we read the viral harry potter fanfiction everyone's talking about - bonus chapter: manacled by senlinyu

this episode we dip into the dark, mysterious and deeply online realms of fan fiction to tackle one of the most popular and controversial fan fictions of all time - Manacled by SenLinYu. we discuss the enduring appeal of Dramione, the good girl x bad boy trope, and navigating a post-J.K. Rowling Harry Potter World. special mentions to the internet's most controversial husband Lucky-Blue Smith, Draco Malfoy as a toothpick chewer and one of the Nine Network's finest accomplishments - Sea Patrol.

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Transcript

Bridget 0:01

Hello and welcome to a Talk Lit Get Hit bonus chapter. The little book chats in between the big ones. We'll talk about reading, authors, and have discussions with people who, like us, can't shut up about books. We might get sidetracked and talk about literally anything else, but this is a bonus chapter we wrote just for you.

Laura 0:19

Hello and welcome to the Maniculd bonus chapter. You're joined by TalkLit Get Hit hosts Bridget and Laura. Hi Bridget. Hi Laura. Today we're talking about the fanfiction Maniculd by Senlin Yu.

Bridget 0:32

Before we start talking about Maniculd, we just want to make you aware that we will be spoiling the book if you haven't read it already, and also a very big content warning for this one. If you've heard of Manaculd online, then you probably know what it's about. But if you don't, there will be themes of torture, abuse, rape, death, physical trauma, and wartime themes.

Laura 0:54

This is the first fanfiction we're reading on the show, and actually the first fanfiction I have read in years. Maniculd was first published between the 27th of April in 2018 and the 19th of August in 2019, and it is huge. I think you downloaded it first, Bridget. I think maybe it was your idea. You were the inspiration for reading this book. And when you're warning me that a book is huge, then I really start to panic.

Bridget 1:21

I felt like I was reading for like literal days and not making a dent. I think at one point I read it for about four hours and it was still like you've read 9%, and I was like, okay, we're in it for the long haul then.

Laura 1:36

So apparently it has 370,515 words and 77 chapters.

Bridget 1:43

I mean, that's a lot to us, but I'm sure there are some fanfic readers out there that think that's fine. Think that's nothing. Which I've been humbled. Incredible. Yeah. That's incredible to me.

Laura 1:53

It took me a long time. It took me so long as well. And I feel like I read faster on the Kindle as well, because I get a little bit competitive with myself, and that the time left in book stresses me out. When I read slowly and it increases, then I hate that. Yeah, it's like I've disappointed it. I've disappointed the Kindle. Have you seen that? TikTok that's like the really like bad 3D graphic of something like Scoopada, slap it, like whipping. No. Oh. I've seen it when it's like asking Chat GPT to write it again but shorter and clearer. And that's how I feel. Kindle's yelling at me. Like, where did you get the inspiration to read this book?

Bridget 2:35

Oh honestly, I don't know. I think it's just something that being on the internet over the last few years, I have seen it everywhere. And I wouldn't really say that I'm a massive Harry Potter fan now or as a child. I definitely enjoyed participating when I was a child. But I wouldn't say that I'm in the inner circle of the Harry Potter fandom or Harry Potter fan fiction, but I have known about this book for a long time. But I've always been quite interested in the world of Draco and Hermione because as I'm sure we'll talk about, I cannot stand Harry and I cannot stand Ron. But it was like a boiling point. I'd seen so much about it lately. I was like, okay, this is the time. We're here.

Laura 3:18

It does feel really inescapable. I was reading an article published in February of this year, and at that point in time it had 470 million collective TikTok views. I assume that's the hashtag. And I did feel like I was seeing it everywhere. And so for a fanfiction of a fandom that I'm not really involved in to break through in that way, that's that's real business.

Bridget 3:41

It is real business, and I enjoy how you said that Harry Potter is a phantom that you are not involved in. But I mean, I know you, I know that is a phantom that you were involved in. Yes. Especially in the fanfiction realm.

