hey, i was just wondering if you could like explain why you ship harrymort? isn't it a little predatory - is that the point? I genuinely don't get the logic but i'm not here to judge
Thereâs a looot of things to cover here, so bear with me.
Thereâs two sides to the tomarrymort corner of the internetâtomarry, which is Harry paired with Tom Riddle, pre-Voldemort, and harrymort, which is Harry paired with Voldemort, post-Tom Riddle. The two sides have significant overlap and most shippers read both. They do have distinct dynamics, tropes, and appeals though, so Iâm going to talk about them both separately.
Iâll start with Tomarry:
The first thing to stress here is that neither tomarry nor harrymort are crack ships. Tom and Harry have intense canonical dynamics that make it as big of a ship as it is. Firstly, Tom and Harry were written as foils. Both were orphaned as babies and raised by muggles who ostracized and abused them for their magic. Both were introduced to the wizarding world by Dumbledore and fell deeply in love with magic, forming a strong attachment to Hogwarts in particular, as neither boy ever had a home they felt safe in before then. Harry, however, was brought into the wizarding world with a motiveâDumbledore intended to use Harry as a weapon, and so fostering an unhealthy attachment served him. Harry was treated with kindness and compassion by Dumbledore, who offered guidance and wisdom as Harry adjusted to the wizarding world. Tom, on the other hand, was met by cruelty and bias from the moment Dumbledore met him in Woolâs Orphanage. Dumbledore continued to suspect, alienate, and mistreat Tom throughout his years at Hogwarts. Harry was sorted into Gryffindor (after hatstalling between it and Slytherin), where he was accepted and treated kindly by his housemates, formed close friendships very quickly, and was welcomed into a tightly-knit found family. Tom was sorted into Slytherin, where his lack of lineage made him an instant target; he was dropped into the wizarding world with no buoy or anchor, placed in a hostile environment, and forced to continue using cunning and intimidation to protect himself. This treatment due to his heritage allowed his hatred of muggles to continue festering, while the acceptance Harry received aided him in processing the abuse he suffered at the hands of muggles. Tom and Harry are written to show two endings of the same story: one boy who was met with kindness, respect, admiration, and love, and another who was met with suspicion, cruelty, derision, and abuse. This dynamic is extremely interesting to explore through writing, and a huge appeal of the ship.
Another point for Tom and Harry is rooted in how their personalities mesh and clash, and how that drives their dynamic as a ship. Both are extremely hard-headed, independent, willful, and combative. Tom navigates problems by manipulating or intimidating those around him to serve his goals, while Harry has never backed down from a fight in his fucking life, and prefers to face conflicts head on. Harry is intelligent and wary enough to evade Tomâs manipulation much of the time, which does nothing but frustrate Tom into trying harder. Harry constantly challenges Tom, something Tom isnât at all used to and often finds more fascinating than anything else. They have an intense battle of wills with morals and value systems that are at odds, but there are also a lot of areas in which they overlap, and these are the things that continue drawing them to one another despite their power struggle.
As far as canon content for tomarry⌠ohhh boy. We have, of course, Chamber of Secrets, in which Harry forms a catastrophic level crush on Tom Riddleâs fucking diary. Then thereâs Half-Blood Prince, in which Harry is reminded of his catastrophic crush in the form of watching teenage Tom Riddleâs memories through the pensieve. Both are quite frankly fucking ridiculous. The conflict between Harryâs attraction to Tom and his strong moral compass is another really fun dynamic to play with in writing.
Okay, those are the main bits for tomarry. Now letâs talk about harrymort.
This is where your question regarding power dynamics comes into play. Yes, a huge part of the harrymort pairing is their power imbalance, and for many people this is the biggest appeal of the ship. This is obviously a turn off for some people, and those people generally gravitate more toward tomarry, where the power struggle is on a bit more even ground. For those who love harrymort for its power imbalance, a big factor is still Harryâs character and how much fight he puts up. While the power imbalance is large, Harry is an extremely fun character in that heâs stubborn as all hell and essentially never stops challenging Voldemort. This results in two main tropes- Harry struggling against Voldemort until heâs essentially broken in, or Harry struggling against Voldemort until Voldemort is broken in. Generally, Harry is at least a little dark by the end of fics like this, and Voldemort is only slightly swayed toward rationality. But itâs enough for them to meet in the middle, which is a beautiful process to write and read.
One of the biggest tropes is obsessionâfor a wide variety of factors, all of which weâll expand on, Voldemort is generally utterly and devotedly obsessed with Harry. For a character who has no attachments, considers himself superior to everyone alive, and cares for nothing but power and immortality, seeing his obsession and devotion to Harry unfold is wonderful. This isnât a fanon trope, eitherâthe entire series is about Voldemortâs obsession with Harry. Shifting that dynamic to a romantic/sexual nature isnât a reach at all.
I want to talk about the horcrux next, because itâs a big one. This comes into play in tomarry fics, usually hand-in-hand with the time-travel trope, but the fun part in harrymort fics is that it takes place in canon timeline. Harry being Voldemortâs horcrux is obviously a very central theme in the series, and it lends a lot of fun plot elements to harrymort. One is their psychic connection. I mean, guys. They have a psychic connection. Thatâs⌠kinda gay. Another is the prophecy. Guys⌠theyâre prophesized. Thatâs⌠really gay.
Voldemortâs narcissism comes into play in a huge way in the harrymort ship, as his fascination with Harry is often kickstarted or intensified by the realization that Harry is Voldemortâs horcrux. Voldemort considers himself the greatest being alive, perhaps ever, and as such has never found an equal in any other wizard. Harry having a literal piece of Voldemort inside of him appeals to his narcissism in a BIG way, and his obsession is often rooted in that Harry is the only person who can ever approach being his equal, as he is partly Voldemort himself. From another angle, the realization that Harry is his horcrux is generally followed by a great need to possess Harry, which is also a very loved trope. There are very few tangible things Voldemort ever places value on, and he covets his horcruxes. Thereâs nothing he treasures and protects more because they house his soul and ensure his immortality. Voldemortâs obsessive need to defeat Harry shifting to an obsessive need to possess and protect Harry is delicious. Really, itâs very fun.
All of the appeals of tomarry apply to harrymort, but put them on crack. Their foiled characters are hugely intensified, as now thereâs not only the parallels of their past but their standings on opposite sides of a war, one worshiped as a dark wizard and the other worshiped as a light savior. The mesh and clash of their personalities is similar, but now with Voldemortâs insanity factored in. Their shared background with Dumbledore is often a big element, as Harry has been brainwashed into worshiping Dumbledore and Voldemort loathes no one in the universe more, as well as being aware of Dumbledoreâs deceptiveness and skewed morals. The conflict between Harry being Dumbledoreâs weapon and Voldemortâs pet is a super fun trope to play with.Â
Tomarrymort is a very popular ship with a very wide range of tropes, appeals, and genres. I tried to hit all of the biggest stuff. There are a lot of aspects of tomarrymort, particularly on the harrymort side, that people turn their nose down on. But tomarrymort fandom is made up of pro-shippers who see the darker aspects of their ship not as turn-offs or taboos, but complex and beautiful dynamics to explore in writing. Remember that fanfiction is fiction- and I hope that this helped. (:
