What are your H/D squicks?

[lomonaaeren]

I'm talking about squicks specific to Harry/Draco fic here (like a certain type of characterization), rather than to squicks that could apply across the board (like bad grammar or spelling).



1) Reading a fic in which the author portrays "bottom" as meaning "weak." Just ugh. So the minute Harry and Draco get into bed, even if the one bottoming has been strong, argumentative, complex, and equal to the other up until that point, now he must start crying and being scared of penetration and doing whatever the one topping tells him to do even if he's uncomfortable with it? I know there's a power dynamics to sexual relationships, but stripping it down to power and only power bores and disgustes me. In extreme cases where the one on the bottom is also very feminized, I think there's more than a hint of misogyny. Women can never be powerful unless they're the ones penetrating men? The penis is almighty? Please.

I don't mind stories where, say, Draco finds more pleasure in bottoming, or where Harry or Draco has a psychological quirk that inclines them to one or the other. Even there, though, I want it to fit in with previously established characterization. If Harry and Draco are perfect equals out of the bedroom and then suddenly have a D/s relationship inside it with no prior hint of that, simply because the author assumes the bottom is less powerful and under the control of the top, I'm clicking the back button.

2) This one is more nebulous. I can't really call it "one flawed character, one perfect character" because I've seen stories where both Harry and Draco were flawed that still hit this squick for me. Maybe I'll call it "one character hopelessly mistaken, the other always right." In any case, what happens is that the author sets one character on a pedestal and makes the other one into a hopeless mess as he chases the idolized one, dragging him relentlessly through past mistakes, making him apologize for the most minor things, cursing him with awkwardness at tasks he can do perfectly well, and treating mistakes as deadly and unforgivable until he's groveled and pleaded. It seems to happen more often that Draco is the perfect one, and Harry is the one who has to do something to "deserve" him, but I suspect that's not true and it's simply that I've run into more stories that do it; I've seen it the other way around, too, and it squicks me just as hard. Now, in canon they've both made mistakes, but saying that Harry must apologize and grovel and never be good enough for the author's perfect, beautiful, snarky, witty Draco because he used Sectumsempra on him, while it's just fine that Draco almost killed Harry's best friend (if you want to limit it to events in the same book), strikes me as deeply silly. The excuse I've seen offered is "Well, Draco didn't mean to kill Ron, he was trying to kill Dumbledore!" And Harry didn't know what that spell did; it's not like he lingered down the corridor rubbing his hands together, cackling gleefully, and imagining Draco all over blood. If you're going to focus heavily on the canon mistakes that will keep Harry and Draco from an easy relationship with each other, why in the world is it limited to one side?

I suspect that, in the end, this squick is largely the same as the other for me: I want to see Harry and Draco have an equal relationship, and the author weakening one or idolizing one prevents that from happening.



What are your H/D squicks?

Comments

[alexis-sd.livejournal.com]

Well, you touched on one of my major squicks.

1) Inconsistency you mention it in regard to sexual congress, but I find it unappealing in all cases. I hate it if for some reason one character starts to act of character (for the fic - I've read, if rarely, good OOC portrayals of Harry or Draco). Just today I happened upon a fic that started great and then out of nowhere Draco's behaviour just went all over the place. No consistency with his previous mind and actions whatsoever. I finished the fic, but it was ruined for me and I didn't comment, for I'd have had to be honest and state my displeasure.

2) Pet names I hate it when Harry and Draco (and any other characters, especially Snape) start to call each other funny names. It forces me out of my skin. Can you really imagine Draco and his uptight pureblood honour and all that shit upbringing and him calling Harry 'love', 'dearie' and other stuff like that. Or him replying to Dray, Draky and any such BS. Not in my book.

3) Deus ex machina be it as ending or every time the author hits a dead end. another sure way to make me drop a story. I just can't stand it.

4) The author's opinion forced on the reader. There are those fics where it is obvious the author favours one of the characters and that leads to two possible things - either this character is always the one to suffer beyond all reason and sense or he is treated as the wronged when the other should suffer to make up for his mistakes.

