~~ stupid pairing rants. *smacks self*
May. 25th, 2003 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkathere are few things lamer than ranting against pairings. i know this. believe me, trust me, understand me, i -know- this. every pairing is like an idea-- it may annoy me, but it is what it is, and it exists and i don't have to pay attention. it usually has a reason for existing-- just like everything else. people like it for a certain reason. usually that reason is some psychological predisposition to romantic fluffiness or kinky darkness or insane absurdity (hello, neville/squid). it's not that i would say, "let's go hug every pairing there is", but certainly, they mean no harm (the ideas themselves). they want to grow, prosper and multiply, like all memes, but it's not as if they're inherently "better" or "worse" than any other comparable idea/pairing. okay then.
that said, harry/lucius is annoying me today.
some part of me is begging the rest of me to get on my high horse and to natter about how obviously whoever ships harry/lucius cares nothing for harry, for what kind of person seriously wants a sixteen-year-old (or so) to be having this (almost certainly temporary) affair with the father of his school arch-rival, a confirmed death eater, a person who's never shown the slightest kind regard towards him and is unlikely to ever start? i mean, seriously, that's really fucked up.
*smirks* yah. it's easy to say, "well, i'm just looking out for harry's well-being, here", but of course it's also easy to see how stupid that statement is. of course, this is the same person who wrote 2 (count 'em! two!) harry/cho fics for the sole reason that i imagine harry would thank me (awww, he has a crush on cho-- why not make him have what he wants? awww, the ickle w00bie, etcetc).
see, what i'm really sometimes apt to rant about in my head isn't a -pairing-, it's my imagined scenario where people pair harry (ickle, lovable harry! hee) with people who just aren't good for him! same for draco. it's like, they don't care about him and are merely satisfying their perverse lust (which you know, pot, kettle, obviously). this is seriously making me sound like a care-bear. this is why i'm rather mocking myself, here. i think it's just that i have a relationship with harry & draco-- partly voyeuristic & perverted, but partly, you know, affectionate. he's like my little fictional adopted brother. although, seriously, that's fucked up, considering all the smut. but the point is, i want him to be happy, and fulfilled, and emotionally healthy. i want him to get his heart's desire, to realize he's lovable and special and all that jazz, but also to break him out of his mental biases and to show him more of the world. i also want draco to well... flower. not be redeemed, just, nurtured more, challenged more.
(this bit of ranting in response to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dahlia_777's post referencing a h/s fic with lucius/draco as a side pairing.)
has anyone noticed how even in fics that have nothing to do with draco, the writers always feel the need to do something with draco? like, pair him off somehow, with blaise, justin, blah blah, somebody. never even anyone realistic like pansy (like they do r/hr all the time, why not d/p, my -gahd- is it JUST because fanon!draco's hot and thus must be gay?), or anyone really silly and unusual like ron (ahahaah). it just really really annoys me.
i mean, rationally i know it's not in reaction to the idea of h/d (knowing the hegemony that is h/d exists and thus having to respond to it even if by implication), but i think subconsciously maybe it is. i've read enough h/s to know that they never, never, never once do justice to the harry & draco dynamic. it's as if harry & snape overwrite it or something. you know how harry & ron gets pissed on by most h/d fic? well that's the feeling i get with harry & draco and h/s fic. it's like snape somehow takes the place of draco, which he shouldn't since it's only in fanon that draco's with harry. and yet i feel this lingering presence, like a phantom limb, where you can almost -smell- the h/d.
maybe (probably) this is just in my head, but still. i guess i've just had bad experiences. possibly this is because h/s writers simply have a very different view of draco and don't care about him all that much, thinking he's a little twerp that may as well do the gay thing 'cause he's a malfoy (even though lucius is hotter, obviously). i keep getting this feeling like snape-love and draco-love are not all that compatible within most people.
