Erm, I'm like 90% sure this fic has been written and is reasonably far along in the beta process. That's why number 1) in his master plan is to POST this fic, not write or finish it. Number 4 is to finish writing the sequel to this.

Here's the list for those who don't want to sign up for the forums there:

That said, most should know I'm a Jeco fanboy and can rarely offer an unbiased opinion. Personally, I think fully embracing the fairy-tale aspects of a story are the sort of idea that would be awful in 99% of authors' hands but fucking brilliant here. The need for conflict, danger, drama, and angst is necessary for a great many stories. But not all.

People often interpret that to mean conflict and drama for the characters, when conflict and drama for the readers is every bit as useful. Keeping a reader in suspense, letting them work out a mystery, or merely observe as a happy story is recounted can make for an excellent fanfic. I can tell you right now, Harry wins. He's just about the super-est around. He and Gabrielle have a whirlwind romance and a fairy tale happily ever after life.

But that doesn't change the fact that I'm giddy with anticipation to read more about it. Today is Thursday, the day Jeconais usually updates, so we might see another chapter of this fic today. I'm hoping.

Personally, I don't think there's anywhere near enough of a start here for anyone to have made a judgment. It's a fine start. Nothing terribly revolutionary yet. I have faith that updates will surprise me, interest me, make me smile and laugh, and primarily entertain me for the time it takes to read (and re-read). But I like fairy tales so much more than worrying over Draco suddenly being a good guy, or Snape pulling one over on our heroes. You can nitpick over characterizations or plot holes, but to do so, in my opinion misses the point of this.

As for Jeco's females being interchangeable, well that's got more than a grain of truth to it. But it's more a statement on the sort of Harry he writes about. One whose shy, heroic, and needs a strong supportive woman for him to focus on. It's almost always about the female practically leading Harry by the hand through the trials and tribulations of a relationship, and Harry's almost always better at it than most idiot men are. Very open, honest, vulnerable feelings (and other assorted bullshit - the kind of stuff God created 'skimming' for). And they usually are extremely protective of each other. Since lately, they've been underdeveloped minor characters like Pansy, Daphne, Gabrielle, etc... it's easily to see why the personalities Jeco gives them ring familiar.

Truthfully, I'm halfway expecting this fic's story to have a tone similar to Chances. In that it's primarily fluff. Humorous entertaining fluff, but fluff. Certainly not the sort of story the average DLPer drools over, but in Jeconais' capable hands I suspect more will enjoy it than not.

 

Pretty much what Nonjon said.
It's not a story i would post on DLP (seriously, he SAID it's a friggin fairy-tale), but it's most likely still going to be a fairly entertaining piece of fluff.
Beside, from what i saw so far (few signatures on their board) this story will have a few rather good lines ;-)

 

What does that got to do with not being DLP.net worthy? For fuck's sake what do you think we have a Romance section or a Humor/Parody section for if not for these kinds of fics? When the fuck did this place become emo? Do you have to wear all black and BAWWWWWWWWW to be a member of DLP.net now or something?

Are we only allowed to read fics where Harry canabalizes Ginny's corpse and says "Needs more ketchup..." I mean shit...

The main reason why I started coming here in the first place way back when was due to the stories being recommended here having some depth and due to them being different...having quality! Sure Jeconais' fics sometimes fall flat in the middle and most everyone here hates the way he failed so hard in the end of WKGQ, but does anyone here regret reading the first half of that fic? I mean really regret it?

Personally I'll take the lamest of Jeconais' fics over the best of some of the other writers that get recommended here. And I say that having read the crap that was his _Fifth House_ so I know how much Jeconais' writing has improved over the years... So give me an f'ing break, eh?

Now should we give him a pass if his story fails over all? Hell no! We never do that--but at least give the man a chance to tell his story and then how about we evaluate it on its merits, not this pseudo-cool snobbery that seems to have developed where everyone rushes in as quickly he can to say how shitty something is. Or trying to say that a Harry Potter fic isn't DLP.net worthy....just because its a happyfic.

--bornagainpenguin

 

I pretty much agree with bornagainpenguin and nonjon's last two post, while restating that we haven't seen enough of the story to give a one star or 6 billion star rating yet.

