HP: oh, the unsexy of it all....

[reenka]

So um... I was thinking about 'Good-bye to Yesterday', the latest hd_holidays fic while I was out-- specifically its Draco & Harry characterizations. The Harry in it is especially unsympathetic (in a mostly believable way that I enjoyed, because it wasn't unbelievable in a grating way and more in a way that made me think). I guess I'd say it's a valid interpretation of canon that I think works for the story but is still essentially incomplete/incorrect (in an interesting way); doesn't matter, 'cause the story was really about Draco, who was so great :> What I'm saying is, Harry's seeming refusal to see Draco as a 'real person' -has- been a problem in canon; it's just that he's likely to do 'the right thing' but not in a blind way, if that makes sense.
    The end of HBP showed that Harry's not blinded by his dislike of Malfoy when presented with new evidence.... So if Draco in fact was a good boy during the rest of the war, Harry would reclassify him as 'okay' while still thinking he was a nasty poncey git, I think. But this is a fine point of interpretation that would've prevented the whole plot from happening if followed :P Mostly, I feel if Harry did open up even a little, talking to Draco or even just using him to say stuff he couldn't stay to his friends, it would be meaningful to Harry also just because he doesn't do that sort of thing easily/lightly. I'm torn on whether he'd fuck him without a real transformation in the way he sees Malfoy (more than what happened in HBP); on the one hand, no, because he's so closed-off, but on the other hand he's been known to think with his uh, inner 'monster' :P Btw, I speak so frankly/easily about this 'cause I'm pretty certain I know who the author is & I'm also certain she wouldn't mind.


    But yeah, it raised interesting questions in my mind about how H/D really works. Mostly 'cause Draco started seriously falling for Harry kind of... outside of Harry's presence, just thinking/fixating on him and his hatred, etc. In a way, in this story Harry was especially obvious as a cipher-- kind of a trigger for Draco's issues, a symbol. I mean, it also made me think about the problem I myself encounter, writing hardcore hatred/resentment towards Potter on Draco's part-- namely, that this tends to make Harry into an unsympathetic character, especially if you don't get into his head, and it may seem a little "...." to see them together afterwards at all. That the story worked (I think) with this set-up is something I especially admire, though it'd be interesting to ask a romantically inclined person who was also a non-shipper. I mean, I might just be intrinsically willing to go 'of COURSE Draco wants to suck Potter's cock FOR ALL ETERNITY', whatdya mean 'reason' :D I actually read fics where they're fucking but not super-obsessive/fixated on each other and go "...THIS IS REALLY OOC" ahahahahalskfjaslkjfalskjdskljfa;lkjsjkld

See, my excuse is that it's -sooooooo- unlikely that in fact, they'd need an automatically implied subconscious 'reason' for it to happen at all (on top of & beyond whatever conscious 'reason' being used, like 'it's just for fun' or 'for revenge' or 'we were drunk' or whatever); it's sort of like... uh... how do I explain this. It's like you know there is gravity because you fall, except instead of 'natural law' or 'human nature', you're just describing these two people, ahahah :D But seriously, what I mean is, casual sex is OOC for H/D; not in the sense that you'd need courtship, a relationship and 'omg TWUE WUV' but rather that it'd be too meaningful/too much of a shock to have no consequences, so even if it started from a drunken encounter or whatever, it would immediately get complicated and messed up/intense afterwards, just because of their involved history/self-image issues. Or something.
    Anyway, it made me wonder if I'm so okay with an unsympathetic Harry and/or Draco who operate on negative emotions so much because I don't get starry-eyed about either of them. (Given that too much negativity tends to make you an ugly human being, leaving romantic angst aside.) What I'm in love with is their dynamic, and possibly their issues and patches of darkness especially (Draco's insecurity/need to prove himself/rage/denial, Harry's... well, Harry's a nice little ball of emo and entitlement and projection....)