'cause like, snape's the mature, in-control, bitter one, with all the implied complexity of moral ambiguity and all that meanness carved down into a sculptured artform. whereas draco's the opposite, in a way-- immature, premature-ejaculatory, all-bark-no-bite, wannabe big mean slytherin who only manages to look pathetic and crass most of the time. (and yes, i'm well aware this is almost draco/snape-shippy of me, ahahahahahah!!) interestingly, a lot of fanon!draco's try to compensate for this by making draco more like snape-- more in-control, more icy and alluring and mature. ha. what they really want is snape, except aged down.
actually, i myself like both draco & snape as far as personality types, i just don't want them confused, heh. and i don't think snape is shippable with anyone, though sirius, remus & lucius are all possibilities, they lack that certain something (and lucius, the poor man, i wouldn't inflict him on anyone except narcissa 'cause they deserve each other & james 'cause i'm so soppy). i'd ship him with lily but that's just way too tragic for me, thanks.
but yah. you get this sense that the harry/snape writers i've read don't really know what to do with draco, and yet there's this need to do -something- that i don't quite understand (just as i don't see why you have to "do" something with ron, and not just keep the relationship somewhat as is).
i wonder if it has something to do with the possible need to mature harry in order to pair him with snape. there seems to be an inherent need to change the mindset here-- if you keep it as that of the naive, emotionally/physically reticent yet needy boy who -hates- his potions professor, you can't very easily segue into any sort of sexual relationship with said potions professor. you need to basically change harry at least somewhat-- have him grow up, otherwise the power imbalance becomes such that snape is abusing him, basically.
the thing with h/d is that you don't need to change anything-- he could still hate draco, still be reticent and immature and ejaculate prematurely in safety, knowing draco is just the same. (woo!!) they're -boys-. they can fuck even if they hate each other, they can be oblivious as to deeper feelings together (awwwww) and basically, they can mature together as their relationship progresses. but see, harry & snape -can't-, because snape should know better.
anyway.
so harry gets this new sense of aesthetics which suddenly involves greasy potions professors (god, harry sue, how i hate you-- although having harry suddenly adore pale hair and pointy chins annoys me too-- that whole, oh god, you're JUST MY TYPE phenomenon is rather sickening). what to do with draco?
i've seen fics where harry's had a "fling" with malfoy (but malfoy was too immature for him-- *stabstabkillkill*). that's still better than suddenly-mature!harry being above the petty nuisance that is malfoy, and being able to rationally point out to malfoy the error of his ways. then there's the other option of happily-paired-off!malfoy. like, see, see? look, he's happily screwing someone else, isn't that what counts? malfoys are born to screw other men, apparently. plus there's this sense that draco's -a- malfoy. lucius becomes much more prominent because snape brings the older generation into the picture, and lucius is more interesting than draco anyway, -isn't he-?
my overall point is that draco has to be "out of the way", and there's no particular care as to which way he is. i mean, in h/d fics, you don't usually get snape with lucius or snape with sirius or whatever, just to get him "out of the way". he remains the scary mean potions professor (written for better or for worse). but if harry still had the same relationship with draco (taunting, hating, semi-obsessing, ie, what-would-malfoy-think), his new-found insight into slytherins would be compromised somehow, i guess. plus, snape is the -true- object of his hatred and interest.
all of this is understandable of course. ha. though plebey. funny how i didn't mention the incest or anything. 'course, to me it's all secondary to the basic, "but if you're doing it, you should do it for the `right reasons'" argument, which is lame but i can't help it. can draco/lucius even -have- "right reasons"? prolly not. i mean, it's perving no matter how you look at it. which is fine. and the idea of a "right reason" is stupid anyway. but i can't help thinking that the lucius-lust or snape-lust which is so blatantly obvious in say, lucius/whoever or snape/whoever is kind of, unfair treatment of the characters, or something. this extends to harry/draco if you write it 'cause of draco-lust or something. sigh. but none of this holds any water, objectively speaking, i know that. and yet......
