Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.
For the question meme train_lindz asked me something that makes my heart a-flutter with joy. The answer deserves its own post, yes indeed. And here it is.
Why is Luna so awesome?
Um... because she is. Obviously.
No, okay, I have an actual answer. For me it's all about her perspective. I'm fascinated by the way she looks at the world. I feel like she sees things the rest of us don't and understands them in a way that is totally logical, if only you take the time to pause and think. Too many people, in my humble opinion and with myself included here, get so caught up in trying to finish everything they don't take the time to think properly. And thinking is a good thing. We should all do more thinking.
She's more mature than most people, Luna is. Probably losing her mother and then dealing with passive aggressive bullying did that to her, which is tragic, but somehow not because of how strong she is. And Luna is strong. She's stronger than most of the people in the book, I feel, because she doesn't ask anything of anyone and she doesn't put up with nonsense or worry about the crap that surrounds her. She just does what she thinks is right and says a kind word when she has one available.
Her scene with Harry after Sirius died is the moment she became my girl. I liked her from the moment she appeared (the wand behind her ear? genius) but that was when the true depth of her character became apparent. Strange as she is, and screwed up as her logic is to the rest of us, Luna understands people and she understands how to help them. That's no small thing.
Also the idea of her giant inappropriate laugh just plain tickles me. I love it. Those are the kind of random quirks I love, the little things that authors do that just make me so damn happy. Because it's such a contrast from the serene girl Luna usually is and yet, for me at least, it's a contrast that works.
Notice I've said nothing about the crazy animals and conspiracy theories. These are, for me, the least interesting aspects of her personality. I have very little tolerance for conspiracy theories (we went to the moon and Shakespeare wrote his own stuff; deal with it) so I just... ignore those aspects. Or use it for humor in fics. I don't feel too badly doing this, either, because I feel like her crazy theories are tangential to her character. They're a manifestation of her different perspective or even, I sometimes suspect, a mask for her to hide behind. Because despite what I just said about her strength, she is a young child teased by her peers and missing her mom and misunderstood by pretty much everyone and, yeah, she probably had to hide some of herself to get through the day. No faults there.
So yes. Luna is my girl. She's my favorite character outside the trio but she's also my favorite sole character. Because I think of the trio as a unit, as three parts that need to be together to be a whole. But Luna? Luna is a whole character all by herself. She may not be in all the books or take up many pages but she is a fully realized, independent, fascinating individual. Props to JKR for creating her. Mad props.
Of course, part of the reason I love her so is that writing her is beyond fun. Her kooky perspective and off-beat personality gives you such flexibility in writing and lets you play tricks with language and imagery that would be totally out of character with most everyone else. I feel like I can say more about the world when I use Luna's voice. Harry and Ron are unobservant boys, Hermione is too factual, Ginny is a character I'm just not sure I have a handle on, the adults are less interesting to me and so on with every other character--except Luna. Luna is a character I feel like I can understand and write with some degree of ability. Or at least, that's my goal. Whether or not I've succeeded isn't really up to me.
I lost so many pages of Luna fic when my hard drive crashed, it's really quite upsetting. I had about four chapters of a pre-DH George/Luna story written, which I never got around to updating after DH came out (but didn't really want to, anyway). Then I had about twenty pages of drabbles and mini fic that I was planning to string together into a series about the rare times Luna and the twins interacted with one another in Hogwarts. Then I had two different completed versions of Luna and Lee uniting to take care of George meant to be a sequel to Symmetry, my first post-DH fic. And to round it all off, I had a fic that I LOVED that showed how Luna celebrated the anniversaries of the Battle at Hogwarts. It started right at the one day anniversary and ended at the fifty year anniversary and I was really pleased with it. I was even thinking about posting it, maybe. I probably would have but it contained suicide and that's such a sensitive topic that I couldn't bring myself to put it out there. But then I also refused to take the suicide out so I decided the fic was just for me. But now it's not even for me anymore because my stupid laptop ate it. So annoying. I still can't believe I didn't back up fic when I backed up schoolwork and music and pictures. Seriously, what was going though my mind with that decision? Dumbass move.
Alright, enough of this Woe Is Me nonsense. Luna would not approve.
