So, I agree, but I think there’s a difference between fans reimagining a character and the author doing it.
Yes, of course, but what I was getting at is that the Cursed Child isn't a fanwork. It's a canonical part of the HP universe. So anyone making canonical contributions to a universe can and does have the ability to re-imagine characters. And they should. It gets stickier when it's a universe where the canon is generally accepted to be controlled by one person (JKR) and the people in control of some of the canonical works AREN'T her, but still. For instance the movies had creative input from other people and I'd argue any changes they made are still thought of as canonical in the minds of most people. Obviously there's arguments to be had about the "real" Ravenclaw colors or whatever but the movie!verse still holds canonical weight. Just as anything that happens in the Cursed Child will hold canonical weight. But I'm still also approaching this from a comics-canon perspective where lots of different things can all be canonical at the same time.
...that kind of erases her own lack of awesomeness re: representation
I agree that it would have been nice to see JKR make a serious post about her lack of representation in HP (in the same vein as that Stiefvater post someone linked above), but like.... yeah I'm not shocked she didn't. But I tend to assume that white people are going to be kind of shitty "well you know the problems aren't so bad now can't we just be colorblind" sort of allies, uh. That's no reason not to critique her and ask for JKR and others to be better, but I'm mostly resigned to that feeling of "well, you tried, but you didn't try very hard, did you?"
I want to know whether being a bi- or multiracial family affects the Weasley-Grangers and their children yessss thiiiis omg. I'm sort of in fear of how they will cast the Weasley-Granger children honestly. We'll see. I'm honestly just sort of sitting here with restrained hopefulness about the whole thing. I'm trying to be optimistic. But I also don't want to be disappointed.
So that one is up to us!!
Of course! It's just frustrating to feel alone or mostly alone in your fandomy interests. I'm mostly just bitter because my other main fandom is the MCU and that's the worst fandom for erasing canonically extremely important black characters and obsessing over rando white folks for shipping purposes. MY favorite ships get just.... totally ignored for the most part (Tony/Rhodey and Sam/Steve omg if you watch the damn movies those are the CLEAR OTPS I JUST *hands*). I've read like all the Sam/Steve fics on AO3 because there are like... 12. I follow (what feels like) the 5 other people who are interested and talk about Sam/Steve. And the only fic I've written for the MCU is Tony/Rhodey I think (but I don't really write fic anymore). But that doesn't change the fact that 90% of the fan content generated in the MCU fandom is Steve/Bucky nowadays (and Steve/Tony before that). It just gets disheartening. Especially when people FUCKING TAKE FLIRTY LINES THAT HAPPENED BETWEEN SAM AND STEVE AND APPLY THEM TO STEVE/BUCKY JESUS CHRIST I'm sorry I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine it's fine.
Anyway. I'm just never optimistic about fandom. I'll sit in my corner talking about and reblogging posts about the characters *I* like, regardless, but sometimes it feels lonely. :/
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Date: 2015-12-22 07:50 pm (UTC)Yes, of course, but what I was getting at is that the Cursed Child isn't a fanwork. It's a canonical part of the HP universe. So anyone making canonical contributions to a universe can and does have the ability to re-imagine characters. And they should. It gets stickier when it's a universe where the canon is generally accepted to be controlled by one person (JKR) and the people in control of some of the canonical works AREN'T her, but still. For instance the movies had creative input from other people and I'd argue any changes they made are still thought of as canonical in the minds of most people. Obviously there's arguments to be had about the "real" Ravenclaw colors or whatever but the movie!verse still holds canonical weight. Just as anything that happens in the Cursed Child will hold canonical weight. But I'm still also approaching this from a comics-canon perspective where lots of different things can all be canonical at the same time.
...that kind of erases her own lack of awesomeness re: representation
I agree that it would have been nice to see JKR make a serious post about her lack of representation in HP (in the same vein as that Stiefvater post someone linked above), but like.... yeah I'm not shocked she didn't. But I tend to assume that white people are going to be kind of shitty "well you know the problems aren't so bad now can't we just be colorblind" sort of allies, uh. That's no reason not to critique her and ask for JKR and others to be better, but I'm mostly resigned to that feeling of "well, you tried, but you didn't try very hard, did you?"
I want to know whether being a bi- or multiracial family affects the Weasley-Grangers and their children
yessss thiiiis omg. I'm sort of in fear of how they will cast the Weasley-Granger children honestly. We'll see. I'm honestly just sort of sitting here with restrained hopefulness about the whole thing. I'm trying to be optimistic. But I also don't want to be disappointed.
So that one is up to us!!
Of course! It's just frustrating to feel alone or mostly alone in your fandomy interests. I'm mostly just bitter because my other main fandom is the MCU and that's the worst fandom for erasing canonically extremely important black characters and obsessing over rando white folks for shipping purposes. MY favorite ships get just.... totally ignored for the most part (Tony/Rhodey and Sam/Steve omg if you watch the damn movies those are the CLEAR OTPS I JUST *hands*). I've read like all the Sam/Steve fics on AO3 because there are like... 12. I follow (what feels like) the 5 other people who are interested and talk about Sam/Steve. And the only fic I've written for the MCU is Tony/Rhodey I think (but I don't really write fic anymore). But that doesn't change the fact that 90% of the fan content generated in the MCU fandom is Steve/Bucky nowadays (and Steve/Tony before that). It just gets disheartening. Especially when people FUCKING TAKE FLIRTY LINES THAT HAPPENED BETWEEN SAM AND STEVE AND APPLY THEM TO STEVE/BUCKY JESUS CHRIST I'm sorry I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine it's fine.
Anyway. I'm just never optimistic about fandom. I'll sit in my corner talking about and reblogging posts about the characters *I* like, regardless, but sometimes it feels lonely. :/