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10 Things I Hate About You

Since I may be without power because of a hurricane, I thought I'd leave this up for some fun. This is a list of things in Fanfiction that I can't stand, and I'd love to hear what you all think as well. Feel free to agree, disagree, or add your own in the comments. 


1. It Harry! Just Harry! Changing Harry's name to Hadrian, or Harrison. I can't stand this to the point that, if I see it, I instantly close the fic. A bit irrational, perhaps, but I really can't stand it. 


2.Goblin healers. Why would Goblins know how to heal humans, or even care to do so? Honestly, this isn't that big of a deal, but it does irritate me when I see it. The same goes for Goblin suddenly seeing Harry as a friend or making an alliance because of a few nice words. There way too much bad blood between humans and Goblins for that to work without a huge concession by wizards. 


3. Nobody talks like that! We've all seen it. A good idea or story ruined by horrible dialogue where everyone is stiff and formal to the point Percy Weasley would shy away, or just so unnatural it makes you cringe away from the screen. The one that has stuck with me for years, is a fic where Snape said Mayhaps. That one made me cringe so hard I nearly fell out of my chair. No, just no!


4. Going overboard. This one kills me. A story that starts out great but the author just doesn't know when to stop. They just keep adding more and more, like they want to fit every idea they've ever had into one fic. The big one that comes to mind for this is Barefoot. I was so into the first few chapters, and then they just killed it by adding all sorts of Ideas like Pixie gold, the origin of Dementors, and making Hedwig human that it just died under it's own weight. Such a shame to see that happen. 


5. Everyone's evil. This is for stories where everyone, Dumbledore, Hermione, the Weasley's, are all slipping Harry potions, stealing from him, and using him for their own purposes. I'm all for a good revenge fic, but Harry's had enough bad stuff happen to him that you don't really need to add to it. The ones that turn this up to 11 really drive me crazy. Especially when there's so little justification for some of their actions. Hermione's evil because an authority figure told her to be, Ron's jealous, Ginny's obsessed, and Molly wants money. Come guys, you can do better than that. 


6. Soul bonds. I've seen this done well a few times, but the vast majority are just lazy excuses to hook Harry up with some witches and give him some power. It gotten to the point where even mentioning it can turn people away because of some of the more horrendous examples. That and it's been done to death so much that anyone that write about it is bordering on necrophilia at this point. 


7. Quit bitching. This is for every fic that tried to make Harry seem like a vengeful god, only to turn him into Anakin Skywalker at the end of Revenge of the Sith, nothing but a whiny little bitch that goes off the handle and either screams at everyone, or just murders them outright. Instead of raining down painful truths like they're hammer blows, he just flies off that handle at every little thing and it makes you hate him just a little more each time. 


8. Chose your words wisely. This one's just a small gripe, but we've all read a fic where the author feels the need to throw in big words just to show off. Any time someone needs to pick up a dictionary in the middle of your fic, you're probably doing something wrong. 


9. Lame! You're 30 chapters in, Voldemort finally shows up, and then dies in the lamest way possible. All of that build, all of that tension, gone in one or two paragraphs and in the most unsatisfying way possible. I'm seen him shot by a sniper rifle, had a pillow placed over his head and smothered, fade into nothing, and Obliviated by Lockhart. I'm all for creativity, but when you kill the bad guy, it needs to be well earned, hard fought, and worth the wait. 


10. Oh, the names. Moldyshorts, Gred and Forge, Flopharts, Dumbledork, Fumbledore, Moldywarts, The Order of the Fried Chicken, Death Munchers and many other names have been used to insult characters and groups for over twenty years now. Used sparingly, they aren't that bad. At least, the first few hundred times you read it. When you're the one thousandth person to use it, not so much. When you use those names again and again throughout your fic, it makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Top tip: Avoid!

Those are some of the things I find annoying in fanfics I've read over the years, now I'd like to hear what you think.

Comments

Just from having to deal with Gringott's human employees, I would expect at least basic knowledge of healing humans from goblin healers. Since some of those would be curse breakers, I rather imagine the goblin healers would have more specific knowledge in those areas. Beyond that, who knows how much they might have learned dealing with human prisoners during the various "rebellions"; they might even have had some acting the equivalent of hte Nazi medical doctors during WW II and their experimentations (not saying they did or that it was moral, but that would provide quite a lot of useful information which would be usable despite the source).

