Yeah, that would go to Mira Mirth's fic, probably. Dethryl's work may have been good at the time but it's average at best, now.

 

Oh God, he's the one who killed off Hermione. I was damn pissed.

I firmly believe that the best Slytherin!Harry stories I have ever read are the Grey Maiden Series by Chris Widger

How about MagicalAnimagus!Harry and Multi-Animagus!Harry. Also anything that is a Twilight Crossover. Actually most Crossovers suck in general. I need to find a good one sometime so I don't offend people by saying they all suck.

Also Harry gaining some ridiculous inheritance and being emancipated piss me off.

 

Well... the inheritance/emancipation cliche sucks because it makes things easier for Harry, in the vein of Super!Harry - if it makes things harder for him instead, like it does in Years of Rebellion, then it's a pretty good plot device. But that's admittedly rare.

 

I remember seeing somewhere gargoyle!harry. Aspects of the animal form 'leak' over, and are stronger as the animal is magical.

I like magical!animagus, as long as it isn't a cop-out. Horntail!form in Learning to Breathe actually fits. Unfortunately, most people can't write, and can't learn to get better.

 

Wasn't that Santi's earlier story, Dark Lord Potter Part 1?

 

Yep, I have read that one. I have to saay it wasn't bad, but I am wary of anything with Magical Animagus forms. And yes, Super!Harry is fine as long as you increase the Dark side proportionally as I plan on doing in my main story which features a SuperPowerful!Voldemort.

 

A pet peeve of mine is when people use the story's characters in their disclaimer's and author notes.

 

Oi. I know Dethryl, he is super nice. When he wrote They Shook Hands, it was the best Slytherin Harry fic.

I can't say if it's still the best of the best (still within the top 5 though) until he publishes the 5th year. Last I hear, he was on chapter 14 and is planning about 20 chapters for the whole 5th year (he is publishing them all at once).

I agree with you Master of life. Also, I can't stand, most of the fics, where Harry Potter goes back in time and goes to school with Tom Riddle. It is almost always slash. If I went back in time and saw my enemy, I would fucking kill him on sight.

 

It's not the best anymore, though it was started in 2002. In my opinion, Dethryl really does come across as a dick from his summaries, biography etc.

Another major peeve is poor research on England. Authors from other countries, excluding the guys here, write things that show their lack of research. The most irritating of these are geographical errors, such as referring to London and Portsmouth as 'across the country' from each other, or placing Big Ben in Manchester, though 'Mom' annoys me just as much.

 

That snake was conjured from nothing to begin with.

I can't help but think there's a difference between vanishing/dismissing a conjured object, and trying to vanish a living human being, or even homonculi like Ron, Snape, and Draco.

 

Whilst this can be annoying, you have to bear in mind that its often very difficult for someone with little to no knowledge of a country to go about researching the small things. And whilst members of a forum such as thing could post to ask questions, the majority of authors don't have this sort of support network. So they go with whatever they know, or can find out in a few minutes of research.

Whilst it is annoying, I prefer that they make the mistakes and still set the fic in England rather than any of the following:

a) Have Harry up and leave to the US for no real reason
b) Write the UK as though its an American state, with American laws, American structures and American culture.
c) Write the fic as though Harry Potter has always been based in America (only seen a few of these over the years, but god do I hate them).

 

While I can understand your frustration, the book also mentions Professor Flitwick being Banished and Summoned around the room during Fourth year (though if I recall, it was another Longbottom critical failure that started it in the first place).

A thing I hate, therefore: when canon clearly trumps a well-made argument about how the magic system could have been explained and remain 'balanced'. (Let's hear it for the Trace, Dobby's magic, the Fidelius Charm, Gamp's Five Exceptions, wandless magic, portraits that aren't horcruxes, the Elder wand, Lily's protection and the incomprehensible endurance and sustainability of the Statutes of Secrecy when faced with British wizards that make Baldrick from Blackadder look refined).

 

That reminds me of one of my favorite bits of spellcasting, courtesy of Big D's What Would Slytherin Harry Do:

Damn, I miss updates for that one.

 

I think the Trace may be the worst one. How the bloody hell does that thing actually work. Is it a detector that detects areas? Is it on people? their wands? both? all three? So frickin confusing.

 

You cannot be fucking series if you think Grey Maiden is all that. Here's my advice: Lurk More. Read the Library. Realize that On the Way to Greatness and the almost-as-stellar VINCET series are infinitely better than that absurd OC- and OOC-fest known as Grey Maiden. Also, WWSHD is great, though it's really just snippets.

Want to read a quality crossover? I'm no fan of crossovers, but nuhuh's Demon's Feign, Merlin's Pain is kickass, as is the HP/DF crossover When He Finds Out over in the WbA. Read nuhuh's The Stalking Blood Sack for a taste of badass!Harry putting a wtfpwn-smackdown on everything in the Anita Blake universe. I'm sure there are other quality crossovers, but as I said, I'm not a big fan.

Nice.

I see what you did thar. Well played, my good man.

 

Harry the Grey Wizard.

And especially Dumbledore of Many Colors (to extend the LoTR stuff )

 

I thought of one as I was reading some crap fanfics on FFnet.

Misuse of Apparation/Disapparition. You Apparate to a location, its what happens when you appear. Disapparition is what happens when you disappear from the spot. I just realized how easily that annoys me...

 

Thank you for reminding me how much I hate this. I'm hardly a lawyer, so I'm not sure how necessary a disclaimer is (although I somehow doubt Rowling is going to go around suing everyone who doesn't use one) but some people seem to use it as a place for the worst of jokes. Seriously, there is a special place in hell for people who create lame puns like these.

To be honest, it's almost amusing when you see an author who tries to make a different terrible disclaimer "joke" every chapter, and by about the tenth chapter the jokes can't even be called an attempt at humour.

This might be somewhat hypocritical, but this seems to be sort of semantics to me. If I saw someone do this, it probably wouldn't detract from my reading experience in the slightest, although fair enough if it annoys you. The difference between the two seems almost arbitrary to me though.

 

My latest peeve. Contrived, pointless shout-outs.

Yes, I know you like Movie X or Video Game Y, that doesn't you should crowbar in every reference to them you can come up with. Christ, I read a TSCC/BSG fic that literally used them every chapter after a while. To the point where Terminators were getting names like "Tsabo" just 'cause.

Which brings up another point, if you do it don't fucking remind us in the AN. Those who get it get it. Those who don't can continue on blissful writing it off as Skynet not working at full capacity. But when you let me know you're butchering suspension of disbelief to cram in a Magic:The Gathering reference I want to punch you in the throat.

Or even worse, when the person tells us that they lifted a completely generic line from a movie. In this case: Don't ever break into my house again :facepalm.

If you feel the need to cover yourself legally, do the standard disclaimer but add the name of the owner of the work you're paying homage to and spare us.

/rant.

 

Heh. You messed it up a bit yourself. In the books, one Apparates by employing Apparition.