What are your personal "red flags" before reading any fanfic?

Well there certainly is people out there who can write romance to a satisfying degree. The general issue is finding them is hard you have to dig through a lot of bad romance fics to find it. The sad part is there is a decent chunk of romance writers that actually are pretty good writers, they just can't write romance itself very well.

And yeah seeing so many bad fics of any specific kind has nearly soured me a few times. The good fanfics still keep me from going that route however....

I dunno. I can just ignore bad fics,but I find well written and seemingly promising fics that go to shit UNFORGIVEABLE. I dont even flame the author I just make mental note to warn people and not try anything else by said people again.

IM LOOKING AT YOU DEMI HUMAN SOMETHING SOMETHING AND MARIE GOOS.

Oh god, I do remember looking at a fic and thinking that it would be wonderful to read only to be sorely disappointed.

I didn't care much for Methods of Rationality either. It seemed like less 'scientific method applied to Harry Potter' and more 'Self insert applied to Harry Potter'

Share the pain, Sibling. Which fic was it?

After reading out trope page for Methods of Rationality, I decided it wasn't going to be my thing.

The part that turns me off is the part where Draco says, matter-of-factly, that he's going to rape Luna when she's old enough.

I don't want to judge things without reading them, but I have difficulty imagining a context where that isn't stupid.

I'm sorry, what?

That's disgusting.

I commonly avoid fanfics that have rape tagged anywhere on them. Other then the fact that the topic itself makes me very uncomfortable for personal reasons I find that practically every author that attempts to showcase that fails horribly.

I think the idea is that medieval nobles did that sort of thing a lot and the existence of Obliviation makes it easy to get away with.

As for the science thing, HPMOR definitely has a problem with halfway plot switches.

edited 7th Sep '15 11:43:42 PM by storyyeller

@Aegis P: I actually don't remember the title of the fic. I believe it was a Young Justice fic that utterly failed to deliver.

The problem with rape in fiction is that it must be handled in a tactful, careful manner with some research. Many fic writers aren't capable of that.

The context is all wrong of course. So's the social setting between Draco and Luna.

Draco clearly means he intends to rape her as we would use the word; the connotations of the word now regarding the use of force and total coercion. That's what the word would have meant in medieval times too, but that's not how the event you're referring to necessarily plays out or would be described. Nobles taking women of lesser status to their beds for a night is common; nobles outright forcing women of lesser status to their beds for a night is not. (Because you can doesn't mean you will; the social contract is unequal but there are long-term consequences for the average low-level noble.) It's an issue with a fair number of shadings from a social standpoint, much like more modern playboy celebrity antics.

There's also the fact that for all functional purposes Luna is Draco's equal, especially as power in the Malfoy family does not reside in Draco.

edited 8th Sep '15 5:19:20 AM by Night

As somebody who attempted to write a non-stupid romance story, I can confirm that it is indeed very difficult to do something more than fluff and still have it be appealing to people.

Also, when your dialogue is something to the tune of "As soon as she's old enough, I'm going to rape her," my response is "nobody talks like this."

For reference, the passage in question is this

Yep. That's totally how people (especially eleven-year-olds) talk.

edited 8th Sep '15 11:44:32 AM by Pannic

Wow. :/

Going to second rape in general being a massive red flag, although I'm pretty sure I've brought that up before. Special mention to the one-shots that consist of "Character X rapes Character Y, that's it, that's the whole fic." Especially if the author normally ships Character X and Character Y, because that implies that they see rape as just another relationship dynamic to play around with. Is that looking into it too much?

Also, if someone writes a fic about someone molesting a child, and it's described in enough detail that it warrants an "explicit" rating, I'm going to seriously question the author's tastes. Yes, I have seen this.

I cant believe Mo R rationalize this awful garbage. And I hated it before they even got to the rape.

Well, threatened rape. It doesn't come up again apart from Harry's thoughts.

And to be fair, Merope does rape Tom Riddle in canon, though the circumstances are obviously different.

Well, I'll give the fic the benefit that Draco needs to be redeemed...Well no actually I hope he dies because a kid who thinks that THAT early in life is scum. But yeah, the fic isnt as dreadful as to condone rape then. Still pretty bad though.

I'm just saying the dialogue is stupid.

Stories that take place after the end of series but reverse major deaths so the author can have their favorite character(s) back - especially in fandoms where its so widespread that the author thinks its acceptable not to explain why it is, or mention it in the summary.

You see it a lot in Harry Potter, with fics that take place after Deathly Hallows but inexplicably have Snape still around and teaching Potions. A little bit ago I took a glance at the Lo TR section (though I'm not all that interested in Lo TR fics in general, so I didn't get a big look at it to see how wide it is), and apparently fics where Thorin, Fili and Kili didn't die in the Battle of the Five Armies are relatively popular.

...But Thorin not dying (thematically) breaks the story.

edited 8th Sep '15 5:22:17 PM by Pannic

Does Said Bookism bother you? It does for me a little.

I know we technically agree about Methods being crap Pannic, but Im a bit scared that you find it stupid instead of morally repulsive.

I suspect he finds it both, but mainly stupid, or morally repulsive as a function of stupid.