I think most of us get why writers like pairings with Snape: Alan Rickman. We know writers like Malfoy pairings because the actor is attractive (??? I think? Straight dude, so I don't see it, whatever). We know writers like to pair the aforementioned with Hermione because many treat her as a reader insert. Snape/Harry and Malfoy/Harry are popular because many writers think two describing two male characters is better than one. I don't get exactly how people can tolerate the characters terrible faults despite how attractive they supposedly are, but I assume it comes from basically completely rewriting the characters.

Draco the poor abused child who wants to escape his Deatheater father, or Draco fighting for a completely twisted from canon "pureblood" cause. Snape, this poor man who has spent so many years undercover as a Deatheater that he needs time to learn how to love again. I assume nonsense like this. Dumb, but it sort of makes sense that a writer who really wants to write their self-insert Hermione with Alan Rickman or whoever it is that plays Malfoy might twisted it to fit.

So what the fuck is up with Voldemort Pairings? What starting point leads so so many writers down that road that out of the 260k HP fics on AO3, 10,000 or so are Harry/Voldemort fics? He's utterly reprehensible even by the standards of many other HP characters, he's not attractive so no starting point there, what drives this crazy shit?

Bellaxtrix pairings too. She's Voldemort levels of evil and a fucking loon to boot, but my God are there a lot of Harry and Hermione pairings with her. Not to mention the long line of fringe Hermione/Deatheater pairings like Greyback or Lucius.

I don't get it.

 

You don't need to want to suck a dick to acknowledge aesthetics my dude.

 

Wasn't Tom Riddle extremely handsome in his youth? I think thats the appeal for slash writers. It could work if Harry travels back in time to Tom's year.

 

I can ordinarily understand what most straight women/gay men find attractive, but the guy who plays Malfoy doesn't fit that in my mind. He looks like a dude who needs to lay off the meth.

Edit: I already regret making this thread.

 

Also Harry/Bellatrix and Harry/Voldemort has the appeal of Intense hatefucks. I have actually read quite a lot Harry/Fem! Voldemort fics as guilty pleasure.

 

To the best of my understanding the logic goes:

Difference in status/power = tension = somewhat interesting character dynamics.

In practice the pairings are usually as saccharin/edgy as anything else but eh it's pretty understandable. Like why student/teacher pairings are so popular in fiction.

 

Pretty much all these fics are manipulative!Dumbledore fics of the highest degree where Voldemort Did Nothing Wrong.

 

Not gonna lie, I came into this thread prepared to defend Daphne from a bunch of ignorant peasants.

 

Pretty much all of these fics are written by prepubescent girls. They are, as you might expect, about as bad as the handful written by prepubescent boys. Like please tell me you didn't have a funhouse mirror's idea of sex and relationships when you were twelve.

 

I cannot comprehend why someone, or anyone for that matter, would push Harry/Daphne. Daphne is a useless background character. It make sense if even if its Harry/Pansy who atleast have enemity than a background a useless background character in the book.

 

So, once they write their first Snarry fic, do they stay 12 years old forever?

 

Because she's not useless. She gets like two or three sentences in seven books. She's a blank slate and her sister was hot enough that the (surely) picky Malfoy married her, so odds are she's hot too. It's why she's the first choice when people want to write an OC Slytherin woman but don't want to come up with a name.

 

I see you have not yet reached Enlightenment.

 

I mean, the Enemies-to-lovers trope must be one of the most popular is romance in general. So obviously every Death Eater or sympathiser in canon has the potential to be "turned good" by Harry/Hermione's eternal love (depending on whether the teenager who's writing that crap wants a self-insert or a same-sex fantasy).

Pansy (like Millicent) is canonically ugly. And since Blaise has been confirmed male (not sure how anyone could mistake that for a female name, but w/e), Daphne is the only Slytherin girl with the potential to be hot. Therefore, she is.

No, they discover that there are plenty of 12-year-old reading them and telling them how good they are. So they want to cater to their public.

 

While I don't mind an enemies to lovers story, I draw the line at murderers and racists.

Ah, so they stay 12 years old emotionally then.

 

I mean there's the Carrow twins who also have the added hotness factor of being, you know, twins.

 

I meant characters at least existing as names in the books. The Carrows are an invention of HBP movie, and I'm not even sure they're named outside the credits.

 

The Carrows are absolutely in the books - they're the ones teaching at Hogwarts in DH.

 

They're talking about the Carrow twins, not the Carrow teachers. That said, I didn't realise they were a movie invention.

 

That's what fanfiction is all about, using characters in different ways, etc, using side characters who got no lines or "screen time" for additional benefit.

For example, you could be considered a side character in a documentary about DLP.