What do you reckon would be your perfect idea of a fanfiction? I know you can't really just say that but what basic things? Storyline, main characters, pairings, type Harry, how AU if it is etc.

I guess mine would be something like this:

1) Harry raised by someone other than the Dursleys (Not a race of High Elves or any crap like that), just a normal parent, possibly adopted from an orphanage or raised by Remus whatever.

2) Harry receives other tutelage than just Hogwarts. If he's going to defeat a dark lord, he needs more training than most kids. Miranda Flairgold's: A second Chance at Life series did nicely.

3) If any sort of pairing I want it to be different. Preferably Harry/OC or Harry/Slytherin!Girl. But I'm not fussed by any sort of pairing. And certainly not where they have true loves at 15.

4) A good storyline that sees a slightly more intelligent Harry getting HELP from other people and not being uber-powerful. I'd like interaction between both magical and muggle worlds (though no dual gun, sword, battle-axe, ferrari owning Harry's).

5) More political and other species interaction (Again, A Second Chance at Life does brilliantly)

6) A couple of well-written and fitting OC's.

7) Magical diseases and deformities. No race can be perfect lolz.

That's abuot it really. I guess this thread could be like a pet peeve thread, but it's more than that. A general storyline or so you'd consider great is cool too. And hopefully this can give ideas for authors.

 

So the bastardisation of the Potterverse that is is 'A Second Chance at Life' is it your perfect fic then?

I don't have a perfect set of criteria, lest I would only read one type of fic. I like reading all sorts of different fics with few specifics. Reading fanfiction would be boring otherwise.

 

I only have a few qualifications for my "perfect fic".

-*must* have decent spelling and general readability

-Dumbledore will be "good", overly manipulative and evil Dumbledores need not apply

-No sex. This applys to both straight and slash. I may make acceptions if the sex is non-graphic and barely noticeable.

-No overly angry!Harry

-Characters must stay at least somewhat in character.

Thats about it

~Kitti

 

My ideal would be long, plotty, character-driven, with nifty new ideas for spells, intelligent good guys, creatively scary bad guys, exciting and intense combat/action scenes.

A powerful Harry (with reasonable explanation for his power,) intelligent (not research-driven like Hermione, but with a reasonable education for a motivated High School student,) savvy and a little cynical.

The Order would Not be stubborn, stupid, or wimpy. And if I NEVER again have to read about Molly Weasley "screeching in outrage" about something during an Order meeting, it would delight me.

Ron and Hermione are interesting, have skills, and are FRIENDS (neither blind followers nor traitorous spies) for Harry. And if I never again have to read about post-year4 Ron throwing a tantrum, I would appreciate it. Let's say that Ron CAN learn from experience.

I prefer a ruthless, manipulative!Dumbledore, but he has to be smart, Light-aligned, and protective of his assets (fluffy!Dumbledore turns me off even faster than evil!Dumbledore.) His goal is to defeat Voldemort with the least possible loss of life.

Snape is nasty to nearly everyone around him, has bad hygiene, and suffers from spiritual halitosis. He is also brilliant and courageous and tough. I don't mind whether he is portrayed as evil or Light-aligned (or completely out for himself,) but he can't be shallow or stupid.

The Dursleys are unpleasant but not evil - Vernon does NOT sexually abuse toddlers.

I like Hedwig as a Familiar. I always thought that JKR woefully underplayed her. My favorite Hedwig is an unusually intelligent bird with an empathic-style link to Harry. (Note: not a phoenix or a goddess in disguise or even human-level intelligence)

Sex is perfectly all right, but not a major part of the story. My favorite Harry Does Not fall in love and get married as a teenager.

I like the Slytherin students to be interesting and faceted, as well - the best portrayals show them as being pressured by family and circumstances. I like a few smart, snarky Slytherins to work for the Light, especially in secret.

 

-Complete removal of the Weasleys, save for Fred and George.

-Harry that isn't a pussy, a moron, or having the ridiculous notion that building a Harem would be a really good idea.

-Hermione that isn't a bitch, isn't in love with Ron, and's hot.

And that's about it, really.

