You know, the Draco-Spike character type is such a fannish archetype: ambiguously-evil and sometimes complex lust-object.

Lex. Scorpius. Methos, depending on the incarnation.

Is the question really that complicated? It's the Bad Boy phenomenon.

In my quest for H:LOTS fic I could read at work (lunch break -- fic's ok, but not the NC-17 stuff), I found Munch Ado about Nothing. A world of bwah.

Well, Bad Boy Archetype, Hauteur Subtype. Not to be confused with the supercilious self-hater subtype or the unselfconscious id subtype.

You know, suddenly I am wondering what people do when they want to write fanfic about people who, in real life, have no lips. Because maybe it's just the fandoms I've been in, but I swear the plump male lip is the fulcrum with which you can move a 10MB opus. So, what do people do, if they're huge fans of, like, a Jack Nicholson character?

Lex! I knew I was forgetting someone major.

He is nothing but snobbish and cruel.

Huh. The character as well as the actor who played Draco in the movie did nothing for me, so I'd imagined maybe the movie-Draco was simplied/dumbed down from the book since the character seemed so popular. I'm a bit of a canon-characterization Nazi so the whole concept of fanon-Draco invented to fit a certain archetype sounds very cracked to me, but eh, it's not my fandom. Maybe I'm missing some idiosyncratic HP fandom dynamic.

Dude, isn't that, well, FG. Like when Kay says Munch is "as cheerful as ever he was" and nobody says anything. Or when she tells Bayliss that "his form is comely, but his wardrobe is oft unfortunate" and she could only date him on "weekends because his neurosis would be too wearing for every day." I just recced Valeria again yesterday for one about a movie review show. G. Munch/Kay [link] Edited cause my computer skills are oft unfortunate I called her the Funniest Living Homicide Fan.

Or when she tells Bayliss that "his form is comely, but his wardrobe is oft unfortunate" and she could only date him on "weekends because his neurosis would be too wearing for every day."

Which is when I realized that Bayliss was playing the prince. Who I always see as Denzel Washington (thank you, Kenneth B.). And my head sort of exploded.

I've gone on digest on BBF a while back, but I thought the proportion of B/S out of the total number of recs went down significantly compared to, say, late S5-early S7? I may be mistaken though, since it's been a while since I read my last B/S fic (my eyes usually skip over these nowadays; It seems I've developed major intolerance to the whole 'epic romance' genre, in any fandom.)

Sorry! I meant in terms of number of published stories at major archives, as of the last time I felt wanky enough to collect the data.

Well, Bad Boy Archetype, Hauteur Subtype.

Also: Obsession with the hero, as a foe (Spike & Lindsey), as a friend (Methos) or both (Lex). Often uncommon insight into the inner-workings and conflicts of our hero and his posse. Unpredictability and omnisexuality. There are aspects these characters have in common, including the frequent puppification and tendency toward sexy Mortal-Enemy-Sue.

So, what do people do, if they're huge fans of, like, a Jack Nicholson character?

Describe their lips inaccurately?