When did anybody's opinion become important? Apart from Sirius's, or maybe Dumbledore's.

 

The traits to Molly's character are there in canon (or at least hinted at lightly) but they're fairly light/subtle - they are exaggerated too heavily in this fic.

Kind of like Ron's stupidity being stretched out in other fandom stories, making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

I don't really think they're terribly subtle in canon. She's clearly extraordinarily protective of anyone she sees as "her kid". She also worries about the people 'her kids' are in relationships with. IIRC she bitches about Bill and Fleur. In GOF she sends Hermione a Howler after reading about her supposed relationship with Harry. Not what I would call light or subtle.

And even if these character traits were light and subtle, they're hardly exaggerated in this fic. What's she done? Had a conversation with Lupin and other adults about her concerns. Has she come down like a ton of bricks on anyone? No. She's worried that an emotionally confused 22 year old might be taking advantage or emotionally harming a heartsick, emotionally confused, naive 16 year old she sees as a son. Her concerns and the conversation she had with Lupin are entirely justified.

The only other thing she may have done is contrived jobs and such to limit there time together. We don't even know for sure this happened, it's just Harry's perception. And if she did, not only is not out of line, it's entirely in character for canon Molly. That's exactly what she did in DH to prevent Harry and co. from planning and scheming.

So whether Molly's opinion is relevant or not, I think she's being written in way that absolutely complies with her canon character. Everyone's just overly sensitized by the thousands of "harridan Molly" fics and are afraid this will go the same way.

 

I gotta admit, looking at it from that perspective, it does sort of make more sense.

 

Sappy, but yeah this chapter did improve the story. I'm afraid she's going to ruin it by turning it into canon-rehash laced with H/T based on her poll, though..

 

We are Nothing

I thing i deserves a recommendation. It is the beginning of a beautiful friendship....

 

Yeah, on the one hand it's Ruskbyte, so 85% chance it'll be very,very good.

On the other hand, it's Ruskbyte, so 85% it'll be abandoned :O

 

Well, I've found something new to meet my monthly gore requirements. And its a well writen, interesting story too.



Edit: I'd forgotten that it was Ruskbyte that wrote "Evil Be Thou My Good." Now that was a fucked up little crossover that I heartily recommend

 

I was going to recommend that just now, but it seems you beat me to it. I absolutely love this story right now. I just can't wait to read more of it! I figured out it was Freddy after it started talking about his burnt up face and claws. Turns out this'll be good if he finishes the story.

 

Ruskbyte in general makes me a bit wary; some of the content in his stories are a tad bit...eh.

I have been following the story, however; heh, Draco's fate was fuckin' hilarious.

 

I agree on that one. That was good.

 

As per the suggestion of another reviewer, I've posted my story, Healing Hands, down at the WbA section.
Criticism and feedback are greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

River of Dreams

While I personally would give this story a 4/5, I can admit I'm somewhat biased (and at the time I read it, it was the first lengthy story in a good long while that was in any way readable). To sum up, this a story from Snape's perspective, AU from the beginning of year 5. There aren't any huge plot changes in the beginning, but there are some that are fairly significant later on. Harry isn't even the most prominent secondary character (past chapter 10 or so), so liking this fic is largely dependent on how much you like Snape as a character.

Thankfully, Snape is very well characterized.

 

Daddy's Favorite

A set of related character sketches immediately post OOTP. We see a number of people's inner thoughts, justifications for the actions, and musing on relationships and history, both recent and older. Generally the vignettes center loosely on thoughts about Harry, Dumbledore and the Harry-Dumbledore relationship. Some of them are fantastic and a few are just atrocious. Mixed bag. 17 vignettes in total.

In order they go:

Sprout
McGonagall
Arthur Weasley
Snape
Flitwick
Tonks
Moody
Malfoy
Lupin
Ron
Petunia
Umbridge
Percy
Sirius
Hermione
Dung Fletcher
Bill Weasley

They don't necessarily have to be read in order, they don't rely on each other to be understood. I really enjoyed the McGonagall, Flitwick and Petunia vignettes. Dung's was pretty good too, if short, and something about Tonks's I liked a lot. On the other hand Ron's, Percy's and Hermione's were absolutely atrocious. Sirius's was not only bad but contrived (it comes in the forms of letters delivered with his will). The rest didn't inspire strong feelings one way or the other.

 

This story is basically finished. It's been mentioned before on DLP in the "fanfiction's worst summaries," and I agree, the summary isn't very close to the subject or tone of the story:

New chapter from brainchild,

Title: Backfire
Category: Harry Potter
Character(s): Ginny W. & Harry P.
Chapter 22 Title: The Generations
Words: 10,748
Genre(s): Adventure/Romance
Rating: Rated: K+
Summary: School was a game Ginny Weasley didn't have to play particularly
hard. Lessons came naturally. Exams were easy. She was in control. But the
summer after the Department of Mysteries her ordered life starting blasting
itself apart. And it was awesome.
URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4280006/22/

It's basically a "near-canon" (several basic plot elements remain the same, though there are a few notable differences) book 6 and 7 told from Ginny's POV. Some of the good: The quality of writing is decent. Ginny, though running around with Tom Riddle's memories in her head, isn't as much an obvious Mary Sue as one might expect from a story like this. Her character is done interestingly and her banter with her brothers is written believably (you'll see what I mean if you have a large family with several siblings). Many of the OCs are interesting. Ginny's romantic relationships, while tedious at times, are at least handled credibly and her banter with Nott is decent. There's quite a lot of fleshing out of pureblood culture, so the story feels like more than what one gets out of the books. It's complete (or nearly so), though not flagged as such. (Only an epilogue to go).

