Pet Peeves in Fanfiction stories

[mathalamus]

Jun 14, 2012 22:05:35 GMT -5 G. Novella said:

Here's one:

Hermione wearing a skimpy two piece bikini. I know it's not that big of a deal, but really, think aboUt her character and values. She doesn't parade around in bikinis!

does that *really* matter? most girls do that anyway, and still have a lot of respect for their own body, and character and values.

[Silvertongue]

*snickers* I personally don't see her being confident enough in her looks to do that. I see her being rather reserved. ...But then again I'm quite body-conscious and still wear bikinis when I'm on holiday.

[kumainpink]

*gigglesnort* I agree!

[Silvertongue]

Something I hate is people getting into relationships way too fast and seemingly based only on looks. This generally seems to happen most with OC's, them being a very good looking guy/girl and bumping into the main character (if they aren't the main character themselves) and both immediately thinking each other is hot and flirting and blushing and all that idiotic stuff and after one conversation they're dating and kissing. When does that happen except extremely drunken parties?

Something else I'm tired of seeing is Truth or Dare/Spin the Bottle fics. This are usually Drarry and are completely ridiculous.

Also don't like Drabbles all that much. If I'm going to read something I want it to be epic, not three lines.

[kumainpink]

I don't mind drabbles, but only if they're written well.

And I think Truth or Dare has a lot of potential for crazy hijinks...Spin the Bottle really doesn't, though.

[Silvertongue]

Not really no.

I read this one Naruto fic that was a Truth or Dare and it was freaking brilliant! And really long too. It was an AU and they worked in an office and only certain people were in on the dares and... oh god it was just so funny! Want to find it now but I don't remember what it was called or who wrote it. Maybe it's on my favourites.

[kumainpink]

If you find it, let me know!

[Silvertongue]

Found it! It's Slash btw... quite a few pairings. I remember me and my sister crying tears of laughter at this fic but I don't remember enough to know if I'd still find it funny.

www.fanfiction.net/s/4033379/1/Dumb_bDares_b

Apparently there is a revised version which I haven't read.

[kumainpink]

I'll have to take a look at it, Silver!

[Miss Wings]

speaking of stories, did you look at the Champion's champion- kumainpink ??

[kumainpink]

Not yet. I spent most of the night talking with lazybum and rachel! XD

[Silvertongue]

*guffaws* (does anyone else hate that word as much as I do? It's so hard to make it work in writing)

I'd noticed that while going through the threads.

[Miss Wings]

ooh love Lazybum's stories :S

[kumainpink]

Jun 15, 2012 11:51:13 GMT -5 Miss Wings said:

ooh love Lazybum's stories :S

Me too!

She's my official twin!

I'm her Forgey and she's my Greddy~!

[MaraudersFTW]

These peeves will mostly revolve around The Marauders Era:

1: I really despise the idea that James and Sirius are stupid and Remus is only the one with brains in that group. If I remember correctly, McGonagall called them exceptionally bright and yet in fanfic's they can barely string a sentence together. These are the guys who made the Marauder's Map (with help from Remus) and became Animagi's (few adults attempt this and even fewer of them succeed yet they did it at the age of 15).

2. Non-existent Peter or when he does actually exist, the others bullying him or him being too dumb to live. I think people tend to forget (or to be precise ignore) what he meant to the other Marauders. They called him a brother and James trusted him with not only his life but also his wife and child's life. He may not have been the first choice but they still trusted him enough so why would they trust a guy they seem hate at the get go and took every opportunity to belittle and bully (as seen in a lot of fics out there). Young Peter was an integral part of the Marauders and thus it makes no sense to 'edit' him out of the fics.

