For some reason I'm unable to think of Tonks as hot or even attractive on any level. I know that she's a metamorphmagus and can literally fit any aesthetic. She's essentially a harem-in-a-witch. But I just can't. It's a problem and I don't know why or how to fix it or even if it really needs to be fixed, but I wanted to express my struggle here.

There are two types of physical-based attractiveness I experience. I call these sexual attractiveness and beauty. A person is sexually attractive when I want to have sex with them and a person is beautiful when I think they look really pretty. Some people are both, some neither, and some one or the other. Tonks is neither.

Part of the problem is that Tonks feels too old, but she doesn't even have the MILFy factor going for her. This may be due to how I view age gaps in relationships. As the two people involved get older, the wider the acceptable the age gap becomes to me.

To give another example of this mental block in play, even Fleur isn't sexually attractive to me, though she is beautiful. I picture her as very elegant and good looking, but not sexworthy. Hell, I find Ginny more sexually attractive that her.

I find that Daphne Greengrass seems to fit the role of a metamorphmagus a lot better than Tonks on a meta level. She has no defined appearance and often changes appearances across fics. She fits both types of physical attraction somehow. Maybe it's because her personality is also fluid across fics, though Tonks doesn't have much of a defined personality either.

Actually, I'm never really attracted to Tonks's personality, either in canon or fanfics.

I don't understand why I have this mental block with someone like Tonks who should be the perfect love interest on a physical level.

Do y'all have any mental blocks that you can't seem to make sense of?

 

How does Tonks feel old to you? She's mid to late 20s for most of the series iirc and acts like it pretty much.

For me I'd say that I can't really believe that Snape is supposed to be horrifically ugly (yellow teeth, hair dripping with grease, long yellow fingernails, skin so sallow it looks like he has jaundice) in canon he is ugly, that's a fact. Those slash fics that have him be handsome are dumb but fics that swing to the other side of the pendulum are just ridiculous imo.

Snape is definitely an asshole in canon, which is why I don't get when people who bash him in their fics do it in such a idiotic way, like they make him stupid, have no sense of hygiene and cartoonishly evil. If you're going to make an AU where he stays a death eater at least amplify his canon evil traits; smart, apathetic to others plight, overly malicious an etc. Also obsessive and pathetic of course.

tl;dr - Snape is an asshole but at least write him as a competent asshole.

 

That's one of those things I don't really get. She just feels old. Like, if someone tried to pair Harry with my grandma. She doesn't feel that old, but functionally she feels too old for Harry in my head. It's not really about the age, but more about the vibe.

Edit: I agree about your thoughts on Snape's appearance.

 

I mean, if you think about it, she really is too old, at least for pairing with Harry. If you really want to see it, just swap the genders. What do you think of a 26-28 year old man sleeping with a 16 year old girl? The same holds true for Harry/Tonks, and just as weird.

 

No, that makes perfect sense. A year or two of age difference is something that registers with teenagers, but adults wouldn't even care about ten years if they're both over forty or something. An ex girlfriend of mine was 23 when I was 19 and I had to get over the feeling of her being too old for me. It wasn't as if she looked old or anything, it was the opposite, the average person would guess she was 18.

 

I feel the same. Mostly Harry/Tonks fics are set in OOTP when Tonks is at least 20 and Harry is only 15 it feels weird. Whenever I see Harry/Tonks it screams Pedophile!Tonks. I start thinking it would be an issue in the real world if a 15 year old was dating a 20 year old. When I read romantic scenes between them I start thinking kissing with such young person can be interpreted as pedophilia by court and be ticket to jail in the real world.

I feel much comfortable with Harry/Fleur as it close agewise and feels like an actual teenage relationship.

Another block I have is reading abused Harry fics because it doesn't fit with canon. Canon Harry's abuse is highly overrated. He was never beaten, starved, raped, etc. Yes, he was a bit on the thin side, and they didn't go out of their way to give him loads of food, but that is a far cry from starvation. Verbal abuse isn't that big of a deal if one learns to man the fuck up.