disturbingly enough, treat characters -too- well, and you make them sappy and out-of-character and all melted into gooey puddles of over-sweet ichor. yuck! i am never happy, obviously >:D
~~
also,prillalar's response to the latest ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
hp100 challenge kills me. just. KILLS me. ahahahah. oh god. i need to watch the matrix again >:D
that said, harry/lucius is annoying me today.
some part of me is begging the rest of me to get on my high horse and to natter about how obviously whoever ships harry/lucius cares nothing for harry, for what kind of person seriously wants a sixteen-year-old (or so) to be having this (almost certainly temporary) affair with the father of his school arch-rival, a confirmed death eater, a person who's never shown the slightest kind regard towards him and is unlikely to ever start? i mean, seriously, that's really fucked up.
*smirks* yah. it's easy to say, "well, i'm just looking out for harry's well-being, here", but of course it's also easy to see how stupid that statement is. of course, this is the same person who wrote 2 (count 'em! two!) harry/cho fics for the sole reason that i imagine harry would thank me (awww, he has a crush on cho-- why not make him have what he wants? awww, the ickle w00bie, etcetc).
see, what i'm really sometimes apt to rant about in my head isn't a -pairing-, it's my imagined scenario where people pair harry (ickle, lovable harry! hee) with people who just aren't good for him! same for draco. it's like, they don't care about him and are merely satisfying their perverse lust (which you know, pot, kettle, obviously). this is seriously making me sound like a care-bear. this is why i'm rather mocking myself, here. i think it's just that i have a relationship with harry & draco-- partly voyeuristic & perverted, but partly, you know, affectionate. he's like my little fictional adopted brother. although, seriously, that's fucked up, considering all the smut. but the point is, i want him to be happy, and fulfilled, and emotionally healthy. i want him to get his heart's desire, to realize he's lovable and special and all that jazz, but also to break him out of his mental biases and to show him more of the world. i also want draco to well... flower. not be redeemed, just, nurtured more, challenged more.
(this bit of ranting in response to
dahlia_777's post referencing a h/s fic with lucius/draco as a side pairing.)has anyone noticed how even in fics that have nothing to do with draco, the writers always feel the need to do something with draco? like, pair him off somehow, with blaise, justin, blah blah, somebody. never even anyone realistic like pansy (like they do r/hr all the time, why not d/p, my -gahd- is it JUST because fanon!draco's hot and thus must be gay?), or anyone really silly and unusual like ron (ahahaah). it just really really annoys me.
i mean, rationally i know it's not in reaction to the idea of h/d (knowing the hegemony that is h/d exists and thus having to respond to it even if by implication), but i think subconsciously maybe it is. i've read enough h/s to know that they never, never, never once do justice to the harry & draco dynamic. it's as if harry & snape overwrite it or something. you know how harry & ron gets pissed on by most h/d fic? well that's the feeling i get with harry & draco and h/s fic. it's like snape somehow takes the place of draco, which he shouldn't since it's only in fanon that draco's with harry. and yet i feel this lingering presence, like a phantom limb, where you can almost -smell- the h/d.
maybe (probably) this is just in my head, but still. i guess i've just had bad experiences. possibly this is because h/s writers simply have a very different view of draco and don't care about him all that much, thinking he's a little twerp that may as well do the gay thing 'cause he's a malfoy (even though lucius is hotter, obviously). i keep getting this feeling like snape-love and draco-love are not all that compatible within most people.