Cateagle

harry nur harry kein anderer name bitte niemals

Markus Hertle

100% Agree with this, very few flics expand much on shopping beyond harry splashing his wealth on already known items, would be nice to see some more Inventive or creative shops/items being developed. Hell even some of the known items never really get much use! (Vanishing Cabinets spring to mind)

Saeyla

Hmm some Interesting Points here, a few of them don't really bother me and some are very much overdone for sure although after this length of time its not all that shocking. Harry being Harrison or Hardian is not something I've ever really had an issue with personally but on a similar vane I'm a big Harry/Hermione fan so I've read a lot of stories where Harry meets or stays with the Grangers and despite Hermione's parents not officially having cannon first names given, if a fanfiction gives those 2 annoying names it turns me off of the fic in the same way or at the very least I try my best to read it as a different name.

Saeyla

P.S. I hope you made it through the storm alright. Be safe.

whatsnext444

People are bringing up shopping trips, and that can certainly go to a bizarre and ridiculous extreme, but I rather like the world-building involved there. It's fun to imagine what all a wizard shopping district would hold. You have to think having magic that they came up with all manner of different items to solve problems, wares to sell, or even entertainment options. People certainly love the Weasley twins and their shop is often in stories even without a trip to Diagon Alley. I have to imagine there were other ingenious entrepreneurs or inventors coming up with all sorts of magical knick-knacks and gadgetry. But even beyond the useful aspects; the wonder of walking into a world of the unknown, unimaginable, and utterly unique is a fun part of fantasy. That all said, yeah, often shopping trip scenes in fanfiction are just to show off the insane wealth Harry's inherited or the purchase of the solution to all his problems. But the potential is there for a fun excursion and to flex some creativity chops for the author to make the world his or her own.

whatsnext444

I personally don't care for Dumbledore bashing. He's a flawed character (as most good literary characters are) and disagreeing with some of his choices and actions could introduce good dialogue furthering character development, but outright bashing and saying he's evil is a deal-breaker for me. It's so common that I see more "good-guy" Voldemort stories today than good Dumbledores. I can imagine how it got this way; sidelining Dumbledore frees an author up to explore his or her own character and storylines, plus elements snowball in fanfictions over the years until they become fan-canon and then people only see a character in a certain way after they've read so many stories depicting them in that fashion. Anyway, that's one that just bums me out when a good story goes that route.

whatsnext444

- Lack of punctuation. - Unnecessary changes in perspective. - shopping trips with explicit costs mentioned, or details of an object that has no further impact on the story

Rod Schouteden

I know I'm guilty of at least one of those.

Scott

The shopping trip. You know what I'm talking about. The Goblin Test that shows everything under the sun. Inheritance I find okay because they bank for the system and likely have bloodlines setup that way but if I see a story where a test shows a latent ability to be a metamorphmagus or other insanity I X out immediately. Anyway I get your number one. I had a pet peeve back when I read Naruto stories years ago where I could not tolerate Naruto with a face mask. It didn't really matter how good the story was I could never get over it. Don't know why really.

Cqys

Also goblin tests where they list out abilities and tend to add animagus which is a learned ability not to mention all the other ludicrous options

John P

Don't forget the high society manners where everyone has to make specific greetings and if they don't they can be punished or have a duel to the death.

John P

I am tired of fanfics with Harry being in a same sex relationship with Draco/Snape/ another male Slytherin. He has tension with the antagonists of the story. He does not need to have a sexual relationship with the male characters just because Dumbledore may have been in a relationship with Gellert or because of the current political climate. I also cannot Voldemort as a female antagonist. Why does he have to be a strong female character to make your feminist fanfic fans happy?

Chris

I hate when author is introducing something interesting and then immediately forgets about it.

Michał W

I hate when Harry gets in a relationship and says something that the girl doesn't like he immediately becomes like a whipped husband instead of talking about the problem. They just say you're wrong I'm right and no other options, now you have to sleep on the couch. That's not an equal relationship, no dialogue then a punishment.

