Flashbacks...

[heidi]

Originally posted by angiej:

18+ months and 14,000 stories after the debut of HP fanfiction
online, we've developed lots of extra canonical character traits that
are generally accepted. These are the ones I've noticed:

DRACO
--Is a great dresser with expensive taste.
--Takes issue with some of Lucius' ways.
(Sidebar: I re-read Cassie's DD this morning, and now it's
confirmed. I *adore* the fanfic version of Draco. You've GOT to
love the way he lights up a scene--even in canon.)

RON
--Has a temper to match his hair. (Anne-fan joke.)
--Is never the most perceptive character in the fic.

HARRY
--Has a tendency to be moody and rather secretive about his feelings
and personal affairs.
--Is the most famous person in the wizarding world throughout his
lifetime.

HERMIONE
--Is the center of the romantic universe, *even* in non-romance fics.
--Wins the Character Most Likely To BE OOC award... my favorite
manifestion of this is the damsel in distress syndrome.
--Often is a cover for the author's Mary Sue, self-insertion
desires.

GINNY
--Remains nearly as naive as she was in CoS throughout her lifetime.
--Has a superb sense of style... reminiscent of Draco, but she's
trendy where he's classic.

SNAPE
--Was secretly in love with Lily, a Mary Sue, or some other canonical
character.
--Has a perfectly reasonable explanation for hating Harry and the
Gryffindors.
--Is actually quite sympathetic if we'd just sit him down for a
session of psychotherapy, probing into his childhood, his tragic
Death Eater past, his lonely years at Hogwarts teaching Potions while
longing for the DADA position.

VOLDEMORT
--Is something less than Evil Incarnate and is in reality a
"grey"
character instead of the wicked-for-the-sake-of-being-wicked fiend
JKR insists she is.
--Was a sympathetic character in his Tom Marvolo Riddle days.

SIRIUS
--Is a dead sexy lady-killer, unreformed until some worthy lady
reforms his rakehell tendencies.
--Is a melodramatic tragic figure, reminiscent of "The
Fugitive", who
lapses into angst-ridden streams of consciousness about the Golden
Days Before Azkaban.

LUPIN
--Always turns into a werewolf in the fic, no matter whether it has
anything to do with the storyline or not.
--Is among one of the most underutilized canonical figures.

LILY/JAMES
--Wanted Harry and anticipated his birth.
--Either had a fiery love-hate relationship, experienced a Romeo-
Juliet like situation, or were platonic friends that secretly longed
for one another for years before becoming lovers... my theory is that
the POV is directly related to the writer's conscious or
subconscious
primary second-generation ship preference.

And now for the question of the day (asked because I'm being interviewed by someone who is very sympathetic-to-fans next week):

How did you get into the Harry Potter fandom?

My answer: I came in after reading an article about the HPfGU Yahoo Club in the Washington Post the day before GoF was released. I joined, I did a suitably stupid first post, I went to buy the book, and I came back and started discussing it with the likes of sjbranford and, iirc, folk, among others.

Comments

[smilie117.livejournal.com]

Hmmm - I read the books in Dec '00 - loved it after the first few chapters of HPSS, recommended by a friend. By the time I was finished with GoF - I wanted more - LOL - but sadly there was no OotP nor the rest of the seires yet - sooooo having discovered X-Men related fandom stuff off of FFN back then - I figure I'd give Harry Potter a shot.

This was Jan '01 - and hence found stories - where I used to read anything and everything at a time *so long ago* and hence my slow integration into fandom by reading stories off of FFN and then following links to Y!Groups which lead to me learning about FA from Y!Groups which eventually lead me to FAP - not when it first started, but rather a half a year later when I was linked to it somehow - was surprised I hadn't found it sooner...

Delurking in Jan '02 by posting to a forum at FAP, and the rest is history - meeting lovely people to talk about various things HP - some of whom I had the great chance of meeting in person :D esp. at Nimbus :) so basically it was on a whim to give fandom a try while waiting for the rest of the series... just turned into something more when I made friends past the HP :D [end rambles]