#cho is canonically an absolute baddie

[whinlatter]

Cho Chang for the random character ask: 4, 9, 12, 27, 43

cho! this was actually so fun to think about. cho is an underrated character and a boss bitch and i for one have relished the opportunity to think more deeply about her, so cheers for that anon! (i'm merging the other ask i got about cho with this one for a bumper cho post)

1. Canon I outright reject

i do not tend to outright reject canon because i am a boring yawn canon compliant girlie but i will say i find it weird to think that cho would be randomly checking/carrying her DA coin on the night that harry just happens to arrive back at hogwarts in DH. it’s not even for plot it’s just for the ensemble vibes. pointless cameo sorry! the whole point of failed high school romances is to never resolve them and just memory block them out for all eternity until you bump into them in the veg section at the big supermarket when you go home for christmas and make awkward small talk then see them again at the checkouts and want to die

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

part of the reason cho was so (understandably) distraught after cedric's death was because of a dynamic in their relationship of cho revering/idolising cedric that only deepened after his death as he became somewhat canonised in popular memory. when they got together, cedric was a seventh year and cho was a fifth year. often when you're 15/16 you definitely look at 17-18 year olds like they're the coolest people on the planet and you're lucky to be in their orbit basking in their great worldly wise glory (lol). and while i’m not doing up age-gap-is-problematic-discourse i am saying that if you're in the last year of school and your mate starts going out with someone two years below who is doing their GCSEs or whatever you do a) obviously take the piss out of them but more importantly b) tend to see a pretty big gap in maturity and life experience that often adds a weird power differential in the relationship. that's not to say that cho didn't really miss cedric's company, but also that the grief was made worse by the fact that she likely saw him as a saint-like figure she was in awe of, a view that only received mass endorsement after dumbledore's eulogy of cedric, so she's not even really able to mourn a real person, but just the idea of someone purely heroic and good who she will never be able to replicate again

4. Favorite line

“He asked me out, you know,” she said in a quiet voice. “A couple of weeks ago. Roger. I turned him down, though.”

in this house we stan 👏 petty 👏 queens 👏

or...

“What about your parents?” asked Harry. “Well, they’ve forbidden me to get on the wrong side of Umbridge too,” said Cho, drawing herself up proudly. “But if they think I’m not going to fight You-Know-Who after what happened to Cedric —”

actually huge props for cho for joining a resistance fight club with no parental support for anti-ministry action. because in canon you have the weasleys whose parents are so politically involved, and whose sense of political right and wrong is (bar percy) so instinctual because it's how they were raised, it can be easy to overlook how significant it is when other characters who don't come from that family background/political lineage get involved in risky acts of open rebellion. like yes her defence of marietta is misguided, but cho is a boss bitch who lets her grief be fuel for a good fightback and i for one applaud it

8. Unpopular opinion about them

ok this is going to sound like me doing up pure ginny defender but for all ginny gets slated for having many a jealous moment (including with cho in DH) i do think it is Interesting that people overlook how insanely jealous cho is of hermione lol. i do like that element of cho's character - or rather, think it lets her be well-rounded and interesting, giving an insight into how the trio are perceived by other members of the student body, but also allows cho have this messy petty teenage side to her (people often tend to write her in fic as this very worldly mature grieving widow figure, instead of like, a girl going thru it and wildly acting out emotionally and developing a whole host of insecure abandonment issues that are mostly to do with her grief). but i love how she like sees red and goes full how many girls are you meeting after me!!! alexa play bust your windows!!! i am going to storm out and YOU are going to pay for these coffees!!! so yeah, my unpopular opinion is cho is petty and messy and obviously harry fucks up more but she does kind of act up and you know what, that's fine! she's still worthy of the world! (you know all i do is ride on my let girls giggle and be messy crusade)

9. Scene that first made me love (or hate) the character

i stan the temper tantrum cho has when she loses the quidditch final. go girl have your strop! she’s just like me fr

12. Crack headcanon

cho's gang of girlies wore potter stinks badges in the dormitory after that horrendous date to cheer her up. and she was like yeah you know what! he does!

23. If they were a scented candle, what would they smell like?

ohhh man i am going to have to pass on this because i literally cannot name any smells. she's too prestige and gorgeous to not smell lovely though!

