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what if..? (2)
Nov. 20th, 2020 01:39 pm okay here's a prompt for you guys, if you could ponify any fic (or just steal x, x, and x elements from x fic) and turn it into the fic of your dreams (whether it be for your most recent otp or your most longstanding one, or whatever!) what franken-mashup of a fic would you have? links and over-zealous explanation welcome.
so here's my thing, it's the time of month (or so) where i reread the three drarry fics i deeply enjoy. why these particular three? the combination of:
so, there's my list off the top of my head....and well, it doesn't quite explain what my frakenfic would be.... but i have a couple ideas:
for brevity i will end it here, and maybe instead comment on the other type of hp fic i'd like to frankenmash together in the world - but i hope this works as a example of what i'm encouraging in the comments! if this flops you HAAATEEEE me. but also like, it's open to anything! you could literally drop 6 ao3 links and be like 'the chanhee in a skirt complex queer narrative we Deserve' and.... welll, it would be funny TO ME.
the last point that i'd like to make is that i'm encouraging frankenfic-ing particular because fic inherently has meta interwoven into the narrative, and i think what makes fic good - regardless of how regurgitated and same-same it can be - is that when it's GOOD, it's often because that meta. plus like, fic is already a collaged piece of writing in itself (with how it picks and choses what it wants from it's derived media), and so adding a second layer of collaging .... to me, again, FUN!
however, with this still in mind if you just want to franken-mash like original works (whether that be wattpad stories you read in 2014) or cringe ya novels you still keep up with nowww, please feel free to do so!
so here's my thing, it's the time of month (or so) where i reread the three drarry fics i deeply enjoy. why these particular three? the combination of:
<harry is brown; hermione is black>: this is so self-explanatory, i also like it when harry at least has some experience with being brown whether that be like immediately assuming racism (ch.2 - 'stately homes of wiltshire'), or like canonifying that james potter was brown and the name 'potter' is some run-off of a more indian name (weird example, holly black book 'white cat' where mc has a one-off tangent about how his last name 'singer' was transmuted from 'singh')
<exploration into his shitty horrible character via the trauma that comes with being an unloved orphan>: so i think we ALL love trauma (i swear i don't mean it in the horrible way it sounds when i phrase it like this), that 13 year old past self who thought up the most shitty and tragic backstories for all their ocs Lives On! in every single one of us; there is quite nothing like character with 0 realization of their shitty self-esteem going like 'why are you looking at me?' and you, the reader, realizing the other person thinks they are stupidly beautiful, knobbly fingers and messy hair and all. all this, for sure, but on a more serious, and empathetic note - harry's horrible childhood is something that's kind-of more written off as the series goes on and it's something we don't get explored because the whole point of hogwarts is that it's wonderful and better and magical, and it's a place where he doesn't have to acknowledge the muggle life of his. and having an author take that seriously and be like 'he's unbearable in these ways because of this, but for that same reason he's sympathetic' is really nice. and it's the whole concept of like, knowing these characters have been written with love and care and thought, because all the fucked up aspects of their life are being looked at and thought about and resolved in a way they weren't or couldn't be in canon.
<some understanding that draco malfoy is a posh asshole, but has been previously vaguely 'redeemed' offscreen...so the fic starts off where he is at point zero>: this one is kind of a hit or miss at times, because in the process of expanding out draco and making him likeable and understandable, he sometimes ends up unrecognizable (like in 'What We Pretend We Can't See' which, it's not like I did not enjoy [the portrayal and/or character], but like ... That is Not Draco Malfoy). I think 'Hermione Granger's Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run' does this quite well though! one of the problems with a lot of recent media, is that the character arc starts from when the asshole is ignorant and stupid and privileged and bigoted, and ends so they Understand how horrible and ignorant they were...which is just stupid. if you're going to have someone sympathetic be from a position of privilege and power, they should already be kind and aware of the grace of their situation - because it's just harder to like them when they go from -5 to 0 and you have to be like 'oh! they're fine NOW' no they're not!!! this does have some nuance and depends on what you want to do with the character, but like 8/10 times, they should've started at 0. in Hogwarts Crammer though, Draco does start at zero! and while he doesn't get much of a vertical character arc, by the end of it you can see him trying to embrace the renegade life. it's preddie good. but he is still, very recognizably, a stuck up post (vaguely flamboyant) asshole. arsehole. it's good! same thing with Stately Homes which I actually think is my favourite Draco characterization of the three, where he knows he was a shithead and a bastard and is like, we don't have to focus on that or feel sorry for me, but we do know I'm Not That Dude anymore... I really liked it for that when I read it this time around, haha.
