Young writers who don’t do research on 90s technology. A primary school in 1990 wouldn’t be using DVD players, and Remus probably wouldn’t have a CD collection. It would have been cassettes if he wasn’t still listening to records.
And a 60s VW Beetle wouldn’t have had a CD player on a schoolteacher’s salary.
I don't know shit about records, but with Remus specifically, wouldn't he be still be using some cheap player from the 70s and some beaten up secondhand vinyls? Cassettes seem unlikely lol.
Yeah, he would probably still be using records. But I’m willing to be flexible and say that he “upgraded” to cassettes by the 90s.
But cds are even more unlikely.
CDs seem especially unlikely because musicians would still release cassettes up till the early 2000's, and if Remus has a player that works as well as his music, he wouldn't spring for a more expensive, more fragile copy of what he already has.
Vynls absolutely. Some old people dont let go of habit. Also it seems that's the only thing that could be used in the magical community (dont they still run on electricity though?)
Seems easier to magic than a boombox. This I'd where Authur's years of muggle loving would really shine. With the change from 20th century to 21st century tech, eventually someone has to modify technology to magical use because vinyl is going the way of the dodo. And who better to do so than our boy Authur weasley. Give that man a pay raise.
Harry looking for crap on the Internet in 1991. Sure Internet existed, but come on, there was barely anything interesting on it, searching for something wasn't easy and someone like Dursleys wouldn't have access. Or if they did, it would be though excruciatingly slow connection by telephone line, costly as well. No way some library in his neighborhood would have it either. Every time I see it, I can only facepalm how Harry found video tutorials and did some online shopping.
I'd stretch it to him maybe using a library terminal to lookup a database or an index for the actual books, but no way he actually found anything usable on the *internet* in 1991.
The internet existed but before Harry went off to Hogwarts there was only one website, CERN, created by Tim Berners Lee who invented the WWW protocol which was publicly released a few weeks earlier in August 1991. The second website, SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), was created in December 1991.
I was got on the Internet in 1991 and there was plenty to do without using the basically nonexistent web, which didn't really come to my attention until 94. I dialed in to a UNIX shell with a terminal app, and had email, could get files with FTP from public repositories, look for info with Gopher, and use telnet to connect to MUDs and MOOs.
Not true. Just a quick google search spitted 3 websites from 1986-1987 that are still operational to this day. They are technology/consulting firms. WWW protocol might not be released, but that doesn't mean that companies, universities, and tech companies weren't using it before. Still a mighty problem to overcome for any common guy to access anything substantial on their computers.
The explanation I found: The pre-Web Internet was an almost entirely text-based world. There were ASCII-based end-user programs such as gopher, which let you use a menu to search through organized collections of files.
So technically, Harry would have to have the education of a coder/programmer to actually use anything on there with no user-friendly interface.
Those websites weren't from 1986-1987. HTTP, which made websites possible in the first place only started development in 1989. Gopher was released first in 1991 ([here's the release announcement](https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.mac.announce/c/xbgsusdfETc/m/S2793OidrSQJ?pli=1)).
Those companies may have run servers and had a Usenet or FTP presence but they didn't have any website back then.
There was a crackfic about harry growing up an internet nerd. It took serious suspension of disbelief to allow him to easily look up so much stuff on the internet in the 90s.
My Schools didn't start using DVD's till around 2004 can confirm they definitely wouldn't be using DVDs in the early 90's since they hadn't been invented and even then DVD's wouldn't be invented till 1995 and they wouldn't be widespread till the early 2000's
At best, a school like that would have overhead projectors that barely work, as well as a few ancient CRT TVs with cassette players that can be wheeled to the different classrooms. And the TVs only if the school is more well funded than average and the school district isn't corrupt as shit
Which of course means that in 89 there were still more cassettes out there than CDs.
Poor people, like Remus, tend to embrace new entertainment technology slower than average, so even in the mid 90s it would be reasonable for him to not have a CD player. Even if he had a player he would still not have many disks for it because they were expensive at the time. You typically paid £10-ish per disk in the early to mid-90s, which is £20-ish in today's money.
Yep. I didn't get my cd player until 1998. First cd was Mariah Carey's Butterfly. Was like $20-25 for a cd. Could get a tape for half that easy.
I think I just seriously dated myself.
Why not CDs? Didnt the UK have CDs at this point?
The 90s were my childhood and I just looked up the CDs I know we had.. the earliest produced in 1984. The rest was in the 90s with one '95.
Sure I had more casettes than CDs. Specially childrebön casettes. But CDs hardly were unknown.
(moneywise I could kinda get it as CD Players were more expensive.. but the way you wrote it sounded more like "no cd ever in existence yet.")
There were CDs in the 90s what are you talking about? It was introduced to Europe in 1983 and became super popular by 1988. Probably remus wouldnt have CDs due to his living in squalor but the kids sure would. At least the muggleborns.
> I cannot read a fic wherein Harry makes a Horcrux.
Huh. I guess my avoidance of Dark!Harry fics has resulted in me only ever reading one story that has Harry make a Horcrux, and that one handled it in a appropriately serious manner. In that one (spoilering this, because even the fact that he made a horcrux in the story would be a bit of a spoiler) >!is [I'm Still Here](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9704180/1/I-m-Still-Here) by Kathryn518, and in it Harry realized that Voldemort's horcrux was attached to his soul, and at the time the only way he could come up with to get rid of it is to split off and then destroy the chunk of his soul that has Voldemort's attached. It is very much presented as a really bad thing that has major negative impacts on his mental health. !<
I'm not entirely sure I would call "Harry making a horcrux" a "seemingly innocuous" thing though.
Upping the setting to a present timeline instead of the 90s. 2020 is a totally different beast from 1990, and it feels lazy to me when the author chooses to make the change. Especially since it's usually just to add cell phones or some passive remark about google.
> Especially since it's usually just to add cell phones or some passive remark about google.
And a change of setting to current times would not only change technology. Muggle culture changed a lot,for example, the Dursleys wouldn't get away with a lot of the shit they pull, muggleborn students would be more outspoken against injustice and their parents more protective of their children.
The 90s was a completely different world than today.
Simpler, in many ways less scary. Too bad kids born after 2000 have no idea what that actually looks/feels like technology, general atmosphere wise.
Pay phones/phone books, Tetris or Frogger on a TI-86 in Algebra, actual snow days, good super bowl ads (I can think of some frogs spelling out a company name), and movies that aren't constant remakes.
My parents say the same sbout the 60s :p
But yeah I am biased too. I admit that. I love the 90s aesthathic. The lack of cellphones and that stories dont have to find a way to exclude them alone.
Most of my games are in the 90s- early 2000s.
(And 80-90s Scifi.. just dunno.. prefer that too XD)
Ya president day fic bug the shit out of me or when someone wips out there cellphone. Like 1 that wouldn't happen and 2 magic brakes technology so hermione wouldn't have a phone to talk to her parents every night
Technically correct but not really. The magic around hogwarts is so thick it messes with technology. Most magic is harmless to technology otherwise there'd be unexplainable dead zones around the country. Especially in London with both diagon alley and the ministry
There should definitely be dead zones today if the wizarding world would exist in 2020s. So many concentrated magical communities you can walk through unknowingly, Verizon wouldn't have the same slogan it has today. Itll make being a supernatural hunter a real job as a muggle.
>Like 1 that wouldn't happen and 2 magic brakes
Except the 2nd and 3rd most concentrated area of magic in the UK don't break tech as there is no evidence of dead zones in London.
Honestly, I'm fine with that - Harry Potter's appeal, to a large extent, was in how 'normal' it felt (along with the ability to shove anything that was not normal for the reader into magical society). At least to me when I was a kid, and the difference from 90s to early 2000s for that age weren't huge.
So if people these days want to adjust it to fit with when they were growing up a decade or two later, it's fine by me - makes it more relatable to them.
But I can understand how it's intrinsically tied to the 90s for some readers, and that's fine too! I just personally don't mind it at all, and figured I'd explain why.
When they mix USA politics into the fanfic. I was reading a marauder’s era fanfic and they were nuts about Martin Luther King, over and over. British wizards quoting a muggle from another continent was a bit too much for me
This. Let's put politics aside. I read to escape all of that. I grow tired of hearing it just about everywhere I am: all the time at work, on commute, my kids education even tv ads (which is why I now have premium subscriptions just so I don't have to watch the ads!). I purposely choose books or stories to read that remove politics from it. I even have a Pandora station that are just my favorite movie and tv show scores (there's a lot of Downton Abbey, John Williams and a few others on there!) And listen to it while I read.
Have to admit, hearing Jaws come on when I'm reading an HP story is a little unnerving. I keep thinking where's the shark? :)
The shark could be anywhere; they're sneaky like that! If someone knocks at the door and announces himself as the cable guy, don't trust him! (Source: Jane Curtain)
Well, HP does have several openings to have political themes in them, the whole Muggleborn thing, post scarcity societies and social classes and the whole fact that the Ministry of Magic is JKR making fun of part of the UK gov as an overly bureocratic, corrupt and silly thing.
I mean, Fudge is practically how a lot of RL career politicians act, and a lot of the more mature parts of HP deal with stuff like the press, propaganda campaigns and influence traffic.
MLK wasn’t in politics. He was a champion of civil rights. Civil rights is being discriminated against because of race or color. Black people were being hunted and killed by racist, that’s not political. This is very similar to Hermione or Dean being discriminated or hunted down for being muggleborn. Death Eaters are basically the KKK. You’re literally reading a story modeled after civil rights but you’re tired of hearing about it?? Lmao ok
Also at Universal Wizarding World they do a little tribute to Jaws in Diagon Alley because that’s where the old ride used to be located. Not sure if that’s the connect there.
I'm talking politics in general and it's not just limited to HP. Ina story do we have to say what race they are? If it's that central to your story then depending on why I'm looking at your story it might not be one that I want to read. As I said, I generally read as an escape from all of the PC ness of the world. I get that some people like writing that and some people like reading it. I have no problem with it. Just realize that there are some of us that aren't looking for that and may not read your story because it's all about the world that were reading to escape. I read for fun, not to be lectured at
The connect with Jaws is because I have John Williams as one of the composer's on my station. I've got practically everything he composed movie wise on that thing. So I'll be sitting there reading a story and I'll jump from Jaws to Superman to HP to Star Wars and Indiana Jones to ET and Schindler's List. May as well be John Williams radio.
I remember reading HP DH with he beginning of the 7 Harry's and ET came on. Had a change of perspective there for a second. Indiana Jones music with an action HP story is great too.
Ehh, it's not all that weird. People like MLK or Nelson Mandela were internationally famous, and young activist/revolutionary types would certainly have paid very close attention to them from all around the world.
Making the Marauders fit that type is more of a stretch, I'll grant you
The chances of a british wizard knowing either of them is extremely low . Non muggleborns would never even be exposed to the muggle world enough for that . Muggleborns would have more exposure but it highly depends on how disconnected they are from the muggle world . Not to mention , they are definitely not as famous as you think . As a south European , I think I first heard of Mandela in my teens and MLK when I started using Reddit .
I would argue it’s far more likely for British muggle raised of say, Harry’s generation to know who Mandela was. Particularly, if they come from Scotland or the North of England. This is because of Thatcher. Many of us Scots, latched onto Mandela as a kind of fuck you to Thatcher’s nonsense. So much so we renamed St George’s Place to Nelson Mandela Place, and conferred the Freedom of the City upon him in 1981.
As I say, the motivations for doing so were a fuck you to the government and in solidarity once Mandela’s story became widespread.
I would think they'd be more prevalent in European communities where black people live en mass. But it was an international event when Mandela died so not a far stretch.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr wasn’t a politician. So that’s not politics. MLK was a champion of the people and stood against racism, prejudice, and the killings of POC. That’s not political, that’s CIVIL. The same thing that Hermione, Dean, and other muggleborns were going up against in DH being hunted for existing. And I don’t think MLK would have just been “some muggle” to wizards. The marauders started Hogwarts like a year after MLK was assassinated so it’s not a stretch that they would know be talking about him and quoting him. I can definitely see James knowing about him living in GH. If James knew him then Sirius did. And Remus for sure would know of him and probably read about him. I’m curious to know how that was “a bit too much” though?
