A quick biography. I'm Jack. I've done a lot of things in my life (husband, father, son, soldier, author, chef, game designer), and now I'm retired. I wasn't always. I’m old enough to remember watching Neil Armstrong take his famous one small step, and have very clear memories of Nixon resigning. I have raised five kids on my own and I wish it were otherwise... I miss her greatly, as do my sons and daughters... but you don't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.

And if you don't get that reference, you're younger than I am by a fair bit.

Since writing the original version of this profile, I've become a grandfather twice over. And I have to say that I am very, very proud to have such wonderful grandsons.

XxxxxxX

About Opinions and the Right to Think as One Wants: As I see it, the biggest problem with the idea that everyone is entitled to hold their own opinion is that some people think that this makes all opinions equally valid. Nothing could be the furthest from the truth. Some opinions, I’m sorry to say, are nothing but big steaming piles of horse-shit, and they will always be big steaming piles of horse-shit. Some opinions are wrong, and your right to believe in an incorrect opinion doesn’t change the fact that the opinion you hold is utter horse-shit. I point to the Flat Earthers, the people who believe in Creationism, and Republicans as three prominent examples.

In addition to the fact that having a right to your own opinions not guaranteeing your opinion is right, having the right to hold your own opinion in no way protects you from being ridiculed for holding that opinion. “I can think what I want” is no shield against someone saying “Yeah, but what you think is horse-shit!” to you. This is because part of that “everyone has a right to their own opinion” thing is the right of other people to make fun of you because that opinion you are so strenuously holding onto is utter horse-shit.

XxxxxxX

A Quick Note to British Fan Fiction Writers: When you're writing American characters, please learn how American's speak. By which I mean the terms we use. Learn how American's speak and thus you won't be writing British characters in an American setting when you're meant to be writing Americans in an American setting. I've noticed, among British fanfic writers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Castle and West Wing there is a tendency to have them talk about watching Baseball matches in their flat, and go on holiday where they will wear their swimming costumes. Americans don't do that. We watch Baseball games in our apartments and go on vacation where we will wear our swim suits. We ride to upper floors in elevators, not lifts. When the lights go out, we use the flashlight, not the torch. We eat French fries with our burgers, not chips. We keep the spare tire of our car in the trunk, not the boot.

It really isn't that big a deal. Usually American readers can figure out what you mean. But when you put these words into the mouths of American characters, your dialog feels flat and false.

XxxxxxX

Hodgeson’s Law: Just repeat to yourself, “It’s just a show. I should really relax.”

Bellisario’s Maxim: You shouldn’t analyze this stuff too closely.

These are two statements I try to live by when it comes to fan fiction. Basically, what they mean is that this stuff is supposed to be entertainment… a way to have fun for a little while. Harry Potter isn’t supposed to be some philosophical discussion about how to live a life. Nor is it meant to be a moral allegory, or a guide to spiritual whatever. It’s just a story. So when you find yourself taking it all a bit too seriously, repeat Hodgeson’s Law and Bellisario’s Maxim to yourself until you calm down and realize that they’re just stories.

XxxxxxX

The First Law of Fan Fiction: Every change which strengthens the protagonist requires a corresponding worsening of his challenges. Or, to put it plainly, you cannot make Harry Potter a Jedi without giving Lord Voldemort the Death Star. Read any book on writing and it will tell you that stories are all about conflict. A hero who is so strong that his conflicts are no longer problems is no longer in a story worth reading. The most fatal temptation of fan fiction is to think of how much easier your character's life would be if he was super-powered. We are naturally inclined to think of ways to solve our characters' problems for them. But first we much think of ways to make their lives more difficult.

XxxxxxX

On Buffy Summers Being a "Hero:" To put it bluntly, and there are going to be a lot of people screaming for my blood after this, Buffy Summers stopped being the "hero" of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and started merely being the "protagonist" of the show the moment she decided to feed Faith Lehane to Angel at the end of Season Three. Buffy's reason for doing so, which wasn't to save lives or prevent Faith from hatching some evil scheme, but was rather "I want my boyfriend back", caused Buffy to completely lose all of the moral high ground she had been granted in response to all the evil Faith had done. Faith had done evil, yes, but nothing that made "render her helpless and feed her to a vampire" a reciprocal punishment, especially when the cause was to betray a human being in favor of a monster who was constantly one good fuck away from return to being a rampaging beast who had previously murdered one of Buffy's friends, had tortured Buffy's mentor, and who came close to destroying the entire world.

If Buffy's intent had been merely to put a stop to Faith's evil, she could have done it any time prior to Angel's poisoning. But no, she waits until she needs Slayer blood to cure her boyfriend, and goes, "Well, I know where to get some of that!" and goes Faith-hunting.

"Protagonist" is not synonymous with "hero."

Buffy is a complex and well-envisioned character. Sarah Michelle Gellar did a great job bringing her to life, and Joss Whedon was a genius for creating a character that deep and interesting. In the history of television, Buffy Summers was a landmark when it came to the empowerment of rounded, strong female characters. That said, I have to admit that if I met her in real life, I'd probably hate the arrogant, self-centered, heartless bitch. She isn't a "hero," she's a protagonist. You want a heroic character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Okay, here's one: Dawn Summers, a fantastic example of a Byronic Hero. Much more heroic than her older sister. Here's another: Xander Harris, a hero in the Campbellian mold. I'll give you a third: Faith Lehane! Yeah, you read that right. Faith Lehane, the murderer seeking redemption is a classic example of a Grecian-style Tragic Hero, the one who is undone by their flaws only to redeem herself and triumph in the end. And as such, she is infinitely more heroic than Buffy Summers.

XxxxxxX

Things I Cannot Stand To See in Harry Potter Fan Fiction

In no particular order (I added them to this list as I thought of them), these are the things that will make me stop reading a story. They drive me up the wall in irritation. Please note that these aren't the only things that will make me stop reading a story... these are just the ones I've written down. I reserve the right to expand this list as I choose, when I choose.

Oh, and if I've left an unfavorable review for one of your stories, I don't want to hear how you're not really bad because you haven't broken any of these rules. You can be a piss-poor writer and not break any of these rules...

1. H-PINO Stories. H-PINO stands for “Harry Potter in Name Only”. I’m all for a good AU story, but when the author has to begin their story with a full-page summary of all the differences between their version of the Harry Potter universe and the canon version, then they might as well be writing a completely original story with completely original characters.

2. WhineyLittleBitch!Harry. A little angst now and again is fine. Sorrow and despair, especially in the wake of a tragedy, is reasonable for your characters. But multiple chapters of pointless moping and whining make me want to vomit. And hit someone.

3. Author Interjections. Save the author’s notes for the beginning of the chapter, or even better the end of the chapter. Do not interrupt your narrative to make some unnecessary (A/N: This really sucks, doesn’t it? Throws you off because you were reading one thing and suddenly you’re reading another? It’s distracting, right?) comment because it sucks and it is a sign of a very bad writer. In general, readers are smart enough to get your references on their own; you don’t need to tell them every little thing, especially when you interrupt your stories to do it.