<some plot regarding exploration into hp's very vague magic system>: motherfucker if you know me you know i love LORE. and i love lore the most when it is deftly woven into the framework of the narrative.....like What We Pretend We Can't See is so good because the B-plot is about 12 Grimmauld Place and the magic that's interwoven into it - and it gives you a glimpse of how wizards live day to day with magic, and really highlights what the magic of Hogwarts and why we all wanted to be a part of it was. the way magic is just a second nature to everything in the wizarding world.....well if u know how i feel then u know.
>harry b*tt*ms - which...to me is just sexier. iyk how i feel about Jocks, among other things...
<exploration into his shitty horrible character via the trauma that comes with being an unloved orphan>: so i think we ALL love trauma (i swear i don't mean it in the horrible way it sounds when i phrase it like this), that 13 year old past self who thought up the most shitty and tragic backstories for all their ocs Lives On! in every single one of us; there is quite nothing like character with 0 realization of their shitty self-esteem going like 'why are you looking at me?' and you, the reader, realizing the other person thinks they are stupidly beautiful, knobbly fingers and messy hair and all. all this, for sure, but on a more serious, and empathetic note - harry's horrible childhood is something that's kind-of more written off as the series goes on and it's something we don't get explored because the whole point of hogwarts is that it's wonderful and better and magical, and it's a place where he doesn't have to acknowledge the muggle life of his. and having an author take that seriously and be like 'he's unbearable in these ways because of this, but for that same reason he's sympathetic' is really nice. and it's the whole concept of like, knowing these characters have been written with love and care and thought, because all the fucked up aspects of their life are being looked at and thought about and resolved in a way they weren't or couldn't be in canon.
<some understanding that draco malfoy is a posh asshole, but has been previously vaguely 'redeemed' offscreen...so the fic starts off where he is at point zero>: this one is kind of a hit or miss at times, because in the process of expanding out draco and making him likeable and understandable, he sometimes ends up unrecognizable (like in 'What We Pretend We Can't See' which, it's not like I did not enjoy [the portrayal and/or character], but like ... That is Not Draco Malfoy). I think 'Hermione Granger's Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run' does this quite well though! one of the problems with a lot of recent media, is that the character arc starts from when the asshole is ignorant and stupid and privileged and bigoted, and ends so they Understand how horrible and ignorant they were...which is just stupid. if you're going to have someone sympathetic be from a position of privilege and power, they should already be kind and aware of the grace of their situation - because it's just harder to like them when they go from -5 to 0 and you have to be like 'oh! they're fine NOW' no they're not!!! this does have some nuance and depends on what you want to do with the character, but like 8/10 times, they should've started at 0. in Hogwarts Crammer though, Draco does start at zero! and while he doesn't get much of a vertical character arc, by the end of it you can see him trying to embrace the renegade life. it's preddie good. but he is still, very recognizably, a stuck up post (vaguely flamboyant) asshole. arsehole. it's good! same thing with Stately Homes which I actually think is my favourite Draco characterization of the three, where he knows he was a shithead and a bastard and is like, we don't have to focus on that or feel sorry for me, but we do know I'm Not That Dude anymore... I really liked it for that when I read it this time around, haha.
<some plot regarding exploration into hp's very vague magic system>: motherfucker if you know me you know i love LORE. and i love lore the most when it is deftly woven into the framework of the narrative.....like What We Pretend We Can't See is so good because the B-plot is about 12 Grimmauld Place and the magic that's interwoven into it - and it gives you a glimpse of how wizards live day to day with magic, and really highlights what the magic of Hogwarts and why we all wanted to be a part of it was. the way magic is just a second nature to everything in the wizarding world.....well if u know how i feel then u know.
so, there's my list off the top of my head....and well, it doesn't quite explain what my frakenfic would be.... but i have a couple ideas:
- saw an epically sexy premise for a fic which was simply about, drarry forced/'arranged' marriage as two people who hate each other, and are not on good terms, so UMMM ... here is MY reimagining of it
>written by montparnasse (TO ME, hand of God) - i would particularly love some moments like the 'two and two' monologue from 'Like Tinder for Ghosts' in a particularly bitter moment of mutual hatred for each other; or like a Fraught and Tender Bonding Moment like the crossword bit from 'Let Nothing You Dismay' which was so cleverly done, and I am literally Nothing, Nothing, I am undone, I am worthless, I am of no meaning and no fealty and no love, if I don't name-drop and make an explicit reference to This Fic [Let Nothing You Dismay] when and if, I am talking about hp fic. this fic made me the person I am today. it did not raise me or whatever, but it is quite seriously, with extreme magnitude, My First Love.
