Biased outlook can only go so far; it can't change the actual words that come out of characters' mouths, nor the physical actions they are seen to make.

 

That's something I completely agree with, bias should alter how one character perceives another, but not go into the extreme of warping someone's personality in one moment, then turning it back to something normal in the next, whenever the author deems it convenient for whatever purpose might be driving him or her.

Yet, being rational or making sense with words and actions alone does not guarantee a negation of bias, if one is mired deeply in it. If any change was to occur, I'd rather not read about someone's whole world-view being shattered and reassembled in the span of a few paragraphs or a single chapter.

That really is one thing that can make me drop a fic without hesitation; when suddenly someone's mind can be completely overwritten by the spoken word of the protagonist. It really... I don't know, I suppose it's the laziness of it that gets to me. They want to show off their protagonist as this fantastic speaker, this changer of minds and bringer of new ideas, yet they write it in such a poor way, it only serves to make them obnoxious. Not saying it's something I encounter fairly often in fanfics, but when I do, it's goodbye, see ya, ex-prince Ali from me.

 

Unreliable narrators are a thing.

Not that I ever expect to see a well-written unreliable narrator in a fanfic, but it's theoretically possible.

 

True - bashing is impossible to write well, because bashing is inherently bad writing, agreed. Bashing is, in essence, telling us a character is bad/evil/dumb without supporting it textually, without reason. If you do indeed write an evil! Dumbledore and manage to support it textually in a way that seems reasonable/intelligent, it can certainly work (I'd actually be curious to read that, in fact). So I agree with your point, yet I don't think it's entirely relevant - it sounds like what you're saying you don't like is bad writing, not any individual cliche. I can't imagine that there's anyone here who would disagree with that.

 

Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu OC's, specifically ones where Harry gets a letter, or has a chance meeting with some OC and her mother who is the new (insert position here) at Hogwarts. It's NEVER a good story.

Other than that there aren't too many that immediately make me stop reading, generally horrible cliches come with horrible writing, and more often than not it's the writing that makes me close out a story. However, there are some exceptions:

- "Pup"

-"Dogfather"

-Harry changes his personality and starts pulling lots of pranks/Harry gets a "Marauders" name/Harry starts his own version of the Marauders.

-"I found my moms journal over the summer.."

- Harry losing faith/growing to hate James Potter because of one memory he saw.

- "So I have to take a wife to carry on all families??"

-Female romantic interests being okay with being part of a harem. I'm not a feminist but I find it extremely difficult to believe that Hermione, Tonks, Ginny, Daphne, and Fleur would be okay with Harry simultaneously fucking all of them.

-Harry knocks up some girl before sixth year and has to juggle being a student AND father.

- Any story where Harry turns 16 and suddenly realizes he's part elf.

- Lily the pureblood

- Female!Harry

I guess the list is a little longer than I thought.

 

Do you think, that there's no such thing as teenage pregnancy?

 

What does that have to do with a "cliche" or plot point that I don't enjoy reading?

 

I do think contraceptives are not a thing unknown to wizards.

 

He's not syaing that there is no such thing as teenage pregnancy, he is saying that teenage pregnancy in a story genrallaly makes for a bad read as the plot normally revolves around it. Whilst Mpreg is worst, I don't really deal with any fics that have pregnancy as a main part of the plot.

 

Not to RL humans, either.

 

Playing Mass Effect 2 all day is a thing. Taking a 6-hour bus ride to San Antonio for Thanksgiving is a thing. Getting horrible food poisoning from undercooked chicken and spending the entire night in the bathroom spewing fluids from both ends is a thing.

Doesn't mean I want to read about them, ever, in a piece of fanfiction set in the Harry Potter universe.

 

Just imagine the fiery shits you'd get from eating an undercooked phoenix.

 

Taure covered a lot of mine, but here are a few that have gone from pet peeves to instant x regardless of content:

1) "Don't buy telescopes in Diagon Alley, muggles make them a lot better." Yeah, just like they do matter manipulation, space expansion, defy gravity, etc, etc, so much better. For some reason the whole magicals being idiots at making telescopes has really gotten to me.

2) Hadrian/Harrison Potter - Yes, I admit that good stories can be written despite this stupidity, but I, personally, can NOT stand it. Only scenario in which it makes sense to me is like a Dresden Files one, where a person's true name has power so it's hidden in some way. So 'legally' Harry is 'Hadrian (Eugh!)

3) Harry and Hermione becoming instant friends on their first train ride. Look, it has been years since anyone read Book 1, but I recently reread it and was shocked by how much a pest Hermione had been until the Troll incident. Hermione learns that friendship, loyalty, camaraderie are more important than house points and expulsion. This is a wonderful moment in her character development.

4) Harry instantly hates Ron on the train. Pre book 4, Ron had been a good friend to Harry. He broke him out of Dursley household with his brothers, and tried to defend him from 'evil' Sirius Black. Unless you have a Harry with a radically different childhood or mindset coming into first year, insta hate Ron doesn't make sense.

5) Muggles - I loathe muggles. If I were ever writing an SI in HP verse, I would be leading a grass roots campaign to legalize muggle hunting again. For reasons why I feel this way, refer to Taure's list on muggle anything.

6) Slytherin 11 year olds calling each other lord and lady or Heir Malfoy/Potter, etc.

 

Never seen that before, but it sounds terrible.

 

It goes hand-in-hand with the whole "Why aren't wizards and witches using ball-point pens instead of quills?" faggotry. It's extremely annoying when an author tries to superimpose muggle things in a world that's clearly never going to accept them, even less so if the main propagators of such products are 11 year-old children who would be, at best, regarded as children who simple don't know any better, or, at worst, literal mudbloods who should never be allowed to procreate.

 

Actually, this is quita good example of tradition over reason, from the looks of it.

 

You best be trolling.

 

Dicta-Quills. You lose.

 

Actually, no.

Dicta-biros, you lose

 

Just stop...