#make him have an extreme southern accent + cowboy tropes too

[solivagantingrebel]

The only time I like Graves is when people play his American-ness to a ridiculous degree in fanarts etc and honestly?

Hell yeah brother, give him the caw caw eagle freedom beam ‼️‼️🦅🦅🇺🇲🇺🇲

[angels-heap]

ooo, i'm working on a barney calhoun fic rn! what should i avoid/highlight?

I’m not the HL fandom characterization police and you can write whatever you want, but if you really want my two cents...

Lately, it’s become popular fanon that Barney is some sort of stereotypically southern cowboy caricature, for some reason. As I have discussed in the past, I don’t understand where that characterization came from and I think a lot of folks who try to write Barney as Extremely Southern sound ridiculous at best (due to having little/no understanding of how southern slang works) or kind of classist and/or negatively stereotypical at worst. 

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t write him as having a southern accent or background if that’s something you want to include in a fic. Hell, I usually write him with a bit of an accent and a complicated relationship with a deep southern upbringing. Just know that your mileage may vary with readers, because a lot of folks don’t hear the accent at all in canon (a valid interpretation; it can also come off as midwestern or generally unremarkable), and remember that a little slang and phonetic accent-writing can go a long way if that’s the impression you want to create. No need to overdo it. It sounds more natural if you don’t. 

(Also, if this is a freehoun fic, please make sure the terms of endearment you select for Barney to use with his 20-something year old male partner are not exclusively used by southern grandmothers. Big personal pet peeve there.)

Aside from that, the HL fandom has gone through a few other phases of weird Barney characterization, including Douchebarney (whose entire purpose in life was to cockblock freemance in the most obnoxious way possible) and Sad Alcoholic Barney (self-explanatory). Neither of those tropes are inherently bad in moderation, but don’t make the same mistakes I did as a young fic writer and lean too far into either of them. 

I can’t tell you what to highlight because that totally depends on what your fic is about, so that concludes my word-vomit of advice. Barney’s got a lot of neat backstory and potential as a character beyond being southern, alcoholic, and/or a Douchey Sitcom Friend. I’m excited to see what direction you take with your fic!