#maybe I'm just feeling especially bad because i got like fewer comments than i expected on a fic or because im getting my period but also

[canimal]

I wanted to write a time travel fanfic and about Evan Rosier/Hermione Granger as a main pairing but... I'm stuck. I didn't choose the most redeemable character (Rosier was killed by Moody after a magical fight) and it's complicated bc how Hermione can fall in love with someone like Evan no matter how charming and smart he is ? How did you deal with that (Hermione, Death Eater and their ideology) ? All I can see is something like Jaime/Brienne (GoT) and a very slow burn. But it still feel wrong.

(Please bear with me as this is going to be a super long response.  I’ll put it underneath the cut so those who want to read it can read it and those who want to scroll past it can do so quickly.)

To be perfectly honest, if a story feels “wrong”, you shouldn’t be writing it.  Trying to force something that you don’t feel comfortable writing and don't fully believe in will not only make for a story that feels forced and unnatural to the reader, but it will also become a story that you will not enjoy writing.  (Never forget that this is our hobby, not our job.). Eventually, you would likely hit a wall where the story was unable to progress further and you’d be stuck.  Lots of writers try to write a story with certain elements or pairings that are “trendy” and end up stuck because they forced a story.  Writing should flow fairly smoothly.  I’m not saying that writers should never stumble or feel blocked, but I am saying that if you’re not allowing a story to remain organic and grow naturally, you will find you quality and likely your own enthusiasm and enjoyment in writing the story suffer.

Why do you want to write a story with Evan Rosier?  Is it because you find his character fascinating or you want to uncover more about him?  Or is it because he’s not a character that’s written about a lot and you’re hoping to stand out in a growing sea of Death Eater stories?  

I promise I’m not trying to be rude or condescending, even if it seems like it.  This is an honest question.  If your answer is on the first couple, awesome.  Go for it.  

But, if you’re hoping writing about him will get you instant recognition and a large number of followers on your story immediately, I’m sorry to tell you that that probably won’t happen.  Most readers don’t want to take a chance on unknown characters.  They just don’t.  I’ve mentioned this many times, but when I first started writing Thorfinn Rowle as more than just a one-dimensional bad guy in the background in first, The Dark Mage’s Captive and then Parolee and His Princess, I frequently got PMs and reviews asking me who the fuck Thorfinn Rowle even was and that I might actually get more people to read my stories if I didn’t write such weird pairings. 🙄 (Let’s not forget the troll who commented “This should’ve been a Dramione” on literally every single chapter at least twice.  Sigh.) So it’s both amusing and incredibly frustrating to have readers in the fandom announce that Thormione is their OTP when most of them wouldn’t have given my stories the time of day when I was writing them and they were the ONLY Thorfinn stories in existence on FFN for certain and probably everywhere else.  Because so few people were interested in reading a story with Thorfinn as the main love interest when I was actually writing Parolee and His Princess, if I was only writing the story in an attempt to stand out and not because that was the story I wanted to write, then I likely would’ve gotten frustrated and quit before I ever finished.

So, if you’re serious about writing an Evan Rosier story because it’s what you want to write, I wish you the best of luck.  It’s always challenging to write a character with little to no background info in canon.  Challenging can also be a great deal of fun.  If we never challenge ourselves as writers, we won’t ever get any better.  Writers must be willing to learn and try new things if they want to get better.  Practice is crucial.  Too many writers (professional and otherwise) get to a place where they don’t believe they need to improve and their writing gets stagnant.  It’s sad.

Now to your question about how or why Hermione might fall in love with someone with such a different and dangerous ideology... there are many different ways this can be tackled.  I must stress thought that you make sure the decision you make makes sense within your story.  Don’t try to force something.  Let it grow naturally.

First of all, I don’t believe anyone is unredeemable.  (Or irredeemable. Same meaning, right?) Perhaps it’s because of my own personal faith and religious beliefs, but I don’t believe anyone is wholly evil or wholly good.  Yes, even in this hyper-partisan world we now live in, I don’t believe that anyone (even those who might disagree with me) are pure evil.  This has actually gotten me a lot of grief from angry trolls and super sensitive former readers alike.  I’ve been accused of being an “apologist” for all manner of depravity including, but not limited to, rape, violence, murder, racism, all the bad things ever, etc. simply because I believe that no is unredeemable... irredeemable.  Ugh, whatever.  You know what I mean.  

