[ SECRET POST #4246 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4246 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 27 secrets from Secret Submission Post #608.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. https://i.imgur.com/TQEb6Pc.png

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed. It's a shame but we'll always have fanfic. Nymphadora, more like Nymphador-owns.

[(Anonymous)]

Just because fandom has created some headcanon for a character, doesn't mean the creator wasted potential by not going with fandom portrayals.

[(Anonymous)]

That's true, but I can't help but feel that there was still wasted potential with Tonks - they didn't need to have her be a punk but they should have done something more.

If nothing else, it's bullshit that she died. Garbage-ass bullshit.

[(Anonymous)]

The secret doesn't suggest that all headcanons are better than canon, but there's a good argument for this one.

[(Anonymous)]

IA. Fandom clings to headcanons and refuses to acknowledge anything else could be good.

That being said, Tonks wasn't a great character, but that can be said about many HP characters. She isn't worse than others, imo, just an unimportant character who we never got to really know.

+1

[(Anonymous)]

this.

and obv op should enjoy the headcanons they enjoy, but "character is now a cursing, one-liner spouting badass cliché" isn't really the interpretation i'd go for if i wanted to make more use of tonks as a character.

Re: +1

[(Anonymous)]

But they should have gone for something

[silverr]

Agreed.

(Great art!)

[(Anonymous)]

The nice thing about Harry Potter, in some ways, is it's really easy to get a pretty awesome, fascinating story or AU, just by taking basically any aspect of British culture or history and re-centering the series around that and seeing what happens. Whether it's 80s punk subcultures or anything else.

I'm not sure fandom takes as much advantage as it should (and sometimes it goes slightly wrong, like when you decide to go with the IRA and the Troubles), but still, it's nice in principle.

[(Anonymous)]

art is by potterbyblvnk on ig / blvnk_art on tumblr.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't get this.

She was never a main character. There wasn't any potential to waste because she was periphery. It's like complaining that Seamus was wasted. Or that Peeves was. Or any other of the side characters. Fandom latching on to a side character doesn't mean their potential was wasted, it just means you care a lot about the character.

[(Anonymous)]

I think between being a metamorphagus, a halfblood child of a disowned black, and an auror with a completely opposite vibe from moody - fun-loving, pink hair, pig's snouts, etc - but still capable of being a badass when necessary, there were a lot of character notes for Tonks that could be extrapolated into something really interesting, in a way that's really different from one-note side characters like Peeves The Troublemaker or Basically Just An Irish Extra, Make Your OC With His Name Here Seamus.

Some peripheral characters do have more potential than others, given but unexplored in canon.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah but that doesn't make them wasted is my point. Seamus is a half-blood, too, and he's the guy who tended to explode things, for example, so there's potential there for him to have developed that into a skill that was damn useful.

But Rowling didn't, and that's not a waste. You can't focus on literally every character in a series enough to give them all super detailed stories or to explore any potential in everyone to its fullest in a satisfying manner, because unless there's a small number isolated somewhere, they all will add in more characters exponentially.

[(Anonymous)]

half-blood on it's own is incredibly neutral in HP verse. half-blood and a Black on the wizarding side is not. It's a rich potential source of internal or social conflict that 1) no other halfblood in the series could engage the same way because the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black has really interesting developement that basically no other pureblood house has, and 2) could have been really interesting parallels to other halfbloods who were characters with conflict about it, like Snape. And"useful skill" is not remotely the same as "interesting character thread". (Also I'm pretty sure the explosions gag was mostly just the movies? I could be forgetting. But still, 'useful' is not what I'm talking about, it's just plot mechanics.)

I actually didn't use the word waste anywhere in my comment, because I agree that it's kind of strong/implies a moral judgement that doesn't really make sense, of course no book series will contain all stories for all people. But I do think that what we have of Tonks canonically was a missed opportunity for some particular and interesting stories that would have enriched the whole, in a way that's qualitatively different from most minor characters.

[(Anonymous)]

Where does the secret say that it was wasted potential, though? That seems like it's your choice of words, but you're acting as if OP said it. Unfulfilled isn't the same thing.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't remember even noticing Tonks existed until the point where she got together with Lupin (late in Half Blood Prince??) and people were mad. I was surprised when people said they had been big fans of hers or had shipped Tonks/Lupin before they were canon, because I was genuinely surprised she had already been introduced, let alone that there was any grounds to ship her with anyone.