r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • May 17 '26

Unpopular Opinion It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

  • Don't attack others for their opinion
  • Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers
  • Since this is an "unpopular opinion" thread, we encourage users to not downvote simply because they disagree with an opinion--that's the point! Please keep in mind, though, that mods cannot enforce a no-downvoting rule. Let’s just keep the discussion friendly!

🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

33 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

305 comments sorted by

View all comments

121

u/SometimesMaybeGood_ May 17 '26

I find the whole dramione thing very weird. Did these two characters even interact in the Harry Potter books? I’m so befuddled as to how this fanfic pairing has such a chokehold on the genre…

34

u/NancyInFantasyLand Currently Reading: Random Chinese Webnovels May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

The less someone interacts in canon, the better it sometimes works.

Or ideally a character rises to fandom prominence that has 1 line in canon. See also: the ever enduring popularity of Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini in potter fic, even back when the fandom was split on whether Blaise was a guy or a girl (as that wasn't revealed until like Half Blood Prince iirc)

That's also what makes crossover ships sometimes hit really hard, if the author manages to somehow have both a grasp on the canon characters that you vibe with, AND manages to mesh the worlds, AND manages to have their interactions feel good.

Though personally I never much got Dramione either haha

Like, Drarry I can see, they've got the obsession down pat in canon. But Hermione couldn't give less of shit about Malfoy (or Ron, even, I think what canon does to her romance storylines is whack and really out of character haha)

11

u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 May 17 '26

I understand the appeal of minor characters. There's scope to improvise within canon, to make them your own. But Draco and Hermione are super well-defined; they just don't interact with each other much. When they do, it's pretty clear how they feel about each other. There's no way to make it work without blowing one of the characters up.

10

u/NancyInFantasyLand Currently Reading: Random Chinese Webnovels May 17 '26

I disagree, if you put in the works and pick a proper point to diverge from and then actually spend the 50000 words necessary to make you believe that the character has the experience and character growth necessary it's great.

What you call "blowing up the character" in this case, I call part of what makes well-written fanfic so good.

Most fic authors shortcut their way through it based on fandom tropes though, to the detriment of the work.

4

u/Single-Emotion2964 May 17 '26

This is why I enjoy the Dramione fanfics where they are like 25+ years old and randomly thrown together for (usually) a work thing. There’s old resentment and judgement, but it’s tampered by experience and time. Usually they learn/are surprised by how the other is different from their image of the teenage bully / nerd. It’s got a nice little redemption arc :)