 

My perfect fic as i've already somewhere else should have a well described in depth coverage on wizarding culture, where harry has an important rol in it but not beacuse he is the boy-who-lived but beacuse he is the heir or the Potter family. There should be a lot of political games and show us why voldemort is so revered.This would help make the "bad guys" more intelligent and show why these families are so important, after all you can't be in power for a thousand years being a wimp(in my opinion voldy should be a project from the dark families to gain more power gone wrong). Also harry shall be trained from a young age from some of the best "money" can buy. He will be able to play his part on all this political scheming and therefore will not relate with the weasleys(except maybe weasley twins due to a bussiness oportunity).he will date and have one-nigth stands(he IS rich and powerful).I would like the young rich and powerful to go to a diferent European school which its self created the lie about hogwarts being the best school in the world to protect its secrets and the identity of its students.Harry is powerful maybe even a bit over voldy, but has noidea how to use it,thats why he has a long and arduous training regime in front of him. Well in the end I would like to have Harry/fleur.
Well its not my fav story but its what I feel like reading now

 

I assume, as you're from Spain, that English is not your first language. So I have corrected your misspellings and corrected some of the slightly odd wording.

 

Deathly Hallows anyone?

 

I don't count DH anymore than the canon police force me to do. I read (skimmed) it once. That was plenty. Besides, I'm simply describing the things that would make my happiest fanfic.
If I were trying to adjust canon, I'd have the thing plotted by Tolkein. HE really knew how to tell a story while giving enough hints of the Big Picture to make a backstory with depth and colour.

 

A good fanfic includes:

- Intelligent Harry
- Some knowledge of magic before Hogwarts
- No soul bonding
- No Friends-as-Spies
- No manipulative Dumbledore
- No redeemable Snape
- No fucking katanas
- No political Harry - he's smart, not THAT smart.
- Well thought out plot
- Well choreographed fight scenes (creative uses of canon magic > made up spells, IMO)
- No 7th year @ Hogwarts (it's a war, not some extended Triwizard Tourney)
- No making Ron's Mirror of Erised vision come true
- No smut; it's just not that entertaining after a while
- Highly intelligent/ruthless Voldemort & Death Eaters. S'more interesting that way.

 

Thanks.Oddly enough is not so much as not being my first language as a combination of not having written in English in over 6 months and being lazy.Anyways It is still much apreciated. I'll keep on writting to get into form asp.

To Justblaise: I realize I sound somewhat like a canon hater,but lately I feel that the general idea behind HP had so much potential that I can't but think that J.K. didn't get the most out of it.

 

@JustBlaise: Have I ever mentioned how much I like your avatar? It's a great pic - exciting, interesting, and perfectly balanced. I took a course in photography once (just enough to appreciate what I'm seeing.) That's a nice piece of art.

 

Those two words NEVER belong in the same sentence, ever. It is always a good idea to build a harem, always!

Anyway, my perfect fic needs to have good grammar, spelling, realistic plot, realistic characters, and doesn't need a retarded amount of what is called "suspension of disbelief."

Also, pussy Harry annoys me. Seriously, no one gets abused and suddenly turns into a gigantic cry baby. They go off murdering animals, slowly working their way up into killing humans and becoming a serial killer. Or they can take the high road and just beat their future wife and kids with the tool of their choice. Either way, no one sits and whines about how shitty their life is.

Unrealistic enemies also annoys me. Voldemort doesn't want to go off killing random people for the rest of his life, he is a revolutionary. He wants to establish a new government to fit his ideals, which may or may not include genocide.

I really hate when people put no thought into their writing.

 

Nice topic

I like nice long fanfictions with some side-stories, and good theory behind spells and magic.

I like fanfictions with teamwork in them; the ones where Harry has friends and they work together; the ones where he isn't a perfect badass warrior who learns everything overnight. He's still a teenage boy, so he can't instantly own the most powerful wizards of England. Speaking of that, there should be a long road to getting power (learning, training, etc... Just please, no DBZ-like training and power levels :banana.

Speaking of "power levels", there shouldn't be any ridiculously strong wizards on either side.

Enemies should be intelligent. Voldemort isn't an idiot and Harry does not make fun of one of the most dangerous wizards alive all the time.

