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one toke over the line
Oct. 31st, 2012 07:49 pmI love Harry Potter fanfic. I love exquisitely written and beautifully crafted Harry Potter fanfic. I love melodramatic and sappy Harry Potter fanfic. I love future fic and backstory and AU and cross-overs and character studies. I even love terrible OOC, wacko plot, everybody cries Harry Potter fanfic. It is a sickness! I cannot help it. I am condemned to love almost every iteration of fanfic for this source material whether it is worthy of my time or not. LOL
I do find myself feeling frustrated at times, though, with a certain kind of HP fanfic I affectionately call Harry and Draco Shag in a Mixed Bag. The Mixed Bag is usually well-written and interestingly plotted. It generally makes some insightful points about character motivation and plot in the source material. It tends to view most of the characters except for Harry and Draco pretty negatively, exposing dark motivations that canon merely hints at--and here's where this kind of story starts to frustrate me.
Ginny, Hermione, Molly , sometimes Ron, Dumbledore, and sometimes the other Gryffindors yearmates such as Seamus and Dean are roundly character assassinated, but it's done in such a brilliant way (which I'll get to in a second). Ginny is an obvious target as Harry's canonical love interest and Molly a target as well because she canonically encourages the relationship. I think sometimes Harry/Draco writers have a hard time envisioning either a scenario in which Hermione and Ron can accept Draco or one in which Harry can be both best friends with the two of them and in love with Draco as well (sometimes the way fanfic seems to suggest that romantic relationships don't allow for close friendships outside that romantic bond is a little scary to me).
It's interesting to note who generally escapes this kind of character assassination, too. The male Weasleys (except for Percy and Ron), Luna, Snape, Sirius if he's around, Remus, Hagrid and a handful of other characters usually aren't subject to this kind of treatment.
What is so brilliantly done is that the character assassination begins as an insightful critique of character: Hermione is so intelligent and caring, but she doesn't understand that House Elves aren't slaves; Molly is so loving and such a good mother, but her bossiness can be overwhelming and off-putting; Ginny has a crush on Harry that is more fangirl than heartfelt; Ron is, like a lot of kids, jealous of a friend that he perceives to be wealthier, more popular, and more powerful than he is. But then what happens is that the critique goes too far and becomes ridiculous. Hermione becomes nothing but bossy and pigheaded and Harry can't even be friends with her anymore because she refuses to adapt to the magical world. Molly would conspire with Ginny to dose Harry with love potions or steal money from him because her family is poor. Ron turns into a black cloud of hate that would betray Harry in an instant because of his maniacal jealousy.
I find these stories frustrating because there's so much potential in them. There's a way to address Molly's bossiness and nosiness without making her into a harridan. There's a way to acknowledge that Ron is jealous of Harry when they're kids without pretending like that's not a Thing Kids Do (even to their very best friends) or a Thing Kids Get Over. There's a way to break up Harry and Ginny without making her completely evil (although when it is handled correctly (aka The Way Lorraine Approves), I do like the idea I've seen in several fics that Ginny continues to be secretly influenced or tainted in some way by the diary after second year and that it fundamentally changes her slowly without her or those around her realizing until it's too late). Harry and Draco Shag in a Mixed Bag takes the character critique just a wee tad too far so that what would be perceptive becomes grating.
Thoughts? Anybody else read a story like this? Seen it happen in another fandom?
I do find myself feeling frustrated at times, though, with a certain kind of HP fanfic I affectionately call Harry and Draco Shag in a Mixed Bag. The Mixed Bag is usually well-written and interestingly plotted. It generally makes some insightful points about character motivation and plot in the source material. It tends to view most of the characters except for Harry and Draco pretty negatively, exposing dark motivations that canon merely hints at--and here's where this kind of story starts to frustrate me.
Ginny, Hermione, Molly , sometimes Ron, Dumbledore, and sometimes the other Gryffindors yearmates such as Seamus and Dean are roundly character assassinated, but it's done in such a brilliant way (which I'll get to in a second). Ginny is an obvious target as Harry's canonical love interest and Molly a target as well because she canonically encourages the relationship. I think sometimes Harry/Draco writers have a hard time envisioning either a scenario in which Hermione and Ron can accept Draco or one in which Harry can be both best friends with the two of them and in love with Draco as well (sometimes the way fanfic seems to suggest that romantic relationships don't allow for close friendships outside that romantic bond is a little scary to me).
It's interesting to note who generally escapes this kind of character assassination, too. The male Weasleys (except for Percy and Ron), Luna, Snape, Sirius if he's around, Remus, Hagrid and a handful of other characters usually aren't subject to this kind of treatment.
What is so brilliantly done is that the character assassination begins as an insightful critique of character: Hermione is so intelligent and caring, but she doesn't understand that House Elves aren't slaves; Molly is so loving and such a good mother, but her bossiness can be overwhelming and off-putting; Ginny has a crush on Harry that is more fangirl than heartfelt; Ron is, like a lot of kids, jealous of a friend that he perceives to be wealthier, more popular, and more powerful than he is. But then what happens is that the critique goes too far and becomes ridiculous. Hermione becomes nothing but bossy and pigheaded and Harry can't even be friends with her anymore because she refuses to adapt to the magical world. Molly would conspire with Ginny to dose Harry with love potions or steal money from him because her family is poor. Ron turns into a black cloud of hate that would betray Harry in an instant because of his maniacal jealousy.
I find these stories frustrating because there's so much potential in them. There's a way to address Molly's bossiness and nosiness without making her into a harridan. There's a way to acknowledge that Ron is jealous of Harry when they're kids without pretending like that's not a Thing Kids Do (even to their very best friends) or a Thing Kids Get Over. There's a way to break up Harry and Ginny without making her completely evil (although when it is handled correctly (aka The Way Lorraine Approves), I do like the idea I've seen in several fics that Ginny continues to be secretly influenced or tainted in some way by the diary after second year and that it fundamentally changes her slowly without her or those around her realizing until it's too late). Harry and Draco Shag in a Mixed Bag takes the character critique just a wee tad too far so that what would be perceptive becomes grating.
Thoughts? Anybody else read a story like this? Seen it happen in another fandom?
