Now, nothing on the Enoby scale, but basically dumbshit that makes no sense.

I can't remember which fic it was, but it had Arthur Weasley discovering Ginny's Diary, you know Riddle's Diary? Well that's okay and all, but then he turns it in because he thinks its Dark. Now, everything up until this point is perfectly fine and in fact a good premise.

But then when he turns it in, he gets arrested and thrown in Azkaban. What the fuck. Half his job is confiscating/catching enchanted objects and stuff. He is literally doing his job turning a Cursed object in, and the story has him arrested for it and Lucius laughing in glee.

I'll see if I can track it down.

 

Wait,

You think that in a government that is corrupt enough to allow Malfoy's continual access to Fudge, to allow people to be sent to prison without trial, and that'll rather stick their head in the ground than confront a problem, there is no way something like that can't be turned back on someone?

I hate to say it, but not only is that viable, it's another reason in real life not to talk to the police except through a lawyer. If two different people ask you where you got it from, and your answer doesn't match exactly both times. Guess, what, you've just gone from good citizen to suspicious person.

Not quite on topic, but this link by a lawyer explains how easy it is to get caught up in a situation and become the accused.

So, it may be handled in a very poor way, but the idea/concept is absolutely viable and makes complete sense, especially in the wizarding world JKR built.

 

If they want to chuck him in jail, I'm sure they can think up better excuses. Say, his involvement in a vigilante organisation, or his abuse of magic on muggle things.

 

Knoq, we all want Hogwarts to be real, but it ain't. Which means that real world logic doesn't always apply. And even if it does, it doesn't always mean that you have the best answer.

 

To be honest, that's kinda bullshit, Scott. Hogwarts is magic and by all means, play with that to your heart's content.

But it doesn't excuse lazy writing.

 

Mhm, I can see them wanting to arrest Ginny, since it was in her possession, but not Arthur whose actual job it is to bring in cursed Muggle objects.

 

Two things. First, the scenario was that he caught it. Second, who gave it to Ginny?

So, it plays out like this:

Arthur brings it in and files his report.

Report percolates through the layers of bureaucracy. Maybe there's even a raid on the Malfoy home.

However, someone in the Ministry who is loyal to Malfoy calls ahead. Nothing is found.

Malfoy, who has Fudge in his pocket, shows up and starts slinging accusations that Arthur was the one who had it. And now, he's using it to frame Malfoy for political reasons. A large donation to the Fudge-Slush-Fund charity helps Fudge see the light of day.

An investigation is made into Arthur, headed by someone who is either (1) beholding to Malfoy, or (2) dislikes Arthur for another reason, or (3) is dark him/herself.

Evidence to the contrary of his guilt is hidden. Other evidence is manufactured or taken out of context.

Arthur gets arrested at the close of the day, as everyone is heading toward the Floo network.

The Prophet is prepped by Malfoy, and has a reported there for the arrest. The article hits front page the next day.


Anyone who thinks that isn't plausible has a whole lot of blind faith in the way their government works, let alone a government like the Ministry of Magic.

 

Seeing as how he wasn't convicted of anything, and more to the point, was mostly just agreeing and encouraging Fudge, this isn't corruption.

Just basic Lobbying.

Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges.

In times of War, the Law falls silent.

Not to mention that Sirius Black apparently confessed outright. Nobody believed him innocent, and he didn't even profess innocence, and was basically caught redhanded. So on your counts....there is nothing really.

This is the main problem and my main point of contention. The blatant violation of not simply common sense, but literally any sense whatsoever. It's completely unforgivably a stupid thing to type down.

And that's what this thread is for. Instances that go above and beyond the call of the Tard, and full on into territory that shatters the MST3K Mantra, and right into "The hell was the author thinking?".

Do note, this can of course happen in fanfics which are otherwise quite interesting and legitimately good.

 

I'm sorry, "nobody believed him innocent" is grounds not to have a trial?

...really?



