Sorting House Chats
| Fanwork | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Sorting House Chats |
| Creator: | Inky and Kaden |
| Date(s): | |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Harry Potter |
| External Links: | Blog, Tumblr |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Sorting House Chats is an alternate personality system by Inky and Kaden based on the four Hogwarts Houses from Harry Potter often used in by fans in meta or other fanworks. In this system, participants are sorted into two tiers of Houses, Primary and Secondary, allowing for a more complex and varied range of descriptions. However, it is used in character analysis and headcanons outside of the HP fandom.
Two friends wanted to know exactly what the other meant when they said “Gryffindor.” Over hours of conversation, the Sorting Hat Chats system emerged and has delighted them ever since. Primaries are WHY you do things. Secondaries are HOW you do things. Primaries are not more important than secondaries; they’re just different aspects of a person.[1]
Overview
Each character is sorted into two different tiers, Primary and Secondary, with the Primary describing their motivations and the Secondary describing their approach to the world. Thus a Slytherin Primary with a Ravenclaw Secondary is distinct from a Ravenclaw Primary with a Slytherin Secondary.
Other variations are also possible, including "modeling" or "performing" in which characters demonstrate a faculty with House traits that are not their Primary or Secondary, and "burning," in which House attributes are transformed into a different but recognizable state. This results in a wide variety of possible combinations, allowing for a more complex analysis than possible in the original system.
Frequently animal terms such as "snake", "badger", "raven", and "lion" are substituted by users to avoid association with author J.K. Rowling's original terminology[2].
Reactions and Commentary
me every time a character’s secondary matches the other’s primary or viceversa: omg omg omg that’s so cool me when they have THE SAME houses but switched. OMG OMG OMG THATS SO COOL HOLY SHIT[3]
I've taken dozens! per dozens of the Sortinh Hats quizes over the years, including retaking the pottermore quiz, and nothing is as amazing as this one by far![4]
The @sortinghatchats personality system is so incredible. It does exactly the thing that frustrated so many that MBTI couldn’t do: actually describe your personality. MBTI is wonderful for understanding a person’s thought process and mind, but, as anyone who really knows MBTI knows, it can only tell you so much about how a person will actually behave in life. And while still plenty useful, most people go into personality typing to try and discover the different ways we actually behave in life, not just the way our minds thrum along.[5]
Examples
- [1] An analysis of Fullmetal Alchemist characters by swearingintengwar.
- [2] Scooby-Doo characters analyzed by air-in-words.
Resources
- Personality Quiz based on the Sorting Hat Chats system
- “The Basics” - overview from Sorting Hat Chats blog
- Wisteria’s Great Big Sorting Hat Chats Explanation by wisteria-lodge.
- Sort Me Masterpost by wisteria-lodge.
References
- ^ Header for the Sorting Hat Chats blog.
- ^ this blog post includes an explanation of the change
- ^ Tumblr post by persefoneshalott, 21 Feb 2021.
- ^ Comment by vivilla.vv on the Sorting Hat Chats Official Quiz.
- ^ Tumblr post by air-in-words, 23 June 2020.