Everyone has good qualities in them, even those who appear to be nothing but evil.  Far fewer good qualities than most certainly, but still there.  I’m also a firm believer that people, even really bad people, can have an existential change of heart and want to be a better person.  Many just have to be given the opportunity to change.  Of course, I don’t believe that they shouldn’t be punished for their crimes or they should be excused just because there’s something good about them.  I’ll never understand why I’ve been accused of being an apologist.  🙄 Some people are truly exhausting.

For every story about a Death Eater falling for Hermione, there’s a different explanation.  If you’ve ready any, you’re probably already familiar.  Because I try very hard to make every story I write unique from the others I’ve already written, I’ve mixed it up.  Antonin only joined for knowledge and power without realizing until too late what was really happening.  Rodolphus was pressured by his wife in one and his grief and depression made him fall further in than he meant to.  Sometimes the Death Eater was pressured by family to follow in their footsteps; others by their peers.  There are countless reasons why people join these kinds of groups.  Disillusionment, looking for a place to belong... you really could make it anything.  I’ve known people who were drawn in and brainwashed by cults because they were desperate for purpose, for belonging, for a feeling like their life actually mattered.  It can be super easy to get sucked into a cult and takes years to get out... if you can.

JKR wrote the Death Eaters as being simply bad for bad’s sake.  They’re almost all one-dimensional.  No person is actually one-dimensional.  They have hopes and fears and dreams just like everyone else.  Maybe they thought they believed in the sort of pro-Pureblood world that Voldemort imagined, but once they got in they were in over their head.  Reality rarely meets our expectations.  People grow and change.  Even my own beliefs have changed as I’ve grown older.  What I used to think was important no longer is and there are issues I have done a complete 180 on as I’ve grown up and begun to live in what I call “grownup reality”.  (Life is much different for me than it was even when I was just in my twenties and how I see the world has changed drastically in some instances.). So if experience and time has been able to shape and change my beliefs and even my values to a minute degree, why could the same not be said for a Death Eater who discovered all was not as it seemed when they were recruited?

It’s also important to remember that no one thinks, acts, or believes like everyone in their set group one hundred percent of the time.  Each individual has their own thoughts and beliefs.  Maybe they joined because they hated Muggles, but then they realized they were wrong to do so.  Maybe their family pressured them to join but they didn’t agree.  Maybe they were afraid to die so they joined.  I know a lovely man whose father died in World War II fighting for the Nazis - not because he was an admirer of Hitler and believed in everything dreadful and evil the Nazi party believed in.  No, his father was conscripted into the German Army and fought because he would’ve been arrested in the best case scenario and executed in the worst.  His young wife and their two small children could’ve also been in danger had he refused.  It’s a terribly sad story.  And hardly the only one.  That’s just one example.  History has countless other incidents all over the world when scared people fought and fell in line with a terrible leader because they had no other choice. Or at least it seemed like they had no other choice.  Not everyone is strong and brave enough to stand up to injustice and evil when their lives are on the lines.  Humans by our very nature can be quite cowardly at times.

It’s possible that a person who has done evil deeds or believed just absolutely atrocious things could want to change and be a better person.  Though it wouldn’t be easy, someone like Hermione could choose to forgive them for their past.  Especially if they’re truly remorseful.

Of course, it’s also unfortunately true that there are sometimes relationships that are just absolutely toxic.  Love can make idiots of us all.  How many women (and men to an extent though not nearly as often) see the potential in a man and want to change them into something good and perfect?  It happens so often it’s a cliche.  Woman falls in love with bad boy.  Wants to change him.  Stays with him with hopes and dreams that he’ll stop being so awful.  Is disappointed over and over again.  Have you ever known someone who fell in love with a truly terrible person and even though their relationship wasn’t healthy whatsoever never seemed to quit them?  Kept going back for more even when everyone told them it was a terrible idea?  I’m pretty sure you have.  You might’ve even been in one of those relationships yourself.  I know I was.  No, he might not have been a murderous minion of a madman, but he certainly had his terrible qualities that I thought I could help him get past.  Tale as old as time.  

