Well, this is not really a fanfiction pet peeve, but...

Shitty fanart. :fire

I sometimes find myself having to browse deviantArt hoping to find a character portrait that would allow me to get a better mental portrayal of him or her. The first 4 or so pages are usually okay, and might include something that remotely resembles what I'm looking for (or is at least nice to look at in its own right).

Beyond that, however, it gets increasingly difficult to find a creation that's neither a reproduction of a fucking movie poster, a cliched, cookie-cutter portrayal that reveals a complete lack of imaginative effort on the part of the "artist", or fanart that looks like babby's first attempt at drawing. You know, sloppy lines, no idea of the concept of shadows or color gradation, unlikely body proportions, all that jazz.

And after the good and the bad, there comes, of course, the ugly-- retarded, unfunny little comics or scenes that make you reach for your brain bleach. (Rhyme so very not intended.)

FOR FUCK'S SAKE, PEOPLE.

KEEP IT OFFLINE IF IT'S SHIT.

 

In the same vein as the flashback thing:

Harry POV:


Not only is it fucking annoying, it's not even grammatically correct.

If people can't write a story in a way that readers can figure out the point of view, they probably shouldn't be writing it.

 

The Harry POV thing is just for suckers who can't write well enough to differentiate characters. Which reminds me...

I use quite a bit of flashbacks in my stories, and it is so ridiculously simple to use, say, Italic font to indicate such without resorting to fucking 'Flashback' 'End Flashback'.

Those "writers" just aren't trying, man.

 

Not really a pet peeve per say, but ffn in general.

Christ, people - innovate!

It's all the same shit on every page!

Pointless Slash. (Usually so sexually repressed 14 year old girls can put their 'fantasies' onto 'paper').
Reading the Books.
Piss-poorly planned time-travel.
OC/Self-Insert.
Self-Insert-As-Sirius-Black's-'Daughter'.
"Harry Potter's Sister"/Self-Insert.

Yeah, it sort of repeats.

 

Stories that switch tense or perspective mid chapter.

 

Amen to this.

And in some cases, stories that switch tense 3-4 times in a single paragraph.

 

I would like to say that this thread had been immensely helpful and I look forward to sharing my work once it's ready with people who will do more than say 'I liked it' or other useless little comments.

Anyway, pet peeves:

1) MPreg! EWWW! The one thing worse than having two males getting it on is having them impregnate each other.

2) Time Travel. Was done wonderfully well in Joe's Sword of the Hero trilogy but other than that, I cannot stand it.

3) Harry's younger brother/twin brother is the BWL.
-Harry's twin sister is the GIRL who lived
-Harry is a girl. I absolutely hate this one. Why do writers always have to take male heroes and turn them into females?

4) Marauders and Next Gen fic.

5) Snarry *shudder*

6) Terrible spelling/grammar and people who refuse to get a freaking beta! There's a 'writer' on ffnet in the Young Justice fandom who should be shot.

 

There's more than just that author who deserve to be shot.

 

LOL you know who I mean then? I've reported that douche to numerous times but, apparently, ffnet's policies are just there for decoration since nothing has happened.

 

No he meant pretty much every author on FFN deserves to be shot with a few exceptions. Most of the exceptions being from DLP

 

Calling Voldemort's first bid for power the First War before he's resurrected and there's a Second War.

 

I approve of the terms "First Rise" and "Second Rise", but it seems unlikely they'd be referred to as wars, especially so immediately. Maybe a few years down the line historians would start to refer to them as wars. But not so quickly.

 

I think he meant referring to the first war as the First when people didn't even believe the Second War after it had already started. It's like people in 1920 using the term 'First World War'.

 

Actually, the name ‘The First World War’ was coined all the way back in 1920, though you are right it wasn’t in popular usage. There was a question on QI about it.

 

Huh. Learn something new every day, I guess...

 

Sadly, the last chapter of OotP is "The Second War Begins". So, yeah.

 

QI is an awesome show, which I knew nothing about until this past October. Thank goodness for YouTube.

Ah, but one could say that the chapter titles are coming from an omniscient source, so...

 

Remembered another one I can't stand. Beautiful, mysterious American chick transfers to Hogwarts and she and Harry fall madly in love. Made worse when the American chick turns out to be Voldemort's secret daughter. *Gag*

---------- Post automerged at 04:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:28 AM ----------

So, here's a question that's been floating around in my mind for some time. Does Vernon hate magic because Petunia hates it and was warped by her hatred, or did he decide to hate it all on his own? If Petunia was actually okay with magic and, therefore, loving toward Harry, would Vernon be also? Is he just following Petunia's lead here?

Thoughts?

 

I always got the impression that she hates magic because she was jealous of Lily, and he hates magic because it doesn't fit with his idea of 'normal'. The stereotypical small minded British man, who has a 9-5 job, a wife who doesn't work and tends the house, and a son he's proud of. Anything that doesn't fit that pattern he will hate. He probably hates the guy down the road who runs his own website design company from his own home, is awake all hours, dresses in Hawaiian shirts in the middle of winter, drives a motorbike, and listens to weird music, just as much as he hates Harry.

 

Okay, but *if* Petunia was okay with magic and *not* jealous of Lily, would there have been a problem between her and Vernon or would Vernon have accepted it? *Could* he have accepted magic because his wife did, or would it have led to divorce central?