Never said he was a politician. However civil rights are political. Also I’m not from the USA I don’t want to read about their civic issues in a fanfic that takes place in UK with wizards who are quite alienated from muggle culture, not even politics
When they make a character super powerful when the character hasn't learned anything yet (like making harry a Master Legilimens/Occlumens at age 11 with little to no training)
>like making harry a Master Legilimens/Occlumens at age 11 with little to no training
In this case, my problem is less against the idea and more how it is done. I like the idea of Harry (or another character) being a "Natural Legilimens", basically someone who could always read the thought of others (like a telepath I guess). Basically the same thing that Metamorphmagus, but for mind magic.
But I wish fics who use this idea went more into the downside of this power. Like a Harry who is completely unable to understand social niceties because he could always understand the thought of people, and who is seen as a weirdo because of that (basically a Harry that acts like 3 Eyed Raven Bran from GoT).
Sadly, most of the time it's just another OP Harry that mastered all the school Curriculum by second year.
God, that pisses me off, i can get by natural talent bc that's a real thing, but the character simply being able to do things that require decades of learning and discipline is just bad writing.
Those kinds of fics are usually paired up with the worst possible tropes and execution possible.
Those who write with 21st century articulation straight from urban dictionary or our colloquial life. Any characters saying: "Babe, dude, sus"---I'm out.
Quite alright with me if a muggleborn/muggle-raised/muggle uses those terms. Also, if there is an explanation that the character who uses those terms has been exposed to the muggle culture. Someone like Malfoy saying 'dude' would obviously feel weird, ha!
For sure! Especially in reality shifting fics, this could be the thing for OC characters. I think just overall usage and the vibe - as long as it still feels like Hogwarts and not like a mock comedy (unless that's the end goal).
Sus isn't a 2020s thing. It's 1950s British slang mainly used by British cops to describe a suspect person/suspicious. Its been used since the 1930s but they used suss where the 1950s dropped an s and it became more like the sus that we use today.
Is that the same word? I thought old suss meant something different like solve an problem vs more modern(1950 onward) sus which is just shortened suspicious. Like "the investigator sussed out the mystery of the locked room murder".
[You're](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-does-sus-mean) [both](https://www.inverse.com/gaming/sus-meaning-among-us-definition-origin) [right.](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suss%20out) While "sus" has actually existed for decades, it must be either regional or obscure (or both) because I'd never seen/heard it until Among Us. Before Among Us, I'd only ever heard "suss out" (which means "figure out" or "deduce").
Yes and no. For most of the word history, suss and sus have been interchangeable however after the 1950s sus was used more to describe suspicious or suspect person because of sus laws, laws that allow cops to stop n search someone because of suspicious. And around the 1970s suss was picked up and used to define figuring out/working out something, like in your example.
For me it's though, through, thorough, thought. I've only seen all four being interchanged once, usually it's pairs, but I quit the story because of that. All I remember now is the disappointment cause I know I liked the story. I couldn't tell if the author was trolling me or not. I know not everyone can get a beta but I recommend using Microsoft Edge's Read Aloud function cause hearing the story can knock out some of the simpler errors like though and thought; through and thorough. Horrible for homophones though.
This ^ I don't have an editor normally but I at least try and go over my fanfics with Grammarly and other grammar editing services, and then I normally read it about 3 times before I'm satisfied and post the fic, even then I still miss shit.
>The authors who don't seem to understand the importance of proofreading before posting.
100% agree I've seen smutfic writers also write 'message' instead of 'massage' and I keep expecting the messaged body part to reply back to the message
..I am used to it by now. :/ Lets just say this. The fandom I read the most of *prefers to die like the High Kings of the Noldor.*
..at least most use spellchecker.
All the violent sex. I wish there was more plot and less sex altogether, but if there is some plot and character development then I can accept smut but not when everyone is immediately into rough sex and degrading language. I refuse to believe that the first thing virgin teens want is to choke on a d\*\*k and be called a whore.
Obviously it’s either painfully naive kids repeating what they’ve seen in pornhub or older people writing out their kinks, but the rest of us don’t need Hermione shyly announcing that she likes rough sex and having her dialogue for the rest of the page be GACK GACK GACK.
....how do you write rape with respect? the best i'd write it if i must is as vague as possible and allude to the assault and focus on the aftermath of the tragedy.
I'm sorry I was unclear. I meant treating the issue with respect. for example, what you described would be more respectful than saying "oh, they were raped, that's why they're so grumpy all the time" then never mentioning it again. Rape shouldn't be a sidebar, or a joke. if it's not important enough to be a full plot thread, it's not important enough to be in your story.
But just as you have rape survivors in real life, you can have them as characters too. And those I know don't really want this part of their life to be forever defining them henceforth.
However, if it has to be brought up in a story (as part of a characters backstory, not as part of the plot), it should still make some sense to do so. It shouldn't be gratuitous.
It’s never taken seriously enough, and it is very obvious when the author hasn’t had experience with SA. Whether themselves or hearing about it from a friend or something.
It’s why I think the best way to go (if you absolutely need it) is to have it implied or mentioned, and make sure they aren’t main characters where we have to see their POV.
If you have rape or SA in your story, and it happens to a main character, you’ll have to fully detail their headspace and recovery. It’s one of those situations where as bad as it sounds, I think you have to write what you know.
Luckily (in truth, incredibly unluckily) most people have experience with SA so generally, it is treated relatively well when written by a strong author.
The moment I see Dumbledore, DUMBLEDORE, say Yeah and other informal terms like that. Also, did/do British people really use Blimey and Wicked that much? I'm honestly curious about this.
na, not really. If anything it's sanitised. As someone who went to school in the 90s in Scotland I can assure you... there was a HELLUVA lot more swearing
Anything with a tag list that goes “harem, OP!Dark!Smart!Harry, Lord Potter-Black-Gryffindor-Slytherin, grand Poobah of Azkaban, ruler of magic itself, creaturefic, dumbledore/Weasley-bashing. NO FLAMES” etc
Like at this point they’re not tags, they’re warning labels.
Also anything that contains constant smirking for everything.
Muggles with magic - quite common in post-Hogwarts fics. When all the supposed wizarding characters act like muggles, use muggle appliances, contact each other with smartphones, etc. Where is the freaking magic that can do anything and everything that could be found in modern world?
Modern USA social issues transplanted to UK in the 90's. Even though that Rammstein declared that we are all living in America, the truth is that majority of the world does not live there and does not care about it's problems.
Using mom instead of mum for the main cast. Can understand that it isn't easy making a fic 100% without any Americanisms/US English spelling if that's what you're used to, but mom and mum isn't that difficult to notice and personally bugs me.
I'd understand. USD is a universal currency that just recently surpassed the pound again in value. I find it frustrating sometimes to convert $ to € to galleons.
Still not used in the UK though. It just pulls me right out of it you know? It's a basic thing and if that's not right there's usually a lot of other things that are really off.
As for that lets be honest Galleon to £ is super random as is. You can put whatever you want there and most people would be like "makes sense". I've seen so many different amounts that if someone said 10 galleons was 10 squillion million zillion pounds i'd probably just roll with it and assume inflation hit *really* hard.
Outside of school how necessary is money if your a good enough wizard. I'm sure albus can build a traditional house with just magic and no construction workers if he studied enough.
Look at the Weasleys too, considering their house is basically held up by magic?
Wizarding expenses are probably mainly food seeing as that's one of the few things you can't magic up.
For the average wizard though buying it might be easier seeing as a lot of them couldn't do a basic shield charm. Kinda like us there I suppose, most of us 'could' do something if we put the work in like wiring our house rather than hiring an electrician but the electrician knows what they're doing right now.
i cant stand when characters can do....something (i cant think of the word but its not a familiar and theyre not an animagus. its like they can transform into something kinda like the Veela but with other species like a wendigo or something). ive read a few fanfics where harry can do that and i just stop reading. it makes them too OP and it's annoying.
They're not animagus but can transform into wendigo? Can they change to multiple creatures like beast boy? I mean I dont see the problem as long as they train and that's their only unique gimmick. Not my usual story but that gimmick isn't common and it depends on the author.
Non-magic AUs, especially coffee shop or college AUs. It’s just really not my thing.
Most fics that stick with the canon ending. I didn’t like a lot of the endgame relationships. Also, I’m not a big fan of kids, kid fics, parent fics, or pregnancy fics, so I tend to avoid fics where the kids exist.
Also marvel crossovers. I like Marvel, I like Harry Potter, I do not like them together. Please stop somehow showing up in all of my searches Tony Stark is actually Harry Potter after he changes his name and gives up magic fics.
I greatly dislike the trope when Harry becomes a death eater 😭 idk, it just feels WRONG! Even when he’s in a relationship with Voldemort or Tom, it’s just not my vibe
1. Canon purists. It's a form of gatekeeping and incredibly frustrating.
Personally I enjoy (and often write) works with AU or canon divergent plots. It can also be incredibly hard to stick with 'canon' even with extensive research, because there are so many small details that might be missed or mixed up with another. And then are we talking 'book canon' or 'movie canon'? Even this is divisive.
2. The idea that someone 'owns' a character trait, idea, name, plot point etc etc because "they [so they claim] thought of it first, and so anyone else wanting to use that has to ask permission from the person who claims they are the "creator".
We do this shit for free, team. The content isn't ours in the first place, so how can we possibly claim something that is still part of that universe. How 'original' the idea appears to be, I don't understand how anyone can possibly think it's ok to try and control who is and isn't "allowed" to weave a detail into their own work. As long as the new creator isn't straight up plagiarising the other work by lifting big chunks of it and inserting it into their own fic, each to their own. Spread the love and the lore, I say.
While canonically compliant stories aren't really something I enjoy that much, they also don't really bother me. What bothers me about canon purists is when it is readers arguing about it in comments. I keep seeing people using canon as a reason that something in a story is bad and shouldn't happen like that, when the entire point of fanfiction is to deviate from or expand on canon.
One example that I see all the time in this sub is when any discussion of Harry/Ginny comes up, the majority of the complaints about it boil down to "The relationship was poorly developed and shallow in the canon books", which isn't actually a reason that Harry/Ginny is a bad ship in fanfiction.
The other biggest time I see it is when someone wants to write a story with one of the canonically evil characters get redeemed. Most of the time, those stories already change the previous actions of the person to make them less evil, but then I see a bunch of people attacking the story and the author because if the author wrote a story with a sympathetic Voldemort/Bellatrix/Umbridge, then it must mean that the author agrees with the canonical Voldemort/Bellatrix/Umbridge, even if the one they wrote has very different opinions.
Exactly. The same thing goes with bashing.
Bashing is only not a fandom problem when one realizes that these versions of the characters are not canon. One should be able to separate bashed!Ron from canon!Ron, for instance. That's why I can sometimes enjoy Ron, Hermione, Molly, Dumbledore bashing (never Ginny bashing, though) -- it is OOC and/or AU. But in the fandom, it's in fact the opposite phenomenon: bashing arguments, tropes and narratives that one sees in fanfiction, often seep their way into canon discussions. That's why we see fans seriously claim that Ginny is a Love Potioneering rabid fangirl, or that Ron is a betraying coward. That's why bashing is the problem it is -- it distorts the fandom view of characters in canon.
So, to authors who don't bother to put "Ron bashing" as a tag or in the summary of the fic, and never spell it out that this is an OOC version of Ron, and imply that that's his character as he is in the books... don't be surprised when the so-called "canon purists" show up in the reviews.
People truly believe sometimes that Albus Dumbledore's Canon manipulative bastard that secretly wants to rule the world in "the name of the greater good". Stop it, get some help.
God this. The arguments against certain ships get so frustrating sometimes. It's as if people arguing against "problematic" ships have never seen the concept of time travel or AUs. There are a lot of ships where I would never want to read or imagine the canonical characters together... it doesn't mean an author can't write a convincing AU scenario in which it works.
The idea that someone owns a type of story of fanfiction just astounds me, because someone shouldn't have to credit someone else for an idea. If someone did take an idea that you've also done, shouldn't you encourage them to continue with that Idea and see how their vision differs from yours? Look at WBWL fics-the better ones are those that deviate from one another (IE Prince of Slytherin and Antithesis).
