[ SECRET POST #5828 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5828 ⌋

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


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 25 secrets from Secret Submission Post #834.
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

Re: Popular fics you just can't stand

[(Anonymous)]

"Can't stand" is a bit strong, but I'm always frustrated by Astolat's Drarry fics. She's a fantastic writer, obviously. I mean, she's won literal awards for her original fantasy novels, and I enjoyed the heck out of her novel Uprooted. So when I say she's an excellent writer, I mean it.

But I dislike how she writes Drarry and I dislike how she writes Harry, and I dislike how she writes Draco. To me, her Draco almost always feels vaguely Mary Sue-ish, in that he's right about very nearly everything all the time, and smarter than everyone, and almost everything important that happens in most of her Drarry fics is accomplished by him, while everyone else mostly gets in the way or plays the sidekick or stares after him with heart eyes (Harry specifically does a lot of all three). And also, he's usually a prick. Which, fair enough, it is Draco Malfoy we're talking about--but I feel like the narrative never adequately calls him on it, and usually validates him every which way.

What's funny is that her fics are still good. Like, I firmly stand by everything I just said, but also, the writing is still extremely solid. I just personally dislike the way she characterizes Harry, Draco, and their relationship, most of the time.

I would say that of the fics of hers I've read, The Compact is the most exemplary of what I'm describing here, while Slithering is the fic of hers that works the best for me, probably because when she isn't writing Draco interacting with other people I absolutely love how she writes him, and in Slithering Draco spends a lot of time by himself. Honestly, the first two thousand words of Slithering are some of the best words of fanfic I've ever read, just utterly phenomenal work. Which is part of what makes it so weird that the majority of her Drarry fanfic just leaves me feeling annoyed and unsatisfied.

Re: Popular fics you just can't stand

[(Anonymous)]

I feel the same about her Merlin fics. Wonderfully written! But always just a shade OOC. It's the same across any fandom I've read her docs for.

From what I remember she writes her pairings in certain ways, regardless of fandom.

It's kind of hit and miss how close that characterisation actually is to canon though and I think a lot of people don't really notice because the writing is good from a technical standpoint and it's never completely, obviously OOC.

Re: Popular fics you just can't stand

[(Anonymous)]

Man, it’s been an actual while since I read one of Astolat’s fics. Well-written stuff, but she tends to gravitate towards kinks that aren’t my bag. I still remember her Sheila/Venger fic being one of my first forays into “wait, people write smut about that?” territory though.

Re: Popular fics you just can't stand

[(Anonymous)]

Well-written stuff, but she tends to gravitate towards kinks that aren’t my bag.

NAYRT, and same. Also, I think she tends to gravitate to ship dynamics that are sort of the opposite of the ones I gravitate to. Like I was never really in the Smallville fandom, but I dipped my toes into her Clark/Lex fanfic once, because Clex is a lowkey ship of mine. But it seemed like she was really into cool, unflappable, puppet-master Lex and naive himbo Clark. And while I can absolutely see how she'd get that from canon, it's really not the direction I would take that pairing in. It's a similar dynamic to the one I get from her Drarry fics where Draco is always right and always gets the last word, while Harry is often relegated to being the good-intentioned but not-overly-bright-or-effective backup. Again, valid, but not a direction I personally enjoy taking their dynamic in.

Re: Popular fics you just can't stand

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT - Yup, very much agree. I'm just glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Re: Popular fics you just can't stand

[(Anonymous)]

I doubt you'll see this since it's so late, but since you seem to have a similar perspective on her writing to mine, I have a question: Does the shippy aspect of her fics often seem to kind of spring out of nowhere to you?

It's something I find really hard to articulate, but I tend to get this really aromantic vibe from her fics--especially her Drarry ones, though also from others as well. In the longer fics where the central pairing actually has to develop, I usually find myself caught off guard when they get together, like, wait, where is this coming from? When did this aspect of their relationship develop? It's not even just that the development of a romantic arc seems missing (attraction without love is obv valid), it's that even an attraction arc seems largely absent. It's like when the narrative decides it's time for them to have sex, they suddenly really, really want each other, but the sense of interiority for the characters with regards to what's driving their attraction is very weak. Which always stands out to me, because I don't think astolat is bad at establishing interiority overall--just wrt the shippy stuff.

IDK. This is obviously super subjective, and YMMV for sure. It's just something that always stands out to me with her fics and makes me wonder if it's just me.

Re: Popular fics you just can't stand

[(Anonymous)]

Draco being too Mary Sue is a distressingly common issue with Drarry fics in general. I mean there is a trope named for the phenomenon.

Re: Popular fics you just can't stand

[(Anonymous)]

Yep. Him and those leather pants of his.

Re: Popular fics you just can't stand

[(Anonymous)]

My issue with the fics I read by her is how she tends to write some characters incredibly OOC and uses her plots to justify it. As in "the characters went through these things so it makes sense they aren't like the characters they started out as" but for me, the plot usually looks like an excuse to just do what she wants with the characters and personally, I dislike fic where characters turn basically unrecognizable and I don't care if it's justified through the plot.