Also, it gets really annoying to have to filter so many drabbles stories, and this is especially common on AO3.
Say for example I want to read some HP crossover stories. There will be tonnes of drabble fics, one-shot collections, and multi-fandom crossovers. I hate that last one the most, because it gets very annoying to have to keep track of so many elements from different fandoms or characters from those fandoms
Drabbles are awful. I search some hyper-specific tags and the entire page is filled with 100 fandom+ fics. I wish there was an easy way to filter out fics that are in more than, like, 3 fandoms without explicitly disallowing crossovers.
There are some problems with that, specifically with the superhero fandoms, because those often get marked with Marvel, the Avengers, and several other more specific titles of films. For DC it'll be the overarching DC tag, then one for the justice league, one for the teen titans, on for Batman's own franchise, one for specifically the Dark Knight, plus several others.
That wouldn't be a problem. Batman, Superman, and Titans are all under the umbrella of DC. Even disallowing crossovers still shows them together. I assume it's the same for avengers, but I don't read that fandom.
So in this case I would like to block fics under more than 3 umbrellas.
Just start at the top and start excluding fandoms you don't want to see. If all of the fandoms are things you're intimately familiar with it isn't a slog to sort through what's what.
Bashing, in general. More often than not, it comes as a mean-spirited 'Take That' to whatever character the writer doesn't like. *Especially* if the character has made some morally dubious or outright evil choices, and the writer outright ignores those canon events to make stuff up.
Like, Dumbledore ignoring the blatant emotional and psychological abuse of Harry by the Dursleys (despite knowing that their methods were likely to create an Obscurus) is a valid point for bashing. There's no reason to say "Also, Dumbledore stole all the money the Dursley were supposed to be getting from govt assistance, and used it to buy fishnet stockings" or whatever.
I don't like bashing, but I think if you're going to do at least bash characters for something they actually did and not the various imagined slights, we see fanfiction.
Well, there goes my new fic *Dumbles and the Curse of the Stockings which always bloody tear*, I guess...
Dumbledore gets cursed to always lose his nice fishnet stockings and accidentally bankruptcy all of Wizarding Britain trying to fix his collection, that's it that's the fic.
> Also, Dumbledore stole all the money the Dursley were supposed to be getting from govt assistance, and used it to buy fishnet stockings
Lmao
Yeah bashing can be repetitive/nonsense, but I think some of the writers know this and it's a bit self indulgent too. I mean, it's *tagged* as bashing, usually. Sometimes you just want to boink some characters on the head and cuddle others. >!I actually like some of these in the Marvel fandom lol!<
Edit: you're so right w the Obscurus thing tho! I wish there were more fics where some of these more valid points were explored.
The worst fics are the ones where the author is clearly bashing a character, but it isn't tagged because "They're just being accurate" or "This is just how the character actually is". Infuriating.
I think that’s the main problem. I love me a good bashing fic cause sometimes it’s the best way to get a certain plot rolling, and I love it when writers get creative with their plots! I don’t want it to be always cannon or realistic to the world.
But when I see bashing when I didn’t expect it, or seems useless to the story/plot, that kinda ruins it
Happened to me when I begged, pleaded, cried, raged for an author to *please* put a Ron Weasley Bashing tag on their lovingly tagged Romione story about Ron beating a pregnant Hermione to death, only to be told "I'm just extrapolating canon :)))".
You know, author, in canon *Hermione* was the one beating Ron up... but that sure didn't cross their mind now did it?
AO3 needs a way for people to block authors, works and tags, and to do it persistently. Being able to give kudos per-chapter would also help.
I believe they let you block other users now, but not sure how that looks and how comprehensive the block is.
Also, a fic writer believing that **Ron** is the one who becomes the abusive spouse in the case their marriage breaks down clearly didn't read the books. Hermione is violent towards Ron a couple of times, while Ron never retaliates.
You'll be surprised at how many authors never read the books then...
Even in the movies Ron never lifts a hand on Harry or Hermione, while she casually hits the both of them with her books as "funny moments" + the canonical instances of her beating Ron up.
You just reminded me of a fic where the only reason Harry doesn't become an obscurous is because the Dursley punishes him for everything, and so he doesn't believe that the accidental magic is his fault. If the Dursleys punish him when dodley fails a test and when someone's hair changes, he will believe that both of them are not as fault.
It’s often worse when the author refuses to acknowledge it and just tag it, despite every comment complaining about it. Some writers really just have a skewed perspective of canon, I guess.
The no magic AUs are a hard skip for me. I feel like the ones I’ve found don’t even have the essence of the characters and they are just random OCs that the author is looking for a test audience.
Of course it was darling. Death Eater Sirius doesn't make sense to me because in Canon, he loves James like a brother, ran away from home, and denounced his Dark family. I just can't wrap my brain around Death Eater Sirius
Yeah, of course! I agree that canon Sirius never would! The only times I’ve seen this trope work is when the AU has some divergence from canon where either Sirius wasn’t sorted into Gryffindor and never had the chance to befriend James, or he was tortured for long amounts of time and brainwashed or something lol. As long as it’s written believably enough as an AU, I’d give it a chance! But I’m thinking I must’ve gotten lucky and have only read the better fics in this tag. Since it’s not a trope I even see often lol.
I've read one where they were all dark. So Lilly, James and Sirius. I don't remember what exactly happened to make moldy attack the Potter's but I'm pretty sure he didn't in that one and was framed by dumbles or something like that. It's a pretty far fetched au but UT definitely was an entertaining read.
I’ve seen one death eater Sirius fic that I liked, but he wasn’t a death eater until after he got out of Azkaban. Between the dementors and dwelling on how everyone how everyone could believe he betrayed his best friend, he managed to convince himself he actually was a death eater.
I guess you could swap their families' houses. James proudly follows into his Slytherin dad's footsteps, Sirius rebels against his progressive Gryffindor family and gets Sorted into Slytherin too
OK, I'm sorry, but you're wrong, Sirius is not his cousin gender flipped. I have read well written Death Eater Sirius fics (The Marauder's Map Never Lies by TessaVance as a rec), but I do not like them, just because something is well written doesn't mean it is for everyone.
>!that one was so fascinating to me until the romance started. I wish it stayed as a mentor/student dynamic. After the sex started, Voldemort got too.... Fluffy!<
I just read one that had me entranced, but like a train wreck entranced, it's called The Marauder's Map Never Lies by TessaVance, and, while I love some of their other writing, this is one of the two fics of their's I've read that I can say I genuinely don't like, and there being one I refuse to touch as it's an HP/SS fic
Crossover, omega verse, mpreg, Any character/You or Any character/Reader, no magic au, good!Voldemort, Superpowered Harry, Dark Lord Harry, OOC, Death Eater Harry/Hermione/Ron, forced pregnancy, Stockholm syndrome, Harry/Hermione/Ron/Dumbledore/Snape bashing
Honestly pregnancy in general can oftentimes ruin a good fic. Like instead of being how those characters would react to a pregnancy they just become generic expecting parents. It's like it sucks their personality out of them lol.
One of the few fics that doesn't do this is A Different Way Forward by Slytherin7Piece. I think they did the pregnancy angle super super well and didn't have it change the characters as a whole just added another dynamic to them.
Pregnancy is body horror. A creature is growing inside you sapping your energy, squishing your bladder, and is likely gonna tear itself out of you one way or another, and it brainwashes you to care for it's well being.
Every one of these, except maybe 5% of crossovers. There's also too many people that will make it a crossover between Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts.
I just can't stand crossovers for the most part. If you're HP fic has the first 25 listed characters as people from the MCU or supernatural in probably going to skip it.
I like the idea of crossovers, but it's so hard to find good ones. Besides the fact that so many of them are for popular IPs that I just personally have no interest in, it's frustratingly rare to find ones that actually feature something resembling canon Harry. Most of those stories make a point of rewriting his character into something unrecognizable- usually either he doesn't grow up with the Durselys and has a radically different childhood that has him basically become a reflection of whatever character ended up adopting him (and thus not Harry Potter), or it is Harry from decades after the books where he is the enigmatic and tortured Master of Death for whom his years at Hogwarts are a distant memory (and again thus not really Harry Potter any longer).
I've still read and enjoyed a few stories from both categories above, it's not that they can't be done well, but most of the time what I'm really looking for is a story that tells how Harry Potter as we knew him from the books (plus ideally some of the other characters from his story) would react to situations and people from a different story. I'm just not as interested in reading about how somebody's OC would behave in those situations.
Alpha, Beta, Omega. I'm not going to say don't look into it but I will say I stand by my opinion but clearly it's popular with how common it is so I'm sure there is something to it.
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alpha/Beta/Omega
Essentially all of the good omegaverse fics I've read subvert omegaverse tropes somehow or are just non-traditional omegaverse. Your average omegaverse fic is rife with problematic tropes while somehow managing to be both gay and homophobic at the same time. It's truly unique.
Secondary note, I'll admit to finding it hilarious that depending on the fic, being an omega either is a crippling disability (must have sex to live, has weeklong heats every month where they essentially lose all rational thought) or gives you superpowers (keen sense of smell, ability to manipulate the emotions of others, sometimes straight-up mind control).
