Like I said already guys, all of our peeves could be summarized like this: Everything from fanon is wrong and stupid.

 

I feel like a solid "Duh" should follow that statement, but goddamn if the average ffn writer doesn't seem to need a reminder.

 

That's not true. I for one am a fan of the tempus spell.

 

The tempus spell is dumb too.

 

Oh god yes. Ignoring the total arbitrary ability for a spell to tell the time and date (which are themselves arbitrary creations), wizards clearly use watches, as demonstrated all the way back in the first chapter of the first book.

 

Cause they're too lazy to cast the spell and want to show off their cool watches together with their awesome pimpcanes?

 

OK wait. The tempus spell is fine. Whats wrong with a spell that tells time? Obviously most people will use watches, but that doesn't mean you can't have a spell that tells time.

 

Consider this:

The Tempus spell, as commonly seen in fanon, shows you a magical, holographic-like figure of an exact time, suspiciously similar to what a digital clock does, as in XX:XX.

If that isn't an attempt to mugglify spells, then I don't know what is.

WHY in the world you would have a digital clock spell? That's so lame.

Next thing you'll tell me that there's a spell which browses the internet or changes tv channels. That's some muggle bullshit right there.

 

I've always liked the idea of a tempus spell which tells the time by a series of chimes.

 

Having thought about this due to the discussion, I think I have an acceptable solution.

The tempus spell shows the current display on a clock somewhere that the caster has previously chosen as their source time. It doesn't know or calculate anything, and the display is specific to the user or user+wand. Simple telesthesia (remote sensing).

 

Terrible if you're trying to be stealthy.

 

Maybe the tempus spell just displays the time in the format that is easiest for the caster to understand. A spell that tells the time isn't exactly unbelievable compared to some of the other magic in the Potterverse.

 

I'm not opposed to the Tempus spell either. It might be fanon, but compared to all the other bullshit out there that spell ranks pretty low on the list of offenders. (It didn't particularly offend me, tbh.)

I do like Taure's idea with the chimes, though. Maybe as soft chiming in the head and only for a rough estimate in hours not minutes.

 

I too think it was stupid for the tempus spell to exist and how would it work with chimes?Would each chime represent an hour, if so, how would you tell the minutes? The tempus spell just is just a way for wizards to seem 'wizardy', they don't use watches the use magic instead.

A now onto one of my many pet peeves: spell creation. Every fan fiction author who tries to do it always ends up doing it badly. Some fics I've read have had spells being created through thought and others having spells created through writing down lots of numbers in a special sequence. This one seems especially stupid to me as it is kind of like making a program with binary instructions. I personally think spell creation shouldn't be inside of a fic unless the author has put lots of time into thinking about the magical theory and I don't think I'm ever going to see a story with well thought out spell creation system as it now seems to be just another way to make super!Harry.

 

Pet Peeve:

Wizarding Britain's culture described as something worth saving. What we know of it in canon is that it is corrupt, bigoted, treats everyone but pureblood wizards as second class citizens or worse, and condones torture and even the destruction of souls as punishment. Doubly so if fandom turns it into a true feudal state, where being born a Lord grants you seats on the Wizengamot and similar powers.

Dumbledore white-washing. I hate it when abuse of children is condoned.

 

You know, I wanted to write a long post detailing why I think your post is bullshit, but I deleted all of it halfway through, realizing it's probably too late for you.

 

To be fair, I don't believe canon ever explained spell creation, so I don't hate authors for giving it a shot, it is kind of a cool idea, it's just really really hard to execute properly. And while I have yet to read a spell creation theory/story that wasn't bad I don't hate spell creation because of it. I just think the author should have quit while they were ahead because the idea they came up with wasn't a very good one.

 

I planned to write Ron as a loser, but he somehow ended up a hero. He has a lot of potential, especially if one allows him to grow (up). He doesn't even need superpowers - a brave guy with decent wandwork, who doesn't angst and brood, and can overcome his personal failings (jealousy, insecurity) when needed is a good character. Even his lazyness has potential, sometimes shortcuts and "good enough" solutions are what one needs in a war instead of perfect solutions.

 

There are some people you just can't reason with.

And quite frankly, I think it's better for someone to believe the Wizarding World is the worst thing ever than the Wizarding World being the best thing ever. Both are terrible, of course, but at least one doesn't attempt to make all ('good') wizards into awesome pagans who are totally justified to discriminate against muggles and muggleborns since their way of life is under attack by vicious squibs and mudbloods and blood traitors who don't know shit about them.

And if you want an even better idea how messed up that idea is, just replace "Wizarding World" with "Southern US", "wizards" with "white people", "muggles" with "black people", and "squibs and mudbloods and blood traitors" with "scalawags and carpetbaggers".

NOTE: I'm not saying the entire South is that bad. I'm just using it to prove a point. For this example, consider "Purebloods" as "racist whites" specifically.

 

Wizarding Britain had the first Muggleborn Minister for Magic in 1962.

The USA had the first black President in 2008.

Yes, the magical world is bigoted, but no more so than the real world. That's the whole fucking point. It's a metaphor: wizards and Muggles have different prejudices, but are still both prejudiced.

If anything the wizarding world is less prejudiced than the Muggle world. At least they have just the one prejudice: blood. Gender and race not an issue.

Corrupt: again, no more than the real world. The only evidence we have of corruption is the criminal justice system, but the criminal justice system in the real world is also open to abuse via the high standard of evidential proof required. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Requiring proof "beyond all reasonable doubt" is something I'm rather attached to, even if it leads to the occasional guilty person going free. Better for a guilty person to go free than an innocent one be imprisoned.

Feudal: completely fanon, criticising canon for this is just absurd.

Torture: Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary rendition, Binyam Mohammed. 'Nuff said.

If the wizarding world isn't worth saving, neither is the real world.

Incidentally, my pet peeve: authors who write stuff like Starfox5.