No problem.

I'm don't want to change your fic idea. I'm sure you're happy with what you have, and I'd like to see your Vader-inspired Harry Potter. I'd just like to point out another popular pre-1991 villain.

I remember one of my English teachers (mid 90's) once told the class that Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, the evil T-1000 from 1984's Terminator was so popular with kids that they'd often be play-acting as him. The villain was too cool. The distastefulness of kids emulating the bad guy was apparently part of the motivation behind having T-1000 become the reprogrammed good guy in 1991's Terminator 2.

I find the idea of a red eye glowing, Terminator styled HP to be amusing.

Yak.
I'll be back

 

You've got no idea how hard I'm laughing right now, Oz. Lawl. 8D

Yak.

 

Hah, When I was little my parents would bring me to church. At one point during the mass, the priest would say "and now we pray for our personal wishes" meaning cure me or some such shit.

I would ask god to make me a power ranger. I even bargained, "I'd prefer to be the white ranger, but the red ranger will do." That was sad.

 

I think it's a pretty common prayer. I can remember praying to be as smart as Mr. Fantastic and as strong as The Thing when I was a little tyke....

That it never happened contributed to my atheism, I know it.

 

Yep, I figured out that god wasn't real when I didn't transform into a six foot tall hispanic looking guy with a fetish for white.

Because what type of god wouldn't grant a child that wish?

 

I have to ask, what led to that?

Please, we don't want a thread about religion.

 

RoboJesus, I'm talking about the books, not the movies or video games. Revan and the Knights of the Old Republic didn't just appear out of the game makers' asses. Have him find his way to a book store after watching the movie and hearing some nerds talk about how cool the books coming out are. These are books he can actually get into and he starts to think about his life, blah blah blah, and decides that, like Revan and Malak, he is going to use whatever means necessary to achieve his goals.

 

Revan and Knights of the Old Republic did, in fact, originate with Bioware. In the timeframe in question, they did not exist in any way, shape, or form.

As far as books are concerned, I don't think there was much beyond the Thrawn trilogy at that point, and that might have come out a bit after he started Hogwarts.

Narion

 

Dear god, this is very useful info. Oh, this is actually very good, as it gives me valid reason for Harry to want to create his own killer robot later on. Those familiar with KOTOR should understand why this is lulz worthy.

1992 to be exact. Dark Empire (which looking at the plot of it is definitely going to capture Harry's attention due to Voldemort's apparent non-death) came out around mid to late 1991. Ahh, here's a listing for everything printed by Dark Horse comics in chronological order. And here's the release dates for the novels.

Hmm, out of curiousity, is there anyplace that lists what houses go to the same classes together for each year? I know for example that Gryffindor and Slytherin first years both share potions classes, but beyond that, I never paid much attention to those sort of details. Any help?

 

Tech plus magic? Meh. They tend to be mutually exclusive and I haven't seen it done well yet.

Yak.

 

You know that saying "Any technology advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic"? Well, it has a corollary which says that "Any magic advanced enough is indistinguishable from technology."

It's hard at times, but one is not to be confused with the other.

 

Fosfor has no claim on the idea. Permission to use the idea is not his to grant or withold. Copyright law is very clear about this: you can copyright a story, but you cannot copyright an idea. Not even JKR can sue someone for writing a book about a boy who goes to a magical school and fights an evil wizard. She can sue them if the boy's name is Harry and the school is Hogwarts, and the villian is Voldemort, but she can't sue someone who writes about Berry Splatter who goes to Cowpox University for magical studies, and who ends up fighting Moldy Shorts, the evil sorcerer.

If ideas were copyrightable, then NOTHING would be written anymore, except for every fifty years (now seventy) after an author died, and their idea became public domain again. Then it would be a massive race to the publishing house to get the next book with that idea published, and guess what, if the publishing house decided they didn't like the first one they saw, they would be bound by the law not to publish the best one that came after, since as soon as you write something down, it's "Copyrighted". So a shitty book would lock up anyone elses ability to use the idea for another 90 years. Just fucking great. That's why ideas are explicitly uncopyrightable.

Fuck this honorbound shit. That's what laws are for. Write your story. It sound superior anyway.

 

Ahem, Evil Magic Robot? Have you heard of the sadistic awesomeness of HK-47 in SW: KOTOR? Easily the most amusing in KOTOR and it's sequel.
Research him .... NOW!

 

Why does this movie have to occur on television? Is it so far fetched that the Dursleys wouldn't rent Rambo or something?

For Harry's inspiration to be believable, I think you'll need a deeper villain than Darth Vader. A villain with a deep reason for choosing evil, a villain young Harry can relate to. Obviously, Rambo or Vader won't fufill those criteria, but, I'm sure there's something.... right?

I can't really think of anything. Maybe you should consider another form of media? I guess Harry being a bookworm is cliche, but you could always use literature...

However a Vader inspired Harry would make a great humor fic.

 

Monte Cristo might be a decent lead in if you're after more of a 'revenge' evil than a 'homicidal psychopath' evil. There have been enough movie versions of it made that you could still have Harry see it on TV rather than going the bookworm route.

Then there's always the off chance of a documentary on some famous dictator sparking the change - Caesar comes to mind - but the concept just feels... unrealistic, somewhat stupid. Also, someone, (I can't recall who), already wrote a Harry inspired by a Churchill documentary. Might have been Bobmin, but don't quote me on that. It would probably be better to choose a modern dictator anyway; it would impact Harry a bit more, as video footage conveys events so much better than any historical description.

On that note, if you want to go the 'homicidal psychopath' route, you could twist several influences together. Darth Vader is a good emblem of raw power, but lacks depth and methods. Pair that with a Hitler documentary, and the stage is set for a psychotic, racist Dark Lord trying to eliminate muggles. The only problem with that is, of course, that's pretty much Voldemort in a nutshell: thinly veiled pseudo-Nazi politics and methods with an air of mental instability and a slight tint of vengeance.

Back to the original thought here, Monte Cristo seems like the sort of influence you're talking about, assuming I'm interpreting the OP correctly. Cristo is downtrodden, betrayed, driven to the absolute depths of human misery, and then, through a single event, he gains power and manipulates people, money, politics, and brute force to repay those who wronged him. Harry is in the same state, is given power through the realization that he can do magic, and, in emulating Cristo, takes revenge first on those who have wronged him directly, and then, perhaps, muggles in general.

Just general ideas; take them or leave them- I'm not going to end up using them.


filler

 

YES. The Count of Monte Cristo is in my top ten list of favorite books. I would love to see Count!Harry or Revenge!Harry. Evil!Psychopathic!Harry does nothing for me. I like Harry to be intelligent, but blindly hating someone for their blood and ancestry is not smart. It's actually pretty fucking stupid.

 

I recall this having been done before. Check the Azkaban section of the library)--I remember one where Harry goes by the alias "Edmond Cristo" after he gets out and he's completely unforgiving to anyone but Luna and the Weasley twins. He turns Ginny into a dog and Malfoy into a ferret and leaves them that way if I remember right....

 

That would be "Do Not Meddle in the Affairs of Wizards" by Corwalch