Anyway, while I -love- them (adore, even) as characters, I don't have anything particularly invested in them romantically for myself the way I do even in Heero (from Gundam Wing) or Blair from The Sentinel-- I mean, I'm not in love with them either, but I'm a lot more attracted to them being 'cool' in their different ways. I like them to be cool (though in character); with Harry & Draco, I actually get off on their uncoolness, sorta. Usually, I'd think 'oh well, Snape is really the one who's my type anyway' and that'd be it, but-- Snape doesn't do it for me either, not really. Even 'translating' him into a more palatable (to me) closest related romantic archetype doesn't really -work-, 'cause he's just too... SNAPE. Thinking about why this is got me kind of carried away :>

    
I could actually see myself writing a paper on this, not that anyone would care 'cause it'd be like, "Romantic Archetype Protagonists and Harry Potter: why none of them really work", hahah (or maybe it would and people would boo and hiss? that'd be fun). The funny part is, I understand about being starry-eyed and too in love with book characters to see them entirely 'objectively'-- I fall in love with fictional protagonists all the time, especially of the 'tall, dark, flawed and brooding' variety straight out of old-school shoujo manga, and there are (superficially) quite a few different flavors of this type in the books. So it's actually quite interesting to me why (while I love them) I haven't fallen in love with any HP character. I know it's not necessary to like the character 'that way' yourself to like them in a pairing-- but it's very common, possibly predominant in fandom. I'm not especially emotionally distant (quite the opposite) when I read, so that rationale doesn't apply; and while I can see why some shippers are offended at the idea that they're in love with half of their pairing and want to be get laid by them-- straight up, this is how I operate a lot of times (though it's always concurrent with me actually being interested in the pairing on its own terms & doesn't mean I like OOCness or Mary Sues).

I was actually thinking you'd get a character I could fall for if you mixed Snape & Sirius but then the idea makes me queasy-- it seems ridiculous. Imagine mixing Harry & Snape. Poor insane little character, ahahah :))
    The closest to a 'romantic archetype' protagonist is obviously Sirius, and it's actually quite interesting why he doesn't 'work' in a romantic protagonist light for me-- rather than personality, in his case it's almost entirely circumstance. But it made me think that having a certain sort of life-- being in control of your destiny, even if you have a tragic past-- is also essential to be a romantic anti/hero protagonist. Sirius is constantly buffeted by fate, and in the end, even with all that willpower & persistence, he doesn't accomplish much that he wanted (and by 'much' I mean 'anything'). While he makes a great tragic character, he strikes at the major problem I have with HP boys in general-- pity is not a romantic emotion. The second thing is probably that he's not a protagonist in the books-- he's just not really there a lot. You get the feeling like he'd be So Cool if he was (especially pre-Azkaban), but that's just a side-note, only relevant as backstory.

To qualify, yes, hurt/comfort is a subgenre of romance (in terms of literature, there's obviously stuff like 'Jane Eyre', which I'd loved as an impressionable child), but with Rochester, I wouldn't call the eventual loss of eyesight central to his arc or character-- it's a resolution, a way to make him more obviously vulnerable, but that's because he was such a towering, powerful figure to start with. With JKR's men (namely, Harry, Draco, Snape, Remus & Sirius), the vulnerabilities are front and center, badges of capital 'S' Suffering rather than something to be teased out and soothed with love. It gets to the point where there are something like 3 options: either you write some version of hurt/comfort (which I generally tend to dislike a LOT, partly 'cause it often involves sissifying, sniffling and assorted OOCness in most fics), you play up their negative/destructive qualities to make them more 'badass' and manly, or you basically fanonize them into romantic heroes with the prettified angst (if any, it tends to be pasted on rather than based on canon) & attractive-version 'vulnerability'.
    I think this sort of... nontraditionalism or unfitness for romanticism that characterizes the HP men may actually explain why there's such a prevalence of heavy fanon for Snape, Draco and Harry (and Remus, but differently). People sense that the characters don't 'fit', so they make them fit, simple as that.

I mean, Snape is... he's an interesting case, because obviously he works for a lot of people (and so do the others-- I mean, I hope it's clear I'm primarily talking about myself); the thing is, he 'works' in more canon-centric way than the others-- meaning, Snape-fans seem to focus on his canon self more than romantic!Draco or romantic!Harry fans do. Obviously, he suffers, and yet seems to push off the hurt/comfort sissifying trend by virtue of being such an ornery bastard about it-- I mean, Remus is stoic, but that's not as good a 'defense' against rabid cooing fangirls as being a bloody bastard. It's sort of like House is about his disability-- like, he's such a nasty human being regardless, you sort of forget to feel sorry for him. It's a good game. But. To me, Snape's (theoretical potential) mysterious romantic aura is completely destroyed by the fact that we -know- how bitter and powerless he is, used both by Snape & Dumbledore; it's easier for me to be attracted to a character who's disliked if they're disliked because No One Really Knows Them. It sounds like a romantic cliche, but here we're talking about precisely that: romantic cliches.
    Like, okay-- for me to perceive someone as romantic, I generally need to think that the other person in the potential pairing will have access to a secret, 'super special' part of the other's character-- they don't have to 'save' them or 'change' them (that just tends to be done badly), but they -do- have to have a soft spot. Something vulnerable and needy, something ready to succumb to love and become passionate and open. You can't really love without that spot of passionate openness-- if you're just too bruised or too bristly a character, it would be like watching a walking talking rock. I think Snape -could- have had that dynamic if you caught him early enough (in Hogwarts or his early twenties at most), but by the time we meet him, he's an emotional raisin. All dried up. I think that's why most Snape romances that I've read (...not a lot, admittedly) wind up with him OOC once the dam breaks.

