Title: Yes, I am Harry's Brother
Author: Ynyr
Rating: M
Genre: Romance/Horror
Status: Complete
Library Category: AU?
Pairings: Voldemort & N. Tonks
Summary: Five years after his defeat the shade of Voldemort visits Harry Potter, and has a slight accident with one of his Horcruxes. The Dark Lord wanted a new body, but this isn't what he had in mind.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8192853/1/Yes-I-am-Harry-s-Brother

I found this on a rec list and just finished reading it. It might be the whiskey, but I found it entertaining. By the end you're rooting for Voldy, and while it has some cliches (which prevent it from becoming a 5, in my book) it was a fun read. I don't know... I'm really just curious what the rest of DLP makes of it. 4/5 from me, rounded down.

One thing I liked was how no matter how 'likable' he became, Voldemort was a bastard until the end.

 

Voldemort and Harry have poor characterization, the writing is bad, and I can't bring myself to take the story seriously with parts like this:

 

I've always enjoyed his stories, they're generally cracky but fun. His characters tend to be a little psychopathic though, like the Star Empire guy but not as extreme.

And @Caledwich: Yeah that probably is not one of the story's best moments

 

More than a little. There are no characters in Ynyr stories not totally fine with murdering someone in cold blood. I assume the author is simply autistic and does not understand how emotions work or something.

I do enjoy his stories, though. They're completely ridiculous at times and completely pivot directions with little warning but with the right perspective they can be fun.

 

I think the author himself is a psychopath. All his characters lack any kind of empathy and I don't think that's just a lack of writing skills or intentional.

 

I strongly disagree with almost all of you. I started the fic last night and read it all by sunrise. I was cautious in the first chapters, but as the story progressed I started to enjoy it.

I liked it a lot. It was something different from all that slash shit. And that it’s Voldemort centric is a plus. He's one of the most utilized characters in the fandom and one of the most bastardized by unskilled authors.

I could buy almost everything Voldemort did, magical and normal, because he is a genius, so the author avoided the gary stu bullshit.
I liked he made Voldemort think. Stop while being a shade and fuckin' think. Why he was defeated, what he could do to come back and win, etc.

The whole reabsorbing the horcruxes is something I toyed with. Something I like to read, so that was another plus. Lord Voldemort stayed on character in an 80%; the other 20% was a joker. Dumbledored did explain that Voldemort seemed to lose his humanity with the transformations he performed.

Obviously the whole fic is crackish; Lord Voldemort, ladies and gentleman, is a madman (so no point in critic that) and (I repeat) a fuckin' genius. But the obviousness didn't bother me.

I would give a 5 point score if it wasn't for: Dumbledore, LV and HP as musicians, the OotP, some of the writing itself and Snape's characterization.


4/5

 

I read this all the way through and found it to be fairly entertaining. There are serious crack fic elements to it but I enjoy the genre.

Spoiler Alert

Things that I skimmed over or rolled my eyes at or otherwise thought sucked:
- 12 - 13 year old Voldy screwing like a cat in heat. Ummm??? Those parts felt very juvenile and had a serious squick factor especially since a 20 something is doing a 12 year old kid and doesn't find that odd. The way Bella was treated made me actually feel sorry for her.
- Snape was totally a waste in terms of characterization (he would never destroy the portrait, he might actually try to screw it or worse)
- The ending with the impact on Muggles detoured a little bit from what I expected but was okay
- Needs an edit as each chapter has at least one or two sentences with the wrong word or spelling.
- Skips some of the fun parts like Vito winning the Triwizard tournament


I did like how Vito was very much like a less insane and incompetent and single-mindedly self-destructive caricature of a bad guy and an actual bad guy that you could still sort of root for.

As for the comment about the author being able to write quicky murders and that somehow meaning there was something wrong with them, wtf?

 

It was my favourite part of the story (I am sucker for stories with Magicals and Muggles stuff, first good explanation for keeping the Stone for themselves by Flamels that I encountered, I have no idea why but in fanon!Dumbledorish fashion I thought that Voldemort is somehow getting less evil and I love when things "detoured a little bit from what I expected").

 

I agree that the idea is excellent but the rest of the story didn't build to it which is probably why I found it to be tacked on at the end. I can imagine a whole story built around that particular reason why the stone wasn't made more common.

