Pet Peeves in Fanfiction

[Emperor Tippy]

Because we all come across things that just annoy the hell out of us.

Pet Peeve of the Day: Inspired by Mass and Magic: adult Harry Potter wizards that are supposed to be skilled/competent speaking incantations to use their magic. Silent Casting is 6th year material and virtually the only time in the entire series that we see any adult wizard using an incantation it is for 1) dramatic effect or 2) for demonstration purposes as they teach. And yet so very many fics seem to totally forget that this is the case.

And another pet peeve inspired by the same story: Artificial/forced incompetence as a balancing mechanism/plot advancing mechanism. Harry, in that story specifically, is a 200 year old wizard with fifty plus years experience as an Auror and yet he runs around acting like a powerful 20 something with more power than sense.

 

[Lanmandragon]

Self inserts are usually just Mary Sue's. Instead of actual charecters in the story.

 

[Emperor Tippy]

Self inserts are usually just Mary Sue's. Instead of actual charecters in the story.

Hmm, another Pet Peeve of mine.

Overuse of the term "Mary Sue". As TVTropes says, the term is essentially worthless.

The biggest problems that I have found with most Self Inserts are:
1) The SI "fangirling" over the main characters and trying to force themselves into the MC group for no better reason than they think it is "cool". And usually succeeding despite the utter insanity of that. This is really bad in Mass Effect stories; Shepards crew is literally made up of the best, most exceptional, most capable, individuals in an entire galaxy made up of trillions of beings.

The worst of them is either Ashley, Kaiden, or Tali. Even Ashley is a genetically enhanced, highly trained, soldier with years of experience and proves capable enough to be a Spectre. Kaiden is the same while also being a powerful biotic. Tali is the daughter of the Quarian leader and an absurdly competent tech genius (while also being a decently capable combatant).

Some random SI? No, you don't even begin to be qualified enough to hang with even ME1 Shepard. And ME2 Shepard? Ha!

2) The SI not having their own story. Instead of using the setting to tell the SI's story (or the SI to explore/effect the setting in a way that only an outsider could), the author basically just forces them into the canon plot. They don't give the SI their own goals or motivations.

3) Artificial stupidity/genius. "Oh yes, I am an Uchiha but my eyes are cheating so I won't use them to copy/memorize everything", "Oh yes, I am a Hogwarts wizard and know about the Room of Requirement but I'm not going to abuse it to help my education", "Oh yes, I shall now manage this thing that is considered an absurdly difficult skill in ten minutes with no explanation beyond wanting it."

It's not so much the power or capabilities that are the issue, it is failing to show how they are obtained and providing explanations.

 

[StormEagle]

Anytime I see the Harry/Voldemort or Harry/Snape pairings, I die a little bit inside.

Harry: Yes, I’m going to get romantically involved with the pasty snake man that murdered my parents. Take that Dumbledore!

Also, the evil konoha civilian council schtick needs to fucking die already. It was cliche years ago, now it’s just fucking sad and boring.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Self inserts are usually just Mary Sue's. Instead of actual charecters in the story.

Even worse INO's or In-Name-Only's. They're really self-inserts or Sues that the author is living through no matter how much they deny it.

Most annoying thing is when I try talking to the authors of INO-stories and they go on about Alternate Universes to justify a Naruto who's SO different both in appearance, origin(barely any parallels) and personality or even abilities.....and I'm supposed to accept he's Naruto STILL even when there's nothing to do with Naruto there in the "crossover"

Like literally NO Chakra, NO Jutsu, NO Kyuubi/Kurama, NO Ramen Addiction, NO Orange

Honestly, I think Japan's Isekai writers are their INO-Writers who decided to make their own stories

 

[Emperor Tippy]

Even worse INO's or In-Name-Only's. They're really self-inserts or Sues that the author is living through no matter how much they deny it.

Most annoying thing is when I try talking to the authors of INO-stories and they go on about Alternate Universes to justify a Naruto who's SO different both in appearance, origin(barely any parallels) and personality or even abilities.....and I'm supposed to accept he's Naruto STILL even when there's nothing to do with Naruto there in the "crossover"

Like literally NO Chakra, NO Jutsu, NO Kyuubi/Kurama, NO Ramen Addiction, NO Orange

I would go with there being two types of INO stories, one of which is fine and one of which is crap.

The fine version is when the circumstances of the character are changed such that you expect a vastly different outcome.

Would Harry Potter be the same if raised by the Addams Family? Or Sirius Black? Or his parents?
Would Naruto be the same if the Kyuubi was never released and so he was raised by loving parents (with his father as Hokage)? In all cases, no, of course not. And forcing the character to be the same as in canon tends to result in really crappy stories.

On the other hand, putting the character is substantially the same environment with substantially the same past events and having them come out dramatically different tends to be quite bad. It can work if you are deliberately writing a story to explore those changes, but if those changes are just ancillary to the story then it is really going to suck.

It is especially bad when the author forces canon despite the fact that the character(s) are changed such that canon should not occur.