3a. Actually using the word “Flashback” to indicate a Flashback. Why not just insert the words "I'm a Fucking Horrible Writer" into your text and get it over with, because there are much better ways to indicate a flashback than actually saying “flashback”. Use those better ways.

4. Bad Translations. I appreciate that some fan fiction writers are not native English speakers. That isn’t really a problem. What is a problem is when a person who’s English isn’t that strong tries to translate their story into English themselves. I’m sorry, but all this does is turn what is likely your truly wonderful story into a hard to read mess. My advice: if you aren’t sure about your English, find a native-English speaker who is fluent enough in your language to translate it for you. And don’t forget to give your translator credit for helping you; it’s the least you can do after all.

5. Slash. Now, when I say “slash”, I mean those stories that place characters that are strictly heterosexual in canon into homosexual relationships. This has nothing to do with homosexuality and everything to do with turning characters into something they are not. When you write slash, you are performing an action commonly known as an “asspull” (as in, “you are pulling it out of your…”). And no, you yaboons, there isn’t any “subtext” there, and I am not missing it. You’re just making shit up.

5a. That counts double for Crack!Slash. By which I mean pairing Harry up with Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, or any other male character for whom Harry’s first emotional reaction is violence and hatred.

5b. Harry/Voldemort especially. Do I really need to explain this one?

6. Ridiculous Non-Slash Pairings. Draco Malfoy is an arrogant elitist racist bastard. The last people he's going to hook up with are the daughters of a family he thinks of as poverty-stricken blood traitors, or a Mudblood who hangs around with his arch-enemy, Harry Potter.

6a. Especially Draco/Ginny: They are not compatible. They are not romantic figures. They absolutely not the reincarnation of Romeo and Juliet.

7. Vendetta Fics. A vendetta fic is a story in which the writer decides to “punish” a character he or she doesn’t like by portraying the disliked character in the worse possible light imaginable. I’m sorry, but how fucking childish is this? Specifically:

7a. Idiot!Ron/Rapist!Ron/Thug!Ron. I hate it when Ron is portrayed as a bumbling idiot whose best features are his lack of table manners and his obsession with Quidditch. In canon, Ron’s a flawed individual, sure, but that doesn’t make him evil. In point of fact, there are no perfect, shining individuals (the closest you can find is Luna Lovegood, and she's not perfect, either) in any of the Harry Potter books, so punishing Ron for not being perfect is just plain dumb.

7b. Ginny Weasley Depicted as Nothing More Than an Obsessed Fangirl. Oh please. Could you get more off-base than this? Yes, she starts out with a crush. That crush is pretty much over by Goblet of Fire, so let it go already.

7c. Harry/Ginny Being “Oedipal” and Thus “Gross”. The idea here being that supposedly, Lily Potter and Ginny Weasley look alike because they are both redheads. This is one of the most retarded things I’ve ever heard. That’s like saying actresses Frances Fisher and Alyson Hannigan look alike because they are both redheads. (Hint: they look nothing alike; Google search the names and see for yourself.)

7d. Harry's friends turn their back on Harry because... um... because... hold on... I'll think of some stupid reason in a moment. This is another cliche. Usually, its the two youngest Weasleys who turn on Harry because of some really retarded reason that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and turns Ron and Ginny into complete OCs, because regardless of how much you dislike these two characters, even you haters would have to admit that their portrayal in these stories is out there like friggin' Pluto...

7di. ... While we're on the subject of betrayal, the idea that Molly Weasley playing the Question Game with a 10-year-old Ginny is part of a conspiracy is utter bullshit. You know how it goes, Harry starts wondering, "How could Molly have forgotten where the platform was?" and suddenly it turns out that the Weasleys are a bunch of backstabbers, so obviously Harry is better off with Hermione. Or something. Guys, all this bullshit does is shine a light on how little you know about actual parenting. Real life parents play this particular game all the fucking time. You ask your child a question to which you already know the answer, not to remind yourself of the answer, but to make sure the child knows the answer. I once had a nice half-hour session with my then-seven year old in which I pretended to forget which denomination of dollar bill was the highest, the 1, the 5, the 10, or the 20, because the point was to make sure the seven-year-old knew which was which. Thus, Molly asking Ginny what the platform number was is evidence of nothing more than Molly being a good parent. So get over it, you paranoid idiots.

7e. Ginny only having three settings: bitch, whore, and bitchy whore. Can we get more childish than this?

7f. Molly Weasley only having two settings: shrieking harridan and violently shrieking harridan. She's not as bad as the Weasley haters portray her as. Really.

7g. Harry-sent-to-Azkaban stories where his closest friends turn their back on him for no real reason whatsoever. It's almost like Hufflepuffs are the only ones capable of loyalty.

7h. SlytherinsAreTheKoolz!Fics, where casual cruelty and manipulation is a good thing, and everyone but the Slytherin are idiots, especially the Gryffindors, who aren't smart enough to even say "What just happened" when they're outsmarted. I mean, really... I know you suffered through high school and are now taking your outcast status out on the cool kids of the Harry Potter universe, but this sort of nonsense is just stupid...

7i. Harry's interest in Ginny first appears about the same time as love potions, ergo, Ginny used a love potion to ensnare Harry away from (insert other female here) . And usually, the "other female" is Hermione, who's probably being dosed with love potions by Ron. Guys, this has to be the most addle-brained, paranoid, delusional bullshit I've read, and in that I am comparing it to most Conservative political screeds I've read. There's no canon evidence of it. None whatsoever. And no, you idiotic moron, I'm not missing the "subtext". Rowling is amazingly anvilicious with her subtext; she's not subtle at all. If this is what was really going on, she'd have been explicit about it. So get over yourself and stop acting like a loon.

7i(1). ... with Molly Weasley's assistance, of course. More bullshit on a galactic scale.

8. Anachronisms. An anachronism is a mistake in the history of the story, and they are very distracting. For example, if you want to write a story in which Harry is still at Hogwarts, unless he’s become a teacher, your story is going to take place some time between the summer of 1991 and the summer of 1998. Keep this in mind every time you include something from the Muggle world. For example, I read a story in which Harry and Ginny danced to a Rascal Flatts song at Bill and Fleur’s wedding. The problem is, the song they danced to came out in 2007, fully ten years after Bill and Fleur got married. And learn what sort of technology is available in the 1970s. Lily Evans would not own an iPod. She died before they were invented, remember?

8a. Getting people's ages wrong, especially when it comes to Generation 3. Teddy Lupin could not be at Hogwarts at the same time as James S. Potter. Teddy is seven years older than James Sirius (in the Epilogue, TL is 19 and has been out of school for two years; JS is 12 and is just starting his second year). Scorpius Malfoy is in Albus Potter's year... which means he'd be a third year when Lily Potter got there; he wouldn't be in the same classes as she is in. Likewise, neither of the Scamander boys (Luna's children) would be in the same year as Lily Potter, as Rowling has stated that Luna didn't marry and have kids until the Potters already had their three...)

9. Moronic Inter-Personal Conflict. Too many so-called romantic stories supposedly build “tension” by introducing a misunderstanding that could easily be cleared up if the two people involved would just open their mouths and talk to one another. But no… the plot requires that these two otherwise intelligent people act like complete idiots by deciding they should “suffer in silence”. I blame this type of story on twenty years of boring, formulaic so-called “romantic comedy” films. They all have the same story: boy and girl meet-cute, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl break up because of something stupid, boy and girl finally get back together just as the film ends after clearing up the problem and realizing they should be together. I hate that. I hate it in films, and I hate it in fan fiction.

10. Fred and George Reduced To Being Nothing But Comic Relief. Yes, Fred and George are troublemakers and inveterate pranksters. They are also brave and courageous young men, one of whom in canon gave his life for the cause. As characters, they are more than just clowns put into place to make Harry laugh. If all you have them do is be personality-less pranking machines, you’re wasting them.

10a. Twinspeak. While we’re on the subject of the Weasley Twins, I hate hate hate hate hate it when a writer has them speak in broken sentences, where one twin says the first three words of a sentence and the other twin finishes. Not only is that fucking irritating to read, its not even accurate. Go back and re-read the books and you’ll see that the twins don’t talk like that! What they do is follow each other’s sentences with the next applicable sentence. Got that? They speak in complete sentences!

10b. Gred and Forge. Still on the subject of the Weasley Twins, they call themselves Gred and Forge exactly once in seven books. It’s not a running joke; it’s a singular occurrence. So cut it out.

11. Mary Sue Stories. I just can’t take these stories seriously.

12. Americans at Hogwarts. American Characters in General, in Fact. I read a fantastic story once in which Harry and Ron have both become Aurors, and they are sent to the United States to pick up a Death Eater the American version of Aurors had arrested and were holding for extradition. Those American characters were fine, as they made sense. But an American coming to Hogwarts makes no sense at all, in my opinion.

13. Sexy!Snape and Debonair!Draco. In Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy, Rowling put together a couple of really compelling antagonists. They seem like real people. Unfortunately, its gone past some Harry Potter fans that these two characters are really unpleasant individuals. They are nasty. They are bulles. They are antagonistic and mean. Malfoy is self-centered and arrogant, and Snape is arguably a sociopath in the clinical sense. For some reason, though, there exist dozens upon dozens of stories in which Snape and Draco are dark, brooding sex-objects who attract women to them like flies because of their smoldering sensuality. Are you fucking kidding me, here? You know, I blame the films for this shit. I met Alan Rickman a few years before he began playing Snape; he was a truly nice guy, an amazing actor, and was incredibly charismatic. He was also smart, funny, and told great stories. The man simply could not help but project that charisma into Snape, who is supposed to be as uncharismatic as they come. I’ve not met Tom Felton, but a couple of friends who have tell me that he, too, is funny, charismatic, and down-to-earth. So I honestly think that these writers have formed their Sexy!Snape and Debonair!Draco opinions based on the actors, not the books.

14. Super!Harry. You’ve seen these stories. Harry the master of wandless magic. Harry the master of elemental magic. Harry the recipient of direct training by the four founders, turning him into the most powerful wizard since Merlin. Harry as the reincarnation of Merlin! You get the idea. This is silly. If you want to make Harry as powerful as Voldemort, cool… I think that’s a fine idea, what with the prophecy implying that Harry is Voldemort’s “equal”. But don’t go nuts, okay?

14a. CraneTechnique!Harry. Almost as bad as SuperPowered!Harry stories are stories in which Harry is secretly taught a single new spell… that one spell in all the world, usually some form of “Old Magic”, that no one has ever heard about and that “none can defense”, as Mister Miyagi put it. (I hate to break it to you, guys, but I’ve been a karate student since I was 15… my seven year old could have blocked that crane kick…)

14b. Animagus!Harry. Too many stories feature this idiocy, and all of them ignore the fact that becoming an animagus is supposed to be really super-rare and super-difficult. It is, in fact, hinted that not everyone can accomplish it. The idiocy really cranks up when Harry has more than one animal form. But even worse than having more than one form is…

14c. Phoenix!Animagus!Harry. This is just stupid.

15. Super!Hermione. Almost as common as Super!Harry stories are Super!Hermione stories. Usually in these stories, Hermione is a super-intelligent, all knowing beautiful Princess who is always right, always knows the answer to every problem, get’s any guy she wants with little to no effort, and is always the one who gets the boys out of trouble. Most especially:

15a. Grangerverse Stories. Speaking of arrogant, delusional cretins who somehow think they have some sort of say in how the Harry Potter stories should have gone, let me give special mention to those Grangerverse morons. According to these acephalic cretins, Hermione Granger and not Harry Potter is the central figure in canon, despite the fact that Harry’s name is all over the covers of the books. Harry, it seems, is merely a “frontkick” (defined as “a character who appears to be the protagonist but is actually the sidekick”) of Hermione Granger. These deluded individuals claim that since the Harry Potter books “occupy a larger space than the author intended”, Rowling really has no say in how the stories go. In addition, because Rowling “refuses to recognize the truth about Hermione”, she (Rowling, that is) is “delusional and crazy”. In my opinion, the Grangerverse people need to seek immediate psychiatric assistance, because it is they, and not Rowling, who are nuts.

15b. Makeover!Hermione: Hermione Granger is fine the way she is. If anything, she needs to be less bitchy and superficial, not more.

16. Ass-Hat!Slytherin!Harry. I really enjoy well-written “Harry Gets Sorted to Slytherin House” stories. It’s an interesting “what might have been”. But when Slytherin!Harry turns into just as big a Pureblood supremacist asshole as Draco Malfoy, simply because he’s sorted into Slytherin, it makes my teeth ache and I get the urge to punch the writer in the nose.

17. Casanova!Harry. Harry Potter is not some romantic, sensitive guy who effortlessly woos women, getting them to fall in love with him in mere hours. The truth is, he’s pretty much fucking clueless when it comes to girls and isn’t mushy or romantic at all. He has a bad temper and he’s moody. He’s not intuitive or sensitive, and his relationship with any girl (even Ginny, the woman he ends up with) is likely to be a bumpy ride at first.

18. CobraCommander!Voldemort. Lord Voldemort is supposed to be the absolutely darkest, dangerous, and most evil wizard every to have lived in the Harry Potter universe. Making him a moustache-twirling incompetent is just wrong.

19. Harry Potter, Expert on the Wizarding World. I can’t stand this one. He leaves the Dursleys and immediately knows just what to do to make him fat, rich, and happy amongst the wizards, despite only having learned that he was a wizard himself about a femtosecond ago.

20. Tortured Briticisms. I understand why American writers include British slang in their stories; it gives the stories verisimilitude. That is, it makes them seem more real, given that the characters and locations in Harry Potter are British. But there’s a time and place for slang. Yes, “snogging” is a slang term used in Britain for kissing, as “shagging” is for having sex. But know when to use these terms and when not to. Snogging is what two teenagers do when their hormones overheat while they’re sitting on a couch in the common room. Kissing is what two lovers do while on a bed, gazing deeply into the eyes of their one true love, seeking the connection with their beloved’s soul, the passion seeping from their very pores as the admiration they feel for each other emanates from them like ripples on a pond in the morning. Get my point? Sometimes, the actual word needs to be used.

20a. Blatant Americanisms. Of course, American writers who don’t even make the effort to sound a little bit British tick me off too. And I’m not just talking about writers who use “Mom” in place of the British “Mum”. I’m talking about continually using American references in place of their British counterparts (like calling them elevators instead of lifts, or calling the ground floor the first floor, and so on).

21. CruelMachiavellian!Dumbledore. Sorry, but no. While it is true that the man was manipulative in canon, and while it is also true that the man was too smart for his own good as he sat at the center of his own personal spider-web, Dumbledore wasn’t harsh, wasn’t uncaring, and was absolutely not some criminal mastermind. Cut it out, already. I especially despite stories in which Dumbledore is just as evil as Voldemort, but is more subtle about it.

22. Un-Scotlandy Scotland. Before you start describing what it’s like to live in Scotland, please learn what the country is like. We’re talking about a rainy, chilly, foggy, windy, hilly (and sometimes mountainous) country. Make no mistake, it is a beautiful land, and I’m very glad to have had the honor of living there for six years, but Scotland is not the coast of the Carolinas, and does not share that climate.

23. Ginny Behind Glass Stories. These are the stories where Ginny’s brothers (especially Ron and Percy, but almost never the Twins) threaten to murder Harry if he actually comes within sniffing distance of Ginny, despite the fact that Ginny makes it perfectly clear that she wants to be with Harry and isn’t going to put up with their shit.

24. Songfics. Look, I’m glad you were inspired by the song to write your story. I do the same thing; I once wrote three whole chapters based solely on the emotions I felt when I listened to Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", Elton John’s "Someone Saved My Life Tonight", and Chicago’s "Hard To Say I’m Sorry" back-to-back. But I didn’t feel the need to inject the actual lyrics of those tunes into the chapters in question, because doing that is stupid.

25. Luna, the Font of All Wisdom. I can’t stand stories in which Luna Lovegood is portrayed as some sort of mystic-earth mother figure who is in tune with some extra-whatsis source of worldly wisdom rather than simply being eccentric. Just because she’s smart and a little loopy does not turn her into the Oracle of Delphi. Similarly:

25a. Luna Never Talking About Anything Other Than Nargles and Snorkacks. This is a waste of the character.

26. Hufflepuffs As Incompetent Boobs. I cannot stand stories in which all Hufflepuffs are portrayed as nothing but a load of uncreative nabobs incapable of actually achieving. If Cedric Diggory being chosen as Hogwarts Champion during the Triwizard Tournament isn’t a big enough clue that this idea is complete bullshit, how about the fact that Ernie MacMillan, proud Hufflepuff that he is, was the first Hogwarts student to demand the chance to throw-down against Voldemort and his Death Eaters in the last book?

27. Draco Malfoy, Prince of Slytherin. Sure, Draco Malfoy usually has a small handful of hangers-on around him at any given time, but Slytherin House is larger than just Malfoy and his followers. There is no evidence in canon that Malfoy “rules” his House in any way, shape, or form. This is especially true when he’s an ickle-firstie! The sixth and seventh year Slytherins already in place when Malfoy gets there would control the House a lot more effectively than a loudmouth prig like Malfoy. And given that his dad was in the crapper with Voldemort during his seventh year, I doubt even the “seniors rule the school” effect would have made him “prince of Slytherin”, assuming Draco made it that far.

28. Harmonian Stories Described By the Writer as Fixing Things. The arrogant implication in this is that canon is somehow “broken” because Harry ended up with Ginny, and that the writer of the Harry/Hermione story is “fixing” things or “correcting” things by writing their story. Look, if you want to write a Harry/Hermione story, go for it. But don’t pretend that the Harry/Hermione ship is the correct relationship, because it isn’t. The books are over. Rowling sank your ship before it ever left the dock. Get the fuck over it already. On related notes:

28a. Harry and Hermione Cheating on Ron and Ginny With Each Other. Marital infidelity, to me, is one of the worst kinds of unforgivable betrayal possible between one person and another. The fact that writers of such stories general portray Harry and Hermione’s affair as a good thing just sickens me.

29. Magical Oaths Made on One’s “Life and Magic” Having the Same Effect as an Unbreakable Vow. Where the hell did these things come from, anyway? The canonical Unbreakable Vow is a special ceremony; its this big important thing because it will kill you if you break it. If all it took was waving one’s wand and saying “I swear…” there’d be no need of such a ceremony… not to mention no need for Veratiserum.

30. Draco Malfoy “Seeing the Light” and Becoming a Nice Guy. No, sorry… even if Draco did realize he was on the wrong side and jump ship, he’d still not be a nice guy. He’d be arrogant, nasty, bigoted, and mean, even if he was fighting against Voldemort.

31. M-Preg Stories. Not only because the basic idea is stupid, but because the basic idea is really, really stupid.

32. Romantic Eleven Year Olds. Because we all know how many eleven year olds engage in torrid, Harlequin Romance-style romances.

33. Sex Scenes That Are Obviously Written By Thirteen Year Old Virgins. Look, this is going to sound harsh, but if you’ve never done it (and by God, if you’re only thirteen you’d better not have done it yet), don’t write about it, because you don’t get it right. Trust me.

34. Harry, Not Harold or Harrison. His name is just “Harry”. Similarly, the names are Lily, Percy, and Draco, not Lillian, Percival, and Draconis.

35. Hermione’s Parents Being Named “Daniel” and “Emma”. In the words of a much wiser man than I, naming Hermione’s parents after actors Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson is hair-pullingly awful, so cut it out. And believe me, naming them "Emmett" and "Danielle" or some other gender-switched version of "Dan and Emma" is just as horrific.

36. Itemized Shopping Lists. I don’t need to know every little thing Harry buys on his trip to Diagon Alley. And by the way:

36a. Magical Luggage. You know what, that trunk that Barty Crouch, Jr. stuffed Mad-Eye Moody into was pretty cool, but there’s no reason for Harry to have one. And the stupidity only increases when the trunk doubles as an studio apartment.

37. Excessively Detailed Physical Descriptions. I once read a story where the writer took three long paragraphs to describe how an OC looked. We got details on her body type, her hair color, her eye color, what sort of makeup she was wearing, how she had her hair done, what she was wearing, her facial expression, and even the scent of her perfume and how she held her wand. And all it did was make me want to hit the back-button as quickly as possible.

38. Casual Female-On-Male Violence. You’ve seen it before. Harry makes a joke that irritates Ginny. In response Ginny punches Harry in the shoulder hard enough to make him wince. Everyone around them laughs. Ron says something insensitive. Hermione hits him in the head with the book she’s reading hard enough for him to get a lump. Everyone around them laughs. Why are the other characters laughing? Why are such situations considered humorous? Would the writer think Harry hauling back and punching Ginny in the shoulder hard enough for her to bruise because he was irritated by something she said funny? Would it still be considered “comedy” if Ron slammed a heavy book onto Hermione’s skull because she said something he considered rude? Double standards suck ass, folks, especially when they are used to turn domestic violence into comedy. Do not let them into the door.

