Hey everyone, just thought I'd get this little piece out as a way to vent about the things that bother me in fanfiction. As I'm working on chapter 4 of Hadrian Peverell, Heir of Grindelwald, I'm also reading fics, as one does. I really just needed to get this off my chest. There are a few things that when I see them automatically get me to stop reading those fics, or if I see them in the description, prevent me from reading it, and I'm going to share them with you, and you're going to listen.

Giving Naruto a Sharingan.

Of course, the infamous Legendary Ass-pull, the Sharingan. It's an eye that prevents people from developing Naruto's skills in a way that feels like Naruto.

One of the key conflicts in Naruto, in my opinion, is the way that he is rivals with Sasuke. Giving Naruto the Sharingan practically negates that rivalry, unless you introduce MORE ass-pull. Most of what Sasuke has going for him is in his Sharingan. His other strengths are his chidori variants and his curse mark. He would have never been taught the chidori without the Sharingan, as it causes dangerous tunnel vision. He would have never been given the curse mark without the Sharingan either, as he was targeted for his eyes. Giving Naruto the Sharingan makes him equally viable for gaining both of those advantages.

Giving Naruto the Sharingan gives authors a crutch for fight scenes. I've found that even if they have him training other techniques, when they actually write fight scenes, they default to Sharingan techniques. For that matter, whenever they write fight scenes with any character with a Sharingan, they lean on Sharingan techniques far more than they should. It happens like this without fail, and it bugs the hell out of me.

Of course, there are rare exceptions to this rule, where the writers don't lean on the Sharingan techniques too much. But too rare for my liking.

There are also some fics that have a character named 'Naruto' with a Sharingan that are just fine. But in those fics, it may as well be an OC with Naruto's name, which is just fine and dandy. A perfect example of a fic like this is Naruto: Uchiha Cronicles Redux by Narutoxsharingaxenthusiast. Check it out for a good example of what I'm talking about.

But seriously. If you want to give Naruto a dojutsu, give him the Rinnegan. It's more powerful, but at least its variance, and there are way more people writing good Rinnegan stories than Sharingan stories.

Adult/Child ships

Please stop. I beg of you. If I have to see one more Harry/Snape fic on this website, I'm gonna lose my goddamn mind. And it's not just this one- any ship between an adult and a child grinds my gears in all the wrong ways.

Please understand that writing these ships enables pedophilia, and is frankly super disgusting. I often see Harry, Hermione, Draco, Naruto and Sasuke all paired with MUCH older characters. It really rubs me wrong that people are writing stuff like this, and I would prefer to never see it again in my life. There's not much else to be said, as I've never actually read a pairing like this, but stop.

It's shameful that I see as many of these as I do, and I need you guys to stop writing that garbage.

Tracing canon without deviating

This is such a disappointment, more so than the other two. You read a description that sounds like a really awesome story to read. Then you start reading, and it starts as you expect it to, with cool variance, and you think you just found a new story to follow. Then you hit the first major plot point, and the same thing as canon happens (Harry and Ron killing the troll in the exact same way, or The Bell Test going exactly as it did in canon) and you just stare for a second and try to process your disappointment. You decide to give it another chapter, and the same thing just keeps happening.

I hate it, and I need my fellow authors to be more courageous in their writing. I know that deviating from canon can be scary; you're delving into territory unknown. But, you should be developing all of your characters in a way that you can deviate and still know how they'll react to what you throw in front of them. That is the whole point of writing fanfics, putting your own spin on a story that you love. So, put that spin on it and stop being such a wimp about it.

In the same vein is writers trying to make the main character stronger, but then having the same canon obstacles cause them more trouble than when they were 'weaker' in canon. Stop it.

That's batch 1/?. I'll update this list in packs of three, so I don't know when the next one will be out. Feel free to comment things you hate about fanfiction, or to dispute what I'm saying. I give my word that I will address each and every meaningful comment in the update after you comment it. Cheers, ThatGreyArea