And since you reminded me of another Pet Peeve:
Stories that throw out fundamental setting conceits. A Naruto story without chakra is not a Naruto story. A Harry Potter story without magic is not a Harry Potter story.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Even worse, it’s not even a “normal” AU, they don’t even include the other Naruto/Harry Potter characters or even fucking mention or think of them

 

[Emperor Tippy]

Even worse, it’s not even a “normal” AU, they don’t even include the other Naruto/Harry Potter characters or even fucking mention or think of them

Well that tends to be the crap crossover fics.

"Ah yes, we will take supposedly canon Harry/Naruto from some time (usually post canon) and throw them into this other setting.... Oh, and Naruto is now a redhead, he has no chakra, and the kyuubi isn't around."

Or the ever classic "Oh, and he is this Master of Death super wizard with dozens of years of experience running the Aurors/the Hokage and savior of the world; but we are going to have him act like a parody of his teenage self and totally ignore all of his actual power(s) while pretending that we aren't nerfing the ever loving shit out of them".

 

[Kujo]

Being a Battle Tech fan, and understanding that a universe at peace is bad for sales, still it perturbs me when Nerfing a side you do via lots and lots of plot armor, backed by plot shields and then plot crumble zones for the plot armor (talking about both Sunny boy Liao and Katherine). Regardless of the victories the 'good guys' have they are always in a worse position then they started. Thank you.

 

[prinCZess]

Not expanding on 'little stuff' that happens in the story is a common one that riles me a bit in stuff I read. Lot of fanfic writers have clear goals in the story and consequently move things along a bit too fast for my liking to get there, and tend to leave out or at least deemphasize little social cues and interactions between characters, or tones of voice, or all the other minor things that could be described to make the 'journey' more interesting or characterize individuals or just be fun details.

That said...I am a detail-fetishist who could read page-after-page of fluffy nothing that does nothing but spin the wheels of a plotline as two characters BS and talk amongst themselves for little if any reason...So I probably am not a good critic when it comes to that aspect of things. And the flipside of this is folks who write extended stuff detailing all their worldbuilding with nary a character-interaction in sight, and those info-dumps are much more difficult for me to read.

So...Balance, I suppose.

 

[Emperor Tippy]

Some Harry Potter Pet Peeves.

Goblins are always good/misunderstood/better than wizards at everything. This despite the fact that canon goblins were a bloodthirsty warrior species that has lost virtually every war against wizards that they have fought and Gringotts is nothing but a bank. Oh, and everyone making "Ragnok" the head of the bank and Goblin King or whatever. Let's not forget how the Goblins have these great healers who can identify and remove the Horcrux from Harry in ten minutes of random chanting and deeply hate Horcrux's to the point where breaking into the Lestrange vault to steal the cup is no problem.

Muggleborns are discriminated against in government and society at large, despite the fact that there have been previous muggleborn Ministers of Magic and there being literally zero evidence in canon of the government discriminating against them until Voldemort takes over.

Purebloods are always weak willed, spineless, cowards with small "magical cores" and nothing special. This despite the fact that the purebloods in canon are the demographic group that actually shows the most spine (they might be evil but at least they are willing to stand up for their beliefs and fight for them), magical cores don't exist, and one would think that the families that have had magic for hundreds to thousands of years would have squirreled away their own stashes of goods and magics over the decades. Oh yes, and lets not forget all the money.

Then there is Astronomy. The magical telescopes are always old and antiquated and no wizards know that anyone has ever been to space or on the moon. Those muggle telescopes are so much better. This despite the fact that we actually see in canon that perfect, moving models of the galaxy in a large glass ball could be purchased in Diagon Alley (chapter 4, PoA).

Or the idea that wizards are totally ignorant of muggles. This despite the fact that Draco Malfoy of all people is aware of Helicopters and Hanggliders in the appropriate context and with the appropriate names. Or the fact that the Ministry of Magic has enchanted cars. Or that the one canon Muggle Studies assignment that we know about is "Why Muggles Need Electricity." Or that the Ministry is able to on the fly reschedule a call from a foreign President to the Prime Minister without an issue and sneak an Auror in to be his personal secretary with the PM none the wiser.

---
If you want to tell a muggles do it better story then fine, but at least have the courtesy to 1) do something remotely original with it, and 2) not make it so that the only reason that muggles do it better is because you made canon wizards look like paragons of competence and intelligence by comparison.

 

[Big Steve]

Not expanding on 'little stuff' that happens in the story is a common one that riles me a bit in stuff I read. Lot of fanfic writers have clear goals in the story and consequently move things along a bit too fast for my liking to get there, and tend to leave out or at least deemphasize little social cues and interactions between characters, or tones of voice, or all the other minor things that could be described to make the 'journey' more interesting or characterize individuals or just be fun details.

That said...I am a detail-fetishist who could read page-after-page of fluffy nothing that does nothing but spin the wheels of a plotline as two characters BS and talk amongst themselves for little if any reason...So I probably am not a good critic when it comes to that aspect of things. And the flipside of this is folks who write extended stuff detailing all their worldbuilding with nary a character-interaction in sight, and those info-dumps are much more difficult for me to read.