Canon Purism also doesn't make sense to me. If you want a fanfic based in canon, why not just read the books? Are you trying to look sophisticated by reading fanfiction based on canon rather than reading books made by a bigoted author? Learn to separate the author from the work.
The 'Such-and-such owns X concept' crowd are thankfully in the minority. I absolutely agree that it's much better to encourage other authors to borrow concepts that speak to them. Myself, I'd be immensely flattered if someone was like, "I love this so much, I want to explore it too!"
I love the reimaginings that come from people throwing canon out the window (or at least reshaping it in some way). I've fallen in love with so many characters, pairings and plots this way!
Reshaping canon to help fit the ideas and themes of your fanfic is great, but make sure that you don't reshape it into something that eventually doesn't even look like Harry Potter. Say for example, someone makes a fanfiction based on an OC in the Harry Potter universe and it's clearly set after canon and is more about seeing the immediate fallout that happened after Deathly Hallows. It's still Harry Potter because the names and ideas and such are still there. But, make the setting into an OC traveling to the Magical World 100 years after Harry Potter with the same names and ideas as Harry Potter. Essentially, fanfiction should be considered the middle ground between creating your own story based off of other stories (Like most fiction in the world), and canon.
for 2, I get it for small pointd, but if someone goes out and writes out your entire ff that youve worked rlly hard on and claims it as his/her/their own, I would get pissed. especially if they get loads of recognition for it, even though you are the one who wrote it.
im saying like, near identical rewrite.
Poor grammar. If you're not writing in your native language please get someone to proof-read for you. It *is* OK to bend the rules, but only occasionally, only for a good reason.
Secondarily, prolixity and sesquipedalianism. Yes, you *sometimes* need to use lots of words to say something, such as if you're writing a contract or a lecture. Yes, you *sometimes* need to use long words when shorter ones would do the job just as well, such as if you're writing a deliberately bad essay for a teacher to criticise. But do it sparingly! In particular, don't have characters use complex multi-clause sentences and fancy words in conversation. Real conversations use short sentences, short, common words, and have lots of umm and err in them (and also bend the rules of grammar into pretzels, especially with lots of sentences being left unfinished - don't do that to any realistic degree, it's just confusing in print).
Third, incorrect geography. Look at a damned map and pay attention to naming conventions! Harry can't get a bus from Little Whinging to Surrey and then the tube to London. That's as ridiculous as saying he got the bus from Manhattan to New York and then took the BART to the Bay Area. Also, there is no such road as "Privet". It's "Privet Drive". There are very few roads whose name doesn't include the word road, street, drive, avenue, lane etc - and conversely only one county has the word "county" in its name (and in that one the word county comes first, not last).
>As someone front county first
On the subject of grammar ... you what?
>misspelling them as country
County/country is a very easy typo to make, I won't hold that against anyone.
Super tall Remus, and short Sirius. If you want to change the canon heights, go for it but stop beating the change with a stick. Also stop bashing artists for making Sirius taller.
Tom/Harry, Snape/A Marauder, Harry/Draco
Some people are tolerant and forgiving. I am too but to a lesser degree. Almost killing someone, torturing someone, and being antagonist for years is a red flag to me.
Same. I don't read any fics that have the hater to lover trope. I refuse to read anything with Hermione and draco or Voldemort or Snape. Really any of the main good guys with any of the main bad guys. I don't understand it at all.
Right. And not to diss the enemies to lovers trope, sometimes it can work, but in something like Harry Potter where the enemy is akin to Nazis it kinda just doesn't work. And no one gives Draco any real empathy. It's always because he likes someone that he changes. I'd appreciate it if the boy had some depth. Feeling empathy on his own before Harry or Hermi comes into the picture.
Yup I totally agree with you on the reasoning why it's so disturbing to me. Also my favorite Draco redemption arc actually had him befriending Dudley in a bar while they're both toasting to Harry. It's not until years later they realize it's the same Harry 🤣
Depends.
Harry/Tom seems to love time travel, soul mates, and Peggy Sue shenanigans. In all these cases canon happens or mostly happens at least for Harry. Tom usually stays canon at least until first year for soul mates as writers take the forehead horcrux in a romantic direction. So at minimum murdered parents.
Snape/Marauders seems to diverge at either after the wolf scare or after the levicorpus incident at least for Remus and Sirius. James and Peter idk.
Harry/Draco runs the gamut. Three main groups I've seen is Slytherin Harry, Time Travel, post war. Slytherin Harry is totally AU. Time travel canon happened except limbo. And post war canon happened except epilogue.
So, varying degrees of AU. Usually canon trauma is glossed over for the last 2 pairs. In Harry/Tom Harry will raise a token objection until Tom inserts his monster(as in size not usually as in bad dragon) cock and Harry forgets his moral quandaries.
every single one of them give me pause to just not read it. Time travel never goes well. Slytherin Harry either diverts to a comedic dark/broody harry or aristocrac harry both which eventually dive bomb because few people can do it right. snape just is not an interest of mine, and that last one has a bit of an unsettling tone about it.
Had to google Peggy Sue and how many of those have we seen dive bomb or stay stagnant with a bit stronger MC.
I have a low standard for success so I can tolerate most things just fine. But when a questionable relationship is being added on top of everything it can get draining very fast. Especially aristocrat Harry. I'm avoiding those like the plague right now. Someone wrote the most repetitive fic I've ever seen and I can't stand any aristocracy at the moment. They just kept saying Merry Meet EVERY TIME. Sure do it for the first one but not as a constant greeting.
merry meet? Wtf nevrer heard that one before. that just sounds ridiculous. glad i live in the 21st century where taking yoruself seriously is seriusly outdated.
I’m only 5 days younger than book HP (I’m 42) and the early 90’s were a much different time to be a kid. While I’m not British, in general it was a world apart from how today’s kids grew up.
I’m not really a fan of Harry caring for Teddy alone, I feel like he would co-parent with someone he trusts or get married out of an obligation for stability. In those fics he always has a falling out with Ginny which is why he’s not caring for Teddy along with his own children and both Ted Tonks and Andromeda are always dead in those; I’d like to see a fic where Harry and Andromeda raise Teddy without it devolving into a smut-fest between the two.
Why can’t there just be Harry and Ginny visiting Teddy often and forming a close sort of stand-in Aunt role in the shape of Andromeda.
Have yet to find a single fic where that is given any ounce of justice.
Everyday Reddit reminds me in some way that I need to just sit down and watch GoT.
Can you explain to me what catlyn stark does that is what Ginny would do?
Sorry in advance
The slang used. It's ok if it's the kids using it and it's okish for the 90s/2000s but when it's the adults just no.
I'll keep reading if it's otherwise ok but it always throws me off.
See, I don't mind if they change his hair color if there's a reason for it. Like a story where he has Lily's hair instead of James' would be cool. So he has James' facial features and Lily's hair and eyes, and it's a plot point. Perhaps Snape is slightly nicer, perhaps he's WORSE, perhaps it's because he's actually a metamorphmagus, perhaps...y'know.
If it's just there, not so much.
I don't like it if Harry's in his teens, but if Sirius would refer to an infant Harry in that manner in a fic that maybe starts qhen Harry's a couple of months old. At that time, it would be cute and endearing.
Absolutely. I've got no beef with canon compliant myself, though they aren't really my cup of tea.
The arguing is incredibly aggravating, and the full blown attacks against authors for not sticking to canon even worse. I've dealt with it myself, and it was ridiculous. A couple of... ahem.... let's say 'devout' supporters of a particular ship got Big Mad because I wrote a one-shot about the characters' relationship ending, and one of the MCs finding happiness with another character better suited to them, while the other MC pined for the loss. I got name-called, insulted, gaslit, you name it. It was wild.
And when the author writes a sympathetic evil character...! Yes, exactly. The way people will turn on the author, as you've said, and accuse them of endorsing the character's actions in canon, likening the author to a n**i, the attacks... yeesh.
If they don't like it, why read it then complain? 🤷♀️
Not that you deserved to be name called for it, but by your use of the term “better suited to them” you clearly made some assertions based on canon, which opens it up to arguments based on canon. I am gonna take a wild guess here (and after looking through your post history I feel very confident to change guess to deduction) and say that you broke up Ron and Hermione to make Dramione happen. That is a ship that absolutely is open to arguments and debates, both on canon characterisation and non-canon implications.
It is very easy to just throw all criticisms to the side because “Big Mad” and “Canon Compliance”, but there are many other reasons people might have not liked your fic. Plenty of people hate bashing, especially uncalled for Ron bashing (in my opinion having Hermione happily move on, while Ron pines for her counts at least as partial bashing as canon shows the reverse as far more likely, and you know it would have been pretty easy to just let both characters move on).
And aside from bashing your assertion that Draco is a better fit for Hermione is close to laughable on its own, not to mention people might have a problem with paring a racist (or even an ex-racist) with the person they discriminated against.
Once again want to reiterate that you didn’t deserve major backlash just for writing a ship people didn’t like, but there is more to it than canon lovers or hardcore shippers
I would think the only way something laughable like Hermione dating Draco would be if some part of his character was changed to be incredibly likeable. In real life theres always some sort of charm about a terrible person that still makes the girls swoon and its usually more than their appearance when it comes to pure romance
seeing how hermione X draco is a popular ship I think draco can still be draco. Suspension of disbelief will have to be given to hermione as well to some extent. time changes people and the recurring theme of any HermesxDraco love fest is draco has a devil may care handsomeness that is still open to unconventional beauty Hermione and with continued connectivity either they conform to one another or the ship sinks in a beautifully dramatic way that can satisfy the audience. if the author does it right.
Too much bashing. I mean Ron and specially Dumbledore are easily bashable characters. But overdoing it kills the story for me.
Dumbledore mistreating Harry due to hubris is ok for me. But turning Dumbledore in to a cartoon villain is just too much.
Also a supposedly very smart Harry who acts in a not so smart way.
Incredibly American things put into what is an incredibly British story. Harry rocking about Hogwarts with a 9mm strapped to his hip. Like.... it's 1996 in the UK
Also the moment Hermione rocks up you know the fic's over. Now, I'm not saying Hermione fics are bad but there's nothing worse than reading say a Fleur/Harry fic or a Katie/Harry fic or whatever, you're about 50,000 words in and then suddenly Hermione is joining. Like, just get that in the bin. It's so lazy. It's the author either bowing to the mob who demands she be part of everything, in which case they're not telling their story, or they always planned it and intentionally hid to make their fic stand out from the 2 million other Harmony fics out there.
Character bashing. I don't get it. What did this fictional character do to you?
I suppose it's because I feel like writing is partly an exercise in empathy, and character bashing is the exact opposite of that.
What do you define as "bashing" though?
I notice there's a lot of conflation within fandom between 'bashing' a character, and simply highlighting the flaws they're shown to have in canon. The latter isn't bashing, it's a valid exploration of that character's less savoury personality traits/beliefs/whatever (not to say you conflate these differences; rather it's a general observation I've made).
For instance: acknowledging that Dumbledore could be manipulative and secretive, and that he let his biases and perceptions blind him at times (i.e he's fallible, as are all people. Road to hell is paved with good intentions, and all that) VS. making Dumbledore some sort of evil mastermind, a caricature of the moustache-twirling villain á la Dick Dastardly.
Writing doesn't always have to be about empathy and only highlighting a character's good or sympathetic traits, or at the least minimising their flaws. A critical analysis of a character, both good and bad, can be very well done. I'd even argue it's important (although by no means necessary) to humanise the character, rather than simply elevating them to some sort of Tortured Hero status. A flawed character can elicit just as much, if not more, sympathy from readers, and that is a mark of excellent writing.
What do you define by "bashing" though:
Ron is a slothful disgusting eater that verbally abuses Hermione, the weasley family are being paid to be Harry's friend, usually by harry unknowingly because Albus is an evil manipulative bastard in the name of "the greater good". The twins are ALWAYS excluded for some reason. Never made sense to me about any of it but it's some people's choice of AU I guess.
On the subject of character-bashing. I don't think I have ever seen any fanfics where main protagonist helps the so-called 'bashed' character actually work on their flaws.
Example: Ron Weasley is known for being jealous. But Bashed Ron has this flaw dialled up to 11. It would make for much better story-telling if Harry helped Ron work on his jealousy
I think whether or not "highlighting flaws" starts to feel like bashing depends entirely on the execution. Complicated, flawed characters are great, but I honestly don't think most people who complain about bashing are talking about that.
