If you saw a character talking like that in a published SF novel, you would know that he was an alien or genetically engineered or that the author meant you to know something was funny about him. In fanfiction they assume that it’s either the author’s conceit or, more probable yet, you’re just a terrible author who can’t write realistic eleven-year-olds. I thought it was so blatantly lampshaded that nobody could possibly mistake it for an accident, but no, fanfiction readers just don’t think like that—they don’t look for clues and they do assume lousy authors.
The infodumps are not what I’m talking about. I wouldn’t believe it’s Eliezer’s writing if people weren’t smugly going on about eigenvectors. My concern is that Harry is a complete asshole. And the unrealistic adults.
Aside from Harry’s parents, there was only one “unrealistic” adult so far (by Ch6), McGonagall, who assumed Harry might have been abused. Her tolerance is reasonable.
It’s irrelevant, though. Harry is behaving strangely, and you assume it’s bad writing. I guess, since you have read some fanfiction (“OOC is irritating to me”), you aquired a useful heuristic for filtering out bad fanfic; it’s just that it is bound to give some false positives.
Okay. Professor McGonagall knows that Harry Potter is the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, that he is marked as the Dark Lord’s equal, and that he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. (She has, in fact, heard that Prophecy spoken in the terrible hollow echoing voice of Sybill Trelawney.)
Harry isn’t acting like a normal eleven-year-old, or any kind of eleven-year-old, and Professor McGonagall has noticed that as well, in as many words.
That’s all. If you think, under those circumstances, that the boy ought to be given the back of your hand and told to shut up, you’re welcome to write your own fanfiction where that’s what Professor McGonagall does. The further consequences seem predictable enough. The thing is, in my story, Professor McGonagall can see that too.
That’s all. If you think, under those circumstances, that the boy ought to be given the back of your hand and told to shut up, you’re welcome to write your own fanfiction where that’s what Professor McGonagall does. The further consequences seem predictable enough. The thing is, in my story, Professor McGonagall can see that too.
It does sound like a request to make McGonagall behave in an obviously irrational manner. McGonagall would have to be seriously thick if she didn’t adapt her interaction style when engaging with Harry.
I honestly have no idea how that has anything to do with what I’m saying.
And I read all the books, and watched the first six movies. I know what the prohesy is.
You honestly can’t see how knowing someone is the chosen one destined to save the world from the evil one and who quite possibly already stopped a war impacts on the likely behaviour of a character? Implied via that same knowledge is that Harry has the favour of McGonagall’s immediate superior.
It should be overwhelmingly obvious to you how this information is relevant to what you are saying. Any judgement made without considering this context is absurdly ill-informed.
Eliezer addressed it here
The infodumps are not what I’m talking about. I wouldn’t believe it’s Eliezer’s writing if people weren’t smugly going on about eigenvectors. My concern is that Harry is a complete asshole. And the unrealistic adults.
Aside from Harry’s parents, there was only one “unrealistic” adult so far (by Ch6), McGonagall, who assumed Harry might have been abused. Her tolerance is reasonable.
It’s irrelevant, though. Harry is behaving strangely, and you assume it’s bad writing. I guess, since you have read some fanfiction (“OOC is irritating to me”), you aquired a useful heuristic for filtering out bad fanfic; it’s just that it is bound to give some false positives.
In case you didn’t notice due to lack of Potterverse familiarity, it was established back in chapter 5 that Professor McGonagall knows the prophecy.
I honestly have no idea how that has anything to do with what I’m saying.
And I read all the books, and watched the first six movies. I know what the prohesy is.
Okay. Professor McGonagall knows that Harry Potter is the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, that he is marked as the Dark Lord’s equal, and that he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. (She has, in fact, heard that Prophecy spoken in the terrible hollow echoing voice of Sybill Trelawney.)
Harry isn’t acting like a normal eleven-year-old, or any kind of eleven-year-old, and Professor McGonagall has noticed that as well, in as many words.
That’s all. If you think, under those circumstances, that the boy ought to be given the back of your hand and told to shut up, you’re welcome to write your own fanfiction where that’s what Professor McGonagall does. The further consequences seem predictable enough. The thing is, in my story, Professor McGonagall can see that too.
It does sound like a request to make McGonagall behave in an obviously irrational manner. McGonagall would have to be seriously thick if she didn’t adapt her interaction style when engaging with Harry.
You honestly can’t see how knowing someone is the chosen one destined to save the world from the evil one and who quite possibly already stopped a war impacts on the likely behaviour of a character? Implied via that same knowledge is that Harry has the favour of McGonagall’s immediate superior.
It should be overwhelmingly obvious to you how this information is relevant to what you are saying. Any judgement made without considering this context is absurdly ill-informed.
As in she knows they need him, so she’s making an extra effort to make him like her, and by association, the wizarding world.
It’s worse when he’s trying to make Harry not a complete asshole. That just gets painful.
Not counting the Minerva case (on which your view is obvious), what incidents do you consider to involve him being an arsehole?
Good point. He hasn’t actually been an asshole at that stage. He gets to it later on...