lomonaaeren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lomonaaeren) wrote2008-06-04 09:37 am
lomonaaeren) wrote2008-06-04 09:37 am
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What are your H/D squicks?
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?
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?
no subject
There are a lot of things I don’t like and would never read, mainly mpreg (for so many reasons), rape or prostitute fics. I tend not to give those things a chance, even if they’re highly recommended. Characterization is a tricky thing, because everyone has their own view of the characters and I know that. I stop reading fics with characterizations I find off unless it’s explained the reason for the characters acting that way.
Even with warnings there is no escaping certain things: the ‘surprise’ squicks. Everything was going great (good plot, solid characterization, etc) until one of them appeared:
1) Bottom = weak. I don’t know what’s worse: that after sex whoever was bottom suddenly can’t fight off a fly and cries for nothing; or that the author has already decided who was going to bottom, therefore writes him like that even before the sex scene. In my case, I find it way hotter when the bottom is a ‘stong’ character (because it means that if he’s being fucked, is because he’s letting his partner fuck him). It also bothers me when the author tries to do a D/s sex scene but it’s not well written, as if they didn’t know what it implies.
2) (This competes with 1) When the authors write themselves as the characters.. Either they are writing the characters with their personalities, or with the personalities they would have liked the characters to have. Mary Sues are bad enough, and worst when it’s obvious Harry/Draco/Whoever aren’t like that, have never been like that and would never be like that
3) Harry: *gasp* OMG I <3 you!!
Draco: OMG I <3 you too! *THE END*
Why suddenly ruin a good developing relationship? They hated each other, learning how they got together is one of the most interesting (and challenging) things about them.
4) When the importance of the people Harry loves is underplayed (especially of Ron and Hermione) as well as Harry’s past. Yes, he is pretty well adjusted for someone with that childhood, but early childhood experiences are very important and there has to be some mark.
I’m sure I have other squicks (that applied to all my fandoms), but those are the ones I could think of now (I’m too sleepy -.-). This was a good post, very interesting :)
no subject
1) I like the idea of someone who's powerful enjoying a position that's widely conceived as less powerful (which is why I often like stories where Harry is magically powerful and yet bottoms). But it's so rarely done well. Instead, as you said, the bottom ends up unable to fight off any of his own enemies, even when the author bestows superpowers on him.
2) I've run into some widely-praised fics where the authors are obviously talking through Draco. No, thank you.
4) I wish I knew of more fics that dealt with the emotional scars of Harry's childhood, rather than resorting to physical or sexual abuse. Now you know why I am so addicted to psychological fics!
And thank you.