I was referring more to them constantly saying how he's got to come out of his shell.

 

It's because everybody hates an introverted person and will try to make them more 'normal'.

 

Yeah but it's the way the word shell is used, every single time. Of course then there's the fact that someone - Harry - has to get him to 'come into his real self' like that's he knows what that is and it's his responsibility to make it happen.

And it wouldn't be so bad if it didn't happen in every story Neville was at least somewhat important in.

 

And then Harry takes him to buy a wand and suddenly he's totally alright.

 

Well, it's a magical wand.

 

There must be a phallic joke here somewhere.

 

Of course there is, in fact many of them if we get creative.

 

Don't worry, I got your back.
http://www.amazon.com/VIBRATEX-HV-260-Magic-Wand-Massager/dp/B00005M1WE

 

There's nothing better than to get free two day shipping on your own magic wand with Amazon prime shipping.

 

Reminds me of something I read recently.

An introvert's worst nightmare - an extrovert. And that leads me to one of my Pet Peeves, and similar to what Vlad was saying: when a writer can't write outside themselves.

What do I mean? Just because Author A is not an overly emotional person doesn't mean every character in his story should be the pride of the stoics. Or, the opposite: not every person in a group will find something funny all the time, will react the same way to a threat, or will be able to react intelligently to every situation.

When the flight or flight mechanism kicks in, for instance, the Amygdala basically shuts down the frontal lobe and takes over. It's more extreme for some than others, based on triggers, but it's true for everyone. So, please, Author A, drop the logical response to all stimuli all the time, or (Author B) everyone flying off the handle at a little barb. The key word should be . . . varied. As in, varied responses both by everyone in the scene, but also by each character throughout the story.

---------- Post automerged at 05:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:49 PM ----------

Only if the Amazons allow the wand to be shipped to a man. /Perseus reference.

. . . but that brings up another Pet Peeve of mine, and this one goes for original fiction as much or more than fanfiction. If you're going to write a character, or a set of characters like the Amazons, be accurate to the name, if not the history!

Amazons = no breasts (or, at least, no right breast). You'd think something like that would be noticeable enough that a teenage MC with a typically healthy sex drive would notice it. /rant about Perseus Jackson

 

This is kid stuff. Remember the vibrating toy broomsticks?

Let's get back to topic.

Slughorn the pedophile. Especially when it turns out that Dumbledore knew about it, but allowed him to continue teaching 'for the greater good' or whatever other stupid reason. This may also lead to Dumbledore the pedophile who molested Tom Riddle and turned him evil.

And...

Slytherin Harry who is, for some reason, friends with Neville and Hermione (but not Ron, of course). Even if he was hardly a friend to Neville when he actually lived at the same dorm with him, and mostly became friends with Hermione because she bothered him and Ron all the time at the common room.

And while we're at it...

That fucking troll accident. Every. Fucking. Time.

 

I count myself lucky to have never encountered this. Is it that common? Albus being in cahoots with every other old person is a staple of fanfiction, but them being pedophiles?

 

I seen it in crack a few times and just once in a serious fic:

That fic where Harry, Hermione and Luna perform some ritual in the Forbidden Forest and accidentally managed to combine themselves with Fae via timeturner dust (its name escapes me right now) has pedo Snape and pedo Dumbledore who take hair from students to use in polyjuice potion (if I remember correctly Snape had a booming trade in selling Harry Potter hairs?).

 

I remember this fic, doesn't it have Harry, Hermione and Luna tricking Dumbledore into thinking that Colonel Sanders was an American Dark Lord of great power? And that both Dumbledore and Snape each had a Horcrux, so that if one was seriously hurt, the other could simply kill them, then revive them in a new body? Such a strange fic.

 

You two are talking about Partially Kissed Hero, yeah?

 

This was actually hilarious, though I never managed to finish the fic. Got old and boring from memory.

That's the one.

 

"Welcome to this Fic. Harry Potter is now a veela, a basilisk and a phoenix... somehow. Oh and btw, Lily was a nixe and James an elf!"

When things can be too easily resolved: I once read a fic in which people were like able to define the "consequences" of breaking vows randomly. So, here comes Harry "I solemly swear I'm the queen of England" Potter who decides, if that vow isn't true, he shall be able to understand and read extremely quick. And he could do that an infinite number of times without repercussions. So, instant superpowers and no difficulties in handling them. Yeah. Fics like that are super exciting.

 

That's it.

If I remember correctly the fic went seriously off the deep end and I dropped it.

 

Shipping.

I understand that people like to pair their favourite characters — even drive the plot with the pairing or even go against the plot — but the need to pair the characters first thing in the story kind of kills me.

"This story will be H/Hr

Harry Potter, small boy, just walked into the shop, Noticing bushy haired girl buying a small bar of chocolate. Stealing glances to what he presumed were her parents, she threw the money on the counter and put the chocolate in her purse.

'Such a cute girl,' inexplicably thought the seven year old boy with green eyes. 'Wonder if she'd like to be best friends?'
"

And then 600k words of something like robst romance.

Fuck.

 

You can do that and make it decent. Contractual Invalidation by Republic does a great job of this. The problem is people choose a pairing but don't know how to make a believable plot to go with it.