thoughts on superpowers and martial arts in HP fanfiction

[edenfalling]

Here's something I've wondered about for several years, in a vague way:

Why do people write so many Super!Harry stories? This occurs over all genres of HP fanfiction -- second war stories, time-travel stories, AU stories set in worlds that still include magic (or mutants, or some sort of 'powers'), romance (het, slash, trios, whatever) -- so clearly it's something that runs deep in the fandom. Super!Harry is often accompanied by the assumption that he knows or learns some sort of martial art, learns swordfighting, learns to use guns, etc.

Okay. I can see the basic source of the idea, I guess. It goes like this: Harry has some power that Voldemort doesn't know, can't fight, or can't use himself. The obvious interpretation of this is LOVE, but love isn't particularly useful for fighting an evil, semi-immortal wizard. So Harry must have some really special magic. Also, Harry is the main character, so it makes sense for him to be special. The martial arts and weapons training probably come from the same source, since Harry, as is, doesn't seem to have many of the relevant skills needed to fight a war.

However!

Super!Harry and Martial-Arts!Harry are completely out of genre.

Super magical powers don't fit into the theme of JKR's world, especially when she makes such a point of insisting that parentage and inheritance are not the important things. She builds up the importance of choice; super magical powers are not something a person can choose. Love, on the other hand, is a choice. So is self-sacrifice.

Martial arts and weapons don't fit into the tone of the wizarding world. On one fundamental level, the Harry Potter books are part of the British boarding school genre, in which nothing too terrible ever happens. The dark fantasy modifies that somewhat, so people do die and horrible things do happen, but the tone remains whimsical despite that. Gritty is just not on. Furthermore, not even Aurors or members of the Order of the Phoenix seem to know or care much about physical combat. War in the wizarding world is a matter of spells. To introduce martial arts is to break the understood rules of JKR's world.

I grant you that new Super!Harry stories seem to be a bit less common these days -- after all, he's had six whole books to develop special powers, and has yet to show any sign of them beyond a modest flair for Defense and a knack for flying -- but I keep running into Gritty-and-Warlike!Harry stories when I venture back into HP fandom. And I just don't understand them. It's one thing to write an AU with a setting where physical violence makes sense. It's another to graft that onto the wizarding world, where it stands out like a sore thumb. That jolts me out of stories that are otherwise fairly decent.

Let me make one thing clear. I am not talking about dark stories about the second war, which may be much nastier than canon will ever go but which retain the underlying logic of JKR's world. What I'm talking about is the introduction of concepts -- like the organization of Muggle armies, or martial arts -- that simply don't exist in the wizarding world, and which Harry himself has no particular way to know. Look, if he'd shown an interest in self-defense, or working out, or studying armies, he probably would have done it already, after either GoF or OotP. That sort of thing is just not on his radar. To have him develop those interests, without a hell of a lot of in-story groundwork, is very OOC.

Um. The one point I'm willing to be flexible on is swords. Clearly, they exist, and were used at some point in the past. But just as clearly, they're not really common anymore, and Harry's idea of swordplay is canonically limited to 'stick the pointy bit in the thing you're trying to kill.' So for someone to pull out a sword in a climactic fight scene is on the near side of believability for me, but only just. And if it degenerates into a swordfight duel, I am so outta there.

ETA: Yes, I realize that I skated close to this line in the beginning of Knives, but the reason I was able to write that without pinging my 'something's fishy' button too badly was because I'm basically okay with swords. And, well, it helped establish the tone of that story.

Comments

[artimusdin.livejournal.com]

I like them because they're fun. ^^ That's all I have to add.

Well, that and the whole "Gryffindor's sword!" thing. It could be a magical sword, who knows what it could teach it's user? Or something. I'm reaching here and I know it. ^^

[edenfalling]

They can be fun, yes, and even well-written, but after a while the thematic and structural issues start to gnaw at the back of my mind. Something about them just feels fundamentally OOC to me.