Laura 3:53

Aside from the obvious fact of not wanting to support J.K. Rowling and not wanting to support her harmful and awful transphobic views, it simply just became too much. It was like when I discovered One Direction, age 17, 18, and found out that Harry Stiles was apparently dating Taylor Swift and just becoming so upset and overwhelmed, and just being like, how can I ever compare to Taylor Swift? And just realizing I need to just sort of touch grass, as the kids say. Step away. Step away. Go smell some fresh air. And I think I started to get that sense with the Harry Potter fan fiction world. It just was becoming too much. I'm not really somebody who loves to adopt an interest as a personality. That said, I have clearly made reading my whole personality. You are right. The rumours are true. I wrote a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction. I tried so hard to dig it up for this podcast, but sadly it doesn't exist on the internet anymore. That is depressing. It's so sad. I used to write it on this fanfiction site called Harry PotterFanfiction.com, and that website's been taken down. Some of the contents were archived by AO3 where Manaculd was published, but you would have received an email and you had to like elect to do it, but my email address doesn't exist anymore, so like I never got any communication and I was so sad. I mean, I haven't thought to read it in years, but like that was my whole personality. I was in all of the forums, it was all I did on school holidays. I had so many notebooks, and that said Dramini was never a romance I dabbled in. What was your area of the fanfiction? I loved Marauder's era. This story would have aligned perfectly with my tastes. I loved a gritty wartime things don't work out type Harry Potter retelling. I loved something that was like absolutely bitter and harrowing. There's one I remember reading, it was like a one-shot story about the golden trio once they had left school. And it was a Harry and Hermione romance, which I still prefer to Ron and Hermione. And they were just like jaded cigarette smoking, like nine to five Ministry of Magic workers going to their kids' birthday parties, like hating their lives, missing the glory days, and sleeping with each other under their respective partners' noses. And I was like, yeah, this is good.

Bridget 6:22

So I have to say that I have never really read any Harry Potter fanfiction, but I have always been very into Marauders. In my Tumblr days, I was very interested in just, you know, seeing what's out there and trying things odd for size. And I I did like the Marauders era. Harry and Hermione as well, for me, I think I would prefer them over Ron. And other than Prisoner of Azkaben, my favourite parts of the whole series is when the three of them are like on the run. Yeah. So camping and when Ron has his little tantrum and runs away. But Harry and Hermione there, I love that scene so much. Just that that whole vibe is so depressing and lovely.

Laura 7:02

I was reading a thread on Reddit asking people why they like Dramine. And I think the reasoning checks out. On a base level, people love a bad boy, good girl trope. It speaks to the soul. But on a deeper level, I think people seem to like the sort of opportunity for Draco to have a second chance at a better life and for Hermione to have an intellectual equal. Which people seemingly don't believe she found in Ron. I mean, why?

Bridget 7:30

Why would anybody ever think that?

Laura 7:34

I think they're two very complex characters, and I do see the appeal in like having the opportunity to explore that. Like when you think back on Harry Potter, there's so many moments where Hermione is doing stuff that Harry and Ron are resistant to, or that slightly questionable or a bit of a grey area of the lore, like the time turner, some of the stuff she's up to when they're on the run.

Bridget 8:00

In her research, I think as well, I think she's doing things without consulting them. Even in the Chamber of Secrets, she figures things out because she's working by herself. She's not really asking for permission, she's just trusting her instincts. They're handbrakes. And they're whingy handbrakes too.

Laura 8:16

They were. And so in that respect, I really enjoyed the way that Hermione was characterized and manacled. I thought it was really smart and really likely that in this alternate universe, based on what we know from the published books, Hermione would look and behave and think in this way.

Bridget 8:38

And also the other characters as well. I think all of them acted as I would expect they would act. I feel like Harry would be as withdrawn and dismissive as he was in the book. I think that Ron would be as thoughtless. I mean, this is my bias coming through about these two, but I think they acted in the way that I expected them to act. And I guess we didn't really get too much of Draco in the books and in the movies, but I mean, even him acted the same way that I think he would have acted in the book.