David

I can agree with most of your points, especially when completely done over and over again. Currently, something I can’t stand in fanfics are bashing stories; doesn’t really matter who it is, or what story. The original author still came up with those characters when no one else did (aside from blatant copies). If you don’t like the character that someone else wrote, then change them; you don’t have to have everyone hate on a character when you could try to make a potentially better character

Jonathan Edwards

Don't forget Luscious Malfoy.

No Vigilance

Wands with a dozen woods and cores; Shopping sprees for pointless stuff - why not buy an iPhone with a plan before it even existed and a Kawasaki Ninja which will be used once, or a manor in a trunk or some other unnecessary item which serves no purpose in the story. Animagus forms like shadow phoenix, Nemean Lion, ice dragon, shadow wolf , star something. thunder whatever; Heir to Hogwarts, or Merlin, or Arthur, or Morgana or Roger the Rabbit; The spirt of Lady Hogwarts like a ghost who talks; Names for the sorting hat like Gerold or whatever - it's a hat that performs two tasks it sings a song and it sorts students; Good Voldemort - dear god how I hate that one, or cartoonishly evil and stupid characters Misspelled character names - I am looking at you Delores Umbridge, Alistar Moody

orthodox1057

Agreed. I'm fine with an inheritance, as long as he has to work to build it back up. Stories where he's the heir to 18 lords with vaults all full of gold and rings for each one, owns half the businesses, gets 12 castles to choose from and 47 seats in the Wizengamot are just annoying.

Professor Quill

To each their own, I just can't stand the names. There's nothing wrong with Harry.

Professor Quill

There have been some good fics that have gone into wizard politics, but for me the one thing that just causes me to close a fic down is any trip to gringrotts that involve Harry discovering a host of powers or massive inheritance.

Faraxsis89

The mental gymnastics authors go through to justify Harry having been abandoned by his parents (who canonically died for him) is mindboggling.

Slicedtoad

But if they aren't evil, how can we justify our ridiculous bashing? And isn't revenge better when they are cartoonishly awful? /s

Slicedtoad

My main peeve in ff is when an author uses none other than. I can't explain why it grinds my gears so much only that it does.

WrexColeTrain

8 is a big gripe of mine. It turns into word salad. You’re writing for a broad audience. Not to prove you swallowed a thesaurus.

Nicholas Carlstrom

I might be the odd person out on this one. But I swear I had the voice of Trevor, from GTA 5 playing as I was reading this lol

Matthew

I agree with points 2-10, number one is the only one I disagree with. I like stories were his name is Hadrian, but only in stories where he is raised by either Charlus or Arcturus.

Armstrong Sankowsky

Am I really the only one that doesn’t mind alternate names? Also Gred and Forge and Moine are all perfectly acceptable nicknames and contrary to EreborMarkus I think that cub an pup are perfectly acceptable terms of endearment from people like Sirius and Remus I will admit that something like Herms would make me cringe a bit but I don’t think that alone would be enough to make me give up on a fic. I will say jokes like Gred an Forge and Order of the Fried Chicken should be used, like any joke, in moderation. I do agree that bad dialogue (3), unnecessarily complex words (8), and an anticlimactic end for the villain (9) can completely sink a fic. Also in addition to those I would say that bad narration can also kill a fic. Also while I recognize that it can be lazy I don’t mind soul bonds in stories. To be fair it has been a hot minute since I’ve read a soul bond fic so I could just be blocking out the worse ones. I personally can’t think of any fic that I’ve read that has gone as far as you described in 4 and 7 but I can see how it could be an issue. I honestly don’t have much of an issue with a majority of people being against Harry or the mc though I would have an issue if everyone was just straight up evil. Like for example Hermione, Molly, Ron, and Ginny have flaws (blind faith + insecurities, control issues + narrow mindedness, jealousy + insecurities, and obsession + stubbornness) that can simply set them at odds with the MC and damage/destroy their relationship without them being evil.

Killian_Jones_Hook

Really? You feel that strongly about those kinds of characters and yet liked the original books enough that you are still a fan?

