Musings about our favourite characters

[serpentclara]

Harry is my favourite character in the books, but in all my fics except two short oneshots, he is a minor character or is not mentioned at all. I’m not sure why

Comments

[claraminutes]

This is very interesting. I've noticed that I do a lot of the same type of thing. Snape is one of my characters and I tend to put him through hell. He's a main character in my stories, but that doesn't mean he has it easy. My other favorite character happens to be Neville. I've never even mentioned Neville in any of my fics, the same goes for Remus Lupin. The one story that Remus is mentioned in, I killed him off.

[serpentclara]

So I'm not the only one, then. I thought most people preferred writing about the characters they like ... In reality, it seems we sometimes deliberately avoid writing about our favourite characters. I've noticed that this is a subconscious thing, at least in my case. Do you have a theory about why we do this?

[claraminutes]

It is subconscious. In fact, I'd never even thought about it until you brought it up...

As for reasons, I personally don't feel that I can do justice to them by writing them. I'm terribly fierce about how they are portrayed in fics. I'm beta reading a fic with Remus as one of the main characters, and the author and I have had long discussions about how Remus would act.

I really think part of it is the want to preserve JKR's take on her own characters because we love them the way they are.

[foudebassan]

Ginny's my favourite character, and I almost never mention her. Or when I do, I make her into something different than what she is in the books - shallower, more slutty,...

[serpentclara]

Oh, I loathe slut!Ginny. In my judgement, there are few characters in canon who are father from being shallow or slut-like than she, and frankly I find it offensive when authors interpret her that way.

Perhaps I relate to her more than I realise. For more or less the same reason as Bellatrix, of course ... *sigh*

Strange how you can do that when you actually like her. I guess that makes two of us.

[tesjah]

Narcissa, duhz. But then again, I squeeled mentioned that in my LJ, like, three days ago. She is the most awesome. Because she is, well, evil. But not out-of-her-mind-and-completely-committed-to-the-cause evil, if that makes any sense. And she married Lucius. So, duh, she is awesome.

Maybe I love her too much because I RP her. Then again, I RP Bella too. But Narcissa is definitely my favourite.

[tesjah]

So, what happens to your favourite characters in your fics?
I so missed this question.

Uhm... what happends to Narcissa? She always stays awesome and arrogant and evil. I tend to put her in an evironment that annoys the crap out of her; like, I even made her 7th year DADA teacher. She's strong, she'll handle that.

I actually wonder why you don't write Lucius/Narcissa. And if you do have some, why haven't I heard of it?

[serpentclara]

Yeah, I knew she's your favourite character, but I think I like Bellatrix more. I used to RP Bellatrix too, four years ago or so. I was a nasty, arrogant b**** when I was younger, you see, and Bella's obsessive devotion to Voldemort is something I can understand (though, I mean, Voldemort? *shudders*).

No, don't ask. Please.

I don't write Lucius/Narcissa because, to be honest, I've never found that pairing particularly interesting. It lacks the power imbalance and the clash of dark/light, Slytherin/Gryffindor and traditionalist/progressive that I find so fascinating to write about. I guess pairings like L/N bore me a little. I do read them if the story is written well enough to be worth it, though.

[lothy]

I don't actually identify with any of the HP characters, lol. Well, maybe little bits with the girls (Hermione & Ginny) but only to an extent.

Harry isn't really my favourite character at all, but I tend to read (and write) mostly Harry-centric fics. I don't know why, I guess I just find them the most interesting.

As for who is my favourite character: hmm. In fanfiction it's probably Snape, but in canon I can't stand him. Probably either Hermione or Ginny, although I'm fond of Tonks too.

[aloysiusweasley]

I have the MOST fun writing about my fav. characters! (Fred+George, Ginny, Lupin, Sirius...). I do have fun bashing the crap out of the ones I don't like, too (Snivellus, Lucius, Draco, D.E.'s in general..). I, too, get really annoyed when I come across the (way too many!) !Slutty Ginny! ones - as if! Harry's definitely not my favorite, though I do like him somewhat - I just wish the kid would ask some (BLEEPING!) questions at some point. You know, maybe about his parents, maybe to Hermione and her fountain of library knowledge, maybe pester an Order member or Dumbledore (Too late now!) for some info...

[serpentclara]

Harry doesn't ask more questions because that's how the Dursleys raised him. I imagine he learned very early to keep his curiosity to himself, because most of the questions he asked his aunt and uncle were probably on topics that were taboo in the Dursley household, i.e. his parents and other 'abnormalities'.