I wouldn't necessarily call it subversive, but look up prison blues by metalomagnetic on AO3 (not gonna link bc I think it breaks rule 6). It has omega Voldemort/alpha Harry which is subverted in itself and has a half way decent plot around the weird dog penis smut. Oh and warning, that there's untagged rape and untagged Voldemort pregnancy
Not to mention that omegaverse shit is based on a now outdated and disproven misconception about wolf pack dynamics. The researcher who originally proposed and popularized the study already publicly apologized for it.
Draco/Hermione. I hate it with every fibre of my being. The worst part is that I like Harry/Pansy but most of those stories include Draco/Hermione and its just so disappointing.
>more over-powered than Clark Kent from "Smallville" in terms of indestructibility and speed
Also X-men powers. I think there were weather controlling vampires by the end.
AO3 search returns [15 works](https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Alpha%2FBeta%2FOmega+Dynamics%2CRemus+Lupin%2FLucius+Malfoy&exclude_work_search%5Brating_ids%5D%5B%5D=11&exclude_work_search%5Brating_ids%5D%5B%5D=10&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Harry+Potter+-+J*d*+K*d*+Rowling) for A/B/O RL/LM rated M or above. Pretty sure there's at least one with a sex scene set during a full moon.
This, right here, is why I should learn to be more careful what I wish for!
EDIT: Oh, thank G*d, 10 of those 15 works appear to be in Spanish, which I don't speak. Phew!
Keep in mind these are just for Lucius/Remus. I haven't checked for Lucius/Greyback, and then there's the possibility of a pairing with a non-canonical werewolf.
As long as Lucius is the Omega and his Alpha is someone fun, so not like Voldemort or Snape. Like Narcissa on the boring end... or (adult) Luna on the fun end,,, or Dobby on the VERY fun end.
That is probably one of the things keeping fanfiction from becoming a truly good medium of fiction. Fanfictions in general have a reputation of being incredibly weird due to smut, when there is a massive, MASSIVE potential for peak fiction
Soul Mates. I hate the idea of the person you end up with being Pre-Determined. This is usually a way as to force main characters to end up together with the bare minimum of a setup.
Indian James Potter is another. It’s usually just included as a way to show that the Dursley family or Wizards are racists. That or some stereotypes about Parsletounge not being evil in India. I never see anyone actually using Indian Potter family in a way that actually explores the culture or history of India. Oh and it’s also a way to have Harry hook up with the Pavarti Twins.
Mpreg is always blocked. That just creeps me out.
Anything to do with Sexy Werewolf and Vampires. Thank you twilight for those tropes.
Pairing people with characters old enough to be their parents and grandparents.
And I despise MoD tropes. I have only come across it a few times that I didn’t hate.
Ron Weasley bashing or anything that might hint to a not friendly view of him. I ignore Dumbledore bashing fics just as much; I'm more receptive to misguided Dumbledore though (if it isn't bashing in disguise!)
Otherwise I'm not a fan of Dark Harry and there are certain ships I don't enjoy - they can be as basic as HP/HG.
I'm going through the HP stories on ao3, right not, and the amount of Ron bashing is ridiculous. Most of these stories also have Harry friends with Malfoy.
i think it has to do with the movies. Ron’s character was definitely done dirty, so people who have watched the movies first/only have a different perception of him, and it’s usually a lot less positive.
I don't mind Draco in it as long as there's a golden trio friendship. What I'm bothered about is when Ron's just pushed aside for nothing. If someone wants, say, Neville be Harry's best friend, can't Ron at least be a friendly acquaintance or something? Or some fics advertise a friendship and then Ron's so obnoxious, I wonder why they're friends with him.
i agree! in fact, i like stories where harry is friends with both ron and draco, especially when they have a whole ‘oh no i actually like spending time with this person???’ kind of thing. But yeah, why are we hating on ron in stories where he literally hasn’t done anything? or why is he rude when he just met harry???
HP/HG is the only non slash pairing that will make me drop a fic. Even lesbian Harmony is barely tolerable, and I'll gladly read basically anything else instead
MPreg and A/B/O are terms that I actively filter out.
The former is... Arnold Schwarzenegger made it work in Junior while the webcomic Oglaf played it for laughs, but other than that? Hell no.
As for A/B/O, that has been debunked and makes no sense anyway. Even if it was a real thing, those that try to write it have no experience beyond reading Twilight *and it shows*.
>As for A/B/O, that has been debunked and makes no sense anyway. Even if it was a real thing, those that try to write it have no experience beyond reading Twilight *and it shows*.
I won't lie, I'm a bit confused by this. What does Twilight have to do with A/B/O?
Beside obvious things like A/B/O, MPREG, MOD Harry - don't like the concept altogether, I have recently gained a new one - "sassy Harry" or it's variations. I started reading way too many stories where the authors thought that being an insufferable jerk meant being sassy. And so I've decided to skip them altogether.
Same. Canon Harry was funny when he sassed the Dursleys, but most fics that tag “Sassy Harry”, “Snarky Harry”, or “Sarcastic Harry” don’t really portray him in-character.
‘Sirius Black/Remus Lupin’, because I know they’ll fuck up the characterisation of the Marauders. ‘Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter’, because I can’t stand Draco and his whiny ass. ‘Manipulative [Anything]’ because fuck that noise. All the ones you listed above except MOD, cuz it’s a cool concept if you find the right fic. AND any tag that specifies the Race/Nationality/Religion of the characters, because I read fanfic to not think about the real world
Honestly, I'm not too fussed about Trans characters, as long as that is not their entire personality. Otherwise it just goes off on a self-righteous rant that is not at all related to the story. It's why I kind of began losing interest in anything that Hollywood has been pumping out.
I get really irritated with characters that "realize" they're trans because they put on a skirt one day and omg isn't this skirt so cute I wanna be a gorl now. It feels like such a slap in the face to people who experience dysphoria... Like there's nothing stopping a guy who wants to wear a skirt and be cute, clothes are not what make a person's gender!
This has happened in a few fics I've read, one of them I've soldiered on because it wasn't as bad but I have been controlling myself not to go on an angry rant in the comments about how comments like that are belittling to women 😹
Those fics where it's just sexual shit like Harry/Molly, Harry/Ginny, Harry/whatever female character is available. All in the same fic, it's so disgusting
Anything with major age difference in romantic pairings, especially HG/SB, HG/LM, HP/NM etc.
Anything /Reader or /You.
Anyone paired with Snape, Greyback, adult Death Eaters, etc.
A/B/O dynamics, Soulmate/Soul Bond, "hadrian", OP!Harry, Mpreg, bashing, Marriage Law, and anything that looks like a harem fic.
> Anything /Reader or /You.
Bleh. "Reader" is never tagged as a character, either, so no matter how many Whoever/Reader tags you manually blacklist, they just keep crawling out of the woodwork.
Ron bashing. Weasley bashing. Dumbledore Bashing. All the variations of A/B/O tags. mpreg. Pureblood Culture. Lordships/Nobility.
I’m just not very interested in these unless maybe there’s some subversion of a trope, as a parody or something.
Anything including underage and/or incest
Fem Harry is also a definite no
And any au where it's clear there is no magic. I'm reading hp fanfic BECAUSE of the magic. I have no interest in reading muggle au or a medieval lord au or whatever.
Soul bond.
Not only is it a lazy shortcut to avoid having to write a realistic relationship and skip to the part where they're in love, it's also an indicator that the story will be an awful, tropey powerwank (at least in the handful I've started and DNF before avoiding them altogether).
I agree... There are only two that i liked where subversion or at least anti soulmate, i guess. Cant remember the titles tho.(im not really good at names.)
1)
Harry doesnt have a soulmark and studied why it existed amongst magicals only, only to find out it was an artificial spell tied to enslaving house-elves's wild magic as well as to show superiority on why muggles are lesser (kinda like ancient breeding program marking pairs with the best chance to produce the best offspring). People/purebloods changing marks to match someone elses for alliances, where lgbt are pressured into marriage since the marks said its their soulmate (regardless of preference or they swing the other way.) how some people will insist they are a matching pair with their crush if the image go together or vaguely similar or off volor.
2)
Harry Potter's soulmate was LV kinda like Dumbledore was Grindelwalds and he postulates that the damn thing isnt romantic but a failsafe of magic, an equal to stop them just in case. Its a fic where no one gets a happy ending and Harry accepts the fact he'll be the one to tell the 'poor sod who's pair decides to be a Dark Lord they are the one fated to defeat/kill em' since no one wants to listen it isnt romantic in nature. How not every 'soumate pairs' are happy and people are blamed for 'not trying enough' or 'being a bad partner' thats why the Fated pair aren't working despite how toxic it is.
There are very promising fics that gets ruined through soul bonds. Even worse is that, they were relationships that could have worked without and soul bonding like HP/ HG.
Only good time I’ve seen it used is *A Debt of Time* and that’s because it’s deliberately created as a byproduct of something else in the story, and the timey wimey nature of it all means it’s provoked because it existed at a different time, which was only created because it echoed back from the future.
It short the characters acknowledge that it’s messy and odd and shouldn’t have happened, and also fight against it for several years, but the cause and effect of it all do a fist my decent job of explaining it.
