Weeping Willow

“The Basics”

sortinghatchats:

The basic structure of the sortinghatchats system is that you aren’t just sorted into one House, but into two tiers of Houses: Primary and Secondary. Your Primary House defines WHY you do things. Your Secondary defines HOW. To build this system, we’ve drawn on the Sorting Hat’s songs, general HP canon, extracanonical data (ex. interviews with JKR)… and then extrapolated.

People are complex– for joy or for utility, due to social pressure or careless recreation, people often use the reasoning or methods of Houses that aren’t their Primary or Secondary. We call this “modelling” or “performing” a house and we will explain it in greater detail later. These additional layers help us capture some complexities in characters that we couldn’t get using Primary and Secondary alone. People can vary hugely in how they embody their Houses; in this system, Aang, the heroic pacifist protagonist from Avatar the Last Airbender, shares most of his Houses with HP’s Lord Voldemort.

The way you decide which Houses are yours is not necessarily by looking at what you do, but at what would make you proudest and most content if you were strong enough to do it. Your sorting is what you want to be and what you believe you should do, whether or not you actually live up to it. That’s how people like Peter Pettigrew can end up in Gryffindor.

PRIMARIES

Your Primary is your why. It’s your motivations, your values, and the way you frame the world around you. It’s how and what you prioritize, and what you weigh most heavily when making your decisions. People often also assume that others share those priorities. A common response to our system is “but you must oversort into Gryffindor/Slytherin/Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff–everyone has that type of morality, deep down!”

Gryffindor Primaries trust their moral intuitions and have a need and a drive to live by them. They feel what’s right in their gut, and that matters and guides them. If they don’t listen to and act on that, it feels immoral.

We call Gryffindor morality “felt” but that doesn’t mean they’re all impetuous, emotional hellions. Gryffindors can still be intelligent, deliberate creatures who weigh their decisions and moralities carefully. Reasoning, intellectualizing and debate can be support for a Gryffindor’s felt morality– but those things can never make a fully satisfying morality in themselves. Some things are just wrong, no matter what pretty words you use to explain them.

Ravenclaw Primaries have a constructed system that they test their decisions against before they feel comfortable calling something right. This system might be constructed by them, or it might have been taught to them as children, or it might have been discovered by them some point later in life. But it gives them a way to frame the world and a confidence in their ability to interact with it morally.

Ravenclaws do not lack an intuitive sense of morality or gut feeling about things, but they distrust those instincts and have a need to ignore or to dig down deep and dissect those internal moral impulses. Living within their built moral system is as important to a Ravenclaw as to a Gryffindor; it’s the source of the morality that differs between them–what they trust.

Hufflepuff Primaries value people–all people. They value community, they bond to groups (rather than solely individuals), and they make their decisions off of who is in the most need and who is the most vulnerable and who they can help. They value fairness because every person is a person and feel best when they give everyone that fair chance. Even directly wronged, a Hufflepuff will often give someone a second (or fifth) chance.

This doesn’t mean all Hufflepuffs are inherently tolerant human beings, any more than all Gryffindors are inherently good, moral creatures. Hufflepuffs tend to believe that all people deserve some type of kindness, decency, or consideration from them–but they can define “person” however they want, excluding individuals or even whole groups.

Slytherin Primaries are fiercely loyal to the people they care for most. Slytherin is the place where “you’ll make your real friends”– they prioritize individual loyalties and find their moral core in protecting and caring for the people they are closest to.

Slytherin’s reputation for ambition comes from the visibility of this promotion of the self and their important people– ambition is something you can find in all four Houses; Slytherin’s is just the one that looks most obviously selfish.

Because their morality system of “me and mine first” is fairly narrow in scope, Slytherins often construct a secondary morality system to deal with situations that are not addressed by their loyalty system.

