Sycophant Hex ~ View topic - Which ships are worst written in fanfic, and why?

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< The Common Room ~ Which ships are worst written in fanfic, and why?

Anna Dumbledore

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 6:05 am

Joined: 28 Jul 2005 Posts: 9

Worst done, worst done..*ponders*. I'd have to say Harry/Hermione, Draco/Ron, Ginny/Draco, and Pansy/Ron. The writer's never seem to get to the why. As in why are they together. Or the what? As in what happened to bring them together. It's just annoying. If you're writing PWP, you don't need those really but trying to build an entire Romance with out those key facts makes it completely unbelievable, and this is coming from someone who believes in Santa Claus. LOL

hells456

Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 5:43 pm

Joined: 26 May 2005 Posts: 10

The worst I have seen is Ginny/Draco. The ones I have read appeared to be written by SQEEE fangrrrls. Sadly, some even start with a/n saying how kewl and spunky they are, just like Ginny, and how much they OMG!!! luurve Tom Felton!!!! If anyone has read a good G/D I would love to know.

These are second only to MPreg, which are generally dreadful (just my opinion).

Samantha_kathy

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:15 pm

Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 23

I just had to reply to this one. There are two worst done fics I just have to put down here.

Draco/Ginny - not because I can't see it happening (because I really, really can), not even because morst writers don't give good reasons as to why they are together. No, the reason I say this ship belongs to the worst done category is that the moment Draco becomes involved he becomes all loving and sweet.

Veela fics - I know it isn't a ship, but they still belong here. It doesn't matter who the veela is or who the veela is paired with. I jsut find it hard to believe that both parties a) accept each other so easily b) if they don't, they do within a few chapters c) fall in love on the first day together. It's a real pity, because you can do a lot with this kind of fic.

Samantha

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bellasol67

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:09 pm

Joined: 14 Oct 2005 Posts: 6

Before it leave my head...
There is an excellent Draco/Ginny story on another website (can I mention another website here?), it is called Before the Storm by Glass Mermaid, Draco is not nice, nor does he become nice or sweet, he is a right bastard, but you end up loving him anyway! In fact, it was this fic and author that started me down the road of HG/SS.

I cannot stand the Draco/Hermione or Lucius/Hermione pairing, that to me seems more unrealistic than the HG/SS pairing. That being said, nothing else really bothers me, ship wise.

Personally, I like the HG/SS pairings, for the same reason as others have posted, Snape is interesting...and a good author can do great angsty things with him, I hate a fluffy or a puppy love Snape...or god forbid, a crying Snape (I've only read one crying Snape moment and it was done very very well). Sure there are other canon characters that would probably go well with Snape, but I like Hermione, probably because he doesn't like her and that can bring about some great Snape moments with the right author.
Just my two cents.

Poultrygeist

Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:21 am

Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Hibernating Under 32 Feet of Snow

My Pet-Peeve ship is Lily/James. I've got nothing against them in canon, but in the hands of fanfic writers they just so often turn to mush. It's Romeo and Juliet-style tragic romance. Cue the melodramatic music, bring up the fog. These two must live every moment to the fullest as they are fated to die on Halloween. They are so much in love, their baby boy is the star of their lives.... blah blah blah.

I will admit that I've read a couple of Lily/James that broke the mold, that were worth the time it took to read them. But they are adrift in a sea of mediocrity and melodrama. Lost in a haystack of tragic cliche!

*giggles*

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Luna was sporting a gloriously large hat. It rather resembled a large pudding with two intertwined gold rings on the top. Two white paper origami doves had been enchanted to fly in circles in and out of the rings.

slytherinheiress

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 9:43 pm

Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 11 Location: Middle of the Middle West, USA

In my humblest of opinions, the canon pairings (especially Ron/Hermione and James/Lily) are often seen poorly written simply because they're so prolific. It doesn't take an abundance of imagination to put those pairs together and imagine what might happen. Ron and Hermione have a herd of kids? No one saw that coming. (~snickers~) And we all know how the Lily/James thing turns out - the rest is rather "fill-in-the-blank" style, is it not?