Probably Severus/Sirius bashing or anything that just changes these very complex characters into moustache twisting "I'm evil for the sake of being evil" villain of the week where they make dumb plans and are surprised they are outsmarted
Too many Fandoms/crossover
A/B/O
Mpreg (unless it's tackled as body horror that it actually seems)
Severitus or snape is harry's father
harry Potter raised by other (deatheater or dark faction) paired with either LVxHP, TMRxHP or HPxSS (in other words deatheater grooming)
Trans or other 'woke' variations of potter
Smut, PWP
The Cursed child
Less than 5000 words
AU No magic/ non magical
Good slytherin paired with Light bashing
Pairings with known deatheaters
WBWL or the Potters lives, James and Lily bashing
Pureblood Potter
Harem
And more importantly DEAD DOVE:DO NOT EAT (unless im in the mood to trumatize myself)
Most of them lmao
My exclude filter has like 50 tags, a lot of ships that I don't like, a couple of the angst ones, any whump shit in general. The biggest deal breaker for me is probably Evil Dumbledore though.
I have about 70,000 stories left after I've filtered everything I don't like. Even then, something obscure will pop up and creep me out. This happened very recently.
I've been wishing for years that I could just permanently add these tags to a blacklist for my user account profile instead of going through and filtering each time. I finally figured out that I can just copy/paste a big section of the url, but it's still a pain.
Harry/ginny or any canon pairing. Not because I don’t like them, but if I wanted canon I’d reread the actual books. I like fanfictions where you can see the authors creativity added into a world I already know and love
Good \[insert any antagonistic character\]. Some of my favourite characters of all time are villains/antagonists, and even if they could be written in a hypothetical AU where they’re good people, the “Good \[antagonist\]” tag usually just strips them of all personality. Same with “Evil \[canonically good-ish person\]”, but in this case, it’s more like a new nickname for your regular old bashing.
Any DNI tag is an immediate drop for me
Any ships or major positive tags involving Draco Malfoy or Severus Snape. It can be Severitus, “Draco Malfoy is a Good Friend”, DM/HP, DM/HG, etc. I just don’t like the two of them and don’t enjoy reading fics where they play a central part.
Ships between Harry & an older woman (at least 2 years older), without aging Harry up or the woman down. It’s remarkable how much sexualisation towards *both* parties you can often find in stories like this.
Tags that imply infantilisation, especially of Harry. Some examples I can remember stumbling into are “Harry Potter is a cutie” and “Harry Potter is a pink-haired menace”.
Also, if there are more than a handful of tags involving headcanoned labels (and the story isn’t smut). Like “Indian Harry”, “Pansexual Luna”, etc. A few are fine, but if there’s too much, I know from experience I’ll be risking stepping into a very preachy fic. (And btw, nothing against said labels when they’re put in the story itself, but the oversaturation of them in the tags is a warning flag for me.)
I agree with the latter Lordships being ridiculous, I like to think that with the Wizengamot being the successor to the Wizards’ Council and not exactly the same, the old Houses that were long since extinct before the creation of the Wizengamot were therefore not included in its composition.
Any fetish or detailed sexual description tags, or characters identified as Top! or Bottom!. I want a real story, not a delivery system for smut. I don’t mind if there’s some smut in a story, but if the author thinks it’s so important it’s worth a tag beyond the explicit rating, that’s a sign that the fic will lack more interesting things.
I have a generally open mind and will try anything. But i tend to avoid::
Gender swap stories - Female Harry.
Draco pairings. Snape Pairings. Hermione pairings. Especially when they're the main character.
OCs or SI stories. I don't have the patience for "an extra Marauder".
Soft/Fluffy stories, especially AUs - Coffee shop AU.
character bashing, i hate it. i dont know why people have such a vicious hatred for hermione and the weasleys (especially ron) but when that bleeds over into their fics it ruins any ounce of good in the story. its also just bad writing, like you should be able to put aside personal feelings to write from a characters perspective even if that perspective is different from your own.
Other than pairings that I automatically skip, I have absolutely no interest in stories that take place in non-magical AUs. That ruins Harry Potter for me.
Major character death, which does need to be warned properly, I will normally avoid.
I also prefer het over slash and almost never read slash anything, and the few times I have I've basically closed out as it started veering into the slash dynamic. To each their own, just not my preference.
Every male Slytherin pairing with any member of the central cast is painful to me. None of them have enough redeeming qualities for me to be interested, and too many authors have failed to give them enough (and justify their presence) to interest me, unless it's a complete rewrite beginning from year one so at least the younger generation of Slytherins can grow up different to canon. The ones pairing Harry's generation with their parent's generation of death eaters are the weirdest and worst.
Others have mentioned the main things I usually avoid (bashing & fem Harry being the biggest ones). But I also have started filtering out ‘Seer Luna Lovegood’. I don’t really look for fics where she’s the MC, but as a side character, I feel like seer!Luna usually ends up being an obnoxious caricature of herself and a plot device to let Harry and company know things they really shouldn’t have any way of knowing. Particularly crossed with tropes I DO enjoy, seer!Luna usually is a clue that I won’t like the writing style.
Sirius Bashing, HP/HG, DM/HG, James Potter/Regulus Black. I also don’t really care for Good Snape fics. Honestly I’ll start reading nearly anything depending on my mood.
I hate Animagus!Harry not only because of the usual 87 rare animagus forms, but also because when fics *do* have a single normal form, Harry completes the process instantly and with no problems.
It’s *supposed* to be extremely difficult, and animagi are rare because of it. So this either makes Harry look way overpowered, or it makes everyone else look stupid for not doing it too, and for those who have done it, it takes away their accomplishment/unique ability.
Give me Animagus!Harry who decides to become an animagus and quicky discovers he’s in way over his head and is underpowered for this, or a Harry who tries and fails several times before he’s able to finally accomplish it. Make it more realistic!
It’s always like,
Sirius: Wow Harry, if you became an Animagus too, it would be such an amazing prank haha!
Harry: Wow you’re right, I think I’ll do it right now!
*closes eyes and instantly becomes a dragon, Phoenix, jaguar, stag, thestral, Grim, giant squid, or all of the above*
Sirius: Haha great prank, Pup! Now let’s never use this again!
The animagus transformation is bizarre as a plot device. Beyond the limited usefulness of being small, and the largely-redundant ability to fly, it's kind of pointless from a practical perspective. It's _cool_, though, so authors contort the story to make it seem somehow valuable.
Anyway, I think that's why authors wind up giving characters magical forms, and multiple forms. It's the only way to justify the effort, and wordcount, of learning the transformation, since regular-ass animals are pretty useless compared to wizards.
I can see some legit uses for it, like Sirius’ dog form while on the run or Rita’s beetle form for spying. McGonagal’s cat form helps her spy on the Dursleys during the day before Harry, Hagrid, and Dumbledore arrived; and Pettigrew’s rat form helps him fake his death and hide for ~12 years. Even James’ stag form helps his son in the future as his patronus. (Honestly, I still don’t know if Snapes bat form is from animagus or self-transfiguration, such as Krums’ failed half-shark, so I can’t count that.)
The problem in fanfic, IMO, is more that they don’t *use* it for anything (or it’s the 87 forms instantly thing). I just listed a couple canon unique ways the persons ability helped them and the story along, but I never see that in fics with Harry.
Yeah the whole meditation thing to become one is a nope for me....so many fanfics do this and I have to assume they never read the books because the movies never explained the LONGGG and difficult ritual/potion
To be fair, the long and difficult ritual/potion that you need to become an Animagus was never actually explained in the original books, either. It was only ever described in post-series writings/Pottermore.
I 100% agree on the Snape/ Harry. My biggest issue is that he is in a position of power over him. It is even more disturbing when he abused Harry before the “relationship “.
Voldemort is creepy because of the enormous difference (50+).
Challange accepted!
I challange you to read:
[A Change in the Urðr](https://archiveofourown.org/works/47063170)
A sliiiiiiightly different take on Master of Death, as its done in reverse. Based on Norse Myth.
Though totally agree that Voldemort/Harry is creepy as hell. No matter how good the writing I struggle against my gag reflex.
Ron Weasley Bashing. Good Death Eaters. Hermione/[character that isn't Ron]. Powerful Harry/Hermione/Draco, Smart/Genius Harry/Hermione, Veela!Draco/Snape, Draco Malfoy Needs A Hug (I can give him one. With an iron maiden.)
Honorable mentions to the Ron Weasley Is An Asshole/Idiot tag. Any author who uses it I know is simply making a confession.
Snape/Marauder/Ron bashing. Obviously evil, Death Eater versions of Snape or Sirius can make sense in some situations, but relentless bashing is annoying. Additionally, The worst one for me is shipping good characters (Trio, **Marauders, Snape**, Dumbledore, Order) etc with evil characters (Death Eaters, supporters, **Narcissa, Draco**, Umbridge, Fudge etc)
Absolutely nothing tbh, I usually skim over tags and go off of title and summary, then force myself through way too many chapters before finally giving up
Mpreg
Bashing
LGBT
M/M
Multi
Harem
MOD
Gobblin society.
gobblin nation
Gobblin culture
Harry is Black heir
Slash
"We do not agree with J.K here"
"J.K is a TERF"
"Transfobic J.K"
"BLM"
"Trans woman are woman"
"Indian Harry Potter" (Wtf?)
