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Harry Potter Fanfic Cliches
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"Holly" is another popular Fem!Harry name.
-- Sucrose Octanitrate. Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode. 
I actually like Holly as a Rule 63 name - it abides by Evans naming tradition while still sounding wizardy. If anything, it's better than Harry... which leads to the many (sadly plausible) fics where that's just an anglicized nickname for something wizardy (often Hadrian) put on his muggle paperwork by the Dursleys because his real name is too freakish.
Which is another magic we never see - the use of true names. Well, outside the occasional marriage contract fic anyway. -- "Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows ClassicDrogn Wrote:I actually like Holly as a Rule 63 name - it abides by Evans naming tradition while still sounding wizardy. If anything, it's better than Harry... which leads to the many (sadly plausible) fics where that's just an anglicized nickname for something wizardy (often Hadrian) put on his muggle paperwork by the Dursleys because his real name is too freakish.Working from the admittedly small number of Potter names, I would say that the naming traditions are probably Kings of England (James and Henry; Harry being a nickname for Henry V) or possibly saints. The Evans Family seems more obvious, given Lily and Petunia, but it's hard to say, given the small number of names. But given what we see, "Holly" seems an appropriate choice, and is certainly better than "Hyacinth." Though a Harry Potter/"Keeping Up Appearances" crossover might be amusing; Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced like "bouquet" according to the rather pretentious Mrs. Bucket) would be an appropriate neighbor for the status-focused Dursleys, and she and Petunia seem cut from the same cloth (obsessed with public appearances, spoiling their children, condemning of other family members). Ebony the Black Dragon http://ebony14.livejournal.com "Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."
Speaking of the Potter family, we have:
Lily and James are alive, and... -Left Harry so that he would meet his destiny; -Left Harry for Dumbledore to 'guide' (which is usually done with an Evil! or at least Manipulative!Dumbledore); -Left Harry to die; -Were never actually there that Halloween night (usually replaced by simulacra/golems); -Are back, and want to be Harry's parents again; -Are back, along with the 'real BWL'; -Are worse bigots than the pureblood aristocrats (usually towards anything remotely dark, but I've seen some blood-purist Potters); -Reject Harry (often seeing him as possessed by Voldemort); -Support Dumbledore's goals and plans 100%, no matter what it means for Harry; -Are as arrogant as James was in his youth; -Were locked away from the world by Dumbledore, for some reason, and only just got out. Really, pick two (or more!). My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours. I've been writing a bit.
The antimagic shock wave is what I'm calling what happened in canon. One of them said the taboo and it was basically the world exploded and everyone was arrested before they got off the ground. It happened to instantly to not be an effect of the Taboo. No one in series can cast something that big and effective that fast unless they are amazingly good and powerful. Best I can tell its a nonlethal artillery strike the hits and then they apperate into the site. The point being to take down the wards and flatten the defenders.
