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Curious reader is curious
Jun. 22nd, 2009 12:43 amThis isn't a new question, and probably doesn't have a single clearcut answer, but it's one on which comments are invited. And it's about time I posted about something.
It's inspired by seeing this fic turn up with the description: Challenge: From the bella_mione community. "Bellatrix seducing Hermione with tons of banter, and have it end in unresolved sexual tension." If you're anything like me, your reaction was probably along the lines "WTF?" Since I find it hard to imagine Bella bantering about anything (as opposed to taunting), let alone using banter in quantity to seduce a Mudblood, and since this pretty much has to be in AU territory given the canon timeline, I took a look to see what the writer had done with it.
It's only about 1000 words, so a quick read if you want to check it out, but the gist of it is: Hermione goes to a Muggle gay club with Luna after breaking up with Ginny, meets Bella there, and Bella tries to pull her as they dance with a rather aggressive approach that turns Hermione on at first, before being scared off by the D/s-y overtones in what Bella is saying.
Riiiight. The author does label it AU (you don't say), and mentions that Hermione is 'slightly OOC' (you don't say), although not why Bella has lowered herself to visit a Muggle club (they didn't say).
Even granted slash/AU genre conventions and the randomness of challenge prompts, this doesn't seem to be about Bella and Hermione as we know them -- it's about two characters with the same names but essentially different personalities, who could in fact be virtually anyone. So the question is: how is this sort of thing really a Bellatrix/Hermione? What's the appeal of it as fanfic, basically -- a story that in theory is about two already-familiar characters, even if the setting/context has been altered? And yes, I expect people to whom it does appeal do have their reasons. I'm just curious to know how they deconstruct it.
It's inspired by seeing this fic turn up with the description: Challenge: From the bella_mione community. "Bellatrix seducing Hermione with tons of banter, and have it end in unresolved sexual tension." If you're anything like me, your reaction was probably along the lines "WTF?" Since I find it hard to imagine Bella bantering about anything (as opposed to taunting), let alone using banter in quantity to seduce a Mudblood, and since this pretty much has to be in AU territory given the canon timeline, I took a look to see what the writer had done with it.
It's only about 1000 words, so a quick read if you want to check it out, but the gist of it is: Hermione goes to a Muggle gay club with Luna after breaking up with Ginny, meets Bella there, and Bella tries to pull her as they dance with a rather aggressive approach that turns Hermione on at first, before being scared off by the D/s-y overtones in what Bella is saying.
Riiiight. The author does label it AU (you don't say), and mentions that Hermione is 'slightly OOC' (you don't say), although not why Bella has lowered herself to visit a Muggle club (they didn't say).
Even granted slash/AU genre conventions and the randomness of challenge prompts, this doesn't seem to be about Bella and Hermione as we know them -- it's about two characters with the same names but essentially different personalities, who could in fact be virtually anyone. So the question is: how is this sort of thing really a Bellatrix/Hermione? What's the appeal of it as fanfic, basically -- a story that in theory is about two already-familiar characters, even if the setting/context has been altered? And yes, I expect people to whom it does appeal do have their reasons. I'm just curious to know how they deconstruct it.
