After the brouhaha stirred up by JKR’s most recent statement, I am just going to make a couple of comments, then I am going to leave the topic behind.
First, RaM and my other stories with Albus in them are based on the character we came to know in the first five or six books. I knew that DH would render AU the personal history I had created for Albus. Before it came out, I thought I might be able to revise my outline and story plans to fit at least a little bit with DH, but once the book came out, it became clear to me that I couldn’t revise my outline and AD’s personal history without destroying the plot of RaM, and even destroying RaM!Albus, so I decided not to pay any attention to DH. Now I am doubly glad I decided to do that!
When I read DH, I thought that there was enough hero-worship and adulation of Grindelwald that it would likely inspire slash-shippers to ship them, but I still didn’t read Albus as gay. But I figure that people can go off to their corners of fandom and play with the characters however they like. It didn’t appeal to me at all, but the primary reason was that I didn’t like the DH!Albus, yet even shipping DH!Albus with GG struck me as distasteful because of who GG was, completely apart from any personal preference for reading and writing het fics in general.
Anyway, I am ignoring JKR’s statement when it comes to my fics. And it’s easier to do that and stick with what we learn in canon about him — even in DH — and keep basic canon facts intact than it would be to write slash with the characters who have been obviously straight from the very beginning of the series. People have a lot of fun writing HP/DM, for example, and even HP/SS (which seems massively impossible to me and I don’t think I could wrap my brain around those two characters getting together and keeping them in character and relatively compliant with canon), so I see no problem continuing to write ADMM, particularly since there is nothing explicit in the books that makes it counter-canon. And if people can write SSHG stories, even when DH had SS die and HG (very predictably and rather disappointingly — for me) marry Ron, and find a huge readership for that pairing, then I don’t see why people should carp about ADMM being “impossible.”
If someone is really rigid about having everything be absolutely canon, they can just go find other things to read. Personally, I think that all fanfic is more-or-less AU, anyway, and I think the very best fanfics capture the flavour and essence of the Hogwarts/magical universe we got to know in the early HP series, and they abide by the general parameters of that universe, in terms of magic, creatures, the existence of pureblood ideology, and so on, and whether they abide in every detail with the personal histories of the individual characters isn’t as important — although I really don’t like it when I can’t recognise a canon character because they are behaving so OOC.
As far as JKR goes, I think she should have made Albus obviously gay right from the very first book if that was what she intended to do (though she wouldn’t have to be really explicit; I’m sure she could make it clear but subtly so — and far less subtly than just giving him a fondness for colourful robes). If she were making him gay for some kind of gay rights thing or to give positive role models for gay kids, she had SEVEN books to introduce gay characters. She could have had a gay couple appear in the books, as “supporting characters,” for example, but she didn’t. And then she didn’t even make it obvious in Book Seven that she was making Albus gay, or even announce it immediately after publication when people were asking about him, but instead she came out with the statement MONTHS later. And what is the one single gay relationship she presents? One with a Dark Wizard who was the nastiest character to come along until Riddle. Not exactly a positive role model, IMO.
I would have whole-heartedly approved it if she had introduced gay characters in the books — in the books, not months afterwards, as a seeming afterthought or possible publicity stunt.
Anyway, JKR wrote her books, made her millions, and is now purportedly working on another book in a different genre. She created a fascinating universe, one her fans love to play in. I am going to continue playing in it till I become bored with it, and my Albus will always be RaM!Albus, or very much like him. If others choose to write him differently, that’s up to them. Have fun with it, enjoy it, and if you like RaM!Albus, I hope you will continue to enjoy my stories.
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Non-DH…and so on and so on. You totally rock!
Very well said. I agree completely and am thrilled you will continue with your version of this universe.
How is it that you are able to read my mind and put my thoughts down on paper as your own??? I couldn’t agree more with everything you said. What strikes me most is that JKR has so many inconsistencies in her storyline and subsequent chats about her characters that it’s hard to take anything she says to heart. If she can get something so basic as Albus’ birth year wrong, how are we supposed to believe anything she has to say now about her creations?
Personally, I hated books six and seven so anything beyond book five is, for me, meaningless. Having said that, I have to say that to me you are the NEW JKR. I prefer your characterizations of our beloved duo to the ones we’ve seen emerging from her twisted mind. THANK YOU for not altering RaM universe!!!
YOU ARE THE BESTEST TO THE GLM!!!
I very much agree with what you said about introducing gay characters into the books (any time for book 4 on would have been fine). And a romance with GG might have even allowed for more understanding with DH!Albus. What is weird is I like DH!Albus. I like the idea that in his past somewhere along the way he was tempted and had to choose whether to be light or dark. I liked the idea that even the best of us, at one time or another, might have been faced with a choice of what to make of their lives. To me it also makes sense as to why Albus had SO MUCH faith in Harry from the very beginning because Harry was the one in a million that would never be tempted.
I think the greatest thing that JKR has since the release of DH that has upset me, is her comment about Minerva. MM is a deeply rich character whom she introduces before everyone else and returns to time and time again that continues to provide insight, humor, and guidance throughout the entire series. I do believe to deny this character any kind of life outside of Hogwarts is a huge disservice.
So I like you will continue to love ADMM and most especially RAM!Albus as he venerable, complex, smart, wise, funny and filled with his own insecurities.
RaM!Albus/AAoL!Albus also has that choice (which we have only gotten the slightest glimpse of so far, and which will we finally learn about shortly after Albus’s birthday dinner, when he reveals it all to Minerva, things he didn’t tell her that day in her parents’ garden, and events he avoided telling her about Grindelwald, but most of all, things about himself that he finally tells her and that explain a lot of his motivation and isolation), and I think that choice is essential to his character, but I think he grows more and, well, I just like him better than DH!Albus, who seemed OOC to me when viewed in the context of the previous books. Not because he had failings or dark days and so forth, which I began to hint at for RaM!Albus back before DH!Albus was available to us, but because of the way he was presented, and not just in his youth. But then, I didn’t like most of the characters in DH — I felt she did a disservice to many of them. There were a lot of things about that book that I disliked. I feel that JKR’s imagination and the universe she created outstripped her writing ability. It also felt like she stopped caring about most of her characters — whether that’s true or not, it felt that way to me. *shrug* But to each her (or his) own!
I’m glad you’re enjoying RaM and that you shared your thoughts about DH, etc.
Oh, and I disagree about HP. I never saw him as someone who would never be tempted — and what sort of automaton would that make him? — but just that his motivations were such that in this particular situation with Voldy, he wouldn’t be because the situation itself wouldn’t present him with a true temptation. And I disliked him in DH, which is sad, ’cause I think we’re supposed to like him. I started getting mildly annoyed with him in book four, and by book five, I wanted to hit him upside the head, as they say. If DH!Albus believed that HP was somehow pure, then DH!Albus is even more foolish and dim-witted than my first read of the book suggested to me. Actually, my only read of the book. I think HP succeeded almost despite himself. Not quite, but very nearly.
Anyhow, that’s enough of my opinion on the subject. I’m glad other people who waited so long for the book were happy with it. Personally, I would have waited longer for something more polished. And with less camping. *wink* But they were her books, and that was how she ended the series. Basta! Now on with fanfic, whether AU or canon-compliant, let’s all have fun with it!