[opinions meme. meh.]
Aug. 25th, 2006 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaOf course I'd take any chance to rant about what annoys me with fandom, I would have thought, but maaaaan, ever since I uh, fell on my head, any sort of sustained thinking feels like too much effort. So I decided to do the Lazy Fan's Version of the opinions meme & only did the 5 that pop into my head at this particular moment the most. Plus I restrained myself to one fandom, though I'm sure many things uniquely annoy me about the popular mores of any fandom I'd read in.
1. There's no such thing as 'gay in HP canon'.
[but especially relevant with HBP!Harry]
God, I hate arguing about subtext... I mean, subtext is there to be either ignored or squeed about (in fandom or anywhere where tempers are high), not analyzed. This I have come to believe. I swear though, if I hear one more time about how Harry 'stalking' Draco means he then ran off to wank madly in the nearest bathroom... or how Remus couldn't accept Tonks' advances, really, BECAUSE HE IS SO GAY... I'll just start hitting my head against the wall. WHY. *thump* WHY. *thump* WHY. *thump* :/
2. Harry is not a sweet, naive & trusting loving perfect boyfriend.
[especially not with someone he thinks is a nasty git]
In general, Harry's constant idealization has started to really annoy me a lot more since I've sort of given up on Draco in fandom. People will tell me that Draco doesn't even exist in canon so anything goes, and I have no energy to even care about that attitude anymore. But. But. You cannot tell me Harry doesn't "exist in canon", so SUCK IT UP. He exists, and he's actually done many more nasty & naughty things than Draco, and is in many ways equally blind/intolerant/stubborn and is actually more willful about it, I think. And he will probably do more questionably nice things in book 7. (And I love him! And don't think he's a selfish horrible asshole at all!)
In other words, Harry may have more of an independent moral center, or more potential to do good, or more selfless ideals (than Draco, Snape or VOLDEMORT), but this doesn't make him sweet or trusting! It makes him a halfway decent bloke!
3. The H/D & S/R & R/Hr ships aren't lame!
[but the shippers & the fics often are]
...I mean, if only I had a nickel for every time someone said 'H/D is a stupid & boring ship' & then went on to talk about the horribly fanony and implausible things people come up with for Draco (I mean, in the universe that's actually beyond leather pants alone) and Harry. It's so frustrating hearing non-shippers talk about the very things I've always ranted about in fanfic for my own ship and using that as a reason to dismiss it as a lost cause or a ridiculous ship in general. Likewise with all the idiotic canon!wank that goes on with S/R and the way its shippers are seen as delusional fanatics on par with H/Hr canon-obsessives, who insist canon!Remus is gay, the 'hug that's more than just a hug' and the 'joint presents = LURVE' as the One True Basis of the ship. :/
(And do I even have to go into the rep that fanatical 'good-shippers' have? It also doesn't help that people assume that if you ship H/Hr, R/Hr, R/T, H/G, J/L or S/R, it's because you're a canon-predictive shipper who's concerned with who'll end up with whom or was with whom in the actual text. Though admittedly you never hear from people who like personal-fanon!H/G but not canon!H/G... liking fanon!S/R but otherwise being sane is actually not that uncommon.)
HI. My name is Reena and I ship Sirius/Remus because there -are- actually awesome fics written for that pairing (amidst the 97.7% of it that's crap, of course).
4. A character's sexual/fanon behavior & preferences can be rooted in canon.
[because while we may behave differently in bed, they should be logical differences]
Well, this is part of a large trend which denies the connection between canon & fanon, the sort of spectrum of behavior that can follow from a (related) instance in canon. It's either 'in bed' or 'when they're adult' or 'with another man'-- people use all sorts of excuses to have someone change their central characteristics without any tangible ties to the past or the everyday. I suppose what I really want to say is that yes, people change, especially in bed-- but what we become isn't less ourselves but more ourselves when our issues or inhibitions stop limiting us. In some ways, I think a character should be more recognizable in bed than in the office, where they're more likely to wear masks and conform to what the situation requires-- whereas with a good partner, at least, the person would let go of all the things that they've learned with age and exposure to society, and show their true desires.
In this way, to write someone in bed is to ask the question, 'what does this character really want?'-- and how can that not be rooted in canon?
5. Draco Malfoy will top Harry Potter when Muggle pigs fly.
[this one is self-explanatory :/ heh]
~~
EDIT - Omg omg! Much more interestingly than that (god, I need new material), I'm watching my download of Psych (the first ep) and <3333333333333 YEAY THE SNARK & THE CUTENESS <33333333333 I will update here when I've seen the rest of the ep! :D!
