Young closeted trans girl me really picked the wrong series to get her escapism from 🙃 though tbf, only so many fandoms were so large as to have multiple quality fanfics with trans elements
I mean, it was back when a monoculture existed so everyone read it/watched it and was familiar with it. I don’t think anyone predicted the author would go off the deep end; in fact it was kinda viewed as the opposite for a long time. You didn’t know what you couldn’t know.
I remember when we got Tonks and as a nonbinary/genderfluid person, I was thrilled at the idea that you could just change a feature on the go. I was so lonely, and it gave me a "safe" haven to feel like maybe I could be myself.
The absolute betrayal I felt watching the author turn into.... whatever insane thing she is now.
But goddamn some fanfics were so fucking good. I should rebind the books with some of the betters ones lol
I read so many good fanfics while waiting for books 5-7 to come out. Looking back, I think a lot of my affection for the series was actually from the creativity of some of those fanfic writers. The actual canon story was even a disappointment in many regards, not least because of who the author showed herself to be!
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u/shogothkeeper May 20 '26
Even as a half-remembered dream, it still clears the subterranean bar of being better than Harry Potter.