Lol, just call him Harriet for shits and giggles.

 

I pointed out that "Harold" isn't his name in a review once and the writer sent an angry PM back telling me that Harry means Harold and then used Prince Harry as evidence.

I don't think he's called Prince Harold though.

 

You are right. Prince Harry is in fact named Henry Charles Albert David.

 

I can't name examples right now, but in many TV shows a character is almost always called as Harry, Nate, Chuck etc. instead of traditional names like Nathaniel or Charles. And sometimes we don't even know that it is a nickname in later seasons. How can we know, when parents and shown official records say so?

The need to call Harry something else is born out of the same place as the Dark!Super!Harry stories, I think. He has to be more amazing, right? Many HP fans go through this stage. I, too, am fond of 'Hardwin'. But it isn't handled in most if not all cases and it creates a bad taste. This trope won't end until readers get more experience.

 

You mean complicating my character's name doesn't make them more !badass, !OP, and !dark? How canz dis beeee???!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!

 

It can be even more annyoing. I once read a story where Harry takes some kind of codename. For the rest of the story the autor always wrote both names like "Harry/'Codename' said:" I thought I was going crazy like I forgot who the main character is or why was that nessecary?

 

Ah for the days when of Indy! Harry/Hermione & Neville/Luna, when they would do self-transfiguration + meditation + potion = animagus by Christmas, and have themselves a "graduation" to "full marauders" and henceforth be known to one another only by their "marauder name".

Bonus points it the names were chosen by Sirius' portrait.

 

I will just leave this here: Prongslet.

 

This one remembered to name him right!

Also: I couldn't even read over the page. This shows why "Hadrian" is a bad route to use.

 

Is that supposed to be a serious Fic? Because I'm laughing my ass off at how it parodies all those dumb Fics and the horrid Cliches that accompany them. In that one paragraph alone, you have a four year old Harry acting like an adult, Harry referred to as Hadrian AND Harrison, Harry being terribly abused, Lily's old trunk that the Dursleys have for some reason, a letter from his parents that Explained Everything, Lily being a Seer good enough to predict when Harry would find said letter (but not good enough to do anything to stop it), James and Lily trying to join Voldemort only for Dumbledore to kill them (all without actually explaining what either of them want), and a Portkey to Gringotts (which would have been awkward to explain if Dudley found it by accident). Even if it's being deadly serious, I can't take it serious enough to hate.

Truthfully, I think there are some Fics out there that are so bad, one can't help but laugh at how bad they are.

 

Reading 30,000 WPM is a new idea that I never saw before in a FanFic. I am glad the author thought it important enough to include.

 

And then there's Kinsfire.

 

This is literally the thought process that went through Riddle's head when he came up with "Lord Voldemort".

 

All of a sudden, I have the image in my head of Tom Rid-sorry, Lord Voldemort, as a complete and total emo as a teenager.

I honestly don't know how I feel about that.

 

You should watch A Very Potter Senior Year.

 

Transposition of homophones is a recurring complaint here, but one I don't think I've seen mentioned is reign in vs. rein in. Even otherwise soundly written stories seem to consistently screw this particular one up.

 

Getting homophones wrong ticks me off also.
Examples: patients, patience; heir, air; friar, fryer.

Typos and out of place words similarly irritate.

 

I'm now picturing the Chamber of Secrets having an oxygen bar. The air of Slytherin is pure.

 

I recently read a couple of fics that reminded me a pet peeve that I have since I started to read FanFiction, and to me not only it makes the fic less readable but it lessens the impact it could have had.

It’s hard to put a name to it, my pet peeve is when the fic has too much family. It usually begins with a lot of abusing by the Dursleys, the fic progresses and then someone adopts Harry. In the fics I mentioned early he is adopted by Amelia Bones and Sirius Black respectively. The thing is, they start to solve every little problem Harry has, and it’s very frustrating because it happens (and with a lot of past fics too) that he is growing a lot and he starts to learn magic seriously and you can see how he is adapting himself to have power, use it and win fights. This fics usually come with a lot of “talks”, where the author puts a lot of work, man… It frustrates me, put it in the fights, the conflict, make the bomb not so easy to deactivate! I just don’t care how Harry is growing emotionally, I never cared in the past either. This kind of fics are wrote that way, it’s like some guy set a list you have to follow and this authors do exactly that, I don’t know, since 2002 maybe. You find some gems, but they are surrounded in so much shit it takes that value away. And without fault, there always is that Lords Ladies crap FFN loves, with meetings in the Wizengamot, pureblood customs, etc. Fuck that shit.

I need a Harry that learns magic, is powerful, my suspension of disbelief is not destroyed and then, if you see it essential, can have a decent relationship with Sirius or whatever father/mother figure you want.

 

It makes me think that I'd like to read a fic that starts exactly in a way you described with all of that hurt/comfort nonsense and parenting figures that these authors miss in their life solving every one of Harry's problems. Then his guardian (guardians?) would be murdered, everything would go to shit and pampered Harry would be like totally unable to deal with the situation and all emotional/pureblood customs teachings would prove themselves useless. I think it'd be funny if executed correctly. Maybe. Tragicomedy or something.