reenka

So because I had too much free time on my hands, I decided to make a list of qualities I love about my favorite HP characters, haha. It'd be so cool if like, other people did this as a meme, but I'm not holding my breath.... Still.

- Things I love: -

In Harry - I love all his contradictions-- his self-confidence and need for affirmation, his rebelliousness and thirst for mentorship & guardianship, how needy he is for love & acceptance yet how he won't let himself compromise any principles for it. I love him for his stubborn often blind but fierce ideals, and his quick sharp temper, and his often hidden vulnerability. I love him because I see myself in him and because I think he has so many universal qualities that I love-- he's curious and adventurous, witty yet often subdued, lost yet so brightly focused.

I love his awkwardness around some strangers and girls, and his bursts of inborn charisma; the quiet attention he pays to things; the way he blows up and surprises you. I love that he's a complex bundle of contradictions: questioning and fiercely believing, devoted yet distant, sensitive yet cruel, defensive and sometimes nearly introverted yet a born leader. I love his soft heart and his hard shell and his rage and protectiveness and... everything.

I love his indomitable, huge strength of will which can only be eclipsed by the untapped power of his heart. I love everything about him, even if I don't 'approve' of it.
~~

In Malfoy - it's not the meanness, or the iciness, or the supposed wit (though I like that in anyone). I love how he'll stand up to Harry even though Harry beats him at everything, and I love the way he -tries- all the time and is so ridiculous and silly and over-the-top (the Dementor thing and the strutting and the Weasley-is-our-King, etc).

I love how genuine he seems in his childish pettiness-- how he doesn't hide it and how he insists on getting what he wants. That desperation and rage and feeling of being wronged-- his -passion- is what I love. And I love what I think of as his untapped potential-- the strength of will and emotional resilience that could help him grow into someone I admired, maybe, if only he'd learn to channel it properly.

He's just so full of bile and trapped bubbling rage and futility and need and I can't help but feel connected to him through that.
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In Ron - I love his sincerity and sheer frankness most of all, I think. The way he just -is- the way he is, and feels what he feels, so honestly and directly. I love how he doesn't prevaricate or pretend-- what you see is what you get. I love how loyal and dedicated he is to his friends, though he's not afraid to say if he doesn't dig something about them to their face. I love how protective he is and cutely dorkish/boyish he is, how clueless about girls/a number of other things he is, how dense and stubborn and self-sacrificing he is, how flawed and insecure and determined and fierce and strong-willed he is. Weasley is my King, man.<3<3<3<3<3<3

I love how he wants to be better-- get more from life, be recognized, become somebody, but he doesn't have a clue. And he's not as good as he wishes he'd be, and he's not as good as Harry, either, but unlike Draco, say, he doesn't get bitter-- he just tries to do the best he can, 'cause he's Ron, not Harry and not Percy and not Fred or George or Bill. I don't know. The combination of vulnerable and tenacious-- gets me every time.

In Sirius - I love the passion in him, too-- the way he's so fierce about any emotion he seems to feel, the way he goes all out and doesn't hold back. I love the wild strength of his will; the sheer power of ego that got him through Azkaban. That's just impressive, I think. I love how devoted he is to his friends, even if it leads him astray rather often-- I still love it about him. I love just how bloody loyal and protective and dog-like he is, heheh. He's got all the random rage and the brilliant protectiveness and the affectionate nature and hey, he's even got the fleas. And of course I love his charming badass bad-boy self, woohoo! I admit it!

I love how he's -seething-, all ragged-edged and untamed and tamed at once (by his friends-- well, by Remus and Harry). He's got all this viciousness and all this kindness; is both very trusting and unable to let go; both brittle and fragile & undefeatable. How could one resist a charming asshole? So much pain... so much joy in life... so much capacity for love and rage and just sheer force of life.

In Remus - I'm growing to love all his subtle complexities, and how he challenges me to find a way to wrap my mind about what makes him tick, and the way the more I think about it, the more I see myself in him. I love the way he's so full of secrets and masks and layers, and how I think there's raw meat underneath all those different skins, vulnerable and vital and -human-. I love that sense of the fire beneath the deep-- so stealthy and but also so steadfast-- the way his loyalties remain steady no matter what he may say or do; the way his inner conflict has made him a better man, a more complex man, a kinder and a colder man at the same time.