I could go on and on and on about reasons why Hermione might fall in love with a completely unsuitable man who might even wish her dead, but there’s no reason.  It could be for a thousand reasons.  And don’t forget, Hermione isn’t exactly some innocent paragon of virtue herself.  She’s pretty dark even in canon.  Trapping a lady in a jar?  Cursing a girl’s face possibly permanently?  Leading another witch into a forest knowing there are centaurs in there who are dangerous?  And those are just the things that unobservant Harry noticed!  Who knows what she was doing off-stage?  She has her own darkness and her own demons to fight.  She’s not perfect nor is she some pure angelic creature who only uses light magic for good.  Nah, she’s pretty twisted at times. (On a side note - Please don’t try to write her as being all-powerful, perfect, and never do anything the least bit bad.  That’s not her character at all.  It bothers me to see her written as some sort of pearl-clutching virgin who has never done anything bad in her entire life.  That’s NOT the Hermione I read in the books.)

You just have to find the right motivation in your own story.  If you’re not forcing the story and allowing it to develop naturally, you’ll figure it out.  If you’re forcing it, I’m afraid you’re going to stay stuck.

I hope this can be so some help!  Sorry I’m rambled on and on and on.

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hello. This is the anon that asked if Albert was manipulative towards Victoria. I meant to thank you for your response as soon as I saw it, but I got caught up in life. I don't know if I'm once again seeing people only react to the show's history or actual history, but I just read with my own two eyes that Victoria "stopped" being the queen only because Albert "turned" her into "money-giver" and "baby-automat." Are people just determined to make Albert look like the bad guy no matter what?

I mean, I get that Victoria and Albert had a power struggle, literally, when it came to their relationship, but Victoria never stopped being the queen. Didn’t she give him the key to her dispatch or “red” box as a Christmas present after Vicky was born? And wasn’t Victoria well aware that if she didn’t want any more children, all she had to do was stop having sex with Albert? People make it sound like she was being forced against her will to become pregnant or give Albert any money and power.

I’m glad you liked my first response, and I’m glad you’re back with more because honestly, the ITV Victoria “fandom” is kinda ridiculous and I don’t like to wade thru it when people try and act like they’re interested in history when half the time they’re interested in furthering a fictionalized agenda.  I can tell you that when it comes to the ~history fandom~ on here, the biggest work of fiction in relation to V&A prior to Victoria was The Young Victoria, and everyone was obsessed with V&A together and nobody really questioned it… until there was a ship to be put up against it.  Lol, I guess poor Paul Bettany didn’t get people’s hearts going like Sewell, even tho the latter really isn’t my thing either.

The thing that people have a problem with, fundamentally, is Victoria being a woman of her time–I would say this more than Albert being a man of his time.  If Victoria had wanted to say no to sex with Albert, she could have; in fact, all evidence points to the fact that she was far more sexual than he, especially after they grew into the marriage.  If she’d put her foot down after, say, baby number four, she would have had two sons and two daughters and not only would Albert not have objected, but her people couldn’t really say much about it either.  But she didn’t, because Victoria loved sex and she loved Albert and she loved having sex with Albert.  I’m not saying that Albert didn’t love sex/Victoria–no doubt he loved Victoria, but his thoughts on sex are a bit murkier.  Sidenote: he did comment on her cleavage in his notes right after they were married and clearly found her physically attractive, but his feelings on sex in general were often prudish and maybe even complicated by the disaster that was his parents’ marriage, imo.  Some have even speculated that Albert was asexual, though not aromantic, and had sex with Victoria to make her happy–I don’t think so based off of what I read, but he certainly was not keeping Victoria pregnant in order to keep her under his thumb.  In fact, as soon as Victoria had so many babies that it became physically hazardous for her to keep getting pregnant, she stopped getting pregnant–and as Victoria’s response to being told that babies = death was “but what about my fun in bed” (allegedly) I have a feeling that Albert, who was already apparently at his wit’s end with worry over her and baby Beatrice prior to the birth, put his foot down.  Albert wasn’t unaware of the dangers of pregnancy for a woman back then, so I find it especially bizarre that people are insinuating that he purposefully kept Victoria pregnant in order to exert his power over her.  Certainly, a byproduct of Victoria’s pregnancies were that Albert took the reins more often, but he also was notably pretty involved with the births for a man of the day, and seemed to be worried about her physical and mental health during the pregnancies (again, for a man of his day–he wasn’t fretting over postpartum depression, but he did make note of Victoria not being super happy about being pregnant, about how he wished she’d be able to enjoy motherhood more–it’s not like he wanted this chick miserable in bed waiting for a baby to come).  She would have likely been expected to have at least three children no matter what–ideally four, I think.  No matter who she married, she would have needed at least two healthy sons for people to feel comfortable, and a daughter would also be ideal for marital alliances.  Her love of sex with Albert and a lack of good contraception back in the day (as well as I’m sure a lack of belief in the propriety of contraception on his part, and hers as well most likely) equaled more babies.

