By "we", what do you mean? DLP in general? That's a dangerous term to use because, essentially, DLP has no real consensus. Some on DLP dismiss anything after book 5. Some dismiss anything not in any of the 7 books. Some accept everything she's said.

I'm of the latest group, but with the caviat that if what she says is demonstrably nonsensical in terms of basic science (when it relies on such), then, no. For example, I accept that there is a magical gene. I don't, however accept that it's a dominant gene (otherwise there would be no muggles, or at least, an extreme minority of them--in the same way that the majority of the world has black or dark brown eyes, but only a relative smattering have bright blue eyes).

Anyway, you don't win bible fights by disregarding the word of god; unless of course, your interlocutor holds the same level of disregard for the word of god that you do. You certainly don't earn any points by smugly suggesting that anyone's argument is invalid for referencing the word of god.

That is to say, unless an argument begins with "so long as we both disregard X (word of god), then Y," you pretty much lose any bible fight where you disregard X, but your interlocutor does not.

 

My own approach is to consider there to be a hierarchy, like so:

1. The Harry Potter books.
2. The expansion books: Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Tales of Beedle the Bard.
3. Information from Pottermore and JKR's website (now taken down, unfortunately).
4. The movies.
5. Interview statements.

I take everything in each category to be true, unless it contradicts something higher in the hierarchy.

 

I'm almost the same, except I don't accept the movies as having any relevance to canon. I treat them as a completely separate series.

 

Sort of like The Dresden Files TV series as compared to the books?

TV Bob is way better than book Bob, though. Just sayin'.

 

This. As well as the interviews. The books, as well as the secondary ones, are obviously canon. Pottermore... less so. I consider that a step above fanon, but not by much. It's just a cop out so she doesn't have to write more books to sell Potter merchandise.

 

Blasphemer.

 

That certainly wasn't my intention. I was actually assuming that DLP did have some kind of consensus on canon policy. I've read a boatload of posts where statements made by JKR have been flat out dismissed, even if they don't actually contradict anything in the books.

My approach looks exactly like this.

Has JKR ever released something like an official canon policy? It seems like most franchises distributed through more than one form of media do, just so fans have a reference to define what's 'real'.

 

And just like that, the topic of peeves was completely lost from the peeve thread. Bollocks.

 

Well that's good, because I was just about to try to bring it back on-topic.

A rather old pet peeve of mine: Harry permanently acting like an irritable dipshit.

Leaving aside the fact that the main character being stuck in PMS bitch mode is in no way endearing, entertaining, or interesting to read about -- in fact, it just makes you wish for the bad guys to do him in sooner --, anything short of him receiving several times as much shit from others as he gives them just breaks suspension of disbelief for me. Nobody, nobody at all can be an asshole to everybody and get away with it, no matter how much the plot requires that other characters stick with him. Even loving mothers lose their patience when facing constant asshattery.

Hell, even Tom Riddle, while being in a similar position to Harry in many of these fics (extremely powerful, but young and dependent on others) had to massively sugarcoat his behavior in order to reach his goals. The closest thing you get to see in HP of such a character type is Snape, and it works for him because 1) even he is capable of consideration towards people who don't dislike him (i.e. Draco, Dumbledore), 2) is appropriately low-status in social terms, his teaching post being the only reason for which most people put up with his nastiness and 3) his bad temper can be reasonably explained by looking at his past life. Even in real life, something similar is only to be found with those who have secured ludicrous wealth and status and are going to be worshipped no matter what -- but then again, even those guys have to smile for the camera every now and then.

I get that you want your Harry to be a change from those Hufflepuff-y types who make friends with absolutely everyone, but please abstain from forcing us to read your story through the lens of a cranky little bitch who doesn't have a nice word in his repertoire. Hostility between characters can be played to great effect (well, derp), so peppering your story with such interactions just cheapens conflict, besides the fact that it's logically unsustainable as shown above.

 

Fuck. Doublepost. Sorry, browser's been acting weird, somebody delete this.

 

"Sparing" when they mean "sparring"... in very nearly every damned thing I read.

 

Usage of the word "sparring" as it usually means it is one of those shitty Harry is a martial arts master type fics. Occasionally it is made worse when they spar with swords, and naturally those swords must be katanas.

 

Go-go-JapCrap!Harry! :awesome

Manipulative!Dumbledore (fanon portrayal) in general.

