OOC means "out of character" and DAMN do people like to make characters OOC in Percy Jackson and Harry Potter fanfics. It's so annoying because the characters are so disgustingly unlike their canon selves. What's worse, is that when a female character is OOC, it's because the writer made them bitchy. Like wtf, it's always the female characters who become bitchy.

Writers who make characters OOC either over-exaggerate some personality traits a character has, or they make them ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.

So how do you make your characters in-character?

Well, to be honest, if you've read the books then you should already know what the character is like. It's more understandable if it was a minor character because minor characters don't show up as often, but major characters? You should probably know how to write them especially if they're the fucking narrators of their respective books (in this case, Percy and Harry). Like seriously guys, you've read about their thoughts, actions, and feelings in multiple books, you should be able to get them down decently enough without completely butchering their character.

But anyways, to keep your characters in-character, you need to actually get to know them. How do you do that?

The quickest way is to go and read their wiki articles. There's a description of the character's personality on there, so just read through that. There should also be a description about each of the character's relationships with other characters, so that should be useful if you want to know how they interact with people (their lovers, friends, family, enemies, etc).

That's the short way though. The long way, and what I believe is the more effective way, is to go back and read the books. Yes, I know, I know, that takes forever and shit, but you're probably gonna go back to the books anyways since you're gonna need it to help you write your scenes and shit.

Reading the books lets you to deeply analyze the character more then a wiki description allows you to do. You can read their thoughts and actions. Are they more polite towards certain characters? Maybe their attitudes changes, when does that happen and why? You can read their dialogues and maybe take note of how the speak—do they speak in a formal manner? Do they use slang?

Everything you need is in the books, but it's your job to analyze the characters enough to understand them.

This is really all I can tell you about how to keep the characters in-character.

Now I'm gonna start mentioning characters who people seem to butcher as an example of how NOT to write them.

I'll do Harry Potter characters first:

SEVERUS SNAPE

Before I start, lemme just barf cuz even his name disgusts me 🤮

Okay, now onto business.

Some delusional people... make Snape... good. 🤮 🤮 🤮 Like nice and shit, with the smiles and kind words and everything 🤮

Seriously guys, if Snape's "nice" in your fics then just label the entire story as an AU because this is not canon.

In these fics, Snape's terrible attitude was apparently just an "act". He was only pretending. He abused and traumatized a shit ton of students for the sake of his "act" because he didn't want the Dark Lord to think he's on the "good side". That's the excuse the writers give and I fucking hate it.

But IT GETS WORSE. Have you ever read a Potter Twin or Potter Sister fic? If the sister has red hair and looks like her mom, Snape is NICE to them just for those reasons. Sweetie, if you gotta make your OC look like their dead mom just so you can write about the nasty Potions Professor being "nice" to them, then there's already a bunch of issues for your fic. That's borderline pedophilia. Stop doing that shit.

Actually, stop writing Snape as nice period. He is not nice. He was never nice. Even in the Marauders Era he was not nice. He hung out with the Death Eaters KNOWING that they're number one goal was to commit genocide on Muggles and Muggle-borns. His own friend was a Muggle-born and he still hung out with Death Eaters and Death Eater supporters. He believed in their ideals, and the only reason he left was because Voldemort killed Lily. Every "good" thing he did throughout the books wasn't done out of the goodness of his heart, HE ONLY DID THEM FOR LILY. Do you really believe he'd do the same thing if Neville was the boy who lived? No! He fucking wouldn't.

THERE IS NOT A SINGLE NICE BONE IN HIS BODY. SO STOP WRITING HIM AS THE GOOD GUY.

Write him as he is: a sad, pathetic, cruel, man who likes to take his anger out on innocent children that he already has power over.

If your OC is a Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, he'll be cold to them. He may bully them a little, but not as much as he does to the Gryffindors. If your OC is a Gryffindor, then yeah, expect a bit more bullying, times it by ten if your OC is friends with Harry or is associated with the Marauders in any way.

If your OC is Slytherin, then he probably wouldn't bully them. He doesn't really bully the Slytherins mainly because he's in charge of that house. Will he be nice to them? Absolutely fucking not. Like I said, Snape is not a nice person and he has never been a nice person. Your Slytherin!OC is most likely to be given free passes by him like for example, if they mess up a potion. He'll correct them in his usual cold manner whereas he'll snap at any other student from a different house. And that really is it. He just favors Slytherin more then the other kids, but that doesn't mean he cares about them.

