Bold move for a first post Cotton, let's see if it pays off.

It's been years since I've read Lie I've Lived; might have to go back and see how it has held up.

 

I reread it recently. It hasn’t, unfortunately.

My interest in the story hasn’t deteriorated to the point where I wouldn’t read a sequel, but the dialogue becomes less amusing and more over-the-top the more time passes.

The premise is still fine, but any chance at enjoying the pairing is gone when you realize that the story is less HP/FD and more JP/FD, despite the authors attempts to merge them.

I’ve been following new works with this pairing on ff.net (and even AO3), and haven’t found anything. Anybody seen something new?

 

I've got the aborted start of an Airship AU where the pairing is going to be H/F in the WbA. So far, their only contact is as enemies. It never really got any momentum, so you probably haven't come across it. I might have to go back to it at some stage.

 

I think the core of the story is still fun. I enjoy all the Tasks, but its definitely a product of its time.

The HJ name, the sorting hat, all of Gryffindor + the Twins hating Harry, Harry creeping on Fluer in her spring- definitely has lost some of its luster. All that being said, I think the strong elements of the story work well enough that its age can be forgiven.

 

I actually found Antagonistic!Twins to be a breath of fresh air compared to how they're almost always portrayed.

 

I cannot imagine making it to 2020 and still thinking that it's a good story. Then again, I've been gatekeeping hatred of it for a decade now.

 

I always stood by my convictions regarding TLIL, in that it's fantastic, one of the top fics in the fandom.

Then I read it again recently and realised it's utter dogshit. It'd be real nice to be able to read shit fics again without knowing they're shit.

 

TLIL set the standard for many a year. I agree it's not classic fanfiction: very few things come close to that as much as it can be defined at all, but I still pick it up just for the sake of the amazing Sorting Hat. You have to hand it to JBern, he made the Sorting Hat a character which we haven't forgotten in nearly a decade.

 

I think it'd be interesting to take old fics and rewrite them. Trim or reshape the parts that have become bad tropes, streamline the parts that still stand up well. Of course, there's the whole plagiarism angle, but still.

 

I think removing things that have become bad tropes after the fic was published is the wrong approach. If you remove everything that has been replicated to death due to TLILs success (a more mature Harry, expanded tasks, Griffindor hating Harry, becoming an Animagus, ect), you would be left with the JP/HP meld and a different personality for the Sorting hat. And while you certainly could write a good fic around that, it wouldn't be a modern TLIL.

If you really wanted to update classic trendsetters you should lean into the tropes that made them popular in the first place. Use the 10+ years these tropes have been around and write something that fits modern tastes. If you could write a good fic is questionable. But at least you wouldn't rob it the personality that made it popular in the first place.

 

*Laughs in finished fanfics*

 

I think a decent set up for an older Harry/Fleur fic might be Harry as an Auror. If Fleur's marriage is on the rocks, and his never happened, you've got the character conflict right there. Add in a murder mystery or political thriller angle, and bada bing bada boom, you're the Tom Clancy of the fandom.

 

Didn't know I needed this until now.

 

Well there is The Stag and the Flower.

 

Isn't that...trash though?

 

Didn't say it was good. But it fits the criteria.

 

oh my god why did i open that fic

die, agent, die

 

Can I get a harry/fleur fic rec? Recently read The Half-Blood Romantic and enjoyed it, but I'd be fine with just about anything with decent writing.

 

I remember enjoying Dagger and Rose by our very own Perspicacity.