There IS a good Draco/Ginny ship unfinished in Pureblood - 'Loose Ends' by LadyRhiyana - but unfortunately, I believe that's the most slaughtered pairing in all of HP fandom. With the exception of the aforementioned story, I can't think of one that gives a plausible background for the pairing. It's really too bad, too - now that I've seen that it can be done WELL, I'm really developing a taste for it.

Kristin

RJ_Anderson

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 10:33 pm

Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 1 Location: Canada

My experience with D/G is pretty limited, as I haven't sought it out, just stumbled across it now and then, with mixed results. However, I do know of two superbly good D/G fics, and in fact I blame the first one for getting me interested in the pairing even though I normally find Draco tedious:

The More is My Unrest. It explores how Draco might come to have feelings for Ginny -- much against his will and better judgment -- in a very plausible fashion.

The follow-up to the same story is called Rising From Ashes. You have to join the Yahoo!Group to read it, but it is definitely the most canonical and well-written D/G romance out there.

bellasol67

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:31 am

Joined: 14 Oct 2005 Posts: 6

There is another DM/GW fic that is pretty dark, it is 'Exquisite Irony' by Myanceris,
http://www.dracoandginny.com/viewstory.php?sid=902 This is in a world where Voldemort wins, all the good guys are dead, save Ginny. But things are not what they seem. Unfortunately this fic is not finished, although you can get to the last chapter and it stands ok at that point.

I agree, Rising From Ashes is a good fic and I think there is nothing worse than making Draco sweet and nice, because he's not. And I don't think he'd ever pair up with Hermione, other than to use or humiliate her, but to love her...I doubt it.

Firewhisky

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 7:40 pm

Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 30 Location: Syracuse, New York

I'd like to go a slightly different way here and say that the worst written pairings are usually to be found on poorly moderated sites. I shouldn't name names, so edit this if it offends. --Places like fanfic.net and adultfanfic.whatever are good examples of just generally poor authorship which don't even receive any true concrit or community support. I feel sorry for both those that read and write "over there". Sad

Unfortunately, those kind of sites show up first when one comes to the realization that they want to see something more about their favorite story and/or charactor.

I feel so lucky to have stumbled upon Ashwinder when I did. And then to find a vast forum full of resources...wow. I think we're blessed, but all of it comes only after a lot of experiance and detrmination to slog thru the mountains of crapfic out there. And honestly... maybe i didn't mind reading a sappy SS/HG fic, if it meant that my rabid lust was slaked for a day or two. Embarassed

Just my two knuts. Oh, and I wish pairings w/ Ron W. didn't always make him out to be the completely stupid partner. Uhg!

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“It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.” -- Anais Nin

winters

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 3:27 am

Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 4

Yes, we are all fans because JKR has given us a wonderful world of imaginatively written stories. But being greedy little nifflers we all want more. The movies (although far from perfect) have added a visual dimension (along with all the wonderful artists out there who have shared their work with us online). Not to mention the music of John Williams (talk about a god among us). The stories we write and read are our way of expanding this make-believe world even more just like many of us did when we were little and used our Barbies and Kens as visual aides to act out stories in our minds. So, yes, some stories are going to be good and some are going to be bad. Spelling and grammar are universally important. Even logic of plot and characterization (which does not mean necessarily staying in canon character) are also important. But the idea or the suspension of belief is subjective. We are all (after all) temporarily (I hope) living in a fantasy world and have already suspended belief.

My one point for the HG/SS ship is that the Wizarding World as I've perceived it from canon is what muggles would call socially backward. So if wizards have a more feudal or even Victorian outlook, it is very conceivable that a man who is established in a career would seek a young wife to have his children. It may even explain why some look down on Arthur Weasley who evidently married young and started having children before he could support them.

