... and Harry, hearing Darth Severus announce that he is his father throws himself off the power coupling and falls to the bottom of the central shaft of Cloud City, his bleeding stump of a hand indistinguishable from the ruins of his mind as he struggles to deal with the reality: that greasy-haired bastard fucked his mom!

No.

In all seriousness, the Robitus challenge (the name being a parody of the despicable Severitus challenge) takes its core from the very heart of dystopian fiction. The rules are the simplest of any challenge. Here it is:

That's it. Here's a perfectly workable response to this fic: I invision something to the effect of Harry falling in love with a girl (of your choice) and she rejects him utterly. Harry then gets his ass handed to him by Voldemort, despite a valiant attempt on his part and many hours spent studying and practicing. Left for dead, he's rescued by an attractive passing squib, who nurses him back to health. Unfortunately for Harry, the squib is hit by the Knight Bus and dies in Harry's arms. Harry, spurred on by her (his, if you swing that way, although I'd probably not read it if you did) learns more magic than ever and goes face-to-face with Voldemort again, determined to face his inner demons. Harry gets his ass handed to him by Voldemort again, who laughs at him as he destroys him utterly.

Of course - that's not a guideline. That's just an example, albeit a lame one. You can make it as happy an ending as you want - Harry destroys Voldemort, befriends Griphook (gag me with a spoon, though), shags Hermione senseless - but there has to be an element of unhappiness that prevents cathartic relief. Bonus points if you use the unhappiness to make an actual point about human society, either fandom's or real-lifedom's.

Length? However long you want. Could be only a handful of words long:

"Harry killed Voldemort, but he stubbed his toe and couldn't walk quite right ever after."

I also have a preference for longer fics, though. I'd say a minimum of 20k words to do it justice.

Oh, yeah - it has to have a decent attempt at spelling and grammar.

 

Honestly, this isn't something I'd want to read at all, unless it was an extremely humoristic fic. Of course, that would entirely bely the ending, as the humor would supersede the unhappy ending.

 

Unless it was done by a very good author in a humor/parody way that would be a horrible angsty type story by the sound of it. Well horrible for me because I can't stand angst.

 

I would have to say, if it was a humour/parody then it could be good, anything else and it wouldn't work.

 

The humour is one possible end to achieve the means, and probably the easiest.

The catch with any challenge is to avoid angst and actually write something decent while staying in the guidelines. The single guideline is quite easy to follow - intentionally - and thus the challenge is to write literature, not crappy 13-year-old's fanfics. Writing bad things happening does not necessitate angst. Sadness, perhaps - bitterness and a lack of understanding, potentially, but not necessarily angst.

What I'm asking for is an Empire Strikes Back ending, in short. There can be a sequel or an epilogue, but never more than once or twice have I seen Harry or crew be down and potentially out.

 

You're one of those lost Harry-haters in Harry Potter fanfiction here. It's not Hogwarts fanfiction. It's not JKR magical fanfiction. It's HARRY Potter fan fiction. Harry's the reason most read and write it.

You can find an audience with side stories or focusing on other characters (like fics about the origin of Voldemort or MWPP-era stuff) but the crux of it is the Harry Potter parts. If Harry's not our protagonist than who is? Anyone? Meh.

This to me just sounds like Rob's sickened by the many whiny, weak, annoying, love-starved crappy Harry Potters in fanfic. And writing one where you just beat him down is pointless. Even if it's humorous. We need someone to like just as much as we dislike this poor stupid Harry.

 

I for one would love to see a bad guys win fic, if only for the novelty value.

Though it wouldn't make a good storyline. 'Cause everyone knows that if you put the hero through so much suffering and hurt its just anticlimatic to have him killed at the very end. Unless he takes the enemy down with him.

Overall, not a good idea for a fic, but it would be good to see a 'bad guys win' fic at least once (Without Voldie as the protagonist).

 

That's perfectly legal within the rules of the challenge. He doesn't even have to lose - there just has to be some manner of thing in his or the environment's characterization or the situation that's unnerving. Most fics tend to use this as their start, but rarely as their end.

No, I don't hate Harry. I'm the absolute opposite. If you read my work, you know I'm a vehement Harry/Self-insertion slash shipper.

Well - not quite. But I do like Harry. What I hate - and Xippy hit it on the nose here - is fics where Harry gains an unrealistic amount of power and then never gets grazed by a spell again. Case in point: any fic that has been Bobminced. I want to see a fic where Harry breaks his leg and doesn't have it heal instantly with field magic that he learned from the queen super-cool ultrasinger OC. Not only that, but I want to see the fact that Harry gets beaten down as a sign of something bigger: that even with magic, not everything can end as a fairy tale.

Xiph's suggestion of having any potential takers PM me is not a bad one, but I don't particularly care however you do it. Might spoil the ending, though, if everyone else knew what it was.............

 

I win!

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2806167/11/

I'm very ashamed to have written the majority of this story, but the ending made me oh so proud! It's just too bad that the majority of the readers didn't understand the delightful irony. Read the reviews of this chapter for a fantastic laugh.

 

Hey that one guy, bill560682, that gave IP82 those weird story ideas is reviewing yours. Ha ha.

 

Heh. That's perhaps a bit extreme for the challenge, but your reviews were funny.