Why is that? I mean, why would it make you cringe?

 

Harold is actually the most likely, main character-ey or not.

His name is Harry, and I'm not sure why fanfic authors have such a hard time accepting that.

Odran: How many people named Hadrian do you know. I personally know, or have known, seven people named Harold, and two were members of my family. Hadrian is cringe-worthy because the story doesn't take place in ancient Rome.

 

Cut out the 'H' from the name, plus transmute the name to the local culture and language and I can tell you it's at least 3, but that's because I live in a non-English speaking country, specifically one in Eastern Europe, so the name isn't quite commonly encountered here in its English variant.

Wizards and witches give their children all sorts of names. I can't say I've met many an Albus or Severus lately - how about you? - yet those are the names in a book about wizards and witches. What is commonly encountered IRL may not go so for a book about magic, let alone for fiction written by the fans about such a book.

Bottom line, it's all personal preference in the end.

Someone said it nicely before, that the name Harry Potter simply rolls off the tongue, and I quite agree with them on that.

 

Hadrian is disastrous. It's the kind of name that slash authors reflexively choose when writing Harry/Voldemort. Or any kind of slash pairing. It's just an emo sounding name, disregarding the historic Roman Emperor.

 

Emo sounding name? I wasn't aware that was a thing. If you disregard the historic reference/significance to one name, you might as well do it for all of them.

How do you know anyway what sort of name pops up in Harry/Voldemort fics anyway? Would you like to share something with the rest of the class?

 

Sure, my own story To Define Treachery is under that character heading and I want to know how it does against the slash fics when I update. Hadrian explicitly appears in the summaries.

It does pretty miserably.

 

William, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Seamus, Dean, Neville, Oliver. Need I go on? I can. Easily.

 

I think I'm the only person who's managed to make that name work.

 

LOL just checked my email and this joker alerted one of my stories: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4798684/. Three out of three stories has Harry as Hadrian. Perfect.

I also find that flaming the Harry/Voldemort slash fics helps get me going when trying to write more material. It's like a pre-writing ritual for me now.

 

Batsheda, Sirius, Regulus, Alecto, Amycus, Dedalus, Elphias, Albus, Aberforth, Filius, Marvolo, Morfin, Merope, Gellert, Bellatrix, Remus, Olympe, Alastor, Antioch, Cadmus, Ignotus, Augustus, Arcturus, Pollux, Cygnus, Cassiopeia, Walburga, Newt, Hepzibah, Andromeda, Nymphadora, Septima, Thorfinn... need I go on?

I don't quite follow. What's perfect? That we're talking about the name and this coincided to pop up? Or are the stories about the Harry/Voldemort cliche you just mentioned?

 

Nope. I'm just pointing out that JKR seems to have a 50/50 split on unique/common names for wizards.

And I know two people named Alastor

Peeve: People blushing constantly. I don't mean five times in the story. I'm talking five times in every chapter.

 

Oh. Fair enough. Never meant to imply all wizard and witch names were non-standard. It's a bit odd though how random it seemed what name someone got assigned by Rowling. I mean, Snape was named Severus, even though he had a muggle father. Was this perhaps due to some Prince tradition or just no reason at all?

 

He's a Hogwarts professor, so a unique name is probably a requirement, no matter how he got it.

Peeve: Characters not using contractions. At all. Ever. I've seen a number of fics lately that have this issue. People just don't talk like that unless they're named Albus Dumbledore, and even he slips a few in now and then. I don't know if this is supposed to convey sophistication or what, but it just reads weird.

 

Sirious dissolving the Malfoy marriage making Narcissa and Draco No-name.


Also that fucking Reptilla challange. And the Bloody mary challange...

fuck them.

 

I have no idea what they are, but I get the impression I don't really want to either.

 

Reptilla:

Blood Brandy's Vegas Vacation Challenge. I just call it Bloodymary, sorry for the confusion:

 

I didn't know the first one was actually a challenge, but those kind of stories have been around for years (then again, don't know how old the challenge is either)

I've never heard about the second one before now, but it sounds as shitty as the first one.

 

I'm not sure which one of the two is worse.

On one hand, the first one has soul mates.

On the other, the second has... Las Vegas?

Seriously, where do you find this shit?

 

Everywhere.

No, seriously. Everywhere.

I didn't actually know about the Vagas challenge though I suppose that's likely because I've never bothered with HP/DC crossovers anyway. But the Reptilla challenge is responsible for literally hundreds of fics. It's one of the primary reasons why Harry/Hermione has such a bad rep.

I must admit but I'm not sure I really 'get' the point of Soul Bond stories. My understanding is that they're meant to be romances? I think I have a basic understanding of the thought process that goes on and produces them...

1) I want to write a Romance between Harry and [Hermione/Ginny/Daphne/DracBARF].
2) It has to be an epic Romance worthy of the great poet himself!
3) Thus it needs true love, but even better. They're Soul Mates! Sigh, so romantic.
4) Because they'e Soul Mates, obviously that's a thing. They can't do anything BUT love eachother.
5) Thus they have to get together in the first chapter (or better, paragraph). They're Soul Mates!
6) Oh, wait. The story was meant to be a Romance and now I'm just writing about a sickeningly, deliriously happy couple... I seem to have misplaced the actual story...
7) I will not give up! The world needs to see my magnum opus. Throw in something about true love conquering evil, add a bit of manipulative dumbledore to get a nice 'starcrossed lovers' vibe going. Mix with some love potions and serve bland.

 

I always hated the phrase 'starcrossed lovers'. From Wiki:

Also this phrase was first used by Shakespeare in Rome and Juliet. So comparing Harry and Hermione to Romeo and Juilet and then giving them a happy ending? Stupid.