--- The only thing not canon in post #37 is the bit about actual cannons. Hogwarts is basically four guilds getting together to make a college. Family libraries are still sacred vaults of knowledge a millennium later. The apprentice system was still in place for higher learning in the 1990s. Dumbledore did it under Flammel. Wizard does mean 'wise ones' or 'People that actually have brains'. Dark Lord Grindelwald was all about the Master Race for magicals it was not so much antijew and their supporters pure bloods... likely where the term actually comes from this movement... which is an eugenics movement. The wizarding population moans about the dead of the last hundred years or so and how entire ancient house died off in them. This is all canon. I subspect the cannons are the game changer, its a matter of timing. That is speculation as noted in post #37. What I can point out is that in book one there is a throw away 'joke' about a psychopathic madwitch, who was one of many apparently. See she knew a charm (a first year charm they were going to teach them) that made flames tickle you instead of burning you. She was the one most famous for using it, though others did this as well. She actually went out and encouraaged witch burning because she enjoyed being burnt at the stake due to this charm. She did this over a dozen times. As rather people being only amused by being burnt at the stake didn't discourage them... we can conclude it did work on other people. Witches and wizards only became veiled during the Black Death (history). Court wizards and healer witches everywhere.so no reason to subspect a segrigation. In comes the Black Death and panicing people start blaiming the magic users. 'Burn the witch' became a political game. I'm not sure enough on my memory being this purge as the one about wad witch... but I am sure that those with a Hogwarts education had the best chance of surviving the burnings and potion cure the plague. There are only two forced I can think of that fit the hide like mad motive. Artillery bombardment and that most people couldn't actually go anywhere before the die off and break down of feudalism. --- Also the biggest single cliche in Potterdom: The Wizarding World a society in decline. Among its related cliches are: -Propiganda, which is insane or stupid to outsiders, is the life blood of the MoM.. and even if it directly conflicts with yesterdays Propaganda is taken a Holy Truth by the Sheeple. -Fudge and Umbridge have stupid high GPP numbers. -The Dead Relative Lottery is the engine of theWizarding world economy. Necratoid Wrote:The antimagic shock wave is what I'm calling what happened in canon. One of them said the taboo and it was basically the world exploded and everyone was arrested before they got off the ground. It happened to instantly to not be an effect of the Taboo. No one in series can cast something that big and effective that fast unless they are amazingly good and powerful. Best I can tell its a nonlethal artillery strike the hits and then they apperate into the site. The point being to take down the wards and flatten the defenders.*puzzled* I don't recall the scene you're refering to. I was thinking of the diner scene where Harry and Hermonie are talking and say Voldemort, then a few minutes later a couple hit-wizards show up. ___________________________ "I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin
The cutesy nicknames authors have the characters spout for Tom Riddle. Moldywarts etc...
--- Jon "And that must have caused my dad's brain to break in half, replaced by a purely mechanical engine of revenge!"
I have my own cutesy nickname for him, which comes with its own WWW ad campaign.
TIRED OF YOU-NO-POO? TRY VOLDEMERDE! FOR A MORE REGULAR DARK LOAD -- "Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
A couple that I've seen:
Snape's questions to Harry in the first class are all OWL/NEWT levels. Snape is a ineffective teacher. On the first one, Hermione knows the answers and there is no indication that she read texts that far ahead of her level. She has been shown to read history books and she memorized her textbooks but not much else at the start of book one. On the second, in the scene with Umbridge monitoring Snape's class she says " Well, the class seem fairly advanced for their level" It's a little hard to have a class "fairly advanced for their level" and not be an effective teacher. However, effective does not mean nice and Snape is anything but a nice person. Timote Wrote:He's referring to the scene when they say Voldemort's name while in the tent, which lets the Death Eaters know exactly where they are, bypassing the spells they had used to conceal themselves. It was basically a variant of the 'powerful person can hear when his name is spoken' idea, except controlled by the Ministry. It doesn't have any anti-magic component, it just made the concealment spells useless, so the DEs just apparated to their location, and started casting spells at where they knew the protagonists were. It might have been different in the movie, though.Necratoid Wrote:The antimagic shock wave is what I'm calling what happened in canon. One of them said the taboo and it was basically the world exploded and everyone was arrested before they got off the ground. It happened to instantly to not be an effect of the Taboo. No one in series can cast something that big and effective that fast unless they are amazingly good and powerful. Best I can tell its a nonlethal artillery strike the hits and then they apperate into the site. The point being to take down the wards and flatten the defenders.*puzzled* I don't recall the scene you're refering to. I was thinking of the diner scene where Harry and Hermonie are talking and say Voldemort, then a few minutes later a couple hit-wizards show up. ----- Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea. "Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.
I've seen a variant of that, CD. It's a WWW ad campaign that openly mocks Riddle: "Why worry about You-Know-Who? You should be more concerned about YOU-NO-POO, the constipation sensation that's gripping the nation!"
