good.

And the narrative has always needed her to be good. Her goodness has to justify James's reformation and Snape's lifelong devotion. The story can't afford to look at her too closely—at the gratitude lecture, at the lake, at the almost-smile, at the contemptuous look.

I've been thinking about how Camp Jupiter really does seem to look out for its demigods more so than CHB. You can grow old there. They plan for the future, they foster community and don't segregate by parentage.

And this beautiful moment in Blood of Olympus underscores the point. Reyna recognizes that Nico should not have had to suffer as he did. The community that ought to have supported him, failed.

I do love the riordanverse stories and the camps and it's because of all the messy, problematic elements that I've been compelled to join the fandom and write fanfiction.

Reyna and Nico's friendship and found family is something I want to see more of.

*adds it to my inspiration pile*

I just wanted to know :

Would some of you care to read it once I have finished? (which will take quite some time)

__________

Here we go

I know Sherliam gets set up in the train scene with the immortal words "Catch me if you can, Mr. Holmes" which, yes, does sound like a rivalry, if you ignore everything else that happens in the entire story. from then on, Sherlock is almost certain that Liam is the Lord of Crime, similar to L in Death Note. unlike L, he proceeds to do nothing about it. Sherlock never even tries to catch Liam, because Liam isn't that evil rival that he needs to catch for the sake of justice to him. he told Liam multiple times, that that is what he's going to do, to keep up the narrative, the game they're playing, but all he ever worked towards was figuring out who Liam truly was and what his goals were. and after he worked that out, he proceeded to risk his life saving Liam. Liam has never been a rival to Sherlock. even in that first scene on the Noahtic, after Liam had responded to Sherlock's deduction in kind, Sherlock's reaction was just to laugh and comment on how "fun" Liam was. to Sherlock, Liam is unpredictable, full of surprises and intriguing and that constant intrigue is what makes him so fun.

why I think the confusion happens is, of course, because of Liam. because Liam, purposefully, sets their interactions up to be interpreted as rivalry. because he intended for all this to be nothing more than that, a legendary rivalry between the Lord of Crime and Sherlock Holmes. almost everything he does regarding Sherlock is intended to be seen in that "rivalry" light. the initial confrontation, the challenge to capture him, the mysterious crimes littering the streets of London and the final showdown at the bridge. throughout the entire time, Liam believes that Sherlock sees him as a rival. meanwhile, he himself rather sees Sherlock as someone interesting, fun talking to, the only person that could ever make him be selfish, the only person that he'd ever indulged the thought of giving up the Moriarty Plan for. but he thought he was the only one of the two who sees them as true friends, as kindred spirits, soulmates who can understand each other perfectly. that's why he didn't see it coming how the bridge scene actually worked out. because the one flaw in Liam's plan was that Sherlock and Liam weren't rivals and never had been.

it was never about one-upping the other in their deductions. it wasn't about winning. it was about the anticipation of whatever wonderful thing the other person would say next.

But just. Hear me out for a second.

Do Halfas Need To Breathe In Ghost Form?

Okay so this is a really lowkeye "debate" (I say that in quotes because it's more just that people have different headcanons and tbh this is the best way anyway because, you know, fuck canon death of the author and all) as to whether or not Danny needs to breathe in halfa form. And while I, like most people, just sorta decide whether or not he needs to breathe based on whatever my fanfic plot needs, I actually think, canonically at least, there is some solid evidence that no, actually, they don't need to breathe in ghost form.

There's a few times in canon where Vlad is choking Danny mid-fight and Danny looks more mildly annoyed than seriously panicked about it, but you can largely chalk that up to Kid's TV Screening Filters, so I don't put much weight on those.

However, there are some moment that sticks out more than the rest. And that's when Danny and Vlad are in space.

Yeah, uh, I'm talking about Phantom Planet.

(I'm sorry)

So initially, both Danny and Vlad are shown to be wearing helmets that presumably have oxygen filtering through them. Now now, I know what you're thinking: Lexx, wouldn't this mean that they do need to breathe in ghost form?

My theory isn't that they can't breathe in ghost form, my theory is that they don't need to breathe in ghost form. There's a difference.

I also think that they probably don't exactly want to test the theory if they have to breathe or now. Better safe than sorry, so let's wear helmets!

(Also, side note, this furthers the other lowkeye "debate" as to whether or not they get seriously cold in their ghost forms because, uh, they're in space with no spacesuit)

But I digress. Here they are shown with helmets, suggesting that they do have some breathing capabilities, even in ghost form.

But at the end of the episode, we see Vlad here chilling on a space rock, no helmet in sight, looking perfectly fine albeit disappointed and bored.

This, obviously, suggests that halfas do not need to breathe in ghost form. And I think Vlad literally just discovered that as soon as he was ejected to space sans helmet.

