Welcome to DLP, pidl. I'm all for Ron being killed with a rock myself, but yeah he's not disloyal or cowardly. He's just an immature little shit with self-worth issues.

 

I almost wish I could ban the words 'Manipulative' and 'Dumbledore' occurring in the same sentence.

I'm sick of fics that have, as chapter 1, some person (Hermione, Sirius, Remus Lily, Mrs Figg, whoever) having an epiphany and telling Harry how very single thing that ever went wrong ever was Dumbledore's manipulations. Dursleys? Dumbledore needed Harry abused/pliable. Stone Protections? Dumbledore made them a test for Harry. People trust Dumbledore? Memory charms coming out the wazoo. Triwizard? Dumbledore. Sirius' death? Dumbledore. Asian Tsunami? Dumbledore. Collision of Milky Way and Andromeda in 4b years? Dumbledore!

 

Edit: Sorry, wrong thread.

 

Dumbledork. Voldie. Anything that childish and pathetic really annoys me. Can't read anything further than that point.

 

Also pairings for the sake of it.

 

This is also not limited to fics. If I see it used seriously in a post I just stop reading and assume the poster is an idiot.

 

Which begs the question of what wouldn't be childish and pathetic.

Derogatory nicknames for the enemy is a time-honored tradition.

 

" I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

 

2nd funniest movie I've ever seen.

 

An example of something not childish and pathetic is Dumbledore calling Voldemort 'Tom'. It's simple and something that may actually provoke a response. I can't imagine somebody with as much life experience as either of these men will get angered by getting their name shortened or a letter being changed. Just screams schoolyard humour to me I suppose.

 

If it is actually taken seriously I agree it is stupid but A. It is exactly the kind of name a teenager would use and B. Also the random kind of insult people use.

Also Voldemort is exactly the kind of guy to get pissed off at completely random things so stupid insults should work wonderfully well in annoying him. Now why you would annoy someone that can easily kill you is a good question...

 

I just couldn't see people actually saying something like that in real life, even back in school.

And I can't see Voldemort getting annoyed over that. That's not to say he won't kill them where they stand but I don't thing he will take something like that to heart. Especially as they are nothing compared to him.

 

I was thinking more along the lines of what soldiers do. My father and both of my uncles were WWII vets. The US military had some choice nicknames for German and Japanese soldiers.

It's not really a matter of trying to insult someone to provoke a response. German soldiers didn't get pissed at being referred to as 'krauts'. They were too busy trying to kill the enemy to pay attention to that shit.

Whenever you get two groups violently opposed to each other, derogatory nicknames are going to be assigned.

EDIT: "The Dark Torso" is still one of the funniest nicknames I've ever seen in an HP fic. Followed closely by "The Dark Seamstress".

 

Wow, seriously? You never heard someone making stupid or overused jokes? Never met anyone who didn't like his name or a nickname and people used those just to annoy them(Much like Tonks really)? Or just people who randomly give other people nicknames and keep using that?

If yes then I must admit you live in a completely different world from me in terms of reality and also in terms of what you read/watch since it is plenty common in TV shows, anime and so on.

I think we are working with different definitions of 'annoy' here since taking something to heart is pretty much the opposite of the one I am using.

I am using 'annoy' as a generally trivial thing that you nonetheless react to. Someone calling your name several times in a row, or calling you and then saying nothing. You telling something and the person asking 'what?'. You walking on the street and just as you are about to cross the lights go green and cars start passing. Things like that. No where near even close to being remotely important on their own but passing annoyances nonetheless.

So now that I clarified my definition I just don't think Voldemort the kind of guy who can just wave away annoyances like that but more the kind of guy who would murder his way through them all. And he is very good at the whole murder part.

 

I have yet to encounter someone who used a retarded nickname for a mass-murderer and was then genuinely thought funny, original or cool.

Referring to Hitler as Adolf Shitler in a 'look how daring and cool I am' is a good way to get punched by someone who lost somebody in WWII.

 

So you never heard of Super Aryan Hitler? Here is a picture for you.

Aside from that I was talking about teenagers making stupid jokes to each other. Also talking about how Voldemort is extremely easy to annoy just almost always stupid to do. Those two are not related.

 

Seriously? We used to make jokes about Charles Manson and called him "Charlie" in high school. Hell, we had all sorts of derogatory nicknames for the school faculty.

The problem with the nicknames in HP is that they're generally associated with terrible story telling (bad Independent Harry, Manipulative Dumbledore, that sort of thing) and they don't quite work in context. Generally Harry's not talking about some nebulous person in history when he refers to Voldemort; he's dead serious about a man who wants to kill him. So a nickname doesn't really make sense. With Dumbledore, well, there's really no point where a nasty nickname being given would make sense from Harry's point of view. You don't give them to administrators you like, and if you turn Dumbledore evil you're probably doing it wrong. So if you wanted to write Harry on the slow slide to Darkness or just an asshole Harry sure. But normally it makes very little sense

 

Oh, I agree it's generally a big warning sign for a shitty story. And I don't really have a problem with derogatory nicknames per se, (although this is more of a Harry Dresden thing than HP) it's just annoying when the nicknames are retarded and sound like they're invented by a 13-year-old who thinks he's clever (which they probably are.)

DD = the old man, LV = snakeface -> might work depending on the story

DD= Dumbledork, LV = Moldyshorts -> automatic fail

 

Let's be fair; there's a damn good chance Harry is within a year or two of 13 when these come up, so it's explainable. But yes, almost always a marker of a terrible tale

 

And what should happen then is that if an adult hears Harry using such a retarded nickname they go "Are you retarded?" instead of the "Hahahaha, that's so funny, let me suck your dick" that happens in those fics.