ao3readingproject

[ao3readingproject]

Heat Waves Chapter 2: Learning By Osmosis

The second fic I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3. Thoughts on chapter 2 below the cut!

I feel like if the first chapter was me adjusting to reading something completely unfamiliar, this one was me getting comfortable with it. Weirdly enough, what stuck out to me was learning that Dream’s real name is Clay. This distracted me for a while because it made me curious about how fics normally write about him. I’d guess that they probably lean towards using Dream, but are there any that strictly call him Clay when narrating in third person? And is there a strong fandom preference? Discourse about it? It’s so strange coming into a fanfiction with none of the nuance and none of the context. For example, which subsets of fans hate which other subsets? Is RPF discourse common?

As I mentioned in my last post, the RPF aspect hasn’t really bothered me much, but reading about them on their live stream, it really hit me that these are real people and it did squick me out for a second.

This chapter dealt with the fallout of the dream kiss (which may have been real because I still think George was actually there), meaning we got the classic friends to lovers pining situation. This is a fanfic trope that never gets old. Suddenly I’m invested even though, as I’ve already said, I literally don’t know these guys. For me at least, the standard media market is so oversaturated with this trope when depicting straight relationships, but it’s always only ever been my queer attraction that’s fit this experience. I’m sure plenty of bi people will feel differently, which is fine, but for me, pretty much all of my sapphic experiences have been me being in love with a friend. Maybe it’s just because I’m not friends with that many men so I’m less likely to fall for them in the first place, but the bottom line is that I just relate to this trope more when it’s an explicitly queer story. Hence the immediate investment whenever it comes up. I’m excited to see where this goes next and whether I’ll be proven right.

#heat waves #mcyt #ao3 #fanfiction

[ao3readingproject]

Heat Waves Chapter 1: First Impressions

The second I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3. Thoughts on chapter 1 below the cut!

Okay, so this is where my experiment really begins, because I know absolutely nothing about any of these people or even minecraft, really. AtYD was a good intro to engaging with fan content for something I’m familiar with but don’t often engage with online (as most of my HP conversations take place with irl friends and I’d never read a fic before this one). Here, I’m well and truly lost, and I kind of love it. It literally feels like I’m just reading a book that’s gotten a ton of hype.

The first thing I noticed was that I was actually right in my intro post when I said I think one of them lives in Florida. Turns out it’s Dream so it looks like this fic might end up entirely taking place there? It’s a strange feeling. I spent the vast majority of my life there and I still consider it home. But I also never want to live there again. I love it for what it is and hate it for everything it isn’t, if that makes sense. So it’s definitely weird to read a fic that’s set in Florida, probably because I so rarely find any media set there even though it’s super populated.

Tangent aside, I’m going to get into my actual perception of the fic now. I know I’m reading about real people, but since I don’t know anything about them, it really just feels like a book. Like, I think I’d feel weirder about reading After even though the name has been changed just because I’m familiar with Harry Styles and I know it’s about him. This isn’t something I was expecting. I really thought I’d be constantly thinking about how these are real people in the back of my mind, but I’m just not. I’m not really sure how I feel about that, but at least now I know I’m not as easily fazed as I thought.

Plot wise, I’m a little confused. I did read the tags on this fic but I don’t remember what they were. And now that I’ve started I don’t really want to go back and check since I kind of like the idea of not knowing what’s going on. I’m assuming that this dream was somehow real and George is somehow being transported? I just feel like 50k isn’t long enough for the dreams to be their own subplot that George isn’t aware of if everything is going to get resolved. But I guess since this is a series that doesn’t really matter. I was also a little surprised that this fic just jumped right into kissing, but maybe that’s just a consequence of reading it immediately after AtYD.

I’m also curious about Dream’s mask thing. Is he one of the ones (or the only one?) that no one knows what he looks like? If that’s the case is the mask something he wears in streams? And if that’s the case why did this first chapter mention Dream being on a stream with his camera off? I’m definitely getting hung up on small details here, but I feel like I’m genuinely experiencing culture shock just by virtue of reading fanfiction and not already knowing about the (for lack of a better word) characters.