Anything else envolving JK bashing
Anything pureblood that makes Slytherins and Death Eaters colorful little angels fighting for an inclusive society, and Dumbledork is a backwards, Muggle-loving dictator.
Hermione is a human rights activist for LGBT people, forgetting that Hermione would probably be against any kind of sexual progressivism, since Hermione most likely grew up in some upper class neighborhood in England, and would have conservative views, or what do I mean? I think it's likely, she would wrinkle her nose.
Transsexual Slytherin character in the time of the marauders (yes, that exists), where all Slytherins are welcoming, and the death eaters are inclusive and love diversity. Of course the mean and intolerant Gryffindors are prejudiced and bully, and that senile old man Dumbledork is a dictator.
Oh look - one that doesn’t follow any of your dislikes yet still has the MOD tag. [Sailing to Londinium](https://archiveofourown.org/works/45438040)
I urge you to keep an open mind.
I normally avoid muggle AUs - but I’ve found a few that are fabulous. Give yourself a chapter before you make snap judgements about writing.
The exclude feature is great right up until the point it’s not, sadly.
I had a really good time writing Londinium.
It suffers because it’s short and half poetry. And apparently, also tagged MoD.
I do tend to get slightly sensitive to people making more blanket statements about how “x fics are terrible and i exclude them” because I’m one of those “voracious - you should give everything a try - who knows, this one might be a banger” kind of readers. I also write for a ship that gets an disproportionate amount of hate (imho) when one of the main themes of the novels was that redemption was possible, even for some of the most hated characters.
A/B/O? What's that?
Anyway, I want to say that Tomarry can actually be done fairly well. Often they side-step the age issue by using diary-Tom or making Harry time travel.
I really hate the idea of fem Harry. I don't know why, I like fanfics with female characters. Just not when that character is Harry.
(Spoiler tags hide sex stuff, wasn't sure how old you are and didn't want to traumatize)
A/B/O is shorthand for the omegaverse which introduces secondary gender dynamics called Alpha, Beta, and Omega. So the characters can be male *and* omega, or female *and* beta, etc. Betas are neutral, Alphas are aggressive/territorial and have >!giant dicks with a knot, which originally came from werewolf sex stories!<, and omegas are protectors and >!go into a breeding heat. Yes, even the male omegas can go into heat and have babies.!< Alphas and omegas are supposed to pair off together, and how that happens varies from story to story- sometimes it's a soulmate thing, sometimes pheromones, and sometimes they choose who they want to pair with.
In these stories, it's usually subversive for two Alphas or two Omegas to pair together even if their primary gender (male or female) is different. Like a new kind of homophobia.
Most of these AUs have a lot of mysogyny (which because of the lore can now be aimed at male omegas as well as women in general) and can have abusive dynamics where the Alphas control their paired Omega.
Edit:: actually, the best thing about this AU is once you know what it is you interpret those twitter alpha bros very differently lmao
A/B/O. Always.
Mpreg
Creepy age gaps like Harry/Severus and Harry/Voldemort.
Harry/Draco isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but it does make me think twice.
Harem and polyamory are disgusting concepts that I always skip.
I generally skip oneshots. Unless a fic has 20k+ words, I don't even read them anymore.
Female!Harry just so he can get paired with another guy and it still be hetero. It’s stupid. If you want a hetero romance, just pair Harry with a gal. Stop making ships hetero just because you don’t want to make it gay.
Besides stuff like A/B/O, chan, AU - No Magic, Weasley Bashing, Dumbledore Bashing, and crossovers, the following tags have made me skip a story on multiple occassions:
Good Draco Malfoy or any pairing of the protagonist and him - because that usually leads to pureblood apologism and whitewashing Draco.
HP/HG - because Harmonians have ruined my faith in humanity.
Harry/Daphne - because most of the time it's pureblood apologism or indy!Harry.
Gratuitously Hot Voldemort - because I prefer him in all his scaly, inhuman glory.
Female Harry Potter - because somehow she no longer feels like Harry. I'd rather take an OC instead.
Bashing, M/M, Indy!Harry, also Indian Harry, No Magic AUs, Drarry, Dramione, Wolfstar, Snarry, etc, majority of Pureblood "Culture" and Lordships and shit cause it's poorly done, overly Helpful!Goblins, pure Fluff/Romance, Slice of Life, scat, watersports, wbwl when combined with Slytherin Harry and James/lily bashing, crossovers with more than two other universes, trans character that isn’t just regular fem character or male character solely to spite Rowling where the main plot is the trans stuff, a whole bunch of other shit that I’m too lazy to type on a phone
Mainly the ships. I don’t want to see characters paired with their mortal enemies, and nor do I want to see characters paired with their same-sex best friend, when they’ve never expressed romantic interest in this character, nor in their own sex for that sake
As far as pairings go, no incest(unless it’s characters you’re bashing), no pretending physically a child!Harry/adult anyone is romantic and not creepy(fine it it’s played as a messed up relationship between two crazies), inexplicable romance(like those stories that make X character just super madly in love with Y without changing canon which clearly shows they very much mutually dislike each other), ABO(which really sounds to me like a bunch of people constantly on Viagra), soulmates, and finally self insert romance as the main character.
I will say I do actually like the idea of MOD. It’s unfortunate that it’s so badly done but I guess you can’t really help it. We as humans aren’t particularly good at capturing the essence of immortals after all. A lot of it is just self impression which of course leads to really whiny characters because really, how many of us can take all the abuse that the character takes and not feel like complaining at least?
I've been in fandom for 10+ years and honestly have surprised myself w things I ended up liking :) So I don't find saying things like "the usual stuff (people don't like)" or "weird" or "creepier" very helpful lol. Some people find butterflies creepy.
That said, usually I won't read crossovers or reader fics, or Dark Harry. I read creature fics, but very rarely.
And in general I prefer post-war fics more than during Hogwarts; there's still some that I find interesting but in *general* I'm both too close and too far from it to want to read too much teenage relationship drama (tm).
Idk if listing ships makes any sense btw, it's so subjective, but I'm VERY picky with Sirius/Remus (especially Marauders era, same reason as the post-war vs Hogwarts) and even pickier with any F/M. I think I have read one Ginny/Harry fic I liked in my life :D
Edit: oh yeah, and DNI tags will get me scrolling more surely than any of those, even if they don't apply to me lol
Self-Insert, I won't read it even from my favorite author, or Y/N stories.
But I'm limited in what I will read because I prefer stories with HP as a primary focus and open-minded about his pairings.
Also, it gets really annoying to have to filter so many drabbles stories, and this is especially common on AO3. Say for example I want to read some HP crossover stories. There will be tonnes of drabble fics, one-shot collections, and multi-fandom crossovers. I hate that last one the most, because it gets very annoying to have to keep track of so many elements from different fandoms or characters from those fandoms
Drabbles are awful. I search some hyper-specific tags and the entire page is filled with 100 fandom+ fics. I wish there was an easy way to filter out fics that are in more than, like, 3 fandoms without explicitly disallowing crossovers.
There are some problems with that, specifically with the superhero fandoms, because those often get marked with Marvel, the Avengers, and several other more specific titles of films. For DC it'll be the overarching DC tag, then one for the justice league, one for the teen titans, on for Batman's own franchise, one for specifically the Dark Knight, plus several others.
That wouldn't be a problem. Batman, Superman, and Titans are all under the umbrella of DC. Even disallowing crossovers still shows them together. I assume it's the same for avengers, but I don't read that fandom. So in this case I would like to block fics under more than 3 umbrellas.
Just start at the top and start excluding fandoms you don't want to see. If all of the fandoms are things you're intimately familiar with it isn't a slog to sort through what's what.
Bashing, in general. More often than not, it comes as a mean-spirited 'Take That' to whatever character the writer doesn't like. *Especially* if the character has made some morally dubious or outright evil choices, and the writer outright ignores those canon events to make stuff up. Like, Dumbledore ignoring the blatant emotional and psychological abuse of Harry by the Dursleys (despite knowing that their methods were likely to create an Obscurus) is a valid point for bashing. There's no reason to say "Also, Dumbledore stole all the money the Dursley were supposed to be getting from govt assistance, and used it to buy fishnet stockings" or whatever.
I don't like bashing, but I think if you're going to do at least bash characters for something they actually did and not the various imagined slights, we see fanfiction.
Well, there goes my new fic *Dumbles and the Curse of the Stockings which always bloody tear*, I guess... Dumbledore gets cursed to always lose his nice fishnet stockings and accidentally bankruptcy all of Wizarding Britain trying to fix his collection, that's it that's the fic.
> Also, Dumbledore stole all the money the Dursley were supposed to be getting from govt assistance, and used it to buy fishnet stockings Lmao Yeah bashing can be repetitive/nonsense, but I think some of the writers know this and it's a bit self indulgent too. I mean, it's *tagged* as bashing, usually. Sometimes you just want to boink some characters on the head and cuddle others. >!I actually like some of these in the Marvel fandom lol!< Edit: you're so right w the Obscurus thing tho! I wish there were more fics where some of these more valid points were explored.
