~~ mmmpretty

Omg, this Marauders pic by leelastarsky is too amazing, seriously. This is what AU fanart-- and maybe even fanart/illustration itself-- is all about. Seeing the subject in a new way; that feeling of oh!, that startlement where things flip from head to toe & yet make more sense than they ever did before, because that image both deeply alters and reconstructs one's conception of a singular fictional reality-- the one in the reader's head. Omgsqueeyes!
    (Leela's gen pics-- like this one of Harry & Ron & the Malfoys with the omg-so-bratty!Draco with his vicar's collar of LURVE & hee, Godric!!... and Celtic!R/Hr seems obvious somehow-- and seriously, now I'm shipping her version of Arthur/Molly o_0 ...They all tend to make me happy in general, but. Man.)

This is pretty much everything I feel defines the Marauders, exaggerated and reforged and put into complete crystalline focus, all at the same time. Dude. Dude!
    Perhaps it's because I feel we -are- our wild, primal, wicked (Dark? no, not quite) selves. We are our shadows, moreso the more righteous we think we become. And I think while the four of them were ultimately on the 'right' side, they were clearly forces of chaos and half-wild play (except Remus, who knew too much & said too little, and Peter, who played 'follow the leader' more than anything).
    All four of them, wicked in their own special ways. Peter was only cunning-wicked (which is one of those weaknesses necessary for survival); that just means James was righteous-wicked (the least chaotic, most focused-- and yeah, trying to resist 'heroic'-- king in training? something like that). Sirius was rageful-wicked (pretty much your archetypical pirate boy and/or god of war) and Remus was (obviously) beast/berserker-wicked. Perhaps it's most correct to say they were all beastly in different ways, then.

I just really love it; re-envisioning things, that is. It seems to me the very food of my imagination. It's like, if something is worth telling, it's worth retelling, and no two retellings could (should?) be exactly alike.

    I'd seen someone refer to this mindset as being of the 'bardic tradition' recently in regards to the Robin Hobb fanfic kerfuffle, and maybe it is-- but to me it's just natural. I've loved both fairy-tales and retelling them since I'd learned to read. Possibly, truly complex/filled-in (lived in) stories are more limiting; they possess the full specificity of their time and place and maybe feel more like histories than history does. I wonder if this has something to do with me not liking most fiction set entirely in the here-and-now; without the element of fantasy & the unknown past/present/future/other, I am reminded I really have a minimal interest in people's lives at times. Maybe I'm just an escapist bitch who -likes- her canon!Draco 2D, actually, thankyouverymuch. He's freer that way. Also, I feel I know how JKR thinks on this subject by now well enough to realize if he gets more developed, he pretty much gets the boot-in-the-ribs treatment.
    (And yes, I realize I've become v. picky & anal about the lil D in fanfic post-OoTP, but that's mostly my frustrations with a lack of dealing with the Issues I care about rather than any specific no-no about characterization. Except mebbe nice!Draco, who's just hell no, perfect-Slytherin!Draco who makes me sick after repeated exposure to him with Blaise and/or Nott and/or him topping Harry, and smooth-yet-rational!Draco who makes me want to smack him and shove him head-first into a hurt/comfort fic with het!Harry. Oh yes, I am a cruel mistress, Draco baby.)

It seems like archetypes-- heavily symbolic stories & characters (like the Marauders)-- beg for multiplicity. Their uniqueness may in fact lie in their very adaptability, their flexibility in storytelling use. It is probably because the HP books come to close to the roots of old legends that I feel such ease in playing with them. I can almost smell the left-over smoke from borrowed fires as I think about them.