The inter-twin relationship
I have been re-reading The First Day by little0bird, and overall it is a very well done work. In fact, it may be precisely because it it is otherwise very well done that I am reacting to the way that little0bird depicts George, and, through doing so, Fred. They are neither of them easy characters for a fan fiction author. In part because there are strong stereotypes of them persisting across dozens of works out there. In part because they get surprisingly little ‘screen time’ in the canonical works.
There is one pattern though, of which The First Day is a prime example. You see primarily see this in stories placed after the war, and it may be an attempt to depict George’s reaction to loss. If so, it does not work, and really irks me. I get that the loss of his twin was an absolutely shattering experience for George, one so great, so tragic, and so all-encompassing that it would be dauntingly difficult to attempt to portray with any justice. I suspect that George himself, in the days and months following that loss, would not be a fair judge of the dynamic the two of them had before, when they were together. As I noted, little0bird may be trying to depict some of that in The First Day, but if so, it does not successfully come across that way. Instead, what comes across is something else entirely. Listening to the depictions of Fred and George across the work, you come up with the following:
- Fred was the instigation for many of the pranks that others consider cruel. George on his own would not have done them, but did not feel empowered to stop Fred. More than that, George felt obligated by their twin-ness (I know that is not a word, but it works here) to support his twin in these pranks that he (George) felt were going too far.
- Fred, despite this seeming lack of empathy, was better with people, and was the person responsible for deciding when and whom to hire for the shop.
- Fred dated, George did not really. Note that in the canonical world, George will go on to marry Fred’s ex-girlfriend.
- Speaking of the shop, it was all Fred’s idea. George just sort of went along for the ride.
- Fred came up with most of the ideas for the shop.
- Fred was responsible for making most of the ideas work, and into products that could be sold.
In short, George was a spectator in his own life, an extension of Fred’s over-sized personality. At least in some works, like The First Day this goes beyond just the idea of George eulogising Fred and a case of hyperbole, it really feels like George lacked any significant degree of gumption.
This is a problem. I am not saying that it is impossible that one of the two was in fact more out going and did in fact take more of the lead, but in the little we do see of them, they very much appear to be partners. I think there are differences between them that Mrs. Rowling more hints at than fleshes out, but that by and large they were both fully engaged with life, both larger than life in some ways, and both contributed meaningfully to the success of their mutual endeavours.