3. James whole character is defined by Quidditch and Lily, I think there's a whole lot more to James than those two characteristics. Sirius 'The Man-Whore' Black, so okay the guy was handsome and apparently that automatically makes him a man-whore (except I think they call him a Lady's Man to make it seem less slutty). I sincerely think there's more to him than screwing every girl and, in a slash fic, plus every guy within sight. Remus 'The Bookish Nerd' Lupin who can't stand pranks, do I need to say more than he was a Marauder. I sincerely doubt that he never participated in any pranks and I really doubt that he had major bitch sessions when the other guys pulled a prank. However when he's portrayed as a prankster, they call him the Mastermind behind all the pranks and Sirius and James were his brainless henchmen who couldn't come up with a decent prank even if they were at gun-point. (I don't mind mastermind Remus as long as he's not behind all the pranks and James and Siriusly were equally brilliant.)

4. I guess this is my number one pet peeve; Remus is the Hermione of the group, Sirius is Ron and James is Harry. So Remus was clever and liked books, does that instantly make him Hermione? Remus was a marauder for crying out loud, and to be honest Hermione wouldn't be able to tolerate such a group much less be part of them. I don't even know the logic behind Sirius is Ron idea, from my perspective there is no similarities between them but then again since fanon Sirius is dumb and this Sirius tends to copy homework from Remus and who hates Slytherins on sight (because he bullied Snape and so we can conclude he must have picked on the whole Slytherin house from that). Yes he didn't want to be in Slytherin house but that doesn't evidently mean he hated the all the students of that house. Actually he seemed to like Andromeada, Regulus and even uncle Alphard. Yes now I can see why fanon Sirius and Ron are similar, they're both dumb, mooch of a clever friend and seem to hate Slytherin on sight. Lastly, as James and Harry are near images of each other, it obviously makes sense that their behaviour and personality is the same not even similar.

5. My last peeve (for now), just because Lily and Ginny are red-heads, that doesn't make them the same person. These two characters are very different from each other and I find it disturbing that Harry fall for his 'mother' in a way.

[codygotkilld]

Jun 15, 2012 19:18:04 GMT -5 MaraudersFTW said:

These peeves will mostly revolve around The Marauders Era:

1: I really despise the idea that James and Sirius are stupid and Remus is only the one with brains in that group. If I remember correctly, McGonagall called them exceptionally bright and yet in fanfic's they can barely string a sentence together. These are the guys who made the Marauder's Map (with help from Remus) and became Animagi's (few adults attempt this and even fewer of them succeed yet they did it at the age of 15).

2. Non-existent Peter or when he does actually exist, the others bullying him or him being too dumb to live. I think people tend to forget (or to be precise ignore) what he meant to the other Marauders. They called him a brother and James trusted him with not only his life but also his wife and child's life. He may not have been the first choice but they still trusted him enough so why would they trust a guy they seem hate at the get go and took every opportunity to belittle and bully (as seen in a lot of fics out there). Young Peter was an integral part of the Marauders and thus it makes no sense to 'edit' him out of the fics.

3. James whole character is defined by Quidditch and Lily, I think there's a whole lot more to James than those two characteristics. Sirius 'The Man-Whore' Black, so okay the guy was handsome and apparently that automatically makes him a man-whore (except I think they call him a Lady's Man to make it seem less slutty). I sincerely think there's more to him than screwing every girl and, in a slash fic, plus every guy within sight. Remus 'The Bookish Nerd' Lupin who can't stand pranks, do I need to say more than he was a Marauder. I sincerely doubt that he never participated in any pranks and I really doubt that he had major bitch sessions when the other guys pulled a prank. However when he's portrayed as a prankster, they call him the Mastermind behind all the pranks and Sirius and James were his brainless henchmen who couldn't come up with a decent prank even if they were at gun-point. (I don't mind mastermind Remus as long as he's not behind all the pranks and James and Siriusly were equally brilliant.)

