Looks like I won't be making that Monday deadline. ::trying to look surprised:: Friday was consumed in a flurry of database-making (for which I got paid), and the rest of my faery research looks to be longer than I'd thought. Then there's that list of names---of proper linguistic roots---that I have to compile, so that when I'm writing (*not* on Monday), I don't have to get up from my keyboard every other paragraph to figure out yet *another* name. Eh, well. You'll just be seeing a little more of me, I guess, before the fateful day arrives. Tragedy.

In other news...

I know the anti-hero is kinda big these days---has been for quite some time---but I have to admit the whole concept irritates the hell outta me. What's the point? Why have a hero lacking *any* redeemable qualities? Hell, we don't need courage. And honor---forget that! We'll just ramble on about fatalism and grit and the grimy underside of life. Yeah. Thanks. Just how I want to spend my fantasy life.

Which is not to say there aren't aspects of the anti-hero that appeal. Cynicism, for one. Anger and self-pity for another---the right blend of which can be fascinating, indeed. But on the whole, it takes a *very* skilled writer, with a strict eye to the truth of that character and not the formula of an anti-hero, to make me even care about the story, let alone like it. (Robin Hobb, IMO, does this magnificently.)

All this aside, the anti-hero should never, never, *ever* find its way into a story where the characters have already been established as the traditional sort of heroes. Example: the Harry Potter fanfic I'm reading. These people, whom I adore for themselves, have suddenly become unrecognizable. Petty, immature, manipulative, consumed with anger, eaten up with self-pity, they use one another, by turns spineless and selfish. And amid all this is a disgusting double standard. Character F, once the normal one, is allowed free rein in chastising and belittling Character M, once unusual. But does Character M, now normal, ever call Character F, now peculiar and powerful indeed, on her egoism? Nope. Not even once. Despite the fact that all Character F needs is a good swift kick in the ass.

Ick. There is a reason, people, why JK Rowling has Harry Potter as her hero. The world she's created, the life into which she's breathed fire and color, *requires* a Harry Potter---true hero---as its savior. He may not have realized his true heroism, himself, but we see it---he is noble, self-effacing, conscientious, clever, brave, and in the face of great horrors, still mischievous and young and *hopeful*.

The only thing hopeful about this fanfic I'm reading is the potential for a Draco Malfoy redemption. Now *there* is an anti-hero worth looking into. And maybe if he reaches that point, all the hours I've spent reading this disastrous bit of invention shan't have been wasted.

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"I'm all at sea
Where no-one can bother me
Forgot my roots
If only for a day
Just me and my thoughts sailing far away
Like a warm drink it seeps into my soul
Please just leave me right here on my own...."

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