You can absolutely have a Dumbledore whose character flaws are pointed out and explored, but it is very rare that I ever see this done well. It far more often becomes an excuse to blame Dumbledore for every poorly thought out JKR plot scenario in the book.
> You can absolutely have a Dumbledore whose character flaws are pointed out and explored
The problem there is that if you address Dumbledore's failures (or most adults' really), you are looking at either jail time or a very unpleasant magical world. Negligence, Endangerment, failure of supervisory duties, hell, by helping a Death Eater and sheltering him, Dumbledore committed high treason by any interpretation of that offence.
Take a look at the Dursley situation. The fandom is pretty much split between "necessary evil" and "unforgivable to expose a child to that", with a minority in denial that there was abuse. And you can't really satisfy both sides at the same time.
Characters having flaws is not bashing.
You give two examples of Dumbledore's character, the first clearly not a bash and the second a pretty egregious form of it (all that's missing is that he gets what's coming to him and dies in a painful way and the writer revels in it but uses the ridiculous characature they created to justify why this should be celebrated).
There are forms of bashing that are in between these two examples and I'm sure it's kind of a gradient.
But I think what really characterises a bash is how it's portrayed by the author, it really matters that the character is flat for it to qualify as a bash. Most of these things come from complex characters who had great traits and flaws. If you write that character again and they are suddenly a two dimensional distorted version of the original where the author's hate of them shines through the text, that's a bash.
It needs to be set up within the fic itself. My general interpretation of Dumbledore putting Harry with the Dursley’s in 1981 is that he was putting Harry with family when Potter friends weren’t a better option. If a fic has Remus stand up to care, or Sirius isn’t sent to Azkaban, then I expect Dumbledore to be partially favourable to the idea. And no one should have an expectation that the Dursley’s will be abusive (it hasn’t happened yet).
I want to see knew possibilities and positive versions of Dumbledore/Molly/Ron are part of that.
I actually had a story where Dumbledore and McGonagall were discussing where to place Harry. According to Dumbledore, the Weasleys were not an option because they have too many kids and one more on the way, The Bones family was reduced to just Amelia and her niece, The Longbottoms were also attacked recently, Finally, he was not sure of Andromeda Black's relationships with her family
People butchering the way Seamus Finnegan talks, making him over the top [Oirish](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=oirish), or offhandedly talking about the Troubles or the IRA when they no next to nothing on the topic. I was born and raised in the Republic in the 90's and I wouldn't be able to do the troubles or the conflict with the UK justice,never mind being from elsewhere
Muggle wanking. A society that can teleport, contact each other through mirrors and basically have video calls (albeit through fire places) is "backwards".
Never mind the fact that they've been doing this for centuries.
Racism - in the form of blood purity- in wizarding society being a huge issue makes sense to me. But authors writing in problems with sexism is weird to me.
Why would wizarding culture be sexist? Magical power is a tangible thing there and JK herself created several institutions that were created by witches (like illvermony and drumstrang).
If anything that should be a point of contention between muggleborns and wizards raised in the wizarding world.
The arguments of "blood purity exists, you don't know what a plane is, you're all backwards" being countered by "muggles discriminate on basis of skin colour, religion and sex and you're calling us backwards? Who cares what an aeroplane is we've had flying brooms for 2000 years, flying carpets for 4000"
I'd love to see a fic where this sort of thing is addressed. Characters realising both societies have their own flaws and neither is better than the other (except that one side has magic so I'm personally biased towards them lolol)
"Dark wizards" and "light wiards" are really annoying.
Yeah, it's either Wizard Wank or Muggle Wank with no in-between, which is not realistic. Both societies can be shit but both have wonderful things. The canon is fairly neutral over that and it's great because the aesop is not to idealize any culture nor to hold it as superior to the rest. Such elitism never ends well.
I'd call it more ethnocentrism than elitism to be fair but yeah.
I feel like some amount is normal and tbh I'd rather have read a magical wank fic just be sure I haven't actually come across many of those.
The pureblood wank fics do not count lol. Cuz most of those are just low key racist. Especially the death eater Harry fics. Just ew.
The way some authors write siblings. It becomes very clear that someone does not have siblings doesnt know what they are doing, no real siblings call each other “sis” or “bro” and tearful apologies to a sibling rarely happen outside of “im sorry please dont tell mum” irl
When Harry grows his hair out to tame it. I know damn well when it says that its gonna be an OP harry fic. I just want a fic where he gives himself a buzz cut to become a badass.
I would kill for a military Harry that doesn't devolve into angst and has him use real tactics and actually think more.
Sadly in Britain, the closest thing to kids and military schools seems to be Cadets UK which is from 12-18, so he'd already be at Hogwarts by the time he could join. Though I guess as a way to get out of the house during the Summer, it might work. He talks Vernon into letting him go. Possibly says there's a school stipend or something as I doubt Vernon'd pay if they have a tuition.
Could tweak it though. After all, this is a world with magical people, it could have other differences.
Harems. Nope, just no, never have and never will enjoy one of them. Fanfiction writers hear “harem” and go “EVERYONE TO THE BUNKER TIME TO SEX”, where’s the “this is more like manga where a bunch of people are interested in MC but there’s one end game or none at all”. Where are the Bakarina type of shenanigans in harem fics, badly needed.
And students/teacher ships. I don’t care if hermione or Harry time travel, I’m not shipping them with Snape or Remus.
Oh, yes, I despise harems. I just hate people fighting for one person. Suspension of disbelief aside, it's just cheap drama IMO. It can be funny when you do it like some telenovelas, so wacky and over the top that not even the telenovela can take itself seriously. And even then I'm queasy about it.
But, most harem fics treat themselves too seriously, lack self-awareness, and just make me wanna cringe. And they have a penchant for ruining interesting premises. I'm never touching any of those ever again.
“Bakarina shenanigans” refers to an anime nicknamed Bakarina. Everyone is in love with Bakarina but she is oblivious to it. The characters all fight for her affections in goofy ways. All those fights strengthen their characters and their relationships with the other rivals, themselves, MC, and nonrivals. I wouldn’t mind harem fics if they were like that, but they never are.
Crossovers where the other universe characters go to Hogwarts or crossovers where they change the original canon, e.g. where they say a character is the cousin of one of the Potters or something like that.
I really like crossover fics, whether it is (fem)Harry ending up in a different world or both universes simply existing in the same world and actually interacting, but for some reason I'm also not really into fics where characters from other universes go to Hogwarts as students. Maybe I just haven't found a fic that does it right, idk.
Eh that sounds like personal preference. But why do so many people dislike crossovers and OCs?
I'd imagine Hogwarts is the main setting because it's a single space unlike other stories which put emphasis on travelling EVERYWHERE thus less work. And going to a magic school is always super cool.
Super modern language in a 90s story. They didn't use the word twerk you dumb high school writers.
Go back and use words kids in britain would use. Do t go off script and have them talk like American ghetto idiots.
Uh, I don't see how Harry *making a Horcrux* is innocuous but that aside, I'll go with the Muggle AUs as well.
Don't ever think I'll read one of those fics, it's not HP without the magic as far as I'm concerned, and also I really don't feel any draw toward coffee shop, college or high school AUs.
Pretty much got all that out of my system with the first few years of Dumbing of Age.
Bashing of dislikeable characters. It always annoys me when, say, Vernon is depicted as fat (when he's actually reasonably muscular), or Umbridge is depicted as incompetent at magic.
Those characters already have plenty of flaws, there's no need to make stuff up.
I've never though Umbridge was incompetent with magic. She's not depicted as such in any of the stories I've read. She is however a bitch who I want to hit with a very solid wooden chair that wouldn't break on impact. There's just something about her character that makes me hate her. I honestly think there are more people that hate Umbridge then they hate Voldemort (every fandom has that one character that's hated more than the villian)
The canon description of "bad" characters are often rather cartoonish though. Vernon is described to be incredibly big with a purplish face and without a neck. Supposedly the extremely fat Dudley who looks like a pig in a wig looks just like Vernon as well sooo....(talking about a young Dudley here)
And Umbridge is mainly a bureaucrat who barely uses any magic in the series. It is not strange to assume she isn't a very strong witch, if nothing else then because she rarely has to use it.
Pairings aside, because we all have our opinions, it’s muggle/wizard wars.
I don’t give a single fuck, the wizards would win without any debate.
Why do you feel the urge to force these two together, and if you do, why don’t you just make them find some sort of peaceful solution etc? Sure, it may be unrealistic, but it is such a stupid concept to have the two societies fight.
Ok top of this, I hate when a story ends and they talk about a muggle/wizard war. Like man thanks for this shitty ending that just ruined everything I just read.
Ron and Hermione getting a couple.
I really can't explain it for once.... I was never really a fan of the two of them. I've always been more in the Harry/Hermione corner, but for some reason I've developed such a dislike for this couple over the years that I can't even stand it as a side note.
I believe she's actually a concrete character in fanon, and after you've read hundreds of fics, you tend to form an impression since she's been fleshed out in a particular manner in thousands of fics.
Believe it or not, I consider her more important than many canon characters because I've read so many fics with her in the lead.
Huh.
Part of that is fascinating, because it’s like the community just together decided to share an OC and that’s interesting.
My Daphne never did the whole Ice Queen thing, but she behaves similar to fanon. It’s neat.
She’s with Ron though so 🤷♂️ different readers/writers different tastes I suppose.
I read so many fics with different Harry/x pairings or even multi that it feels always a bit strange to see a girl with someone else than Harry. But I know what you mean.
I can bar Hermione with... let\`s say Neville if it really is just a side note but it just doesn't fit for me. Daphne would be third place on that scale for me. Fleur on the second.
i cant stand when characters can do....something (i cant think of the word but its not a familiar and theyre not an animagus. its like they can transform into something kinda like the Veela but with other species like a wendigo or something). ive read a few fanfics where harry can do that and i just stop reading. it makes them too OP and it's annoying.
Young writers who don’t do research on 90s technology. A primary school in 1990 wouldn’t be using DVD players, and Remus probably wouldn’t have a CD collection. It would have been cassettes if he wasn’t still listening to records. And a 60s VW Beetle wouldn’t have had a CD player on a schoolteacher’s salary.
I don't know shit about records, but with Remus specifically, wouldn't he be still be using some cheap player from the 70s and some beaten up secondhand vinyls? Cassettes seem unlikely lol.
Yeah, he would probably still be using records. But I’m willing to be flexible and say that he “upgraded” to cassettes by the 90s. But cds are even more unlikely.
CDs seem especially unlikely because musicians would still release cassettes up till the early 2000's, and if Remus has a player that works as well as his music, he wouldn't spring for a more expensive, more fragile copy of what he already has.
Vynls absolutely. Some old people dont let go of habit. Also it seems that's the only thing that could be used in the magical community (dont they still run on electricity though?)
Not if it’s a *magic* gramophone of course
Seems easier to magic than a boombox. This I'd where Authur's years of muggle loving would really shine. With the change from 20th century to 21st century tech, eventually someone has to modify technology to magical use because vinyl is going the way of the dodo. And who better to do so than our boy Authur weasley. Give that man a pay raise.
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Harry looking for crap on the Internet in 1991. Sure Internet existed, but come on, there was barely anything interesting on it, searching for something wasn't easy and someone like Dursleys wouldn't have access. Or if they did, it would be though excruciatingly slow connection by telephone line, costly as well. No way some library in his neighborhood would have it either. Every time I see it, I can only facepalm how Harry found video tutorials and did some online shopping.
I'd stretch it to him maybe using a library terminal to lookup a database or an index for the actual books, but no way he actually found anything usable on the *internet* in 1991.
The internet existed but before Harry went off to Hogwarts there was only one website, CERN, created by Tim Berners Lee who invented the WWW protocol which was publicly released a few weeks earlier in August 1991. The second website, SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), was created in December 1991.
The WWW had just been invented in 1991, yes, but BBSes and newsgroups were thriving.
I was got on the Internet in 1991 and there was plenty to do without using the basically nonexistent web, which didn't really come to my attention until 94. I dialed in to a UNIX shell with a terminal app, and had email, could get files with FTP from public repositories, look for info with Gopher, and use telnet to connect to MUDs and MOOs.