And of course, I love the wolf in Remus, always waiting, always watching. Who could not love the wolf, especially because of his struggle with it, often subtly futile and yet so utterly -human-? How could I not love the darkness and the light in him, always warring and never at rest? He just fascinates me.

Aaaand, I wrote a whole post about why I love/enjoy writing Ginny already :D
~~

Another day, another rant-type-thing. I think I should wean myself off... I'd drink chamomile but then, I hate chamomile....

Anyway. (Something else) I really kind of resent is the way people dismiss whole -types- of human pairing dynamics based purely on the superficial overall category of the relationship. I'm not talking about having a squick, or some personal reason for disliking a particular pairing on its own merits-- I mean judging the whole section or type of relationship basis (i.e.: purely adversarial, friendship, adversarial friendship, boss/employee or teacher/student, colleagues/teammates and more I'm sure).

It does seem like people gravititate to one 'type' and aren't very attracted to the others, which is fine. What bothers me is when they then dismiss the other types of relationship as 'overdone' and 'cliche' or otherwise of lesser intrinsic worth.

I see this all the time in the apparent cross-fandom feud between friendshippers and adversarial shippers.

It goes both ways, too-- both sides proclaim the other's whole aesthetic is inherently inferior, which gets to me particularly because I've shipped within almost all types of dynamics, but am especially into friendship-turned-love and anger/hate-turned-love. These preferences are -not- mutually exclusive (because to me, the important factor is -intensity- of whatever emotion there is) and I don't feel all that schizophrenic until I read yet another throw-away ranty comment on how a friendshipper just 'doesn't get' those dull/deluded people who insist on perpetuating the stupid fairy tale (or whatever) that 'bickering' (or hate) means 'luuuuurve' (and vice versa).

Jeez.
What I myself always look for in terms of romance in fics is individual compatibility, not whether a pairing fits into some set-in-stone 'ideal dynamic type' of relationships. What matters (to me) is whether these two -people- fit together in some interesting way. The 'typology' is-- well-- incidental.
Why must -everything- come with a prejudice available to be attached, anyway, like some necessary accessory to a complete memetic outfit or something? Why must -morphology- (what a thing actually -is-) have to keep following after typology (what a thing can be grouped as)?? Why god why???!? >:O

I do admit to having my own prejudice/bias here, of course: I judge the degree of 'fit' in any pairing based on whether I think these two people balance each other out. Naturally, balance can be achieved in many ways and in many combinations of different ingredients, which might be why I enjoy so many different 'types' of pairings. As long as the two people's quirks complement each other, I'm there. So basically, I'll always dislike a pairing where I think one has 'like' coupled with 'like' unless there are significant differences that click together, too.

Obviously, ideally there should be a balance (there's that word again) of sameness and difference between the two people in order for the relationship to work/last/be happy. And yes, my bias is also towards relationships that -can- be happy however difficult that might be. If it's unhappy or pure angst, I just feel like it's draining (of my own energy as a reader) and not constructive in terms of telling me something new & interesting.

I suppose that can be why some people summarily dismiss heavily adversarial pairings (i.e., they're too unlikely to achive happiness), but then, I think that's just plain incorrect, realistically speaking. Yes, argumentative relationships tend to self-destruct, but there are still many, many real stories about couples who're seemingly different as can be, sheer opposites, but find an eventual and life-long balance with each other. I mean, 'opposites attract' is a cliche, but cliches exist for a reason, usually, and it's not because they don't work in real life in any way.

Of course, hating each other's guts or arguing all the time is far from a definitive sign that the people are say, 'obviously perfect for/hot for each other'-- that's a crass, unhelpful over-simplification. There's chemistry there, and therefore -possibility-, which is all anyone can ask for.

I think only some particular course of events can 'prove' (so to speak), on its own merits, whether a romantic character combination is 'workable'. This is why, even though I obviously ship Harry/Draco, they often don't 'fit' for me in a number of fics, just because they weren't written into a relationship I could support, really. And same goes for a friendship-made-love-- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But oops, look, you can't have sweeping generalizations this way-- must be why that point of view is unpopular. *sigh*

At least I've vented now.