Give it about 4-5 chapters I say, then figure out a rating to give it. You can't tell how a story will turn out with just two chapters to it's name...

 

Settle down BAP. Though admittedly, I was amused to see you so irritated and swearing left and right. It's a different side of the DLP Archivist.

I understand where you're coming from, but I'm not sure taking it out on slasheh is going to help. As much as some like to think DLP is the one true voice and judge of goodfic, it's never that simple. DLP isn't a board dedicated to a ship, or a genre necessarily, but there is a certain attitude here. There are certain styles, pairings, or even fanfiction conventions that many will be predisposed towards.

Sugary sweet waffy fluff with very little else isn't an easy sell here. Neither is slash or Harry/Ginny. It doesn't mean it'll never make the cut, just that some have a more rigorous screening process than others.

As for me, there are a number of authors or fics that I enjoy reading but doubt the general "DLP" mindset would agree with me. It's not as if your taste in goodfic and my taste in goodfic are wrong, but the collective DLP taste in goodfic differs. I'd imagine just about everyone has a fic or two in which they disagree with the collective DLP taste in goodfic (or badfic), but the forum's for the collective. And the collective isn't known for loving the sugary sweet fluff.

Well not yet at least.

 

So, new chapter.

Again, some parts where I just couldn't help but shake my head. The Sorting Hat, for example. "zOMG, you're like, too sneaky for Slytherin". That just rubs me the wrong way.

Also, masochist!Goblin was over the top.

Other than that, basically more of the same. Not necessarily bad, but nothing that stood out as awesome to me.

 

I really didn't think that last chapter was very good; the first bit is very well done (and quite humorous, I like the 'there was no way one could have a drippy princess'), but the rest, which is to say 3/4 of the chapter, was really boring. And maybe I read that with my brain turned off, but I thought some of the writing just fell flat or didn't make much sense.

 

The writing did seem to lose some of its... personality later in the chapter. I enjoyed it, sure, but it really wasn't up to par with his regular works. I don't mind fluff, and I enjoy humor, as evidenced by my enjoyment of "This Means War", and the ever classic "White Knight, Grey Queen", but this just isn't doing it for me for some reason. 3/5

 

It fell short. It's almost like he's not even trying. I don't have much hope for the next chapters at all. 2/5

 

Jaco is an excellent writer and I'd be sad to see him go. This one is like Hope in that you have to be in a particular mood to read it. ?That being said, once the storyline develops, it'll be much more interesting.

 

I liked the third chapter better than the other parts. There are still parts that are just too annoying to me to enjoy. It is getting better. Maybe further on it won't be as incredibly corny as it seems right now?

 

Yeah...sorry about that I'd been having issues with some hardware and some Ubuntu related configuration that was kicking my ass, but its sorted now.

Point. Sorry about singling you out in my post above slasheh, you're certainly not the only one who does what I was ranting about and probably aren't the worst offender of it at that. Your post just happened to be the one that set me off though...

I don't expect DLP to be the lone voice of the resistan---err the final arbiter of what is and isn't goodfic; I do how ever expect people to have good reasons for disliking a fic or for saying it isn't good enough for DLP. One of the forums I used to go to had a guy who would literally "craps on fic" to nearly every single fic that got posted. Sure, some of them deserved it, and some of their authors could have done more to improve their work--but over time as this guy crapped more and more often on fics posted, said fics became fewer and fewer...

Be honest--what would we do if it weren't for a certain someone who goes out of their way to post fics in the reccs section? How many fics are in the library because they were reccommended by that one person? Sure we all want quality in our library, but if everyone is too afraid of getting bitched at (posting format) or crapped on (I hate this pairing!!11) to post what may or may not be a good fic, what would we read for fun?

Meh...I'm not advocating for any of that stuff. I just don't want the only fics here to be the canabal ketchup kind I mentioned above. There's a place for that--sure--but I always thought the "Dark" in Dark Lord Potter was in the mindset of seeking more realism and realistic portrayls of characters and events in Harry Potter fanfiction. For something other than Twuuu Lufff fanfics to proliferate and take over.

DLP was a breath of fresh air when GinnyPotter.con was one of the bigger fansites around. I don't think I need to tell you what the quality of those fics were usually like....

