Just Another Book About Harry Potter Ships

Some General Harry Potter Opinions: Depends

I thought that it would be fun to briefly go over some of my more general fandom opinions before diving into my ship specific ones, so I wrote up a list of Harry Potter fandom/fanfiction tropes sorted into likes, dislikes, and depends! This chapter, we'll be going over my Depends list. (And remember, these are just my opinions — you are more than welcome to like what I dislike, dislike what I like, or any combination in between!)

DEPENDS

- Abused Draco — This one is very hit or miss. I think that Draco shows signs of having been completely coddled and spoiled, rather than abused, so I really dislike when people turn Lucius into a physically or emotionally abusive father. Lucius may be a shit person in many ways, but it's clear that both he and Narcissa love their son dearly and will do just about anything for him, like defect during the Battle of Hogwarts in order to find him, as they were implied to have done in the books. However, I could plausibly see Draco being abused by his aunt Bellatrix, who teaches him how to close his mind to other people's attempts at intrusion (I can't imagine that she's the best teacher or uses the most ethical methods); by other Death Eaters, like Greyback, especially during or after the Malfoys' fall from Voldemort's favor (Draco is clearly very afraid of Greyback, which might not entirely be because of his werewolf status); and of course by Voldemort himself. The type and extent of the abuse depends on how dark the writer wants to go, but if it goes too dark, I probably won't read it, for the sake of my own sanity.

- Arranged Marriage — While it's interesting to explore the idea that some more traditional pure-blood marriages could be arranged ones, and I like that the arranged marriage trope can be angsty, complex, and sometimes dark as hell, if this trope is used to pair Hermione up with Death Eaters, especially if it's supposed to be seen as romantic by readers of the fic rather than dark or disturbing, I immediately scroll past or click away. (See also: Dark Fic, Dumbledore/the Sorting Hat/the Ministry Ships It, Hermione x Death Eaters, Marriage Law, Pyrrhic Victory AU.)

- Dark Fic — Dark Fic is specifically written to be dark and angsty, so it's really hit or miss on just how disturbing it will end up being and if I'll be able to handle how dark it gets, even if I do sometimes enjoy reading fics with dark themes. It also strongly depends on what kind of dark themes the fic holds, because, for example, as discussed above, I'm not interested in reading about Hermione being forced into relationships with Death Eaters, even if I will read other dark fics. (See also: Arranged Marriage, Hermione x Death Eaters, Marriage Law, Pyrrhic Victory AU, Time Travel, Voldemort Wins AU.)

- Fusions — I mentally separate crossovers from fusions in my head as follows: crossovers require that the worlds and characters of two or more different pieces of media "cross over," while fusions can take characters from one piece of media and place them in the setting of another without mixing the two worlds together. So an example of a crossover fic would be something where Harry Potter and Star Wars characters meet one another and either visit Hogwarts or Tatooine together, while an example of a fusion fic would be if the Harry Potter characters were put in a situation like the TV show L.O.S.T. or Hannibal characters went to Hogwarts, but without those two realities actually crossing. An easy way to remember the difference is that crossovers, well, "cross over," while fusions are more like AUs. A Hunger Games AU with characters from My Hero Academia is a fusion; if those two pieces of media were to overlap somehow so that the characters from both pieces of media met/their worlds collided, that's a crossover. They're similar but still different enough to be classified differently, in my opinion. And while I'm not interested in crossovers, I sometimes like reading fusions. It just really depends on how the fusion or AU is executed. (See also: Crossovers.)