Finally, I thought the author’s note at the end of the first chapter was hilarious. They clearly weren’t expecting the fic to blow up, and I’m kind of wondering when and why it did. Was it between the first two chapters or was it more gradual? I do remember this fic being really popular as it was publishing (because it crashed Ao3 multiple times when I was trying to use it 💀) but all time is bleeding together for me given the state of the world right now, so I have no clue when that was. It was well-written, but it’s pretty on par compared to what I’ve read in other (albeit bigger) fandoms. I can’t imagine that with something I see trending so frequently on here that there’s a lack of good fic, especially since from what I can tell the youtubers seem to encourage it. It’s just interesting to me how many hits this has when 1) it has fewer chapters than a lot of other fics with such high traffic, 2) it’s pretty new, and 3) it’s not explicit. That’s not a commentary on the quality of the writing (which was very good!), just that the stats on this fic go against a lot of the trends I see on my reading list. I don’t want to do any additional research until I finish the fic, but it’s definitely something I’ll be thinking about as I read. I am very excited to continue unravelling this mystery and I am absolutely running straight to fanlore as soon as I finish.

#also please note since you can never too cautious on here that i never said this fic *shouldn’t* be popular #i’m just trying to get to the bottom of why it *is* as i read it for a broader sociological experiement that i invented for fun #mcyt #heat waves #ao3 #fanfiction #rpf #<- for ts please note i do not actually endorse rpf

[ao3readingproject]

Heat Waves: Intro Post

After a much longer gap between fics than I meant for, I’m back with the second most popular fic on Ao3. For those unfamiliar, I’m reading the top 10 (completed, non PWP) fics on Ao3 by hits regardless of how familiar I am with the original content and I’m updating periodically to document any thoughts I have as a fandom outsider. Originally I was going to do it all in 2022 but life got busy and the word counts on most of these are pretty steep. I’ll definitely be going over the year mark but I will absolutely finish them all eventually. You can read more about the project here.

I’ve started reading Heat Waves already, but below the cut are the thoughts I saved in draft before I started reading:

I’m glad this project started with a world I’m familiar with to ease me into it (if you can call 500k of MCD ease), but I’m excited to now be reading about something I know absolutely nothing about. Not only do I not know who these people are beyond the fact that they are for some reason trending on tumblr every other day, I also don’t really know what Minecraft is (and at this point I’m too afraid to ask). I know it’s a video game and there are these block things that look like little plots of land that you can put places I guess? That’s it. I’m assuming you can play with multiple people or they wouldn’t be youtube famous as far as I know. I’m pretty sure they also have a discord server and they’re not all in the same country. Some of them are British and I think one of them is maybe from Florida? Not sure if there’s anyone in there from other countries. I also have no idea what Dream’s real name (or full youtube name) is. The other guy is GeorgeNotFound so I’m guessing his real name is George but who knows. There’s also Tommy whose name I’ve seen around but I sincerely hope no one is writing shippy RPF of him because I’m pretty sure he’s a minor. I think Heat Waves might be the fic that at some point was crashing Ao3 every time it updated? Or was that something else? This was a bit disorganized, but it’s everything I know.

I also don’t even know anything about how RPF works. Is the terminology the same? For example, can something be “canon compliant”? An alarming number of fics on my tbr for the year are RPF so I guess I might be finding out soon. I’m predicting that reading it for the first time ever for this will feel a little weird, but maybe it’ll just feel like reading a book since I don’t know these guys. I’ll be posting thoughts on the first chapter soon!

#ao3 #fanfiction #mcyt #dreamnotfound #heat waves

[ao3readingproject]

All the Young Dudes — The End: Processing

The first fic I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3 in 2022. See a masterpost of all my chapter commentary here. Thoughts on the final section below the cut!

Well. I finally finished this. I’m going to talk more about Grant later, but right now I’m just going to dump my feelings. Actually I’m not because I realized after typing that last sentence that I don’t have any words. I think I just need to lie down for a while. I’m mostly just glad that I realized with four chapters to the end that this ends at the beginning of OotP and not the end. Which would have been obvious from the chapter titles if I knew how to do math. But that doesn’t matter now because what’s really important is that I did not have to experience the last 100 pages of OotP from a fresh new hellish perspective.