Everytime I see a manipulative Dumbledore now, I usually click on the magical 'x'.

Atypical Indie!Harry stories that have him just walk out of Privet Drive, usually by drugging, say, guard!Tonks with tainted tea.

Most people do not put any deeper into the thoughts behind Privet Drive's protections, blood protections and all.

 

Acceptance of major changes in personalities of other people, extremely shitty extreme example: if Malfoy says after 6 years that he's secretly a muggle loving fan of Jimi Hendrix and marijuana, why the fuck does anyone listen and not think he's just fucking with them.

On the rare occasion they don't believe him immediately, they usually provide a "test of loyalty" and unless that test is beheading his father and giving clothes to all his elves (it isn't) then they still shouldn't trust him.

 

More and more, I see people refer to magical combat practice as "sparring"... Well, "sparing", but I knew what they meant.

Also used to refer to Harry practicing boxing with Dudley, on rare occasions.



Unless Harry is using a sword that fires spells -and this would be idiotic in all but the most epic of stories- he really should have his wand in one hand. Unless he wants to die.

That being the case, any other weapon would have to be in his off hand, and I sincerely doubt it would be convenient to wield a full-size katana in one hand, especially his off hand. A ninjaken? Maybe. A wakizashi? Perhaps.

With his wand in one hand, he'd probably be better off with a smaller weapon. A gladius? Pugio? A kukri?

If you think Harry should only use a weapon culturally relevant to his own region of the world (and no one-handed claymore wielding, please), how about a dirk, or a sgian-dubh? An Applegate-Fairbairn Fighting Knife?

Meh.

Don't read this.

Spoiler

At the risk of starting one of those tired nerd fights about which sword is superior: I am lead to believe that the katana, by virtue of the way the cutting edge is formed (convex, as opposed to concave), is superior at slicing because it doesn't bind in the target. Obviously, there are applications where other factors might make a different bladed weapon advisable, but for cutting into a squishy, unarmored, wizard, a katana would be pretty ideal.

Barring that, use anything with a curved blade. Better for swinging at something on the run.

There just aren't that many HP stories out there, though, where a wand 'n' sword Harry would make much sense. At all.

Just doing it because swords are cool is... not cool.

And, yeah, Gandalf may have done the sword 'n' staff thing, but that's Gandalf. He was, almost 100% of the time, the only thing on the battlefield slinging spells, and he didn't do that very often anyway, so lugging a sword around was pretty practical for him. HP magic is much more convenient for combat, and there are more people doing it, making swords kind of irrelevant in wizard vs wizard fights.

 

Katanas are used primarily with two hands for a reason. The cutting force of the blade needs to have power behind it, otherwise it can and will get stuck. Also, a katana is hilariously one-dimensional as a weapon because it has a single edge and the blade itself is flat, thus preventing you from parrying anything effectively.

Curved blades are primarily used because they preserve an economy of motion and don't require as much strength to swing/get power behind as compared to something like a claymore.

Also, if he absolutely needed to use a bladed weapon, use something small. Stab wounds do more damage overall than slicing, unless you can really get your bodyweight behind the blade and actually cut deeper than an inch, if that.

Spoiler

Keep in mind that this is my very basic knowledge of bladed weapons, so feel free to tell me to fuck off.

 

On the same line as "sparring": the word "training".

Wizards don't train. They learn. They study. They educate themselves.

You see the word training and you know you're going to be seeing a gymnast Harry jumping and diving and twirling around spells instead of using magic. Would love to see that trope turned on its head. You know the one:

"Why use up magic shielding or blocking when you can dodge?" said Harry.

Instead, we'd see:

"Why tire yourself out and sacrifice position when you can just shield or block? And there's always the chance you won't be fast enough," said Harry. "You should only try to dodge if you don't know what spell they're casting, or if it's the Killing Curse."

 

Ideally, you'd want the middle ground (but leaning towards the magical side). Focus on shielding and blocking for when you know what's coming, but ensure you've got the reflexes and reactions to dodge unknown or unstoppable curses.

Practicing dodging would be for a "just-in-case" scenario.

 

Biggest pet peeve.

Voldemort having 1000 death eaters.

(In canon, he has atmost 40)

 

40 is core of the Voldemort's force. He could pull about 200 Death Eater maybe more. mostly they are supporters who isn't high on the ladder or relatives of the said Death Eaters. Same with OoP 50 + supporters.

Or so thats what I think. 40 otherwise too low.