Gryffindor's sword is the most impractical sword in the history of the world. Honestly, how are you supposed to get a good grip on it if the hilt is covered in giant rubies??? ;-)

[alchymie.livejournal.com]

Problem is, as the series has progressed, Harry has found himself with extraordinary powers. Second year, he's a Parselmouth. Third year, he can summon a corporeal Patronus (powerful enough to drive off a hundred or so dementors). Fourth year, he can resist Imperius. Fifth year, there was at least one clue that he was developing wandless magic skills. And how many of us were sure he'd display metamorphmagus ability, once Tonks introduced them to us?

So for many writers, it's not that much of a stretch to say, "Well, in his seventh year Harry develops the power to..." and then fill in whatever new ability the plot requires.

True, I don't much care for Super-Harry, where he shows the whole spectrum of magic with power levels off the scale; I'd rather have a more fallible Harry who's easier to torture. ;-) And I agree that having Harry show skills with guns, or swords, or martial arts, doesn't feel quite right. This is the wizarding world, and those Muggle skills don't fit. (Mind you, if Harry ends up taking the 3-yr Auror training, I'd be surprised if he didn't learn the wizarding equivalent of the above.)

But having Harry develop, out of the blue, some new ability? He's done it book after book.

[redwolfoz.livejournal.com]

I'm quite glad I get to miss all that weirdness.

You would think that if Harry has survived his entire life with Dudley without sneaking off to learn martial arts on the sly, then it ain't going to happen. Silly me, logic has no place in the world of the mad fangirl.

alternative viewpoint...

[purple-alicorn.livejournal.com]

This is where I disagree with you (to a certain extent). If the superpowered!Harry or Muggle-weapons-using!Harry fics are well-written then I have no problem with them, especally where the authors tell you that this occuring at the begining.

It all depends on how the concepts that are introduced. There IS a theme (esp after book 6) that Harry is to be the leader of the new light, and therefore if this is used as new leader = new fighting methods, it can work. The premier wizard of the world is arguably Dumbledore who is a 150yr old (presumably) pureblood wizard, who grew up in a time when muggle weapons were not as destructive. Harry, on the other hand, is a 16 yr old Muggle raised wizard, who (should have) heard about the destructiveness of Muggle weapons.

One fic (I've forgotton exactly which one) makes the point that in many respects the Wizarding world is, in many ways, stuck in the early 20th century, if not earlier. (I think there is a mention about the Muggle Studies text talking about crossbow maintenance). Martial arts have only been introduced to the western world recently, and it only within the last century that guns have become such an easy way of killing people (that is, automatic rather than the old ball-and-powder). It is therefore logically conceivable that this is a "new" type of warfare that the "younger" heros of the light bring in.


You are right in that JKR has not mentioned any instance of muggle fighting techniques vs wizard fighting techniques in her books, so as a result some enquiring minds want to know if a sheild spell will stop a bullet (and those with talent write about it).

These Harry's may not fit into the world of JKR, but that is exactly why some people want to write about them. I personally feel that JKR has not explored the full depth of the world she has created, and like to see alternative options presented. Personally, while I loved book 1, my feelings on the others are so-so. While I realise these books are, at the heart of it, children's books, I find underlying themes and assumptions to jar and grate when reading.These options may not fit with the genre, but I feel that, when well written, they add a richness and depth to the world, which I sometimes find lacking in the original.

In the final analysis, it comes down to the manner in which the fic is written - no matter what the plot, if it is badly written I won't read it, if it is well written I will give it a chance. If I end up thinking "did this happen in canon or fanon" after reading the fic, (which has happened once or twice with fics) then to my mind, no matter what cliches used, the story is still in the "style" of JKR.

/rant :>

[edenfalling]

Ah. True.

Being a Parselmouth, however, is not particularly useful; it may be cool, but I'd say it causes Harry more trouble than it's really worth. The Patronus and curse resistance can be slotted into 'being good at Defense,' and, well, most people have some things they're good at. The wandless Lumos spell was pretty damn limited -- he was all of, what, four feet from his wand, and could barely manage a bit of light?

Furthermore, Harry has yet to really pay attention to any of that; he consistently downplays his achievements and has almost never analyzed the reasons for his successes. For him to suddenly realize, "Hey, I have extraordinary powers!" would be very OOC, in my opinion.