Though really, it's not like some theoretical 'super special part' (...I know that sounds lame, okay! I'm tired! uh...) is really why Snape doesn't work for me as a romantic object; it's a lot simpler than that. Mostly, he's just pathetic. I don't mean that as a diss, I just mean uh, literally, he's full of pathos. That sort of mourning, bitter quality that would be attractive if only it wasn't so much on the passive victimization-and-lashing-out side, or something. A character that gets back at his teenage foes through their 11 year-old son? Pathetic.
    Though I say this, it's not that I can't see him-- or the others I'm talking about, obviously-- in a romantic pairing, and love that pairing. This is entirely about me taking someone out of context as a character & finding them romantic all by themselves. (Just to make that clear again if it wasn't.) Though with adult Snape, I would pretty much say it's impossible to make any pairing he's in truly 'romantic', it's vaguely plausible to me with Snape/Lily in a semi-AU sense. But. That's just me. -.-;

Draco is most obviously not a romantic protagonist; he's just a boy, with a boy's emotional range (more intensely passionate/emotionally interesting than RON, but then we're talking Ron, and below Ron is ABYSS). I've always been fascinated with his crush/fixation/hatred of Potter because that's the thing that I find romantic in general-- yearning or need, even if it's need for revenge or need for attention-- I find canon!Draco very needy, and that's the foundation of passionate romance. The thing is, this is entirely focused on Potter and himself/his own life-- by himself, he's not someone who's mature or emotionally complex & commanding enough to inspire much starry-eyed heart-pattering (to me). By himself, he's an interesting character, definitely, but too powerless and silly-- always failing, his plans always (eventually) falling through, his jokes falling flat, his very existence (in his own eyes!) thwarted by someone else (Potter). That's just... unsexy; good for romantic comedy, maybe, though it's more like just 'comedy'. There must be a reason my favorite Dracos in fic tend to be cute/humorous ones. It's like, his energy and ability to put himself out there and face making a fool of himself over & over, even consciously so if it wins an audience-- that's one of his most attractive qualities, but it's not a romantic lead type of thing. It's almost always the 'sidekick' comic relief 'best friend' type role. I mean, you can take him seriously, but that's where you have either the hurt/comfort (which... blech) or the descent into non-romantically-focused growing up angst. Conversely, I like him as a boy; he's fun. As an adult, he may or may not be romantic, but my bet is on not. He'll always be himself, so he'll always be a fool. Oh Draco ♥. Even at 12, I was emotionally too old for you, just like with Ron ^^;;;;;

...Though yeah, immaturity/stupid-boy-syndrome can be romantic, it's generally when it's an aberration. Like, in terms of romanticism, it works for (emotionally immature/stupid) protagonists when it's framed by machoness. Believable machoness, not Draco-style attempted machoness. -.- Oh, and I was thinking about the H/D fics I've read where I'd fallen in love with the Draco in it (and it's hard! there are so few!) and all I can think of is Cassie's Trilogy!Draco (I know... somewhat embarrassing, but oh the angst & devotion & emotional distance... buttons, man, BUTTONS). Mostly I don't find fanon!Draco hot 'cause like, he's got no real personality except 'cool', but in a bland way. Almost all my favorite fanon!Dracos (like Maya's, Aspen's, Silvia's) are cute rather than hot. 'Tis sad. I remember really liking Irresistible Poison!Draco and In Dialogia!Draco. Okay, In Dialogia!Draco, there you go-- I totally had a crush on him, but he's really a unique instance of fanon hybridization... he's Lib's Draco except softer. AH. Man, I loved In Dialogia so much :(