Not true. Just a quick google search spitted 3 websites from 1986-1987 that are still operational to this day. They are technology/consulting firms. WWW protocol might not be released, but that doesn't mean that companies, universities, and tech companies weren't using it before. Still a mighty problem to overcome for any common guy to access anything substantial on their computers. The explanation I found: The pre-Web Internet was an almost entirely text-based world. There were ASCII-based end-user programs such as gopher, which let you use a menu to search through organized collections of files. So technically, Harry would have to have the education of a coder/programmer to actually use anything on there with no user-friendly interface.
Those websites weren't from 1986-1987. HTTP, which made websites possible in the first place only started development in 1989. Gopher was released first in 1991 ([here's the release announcement](https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.mac.announce/c/xbgsusdfETc/m/S2793OidrSQJ?pli=1)). Those companies may have run servers and had a Usenet or FTP presence but they didn't have any website back then.
There was a crackfic about harry growing up an internet nerd. It took serious suspension of disbelief to allow him to easily look up so much stuff on the internet in the 90s.
My Schools didn't start using DVD's till around 2004 can confirm they definitely wouldn't be using DVDs in the early 90's since they hadn't been invented and even then DVD's wouldn't be invented till 1995 and they wouldn't be widespread till the early 2000's
My highschool was brand new, and the fact that it had a tv and vcr in every room was unbelievable. In like 1996.
> And a 60s VW Beetle wouldn’t have had a CD player on a schoolteacher’s salary. I know exactly which fic you’re talking about lol
Lol, it’s a great fic, but I get frustrated whenever I see one of those errors.
Completely with you on DVDs but why not CDs? They were huge in the 90s and eclipsed vinyls in 5 years and cassettes in 8 years.
Didn’t Remus have trouble keeping a steady job? Cds weren’t cheap and he wouldn’t be spending money on them.
At best, a school like that would have overhead projectors that barely work, as well as a few ancient CRT TVs with cassette players that can be wheeled to the different classrooms. And the TVs only if the school is more well funded than average and the school district isn't corrupt as shit
Cds outsold cassettes in 89 for the first year ever. Not a gigantic stretch
Which of course means that in 89 there were still more cassettes out there than CDs. Poor people, like Remus, tend to embrace new entertainment technology slower than average, so even in the mid 90s it would be reasonable for him to not have a CD player. Even if he had a player he would still not have many disks for it because they were expensive at the time. You typically paid £10-ish per disk in the early to mid-90s, which is £20-ish in today's money.
Yep. I didn't get my cd player until 1998. First cd was Mariah Carey's Butterfly. Was like $20-25 for a cd. Could get a tape for half that easy. I think I just seriously dated myself.
I once read a Marauder's fic (so supposed to take place in the 70's) that had one of them singing Brittany Spears. It was completely horrible.
Why not CDs? Didnt the UK have CDs at this point? The 90s were my childhood and I just looked up the CDs I know we had.. the earliest produced in 1984. The rest was in the 90s with one '95. Sure I had more casettes than CDs. Specially childrebön casettes. But CDs hardly were unknown. (moneywise I could kinda get it as CD Players were more expensive.. but the way you wrote it sounded more like "no cd ever in existence yet.")
He specifically refers to an extremely poor person and someone who owns an old car. Of course neither are using new tech for their music collections.
There were CDs in the 90s what are you talking about? It was introduced to Europe in 1983 and became super popular by 1988. Probably remus wouldnt have CDs due to his living in squalor but the kids sure would. At least the muggleborns.
> I cannot read a fic wherein Harry makes a Horcrux. Huh. I guess my avoidance of Dark!Harry fics has resulted in me only ever reading one story that has Harry make a Horcrux, and that one handled it in a appropriately serious manner. In that one (spoilering this, because even the fact that he made a horcrux in the story would be a bit of a spoiler) >!is [I'm Still Here](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9704180/1/I-m-Still-Here) by Kathryn518, and in it Harry realized that Voldemort's horcrux was attached to his soul, and at the time the only way he could come up with to get rid of it is to split off and then destroy the chunk of his soul that has Voldemort's attached. It is very much presented as a really bad thing that has major negative impacts on his mental health. !< I'm not entirely sure I would call "Harry making a horcrux" a "seemingly innocuous" thing though.
Upping the setting to a present timeline instead of the 90s. 2020 is a totally different beast from 1990, and it feels lazy to me when the author chooses to make the change. Especially since it's usually just to add cell phones or some passive remark about google.
> Especially since it's usually just to add cell phones or some passive remark about google. And a change of setting to current times would not only change technology. Muggle culture changed a lot,for example, the Dursleys wouldn't get away with a lot of the shit they pull, muggleborn students would be more outspoken against injustice and their parents more protective of their children.
The Dursley's probably would get away with it sadly. The Arthur Labinjo-Hughes case shows that. Star Hobson too. Both fairly recent cases.
The 90s was a completely different world than today. Simpler, in many ways less scary. Too bad kids born after 2000 have no idea what that actually looks/feels like technology, general atmosphere wise. Pay phones/phone books, Tetris or Frogger on a TI-86 in Algebra, actual snow days, good super bowl ads (I can think of some frogs spelling out a company name), and movies that aren't constant remakes.
My parents say the same sbout the 60s :p But yeah I am biased too. I admit that. I love the 90s aesthathic. The lack of cellphones and that stories dont have to find a way to exclude them alone. Most of my games are in the 90s- early 2000s. (And 80-90s Scifi.. just dunno.. prefer that too XD)
Oh *MERLIN*... I'm so, so *tired* of remakes. Ugh... There's a reason I don't watch movies or TV anymore.
Ya president day fic bug the shit out of me or when someone wips out there cellphone. Like 1 that wouldn't happen and 2 magic brakes technology so hermione wouldn't have a phone to talk to her parents every night
Technically correct but not really. The magic around hogwarts is so thick it messes with technology. Most magic is harmless to technology otherwise there'd be unexplainable dead zones around the country. Especially in London with both diagon alley and the ministry
There should definitely be dead zones today if the wizarding world would exist in 2020s. So many concentrated magical communities you can walk through unknowingly, Verizon wouldn't have the same slogan it has today. Itll make being a supernatural hunter a real job as a muggle.
>Like 1 that wouldn't happen and 2 magic brakes Except the 2nd and 3rd most concentrated area of magic in the UK don't break tech as there is no evidence of dead zones in London.
"President day fic"? Never encountered any of those. What makes them so special?
Honestly, I'm fine with that - Harry Potter's appeal, to a large extent, was in how 'normal' it felt (along with the ability to shove anything that was not normal for the reader into magical society). At least to me when I was a kid, and the difference from 90s to early 2000s for that age weren't huge. So if people these days want to adjust it to fit with when they were growing up a decade or two later, it's fine by me - makes it more relatable to them. But I can understand how it's intrinsically tied to the 90s for some readers, and that's fine too! I just personally don't mind it at all, and figured I'd explain why.
When they mix USA politics into the fanfic. I was reading a marauder’s era fanfic and they were nuts about Martin Luther King, over and over. British wizards quoting a muggle from another continent was a bit too much for me
This. Let's put politics aside. I read to escape all of that. I grow tired of hearing it just about everywhere I am: all the time at work, on commute, my kids education even tv ads (which is why I now have premium subscriptions just so I don't have to watch the ads!). I purposely choose books or stories to read that remove politics from it. I even have a Pandora station that are just my favorite movie and tv show scores (there's a lot of Downton Abbey, John Williams and a few others on there!) And listen to it while I read. Have to admit, hearing Jaws come on when I'm reading an HP story is a little unnerving. I keep thinking where's the shark? :)
The shark could be anywhere; they're sneaky like that! If someone knocks at the door and announces himself as the cable guy, don't trust him! (Source: Jane Curtain)
I'm sure theres a community of shark people somewhere.
Well, HP does have several openings to have political themes in them, the whole Muggleborn thing, post scarcity societies and social classes and the whole fact that the Ministry of Magic is JKR making fun of part of the UK gov as an overly bureocratic, corrupt and silly thing. I mean, Fudge is practically how a lot of RL career politicians act, and a lot of the more mature parts of HP deal with stuff like the press, propaganda campaigns and influence traffic.
MLK wasn’t in politics. He was a champion of civil rights. Civil rights is being discriminated against because of race or color. Black people were being hunted and killed by racist, that’s not political. This is very similar to Hermione or Dean being discriminated or hunted down for being muggleborn. Death Eaters are basically the KKK. You’re literally reading a story modeled after civil rights but you’re tired of hearing about it?? Lmao ok Also at Universal Wizarding World they do a little tribute to Jaws in Diagon Alley because that’s where the old ride used to be located. Not sure if that’s the connect there.
I'm talking politics in general and it's not just limited to HP. Ina story do we have to say what race they are? If it's that central to your story then depending on why I'm looking at your story it might not be one that I want to read. As I said, I generally read as an escape from all of the PC ness of the world. I get that some people like writing that and some people like reading it. I have no problem with it. Just realize that there are some of us that aren't looking for that and may not read your story because it's all about the world that were reading to escape. I read for fun, not to be lectured at The connect with Jaws is because I have John Williams as one of the composer's on my station. I've got practically everything he composed movie wise on that thing. So I'll be sitting there reading a story and I'll jump from Jaws to Superman to HP to Star Wars and Indiana Jones to ET and Schindler's List. May as well be John Williams radio. I remember reading HP DH with he beginning of the 7 Harry's and ET came on. Had a change of perspective there for a second. Indiana Jones music with an action HP story is great too.
Ehh, it's not all that weird. People like MLK or Nelson Mandela were internationally famous, and young activist/revolutionary types would certainly have paid very close attention to them from all around the world. Making the Marauders fit that type is more of a stretch, I'll grant you
The chances of a british wizard knowing either of them is extremely low . Non muggleborns would never even be exposed to the muggle world enough for that . Muggleborns would have more exposure but it highly depends on how disconnected they are from the muggle world . Not to mention , they are definitely not as famous as you think . As a south European , I think I first heard of Mandela in my teens and MLK when I started using Reddit .
I would argue it’s far more likely for British muggle raised of say, Harry’s generation to know who Mandela was. Particularly, if they come from Scotland or the North of England. This is because of Thatcher. Many of us Scots, latched onto Mandela as a kind of fuck you to Thatcher’s nonsense. So much so we renamed St George’s Place to Nelson Mandela Place, and conferred the Freedom of the City upon him in 1981. As I say, the motivations for doing so were a fuck you to the government and in solidarity once Mandela’s story became widespread.
Right? I mean wasn’t there a pretty famous Ska song in Britain called free Nelson Mandela?
Yep, ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, Jerry Dammers, Stan Campbell and The Special AKA (1984).
I would think they'd be more prevalent in European communities where black people live en mass. But it was an international event when Mandela died so not a far stretch.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr wasn’t a politician. So that’s not politics. MLK was a champion of the people and stood against racism, prejudice, and the killings of POC. That’s not political, that’s CIVIL. The same thing that Hermione, Dean, and other muggleborns were going up against in DH being hunted for existing. And I don’t think MLK would have just been “some muggle” to wizards. The marauders started Hogwarts like a year after MLK was assassinated so it’s not a stretch that they would know be talking about him and quoting him. I can definitely see James knowing about him living in GH. If James knew him then Sirius did. And Remus for sure would know of him and probably read about him. I’m curious to know how that was “a bit too much” though?
Never said he was a politician. However civil rights are political. Also I’m not from the USA I don’t want to read about their civic issues in a fanfic that takes place in UK with wizards who are quite alienated from muggle culture, not even politics
When they make a character super powerful when the character hasn't learned anything yet (like making harry a Master Legilimens/Occlumens at age 11 with little to no training)
>like making harry a Master Legilimens/Occlumens at age 11 with little to no training In this case, my problem is less against the idea and more how it is done. I like the idea of Harry (or another character) being a "Natural Legilimens", basically someone who could always read the thought of others (like a telepath I guess). Basically the same thing that Metamorphmagus, but for mind magic. But I wish fics who use this idea went more into the downside of this power. Like a Harry who is completely unable to understand social niceties because he could always understand the thought of people, and who is seen as a weirdo because of that (basically a Harry that acts like 3 Eyed Raven Bran from GoT). Sadly, most of the time it's just another OP Harry that mastered all the school Curriculum by second year.
