How do you feel about removing a character completely from Fanfiction?

This is an alternate to the much more common "bashing" of an unwanted character. For example, people don't like Ron, they make him betray Harry for some shit reason, Harry rants, cuts him loose and usually gets Nevile instead.

This is because some people hate Ron. Mostly due to reading to many shitty fanfictions.

But what if you do ready hate a character and decide just to remove them? Pretty much all of Nonjons stories have Ron as absent or very minor, compared to others.

Naturally you can do what ever you want, but the question is, does the removal of a key character from Canon, ruin a story for you? Or does it indicate lazy or poor writing?

 

I see nothing wrong with a story going in a direction that results in a major canon character not having much screen time, and the idea that it even could be a problem is somewhat baffling to me.

 

In any story that diverges from canon, the removal of a character important to the canon protagonist (say, Ginny or Ron to Harry) is generally best when this absence has some kind of lingering consequence on character, theme, or plot. Absence from screen should not mean absence from mind.

 

I don't mind it. Sometimes it's better than jumping through hoops to explain something away. Like, in most 4th year fics, I don't even bother writing in Rita Skeeter, because she adds exactly zero to a story.

 

Well, it depends. If the story takes place after a point in canon where they've already been introduced, and have become relevant to the story, then them being shafted and forgotten seems odd, and lazy (unless, of course, they were already a minor character, and their absence doesn't matter much). In this case, they should have a more gradual fade into the background, I think - or there should be some emotional impact linked with them no longer being there. For the obvious example one can snatch from canon, Ron doesn't show up for a good portion of book seven, and his absence holds emotional weight - leaving a gaping hole at the heart of the group.

If the story starts before the characters has a major influence on the story, then I don't particularly care if they're ignored. If the writer doesn't feel Ron will add anything to the story they're writing, then they need not mention him at all. He can just be another nameless Hogwarts student that Harry doesn't think about. I doubt I'll notice or care, unless he started out as a central character, and suddenly just stopped being one.

 

The problem as I see it, comes from "I don't like Ron/Hermione/Snape" so I'm just not going to write about them.

Removing a main character, for no plot based reason, is not something you ever really see in real fiction. Obviously Fanfiction is built for this, but my point was, by dismissing a major character because you dont like them, you a selling the story short.

 

I guess it depends on the level of AU in the fic. If it's a story that picks up directly after fifth year, say, then I guess it would be a little weird to have Ron (for instance) just drop out of existence without explanation. If it's a fic that starts from scratch and changes a fair bit though, let's say a Slytherin Harry fic, then I think it's entirely reasonable that some characters just wouldn't appear.

Take Hallowed. One of the various changes is that there's no prophecy. No prophecy means nothing for Snape to overhear, so he doesn't try and strike a bargain with Voldemort for Lily's life, and while Voldemort does attack Godric's Hollow for different reasons both James and Lily survive, so there's no reason for Snape to leave the Death Eaters to teach at Hogwarts. I do, as it happens, have a small cameo planned for him, but the TL;DR of all that is that there's no need for Snape to be in Hallowed, for the moment at least, so I'm not going to write him in just because he's a main character.

 

I think that completely removing character is preferable to mindless bashing.

I actually dislike forcing characters' appearance then somewhat speedy removal from MC's POV — like for instance, if Harry is in different house, Ron can be non-entity, while F&G are somewhat more infamous.

If you diverge later, I think author can get away with infrequent mentions, without complete bashing — for instance, if Harry doesn't get back to friendship with Ron in the GoF, few mentions when they meet in Gryff common room absolutely suffice.

You know, out of mind, out of POV.

 

The best way to get rid of a character is to prevent their birth. All problems are immediately solved.

 

Very cheap way to get rid of the character you don't like (and not the one I'd recommend) is a gender reversal.

 

Killing their parents?

 

Well, if you are going to remove a major character have it be part of the story instead of just hand waving them away. For example let's say you hate Dumbledore and don't like writing him because you have a tendency to bash him. You can have him die from natural causes a year before Harry goes to Hogwarts and part of the story is the changes this brings. Or if you don't like Malfoy have him sent to Durmstrang making Harry's school yard rival be someone different in both personality and temperament than Malfoy.

But if you want to get rid of a peripheral character then it doesn't matter cause their absence changes nothing.

 

Huh. There was a story where Hermione never became friends with Harry and got beat up by the troll. Then she left Hogwarts because she had no friends.

That was an excellent execution.

 

I can understand why some people find it weird, but it's a thing unique to fanfiction as real authors simply don't include characters into the narrative if they don't fit or aren't fun to write. In the end, fanfiction aims at fun - for the reader and for the author - and if the author doesn't want to deal with a particular character, then that's their prerogative.

I'm guilty of it as well, I guess. I didn't want to deal with Ron and Hermione in MotA (at least not majorly), and so I had the break after Harry became Hogwarts' Triwizard champion be rather final. It's more than twenty chapters before they surface again.

 

There's always the chance to use canon events to lose a character. Don't care for Ron? His sacrifice in Philosopher's Stone could have had much more fatal consequences. Don't care for Ginny? Then although Harry does everything he can in the Chamber of Secrets, she simply doesn't survive. It all depends on the point at which your fic begins.

The issue here would be to properly use the influence of these character deaths to evoke change in Harry and the world around him.

Hopefully I don't cause an necro-rage here, but yeah. I was interested enough in the OP that I felt the need to post.

 

That would be interesting. I could see that breaking the Twins.

 

I think preventing their birth is the best choice simply because it's really plausable. If their parents dont screw at just the right time and their dad doesn't ejaculate at the right time or that one particular sperm doesn't reach the egg they will never have even been conceived. Or you could simply go down the miscarriage or stillbirth route. If all else fails there is still SIDS.

 

If you're going AU anyways, use their death as the changing point. Would Harry have been as much of a goodie-two-shoes if Ginny had died in his arms when he was 13 years old? I'm thinking probably not.

 

Forging the Sword, cuz.

Anyway, the best way to get rid of a character is to logically explain their absence from the story or, at the very least, make it plausible that they aren't in it to the same extent. Obvious example is "What We Leave Behind" where Harry is older and just doesn't have the same relationship with Hermione or Ron (though the former has appeared in a greater capacity recently, it at least makes sense for story purposes).

Want to get rid of Remus? People know he's a werewolf so he doesn't get the job at Hogwarts. Sirius? Too afraid that Harry will be harmed by his presence. Snape? He's outed as a Death Eater. Bellatrix? Died in Azkaban. There's a thousand ways to do it, and it doesn't even have to be particularly skillful. The ones that bother you are unexplained absences (why does Ginny not appear?) or forced bashing to remove a character from the story -- ie. Ron being a footnote in a fifth year fic because he was jealous of Harry before the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.