As for Albert’s control over finances, I’m not 100% sure on that anecdote, but honestly, like you said, Victoria could have taken away much of what she gave.  Maybe not easily all the time, but she remained the queen, Albert a prince consort.  She gave him power, she gave him money, because she wanted him to be happy, she loved him, and at the end of the day, she was (as I keep saying) a woman of her time who lacked a strong male figure for much of her life and clearly sought one.  She wanted him to be big and strong–I mean, not to speculate, but it sounds like it kind of turned her on when he took control.  With any other historical figure I’d say that’s going too far to ponder, but we have Victoria’s diary entries, and while they are edited, she clearly thought a lot of this guy.  Now, you don’t have to think the world of him–but let’s say you have a friend.  She’s a vibrant girl and she’s dating a guy who’s a nerd, who’s quiet, you don’t get the appeal, he seems uptight.  But if she ADORES him, if she sees something through him, if she starts doing more of the things he likes to do to please him–would you say that he was forcing his will on her?  No.  You’d say that you don’t get her taste, you don’t see why she’s doing it, but it’s HER choice.  I really don’t see Victoria’s choice to give Albert more power as a bad thing, at least not in the short term–he was by no means a perfect would-be monarch, and of course he was alive when the monarchy was transferring from being a ruling power to a reigning power.  But he did care about the less fortunate in a way that Victoria and many English nobles (Lord Melbourne included) didn’t.  He did see a responsibility in the royals to set a good example, and for that matter to “give back” even if that meant simply raising awareness for important causes like the abolition of slavery.  He was very well-educated, and while Victoria absolutely inflated his intelligence in her mind as a young, naive, lovestruck girl, he was impressive in many ways.  She saw things that she liked, and frankly–Victoria wanted to be the queen, but she was never all that into the serious job of it.  She seemed more about socializing that social reform, you know?  And that’s okay.  Albert could handle that, and Victoria could handle the more public side of things.

The thing about Albert is that he’s fallen prey to an unfortunate part of historical research in this day and age…  Wherein people (largely people who write pop history, or crossover history) have written and written about “controversial” people to the point that it becomes overdone (Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn, Marie Antoinette, Cleopatra) so they look at things that are VERY obvious and make a complicated issue out of it.  Henry VIII was probably a dick with some natural mental illness(es), but we wanna make something new and exciting–so we start going, oh, can this all be traced back to his mom dying when he was young and his father favoring Arthur?  Oh, is this all due to a traumatic brain injury that probably didn’t happen?  Prince Albert was probably a man of his time–he wanted to be the head of the household and got insecure about that, but overall he had a happy marriage and loved his family.  But we want it to be MORE, so we look at this marriage through the lenses of 21st century standards, and we find flaws that only exist to a certain extent.  Albert and Victoria did not have a perfect marriage, and they clashed over dominance at times.  But ultimately, Victoria certainly wanted Albert to be the head of their personal family, and that gradually led to him becoming more powerful.

Also, people tend to take a lot of the less flattering perspectives on Albert from Englishpeople of the time who were xenophobic towards Germans sooooooo not super reliable imo.  People said he was money-grubbing because compared to Victoria he didn’t have a lot of personal funds; but to be frank, differing factions would have been critical of anyone she married.  She was a sovereign queen, people assumed that her husband would have control on some level–and on some level, he eventually did.  

At the end of the day, people are essentially angry that Victoria doesn’t live up to their feminist expectations of what a sovereign queen should be, when she… lived… in… the…. nineteenth… century……..

And for God’s sake people are dramatic, she never stopped being queen, she just handled fewer administrative duties and took on a more ceremonial role.  Which was inevitable, to be quite honest, due in part to her sex and in part to the fact that the monarchy was, as previously mentioned, becoming less of a real ruling entity.  Much of what Albert did was contained to running the literal household and handling marital alliances, nothing compared to what, say, Elizabeth I did.

#Anonymous #victoria #itv victoria #victoria itv