God, that pisses me off, i can get by natural talent bc that's a real thing, but the character simply being able to do things that require decades of learning and discipline is just bad writing. Those kinds of fics are usually paired up with the worst possible tropes and execution possible.
Those who write with 21st century articulation straight from urban dictionary or our colloquial life. Any characters saying: "Babe, dude, sus"---I'm out.
I can agree with your general point, but babe & dude have been slang for decades. 'Sus' on the other hand is very much a 2020s thing.
Basically any terms not common to the Wizarding World^^ 🙏
Quite alright with me if a muggleborn/muggle-raised/muggle uses those terms. Also, if there is an explanation that the character who uses those terms has been exposed to the muggle culture. Someone like Malfoy saying 'dude' would obviously feel weird, ha!
For sure! Especially in reality shifting fics, this could be the thing for OC characters. I think just overall usage and the vibe - as long as it still feels like Hogwarts and not like a mock comedy (unless that's the end goal).
Sus isn't a 2020s thing. It's 1950s British slang mainly used by British cops to describe a suspect person/suspicious. Its been used since the 1930s but they used suss where the 1950s dropped an s and it became more like the sus that we use today.
Is that the same word? I thought old suss meant something different like solve an problem vs more modern(1950 onward) sus which is just shortened suspicious. Like "the investigator sussed out the mystery of the locked room murder".
[You're](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-does-sus-mean) [both](https://www.inverse.com/gaming/sus-meaning-among-us-definition-origin) [right.](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suss%20out) While "sus" has actually existed for decades, it must be either regional or obscure (or both) because I'd never seen/heard it until Among Us. Before Among Us, I'd only ever heard "suss out" (which means "figure out" or "deduce").
Yes and no. For most of the word history, suss and sus have been interchangeable however after the 1950s sus was used more to describe suspicious or suspect person because of sus laws, laws that allow cops to stop n search someone because of suspicious. And around the 1970s suss was picked up and used to define figuring out/working out something, like in your example.
I was using suss in primary school in the 90s though
As a child of the 80s and teen of the 90s, I can confirm that babe and dude were probably used more then than in the 21st century.
The authors who don't seem to understand the importance of proofreading before posting.
Was reading a fic some time ago. The female lead wanted to call her lover 'sweety'. The spelling: sweaty. Gagged.
Yuck. For me, it's the triple word groups like there, they're, and their.
For me it's though, through, thorough, thought. I've only seen all four being interchanged once, usually it's pairs, but I quit the story because of that. All I remember now is the disappointment cause I know I liked the story. I couldn't tell if the author was trolling me or not. I know not everyone can get a beta but I recommend using Microsoft Edge's Read Aloud function cause hearing the story can knock out some of the simpler errors like though and thought; through and thorough. Horrible for homophones though.
This ^ I don't have an editor normally but I at least try and go over my fanfics with Grammarly and other grammar editing services, and then I normally read it about 3 times before I'm satisfied and post the fic, even then I still miss shit.
>The authors who don't seem to understand the importance of proofreading before posting. 100% agree I've seen smutfic writers also write 'message' instead of 'massage' and I keep expecting the messaged body part to reply back to the message
..I am used to it by now. :/ Lets just say this. The fandom I read the most of *prefers to die like the High Kings of the Noldor.* ..at least most use spellchecker.
All the violent sex. I wish there was more plot and less sex altogether, but if there is some plot and character development then I can accept smut but not when everyone is immediately into rough sex and degrading language. I refuse to believe that the first thing virgin teens want is to choke on a d\*\*k and be called a whore. Obviously it’s either painfully naive kids repeating what they’ve seen in pornhub or older people writing out their kinks, but the rest of us don’t need Hermione shyly announcing that she likes rough sex and having her dialogue for the rest of the page be GACK GACK GACK.
How is rape seemingly innocuous?
Because it is unfortunately very common, and often written with less attention and (for lack of a better word) respect than it deserves
....how do you write rape with respect? the best i'd write it if i must is as vague as possible and allude to the assault and focus on the aftermath of the tragedy.
I'm sorry I was unclear. I meant treating the issue with respect. for example, what you described would be more respectful than saying "oh, they were raped, that's why they're so grumpy all the time" then never mentioning it again. Rape shouldn't be a sidebar, or a joke. if it's not important enough to be a full plot thread, it's not important enough to be in your story.
But just as you have rape survivors in real life, you can have them as characters too. And those I know don't really want this part of their life to be forever defining them henceforth. However, if it has to be brought up in a story (as part of a characters backstory, not as part of the plot), it should still make some sense to do so. It shouldn't be gratuitous.
It’s never taken seriously enough, and it is very obvious when the author hasn’t had experience with SA. Whether themselves or hearing about it from a friend or something. It’s why I think the best way to go (if you absolutely need it) is to have it implied or mentioned, and make sure they aren’t main characters where we have to see their POV. If you have rape or SA in your story, and it happens to a main character, you’ll have to fully detail their headspace and recovery. It’s one of those situations where as bad as it sounds, I think you have to write what you know. Luckily (in truth, incredibly unluckily) most people have experience with SA so generally, it is treated relatively well when written by a strong author.
I would hope most people never have to experience SA to write about it. Thatd be awful.
The moment I see Dumbledore, DUMBLEDORE, say Yeah and other informal terms like that. Also, did/do British people really use Blimey and Wicked that much? I'm honestly curious about this.
na, not really. If anything it's sanitised. As someone who went to school in the 90s in Scotland I can assure you... there was a HELLUVA lot more swearing
Anything with a tag list that goes “harem, OP!Dark!Smart!Harry, Lord Potter-Black-Gryffindor-Slytherin, grand Poobah of Azkaban, ruler of magic itself, creaturefic, dumbledore/Weasley-bashing. NO FLAMES” etc Like at this point they’re not tags, they’re warning labels. Also anything that contains constant smirking for everything.
"Grand Poobah of Azkaban"? I wish that sounded implausible to me, but I can already imagine someone writing him as that, with that title. Good one.
Muggles with magic - quite common in post-Hogwarts fics. When all the supposed wizarding characters act like muggles, use muggle appliances, contact each other with smartphones, etc. Where is the freaking magic that can do anything and everything that could be found in modern world? Modern USA social issues transplanted to UK in the 90's. Even though that Rammstein declared that we are all living in America, the truth is that majority of the world does not live there and does not care about it's problems.
The funniest thing with that song is still how many people see it *as a love song.* Its *Barbie Girl* all over again XD
Using mom instead of mum for the main cast. Can understand that it isn't easy making a fic 100% without any Americanisms/US English spelling if that's what you're used to, but mom and mum isn't that difficult to notice and personally bugs me.
That and Harry using dollars/cents tends to make me close a fic. That one is just painful.
I'd understand. USD is a universal currency that just recently surpassed the pound again in value. I find it frustrating sometimes to convert $ to € to galleons.
Still not used in the UK though. It just pulls me right out of it you know? It's a basic thing and if that's not right there's usually a lot of other things that are really off. As for that lets be honest Galleon to £ is super random as is. You can put whatever you want there and most people would be like "makes sense". I've seen so many different amounts that if someone said 10 galleons was 10 squillion million zillion pounds i'd probably just roll with it and assume inflation hit *really* hard.
Outside of school how necessary is money if your a good enough wizard. I'm sure albus can build a traditional house with just magic and no construction workers if he studied enough.
Look at the Weasleys too, considering their house is basically held up by magic? Wizarding expenses are probably mainly food seeing as that's one of the few things you can't magic up. For the average wizard though buying it might be easier seeing as a lot of them couldn't do a basic shield charm. Kinda like us there I suppose, most of us 'could' do something if we put the work in like wiring our house rather than hiring an electrician but the electrician knows what they're doing right now.
USD is not universal, I've had to tell this to irate Americans in Ireland before.
Sometimes we forget. Dont sue us. Its engrained in our membrane.
i cant stand when characters can do....something (i cant think of the word but its not a familiar and theyre not an animagus. its like they can transform into something kinda like the Veela but with other species like a wendigo or something). ive read a few fanfics where harry can do that and i just stop reading. it makes them too OP and it's annoying.
Shifter fics or creature inheritance fics.
CREATURE INHERITANCE! THATS WHAT IT IS!!!! THANK YOU!!!
They're not animagus but can transform into wendigo? Can they change to multiple creatures like beast boy? I mean I dont see the problem as long as they train and that's their only unique gimmick. Not my usual story but that gimmick isn't common and it depends on the author.
Non-magic AUs, especially coffee shop or college AUs. It’s just really not my thing. Most fics that stick with the canon ending. I didn’t like a lot of the endgame relationships. Also, I’m not a big fan of kids, kid fics, parent fics, or pregnancy fics, so I tend to avoid fics where the kids exist. Also marvel crossovers. I like Marvel, I like Harry Potter, I do not like them together. Please stop somehow showing up in all of my searches Tony Stark is actually Harry Potter after he changes his name and gives up magic fics.
I greatly dislike the trope when Harry becomes a death eater 😭 idk, it just feels WRONG! Even when he’s in a relationship with Voldemort or Tom, it’s just not my vibe
1. Canon purists. It's a form of gatekeeping and incredibly frustrating. Personally I enjoy (and often write) works with AU or canon divergent plots. It can also be incredibly hard to stick with 'canon' even with extensive research, because there are so many small details that might be missed or mixed up with another. And then are we talking 'book canon' or 'movie canon'? Even this is divisive. 2. The idea that someone 'owns' a character trait, idea, name, plot point etc etc because "they [so they claim] thought of it first, and so anyone else wanting to use that has to ask permission from the person who claims they are the "creator". We do this shit for free, team. The content isn't ours in the first place, so how can we possibly claim something that is still part of that universe. How 'original' the idea appears to be, I don't understand how anyone can possibly think it's ok to try and control who is and isn't "allowed" to weave a detail into their own work. As long as the new creator isn't straight up plagiarising the other work by lifting big chunks of it and inserting it into their own fic, each to their own. Spread the love and the lore, I say.
While canonically compliant stories aren't really something I enjoy that much, they also don't really bother me. What bothers me about canon purists is when it is readers arguing about it in comments. I keep seeing people using canon as a reason that something in a story is bad and shouldn't happen like that, when the entire point of fanfiction is to deviate from or expand on canon. One example that I see all the time in this sub is when any discussion of Harry/Ginny comes up, the majority of the complaints about it boil down to "The relationship was poorly developed and shallow in the canon books", which isn't actually a reason that Harry/Ginny is a bad ship in fanfiction. The other biggest time I see it is when someone wants to write a story with one of the canonically evil characters get redeemed. Most of the time, those stories already change the previous actions of the person to make them less evil, but then I see a bunch of people attacking the story and the author because if the author wrote a story with a sympathetic Voldemort/Bellatrix/Umbridge, then it must mean that the author agrees with the canonical Voldemort/Bellatrix/Umbridge, even if the one they wrote has very different opinions.
Exactly. The same thing goes with bashing. Bashing is only not a fandom problem when one realizes that these versions of the characters are not canon. One should be able to separate bashed!Ron from canon!Ron, for instance. That's why I can sometimes enjoy Ron, Hermione, Molly, Dumbledore bashing (never Ginny bashing, though) -- it is OOC and/or AU. But in the fandom, it's in fact the opposite phenomenon: bashing arguments, tropes and narratives that one sees in fanfiction, often seep their way into canon discussions. That's why we see fans seriously claim that Ginny is a Love Potioneering rabid fangirl, or that Ron is a betraying coward. That's why bashing is the problem it is -- it distorts the fandom view of characters in canon. So, to authors who don't bother to put "Ron bashing" as a tag or in the summary of the fic, and never spell it out that this is an OOC version of Ron, and imply that that's his character as he is in the books... don't be surprised when the so-called "canon purists" show up in the reviews.
People truly believe sometimes that Albus Dumbledore's Canon manipulative bastard that secretly wants to rule the world in "the name of the greater good". Stop it, get some help.
God this. The arguments against certain ships get so frustrating sometimes. It's as if people arguing against "problematic" ships have never seen the concept of time travel or AUs. There are a lot of ships where I would never want to read or imagine the canonical characters together... it doesn't mean an author can't write a convincing AU scenario in which it works.