I think I’m going to use this space to wrap this into my broader project of fic reading since the ending didn’t leave me with many coherent thoughts about the actual content of the fic. Harry Potter seems to be an outlier in terms of fic in a lot of ways, in that a huge chunk of the fic written for it isn’t actually about the main characters. Wolfstar is the second most popular Harry Potter ship on Ao3, which is both surprising and completely unsurprising. Unsurprising because I’ve been on the periphery of Harry Potter fandom spaces for well over a decade now and I know how loved the Mauraders are, but surprising because I can’t think of a single other fandom where side characters in a completely different generation are this prominent. Especially since I wouldn’t say they get any more or less characterization than the parents of characters in a lot of other hugely popular fandoms. My completely uncited hypothesis is that these characters gained popularity because it can be so easily be read as a queer narrative, while many others in other fandoms can’t — at least not without some more liberal bending of canon. To me it makes sense, since fandom tends to be a queer space.

Overall, it seems fitting that this was the first fic I had to read for this project. Harry Potter was my introduction to fandom, so I kind of like that it’s also my introduction to this weird exploration of potentially unhinged content that I’ve started. Next I have my introduction to rpf, which I’m not too thrilled about, but I am excited at the prospect of truly consuming a fic like a book, so stay tuned!

#also probably going to remove the end of 2022 deadline for this project because it’s literally may lol #real life has kind of been kicking my ass recently and i don’t want to force myself to read and have a miserable time i want to have fun #ao3 #all the young dudes #fanfiction #atyd #harry potter #wolfstar

[ao3readingproject]

All the Young Dudes - Post War: Emotional Turmoil

The first fic I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3 in 2022. See a masterpost of all my chapter commentary here. Thoughts on the armistice through 1991 chapters below the cut!

In light of how quickly I read this section, I’m going to do a rundown of the progression of my thoughts instead of sticking to a central idea for this post. It’s all over the place, but I think it stays truer to the main goal of this project than writing out something coherent would.

1982: The immediate aftermath of everyone dying and Remus getting that phone call was devastating. I’ve already written extensively about how I’d never considered what all of this would have been like for him before, but this was absolutely brutal. I was so glad Mary lived though. I have no idea if that’s canon or not. Also, I was picturing that sequence from New Moon the entire time I was reading this part of the fic.

1983: Honestly, for most of this and the following chapters, I was convinced that Grant was going to get AIDS and die, especially once they started talking about it. Part of this was probably just how infrequent it is that we see happy queer couples in any media during this time period, but part of it was probably the influence of the kinds of fics that take place in this era that gain popularity. I was really glad that this fic didn’t go there.

The rest of it: I spent this time mostly thinking about how much I’ve grown to care about Grant. I know I keep saying it, but I’m really impressed by how this author got me to care about an OC in a fanfiction.

I’m ending this part of my thoughts when Remus returns to Hogwarts, so the next post will be about that section through the end, and then I’ll probably do a little wrap up post where I talk about the fic as a whole and my thoughts on reading it without being the type of fan who typically reads fic for this fandom.

#all the young dudes #ao3 #harry potter #fanfiction #atyd

[ao3readingproject]

All the Young Dudes — The War: My Journey with (Not) Accepting MCD

The first fic I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3 in 2022. See a masterpost of all my chapter commentary here. Thoughts on the war below the cut!

I’m going to be honest, I don’t have much to say about this section that isn’t just about my feeling of impending doom. I’m drafting this before I even finish it because I want to look back on this and have be authentic. Before I have a breakdown on this post though:

I absolutely love this werewolf storyline (side note: I’m reading this while watching Teen Wolf for the first time as well and the differences are so entertaining). I wasn’t expecting to be this invested considering how oversaturated pop culture has become with supernatural creatures in general, but this fic actually develops it well in a shockingly short amount of time. Normally if I’m reading fic, I hate reading about OCs, but I care about all of them in this one just as much as the canon characters.