Just... please write him accurately. For fucks sake.

MOLLY WEASLEY

This is another character that people recreate entirely. If the OC is a Weasley, then Molly is written off as abusive. She hates the Weasley!OC for whatever reason and that leads to the other Weasley family members to hate them too.

What

the

fuck.

Again, if you write Molly this way then your fic may as well be an AU.

Molly Weasley does not hate her children. She's, like, physically unable to hate any of her kids. Even when Percy left the family she wasn't cruel to him, she was sad, miserable, and heartbroken. She knitted him a sweater and everything. She did NOT hate him in any way.

Honestly, people who rewrite characters like with Molly and Snape probably don't need advice on how to correctly write them because they most likely won't even listen to that advice. I can shove facts at their faces on what these characters are really like but they'll still believe "Snape is the good guy" or "Molly's an evil bitch" because they lack brain cells.

So yeah, I really won't bother telling you how to write Molly correctly because it should be pretty damn obvious that she's a good person and a good mother. Anyone who writes her as differently is just delusional at this point and beyond help.

HERMIONE GRANGER

Hermione's a bit of a bitch, I know. She's condescending, a know-it-all, and judgmental (thanks to her internalized misogyny), but we still love her anyways.

People either over-exaggerate those traits, or take them all away.

Writers who like Hermione tend to make Hermione like their OCs too. This is okay, except your OC might not actually be the type of person Hermione would like.

If your OC is genius-level smart like some people like to write them as, Hermione wouldn't like them. She'd see them as a threat and probably get jealous too.

If your OC is girly in any way, Hermione wouldn't be like "ooh! girlfriends! <3" Remember, she's judgmental especially towards more feminine girls (but this isn't a trait that was called out by other characters, this is a trait that the readers noticed because JKR probs has internal misogyny too and didn't realize it was a problem). Your OC most likely wouldn't be respected as much by her, so until your OC does something Hermione would approve of, they wouldn't be friends.

Hermione doesn't make friends easily! Even in first year, it took a literal TROLL ATTACK for her to befriend Harry and Ron. It took almost a whole year for Hermione to ease up on Luna and the same went with Fleur, and she mocked them both behind their backs before that!

Now we'll switch to the other end of the spectrum, where authors demonize Hermione and makes her hate the OC.

These authors over-exaggerate her negative traits. They make her an insanely jealous bitch, someone who can't keep their mouth shut and likes to brag about her achievements, etc. That is NOT Hermione at all. I'm pretty sure people only write her like this because they don't like her character, so they take their anger out on her through their writing.

DRACO MALFOY

* hahaha, I'm planning on doing a rant about how people write him, so just look forward to that

DUMBLEDORE

Okay, I can't blame people for writing him wrong because I don't even get his character that well so I avoid writing about him in my books, lol

What I do believe about Dumbledore is that he's not evil. Is he manipulative? Hell fucking yeah. He saw a chance to get something out of Snape and he took it, using his obsession with Lily to his advantage. Was he doing this to be cruel? No. He had a good reason to use Snape and that was to defeat Voldemort.

In my opinion, Dumbledore is a grey character (and I LOVE grey characters!!!!). He is not cruel, he is a good person that has to resort to bad methods.

But despite understanding this... I'm still hella confused about him ngl. I don't understand the secrecy, not just to Harry but to literally EVERYONE ELSE! His plans don't make sense to me either??? Order of the Phoenix is so weird to me like why was the prophecy so important, AND THEN WHEN HE DIED IN THE NEXT BOOK LIKE... WHAT WAS THE PLAN THERE.... WHYYYY?!?!?!

(I was gonna go on a rant, but I had to stop myself and get back on topic)

I really can't help you guys write Dumbledore in character because even I can't do that. He's just too confusing for me. All I can tell you is that he's a grey character, not an evil one.

HARRY POTTER

It's usually the Harry x OC fics that butcher his character.

People... write Harry... as flirtatious??? What???

I'm fucking dying from laughter just remembering all the fanfics I've read where he's the confident, flirty boyfriend of the OC or crush or whatever.

Guys, I hate to burst your bubble, but Harry is NOT the sexy badboy you think he is 😂

He's so fucking awkward, do you guys not even remember how his date with Cho went? Or their KISS??? 😂 Even his relationship with Ginny felt more middle-school.

HE DOES NOT KNOW A THING ABOUT ROMANCE, SO PLEASE STOP WRITING HIM AS SOME COCKY CASANOVA!

