HP pairings and such
Mar. 28th, 2003 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserIf you don't care a lick about Harry Potter, you can skip this post.
I'm highly sleepy, so let's all hope that this makes sense in the end. It seems like everyone in the HP fan world has some ship they like (ship = pairing, for those not in the know. Harry/Draco, Dobby/Padfoot, etc). Oddly, the number of pairings I *don't* like greatly outnumbers the pairings I do... but only on the surface it seems.
Draco/Hermione is a typical example. I say to myself (or my computer, cat, whatever) that I don't like that pairing. It makes no sense. The characters would never end up as friends, let alone in bed together... but then I find a story where it works. Tonight I gave up on TV and read Christmas Is In the Air... Don't Breathe Too Deeply!, a rather funny short story about Draco and Hermione hitting it off over Christmas break (and Lucius Malfoy and Dobby on holiday together, heehee). When I finished reading it, I had no qualms with those two having a physical relationship.
Snape/Harry is another one where I just put my foot down and said 'No no no! Just no way! They cannot be friends!', but then I read Clipped Wings (I can't find the URL, I think it's on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
isiscolo's recs page), and once more I had to change how I felt about it.
So see, there are so many times when pairings shouldn't work, but a story makes it totally believable. I wonder if that says something about me? Am I too closed-minded? Do I think I know the canon so well that I'm not open to possibilities? Or am I totally backwards on this and somehow writers are skilled enough that they take the character, keep it to be totally on-character, and yet still somehow make the situations believable? I guess there's a third option, too: How much does the situation play a part in this? Could the setup be the key?
That story I mentioned earlier today, the one about Goyle/Colin, it had only the most barebones situation enabling the slash part of the story (the two were at the lake together and Colin checked out Goyle's body). So in its case, the pairing-which-shouldn't-work didn't get (much) help from the setting/setup. The writing was good, but not the most amazing I ever read. So why did I finish the story buying that the two of them really could (in the books) somehow end up having sex together?
I wonder if it's sort of like on a MUSH (online RPG): You apply for a character, you RP it, and if you're doing it right then your character will grow and change. Character development. But if a MUSH character grows and changes, it's usually in a... "linear" sort of way. In general, characters don't just turn gay overnight (snerk snerk to the one person who might be reading this and is the exception to that rule). So why does it work in fanfics?
I'm highly sleepy, so let's all hope that this makes sense in the end. It seems like everyone in the HP fan world has some ship they like (ship = pairing, for those not in the know. Harry/Draco, Dobby/Padfoot, etc). Oddly, the number of pairings I *don't* like greatly outnumbers the pairings I do... but only on the surface it seems.
Draco/Hermione is a typical example. I say to myself (or my computer, cat, whatever) that I don't like that pairing. It makes no sense. The characters would never end up as friends, let alone in bed together... but then I find a story where it works. Tonight I gave up on TV and read Christmas Is In the Air... Don't Breathe Too Deeply!, a rather funny short story about Draco and Hermione hitting it off over Christmas break (and Lucius Malfoy and Dobby on holiday together, heehee). When I finished reading it, I had no qualms with those two having a physical relationship.
Snape/Harry is another one where I just put my foot down and said 'No no no! Just no way! They cannot be friends!', but then I read Clipped Wings (I can't find the URL, I think it's on
isiscolo's recs page), and once more I had to change how I felt about it.So see, there are so many times when pairings shouldn't work, but a story makes it totally believable. I wonder if that says something about me? Am I too closed-minded? Do I think I know the canon so well that I'm not open to possibilities? Or am I totally backwards on this and somehow writers are skilled enough that they take the character, keep it to be totally on-character, and yet still somehow make the situations believable? I guess there's a third option, too: How much does the situation play a part in this? Could the setup be the key?
That story I mentioned earlier today, the one about Goyle/Colin, it had only the most barebones situation enabling the slash part of the story (the two were at the lake together and Colin checked out Goyle's body). So in its case, the pairing-which-shouldn't-work didn't get (much) help from the setting/setup. The writing was good, but not the most amazing I ever read. So why did I finish the story buying that the two of them really could (in the books) somehow end up having sex together?
I wonder if it's sort of like on a MUSH (online RPG): You apply for a character, you RP it, and if you're doing it right then your character will grow and change. Character development. But if a MUSH character grows and changes, it's usually in a... "linear" sort of way. In general, characters don't just turn gay overnight (snerk snerk to the one person who might be reading this and is the exception to that rule). So why does it work in fanfics?
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Date: 2003-04-02 10:55 am (UTC)I think a whole lot of it is setup, and a whole lot of it is authorial skill.
I think that for most people the "oh-not-those-two" attitude largely comes from within rather than from canon. For example, Snape/Hermione squicks me no end, but I have a secret love for Snape/Harry; but if you force me I will admit that the former is more likely than the latter. In fact, I think I will go so far as to say that the canon-unlikeliness of two characters falling in love or even just having sex is a positive factor for me. Harry/Ginny is just boring. Even Remus/Sirius, to me, needs to cross a higher bar to really catch my attention. But Snape/Sirius or Snape/Harry -- the story has to take into account the unlikeliness of the match, and if it's done right it can be amazing. I suppose this is why I prefer "first time" type stories, as the backstory must be presented.
Of course, then there are stories like Lust Over Pendle, wherein the unlikeliness of Draco/Neville hardly springs to mind amongst all the other cool things going on.