I haven't lol'd so hard in a while. Well done, good sir.

 

For once I would like to see a American wizarding world still living in the 1700 complete with slavery, bigotry, etc. It would be a nice subversion from the *Murica fuck yeah that's prevalent in HP fanfiction.

 

I automatically skip over/close any story that has Harry going to America (unless it's VERY brief, eg. Wastelands of Time). Just because I know that the story is written by an American who's PoV is, "Why isn't Harry Potter American? That'd be really cool! Better do the next best thing.". Why? Why even do that? Britain (and sometimes stop overs in France) isn't enough of a sandbox for you?

This also implies that everyone but Harry (and/or one other character that comes with him) is going to be an OC, and that's just awful. OCs are bad (most of the time). If that's NOT the case then it's even more messed up.

In the days I actually gave these a chance (and most of the stories that briefly cover it), America is always really advanced, they use technology, wear pants, there is no racism. Wow, so good. That sounds so exciting.

I hate just about anything that's not fairly canon though...

EDIT: This goes for Australia/etc as well, I live here, but fuck that. He's British, the story is British, keep it British.

 

It'd be kind of funny if Wizarding America was under British rule because they don't care about muggle revolutions.

 

I hate it whenever I read HP fanfiction and spot any sort of non-British mannerisms in it.

I think the biggest offender is whenever I read someone like Dumbledore saying "Okay" or "Yeah". Granted, not all that often encountered, but still infuriating.

 

I get kind of annoyed when Harry tips people. Does any country but America do that (I'm actually somewhat ignorant here).

 

Tips? As in giving them extra money?

 

Yeah, like he pays for a meal, then pays the waiter for his service. Generally in the muggle world, but I think I've seen him do it at Florean Fortescue's, which makes no sense because I don't think waiters even work there, it's just the owner, why is he paying the owner twice.

 

Tipping isn't restricted to the US. Depending on how much I have, I tip somewhere between 10-20%. It doesn't make much sense in your example with Florean Fortescue's, but in the muggle world it should be fairly common to tip waiters, etc.

 

Yeah I wasn't sure. But I doubt it's that wide spread and I'm almost certain Britain doesn't do it.

 

I like keeping Harry British. The reason why I like Marquis Black's stories is that they have nobility and all that it entails. Call me conservative but I like an element of aristocracy in HP fanfiction which is also why I tend to be more forgiving towards stories that feature alot of 'lording' if you know what I mean. And that simply wouldn't work in an American setting. In a broader interpretation, I'm a fan of Europe.

 

I can agree with this.

 

There is really little reason why the borders of wizarding countries should conform to muggle borders. It makes some sense for Britain, since it's an island, but for others?
I get a headache just thinking about the possible history of a wizarding Germany.

 

We had an in-depth discussion about this in regard to Poland in the Poles group. It's definitely something worth considering.

 

Harry saying something that the author thinks is really clever, but actually sounds quite naive or silly (because the author is young or immature), to some random character and immediately convincing them of his point of view.

Even worse when it's an adult, like they take anything coming out of the mouth of a child seriously. Small exceptions perhaps, but they don't sit down with an 11-13 year old and go "Hmm..yes you make really good points, I'm going to change the opinions I've held for the last 30 years and take on your own".

 

That coincides with the whole "Here's a kid who's going to single-handedly change our world" premise and it usually goes along with the whole "Let's mesh together the muggle and wizarding world, surely nothing will go wrong" shtick. God, how I hate the fics that keep trying to bring in muggle tech into the wizarding world. I don't read HP fics for the muggle element.

 

It's actually really funny how in such a universe of possibility half of the fiction written about it grabs the known and mundane. Then uses it poorly. I can't think of a single fic I'd give a recommendation to that used muggle technology, there may be one I've forgotten but...

 

That's why I've stopped trying to make Harry sound clever and I'm sticking to including some humor here and there.

 

It's quite the rock and a hard place. It sounds really silly and some times breaks the atmosphere...but you don't want to read about a dumb useless Harry who has no impact on anyone either.

That's the problem with writing in a kids pov universe I guess.

 

The way I try and deal with that is by remembering that sometimes, from the mouth of babes comes truth.

Children have a knack at times for cutting through convoluted bullshit and adult neuroses to get to basic, simple truths that their elders once knew but have forgotten. It needn't necessarily be funny, either.