Minority Report
Major Spoilers Under Cut.
You have been warned. Comments are Spoiler-friendly too-so don’t whine if you click.
I had absolutely no intention of buying the book early. But several days ago I was inadvertently spoiled by a troll-and especially living only 5 blocks away from a Barnes and Noble selling at midnight (and for 15 dollars off the cover price), I couldn’t wait to find out if it were all true. So I went, got my blue wrist band (unreserved line) and waited 45 minutes in a party atmosphere to be hussled through. Miraculously (or maybe it has to do with not being able to wield a wand) I did not Crucio the nitwit behind me who said she hoped Snape died horribly.
Deathly Hallows is my favorite actually of the HP books. I know-I’ve glanced through my f-list, and I’ve heard the moans for days now about the leak which now is confirmed to be the real thing. What can I say? I think the reason I was able to love this book was my expectations. Truly, everything I disliked (Snape’s death, an epilogue years later with Hermione happily married with kids to Ron) are things I absolutely expected by the time I closed the book on Half-Blood Prince. I also expected something else-something I was a bit afraid wouldn’t materialize-but did.
This Snape is no traitor to the Light. A lot in the SSHG ship took a leap of faith after HBP-and they were right to. Dumbledore had asked Snape to kill him. If anything, I didn’t give Snape-or Harry-enough credit. And the epilogue is worth the price of admission for Harry's admonishment to his son that Severus was “the bravest man he ever knew” and that it would be fine with him if his son wound up in Slytherin. Well before I ever read fanfic or even liked Snape, what most bugged me about Rowling’s books was the seeming flatness of her Gryffindor-centric view. That’s now been (well, mostly) corrected. Slytherins and Ravenclaws are heroes and heroines, and more than a little of Dumbledore’s shine is rubbed off. Hermione, Luna, Neville-even Ron-all shine here.
And with a little imagination...
I’ll be honest. It probably will be a while before I’m interested in reading or writing the fanfic again. I think I need time to process this-whether it be days or weeks I don’t know. I’m also not sure how this will affect finishing my WIP-although I had said the one deal-breaker was whether Snape was good or evil-but I don’t know that I can slog through finishing something sooo AU in other respects.
BUT
It could have been worse-much worse. For one, AU of events are much easier to deal with and accept than ones of character. Had Snape been an evil traitor, frankly, I don’t think I’d have been able to stomach the idea of SSHG any longer.
But death? Pfft. Especially since no body is ever recovered. We actually imo got plenty of wiggle room here. If you don’t believe me, try reading some post-DH SSHG. I’ve already seen one posted on my f-list where Snape survived (no ghost, no portrait, no body after all-Harry didn’t know what he saw) and Hermione in the midst of divorce.
And an epilogue only 19 years in the future? When this book confirms that wizarding lifespans such as Dumbledore’s are the norm? Nothing. I feared JKR would set her epilogue many decades in the future. Something along the lines of “and Ron was at Hermione’s bedside as she lay dying, surrounded by her great-great-great-great grandchildren after a hundred years of happy marriage.”
I really don't think folks, that it’s that hard to do canon-compliant SSHG, or DMHG for that matter, if you want to go there.
You want a real ship killer? At first I did go in search of spoilers. Do you know the one that had first circulated? Someone had claimed to have hacked a copy off Scholastic’s computers. In that scenario, Snape was evil, a loyal Death Eater. He killed Hagrid and helps in setting up an ambush where Hermione is killed. Snape’s eventually killed himself. Oh, and Draco is determined to become the next Dark Lord.
My last fandom was Trek. Years after the original series had gone off the air and Kirk was dead, people were writing Kirk/Spock. Granted, they were mostly doing it between the lines of canon-I don't know that fanfic thrives on AU-we need a crack. But it also doesn’t tend to thrive on pure canon. I hope I don’t offend anyone who loves those ships, but I find canon pairings in any fandom by and large boring. They’re not a challenge to make work so their authors rarely put much imagination into them. Janeway/Chakotay? ::hugs::. Paris/Torres? ::yawn::
Yes, I do believe the fanfic and the SSHG and DMHG ships will diminish. I expected that to happen regardless with the end of the Harry Potter series. Fandoms tend to dry up when they run out of fresh source material. I actually think that with the end of the HP series, and the Ron/Hermione contingent getting what they wanted, they’ll see a lot less of their ship too.
