All art courtesy of the amazing @arcturus-night-star <3
Welcome to WBWL week! If you know, you know, and if you don’t, you’re welcome to hang around or see yourself to the door!
Wrong Boy Who Lived Week is a week about this beloved, self-explanatory little trope - the Boy Who Lived / The Prophecy Child being incorrect!
Whether Harry is the BWL and no one knows, or he’s the Prophecy Child but the BWL is genuinely someone else, or maybe they think it’s Harry and it’s not; this week is all about secrets and subverting expectations!
If you want to read some cool stories in the trope, might I suggest a starter pack of Sarcasm & Slytherin by AnonymousMagpie, Yo Dawg by RelenaDuo, the Harrison Gaunt Series by Sandra_Taylor, A King of Sinners and a Queen of Saints by Purplemango and RyuukTheHatter, For The Greater Good Verse by lucky_katebishop, A Rose By Any Other Name (Will Still Prick Your Finger) by InTheShadows, Sybillance by Aspionage, Dumbledore’s great mistake by shineyma, and Carve a Smile Upon My Face by Satine_Ainsel? These are not all of them, not even all of the big names, but they are my favorites. There’s one missing because I can’t find it, just know they’re amazing.
The “basic tropes” included in a WBWL recipe are a Gryffindor Twin (who might be a prat), a Slytherin Harry, bad dumbldore, living-but-bad-parent-potters, and a family having trouble reconnecting. But! That’s not the only way to do it! There are THOUSANDS of ways to do it, whether following the recipe or making your own.
While many WBWL stories double as twin aus, there are some other fun examples, like Tony Stark - The Boy Who Was Not Attacked as a Child by WombatRat, Seven Months Away by Disorganizedkitten, Switched by PseudoLeigha, Sohpie Roper by Glacilumi, the kids who chose themselves by dirgewithoutmusic; the core of the Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived trope is that Voldemort’s Vanquisher is not who the world expects, and that leads to misconduct that may or may not doom the world. Sometimes Voldemort’s Defeat comes out of left field. Sometimes it’s avoided.
Always, it’s very interesting.
So, I've given you much ado, but let's get to the meat of it!
The event runs from July 25th-31st. We have seven prompts, for seven horcruxes, seven books, seven friends, and even seven chosen ones!
Decoy
Self-fulfilling
Reunion
Betrayal
Benevolent | Malevolent
(The road to Hell is paved with) Good Intentions
Conspiracy
What can you submit? Just about anything!
Art
Drabbles
Cosplay
Edits
New fics
Updates to existing fics
I know that most people hanging around already have an au or two running, and may not want to start something new- so don't! Give us little updates as part of the event, matching the prompts or not! Do an expansion pack of drabbles for your au, add chapters, make fanart! It can match a prompt or it can just be in the trope. We're here to celebrate it! To motivate everyone!
Have an au you haven't published yet but want to? Let's see it!
Maybe you DO want to start something entirely new! Do that too!
The only rules we really have here are A) use your own work, no plagiarism and no ai, but properly credited recursive is fine, B) tag appropriately, because I'll be reblogging with your tags attached, and C) tag the blog specifically, tumblr is a meanie sometimes and there's a chance not every post will show up in #wbwl week 2025. Tag with that too, though ;)
