I must reread then. I remember him being somewhat entranced, but not fucking pathetic about it.

Still, Imperious>Veela. It's a justifiable cliche. Its use is what ruins it ("Oh 'Arry, I can't rezist you because you can't rezist me!").

 

I guess the biggest cliche that invariably appears in just about every Indy Harry fic is the long winded rant against Dumbledore for which Dumbledore has no answer. Alot of what determines if I continue reading a fic is how Harry and Dumbledore interact. If the author can't make it believable, I have a tough time continuing.~Jim

 

That rant usually starts with Dumbledore trying to randomly pull out his control card on Harry who quickly shoves all his well kept secrets into Dumbledore's fact about the Goblins and his emancipation before crying emo tears as he explains -to the shocked McGonagall, sneering Snape, and silently fuming Dumbledore- how messed up his life has been. Of course, the girl of choice in the story, usually Ginny, can be found waiting for him and holds him as he cries.

Who doesn't love a good, cliched Indy!Story?

 

Just having a manipulative Dumbledore is cliche enough, for once i would like to see Dumbledore actually good but methods suck.

 

The megatrunk and the trillion galleons in the bank are the killers. That and The Giant Mansion. His parents had a choice between the superbly warded, impossible to find mansion with a staff of houseleves and sometimes griffins and dragons - or a pleasant little cottage with just the fidelious charm. They went with the little cottage.

Another cliche, the one that is the biggest turnoff, is the Hermonie and Ron are spies for the evil Dumbledore, and the Weasley's (minus the twins) only pretend to like Harry at all. Ron secretly loaths him, but incredibly for a 12 year old who hates his supposed best friend, is happy enough to go on one near suicdal adventure after another with Harry.

Then come the Dumbledorks and what not. DAMN this whiskey makes me angry.

 

"Any genre that's been around for any significant amount of time - whether it's crime, sci-fi, superhero, or horror - is essentially defined by a series of clichés. The truly great genre writers don't avoid these cliché's, they use them to their advantage, combining the genre's various conventions into a familiar formula that acts as a single blank canvas on which to paint a new, unique tale."

These are possibly the wisest words that I've read pertaining to fanfiction, or even fiction in general.

There's also the cliche where Harry is bitch-slapped by a homosexual woman when he unwittingly calls them a dyke, or something equally offensive, because he is ill-educated due to his upbringing in the Dursley household and due to Vernon's crude language. This is usually followed by a shopping spree.

 

How much of an idiot would I sound like if I said I have no idea what your talking about?

 

I remember this particular scene from a single fic. Haven't seen it anywhere else, so I wouldn't really call it a cliche.

 

I only remember that from one fic and I think it was Tonks who slapped him. She was in a relationship with Hesta Jones I think. I don't really remember that fic, just a vague memory of a cottage by the sea.... And since it was only one fic its not really a cliche.

One thing I never like in indy Harry fics is the need to mention "his Slytherin side". Just because the hat breaks you into houses does not mean you lose part of you way of thinking. If you have a quick mind then that will remain with you until you have addled you mind with lots of alcohol. And Slytherin was not concerned only with cunning and guile. Do any of you think Draco or even Crabb can be cunning? Its about ambition and resourcefulness as well.

I think the biggest cliche are the shopping trips. Why can't the author mention the trip in a couple of sentences or even a paragraph, instead of devoting whole chapters to it?

And another thing, if Harry, a semi-naive, ignorant teenage boy can buy all this uber stuff then why can't anyone else? I mean come on. Would Voldie or his Death Eaters really not try to get their hands on such items. Wouldn't Dumbledor for that matter.

Lets not get started on Phenoix Hedwig. I hate that. Hate hate hate hate!!!
Hedwig is an owl, OWL a magical bird that delivers mail and acts as a companion. She's very good at that role too. There is no need to make her into a shiny white flaming turkey!!

Then the mentioned "my friends are spying one me" bit. It's not the biggest crime of the century for Gods sake. And its hardy an excuse for an excessive reaction. Dump the friends and get new ones, or get more Playwizard mags.

Ok I'm done ranting for now.

 

Indeed, that's it, right down to the house on the sea (near the Patils, I believe). I recognized this the minute I read Andromalius' post. It's Harry Potter and The Breaking of Bonds by BadVoodoo. I remember it as being one of the few lengthy stories with a Harry/Susan Bones pairing (the others being To Fight The Coming Darkness*, Thank You Ms Bones, and Harry Potter and Voldemort's Bane along with its sequels).