Killian_Jones_Hook

I hate fics that either bury the MC in terrible, soul crushing circumstances just so they can ‘grow beyond their beginnings’ (i.e. severe physical and sexual abuse, abandonment, and/or every single person being automatically against them) or fics that have the MC get everything they ever could/would want with 0 effort on their part simply because ‘they’re the MC and heroes always win.’ (This is mainly prevalent in Self-Inserts) The first just comes off as a poor attempt at shock value and even if the MC does ‘rise above it all’ it’s never in a way that’s believable. The second is poorly disguised just wish fulfillment on the part of the author.

Kant B. Write

I'd argue that Goblin Healers, Everyone's Evil, Soul Bonds, and Nicknames depend very much on the fic in question, and whether or not you're in the mood for a crack fic or something serious. The name thing reminds me of a story where Dumbledore sets it up so Harry can fake his death after killing Voldemort, and the Ministry starts calling him "Harold Potter" posthumously because it was more dignified or somesuch. It was so funny yet so cringe inducing because besides dubbing him "Harold" they were erecting statues where he was shirtless, overly muscled, and his scar covered half his face. In the Ministry atrium/

Captain Hair

I mean in my opinion the real estate and insurance company portions make sense to some extent when you think about all the old families and accounts that they manage. Also goblin made items are known to be some of the strongest and highest quality items available so it does make sense to me that they have and offer that as a service.

Killian_Jones_Hook

Remember: Hurricanes were custom-crafted by the deity of your choice to encourage people to participate in the age old hobby of hookers and blow! I agree with your list whole-heartedly, with one major addition: Paper Tiger. A Harry, OC or whomever the author spent some effort talking up, giving some backstory to in order to help them appear "badass", only for literally every opportunity to do anything useful turn to shit. Common themes include never killing anyone, using the tactics of a literal retard when engaging in any form of violence and being the kind of gutless bitch who wouldn't spend time torturing Snape to death after finding out he literally helped kill his parents. The absolute fastest way to turn me off any form of story - book or fanfic - is to find out I'm reading about an absolute, irredeemable pussy.

Pope Yoda I

TBF Gred and Forge are actually from the books. I think it's the fourth book? Molly confuses them and they joke about it because she gave the wrong twin a lettered sweater. But yeah fair point about the rest lol. And on overuse. I will add to this that I find some of the whole "wizard lords" things completely asinine. As a general writing device it can be fun. Or when it's blatantly over the top that it's not really meant to be examined in detail. Like royalty for the potters. But when you've got these deep fics littered with detailed politics about Lord Potter and Lord Black and stuff I kinda get annoyed because it's so obvious the authors don't know how the British aristocracy works that it's frustrating.

tornadoboy

Number 1 and 3 annoys me especially; both often appear together and that makes it doubly annoying. Formal speech to the max in these stories gets tiring so fast. They are teenagers, not C3PO!

semtex86

The names! Whenever I see Hadrian I can't even describe what I feel. It's raw twisting and ugly. Other than that - pup and cub - whoever came up with it should suffer. Then there are the noble houses, heirs and 11-year-old politicians. For the love of all that is holy, I can't stand it. I had some other pet hates but what you listed has me riled up and seething early in the morning, so I'll probably come back later when I am calm. The friendly goblins is also ludicrous Gringott's is a BANK, as in a financial institution! In many stories, it also happens to be a real estate agency, an insurance company, a hospital, a construction firm, an enchanting shop, an assassin's guild, and a number of other things. It annoys me so much.

orthodox1057

I've done that with a fic or two that use Hadrian, lol. And yes, Herms or Hermy are terrible.

Professor Quill

I mean, snakes are intelligent. Not too big of a stretch for dragons to be intelligent.

Hakai

Number one is something that really gets me. That and Mione, Mi, and the godawful Herms. I remember that I liked a fic enough a couple of years ago to download it and do a find & replace lmao

Markus Ellis

What annoys me most is when Harry is nice to one goblin and suddenly they are like "oh hey you said the magic word now let me take you into the back and solve all your problems for you" The other thing that bothers me is when they try to make dragons sentient or even intelligent. I love dragons as much as the next guy but in the wizarding world they are farm animals

Dan Topel

99.999% of WBWL fics are absolute garbage. There's only a single one I can think of, that I like, and even then, it has it's problems.

Hakai


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