This is something I have wrote in another forum, which discuss a possibility of writing a Harry Potter that is a tactical genius.

I have suggested in that thread that it will be better to develop someone into brilliant tactician/strategist? Someone like Ron perhaps?

The sad thing about Ron is that we do see him having the potential to develop into a brilliant tactician in the very first book. He was able to outwit a full adult and he understood the idea behind sacrificing himself to gain a tactical advantage in a chess game at the age of 11.

This is something that was forgotten by Rowling as she mold Ron into a generally useless guy, who can offer nothing but moral support. Why not take this positive attribute of Ron and develop it further? Create a Ron Weasly that can be more likeable and awesome at the same time.

Let Ron Weasly read a copy of Ender's game, and have him further develop his interest in tactical/strategic thinking as a result. Let Ron embarking on a reading spree, and let him learn about great military minds like Napoleon, Sun Tzu, Alexander and Hannibal.

At the same time, the writer can choose to retain some of Ron's negative attribute, such as emotional immaturity and ability to piss off his friends/girlfriends, make him vulnerable at the same time. This would avoid turning Ron into some sort of Gary Stu.

Do you guys think this is an idea that can be further developed? How will a tactical genius! Ron affect the course of events for the first 7 books?

 

Chess =/= tactical genius.


I actually love using Ron in fics, I think he has a lot of untapped potential. But this is not the way to do it. Want to know why?

Because anything with a ! after it used to describe a character is fucking retarded. For instance:

Gray!Ron. Dumb.

Perhaps...

Gay!Ron. Also dumb.

Perhaps...

Sadistic!Ron. No thanks.

Hmm. Maybe...

Altruistic!Ron. Ugh, sounds boring.

Ooh, how about...

Autistic!Ron. This one could work.


The point is, this is dumb. You should feel bad.

 

Wow, I never thought that Ron could be a tactical genius! My mind is blown.

 

Ron is one of my favorite characters in book because I think Rowling did the best actually developing his character (flaws and all) unlike a pretty one dimensional self insert that is Hermione. I like to see him portrayed as a brave, dependable, and funny friend of Harry. Remember, Harry really considers Ron his best friend for most of the books and talks to Ron in a way he really doesn't with Hermione. The part of Ron I see written the least well across the board in fanfiction is how funny and easy to talk to he is, so I'm not surprised most authors find it easier to write him off.

This isn't Ocean's 11 where everyone needs to have their specialty, so yeah, the whole Ron being a tactical genius because he's good at chess is stupid and I don't think I've ever read a good story which features that kind of Ron.

 

Well, I am not saying that him being good at chess automatically means he is a tactical genius.

There is room for him to gradually grow into a role of a tactician/planner for the DA/trio. He already has an interest in chess and Quidditch tactics, so he could very develop an interest in military history.

Hmm? I thought it is quite popular among fanfic community to add a exclamation mark whenever they are altering the base personality of a character? If it is not allowed, then I will stop using it.

I won't find a problem with a story depicting a Ron that isn't anything more than a very good and dependable friend. The issue is how do you focus the story on Ron and at the same time, make him interesting for the readers?

A retelling of the series with Ron as a much better and more dependable friend won't really deviate much from canon. Isn't that one of the biggest complain people have with peggy sue fics?

 

... it isn't that it isn't allowed... you can do what you want to an extent. It's just dumb, and certainly not popular here.

 

To me, the whole exclamation mark thing gives off a half-baked sort of vibe. Then again, it is a simple and easy to understand way of getting across the gist of what your fic is about.

 

It's not dumb when you can use it as a shorthand to quickly describe your idea of changing the character. Like:
- Casanova!Not-Gay!Dumbledore,
- Carrie!Luna,
- PeterDinklage!Flitwick.

 

True Celestin. That's why I was going for Autistic!Ron. I think it would be a new twist.

 

Why are we lambasting ray for using ! as a fanfiction descriptor? Are we that anal-retentive?

 

Oh man, this brings me back so many unpleasant memories of my Daphne Greengrass thread... (first post).

 

-------------

"Haawwy!" screamed Ron, careening through the battlefield waving his wand around, unknown spells shooting out of it at wild angles.

Harry stared in disbelief as Ron somehow emerged unscathed through the spellfire, and crashed straight into a surprised Bellatrix. An audible snap was heard as Bellatrix landed underneath him, her head bent at an odd angle.

The Death Eaters stilled, and watched in horror as Ron picked himself up, somehow managing to take out a Death Eater 10 yards behind him with a beige coloured spell in the process.

"It's the Weasley!" shouted a Death Eater.

"Run!"

 

You know, as much as the other two examples I gave would be amusing to see, I think I'm onto something with Luna. The setup is already there. The Yule Ball can be used as her breaking point, because it's before she meets Harry. The problem is with the massacre, but there are two ways for it to work. One, instead of starting her killing as the party, she would murder them afterwards, one by one, before anyone notices what is happening.

Or maybe use her snapping as a way to access overpowered, wandless magic that everyone loves to give Harry in fanfiction. Or make it an accidental magic, but much more destructive and continuous till everyone is dead. Thought I'd still make it that Dumbledore isn't present at the ball, because him unable to contain her would stretch readers' suspension of disbelief too much.

 

As funny as that situation might seem, there's definitely a correlation between mentally unbalanced wizards and being a danger to others. Case in point: Ariana, who can't control her magic.

An army of autistic minions might be more effective than an army of Death Eaters, not to mention more entertaining.

 

I'm just saying, if you have to use _____!Harry to describe him, then you probably shouldn't be writing at all. Using a single word to describe a character is lazy, sloppy, and downright bad. No character should be able to just autofit into a single category, and by trying to do that you end up creating a character who is just a caricature, nothing more.

 

I disagree.

True, while most writers (and I use that term loosely when regarding FFn's masses) are crappy enough to use a single word to sum up their 'as-flat-as-a-frying-pan' Harry (such as the generic Dark!Harry or veela!Harry -God forbid on the latter-), writers even on DLP have used it to broadly label or categorize their main character, even when his/her character's characterization is both complex in nature and very compelling to read.

 

And I tend to feel it does them a disservice, because it flattens how they and their audience look at characters. It is a crutch, and a poor one.

 

I've always had a problem with it, because the "!" symbol means "Not" to me. In programming you'll often see statements such as: x != 7; ie. x is Not Equal To 7.

And amongst geeks you'll see it used conversationally, such as: Justin Beiber != musician

So, when I see your character descriptions, they seem bizarre because I read them as "Carrie Not Luna" and "Peter Dinklage Not Flitwick", and then have to re-translate them in my head. It really made me wtf when I first saw it used. I don't think I came across it before the HP fandom. It wasn't used in any of the fandoms I read in the late 90s through early-mid 00s.

 

Here's something different:

1.Have Arthur Weasley be more interested in acquiring muggle books.

2.Let Arthur buy Ron "Lord of the Rings" for his 7th birthday.

3.Ron reads and likes the book.
Because Gandalf is a wizard, his character has the most influence on the boy.

4.Ron being more like Gandalf can only be good.

 

I didn't have such a problem before, because programming is not what I have in mind when reading descriptions of fics. Well, I didn't till you mentioned it.