39. Bizarre Names For Female Characters. Now, I know you’re thinking, “But Jack, you’re talking about a book series where female characters are named Ginevra, Hermione, Narcissa, Bellatrix, and Andromeda!” Yes, but most of the female characters in the books are named basic, normal names. The Black family is a special case in which all the children are named after constellations, so unless your character is a Black, there’s no call to name her “Summerwind” or “Rayven” or somesuch bullshit (and since “Summerwind” and “Rayven” aren’t constellations, don’t name your female Blacks that either). The most common female baby names of 1980 (the year Harry and most of his classmates were born) in Great Britain were (in order) Susan, Emily, Jessica, Hannah, Daphne, Chloe, Mary, Ruth, and Cheryl.

40. Harry’s Quidditch-Toned Muscles. Could someone please explain to me how sitting around on a broom while looking around until he sees a small glimmer of gold, then riding the broom as fast as he fucking can to catch a little winged gold ball small enough to fit into the palm of his hands would make him ripped and muscular? Willing a broom to go where you want it to has nothing to do with bench-pressing weights or running laps. You basically sit there and let the broom make all the effort.

41. House Elves Who Speak Like They Were Retarded. Go back and re-read Dobby’s dialog from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets guys. In fact, see the movie, since Dobby’s dialog (while not whole) was accurately presented. Dobby speaks in whole sentences. Sure, he refers to everyone by proper noun instead of using pronouns, but he doesn’t mispronounce any word but “Weasley” and he doesn’t speak like he was five years old. Neither, for that matter, do Kreacher or Winky.

42. Naming the Sorting Hat… Especially If You Name It “Floppy”. I don’t care how cute you think it is. It’s not cute, its fucking stupid.

43. JoePantoliano!Peter. Too many writers forget that, once upon a time, Peter Pettigrew was a good friend to James, Lily, Sirius, and Remus. If he hadn’t been as trusted as he was, his betrayal wouldn’t have been so painful. He’s not going to be so obviously untrustworthy as to remove all doubt of his loyalty to the Potters.

44. Harry Getting Vernon Dursley Fired. The first sentence of the second paragraph of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone mentions that Vernon is the Director of Grunnings. In the UK, the Director is a corporation’s chief executive. This means Vernon Dursley is the boss at Grunnings; there is no one higher on the totem pole than he is, and it would take more than his being shown to be an ass to get him fired.

45. Harry and His Pet Snake. I have no idea why the authors of some stories like to pair him up with Wanda the Friendly Cobra, nor do I care. It’s stupid and it should stop.

46. Friendly Goblins. Oh come on! As Rowling described them, the goblins are a bunch of arrogant, mean-spirited, hard-case putzes. Arrogant, mean-spirited, hard-case putzes aren’t won over by remembering their name and wishing them well.

47. The Dursleys acting more evil than Heinrich Himmler. You've seen these stories, right? In them, the Dursleys torture Harry. They abuse him sexually. They conspire to get his money and kill him and his friends. They strangle Hedwig, set fire to his school things, and stab Harry multiple times before dumping him back in the cupboard. I'm surprised writers of this sort of story don't have Vernon grow a Snidely Whiplash moustache, just so he can twist it.

48. Girl!Blaise stories written after 16 July 2005. Before HBP was published, you might possibly be excused for writing one of these pieces of shit by claiming ignorance of the fact that Blaise is a boy's name, has always been a boy's name, and will pretty much always be a boy's name. But after? Well, now you're just being pig-headed... And don't you dare tell me "Oh, well, it can be used as a girl's name!" Only by people who have no fucking clue what they are doing to their daughter when they give her a boy's name. And even if people do give a girl the name Blaise, that doesn't change the fact that its still a boy's name. I can name my daughter "Edgar" if I want... doesn't mean that she's not toting around a dude's name!

49. Describing a fancy meal and getting it wrong. I know this is a bit specific to me, but what can I say... I'm a chef by profession, I take pride in it, and I know that the writers who aren't chefs are doing their best, but I'm sure there have been times with you guys out there when a writer has someone do something involving our chosen career and gets it wrong. You sort of cringe, right? Stories where the characters go to a fancy black tie dinner and the writer either describes the food wrong (for the record, Jerusalem artichokes are not "just another kind of artichoke"... they're the roots of the sunflower plant and thus closer to potatoes or jicama than artichokes, which are flowers), or select a menu that is either badly combined (duck followed by mussels? not if you don't want your dinner guests to get nauseus over the conflicting lingering aftertastes) or are simply in the wrong order (the aperitif comes after the appetizer course, not after the main course...) bug me, because its clear in these cases that the writer just googled "fancy food" or something and tossed together what looked really, really classy regardless of whether or not the food in question worked together. I know its a nitpick, but it bugs me... So to combat this, I hereby offer myself as a food consultant, should anyone wish to write this sort of scene in their upcoming stories.

50. Stories with summaries that talk about OCs as if they were part of the canon crew. I refuse to read stories that have summaries like "Harry, Luna, and Cynthia have to jump through hoops and achieve an unlikely outcome to stop Voldemort". My first reaction is to think "Who the fark is Cynthia?" My second reaction is to think, "Probably a MarySue. Pass."

51. Future wrap-up chapters. You know, the ones where in a handful of paragraphs the writer describes the next hundred years after the story ends? I hate those. I don't know what it is that gets under my skin, but I hate them.

52. Time travel re-do fics where there are no (or virtually no) unpleasant consequences to changing the timeline. Its a long-held principle of time travel stories that the further you go from the point of change, the less like the original timeline the new one looks. Make too many changes, and you eventually lose the ability to predict what happens. And (and this is vastly important), bad things happen all the time, so why shouldn't they happen in the new timeline also?

53. Pairing anyone with anyone "just because". I don't mind stories where Harry (for example) ends up with Hermione or Tonks or Luna or heck, even Pansy Parkinson if the basis for the relationship is laid in a reasonable, intelligent manner that doesn't involve Ginny suddenly becoming the reincarnation of Elizabeth Bathory or Lucretia Borzia or something. I can even dig stories where Ginny just isn't that into Harry. But I want something more than some one-liner reason for Harry to be with another person. And this applies to every ship out there. I hate it when authors throw characters together just because without explaining why those characters would make a good couple.

54. Everything cool was created by wizards, and everyone important in history was secretly a wizard. Albert Einstein? He was a wizard. Benjamin Franklin? Wizard. The Beatles? Wizards. And they were wizards because obviously Muggles suck ass and can't get anything done themselves.

55. Continual misspellings of words taken from canon. I'm not talking the occasional homonym-substitution that gets missed by the spell-checker and the beta, or the occasional typo that still manages to slip through despite the spell-checker and the beta. I'm talking about spelling it "Voldermort" instead of "Voldemort" every time you use the name. Or spelling it Arvada Kedavra. Or "Expelliramus" every time you mean "Expelliarmus". That sort of thing is easy to prevent, so prevent it.

56. Everybody needs a "Marauder Name!" No, everyone bloody well doesn't need a Marauder name. Doing so is dumb and takes away the special nature of the Marauders. And if you have Harry called "Prongslet" in your story, you deserve a good caning.