What I really enjoyed about the ending was Vito's threatning of Daphne at the end and the fact that he still didn't realize what HP's power was even though he was already trapped by it in a way and thus a teensy bit less evil even though his body count is higher than his previous life.

 

Do you have no sense of fun, or is Harry being something other than a horribly neglected and unhappy child just utterly abhorrent to you?

It's humorous crackfic. 5/5 for being literate, readable, having a logical progression of plot, and being fairly obvious about what it is. CrackyTrollfic.

 

Utter tripe.

0/5

 

I gave it a 3/5. It's weird; I don't mind dark themes as long as they're done well, so this 'fic definitely had potential, but it kind of trips over its own shoelaces at times. The jarring out-of-character bits at random times (Voldemort's interest in Muggle music) are one example.

It also sometimes seems like things proceed exactly as fast as the plot needs them to, whether they're fully-baked or not. Voldemort's relationship with Tonks, for instance. Or the last chapter - it kind of reads like the fanfic version of Xenogears disc 2. 'We ran out of time so we're just going to tell the player/reader about a bunch of stuff that would have gone into the last few dungeons/chapters'.

 

The fic isn't terrible, it's just consistently disappointing. It's like a series of jokes with the punchlines removed.

 

If you mean main characters, then maybe, but otherwise, this is such a hilariously false statement that I can't help but assume its a flat out intentional lie.

Although reading some of the other reviews, especially the 0/5 review*, , I have to wonder if this board is biased against Voldemort victory, and anything that drastically changes Harry's childhood. Maybe you people haven't realized this, but quite literally, the entire point of fanfiction is to write about a fiction, but do so in a way that makes it alternate history. Some changes are minor, some are major. It actually appears like some people can't get over that hump. Kinda sad really.

*This rating should be used for stories that have horrific grammar, shitty story, shitty premise, and utterly terrible execution. I don't think I have bothered to read a fic that ever warranted a 0/5.

You're missing the actual jokes, some are less obvious. Such as:

*Voldemort just floating about reading newspapers.
*Voldemort actually able to enter Harry's home
*Voldemort being an uber Marty Stu with outrageous resources and maniupulative ability, while simultaneously demonstrating how it would be justifiable. A 60 year old genius with a known ability to maneuver quite gracefully in social situation and decades to prepare for shit hitting the fan. This bit is a jab at Potter Stus, and PeggySue plots in general which have SuperHarry.
*Voldemort hooking up with Tonks. All of it. Entirely a snark at slash fic in general.
*Voldemort drastically improving Harry's childhood.
*etcetcetc

The entire thing is, start to finish, a laugh at PeggySue, SuperHarry, ManipulativeHarry, IndependentHarry, AdoptedByMalfoys Harry(Adopted by any evil person really), the ridiculousness of half of slash fiction, MartyStuOCs, etc etc. All of it using Voldemort as a fairly legit way to have any of these things happen. Pointing out exactly how brilliant, ruthless, outrageously powerful, and prepared any of the previous would have to be in order to actually function.

It might as well be the Dark Lord masquerading as Harry or Harry's brother.

So, Taure, that's the punchline, every Super Harry, Dark Harry, because the entire thing is one. Although now I wonder if anyone has done a PeggySue plot, except its Voldemort who gets sent back to when Dumbledore introduced himself....

 

I think you're missing the point of the Library. It's for reviewing the stories, not the readers.

 

It appears you missed a truly staggeringly large portion of my post, which directly concerned the fic itself.

Which firmly belongs in humor as a Stealth Parody.

 

The vast majority of what you wrote was listing the ways Taure (and other's) opinions on the story was wrong. That's not a critique on the story, Knoq. That's, as Careotters said, a critique on the reviewers.

This story was posted for review more than a year ago, and was completed some time before that. It was dismissed, it was put in the recycling bin. You did not add anything to the conversation about the story, other than to admonish other readers for not having the same high opinion of the story as you did.

 

Arguing with this person is pointless as far as I'm concerned. I figure if we ignore him, maybe he'll go away.

It's very rarely that I miss the lynch mob DLP used to have, but he makes me nostalgic.

 

Are there any interesting examples of the lynch mob that I could take a look at? I joined too late for those I think.

 

The hall of shame, or the earlier days of the introduction form are a good place to start. There was a reason we closed the introduction forum.

I'm on my phone and not in a position to go searching, but I'm sure others will be able to help.