Huh.

[hackthis_archive]

This weekend I went swimming drunk (relax, we were in a pool), stuck my hand down the toilet, and cracked my tooth, but not necessarily in that order; and before we go any further, I must wave the banner of Neville love because pandarus made me this icon, and yeah. Whoo. Neville is hot! Say it with me, now; don’t be afraid. Well, at least 28 of you all recognize -- that’s important. And while we’re on the subject of that poll, can I just say, dude, HP and SV tied? Whoa.

I have SV at the beta now, but it won’t be ready for a bit. As for the HP, I shall think hard on H/D, but I must confess that Neville is at the forefront of all HP-related thoughts these days.

I see Warrior Angel got some love, which just makes me about fifty kinds of happy. I hope you guys enjoyed Superhero vs Superhero then.

And lest I forget, HP people go and read romanticalgirl’s Running Towards, Running Away and musesfool’s When It Alteration Finds: Four Things That Never Happened to Remus Lupin. I generally never recc R/S because I’m a tough ass, and get very picky in regards to this pairing, but these are just fucking brilliant. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up, fine holiday fun!

Comments

[semisuper.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've got a question here. Let me preface by saying that I'm not much into HP fandom yet, and the only real reading I've done of HP fic is some of yours, and a couple things nifra_idril's done. I feel the Neville love from your writing, and I am waiting to see with bated breath what will happen to him canonically, but I'd love to hear how come you've got so much Neville love.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've got a question here. Let me preface by saying that I'm not much into HP fandom yet, and the only real reading I've done of HP fic is some of yours, and a couple things nifra_idril's done. I feel the Neville love from your writing, and I am waiting to see with bated breath what will happen to him canonically, but I'd love to hear how come you've got so much Neville love.

*points at icon* That's why! j/k. Whywhywhy, tis a terribly good question, which I believe is exactly what I'm prevaricating. Allow me think for a moment:

Q:> Why do I love Neville?
Easy answer: Because he's not the obvious choice.

Everybody loves Harry; not me. I suspect it's because he's just too good, and everything seems too easy for him. I know it's not, but just once, it'd be nice to have him have to explain himself. People seem terribly afraid to hold him accountable, like he'll break or something, and I don't hold truck with that. (watch this pop up later in a story somewhere).

I like dark horses. I like people who prove themselves because they want to, not because they have some sort of holier-than-thou complex that predestins them to save the day. Harry's just too flashy for me, and Neville. Neville has heart. He tries. I think falling for Neville as a character is a lot like falling for the boy next door that you never noticed because of the braces and clumsiness, but then one day you look up and he smiles and you're like 'well, duh!'

Neville isn't the hero or the obvious choice because he doesn't have the scar and the fame. JKR doesn't talk about girls crushing on him or everyone wanting to be him and more often then not he flies under the radar, but he's got heart. His lot in life has been just as tragic and traumatic as Harry's but you don't see him throwing wobblers and acting like a git. (I plan to have him throw a serious wobbler, but that's later).

Truthfully, I never gave Neville that much consideration while I was reading the first four books. JKR didn't do much to flesh out his character, ergo the title of the books not being Neville Longbottom and the Philosopher's Stone, and he was just sort of there. (The same could be said for Draco, and that never stopped me from writing a shedload about him.) I've never been a huge Harry lover, though, he's just sort of been the central point of view for a very engaging story, and when JKR bumped Neville onto the proverbial stage on OotP, it was like manna from heaven. I went from thinking well of him, to thinking he was just what I'd been waiting for all along. More than anyone else he has potential to be great, and we all know how much I like men who want to be great.

[semisuper.livejournal.com]

Thank you for indulging my question!!

I like dark horses. I like people who prove themselves because they want to, not because they have some sort of holier-than-thou complex that predestins them to save the day.

The choice. I get that. That makes a lot of sense. To be honest, this latest book felt like much of a letdown in terms of even understanding Harry's predestination, anyway -- instead of understanding that part, I was all WTF after I finished. Watching Neville in action in the book, and then reading your ideas of his future -- *that's* satisfying in a way that canonical Harry hasn't been, at all, for me thus far.

I think falling for Neville as a character is a lot like falling for the boy next door that you never noticed because of the braces and clumsiness, but then one day you look up and he smiles and you're like 'well, duh!'

And add to that the face you've chosen for grown-up Neville, *pointing up toward icon* and I can completely understand that.

More than anyone else he has potential to be great, and we all know how much I like men who want to be great.

I just wish we could figure out a way for one of those men in particular to be GREAT without going BAD. ;)

Great, great answers, all of those. Thank you for humoring me. I'm so interested to see what happens with Neville in the next book, whether he has something, some sort of gift or intuition or just the presence of mind when no one else will have it, that will ultimately defeat Voldemort -- I'm so curious. I'm a little terrified that he'll die in protecting Harry.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

The choice. I get that. That makes a lot of sense. To be honest, this latest book felt like much of a letdown in terms of even understanding Harry's predestination, anyway -- instead of understanding that part, I was all WTF after I finished. Watching Neville in action in the book, and then reading your ideas of his future -- *that's* satisfying in a way that canonical Harry hasn't been, at all, for me thus far.

Harryharryharry. Perhaps I shall write a story entitled 'The Problem with Harry', but I haven't got the rest of my life to write it, sadly, because you know that's probably how long it would take. It's not that I don't like Harry, I just have issues in trying to empathize with him the way I do with other characters - who I can't actually think of right now. Um yeah. The lovely thing about this universe that JKR has created is that it's huge and vast and there are hundreds of characters to play with. Just this morning I wondered what it must have been like for Colin's Creevy parents to hear their child had been petrified at the school they'd sent him too, you know with them being Muggle-born and all. But what's a blessing is also a curse, and with all these characters, it's hard to flesh them out as much as anyone might like, even Harry. I mean it's hard enough to write a scene with more than three people in it without needing a bloody diagram, imagine trying to deal with classes and meetings and the like. I'm getting away from the point, which is this: i believe that JKR does the best she can in the space she can, but I highly doubt she would ever be able to flesh out everyone to the degree we would like without turning this into some sort of nasty Sweet Valley High franchise. Not that SVH wasn't entertaining when I was 14. Anyway. I enjoyed OotP considerably, and I felt she did a better job fleshing things out then she had in the past, but I don't see myself ever being fully satisfied, you know?

Great, great answers, all of those. Thank you for humoring me. I'm so interested to see what happens with Neville in the next book, whether he has something, some sort of gift or intuition or just the presence of mind when no one else will have it, that will ultimately defeat Voldemort -- I'm so curious.

It's just my two bits, but I'd like to thing that Neville doesn't have anything like that. I'd like to think that he's just a young man who's exceedingly perceptive, and clumsy. He's my hero because he doesn't have to be. Mordred, I'm really smitten, aren't I?

I'm a little terrified that he'll die in protecting Harry.

Lalalalalala! *fingers in ears* I'm not hearing you.

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

I'm a little terrified that he'll die in protecting Harry.

Lalalalalala! *fingers in ears* I'm not hearing you.

Given what JKR has said in interviews, I don't think any multi-book Good characters other than Sirius are going to die. What I haven't figured out yet is if Snape is the one who's 'redeemed' or if I can keep up my hopes that Draco will be redeemed, both by realized what a dork Voldie is and by becoming a real, three dimensional character.