Harry's going to be extremely awkward around your OC if he's crushing on them. It'll be "wangoballwime" times a hundred. He won't be winking, he won't be smirking, he won't be flirting. He'll be a blushing, stuttering mess and Ron and Hermione are probably watching him fumble around behind a bush or something.

So yeah, don't write him as that, that's just hella weird and it makes me laugh just imagining him doing any of those things 😂

Now onto Percy Jackson characters!

PERCY JACKSON

People write him as sarcastic, dumb, and goofy, and he kinda is... but not 24/7, geez! And he's not really dumb, maybe in an academic sense yeah, but he's got superb street smarts and he's very strategic in battle as well.

Percy is smart, you guys. He is calculating almost at a Slytherin level. How do you think he won most of his fights? He does it by outsmarting his opponents! Don't you guys remember how he defeated Crusty in The Lightning Thief? Or how he used his quick-thinking to kill Antaeus in The Battle of the Labyrinth?

Some writers literally reduce him to the comic relief character in their books wtf.

Look, it's okay to write him as sarcastic, dumb, and goofy, but you have to remember he has other personality traits as well!

ANNABETH CHASE

Ohhhhhhhhhh gods has her character been butchered... Especially if it's a Percy x OC fanfic

She becomes insanely jealous and bitchy, and people even write her as dumb just to make their OC look smarter then her.

What the absolute fuck.

I get that Annabeth acted like a jealous bitch towards Rachel back in The Battle of the Labyrinth, but some writers just take it up a notch... or five. Annabeth bullies the OC, hurts the OC, talks bad about them as if they're in some sort of shitty high school drama fic. Annabeth is just completely changed for the sake of the OC looking better...

THEY EVEN WRITE HER AS "SLUTTY" OKAY, THAT'S HOW BAD IT IS! Annabeth is prideful of her intelligence, not vain! Sure she has an athletic body and has "blonde hair curled like a princess'" but how the fuck does that equal to her being a "slut". They dress her up in crop tops and booty shorts and just... no. Annabeth is practical when it comes to her wardrobe, you assholes.

But anyways, stop turning Annabeth into a massive bitch just so you could give Percy a reason to choose your super speshul OC.

Annabeth is intelligent, prideful over her intelligence, rude at times, wary around strangers, analytical, and sometimes jealous. WRITE HER AS SHE IS!

LEO VALDEZ

Again... Leo x OC fics butcher him...

Leo is flirtatious, but it's more in a joking manner, guys. He isn't a fucking seducer. People write him like he's some Wattpad bad boy it's weird.

They make him hella cocky and confident, like genuinely cocky and confident. I'm sorry everyone, but Leo isn't really confident about himself even though he talks and acts like it.

Remember, he's deeply traumatized and for several years he believed that he was the reason for his mother's death. You don't become a genuinely happy after all of that shit. He hides his pain through humor.

Leo is deeply insecure, depressed, and has very little self-worth. His fatal flaw is literally his feelings of inferiority, IT WAS WHAT LED HIM TO SACRIFICE HIMSELF. His more positive traits are that he's wickedly smart, witty, and loyal to his friends, but please don't focus on just that. You have to write about his negative traits too.

Please don't insult Leo's character by making him the goofy comic relief and/or flirt. He is so much more then that. 

NICO DI ANGELO

"I'M SO GAY AND HAPPY 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 😃 😃 😃 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 Look at me! I'm gay and cheerful!!!!! I LOVE MCDONALDS!!!!!!! GO GAYNESS!!! YAAAAAY! TRAUMA WHO???? TOTALLY NOT ME CUZ I'M SUPER GAY AND HAPPY!!!!!!!"

What the fuck is this 😂

First of all, it's okay to write Nico as an excitable puppy because he canonically was! ...Before Bianca died, that is. After her death he was no longer the cute and talkative little boy we once knew. Yeah it's sad, I know, but that's what happens when you go through the trauma of losing someone close to you. It changes you, either subtly or very obviously. People deal with loss in different ways, okay? So please don't write Nico as an exuberant puppy after Bianca's death. 

And yes, he is canonically gay and all that, but he sure as hell wasn't open about it like some fanfic writers portray him to be. 

HE WAS BORN IN THE 1930s! HE LIVED THROUGH THE BEGINNING OF WWII! Hitler was targeting homosexuals too! Not only that, but the 1930s and 1940s were very conservative and even before Hitler, they were targeting anyone in the LGBTQ+ community. Even though Nico was put in the Lotus Casino and taken out in a more progressive era, he would still be very uncomfortable with his own sexuality because of what times were like back in his day. He's not gonna be like "oh I'm not at risk of getting brutally murdered for being gay? GREAT! LEMME GO GET MY PRIDE FLAGS!!!!" 