57. Hypersensitive and self-deluded quasi-authors whose over-inflated sense of self-worth is a boon to Compulsive Snarkers like myself. This one is pretty self-explanatory. It was suggested that I add this one by a friend of mine who shall remain nameless. This friend, however, said that she got it from the "Worldmaker's an arrogant asshole" thread over on Dark Lord Potter. When she told me that, I immediately agreed to add it. Who am I to turn down honest criticism after all. Its only the arrogant critics whose attitude is "my shit-don't-stink" that land on my Fun With Idiots list. And this one I agree with. But I do want to add something...

57a. Reviewers and critics who don't understand the concept of "deconstruction" or "parody", or even "subtlety". That's a clue, folks. See where it leads you.

58. Descriptions of hair as a way of "identifying" the character. This is a sure sign that the writer of the story is a teenage girl. Consider the following, taken from an actual story: "She sat up and ran her fingers through her shoulder length auburn hair and yawned." We didn't need to know that her hair was a) shoulder length or b) auburn unless the color and length of her hair actually mattered for some reason. Referring to a character, especially a main character, by their hair color is simply bad writing.

59. Using the Phrase "Captured (His/Her/Its) Lips" When Referring to Kissing: This is hackneyed, dumb, and overly melodramatic. In addition, it makes the writer sound like they're 14 and haven't done a lot of kissing.

60. Gloating About the Obvious Cliff-Hanger You've Put at the End of Your Chapter is Stupid: You've seen it. You get to the end of the chapter and Harry's surrounded by Death Eaters and monsters and the chapter ends and the writer says something like, "I know, I'm evil." No, they aren't being evil, and they aren't being clever. They're following a literary tradition that dates back thousands of years. It isn't special, and gloating about it makes the writer seem childish.

61. Using the phrase "nee" every God-damned time you mention a married woman's name. Look, asshole, you really don't need to tell us that Andromeda Tonks was once Andromeda Black every fucking time you mention her name. Same with Narcissa Malfoy, Molly Weasley, Alice Longbottom, or any other married woman in the story. We already know that they used to be Narcissa Black, Molly Prewett, and Alice Prewett. Its jarring, off-putting, and unnecessary when you do this. Stop it.

62. Beginning a new chapter with a full of recap for the previous chapters of your story so far. Its doubly bad if you are basically just quoting the previous chapters verbatim. Trust us, if we need to refresh our memory, we can just skip back a couple of chapters an read forward from there.

XxxxxxX

Things I Can't Stand in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fan Fiction

As with the previous list, these are not in order of intensity. They're just in order of when I thought of them. In no particular order, these are the things that will make me stop reading a story. They drive me up the wall in irritation. Please note that these aren't the only things that will make me stop reading a story... these are just the ones I've written down. I reserve the right to expand this list as I choose, when I choose.

Oh, and if I've left an unfavorable review for one of your stories, I don't want to hear how you're not really bad because you haven't broken any of these rules. You can be a piss-poor writer and not break any of these rules...

1. BINO Stories. And of course, BINO stands for "Buffy in Name Only". Once again, setting a story in an alternative universe is cool, but when your "alternate universe" simply doesn't contain any of the identifying characteristics of the source material other than (for example) character names, then its not really a Buffy story, is it?

2. Mopey!Buffy/Mopey!Willow/Mopey!Xander: All three of these characters went through some traumatic shit during their journey through the series, and its understandable if they would occasionally have their dark periods. But Jesus Christ riding on a sidecar, do you have to write the entire series as one huge mopefest?

3. Author Interjections. Didn't like them when they were in the Harry Potter list, why would I like them here?

4. Slash. Once again for the learning impaired, I am not talking about simply matching up gay characters. When I say “slash”, I mean those stories that place characters that are strictly heterosexual in canon into homosexual relationships. This has nothing to do with homosexuality and everything to do with turning characters into something they are not. So no, I don't have any objection to you pairing up Willow and Buffy because guess what: they've both had lesbian relationships in canon. Now if you were to pair Xander with another guy, I'd have a problem.

5. Faith having only one setting: foul-mouthed sex bomb. Believe it or not, Faith was a rather complex character with a lot of hidden layers. Turning her into little more than a superpowered street whore with the mouth of a sailor doesn't interest me and makes me think you're a wretched writer.

6. Kennedy Hate: Yeah, yeah, she was a boring, badly devised replacement for Tara, who was one of the best characters ever featured in the series. But she wasn't an ogre, a serial killer, or a sociopath, so stop trying to turn her into one.

7. Male Slayers: No. Just, no. The closest thing to this I'd accept is a trans-man becoming a Slayer, because such a person is still genetically female.

8. Anachronisms: If you set your story while Buffy and the Scoobies are still at Sunnydale High, remember that unless you specifically state that you're changing the timing, you're looking at the years 1996 through 2003.

9. Getting Names Wrong: Buffy's first name was really Buffy. Says so on her tombstone. At no point in the series was she referred to as Elizabeth. Xander Harris's first name is actually Alexander and his middle name is LaVelle. Willow Rosenberg's middle name is Danielle. Also, Dawn's middle name was never revealed during the series. I know the fandom has assumed its Marie, but it was never explicitly stated. Faith's surname (Lehane), and Kendra's surname (Young) were both determined by Joss Whedon after the show had ended. Angel's first name was originally "Liam", but no last name has ever been revealed. And Spike's actual name is "William Pratt".

10. Having Faith say "five by five" every eight words. While she's never really been formally educated past a certain point, Faith is not an idiot and does have a fully functional vocabulary. Yes, she used that phrase on occasion, but she also told people that things were all right, okay, going good, peachy, fine, and so on. This is not the only way she has of telling other people that she's okay (even when she isn't), so please try and spread it out some. Okay?

11. On a related thing, the overdoing of the Scooby-speakage-like stuff, what with it happening every other sentence. Yes, Scooby speak is fun. That said, if you overuse it, your characters don't sound cool... they sound like fucking morons. Just like Faith, Buffy and her friends have a fully-functioning vocabulary, and unlike Faith, they actually graduated High School. Hell, Buffy and Willow even have some college under their belts.

12. Check Your Briticisms. Yes, I understand that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is enjoyed by people around the world, and that's a good thing. But, these characters are Americans. Which means they don't take the lift to their flat, they take the elevator to their apartment. They don't go on holiday they go on vacation and while on vacation they don't wear swimming costumes they wear bathing suits. They aren't likely to take afternoon tea, but when they do eat they'll eat more than just pizza and burgers. If you're not an American, please do some basic research. At least as much research as I do when I write British characters.

13. Whistler Explains It All: Especially in "someone lands in another universe" stories and suddenly Whistler is there to explain the plot for the reader. No! That's horrid. Just let your characters figure it out for themselves, and hey, how about sometimes they get it wrong because they aren't omniscient?

14. Over-Using the Devon Coven: Okay, so they're a group of witches and spell-casters in England. They are not the Omniscient Council of Magical Whatever. Sure, they empowered Giles so he could face off against Evil!Willow, but he got his ass kicked in the end.

