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WIP Of Clones and Wizards by Zirakinbar - HP/SW - M

Discussion in 'Review Board' started by Harpo the Fool, Aug 10, 2025 at 3:54 AM.

  1. Harpo the Fool

    Harpo the Fool DA Member

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    Title: Of Clones and Wizards
    Author: Zirakinbar
    Rating: M
    Genre: Adventure, Drama, War, Politics
    Status: labelled WIP out of wishful thinking. 56 chapters but last updated in 2023
    Library Category: Crossover, AU
    Pairings: None
    Summary: Combining the Mirror of Erised, the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Killing Curse had some unexpected effects. Clone trooper CT-4387 is left for dead after an attempted ambush on Christophsis and 11-year-old Harry Potter makes himself a family.
    Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25133773

    This is a very well written and seemingly well planned SW crossover, taking place mostly in the SW universe with some intercuts to Hogwarts. 11 year old Harry loses his fight with Quirrelmort at the end of his 1st year in Hogwarts, and is transported by seeming accidental magic to a post-battle scene during the Clone Wars in SW. He finds a wounded clone trooper and they take care of each other for a while, though they can't talk to each other due to language issues. Because of Harry's magic, the trooper figures he is a baby Jedi and brings him back to base. Harry meets the definitely-not-nice Jedi master and Besalisk General Pong Krell and finds they can speak to each other in Parseltongue, and Harry involuntarily becomes Krell's padawan for a while. Various adventures, battles, searches for Earth, revelations about the clone army, etc. take place. A lot of the story happens in a clone combat unit, written like an enlisted unit in a non-SF war story, keeping some stuff out of sight of the officers and that sort of thing. There is an additional theme that clones are an underclass in the SW universe, almost slaves though no one will come out and say so. Plus another mystery: where did the clone army actually come from?

    The main characters are Harry, an OC clone trooper "Seefer", Pong Krell, Pio Koon, and some other OC clone troopers. Other SW and Hogwarts characters make smaller appearances, though all for good reason, including Palpatine driving some of the intrigue. Plus (spoiler)
    the main villain is still Voldemort who has been pulled with Harry into the SW universe and is now trying to conquer the galaxy instead of just Wizarding Britain.

    There is something excellent about the writing style that I can't quite put my finger on, but basically it's a sense of commitment to the story, and something like stillness between the sentences. The characters are well developed and the author does a good job of moving between their viewpoints. The plot is mostly convincing and carries urgency. There is an interesting explanation of the relationship between Hogwarts magic and The Force(tm). They are connected, but not the same; I'll leave it at that.

    The biggest disappointment is that the story last updated in September 2023. Before that it was progressing nicely, 135K words posted without much fluff, and seemingly moving towards a climax and denoument. I don't think the plot was running out of gas or anything like that. None of the characters are terribly overpowered and there is no sense of the story getting out of the author's control. That's a thing that happens with a lot of HP/SW stories because Harry gets so powerful that there are no convincing sources of tension and it becomes difficult to keep the oversized magic and grand SW lore from self-contradiction.

    I'd say this is the best HP/SW fic and one of the best fanfics I've read, treating it as a WIP rather than abandoned story. I'll give it 4.5/5 as a WIP, but drop 0.5/5 if it doesn't eventually get an update. Very recommended if you like drama and suspense fics. There's no romance and not much comedy in the story and I think the lack of comedy (opposite of e.g. Havoc Side of the Force) helps maintain the immersion.

    I binge read it over the past few days and stayed up too late doing so, but it was worth it.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2025 at 10:57 PM
  2. Dubious Destiny

    Dubious Destiny Seventh Year

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    It takes out one set of tropes and swaps in others. I personally prefer the first set of tropes tbh.

    It keeps the usual star wars tropes of Jedi and mandos so far.

    Harry is woobified and this is worse than following other paths. Most of what I dislike about the story comes down to this.

    Decent enough writing and plot.

    (read till chapter 26)

    3/5
     
  3. Harpo the Fool

    Harpo the Fool DA Member

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    https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWoobie

    I didn't know this term. Hmm maybe. That's a common portrayal in HP fic, especially with younger Harry (it's a main purpose of the Dursleys in the Rowling books) so it hadn't occurred to me to think of it as a weakness in the story. The alternative is OP Harry which is its own trope.

    Added: I think the woobie-ness lightens up some as the story progresses. Maybe post again if you read the rest.

    I'm enjoying these SW crossovers partly because I'm not that familiar with SW so I'm seeing a lot of backstory and characterizations that are new to me. So I'm less jaded than some of you.
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2025 at 11:46 PM
  4. Krieger

    Krieger Chief Warlock DLP Supporter

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    I think this is pretty accurate. I didn't know the term either and when I stopped reading I was trying to figure out how to define it, the best I could come up with was a light hurt/comfort fic without quite crossing into that territory. Woobified definitely fits better.

