Lemming Time!

[lls_mutant]

'Cause everyone is doing it....

Ask Me My Fandom Opinion

How this works:
1. Ask me one fandom-related question in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general.
2. Just one question, please, but it can (and perhaps should) have sub-parts.
3. That's it. It can be as normal or odd as you like.

I feel like I should have more to say, but I so don't. :P

Comments

[ignipes.livejournal.com]

What are your favorite non-shippy HP fic scenarios to read or write?

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

First war, definitely. I have no interest in reading about Harry and his cronies, because I really just want JKR's take on them. But she's created this rich tapestry of background characters, and the atmosphere of the first round with Voldemort... There's a reason AIL has ended up almost gen.

Friendship-wise, I really like the Remus-Regulus thing I had going, and I like reading not-so-friends stuff between them. Peter-Regulus is good, too. Any of the minor characters- I'd love to see more Kingsley, and Arthur is always great.

Oh yes, and there is never, EVER enough Arthur-Remus fic in the world for me. Ever. :)

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

What story do you wish you could write, but can't seem to manage?

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I have a few on my desktop that I really want to finish, but they just don't seem to be coming. There's a Sirius/Kingsley one that I'd like to finish, and there's a Hermione knows that Remus is a werewolf story I should finish. (I especially like her walking in and catching Remus singing Aerosmith badly, but that's just one of those wierd details.) But the story I have in my head and NEEDS to get down on paper is the Flitwick-Nott-Brynes story- the three of them being in WWII on the same plane, and sort of in a band-of-brothers friendship (I even have it worked out why they're in the Muggle military), and then how Bryne's murder at the beginning of GoF affects (i.e, finally ends) the friendship between Flitwick and Nott. But if I want to do it justice, I need to put in much more time than I have :P

[krisomniac.livejournal.com]

Do you see Remus as a straight/bisexual man? if so, when and why.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Well, my AIL Remus thinks of himself as gay, but I can easily work with bi. (Especially since he and Sirius got involved so early on.) Bi, yes, because of HBP. :P I refuse to do straight for now, because I LIKE S/R, it doesn't contradict canon, and that's enough for me. However, my AIL Remus has been slated to sleep with a woman (after 1981) for some time now, ever since I figured out exactly who the last Death Eater in Azkaban Tango is. I so want to write that story from Sirius's pov, but I can't post it until AIL is done because it does have a few big spoilers.

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

If you could ban one piece of fanon forever, what would it be and why?

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

This one is hard because a.) there's so many, and b.) what counts as fanon and what counts as simply crappy characterization? Ron the abusive husband? Ginny the slut? They're prevelant enough to be called fanon, but I think they're just bad work. But they SO need to go.

To me, one of the worst things that ever happened to MWPP-fandom (because I don't do much with Harry's generation) is The Shoebox Project. Not because it is horrendous or anything, but because it's made people accept certain characteristics of MWPP as canon, when they just aren't. (plus, I hate being compared to Shoebox, in any way. If someone must compare me to a BNF, which I don't really like but can accept, the Shoebox girls aren't the ones to compare me to. copperbadge is, I think, given that both of us write novel length and our biggest strengths are plots over prose. Ahem. Sorry about the aside.) The biggest, top three, things I would banish are:

3.) Remus the chocoholic
2.) Sugar-high Sirius

and most importantly...

1.) Bookworm Remus.

It doesn't bother me when I see someone writing Remus occasionally reading. Most people read every now and then, and given that Remus cites WPP as his first real friends, he must have had an isolated childhood, where I can see a lot of books. But there are multiple sins spawning out of bookworm!Remus.

-How many times do I see him reading Lord of the Rings or Shakespeare or whatever the fanfic author's favorite book is? (Okay, so I made Regulus read We The Living, but it was meant to be funny because he was in Russia at the time, and he and Remus had just finished an argument about Communism. And I made Regulus a total history geek.) How hard is it to make up the title of a Wizarding book? We see in canon that Wizards have a lot of different books- Ron has comic books, Mrs. Weasley reads Gilderoy Lockhart's books on every subject... there's an entire LIBRARY. I don't remember any other mentions off the top of my head of fiction (or near enough to fiction), but still. It must be there.

-Bookworm!Remus often ignores his friends for books. Um, how likely is THAT to be canon? I can see first-year Remus hiding behind books until he feels comfortable, but it's pretty clear from the Shack scene that Remus was longing for friends. He's not going to blow them off to read a book.

-Serious!Remus. Bookworm!Remus rarely has a sense of humor, either. He's a reincarnation of Hermione, despite the fact that Remus in canon is anything but.

-And finally, bookworm Remus is almost ALWAYS more intelligent than Sirius and James (generally put together). Again, totally against canon.

-Plus, this is one that pervades across ships, from what I understand, I've seen it in R/S, I've seen R/T people complain about it, and I see it occasionally in gen (less so, because Remus gen is harder to find and is generally written by pretty good authors). I'm sure I would not be the only one cheering if I could declare a ban on Remus being a bookworm!

So, if I had to ban one piece of fanon, it would definitely be bookworm!Remus.

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Heh, that's actually one of the few pieces of fanon I find both plausible and sexy. Sigh.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

If nothing else, I had to reply so I could use the icon. Smart men ARE sexy. (Especially when they look like that.)

In all seriousness, I do find the stereotype less offensive in the later years. I don't mind it in MWPP- in fact, my Remus actually is a big reader, too- I just don't like what it so frequently spawns. But I wonder if it is less annoying in R/T fic just because of Remus's age and it doesn't spawn the bits that drive me nuts?