Characters we like in canon and hate in fanon
So this thread is about discussing characters we like in canon but hate their fanon selves.
I start with Harry Potter. I like his canon self but hate his fanon self which is Lord Potter, Black, Peverall and lords of multiple lordships, harem protagonist, Gary Stu, the so called Indie! Harry, James Potter 2.0 Harry, Master of Death (MoD) Harry and so on. I even hate the fics where they dial up Dursley abuse to monstrous proportions and give us so called Abused Harry.
I rarely see fics with canon compliant Harry and wish writers could appreciate the canon Harry over writing their self inserts.
The Malfoys. There's a few fics I've read where the characterization of the Malfoys is fundamentally not them at all, typically by completely dropping their blood prejudice without any sort of character development or swapping personalities with another character altogether. I don't want a whitewashed, sanitized Malfoy family; I want the Malfoys that love their family and hate those whom they see as threats to wizarding society (Muggle-borns).
Yeah, totally agreed. I like Malfoys because despite Lucius' role in grooming Snape, he was a good friend to him and Snape was quite close to Malfoy family. I do hate fics which whitewash Malfoys because canon Malfoys were both prejudiced and loved their family. Only Draco got over his prejudices as an adult and often had disagreements with his parents over raising Scorpius.
I have to agree. We call it grooming but I read Lucius like someone who genuinely thought he was doing Snape a generous, good turn, pulling him into what he clearly thought would be the winning side when he absolutely didn't have to.
Another character is Albus Dumbledore. I like his complex canon self, a seemingly good man with a few skeletons in his closet, who made sacrifices and demanded them and lived his life with Greater Good philosophy.
I hate fanon Dumbledore. They either make him pure good or pure evil, a manipulator without morals and a caricature of the canon one.
It was a surprise to find that he is hated by both marauder and Snape fandom.
Agree with Dumbledore. Now, I've read a few fics where I really, really like the story, but Dumbledore's character is demonized to the point where I only enjoy the story when he's not present.
Quote from Motanul Negru on May 8, 2023, 2:51 pmI have to agree. We call it grooming but I read Lucius like someone who genuinely thought he was doing Snape a generous, good turn, pulling him into what he clearly thought would be the winning side when he absolutely didn't have to.
Yeah, that's my opinion too. Some marauder era fics make Lucius a manipulator who didn't care about Snape and sought to use his talents.
My take is Lucius was a protective man for the young half-blood despite his prejudices against muggleborns. He was shown welcoming young Snape after his sorting, this was not a coincidence that Snape included Lucius in his memories. Lucius thought of Snape as a talented young man limited by his muggle heritage and poverty and sought to doctrine him in his ideology for a better future. Obviously we know how it ended but Snape never shown any hatred for Malfoys and was protective of them. He needn't take the unbreakable vow if he hadn't cared for Narcissa and Draco and despite his initial hesitancy, he killed Dumbledore for Draco's sake as well.
Quote from The Gestalt Prince on May 8, 2023, 2:55 pmAgree with Dumbledore. Now, I've read a few fics where I really, really like the story, but Dumbledore's character is demonized to the point where I only enjoy the story when he's not present.
Yeah. Sometimes I get that Dumbledore is portrayed as manipulative in fics but fics where they make him mastermind of making Tom Riddle Voldemort, stealing money from Potter vaults, deliberately sending Sirius to Azkaban and allowed Harry to be abused to make him more compliant for his plans is too much and goes in territory of bashing.
The thing is that we don't really know how Lucius's mind works. On the one hand, it's possible that he genuinely cared for Snape; on the other hand, it's possible that he was only using him for his talents. Snape's perception of Lucius in The Prince's Tale only really paints how Snape saw Lucius at that point in time, and that he was influenced by Lucius and other Slytherins into joining the Death Eaters. I think that's one area where I can make room for interpretation.
Yeah, I get your point. This is gray area where Lucius can be portrayed in both ways. I like a good friend Lucius because Snape could use better friends over traitorous Gryffindor.
Now fics making Regulus his bff, that's far away from reality. I actually think he would've disliked Regulus because he looked like Sirius.
