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kraitIn lieu of actual content, I give you a meme. A-at least it's a fannish meme? *quavers*
The Big Fannish Meme; set dial to Harry Potter!
01. The first character I fell in love with: I'm honestly not sure. And it's complicated by the fact that I'd begun to dabble in the fanfic before even touching the books! (I picked them up to see who this "Snape" was that everyone was writing about.) :D I don't know that, with HP, any of the characters were instant love for me; in fact, I almost gave up on the series after CoS; thank goodness I ploughed on to PoA, because once Snape and the Marauders came into it I was hooked. I loved Snape, Lupin, and Black about equally by the end of it, so I guess this question gets a triple answer.
02. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Neville Longbottom. He was kind of a nonentity for so much of the early books; it wasn't till he got more than a snatch of backstory that I started paying attention... and then he suddenly became out-and-out awesome! He has a different kind of bravery than Harry-the-Hero has, and it's a kind that I appreciate a lot more.
03. The character (most) everyone else loves that I don't: This also has a multiple answer!
First: Draco Malfoy. He was a petty nonentity for the early books, and a thoroughly nasty yet completely incompetent sub-villain for the later ones. I once laughed aloud at someone's comment (discussing the HP/DM pairing) calling Draco "Harry's enemy" -- I like enemies!pairings, but Draco was never Harry's enemy. (This was, admittedly, back when there were only four or five books out.) The murdering bastard who slew Harry's parents was Harry's enemy; Draco was just a magical version of Dudley. (Also: I may like a wide range of kinks and I certainly don't object to an antagonistic flavour in my pairings, but it's just beyond stupid and suicidal to get into a relationship with someone who once broke your nose with his boot.
Second: Ron Weasley. I dunno, everyone seems to like him because he's this bumbling-average-guy loyal-sidekick. Personally, I hate him because he's completely undistinguished and possesses only a sham of loyalty -- after four years of friendship he's still perfectly willing to believe Harry entered his own name in the Goblet and flounce off in a huff without so much as letting his "best friend" explain? Pfft. Friends like that anybody can do without. I loathed the Epilogue so very much for handing Hermione over to him; she'll spend her life being run over by Molly Weasley and having brat after red-haired brat, and she deserved so much more.
04. The character I love that everyone else hates: Well, there's a sizeable section of fandom out there that hates Snape, but as I rarely encounter it (and have had serious difficulty, the few times I have run into it, in believing it) I'll just ignore that.
I don't know if I love any particularly disfavoured characters, actually. I like a few who are mostly ignored (Luna Lovegood, whose set role seems to be "Harry's friend who appears in any story just long enough to point him toward his True Love, then is never heard from again"), or whose popularity is a bit quieter (Neville -- I suspect a sizeable portion of my flist thinks he's awesome, but he doesn't get the screaming adulation that Snape or Draco do).
And then there are the characters I could have loved, had JKR not slaughtered them -- awesome!notcrushing!Ginny, and IAmAnAurorNotAWetSponge!Tonks, and NotYetInfatuatedWithRon!Hermione.
05. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Albus Dumbledore. I liked him right up till the end of GoF, wherein he "justifies" fourteen years of misery and ignorance inflicted on Harry with "I did it because I loved you!" Harry paid quite the price for Dumbledore's "love." And in subsequent books Dumbledore goes on to treat Harry like a chess piece; he fails to give him critical information over and over and over, till he dies without imparting some of it; he manipulates Harry into killing him; he manipulates Snape into killing him; and he admits outright to having essentially raised (using that term very loosely) the boy he claimed to "love" as a human sacrifice. Wow, what an angel of goodness and Light.
06. The character I would shag anytime: Severus Snape. Though I might be a bit iffy about it during his actual Death Eater years. Umm. But yeah, the man was a gigantic bundle of misery and anger, and he had absolutely no one to balance him or let him vent. Also, in a much shallower vein: dark hair, dark eyes, huge nose, talented hands, sarcastic and brilliant; if I have "a type," Snape pretty much embodies it. :D (And NO, I'm not thinking of Alan Rickman! I loathe Rickman-as-Snape and think he's hideous.)