What new ability did he develop in HBP? (Besides the abilities to fall into incredibly cliched romance plots and to miraculously repress his anger, that is. *wink*)

I think one of my chief problems with Super!Harry is that it tends to be accompanied by a rather simplistic black-and-white view of JKR's world, and by some rather off-base character interpretations. I don't know if it's the powers concept that leads to the bad characterization, or the bad character interpretations that lead to the powers, but either way it bugs me!

Re: alternative viewpoint...

[edenfalling]

I can understand the urge to 'modernize' the wizarding world. However, Harry has shown no sign of wanting to do this. Nor has Hermione, who might be expected to have some academic knowledge of warfare. So modernizing feels a bit odd to me.

I have no objections whatsoever to exploring things not addressed in the books, or for taking darker tangents. (Hey, I wrote Knives; I can hardly object without making myself a complete hypocrite!) What I object to is a 'twisting' of the underlying rules of JKR's world, without providing an Author's Note explaining what's going on.

I think, as I said to alchymie above, what irks me about these stories is the way they often seem to incorporate character interpretations that I find very OOC. Harry is a hero, yes, but he's also a teenage boy, self-denigrating, a bit of a screw-up, a victor more through luck than design, etc. This is because of the genre confusion between school stories and high quest fantasy, and I find that tension to be one of the more interesting elements in the series.

Super!Harry stories tend to throw out most of the whimsical school story elements in favor of the high fantasy conflict elements. And to me, that's throwing away what distinguishes HP from generic, commericialized quest fantasy. I can read all sorts of stories about the noble hero on a quest to kill the evil, all-powerful villain who destroyed his family, etc. It's harder to find stories that do something interesting with that theme.

You may have noticed that I don't write much high quest fantasy. I don't read much of it either these days. To be perfectly frank, it gets boring really fast, and I have a lot of other things to occupy my time.

[edenfalling]

You would think that if Harry has survived his entire life with Dudley without sneaking off to learn martial arts on the sly, then it ain't going to happen.

Exactly! It's just not in his mental frame of reference.

Re: alternative viewpoint...

[purple-alicorn.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh, I understand where you are coming from and mostly agree with you as the stories I like address these type of things, and incorporate reasons why this path is taken, but all too often, yes Super!Harry fics degenerate into normal fantasy, and I can't read that either. But still, it is worth looking out for the one or two gems that DO manage to stay true to JKR's ideals and are well written and don't (as you said above) go into the simplistic viewpoint above.

Thinking about it, the Super!Harry and Muggle-weapon!Harry fics I like tend to have the changes coming as part of the maturity process, or almost being a by-product of changing circumstances - in other words the powers/weapons, while being intergeral to the plot are not the entire plot. They also seem to incorporate the lesser characterised characters (eg: what makes Pansy tick) that we don't often see in the novels, since they're from Harry's viewpoint (and to put it bluntly, Harry sucks at interpersonal relationships). :>

[artimusdin.livejournal.com]

See, I can ignore that if there's sufficient reason for "why" such-and-such character is acting like that. My greatest blessing/curse.

Hah, huge-ass sticking charm!

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

I dont' getthat-one either. I also dont' get' suddenl ydiscovers/develops new powers' i ngeneral.
ifther's any violencei thappens with curses, hexes jinxes andi forgot whathe exactsemanticdifference is betwen those. I once did mentio nwands that are more convenientto use asa weapon but more like theyr'e mure usefu lto use infights adn i have no idea whatthe difference woudl be between those adn the usual wands.

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

see? ifa story is captivatign and interesting enoug hi stick myheadin the sandand not jstu ignore but acutaly totally miss technical anomalies and sturctural thigns ahtare off. tis' when i waso na yaho goru pand peopel boucned plot hoels all over the place i stuck my fingers in my ears because lalala i don't care adn ocnei get someoen to make me notice the errors I make an aha-soudn and the whole fun sins lieka plum-pudding gone wrong.

[alchymie.livejournal.com]

What new ability did he develop in HBP? (Besides the abilities to fall into incredibly cliched romance plots and to miraculously repress his anger, that is. *wink*)

Yeah, those new abilities I could have done without...

