What? Thats ridiculous. School kids date all over the place age wise, its pretty common. The most common thing is, of course, your own year group, then + or - 1 year. But a couple of years isn't even rare enough to be described as "not unheard of". I can think of multiple couples during my time at school that had that sort of age gap.

What? Spanking = pedo? Cause no loving parent has ever used corporal punishment.../s

 

I'm pretty sure we know because I also pointed out something negative about that pairing and nobody is replying saying I'm wrong. There are actually a lot of valid reasons for Harry/Fleur to be a red line for someone. Harry lacks experience in dating is probably the biggest long term issue. In the short term, you have an issue on Harry's end. He is shorter than Fleur. I'm not so sure that would be an issue for Fleur if she really liked him given her personality, but it definitely is an issue for Harry. He gets asked out by and rejects a few girls in GoF, and after one of them, he comments to Ron that he would have looked ridiculous dancing with someone taller than him. He is self conscious about that as is normal for most boys his age. That doesn't even get into the fanfic specific reasons such as lazy stories where Fleur is just so impressed that he doesn't look at her like the other boys because she is part veela.

 

You're right, red flag is probably more accurate. I don't think anyone who understands the setting that poorly is likely to turn in a good product, is all.

 

You're summarising what most people are posting in this thread right there.

 

If Harry inherits 30 titles and there are goblins involved, I'm out of there.

 

Another broad one for me: self-inserts. No, I don't want to read a story about you. Taking the spotlight away from the characters I actually do care and want to read about.

 

I have so many...

Any Slash fic with MC insta gone no matter how much I enjoyed the start hence why I dropped Menotch Loop 99% sure the MC is Homosexual.

Fics depicting modern-day militaries especially western militaries when it is obvious that they have never served and don't understand the first thing about it. I am 5+ years serving and it kills me to see people try and do the "snarky shit" to a superior officer. Trust me, bros, that shit doesn't fly. Flying through the ranks... if it isn't wartime with huge attrition rates... hate to break it to ya, militaries are bureaucracies so sit your ass down superstar and stfu cause we don't care.

Peggy Sue fics where the mc immediately runs to someone to brag about their future knowledge and how sick shit they are. Fuckin' morons who write this shit have no concept of how people in power think or operate. Sometimes a loop fic plays it straight and they end up in a cell getting tortured for the information. But yeah, insta red line.

Gamer Harem fics - these are 100% of the time going to be trash power wanks. I see it I leave it. Only one fic kinda played the gamer thing straight and the was Fulcrons (might be wrong about author) Naruto story, even then I am pretty sure he realized he fucked up and veered away from the power wank and got flamed to the high hells for it.

Anything multicross or planeswalker just an excuse to show how badass your gary or mary stu is in multiple settings. No thanks, there is no story here just wish fufillment.

Anyone who writes like or attempts to write like Harry Turtledove I want characters who I can connect to and root for. Not 600 viewpoints of your military brilliance wankfest.

Any alt power fic with evolving powers or something that is a convenient hard counter to the problems Talyor will face.

Any FIx it fic where it becomes clear that only the MC received the power-up and everyone else is a fool. Windshear cough cough.

and yeah ill cut it here but so many things I will insta drop.

 

I forgot to mention one, but FemHarry stories are a redline for me. For a number of reasons, the biggest of which are:

1. The Dursleys' abuse of Harry, and especially how Dudley & gang consistently attack him becomes a much bigger YIKES if its a tiny little girl. And that goes off the charts of awful implications once they've hit puberty, especially with how Vernon & Petunia think Dudley can do no wrong.

2. Too many of these sorts of stories seem to be written either by women who just want a female main character they can project themselves into or pervy guys who want to write Femslash.... and I don't want to read either of those things.

 

If Harry smokes cigarettes then there's probably a chance I won't read further.

 

America Superwank: Kind of self-explanatory. The US is this magical wonderland, where everything is perfect and Britain is the racist backwater.

Rape is an afterthought: Rape is most often used to either establish a character as an irredeemable villain or get some angst into a romance story. I dislike both cases, but can stomach them but utterly despise making light of rape.

Fanon Hermione: The fandom has led me to really really dislike this form of her character. This perfect girl, all-knowing, all powerful without any flaws. With an endless flood of such portrayals it slowly but steadily eroded any goodwill I had for such a character.