But then again it's taking a fantasy world and trying to explain it with reality. I guess after reading science fiction/fantasy (for decades but don't tell anyone), I find it easy to let go of the real world and even canon and accept the writer's bubble in fanfiction.

Luna Writer

Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 11:57 pm

Joined: 22 Sep 2006 Posts: 4

I think in general, that every ship is the one worst written, just because every ship as really bad writers in it. And it is the writers that sink the ship, not the ship itself. Having said that, I think that SS/HG have some of the worst I have come across. They are full of "Iamsuddenlyinloveandfeellikesproutingpoetryandsuch"Snape and "heisnotreallysuchabadpersonafterall,hemustbeverycuteandcuddelyinsde"Hermione who seem to come to these conclutions after having just two words with each other outside a normal situation. (e.g. potions class, great hall, in public, but not including detetion as any SS/HG fan is awear of.)

Alos the exsess of "rape that turned good" in this ship is just appaling. (it was actually one of those that was my first SS/HG read, sometimes I am amazed how I sayed on as the story was preatty awfull in all kinds of ways.) That is one of the reapearing thems in SS/HG, nonconseuntual, or very close to nonconsentual sex. It seems sometimes that it is one of the building blocks of the ship.

lw

darkdesire

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:17 pm

Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 19

So this is my first time posting here and I'm not sure how to quote the person ahead of me but if we were in a meeting my hand would be extended toward the sky with a hearty "Amen!" Very Happy

I'm quite disturbed by these repeating HG/SS fanfics that turn 'nonconsentual' sex into something positive. As for the worst ship, I'm still rather a newbie and haven't read that many but....(thoughtful silence)

Okay, I can't do it anymore. I loved HG/SS it's why I started reading fanfic but then, then...oh please, it's sexy, it's forbidden but aside from the one story I've read, it's completely unbelievable. And I'm speaking from a teacher's standpoint who is relatively close to her students ages, far closer than Snape would be. True, we write fanfic and twist some of the reality of cannon but in my humble opinion anyone, anyone, who is being realistic about the type of character Snape is could never imagine him being attracted to a young student, let alone acting on it. What would they have in common? How could they even relate to one another?

I believe Snape's gut reaction would be similar to mine own. "Ew, yuck! They're a child. NO WAY!" So I am resolved to no longer read HG/SS unless she is an adult in the story and by adult I mean in her twenties.

SS/OFC however, I have found quite a few fics that I like. But...damn, I've forgotten your name and I don't know who to quote you. Anyway, whoever it was that put that list up there about the three things RL/SB and HG/SS ship writers assume was spot on. And that bit about OFC realy being cannon characters in disguise and turnign into all mighty heroines when paired with Snape, well observed! (Sniff) And now I'm bitter because I'm going to have to go and do some serious rewrites on my current OFC/SS just to make sure mine's not contributing to the problem. Embarassed

Thanks!

tonksinger

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 8:12 am

Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 15

Ok, so, I'm a big HG/ SS fan. And basically, with the whole student / teacher thing, I just kind of put that out of my mind when reading those fics. It's one of those thing's I've just accepted about that ship. That said, there are some pretty awful HG/ SS fics out there and they're not just on fanfic.net.

I feel that HG/ DM tends to be really bad, mostly because one of my pet fanon peeves is in it - the coed Head Boy/ Head Girl Dormitory. What Headmaster in their right mind would put two teenagers of opposite sexes in conjoining rooms that mysteriously have no security spells on them?

Mostly, it depends on what I'm looking for that day. I can overlook a lot of stuff if I just want smut.

And there are some great Snape / OFC fics out there. The ability to create a good OC is remarkable, given all the possible pitfalls. I'm not saying my OFC is good, but I have struggled with developing her into a person, not a Sue or anti-sue. And yes, it is blatant self-insertion on my part - my friend read it and laughed, but she still liked it. Basically, if you don't actually know the author, a good self-insert becomes just a good character.

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