Independent Harry stories employ the worst tropes in the fandom. Dumbledore bashing, Weasley bashing, the order is just as bad as death eaters, misunderstood death eaters, friendly goblins, lordships, magical cores, pureblood culture worldbuilding, child politicians, etc. Any one of those tropes on their own would make me drop a fic, the fact that they're all bundled together in independent Harry fics makes me avoid the genre like the plague. Plus the fact that indy Harrys tend to have the most arrogant and unlikeable personalities imaginable. I fail to understand why this genre is so popular in the fandom.

 

I don't know about now, but when the fanfiction community here took off, the prime audiences were teenagers.

 

A lot of people wish Harry was more proactive, and Indy! Harry is born from that.

 

Pretty much, put the desire for a character that doesn't just sit on his dick all day into a bunch of misfit teens and pre-teens and boom, you've got Indy!Harry fanfic galore.

There's a reason why The Shopping Trip and The Summer of Change and The Uber Wand and The Inherited Millions (billions in my misbegotten foray) are staple Indy! tropes. It's because we had 4-5 books of Harry doing bupkiss in the summer and now he needs to level up to take on what may come.

 

I get being proactive but most of them favour Super!Harry fics of one form or another, which usually end up being dull Gary Stu power-fantasies filled with a dislike for canon pairings. Weasley, Dumbledore bashing of one variety or another, and lots of needless smut.

 

Again, I think the problem of turning Harry more powerful that goes too far is due to canon-- Harry was on the archetypcal Hero's Journey through the first 4 books of the series before JKR took Harry off that path and made him just a lucky everyman. See for example how him learning the Patronus is a huge deal in book 3 but it's used everywhere by the end of the series.

People were annoyed that Harry was just lucky rather than skilled-- hell he's still using a spell he learned at 12 years old during the battle scenes 5 years later. Contrast that to how he worked hard to learn the Patronus & then had the pay off of saving the day by the end of PoA. That's hard work leading to skill leading to a victory. Book 7 is just lucky circumstances + 'power of love' = win.

 

There's a lot of self projection in most fics. Harry is a pretty nice character to project on. Plus indy Harry let's people take the story in any direction they want. Most squander it, but there's some great stories that are better than a lot of adventure ya novels out there xD

 

The series starts with him as the lucky everyman. Sure, he's 11, but we barely see him learn any magic whereas you'd think anyone in his position would be trying to learn as much as possible. And basically every plot point or breadcrumb of importance in the first book he stumbles across in the night with sheer blind luck, and I'm struggling to even think of an exception to that. So I guess you could say that everyone wanted Harry to have more agency, and perhaps him learning the Patronus Charm super early was a setup down that path, but it turns out just to be an anomaly. Wishful thinking, perhaps.

 

Maybe it's because I've only read examples that have been recommended by others and are therefore likely among the better ones, but I've enjoyed the subgenre. Examples that come to mind:

* HP and the Lightning Lord, and its reboot Saviour of Magic. Saviour of Magic was better but HPLL was readable. HPLL even used the name Hadrian Potter, though SoM didn't go that far.

* The Venom Peddler: some weak moments and I hated the ending, but mostly pretty good

* New Blood (indy Hermione rather than Harry): I'm not that crazy about this, but it has a large and fanatical following, and it has cool ideas in places. The WIP installments are frequent and short so I've been reading along.

* Hermione Granger, Demonologist: a crack fic, but one of my all time favorites.

* Make a Wish: don't know if this counts as Indy Harry but it is a classic

* Ever Upwards: reading this now, like it a lot though it changes tone somewhat around halfway through.

Maybe others too, that I don't remember immediately.