SECONDARIES

Your Secondary is your how. It’s how you approach the world as a person interacting with it, and how you make your way. It’s how you problem-solve. It’s not necessarily what you’re best at, or even what’s the most useful to you, but about what skills and methods you value as being intrinsic to you. Do you improvise, do you plan? Do you work on something a little bit every day? Do you charge into the fray and tell people exactly what’s on your mind? What do you do? How would you describe the way you meet the world?

Note: the term “Secondary” is not meant to imply that how you do things is any less important than why (the Primary House). It’s simply the way our terminology fell out and we’re too lazy to change it. The importance of motivations v. methods is a personal sliding scale– it’s perfectly valid for a person to identify with their Secondary House over their Primary. (When drawing from canonical sources, we assumed each character likely was in a House that matched to either their Primary or their Secondary. For instance, Harry is in Gryffindor for his heroic Gryffindor Primary, but Ginny Weasley is there for her brash and bold Gryffindor Secondary.)

Gryffindor Secondaries charge. They meet the world head-on and challenge it to do its worst. Gryffindor Secondaries are honest, brash, and bold in pursuit of things they care about. Known for their bravery, it is almost a moral matter to stay true to themselves in any situation that they’re in.

Ravenclaw Secondaries plan. They collect information, they strategize. They have tools. They run hypotheticals and try to plan ahead for things that might come up. They build things (of varying degrees of practicality and actual usefulness) that they can use later– whether that’s an emergency supply pack, a vast knowledge of Renaissance artistic techniques and supplies, or a series of lists and contingency plans. They feel less at home in improvisation and more comfortable planning ahead and taking the time to be prepared.

Hufflepuff Secondaries toil. Their strength comes from their consistency and the integrity of their method. They’re our hard workers. They build habits and systems for themselves and accomplish things by keeping at them. They have a steadiness that can make them the lynchpin (though not usually the leader) of a community. While stereotyped as liking people and being kind (and this version is perhaps a common reality), a Hufflepuff secondary can also easily be a caustic, introverted misanthrope who runs on hard work alone.

Slytherin Secondaries improvise. They are the most adaptive secondary, finding their strength in responding quickly to whatever a situation throws at them. They improvise differently than the Gryffindor Secondary, far more likely to try coming at situations from different angles than to try strong-arming them. They might describe themselves as having different “faces” for different people and different situations, dropping them and being just themselves only when they’re relaxing or feel safe.

But the Journey Continues…

These four basic Primary and Secondary houses are summarized starting places that we use as a basis for further discussion. What are some ways this gets complicated?

Keep reading

Hogwarts!!! on ICE

tale-wind:

Okay, I figured it was time we had us some Discourse™ as a fandom SO HERE’S WHAT I’M GONNA DO

There’s this blog, @sortinghatchats, see? They do things a little differently. They assign characters a primary and a secondary house–a primary house is based on why a character does things, and a secondary house is based on how a character does things. Neither is more important than the other, despite the names; they serve different purposes. You can check out more info here. SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:

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Our sweet darling katsudon Yuri Katsuki is a Slytherin primary. I can already see the heads shaking and the eyes popping, so let me explain: Slytherin primaries are all about loyalty to themselves and their own. Initially, Yuri appears to be the variety of Slytherin primary that’s kicked themselves out of their circle of people they care about. But when Victor comes on the scene and starts coaching Yuri to believe in himself, we see a more selfish side of Yuri kick in. He becomes incredibly driven to reach gold in the Grand Prix, and we definitely hear some possessiveness in his internal monologues during his Eros performances. It’s a little downplayed, but we also see that Yuri doesn’t particularly care about people outside of his little circle: Victor, Phichit, his family, the Nishigoris, Minako–not that he doesn’t like other people, but he can be distinctly aloof and distant, probably best seen with his relationship with Minami; it takes Victor’s prodding to get Yuri to show the poor kid some consideration. But as mentioned, Yuri sometimes focuses more on “his own” more than himself. Despite his love for Victor, he always comes back to thinking of ending their relationship so that Victor can go back to what Yuri perceives as what Victor really wants–to be back on the ice in Russia. And despite having crushed on Yuko in the past, he doesn’t harbor any ill-will over her marriage to Takeshi.