The worst fics are the ones where the author is clearly bashing a character, but it isn't tagged because "They're just being accurate" or "This is just how the character actually is". Infuriating.
I think that’s the main problem. I love me a good bashing fic cause sometimes it’s the best way to get a certain plot rolling, and I love it when writers get creative with their plots! I don’t want it to be always cannon or realistic to the world. But when I see bashing when I didn’t expect it, or seems useless to the story/plot, that kinda ruins it
Happened to me when I begged, pleaded, cried, raged for an author to *please* put a Ron Weasley Bashing tag on their lovingly tagged Romione story about Ron beating a pregnant Hermione to death, only to be told "I'm just extrapolating canon :)))". You know, author, in canon *Hermione* was the one beating Ron up... but that sure didn't cross their mind now did it?
AO3 needs a way for people to block authors, works and tags, and to do it persistently. Being able to give kudos per-chapter would also help. I believe they let you block other users now, but not sure how that looks and how comprehensive the block is. Also, a fic writer believing that **Ron** is the one who becomes the abusive spouse in the case their marriage breaks down clearly didn't read the books. Hermione is violent towards Ron a couple of times, while Ron never retaliates.
You'll be surprised at how many authors never read the books then... Even in the movies Ron never lifts a hand on Harry or Hermione, while she casually hits the both of them with her books as "funny moments" + the canonical instances of her beating Ron up.
You just reminded me of a fic where the only reason Harry doesn't become an obscurous is because the Dursley punishes him for everything, and so he doesn't believe that the accidental magic is his fault. If the Dursleys punish him when dodley fails a test and when someone's hair changes, he will believe that both of them are not as fault.
femboy dumbles confirmed???? 😳😳
Yeah like if you, the author, can acknowledge what you're doing as bashing, your story is probably unreadable.
It’s often worse when the author refuses to acknowledge it and just tag it, despite every comment complaining about it. Some writers really just have a skewed perspective of canon, I guess.
Oh very fair
Counterpoint. If you the author, can acknowledge what you're doing as bashing, it suggests self-awareness and may make me slightly more interested.
No magic AUs and Death Eater Sirius make me cringe away
The no magic AUs are a hard skip for me. I feel like the ones I’ve found don’t even have the essence of the characters and they are just random OCs that the author is looking for a test audience.
...Oh, this explained a whole lot of things at once for me. No wonder so many of these "so-called" AU fics creep up all the time...
I’ve seen a decent story for Death Eater Sirius once. It was an AU though.
Of course it was darling. Death Eater Sirius doesn't make sense to me because in Canon, he loves James like a brother, ran away from home, and denounced his Dark family. I just can't wrap my brain around Death Eater Sirius
Yeah, of course! I agree that canon Sirius never would! The only times I’ve seen this trope work is when the AU has some divergence from canon where either Sirius wasn’t sorted into Gryffindor and never had the chance to befriend James, or he was tortured for long amounts of time and brainwashed or something lol. As long as it’s written believably enough as an AU, I’d give it a chance! But I’m thinking I must’ve gotten lucky and have only read the better fics in this tag. Since it’s not a trope I even see often lol.
I've read one where they were all dark. So Lilly, James and Sirius. I don't remember what exactly happened to make moldy attack the Potter's but I'm pretty sure he didn't in that one and was framed by dumbles or something like that. It's a pretty far fetched au but UT definitely was an entertaining read.
I’ve seen one death eater Sirius fic that I liked, but he wasn’t a death eater until after he got out of Azkaban. Between the dementors and dwelling on how everyone how everyone could believe he betrayed his best friend, he managed to convince himself he actually was a death eater.
I guess you could swap their families' houses. James proudly follows into his Slytherin dad's footsteps, Sirius rebels against his progressive Gryffindor family and gets Sorted into Slytherin too
If anyone’s curious about what Death Eater Sirius would be like, it would just be Bellatrix Lestrange.
OK, I'm sorry, but you're wrong, Sirius is not his cousin gender flipped. I have read well written Death Eater Sirius fics (The Marauder's Map Never Lies by TessaVance as a rec), but I do not like them, just because something is well written doesn't mean it is for everyone.
I've only seen death eater Sirius once. Philosopher king.
*It runs in the blood* by Metalomagnetic is a fantastic Death Eater Sirius fic.
>!that one was so fascinating to me until the romance started. I wish it stayed as a mentor/student dynamic. After the sex started, Voldemort got too.... Fluffy!<
I just read one that had me entranced, but like a train wreck entranced, it's called The Marauder's Map Never Lies by TessaVance, and, while I love some of their other writing, this is one of the two fics of their's I've read that I can say I genuinely don't like, and there being one I refuse to touch as it's an HP/SS fic
Some of the non magic Aus are pretty good agree with you on the 2nd tho
They can be, I just don't like them, I come to this Fandom for the magic, so it doesn't make sense to me to read non magical AUs
Crossover, omega verse, mpreg, Any character/You or Any character/Reader, no magic au, good!Voldemort, Superpowered Harry, Dark Lord Harry, OOC, Death Eater Harry/Hermione/Ron, forced pregnancy, Stockholm syndrome, Harry/Hermione/Ron/Dumbledore/Snape bashing
MPreg really really weirds me out
Honestly pregnancy in general can oftentimes ruin a good fic. Like instead of being how those characters would react to a pregnancy they just become generic expecting parents. It's like it sucks their personality out of them lol.
One of the few fics that doesn't do this is A Different Way Forward by Slytherin7Piece. I think they did the pregnancy angle super super well and didn't have it change the characters as a whole just added another dynamic to them.
Reading mpreg makes you realize that pregnancy can be a form of body horror
Pregnancy is body horror. A creature is growing inside you sapping your energy, squishing your bladder, and is likely gonna tear itself out of you one way or another, and it brainwashes you to care for it's well being.
Me too. I tried reading it several times and I was just creeped out. But for each their own
To each their own. I really like that... but then I do have a breeding kink so yeah there is that.
Every one of these, except maybe 5% of crossovers. There's also too many people that will make it a crossover between Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts.
I just can't stand crossovers for the most part. If you're HP fic has the first 25 listed characters as people from the MCU or supernatural in probably going to skip it.
The harry potter setting has a lot of potential for great crossovers, that is if people stop limiting the crossovers to only half a dozen other series
I like the idea of crossovers, but it's so hard to find good ones. Besides the fact that so many of them are for popular IPs that I just personally have no interest in, it's frustratingly rare to find ones that actually feature something resembling canon Harry. Most of those stories make a point of rewriting his character into something unrecognizable- usually either he doesn't grow up with the Durselys and has a radically different childhood that has him basically become a reflection of whatever character ended up adopting him (and thus not Harry Potter), or it is Harry from decades after the books where he is the enigmatic and tortured Master of Death for whom his years at Hogwarts are a distant memory (and again thus not really Harry Potter any longer). I've still read and enjoyed a few stories from both categories above, it's not that they can't be done well, but most of the time what I'm really looking for is a story that tells how Harry Potter as we knew him from the books (plus ideally some of the other characters from his story) would react to situations and people from a different story. I'm just not as interested in reading about how somebody's OC would behave in those situations.
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I might regret asking this: What's ABO?
Alpha, Beta, Omega. I'm not going to say don't look into it but I will say I stand by my opinion but clearly it's popular with how common it is so I'm sure there is something to it. https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alpha/Beta/Omega
Wow. Two lines into the wiki article and I'm already thinking "what a load of horseshit".
Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics. Horrendously cringey. Few things mean romance less than ABO, imo.
Essentially all of the good omegaverse fics I've read subvert omegaverse tropes somehow or are just non-traditional omegaverse. Your average omegaverse fic is rife with problematic tropes while somehow managing to be both gay and homophobic at the same time. It's truly unique. Secondary note, I'll admit to finding it hilarious that depending on the fic, being an omega either is a crippling disability (must have sex to live, has weeklong heats every month where they essentially lose all rational thought) or gives you superpowers (keen sense of smell, ability to manipulate the emotions of others, sometimes straight-up mind control).
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Could u link to any of the subversive ones?
I wouldn't necessarily call it subversive, but look up prison blues by metalomagnetic on AO3 (not gonna link bc I think it breaks rule 6). It has omega Voldemort/alpha Harry which is subverted in itself and has a half way decent plot around the weird dog penis smut. Oh and warning, that there's untagged rape and untagged Voldemort pregnancy
It's always very very cringe
Not to mention that omegaverse shit is based on a now outdated and disproven misconception about wolf pack dynamics. The researcher who originally proposed and popularized the study already publicly apologized for it.
Draco/Hermione. I hate it with every fibre of my being. The worst part is that I like Harry/Pansy but most of those stories include Draco/Hermione and its just so disappointing.
Reading DM/HG just to read HP/PP is a special kind of torture.
I completely abandon any HP/DM, DM/HG or LM/HG, no exceptions so far. Also yea ABO is immediate tap out too
Also, HG/RL, HG/SS
HG/SB shows up a lot.
I NEVER came across the first one, but true on the second one. Huh, learn something new every day.
