Everybody is chattering, apparently, about the maybe proposed Potter-verse tv series

[conuly]

Or, at least in the places I read, about how they probably shouldn't do it because JKR is super transphobic and doesn't need more money anyway.

You know, there's a lot I could theoretically say about that, but somehow, the convo in the comments I actually had was on the subject of Why Molly and Arthur Are Bad Parents, Canon Backs Me Up.

"But don't you think you're putting too much emphasis on the roast beef sandwiches?"

Nope, not at all. What I think is that Molly Weasley, if there's any justice in that world, is going to end up alone, wondering why all her kids won't talk to her. She's like one of the parents at Issendai's site. Literally, she's this woman at the end here, the one with the corn chips. She's not going to see her son for another ten months, and she makes him a lunch she knows he doesn't like?

I will stand by this statement.

Comments

[dine]

I pretty much stand with you on this - I can totally see Molly writing one of those letters, bemoaning her awful children who have cut her off, an she has no idea why (she knows)

[conuly]

Man, I don't know why fic doesn't address any of this more often. Unless the Weasleys are being portrayed as comically abusive in a way that canon doesn't support, then they're either just The Perfect Family like Harry Imagines, or at worst, loud and lovably hectic, with Molly always ready to dispense parenting advice to our main characters.

Maybe I'm reading the wrong fic or something, or all the writers read the wrong series.

[dine]

there's actually a lot of fic that is critical of the Weasley parents (especially Molly) - there's a tag for Molly Weasley bashing; granted, some of it isn't about her parenting and of course a lot isn't *good* writing, but there are some believable stories which look at the way she is with the family, and by extension Harry

[conuly]

What I've seen tends to... well, overstate it. What's in canon and can be reasonably extrapolated from there is bad enough, there's no need to make it so much worse. That's even more annoying to me than just ignoring it or accepting Harry's viewpoint - which, I suspect, is JKR's viewpoint - totally uncritically.

But there's just so much potterfic, it's easy enough to miss out on a story or a theme or two. Do you have any recs?

[dine]

oh yeah, lots of authors go completely OTT, to the point of stupidity. unfortunately at this point I can't recall much of anything that fits the bill (my superpower is forgetting author/title of most fics/novels) but if I o come across something, I'll try to remember to t you know

[conuly]

oh hey i just realized your icon is not "a cute little potato resting on a sofa" but a couch potato.

[dine]

hee! it's my spirit animal :)

[brokenallbroken]

I haven't seen much of Molly being outright abusive, though some authors make her more of a harridan than others. What I have seen is enough stories to suggest a trope that Remus and Tonks' out of the blue non-romance and weird marriage was the result of Molly getting ideas with Amortentia.

[conuly]

I have never seen that.

That's even weirder as a premise than "Dumbledore, in between grooming Harry as a child soldier and managing the Ministry, loves to play matchmaker between his students".

[brokenallbroken]

Molly is a control freak busybody, and it's as good an explanation as any why two people a generation apart who don't seem to love each other (or even know each other well) would suddenly get hitched. Remus' reaction to finding out he's going to be a father is to run away. He's not happy. I can easily imagine Molly watching Tonks pine a bit in her crush, see Remus' "shyness" and low self-esteem (but not his grief for Sirius or very real anxiety about being a werewolf with a family), and think "I want the people around me to have the kind of happy domesticity I think I have because that's the only real way to be happy" and "he just needs a bit of a nudge".

[cloudsinvenice]

I could see that happening. And of course Molly's concept of "happy domesticity" is actually "a life like mine" which comes freighted with everything described in this thread...