28. How they feel about insert character of your choice from the same fandom

i am kind of obsessed with a cho vs ginny bitter rivalry that doesn't actually have all that much to do with harry lol. cho is two school years older than ginny (given ginny is an end-of-august birthday baby, cho fully could be three years older than her, given hermione is two calendar years older than ginny and is only in the year above). so ginny is a little pipsqueak irrelevance to cho, whereas i expect cho lives in ginny's head rent-free while she's still in the throes of her deep unrequited crush on harry. then ginny goes out with michael, cho's teammate, and is in the DA, so probably is around a lot more, maybe they're semi-friendly, all going fine - until ginny pops up for the quiddich final in ootp and publicly demolishes cho on the quidditch pitch. can you imagine being a (almost or actual) seventeen year old getting the snitch snatched from under your nose by gryffindor's fourteen year old second-rate substitute seeker (especially after a year of playing badly?) i'd be fuming. no wonder cho cries and chucks her broom on the ground. so then ginny chucks michael for being a 'sore loser' (i think this must have also been a bit connected to cho, if all ravenclaw are having a great big public sulk lol), and then michael immediately gets with cho (canon implies that evening lmao). even if ginny didn't care about michael all that much, there is something pretty galling about your ex moving on to your sporting rival an hour after you break up lmao, and something very messy from cho to try and get back at the girl who just beat you by immediately hooking up with her ex lol. you can just imagine michael and cho bitterly slagging off ginny in between snogs at that post-match commiseration party. and then the following year, when ginny beats cho again, in a match cho 100% viewed as a re-match and a chance to finally best the person who humiliated her... i'm just saying, those two hate each other (at least as teenagers) and it doesn't even really involve harry lol. and i for one love it!

43. 3 favorite foods and 3 they despise

i am also bad at questions like these i'm so sorry 🫣 literally have no world/character-building capabilities to imagine people's favourite anythings. i do like the idea of cho being thoroughly unimpressed by the quality of the hogwarts cooking though! do i back a fleet of house elves living out their days in a castle in the scottish highlands to know their way around any kind of asian cuisine? no i do not. cho would have every right to fume

[bellatrixscurls]

- hp love interest?

harry james potter, i love him

- cho, lavender, padma, or angelina?

lavender as well!

- hogsmead or diagon alley?

hmm i'd have to say hogsmead tbh

- order of the phoenix or dumbledore's army?

dumbledore's army really

- hmm, harry or ron?

harry obviously(sorry ron)

- fmk, james'sirius'remus?

your right this is a hard one hmm,

probably fuck sirius, marry james and kill remus(I'M SORRY)

- favorite canon and fanon ship?

favorite canon ship is def ronmione and fanon is drarry a 100%

WE HAVE A LOT OF THINGS IN COMMON this is so fun so here's some more!!!

- crookshanks or hedwig?

- favorite weasley aside from the twins?

- james or lily?

- ronmione or wolfstar?

- kill dumbledore or snape?

- narcissa or bella?

- what would you smell in your amourtentia?

- hogwarts in the winter or in rainy season?

- seeker, keeper, chaser, or beater?

I'LL SEND YOU MORE SOON BUT ENJOY THESE <33

- crookshanks!! he's such a baddie

- ginny! she's a baddie as well

- if i really had to choose i'd say james :) but wanna keep em both

- wolfstar! i'm a sucker for remus and sirius together. romione is not my ship tbh.

- mmm dumbledore. i love snape too much.

- bella!! she's my absolute favourite character of harry potter so yeah :)

- ummm, coconut, new books and magnolias i think ? since these are my favourite scents atm.

- rainy!! i hate winter cause it's cold af and my cheeks turn pink and i hate it

- keeper 🥴

YES I'M TOTALLY ENJOYING THESE

also, sorry for what i said abt romione :( not really my ship

[swiftkick404]

Just thinking about Harry Potter and missed opportunities in canon...

(and writing about some of them here:

The Second Splinter [WIP, 5 chapters, 30,000 word count])

I have so many things to include in this fic, but I'm wondering if there’s anything I’ve overlooked and might like to include....

I already have plans for minor supporting characters like Angelina, Cho, and Alicia....the Creevey brothers, Lee Jordon, Draco Malfoy, new elements of the Death Eater-influenced MoM.... and of course the main cast in the castle.... I really want to explore the networks in place supporting both “sides” of the conflict, as well as parties that are more ambiguous in their allegiances.

(I’m not doing much with the main trio, the main members of the Order, and the Bigger Baddies ....mostly because their possible alternative avenues of action and development have been pretty well covered already. And tbh I’m not particularly inspired by them for some reason aha)

Snape has (probably?) received a lot of attention as well in fandom and it’s not like I need to explore his character in TSS but I like how I’ve planned things for him. He’s definitely someone that makes for a great anti-hero, because he absolutely does despicable things...and he also does do heroic things on occasion...? He’s very skewed in his perspective and actions, which is always fun for me as a writer.

BUT Ginny, Luna, Pansy, Zacharias, Neville, and Blaise are getting the most attention in the story.... UGH I just have somehow fallen so in love with them all.... I feel like they would just have great chemistry together?? 

Neville is morally ideological and active, you know? And then Smith is morally-inclined but also a bit of a dick??? and Blaise, from what very very little we see of him, appears to act with motivation along self preservation, but maybe there is room for moral-sensitivity if not ever direct action? AND he is bold enough, or confident enough, to admit to Draco Malfoy that a blood-traitor like Ginny is attractive lol (Maybe that was Jo’s weak way of reinforcing to the readers how “desirable” Ginny is -- but i want to take it as a Blaise character development moment instead) So anyway, I see a lot of potential for further development and expansion of his character. (I think the fandom likes to explore Theodore Nott in this direction more often, maybe?? and Blaise seems to be a ��play-boy’ friend to Malfoy usually.... meh. I have no need for that.)

