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whoa hey a meme!
Pick a character I've written and I'll list the top ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing them that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.*
*I don't think it follows that if other people don't have those concepts in mind they're inaccurately depicting them. For what it's worth.
*I don't think it follows that if other people don't have those concepts in mind they're inaccurately depicting them. For what it's worth.
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Harry?
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Right? Right. So true. Um, Harry. ok.
1) I keep in mind that Harry was abused as a child.
2) And he has anger management issues.
3) And that what he went through at Hogwarts was not a normal childhood/teen years. He was under a lot of pressure, forced to do violent things, and often fearful for his life and those of people he loved.
4) So he's probably pretty fucked up.
5) He didn't get to spend a lot of time socializing, so I tend to imagine he's bad at making friends, small talk, and getting to know people.
6) I keep in mind that he didn't like to study, and often got Hermione to do intellectual tasks for him.
7) So I try not to think of him as an intellectual, philosophical or in general someone who sits around and thinks about things.
8) He's not all that insightful either.
9) He's more of a man of action.
10) Things were expressed to him as binary when he was young (Dudley is beloved, you are not). This continued throughout his childhood and teen years (Voldemort is evil, you are not). Harry has trouble not seeing things in black and white.
11) However, there were obvious hints that the world was gray: he found out his father could be kind of a dick. He found out Voldemort had a similar background. Snape saved him in Book 1 even though Harry was convinced he was evil. I've never thought about it in quite this way before, because I've never really written it down like this, but I guess I feel like Harry felt there was something missing from his binary viewpoint--but since he never really sat down and thought about it, and Hermione didn't explain it to him, he didn't really get what he was missing.
12) Harry also saw the world as binary because people acted as though it was, and his childhood was so fucked up that he didn't have the means and time to make other discoveries. Death Eaters and Voldemort saw the world as black, and forces on the other side chose to see the world in white, partially in order to be able to fight. Dumbledore knew the world wasn't binary, except he had to express to Harry the idea that it was so that Harry wouldn't shirk his duty. Maybe Harry always knew that there were things Dumbledore wasn't telling him.
13) Harry doesn't actually like binary. People treating the world as binary was why the war happened, and how Harry got locked into step with this, "You must slay Voldemort!" gig.
14) The reason I ship Harry with Draco is I feel that if Harry learned that Draco was more than Harry thought he was, Draco would always represent for Harry that there are deeper truths than black and white. Every time Harry looked at Draco, he would see the world for all its colors, and once he saw it, he would never be able to unsee.
15) I think Harry feels like his life was chosen for him, which it mostly was.
16) I feel like Harry feels the way he does about Ginny for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a Laurie-esque desire to be with someone from the family. I think it also has to do with Harry doing things that are fated, and it feels fated for a number of reasons--canonically she resembles his mother; also, she's loved him since she was little and he saved her when she was young, which are very similar to the beginnings of many fairytale romances.
17) Harry is very serious and dramatic a lot of the time. He also feels pretty sorry for himself, but expresses most of that self-pity as anger, since he thinks that moping is weak.
18) Harry thinks that plenty of things are weak. Vernon Dursley reads as pretty conservative, and Harry was raised in that atmosphere. Then when he gets to Hogwarts, he gets into all these situations where asking for help, giving up, admitting he can't do something etc would likely result in The End Of The World. Thus he has some pretty stereotypically "manly" behavior, and represses a lot of emotion.
19) But Harry is also funny. His tends toward flat delivery of one-liners, and people often can't tell if he's joking.
20) Lots of people are afraid of him, especially after the war.
21) Harry is very attractive.
22) Harry is quite sure he's attractive. He's pretty sure everyone just wants a piece of him because he's Harry Potter.
23) Harry often wishes he wasn't Harry Potter.
24) Harry gets upset when Ron and Hermione fight.
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The reason I ship Harry with Draco is I feel that if Harry learned that Draco was more than Harry thought he was, Draco would always represent for Harry that there are deeper truths than black and white. Every time Harry looked at Draco, he would see the world for all its colors, and once he saw it, he would never be able to unsee.
especially that. That's so cool.
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