I don't feel I even need to go into why Remus doesn't work-- he's such an obvious hurt/comfort-ey beaten down character, though theoretically he has potential (something that's a recurrent theme in the HP books, it seems). He's a werewolf who's got a gentle/bookish passive-aggressive personality-- that sort of internal split is the very stuff dramatic romantic protagonists are made of. But. Again, we know him when he's too old, and we see the history stretching out behind him (and even after Tonks-- the way that happened-- also in front of him), where he never really cracks. I mean, I actually think the Tonks thing may have been in-character insofar as the kind of approach that's going to -work- on Remus (ie, wearing him down with sheer juvenile melodrama). Instead of ever responding to her, he just gave in-- which is really the big problem with Remus. All fanfic fantasies to the contrary, in actual canon we only see him crack twice, once in the Shack and once in the Dept of Mysteries (and people wonder why he's perceived as gay!!!). I wouldn't say that Remus is a limp sock or anything-- I mean, he obviously has backbone and is stoic, but in a way that's the problem. While stoicism is often sexy and is basically a romantic trope, Remus' stoicism is just a way of pushing everyone away, and not in an angsty/tortured way. More in a 'god, just leave me alone, I'm tired' sort of way. Hahaha, you get the feeling he's like Dumbledore & just wants socks for Christmas :> Not that one needs one's fictional crush to be all 'oh love me, baby', but talk about a character that tweaks one's nonsexual maternal instincts....

...Which brings me, inevitably, to Harry :D

He's interesting because he's more subtle than Remus, Draco or Snape-- like, he doesn't have any pure extremes in his life or character; he's got both sides more often than not, in terms of experience as well as personality. Like, being a victim and a bully, vulnerable/self-pitying and stoic, both passively reactive and aggressive, both childish and oddly emotionally balanced/in-control-- Harry's hard to pigeonhole. The thing about Harry that prevents him from being romantic as a character is really that we know him too well; he doesn't have much in the sense of mystery, and he also lacks the major component of need. That vulnerable hidden part of oneself that needs to be uncovered/loved by the other person. I mean, on the one hand, Harry's whole personality revolves around his starvedness & need for love, but that's just it-- while he needs it, he also gets it. In many ways, the very fact that he's a complete person makes it difficult to get starry-eyed about him as a romantic protagonist; the other thing is that he's getting his completion from a non-romantic source: his friends (and mentors). His relationships with Ginny & Cho seem to indicate that while he's a healthy teenage boy who falls for pretty sporty girls, he doesn't have any deep emotional vulnerabilities there. I don't think that this is the so-called definition of 'teenage romance'-- I mean, his own father shows that. Come to think of, James is really the only one who fits my personal definition of 'romantic protagonist', in theory-- maybe, if he was more angsty/conflicted. Regardless, James had close relationships with his friends too and yet he really needed and obsessed over Lily for years. Point is, being a teenager in no way prevents you from fixating on romance 'seriously'-- in fact, teenagers can probably get -more- insane/serious about it than adults. In any case, Harry is not James, and Ginny's no Lily (in some ways, her history's been the opposite of Lily's-- I mean, both being 'spunky' isn't enough to make two characters alike).

However, I think Harry (if weathered and 'darkened') could be -made- into a romantic protagonist, though few people actually do it out of a general woobification principle, I guess; for some reason, people who like Harry seem to like him because he's 'The Hero' or 'The Poor Little Orphan Boy'. Not to say that the people who transform him into an utter heartless bastard & candidate for the next Dark Lord are really on the right track either, obviously. The very nature of Harry (as I see it) is that duality, that balance in his nature between one and the other (and this is canon! he 'inhaled' some Voldemort as a baby, y'know! haha) Although honestly, the real reason I don't have a crush on him is 'cause I'm all 'awwww my little sugarmuffin!!!!' about him. ^^;; I mean, we've followed him since he was ELEVEN. And was all scruffy and small and in a CUPBOARD and he talked to SNAKES and had a temper and thought Malfoy was... *gets carried away*
    The thing is (for me) that it's hard for me to get starry-eyed about what's basically fanon, even if believable/possible canon development-wise (that you know would never happen 'cause we all know about Ginny & OBHWF and babieeezzzz). I like actual characters who happen to fit (romantic) archetypes, not archetypes I can foist onto characters, if that makes sense. It's just a different naturally preferred direction from the majority of fandom, I guess.
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In other news, I thought I knew fannish pain, but I definitely wasn't ready to innocently open an S/R fic and actually see the dreaded 'Siri' in a decently-written fic. Oh man. When you sort of think 'maybe this one will be okay' and then you find out it's horridly OOC with a 'Siri'... that is a special kind of SOUL PANE, ya dig. -.-;; Although at this point in the fandom development, one wonders how you could not realize it's just LAME through sheer osmosis. It's stuff like this that made me soooo very romanticism/fanon unfriendly in HP *facepalm*