The Benefits of The Good Trash

Cee R.
2 min readAug 5, 2021

Hurt/Comfort fanfiction is deeper than you’d think

Visual symbol for ‘put your litter in the bin’ showing the outline of a cartoon-type person putting litter in the bin.
Photo by Gary Chan on Unsplash

Hurt/Comfort, aka H/C, is a genre of fanfiction where a character gets hurt — either physically, mentally, or emotionally — and is comforted and/or taken care of by one or more other characters.

It pretty much does what it says on the tin.

Whump is a sub-genre where a character is continually being injured/having really bad luck, piled on and/or emphasised gratuitously for the ‘oh no! I must hug this precious bean!’ effect by the fic author, and pretty common in H/C, as you might expect.

I’m a fan of H/C — especially when the fic author manages to somehow make it so that it’s not too melodramatic

It’s often trash. But it’s the good trash. The self-care kind of trash.

And we all need that from time to time.

Plus, y’know what? H/C also has good life lessons:

  • it’s OK to ask for help
  • having problems is not a moral or character weakness
  • taking care of yourself is important
  • even heroes need a helping hand
  • minimising your problems doesn’t make them go away

…I could go on, but I think you get my point. H/C might be trash, but it’s not just trash. #DeeperThanYouThink

Adapted from a longer post recommending MacGyver reboot fanfiction (never a dull moment with me, dearest nerdlets!) on my blog, Dora Reads

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Cee R.

Writer, poet, (book) blogger @ dorareads.co.uk , Queer, weird, & a tad peculiar. Bookish rebel. Welsh as a tractor on the M4. Buy me a coffee @ ko-fi.com/ceearr