[ahhh, first wank. *cue premature nostalgia music* -.-!!]

[reenka]

I'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*

Comments

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

It's just... okay, I think a lot of different fanon!Dracos 'fit' with Harry which aren't ice-prince!Draco... like Ivy's, Cassie Claire's, Amalin's, Penguin's, Aja's, Penelope's, Rhysenn's, even Maya's. And Maya is a special case completely because she thinks she's writing canon!Draco, so she's not consciously changing anything, which to me is a crucial part of what really bugs me about the contrast between fanon & canon Draco. These writers are aware of the separation; they are consciously steering the character in some direction, whereas Maya isn't. That is like, central to my discontent, utterly central.

Anyway, on some level I definitely knew what she was saying but got carried away, obviously. I wasn't just saying that people think fanon!Draco fits Harry 'cause the writers don't like the canon version-- I was saying that this is part of a romance fantasy where Harry gets the 'ideal man' (that is, the opposite of canon!Draco in some basic aspects like emotional make-up), so of course Harry would like him since he no longer possesses the things he hated about the original version.

That's why you have all these stories point out that Draco came back different, and Harry notices and gradually (or suddenly) realizes that hey, this Draco's not so bad (well, of course he isn't, not when he's not doing the things that annoyed Harry to start with!) And that's what cheeses me off so much, y'know? How is that H/D? It's H/D-idealized-to-the-teeth-and-with-good-muscle-tone-thank-you-very-much. Take away anyone's pesky faults and they become a sex god, I guess.

So to me, it's not a superficial change at all, and I do think that most fanon-ice-prince!Draco versions that I've read have him lose most of his flaws from canon, if not all. He's so cool and collected that now Harry has to chase after him, which just reads like a total revenge fantasy of sorts where people identify with Draco and his former crush and say, 'well, see how you like it, Harry Potter!' It's not only that this fanon!Draco's 'cooler' on the outside-- almost every time, he really -is- that blase, that 'mature', and he's become more rational and witty and by the way he's gorgeous as all fuck and instead of looking like a vicar, Harry thinks he looks like a god, and oh he's not worthy of him now (I've seen this!! I am still scarred!)

Basically, it's not only that Draco changes for the better (oh, always, always for the better), it's that Harry's typical reactions change drastically too, making Harry OOC. That's why fanon!Draco worked for me in Transfigurations where he didn't in almost any other fic, because Harry hated him; he thought he was a stupid, ridiculous ponce and what the hell did anyone else see in him now? Harry liked him less for being cool and sophisticated. And I was like, YES!! YES!! YESSSSSSSS!!1 Finally, some H/D with a brain! Um.

Anyway, I think people like ice-prince!Draco 'cause they think he's cool, so of -course- Harry thinks he's cool. He's your basic Gary Stu and that's all there is to it, for me; he's fantasy fodder, a renamed Fabio who can wine and dine and charm with the best of them, who's oh-so Aloof And Unavailable but able to be overcome in spite of himself by the Plucky, Endearingly Goofy Heroine. That's the scenario that makes me see red, right there. If that's Draco now or 100 years from now, then I'm his Aunt Matilda.

Though I appreciate when Draco's background and the whole pureblood aspect of things gets more depth, it doesn't require cool-ass Draco at all to happen. There are lots of writers who go in depth about Draco's background and don't make him an ice-prince (like uh, ethrosdemon & hackthis' earlier stuff, penelope_z, olympia_m, too). Olympia especially wrote a really fleshed out Draco with a rich patina of culture all about him, and he was sooooooooo not an ice-prince. Mind you, I can't tell you that's my favorite story 'cause duuuude, do I have a thing about cheating >.<;;