liiikoshi

[liiikoshi]

tom riddle and his horcruxes

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love wins all 💜

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fuck it, yurifies your huntrix

[liiikoshi]

As someone who joined Tomarrymort Fandom last year, I am curious... what was it like when it was a very rare ship in the 2000s?

Well, it was a different context back then. A different internet. Mind you, I wrote in Portuguese (my native tongue) and posted on fanfiction.net. There was no ao3, only fanfic forums, livejournal and the big one, ff.net. Back in the 2000s, before tumblr exploded and concentrated fandom in its trenches, fanfic itself wasn’t a very known concept. In a way, the Harry Potter series really helped develop the genre and put it on the map in a way that previous fandoms — Buffy, LotR, Star Trek and others — hadn’t. The moment was very auspicious; HP was a global phenomenon and the internet was rising faster than ever. The months, years between the release of the final four books also helped: restless, hundreds of thousands of fans started writing their own versions of the story. I remember when a newspaper in my country published an article about Harry Potter fans and fanfics. They even mentioned Drarry! A breach between “fandom world” and the “real world”. Nowadays “fanfic” is used a slang in my culture (to mean lie, fabricated tale) by people who have no idea where the term came from. Fandom is a known thing and its members are taken seriously as consumers. Entertainment companies are aware of ships, of tropes, even of old men yaoi.

It was different back then. Even within that huge fandom Voldemort/Harry or TomHarry was a small, almost inexistent ship. We didn’t know yet that Harry was Voldemort’s Horcrux — although some fans had already come up with the theory. There was a lot of crack involving Voldemort. Noseless, bald, snake-like Voldy. He was far from the sex symbol he is today. I remember when Ralph Fiennes was cast to play him…

Tom Riddle, on the other hand, was a bit more palatable. If I remember correctly he was shipped mostly with Ginny. A lot of fans were intrigued by him. But many couldn’t see past the unsexy villain he’d become. A lack of handsomeness — that was unforgivable. Especially in an age where Japanese Animation was also a growing hype — compare Voldemort to the bishonen that treaded gracefully the western screens: Itachi, Sesshoumaru, Light Yagami, all those svelte, long-haired beauties. Even Orochimaru, Voldemort’s most obvious anime double, had more style.

I’ve always liked villains. I read the first Harry Potter when I was six or seven and I already liked Voldemort then. Even as a shade, a shape on the back of Quirrell’s head. When he was re-introduced as Tom Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets I knew he would be my favourite ever. Like many other kids I grew up with Harry. But Voldemort was my son, my love, my darling. I started reading fanfic when I was twelve but most of it was anime’s. When I came across Harry Potter fanfic my focus was the Marauders. We had a very thriving community writing in Brazilian Portuguese before we were all colonised by the internet’s Lingua Franca. Both in English (which I started to learn when I was ten) and Portuguese Voldemort/Tom Riddle was a usually side character. Ginny, Bellatrix, obvious self-inserts OCs, Lucius — those were his most common partners.

TomHarry/Harrymort started to appear more, I think, after the release of the fifth book. That connection, that dream sharing, is hard to ignore. I recall an author who’d put Harry through hell through Voldemort’s hands (he was quite the sadist in their depiction). Others wrote him as the tender violator. Some of the tropes that are now popular began to be formed: Dark!Harry, Dumbledore bashing, Light Bashing. A lot of fics depicted Voldemort “rescuing” Harry from the Dursleys, horrified by the abused he suffered.

Not many explored Harry and Tom, but some did. Time travel fics were almost unheard of. A few gems attempted that glorious hardship: Voldemort and Harry being together while staying true to their morals and beliefs. Those were very hard to find and I treasured them.

I think something shifted in the late 2000s/early 2010s. We now knew Harry was Voldemort’s Horcrux. And we had Flayu. Flayu was the first popular, Japanese fanartist to draw TomHarry/Harrymort. We didn’t have the incomparable @shelter-maki0 but we had drawings like this and this and this.

I stayed away from the fandom and from Voldemort/Harry for a long time. After Voldemort died in the seventh book I renounced Harry Potter……my baby was gone and I felt that he was done very dirty in the end. He went out like a Disney villain. No depth. So I don’t know how we moved from a very niche pairing with few fanfics and only one big fanartist to 16,120 fics as I’m writing this. I missed that bridge. The fandom annoys me nowadays because so many works are more of the same. I feel like we used to be more daring back in my day. But that could be just me being a 30+ old man yelling at a cloud. But also:

For all the annoyance the overuse of that trope (and others) causes me, I’m happy this fandom is so much bigger now and so many people enjoy this pairing. When I stumbled on them, many, many years ago, it was like a switch turned on in my brain. Voldemort/Harry makes so much sense it’s insane. I’m glad more people see it, write about it, love them like me.

Hope I didn’t bore you with my (old man’s…) reminiscences. This was a fun ask to answer. Thank you ❤️

[liiikoshi]

Some random doodles I drew recently. no context

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Mother and Father

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The Black Sisters

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~ fit check for my Napalm Era ~

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I don’t think Shippuden talked about the friendship Naruto and Sakura developed enough.

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When I have no inspi left in me my favs I reread metalo’ fics and MAGIC Idraw xD

Lesser evil grindelriddledore ahaha

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Nightly routine with the Black-Gaunt family.

Scrap by me.

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Wish you were here , in honor of season 2

[liiikoshi]

[liiikoshi]

практически каждый день я думаю о том, как путешествие тома реддла повлияло на него

он отправился в него совсем молодым, а вернулся в пятьдесят, познав магию настолько широко, насколько смог, и практически потеряв свою красоту :)

тмр индивидуалист с огромным эго, мне действительно интересно, как после десятилетий одиночества, когда во всем он мог полагаться только на себя, в семидесятых ему пришлось снова мало того, что вливаться в британское магическое общество, так ещё и, после наращивания авторитета, создания пожирателей смерти итд, итп, тмр приходилось, ну, доверить выполнение многих задач другим людям. не всегда достаточно умным и способным, чтобы это доверие оправдывать хотя бы из страха за свою жизнь.

тяжело же ему было, наверное, лол)))

[liiikoshi]

много думаю о том, каким человеком том реддл покинул британию в свои 20~ и каким лорд волдеморт вернулся в свои 50~

с кем и чем он столкнулся? что пережил? что узнал? сколько преступлений - убийств, краж, обманов - на его счету? стал ли он известен в волшебных кругах за пределами британии ещё до того, как он начал войну? какие ритуалы он провел над собой за это время? почему именно его лицо изменилось к тому моменту, когда он пришёл в хогвартс? сколько раз он был на грани смерти? сколько шрамов на его теле?

так много мыслей...

[liiikoshi]

everyone's like "ooh heartthrob tom" "ooh dark academia tom" "ooh charismatic mysterious bachelor tom". including tom riddle himself.

but baby he works a 9 to 5 in a literal slum. it was always going to be mad scientist tom