![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaI'm afraid to read this. I fear one more discussion on fanon!Draco (vs. canon!Draco) and I'll really bite through my own tongue or something. Yes, I officially Can't Take It Anymore, and yet it calls to me. Rant, Reena, RANT! RANT ABOUT FANON!DRACO SOME MORE, WE ALL KNOW YOU WANT TO. (noooooo *runs away* stay awaaaaayyyy..!) Um. I'm sure it's a perfectly reasonable, normal discussion. Really. Just because I have the heebee-jeebees and start to sweat at the very mention of fanon!Draco doesn't mean anything. Really. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little... maybe. -.-
It's not that I don't like any version of him, because clearly I do. I don't even set out to write non-fanon!Draco myself, because I don't. I just write him like I see him at the time, and whatever makes sense at the moment-- I really don't think about characterization much when I write. Probably because I don't actually think much when I write, period. And "fanon" is a huge term that encompasses every Draco that is not JKR's, actually (that is, just 'cause it's "fanon" doesn't mean it's "out-of-character"). On top of everything else, I don't like canon Draco (much). But. I -hate- (hate... hate... HATE) the character most people mean by fanon!Draco, because they don't seem to mean any of the ones I've loved, given the sorts of traits he has (poncey, cool, sophisticated, self-controlled, blah-blah).
Just yesterday, Adora said that it seems like I'm on a path trying to write The Most Unlikable H/D evah... heh. There might be something to that... and there might be something to the idea that I'm doing it partly as a backlash against fanon!H/D. And clearly fanon!Draco is all about making Draco more likable, right. Except most (not all! but most!) writers that try it are totally pants at it, what can I tell you. They just are, okay. Everything I know or imagine I know about Harry tells me he'd laugh at poncey-and-cool!Draco and not give him a second glance (except to laugh). It's not that opposites don't attract, it's just... Harry isn't missing this. This isn't what he needs, so the idea that (that kind of) fanon!Draco "fits" Harry is entirely ridiculous and based entirely on a certain type of reader's response. It's not based around canon!Harry's most probable response as far as I can see.
It seems like such a cop-out to say that you need to perfect or improve a character to make him perfectly suited to another character, if anything because no one is perfectly suited to anyone! That's crazy messed-up Harlequin talk, man! Snap out of it! People are messy and pissy and unpretty and beautiful, isn't that what reading any real literature shows us? And isn't the very difficulty of making people connect, and especially these two people, the whole point of even trying?
And like I said, I don't even like Draco as-is, and I want him to change and grow up and become his own person that both I & Harry could respect... but why does this mean he has to become cool? Why?! Tell me this, fandom, though... I don't want to understand anymore (even though, blah, I do)! Harry isn't 'cool' to start with! Harry's a dork, a psycho, a normal teenage boy with issues and insecurities and a few rage problems, you know, here and there! Why does he need a smooth operator to sex him up like a love machine, man?! Oh right, because this is all 'fantasy' and our collective happy escapist joy-ride, right. Who wants real people, anyway?! Real people smell!
...Though I admit I may be going a bit overboard with just how messed-up my Harry and Draco have become lately. It's really more me than them though, ahahah.
~~
EDIT - Er. Well. I um... "read it" now. Er. I can't believe I was this wanky, but. It had to happen sometime....?? Er?? *FACEPALM OMG*
It's not that I don't like any version of him, because clearly I do. I don't even set out to write non-fanon!Draco myself, because I don't. I just write him like I see him at the time, and whatever makes sense at the moment-- I really don't think about characterization much when I write. Probably because I don't actually think much when I write, period. And "fanon" is a huge term that encompasses every Draco that is not JKR's, actually (that is, just 'cause it's "fanon" doesn't mean it's "out-of-character"). On top of everything else, I don't like canon Draco (much). But. I -hate- (hate... hate... HATE) the character most people mean by fanon!Draco, because they don't seem to mean any of the ones I've loved, given the sorts of traits he has (poncey, cool, sophisticated, self-controlled, blah-blah).
Just yesterday, Adora said that it seems like I'm on a path trying to write The Most Unlikable H/D evah... heh. There might be something to that... and there might be something to the idea that I'm doing it partly as a backlash against fanon!H/D. And clearly fanon!Draco is all about making Draco more likable, right. Except most (not all! but most!) writers that try it are totally pants at it, what can I tell you. They just are, okay. Everything I know or imagine I know about Harry tells me he'd laugh at poncey-and-cool!Draco and not give him a second glance (except to laugh). It's not that opposites don't attract, it's just... Harry isn't missing this. This isn't what he needs, so the idea that (that kind of) fanon!Draco "fits" Harry is entirely ridiculous and based entirely on a certain type of reader's response. It's not based around canon!Harry's most probable response as far as I can see.
It seems like such a cop-out to say that you need to perfect or improve a character to make him perfectly suited to another character, if anything because no one is perfectly suited to anyone! That's crazy messed-up Harlequin talk, man! Snap out of it! People are messy and pissy and unpretty and beautiful, isn't that what reading any real literature shows us? And isn't the very difficulty of making people connect, and especially these two people, the whole point of even trying?
And like I said, I don't even like Draco as-is, and I want him to change and grow up and become his own person that both I & Harry could respect... but why does this mean he has to become cool? Why?! Tell me this, fandom, though... I don't want to understand anymore (even though, blah, I do)! Harry isn't 'cool' to start with! Harry's a dork, a psycho, a normal teenage boy with issues and insecurities and a few rage problems, you know, here and there! Why does he need a smooth operator to sex him up like a love machine, man?! Oh right, because this is all 'fantasy' and our collective happy escapist joy-ride, right. Who wants real people, anyway?! Real people smell!
...Though I admit I may be going a bit overboard with just how messed-up my Harry and Draco have become lately. It's really more me than them though, ahahah.
~~
EDIT - Er. Well. I um... "read it" now. Er. I can't believe I was this wanky, but. It had to happen sometime....?? Er?? *FACEPALM OMG*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-01 05:29 pm (UTC)As for why I ship H/D... ahahaha. I never said they were easy, obvious or even likely-- but I like the challenge, the contrast between them and the idea that if they did learn to understand where the other was coming from, that's a real accomplishment-- that'd really mean something (in general and for them). I mean, I'm pretty optimistic about them, 'cause they're still kids, y'know, and especially Draco; they've got their whole life ahead of them to change their minds about each other, even if they don't do it about anything else they believe (which they probably will).
It's like... I think that Draco's clearly obsessed with Harry on some level, and Harry definitely has a lot of issues and prejudices that Draco has represented from the get-go. And it's this very barrier between them that I like, if that makes sense. Any attempt to make the barrier lighter is a cheat and not what I want from H/D at all; I want all their problems and improbabilities out in the open, so I can see them shot at like a flock of birds. Perhaps they'll never work out, but to me that's not the point. It's sort of like struggling against fate, y'know? Living itself is like that; you play a losing game, and you don't play to win-- you just play to play.