I'm sure they do. All I'm saying is there's nothing that says we can't enjoy a few good sugary sweet snacks occasionally in the Romance or the Humor section. The idea that we only like evil!Harry fics is a misnomer or misunderstanding I've always thought so at least--my thinking was not that we favored evil!Harry, but that we favored strong!Harry and independant!Harry fics, and if that meant the rest of the world thinks being independent and strong was evil, so be it.

I still have strong hopes for this fic being that, but given the omnious author's note at the end this fic could still end up being something none of us have anticipated...

For all we know Harry could be dreaming this whole thing still in the grave yard! We won't know anything until we find out what "really" happened in Chapter three.... And that could change everything from being a romance or a romp into something seriously twisted. I hope not though...

--bornagainpenguin (off to grab another beer see ya all later!)

 

Not my usual cup of tea, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless. After a hell lot of cliches and dark magic crap, it is refreshing to read something a bit more light. Though I was annoyed at cry-baby Harry, I guess its understandable if you consider it carefully.

I personally like Jeconais' style of writing, because it leaves a nice feeling on you. If this continues being a story full of pranks like the one he pulled in the second chapter, I know am going to enjoy this much more.

4.5/5.........

 

It's updated.

 

Latest chapter: Shittiest story I ever enjoyed reading. Not " Lulzy fangirl is lulzy" enjoyment, but the real deal. MrJoe better watch out: the original Cliche Whore wants his title back.

2.2/5 - the story really is quite bad, but....not.

 

No one else has quite this amount of style with cliche and touchy-feely stuff. I actually find myself semi looking forward to the next chapter and am always surprised that i can get into something like this.

 

New chapter is up and I happen to enjoy it. Although, I must say Gab's personality seems a little...fragile.

 

It isn't bad for fluff. Everything that is Harry/Gabrielle sickens me with its sweetness but the other parts of the story aren't as annoying. It isn't my cup of tea but I think I'll follow it.

 

I like Jeconais, I've been a fan since TMW and really enjoyed Hope, but this is barely readable.

Besides the fact that Harry's entire demeanor and behavior since waking up is entirely implausible (and is quite frankly ludicrous), on a fundamental level the story just doesn't work conceptually. Jeconais seems to have missed the very real necessity of conflict in any sort of 'fairy tale', especially an actual conflict where the out come is in some sort of doubt.

In fact, in such a way that a fairy tale is a myth that helps adults and children alike to understand fundamental aspects (evil, love, ect.) of the world through fantastic events, this isn't a fairy tale at all. There is no difficulty in the achievement of love, no pressure exerted by the world, no difficulties presented by anything. This isn't even really a romance, as such a story would require effort on the part of the lovers to be with their beloved (as separate from the idiotic 'finding ways to make the relationship work'). In short, there is absolutely no reason to read this story, no motivating force for any action whatsoever.

Leaving aside for the fact that the plot bearly deserves the name, the Manipulative! Dumbledore plot clashes horribly with the Subconscious learning idea, as nothing would prevent Dumbledore (with unrestricted and unlimited access to the unconscious Harry) from completely rewiring Harry into a puppet. Especially as Hermione did pretty much the same thing, if only in reverse.

This story still suffers from the appalling Jeconais shtick of secondary characters having deep conversations and using painfully silly titles to describe his 'heroes'. Normally this weirdness is offset by action scenes, like the dancing seen in Hope, but this story offers little hope of such relief.

Another particularly loathsome device, the conversation between one of the Heroes (Harry or Girlfriend) and some other character which leads to changing the world (I.E. Lavender's robe shop in TMW or the Quiddich Team in Hope) makes its return as well. This is a tremendously stupid way of driving the plot as it a) ruins any chance of surprise, b) burdens the story with untold amounts of 'planning' dreck, and c) ridiculously inflates the capabilities of the Hero (like the Goblins with all their wealth have never heard of Venture Capital?). Plus after the 10th time all of Harry's friends are stunned by his brilliance, its not only annoying but retarded.

I guess I have still read through most of the chapters, which speaks to Jeconais' (and his Betas') abilities with grammar, spelling and writing compelling sentences.

2/5