More Than Thirteen Reasons Why
I decided to create this list of reasons why a story might end up featured here because one of the Suethor’s featured here in the past tried arguing their character couldn’t be a Mary Sue because they felt their story wasn’t long enough to justify
A
AU - There is a misconception among some that we dislike AU, but when we insist writing for the AU genre doesn’t mean a blank slate of doing whatever the writer wants, we’re told we’re attempting to be gatekeepers regarding what does or does not constitute an AU. However, we weren’t the ones who came up with the idea that only possibilities and not improbabilities are included in the infinite number of universes out there.
To quote Sheldon Copper form Big Bang, “Penny, while I subscribe to the many worlds theory which posits the existence of an infinite number of Sheldons in an infinite number of universes, I assure you that in none of them an I dancing.”
The AU genre is based off the scientific theory of an infinite number of possible universes, but what writers typically forget is that this does not include improbabilities in the equation. In other words what we’re saying isn’t that the story isn’t an AU, but that the AU the writer wrote is improbable, but the improbability make it not a good AU. In some cases the work feels like original fiction rather than fanfic. For the actual issues which crop up with an AU, please refer to the specific type of AU.
Avid Reader - The avid reader can be a fun character to work with. The avid reader shows up a lot when a fan falls into fandom which makes sense as the character is a self-insert of the reader or potential reader in these situations. Problems start arising when.
C
Child Genius - The title of child genius does carry a certain appeal. Most aren’t done right.
G
Genderbending (Magic Wand or Female to Male) - This is far less popular than the other type of genderbending.
Genderbending (Taco Show or Male to Female) - This is far more popular than the reverse. While genderbending is an interesting concept to explore, quite a few ends up failing.
H
HINO (Harry Potter in Name Only) - The reader should never find themselves saying to themselves, “this isn’t Harry” when they’re reading a story about Harry. HINO is when a character is so OoC the only recognizable feature is the character’s name plus only the most basic of material.
I
Intelligent Characters - There is nothing wrong with being a smart character.
M
Magical Cores - The concept of the magical core is not canon but utilized to indicate how strong a character is or create a misperception they are no strong.
O
OoC or Out of Character - Why is the character not acting like themselves? Does the writer actually have a good explanation beyond they want to make the character OoC? As fans we fall in love with the characters because of who they are, but are they the same person if they’re not acting like themselves? Characters tend to be made OoC for various reasons.
W
Wrong Boy Who Lived - While this plot device is an ingenious method of adding in either a twin or another sibling for Harry most of these stories end up failing.
A
AU - There is a misconception among some that we dislike AU, but when we insist writing for the AU genre doesn’t mean a blank slate of doing whatever the writer wants, we’re told we’re attempting to be gatekeepers regarding what does or does not constitute an AU. However, we weren’t the ones who came up with the idea that only possibilities and not improbabilities are included in the infinite number of universes out there.
To quote Sheldon Copper form Big Bang, “Penny, while I subscribe to the many worlds theory which posits the existence of an infinite number of Sheldons in an infinite number of universes, I assure you that in none of them an I dancing.”
The AU genre is based off the scientific theory of an infinite number of possible universes, but what writers typically forget is that this does not include improbabilities in the equation. In other words what we’re saying isn’t that the story isn’t an AU, but that the AU the writer wrote is improbable, but the improbability make it not a good AU. In some cases the work feels like original fiction rather than fanfic. For the actual issues which crop up with an AU, please refer to the specific type of AU.
Avid Reader - The avid reader can be a fun character to work with. The avid reader shows up a lot when a fan falls into fandom which makes sense as the character is a self-insert of the reader or potential reader in these situations. Problems start arising when.
- The character overshadows Hermione Granger if not completely replaces her.
- The trait ends up tacked onto canon characters such as Harry who were never an avid reader in the first place just to make said character “cooler”.
- The character is actually not an avid reader but a character the writer wants the reader to believe is an avid reader.