15. Instant Acceptance of Vampires: Within 30 seconds of someone giving the "Slayer Speech" (the one that begins, "The world is older than you know...") everyone listening is not only on-board with acceptance of the supernatural, but they also know all of Buffy's secrets and are loyal members of the Scooby Gang. Its a huge cliche and not very realistic at all.

16. Using the Phrase "Captured (His/Her/Its) Lips" When Referring to Kissing: This is hackneyed, dumb, and overly melodramatic. In addition, it makes the writer sound like they're 14 and haven't done a lot of kissing.

17. Not Following Through on Removing Characters: If you remove a character from Sunnydale (or L.A.) when they didn't in canon, for one reason or another, by one means or another (they move, they die, they travel to the dimension next door, whatever), you need to follow through on their absence. Obviously, what that means varies from situation, character, timing and writer, but acknowledge that things will be going differently, and such that will be noticeable.

18. Buffy is Always Right Syndrome: Not in the sense that Buffy thinks she's always right - that's veiled bashing - but casting her as always in the right, usually as a response to bashing (going too far in the other direction as it were). She wasn't always in the right in the show, and she certainly wouldn't be in the eyes of all the characters all the time (even her friends/Giles). This applies to everyone, albeit it bothers me personally the most with Buffy.

18a. Xander is Always Right Syndrome and Willow is Always Right Syndrome are just as bad.

19. Explaining Away a Character's Stupid Decisions: Sometimes people make really fucking stupid, selfish or idiot decisions. Not everything is better in context, so don't create elaborate justifications for every canonical brainfail a character has - or even some.

20. Demonizing Xander for the "kick his ass" lie: Given how weak-willed and unstable Buffy was regarding the necessity to destroy Angelus, and given that she was demonstratably more willing to let him keep on killing more people than she was to just wipe his murderous ass out, Xander made the right call. I don't care that they later tried to portray this lie as a "betrayal". Buffy was full of it. Xander made the right call.

21. Try to Remember That Buffy Doesn't Have Huge Breasts. Sarah Michelle Gellar, who is Buffy's physical model, remember, is by her own admission, barely a B-Cup. The actress has made jokes in the past about how small her own tits are. Describing Buffy's boobs as anything other than small is ridiculous.

22. Torturing Your Characters Is Not Entertainment: Unrelenting angst is not storytelling. I'm not saying don't make things hard for your characters, or not have them go through bad times, or not have them have to earn their happy ending. I'm saying don't make it one damned thing after another without a break from the misery. Making things worse and worse and worse for your characters without them gaining a single victory, even on a small scale, is just horrid. Even when things are going badly, remember to inject moments of joy to lighten the mood. Unending misery is tiring and boring.

23. Gloating About the Obvious Cliff-Hanger You've Put at the End of Your Chapter is Stupid: You've seen it. You get to the end of the chapter and Buffy's surrounded by vampires and demons and the chapter ends and the writer says something like, "I know, I'm evil." No, they aren't being evil, and they aren't being clever. They're following a literary tradition that dates back thousands of years. It isn't special, and gloating about it makes the writer seem childish.

24. If you're writing a Buffy crossover with one of the innumerable "Angsty Young Vampire" series, and you have put Buffy in a situation where it would be utterly logical and appropriate, given your plotline, for Buffy to ram a stake right through the Romantic Yet Angsty Vampire Lead's heart, just have her do it and then try to salvage the rest of your story rather than ruining the suspension of disbelief by trying to justify Buffy falling in love with him instead of killing him: Because doing otherwise is just plain dumb and unbelievable.

25. RAPE IS NOT LOVE. IF YOU THINK THAT RAPE CAN LEAD TO TRUE LOVE YOU ARE PSYCHOTIC AND NEED IMMEDIATE PSYCHIATRIC CARE. I hope I made this clear enough for everyone to understand.

26. Making Fun of Buffy's Height: Buffy Summers is not unusually short. Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar stands 5'4" tall, and thus so is Buffy. In addition, actresses Amber Benson, Julie Benz, Bianca Lawson, Mercedes McNab, and Clare Kramer (just to name five Buffy actresses off the top of my head) are all 5'4" as well. In comparison, actresses Allyson Hannigan, Eliza Dushku, and Emma Caulfield are all 5'5" tall. In point of fact, the average height for an adult female human being in the United States is 5'4" tall. So Buffy was not "tiny" nor was she significantly shorter than most of the other female characters on the show. Having people constantly comment on her lack of height when the truth is she exactly meets the national average is thus bullshit. Rather, you should be commenting on how characters like Dawn and Joyce Summers (each 5'7"), Drusilla (5'8"), and Cordelia Chase (5'10") are all unusually tall compared to most women in America. (Thanks go to Julie Q for pointing this out to me.)

XxxxxxX

Fun With Idiots

I received the following private message from someone calling themselves "LadyLilyMalfoy", User ID: 904034. She's apparently not only one of the "Sober Universe" yahoos who object to what Rowling put into the Epilogue, her name tends to make me believe she's one of the SnapeLovers too. Either way, she apparently got offended because I was telling people what to think or something. Not that I'm telling people what to think... I'm just telling people that they are morons for thinking certain things. Anyway, here's what this gem of intellectual brilliance sent me:

Message begins:

You are so bloody critical!! Do you actually have something nice to say about anything?

You are just like the worst kind of flamer; you think because you're 'well read' and write things yourself, you have the right to critisize [sic] other people's things and beliefs!!

Ugh! People like you piss me off so much! No wonder your wife or whatever left you!

Ever heard of the phrase if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all? I know this is hypocritical, but at least I'm not having ago at everyone on my profile!

The whole POINT of fanfiction is to write about what you WISHED happen, not necessarily what did happen. People are allowed to be dissapointed [sic] just becuase [sic] you're a boring old idiot who has no imagniation [sic, doesn't mean the rest of us should.

Maybe you should take notice of what other people are saying to you, or do you think you're completely right just because you're an 'adult' and we're kids? People like you nauseate me!!

Lily M

Message ends.

I have the right to criticize other people's things and beliefs because I have a right to criticize other people's things and beliefs. Just as other people, including the hypocritical moron who calls herself "LadyLilyMalfoy", have the right to criticize my things and beliefs. That's the great thing about Freedom of Expression: it cuts both ways.

As I say elsewhere in this screed, your right to hold a silly-ass opinion in no way prevents the opinion from being silly. Nor does it protect you from having someone else come up and point out how silly-assed your opinion is.

So... to everyone who thinks... or rather doesn't think... just like this LLM person, kiss my wide white ass.

And for the record, my wife didn't leave me. She died of cancer after a prolonged and extremely painful illness. But hey, thanks for taking an interest, you insensitive bitch.

XxxxxxX

Fun With Idiots II

So a genius who calls himself EfficientLaziness (user 1985431) has sent me this brilliant piece of editorial wisdom:

Message Begins:

"Good writing shitty story. Seems to me you've bought into feminist bullshit hook line and sinker. Really "Old boys club"? Fuck you cunt."

Message Ends.