4. I guess this is my number one pet peeve; Remus is the Hermione of the group, Sirius is Ron and James is Harry. So Remus was clever and liked books, does that instantly make him Hermione? Remus was a marauder for crying out loud, and to be honest Hermione wouldn't be able to tolerate such a group much less be part of them. I don't even know the logic behind Sirius is Ron idea, from my perspective there is no similarities between them but then again since fanon Sirius is dumb and this Sirius tends to copy homework from Remus and who hates Slytherins on sight (because he bullied Snape and so we can conclude he must have picked on the whole Slytherin house from that). Yes he didn't want to be in Slytherin house but that doesn't evidently mean he hated the all the students of that house. Actually he seemed to like Andromeada, Regulus and even uncle Alphard. Yes now I can see why fanon Sirius and Ron are similar, they're both dumb, mooch of a clever friend and seem to hate Slytherin on sight. Lastly, as James and Harry are near images of each other, it obviously makes sense that their behaviour and personality is the same not even similar.

5. My last peeve (for now), just because Lily and Ginny are red-heads, that doesn't make them the same person. These two characters are very different from each other and I find it disturbing that Harry fall for his 'mother' in a way.

I couldn't have said it any better then that maruaderftw. Your second and third peeves are the ones that piss me off when I read about the Marauders.

I believe that Peter was a decent student during his days in Hogwarts and wasn't a complete imbecile as some fics portary him as. He wasn't a straight O student but he probably had A's and a few E's with the others help. When these fics show him to be an incompetent moron with the other Marauders it just seems unbelievable since he must of had some characteristics that made the others like him.

I can't stand when authors automatically assume that Sirius was a man-whore. Sure he was described as being a good looking dude but that doesn't mean he tried to get in bed with every girl in Hogwarts. It also peeves me off when the authors write his thoughts about women in general during his teenage years. It is always like they are tools that once broken he throws them out for a new set. I just don't see Sirius treating women like cattle and having James and Remus accept that in a friend.

[Kitty279]

MarauderFTW, I completely agree with you. Couldn't have said it better. Actually, I've stopped reading stories because I was so fed up with Sirius (and to a lesser degree James) being portrayed as too stupid to understand the most simple concepts, Remus always slapping the others and behaving like he has a right to tell off the others all the time, and all that rubbish. The absolutely worst was when Lily was hexing Sirius for every interruption - that was plain bullying, and the other Marauders didn't protest, they even helped. Needless to say, I didn't get far with that ...

That 'man-whore' stuff annoys me a lot, too. Sure, Sirius looked good and was probably flirting with a few girls, but that should be normal for his age, and I can't imagine him using them in the way some authors portray it. Another failsave way to put me off a story.

You are right about Sirius and the Slytherins. Coming from a family of Slytherins, he knows that they are different, and while I can see him hating the Death Eaters and like-minded people, he would realise that there are people who think differently. Some people just think in cliches only.

[Trilonias]

Especially as one of his favorite cousins, Andromeda Tonks nee Black was a Slytherin herself.

And I agree about the marauders... Peter's betrayal was so brutal BECAUSE he was a friend, a close one. And that's not portrayed in the stories most of the time. Even with some RtB fics where they are involved.

[codygotkilld]

Oh, Trilonias you just reminded me of something. I hate when you have these RtB stories with the Marauders and they get placed in a room without Peter. Don't you think they would find that really curious that their *brother* is not with them? It also should hint to them that Peter must have done something to not be included.

[Kitty279]

Indeed, I have yet to happen upon a fic where they figure that out beforehand, when they learn during PoA what Sirius was supposed to have done, but no one is able to figure out why Sirius was included in the reading, but not Peter. I'd expect them to be a bit more intelligent.

[codygotkilld]

It also usually ends with Remus figuring it out but denying it until it is revealed in POA. It really just gives a huge blow to the Marauders collective intelligence, you know?

[Kitty279]

Yes. Together, they should have figured it out pretty soon. I mean, to develop all these pranks or the Marauders map or becoming animagi wouldn't be possible if they were barely able to hold their wand the right way up, like some stories portray them. (Another problem I have with Molly - she never saw how much intelligence the twins showed by developing the products and that they were using what they learned very well).

That reminds me ... I could imagine that lots of students are either better in the practical parts than in the writen/theoretical ones or vice versa. Homework seems to consist of endlessly writing essay over essay. But the pureblood children seem to be homeschooled. Did they even learn to write essays properly? It'd be really ironic if the twins had bad marks for the theory just because Molly couldn't teach properly how to do an essay ...