>Harry's fraught relationship with his self-perception. I want to steal the Harry characterization, the Harry voice, the Harry International Relevance, Fame, Impact, Etc from Hogwart's Crammer. because Hogwart's Crammer is the Magnum Opus of Harry Potter (brown, but he is always brown, TO ME) characterization. it is The Holy Text. it is the basis of My Entire Understanding of Harry. etc. etc. etc. i know it's an au but it's also my favourite thing, of seeing How a character would variate given different circumstances....also you know, the horrible crass harry who knows he is unloveable because everything in his life has told him so, but he wants to make it better for him and get on, and he - as always - has the innate urge to do the Right thing/the Good thing anyways. okay i think i am making that part up but like, whatever, that's the whole driving force of why he would force marry draco anyway, because it's the Right thing to do. the sense of self-worth that is so low that anything that makes you useful is immediately what you have to prioritize and Do. it's nice, it's a good complex. also given how shittily and horribly he and draco will treat each other, the emotional torture of it consistently being Re-affirmed that harry is unloveable and does not deserve love - which of course will culminate in a moment where draco is like 'wait, what the fuck? you've have horrible emotional self-esteem issues and deeply twisted negative cognition This Whole Time?' and have to layoff on the now-well-established-insulting-back-and-forth they had, which then makes harry feel like, Weird. this will be resolved somehow.
>I also, would like to steal the Draco characterization from Stately Homes - we looove a main who Does Not want to unpack or talk about his issues/trauma/deservation/non-deservation other than in fleeting, brief glances. it's good, it's sexy, i Deeply Deeply enjoy it. i think it adds the cocky, witty ya bad guy love interest angle, without actually making Draco into the cocky, ya love interest ... because like, he's just an asshole, but he does deserve to be A Little Sexy about it. actually after writing this out maybe i DO want cocky, sexy ya bad boy love interest draco.........to me, a perfect compliment to chosen one protag, clever jock-y harry potter. anyway the whole point is that draco is a 0 at the start (not in the bottom way), and acts as he's presumes he's allowed to (not realizing harry has horrible trauma) and becomes vaguely a better person (just solely To Harry Only Maybe)... which is a bit that's stolen from What We Pretend - where draco really does not become a better person to anyone he is not close to (which by the end of the fic, has only expanded to include 1 more person, which is just obviously harry).
>also a moment I'd like to steal from What We Pretend - chapter9. where Harry is in the Mungo’s waiting room for hermione, and the whole weasley clan is ganged up there and he suddenly feels very out of place — this adjacent knowing that technically, he belongs there, that they consider him family — but all the same it’s not the same as it is with hermione, who’s married into the family and very much is family on paper as she is just, in feeling. and so here is harry, bludgeoning off into this careening sense of Not Having Anyone, Not Truly — that’s been building the whole fic — and draco shows up. and he and harry end up in their own little corner, being THEIR own people .... seriously that’s my favourite moment in the whole fic it broke my heart and rearranged my ventral chambers with how fucked up the praxis of <no longer being the same way it was> (with ronhermione) and <finally Having someone> (even though it is at this cost of Moving On) .... that was so fucked up and so deeply moving and i would do anything to have anything i read replicate that because i love this specific flavour of bittersweetness. It makes me SOOOOO madly bitter. i love it. the best way to feel the worst ever. like, maybe Word For Word i’d want this subarc replicated into my frankenfic. it’d be like <harry realizes he is Not The Same as all the married in cast-offs of the weasley family> (having broken up with ginny and all or whatever) .... <harry falls asleep on conveniently placed draco shoulder> .... i also particularly think like, the logistics of they Did Not Want Each Other ... culminating in something like they Only Have Each Other ...is like both fucked up and really good, especially if there is some element of Immense, miserably intimacy. Yea i’m stupid as fuck :) but i’m free :D
>obviously i want this to be like minimum 50k and they should have like, at least 2 instances of super heated, steamy (maybe drunk?) hatesex that culminates in extreme shame for both parties before they have like 1 instance of like, they-kind-of-like-each-other-now sex, you know. that’s somehow different from Sex where they are Together or whatever, because it's just admitting they have Attractions/Feelings/Emotions but not like, taking the braver step to Attempt to be in a Relationship (which is a deeply enjoyable hurdle of Drarry fic and one that i think accentuates their complexes and characters)
>Harry's fraught relationship with his self-perception. I want to steal the Harry characterization, the Harry voice, the Harry International Relevance, Fame, Impact, Etc from Hogwart's Crammer. because Hogwart's Crammer is the Magnum Opus of Harry Potter (brown, but he is always brown, TO ME) characterization. it is The Holy Text. it is the basis of My Entire Understanding of Harry. etc. etc. etc. i know it's an au but it's also my favourite thing, of seeing How a character would variate given different circumstances....also you know, the horrible crass harry who knows he is unloveable because everything in his life has told him so, but he wants to make it better for him and get on, and he - as always - has the innate urge to do the Right thing/the Good thing anyways. okay i think i am making that part up but like, whatever, that's the whole driving force of why he would force marry draco anyway, because it's the Right thing to do. the sense of self-worth that is so low that anything that makes you useful is immediately what you have to prioritize and Do. it's nice, it's a good complex. also given how shittily and horribly he and draco will treat each other, the emotional torture of it consistently being Re-affirmed that harry is unloveable and does not deserve love - which of course will culminate in a moment where draco is like 'wait, what the fuck? you've have horrible emotional self-esteem issues and deeply twisted negative cognition This Whole Time?' and have to layoff on the now-well-established-insulting-back-and-forth they had, which then makes harry feel like, Weird. this will be resolved somehow.