Even though the world expanded in really interesting ways once they all left Hogwarts, though, I’m mostly just stuck thinking about how awful everything is about to get. I’m drafting this part of the post as I’m on the chapter with James and Lily’s wedding, for context. I don’t think I’ve ever considered Lupin’s perspective about what happened after the Potters died beyond what’s given in the book. And since we see him as more of a mentor during PoA, that means I find it harder to imagine what he was like when he was younger, especially since we don’t get as much detail about him as we do James or Sirius (or even Snape). So now I’m in a position where I actually do have that perspective in my hands and I simply do not want it because I know it’s awful. He literally is about to lose every single person he loves in one night. And this is after how far he’s come letting himself form relationships despite how often he’s been abandoned. Granted I have no clue whether Mary and Marlene will still be around for the aftermath of all this, but I can’t tell if it’s better or worse for him if they die before or after. I’m desperately trying to come up with a list of people who are still around and it’s so depressingly short. Literally Dumbledore (who kind of sucks), Hagrid (who he doesn’t even talk to), the Weasleys (who he talks to but barely), Moody (who also kind of sucks), Grant (who is a muggle), and the other Hogwarts professors (who are all at Hogwarts). And the whole time. THE WHOLE TIME. He’s actually going to think Sirius killed them. And yeah, Sirius will be back at least, but then he dies after two years. Which might hurt a little less because at least by then he’ll have Harry but OotP is always brutal so getting a fresh new POV character I think is going to be horrible. I’m refusing to think about how awful Sirius is going to have it because I don’t have that kind of bandwidth, but I am still thinking about it a little bit. This genuinely feels like the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m an adult.

Note: I have since finished the rest of this section but I feel like everything I already wrote covered it.

#all the young dudes #harry potter #fanfiction #ao3 #atyd

[ao3readingproject]

All the Young Dudes - Year Seven: Growing Up

The first fic I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3 in 2022. See a masterpost of all my chapter commentary here. Thoughts on year 7 below the cut!

I feel like I say this every year, but this year felt like the direction where this is going really hit me. The first note I wrote down for this chapter was me reacting to Remus having a fleeting thought about a potential 10 year Hogwarts reunion, which wasn’t pleasant.

This was a pretty long section, so I’m going to do my best to synthesize everything. Because of that, this might be more general than some of my other commentary which has honed in on more specific points.

First, I love that the universe of queer characters has expanded. As we’ve established, I’m not very entrenched in Harry Potter fandom and have kind of distanced myself from it a little bit in recent years for obvious reasons. So even though this is the fandom I’ve interacted with for the longest duration of time, the depth of my understanding doesn’t really match it. I have my own perception of the text from reading it so many times, but I don’t really know to what extent popular opinion matches that. All this to say, I was really excited about the addition of the Marlene and Yasmin subplot! I don’t often encounter sapphic content in fandom since the ones with powerhouse wlw ships are just not stories I’m super interested in, so this was a pleasant surprise. I know Marlene dies, which is going to suck, but I like to think I’m prepared for that by now.

The other thing I wanted to touch on was just the general theme of this section. It very much felt like a transitional phase where it’s separating their childhood from their adulthood. While I’d argue that the original series placed that shift at the end of book four, this one was more gradual. Instead of throwing them into one specific instance of acute trauma, the Mauraders’ experiences build upon each other until you just realize that they’re not really kids anymore and haven’t been for a while. They’re still way too young to be going through all this, so it retains the tinge of tragedy (especially knowing what happens), but they’re also reaching the end of their childhood within their normal routine as things start to get really bad. I think this adds an interesting layer to the story since the tragedy here is more in the lost potential as a result of the circumstances rather than a shortened childhood. I was very aware of this during their final prank in particular, since it very much served as comedic relief and a genuine sign of youth while also having a greater purpose of showing the divisions that have been sowed for years by this point in the story. I think their youth is probably going to keep hitting me for the rest of the fic. Thoughts on the war chapters coming soon, unfortunately.

#harry potter #all the young dudes #ao3 #fanfiction #atyd

[ao3readingproject]

All the Young Dudes — Summer 1977: Interlude

The first fic I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3 in 2022. See a masterpost of all my chapter commentary here. Thoughts on summer 1977 below the cut!

I’m breaking my pattern here of folding the summer before an academic year into my post about the year. I was originally going to combine this with my year seven post since the books are structured that way, but I had too much to say about just these six chapters and year seven is also ridiculously long. And this part of the fic was too much of a turning point to not let it stand on its own, even if the post about it will be short.

This summer marked the end of a staple in a lot of queer fic, namely people not knowing that they or another character are queer. I’ve read countless scenes where characters are acting like complete dumbasses about their own queerness, but it just does not get old. I personally think it’s because so many people have had similar experiences that instead of being embarrassing to look back on it becomes hilarious. This is how I felt when Remus came out to everyone over the summer. The fact that Sirius didn’t know was genuinely the highlight of my week. I don’t physically react to written stories very often, but I laughed out loud here.