07. The character I want to be like: Some unholy melding of Luna and Neville. :D I love her fearlessness when it comes to her beliefs and her expessions; I love his quieter, stubborner, thoughtful-er sort of courage.
08. The character I'd slap: Let's line them up! Umbridge, Dumbledore, James Potter, Petunia and Vernon, Dudley, Minister Fudge... I'm exempting Rita Skeeter because, while she was totally amoral, ruthless, and fancied herself above the law, at least she was doing it for her job, and she was competent.
09. A pairing that I love: HP/SS occupies the vast, vast majority of my fic bookmarks! And my recs. And my half-finished fic attempts. And my class-notes marginal doodles.
10. Two pairings that I hate:
First, SB/RL -- actually, maybe this isn't a "hate it"; I just can't see it. In the words of someone else in fandom: Lupin is so obviously a metaphor for AIDS/chronic illness that his being gay just ruins it. I just. Yeah. I don't see him as gay. Also, buddy-pairings aren't really my thing; I like a bit more antagonism.
Second, HP/DM, for reasons expressed above (I think) -- Draco is nobody, he doesn't interest me, and since Harry's not my favourite character I need his partner to be someone who brings the interest if I'm going to like them together. Also, yeah, again with the "face!stomp Does Not Equal truluv" thing -- it's like Twilight has invaded my fandom, and it gives me a massive case of Do Not Want.
Third-or-second-if-you're-discounting-my-first-answer, SS/DM -- a pairing fraught with many of my favourite kinks (age differences, student/teacher, the power thing that comes of Draco being Lucius's son), and yet I loathe it. I can't stand to see a character I'm deeply interested in being wasted on a little twit like Draco. :D
11. Favourite character: Severus Snape. I can wax eloquent -- or at least lengthy -- on this! :D Part of it is his character: of a basically two-dimensional cast in the first book, he stood out as uncertain of motive and allegiance, and it just got better than there. (Though I laughed at the "Friend of Foe?!" advertising of the last book release; found it impossible to imagine that there were people who still had doubt!)
There's also a lot of me in Snape, or vice-versa; generally, all the parts I hate. The formless anger, the hatred of having my dignity compromised, the crying-when-angry, the lack of physical beauty, the few friends who mean so much -- maybe too much -- to my stability... I felt a deep empathy with Snape from the moment we started getting backstory, and it just kept getting better. Snape is a sort of "what I might have been", and a "what I must guard against becoming", but he's also very deeply human and deserving of forgiveness to me, not just an object lesson.
12. My six favourite characters: Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Eileen Prince. Kind-of sort-of approximately in order. :D
13. My five least favourite characters: Albus Dumbledore (top of the list because he "betrayed" me, while the rest were just unpleasant as either people or characters), Dolores Umbridge, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, Fudge (why am I blanking on his first name?), Tom Riddle. An interesting mix of "I dislike them as people" and "I dislike them as characters", really. Maybe I should do some meta on that -- the difference, and what makes a reader consider fictional people as one or the other.
14. Which character I am most like: Hermione Granger. Doubtless why I'm so appalled at the Epilogue, as well as why I'm spending my day off writingsix feet a novel about My Fandom Opinions! :D
15. My deep, dark fandom secret: Um, I have very few? I mean, there's probably loads of things that other fans don't know about me, but that's because I'm a fannish nonentity, not because I'm unwilling to answer if asked. :D I love fandomsecrets, in fact, because it boggles my mind that so many people are unwilling to say so very much. I have few such restraints; I'll cheerfully -- as you've just seen -- virulently dismiss much-beloved characters and declare my loathing of much-beloved actors in an unlocked post. I also don't bother logging out at the Trek:Reboot kinkmeme and cheerfully second any prompts involving tentacles! (Seriously, Star Trek, why the shortage of tentacles?! It's a natural! I mean, this is a fandom with aliens that go into shag-or-die heats, and sex pollen, and transporter mishaps that bring the genderswap, and retractable Vulcan penises, and a Captain whose sexual orientation appears to be "Yes!"... Where are the tentacles?)