    The clones started off interesting but than they quickly grew old. They went into that parental figure role for the 'Woobie' and they never escaped it.

    Minor annoyance that maybe the author explained in the notes and I didn't read. The Star Wars universe is set in our past, but in this fic Earth is set in the Star Wars past instead. It doesn't really matter hence minor annoyance, but still, lack of understanding of lore or just handwaved?

    3/5. Also echoing that it has decent enough writing and plot. Some of the ideas with Voldemort and the interaction with Hermione etc were interesting, but in the long run the characterisation really lets it down and the story doesn't really move on from it, it's such a focal point of the authors writing up until the point I stopped reading. Alot of PoVs could be trimmed/removed and the story would be better for it.

    Read until chapter 50ish but I was skim reading by the end.
     
  5. Harpo the Fool

    Harpo the Fool DA Member

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    Re your spoiler,
    I don't remember it being mentioned in an AN, but anyway it seems like the type of thing an author is allowed to do if it works for the story. Mentioning it in a note would definitely have made it fine. Based on the separate outtake work, I'd say the author is very familiar with SW lore. The fake reddit post in https://archiveofourown.org/works/27067924/chapters/68631111 is really funny.

    There's another story I want to review ("The Dimitran Fleet" by Inwardtransience) where the SW universe is in Earth's present, and they interact. That works pretty well too.
     
  6. Drachna

    Drachna High Inquisitor

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    I know that I've previously read this fic, and while I vaguely remember liking certain aspects of it, it's a foggy memory. Parts of it were interesting, but the main conflict was contrived. There's an OOC problem, with most of the named canon SW characters featured being a bit one dimensional or flanderised iirc. This goes for Harry too, because the author doesn't give him much of a personality. There's also an OC problem, and your personal tolerance and interest in reading about fanon Mandalorian and clone culture will play a major role in your enjoyment of the story. Seeing the word 'CT-4387' multiple times in every line on a cursory rearead does also make my eyes glaze over.

    Aside from the above, it's competently, if tediously well written in a technical sense. The descriptive writing, imagery and dialogue all seem a bit flat and boring. I'll give it a 2.5/5, rounding up. It shouldn't make the library. I didn't subscribe to it or bookmark it back then, and I subscribe or bookmark nearly every half decent fic I come across.
     
  7. Harpo the Fool

    Harpo the Fool DA Member

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    Yeah that's certainly going on here. This stuff is mostly new to me so I'm liking it a lot. I might in fact have gotten bored if I'd been more used to it. Do you have any recommendations? I've read maybe a half dozen sizeable SW crossovers before but hadn't seen anything about clone culture before. I didn't realize that they even had a culture. The Havoc Side of the Force had Mandolorians but they seemed pretty ridiculous.

    I didn't find the writing flat, but more like understated in a way that I liked. I might take a look at it again. But there was a particular impression that it gave that I admired a lot, independent of the plot and characters. The writing seemed engaged in the story to an extent that I don't usually see in fanfic. I remember getting the same sensation from Benjamin Labatut's writing even though I didn't like Labatut's book (the first one) very much. If I'd paid more attention in English class, I might be able to figure out whether it was a matter of techniique or what.
     
  8. Drachna

    Drachna High Inquisitor

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    I'm far from a connoisseur of the genre, but I found three clone related fics in my bookmarks longer than a oneshot. The first one is crack, the second is a pretty decent time travel fic where Domino squad all travel back to TCW season three, and the third is a collection of slice of life moments between clone commanders and their generals. I haven't read the latter two in years, so I won't attest to the quality of the writing. None of these are crossovers. Clone culture is a large part of SW fanon, personally I only like it in very small doses. You're unlikely to find too much of it in HP crossovers though.

    The Legend of Liob: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38656698

    Dominos: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11864643/chapters/26789934

    One of a Million: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2259198/chapters/24250392
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2025 at 3:24 PM
  9. Harpo the Fool

    Harpo the Fool DA Member

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    Ah thanks! Those are all straight up SW fics rather than HP crossovers, but I guess I'm ready to start reading those. I'm not that into HP per se (particularly, I didn't like the Rowling books) but I generally don't find fanfic approachable unless I know something about the background universe. So I've mostly read HP since most other fanfic is about TV shows that I haven't seen.
    Regarding SW, I saw the original three movies plus the later crappy one with Jar Jar but that's about it. But I guess I've absorbed enough from HP crossovers (and Wookieepedia) that I can read from the firehose now.