 

She's 23/24 when he's 16 and I'm only pointing that out to say that should be the same age gap as Bill and Fleur, which made me grimace when I re-read it as a woke adult.

As for mental blocks, I can't see Cedric Diggory as handsome because of Robert Pattison. I can ignore the other actors, but all I see is Pattison for Diggory.

 

Despite being a metamorphmagus, the way Tonks uses her powers in canon is pretty consistently portrayed, and it's not to walk around as a bombshell. She has a definite "alternative" vibe. So I too have little feeling of attraction to Tonks and cannot imagine her as hot, because I'm just not into that look.

Which is probably the reason why the only Tonks fics I'm interested in are those where she transforms into other people e.g. The Metamorph Bet.
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You might like to refer back to canon...

Etc.

 

eh, my complaint was more about the stupid!Snape trope, but also I guess I was more influenced by movie canon then I thought...

 

I can't picture Hermione as ugly with buck teeth with extremely thick, extremely bushy, curly, brown hair.

Whenever I think of Hermione, Beautiful Emma Watson comes waltzing in my mind instead of Book!Hermione with perfectly crimped, perfectly styled hair with a pretty face. Emma is one of the hottest woman in the world.

Also I can't stop thinking that Canon Harry is actually very superficial. He only sought out hot, fun Quidditch girls. Cho was hot, but not fun enough, so she got dumped for Ginny.

He routinely dissed not the most attractive girls in his thoughts. Hermione was “bushy haired with very large front teeth”. Luna had “mad protuberant eyes”. Pansy was simply “pug faced”.

He might have changed somewhat after the war, but we readers wouldn’t know.

I can totally see Harry making a move on Hermione if she looked like Emma Watson.

 

...What? LOL, alright I can understand thinking of Emma Watson, but saying that Harry is superficial is absurd. We only see from his perspective but it's obvious that J.K was showing what they looked like with Harry's honest observations, Harry is pretty pithy in canon but that's a positive. Harry goes for confident girls and even if Hermione looked better he still wouldn't get with her imo. Her negative traits clash with his, being bossy/controlling etc. Don't really want to get into a Harmony debate though.

 

Harry wasn't exactly attracted to Cho because of her fine Ravenclaw mind.

 

Yeah, but he didn't go for her because she played Quidditch either.

 

He went after her because she was pretty and played Quidditch, but that doesn't make him superficial. It just means he has a thing for pretty, sporty girls.

 

Saying he dumped Cho for Ginny is a bit of a stretch, given that Cho and Harry just kind of fell apart about a year before Harry and Ginny got together, and several months before Harry even thought about Ginny that way.

 

Harry's interest in Cho was largely superficial. He noticed she was extremely pretty. Harry was attracted to Ginny since at least book 2. He liked her eyes, her face (growing like the setting sun) and her hair. Cho unable to take Cedric's death meant she wouldn't be able to handle Harry as a boyfriend. He needs someone who's not going to cry over him. As Ron said, he needed someone more cheerful. That was Ginny.
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He definitely wanted someone pretty. Cho and Patil twins all fit in that category, but are not as fun as Ginny.

 

Well, yes, he didn't know her so of course he was attracted to her because she was pretty and played Quidditch. I don't think wanting to date someone you're attracted to and share a common interest with makes you superficial, though.

He wasn't attracted to the Patil twins or Fleur, Angelina, or Lavender for that matter.

And if JKR going on about a character's looks means Harry is attracted to them, boy does he have a thing for Tom Riddle.

 

Katie, Romilda, Luna all prove they were not be pretty enough to attract Harry's attention.

Of all the girls at the School, only Cho, Ginny, Patil twins, and Yule Ball Hermione earned that designation.

Harry was a very picky guy.

 

Why do you keep bringing up the Patil twins? Dean Thomas was the one to call them the best looking girls of their year and Harry went on one date and acted an ass. Harry didn't think much of the Patil twins before the Yule Ball and only mentioned Parvati when she was giggling. Don't think he spoke to her again until HBP.

Neither could Angelina, who was actually described as pretty and sporty. Why would canon Harry be attracted to Romilda Vane? And Harry took Luna on a date.