That touches upon and is right up there, for me, with another peeve...

A couple that comes back and admits to, say, Hermione's parents that they are time travelers, points out that they are now mentally and emotionally adults (at least 18 or so) or (even 'better') mentally older than the Grangers on a scale that might be measured in decades, rather than single years... and the Grangers still insist on treating them and imposing rules upon them as though they were children.

Sorry, but no. I just told you that you are in your thirties, while I am mentally and emotionally in my 80s. You might be my parents/future in-laws, but if you think you can dictate shit to me (particularly about my sex life or how I'm fighting a magical war you can barely comprehend) as though I were an inexperienced child, we're going to quickly find ourselves at an impasse that I will not hesitate to move beyond, with a need for neither your blessing, nor your company.

This also goes for stories (whether it involves time travel, or Harry going to an alternate dimension where his consciousness supplants or swaps bodies with a local, child, Harry) where Lily and/or James are still around for whatever reason and do the same shit to an adult Harry that happens to be in a (pre)teen body. "I just told you I'm actually older than you, but you're still talking to me like a particularly dense toddler; don't force me to smack you down to get my point across." :facepalm

Edit: Hmm... when did that tag show up? I only just noticed.

 

Originally Posted by Download

note: GRRR the italics won't go away, no wonder how many times i click on it, sorry.

I had always wondered about that. I lived in the USA for a year, and it always struck me how different american dating as a whole seemed to be from german dating. I mean no insult when i say, that i always felt the american culture seemed more sexually repressed to me than my own.

Personally, I have NEVER had to endure an 'if you hurt my daughter' speech, most fathers are far to curious to get to know their daughters boyfriend in my experience. Not in germany, and not in the USA (though i only met two dads there).

When i came across this fic for the first time, i assumed it was an anglo-saxon / american thing and people in those countries might still do it, or at least some of them.

So my question i guess is this: are there americans / english here, who can tell me if there are any people in your country you suspect might still do this?

 

There's probably some crazy person who does it because he saw it on TV.
But no, generally this never happens.

 

Or because they saw this kind of asininity in other fanfic and decided to copy it,

 

I once read a Fic where Harry and Ginny (and Ron, not that it's important for this discussion) go back in time. Harry and Ginny were a couple, who presumably had sex. But they also decided not to have sex until Ginny's biologically 14.

And do you know the funny thing is: they are by now definition of the word abstinent. They still have urges, and they still hate it. They still make out, and in one moment of frustration, they nearly do it when Ginny's 11 or 12. The only reason they don't actually have sex is presumably because it would be a little weird to have sex with someone who looks way too young, even if said person is technically your spouse and you're also really young.

All in all, it works and adds a nice component to an already great story. I forgot the name, but it is one of the big Peggy Sues.

Going back to the sex discussion, I once read a different Fic that effectively deconstructed the idea that teenagers can't have sex. It was a Harry/Ginny Soul Bond where Sirius, while explaining how Soul Bonds work, mentions they aren't allowed to have sex until they're 17. Later, they play a prank on him where they said they had sex and start to shake and convulse, only for Sirius to admit he made that rule up. Someone even comments how weird that rule is in retrospect.

 

That would be The Amplitude, Frequency and Resistance of the Soul Bond you're talking about. That's the chapter where Sirius brings it up for the first time and here is where he admits he made it up.

 

Hey, here's one I just now remembered!

Why does Voldemort always insist on killing Potter himself and that too, only by AKing him?

It just makes him look so very stupid. Why not cut his head? Why not burn him up using fiendfire? Why not throw him in a nest of thestrals after drawing a little blood for the beasts to feast on? Why not boil him on hot oil?

Why insist on giving him a sudden painless death?

 

Isn't that to remove the stain of the failed AK on the baby HP from his otherwise spotless record of Dick Moves and Dark Lordish Things Voldemort Did (TM)?

 

That's Backwards With a Purpose you're talking about. It is one of my favorite stories even though the first half has rehash elements (the later half has some truly powerful moments - The Azkaban massacre, the sea of patronuses, the last walk with Merlin). I liked the almost-sex scene and the future rift in the Weasley family - too many Peggy Sue fics have Harry getting on swimmingly with his past friends.

(After years of reading Weasley Bashing fics, I never thought I would give a fuck if Arthur and Molly disliked Harry. Harry's despair when he finds himself kicked out of the Burrow is unexpectedly emotionally moving.)

It is also the kind of Peggy Sue fic in which they try to actively preserve the timeline - which a lot of people evidently dislike, but the story gives enough reasons for it that it feels justified. Besides, it hits harder when things inevitably go wrong.

 

That decision still seems strange. Like people aren't quite sure why sex under a certain age is wrong. It's not because of the size of someones body. It's because they're too immature and inexperienced to meaningfully consent to sex.
There are 12-year-olds who look like 20 and 20-year-olds who look almost like pre-teens and it's not okay to have sex with the former, but fine to have sex with the latter.
So a 50-year-old who traveled back in time and is now in a much younger body, is still 50 years old. It doesn't matter what their body looks like.
Now you might say that they don't have any sexual urges until their body goes through puberty, but that's a different question.

Young bodies looking too weird to have sex is also a strange justification. What if you SO gets in an accident or develops a disease that changes how they look. Do you stop having sex with them because they look weird? Seems pretty superficial. "You aren't as hot in that body, so I don't want to have sex with you." I'd be pretty insulted.

Disclaimer: Not a pervert. It's perfectly fine to leave out that information. Just don't mention it in your story.

 

It's not that young bodies look weird. It's more of a fact that the young body looks young. They're not the same thing.

Time travel has nothing to do with it. It's like having sex with your metamorphmagus partner when she has morphed to look like a 12 year old child.

Edit: I'm not saying everyone finds that weird, but there are people that certainly do, including me. So like you said, better to just avoid the entire topic while writing the fic.

 

So the 'unblockable instant death curse' is stupid, yet throwing him in a nest of thestrals isn't?

 

Because every supervillain has a shtick and Voldemort's is the Instagib Spell aka Killing Curse.

 

If Voldemort's intent was to cause 'sudden painless death' while casting the curse, it certainly explains why it didn't work.

 

Ran into another peeve today: changing Harry's name to Harold. The author also changed Lily's name to Lillian. Seriously, what's the point, neither Harold or Lillian make the character sound remotely interesting. To be honest Harold Potter and Lillian Evans/Potter sound like a pair of twats - old, boring twats at that. Who wants to read a story about Harold Potter, he sounds like an old man.

 

What I now would to see is people having these first names coming across this thread and call you a dick.

 

Is your name Harold?

 

No, my name is something more Slavic.

 

Back on topic - what does changing Harry's name actually bring to the story?

That made me chuckle. Good show, NuitTombee, good show.