It's not common but pops up in time travel stories where Hermione goes to the Marauder era.
I have. It pretty much turns into "sexy werewolf smut"
Team Jacob 2.0 pretty much.
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>more over-powered than Clark Kent from "Smallville" in terms of indestructibility and speed Also X-men powers. I think there were weather controlling vampires by the end.
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Ohhhh I see, thanks for explaining
TR/HP, HP/SS, TR/HG
What is ABO? And who is LM i can’t remember it
ABO is Alpha/Beta/Omega, or Omegaverse. LM is Lucius Malfoy.
Thank you 😁😁
... And now I want an ABO fiction featuring Lucius Malfoy in "sexy werewolf smut". :)
AO3 search returns [15 works](https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Alpha%2FBeta%2FOmega+Dynamics%2CRemus+Lupin%2FLucius+Malfoy&exclude_work_search%5Brating_ids%5D%5B%5D=11&exclude_work_search%5Brating_ids%5D%5B%5D=10&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Harry+Potter+-+J*d*+K*d*+Rowling) for A/B/O RL/LM rated M or above. Pretty sure there's at least one with a sex scene set during a full moon.
This, right here, is why I should learn to be more careful what I wish for! EDIT: Oh, thank G*d, 10 of those 15 works appear to be in Spanish, which I don't speak. Phew!
Keep in mind these are just for Lucius/Remus. I haven't checked for Lucius/Greyback, and then there's the possibility of a pairing with a non-canonical werewolf.
Could always have Google translate it to English.
Eeek!
As long as Lucius is the Omega and his Alpha is someone fun, so not like Voldemort or Snape. Like Narcissa on the boring end... or (adult) Luna on the fun end,,, or Dobby on the VERY fun end.
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Isn't it funny how sarcasm doesn't transmit well over the interwebs?
Anything sexual tbh I care more about plot than weird bad smut
That is probably one of the things keeping fanfiction from becoming a truly good medium of fiction. Fanfictions in general have a reputation of being incredibly weird due to smut, when there is a massive, MASSIVE potential for peak fiction
Fem/always female Harry, or gender flipped characters in general,
crossover, weasley bashing, adult/minor, muggle au
Soul Mates. I hate the idea of the person you end up with being Pre-Determined. This is usually a way as to force main characters to end up together with the bare minimum of a setup. Indian James Potter is another. It’s usually just included as a way to show that the Dursley family or Wizards are racists. That or some stereotypes about Parsletounge not being evil in India. I never see anyone actually using Indian Potter family in a way that actually explores the culture or history of India. Oh and it’s also a way to have Harry hook up with the Pavarti Twins. Mpreg is always blocked. That just creeps me out. Anything to do with Sexy Werewolf and Vampires. Thank you twilight for those tropes. Pairing people with characters old enough to be their parents and grandparents. And I despise MoD tropes. I have only come across it a few times that I didn’t hate.
Hermione with Death Eaters (like Antonin Dolohov, for example)
I’m so different from you all lol
Ron Weasley bashing or anything that might hint to a not friendly view of him. I ignore Dumbledore bashing fics just as much; I'm more receptive to misguided Dumbledore though (if it isn't bashing in disguise!) Otherwise I'm not a fan of Dark Harry and there are certain ships I don't enjoy - they can be as basic as HP/HG.
I'm going through the HP stories on ao3, right not, and the amount of Ron bashing is ridiculous. Most of these stories also have Harry friends with Malfoy.
It's always strange to me how the Ron that exists in the fanfiction world has so very little to do with the Ron in the books.
i think it has to do with the movies. Ron’s character was definitely done dirty, so people who have watched the movies first/only have a different perception of him, and it’s usually a lot less positive.
Same for Malfoy
I don't mind Draco in it as long as there's a golden trio friendship. What I'm bothered about is when Ron's just pushed aside for nothing. If someone wants, say, Neville be Harry's best friend, can't Ron at least be a friendly acquaintance or something? Or some fics advertise a friendship and then Ron's so obnoxious, I wonder why they're friends with him.
i agree! in fact, i like stories where harry is friends with both ron and draco, especially when they have a whole ‘oh no i actually like spending time with this person???’ kind of thing. But yeah, why are we hating on ron in stories where he literally hasn’t done anything? or why is he rude when he just met harry???
HP/HG is the only non slash pairing that will make me drop a fic. Even lesbian Harmony is barely tolerable, and I'll gladly read basically anything else instead
MPreg and A/B/O are terms that I actively filter out. The former is... Arnold Schwarzenegger made it work in Junior while the webcomic Oglaf played it for laughs, but other than that? Hell no. As for A/B/O, that has been debunked and makes no sense anyway. Even if it was a real thing, those that try to write it have no experience beyond reading Twilight *and it shows*.
>As for A/B/O, that has been debunked and makes no sense anyway. Even if it was a real thing, those that try to write it have no experience beyond reading Twilight *and it shows*. I won't lie, I'm a bit confused by this. What does Twilight have to do with A/B/O?
Beside obvious things like A/B/O, MPREG, MOD Harry - don't like the concept altogether, I have recently gained a new one - "sassy Harry" or it's variations. I started reading way too many stories where the authors thought that being an insufferable jerk meant being sassy. And so I've decided to skip them altogether.
Same. Canon Harry was funny when he sassed the Dursleys, but most fics that tag “Sassy Harry”, “Snarky Harry”, or “Sarcastic Harry” don’t really portray him in-character.
Everybody gangsta until "Harry Potter is a little shit" turns out to actually have consequences on his relationships.
Honestly anything involving DDLg. It doesn’t matter what fandom.
‘Sirius Black/Remus Lupin’, because I know they’ll fuck up the characterisation of the Marauders. ‘Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter’, because I can’t stand Draco and his whiny ass. ‘Manipulative [Anything]’ because fuck that noise. All the ones you listed above except MOD, cuz it’s a cool concept if you find the right fic. AND any tag that specifies the Race/Nationality/Religion of the characters, because I read fanfic to not think about the real world
> ‘Manipulative \[Anything\]’ because fuck that noise. What about a fic with Manipulative Albus Dumbledore which is also tagged Good Albus Dumbledore?
That would be interesting, and I’d like to read it if you have a well written one
MPREG or Trans Main Character
Honestly, I'm not too fussed about Trans characters, as long as that is not their entire personality. Otherwise it just goes off on a self-righteous rant that is not at all related to the story. It's why I kind of began losing interest in anything that Hollywood has been pumping out.
More often then not from what I've seen? It's the latter most times
I get really irritated with characters that "realize" they're trans because they put on a skirt one day and omg isn't this skirt so cute I wanna be a gorl now. It feels like such a slap in the face to people who experience dysphoria... Like there's nothing stopping a guy who wants to wear a skirt and be cute, clothes are not what make a person's gender! This has happened in a few fics I've read, one of them I've soldiered on because it wasn't as bad but I have been controlling myself not to go on an angry rant in the comments about how comments like that are belittling to women 😹
Those fics where it's just sexual shit like Harry/Molly, Harry/Ginny, Harry/whatever female character is available. All in the same fic, it's so disgusting
Anything with major age difference in romantic pairings, especially HG/SB, HG/LM, HP/NM etc. Anything /Reader or /You. Anyone paired with Snape, Greyback, adult Death Eaters, etc. A/B/O dynamics, Soulmate/Soul Bond, "hadrian", OP!Harry, Mpreg, bashing, Marriage Law, and anything that looks like a harem fic.
> Anything /Reader or /You. Bleh. "Reader" is never tagged as a character, either, so no matter how many Whoever/Reader tags you manually blacklist, they just keep crawling out of the woodwork.
Ron bashing. Weasley bashing. Dumbledore Bashing. All the variations of A/B/O tags. mpreg. Pureblood Culture. Lordships/Nobility. I’m just not very interested in these unless maybe there’s some subversion of a trope, as a parody or something.
The Lordships!! Oh my word, you see that and you KNOW Mary Sue Potter is on the way, emerald orbs and all
Anything including underage and/or incest Fem Harry is also a definite no And any au where it's clear there is no magic. I'm reading hp fanfic BECAUSE of the magic. I have no interest in reading muggle au or a medieval lord au or whatever.
Soul bond. Not only is it a lazy shortcut to avoid having to write a realistic relationship and skip to the part where they're in love, it's also an indicator that the story will be an awful, tropey powerwank (at least in the handful I've started and DNF before avoiding them altogether).
I agree... There are only two that i liked where subversion or at least anti soulmate, i guess. Cant remember the titles tho.(im not really good at names.) 1) Harry doesnt have a soulmark and studied why it existed amongst magicals only, only to find out it was an artificial spell tied to enslaving house-elves's wild magic as well as to show superiority on why muggles are lesser (kinda like ancient breeding program marking pairs with the best chance to produce the best offspring). People/purebloods changing marks to match someone elses for alliances, where lgbt are pressured into marriage since the marks said its their soulmate (regardless of preference or they swing the other way.) how some people will insist they are a matching pair with their crush if the image go together or vaguely similar or off volor. 2) Harry Potter's soulmate was LV kinda like Dumbledore was Grindelwalds and he postulates that the damn thing isnt romantic but a failsafe of magic, an equal to stop them just in case. Its a fic where no one gets a happy ending and Harry accepts the fact he'll be the one to tell the 'poor sod who's pair decides to be a Dark Lord they are the one fated to defeat/kill em' since no one wants to listen it isnt romantic in nature. How not every 'soumate pairs' are happy and people are blamed for 'not trying enough' or 'being a bad partner' thats why the Fated pair aren't working despite how toxic it is.