James and Lily also finally got together, which is obviously a huge deal. I’ve touched on this in a previous post about this fic, but being older than them when they died has really shaped my view of their story, especially here. These two characters who were once off to the side I now feel really protective over. I think the fact that I grew up knowing how their story ends affects this, but a huge part of it is also the quality of the writing here. I know Jily has a huge fandom here on tumblr, but to be honest, I’d never given their relationship much thought before reading this fic. I do remember thinking it was irrational for Harry to think James pressured Lily in any way based on one of Snape’s memories when that discourse used to pop up on my dash, but that was the extent of it. Now that I’m actually reading their entire story, I’m much more invested, and of course, way more upset about where I know this is going. For now, though, I’m going to focus on their last year at Hogwarts.

#all the young dudes #ao3 #harry potter #fanfiction #atyd #this somehow got tagged in the drafts ????? glad i caught it before i posted this lmao #also the reason i'm so beyond slow at posting these is i'll have a post ready but then not be able to add a read more on mobile #and then forget i need to add it every time i'm in front of my laptop

[ao3readingproject]

All the Young Dudes — Year Six: Werewolf Politics

The first fic I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3 in 2022. See a masterpost of all my chapter commentary here. Thoughts on year 6 below the cut!

Going into this fic, I obviously knew that Remus was a werewolf, but I didn’t know how his relationship with that identity would progress. I was a little nervous about finally reading a Mauraders fic, especially one from his perspective, for that reason. I usually hate werewolf stories. I’ve said here before that I’m in my early twenties, which means that I was in middle school when the Twilight craze hit. I enjoyed it just as much as everyone else, but the oversaturation became too much really, really quickly, to the point that I will actively avoid stories with even a trace of vampires or werewolves in them to this day. With werewolves in particular, the animalistic nature of the characters tends to make me uncomfortable. I don’t know what it is exactly, but something about it makes me squeamish. Maybe it has to do with how the vast majority of these characters are men and the vast majority of their love interests are women and anything that comes off as instinctual or predatory makes me uncomfortable as a woman? That’s the closest explanation I’ve been able to identify, but it still doesn’t feel complete. To make my relationship with the werewolf aspect of this story even more complicated, I’m reading this at the same time that I’m watching Teen Wolf for the first time ever. So not only do I usually actively avoid werewolves in media, I’m now consuming two werewolf stories at once.

All of that was basically just to provide context for the rest of this post. I’m loving the werewolf aspect of this fic and the way it’s developing alongside the war. I think this is largely because of how this fic differs from the other werewolf stories I’ve consumed in the past. Most importantly, the romance plot and the werewolf part are, for the most part, separate. Because of that, this fic moves beyond the genre of paranormal romance and allows for a story that is much more interesting. Something I haven’t seen often (and never done well) is the exploration of what it really means to be a werewolf, or any other sort of supernatural creature, within a given society. Usually stories like this take a backseat to the romance. Not only does this fic not fall into this pattern, but it also really effectively uses the backdrop of the war to explore the question of werewolf identity.

I love the way Remus identifies with Livia and the other werewolves who are following Greyback and actually advocates for them. I think the most satisfying part of the fic so far was him insisting that he won’t sign the registry when he turns seventeen. I didn’t have any expectations, but I’m really glad Remus doesn’t fall into the category of being “one of the good ones” or otherwise exceptional when compared to the other werewolves. Especially because I’m sure there’s a lot of fic out there where this does happen. The sense of kinship he has feels much more authentic and I’m really glad it’s getting fleshed out.

Reading this series growing up, it was easy to separate characters into black and white moral categories, and for the most part, it's how the series is written. There's always the Snape discourse, but Harry did name his son after him, so it's pretty clear how we're "supposed" to feel about him. The way he's written and ultimately redeemed within the narrative is actually a great example of how kids consume stories. If you do the right thing, you're good, even if your motivations are bad, and if you do an evil thing, you're evil regardless. But in reality, motives absolutely do matter. Snape isn't a good person just because he died fighting for a just cause. In reality, I find him sickening because he didn't care about Voldemort literally committing genocide until Lily died. But I only started thinking that way after learning way more than I knew when I was ten. War is too complex to not have victims on both sides, and it's often people who are marginalized who suffer most. I'm proud of Remus for recognizing that and for standing up for other werewolves. I'm definitely looking forward to how this progresses in year seven.