Discussion of that particular name reminds me of the Sluggy Freelance stories spoofing HP... (goes and looks) ...ah, here's the relevant week of strips.
-- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
If that's not the canon ads for You-No-Poo, I thought it was. Voldemerde is meant as a follow-up product. A name that lame could only be so widespread if it was canon.
It seems my well of cliches has gone dry for now. -- "Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
Once you have people referring to Voldemort by a casually insulting nickname such as "Moldyshorts", it seems like a very short step from there to doing it on purpose as a way of avoiding the Taboo, without the cower-in-fear aspect of such dodges as the canonical "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named"; it seems so obvious that you'd wonder why they didn't think to do it in the original war, even. But I don't think I've ever seen a fic take that step.
Most likely because by the time Tommy let his nickname slip out he was already well feared by Britain, sufficiently so that coming up with an insulting variant of it seemed a bad idea.
Or he just actively hunted down those that used such names and made sure their deaths were suitably gruesome to discourage the practice. Either works really, and much of Wizarding Britain's population are easily frightened sheep.
Fridge logic time:
If the Death Eaters can add the term "Voldemort" to the taboo list, why can't they do the same with "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named"? -- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012  robkelk Wrote:Fridge logic time:Also, why didn't the Ministry ever make the incantations for the unforgivable curses Taboo? As a long time reader of Marvel comics, I'm familiar with Stan Lee's concept of the No-Prize. If a reader found a discrepancy in a comic and then gave a reasonable explanation for the discepancy, Stan would declair that they'd won a No-Prize. In that vein, perhaps "Voldemort" was the only Taboo because you can only have one Taboo word at a time. And perhaps the Ministry never used the Taboo for an unforgivable curse because the ritual for setting a Taboo is vile and horrible. ---------------------------------------------------- "Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV robkelk Wrote:Fridge logic time:As I recall, they made 'Voldemort' a taboo, on the reasoning that since the sheeple were too scared to use his real name when they thought he was dead, the only ones who'd use the name after they took over were Deatheaters and would-be heroes. Since they generally knew where their fellow Deatheaters were, they could ignore those triggers, and target the 'rebels'. **** RE Tabooing the unforgivables during the last war: Alternatively (and playing into the widespread blood purity inclinations cliche), making a word taboo legally requires the consent of the wizgamot and the members didn't feel the need when Tom and Co were mainly targeting muggles/muggleborns/squibs/halfbloods, not any of the 'important' families. Of course, once Voldy took power he just did whatever he felt like. ___________________________ "I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin 
Alternately, for some reason or other, it just doesn't work on spell incantations. Perhaps the detection is hidden by the magical energy of the spell.
I'm of the opinion that the Taboo can only be a name (or name equivalent), given what it references, but that could just be me.
----- Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea. "Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.
The only problem with that is that "Voldemort" is just a made up pseudonym, while traditions around name-based magic are all rather strict about them being either the mother's secret name for her baby or something in a celestial language only discernable through long study and meditation - and if "Voldemort" somehow were his true name, making it known to recieve the dying curse of everyone his minions kill is just idiotic.
Though that just means "par for the course," really. But, why no angry ghosts? -- "Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
Like I said, it appears to be a Ministry run system that follows/references that basic idea, of being able to hear one's name spoken, not the exact effect.
----- Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea. "Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia. Jorlem Wrote:I'm of the opinion that the Taboo can only be a name (or name equivalent), given what it references, but that could just be me.Considering that everybody in Wizarding Britain knows who "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" is, I'd say they're name-equivalents... -- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Can we talk about canon plot holes here, or is that a different thread?
 My favorite: Ron Weasley, growing up in a magical household, seeing it done every day of his life, falls for the obviously fake incantation his brothers gave him to use on the Express his first year. How?  Shepherd Wrote:In that vein, perhaps "Voldemort" was the only Taboo because you can only have one Taboo word at a time.That was the explanation given by one fic I read recently -- sadly, i can't remember which one it was. -- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak. |
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