EDIT #2 - All right, um... I've watched the episode and it was REALLY CUTE, but I don't have anything meaty or... uh, coherent to say about it. It -would- be pretty cute slash though. Hee, man, I love skeptical straight-man types with sort of bubbly/effusive-yet-sekritly-competent airhead types... :>
EDIT #3 - Man, so much for American television, I guess. I'm just a lot more charmed by about 10 minutes of this cute little Jdrama office romance, Sapuri. Wheeeeee~~~
1. There's no such thing as 'gay in HP canon'.
[but especially relevant with HBP!Harry]
God, I hate arguing about subtext... I mean, subtext is there to be either ignored or squeed about (in fandom or anywhere where tempers are high), not analyzed. This I have come to believe. I swear though, if I hear one more time about how Harry 'stalking' Draco means he then ran off to wank madly in the nearest bathroom... or how Remus couldn't accept Tonks' advances, really, BECAUSE HE IS SO GAY... I'll just start hitting my head against the wall. WHY. *thump* WHY. *thump* WHY. *thump* :/
2. Harry is not a sweet, naive & trusting loving perfect boyfriend.
[especially not with someone he thinks is a nasty git]
In general, Harry's constant idealization has started to really annoy me a lot more since I've sort of given up on Draco in fandom. People will tell me that Draco doesn't even exist in canon so anything goes, and I have no energy to even care about that attitude anymore. But. But. You cannot tell me Harry doesn't "exist in canon", so SUCK IT UP. He exists, and he's actually done many more nasty & naughty things than Draco, and is in many ways equally blind/intolerant/stubborn and is actually more willful about it, I think. And he will probably do more questionably nice things in book 7. (And I love him! And don't think he's a selfish horrible asshole at all!)
In other words, Harry may have more of an independent moral center, or more potential to do good, or more selfless ideals (than Draco, Snape or VOLDEMORT), but this doesn't make him sweet or trusting! It makes him a halfway decent bloke!
3. The H/D & S/R & R/Hr ships aren't lame!
[but the shippers & the fics often are]
...I mean, if only I had a nickel for every time someone said 'H/D is a stupid & boring ship' & then went on to talk about the horribly fanony and implausible things people come up with for Draco (I mean, in the universe that's actually beyond leather pants alone) and Harry. It's so frustrating hearing non-shippers talk about the very things I've always ranted about in fanfic for my own ship and using that as a reason to dismiss it as a lost cause or a ridiculous ship in general. Likewise with all the idiotic canon!wank that goes on with S/R and the way its shippers are seen as delusional fanatics on par with H/Hr canon-obsessives, who insist canon!Remus is gay, the 'hug that's more than just a hug' and the 'joint presents = LURVE' as the One True Basis of the ship. :/
(And do I even have to go into the rep that fanatical 'good-shippers' have? It also doesn't help that people assume that if you ship H/Hr, R/Hr, R/T, H/G, J/L or S/R, it's because you're a canon-predictive shipper who's concerned with who'll end up with whom or was with whom in the actual text. Though admittedly you never hear from people who like personal-fanon!H/G but not canon!H/G... liking fanon!S/R but otherwise being sane is actually not that uncommon.)
HI. My name is Reena and I ship Sirius/Remus because there -are- actually awesome fics written for that pairing (amidst the 97.7% of it that's crap, of course).
4. A character's sexual/fanon behavior & preferences can be rooted in canon.
[because while we may behave differently in bed, they should be logical differences]
Well, this is part of a large trend which denies the connection between canon & fanon, the sort of spectrum of behavior that can follow from a (related) instance in canon. It's either 'in bed' or 'when they're adult' or 'with another man'-- people use all sorts of excuses to have someone change their central characteristics without any tangible ties to the past or the everyday. I suppose what I really want to say is that yes, people change, especially in bed-- but what we become isn't less ourselves but more ourselves when our issues or inhibitions stop limiting us. In some ways, I think a character should be more recognizable in bed than in the office, where they're more likely to wear masks and conform to what the situation requires-- whereas with a good partner, at least, the person would let go of all the things that they've learned with age and exposure to society, and show their true desires.
In this way, to write someone in bed is to ask the question, 'what does this character really want?'-- and how can that not be rooted in canon?
5. Draco Malfoy will top Harry Potter when Muggle pigs fly.
[this one is self-explanatory :/ heh]
~~
EDIT - Omg omg! Much more interestingly than that (god, I need new material), I'm watching my download of Psych (the first ep) and <3333333333333 YEAY THE SNARK & THE CUTENESS <33333333333 I will update here when I've seen the rest of the ep! :D!
EDIT #2 - All right, um... I've watched the episode and it was REALLY CUTE, but I don't have anything meaty or... uh, coherent to say about it. It -would- be pretty cute slash though. Hee, man, I love skeptical straight-man types with sort of bubbly/effusive-yet-sekritly-competent airhead types... :>
EDIT #3 - Man, so much for American television, I guess. I'm just a lot more charmed by about 10 minutes of this cute little Jdrama office romance, Sapuri. Wheeeeee~~~