#all the young dudes #harry potter #ao3 #fanfiction #atyd

[ao3readingproject]

i have not forgotten about this project and am in fact starting heat waves it’s just that atyd fucked me up so bad that my posts about the last few sections are completely incoherent and i’m fixing them

#i also checked the word count of the mha fic after that one and it’s almost 500k so heat waves has got to go quick

[ao3readingproject]

All the Young Dudes — Year Five: Loving Grant and Hating Dumbledore

The first fic I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3 in 2022. See a masterpost of all my chapter commentary here. Thoughts on year 5 below the cut!

In terms of themes, year five feels like a continuation of year four. Obviously the big difference between the two is that Remus actually knows he’s queer for the first time, but both of these years really gave me a “there are no unique experiences” vibe.

I was wary of the concept of Grant in the beginning since I usually hate OCs, but it turns out I actually love him. Which gives me hope for the 7 fics I’m going to read this year which for all intents and purposes will feel like they’re about OCs to me given how little I know about them. We didn’t see too much of him in this section, but he’s obviously important. I really love how Remus finally has someone in the muggle world he cares about. Since this fic takes place during a time when it was extremely unsafe to be anything other than pureblood, it’s nice to see how being half blood is a facet of his identity that can have some good come out of it as well. I am really rooting for Grant throughout the rest of this and I hope he ends up okay given how badly everything is about to go to shit. I’m already psyching myself up for all the deaths I know are coming, so I don’t really have the bandwidth for another one.

Before I finish this post, I also want to talk a little bit about Dumbledore. It really hit me again how much he sucks. I have a theory that you can tell who’s reread Harry Potter since they were a kid based on how they feel about him (and Snape). I truly don’t understand how a well-adjusted adult could look at the totality of his actions and think he was a good guy. We all know what he did to Harry, but to read about him allowing Sirius to go through even worse when he definitely had the power to intervene made me feel physically ill. He literally waited for Sirius to almost die before doing anything, and at that point it wasn’t really necessary anymore. And this time he didn’t even have the excuse of “well we’re at war, sacrifice the one for the benefit of the many” going for him (not that this justifies his actions toward Harry in any way!!). It’s just so gross to me how respected he is by everyone in this universe given everything we as readers know about him. I feel like this doesn't need to be said since it's a pretty popular opinion by now, but that was where my head was at most of the time I was reading this section, so I had to document it.

#this is definitely my shortest post so far but i got too sucked into the story to be taking notes lol #i'll for sure have more to say about all the other sections though #all the young dudes #ao3 #harry potter #fanfiction #atyd

[ao3readingproject]

just found out that the love hypothesis is reylo fanfiction which apparently everyone just happened to know already? maybe i just didn’t because the book didn’t seem that interesting to me and i’m not super into star wars but this has prompted an idea. what if after i finish my 10 most popular ao3 fics project i read some of the most popular published fanfictions? not sure if i could come up with 10 because all i’ve got off the top of my head is 50 shades, after, and now this but who knows it could be interesting

#and by published i mean legitimately popular fics not something that’s published but has a specific niche like point pleasant #i say this as if i don’t still have to read 9/10 of the fics i’m planning on reading for this current project #although if i read 50 shades i think i’d have to write a novel length breakdown #as a gender studies experiment it would be fascinating #also would be a cool comparison project #i think 9/10 of the fics on the list are primarily mlm (maybe 8 though?) but all three of these published ones are straight #which begs the question what then is ~acceptable~ fanfiction. what does it have to do to be mainstream #anyway not to write a tag essay but wheels are turning in my head #ao3 #fanfiction

[ao3readingproject]

All the Young Dudes — Fourth Year: Teen Angst

The first fic I’m reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3 in 2022. See a masterpost of all my chapter commentary here. Thoughts on year 4 below the cut!