As for his secondary house, I believe Yuri to be a Ravenclaw secondary. Ravenclaw secondaries solve problems and achieve their goals by stockpiling knowledge and skill sets–not necessarily through reading and bookwork, like one might think. In Yuri’s case, he cultivates his ice skating skill. Yuri’s at his best when prepared for situations, and isn’t good at improvising beyond what he knows. When thrown for a loop, his prior knowledge and ability is what he falls back on, and so he practices and practices and practices.

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Victor Nikiforov is a Ravenclaw primary. His worldview is a system he’s constructed on his own, through which his actions and experiences are filtered. His system is everything. Victor’s in particular is built around his ice skating career. We heard it from his opening monologue in episode 10; skating has been his entire life for a long, long time. Everything he’s done has centered around it, to the detriment of other important things–in his words, love and life. His realization of this led him to start into a process known as Falling, where a Ravenclaw primary loses faith not only in their system, but in their ability to form systems. But then along came a certain very drunk Japanese skater, and then the skater’s surprise internet video, and Victor found himself a new system.

On the other hand, Victor is a Slytherin secondary, incidentally making his sorting the opposite of Yuri. Victor acts by reacting, and is quite adept at making things up on the fly. Recall when Phichit started a fuss over Yuri and Victor’s “wedding rings”–Victor didn’t waste much time in coolly asserting that they were engagement rings, and that he and Yuri would only be married once Yuri won gold. Or we can go earlier; when Victor saw Yuri’s video, he dropped everything to fly to Japan to be Yuri’s coach. Or when Yurio showed up in Japan, and Victor came up with the Hot Springs on Ice exhibition. But all this adaptability and flexibility can feel like a mask, and so in the presence of those he particularly trusts, like Yuri or Yakov, he sheds the layers and facades and becomes more relaxed and honest.

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Now, Yuri Plisetsky‘s primary is harder to pin down, since his motivations aren’t made as explicitly clear as Yuri and Victor’s are. However, I think I’ve settled on a Slytherin primary for him. His circle of people is very small, certainly including his granfather, Victor, and Otabek, probably Mila and the rest of the Russian team, too, and eventually even Yuri Katsuki worms his way in despite Yurio’s best efforts. And, of course, himself. His ambition is almost always on full display; the first thing we hear from him is in episode 1, where he declares that he’s going to win the gold medal in the next Grand Prix, so Yuri should just retire already.

His secondary house, on the other hand, has been glaringly obvious from day one: Yurio is a Gryffindor secondary through and through. He charges into every situation head-on, with frightening ferocity and passion. He’s highly reactive, like a Slytherin secondary, but instead of being flexible, Yurio plants his feet and screams at the other person to move. When he finds out that Victor, who has promised to choreograph his short program, has suddenly left to coach some loser in Japan, he drops everything to drag him back to Russia, whether he wants to come or not. This brashness gets him far–see his success in getting Victor to do his short program, and his record-breaking performance of it at the Grand Prix achieved through constantly pushing himself to his limits. Yurio is also unapologetically blunt and refuses to play around; when he says something, he means it. Of course, not everything he says is something he ought to say, as with his nigh-relentless mocking of Yuri, even when he’s not around to hear it, and Victor calls him out on it.