Some of the not so good: Many of the OCs (there are plenty) are not terribly interesting and tend to glom together. I couldn't bring myself to care about their problems. Throughout the story, Ginny comports much like a conflicted adult, not a 15 year old. She does have a few Mary Sue moments (e.g., her meeting with the Minister) that strain credulity. The banter with her brothers gets rather tiring after awhile, since it's largely filler. Major plot elements in book 7 are adhered to, which gives the whole an air of predictability. The ending in particular was guessable a dozen chapters prior.

In all, an "almost recommended" story. 2/5 for those who implicitly hate Ginny as a character; 3/5 for those who don't. It's not Library material, but it is fairly readable as these stories go.

 

I guess if I had to rate them (on a five point scale):
Sprout: 3.25; McGon: 3.0; Arthur: 3.5; Snape: 3.75; Flit: 4.0; Tonks: 3.25; Moody: 3.75; Malfoy: 3.25; Lupin: 2.75; Ron: 2.5; Petunia: 3.75; Umby: 3.0; Percy: 2.5; Sirius: 3.0; Hermy: 3.0; Dung: 3.25; Bill 3.0. So basically a not bad, but not distinctively good set. The pervasive "Dumbledore loves Harry as a son" thing got sort of tiring after a while.

Here's another compilation of "almost recommended" perspective one-shots. It's different from that one you linked: it's not centered around Harry, it's not centered around one point in time, and it's a bit more angsty. But like "Daddy's Favorite," the better chapters tend to be the ones for minor characters.

Defining Moments, by multiple authors

I seem to recall liking the ones for Petunia, Hannah, Andromeda, and Lucius. And the ones for Percy and Luna might have been the best of the major character chapters. On the other hand, Harry's, Ginny's, and Angelina's were dreadful, and Dumbledore's was below average.

 

While I don't remember Hermione receiving a Howler from Molly, specifically (she did from many others, along with the letter filled with undiluted bubotuber pus), Molly did use Easter as an opportunity to piss all over her.

Ron and Harry both got Easter eggs from her that were "the size of dragon eggs", filled with homemade toffees. Rather than simply not send Hermione one at all, Molly sent one that was "smaller than a chicken egg" just to make it clear she was being snubbed.

Contrary to all of the fanfics that have Hermione avoiding candy because her parents are dentists, she doesn't seem to shy away from it in canon. There was a scene in GoF with the three of them in Hogsmeade eating "large cream-filled chocolates" from Honeydukes. So, when she was clearly upset about the "tiny" egg Molly had sent her, it was probably as much about the candy she was missing out on as it was Ron's mom being so bent out of shape that she'd make such a nasty, petty dig at her.

All that from a magazine article Molly read, written by a known trash journalist.

Is it any wonder, then, that this is the seed in canon that grew into Molly being willing to believe anything about anyone, no matter how well she knew them, as long as it was printed in black and white (or spoken by Dumbledore), and then reacting upon what she'd read in a very incendiary fashion, without bothering to check the facts first?

Anyway...

I've been reading The Rebel and the Chosen, and have to admit that I think the Harry/Tonks relationship has been done quite well. It's a far cry from what we usually see of that ship, with them instantly falling for each other, right before they get horizontal.

For H/Hr, I don't mind skipping a lot of the courtship, because they've been spending nearly every waking moment with each other for five years (since most fics are post-OoTP), but other ships, particularly H/Tonks, require quite a bit more work, and rightly so.

 

Huh, IIRC Molly's reaction to Hermione (aside from the Easter Egg Warlocke mentioned) was act coolly to her during the pre-Third Task meeting, until Harry told her that Hermione wasn't his girlfriend.
The Molly-Howler thing probably come from one of the fanfics.

 

I really liked the Percy, Charity and Lucius and surprisingly, Dobby. I thought Andromeda and Kendra Dumbledore were pretty good too. Most of the rest ranged from just above to just below average. Except for three. Harry, Ginny and Dumbledore were bad. Aggressively terrible even. Especially Harry and Ginny. Those were so ridiculous I wasn't sure whether to lol or facepalm.

---------- Post automerged at 02:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:00 PM ----------

Yeah I screwed up there. I conflated the Howler's she received with the easter eggs from Molly. My mistake.

Doesn't really change my point though. As Warlocke pointed the, the Easter Egg snub was blatant. Molly's not one to hide her opinions, especially if she thinks you're harming one of 'her kids.' It's overblown in fanon sure, but not in The Rebel and The Chosen.