Correct, and likewise. Even though we were practically all in the same buildings, majority of our socialising was done during class, you don't get that much time out of it to foster friendships.

That's most likely different in a boarding school though.

 

Ah, how could I forget Soul Bonds. Because apparently, a lot of writers think that two preteens will instantly fall in love when they share each other's minds and Magic says they have to be together because Reasons. And not to mention both sides developing random powers because, again, Reasons. And don't even get me started on that Veela-Bond bullshit some people like to do to justify Harry/Fleur or Harry/Gabrielle.

 

Veela bonds are a godsend for PWP. Outside, though... :facepalm

 

The Well Groomed Mind was recently recommended in a story search thread, and I remembered that I hadn't finished what was written, so I took a gander again.

Beyond the complete rewriting of the entire HP universe to fit the author's hilarious prejudices, what really bugged me was the awful dismissal of utilitarianism (and, I suppose, Jeremy Bentham. I'm not a huge fan of classic philosophy, but the little I've read suggests he was one of the sanest and most forward-looking people to have ever lived. Literally.).

I mean, in an AN:

Yep. This is accompanied by a great character attack on Bentham himself - suggesting that he had Aspergers, which resulted in his theories. Let that sink in a moment - people who hold different moral systems than you do so because they are mentally ill.

You know, I bet the author would kill five people in the trolley problem, instead of one person, because yeah I don't even know.

 

And character development? Good luck. Any time you dig deeper into someone, you see behind the "Quirky but cute" picture to what's happening behind it, and that disabuses her of her charm. So in order to keep that charm, her character development can only be in areas that keep her somewhat at arms length—things like loyalty. The one areas where a person may get away from this is a relationship-centric fic.

 

You don't need luck.

Accept her as a character and as a person for who she is and don't try 'solve' her. Do you know everything about your friends? Do you have to know why they are the way they are? Even if you do know, do you spend time thinking about it? Or do you just accept it?

She's just an odd girl, not a mysterious fae from the Nevernever, or a Seer of unfathomable power that disguises her powers with her flighty personality. Implying you can't write her into a story without destroying her charm just says to me the author just struggles with writing unconventional characters.

That's fine too, of course.

If you feel the need to do an in depth character study mid-story to find the source of her oddness, for the reader's benefit, that's up to you. I don't think you do though.

 

Less is more, tis why we get 500k length fanfics that cover half of your average novel.

 

Using special symbols to denote when someone is thinking or talking in another language. It was really popular at one point with parsletongue.

 

^ It still is.

 

Hmm, I guess the reason I haven't seen it recently is I've become much more discerning with my story selection.

 

§It'sss a good thing no one can underssstand that I hate everyone on thisss board§

 

It's not about "solving" her. It's about the fact that her character works when you don't peek behind the curtain, and when you don't get her in large doses. That shackles character development, IMO, way too much for her to be a main character of a story.

 

Just because most fan fiction writers aren't capable of writing a good in-depth Luna doesn't mean her character doesn't "work" if you explore her more and use her as a main character. I also don't think it's productive to categorically dismiss character development in Luna just because you might not like what's behind the curtain.

 

or what the writer puts behind the curtain.

 

"Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain..."

 

Luna can work, it's just that hardly anyone can pull it off. I actually had to abandon a story 40k words in once because I couldn't write her.

 

Let's put this discussion in perspective. I was responding originally to this post:

My point is that Luna's "weird and quirky" works specifically because she's a side character. I don't care how good of a writer someone is, if you stick with Canon Luna as a main character, you'll get page after page of annoying new creatures, strange observations, and the like. Because that IS Luna.

So, either you have to water that down, which is done by peeking behind the curtain and beginning to explain/understand/have her character evolve from the little girl with strange observations and make-believe characters, or you give meaning to those things so that her observations can't be summarily dismissed.

The latter was dismissed as a pet-peeve in the same quote I quoted above, which leaves the former. That, however, is a major pet-peeve as well (explaining away her quirkiness).

Tell me, would you really want to read 100k words in which every other scene is sprinkled with "Oh look, it's a three-toed flying paptaetmuls"? Or, "That's okay, it's just your Nargle infestation causing you to act this way. We can talk later."

Because, once again, that IS Luna, and no amount of character development will get rid of it, unless you do one of the two things discussed above. So, in small doses, Luna is perfect comic relief with a sprinkle of "Harry's not the only one with heartache," thrown in. And that's why I said she's good at a distance.

EDIT: And, hence, one of my Pet-Peeves - a Luna-centric fic.

 

I read the original post mate, just like I read pretty much every single one in this thread. Maybe I'm just being an idiot, but don't you people hate one dimensional characters? Obviously I don't want a Luna that constantly sprouts stuff about weird creatures(that is exactly why I want character development) but that doesn't mean she can't be used as a primary character.

I think it's a false dilemma to state that there are only two options when it comes to Luna's character development. Canon Luna has so little screen time that the potential to develop her character is massive. You can practically go in any direction with her. Sure, she might not be what you see as canon Luna anymore, but that's not a crime in and of itself. While you might say "explaining away" I would say explore and develop.

DLP'ers complain about putting characters into boxes all the time(see Dumbledore or Ron) but it's all good when it comes to Luna? I honestly don't understand your reasoning here. The role you describe for Luna is that in canon, but this is fan fiction. You're meant to do things differently. You're meant make people think and challenge their preconceptions of characters. I'm not saying that you have to do it, but that it can be done without resorting to the "she's a Seer and everything she says is profound" or "it's just a shield she uses to hide her real personality".

 

I'm not sure if I buy into this "peeking behind the curtain or not" narrative. It rather assumes that there's a curtain to look behind in the first place. I'm not convinced that Luna's quirkiness has any real cause other than the fact that her father is quirky and that's the way she's been raised. Lots of authors go the "trauma from mother's death" route but that doesn't really explain why Xenophilius is so crazy too.

That said, I think lots of fanfiction authors (and thus those accustomed to reading fanfic) are a bit too submerged in the "Luna is weird and only talks about imaginary creatures" trope. People seem to forget that she's also a teenage girl.

 

The problem is that, in practice, every attempt at making Luna not one-dimensional has turned out terrible. I've read a lot of stories where the authors tried to add depth to Luna, and yet I can't think of a single story that did it well. At best it ends up not really being the same character at all, and more commonly it's just stupid. An above-average author could probably make it work, but in the hands of a typical FF writer Luna is better left one-dimensional, and one-dimensional characters work only as side characters with a limited number of scenes.