No, absolutely not. He didn't even come out on his own, he was OUTED BY CUPID (that bitch can go and shove his bow and arrow down his throat, he sucks). Nico would've hid his sexuality for a loooooong ass time had Cupid not done something so cruel like that. 

So again, Nico (post-Bianca's death) is not a happy kid who's only personality trait is McDonalds and gayness. He is depressed, IN A SHIT TON OF PAIN, insecure, probably disgusted with himself for being gay thanks to what times were like in his day, caring, loyal, quiet, and probably doesn't know how to interact with most people. 

PIPER MCLEAN???

I put question marks next to her name because I can't really blame people for writing her so differently. People either write about her in a good light or a bad light and rarely are there ever any in-betweens.

I'll be frank with you all. Piper is a terribly written character. Rick tried to make her seem so cool and likable, but if you really pay attention to HOO, you'll realize that's she's actually the absolute worst.

How Rick thought he wrote her:

- super badass

- she breaks the stereotype for children of Aphrodite because she can fight

- not like other girls

- relatable

- etc

People who like her write her this way, but I feel like they only like her because they haven't realize how horrible she really is. As in, they only read about Piper at a surface level, but never really stopped to analyze her character a little deeper to notice the very disturbing things.

How Piper really is:

- internalized misogyny (she looked down on her own siblings because they were feminine, she looks down on ANYONE who is feminine)

- psychopathic/sociopathic (she only cared about Jason you guys... that's ALL she thought about)

- obsessed with Jason (even after she was told that her memories were fake, she still wanted to "claim" him??? She KNEW he had a life and that there was a chance he could have a girlfriend BUT SHE DID NOT CARE)

- hypocritical ("oh i'm not like other girls cuz I don't care about clothes, makeup, and boys and—" *proceeds to think about Jason 24/7*)

- unrealistic abilities (she had less then a year of preparation yet was able to out-Charmspeak Medea, put GAEA to sleep, brought Jason back from the dead with her voice, etc)

- extremely judgmental (again, considered anyone feminine as weak and looked down on them)

- extremely jealous (got jealous of Annabeth when she tried to talk to Jason even though she knew Annabeth had a boyfriend, got jealous of Khione, got jealous of Reyna before she even met her, etc)

- MARY SUE ("i'm rich and naturally pretty but I hate that about myself :( omg and my dad doesn't even pay attention to me! My life sucks :("

There's so many issues with her, but this is just the BAREST SUMMARY. If you want to read more, then I suggest you read this Piper McLean rant from a PJO rant book on Quotev. Because Wattpad sucks, I'll post a comment with the link.

Here are the chapters you should check out:

"Piper McLean Rant"  (This is from the link I sent you, but you should check out the others too!)

"By the way... (Piper McLean)" 

"Piper McLean is a Sociopath"

"Piper McLean's Relationships"

"Piper McLean is a Psychopath"

PLEASE READ THEM! The author is very detailed and spot-on, and they even provided TEXTUAL EVIDENCE of their claims!

I'm sorry you guys, but this is how Piper is, that's just a fact. It might not have been obvious to you because Rick wrote her in such a good light and never talked about her actual flaws, BUT THIS IS THE REAL PIPER. These are her flaws, but the biggest problem is that HER FLAWS WERE NEVER CALLED OUT. The only people who noticed them were the readers, and that's not good. Flaws need to be called out by other characters, not by the readers! That's why some people thought she was great, they never noticed that she was terrible because of the way she was written in the books. 

Rick really failed with Piper so it led to a bunch of fanfic writers writing her character in two drastically different ways. They either write her as Rick imagined her to be, or they write her as she really is.

Piper fans think those who write Piper as bitchy, vain, jealous, etc are bashing her and writing her wrong, while those who hate Piper think Piper fans are writing her wrong too.

Sorry Piper fans, but if you're writing her how Rick wanted us to see her as, then you're writing her wrong. But... again, I can't blame you for writing her in a good light because she was written so terribly and her flaws were never called out, so it's understandable that you thought she was a good character.

AND THAT'S ALL FOR TODAY!!!! I'm checking my to-do list rn and I'm running low on how-to topics, but I got a shit ton of rants that I wanna write about  😂

So any requests or whatever???