Not too long ago, while I was Googling random Harry Potter questions, I found the Sortinghatchats blog here on Tumblr and was fascinated by their comprehensive breakdown of the houses, the way there were primaries and secondaries and models. For a very long time, I’d considered myself a Slytherin/Ravenclaw hatstall. I did this because I took the Pottermore test three times, each time getting Slytherin. Then, when I found a test that had all of the Pottermore questions that broke the answers down by percentages, with each answer increasing or decreasing the percentage of a particular house, I found that I was sorted into Ravenclaw by a single answer. But still, even though I used the term “hatstall”, it didn’t feel quite right.

Enter the Sortinghatchats blog and quiz (take the quiz here     https://ejadelomax.itch.io/sortinghatchats      you won’t regret it).

I read up on all of the primaries, secondaries, models, performances, and burning, read about various character sortings, and then dove into the quiz. I got Snake Primary, Bird Secondary, with a tentative Lion primary model. My sorting was validated, even if there was the very surprising Lion in there. And the best thing about all of it is that the blog made the sorting make more sense.

I’m not a Snake primary just because I’m ambitious or cunning, as those aren’t my most defining traits. I’m a Snake primary because my morals come from within and I’m loyal to the people I choose to be loyal to. I’m a Snake primary because those morals go out the window when someone hurts me and mine, and the only reason I don’t act on my more vicious impulses is my multifaceted fear of prison. I’m a Snake primary, and possibly a lion model, because my family has explicitly told me to stay away from people who have hurt me and mine because they know my wrath will get me in trouble if I’m not careful, because it’s gotten me in trouble before. I’m a Snake primary because I have empathy for the suffering in the world, but I know there’s not much I can do about it, and while I feel bad for not being able to do more, I don’t feel too bad about not overextending myself when I need to save my energy to keep my own head above water.

I’m a Bird secondary because I research eeeeeeverything, get stuck on certain topics for long periods of time, and love a plan. Why do I know the origin of the F-word or that Stalin had a cannibal island? Because I can. Why do spreadsheets make me happy? Because they’re orderly. I can improvise if a plan goes south, but I don’t like to, and I’ll stumble over myself while my brain cobbles together a new track to take. 

Another question I like!

So, Lions are upfront with their beliefs and are less open to changing them; which is NOT to say they cannot change, it is to say however that these changes are slower and take time. If you look like a Lion, then you look consistent in your beliefs/morals/what have you. A bird, especially a young one or one developing their own system, tend to declare prematurely what they believe in— speaking from experience here as a bird primary. Lions are internal, and birds are external, so your morals will still come from the outside regardless of model. So a bird modeling lion would share select, consistent beliefs- the deeproots as I call them- if many at all, and their OUTWARD expressed changes are slower than the average bird.

Planning is, well, tricky: lions are about intuition, and birds are about plans and systems. I think a bird modeling lion would mesh these two together— they note how their friends (who are probably actual lions or other lion-models) barge into things and “intuit” stuff and make it into a formula of some kind… as only birds do. Yes, that is a self-roast. Bite me. Anyway, they can seem either too aggressive or too standoffish because they haven’t mastered the whole “feeling your gut” thing that is more ingrained in the lion primary system. It’s clumsy intuition that is only right part of the time.

Also, friendgroups. Birds are (in)famous for their varied friendgroups with varying views, backgrounds, interests, so on. (I point to “I-Know-A-Guy” bird secs for that.) Immature, developing, and/or burned lions look for people with similar or the same views as a way to re-assert their own morals— burned lions frequently look like birds, desperately trying to externalize their system-making rather than listening to their own intuition, which may have failed them in the past. Birds want variety, lions want consistency. A bird modeling lion has friends who are mostly the same, but gets restless and has “side friends” they might jump to in order to get fulfillment of different views.

Briefly discussing why this may happen— birds, especially young ones, are frequently dismissed due to their “flimsy” worldviews, so they might adopt this stable, outwardly consistent model of lion to be heard and seen by others. I’m growing up (I’m 17) surrounded by exploded lions and one healthy one with my best friend Sydney, and I adopted the lion model as a child in order to be respected and seen as human. I’m still learning that I don’t HAVE to know everything I believe in. I can figure it out as I move on.

I actually have a theme song for lion-modeling birds (I like to call bird pris’ modeling as Mirror-Birds, but that’s not an official term at all): Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane ! Might make a playlist later, who knows.

I hope this is 1) correct, and 2) helpful! Any other bird pris, especially with lion models, have any input on this?

I don't think so. I believe if you are raised religious, chances are you'll model bird instead. The qualification of religion as opposed to belief system is that religion has a set code of laws. From the religion of Ancient Greeks to those of Christianity, even Buddhism in my region. Religions have their basis in rules, laws and customs which are then reflected by rituals (if any), tenets or moral justification.

So ... if you are raised religious, and not turn rogue against said religion, it's more likely you model bird, by adopting the tenets, beliefs and scriptures into your moral system. The divine intervention is also constructed belief borne from the system (hence bird realm of interpretation) so it's still very, very bird looking.

If they are Lion primary and not a model, however, they don't need to model anything, if their values are aligned with the religion. From what I can see, Lion model is more common in those 'breaking' away from religion (developing fierce defiance to established system).

Snake Primary (Slightly burnt) // Lion Model

according to @sortinghatchats’ system, for an anon.

“My friend is going to save a little girl from monsters. I am going with him. That's what friends do.”

I swear once a week I go through a cycle of “Oh, I MUST model Bird!” “Hmm no, SURELY I model Lion” “Nah, this is just a normal morality thing I use, not a model, since we all have to deal with stuff outside of our people, and not all snakes have models.”

I think it is @wisteria-lodge that recently responded to an ask about “most common house” irl and noticed there is probably some confirmation bias among sort-ers.

The most common house or models in each culture will vary based on what a nation teaches its children to value, that’s what you should expect. So I don’t think you can rate each morality as most common and I don’t even think it’s a very useful thing to try, but then again that’s my own primary (value system) speaking. So in the spirit of full disclosure, there’s me below the cut. (incidentally I do think sorting nations could be an interesting exercise but also something full of pitfalls... and there’s the secondary) (how how how~~)

“Dr. James L. Clark with models of lions, July, 1937.”