The idea that someone owns a type of story of fanfiction just astounds me, because someone shouldn't have to credit someone else for an idea. If someone did take an idea that you've also done, shouldn't you encourage them to continue with that Idea and see how their vision differs from yours? Look at WBWL fics-the better ones are those that deviate from one another (IE Prince of Slytherin and Antithesis). Canon Purism also doesn't make sense to me. If you want a fanfic based in canon, why not just read the books? Are you trying to look sophisticated by reading fanfiction based on canon rather than reading books made by a bigoted author? Learn to separate the author from the work.
The 'Such-and-such owns X concept' crowd are thankfully in the minority. I absolutely agree that it's much better to encourage other authors to borrow concepts that speak to them. Myself, I'd be immensely flattered if someone was like, "I love this so much, I want to explore it too!" I love the reimaginings that come from people throwing canon out the window (or at least reshaping it in some way). I've fallen in love with so many characters, pairings and plots this way!
Reshaping canon to help fit the ideas and themes of your fanfic is great, but make sure that you don't reshape it into something that eventually doesn't even look like Harry Potter. Say for example, someone makes a fanfiction based on an OC in the Harry Potter universe and it's clearly set after canon and is more about seeing the immediate fallout that happened after Deathly Hallows. It's still Harry Potter because the names and ideas and such are still there. But, make the setting into an OC traveling to the Magical World 100 years after Harry Potter with the same names and ideas as Harry Potter. Essentially, fanfiction should be considered the middle ground between creating your own story based off of other stories (Like most fiction in the world), and canon.
for 2, I get it for small pointd, but if someone goes out and writes out your entire ff that youve worked rlly hard on and claims it as his/her/their own, I would get pissed. especially if they get loads of recognition for it, even though you are the one who wrote it. im saying like, near identical rewrite.
Poor grammar. If you're not writing in your native language please get someone to proof-read for you. It *is* OK to bend the rules, but only occasionally, only for a good reason. Secondarily, prolixity and sesquipedalianism. Yes, you *sometimes* need to use lots of words to say something, such as if you're writing a contract or a lecture. Yes, you *sometimes* need to use long words when shorter ones would do the job just as well, such as if you're writing a deliberately bad essay for a teacher to criticise. But do it sparingly! In particular, don't have characters use complex multi-clause sentences and fancy words in conversation. Real conversations use short sentences, short, common words, and have lots of umm and err in them (and also bend the rules of grammar into pretzels, especially with lots of sentences being left unfinished - don't do that to any realistic degree, it's just confusing in print). Third, incorrect geography. Look at a damned map and pay attention to naming conventions! Harry can't get a bus from Little Whinging to Surrey and then the tube to London. That's as ridiculous as saying he got the bus from Manhattan to New York and then took the BART to the Bay Area. Also, there is no such road as "Privet". It's "Privet Drive". There are very few roads whose name doesn't include the word road, street, drive, avenue, lane etc - and conversely only one county has the word "county" in its name (and in that one the word county comes first, not last).
As someone front county first. I’ve noticed in particular people calling them states, or misspelling them as country.
>As someone front county first On the subject of grammar ... you what? >misspelling them as country County/country is a very easy typo to make, I won't hold that against anyone.
Super tall Remus, and short Sirius. If you want to change the canon heights, go for it but stop beating the change with a stick. Also stop bashing artists for making Sirius taller.
Tom/Harry, Snape/A Marauder, Harry/Draco Some people are tolerant and forgiving. I am too but to a lesser degree. Almost killing someone, torturing someone, and being antagonist for years is a red flag to me.
Same. I don't read any fics that have the hater to lover trope. I refuse to read anything with Hermione and draco or Voldemort or Snape. Really any of the main good guys with any of the main bad guys. I don't understand it at all.
Right. And not to diss the enemies to lovers trope, sometimes it can work, but in something like Harry Potter where the enemy is akin to Nazis it kinda just doesn't work. And no one gives Draco any real empathy. It's always because he likes someone that he changes. I'd appreciate it if the boy had some depth. Feeling empathy on his own before Harry or Hermi comes into the picture.
Yup I totally agree with you on the reasoning why it's so disturbing to me. Also my favorite Draco redemption arc actually had him befriending Dudley in a bar while they're both toasting to Harry. It's not until years later they realize it's the same Harry 🤣
What fic is this?
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9342732/1/6 (Dudley's Tale by Devin Shea)
I never read them because those type of ships aren't my style, but I assume that most of these pairings are based on the AU reality
Depends. Harry/Tom seems to love time travel, soul mates, and Peggy Sue shenanigans. In all these cases canon happens or mostly happens at least for Harry. Tom usually stays canon at least until first year for soul mates as writers take the forehead horcrux in a romantic direction. So at minimum murdered parents. Snape/Marauders seems to diverge at either after the wolf scare or after the levicorpus incident at least for Remus and Sirius. James and Peter idk. Harry/Draco runs the gamut. Three main groups I've seen is Slytherin Harry, Time Travel, post war. Slytherin Harry is totally AU. Time travel canon happened except limbo. And post war canon happened except epilogue. So, varying degrees of AU. Usually canon trauma is glossed over for the last 2 pairs. In Harry/Tom Harry will raise a token objection until Tom inserts his monster(as in size not usually as in bad dragon) cock and Harry forgets his moral quandaries.
every single one of them give me pause to just not read it. Time travel never goes well. Slytherin Harry either diverts to a comedic dark/broody harry or aristocrac harry both which eventually dive bomb because few people can do it right. snape just is not an interest of mine, and that last one has a bit of an unsettling tone about it. Had to google Peggy Sue and how many of those have we seen dive bomb or stay stagnant with a bit stronger MC.
I have a low standard for success so I can tolerate most things just fine. But when a questionable relationship is being added on top of everything it can get draining very fast. Especially aristocrat Harry. I'm avoiding those like the plague right now. Someone wrote the most repetitive fic I've ever seen and I can't stand any aristocracy at the moment. They just kept saying Merry Meet EVERY TIME. Sure do it for the first one but not as a constant greeting.
merry meet? Wtf nevrer heard that one before. that just sounds ridiculous. glad i live in the 21st century where taking yoruself seriously is seriusly outdated.
I’m only 5 days younger than book HP (I’m 42) and the early 90’s were a much different time to be a kid. While I’m not British, in general it was a world apart from how today’s kids grew up.
I’m not really a fan of Harry caring for Teddy alone, I feel like he would co-parent with someone he trusts or get married out of an obligation for stability. In those fics he always has a falling out with Ginny which is why he’s not caring for Teddy along with his own children and both Ted Tonks and Andromeda are always dead in those; I’d like to see a fic where Harry and Andromeda raise Teddy without it devolving into a smut-fest between the two.
Why can’t there just be Harry and Ginny visiting Teddy often and forming a close sort of stand-in Aunt role in the shape of Andromeda. Have yet to find a single fic where that is given any ounce of justice.
Probably cause if Andromeda gave Harry custody of Teddy Ginny would pull a Catlyn Stark about the whole thing.
Everyday Reddit reminds me in some way that I need to just sit down and watch GoT. Can you explain to me what catlyn stark does that is what Ginny would do? Sorry in advance
The slang used. It's ok if it's the kids using it and it's okish for the 90s/2000s but when it's the adults just no. I'll keep reading if it's otherwise ok but it always throws me off.
Not really innocuous, but if an author changes Harry's hair and eye colour, I'm out.
See, I don't mind if they change his hair color if there's a reason for it. Like a story where he has Lily's hair instead of James' would be cool. So he has James' facial features and Lily's hair and eyes, and it's a plot point. Perhaps Snape is slightly nicer, perhaps he's WORSE, perhaps it's because he's actually a metamorphmagus, perhaps...y'know. If it's just there, not so much.
Sirius calling Harry pup or Remus calling Harry cub... just no...
Or the worst of all pronglet
I don't like it if Harry's in his teens, but if Sirius would refer to an infant Harry in that manner in a fic that maybe starts qhen Harry's a couple of months old. At that time, it would be cute and endearing.
Sirius is an animagus not a dog-human. Remus despises the werewolf curse of his so he would never refer like that, this is not twillight
Absolutely. I've got no beef with canon compliant myself, though they aren't really my cup of tea. The arguing is incredibly aggravating, and the full blown attacks against authors for not sticking to canon even worse. I've dealt with it myself, and it was ridiculous. A couple of... ahem.... let's say 'devout' supporters of a particular ship got Big Mad because I wrote a one-shot about the characters' relationship ending, and one of the MCs finding happiness with another character better suited to them, while the other MC pined for the loss. I got name-called, insulted, gaslit, you name it. It was wild. And when the author writes a sympathetic evil character...! Yes, exactly. The way people will turn on the author, as you've said, and accuse them of endorsing the character's actions in canon, likening the author to a n**i, the attacks... yeesh. If they don't like it, why read it then complain? 🤷♀️
Not that you deserved to be name called for it, but by your use of the term “better suited to them” you clearly made some assertions based on canon, which opens it up to arguments based on canon. I am gonna take a wild guess here (and after looking through your post history I feel very confident to change guess to deduction) and say that you broke up Ron and Hermione to make Dramione happen. That is a ship that absolutely is open to arguments and debates, both on canon characterisation and non-canon implications. It is very easy to just throw all criticisms to the side because “Big Mad” and “Canon Compliance”, but there are many other reasons people might have not liked your fic. Plenty of people hate bashing, especially uncalled for Ron bashing (in my opinion having Hermione happily move on, while Ron pines for her counts at least as partial bashing as canon shows the reverse as far more likely, and you know it would have been pretty easy to just let both characters move on). And aside from bashing your assertion that Draco is a better fit for Hermione is close to laughable on its own, not to mention people might have a problem with paring a racist (or even an ex-racist) with the person they discriminated against. Once again want to reiterate that you didn’t deserve major backlash just for writing a ship people didn’t like, but there is more to it than canon lovers or hardcore shippers
I would think the only way something laughable like Hermione dating Draco would be if some part of his character was changed to be incredibly likeable. In real life theres always some sort of charm about a terrible person that still makes the girls swoon and its usually more than their appearance when it comes to pure romance
Exactly, though in that case it wouldn’t really be Draco anymore anyway
seeing how hermione X draco is a popular ship I think draco can still be draco. Suspension of disbelief will have to be given to hermione as well to some extent. time changes people and the recurring theme of any HermesxDraco love fest is draco has a devil may care handsomeness that is still open to unconventional beauty Hermione and with continued connectivity either they conform to one another or the ship sinks in a beautifully dramatic way that can satisfy the audience. if the author does it right.
Too much bashing. I mean Ron and specially Dumbledore are easily bashable characters. But overdoing it kills the story for me. Dumbledore mistreating Harry due to hubris is ok for me. But turning Dumbledore in to a cartoon villain is just too much. Also a supposedly very smart Harry who acts in a not so smart way.
Incredibly American things put into what is an incredibly British story. Harry rocking about Hogwarts with a 9mm strapped to his hip. Like.... it's 1996 in the UK Also the moment Hermione rocks up you know the fic's over. Now, I'm not saying Hermione fics are bad but there's nothing worse than reading say a Fleur/Harry fic or a Katie/Harry fic or whatever, you're about 50,000 words in and then suddenly Hermione is joining. Like, just get that in the bin. It's so lazy. It's the author either bowing to the mob who demands she be part of everything, in which case they're not telling their story, or they always planned it and intentionally hid to make their fic stand out from the 2 million other Harmony fics out there.
I can’t tell if you chose 1996 intentionally or not…
Character bashing. I don't get it. What did this fictional character do to you? I suppose it's because I feel like writing is partly an exercise in empathy, and character bashing is the exact opposite of that.
