(I wasn't certain if this should go here or into fanfic discussion. Please move it if inappropriately placed.)

Don't you hate it when you find an apparently decent, complete, grammatically acceptable fanfic and then 15 chapters in, it drops a pet-peeve bombshell on you that makes it virtually unreadable?

I know I do. This one pissed me off enough that I wanted to create a thread to commiserate.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5276974/1/Harry_Potter_My_Life_Is_My_Own

I was reading this fic. Fairly acceptable, and worthy of the recycling bin. Solid grammar and spelling. A few slip-ups regarding homophones, but not bad. I gagged a little at the appearance of NiceToGoblins!Harry and Awestruck!Griphook, but it wasn't enough to turn me away. Somewhere around chapter ten, there was some inheritance mumbo jumbo and Lord Potter who was heir to all four founders appeared, but I was a good 50k words in at that point. I didn't want to stop, and it was a minor enough plot point that I thought I could ignore it.

Then, chapter 16 comes around. The sorting. Where Harry is sorted into all four Hogwarts houses, and so a fifth house (Hogwarts house) is formed, where Harry gets his own personal table in the great hall, his own tower at Hogwarts so that all his little first year friends can join him.

FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!

90k+ words into the fucking story and this crap happens. Makes me want to burn down an orphanage or something.

Fuck. I need to bleach my eyes. Or purge. I need a decent fic that I haven't read...

 

There is always the vague possibility that it will continued on in an interesting and original fashion. The existence of the 5th house throws inter-house politics out of order, Harry becomes really unpopular in 4 houses because he's so 'special' and he becomes a social outcast...

Of course the likelihood of that happening is...minimal.

Such things are just one of the perils of reading fanfiction. Learn to deal with it, or stop reading fics. Just like finding out a really good fic is abandoned, its one of those things.

 

I fail to see why this needs its' own thread.

I can commiserate, but surely you must have seen the writing on the wall by the 50k mark?

 

I know exactly what you mean... it's even worse when there's unannounced slash that jumps out at you halfway through the story.

Sometimes it can be quite well hidden, augmenting the generally surprised outrage when the horrors within are discovered. Love the avatar, from one of my favourite things ever.

 

Bit off topic, but I'll take the compliment. I went on a photoshopping binge with various screenshots of it a couple months back.

 

16 chapters and 90k+ words and he's only just been sorted? What? That's insane!

 

I'm suprised you managed to read past chapter two, to be honest. I couldn't.

 

If I remember correctly he uses all those words to show of how much of a prodigy Harry is and him being a smart ass to all the teachers.

 

What? And here I expected an extensively long shopping scene where every item purchased needs to be described. From black feathered quills to the number of ink pots needed; who wouldn't want to know?!

 

Ah, but how many time-dilating compartments with en-suites to you want in your shrinkable trunk with blood identification?

 

I don't remember the name of the fic, but a few years back I was reading it and stopped because of a single part midway through the fic that irked the shit out of me. iirc, Harry did something that put Draco's life in danger which required Snape to save him. Snape was so angry that when he got back to Dumbledore's office he leaned Harry over Dumbledore's desk and spanked him with Gryffindor's sword.

True story.

:facepalm

 

Crack!fic or slash? If the former, then lol; if the latter, then still lol but a bit of uke: for good measure.

 

Neither. That's why I stopped reading because it was such a wtf moment. I think I had left a review explaining to the author that 16 year olds don't get spanked.

 

I've got a fic that's legendary for dropping the ball - this one near the end.

Unsung Hero

This fic probably pissed me off more than any other fanfic I've ever read. Not only did it single-handedly destroy my fondness for Other-Boy-Who-Lived fics, it was mostly responsible for ruining Harry/Hermione for me. Most of the fic was tolerable... up until the ending chapters. Trust me when I say it's beyond horrible.

 

Brain did a little backflip when I saw your username after reading the post. That fic must have left a deep, deep impression on your fragile psyche.

And agreed on Unsung Hero having a ridiculously trollish ending. The amount of rage is proportionate to how good the fic was up to that point, and Unsung was a good read until the WTFness happens.

 

OP: I'm not gonna lie, but I lol'd a bit when I read your post. I pictured this reaction.

Swear to god, the original author died near the end, and her weirdshit sister/cousin/whatever took over.

It still bothers me. Reckon I should ask the author why she jumped ship?

 

You'd probably get a horrid answer like she prefers Harry x Ginny now.

That was the fic for me that almost ruined the whole non-BWL type of fics, but then luckily I found Santi's fic after reading it.

 

I remember that before I started to read that story, I briefly skimmed the reviews and found out that many people seemed to dislike the ending.

I thought, well, how bad can it be? ...and proceeded to read the story anyway.

To say that I understood the criticism by the time I made it to end would be quite the understatement.

 

Unsung Hero was most definitely not tolerable. It has a horrible plot, and horrible characterization. The only thing decent with that story is the writing, which in itself was nothing impressive.
I'll probably stop reading it way before I reach the ending, but how much worse can it get?

 

A lot.

/filler.