INTERACTIVE: 30 DAYS OF FAN FIC || DAY SEVEN

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

DAY ONE
DAY TWO
DAY THREE
DAY FOUR
DAY FIVE
DAY SIX

07 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?

We welcome your participation! There is no minimum or maximum requirements for your answers -- they can be as long or as short as you'd like. I will include my answer as a comment.

Comments

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

Is this my own fic or someone else's fic? I'll go with someone else's fic right off the bat.

Pariah (http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/maegunn_batt/pariah.html) by maegunnbatt changed the way I view Ron Weasley.

Unfortunately, these two wonderful fics have been taken down from the net, but fharraige's Slug and Mouse and The Disintegration of Memory totally won me over for OC fic. I have never been opposed to reading original characters -- I know some people won't touch a fic with an OC, which I understand because of the Gary Stu/Mary Sue factor -- and I loved these two fics. In Slug and Mouse, IIRC, we never know who the OCs are -- I believe one of the characters goes to Ravenclaw and the other to Slytherin. In the sequel, The Disintegration of Memory, we find out that the male character is Antonin Dolohov. They were both the greatest little love stories. fharraige pulled it off beautifully.

Textual Sphinx's Letter From Exile One Merciful Morning (http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/textualsphinx/LFEOMM01a.html) and lillithj's fic Golem (http://www.witchfics.org/lillith/golem/index.html) were the first to make me love Snape.

jlh's Eight Ways From Sunday (http://archiveofourown.org/works/55390?view_adult=true&view_full_work=true) gave me a perspective on Seamus Finnigan that I didn't have before.

Anise's Lucius Malfoy's Good Girl (http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/anise/LMGG01a.html) made me go RAWR for Lucius, whom I had never really thought about as a character per se, outside of him being Draco's father. This was the first Lucius/Pansy fic I had ever read and it was hooooooooooot . . . whew! *fans self*

Lustre (http://yearningvoid.net/julad/lustre.html) by Calico and Julad was the first Harry/Draco fic I read that made me appreciate the pairing. As an insufferable canon whore for years, it was very hard for me to like pairings that I saw as implausible in canon, which is why it took me so many years to come to the Harry/Draco table. Lustre is pre-OotP, possibly even pre-GoF, and it's beautifully written. It's definitely a H/D classic from back in the day. It made me consider at least the possibility that H/D might be acceptable under certain circumstances ;)

As for my own writing, I think that my interpretation of Pansy has developed over the years; the first fic I wrote with Pansy, she is definitely a Mary Sue. I think there was even a part where she flies on a broom and catches the snitch (as opposed to Harry catching it). Oh my God EYEROLL. But over the years of writing her, I have been able to develop a characterization of her that is flawed in a normal way, as all we humans are flawed in some way or another. Nobody's perfect! No fan fic character should be. I think that wanting to bring perspective to a bullying character is an interesting endeavor, but a character can't be both a bully and have a heart of gold on the same hand. Not only is that unrealistic to the extreme, it's pretty confusing and, ultimately, boring to read. So after years of writing Pansy, I have tried to develop a multi-faceted characterization baseline for her, as opposed to just Mary Sue'ing her out. My early attempts at characterization were laughable; I hope they're better by now! Reading tons of Pansy fic, or Draco-centric fic that had Pansy as a side character, made me want to show a character who is strong in her own right, and is not just an annoyance to Draco, as so many fics portray. Reading all that fic made me want to write a Pansy that Draco would love and adore (as far as Draco can demonstrate that; at the very least, in my mind, he expects loyalty from Pansy). I think years of writing any character will show that character morphing as time goes along. Characterization is a pretty dynamic process; static characterizations leave little to be desired.

[deirdre-aithne.livejournal.com]

I read a Harry/Ginny/Draco fic that made me actually like Ginny, whom I've hated since book 2, so... yes, lol.

[amt149.livejournal.com]

I have! my opinion of side characters are forever-changing because I read so many fics ^_^ I started out loving Dumbledore's character, but now not so much. I feel like an author really just needs to emphasize a character's bad or good traits to bend my opinion of a character. I've read a fic where Ginny helped Harry and Draco get together, and Ginny was so beautifully written I couldn't hate her no matter how much I wanted to.

[meglw0228.livejournal.com]

Mine, no definitely not! Or I wouldn't have written that character...
Someone else's fic... yes. I really hate Hermione in the books (she's way too bossy), but when I first read The Apple Tree (http://www.hpfandom.net/eff/viewstory.php?sid=19708) by Philo I really loved her, and I started liking her more.
And Dumbledore... The first time I read Do Not Meddle In the Affairs of Wizards (http://www.hpfandom.net/eff/viewstory.php?sid=1724) by Corwalch I realized how manipulative he is. It made me want to reread the books and find all his manipulations that I hadn't spotted the first ten times I had read the books.

Actually, I take back my first statement... I wrote a drabble with Pansy and Romilda recently and that had me rethinking my opinion of Pansy (I still freely hate Romilda) but writing Pansy was really fun...and really evil! I really enjoyed her character.

[crazyparakiss.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the first H/D fic I read Irresistible Poison Draco Malfoy changed for me. His vulnerability and Harry's was lovely and rang true to me. He retained his biting characteristics and wasn't transformed into a different person, he was just the different side of JKR's Draco and I loved him instantly.

[uniquepov.livejournal.com]

Yes. A well-written, rooted-in-canon fic can really change how I see a character, teasing out things I may not have seen while reading the books.

[rebecca_selene]

Yes. I can't remember offhand which fic it is, but I have a lot better understanding of Percy's actions because of it (especially compared to Ron's actions in DH - not too different, when you think about it).

[rebecca_selene]

I always feels my hackles rise whenever Ginny is in a fic, unless she's not in a pairing and/or getting Harry together with someone else (usually Draco). I just have such an aversion to her in anything else.

[amt149.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree with this ^^ I really had to love how Ginny was written in that fic though, because she was being very Slytherin in getting Harry and Draco together. Plus I think in the fic, she was married to someone else, so that helped.

[hpfangirl71.livejournal.com]

Yes... in the bks, I absolutely abhor Ron's character and I have always written him as the fall guy or as the unintentional fall guy for H/D. Anyways I signed up for Weasley Slash Fest and now have such a love for his character... I totally see him in a new light because I was assigned to write him with Charlie. I loved writing that fic and also reading several other Ron/Charlie fics so this is a new fave pairing of mine.
I also loved being introduced to a Ginny/Scorpius fic that changed my mind of Ginny's character as well and I am now writing her with more sass and depth of character. In the Full Metal Fandom, a friend of mine wrote sweet little Al Elric in an evil light and ever since I have loved reading and writing him as such... I also love reading him as a bit of a whore and never wouldve imagined that if not for certain fics.