The Big Fannish Meme; set dial to Harry Potter!
01. The first character I fell in love with: I'm honestly not sure. And it's complicated by the fact that I'd begun to dabble in the fanfic before even touching the books! (I picked them up to see who this "Snape" was that everyone was writing about.) :D I don't know that, with HP, any of the characters were instant love for me; in fact, I almost gave up on the series after CoS; thank goodness I ploughed on to PoA, because once Snape and the Marauders came into it I was hooked. I loved Snape, Lupin, and Black about equally by the end of it, so I guess this question gets a triple answer.
02. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Neville Longbottom. He was kind of a nonentity for so much of the early books; it wasn't till he got more than a snatch of backstory that I started paying attention... and then he suddenly became out-and-out awesome! He has a different kind of bravery than Harry-the-Hero has, and it's a kind that I appreciate a lot more.
03. The character (most) everyone else loves that I don't: This also has a multiple answer!
First: Draco Malfoy. He was a petty nonentity for the early books, and a thoroughly nasty yet completely incompetent sub-villain for the later ones. I once laughed aloud at someone's comment (discussing the HP/DM pairing) calling Draco "Harry's enemy" -- I like enemies!pairings, but Draco was never Harry's enemy. (This was, admittedly, back when there were only four or five books out.) The murdering bastard who slew Harry's parents was Harry's enemy; Draco was just a magical version of Dudley. (Also: I may like a wide range of kinks and I certainly don't object to an antagonistic flavour in my pairings, but it's just beyond stupid and suicidal to get into a relationship with someone who once broke your nose with his boot.
Second: Ron Weasley. I dunno, everyone seems to like him because he's this bumbling-average-guy loyal-sidekick. Personally, I hate him because he's completely undistinguished and possesses only a sham of loyalty -- after four years of friendship he's still perfectly willing to believe Harry entered his own name in the Goblet and flounce off in a huff without so much as letting his "best friend" explain? Pfft. Friends like that anybody can do without. I loathed the Epilogue so very much for handing Hermione over to him; she'll spend her life being run over by Molly Weasley and having brat after red-haired brat, and she deserved so much more.
04. The character I love that everyone else hates: Well, there's a sizeable section of fandom out there that hates Snape, but as I rarely encounter it (and have had serious difficulty, the few times I have run into it, in believing it) I'll just ignore that.
I don't know if I love any particularly disfavoured characters, actually. I like a few who are mostly ignored (Luna Lovegood, whose set role seems to be "Harry's friend who appears in any story just long enough to point him toward his True Love, then is never heard from again"), or whose popularity is a bit quieter (Neville -- I suspect a sizeable portion of my flist thinks he's awesome, but he doesn't get the screaming adulation that Snape or Draco do).
And then there are the characters I could have loved, had JKR not slaughtered them -- awesome!notcrushing!Ginny, and IAmAnAurorNotAWetSponge!Tonks, and NotYetInfatuatedWithRon!Hermione.
05. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Albus Dumbledore. I liked him right up till the end of GoF, wherein he "justifies" fourteen years of misery and ignorance inflicted on Harry with "I did it because I loved you!" Harry paid quite the price for Dumbledore's "love." And in subsequent books Dumbledore goes on to treat Harry like a chess piece; he fails to give him critical information over and over and over, till he dies without imparting some of it; he manipulates Harry into killing him; he manipulates Snape into killing him; and he admits outright to having essentially raised (using that term very loosely) the boy he claimed to "love" as a human sacrifice. Wow, what an angel of goodness and Light.
06. The character I would shag anytime: Severus Snape. Though I might be a bit iffy about it during his actual Death Eater years. Umm. But yeah, the man was a gigantic bundle of misery and anger, and he had absolutely no one to balance him or let him vent. Also, in a much shallower vein: dark hair, dark eyes, huge nose, talented hands, sarcastic and brilliant; if I have "a type," Snape pretty much embodies it. :D (And NO, I'm not thinking of Alan Rickman! I loathe Rickman-as-Snape and think he's hideous.)