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TL;DR:

• Yuri Katsuki: Slytherin/Ravenclaw
• Victor Nikiforov: Ravenclaw/Slytherin
• Yuri Plisetsky: Slytherin/Gryffindor
  

THIS IS PERFECTION

Some Ilvermorny headcanons

elfpen:

• First and foremost, every day is cranberry pie day
  
• While students do have robes, the clothes they wear underneath the robes are not uniforms. There is an eclectic mix of tastes, from the very serious horned serpent who wears button-downs and ties every day, to the wampus who has enchanted their graphic t-shirt to move, to the thunderbirds and pukwudgies who mutually exist solely for sweater weather.
• Every year on James Steward’s birthday, there is a school-sponsored cranberry pie bake-off. Pukwudgie house nearly always wins. Once, thunderbird won and good lord you would think it was the civil war all over again
• There are a lot of local professors, of course, so you get some really thick Boston accents, but there are also professors with southern belle accents who serve iced tea in class, professors with Canadian accents, professors with midwest accents, several Native American professors with smooth, lulling accents, and some Mexican professors who slip into Spanish when they get super excited about their subject. There was a visiting professor from Ireland once, and 96% of female students (and some male students) had major crushes on him.
• Wampus house is where you go to get body-crushing, soul-lifting hugs
• Horned serpents may be scholars, but they are also some of the keenest observers. They watch the whole school from afar and quietly play matchmaker to all of their friends. No one suspects them because - what, horned serpent? No. They don’t know about emotions. Meanwhile, the house president makes a killing on the bet she made to predict the homecoming king/queen. 
• Thanksgiving at Ilvermorny is a spectacle that has to be seen to be believed. It’s almost bigger than Christmas. The thanksgiving feasts at Ilvermorny put Hogwarts to shame. Turkey, ham, real cranberry sauce, pies - oh my god so many pies. They’ve got cider, and tea, and cocoa like you wouldn’t believe. There are New English dishes and Southern dishes and Native dishes and Mexican dishes and Canadian dishes and West Coast dishes - essentially it’s a gigantic continental potluck, and it goes on all day long. Also, their pumpkin juice tastes 1000 times better.
• While things like dueling and fighting with wands may be frowned upon at Hogwarts, at Ilvermorny it’s kind of just assumed that stuff happens, and the profs are very chill about it. “Just don’t kill each other okay” “just take it outside” “no casting destruction spells indoors” “bring some band-aids with you” “if you break your nose don’t bleed on your homework”
• Pukwudgies are a pretty agreeable house over all, if not a bit salty and surly around the edges, they’ll still help you with your homework and bring you soup when you’ve got a cold. But all bets are off when they step onto the lacrosse field. Maybe its a pride thing, but pukwudgies are frikkin animals when playing lacrosse.
• Wampus beats pukwudgie at lacrosse fairly often. They don’t actually practice that much, they just kind of win.
• This fact has fueled a sports rivalry - friendly in wampus’ eyes, bloodthirsty in pukwudgie’s eyes. 
• At wampus/pukwudgie games, horned serpents sell special blends of popcorn. Thunderbirds purchase, hoard, and eat 89% of this popcorn.
• Horned serpents and pukwudgies often, though not always, end up having an unspoken rivalry in potions class.
• Contrary to popular belief, wampus is not full of athletic jocks. However, they are the most body-positive of all of the schools, and, somewhat ironically to the stereotype, will never judge anyone for their athletic ability. They want everyone to be able to enjoy athleticism and bravery and adventure in the ways they are most able and gifted.
• That being said, they do have the kind of student body who, if called upon, could become a minute militia.
• When there is a freak hurricane or tornado headed headed for the school, it will be a wampus student who is patrolling the halls and telling students where to go for safety. If there is a bully in school, you had better bet your bottom dollar that s/he will be beaten to a pulp by the next day, and it will be a wampus student sporting mysteriously bloody knuckles.
• Pukwudgies are the ones who patch up the bully; they might accidentally wind the bandages a little too tight.
• Thunderbirds love a good game of hide-and-seek. They have a tradition of, every halloween, playing hide-and-seek in the dark in the woods.