So my theory is, while Danny and Vlad have the organs required for breathing and do breathe as a reflex automatically, when put in situations like outer space where oxygen is not available, their ghost half takes over a little more and they stop breathing. I think this is such an automatic thing that when this change happens in day to day life (like Danny being choked by Vlad mid ghost-fight), that like how us humans don't actively think about breathing, we just kinda do it, they don't really notice it either.

So here's my take on it: The explanation is there in the snippets of canon, both in conversations and flashbacks, from what I can see. And there's further explanation given in supplemental media.

In supplemental media we know: The Bridge was supposed to be a peaceful protest but Benzo got himself arrested and tensions rose.

We also know Silco threw a molotov that incited violent response from the Enforcers turning the protest into a bloodbath. We know that Vander fought hard in that bloodbath.

After the fact, we know from canon, that Silco wanted to keep pushing back against Piltover, but Vander did not. Because people died. People they loved died. If we put the timeline into perspective, Vander acquires two little girls right after losing so many people, these girl's parents, some of his dearest friends. And then Silco wants to strike back at Piltover again? Do more protesting? Push until they get their Nation of Zaun? But at what cost...? We know Silco thinks the end justify the means. He's willing to do anything it takes. Vander is not. And that was a breaking point. I feel that it's pretty heavily implied that the part we see, the physical escalation of the assault in the river, is the end result of an argument about what's meant to happen next after the dust of the bridge settles, after they lost everything, not just something Vander randomly decided to do. And, as incredibly tense, high emotion arguments are wont to do, it got out of hand. Tensions were running high. And while what Vander did was absolutely over the top, the situation as it's implied and shown in canon, was a perfect storm of events that led to Vander turning on someone he cared about deeply.

Vander says when Silco kidnaps him, that having the respect of his peers and of Vander was never good enough for Silco, pointing to a definite difference in ideology, what that final argument was likely partly about, what kind of perspective Vander had of Silco at that time, and we know without a shadow of a doubt because of how much it's re-stated in various ways in the first three episodes of season 1, what was important to each of them was fundamentally oppositional. And that is the crack that's always been there.

Vander also says in his letter that the girls find in season 2 that he lost his head because Felicia died. His own emotions were running high. He was scared to lose anyone else. He now has the girls to take care of... and then we have one other important motivator that this letter points to... "The blood was on both our hands."

Vander is cited in the text to have led people on the bridge. He leaned into the violence once it escalated. We know this. It's how the series opens. And I think his own guilt is a big motivator in his actions. Projection of his own guilt on Silco, alongside the fear of losing anyone else due to Silco's desire to push despite the clear risks. The need to make sure nothing like the bridge ever happens again was at the forefront of Vander's mind. It's so much easier to pin all of that on one person and find somewhere to place blame. People do this all the time; they look for someone or something to blame when they've lost something precious to them. A lot of times they do so unfairly. Vander told himself what he did to Silco was for the greater good, and there was a reason for that.

He could see the potential for another Day of Ash in Silco's desire to not give in after so much loss. People's lives were more important to Vander than People Thriving. And when you have these two extremes at either end of a spectrum that really need to meet in the middle, placed in opposition to one another, it makes sense that their relationship imploded under such intense failure.

All of this says to me that the reason reconciliation was possible in Ekko's Time AU is because this was a one off incident. That is the thing that makes it make sense, to me. Being able to get space and then understand one another because they had such a strong, longstanding foundation of trust despite ideological differences, allows for them to find that middle.

Even in the canon universe, season 1, Silco doesn't want to make their dreams happen without Vander. That says to me that there was always hope in Silco that he could convince Vander to see things his way. And Vander can't. There was no meeting in the middle, but in a world where they had room to breathe, where they could talk to each other, find that middle, and know that they were both wrong to some extent, but right in other ways, would make reconciliation possible. Allow me to leave you with one of my go to Young Vander/Silco jams:

I'm referring to how after Pandora made her little speech about how she created her famous box to trap malevolent ghosts too make the ghost zone and earth safer; Jake offered to share his s'mores supplies with her when she says beating up the box ghost worked up an appetite. I repeat, canon Jack Fenton offered a sweet treat to a ghost, a sincere gesture.

I think it would take a ghost Jack and Maddie could relate to on multiple levels and like at first impression to chip away at their "ghosts are always bad even if they do something good" mindset. Pandora invented a box to contain destructive ghosts, just like they would. She added a 'spew' switch, which is totally something Jack would do. Accent and outfit and limbs notwithstanding, she looks and talks a lot like Maddie does. She is also humongous for a humanoid ghost, and Jack is a humongous human. After all the zapping, the way she tells the box ghost he will have to clean up the messes he made and apologize, it's in a parental style that they would also relate too.