Oh, I don't have a problem with it to be honest. I just like to know what's canon or not.

People acting like translation charms, or the Tempus charm are canon are just fooling themselves.

 

TBH it's canon that you can do anything you wish with magic, with few exceptions detailed in the books. Ergo, time display and translation charms are canon, even if they are not explicitly showed.

Limiting canon magic to only the spells explicitly showed is about as stupid as arguing that the total population of magical Britain is equal to the number of people named in the books.

 

I think it's somewhat safe to infer that translation spells wouldn't be the best course of action if they do exist, given that some wizards (i.e. Crouch Sr., Dumbledore) choose to learn upwards of a hundred languages in a lifetime. Also, Dumbledore gifted Hermione Tales of Beedle the Bard, rather than Harry or Ron - both of whom chose not to take Runes. Why didn't he just translate it?

 

That's not how it works. You can't say: "Oh, it wasn't shown as impossible, so it must be canon."

Sure, you can get away with putting it in a fic, but that doesn't make it canon.

 

And you just stumbled on one of the bigger, overarching Pet Peeve: people who act like a whole lot of stuff is Canon.

Maybe they didn't read the Books in ages (if ever), maybe they liked the movies a bit too much, or maybe they simply get all of their information from FanFics. But at this point, so much stuff is deeply ingrained Fanon some people would be genuinely surprised if you told them Daphne Greengrass is a background character, there is no separate rooms for the Head Boy/Girl, and Ron was actually a deeply devoted friend to Harry and Hermione.

 

The biggest pet peeve that I have isn't when Harry becomes Lord Potter-Black-Slytherin-Gryffindor-Ravenclaw-Emrys, it isn't when he becomes a smooth talking politician in a two month timespan, it isn't even when the main pairing is slash so every other male/female character is either gay or 100% supportive of them and male wizards can somehow get pregnant. It is when the author starts shitting on major plot twists and details for no reason whatsoever. An example of this would be when Harry comes in contact with professor Quirrell, he notices a pain in his scar, and his first thought is, "Quirrell is possessed by Voldemort!" Seriously how in the hell does anyone come to that conclusion immediately!

 

I agree...

Spoiler

And then I think about how Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor, having only just heard about Superman, instantly and completely out of the blue, decides that not only would Superman certainly be harmed by fragments of his home planet (how is that even a consideration, let alone an obvious conclusion), but that one specific meteorite must have been a chunk of said planet, so he knows which one he has to steal.

And that's when I shake my head and sigh.

Being a genius is one thing, but unless the 'egregious ass-pull' is a super power, WTF, Lex?

 

When a/an are used incorrectly. It's a wand, not an wand. You wouldn't say an wand because it sounds weird, so why the hell are you writing it? Jesus.

 

Except when it's the Elder Wand. You know, 'cause it's like an historic wand.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

To expand on that, I know it's probably been covered in a thread but mixing up "you/your/you're" is especially grating because it's almost always found within speech. Or letters. If I have to read another letter where Hermione of all people writes "Harry, please talk to Dumbledore about you dreams", I'll... not sure, actually.

 

Well if we're doing this,

breathe/breath and lose/loose always just fucking slay me.

I don't get how you can see those used incorrectly on the page and not just see red lights and hear a warning bell. They look so, so obviously wrong to me, it's mind-boggling that anyone could misuse them even once accidentally, never mind getting them consistently wrong.

It's/its looks that obviously wrong to me as well, but I'm legitimately worried about language drift / cultural norms with that one, given how often people fuck it up.

 

No no no. It's _rouge_ lights. To match the "rouge" death eaters who are wreaking havoc in Diagon Alley.

I think I've complained before about the rouge/rogue thing, so here's a more recent pet peeve: the words betrothed and intended (almost wrote indented there, hehe).They usually come together with "Lord" Potter and I absolutely hate them.
Does anyone anywhere in the real world still use these words?

 

Great minds truly do think alike.

"Harry took a deep breathe" my fat ass. It's depressingly prevalent. The other day I corrected a colleague in class (situation not at all related to fanfiction!) on that.

I was reminded of this.

Also, peeve unrelated to the above: I had the latest update for my story written on paper (puter was unavailable) and I'm typing it, which is a process I profoundly dislike. To my eternal peeve fury, glaring at the keyboard does not make it type on its own. It just sits there, mocking me. Goddammit.

 

"On accident" is a battle I've already conceded, despite it making anyone using it sound like they didn't finish the third grade.

 

Just yesterday, "Harry stared at him for 10 minutes thinking of an answer".

Uhhhhh.

I'm not exaggerating either, it was literally 10, not one, which is still really bad.

 

Magical Oaths. I feel like there's some potentially cool world-building stuff if anyone could easily swear something they said is true or risk lose their Magic or die. But instead, it's almost always used as a quick save if Harry's in a tight spot and almost never brought up again.

Goblins holding onto wills and marriage contracts. Wouldn't it make more sense if the Ministry held onto such records, like a real government would?

 

My greatest turn off to a story is obvious deus ex machina's. I know with magic it is really easy to use these as an actual plot device as an easy way to solve a problem but I find stories that generally do not have completely happy endings are generaly better in my opinion. A good example of that kind of ending would be elysium. Whilst not a great film I love it's ending because not everything is perfect.

 

I'm only against them because if they existed they can pretty much solve most conflicts instantly, but for whatever reason simply aren't used unless it's plot convenient.

 

Magical oaths either make a story infuriating because they only get used when it's plot convenient or they make the story boring because they solve every problem.

 

This particular sentiment/sentence in all its various forms is one of the few things that make me just instantly drop a fanfic. The contrived way this usually tends to go just sours me entirely on whatever the rest of the story might be, because it effectively mangles characterizations for the sake of pushing whatever agenda the author may have.

More often than not, it's pairing related, which just makes it the absolute worst.

 

Reviewers asking for something in a story you're specifically excluded.

For example I clearly wrote on one of my fics I'm not writing a harem (I normally wouldn't state that, but it's a fandom were every second fic is a harem) and lo behold, a few days ago I get a PM from someone telling me that I should write a harem fic.

If they weren't a guest reviewer I would have told them to get fucked.