It has been a while since my last update since work has been absolutely hectic lately, but thankfully I'm not technically behind on my reading schedule yet. There definitely won't be such a long gap between this post and my next one! Anyway:

I had the same feeling reading this section of the fic as I always have rereading Goblet of Fire (over age 16 or so at least), which is entirely made up of secondhand embarrassment and the devastating knowledge that I used to be like that. But it’s always a feeling I’ve been grateful for. Too many stories these days age up their teen characters in the sense that they just don’t act the way teenagers act. And to some extent, they’re not expected to. Most negative reviews I see of YA books now say something along the lines of “ this was a cool concept but the main character was too annoying” and it will be people in their 20s and 30s talking about a 14-16 year old character.

I’m already getting off topic, but the point I’m trying to make is that, since Harry Potter was kind of the series that created modern YA in the way we think of it now, it wasn’t trying to cater to a specific market. It didn’t treat its teen characters like anything other than teenagers because it didn’t need to. And to get back to fic, I’m really glad this one is following the same pattern. Obviously, this fic contains more mature content than the books, but it’s not adding it in unrealistically. I’ve always avoided reading fic about characters in this age range (even when I was that age!) specifically because of this aging up of the characters. It’s always felt icky to me, especially given the increased sexual content that’s often present in fic compared to whatever canon it’s coming from. What I appreciate most about this fic so far is that it feels honest. Every scene feels necessary. Nothing feels self-indulgent even though it’s fanfiction and that’s what fanfiction is for (note: this is not me criticizing self-indulgent fic, I love it!). The characters are truly acting their age. And the realism of these characterizations is creating this strange dichotomy which is challenging my perceptions of the series.

I’ve touched on this before, but Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus are all parental figures in the books, which I read as a child. Because of that, I think I inherently dehumanize them in the way that all kids do with adults. As in, I don’t view them as full and complete characters outside of how they affect their children (Harry and his friends). Just as it’s only when you grow up that you begin to see your parents as full and complete people, it’s only as an adult that I’ve begun to understand the possibility for complexity in these characters. All of that is at play, while I’m also reading about them from the perspective of being older than them. And because I’ve already gone through adolescence, they’re experiencing things I already have. So as these more adolescent themes like discovering queerness come up, I’m also feeling protective of them because it’s something I can clearly relate to. It’s such a fascinating way of engaging with the text that I truly don’t think would be possible with any other media. I’m really glad this was the first fic on my list for the year. I’m looking forward to my next reread of the books since I’m so curious about whether and how this fic will change the way I view canon.

Also, this has nothing to do with anything I just said, but I want to acknowledge that my absolute favorite part of the fic so far was the prank they did with changing the time at Hogwarts and also how it became a mini internal war.

#harry potter #all the young dudes #atyd #fic #ao3

[ao3readingproject]

just finished all the young dudes after reading the last ~15 chapters or so in one sitting literally what am i supposed to do right now

#publish all my posts about each section which was the point of this blog in the first place for one!! but god. #so relieved i can’t do math i thought the two chapters named after grant and sirius were going to be them dying #so i was psyching myself up for it all day and the end was kind of? not sad? #but at the same time it’s like 😐 well i know what happens next anyway #i really need to go to sleep but HOW CAN I!!! #harry potter #wolfstar #all the young dudes

[ao3readingproject]

i don’t even have to scroll anymore to see the part where everyone dies i’m having a terrible time

#i hate it here let me out #making this post brought tears to my eyes i’m a grown adult why does sirius black still have such a hold on me #i wonder if i’d be this upset reading mcd for a fandom i have no knowledge of but i think the only other mcds i have are t&s and manacled #manacled will not feel like this though you can kill harry all you want #i think this one is just so agonizing because these guys don’t even live in canon! i hate that! #all the young dudes #fanfiction #ao3 #harry potter

[ao3readingproject]

All the Young Dudes — Third Year: An Outsider’s Perspective on the Wolfstar/Remadora War

The first fic I'm reading on my mission to read the top 10 fics on Ao3 in 2022. See a masterpost of all my chapter commentary here. Thoughts on year 3 below the cut!

This point in the story is the first time I’ve felt more of a pull to analyze the main characters and overall themes of the story instead of latching onto a random side character whose presence I’ve found interesting. You might remember me mentioning in my last post that I was picking up on some kind of dynamic between Remus and Lily but I couldn’t quite tell from his perspective what specifically it was. Reading year three made it pretty obvious to me that he’s being written as gay in this fic, but I’m still convinced Lily has a huge crush on him.

