(no subject)

I'm catching up on reversathon--really catching up, like, I've only read three stories before today.

Something strikes me, though...so many of them seem to be bittersweet or melancholy. I think one or possibly two of the ones I've read so far--and I've now read about fourteen, fifteen--are funny and cheerful. The vast majority are, if not actually dark, much more pensive/sad.

I wonder, if I went back to check, how many other ficathons would have the same trends?

In the posting for the 2005 Reversathon Masterlist, fluffyllama mentions that she is about to lay hands on her copy of HBP for the first time. The fics I remember from the 2005 Reversathon were much more lighthearted...admittedly, I didn't read them all, as that was a crazy summer, but I did read the ones written by/written for/recced by my flist, which was quite a few.

How much has HBP changed our perceptions? Why?

I know I'd never have dreamed of writing anything as dark as All He Had Left to Him before HBP. I don't know how much of that to blame on my own personal growth in versatility of taste, when it comes to what I want to read/write, how much to consider part of an apparently quite widespread trend.

Not to say that there isn't still funny fic, fluffy fic--well, I think there's less, but possibly that's because I've learned that so much of it is crap that I should hit the back button when I see the warning signs--crack!fic, or jolly!fic...but there seems to be less of it being produced, and generally even if those elements are present there's a deeper significance to what's going on.

What do you think, y'all? Is it just that I click on different things now than I did when I was a newbie? Did HBP really change us all that much?