No muggle technology and guns, it just isn't fun.

I also like some good pairings.

Definitely agreed

I don't like it much either. Especially when Harry starts fighting with him all the time.

Damn right! I like it if they add some weapon like a magic knife or w/e, as long as it's tasteful and believable. But I definitely don't like it when they make Harry into a ninja with swords, throwing knives, etc. armed to the teeth

Awesome, I thought I was the only one on DLP thinking that way

P.S. before I forget - no Harry becoming the richest man in England and inheriting manors of half of wizarding families... Ugh.

 

A second chance at life~

 

One of my favorites!
But it's drifted FAR away from HP. At this point, it's pretty much an original fic that has a few scene settings that more-or-less parallel HP, and that coincidentally uses some of the same names.

 

Well, I rather agree with most of the notions in your post, so I figure that I'll respond to it rather than make a post of my own. In my case, I find it particularly important to make a story character-driven. Maybe because that's because I've played one too many CRPGs, but I find that basing things around a plot limits characters' development immensely. Perhaps more important, though, is that I like powerful characters, to a point that I expect most would consider excessive.

Hmph. Reasonable explanation? Voldemort marked him; hit him with a failed killing curse. After that point, it's reasonable to say that he's equal in power to Voldemort, preferably with some detail on the magical mechanics involved (incidentally, this presents an interesting and plausible avenue for the concept of Horcruxes, and to display Voldemort's utter genius in the field of dark magic, but I'm not going to describe it further here). Personally, I think that Harry as Tom Riddle version two is pretty good, and is useful for requiring Dumbledore's direct involvement in his later upbringing, which gives him the choice to follow his predecessor's path, Dumbledore's, or perhaps his own, depending on the story.

Molly Weasley should never have been part of the Order. If she is, her character must be changed from canon so much as to make her unrecognizable in all but name and appearance. Frankly, Canon!Molly is absolutely worthless. If anything, all the ideas about the Order being weak, incompetent, etc, are all due to her participation in the canon version.

Ron is still a jealous idiot, who, while being able to learn from experience, will never amount to anyone that a worthwhile Harry would want to spend time with. Hermione is a dangerous idiot, who thinks that books are a substitute for intelligence, and someone that a worthwhile Harry would take steps to marginalize or eliminate. She is an example of just why muggleborns should be taken from their parents at birth and raised by wizards. So is the Ministry, for that matter. Short version: everything bad in the wizarding world is the direct fault of muggleborns, including in particular pro-pureblood dogma.

His primary goal should be to repair the damage that muggleborns have done to the wizarding world, and prevent any further wizards from being muggle-raised, including muggleborns. In particular, he should be focusing on grooming Harry to be his successor in this. For extra irony, Salazar Slytherin should have founded the Order of the Phoenix with Fawkes after having left Hogwarts for this very purpose, but only the current leader and his apprentice actually know this. For even more irony, Voldemort should have been Dumbledore's original apprentice. The later two criteria are, of course, just suggestions.

He can still be nice to Dumbledore or others that he might find "worthy". This includes Voldemort, though he's likely to side with Dumbledore because Voldemort scares him more. This also includes an appropriately capable and intelligent Harry, provided that said Harry isn't an asshole like his father (and Snape).

Harry should gain enough control over his "accidental" magic that he has the Dursleys at his mercy. He should use this power in such a fashion that the Dursleys begin to actually respect him slightly, despite not liking magic. In particular, he should use it to their benefit more often than he uses it to keep them in line.

An extension to this is that Harry shouldn't want a family. He's quite satisfied with what he has, and doesn't desire anyone to tell him what to do. This should bring him into conflict with McGonagall, but if he does it right, Snape will probably respect it, if only for the deviousness involved.

Transfiguring Hedwig into a human should be encouraged, particularly if it's for (mutually consensual) sexual activity. Ideally, this should be something generally done with familiars of the opposite sex, though it would be prudent to note that a creature (human or otherwise) can only bear offspring in its natural form, and cannot be impregnated by a creature that has a different natural form from its own. Also favorable is transfiguring Hedwig into a snake so that Harry can carry her around and converse with her in parseltongue.