Back to the topic of writing Luna fanfic, part of the reason I love her so is a reason I don't want to admit. But we're all friends here, right? And you've made it to the end of an incredibly long post so I think you've earned it. I like writing Luna because she's the only character I ever put any of myself in. I in no way think we're the same but through her I can talk about the things I observe in other people. She's definitely a lot calmer than me, and much more open minded, but when I write her I don't feel I'm doing a disservice if some of me slips in.
An example: The obsession with symmetry I gave her in (the rather obviously named) Symmetry? Yeah, that's all me. I'm ridiculous about symmetry. I actually had to do a lot of work to overcome my OCD tendencies enough to move out and attend a school that is so frickin asymmetrical. The floors here are horrible, I can barely walk on them when I think too hard about it. And then there are building that purposely don't match and that is just really difficult for me to accept. Really, in a lot of ways the symmetry fixation I gave Luna in this fic is the more healthy form of what I struggle with. She does good with her fixation; I go slightly crazy about things like the patterns on floors.
A second example: Subtleties was just an excuse for me to talk about how I view the world and place for me to talk about language. The Luna character exploration was secondary. I don't say secondary in that she was secondary but the ending of that fic, when it turned more introspective and fully Luna-centric, that was all a later addition. I love that part but it was grafted onto an already existing story that came a lot more from me than from HP. I actually have (well, had; seriously, back up your stuff) a real life version of Subtleties about a girl watching 9/11 unfold.
A third example: In Accidental Symbolism I tried to justify the way I, unfortunately, have been known to judge people by they wear. Not by brand or social status or whatever, but I associate happy people with bright colors and ornate accessories with busy people and so on. With this fic I tried to explain how someone can use clothes to judge others and why that's not as awful as it originally sounds. Of course, I couldn't completely justify it because superficial judging is bad but I did try.
That's it, though. (I think.) The rest of my Luna fics are pure Luna. I certainly wouldn't combine two dates if my night was double-booked as she did in Long Tongues and I think we can all be certain that my reaction to being captured by Death Eaters would be much more panicky that Luna's in Captive.
I think it's time for me to stop now. This post is already longer than it needs to be and if any of you actually made it down to this point I think I owe you cookies.
But one more thing: LUNA FTW!
Why is Luna so awesome?
Um... because she is. Obviously.
No, okay, I have an actual answer. For me it's all about her perspective. I'm fascinated by the way she looks at the world. I feel like she sees things the rest of us don't and understands them in a way that is totally logical, if only you take the time to pause and think. Too many people, in my humble opinion and with myself included here, get so caught up in trying to finish everything they don't take the time to think properly. And thinking is a good thing. We should all do more thinking.
She's more mature than most people, Luna is. Probably losing her mother and then dealing with passive aggressive bullying did that to her, which is tragic, but somehow not because of how strong she is. And Luna is strong. She's stronger than most of the people in the book, I feel, because she doesn't ask anything of anyone and she doesn't put up with nonsense or worry about the crap that surrounds her. She just does what she thinks is right and says a kind word when she has one available.
Her scene with Harry after Sirius died is the moment she became my girl. I liked her from the moment she appeared (the wand behind her ear? genius) but that was when the true depth of her character became apparent. Strange as she is, and screwed up as her logic is to the rest of us, Luna understands people and she understands how to help them. That's no small thing.
Also the idea of her giant inappropriate laugh just plain tickles me. I love it. Those are the kind of random quirks I love, the little things that authors do that just make me so damn happy. Because it's such a contrast from the serene girl Luna usually is and yet, for me at least, it's a contrast that works.
Notice I've said nothing about the crazy animals and conspiracy theories. These are, for me, the least interesting aspects of her personality. I have very little tolerance for conspiracy theories (we went to the moon and Shakespeare wrote his own stuff; deal with it) so I just... ignore those aspects. Or use it for humor in fics. I don't feel too badly doing this, either, because I feel like her crazy theories are tangential to her character. They're a manifestation of her different perspective or even, I sometimes suspect, a mask for her to hide behind. Because despite what I just said about her strength, she is a young child teased by her peers and missing her mom and misunderstood by pretty much everyone and, yeah, she probably had to hide some of herself to get through the day. No faults there.
