No.

This. exactly this. I haven't been able to track down the fic I got that from, but the point of this thread is reference a specific fic, point out the certain event which is mind numbingly contradictory and stupid, and attempt to explain why.

 

That really depends on what you consider to be bashing.

Some (like a lot of people over on FF.net) would consider it bashing if you wrote Snape or Malfoy as their canon selves, some considor it bashing to have characters calling out other characters for their actions in canon (like Ron) and some (like me) think bashing is the flanderisation of a character so they can be bashed.

 

Any Evil Manipulative Dumbledore story where he gets outsmarted by Harry. The former is a sin in and of itself, but the latter makes it downright bullshit. There is no way in hell Dumbledore, a very old, smart, and powerful wizard with a hundred years of experience, can be beaten by Harry, a freaking kid. There's a reason why Rowling didn't have Harry 'properly' fight and kill Voldemort, and Dumbledore is some 40 years older than him.

 

I was re-reading "On the Wings of a Phoenix" the other day and the Dumbledore bashing in that fic is (in part) what made me turn away from the story. The author spends a good portion of each chapter having Harry vent his frustration at Dumbledore, or he finds out some new misdeed that Dumbledore had committed.

The problem with that case of bashing is that it was completely useless. The author made it clear early on that Dumbledore was not to be trusted and didn't really need to take it further. I find that this is the overlying problem w/ most fics that have bashing - they just pile it on until the whole story starts to slowly revolve around a character who the author doesn't like.

 

For everyone saying otherwise: this is a pet peeve. This is in the wrong thread, then, if you don't agree with Luckylee that they're redundant. (for the record, I agree with LL)

 

I mean stupid over the top bashing like in Harry Crow or the fic by Perfect Lionheart

 

I think this is the first time I've agreed with you yet.

:facepalm
And then you go and ruin our Kumbaya moment by bowing to DLP pressure.

 

I think you need to define what you think bashing is and then apply it. To me, bashing doesn't occur until the author purposefully puts a character in a scene/story just so they can bring them down. It's one thing to mention that Draco Malfoy comes from a dark family, and was arrogant. It's bashing to have Draco Malfoy prove that he's an arrogant asshole in every single scene he is in and have Harry go out of his way to mention his dislike for the character. Same thing goes for Ron and his jealousy or Dumbledores proclivity to keep secrets.

 

You can't seriously believe Partially Kissed Hero is free from bashing? They're not even cardboard versions of themselves because that implies at least a measurable thickness.

As to plotpoints: While Methods of Rationality is a sucky story (or the most ironic thing since the song 'Ironic') the headbanger was the conclusion of Draco and Harry's 'research'.

The fact that magic is a recessive gene is apparently proof that the Pureblood rethoric is wrong. Except you know, it explicitly proves it right.
Wizard + Wizard = Magic children
Wizard + Muggle = No magic children
In this scenario being a 'muggle-lover' is actually a rather horrible thing since you are knowingly crippling your children.

 

Voldemort kidnaps a one year old Harry from his parents and gives him to the Malfoy's to blood-adopt. Curiously enough, no one asks where he came from, even though his birthday differs from Draco's by a month. Nothing fishy going on there..

 

Did you mean to quote me?

To me, bashing is over-expanding or introducing a new trait to a character in order to lessen that character's place in a storyline from where it was in canon, without an express purpose such as a plot twist. Usually, a character is flattened even more than in cannon.

The problem is that it's pretty easy to fall into. Heck, I'm starting to realize that I'm falling into it with my Umbridge Fic (BTW, I have another four chapters written. I haven't edited them at all, which is why I haven't posted it for you).

 

I was just skimming over new stories on ffn. And the author wrote a plot where an offensive book choice by Umbridge leads to Harry attacking Hogwarts with C 130s filled with soldiers. I'd say that is probably one of the biggest overeactions I have read.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8775791/24/The-Grey-Assassins

 

Feel free to post whatever now, I have a week till I start my new job.

Anyways, back to the topic.

One of my oldest "Headslapping" moments was from RossWrock's "Power of Time". I don't remember the specifics; but he is solely responsible for at least 3 of FF's oldest cliches:

1. HUGE shopping trips after finding out about his "inheritance."
2. Multi-compartment trunks that you could live in like an apartment.
3. Using a time-turner or any other device to slow down time to get more training in.

Also RossWrock was the first fic I read that had Ron!Bashing

On a sidenote I just looked up that story and had no idea he actually got around to finishing it in '07, also, it still says that he started writing it in '69.

(https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1657629/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Power-of-Time)


Staying with the classics that were instrumental in starting a ton of cliches; does anyone remember "The Awakening Power"? It was literally the first ff I read and looking back on it it was bad. Even when I was originally reading it at 15 I thought that a 16 year old beating Albus Dumbledore in a duel, in the Great Hall no-less, after only 3 months of dueling practice to be a bit of a stretch. If I remember correctly this fic came up with the idea of using Gringotts as a place to store family heirlooms (this fic came out BEFORE DH).

(https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1709027/1/The-Awakening-Power)

 

Yes, since you apparently believe that the only reason people say PKH has excessive bashing is because of DLP peer pressure.

 

Well, to be fair I can't say RossWrock deserves a headslapping moment. His ideas literally created thousands of fanfics and became a genre. Hundreds of which I probably read. It's not his fault that people took his neat ideas and made them distasteful.

I think a good example of a dumb headslapping moment in fanfiction would be the clusterfuck that became Unsung Hero by MeghanReviews. I don't really know where to begin, but I find it hard to believe that at one point I liked that fic.

 

Considering Gringotts is touted as the only magical bank in Britain and is supposedly one of the best protected locations therein, storing family heirlooms there doesn't exactly seem like a novel idea per se.

 

Ahh, no.

His response to Zennith concerning Pet-Peeve vs. Head-slapping bad.

I was referring to his later "correction of the record" after being called out for putting supposed pet peeves in this thread. IMO, All bashing is head-slapping burn your eyes out with bleach, bad. Not just over the top bashing. He was right before he amended himself.

Although, to be far, reading back on the thread I can see how you'd come away not sure what I meant. I should have been clearer.

 

Bashing, while I also dislike it, IS a pet peeve. He was not posting about a SPECIFIC INSTANCE, which is apparently what this thread is about.

 

So I've been catching up on "The Merging" and the entirety of Chapter 17 is so, so bad that I almost stopped reading the story. The chapter diverts Harry to another dimension where there's a duplicate of himself, his parents are alive, etc. in that timeline he basically takes the time to insult what is (I assume) intended to be canon Harry. It makes absolutely no sense. The chapter is like 25k words and 23k are Harry in another dimension while the last 2k Harry ends up back in his dimension. Then, the chapters that immediately follow make no reference to this other dimension. The whole chapter seems to be a complete waste of time, I don't see how that chapter could ever play any significant role in the overall plot.

 

Pointless bloat is the most common reason I stop reading promising fanfiction these days.

It's pretty ironic that I expect such high quality, in retrospect, lol.