This is something I have seen once and only once in a fanfiction; hardly a cliche. Looking back, it was a somewhat silly scene in an otherwise decent fic. I mean, come on, Harry's lived with Vernon's insults nearly his whole life, I don't buy for a second that he doesn't recognize a word spoken in hate when he hears one. Some lesbians aren't offended by the term Dyke but if Harry heard it from Vernon, I think he'd automatically assume it was a derogatory term. I suppose Harry has been greeting Dean Thomas with, "Hello, nigger!" for years now and mysteriously never received a beat down?

*If you're reading DLP and still don't know where to find this, you need more help than a simple link can provide.

Considering that Harry didn't have any friends before them, I would think he'd see this as a pretty big fuckin' deal. I mean, on top of all the other shit he has to deal with, it turns out his friends aren't really his friends? Shit, those few friends were just about all he had going for him.

Though I guess those are two different cliches:

1: Harry's friends are spying on him for his own good or for pay but they DO, in fact, like him.

VS
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2: Harry's friends were never his friends at all, they're pretending to be so they can spy on him and receive a cut of the embezzled Potter fortune and they actually hate his guts and think he's an idiot.

Either way, it's nearly always handled badly by the author. Still, if I were Harry, I'd be grievously pissed off in either scenario.

 

I see your point Warloke. I guess if it were written well it'd be OK, anyone would feel betrayed. But it is seldom handled properly. They either barely keep their seething hatred for "Potter" in check while plotting to murder him on behalf of the surprisingly wicked DUMBledork or are reporting his every move to the Order of the Phoenix so their precious weapon isn't destroyed.

What should be an emotional and bitter realization is hanlded without subtley and shit.

 

This thread makes me want to compile all these cliches and then write a story doing the exact opposite of what they say (Harry's bank is out of galleons, Dumbledore's a fruit, his friends smother him with love, all the girls think he's ugly, Voldemort's totally kicking his ass, Sirius was really capricious and forgot to write a will, he's the heir to a magical sanitary-engineer, et cetera)

 

A huge cliche is using Euros when the UK doesn't use Euros.... or even in other countries when it was first introduced in 1999.

 

OK I see you point. With so few friends I can see Harry getting pissed, but I still don't feel its that strong a reason to start some of the Rants etc in indy fics. Of course, I guess it is down to bad writing in most cases and I would think that if it was such a big deal he would be a lot more suspicious of those around him, now and in the future.

 

1. long hair tied back with dragon hide leather 'thong'.
2. Golden robes with dragon hide armor underneath. Hungarian Horntail of course.
3. Gryffindor's Sword
4. The Chamber of Secrets
5. The Room of Requirements
6. Giving out a complete list of what happened in the earlier books
7. Bill Weasley teaches Harry egyptian curses (might not be always there but it happens enough.)
8. Being able to 'fight through the pain' of the Cruciatus Curse
9. Harems and soul bonds (not always indy!fics but they are used often enough
10. America! Where everything is fair and equal and there is no discrimination!!!!
11. Private instructors: Swordsman from Japan. Curse guy from any dark country- or egypt.
12. Witty banter with Voldemort during fight scenes
13. House Rings. Potter = Gryffindor so the Potter ring is a ruby with a lion crest somewhere.
14. The 'Grey Side' explanation.

 

This one always kills it for me. There's a gray area of morality, not of magic. If you use dark spells, you're dark. Period. Just because you use light spells too doesn't make you something special. I highly doubt Lucius Malfoy refuses to use a levitation charm .

Oh and here's another cliche: Harry, a totally untrained teenager can spot the professional aurors keeping watch on them, for no real reason at all and can proceed to scare them with that knowledge without getting killed.

 

And of course that auror is Tonks who takes Harry out to lunch, tells him about her problems with being used for her Metamorph abilities in Hogwarts, and winds up getting laid by the aforementioned, untrained teenager who just happens to be last for half an hour so she can have about five orgasms. All the bloody cliches just seem to string from the others. It's twisted.

 

Turns out i accidentally deleted the fic full of cliches and space invaders and cant be bothered to write it again

 

Ah yes, the 'Grey grey grey' thing. That's a big turnoff with me. Usually an excuse for the kickass,invincible protaganist to get away with using the Imperios or Cruciatus without the author making him or her evil.

"Dark magic" in Rowlings universe seems to indicate spells that have no purpose beyond harming or even torturing others. Like the watch that ages the wearer or the muggle knives charmed to slip and slice up the user. A lot of them also seem to require an intent to inflict pain or death on their target too - like the Cruciatus or Imperios. Comparing them to the cheering or levitation is silly. It really is bad. The problem is the authors calling everything else like the levitation charm as "Light" magic. There may be Dark magic, but not much real Light magic.

Moral ambiguity is cool - hell unavoidable for anyone in a war. I think authors who use that grey thing as a plot device make the mistake of thinking that most of the Potterverse are moral absolutists. Which just isn't the case.



That's why ya can't use the D&D alignments in real life.