ANYWAY. I’m also looking forward to Draco’s development. There’s a really, really awesomely fun feature to his character that’s introduced and utilized in HBP but never fully explored in canon and is dropped, I think, entirely by book seven... and I am going to play with that part of his characterization a bit in TSS... He is clearly a driven, clever, capable character in the ‘right’ circumstances and with the right sort of task, you know?

Also - I’ve mentioned this before - but Luna’s crypto appreciation and interactions with Olivander are going to feature. I just feel like that’s a WASTED opportunity. I mean, a wand maker that goes above and beyond to find and research applications of tissue samples from a Crumple Horned Snorkak??? PRICELESS. Also, would Luna be opposed to using previously undiscovered specimens in wand-making? I don’t know. She doesn’t seem the type to necessarily be automatically opposed..... Maybe she would be curious about application of newly discovered magical elements in wand making. Damn, I am!

AND PANSY. Man. I want more depth and complexity to Pansy Parkinson so damn much. Who really wants to write another shallow character who is a stand in for the stereotypical entitled mean girl. Who actually wants to read about that! smh. I mean, shallow and unpleasant people exist in real life, sure, but I don’t see a very engaging function for them in stories beyond temporary roadblocks. I want MORE. I want to know why she feels the need to cling to someone like Malfoy -- and I would like it to go beyond materialistic ends.... I want her to be nasty and morally-depraved but I also want her to be dimensional!! She could be strong, too, you know.... I want a girl who is bad and broken, but breathing. And emphasis on bad. She can be self-centered, clingy, mean spirited, but why, you know?

Ginny. Oh, the love I have for Ginny. She calls Fleur, Phlegm. Which is all things mean and childish and sort of hilarious??? She talks flippantly about her much ignored trauma, she insists on her inclusion in fighting Voldemort, she can’t talk around the boy she’s crushing on but never shuts up around her family. I just like her, okay? She grows up in the boonies with no money and a whole lot of pure-blood family history and legacy and people know her -- but only by reputation of her idealistic and rebellious family and she still has to fight to make something of herself.... I don’t know, but she seems to have a lot of potential to me? With six older brothers, she has STRONG OPINIONS, ok, I am certain of it and I love it.

My favorite thing about Ginny is that she must have tried to destroy the Diary!Horcrux and found that its indestructible by mundane means --it being a horcrux and all-- and so her solution was to throw the thing in the toilet. Where all the other shit collects. HA! Gaddamn, I am totally going to write that scene.....

So much to write!!

[whinlatter]

Besides Hermione and ginny are there other female characters in the books that you like?

Yes!

(I always feel like such a loser answering a question like this truthfully because my honest answers tend to be: yes I love that character and thinking/reading about that character and here’s nine hundred reasons why! Even if I don’t like a character, because they’re evil and/or contemptible, I tend to find them super interesting and love reading about them. Not a female character, but I wrote that I didn’t like Draco much recently and @indigo-scarf sent me a meta about the Hand of Glory that helped change my mind. I was like ffs I finally thought of a proper character I didn’t like and now I find him quite compelling. So I guess we’re back to just me not liking… Grawp, I guess? I do, in life, tend to like things and find them interesting, though so it’s almost always harder for me to think of things I don’t like. Nauseatingly positive, that’s me).

Just off the top of my head: some of the baddies — Bellatrix and Narcissa — get some of the best fic writing done about them that I absolutely lap up (Petunia, too! I’ll read a Rita or Muriel or Umbridge fic if there’s good ones going.) I love love love Andromeda fics, I really like Tonks, I think Molly gets a far far harder rep than she ever deserves, Angelina is golden, Cho deserves the world, Fleur’s a boss, I love Parvati/Lavender’s whole energy throughout (I am a girl who giggles and I like to be represented), Pansy is clearly interesting for all the ways she’s hurting and as a lens into the gender politics in pure blood circles… there’s so much to say about so many. I’m writing McGonagall a lot at the moment and having so much fun with it. And honestly, what Jily authors have done to make Lily into a rich and brilliant character after the scraps we were given of her in canon is truly so impressive, so now I adore Lily… I think about the women of the series a lot, tbh. One of the things I want to do with Beasts is write female friendships, both moments of joy in them and also conflict, and build them into a series that lacks them, or at least relegated them to the sidelines in deeply problematic ways.

I will say, though, that I think the female character I have had to work hardest on to get, and to write, is Luna. I’ve always found her difficult to write without cariacturing her, and her allegiance to her dad, while understandable from a grief perspective, is kind of sus in some ways (the man… is a conspiracy theorist). But I knew I wanted to include her in Beasts, because she’s clearly important to Ginny (and Harry), and after a lot of thinking I feel like I have a postwar arc for her in the scope of that story that’s compelling to me to write and hopefully will be to read. That writing is really helping me find more steady ground thinking about her as a character.