07. The character I want to be like: Some unholy melding of Luna and Neville. :D I love her fearlessness when it comes to her beliefs and her expessions; I love his quieter, stubborner, thoughtful-er sort of courage.
08. The character I'd slap: Let's line them up! Umbridge, Dumbledore, James Potter, Petunia and Vernon, Dudley, Minister Fudge... I'm exempting Rita Skeeter because, while she was totally amoral, ruthless, and fancied herself above the law, at least she was doing it for her job, and she was competent.
09. A pairing that I love: HP/SS occupies the vast, vast majority of my fic bookmarks! And my recs. And my half-finished fic attempts. And my class-notes marginal doodles.
10. Two pairings that I hate:
First, SB/RL -- actually, maybe this isn't a "hate it"; I just can't see it. In the words of someone else in fandom: Lupin is so obviously a metaphor for AIDS/chronic illness that his being gay just ruins it. I just. Yeah. I don't see him as gay. Also, buddy-pairings aren't really my thing; I like a bit more antagonism.
Second, HP/DM, for reasons expressed above (I think) -- Draco is nobody, he doesn't interest me, and since Harry's not my favourite character I need his partner to be someone who brings the interest if I'm going to like them together. Also, yeah, again with the "face!stomp Does Not Equal truluv" thing -- it's like Twilight has invaded my fandom, and it gives me a massive case of Do Not Want.
Third-or-second-if-you're-discounting-my-first-answer, SS/DM -- a pairing fraught with many of my favourite kinks (age differences, student/teacher, the power thing that comes of Draco being Lucius's son), and yet I loathe it. I can't stand to see a character I'm deeply interested in being wasted on a little twit like Draco. :D
11. Favourite character: Severus Snape. I can wax eloquent -- or at least lengthy -- on this! :D Part of it is his character: of a basically two-dimensional cast in the first book, he stood out as uncertain of motive and allegiance, and it just got better than there. (Though I laughed at the "Friend of Foe?!" advertising of the last book release; found it impossible to imagine that there were people who still had doubt!)
There's also a lot of me in Snape, or vice-versa; generally, all the parts I hate. The formless anger, the hatred of having my dignity compromised, the crying-when-angry, the lack of physical beauty, the few friends who mean so much -- maybe too much -- to my stability... I felt a deep empathy with Snape from the moment we started getting backstory, and it just kept getting better. Snape is a sort of "what I might have been", and a "what I must guard against becoming", but he's also very deeply human and deserving of forgiveness to me, not just an object lesson.
12. My six favourite characters: Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Eileen Prince. Kind-of sort-of approximately in order. :D
13. My five least favourite characters: Albus Dumbledore (top of the list because he "betrayed" me, while the rest were just unpleasant as either people or characters), Dolores Umbridge, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, Fudge (why am I blanking on his first name?), Tom Riddle. An interesting mix of "I dislike them as people" and "I dislike them as characters", really. Maybe I should do some meta on that -- the difference, and what makes a reader consider fictional people as one or the other.
14. Which character I am most like: Hermione Granger. Doubtless why I'm so appalled at the Epilogue, as well as why I'm spending my day off writing
15. My deep, dark fandom secret: Um, I have very few? I mean, there's probably loads of things that other fans don't know about me, but that's because I'm a fannish nonentity, not because I'm unwilling to answer if asked. :D I love fandomsecrets, in fact, because it boggles my mind that so many people are unwilling to say so very much. I have few such restraints; I'll cheerfully -- as you've just seen -- virulently dismiss much-beloved characters and declare my loathing of much-beloved actors in an unlocked post. I also don't bother logging out at the Trek:Reboot kinkmeme and cheerfully second any prompts involving tentacles! (Seriously, Star Trek, why the shortage of tentacles?! It's a natural! I mean, this is a fandom with aliens that go into shag-or-die heats, and sex pollen, and transporter mishaps that bring the genderswap, and retractable Vulcan penises, and a Captain whose sexual orientation appears to be "Yes!"... Where are the tentacles?)