>I also, would like to steal the Draco characterization from Stately Homes - we looove a main who Does Not want to unpack or talk about his issues/trauma/deservation/non-deservation other than in fleeting, brief glances. it's good, it's sexy, i Deeply Deeply enjoy it. i think it adds the cocky, witty ya bad guy love interest angle, without actually making Draco into the cocky, ya love interest ... because like, he's just an asshole, but he does deserve to be A Little Sexy about it. actually after writing this out maybe i DO want cocky, sexy ya bad boy love interest draco.........to me, a perfect compliment to chosen one protag, clever jock-y harry potter. anyway the whole point is that draco is a 0 at the start (not in the bottom way), and acts as he's presumes he's allowed to (not realizing harry has horrible trauma) and becomes vaguely a better person (just solely To Harry Only Maybe)... which is a bit that's stolen from What We Pretend - where draco really does not become a better person to anyone he is not close to (which by the end of the fic, has only expanded to include 1 more person, which is just obviously harry).
>also a moment I'd like to steal from What We Pretend - chapter9. where Harry is in the Mungo’s waiting room for hermione, and the whole weasley clan is ganged up there and he suddenly feels very out of place — this adjacent knowing that technically, he belongs there, that they consider him family — but all the same it’s not the same as it is with hermione, who’s married into the family and very much is family on paper as she is just, in feeling. and so here is harry, bludgeoning off into this careening sense of Not Having Anyone, Not Truly — that’s been building the whole fic — and draco shows up. and he and harry end up in their own little corner, being THEIR own people .... seriously that’s my favourite moment in the whole fic it broke my heart and rearranged my ventral chambers with how fucked up the praxis of <no longer being the same way it was> (with ronhermione) and <finally Having someone> (even though it is at this cost of Moving On) .... that was so fucked up and so deeply moving and i would do anything to have anything i read replicate that because i love this specific flavour of bittersweetness. It makes me SOOOOO madly bitter. i love it. the best way to feel the worst ever. like, maybe Word For Word i’d want this subarc replicated into my frankenfic. it’d be like <harry realizes he is Not The Same as all the married in cast-offs of the weasley family> (having broken up with ginny and all or whatever) .... <harry falls asleep on conveniently placed draco shoulder> .... i also particularly think like, the logistics of they Did Not Want Each Other ... culminating in something like they Only Have Each Other ...is like both fucked up and really good, especially if there is some element of Immense, miserably intimacy. Yea i’m stupid as fuck :) but i’m free :D
>obviously i want this to be like minimum 50k and they should have like, at least 2 instances of super heated, steamy (maybe drunk?) hatesex that culminates in extreme shame for both parties before they have like 1 instance of like, they-kind-of-like-each-other-now sex, you know. that’s somehow different from Sex where they are Together or whatever, because it's just admitting they have Attractions/Feelings/Emotions but not like, taking the braver step to Attempt to be in a Relationship (which is a deeply enjoyable hurdle of Drarry fic and one that i think accentuates their complexes and characters)
for brevity i will end it here, and maybe instead comment on the other type of hp fic i'd like to frankenmash together in the world - but i hope this works as a example of what i'm encouraging in the comments! if this flops you HAAATEEEE me. but also like, it's open to anything! you could literally drop 6 ao3 links and be like 'the chanhee in a skirt complex queer narrative we Deserve' and.... welll, it would be funny TO ME.
the last point that i'd like to make is that i'm encouraging frankenfic-ing particular because fic inherently has meta interwoven into the narrative, and i think what makes fic good - regardless of how regurgitated and same-same it can be - is that when it's GOOD, it's often because that meta. plus like, fic is already a collaged piece of writing in itself (with how it picks and choses what it wants from it's derived media), and so adding a second layer of collaging .... to me, again, FUN!
however, with this still in mind if you just want to franken-mash like original works (whether that be wattpad stories you read in 2014) or cringe ya novels you still keep up with nowww, please feel free to do so!
