Title: Luna's Year
Author: Michelle-31a
Rating: K+
Genre: General/Drama
Pairing: Harry/Luna
Chapters: 29
Words: 172,931
Updated: Jan. 4, 2004
Published: Aug. 30, 2003
Status: Complete
Summary: A Post-OotP story centered mainly around Luna and her relationship with Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1500318/1/

Both the Summary above and the cut-off summary in the Author's section are fairly poor. The main meat of this story is the growing relationship between Luna and Harry, however, considering it takes all of the 29 chapters to develop and there is a nice plot to move along the romance aspect of the story, it fits much better in this forum than the Romance one.

Frankly, this is one of the best, most well-rounded and developed Luna characters I have ever encountered. In fact, overall, most of the characters are extremely canon friendly while never managing to annoy me. Apart from a very few grammatical/spelling problems and a repeated phrase here and there, this is brilliantly written. The plot itself is on the level of the canon adventures (no Super!Harry training and fighting an all out war) and is engaging enough that you aren't reading 150,000 words only about character development. It felt very much to me like what JKR wanted the later books in her series to be but didn't manage.

If you're looking for an action-filled adventure, this isn't it. There is a lot of discussion and it does spend time looking at what people are thinking, but to me this was a breath of fresh air in writing style, plot and realism.


Checked by Minion, Nov. 18, 2012
Checked By Sorrows: 03/08/2019

 

Ugh. I couldn't get past the whole Super!Luna bullshit. She can predict the future, read minds, see through invisibility cloaks? Bleh.

 

Luna's Year by michelle-31a - K+

Title: Luna's Year
Author: michelle-31a
Rating: K+
Genre: General/Drama
DLP Category: General
Pairing: Harry/Luna
Status: Complete
Summary: Luna Lovegood begins her fifth year at Hogwarts, for the first time with a circle of friends, though not without the accompanying dangers.
Link:
Fanfiction.net: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1500318/1/Lunas_Year
Fiction Alley: http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/michelle_31a/LY.html

An execellent/pretty good characterization of Luna. Although perhaps the author uses "misy/dreamy eyed" too much, it's still good in most other respects. The romance is ... while not subtle, not like a marching elephant listening to rap music. It's completed to boot, which in my opinion makes all the difference. The ending is satisfying.

 

I made it about half way through the third chapter, and no offense, but 'Luna' is a Mary-Sue. The following points are what I base this accusation on.

1) She's been walking though the forbidden forest unmolested since her first year.
2) She has a solid Rapport with the centaurs and has made a specific point of winning over Bane.
3) She's seen Argogs kids but they've always left her alone until she was accompanying harry and Ron
4) she can summon a lightning storm out of a clear sky with little to no apparent effort.
5) she sees through invisibility cloaks without realizing it
6) Mrs. Norris Likes her (Though thankfully filch still doesn't)
and
7) By the middle of the second chapter Hermoine has already berated Ron for calling her 'Loony', and has stated that she 'Seems incredibly smart in an odd sort of way'.

Sorry but Super!Luna just isn't for me. 2/5

 

Lulz. I love this story (guilty pleasure fic because it's H/L) but Manatheron pretty much pointed out many of the flaws (or single flaw that has many aspects, rather).

Hilarious review, specially the 'molested' bit.

 

Manatheron, you're right about most of that, except for this:

She most certainly can cast the spell with little effort. That spell has some hefty backlash, though. It did the job, but it most certainly ruined Luna for a short time. In fact, if I remember correctly (which I probably don't), the spell came just a bit shy of killing her.

All the same; I liked this story, but I just don't think it really fits DLP.

 

Ahhh, Apologies then. I got no farther than the point where she cast that spell. I stand behind the rest of my points though.

 

You are indeed correct, it did come shy of just killing her, mind you this is a memory from 1 or 2 years ago. Its good for the pairing I guess but honestly my tastes have gone up, 4.4/5 then probably 3/5 now.

 

Simply for argument's sake, I'll debate this one. We don't know much about Luna from canon, and we do know that she's in Ravenclaw. I actually found it more OOC for Hermione to make that statement than for Luna to be 'smart in an odd way.' I'll agree with the rest of the points, though, and add that authors often only write over-powered characters as a replacement for real character development. Comic books have been doing it for decades. I like Luna, and didn't particularly care for this story's Luna.

2/5

 

I shall keep my retort fairly civil, and come right to the point.

I agree, Kickass sig, Welcome!

Thank you.

 

Admittedly, this story has some faults... ones that I can only see now in hindsight (perhaps I should have reflected on this story before submitting it for review). Luna is barely not a Mary-Sue (her strengths are off set by her weaknesses... but she still has too many strengths) and Hermione, if you're not willing to accept that she's reformulated her opinion of Luna, is OOC.

I've seen only a handful of people attmept to flesh out Luna, and I've been dissatisfied with most (for instance, JBern dismisses Luna's quirky nature by saying it's all a farce – while other authors make her "lol I'm a seer who quotes from Alice in Wonder Land") – this story goes in the right direction... only they make her too powerful in the process. Nevertheless, I do like how she is portrayed in this. Mind you, this particular story was finished in '03.

If anything, don't write the story off as "bad" after the first couple chapters. Give it some time, if you've got some to spare.

 

Hey there, new to the forums. I have read this entire story and I do agree that Luna ends up overpowered. But aside from that she is in character, the gang notices her at first because of her social situation and then it eventually evolves into a nice friendship. Though, if she was a Mary Sue, wouldn't she immediately capture the attention of all in the story? Most people still hated her, Ron disliked her and even became violent a few times, and unlike most Marys I have seen she didn't get together with the main character until the last 4 or 5 - ish chapters.

Now, aside from my argument on that issue I loved the story. The plot didn't jump down your throat, it had good twists, and the characters were mostly there. Mostly there, as in IC I guess.

The writing style flows well enough to keep you reading, unless you are driven off by the power Luna commands.

 

Although Luna might seem a bit powerful in this story, it never disturbed me. I really liked this story. Moreover I loved the portrayal of Luna's behavior and character. The story was nice, with a good enough plot and great characters. Especially Ginny, when she is not paired with Harry and does not pair off with Malfoy, she mostly turns out to be a pretty likable character, like here where she is a supporter of Luna and Harry.

The ability to see things as they are is not exactly a Mary Sue power, it does explain some of Luna's beliefs and it was not exaggerated.

great story and one of the best I've read, enjoyed every single page.

5/5

The forum rules say it is ok to dig up old threads in this subforum so i hope I have done nothing wrong. If i have, I am sorry