Laura 9:09

Coming back to that intellectual equals thing, people seem to really like that Draco is like pragmatic and driven, perhaps not making the most moral choices, but choices that further his own agenda and get him what he wants. So I think with that in mind, it's not a crazy stretch to have him be this character of the high reeve in Manacled. I don't know if I believe that he's as powerful as he is in this book because he was kind of like a wimp, but I also think he was a wimp, and I also I think his character was sort of just pure antagonism.

Bridget 9:44

I don't know, I might have missed it, but I don't know if we really saw much of his intellectual capabilities in the books either. Like was he getting good marks or anything?

Laura 9:52

I'm not too sure. I think this might be one of those sort of peppered in after-the-fact Dumbledoreist gay type things. Like, oh, actually Draco was second in all of the classes after Hermione type thing. I feel like he always topped potions.

Bridget 10:05

But even as a child, I was like, well, that's because you know he's Slytherin and Snape and Potions are evil. I didn't read Harry Potter fanfiction, but I wrote another kind of fanfiction, and that was the Veronica's fanfiction. And I also tried to find it, and it was also on a forum that has sadly been scrapped from the internet. It was like the Veronica's Forum or something, and I feel like I found out so many things on this forum. I found out about Taylor Swift on this forum. Someone posted the Our Song music video when it first came out, and I was like, this is gonna be my life for the next 20 years. And I was right. I found out about Katy Perry. Oh I really can't remember what I used to write about, but I think I might have said this on the podcast once before that they just found a set of twins to marry, married the twins, and then they had twins. I mean, keep in mind I was 12.

Laura 10:58

No, I think that's how it works. Yeah. And then the stork brings them twin babies. Yeah.

Bridget 11:03

And then they grow up and they find twins. But in our little fanfiction world, we went to school with somebody who also wrote fanfiction. He didn't write Harry Potter fanfiction, he didn't write The Veronica's fanfiction. He wrote Sea Patrol fanfiction. And I mean, if you went in Australia around 2006, 2007, then maybe you don't know what Sea Patrol is. But Sea Patrol is a border security? Is that what you would say? I think they were in the Navy. Okay, like a naval show. It wasn't a reality show, but it was sort of like NCIS, but for the Navy.

Laura 11:36

Yeah, like maintaining law and order on the high seas, and there's just various mysteries and romances.

Bridget 11:42

Lisa McCune was in it. I've never watched a single episode, but I know a lot about it because of our friend who used to write Sea Patrol fanfiction.

Laura 11:49

Have you ever watched an episode? Uh, I don't think so. I'm looking at the IMDB as the hardworking crew members of a boat patrol the northern seas border of Australia. They face issues regarding immigration, illegal fishing, as well as trafficking of drugs and people. Right. God, really hanging out for that illegal fishing episode. We'll have to send him a message and see if he can access his fanfiction. I did also try to write Twilight fanfiction once, but I just found that I didn't have the imagination for it. I think to Harry Potter's credit, it was perfect for fanfiction because it just had so much going on and such a well-established world. I feel like I got really stuck in Twilight because I was like, but Forks is real. So that means I need to know things about America. And I'm unwilling to do any research. Like we said earlier, the fandom around this book is really, really intense. And even when you're outside of the conversation, it still creeps into your feed, into your FYP, into your subconsciousness. And one of the main things I knew about this book before I even picked up reading it was that the author wrote this on their phone in their notes out while they were breastfeeding their baby.

Bridget 13:05

This is a fact that I knew as well, without ever searching for it. Was handed to me. They'd probably think, This is what you're like? And they were right. I ate it up. Yeah.

Laura 13:14

Another thing I've seen about this as well is the fan binding. Fans have actually been professionally printing and binding these beautiful, gorgeous copies of Manaculd. But obviously, because fan fiction exists in this sort of grey area and does contain copyrighted content, Manaculd isn't able to be distributed commercially. I get the sense that people were creating their own copies and selling them on like Etsy or whatever, which is just crazy. I cannot fathom how much the printing of that book would cost.