• Horned serpents are the students least often caught for sneaking in contraband into school. Caught being the key word. Most students learn at some point in their education that if you want a nice stiff drink, you go to horned serpent. During secret designated holidays, horned serpent common room turns into a speakeasy. 
• Unexpectedly, it is pukwudgies who carry the most weapons and dangerous materials on their person at any given time. If a group of Ilvermorny students were going through a security check, it would be the pukwudgies held at the line while they emptied their pockets (bigger on the inside, of course) of various poisons and weapons. When asked, they would just shrug and say “just in case”.
• The town around Ilvermorny is home to several franchised chain restaurants that, although they are no-maj brands, have been taken over by Ilvermorny alumni and thus serve predominantly wizarding patrons. Cups levitate to customers in the Starbucks, there are magic-only options on the menu; the chik-fil-a floor sweeps itself; at dominos the pizzas assemble themselves while the one clerk waits, bored, at the register. There are in-house cues for magic patrons whenever a no-maj walks in. The clerk rings a bell or taps loudly on the counter, or yells out an order than is actually a code word for stop doing magic stuff. It’s like red light green light.
• There are some old service tunnels beneath the school left over from WWII and the Cold War. They’re like a labyrinth, and Thunderbird has a monopoly on the maps to the tunnels. Some of the more obscure tunnels have large rooms that are perfect for parties and impromptu speakeasies (lookin at you, horned serpent). Thunderbirds will rent out these rooms to fellow students at a fair and competitive rate.
• Unlike hogwarts, Ilvermorny students are more apt to use modern technology. Electrics can be weird around witches and wizards, but they still enjoy a lot of no-maj programming. They use computers instead of quills (but still have to print off their essays, ugh,) and listen to music, and watch TV.
• Star Trek has long been a school cult favorite. Pukwudgies have adopted Bones as their pop culture mascot; Kirk is Thunderbird’s, Spock, horned serpent. Wampus vacillates on which of these three they like most, though it must be said, when they start watching Next Gen, many wampus students find themselves enamored with Worf,
• There has only been one no-maj to ever make it past the magic shields of Ilvermorny unaided. This instance was in 1985. His name was Chad, who at the time was 1) stoned out of his mind and 2) delivering chinese takeout to a horned serpent pulling an all-nighter. School admin found out later, and there was hell to pay. They never did track down Chad to wipe his memory.
• Pukwudgie house does have more than its fair share of healers, so they are definitely the ones to go to for cold remedies, home made soup, the best cures for menstrual cramps, and really good back rubs.
• However, they are also the ones to go to for less medical remedies: the best hot cocoa, the most gourmet teas, and home made food.
• Each house has a class president who is elected for a two-year term (unless they’re a final year student, in which case they will serve one before being taken over by their VP). They have some influence within their houses, but never as much as they’d like. For instance, the thunderbird president once attempted to institute mid-day dancing parties, but school admin said no.
• Pukwudgies are usually not super athletic, but are often very good at things like darts, archery, and waterbaloon fights.
• Wampus takes ultimate frisbee very, very seriously.
• Thunderbird hosts an ongoing scavenger hunt throughout the semester.
• The women of horned serpent blow off steam and the stuffy acadmic pressures of their house by making pillow forts and watching rom coms with each other.
• Back in the eighties some wizard created a magic version of D&D, and it has become a weekend favorite of many students across all of the houses.
• After graduation, instead of having a class ring, it has become tradition for Ilvermorny students to make a pendant out of their golden cloak buttons.
• Ilvermorny may be separated by inter-house squabbles much like at Hogwarts, but at the end of the day, they all leave school wearing the same blue and cranberry robes, sporting the same skill with a wand, raised to the same scrappy, witty, mod-podge tenacity that American witches and wizards embody so well.

ravenclawravings:

Ravenclaw: *gets sorted into to ravenclaw*
Ravenclaw: This is bullshit and I’ll tell you why.
Ravenclaw: *Tries to Ravenclaw their way out of ravenclaw*

( @markiplier I’m talking to you)

ilvermorny-analysis:

Reblog this if you want JKR to come out with descriptions of your patronus