'cause like, snape's the mature, in-control, bitter one, with all the implied complexity of moral ambiguity and all that meanness carved down into a sculptured artform. whereas draco's the opposite, in a way-- immature, premature-ejaculatory, all-bark-no-bite, wannabe big mean slytherin who only manages to look pathetic and crass most of the time. (and yes, i'm well aware this is almost draco/snape-shippy of me, ahahahahahah!!) interestingly, a lot of fanon!draco's try to compensate for this by making draco more like snape-- more in-control, more icy and alluring and mature. ha. what they really want is snape, except aged down.
actually, i myself like both draco & snape as far as personality types, i just don't want them confused, heh. and i don't think snape is shippable with anyone, though sirius, remus & lucius are all possibilities, they lack that certain something (and lucius, the poor man, i wouldn't inflict him on anyone except narcissa 'cause they deserve each other & james 'cause i'm so soppy). i'd ship him with lily but that's just way too tragic for me, thanks.
but yah. you get this sense that the harry/snape writers i've read don't really know what to do with draco, and yet there's this need to do -something- that i don't quite understand (just as i don't see why you have to "do" something with ron, and not just keep the relationship somewhat as is).
i wonder if it has something to do with the possible need to mature harry in order to pair him with snape. there seems to be an inherent need to change the mindset here-- if you keep it as that of the naive, emotionally/physically reticent yet needy boy who -hates- his potions professor, you can't very easily segue into any sort of sexual relationship with said potions professor. you need to basically change harry at least somewhat-- have him grow up, otherwise the power imbalance becomes such that snape is abusing him, basically.
the thing with h/d is that you don't need to change anything-- he could still hate draco, still be reticent and immature and ejaculate prematurely in safety, knowing draco is just the same. (woo!!) they're -boys-. they can fuck even if they hate each other, they can be oblivious as to deeper feelings together (awwwww) and basically, they can mature together as their relationship progresses. but see, harry & snape -can't-, because snape should know better.
anyway.
so harry gets this new sense of aesthetics which suddenly involves greasy potions professors (god, harry sue, how i hate you-- although having harry suddenly adore pale hair and pointy chins annoys me too-- that whole, oh god, you're JUST MY TYPE phenomenon is rather sickening). what to do with draco?
i've seen fics where harry's had a "fling" with malfoy (but malfoy was too immature for him-- *stabstabkillkill*). that's still better than suddenly-mature!harry being above the petty nuisance that is malfoy, and being able to rationally point out to malfoy the error of his ways. then there's the other option of happily-paired-off!malfoy. like, see, see? look, he's happily screwing someone else, isn't that what counts? malfoys are born to screw other men, apparently. plus there's this sense that draco's -a- malfoy. lucius becomes much more prominent because snape brings the older generation into the picture, and lucius is more interesting than draco anyway, -isn't he-?
my overall point is that draco has to be "out of the way", and there's no particular care as to which way he is. i mean, in h/d fics, you don't usually get snape with lucius or snape with sirius or whatever, just to get him "out of the way". he remains the scary mean potions professor (written for better or for worse). but if harry still had the same relationship with draco (taunting, hating, semi-obsessing, ie, what-would-malfoy-think), his new-found insight into slytherins would be compromised somehow, i guess. plus, snape is the -true- object of his hatred and interest.
all of this is understandable of course. ha. though plebey. funny how i didn't mention the incest or anything. 'course, to me it's all secondary to the basic, "but if you're doing it, you should do it for the `right reasons'" argument, which is lame but i can't help it. can draco/lucius even -have- "right reasons"? prolly not. i mean, it's perving no matter how you look at it. which is fine. and the idea of a "right reason" is stupid anyway. but i can't help thinking that the lucius-lust or snape-lust which is so blatantly obvious in say, lucius/whoever or snape/whoever is kind of, unfair treatment of the characters, or something. this extends to harry/draco if you write it 'cause of draco-lust or something. sigh. but none of this holds any water, objectively speaking, i know that. and yet......
disturbingly enough, treat characters -too- well, and you make them sappy and out-of-character and all melted into gooey puddles of over-sweet ichor. yuck! i am never happy, obviously >:D
~~
also,
prillalar's response to the latest hp100 challenge kills me. just. KILLS me. ahahahah. oh god. i need to watch the matrix again >:D
