Sorting hat

http://sortinghatchats.tumblr.com/post/121904186113/the-basics

A neat (and rather more nuanced) way of looking at harry potter houses and how to sort people into them. Theres a primary (why you do things) and a secondary (how you do things), with good write ups on each one and a long list of characters sorted this way too. Hufflepuff dean winchester is now my forever headcanon.

Im a (burned) hufflepuff primary and a slytherin secondary. What are you?

 

Ankh-Morpork crew:

Captain Carrot is a hufflepuff/gryffindor. Hes all about 'everyone deserves a chance' and community building and fairness. And he achieves those goals by kind of blindly charging in where angels fear to tread ("...hes going to arrest the patrician. Hes actually going to ...") in a way that others find inspirational for reasons no one can properly pinpoint.

Vimes is a hufflepuff/hufflepuff, of the subtype that values the city-as-abstract and its traditions and its people and the way he feels a debt of loyalty to them even without liking any of them. He achieves his goals by steady hard work ("not plain watchmen, just pounding the pvement day after day. The gods went in for flash bastards.") Hes a good example of hufflepuff as not being made of cottton candy; hes a snarky old curmudgeon and i love it.

Vetinari is a slytherin/ravenclaw, modeling slytherin secondary. Hes a slytherin who decided that the whole goddamned city belonged to him and gods help anyone who did anything to harm it. He likes to present himself as being cunningly unpredictible, of switching tracks at a moments notice, but actually all that is a result of endlessly careful meticulous planning, of hundreds of nested contingencies painstakingly laid out in advance.

Lady syble is a gryffindor/hufflepuff. She has her own set of priorities that come from the gut and she mostly wants to be left alone to get on with things. She knows what is Right and doesnt much care whether it makes sense to anyone else (its just doing what dragons do! You have to help it--it'll be killed!) and doesnt mind mucking out stables in the meanwhile.

Angua is a slytherin/slytherin. She cares about herself and her few friends and everyone else can pretty much take a flying leap. And she changes her presentation and her approach constantly, always reading the situation, always waiting and adapting and ready to strike when the situation calls for it. Shes very lucky to have carrot for a morality pet.

Leonard of quirm is ravenclaw/gryffindor, i think? He loves knowing things and finding things out. He seems to have destructive impulses, what with the war machines, but has pretty much decided that hurting people sucks and surely it must be equally obvious to others that its Not The Right Thing To Do? And he solves his problems by blithely going lets try ALL THE THINGS! Given his effect on the alchemists and on vetinari, i think hes got the gryf secondary charisma thing going on too.

 

SYLTHERDORE.

Unfortunately. I don't want that fucking Gryfindor shit in there. At all. I AM A SNEK AND A SNEK ALONE.

 

"It’s very important to my heart to affirm that even if you’re a Hufflepuff Primary by the way we define it, and a Gryffindor Secondary, but you say your House is Slytherin? You’re a Slytherin. Green and silver, lives under the lake, wave those colors proudly, buy that scarf. Even if you intuitively need-base in Hufflepuff ways and charge like a Gryffindor, if the thing you want/value most/call your own is the green and silver, you’re a snake, love, good and true. This is a story about choice."

http://sortinghatchats.tumblr.com/p...s-thinking-about-your-system-lately-and-i-was

 

God damn right I'm a snake. I ain't no stupid lion. GRR.

 

I think I might be Ravenclaw primary and secondary. I always wanted to be a Gryffindor though, because that was the one Harry, Ron and Hermione were sorted into.
Pottermore made me a Hufflepuff though... At this point I'm not really sure what I am :P

 

Primary: (burned?) Hufflepuff modeling?performing Slytherin
Secondary: Hufflepuff performing Ravenclaw

I kind of want to help everyone, but everyone is a whooping 7 billion people and that's way too much, so there the Slyth comes in and gives priorities and coping mechanisms.

And while I think I get the modeling/performing on a theoretical on paper basis, I still can't identify whether I'm doing one or the other.
Who cares if the Slytherin priorities are "not me", they work, they're mine, and you'll have to pry them out of my cold dead fingers because I won't let anyone take them from me just because "they're not me".

thoughts on that?

Spoiler: pasted from the other thread, longer version of me trying to sort myself. still depressing.

I always had trouble sorting myself, because I never really fit into the perceptions, I was always a mostly even mixture, nothing standing out. I'm not brave, I'm not intelligent and clever and knowledgeable, I'm not cunning, and I've got big trouble dealing with people. My friends back in high school id'ed me as a Slytherin.

Then I came across a theory that the house is not what you are, but what you value most (in terms of sorting hat chats, primary v secondary, i'll come to that in a second), which was when I could finally sort myself - because while I value bravery, while I value knowledge and cleverness, while I value shrewdness, I value community above all, because I've been so lonely growing up. Dad was busy at work and dealing with mom, mom has a shitload of mental issues and doesn't really know how to mom (.... I've got a thread about that in ITA), my grandmas were always travelling about and couldn't really deal with me either, and I was the eternal weird kid the other kids couldn't deal with either. In MMOs no one cared that I was the weird kid.

