I think Jbern did one? Honestly I agree, most people don't have the capability to write it. Doesn't mean that the idea should be automatically discarded just because mediocre writers suck at writing her.

 

Isn't that kind of the point others were making, though? jbern's Luna in Bungle/TML was explicitly Mask Luna: her "Loony" attributes are just a persona where's fucking with people / hiding from people.

I think Taure's got the right idea here... there's no need for her to have a completely different/developed persona if you're writing from her perspective. She was raised whimsical, but she's still a human being, with human desires and emotions, just filtered through that lens.

I'm blanking on the name here, but there's a Luna/Hermione femslash fic that does a pretty good job of fleshing out her character while not making her a completely different person. Someone help me out with the name? All I can remember is that Hermione is doing some kind of post-Hogwarts magical college thing.

 

Crazy Little Things

By: dreiser

POST DEATHLY HALLOWS! Femslash. HermioneLuna. Little by little, in her own unusual way, Luna Lovegood begins to romance Hermione Granger. This is the work in progress version. For the edited fic that includes corrections please visit my website.

Rated: Fiction M - English - Romance - Hermione G., Luna L. - Chapters: 20 - Words: 98,840 - Reviews: 511 - Favs: 1,019 - Follows: 246 - Updated: Dec 27, 2010 - Published: Dec 28, 2007 - Status: Complete - id: 3973687

 

That's the one! Thanks, wordhammer.

 

1. Clarification - my comment about the original post was just to re-orient the discussion, didn't mean anything derogatory by that if you took it that way.

2. I actually agree with you. The problem, however, is that you're left with what I mentioned below, page after page of annoying meaningless observations that either have to be given meaning, or explained. Otherwise, you'll lose everyone but the hardcore Luna-lovers. If you don't write all those observations like the Rotfang Conspiracy, Nargles, etc., you've lost an essential component of what makes Luna, Luna.

3. I had a fic where she's one of the main characters. In it, I wrote it as something that she really believed in. It was her "God of the Gaps." But as she matured and went through her sixth year at Hogwarts, she started to use her reputation as a persona to defuse situations with the Carrows during class. I liked where I was going with it, but note that I was actually changing her character to something that at the very least, was canon+.

There's always a curtain. It may be just that she's a very creative person, or that she's a vociferous reader, or that she's just utterly board. If her father's quirky and she picked it up, then there's a familial curtain that should be explored as her character grows. But there's always a reason, be it physiological, psychological, familial, etcetera. And a Luna-centric fic that does nothing to explore that in any way, is completely stuck writing as I mentioned above.

Yes, but, see above.

 

I really disliked jbern's Luna. A lot. It completely destroyed her character in my opinion. Unlike his Fleur which was what I considered a natural evolution of books 4 Fleur.

But I never did see a Luna I liked. The seer thing sure annoys me as much as the Mask thing.

 

For me, the worst of Luna in fanfiction is when she's employed in the Luna flakes trope--add Luna as bedroom spice to another OTP® since she's not capable of a real relationship (only codependency with lots of kink sex) and she's such damaged goods that neither OTP party considers her a viable challenge to their "real" relationship.

 

Very much agreed. The mere fact that "Luna flakes" is prevalent enough to warrant its own name is... kind of depressing.

 

I remember skipping over their letter exchange in Bungle, and I remember feeling particularly weirded out by Harry's sexual escapades in the sequel.

Also, when it comes to Fleur, one thing that really annoys me is the cliche of how "veela covens organise hunts to search for those rare, elusive men immune to their allure". You have a biological/magical method of ensnaring a man, and you hunt for someone who doesn't fall into it? And second, you often hear mentions of said covens, but they're nowhere to be found in the story. I mean, wtf?

 

I...haven't seen this.

I also think you brought Fleur up then started talking about something else. Fleur is a Veela. That doesn't mean everything Veela do is her fault.

 

My bad, it's just that this is usually mentioned along with Fleur falling in love with Harry because he's "immune to her allure". And the covens thing is quite common in Harry/Fleur fanfiction. I'm quite surprised you haven't come across it yet.

 

Oh, yes. With, in most cases, Fleur's grand-mère being the leader of said Veela conclave. She (or Fleur's mother) then test their full Veela allure on Harry and once he withstood it, they accept him as the most desirable man they've ever met. That means he's either good enough for their little Fleur (or Gabrielle), or he's actually--as ancient legends say--a male Veela who has to repopulate the dying Veela community with his godly sperm as it is, coincidentally, the only sperm in the world that can make Veela's bear male children.

Therefore he saves them all and in return gets their support and all the sex he wants while crashing Voldemort's plans of domination wearing a fedora.

 

There must be something they have in common that's either in their summaries or early chapters that makes me close them.

 

Was it ever fully explained about the allure? Bill never seemed to be under the influence so to speak when he was around Fleur.

 

Veela allure is completely fanon.

 

In book 4 during the world cup Harry is described as being entranced until Hermione snaps him out of it. It's not called "Veela allure" but it was definitely unnatural.

 

I've got quite a few pet peeves:

1. When the author decides to let the readers decide the pairing, the characters powers or where the story goes through a poll. If I ever see a fic that mentions a poll being used to decide anything I nope out.

2. When doesn't have paragraphs but instead a every couple of sentences separated by a blank line. If I see this I'll read for a bit but on most occasions I'll leave after the first chapter. It seems to me that this is done to due to one or more of the following two reasons. The first is that the author wants it to seem like they have written a lot by extending the size of a page. The second is that the author just lacks anything in their story other than speech and simple actions. If I a play I would read Macbeth.

3. I think this may have been on here before but it wont hurt to repeat it. Badly written sex in good fics. If it's not done right it can ruin the story. All it does is highlight the fact that the author doesn't know what real sex is like (they think porn is real sex) or that they do know but they just can't be bothered to put any effort into writing the scene.

EDIT: About veela allure:

This was taken from the harry potter wiki.

 

Harry Potter Wiki has been known to support fanon elements and treat video games as canon.

The effect veela produce occurs only during their dance, not all the time.

As usual, Taure is able to explain it properly:

 

I agree with you about Luna's nonsensical creature names. Rowling did it well, but any originality goes out the window when either the same ones from canon are used or Luna spouts something that just blatantly is not a thing and never appears again (especially when its followed by Ron's eyes rolling, Hermione's unamused snort or Harry passing her behavior off as cute/different). I do think it can be used creatively within the story, but it can literally sap anything good from her dialogue in an instant.

For once, I'd love to see Luna go "Nah, I've been shitting you guys this whole time. Can't believe you actually fell for it for seven years!" Either that, or she just acts remarkably normal with a whimsical comment every now and then (see: Luna in On The Way to Greatness)

I would also say that, similarly, naming goblins can be just as detrimental to a story, as well as coming up with "original" incantations and book titles. I will not use examples as they would all be equally detrimental to my point.