Story-stealing OCs: Random OCs that literally steal the story. In fan fiction this is a complete no-go in my mind. If I want to read an SI, I can look for it myself. If I want random OC, I would read original works. I want the setting, world and characters from the fandom I like/love. Not your badly hidden insert.

Uplifts:...fuck that! From the amazing memory that every little wanker believes to have and their power to jumpstart the industrial revolution by themselves...fuck that shit.

Preach from the altar: I don't care that you think person XYZ is evil for reason ABC. I don't care about philosophy XYZ. This is not the place to propagate anything like that. Random speeches about the topic an author cares about, I either skip or directly throw the fic in the bin. It takes me out of the story and no one will ever change my mind through a rant on the internet.

 

I like the idea of uplift stories. I don't think I've ever seen a good one though. Mostly because the person doing the uplift almost always has no technical background and immediately gets things wrong.

Things like "we just mix saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal and now we have blackpowder!" with no understanding that useful blackpowder requires a lot more than that, or a recent story that had Kings Landing being heated and illuminated using biomethane with no understanding of the actual process that goes into such a thing.

 

That is the issue, the same with the Super Hermione thing. I do not doubt that someone could pull it off in a good way, but it has become kind of big red blinking warning sign. I like the idea of it, but the execution is always horrifying. It is never the slow gradual process, but most often the start of an extreme wank. Disregarding nearly every possible problem or just plain wrong if you have an ounce of knowledge concerning the corresponding subject.

ASoIaF fictions are sadly one of the prime examples of the horrible wanks such a trope can bring forth.

 

One of the bigger problems with uplifts in asoiaf is that they also always try to introduce things that already exist in the setting , even if they're not widespread. Like I have seen way too many fics try to introduce stronger liquors, as if such things haven't been mentioned in the books. And even things like canals or watermills have been explictly mentioned in the setting.

 

Dark smut.

By 'dark,' I don't mean 'kinky.' There's nothing wrong with well-done smut, but I don't understand the proliferation of fics like Dark Discoveries, where Harry uses mind control to rape people. Smutty stories that feature sexual slavery and cruelty seem to outnumber those that don't. They read like revenge fantasies written by incels. There's nothing erotic about it.

 

It wouldn't suprise me if most stories like that are written by girls(who in general write most fanfiction), since apperently Rape fantasies are incredibly common amongst women, with 31 to 57 percent of women interviewed in several surveys admiting having such fantasies with a median frequency of about once a month.

Don't get me wrong, such stories are pretty bad, but it doesen't suprise me that they exist in such a high amount.

 

I think that's a pretty common issue with fanfiction in general. I appreciate a good romantic tale but avoid 99% of fanfics and even professional works that bill themselves as romance because ... well it won't be a good romance story. It's not a problem with the story idea itself as it is that it attracts a whole lot of authors who just don't have the storytelling skills to do it well. Much as I enjoy seeing a rock-solid romance, it's hard to ignore that 99% of fanfiction romance is guilty of one or more of the following:

1) Caring more about pushing the author's favorite ship than writing a compelling relationship.
2) Making the romance cloyingly saccharine.
3) Including a lot of unwarranted and excessive drama.
4) Writing really toxic or unrealistic relationships.
5) Just being an excuse to write bad erotica.
6) Being a complete afterthought without any buildup, establishment, etc.

Really, I think a lot of fanfiction redlines aren't so much bad in and of themselves as it is that most fandom authors don't know to execute them properly, and readers know that. For example, when even the vast majority of published fiction handles rape badly any fandom writer including it probably won't handle it well, and unless the writing's been 5/5 up to this point I'd have very little faith in their ability to get it right.

 

1. Bashing of any character.
2. Eleven year old political prodigies.
3. Superior Muggles.
   
4. Weak Harry.
5. Removal of Magic(Crossovers are main culprit of it).
   
6. Lordships and Helpful Goblins.
7. Modern Harry Potter. Extra marks for being a rebel.
8. Wrong Boy who lived
9. Rape

I tend to avoid fanfiction with too much Angst and Romance too. I also avoid Marauder's era and Next Gen fanfiction.

 

When medieval noble/royal children refer to their parents as mum and dad.

I have quit more than one ASOIAF fic because of that. Like, lack of formality is already something that annoys me, but this just fully breaks my immersion.

 

Don't know if it counts as a red line but mine would DUMBledore.