Hello, world!

I guess this is a bit of a trial account for me. I have a rather unfortunate habit of starting things and not really finishing them, but there is a vague story plot that I want to get out. So here I am.

I went through the whole Harry Potter series hating most of the Slytherins, but Snape was always my favorite character. It was always so easy to love him as a character, maybe because he wasn't all pure and full of goodly light as the other characters. In a way, they are all flat and passive. Harry could never help that he was the hero. He was born that way, and made a hero by his mother's sacrifice, and never doubted that he'd be on the side of light. He had no agency. Similarly, the Slytherins were a cowardly, sniveling, grovelling bunch, so evil and pitiful that they were unrealistic. Only Snape was interesting in any way, a dark and conflicted human, not a freaking saint. Snape chose his path in a way a Griffindor could never have.

So when I began reading fanfic, I was surprised how easy it was to love some of the Slytherin characters when they are written with some amount of competence. When they are actually cool in some aspects, and not just instances of evil incarnate. In particular, Malfoy is a character with tremendously undeveloped potential. He is Harry's archrival in school, supposed to be of similar competence and Harry's mirror opposite. Voldemort is Harry's archenemy, but Voldemort and Harry are in different planes entirely. Harry is a student, and Voldemort an undead evil entity with massive knowledge of the dark arts and vast expanses of crimes behind him. He is too different to be an archrival; they are simply too asymmetric to consider Voldemort Harry's archrival. That would be like saying, Dumbledore is the major supporting character instead of Ron and Hermoine. Voldemort is the antagonist, Malfoy is the rival.

So what's the point of having a rival if he is an inept and cowardly fool? No point at all. Then, one's rivalry becomes negligible. A great epic hero like Harry ought to at least have a respectable rival, who's on a similar skill level as himself, who can actually challenge the epic hero. That's how I intend to write characters. I don't know if I can escape writing saints, but at least I know I can escape writing evil incarnates. I mean, I hope I can. So we'll see how it goes.

Peace,

wobster109