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

[torino10154]

Harry is as tall as James (perhaps when he sees him in the forest before he dies?) who is described as tall, I believe when we see the memory of the Potters through the window--must be from Voldie's perspective, again, I just can't recall anymore the specifics and am too lazy to try and figure it out. However, Draco is taller than Harry. Basically, my impression is he is no longer "short" and it doesn't seem too hard to believe he had his growth spurt at 17 not 14. What tall means, IDK precisely, but I'd put him at 5'10"-5'11", just over average.

I believe you are correct about the Weasleys, though I'm not sure who has blue eyes but it does seem likely.

As for the rest, especially next gen kids, other than stuff that we have as concrete, like Al, I'm pretty flexible. I've seen James with either red hair or black. You mention Al outgrowing James and a friend and I were discussing how often the second/younger siblings do end up taller. In our anecdotal comparisons, it was often. I tend to make James a hair taller than Harry, too.

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.

This is an interesting point. I do rarely describe people in a lot of detail unless there's a reason it's significant because as you say, we do know them at least to some extent. So I will throw in what color eyes James has because they could be brown or hazel like his namesake. Then of course for the ladies, whether they are curvy or whatever, certainly can be important.

Hope that's all coherent.

[lightofdaye]

I flicked through my copy of Deathly Hallows and you're exactly right about James and when and where he's described. He's also said to have Mr Weasley-esque glasses which I'd forgotten and is another thing I'd meant to ask about nextgen headcannons; glasses yay or nay.

That's interesting about second kids, that was from the art rather than my own headcanon.

I think especially writing short fic, that kind of description is the first to go. You do masterfully impactful fics with a minimum of words for example.

[torino10154]

Ah, I'm glad to hear I haven't completely lost the plot! LOL I didn't remember the bit about his glasses though so that is interesting.

And you're very kind. I think mostly there are more important things going on in my little fics. *vbg*