Surely you would have a trial just for formalities sake. Even putting that aside, you think being responsible for tracking down cursed objects means the tracker themselves could never misuse a cursed object? I suppose Senators on the ethics committee are fundamentally incapable of ethics violations?

 

Because muggles invented diaries

 

Any story where Harry discovers a marriage contract that has "been dormant for generations" or any (sorry Scrubb) Veela Soul-Bond thing. Both are almost always lazy ways for the author to get two characters, who would otherwise never interact, together. Other's include "Harry discovering he's part (insert creature here)" on his 16th birthday and instances where the author plays up a certain characteristic of a character past all reason (overly jealous Ron, completely incompetent Fudge, etc).

 

Ugh, I hate the birthday thing. Even without the 'creature inheritance' thing some people feel the need to have a 'magical maturity' were for some reason birthdays are special and the body suddenly decides to go through changes in their stories.

 

I fail to see the point of this thread, we already have a pet peeves thread.

 

The point of forums isn't to neatly categorise topics into threads, it's to talk!

I'm actually genuinely getting worried about this recent trend of putting every topic into another 'x that doesn't deserve it's own thread' - all we end up doing is complaining at people who start threads, and the only activity on those 'that doesn't deserve it's own thread' are a few people who read everything and the people who want to post questions.

It's okay to have a lot of threads - healthy, even. The ones that are interesting get pushed to the top and the ones that aren't either get buried or provide us some amusement. What good does it do anyone shoving all activity into one thread no one is going to read?

DLP might well die a slow death if this keeps up. I'm enjoying watching the reasonings play out here about whether or not this was a terrible idea, and I'd certainly have never seen this if it was buried fifty pages deep into another thread. If you don't like the discussion, don't participate in it - this is how forums are supposed to work.

TL;DR: This thinking is going to kill DLP.

 

...It's the same topic, and it isn't like the pet peeves thread is inactive.

 

This is not a pet peeves thread. The pet peeves thread is for things that happen often in fanfiction that are annoying. If I am understanding correctly, this is for specific events in specific fanfiction.

 

I actually saw something really interesting on Quora a while ago (and you need to register for Quora. Once you wade past the "how can you not believe in God with all the proof we have of His existence" and counterparts, there's a lot of great stuff there).

But the question was along the lines of "How does it feel to be a defense lawyer for someone you think is guilty?"

I can't find the exact one, because it sprung up a while ago. And people asdk the same question repeatedly.

But the top answer was actually quite well laid out. There was essentially two main points:
1 - to ensure the evidence has been gathered legally
2 - to ensure that if they are guilty, they're not getting back out

The first point is essentially to make sure that police aren't kicking down random doors to fight crime. They have to make sure they're gathering evidence properly, and not just making stuff up. you're protecting the rights of everyone else against undue pressure by the police to confess to a crime they didn't commit.

The second one is more interesting.
The lawyer said that it's their job to use all available avenues, so that something won't be brought up at a later date and appealed. It also ensures that the prosecution figures out the holes in their arguments.

And now back to your regularly scheduled thread:


Some level of abuse (maybe not as defined legally, but I don't care) from the Dursley's is canon. I don't want to argue what constitutes abuse, but we can at least all agree that Harry didn't have a happy childhood.

But sometimes you see things in an otherwise seemingly well-written fanfic along the lines of "And then Vernon held Harry down and poured acid on his back" or whatever.

Normally in Dark!Indy!Harry fics.

 

Hey!

The only Veela soul-bond I wrote was a tongue-in-cheek harem fic where none of them get along, and when they do, it's to gang up on Harry during their "time of the month."

Although, I'll admit to soul-bond fics (if done well) being a guilty pleasure.

 

Clothing descriptions. By in itself it's logical, given that we need some description to imagine the characters, but fanfic author's usually take it too far.

It breaks the flow so much that it makes you wonder whether they re-read what they've written to see if it works.

 

Bashing, basically ruins any story with it