As you see, most of those are general and not H/D exclusive, they apply to any fic in general.

[envious-ema.livejournal.com]

pet names: i am so undecided on pet names! you see some of the pet names i've read are cringeworthy!! and esp. if they do it in public!!
but i dont really mind it if they call each other love or baby in private! because its private, if you are in love with you could call them love etc in private right!! i'm just so undecided on that one!!
and this might be a really stupid Q, but whats Deus ex machina?! i'm still new to the lingo! :D
p.s. sorry to just barge in!! hope u dont mind! :P

[alexis-sd.livejournal.com]

In fiction writing, the phrase has been extended to refer a sudden and unexpected resolution to a seemingly intractable problem in a plotline.[2] A deus ex machina is generally undesirable in writing because it does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and is often so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, allowing the author to conclude the story with an unlikely, though more palatable, ending.

Quoted from Wikipedia on Deus ex Machina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina)

And don't worry, it's no trouble that you 'barged in'. :)

I am not into pet names in RL too. I call people by their whole names I don't usually even shorten them. And it has no relation to my love for them.

[envious-ema.livejournal.com]

ooooh!! thank you, i learnt a new phrase today! :D
i think pet names is a thing of personal preference, i just hate it when they start calling each other ridiculous ones like coochie poochie or something!!! there's just no need for that! lol! :D
thanks again :)

[raphsody606.livejournal.com]

I dunno about nick names and the like. I call everyone darlin and honey child (mostly because I'm terrible at names. I've rarely minded it in fanfic, but you are right about Draco. I can't easily see him breaking down and calling someone a pet name.

[osean.livejournal.com]

I hate pet names too! I don't mind, in some situations, the use of 'love' or 'dear', but that's where it stops. No matter how serious a fic, a "Dray" (or worse, "Dragon"!) is like a bucketful of cold water to the head. Goodbye to the suspension of my disbelief (and gag reflex)! And I agree with you about Snape - even a kid Draco calling him "Sev" is a bit baffling to me.

But it's not so bad, luckily. I used to read Sirius/Remus, and in that fandom pet names were running wild. "Siri" and "Rem" everywhere, ugh. ;) On the top of all, the existence of "Moonie" and "Paddy" makes it a double petnameburger. Not my cup of tea.

> One other annoyance is useless character-bashing. Usually Ginny in this fandom, but it's done to Ron and Hermione and about just anyone. Sometimes it's understandable for a character to turn out cold, annoying or otherwise unlikeable - it might be a reasonable consequence from other events ot crucial to the plot in a realistic way. However, if Ginny or someone just turns out to be a "horrible bitch" with no depth whatsoever, I just can't keep reading.

(Oops, I think I barged in too. :)

[alexis-sd.livejournal.com]

Huh, agree on useless character bashing. So Ginny is in someone's way? Write a EWE, divorce her and Harry, kill her in the past, just find a normal way to do it.

And about "Paddy", sorry, but when I first read it I got an unpleasant association with female hygiene pads, you know the ones for that time of the month. That's just neither sexy nor sweet, it is more like...revolting.

[justabi.livejournal.com]

I hate pet names. *cringes* But word on the others, too.

[kissmemalfoy.livejournal.com]

I completely agree about calling each other 'love.' As a Brit, I know that it is very rarely used to actually mean 'the one I love' by rather 'darling' or something less romantic and more friendy. Kind of like saying, 'you're right, mate' but is generally used to address females. It always irks me when Harry and Draco call each other love all over the place because, even in an established, well written, relationship, it's still unlikely that they'd call each other 'love'. Maybe it's just me being iffy and English but it really annoys me.

[alexis-sd.livejournal.com]

OK, if a Brit says it is not typical, I feel even more justified in my hatred for pet names. I didn't know in what sense those are used in Britain, but I just think that they sound cheesy. I hate cheesy. I can only tolerate this in a crack!fic, otherwise I'll pass.

[scribblebits.livejournal.com]

I could see Draco replying to Dray or Draky. With a well placed sectumsempra or other painful hexes.