Bridget 13:48

I just had a quick scroll through Tumblr and read it before we started recording, and a lot of people on there were sort of spearheading a campaign against this bookbinding trend. Specifically auctioning off copies or selling copies because they're worried that if people continue to do this, then sites like AO3 will be closed down due to copyright concerns or claims. But this is something that I didn't even really know happened, this book binding thing. And it seems like such a skill. And I think I would be very bad at bookbinding.

Laura 14:20

I would be so awful. I have no attention to detail. I'm not good with scissors, I'm not great with glue, like I'm always getting cat hair or you know, my own fingerprint in it or whatever. I'd be so awful at it. Obviously, Senla knew can't profit off Manicold because it is copyrighted and it's, you know, the intellectual property of J.K. Rowling. But they have been able to turn this around into a book deal. And so on that same article on today.com, I was reading that there is a reimagined version of Manicold that's going to take the characters out of the Harry Potter world. And so I think it's due to be published in 2025. It's going to be an Enemies to Lovers romance centered around the Hermione and Draco characters, but it will obviously be in a new universe and it's going to be called Alchemized. So it's actually being published by Del Rey at Penguin Random House, um, which is like a I don't know if that's major, I shouldn't comment on that. It feels major to me though. Anytime I hear the word penguin, I'm like And Random House. Yeah.

Bridget 15:21

I was thinking about this after I read the fanfiction and I was asking myself the question, would you still enjoy this book if it wasn't a Harry Potter fanfiction? And I honestly don't know if I would. I think I found it so easy to read and so easy to enjoy because there was no world building, and because I'm so familiar with that world already, it got straight into the action. And when you grow up with a character like Hermione, I think you have a soft spot for her, especially. She's the only reason anything ever succeeded in that series. I felt like I was rooting for her the whole time. So I'm just not really sure if I would enjoy the book the same way. I don't know if I would appreciate a different character in the same way as I would appreciate Hermione.

Laura 16:05

I totally agree. I think it's that, yeah, no thoughts, just reading. The world is already established. You have an idea of the character's motivations and relationships, and also because this is an alternate universe of that sort of last year or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, or the outcome of the war, whatever it may be, it was a fun element of the story to see those scenes inversed or see an alternate outcome. It was kind of the same experience as reading the ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, where you're like, uh, I know something you don't know, or whatever it is. And I also wonder if the author is transforming this into a new novel, what is staying and what is going? Because with the Harry Potter element removed, a lot of this story really closely follows the handmaid's tale with the Sargacy and repopulation. So if the Harry Potter element is removed, then we're basically just left with the handmaid's tale. And then what? I'm really interested to see. And is it going to be fantasy? The name is alchemized, which to me suggests fantasy. But if you're removing both of those elements as well, is calling it manicled reimagined just a marketing pitch. Yeah. And what's left if we're removing all of it. Yeah. Something else that ties into the handmaid's tale element of this story, and I will spoil the ending of The Handmaid's Tale if you haven't already read it, so maybe skip forward like a minute to be safe. But there was a question on Senliny Yu's blog about whether Aurora ever revealed the truth. And she was talking about how she had this whole metafiction concept similar to a handmaid's tale, where at the end we find out that Ofred's story was a cassette being studied in history class. She was initially intending, when writing Manicold, to include a fourth epilogue that was formatted as an editor's note with the implication that Manicold had been written by Draco and Hermione's daughter in order to set the record straight. But then she sort of thought in the end that adding that fourth epilogue in would undercut the impact of Manaculd's closing line and ruin the story essentially. And I wholeheartedly agree.

Bridget 18:27

I agree with it, but it also would have made me feel less sad. Yeah, because it's just not fair that hermione doesn't get and I know she doesn't do it for recognition, but it's just not fair that Harry and Ron get all the making me tear up. And Draco, like he's not a bad I mean, he is a bad guy, but he's not a bad guy. He was a bad guy, but he wasn't a bad guy at the same time. Two sides to every story.

