the weirder side of fandom

[clauclauclaudia]

... and not necessarily in a good way.

Collecting weird fan reactions to Harry Potter 6. Spoilers within.

Sooo... Wait. You're saying that a character you didn't create, written by someone you're clearly not, mentioned once in the actual canon materials, is somehow ruined because he isn't the race you imagined him to be? Sometimes I wonder just who I share this freaking fandom with, and how many daily doses of thorazine they require. (Context: Blaise Zabini, previously a one-mention Slytherin, is now established as black. Behold the woe of the fan artists who had put pale pale Blaise and Draco side by side.... on the up side this same thread gives us "And platinum-blond Draco being shagged by a gorgeous black bloke? How HOT is that?")

Ms Rowling, I will not read your books anymore,, because I didn't notice how you've been having Lavender giggle at Ron for years and other subtleties, so I think you drew the book out of thin air though you didn't. Oh, I also missed a bunch of Snape stuff, and that things described from Harry's point of view are not necessarily reality.

Oh god! What Snape did ruins all the fanfiction about him!

Are you pissed off too? Well then, join us in mailing the bookjacket to Rowling with a letter saying why you are displeased with her latest book. Don't forget to include our talking points such as:
* how the whole book felt like JKR didn't even write it, but rather was a very long very bad fanfic
* Filch/Pince??? EW!
* the way Draco was suddenly and inexplicably more clever and tallented than ever before
* that the big dramatic ending was not so dramatic and only served to make a lot of people cry because she was torturing the most beloved character in the books needlessly, why did it have to take 12 goblets of potion why not 3? and why couldn't they scoop it up and dump it out, who knew they were drinking it?
* why did no one seem to care that Albus had died?

All courtesy of fandom_wank, of course.

I, uh, guess Harry Potter fandom runs fervent.

Comments

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

And don't forget the poor fic writers who made Blaise Zabini a girl...

She describes Pince as pretty ugly, but in a great hall scene in the first movie (I think) she's sitting next to snape and is GORGEOUS. I don't think she'd described Pince before, so I was really surprised and expecting something more like the actress.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i confess i'm with the "how hot is THAT!" element :)

[clauclauclaudia]

Well... yes, me too. :)

My two cents.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

I've always considerd fanfic a bit dodgy in the sense of messing with someone else's art in general, but only a bit as there's a lot of well-applied creativity out there (modulo Sturgeon's Law) and it's the only way to get new material for old genres. That said, anyone basing their fanfic off a body of work that is still a work in progress has no grounds for complaint when the real author(s) of the work establish canon at odds with their fanfic.

[arsmith.livejournal.com]

> the way Draco was suddenly and inexplicably more clever and tallented than ever before

?

[mightymutt.livejournal.com]

This is why I tend to pay absolutely no attention to fanfic, or fans in general (sorry if that offends anyone. it isn't intended to). I think complaining to a writer that her work didn't satisfy a particular sense of "what should have happened" is just rubbish.

Not to mention that what most people seem to be complaining about - the death of a particular character - had both a point and fairly open ended hints that, seen in a particular light, might cheer a sad reader considerably.

I like the Potter books and have read each one multiple times. Well, except for the last one, which I read on Monday to cheer myself up. I refuse to let rabid "fans" ruin that for me, but I'm glad you shared anyway. Every once in a while, when I need a reminder as to why I am, at very best, a fringe fan, something like this pops up. :)

[jenelope.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite was "...discompose is not a word."

[jenelope.livejournal.com]

Oh, and even better, when I attempted to comment and refer to dictionary.com, it turns out she has "friends only" comments on. So, apparently she wants to tell the world that she's an idiot, but she doesn't want anyone to tell her she's an idiot.