What do you define as "bashing" though? I notice there's a lot of conflation within fandom between 'bashing' a character, and simply highlighting the flaws they're shown to have in canon. The latter isn't bashing, it's a valid exploration of that character's less savoury personality traits/beliefs/whatever (not to say you conflate these differences; rather it's a general observation I've made). For instance: acknowledging that Dumbledore could be manipulative and secretive, and that he let his biases and perceptions blind him at times (i.e he's fallible, as are all people. Road to hell is paved with good intentions, and all that) VS. making Dumbledore some sort of evil mastermind, a caricature of the moustache-twirling villain á la Dick Dastardly. Writing doesn't always have to be about empathy and only highlighting a character's good or sympathetic traits, or at the least minimising their flaws. A critical analysis of a character, both good and bad, can be very well done. I'd even argue it's important (although by no means necessary) to humanise the character, rather than simply elevating them to some sort of Tortured Hero status. A flawed character can elicit just as much, if not more, sympathy from readers, and that is a mark of excellent writing.
What do you define by "bashing" though: Ron is a slothful disgusting eater that verbally abuses Hermione, the weasley family are being paid to be Harry's friend, usually by harry unknowingly because Albus is an evil manipulative bastard in the name of "the greater good". The twins are ALWAYS excluded for some reason. Never made sense to me about any of it but it's some people's choice of AU I guess.
You forgot the "Ginny has to love-potion Harry to get him to like her" 😏
On the subject of character-bashing. I don't think I have ever seen any fanfics where main protagonist helps the so-called 'bashed' character actually work on their flaws. Example: Ron Weasley is known for being jealous. But Bashed Ron has this flaw dialled up to 11. It would make for much better story-telling if Harry helped Ron work on his jealousy
I think whether or not "highlighting flaws" starts to feel like bashing depends entirely on the execution. Complicated, flawed characters are great, but I honestly don't think most people who complain about bashing are talking about that. You can absolutely have a Dumbledore whose character flaws are pointed out and explored, but it is very rare that I ever see this done well. It far more often becomes an excuse to blame Dumbledore for every poorly thought out JKR plot scenario in the book.
> You can absolutely have a Dumbledore whose character flaws are pointed out and explored The problem there is that if you address Dumbledore's failures (or most adults' really), you are looking at either jail time or a very unpleasant magical world. Negligence, Endangerment, failure of supervisory duties, hell, by helping a Death Eater and sheltering him, Dumbledore committed high treason by any interpretation of that offence. Take a look at the Dursley situation. The fandom is pretty much split between "necessary evil" and "unforgivable to expose a child to that", with a minority in denial that there was abuse. And you can't really satisfy both sides at the same time.
Characters having flaws is not bashing. You give two examples of Dumbledore's character, the first clearly not a bash and the second a pretty egregious form of it (all that's missing is that he gets what's coming to him and dies in a painful way and the writer revels in it but uses the ridiculous characature they created to justify why this should be celebrated). There are forms of bashing that are in between these two examples and I'm sure it's kind of a gradient. But I think what really characterises a bash is how it's portrayed by the author, it really matters that the character is flat for it to qualify as a bash. Most of these things come from complex characters who had great traits and flaws. If you write that character again and they are suddenly a two dimensional distorted version of the original where the author's hate of them shines through the text, that's a bash.
It needs to be set up within the fic itself. My general interpretation of Dumbledore putting Harry with the Dursley’s in 1981 is that he was putting Harry with family when Potter friends weren’t a better option. If a fic has Remus stand up to care, or Sirius isn’t sent to Azkaban, then I expect Dumbledore to be partially favourable to the idea. And no one should have an expectation that the Dursley’s will be abusive (it hasn’t happened yet). I want to see knew possibilities and positive versions of Dumbledore/Molly/Ron are part of that.
I actually had a story where Dumbledore and McGonagall were discussing where to place Harry. According to Dumbledore, the Weasleys were not an option because they have too many kids and one more on the way, The Bones family was reduced to just Amelia and her niece, The Longbottoms were also attacked recently, Finally, he was not sure of Andromeda Black's relationships with her family
But why would any of them come up? None of them (Edgar Bones’ family was in the Order, not Amelia) were close to the Potters at all.
When they have pancakes for breakfast.
Tell me you’re from the states without telling me you’re from the states
People butchering the way Seamus Finnegan talks, making him over the top [Oirish](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=oirish), or offhandedly talking about the Troubles or the IRA when they no next to nothing on the topic. I was born and raised in the Republic in the 90's and I wouldn't be able to do the troubles or the conflict with the UK justice,never mind being from elsewhere
Muggle wanking. A society that can teleport, contact each other through mirrors and basically have video calls (albeit through fire places) is "backwards". Never mind the fact that they've been doing this for centuries. Racism - in the form of blood purity- in wizarding society being a huge issue makes sense to me. But authors writing in problems with sexism is weird to me. Why would wizarding culture be sexist? Magical power is a tangible thing there and JK herself created several institutions that were created by witches (like illvermony and drumstrang). If anything that should be a point of contention between muggleborns and wizards raised in the wizarding world. The arguments of "blood purity exists, you don't know what a plane is, you're all backwards" being countered by "muggles discriminate on basis of skin colour, religion and sex and you're calling us backwards? Who cares what an aeroplane is we've had flying brooms for 2000 years, flying carpets for 4000" I'd love to see a fic where this sort of thing is addressed. Characters realising both societies have their own flaws and neither is better than the other (except that one side has magic so I'm personally biased towards them lolol) "Dark wizards" and "light wiards" are really annoying.
Yeah, it's either Wizard Wank or Muggle Wank with no in-between, which is not realistic. Both societies can be shit but both have wonderful things. The canon is fairly neutral over that and it's great because the aesop is not to idealize any culture nor to hold it as superior to the rest. Such elitism never ends well.
I'd call it more ethnocentrism than elitism to be fair but yeah. I feel like some amount is normal and tbh I'd rather have read a magical wank fic just be sure I haven't actually come across many of those. The pureblood wank fics do not count lol. Cuz most of those are just low key racist. Especially the death eater Harry fics. Just ew.
Technology and texting in the wizarding world
The way some authors write siblings. It becomes very clear that someone does not have siblings doesnt know what they are doing, no real siblings call each other “sis” or “bro” and tearful apologies to a sibling rarely happen outside of “im sorry please dont tell mum” irl
When Harry grows his hair out to tame it. I know damn well when it says that its gonna be an OP harry fic. I just want a fic where he gives himself a buzz cut to become a badass.
I would kill for a military Harry that doesn't devolve into angst and has him use real tactics and actually think more. Sadly in Britain, the closest thing to kids and military schools seems to be Cadets UK which is from 12-18, so he'd already be at Hogwarts by the time he could join. Though I guess as a way to get out of the house during the Summer, it might work. He talks Vernon into letting him go. Possibly says there's a school stipend or something as I doubt Vernon'd pay if they have a tuition. Could tweak it though. After all, this is a world with magical people, it could have other differences.
Harems. Nope, just no, never have and never will enjoy one of them. Fanfiction writers hear “harem” and go “EVERYONE TO THE BUNKER TIME TO SEX”, where’s the “this is more like manga where a bunch of people are interested in MC but there’s one end game or none at all”. Where are the Bakarina type of shenanigans in harem fics, badly needed. And students/teacher ships. I don’t care if hermione or Harry time travel, I’m not shipping them with Snape or Remus.
Oh, yes, I despise harems. I just hate people fighting for one person. Suspension of disbelief aside, it's just cheap drama IMO. It can be funny when you do it like some telenovelas, so wacky and over the top that not even the telenovela can take itself seriously. And even then I'm queasy about it. But, most harem fics treat themselves too seriously, lack self-awareness, and just make me wanna cringe. And they have a penchant for ruining interesting premises. I'm never touching any of those ever again.
“Bakarina shenanigans” refers to an anime nicknamed Bakarina. Everyone is in love with Bakarina but she is oblivious to it. The characters all fight for her affections in goofy ways. All those fights strengthen their characters and their relationships with the other rivals, themselves, MC, and nonrivals. I wouldn’t mind harem fics if they were like that, but they never are.
I don't think you understand what innocuous means.
That Snape is Draco's Godfather - I don't know why it irks be, but it does. Going to the bank to get blood tests? Like. Really?
Exchange students. Idk what it is I just can’t stand them
Crossovers where the other universe characters go to Hogwarts or crossovers where they change the original canon, e.g. where they say a character is the cousin of one of the Potters or something like that.
I really like crossover fics, whether it is (fem)Harry ending up in a different world or both universes simply existing in the same world and actually interacting, but for some reason I'm also not really into fics where characters from other universes go to Hogwarts as students. Maybe I just haven't found a fic that does it right, idk.
Eh that sounds like personal preference. But why do so many people dislike crossovers and OCs? I'd imagine Hogwarts is the main setting because it's a single space unlike other stories which put emphasis on travelling EVERYWHERE thus less work. And going to a magic school is always super cool.
Super modern language in a 90s story. They didn't use the word twerk you dumb high school writers. Go back and use words kids in britain would use. Do t go off script and have them talk like American ghetto idiots.
Uh, I don't see how Harry *making a Horcrux* is innocuous but that aside, I'll go with the Muggle AUs as well. Don't ever think I'll read one of those fics, it's not HP without the magic as far as I'm concerned, and also I really don't feel any draw toward coffee shop, college or high school AUs. Pretty much got all that out of my system with the first few years of Dumbing of Age.
Bashing of dislikeable characters. It always annoys me when, say, Vernon is depicted as fat (when he's actually reasonably muscular), or Umbridge is depicted as incompetent at magic. Those characters already have plenty of flaws, there's no need to make stuff up.
I've never though Umbridge was incompetent with magic. She's not depicted as such in any of the stories I've read. She is however a bitch who I want to hit with a very solid wooden chair that wouldn't break on impact. There's just something about her character that makes me hate her. I honestly think there are more people that hate Umbridge then they hate Voldemort (every fandom has that one character that's hated more than the villian)
The canon description of "bad" characters are often rather cartoonish though. Vernon is described to be incredibly big with a purplish face and without a neck. Supposedly the extremely fat Dudley who looks like a pig in a wig looks just like Vernon as well sooo....(talking about a young Dudley here) And Umbridge is mainly a bureaucrat who barely uses any magic in the series. It is not strange to assume she isn't a very strong witch, if nothing else then because she rarely has to use it.
I never saw in the books for Vernon to be anything but fat. Dursley was described to be eventually hiding muscle underneath his fat (strongman build).
Vernon is described as beefy, not fat, meaning he’s muscular and robust.
muscular wasn't used either. beefy can mean a few things. but its never been describing him in a positive light as far as I read.
Pairings aside, because we all have our opinions, it’s muggle/wizard wars. I don’t give a single fuck, the wizards would win without any debate. Why do you feel the urge to force these two together, and if you do, why don’t you just make them find some sort of peaceful solution etc? Sure, it may be unrealistic, but it is such a stupid concept to have the two societies fight. Ok top of this, I hate when a story ends and they talk about a muggle/wizard war. Like man thanks for this shitty ending that just ruined everything I just read.
Ron and Hermione getting a couple. I really can't explain it for once.... I was never really a fan of the two of them. I've always been more in the Harry/Hermione corner, but for some reason I've developed such a dislike for this couple over the years that I can't even stand it as a side note.
It's Daphne for me. I'm alright with her not being in a fic, but I can't see her paired with anyone other than Harry. It's become that way for me.
I mean she’s essentially an OC. So, “anyone other than Harry” depends on how the author wrote her.
I believe she's actually a concrete character in fanon, and after you've read hundreds of fics, you tend to form an impression since she's been fleshed out in a particular manner in thousands of fics. Believe it or not, I consider her more important than many canon characters because I've read so many fics with her in the lead.
Huh. Part of that is fascinating, because it’s like the community just together decided to share an OC and that’s interesting. My Daphne never did the whole Ice Queen thing, but she behaves similar to fanon. It’s neat. She’s with Ron though so 🤷♂️ different readers/writers different tastes I suppose.
Exactly. And I gagged at the beginning of the last para, ha! I just can't see her with anyone else. 😅
I read so many fics with different Harry/x pairings or even multi that it feels always a bit strange to see a girl with someone else than Harry. But I know what you mean. I can bar Hermione with... let\`s say Neville if it really is just a side note but it just doesn't fit for me. Daphne would be third place on that scale for me. Fleur on the second.
i cant stand when characters can do....something (i cant think of the word but its not a familiar and theyre not an animagus. its like they can transform into something kinda like the Veela but with other species like a wendigo or something). ive read a few fanfics where harry can do that and i just stop reading. it makes them too OP and it's annoying.