Reading the Sorting Hat Chats, that up there doesn't fit completely on canon either, but SHC includes it in the values vs methods thing, and I guess I can now pretty much describe what I am:

Primary: Burned Hufflepuff modeling?performing Slytherin, because burned Hufflepuff can't deal with everything but Slytherin gives methods how to deal, they're not perfect, they're not complete, I'm constantly refining them, but they work, and that's what counts, who cares if they're not "really me", they're mine.
Secondary: Hufflepuff modeling?performing Ravenclaw. This one's tricky. I always thought I worked hard, and others told me I slacked off, but that was before my ADHD diagnosis and getting my ass on meds. Nowadays people begin telling me I'm working too hard. I still think I'm not doing enough. There's just so much I want to do, and so little time and energy. -sighs- But I can't plan things out completely. Don't have the knowledge or brains for it. But I do like being prepared for stuff, like, there's an assortment of stuff I always carry with me (A pair of scissors, sticky tape, pen, pencil, eraser, sharpener, something to jot down notes on, a stapler, a pad, qtips, earplugs, a mobile phone, stimtoy), and on cons that base preparedness kit gets extended (headache pills, bandaids, desinfectant, needles, pins, thread, safety pins, glue, and a multitool). I tend to do my worldbuilding before I do the stories, and other smaller stuff, but it's in no way consistent or as extensive as a true Ravenclaw's would be.

edits: correcting some stuff.

 

That sounds like modeling; i think the key difference is that modeling is something you do for you and performing is something you do for others? That kind of strong its mine its mine sounds way too important to be just a performance.

Also i wonder if burned hufflepuffs modeling slytherin primaries is a common thing? It seems like it would be.

I think other people have no idea a lot of the time how hard you have to work to get the same amount of stuff done. Some days just getting out of bed is balls-bustingly hard work, and just cause it wouldnt be for anyone else doesnt change the facts. Its an assessment you have to do from inside.

 

@Lissiel aah thank you, that explains it in words i can understand.
Hufflepuff and Slyth are both social, with a big difference being the scope - and burned Hufflepuffs worked with a scope that was decidedly too much to them, and are now basically in free fall - modeling Slytherin gives a frame of reference that fits on the thing that burned you, and supplies a base from which you can work on building yourself back up. So, burned Puffs modeling Slyth makes a lot of sense, to me.

 

Spoiler: more commentary on sacrifices arc by lightning on the wave (spoilers up to the start of book 5 of the fanfic probably)

reading this, i can totally see how harry and draco were both sorted into slytherin in the sacrifices arc (more discussion of the fic is in the fanfic rec thread, btw, if you're interested and/or confused). 'cause, like, it is totally their primaries - harry's focus on connor, the way is draco is hella into harry (so much it eventually concerns severus snape). and yeah, like, it definitely made sense before but it makes even more sense with this.

and hmm... norm the genie (fairly oddparents, not gonna miss a chance to mention him, haha), i'd sort him as a slytherin/slytherin, probably. not entirely sure about the primary but it seemed like the others wouldn't fit - unless they were burned, maybe... the secondary, though, was pretty clear, soon as i'd read all about it.

Spoiler: heroes spoilers

a for-sure slytherin primary would probably be noah bennet from heroes. since well, his main priority always seems to be claire, his daughter. and he's also a company man. and i'd say his secondary is slytherin or ravenclaw. he's rather calculated, i think, with plans and manipulation. lots of thinking going on.

and it looks like i've avoided talking about myself, haha. which is ironic 'cause i'm a slytherin primary, maybe modelling ravenclaw. or the reverse. 'cause, well, yeah, i would say that i am rather focused on myself and a few specific people - when i was younger, just me, no one else, though i had a sense that i should care about more people. and when i started caring a lot about others, it wasn't really that expansive - just the particular people i thought were awesome, kintsugi and/or those in my fandom. like, i saw everyone else as people, but not Important in that same way.

and the ravenclaw primary modelling, well, yeah... having a system, thinking about morals and whatnot, it makes sense. makes things less confusing. helps me figure out why i think tumblr is doing things wrong, makes me able to justify it in a way other than, "they say i shouldn't do a thing i like. but i like it!"
and just, you know, seebs. the seebsian way of thinking. i like it.

ravenclaw, also, is probably my secondary. 'cause i do like planning ahead and being prepared and all that, and my anxiety sometimes insists that i need a lot of it. though with my adhd, i don't think i do it as well as i'd like to - which means i slip into slytherin improvising instead sometimes, i think.
yeah...

 

I'm a Hufflepuff, with Ravenclaw as my secondary. Though I might be becoming a burnt Hufflepuff .-. There are so many people, I can't help all of them. And I lose energy so easily, trying to help a lot of people or care deeply about a lot of issues at once would burn me out. So I am focusing my efforts on a small scale. I don't think that's exclusionary... It's just practical. Like, as a teacher, I can help one class 20-30 of kids at a time. That is much more manageable than 7 billion people. If I become a special ed teacher, my class would likely be smaller, but even so... Much more manageable. And I focus on one or two issues that I care about, because that is easier than trying to focus on every imaginable issue and not being able to deal with it all. Idk I'm seeing that as a practical conservation of resources rather than an "I have made a conscious decision to only care about certain people" thing. Idk what that makes me lol.