[Kitty279]

To get back to topic - another pet peeve of mine is when Harry goes back in time during these reading fics and defends Dumbledore when others freak out about the cupboard and others of his failings and still thinks it was all well and good. Really, which use is it to change the future if you think everything was going as it should already? It just makes me wonder how much brainwashed Harry is.

[kumainpink]

Kitty, I highly believe that Harry is very brainwashed. His character just SCREAMS it at times, you know?

[sherza]

Jun 15, 2012 19:18:04 GMT -5 MaraudersFTW said:

4. Remus is the Hermione of the group, Sirius is Ron and James is Harry.

I completely agree with everything NOT in the quote, maraudersftw.

That said, there are more parallells between the Marauders and the Golden Trio than you seem to think.

Remus and Hermione are both not only scarily smart, but also the go-to people for research in their respective groups. They're also demonstratively the most responsible. Their overall personalities are quite different, I completely agree, but they do have things in common within the group structure

Same goes for Ron and Sirius. Both are ... well ... unthinking prats and a bit bigoted. Ron constantly had foot-in-mouth-itis, and Sirius ... well, he was the genius who thought it was a good idea to send someone to visit a werewolf on a full moon. They're also both VERY anti-Slytherin, to the point of ridiculousness.

Other than that, frankly, I get a bit irritated with people who compare Sirius and Ron. Sirius is by far the smarter and more driven, and a hundred thousand times more loyal. (No, I'm not a huge Ron fan).

With James and Harry, they're both the front-men for their groups, the overall leaders who get things moving.

It's very understandable that people compare the two groups, and MOST folks aren't saying that Remus is Hermione etc ... they're just saying that one is the other generation's version of the other, meaning they hold essentially the same position and purpose in the group.

I completely agree, though, that the idea of Remus not participating or it all being on one or two of the four is silly. This is how I've always invisioned it:

James: Leader, assigns tasks, keeps everyone on task, generally the one to sweet-talk the teachers if they get caught. Generally the one to choose their target

Sirius: The one that comes up with most of the ideas and does much of the set-up work

Remus: Does the research, also sets up particularly big or difficult pranks because with his 'studious' cover, he's usually the least suspect of the four.

Peter: Spies on 'marks' to keep track of their movements in order to place pranks, keeps watch while pranks are being set up.

[codygotkilld]

This isn't much of a pet peeve in a fanfic's content but more along the lines of the summaries. What exactly is the purpose of the ! inbetween say time-travel!Harry? I know I used it on a thread way earlier but I had a bout of brain deathness before posting. I just never understood why authors use ! between two words.

[Kitty279]

Plus, Sirius is not having the self-esteem issues Ron has.

That job-sharing between the Marauders sounds good to me. Yes, I imagine it in a similar way, and it makes much more sense than what some people write.

The problem seems to be that people see a scene where Sirius behaves silly while still in school - doesn't even have to be canon - and then go and conclude that he stayed that childish forever, disregarding that 20 years have gone by and that he spent 12 of them in Azkaban.

[Kitty279]

Jun 16, 2012 1:38:01 GMT -5 codygotkilld said:

This isn't much of a pet peeve in a fanfic's content but more along the lines of the summaries. What exactly is the purpose of the ! inbetween say time-travel!Harry? I know I used it on a thread way earlier but I had a bout of brain deathness before posting. I just never understood why authors use ! between two words.

Seems to be their version of a connection, like in time-travel. I get the meaning, but don't like it - seems bad spelling to me.

And is it very strange that I find that trend highly annoying to pull names together to show a pairing? Like Dramione? To me it just sounds stupid and bad language ...

[kumainpink]

I started doing the ! thing because I thought that was how it was supposed to be done, (saw it around a lot)

[Kitty279]

That's how that spreads, I believe. One uses it, sometimes out of laziness or accidentally, and others copy it ... it's the same as with some ideas.