So yes. Luna is my girl. She's my favorite character outside the trio but she's also my favorite sole character. Because I think of the trio as a unit, as three parts that need to be together to be a whole. But Luna? Luna is a whole character all by herself. She may not be in all the books or take up many pages but she is a fully realized, independent, fascinating individual. Props to JKR for creating her. Mad props.
Of course, part of the reason I love her so is that writing her is beyond fun. Her kooky perspective and off-beat personality gives you such flexibility in writing and lets you play tricks with language and imagery that would be totally out of character with most everyone else. I feel like I can say more about the world when I use Luna's voice. Harry and Ron are unobservant boys, Hermione is too factual, Ginny is a character I'm just not sure I have a handle on, the adults are less interesting to me and so on with every other character--except Luna. Luna is a character I feel like I can understand and write with some degree of ability. Or at least, that's my goal. Whether or not I've succeeded isn't really up to me.
I lost so many pages of Luna fic when my hard drive crashed, it's really quite upsetting. I had about four chapters of a pre-DH George/Luna story written, which I never got around to updating after DH came out (but didn't really want to, anyway). Then I had about twenty pages of drabbles and mini fic that I was planning to string together into a series about the rare times Luna and the twins interacted with one another in Hogwarts. Then I had two different completed versions of Luna and Lee uniting to take care of George meant to be a sequel to Symmetry, my first post-DH fic. And to round it all off, I had a fic that I LOVED that showed how Luna celebrated the anniversaries of the Battle at Hogwarts. It started right at the one day anniversary and ended at the fifty year anniversary and I was really pleased with it. I was even thinking about posting it, maybe. I probably would have but it contained suicide and that's such a sensitive topic that I couldn't bring myself to put it out there. But then I also refused to take the suicide out so I decided the fic was just for me. But now it's not even for me anymore because my stupid laptop ate it. So annoying. I still can't believe I didn't back up fic when I backed up schoolwork and music and pictures. Seriously, what was going though my mind with that decision? Dumbass move.
Alright, enough of this Woe Is Me nonsense. Luna would not approve.
Back to the topic of writing Luna fanfic, part of the reason I love her so is a reason I don't want to admit. But we're all friends here, right? And you've made it to the end of an incredibly long post so I think you've earned it. I like writing Luna because she's the only character I ever put any of myself in. I in no way think we're the same but through her I can talk about the things I observe in other people. She's definitely a lot calmer than me, and much more open minded, but when I write her I don't feel I'm doing a disservice if some of me slips in.
An example: The obsession with symmetry I gave her in (the rather obviously named) Symmetry? Yeah, that's all me. I'm ridiculous about symmetry. I actually had to do a lot of work to overcome my OCD tendencies enough to move out and attend a school that is so frickin asymmetrical. The floors here are horrible, I can barely walk on them when I think too hard about it. And then there are building that purposely don't match and that is just really difficult for me to accept. Really, in a lot of ways the symmetry fixation I gave Luna in this fic is the more healthy form of what I struggle with. She does good with her fixation; I go slightly crazy about things like the patterns on floors.
A second example: Subtleties was just an excuse for me to talk about how I view the world and place for me to talk about language. The Luna character exploration was secondary. I don't say secondary in that she was secondary but the ending of that fic, when it turned more introspective and fully Luna-centric, that was all a later addition. I love that part but it was grafted onto an already existing story that came a lot more from me than from HP. I actually have (well, had; seriously, back up your stuff) a real life version of Subtleties about a girl watching 9/11 unfold.
A third example: In Accidental Symbolism I tried to justify the way I, unfortunately, have been known to judge people by they wear. Not by brand or social status or whatever, but I associate happy people with bright colors and ornate accessories with busy people and so on. With this fic I tried to explain how someone can use clothes to judge others and why that's not as awful as it originally sounds. Of course, I couldn't completely justify it because superficial judging is bad but I did try.
That's it, though. (I think.) The rest of my Luna fics are pure Luna. I certainly wouldn't combine two dates if my night was double-booked as she did in Long Tongues and I think we can all be certain that my reaction to being captured by Death Eaters would be much more panicky that Luna's in Captive.
I think it's time for me to stop now. This post is already longer than it needs to be and if any of you actually made it down to this point I think I owe you cookies.
But one more thing: LUNA FTW!