Subject: Yep, same here
Author:
Posted on: 2018-08-14 22:26:00 UTC
I'm also a sucker for Power of Friendship/Power of Love-fueled victories. And magical girls. And magical girls kicking the bad guy's ass with the power of friendship.
You aren't alone in (your reasons for) hating Umbridge, Snape, and Malfoy's guts. That's one of Rowling's biggest strengths, I think; writing both large- and small-scale villainy well.
This thread is for sharing things you really, really like or things you really, really hate.
For example, I really like stories where the main character is about to lose. The villain has absolutely everything. There is nothing more that can be done. All hope is lost. Evil has triumphed... but then the main character uses the bonds of his friends or the power of love and compassion or some other virtuous strength and unlocks a power that they never knew they had or starts to finally use 100% of their power. They snap victory from the jaws of defeat at the critical moment. That's why I like it when a Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist draws the exact card he needs to pull off some crazy combo that should not be possible, summon his Ultimate Super Evolved Boss of Justice with ∞^∞ ATK and win. Even if it's a Deus ex Machina, I don't care, it's just so satisfying.
That's why I absolutely hate 1984, even though I haven't read it. I can sympathize with the Sues who pretend to be rebels in that Verse. It's just... so... fixable...
I also hate Umbridge, Snape, and Malfoy (and by extension Sues that throw away all of their faults because he's so SAXAEY ECKS DEE) because they're extremely cruel and biased and just plain petty. I also hate anyone who falls under the same bully or power abuser archetypes as them or is just really petty.
I'm also a sucker for Power of Friendship/Power of Love-fueled victories. And magical girls. And magical girls kicking the bad guy's ass with the power of friendship.
You aren't alone in (your reasons for) hating Umbridge, Snape, and Malfoy's guts. That's one of Rowling's biggest strengths, I think; writing both large- and small-scale villainy well.
But then again, we're all very like-minded people here.
I hate stories that are in-your-face political or moral. Don't care who it's coming from, I hate Captain Planet just as much as I hate BibleMan. Or, well, I don't really show my hate for these things in a straightforward manner; I think it could be more described as "loving to hate" them. For instance, I love to make fun of Captain Planet. This is also the case with anything that's poorly written, hence why I can't stop churning out joke Mary Sues and badficcer avatars for the next Badfic Games. So yeah, love and hate rolled into one.
-Twistey
But there are still things I like. Anything new and original is high on the list, as are plot twists I can’t predict.
Top of the list of things I hate are plot holes and inconsistencies. I have a habit of spotting them. I don’t think I found any in Harry Potter yet, but most others have at least one minor inconsistency. It’s the big ones that are the worst...
Quite high on it is when a series doesn’t know when to stop. There’s very few things more annoying than every single plot point being resolved, the bad guys are dead, and then they make a sequel.
If II keep going any longer this will turn into a rant, so I’ll stop there.
For example, I really like the stuff produced by Botnik studios with its predictive text algorithm. Similarly, I also like things made with multiple levels of machine translation.
Here's a relevant link:
http://botnik.org/studios.html
... Janelle Shane over at AIWeirdness/LewisAndQuark? She specialises in letting neural networks be weird. Classic posts include having them generate April Fool's Day pranks ("Put marbles in the hand soap dispenser."), christmas carols ("run, run Rudolf the new born King"), and Harry Potter fanfic summaries ("Hermione and Draco get stuck in a potion, which might have turned out to be the best change in the world.").
hS
We should play Fill the Plothole with these. This is quality material.
There's an FtP thread, and you have what you need.
I mean, I don't want to see it; I'm just morbidly curious.
Along the same lines, one of my favorite things is when it seems like our heroes can't win and they don't see any way out but they keep going because it's right/it's who they are/if they give in the bad guys can do something awful/someone needs to stand up and say no. That scene at the end of Return of the Jedi where Luke almost gives into the Dark Side and then he doesn't and looks the Emperor in the face and says "I am a Jedi, like my father before me"? I get shivers every time. It's horribly cliché,but that doesn't mean it's bad.
As for things I don't like, love triangles. They're not inherently bad, I guess, but I just vastly don't care and when stories get hung up on them I feel like my time is being wasted. Some people might like them, but they're not for me.
I really like fics that explore character's limits.
Have you ever seen the movie The Four Feathers? It isn't much like the book. One of only a few things that I think the movie is better. (Ella Enchanted and The Princess Bride being the other two I can quickly think of). Anyway, Heath Ledger's character is an officer in the British army back when they were basically appointed from the ranks of the gentry. He was the best at all the drills and practice. Then war breaks out in what seems to be northern Africa. He registers himself as a conscientious objector and resigns his commision. He spends the rest of the movie trying to redeem himself, ending up doing more heroics than any of the others, but still considers himself to be a coward.
A lot of stuff happens and then there is this moment where it all snaps into place for him and he is transformed. That moment is what I like to read about in stories.
I really don't like fics that sexify canonically repulsive characters. (Either personality or physical appearance.)
I do, however, like stories that explore how a character ended up the way they did. A bit of a self brag, but of all the stories I have written, the one that I am most proud of (even if it has the fewest hits) is one that shows the descent of a character from a decent guy to an out of control murderer who has to be killed for the safety of the community. It never tried to make him not a bad guy, just a how did he get to that point? I love stories like that.
If you can think of it, humanity has done it, no matter how ridiculous or insane or horrible or unlikely it seems.
Here's some proof if you're not convinced (WARNING: ALL FICS NSFW):
https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Harry%20Potter*s*Dolores%20Umbridge/works
Not sure if this qualifies as throwing out Umbridge's crimes, but honestly, after checking this list, my faith in humanity dropped like a ton of bricks.
I haven't read any of the fics yet. Not sure if I want to. But I read all the summaries and tags and yup. That was an Experience.