Before I continue I want to be clear that I am not trying to start discourse, but I’m also going to explain some of my canon interpretation of Remus since I think it’s relevant to what I was thinking about while reading. Basically, I view Remus as bi just because I like for things to be as canon compliant as possible and there’s no reason to believe from the way the books are written that he and Tonks don’t have a genuine relationship. I’m also not super attached to that interpretation, though, as has become apparent since nothing about the way his sexuality is written in this fic has bothered me.

What started the train of thought I’m about to get into is the Christmas scene that takes place during this year where Remus and Sirius meet baby Tonks. Andromeda says she’s certain Tonks won’t be marrying anyone present in that scene, which I definitely viewed as a dig at canon. This whole thing reminded me of a post I saw recently that I unfortunately could not find. In searching for the post, I ended up discovering a minor ship war between Wolfstar and Remadora shippers (side note: I remember them being called Ronks around a decade ago, so that ship name totally threw me off). The post I was looking for explained how Harry Potter fandom (and specifically queer fans) created content between book releases, which would have been before I was introduced to the series. It talked about how Wolfstar really took off as a ship and how Tonks was often interpreted as trans and/or sapphic, as well as how all three of these characters are heavily queercoded. The OP basically said that R*wling created Remadora as a ship to put an end to the speculation about her characters being queer.

I know this isn’t directly about the fic anymore, but for anyone coming across this post who’s new to this blog, the point of me reading these fics is to use them as a jumping off point for examining fandom dynamics in fandoms I’m not really engaged in. Anyway, searching for this post is how I came across this ship war. According to the discourse, some Wolfstar shippers use the above points to ignore Remadora in canon, while some Remadora shippers view this as biphobic.

As someone who’s historically been pretty neutral to both ships, the level of vitriol, while not nearly as bad as what I’ve seen in other ship wars, surprised me, especially because canonically these ships don’t even overlap. But at the same time, it makes sense since obviously Remus is half of both of them. When I first read the argument for why R*wling pairing Remus and Tonks together was homophobic, I didn’t think it was an inherently biphobic statement, and I still don’t. Without knowing the poster’s intentions, this made sense to me. Not because I don’t think people can be bi (I’m bi myself!) but because in general, heterosexual attraction is assumed, while same sex attraction needs to be proven. I can see why people would view JKR’s last minute addition of this relationship as homophobic, especially given her track record. Do I think she did it intentionally? I have no idea. But regardless, it fits into a pattern across a bunch of different media where queerness just isn’t explicit even where it can easily be interpreted - and Dumbledore doesn’t count as representation since it’s not stated in the text (and I’m sure it won’t be in Fantastic Beasts either but that’s beside the point). I also 100% believe that there’s a lot of biphobia on both sides of this discussion, because people can be really malicious on the internet about things that aren’t really a big deal.

All of that being said, this little tumblr search did expose me to a lot of the exclusionism I’ve seen in other fandoms. It’s unfortunate that this seems to be a common occurrence, but it’s also interesting to learn what aspects of canon can trigger this sort of thing. I’m not in too deep with too many fandoms, so there’s usually not a lot of room for comparison. This is something I’m really interested in though, so I’m weirdly excited to find out about the more toxic side of things as I read all these fics.

Sorry this post ended up being kind of a downer - I’ve already read year four and I have a lot to say that isn’t about this, though, so next time I post there will be way more fic related content in my breakdown.

#also happy to clarify anything i said here! i was trying to be concise so it might not be super clear #personally i think the only bad ship (no offense to anyone who ships them!) is harry/hermione i just don’t get the appeal they’re friends!! #oh wait actually snily which is just 🤢 #but on a different level entirely #ao3 #fanfiction #harry potter #all the young dudes

[ao3readingproject]

in light of future events, this is evil

#I KNOW i’m halfway through year 7 and i haven’t posted my year 3 thoughts yet #i’m too invested in the story to stop for an hour and type up a post #and by invested i mean i’m reading frantically because i want the bandaid OFF #this is also how every ootp reread has gone for the last 10 years #microposting has been fun though i might start doing that until i feel well enough to coherently write my thoughts #harry potter #all the young dudes