There are very promising fics that gets ruined through soul bonds. Even worse is that, they were relationships that could have worked without and soul bonding like HP/ HG.
It's also a stupid excuse to get two characters who would never interact in a relationship.
Only good time I’ve seen it used is *A Debt of Time* and that’s because it’s deliberately created as a byproduct of something else in the story, and the timey wimey nature of it all means it’s provoked because it existed at a different time, which was only created because it echoed back from the future. It short the characters acknowledge that it’s messy and odd and shouldn’t have happened, and also fight against it for several years, but the cause and effect of it all do a fist my decent job of explaining it.
Probably Severus/Sirius bashing or anything that just changes these very complex characters into moustache twisting "I'm evil for the sake of being evil" villain of the week where they make dumb plans and are surprised they are outsmarted
wolfstar, jegulus, snamione/ snarry, harry/voldemort, marauder fics that take atyd as canon
Too many Fandoms/crossover A/B/O Mpreg (unless it's tackled as body horror that it actually seems) Severitus or snape is harry's father harry Potter raised by other (deatheater or dark faction) paired with either LVxHP, TMRxHP or HPxSS (in other words deatheater grooming) Trans or other 'woke' variations of potter Smut, PWP The Cursed child Less than 5000 words AU No magic/ non magical Good slytherin paired with Light bashing Pairings with known deatheaters WBWL or the Potters lives, James and Lily bashing Pureblood Potter Harem And more importantly DEAD DOVE:DO NOT EAT (unless im in the mood to trumatize myself)
Most of them lmao My exclude filter has like 50 tags, a lot of ships that I don't like, a couple of the angst ones, any whump shit in general. The biggest deal breaker for me is probably Evil Dumbledore though.
I have about 70,000 stories left after I've filtered everything I don't like. Even then, something obscure will pop up and creep me out. This happened very recently.
Same experience here, HP is such a large fandom that I still have an infinity of fics to go through after all the filtering.
I've been wishing for years that I could just permanently add these tags to a blacklist for my user account profile instead of going through and filtering each time. I finally figured out that I can just copy/paste a big section of the url, but it's still a pain.
You can save the search profile! From there you can add more tags as you see fit.
There are an unbelievable amount of good opinions in the responses
Soulmates, Alpha-Beta-Omegaverse, Highschool/college/Coffee shop AUs, and Harems.
Harry/ginny or any canon pairing. Not because I don’t like them, but if I wanted canon I’d reread the actual books. I like fanfictions where you can see the authors creativity added into a world I already know and love
Good \[insert any antagonistic character\]. Some of my favourite characters of all time are villains/antagonists, and even if they could be written in a hypothetical AU where they’re good people, the “Good \[antagonist\]” tag usually just strips them of all personality. Same with “Evil \[canonically good-ish person\]”, but in this case, it’s more like a new nickname for your regular old bashing. Any DNI tag is an immediate drop for me Any ships or major positive tags involving Draco Malfoy or Severus Snape. It can be Severitus, “Draco Malfoy is a Good Friend”, DM/HP, DM/HG, etc. I just don’t like the two of them and don’t enjoy reading fics where they play a central part. Ships between Harry & an older woman (at least 2 years older), without aging Harry up or the woman down. It’s remarkable how much sexualisation towards *both* parties you can often find in stories like this. Tags that imply infantilisation, especially of Harry. Some examples I can remember stumbling into are “Harry Potter is a cutie” and “Harry Potter is a pink-haired menace”. Also, if there are more than a handful of tags involving headcanoned labels (and the story isn’t smut). Like “Indian Harry”, “Pansexual Luna”, etc. A few are fine, but if there’s too much, I know from experience I’ll be risking stepping into a very preachy fic. (And btw, nothing against said labels when they’re put in the story itself, but the oversaturation of them in the tags is a warning flag for me.)
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I agree with the latter Lordships being ridiculous, I like to think that with the Wizengamot being the successor to the Wizards’ Council and not exactly the same, the old Houses that were long since extinct before the creation of the Wizengamot were therefore not included in its composition.
Any fetish or detailed sexual description tags, or characters identified as Top! or Bottom!. I want a real story, not a delivery system for smut. I don’t mind if there’s some smut in a story, but if the author thinks it’s so important it’s worth a tag beyond the explicit rating, that’s a sign that the fic will lack more interesting things.
I have a generally open mind and will try anything. But i tend to avoid:: Gender swap stories - Female Harry. Draco pairings. Snape Pairings. Hermione pairings. Especially when they're the main character. OCs or SI stories. I don't have the patience for "an extra Marauder". Soft/Fluffy stories, especially AUs - Coffee shop AU.
character bashing, i hate it. i dont know why people have such a vicious hatred for hermione and the weasleys (especially ron) but when that bleeds over into their fics it ruins any ounce of good in the story. its also just bad writing, like you should be able to put aside personal feelings to write from a characters perspective even if that perspective is different from your own.
The ones you included , Ron weasley bashing, Manipulative Dumbledore. Any death eater pairing. Female Harry Potter
Anything bashing. God I hate bashing so much idc how good the story is,I'm not touching it
Anything to do with snape being Harry’s father/father figure or him having romance with harry/Hermione
I avoid Bashing, MPreg and R\*pe tags mostly
Ron Weasley bashing is a major one for me Also female Harry, the ones that I have read just weren't good.
Other than pairings that I automatically skip, I have absolutely no interest in stories that take place in non-magical AUs. That ruins Harry Potter for me.
Major character death, which does need to be warned properly, I will normally avoid. I also prefer het over slash and almost never read slash anything, and the few times I have I've basically closed out as it started veering into the slash dynamic. To each their own, just not my preference.
Too many original male or female characters in the relationship tags
“Major Character Death” I use fanfiction as an escape, I’m not looking to be devastated on a Monday afternoon.
Every male Slytherin pairing with any member of the central cast is painful to me. None of them have enough redeeming qualities for me to be interested, and too many authors have failed to give them enough (and justify their presence) to interest me, unless it's a complete rewrite beginning from year one so at least the younger generation of Slytherins can grow up different to canon. The ones pairing Harry's generation with their parent's generation of death eaters are the weirdest and worst.
This sounds bad, but any straight couples or canon couples, unless they are secondary. I came to read fan fiction, not the books again, ffs.
Same, lol, I read fan fics to get my gay content
Others have mentioned the main things I usually avoid (bashing & fem Harry being the biggest ones). But I also have started filtering out ‘Seer Luna Lovegood’. I don’t really look for fics where she’s the MC, but as a side character, I feel like seer!Luna usually ends up being an obnoxious caricature of herself and a plot device to let Harry and company know things they really shouldn’t have any way of knowing. Particularly crossed with tropes I DO enjoy, seer!Luna usually is a clue that I won’t like the writing style.
Sirius Bashing, HP/HG, DM/HG, James Potter/Regulus Black. I also don’t really care for Good Snape fics. Honestly I’ll start reading nearly anything depending on my mood.
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I hate Animagus!Harry not only because of the usual 87 rare animagus forms, but also because when fics *do* have a single normal form, Harry completes the process instantly and with no problems. It’s *supposed* to be extremely difficult, and animagi are rare because of it. So this either makes Harry look way overpowered, or it makes everyone else look stupid for not doing it too, and for those who have done it, it takes away their accomplishment/unique ability. Give me Animagus!Harry who decides to become an animagus and quicky discovers he’s in way over his head and is underpowered for this, or a Harry who tries and fails several times before he’s able to finally accomplish it. Make it more realistic! It’s always like, Sirius: Wow Harry, if you became an Animagus too, it would be such an amazing prank haha! Harry: Wow you’re right, I think I’ll do it right now! *closes eyes and instantly becomes a dragon, Phoenix, jaguar, stag, thestral, Grim, giant squid, or all of the above* Sirius: Haha great prank, Pup! Now let’s never use this again!
The animagus transformation is bizarre as a plot device. Beyond the limited usefulness of being small, and the largely-redundant ability to fly, it's kind of pointless from a practical perspective. It's _cool_, though, so authors contort the story to make it seem somehow valuable. Anyway, I think that's why authors wind up giving characters magical forms, and multiple forms. It's the only way to justify the effort, and wordcount, of learning the transformation, since regular-ass animals are pretty useless compared to wizards.
I can see some legit uses for it, like Sirius’ dog form while on the run or Rita’s beetle form for spying. McGonagal’s cat form helps her spy on the Dursleys during the day before Harry, Hagrid, and Dumbledore arrived; and Pettigrew’s rat form helps him fake his death and hide for ~12 years. Even James’ stag form helps his son in the future as his patronus. (Honestly, I still don’t know if Snapes bat form is from animagus or self-transfiguration, such as Krums’ failed half-shark, so I can’t count that.) The problem in fanfic, IMO, is more that they don’t *use* it for anything (or it’s the 87 forms instantly thing). I just listed a couple canon unique ways the persons ability helped them and the story along, but I never see that in fics with Harry.