So...Balance, I suppose.

I second this. As a writer myself I try to balance plot and character, and I really love writing character interactions. In fact, to me half the fun of a crossover is writing the characters meeting and interacting. Hell, I could probably make an entire story about the DS9 and B5 crews playing against each other in an annual baseball game and just having fun with the interactions between the characters.

As for the OP? A variation of Tippy's above, but applied to any setting. And I'm well aware some people might say I did the same back in the TGG days with my cynical deconstruction of the Federation from Star Trek.

 

[Gaouw]

One of my pet peeves in Naruto fic (and in HP too, come to think of it).

"We know that this one orphaned child that we will be training into an effective child soldier/assassin is carrying a built-in Tzar Bomba equivalent. Let's bully/torture/rape him. Of course when he grew up he will be thankful to us and defend our way of life with all his powers. If he's dead, it'll be fine. It's not like the other guy have a nuke equivalent anyway." Said everyone and their mother.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

One of my pet peeves in Naruto fic (and in HP too, come to think of it).

"We know that this one orphaned child that we will be training into an effective child soldier/assassin is carrying a built-in Tzar Bomba equivalent. Let's bully/torture/rape him. Of course when he grew up he will be thankful to us and defend our way of life with all his powers. If he's dead, it'll be fine. It's not like the other guy have a nuke equivalent anyway." Said everyone and their mother.

Even bigger peeve, guys doing those fics look to believe THAT IS CANON

Seriously, in PM's I had, their defence was, well it just wasn't shown happening in canon and probably occurred on the side.

 

[Gaouw]

Even bigger peeve, guys doing those fics look to believe THAT IS CANON

Seriously, in PM's I had, their defence was, well it just wasn't shown happening in canon and probably occurred on the side.

The thing is, it's not exactly inaccurate (their defence, that is).

It wasn't shown in Canon that it didn't happen, and it might actually happen (inferring in the implications in canon and then stretching it to its illogical conclusion).

It's like this: "The 1500s children that the US Immigration lost is right now suffering as a sex slave/organ farm". It MIGHT be accurate. Might not be. We don't know.

My beef is that the competent administrator letting their UberWeapons be treated like that. I mean, imagine the US treat their Nuke Warhead as an American Football's ball.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

The thing is, it's not exactly inaccurate (their defence, that is).

It wasn't shown in Canon that it didn't happen, and it might actually happen (inferring in the implications in canon and then stretching it to its illogical conclusion).

It's like this: "The 1500s children that the US Immigration lost is right now suffering as a sex slave/organ farm". It MIGHT be accurate. Might not be. We don't know.

My beef is that the competent administrator letting their UberWeapons be treated like that. I mean, imagine the US treat their Nuke Warhead as an American Football's ball.

Honestly, if Naruto were being physically assaulted by the villagers, I'd expect it to at the very least be on Killer Bee or Gaara's level......they ignore those two last I checked

Plus they forget one major personality aspect Naruto had at Part 1, the reason he did pranks was because he wanted the attention of the people. Being purposely ignored was worse than being hated or looked on as an eyesore

 

[Argent]

Honestly, if Naruto were being physically assaulted by the villagers, I'd expect it to at the very least be on Killer Bee or Gaara's level......they ignore those two last I checked

Plus they forget one major personality aspect Naruto had at Part 1, the reason he did pranks was because he wanted the attention of the people. Being purposely ignored was worse than being hated or looked on as an eyesore

True in canon I always thought the citizens didn't really like him or go out of their way to interact with. When forced to they did the minimum and did it with a mild distain.

But they never would massively over charge him for rotten food, form mobs on his birthday to hunt him down or by of the other things fanfiction authors like to portray.

The same goes for Harry Potter. While he was abused it was mostly though neglect with very little being physical. But the way many authors write you would think that Harry was keep in a cage in a basement till Hogwarts.


Basically they take something from canon and turn it up 1000 percent till it is so unbelievable.


Speaking of Harry Potter the biggest thing is the shopping trip. Where we can get multiple chapters about the clothes, super trunks, secondary wands and an eye doctor visit that adds nothing plot wise and half the items are never mentioned again. The whole shopping trip is over done and just so pointless.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

@Argent
Honestly, neglect instead of outright verbal and physical abuse, sounds “less tragic” and I think those authors think that someone who gets pissed and angsty over being purposely ignored is “whining about nothing” essentiall

 

[DarthOne]

@Argent
Honestly, neglect instead of outright verbal and physical abuse, sounds “less tragic” and I think those authors think that someone who gets pissed and angsty over being purposely ignored is “whining about nothing” essentiall

I think you may have hit the nail on the head there...

 

[CarlManvers2019]

I think you may have hit the nail on the head there...

I even notice it, in-regards to ASOIAF fics with Jon Snow

Catelyn Stark was cold to him, but wasn't abusive