Laura 18:57

Yeah. I I sat with that closing line, like I read it and thought, okay. And then the more I felt it, I was like, oh the implications. It was a heavy last line and an excellent last line. I think I have this idea that fan fiction is substandard writing. And I know we've talked about this before, and I know we've said time and time again, and logically, even I know that's not true, but I was really shocked by the quality of this writing and this storytelling. I really found myself genuinely enjoying it.

Bridget 19:33

I did too, and I really think it's a Tumblr-inspired or Tumblr-taught style of writing, I think. And I mean I'm very into that, as we know. Big Tumblr fan. I think it wouldn't have the reputation that it does if the writing wasn't as good as it is. Because I don't think too many people will be reading something that's 77 chapters long that you know reads like anybody could just write it.

Laura 19:57

Something else that I found really interesting when I was having a squisit Senly used website is that someone had asked the question, can I read manicled in chronological order? Because we have like present day a big chunk of flashbacks present day, right? The flashbacks are right in the middle. And I remember talking to you and you said, Oh god, wait till you get to the flashbacks. I thought this was really interesting because I think it's probably a bit difficult to do on a Kindle. I'm really unwilling to go to, you know, the table of contents and click on selected chapters. But the author's response was actually, yes, they actually recommend reading chronologically if you're doing a reread, and they've been told it's way more heartbreaking to read it that way. And interestingly, they wrote the story intending for it to be read in either order, but they don't advise for it to be read chronologically. I really like that idea, but it absolutely would lose its impact if you started with the flashbacks. When I was looking up a couple of things with this episode, I saw so many people had asked the question, what is Hermione's secret in Manaculd? Oh no.

Bridget 21:02

It's like I feel like it was pretty obvious from like probably the first chapter. Yeah, I don't know. The first flashback. Yeah. Well, I think even before that, I was like, oh well, there's a Harry too. True.

Laura 21:16

And uh he obviously cared for her. Yeah. And I guess if you know if this is set up as a Dramani ship, if it's in the tags, something's going on there. I have two random things that I need to say about this book. The first is that on the author's Tumblr, Lucky Blue Smith, Man of the Moment, Husband of the Moment. Trad wife, husband, trad husband. Mormon husband of the moment is so often used as a Draco Malfoy fancast. So looking through the website, which is full of delicious imagery and like really great edits and stuff that'll, you know, re immerse you in manacled mania if you've ever stepped away from. For even a minute. It was a bit of a jump scare to see Lucky Blue Smith in the mix.

Bridget 22:05

I didn't know that was his name, and I really, really like his name. It's just a shame about the person behind it, I think.

Laura 22:12

Do we think Draco Malfoy would chew toothpicks?

Bridget 22:16

No, I think he would have like a wrist bone or something. Like he'd have a bone in his mouth. I don't know.

Laura 22:22

Immediately made me think of the hyenas and the Lion King.

Bridget 22:26

Wrong way, sorry. I was going for menacing, not cartoonish.

Laura 22:30

Yeah. The second thing is that just like our Lord and Saviour Stephanie Meyer, Senlinyu has kept us fed and has provided us with a manacled playlist.

Bridget 22:43

Oh, fantastic.

Laura 22:45

Now I don't think this is really music strictly that follows the theme of the book. Um, they're not songs that are assigned to characters. Oh, that's like the joy that we had in Twilight. I think it was mainly a playlist of songs that author listened to while writing this book. So it is quite good. We've got a lot of Agnes Oble. We've got some Christina Perry. We've got Louis Capoldi, a bunch of people I don't know, Billy Eilish. Oh. Which Adele song? Skyfall. Okay. Um, we've got some bangers from um Dario Marionelli's Jane Eyre soundtrack, which is really outstanding. And also a plug to go and have a look at the Pinterest board for Manicle that's on the author's website because it is a really good vibe. And I think I really pictured this very easily, but I just love it. I just love a vision board.

Bridget 23:39

I think that would be such a fun part of being an author, like creating these playlists, even though I have talked shit about them in the past. But creating these playlists and creating these Pinterest boards and stuff like that. What a fun thing to do with you know something you share with so many people.

