I've recently acquired another pet peeve, but against DLP.

Why do so many of you use Magical Hitler as a synonym for Voldemort?

Hitler was worse than Lord Voldemort by far.

JKR may have used Hitler as inspiration, but it was an extremely diluted version.

People are drawing correlations which are there, sure but between those that are not even on the same level of equivalence.

It was fine the first time I read it, but now almost all seem to be using it.

For my mandatory display of hypocrisy-

Make DLP great again!

 

The funny thing about the Pet Peeves threads is that a lot of those 11 threads consists of us repeating the exact same stuff. If any given Pet Peeve was only posted exactly once, you'd probably be able to cut the number of threads in half, or more.

With that said, people who honestly think Harry, a teenager, ever stood a realistic chance at defeating Voldemort, one of the most powerful dark wizards of all time. If you give Harry some sort of massive power-up, that would be one thing. But there are so many stories and people that seriously think some combination of being raised by a 'dark but not family,' having 'better' friends, being in a relationship with his 'one twu wove,' spending that one summer training in his Super-Trunk, and someone teaching him Uber-Magic since birth (which ironically is the very thing so many Fics Bashed Dumbledore for allegedly doing) will matter one bit against Voldemort, the guy so powerful even Dumbledore armed with the Elder Wand couldn't defeat him.

 

That post looks like a less-retarded-than-usual trolling attempt. Or I could be an idiot, which is not out of the question. Or the newbie read a DLP thread on the HP subreddit and is trying to see if we'll ban him for going against the grain.

 

@Distended Destiny2018

You make many salient points. It took a lot of soul searching and deliberation-- I didn't want you to be right, but my heart knew the truth. You've changed me. From now on, I for one will no longer make that egregious comparison. Thank you.

 

I'll bite, sure.

Hitler killed more people than Voldemort, yes, and we know his political opinions in greater depth, so perhaps they are also worse (as well as being real and therefore more troubling).

However, the reasons the comparisons are made are many and clear. In short he was a charismatic leader who took over the country, subverting the normal apparatus of government and gaining support for a platform of bigotry and violence targeted against a sub-group of that society blamed for its ills. The system he set up persecuted and executed these same minorities. Hitler is a very obvious comparison, and you can't really blame people for using it.

edit: if your objection is scale in sheer numbers, then that's an artifact of the size of the wizarding world. If it's his confinement to one country I'd argue that's simply due to him losing earlier than Hitler did. In this analogy Hitler is defeated somewhere between Kristallnacht and invading Czechoslovakia.

 

I agree. Hitler was also an artist, and so far as I could see, Voldemort showed no artistic leanings.

 

Implying the Dark Mark isn't art, you wot mate

 

I agree with the last one but I don't need to see the same damn thing again and again.

I've never been to reddit before...

I was not trolling, I went through three threads having the same comparison. I was just pointing out that some of the pet peeves are normal human failings.

And the defensiveness exhibited is the same as many authors's, though I admit it is far more refined.

Some Hitler examples...

Huh? I was sure more examples were there...

EDIT: I just went to some random threads in HP subreddit and found out that it is much worse over there...

 

And it's literally called the Dark Arts.

 

Okay, this might be more of a bias than a pet peeve (is there any difference?), but I hate the glorification of the Marauders. Harry and friends are the New Marauders; Harry has to live up to the Marauders' legacy. Every time-travel to 70s fanfic has the Marauders being all quirky and fun and games and cuddles and giggles and Harry just dying to be one of them. Very few depict them as the immature troublemakers they were. Even the name is terrible. Marauders. Reminds me of some stupid ending of some game.

 

Worse yet, the only time "Marauders" is used is on the map I believe. It was a joke title, not a title of a group of boys at school. See for instance, Chapter 11 of Deathly Hallows, "I am Remus John Lupin . . . Moony, one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map, married to..." This was when he was identifying himself. Note, he didn't identify himself as a Marauder, but as one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map. I hate reading about it, especially since the title is single. "Marauder." So, it cannot refer to the four students.

 

At first, no, but Hermione does refer to them as the Marauders and JK Rowling herself confirmed that they called themselves that. And unless JK Rowling contradicts herself (ala Cursed Child) or says something outright stupid, I'll take her word as canon.

 

I searched through every book and found no place Hermione refers to them as such. Every use of "Marauder's" is followed by "Map." As for me, I accept only the seven books as canon. Her retconning is hilarious and nothing more than pandering to her fans. Harry really should have been with Hermione, Dumbledore is now gay, Marauders is now a name of a group, blah blah blah.

I don't believe it mainly because I know how to read.

 

Except the whole Marauders thing isn't really a retcon at all. And it was Ron that says it in Half-Blood Prince. Page 452, Chapter 21. So yeah, it's canon.

 

Just say, "nay!"

It's one of those words that authors use to show that they know fancy words. Bad writing.

Even worse, it is almost inevitably paired with Hadrian Potter-Black.

I think I've said this before, but 'decided' is a word I detest. The author either uses it in a way to avoid having to show a scene (Harry decided to save his Godfather) or else to catalog some retarded minutiae that doesn't deserve conscious thought, let alone narrative (Harry decided to use the toilet).

Other words/phrases to avoid

this perfectly normal looking neighborhood

lop-sided grin

contact lenses

the muggle saleswoman

golden boy/ golden trio

Daphne, a rather dumpy looking witch

 

Yep, I missed that one. Still, he's referring to the makers of the map rather than their group of friends labeling themselves "marauders." In fact, the singular possessive of the map title would hint that Ron was wrong in his reference. Otherwise, it'd be the "Marauders' map." Even with all that said, there is still no canon evidence that James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter called themselves "The Marauders."

 

Something that irks me a little, perhaps irritionally, is writers that don't improve their writing. Especially on FF there are writers who've been at it for years and the quality just doesn't get better over time at all. Do they just not care? Are they mentally stunted? Surely there are reviews that tell them how awful their stories are, do they just tune them out? If the writers themselves lack agency how will they be able to imbue their characters with any agency at all?

 

Why would they? When bad authors get thousands of reviews that are a variation of OMG! SO GOOOD! BEST EVER! MOAR! It doesn't really provide any impetus for getting better.

EDIT: That said, I do agree with you.