But don’t call our ships sunk yet.
You have been warned. Comments are Spoiler-friendly too-so don’t whine if you click.
I had absolutely no intention of buying the book early. But several days ago I was inadvertently spoiled by a troll-and especially living only 5 blocks away from a Barnes and Noble selling at midnight (and for 15 dollars off the cover price), I couldn’t wait to find out if it were all true. So I went, got my blue wrist band (unreserved line) and waited 45 minutes in a party atmosphere to be hussled through. Miraculously (or maybe it has to do with not being able to wield a wand) I did not Crucio the nitwit behind me who said she hoped Snape died horribly.
Deathly Hallows is my favorite actually of the HP books. I know-I’ve glanced through my f-list, and I’ve heard the moans for days now about the leak which now is confirmed to be the real thing. What can I say? I think the reason I was able to love this book was my expectations. Truly, everything I disliked (Snape’s death, an epilogue years later with Hermione happily married with kids to Ron) are things I absolutely expected by the time I closed the book on Half-Blood Prince. I also expected something else-something I was a bit afraid wouldn’t materialize-but did.
This Snape is no traitor to the Light. A lot in the SSHG ship took a leap of faith after HBP-and they were right to. Dumbledore had asked Snape to kill him. If anything, I didn’t give Snape-or Harry-enough credit. And the epilogue is worth the price of admission for Harry's admonishment to his son that Severus was “the bravest man he ever knew” and that it would be fine with him if his son wound up in Slytherin. Well before I ever read fanfic or even liked Snape, what most bugged me about Rowling’s books was the seeming flatness of her Gryffindor-centric view. That’s now been (well, mostly) corrected. Slytherins and Ravenclaws are heroes and heroines, and more than a little of Dumbledore’s shine is rubbed off. Hermione, Luna, Neville-even Ron-all shine here.
And with a little imagination...
I’ll be honest. It probably will be a while before I’m interested in reading or writing the fanfic again. I think I need time to process this-whether it be days or weeks I don’t know. I’m also not sure how this will affect finishing my WIP-although I had said the one deal-breaker was whether Snape was good or evil-but I don’t know that I can slog through finishing something sooo AU in other respects.
BUT
It could have been worse-much worse. For one, AU of events are much easier to deal with and accept than ones of character. Had Snape been an evil traitor, frankly, I don’t think I’d have been able to stomach the idea of SSHG any longer.
But death? Pfft. Especially since no body is ever recovered. We actually imo got plenty of wiggle room here. If you don’t believe me, try reading some post-DH SSHG. I’ve already seen one posted on my f-list where Snape survived (no ghost, no portrait, no body after all-Harry didn’t know what he saw) and Hermione in the midst of divorce.
And an epilogue only 19 years in the future? When this book confirms that wizarding lifespans such as Dumbledore’s are the norm? Nothing. I feared JKR would set her epilogue many decades in the future. Something along the lines of “and Ron was at Hermione’s bedside as she lay dying, surrounded by her great-great-great-great grandchildren after a hundred years of happy marriage.”
I really don't think folks, that it’s that hard to do canon-compliant SSHG, or DMHG for that matter, if you want to go there.
You want a real ship killer? At first I did go in search of spoilers. Do you know the one that had first circulated? Someone had claimed to have hacked a copy off Scholastic’s computers. In that scenario, Snape was evil, a loyal Death Eater. He killed Hagrid and helps in setting up an ambush where Hermione is killed. Snape’s eventually killed himself. Oh, and Draco is determined to become the next Dark Lord.
My last fandom was Trek. Years after the original series had gone off the air and Kirk was dead, people were writing Kirk/Spock. Granted, they were mostly doing it between the lines of canon-I don't know that fanfic thrives on AU-we need a crack. But it also doesn’t tend to thrive on pure canon. I hope I don’t offend anyone who loves those ships, but I find canon pairings in any fandom by and large boring. They’re not a challenge to make work so their authors rarely put much imagination into them. Janeway/Chakotay? ::hugs::. Paris/Torres? ::yawn::
Yes, I do believe the fanfic and the SSHG and DMHG ships will diminish. I expected that to happen regardless with the end of the Harry Potter series. Fandoms tend to dry up when they run out of fresh source material. I actually think that with the end of the HP series, and the Ron/Hermione contingent getting what they wanted, they’ll see a lot less of their ship too.
But don’t call our ships sunk yet.