Laura 23:54

Will someone please make us a talklet get hit mood board? I don't really know. You could have like the babysitters club on it. You could have pencils. I mean, we could do it ourselves. Yeah, we'll do one and you guys let us know what you think.

Bridget 24:08

I found myself thinking about a lot of Taylor Swift's songs when I read this. I was thinking like maybe like The Great War or Don't Blame Me or even of Tortured Poets, I was thinking maybe Fortnite. Your wife waters flowers, I wanna kill her, was sort of giving Hermione Astoria vibes in like the tamest of ways. I really felt immersed by this book, which is something that I didn't really expect. And it's made me think that I will probably maybe after a little bit of a break, but I will probably keep reading some fanfiction. Because I do like Harry Potter, but I don't want to support JK Rowling in any way. Even though I own the books, I probably wouldn't watch the movies anyway, but I don't feel like right talking about her, like raving about her work. So I think this is a way for people to enjoy the world that she created without crediting her or without feeling guilty about that.

Laura 25:04

I think that's a sentiment I share. It's such a shame to have an author who's created this world that was, for lack of a better word, such a safe space and such a beautiful community for so many people, only for them to like shit on the walls and set the house on fire. And so I really like the idea that Harry Potter is more than her.

Bridget 25:25

It's been reclaimed in a way, I think.

Laura 25:27

Yeah. I was also thinking that I would read some more fanfiction after a break.

Bridget 25:32

I would like some recommendations. So if if you guys have like, I don't know, your favourite Dramines. I think I'm just into Dramini at the moment. I don't know if I really want anything else. What about you?

Laura 25:43

I'm happy to read Marauders Era Fix.

Bridget 25:45

Oh, actually, sorry. Marauders and Dramini.

Laura 25:48

One that I had recommended to me was Crimson Rivers, and it seems to be a Harry Potter Marauders era Hunger Games crossover. There's some reaping involved. Serious black, regulous black. I always love a regulous black story. I loved a troubled man. I love a serious black story. Yeah. Enigmatic bad boy. Give me more. So yeah, I I need a breather, but I would like to keep going. Yeah.

Bridget 26:17

Same.

Laura 26:17

But what you were saying about Taylor Swift got me thinking about that theory that she's like Tobin's 69 or whatever it is.

Bridget 26:26

Ms. King Bean 89.

Laura 26:29

So close.

Bridget 26:30

Yeah. I mean, I think that 89 is a big part of why they think it's Taylor Swift. So it would be 69. But I mean, I don't want to get too bugged down in details. But um Ms. King Bean, I mean I assume that's how you pronounce it. I don't know. Crazy name. If Taylor, if it's you, why? But they're the author of All the Young Dudes, is that correct? Which I think will be the next one that I read. I have it downloaded. Oh, I need to. When this variant of the Tortured Poets Department came out, this is the Black Dog variant. I saw people on the internet lose their collective minds because they were like, She's finally gonna confirm that she wrote All the Young Dudes. And no. But what's the reasoning? Because the Black Dog, like serious. Oh, I thought you saw it. I thought you were saying Black Door. No, there's loose reasoning. Oh. Um, but there's a song on here called The Black Dog. And I think there might be I mean, once the album came out, they still were convinced because um, like there's a lyric that's like I howl at the moon, and they were like, Oh my god, werewolf. Um, and just other things like that. I was trying to find a list of them before. Have you tried playing it in reverse yet? No, not yet. I couldn't. You never know then. The smallest man who ever lived. I did see people theorizing that that's about Peter Pettigrew when he became into the turned into the rat.

Laura 27:52

I mean, to be fair, he would be tiny.

Bridget 27:56

That's the end of our manicle bonus chapter. Our November episode is our nostalgia throwback special, and we are reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. Have your say on what we read next by keeping an eye on the link in our show notes and on our socials. Make sure you subscribe to the show, and if you want to be on the same page as us, follow us at talklit.gethit on Instagram and TikTok.