But there was one new ability, one that's scarcely been noticed: Side-Along Apparation. HBP introduces the concept to the reader (thereby resolving a long-standing fandom debate as to whether it's possible): we see Dumbledore S-A Apparate with Harry when they left Privet Drive. Then, near the end of the book, Harry S-A Apparates with Dumbledore to leave Voldemort's underground lake and return to Hogsmeade. Wonderful... except those are the only two instance of Side-Along Apparation in six books.

Why doesn't Arthur Weasley S-A Apparate with Harry to the Ministry for Harry's trial, in OotP? One must assume that the skill is beyond Arthur's abilities. Okay, no problem, in many ways Arthur's an average wizard... but when Moody, Tonks, Lupin et al arrive at Privet Drive to escort Harry to Grimmauld Place, none of them seem able to S-A Apparate with him, either. Lupin doesn't even mention it: just says Harry's too young to Apparate, Floo's not secure, and Portkeys are illegal. Either all those wizards and witches were unaware that Side-Along Apparation was possible -- or else it was beyond their abilites.

But Harry can do it, first time he tries.

Almost nothing Harry does is unique: Others can see Thestrals, others can conjure Patronuses. And some of his skills are of dubious value in the fight against Voldemort, true. It's just that, every book, there's been something new that Harry can do, something out of the blue, something that few other wizards can do (or do as well). It's perfectly consistent for a fanfic to have Harry develop some new skill as part of the story.

(I did it in Restitution, after all; you have to admit Harry's new powers were integral to the story line!)

But Super-Harry? I don't know that it requires bad characterization, or a wizard-worldview at odds with Rowling's -- I only know that conflict, be it physical or emotional, drives a good story, and it's hard to get a good conflict when your hero's that powerful.

[edenfalling]

My personal explanation for Side-Along Apparation is that JKR flubbed it, just like she flubbed the Horcruxes. The Horcruxes really should have been at least mentioned in CoS (like Sirius's name was tossed off in PS/SS so he didn't come out of nowhere in PoA), and Side-Along Apparation should have been mentioned or used in previous books. But JKR hadn't 'invented' it yet, so... *shrug*

(Sometimes I try to reconcile inconsistencies within the story universe. Other times I just give up and call it authorial error or oversight. Most numerical issues in HP fall into authorial error/oversight, for example.)

I don't object to the development of a new ability. An ability, in and of itself, doesn't necessarily solve anything. It can also come with quite a number of negative side effects, either intrinsic (Tonks's probable identity issues) or social (Parseltongue). Super!Harry stories don't tend to work like that. They ditch realism (insofar as fantasy can be realistic) and skate blithely off into wish-fulfillment fantasies. They're less about what Harry would do if he suddenly had some spiffy new ability, and more about what the author thinks would 'fix' JKR's world.

I did it in Restitution, after all; you have to admit Harry's new powers were integral to the story line!

You did the 'new ability' thing pretty well. Being able to hear the dead, and dreaming of the earth, were not things Harry had much control over, at first, and they were damned irritating and/or inconvenient at times. He also, IIRC, tried to ignore the issue -- which very few Super!Harry stories let him do. And he never realized he was doing Legilimency, which seems very IC to me.

It's hard to get a good conflict when your hero's that powerful.

When you have a very powerful character, you need to either create equally powerful opponents, or shift the story to a type of conflict that straight up combat power cannot resolve. Few Super!Harry writers are willing to make the second choice, which leaves them with pretty limited story options.

[edenfalling]

I can enjoy stories with problems, but they don't hit me as powerfully as other stories do. And structural and thematic issues do nag at me. I consider that the curse of being a writer; I spend enough time paying attention to the guts of my own stories that it's hard for me not to notice the guts of other people's stories, at least in passing.

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

actual ythis is right what gets me abit scared about startign to read forreal again. I" maffraid i'l end up beta-readign the stuff instead. i've se nso muc hstuff infic andalso so much ficcriticism (another thign i' mscare off. i'l end up readignthe stoyr as afic and attirubte stuff liek 'mary sue' adn 'ooc' adn turn o nsome automatical subtext pilot and so forth"
Adn I feel lieka shallwo writer now too. I hear many other people tal kbout how they watch the low of the plot and keep polishing theri stuf up, adn I jstu write .etiher that or i'm doing jsut the same only in souc han automatical way i hardly notice it myself.