[HPFGU-OTChatter] OOC-ness (was: Fics with slash, children's books, the purpose of my schpiel on warnings)

[Kathryn Cawte]

-------Original Message-------

From: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Date: 13 January 2003 10:38:04
To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] OOC-ness (was: Fics with slash, children's books,
the purpose of my schpiel on warnings)


>-Acire, who thinks OOC (*o*ut *o*f *c*haracter, also used in anime) fics 
>should be rated as well, such as Snape turning out to have a dominating 
>wife and 6 mini-Snapes stashed away in England somewheres, or Lucius 
>Malfoy rescuing puppy dogs. :D

Yes, well, this *is* Lucius we're talking about. It all depends 
on what he does with the poor little things once he's rescued them.
*shudders*

Sushi, who swears it's possible to justify almost any OOC behaviour well 
enough to put it back into character (note I said "almost")

I find it is very difficult to define exactly what is OOC for the majority
of HP characters. Unless you're writing about the intrepid trio that is. The
books show us events as they happen from the POV of Harry Potter - who is a
fairly biased audience bearing in mind his hatred of all things Slytherin
and his steadfast belief that Severus is out to kill him. As such in my
fiction any actions taken while in private or in the company of other adults
only I can justify as being perfectly in character since we have no way of
knowing how Sev reacts to things in the privacy of his own rooms, or how
Minerva and Albus act when alone or in the staff room etc. 

In my reading of canon (for example) I see Minerva and Severus as having a
fairly amicable relationship (I don't believe their house rivalry is
anything but friendly) but since we have only seen how they interact in
public and more importantly IMHO in front of their students we have no way
of definitively stating how thay act towards one another in private. An
interpretation where they actually hate one another and enjoy a relationship
as friendly as that between Severus and Sirius would be equally as valid
(again IMHO) as one where they are bosem friends (and you do not want to
know what I typed originally to make that point, suffice to say I may never
get the image out of my head <g>)

K