Yep, I was genuinely enjoying the fic up until the regulus scene and then everything went completely beyond stupid. I've never seen a fic jump the shark so quickly. It's only good for recycling bin material now.

 

This fic is at least 4/5 material, I rated it 5/5 because I enjoyed it very much. I really don't understand all the hate about the binging scene with Regulus- this is a twenty something guy in the body of a preteen girl, who tries to keep an important strategic asset from suiciding. Nothing sexual happened and the mere mention of the possibility of it happening, while both were in a very high state of intoxication, shouldn't be more than a bump in the highway of this very well thought out and exeptional story.

 

There are many things about this fic that rub me the wrong way, from the 20 something year old guy's literal rebirth as a little girl to the unexplained AU elements. The tone the first person narrative has set has Desdemona sitting at the edge of being infallible, and in the later chapters I have to seriously question the adults around Desdemona, what they expect of her, and how they respond to her - even with the excuse of her 'exceptional' intelligence/cunning/behavior behind the explanation for their characterizations. The writing itself is loose and occasionally irritating, with forays into passive tense and rambling asides that serve no purpose in the story beyond detailing Desdemona's dreary, check-listed childhood where all of the skills the author intends for her to have at Hogwarts must be accounted for.

The good points are that it's a readable, original storyline with interesting (if occasionally annoying) characters and settings, and the author is willing to admit fault and correct himself if need be. Anyone remember the timeline issue? The author's corrected the date in chapter 2.

My rating stands at a 3/5 for now.

 

Might be me, but I just can't get over the name of the "author."

I keep laughing while this plays in my head.

Hmm, some saying it jumped the shark, others that it drags on... for 80k before Hogwarts... maybe I should stay with the video instead.

 

Well, it has kept my interest so far. If it updates, I'll read the new chapter. There is good writing, though I'm not especially excited about it. The truth is that I'm losing interest in HP fanon all together, so I feel that any story that keeps me interested at all is worth at least a 4/5.

Though I wish the author would focus on his Danny Phantom stories.

Edit: Also, the author is on Hiatus for the winter. BTW

 

Not 100% sure this isn't a Taure smurf account.

 

Eh. Interesting, at the very least. I usually tend to like the author's work. Decently well written, occasionally humorous, but also very slow and often dragging on. Also self-ponderous, with jarring anime references. A bit inconsistent with the mood. And a definite Mary Sue.

Pink Thing actually made me laugh out loud, and Snape's pretty chill (I can't believe I said that). The drinking scene was... rather out of place, but I didn't mind it too much.

There's something wrong about guys writing female SI's, though. But the protagonist isn't nearly enough feminine to be Taure's work.

I'll actually give the 4/5. Huh. It has its share of problems, but it was... pretty good. Pleasantly surprised.

 

Great guilty pleasure.

Magical theory stuff is fun and the plot is originalish. I thought that the story was turning into crackfic during "the Regulus scene" then it turned back into political fic.
The character's desire to avoid entanglement with Voldemort works nicely - few fics think through the consequences of self insert properly.

Wouldn't a self insert as Dudley Dursley be interesting?

3/5

 

I'm actually a fan of SI's, though there's very few decent ones, and they all in the Naruto fandom.

This had promise, up until the Black Heir thing. Which seemed ripped right about of a 2006 Independant!Harry story.

I also really disliked the whole scene with The Grangers. Eugh.

2/5

PM if you want an actual well written SI story. Or don't and I'll probably put a bunch of them in a thread somewhere.

 

I did quite enjoy this and I thought it was pretty high quality up until *that* scene (as everyone else has commented on).

I think the concept of being a Malfoy was done well - struggling to deal with the contrast in depiction of them in canon, and actually living with them. It makes it apparent why the main character might grow to care for them without being too cheesy and changing the fact they are still bad people.

The turning point however...

Spoiler

...was as everyone pointed out, the scene with Regulus. And pretty much every subsequent scene after that. The worst part for me was actually with Walburga's will and everything related to that.

Both those scenes would have been fine if they were set 5 years later. But as a 9 year old? It's absolutely ridiculous. No matter how much of a genius people think she is, there's no way they'd interact with her the way they do.

I didn't mind the scene with Hermione as much as other people seemed to though.

Start was 4/5, after that turning point it became a 2/5 crackfic. I'd average it out and say 3/5. A real shame....

 

Author decided to rewrite it.

From more important things - llama is gone, it seems that will reading is no longer so ridiculous. Also, nobody will receive emails from ff.net about updates for next seven chapters.

 

his chapters are actually going up on Spacebattles as well though im sure none of you want to wander through 10+ pages of nonsense.

 

First page in the SB thread has an index, so you don't have to read all the other comments in the thread.

 

Author got rid of all the problems I had originally had with the fic in his rewrite. So all in all, I'll give it a 5/5.

 

Author moved his WbA & discussion thread to http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/in-bad-faith-hp-si.3416/ (now it is on forum that unlike spacebattles allows registration).

 

Loving the rewrite. He basically fixed all the things that wrecked the original. It's actually one of the fics I'm most looking forward to.

I'm really, really hoping that Desmonda ends up making school enemies with Harry Potter and co. Because if everyone ends up as good, cooperative friends, it'd be just a bit too easy.

Now up to a 4/5.

 

I doubt he goes for straight out enemies, but rivals? Yeah, that'd be good.

4/5 seems about right.