Meta: Appearance Headcanons and a question of canon.

[lightofdaye]

So I keep meaning to post something and don't so here is a little thing about appearances:

• How tall is Harry to people? Now I've always adhere to the short and skinny of early books, but I've seen/been told a few times that canonically Harry was tall by the end of the books. But in DH he's short than basically all the other blokes aside Mundungus that polyjuice but taller than the women. To me that's like average height, dude's tall but not remarkably tall.


• So there are two Weasley phenotypes right? shorter and stockier (charlie, twins) and tall and lanky, (everyone else.) And brown and blue eyes. (I'm not making up that some have blue eyes right?)

• Next gen kids. It's way too easy to think of them as mini-versions of their parents. Certain to me Al is mini-Harry, Lily Luna is mini-Ginny, Victoire is mini-fleur. Louis is mini-genderflipped fleur.


• James is better because he's Harry but with Weasley hair, Ginny's eyes and ends up towering over Harry.


• Rose likewise at least gets to be Hermione with red hair/blue eyes. (though genetically that would be wrong unless Hermione has recessive blue genes)


• George and Percy's kids are a lot more in the air for me as well.

Thoughts are in part thanks to Blvnk-art's rendition of Harry's kids. Though she does differentiate the younger characters well. With Al being a lot more tidy that Harry. (and has him outgrow James which is an interesting twist)

The other part of this of course is describing appearance in smutty fic. The old saw being blokes write more physical description and women more emotional stuff. The thing is I'd like to throw in a nice description of female characters in the fic, but it does seem awkward, especially in shorter fic because the characters already know each other and what they look like, so each bit of extra description can feel out of place.

Any way rambling over for now.

Comments

[sportivetricks]

Well..... this got long. LOL! It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm avoiding chores. Thanks for enabling that. :D

In my mind, Harry is (forgive the US measurement) around 5'8". Maybe 5'9" in Auror boots. A very nice height for a man (I'm biased here) and reasonable to me based on the details you mention and the circumstances of his childhood. I don't see Harry as remarkably tall, but no one's gonna underestimate him based on height, regardless of his fame.

I distinctly remember the two Weasley body types and always assumed the tall came from Arthur and the short from Molly. Don't remember any blue eyes, but I honestly couldn't even tell you what color Ron or Ginny's eyes are, much less the rest. I'd have to google if I were going to mention it in fic.

Louis is mini-genderflipped fleur.
HUBBA HUBBA. Although I do love a red-haired Louis. Or at least strawberry blond. As you know.

Adopting your James HC as canon. Check.

Agreed on the red hair for Rose simply because it's fun. And no distinct headcanons for George or Percy's kids except that Fred II is absolutely built like Charlie. But bigger. :D

That art is a true gift to fandom! I've spent at least a total half hour just staring and sighing over it this week.

I don't know how much gender plays into preference across the spectrum, but FWIW I identify as a cis female and tend to care less about physical description and more about cerebral tension. Writing physical description is rather a slog for me unless I'm 100% into the physique as part of the cerebral tension (e.g. Charlie is hot because he could literally crush you to pieces; Daphne is hot because it's alllllll about the femme fatale aesthetic). I tend to shy around physical description in minor character fic because of that, and also because I want avoid stepping on the reader's potentially set-in-stone headcanon. All that said, being a bisexual and having few set-in-stone preferences myself, I absolutely devour in the physical descriptions in your fic and salute the novel and integral ways in which you present them. Read a Literotica piece sometime, and you'll know what I mean.

[lightofdaye]

Always happy to enable! Lol.

Harry (and Neville), I think would not be particular intimidating just by appearance or physicality. They're rather unassuming until they're trying and then they just have like presence if that makes any sense?

Ginny's and Molly's eyes are definitely brown. I remember that much. I thought Ron's were blue but I could be making it up. I could check the Lexicon but where's the fun in that? :)

I was joking a little about Louis but he definitely takes after his mother but yes Weasley hair!

I definitely get where you are coming from for Freddie. I've also seen Hugo similarly like he got tall Weasley height but also stocky Weasley width at the same time. But he's a dork so he's this gentle giant type.

Literotica, I've dipped a toe in there from time to time but never really clicked with it.

[sportivetricks]

They're rather unassuming until they're trying and then they just have like presence if that makes any sense?

Yes. That.