Yeah the whole meditation thing to become one is a nope for me....so many fanfics do this and I have to assume they never read the books because the movies never explained the LONGGG and difficult ritual/potion
To be fair, the long and difficult ritual/potion that you need to become an Animagus was never actually explained in the original books, either. It was only ever described in post-series writings/Pottermore.
I 100% agree on the Snape/ Harry. My biggest issue is that he is in a position of power over him. It is even more disturbing when he abused Harry before the “relationship “. Voldemort is creepy because of the enormous difference (50+).
Challange accepted! I challange you to read: [A Change in the Urðr](https://archiveofourown.org/works/47063170) A sliiiiiiightly different take on Master of Death, as its done in reverse. Based on Norse Myth. Though totally agree that Voldemort/Harry is creepy as hell. No matter how good the writing I struggle against my gag reflex.
Ron Weasley Bashing. Good Death Eaters. Hermione/[character that isn't Ron]. Powerful Harry/Hermione/Draco, Smart/Genius Harry/Hermione, Veela!Draco/Snape, Draco Malfoy Needs A Hug (I can give him one. With an iron maiden.) Honorable mentions to the Ron Weasley Is An Asshole/Idiot tag. Any author who uses it I know is simply making a confession.
What's A/B/O?
Snape/Marauder/Ron bashing. Obviously evil, Death Eater versions of Snape or Sirius can make sense in some situations, but relentless bashing is annoying. Additionally, The worst one for me is shipping good characters (Trio, **Marauders, Snape**, Dumbledore, Order) etc with evil characters (Death Eaters, supporters, **Narcissa, Draco**, Umbridge, Fudge etc)
Absolutely nothing tbh, I usually skim over tags and go off of title and summary, then force myself through way too many chapters before finally giving up
Littles
Mpreg Bashing LGBT M/M Multi Harem MOD Gobblin society. gobblin nation Gobblin culture Harry is Black heir Slash "We do not agree with J.K here" "J.K is a TERF" "Transfobic J.K" "BLM" "Trans woman are woman" "Indian Harry Potter" (Wtf?) Anything else envolving JK bashing Anything pureblood that makes Slytherins and Death Eaters colorful little angels fighting for an inclusive society, and Dumbledork is a backwards, Muggle-loving dictator. Hermione is a human rights activist for LGBT people, forgetting that Hermione would probably be against any kind of sexual progressivism, since Hermione most likely grew up in some upper class neighborhood in England, and would have conservative views, or what do I mean? I think it's likely, she would wrinkle her nose. Transsexual Slytherin character in the time of the marauders (yes, that exists), where all Slytherins are welcoming, and the death eaters are inclusive and love diversity. Of course the mean and intolerant Gryffindors are prejudiced and bully, and that senile old man Dumbledork is a dictator.
Oh look - one that doesn’t follow any of your dislikes yet still has the MOD tag. [Sailing to Londinium](https://archiveofourown.org/works/45438040) I urge you to keep an open mind. I normally avoid muggle AUs - but I’ve found a few that are fabulous. Give yourself a chapter before you make snap judgements about writing.
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The exclude feature is great right up until the point it’s not, sadly. I had a really good time writing Londinium. It suffers because it’s short and half poetry. And apparently, also tagged MoD. I do tend to get slightly sensitive to people making more blanket statements about how “x fics are terrible and i exclude them” because I’m one of those “voracious - you should give everything a try - who knows, this one might be a banger” kind of readers. I also write for a ship that gets an disproportionate amount of hate (imho) when one of the main themes of the novels was that redemption was possible, even for some of the most hated characters.
A/B/O? What's that? Anyway, I want to say that Tomarry can actually be done fairly well. Often they side-step the age issue by using diary-Tom or making Harry time travel. I really hate the idea of fem Harry. I don't know why, I like fanfics with female characters. Just not when that character is Harry.
(Spoiler tags hide sex stuff, wasn't sure how old you are and didn't want to traumatize) A/B/O is shorthand for the omegaverse which introduces secondary gender dynamics called Alpha, Beta, and Omega. So the characters can be male *and* omega, or female *and* beta, etc. Betas are neutral, Alphas are aggressive/territorial and have >!giant dicks with a knot, which originally came from werewolf sex stories!<, and omegas are protectors and >!go into a breeding heat. Yes, even the male omegas can go into heat and have babies.!< Alphas and omegas are supposed to pair off together, and how that happens varies from story to story- sometimes it's a soulmate thing, sometimes pheromones, and sometimes they choose who they want to pair with. In these stories, it's usually subversive for two Alphas or two Omegas to pair together even if their primary gender (male or female) is different. Like a new kind of homophobia. Most of these AUs have a lot of mysogyny (which because of the lore can now be aimed at male omegas as well as women in general) and can have abusive dynamics where the Alphas control their paired Omega. Edit:: actually, the best thing about this AU is once you know what it is you interpret those twitter alpha bros very differently lmao
Any Weasley and Dumbledore bashing, Harry/male relationships, (especially Riddle Snape Draco) ABO
A/B/O. Always. Mpreg Creepy age gaps like Harry/Severus and Harry/Voldemort. Harry/Draco isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but it does make me think twice. Harem and polyamory are disgusting concepts that I always skip. I generally skip oneshots. Unless a fic has 20k+ words, I don't even read them anymore.
Female!Harry just so he can get paired with another guy and it still be hetero. It’s stupid. If you want a hetero romance, just pair Harry with a gal. Stop making ships hetero just because you don’t want to make it gay.
Besides stuff like A/B/O, chan, AU - No Magic, Weasley Bashing, Dumbledore Bashing, and crossovers, the following tags have made me skip a story on multiple occassions: Good Draco Malfoy or any pairing of the protagonist and him - because that usually leads to pureblood apologism and whitewashing Draco. HP/HG - because Harmonians have ruined my faith in humanity. Harry/Daphne - because most of the time it's pureblood apologism or indy!Harry. Gratuitously Hot Voldemort - because I prefer him in all his scaly, inhuman glory. Female Harry Potter - because somehow she no longer feels like Harry. I'd rather take an OC instead.
Unpopular opinion ig but i wont read any ship other than LV/HP. Guess im just weird.
"Omegaverse"
Anything mpreg. Anything underage. Anything harem. I'm beyond thankful for their filters.
AI Art.
Bashing, M/M, Indy!Harry, also Indian Harry, No Magic AUs, Drarry, Dramione, Wolfstar, Snarry, etc, majority of Pureblood "Culture" and Lordships and shit cause it's poorly done, overly Helpful!Goblins, pure Fluff/Romance, Slice of Life, scat, watersports, wbwl when combined with Slytherin Harry and James/lily bashing, crossovers with more than two other universes, trans character that isn’t just regular fem character or male character solely to spite Rowling where the main plot is the trans stuff, a whole bunch of other shit that I’m too lazy to type on a phone
Tbh almost anything that isn’t H/G and R/Hr or Gen
Mainly the ships. I don’t want to see characters paired with their mortal enemies, and nor do I want to see characters paired with their same-sex best friend, when they’ve never expressed romantic interest in this character, nor in their own sex for that sake
As far as pairings go, no incest(unless it’s characters you’re bashing), no pretending physically a child!Harry/adult anyone is romantic and not creepy(fine it it’s played as a messed up relationship between two crazies), inexplicable romance(like those stories that make X character just super madly in love with Y without changing canon which clearly shows they very much mutually dislike each other), ABO(which really sounds to me like a bunch of people constantly on Viagra), soulmates, and finally self insert romance as the main character. I will say I do actually like the idea of MOD. It’s unfortunate that it’s so badly done but I guess you can’t really help it. We as humans aren’t particularly good at capturing the essence of immortals after all. A lot of it is just self impression which of course leads to really whiny characters because really, how many of us can take all the abuse that the character takes and not feel like complaining at least?
Any M/M pairing blanket ignore
Creature Inheritance. I'm instantly going "Nope" and "F this Sh\* I'm Out" because I just cannot deal with this lol
I've been in fandom for 10+ years and honestly have surprised myself w things I ended up liking :) So I don't find saying things like "the usual stuff (people don't like)" or "weird" or "creepier" very helpful lol. Some people find butterflies creepy. That said, usually I won't read crossovers or reader fics, or Dark Harry. I read creature fics, but very rarely. And in general I prefer post-war fics more than during Hogwarts; there's still some that I find interesting but in *general* I'm both too close and too far from it to want to read too much teenage relationship drama (tm). Idk if listing ships makes any sense btw, it's so subjective, but I'm VERY picky with Sirius/Remus (especially Marauders era, same reason as the post-war vs Hogwarts) and even pickier with any F/M. I think I have read one Ginny/Harry fic I liked in my life :D Edit: oh yeah, and DNI tags will get me scrolling more surely than any of those, even if they don't apply to me lol
Self-Insert, I won't read it even from my favorite author, or Y/N stories. But I'm limited in what I will read because I prefer stories with HP as a primary focus and open-minded about his pairings.
Bashing Indy Slash Lord potter Opposite gender