C
Child Genius - The title of child genius does carry a certain appeal. Most aren’t done right.
- The character overshadows a canon character, such as Hermione Granger academically.
- What the character is good at isn’t relevant towards the plot and just tacked on so said character is special.
- The character is skilled in multiple facets to the point of not being believable.
- The character shows genius beyond the child genius norm,
- The child doesn’t speak like a child. Yes, even a child genius doesn’t sound like an adult.
- The child doesn’t deal with any of the negative of being a child genius unless the negative side ends up being convenient conflict only when needed.
- The child isn’t a genius like the writer thinks they are.
- The characters bend over backwards for the character because said character is always right.
G
Genderbending (Magic Wand or Female to Male) - This is far less popular than the other type of genderbending.
Genderbending (Taco Show or Male to Female) - This is far more popular than the reverse. While genderbending is an interesting concept to explore, quite a few ends up failing.
- The writer erases some or all of the characters masculine traits because they want the character coded as definitely female.
- The writer makes the female version better than the male version in some manner.
- The writer invents misogynistic conflicts for the purpose of adding angst and drama rather than because these misogynistic conflicts would actually exist.
- What the writer is writing is themselves rather than a female version of the character.
- The writer belives the female version of the character is their own OC despite the fact OC is short for Original Character and the character is not original to the fanfic writer.
- The writer doesn’t bother doing any proper world building.
- The writer never explains why Voldemort would go after female Harry instead of male Neville.
- For some reason female Harry ends up far more abused than male Harry.
- The writer makes female Harry into an avid reader despite the fact the original Harry never was.
- The writer attempts making the female version of Harry a better version of Harry.
- Adoptions are handled at Gringotts when they wouldn’t be.
- Wills are handled at Gringotts when they wouldn’t be.
- Harry pays restitution for the damage caused when he. Hermione and Ron broke into Gringotts despite not having done anything wrong.
H
HINO (Harry Potter in Name Only) - The reader should never find themselves saying to themselves, “this isn’t Harry” when they’re reading a story about Harry. HINO is when a character is so OoC the only recognizable feature is the character’s name plus only the most basic of material.
I
Intelligent Characters - There is nothing wrong with being a smart character.
- The character overshadows a canon character, such as Hermione Granger academically.
- What the character is good at isn’t relevant to the plot.
- The character isn’t intelligent like the writer thinks they are.
- The characters bend over backwards for the character because said character is always right.
- The number of languages the character knows is not believable.
M
Magical Cores - The concept of the magical core is not canon but utilized to indicate how strong a character is or create a misperception they are no strong.
O
OoC or Out of Character - Why is the character not acting like themselves? Does the writer actually have a good explanation beyond they want to make the character OoC? As fans we fall in love with the characters because of who they are, but are they the same person if they’re not acting like themselves? Characters tend to be made OoC for various reasons.
- Inexperience plays a role. Keeping a character in character is a learned skill which can take time, but the writer needs to know what to look for as well.
- Sometimes the characters do what the writer wishes for them to do rather than what the character really would do in a given situation. The writer may not realize they’re doing this.
- The writer mistakenly believes making the canon characters OoC is artistic merit. In reality making a canon character OoC is a lazy move, for keeping the character in character is much harder than keeping them in character.
- The writer mistakenly believes their version of the character is better than their own. This can be closely tired to the reason right above.
W
Wrong Boy Who Lived - While this plot device is an ingenious method of adding in either a twin or another sibling for Harry most of these stories end up failing.
- The plot is almost always used to handwave James and Lily surviving despite the fact their deaths are integral to Harry surviving.
- Harry surviving is hand waved as him surviving because he’s got a special ability nobody else has.
- Harry is neglected by his parents for the purpose of creating angst and drama and not because this is a natural reaction to the situation.
- Harry typically becomes an avid reader despite not being one in the original canon material.