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

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I tend not to mind the permanent roles in the context of a BDSM fic...but there's a reason I don't tend to read a lot of BDSM fics. Flexible roles make more sense to me because people do change. And even in a BDSM relationship, I think, what they decided on when they began the relationship is not necessarily what they would want five years later. Ironically, the only time I've seen that issue addressed is when the bottom is reassuring the top, "No, I want you to absolute control over me! I need it!"

I can't read fics that use that trope. Categorizing someone's behavior as Slytherin is one thing, because the wizarding world does seem to be very behind the "your House defines you" mentality; saying "The Slytherin stood up and walked behind Harry, and the Gryffindor found himself surprised at the blond's behavior" is silly.

[kestrelsparhawk.livejournal.com]

Exactly. What a horrible sentence, LOL! I'll usualy forgive it once or twice in a fic (it IS hard working with two male pronouns sometimes) but not if it's just taken as the way one refers to them.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

I've fallen victim to it a time or two myself, with things like "the older man" and "the other man," but lately I've been trying to snap me out of that and use their names or "he" instead. Really, it's not so hard, and I can always rewrite the sentence if I really need to.

There's a fandom classic I tried to read recently that does that for every single character, including Neville, as "the sandy-haired boy." It was impossible for me to get two pages in.

[broken-anchor.livejournal.com]

out of curiosity, does it bother you when Draco is referred to as "the blonde" or "the Slytherin" every once in a while, or when the author uses it frequently?

[kestrelsparhawk.livejournal.com]

LOL! It always botthers me when Draco is referred to as the "blonde," because that is one of the few words in our language we took directly from the French, and is only supposed to be used for blonde women. "The blond" would be right; or better yet, "the blond man."

For me, I agree with lomonaaren that it shows a failure of writing imagination. It's not a major annoyance, but it's like using a weak word when there are strong words about, because it doesn't ADD anything 95% of the time. Is it important, or relevant, that Draco is blond or Slytherin? It could be. For example, if a lot of people from other houses are bashing Slytherins, writing "the former Slytherin finally spoke up..." or whatever. See? It's relevant to the plot, and to his character. Same thing if Harry's making blonde jokes -- you can see "the blond stiffened, and turned to glare." Otherwise, there's always names, pronouns, which don't jar as much.

I'd feel the same way about the "taller one" or "the green-eyed boy" or any descriptive phrase substituting for "Draco" or "Harry." My default is that it just doesn't have to be there.

But then, there's a WHOLE LOT in writing which doesn't have to be there which I can't help noticing. The worst ones are the ones I missed in my own story! None of us produces the perfect work.

[(Anonymous)]

The best: "The emerald green eyes" followed the gorgeous slytherin...

Emerald green eyes... Even if they are that color... It's just so horrible to read ^^"