The Ravenclaw is because I need to plan things. I can improvise, but I can only improvise if I already have a plan in place. I can improvise around the skeleton of a plan, but I need to have the plan first or I'm lost. I also kinda obsessively plan for every scenario I can think of, which is possibly an anxiety thing, but it does help.

 

I'm very much a Slytherin primary and probably a Ravenclaw secondary. My secondary is hard for me to pin down because my way of dealing with a situation changes depending on the situation - if I'm traveling I'll plan, but if I'm cooking I'll improvise, but if I'm short on energy and long on time I'll just sit down and grind until the task is done.... I think Gryffindor is the only secondary that seems really, really unlikely.

One of the things that makes me think I'm a Ravenclaw secondary is that my mom is very definitely a Slytherin secondary. So I'll be puttering along with something I've got planned out and she'll swoop in and go "but what if THIS instead?" and everything comes to a screeching halt as I try to recalculate my course to accommodate her new idea. That doesn't seem like a particularly Slytherin-secondary reaction.

On the other hand, I suppose I could have a burned secondary and that's why I'm cycling through different methods and not feeling particularly comfortable with any of them.

On another note, has anyone else tried typing their OCs to see what turns up? I went through a bunch of mine and wound up with mostly Slytherin primaries, a few Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, and no Ravenclaws that I can think of. Secondaries were a lot more diverse and balanced, but I think the two characters who were intentionally partially based on me are both Slytherin/Slytherin.

 

sorting ocs is fun ::D

Spoiler: whimsy sorting their better-developed ocs

Catherine is Ravenclaw primary and Gryffindor secondary, with a heavy Slytherin performance. She's after knowledge, and has learned the merits of out-maneuvering your opponents on the fly and taking every opportunity, but in high stress situations her tendency to ram a problem head-on becomes very, very apparent.

Tuli is Slytherin primary and Ravenclaw secondary. They care for very, very few people, and when their child got hurt they put in every bit of energy they had into researching how to help them - and are currently stuck because whatever Tuli can find can't help their child, and in their focused pursuit of knowledge, they sort of forgot to take care of their other child.

Runner.... I'm not actually sure I can sort Runner at this point. Runner wants to have nothing binding them, and took a job as a messenger for delicate operations, because that means discretion, many different places, and not needing to socialise much. Mirroring Tuli as Ravenclaw primary and Slytherin secondary would play into the whole Carcelan Inverted Twins thing.

Salbrak is Hufflepuff primary and Slytherin secondary, modeling Hufflepuff. They're loyal to their belief and what their job encompasses (find lost people, and guide them), but they adjust their plan on the fly if things veer into unforseen directions. Salbrak adapts, most evidently in their ability to change form, which they use far more often than their other family members with that ability. They also find peace in being reliable, it's a sign of a job done well. Before they got their current job, both their primary and secondary were completely burned, and all there was for them was pain. Salbrak thinks they're better off now.

Calico is Slytherin primary and Gryffindor secondary, performing Ravenclaw. Calico cares very little about people beyond her family and really only just wants to find out what happened to her sister, and her usual method is to charge in and pummel the pointers she wants out of people. She knows she won't come far with this approach in her society, so she tries that planning stuff out thing. She's not very good at it. But her integrity and refusal to turn a blind eye to the threats rampaging through the lands (which she takes as a personal insult) make people rally around her.

Nasim is Ravenclaw primary and Gryffindor secondary (which is kind of funny, because Nasim started out as a Salbrak expy and look where they're both now). Nasim wants two things: freedom and knowledge, but mostly knowledge - which is the reason I put here in Ravenclaw. Her desire for freedom can be quenched, there is a certain point where she'll be satisfied, but her thirst for knowledge? Never. She can research and plan if the situation arises, but her usual modus operandi is to charge in and start punching people.

Harriet is Slytherin primary and Ravenclaw secondary. She has her goals, considers four people including herself as hers and three of those are gone, and takes a while to warm up to the other people who are stuck in the same mess. Harriet plans. She knows people's strengths and weaknesses, she can teach people, she can plot a path through the magic eating mist and come back with nary a scratch and quite a bit of loot, she has the tools to deal with a lot of unforseen things (starting with gadgets running on electricity not magic), she can deduce stuff out.... But she forgets to trust people.
Or rather, she has a long memory and remembers every single remark.

Ilmatar is Slytherin primary and Gryffindor secondary. Ilmatar, the eternally strange, wants nothing more than friends, people who care about her, and she is willing to go to great lengths to achieve that, offering tentative offers to anyone who might wish to take her up on her offer. Mercy be with you if you hurt someone who Ilmatar cares about. She is a lost child who lives in the now, and her Slytherin sense of ownership goes far. But she doesn't think things through usually. She comes, she sees, she charges. Although there is a certain Ravenclaw performance there, she likes being prepared.

Mostly Ravenclaw and Slytherin primaries, and a preposterous amount of Gryffindor secondaries performing Ravenclaw.