Apparently Gabriel (that's his real name) here has trouble differentiating the attitudes of a character with the attitudes of a writer. Its pathetic really. As well, his choice of curse is really indicatory. I'm thinking he 13, maybe 14, and has just felt his balls drop. Oh well. Our Gabriel here is obviously well on his way to being a lonely antisocial neck-beard who lives in his parent's basement and spends his Tuesday night masturbating to someone else's sex life while getting his jollies as an internet troll.

Pathetic, really. And sad, very sad.

XxxxxxX

Fun With Idiots III

A true saint in human form who calls herself lateVMlover wrote an atrocious little story called "Scoobies in a Marvel World" in which a character was effectively raped. By Thor and the other Asgiardians, no less. The character was kidnapped to Asgard against her will without so much as a "Pardon Me" from Thor. The character's entire identity was altered against her will and despite the ongoing protests of both her and her family with the excuse that "When the process is over, she'll tell you herself she's fine with it." After her mind and body are violated -- including the brainwashing, folks -- she of course tells her family "No, my kidnapping and the subsequent destruction of my identity, not to mention the forced changes my body has gone through, all against my will while I was screaming for them to stop, is all okay because I'm brainwashed now."

And in response her family's reaction is basically to shrug and say "Oh, well, since you're brainwashed now, I guess you getting raped like that is fine."

When I pointed out how atrocious this was, and how she (lateVMlover, that is) was basically writing a rape fantasy story in which a young lady was raped and her rape was then justified as being a good thing for her, lateVMlover first hit me with "Don't like it, don't read it." As if I didn't stop reading her piece of shit little story the moment I got to this part. She also tossed this little gem into the mix:

Quote Begins:

"You are obviously one of those egotistical males who believes he's always right."

Quote Ends.

Yes, obviously that's the only possible reason why I might find a rape fantasy an indefensible piece of crap.

So let's review. This woman writes a rape story, tries to justify it with the old standard "If they enjoy it, its not rape" excuse, and then when someone points out that she's writing a rape story, she gets huffy and makes a statement about the reviewer based on the reviewer's gender. So not only is she a sociopath who likes rape stories, she's also a raging anti-male sexist.

And people wonder why I call this section of my profile "Fun With Idiots."

XxxxxxX

Fun With Idiots IV

So an obviously budding Nobel-prize winning geneticist -- not to mention he's a Brony, and aren't they always Special in that short bus sort of way -- who calls himself RHJunior (ID: 2991318) objected to my story by calling out a niggling detail I dropped into Origin Story to explain why SHIELD knew that Alex Harris was an alien. Specifically, the detail was that she has a quadruple-helix DNA strand. This is actual DC Comics canon: Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl, and all other Kryptonians ever to have lived have this same DNA structure. Anyway, his first message was simple:

Quote Begins:

"Quadruple helix DNA..."

"ORGANIC CHEMISTRY DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT."

Quote Ends.

Well, yeah, I know that. Thing is, its canon from DC Comics, it had a purpose in the story, so I threw it in. Besides, this is just a story, right? This is a place where you go to read other people's casual writing, not to attend genetics classes. I mean, sure, its incorrect, but so the fuck what, right? So my response was intended as a way to end this incipient argument before it began. I sent to him a message that said that, yeah, I know, but hey, its just a story. Specifically, I cited Bellisario's Maxim ("You shouldn't examine this stuff too closely") and Hodgeson's Law ("Repeat to yourself, 'It's just a show, I should really just relax'").

Anyway, apparently, my response just enraged this would-be Francis Crick even more, because he responded with a loud, raging diatribe.

Quote Begins:

"Bellisario and Hodgeson mean nothing if you ruin suspension of disbelief... for ANY group of readers."

"Hell, it should be a general writing rule: "Spock does not need to explain everything." In other words, DON'T USE TECHNOBABBLE WHERE IT ISN'T NEEDED, AND NEVER USE BAD SCIENCE. It will not kill you if occasionally your fictional scientists throw their hands in the air and say "It makes no sense!" In fact anyone who knows anything about scientific research would tell you it's a lot more realistic for the guys in the labcoat to say "damnfino" once in a while... especially in a genre where the known laws of physics get a regular trouncing. "

"Putting that gibble-gabble about "quadruple helix DNA" does nothing for the story, and only spoils it for people with even a public school understanding of genetics and/or chemistry (aka everyone who wasn't raised under a rock.) If you don't understand what you're writing about, DON'T WRITE ABOUT IT. Simply throwing in some vague fluff about "DNA analysis was inconclusive/makes no sense" would have served the same purpose and not spoiled the story's verisimiltude."

"You can find thousands of examples of bad movie science that ruined a story. Armageddon (at 18 days before impact, a Texas-sized asteroid would be as bright as the stars of Orion's belt , 2012 ("OMG, the Neutrinos have mutated!" --that sentence makes my BRAIN HURT), Voyage to the bottom of the Sea (distraught audience members have been known to scream "ICE FLOATS!" in the theatres where this was screened)... you will never, ever find an example outside of MST3K where bad science and lazy writing made a story BETTER."

Quote Ends.

He so missed the point. No, he was feeling morally outraged about a story in which -- Horror of Horrors! -- there was a scientific error. Well, I couldn't just let this go, so I responded in what I felt was a rational and calm way. To whit, this is my response:

You know what?

Go fuck yourself.

This is fanfiction, not a genetics textbook. The science used is comic book science, not real science, and the scene in question is based in the "Superman" comics where the quadruple helix DNA of Kryptonians is actually canon. So if you want to whine to someone, go whine to DC Comics.

Let me repeat this, because it sounds vaguely important, and because it is important, I want it to sink in.

THIS STORY IS NOT INTENDED TO REFLECT REAL WORLD SCIENCE. IT WAS NEVER INTENDED TO REFLECT REAL WORLD SCIENCE. THE FACT THAT THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE CHOOSING TO FREAK OUT OVER AND NOT THE WALKING PHYSICS VIOLATIONS THAT ARE THE ENTIRE TEAM OF AVENGERS, NOT TO MENTION THE ENTIRE KRYPTONIAN SPECIES TELLS ME THAT YOU ARE GROSSLY PUERILE.

For a third time, it is not intended to be real science, it was never intended to be real science, and your insistence that it be real science is bullshit. If, in a story about flying women who can juggle tanks and men in suits of powered armor and other men with the powers of a humanoid spider, the part that breaks your suspension of disbelief is a minor side-note that was inserted in my story to give SHIELD a reason to realize that she's not a human being but rather an alien -- and oh look, I'm a writer and I actually know what I am doing and I didn't include it as "fluff" but for plot purposes, thank you very much you arrogant pismire shit-stain -- then the problem lies with you and your arrogant need to lord something over someone else and not with my fucking story.

My first response was an attempt to give you an out before you said something that made you look mentally deficient and anal retentive. And of course, rather than realize this and go, "Right, its just a story posted on a fan fiction sight, its not intended to be classic literature", you went and escalated like the idiot you are.

So again, please do go fuck yourself. And seriously, if a fan fiction story can get you so angry you rant at me over a minor, unimportant detail I threw in strictly as so I wasn't painting myself into a corner, then you need to stop reading fucking fan fiction.

But in one thing, I thank you. I haven't had someone volunteer for my "Fun With Idiots" editorials in a long time.

XxxxxxX