However, having him marry someone he gets along well with after fourth year, for the sake of protecting him from the Ministry via the principle of emancipation by marriage is probably a good idea. It doesn't have to mature into a meaningful relationship, or ever involve sex in any way - they can get divorced as soon as Harry's of age, if it suits the storyline.

Interesting Slytherin students are good... pressured by family and circumstances, not so much. Brainwashed into following family ideals, sure. That's a perfect description of Malfoy, particularly if Harry or Dumbledore regrets that his upbringing has made him irredeemable. However, I'm more in favor of Slughorn-like Slytherins. Slughorn is a very good image of what a Slytherin, minus the incredibly ambitious ones like Riddle, should be. Well, without the excess weight, I suppose.


Finally, as to my own major point, 'Light' and 'Dark' shouldn't be in conflict except in the eyes of the Ministry and idiots like Hermione and Ron. Magic, of any nature, is just a tool. It's true that there may be some vile rituals, but those rituals aren't vile in what they do as much as they're vile because of what they require. A Horcrux is only a horrible object because it requires a cold-blooded murder; the Killing curse can be used for good purpose even though it requires intent to kill - ideally, Dumbledore should have used it against his old friend (and not gay lover) Grindelwald. Having Harry use the Imperius curse on the assorted creatures in the Triwzard Tournament is a good idea. Hell, having Harry pretend to be the actual Voldemort, as opposed to the impostor who stole his memories but not his essence in the half-snake body, to trick Bellatrix into working for him, is a good idea, even if only to distract her for long enough to hit her with a surprise Killing curse.

The wizarding world should have morals and notions that we consider odd, or even disgusting - see my above suggestion of (transfigured) familiars as sex partners. It can have odd names, though it should have more normal names than unusual ones.

Replace every instance of 'soul' with 'magical core'. Muggles don't have magical cores, though squibs do. All siblings of a wizard, born to the same parents, of course, are squibs, as well - this includes Petunia, but she doesn't know it, and is what powers the blood wards around her (and not Number 4). Likewise, all magical creatures have a magical core. Ideally, wizarding history should record that all religions are actually false, either having a basis in the actions of early wizards, or no basis at all. This is for no other reason than to piss religious types off, because that's fun.

I do sincerely apologize for the length of this post, but encourage you to read it anyway - it'd probably be worth your time, even if you hate my thoughts on this subject.

Narion

 

Truth #1...

....Truth #2...

...Truth #3 for the win! Sounds like someone's read Big D on a Diet's pokegirls fic. Transfiguring Hedwig into a snake would've been GENIUS; I'm surprised I've never seen it in any fanfiction.

 

I must say that I like your suggestions Narion.

I think it would be cool if an author goes into wizarding history a little bit and explains how Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Zeus and other mythical figures were actually early powerful wizards that claimed god status and performed "miracles" in order to amass muggle followers and control them for their own ambitions. This obviously is well before any ministries and magical governments and secrecy agreements as I imagine that magical folk of the age were really unorganized/scattered and magic wasn't nearly as standardized as it is in canon, with things like apparition, portkeys, and powerful magics being closely guarded secrets only taught to apprentices and/or successors. The author could also attempt to explain how certain mythical creatures (Dragons for example) show up in the myths of many different cultures across the world.

Very few stories included any mention of wizarding history before the Hogwarts founders, and I think that's a shame. It doesn't have to be central to the story or anything, but if an author uses a few paragraphs or half a chapter to explain the beginnings of wizard kind (long before the founders), it would be interesting. I mean, hasn't Ollivanders been making wands since 300 BC or something like that? That's way before the founders and modern wizardry.

Fuck all these fics where Harry is Merlin/Godric's/Slytherin's ancestor, I think it would be cool (if you are going to do a Harry is x's ancestor) if an author did a fic where Harry is descended from Zeus or Ares or any of the other Olympian wizard-gods. Just for an original take on those fics where Harry inherits x amount of titles/powers/vaults etc. It would be funny if Harry inherited the infamous Lightning spell from Zeus, and he uses it to strike down his enemies, etc. Of course you would have to explain why it didn't manifest in James or other recent Potters, but there are countless ways you could explain it.

 

Changes in a Time of War~