Research shows that if a person has a sex change after puberty they keep the same sexual preference while people who have sex changes before puberty usually (though not always) prefer the opposite to what they physically are.

Once formed, sexual preference is a product of the mind; regardless of writers wanting Harry to fall in love with Draco all of a sudden because he now has breasts.

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So, it is normally (again, not always) formed by your gender during the very early stages of puberty but once you have it it doesn't change.

 

The guy who wrote Geth posted another completed fic. A Harry Potter/ Lilo&Stitch/ Hawai-Five-0 . Not very nice.

 

You know, were talking here about MAGIC change into a 100% member of the opposite sex and not real life sex change operations, right??

 

I'm not going to bother argue this.

 

This pic works for fantasy books, too:

 

It sounds a lot like you're arguing that your sex determines your sexual orientation.

 

It sounds a lot more like he's arguing that magic exists in a fantasy world and can do whatever the fuck an author wants it do. Whether it's written well, or believably written or not is a whole other discussion, but a magical whammy altering Harry's sexual orientation isn't any more inherently ridiculous than a magical whammy changing him into a woman in the first place.

Though I suppose your interpretation of his argument could be correct. I prefer to operate on the assumption people on DLP are generally not complete morons though.

/me shrugs

 

Isn't the topic of this discussion a fic that changed HP's gender on a purely physical level? He was even freaking out about the fact that he had tits and such.

 

I wouldn't know about the fic. I saw genderbent Harry in LOTR and just skipped right over it.

The tenor of the whole discussion though, seemed to me to immediately move away from the specific fic and become about genderbent fics in the abstract. Hence my comment.

Though I'm pretty damn drunk, so if I misread the whole discussion, mah apologies TWT.

 

Fairly sure his body wasn't magically changed....it's more akin to his mind being ripped from his body and placed in the body of his orignal life. Even his 6000 year old other personality seems fairly asexual.

 

Meh, I honestly didn't read it all that closely; just recalled the fic that originally kicked things off. Nah apologies needed brah.

Now that's just asking for far too much.

 

Bullseye.

/10char

 

Back to the Beginning by CrystallineX was meh. I read all of it but rather wish I hadn't wasted the time. It's cookie cutter canon rehash of LotR with your typical self-insert along for the ride.

Harry isn't anything like Harry, which would work if he felt like the 70 year old he's supposed to be, but he's petulant, rash, argumentative, quick to anger, temperamental and "witty", by which I mean the author's failed attempts at making him witty. The fact that he's in a female body doesn't really enter the story at all, which makes you wonder why the author did it at all. The only possible explanation is the old self-insert thing. You could take out about 10 sentences from the story and that would be enough to remove the fem!Harry element.

The "Harry is a maia" bit, which was the main attraction of the story, was terribly executed. Essentially Harry is a maia only when it's convenient for the plot, otherwise he is a wizard as in the HP universe. Further, his "maia" identity isn't so much a version of himself -- though they are meant to be of the same soul -- as it is an entirely OC character.

A very bad OC at that, whose motivations and characterisation are just all over the shop and completely unbelievable. An immortal, ageless, wise angelic being who acts like a teen girl, holding grudges and getting into petty arguments. Hurrah. Occasionally she (the maia) will take over Harry in what is essentially a possession to advance the plot in directions the author wants, meaning that Harry generally doesn't have much impact on the plot himself. Or, alternatively, sometimes the maia refuses to take over and help Harry in order to maintain the canon rehash. Again, removing Harry's potential impact on events.

The story also suffered from the typical "Hello my name is Harry/Holly/whatever and I'm about to be brutally honest with you, a complete stranger, about my psychological state" problem, quite a few times (Legolas, Aragorn, Gandalf, Elrond, even fucking Theoden). And the fanfiction classic: "An ability I had a few chapters ago is suddenly not available for no logical reason, because the author needs certain events to happen for drama and canon rehash reasons".

 

That's simply not true. I'll admit that Harry doesn't act his age at times, but there are plenty of people that are the same and are also quick to anger etc. despite being in their sixties or seventies. While I think that the gender swap could definitely have been done better or simply avoided, it does play a far bigger role in the plot than you make it out to do. And how is this a self-insert again? I mean Harry's basic characteristics are easily identifiable in the aged version though there are definite changes.

The OC does tend to have the "saving people" syndrome which is so often used to describe Harry. There's also the fact that she's been around since the beginning of time so that might explain a difference in character between the two. Regarding immortals holding grudges and being petty, you're simply going to ignore the fact that immortals(Melkor) throughout fiction basically throw giant hissy fits and are petty all the time? I mean, look at Hurin's children, if that wasn't pettiness/grudge then I don't know what is.
You're also complaining about Harry having "no impact on the plot" while saying that the maia often refuses to take over. How does that make any sense?

 

If I wanted to reread LotR, I'd just read the books again. His main problem with it was just that its a rehash, and that the author is inconsistent with her story in order to not deviate from that path.

 

When the maia takes over it achieves the purpose of keeping the storyline on canonical lines, minimising Harry's impact on events. For example, by surfacing to interact with people like Thranduil and Glorfindel, Harry maintains his independence and cover as someone who knows what he's doing, thus gaining immediate access to canonical characters and events like the Council of Elrond.

When the maia refuses to take over it achieves the purpose of keeping the storyline on canonical lines, minimising Harry's impact on events. For example, not helping Harry fight the Balrog, nor helping him heal Frodo on Weathertop.

That's how it makes sense: in both situations the intervention or lack thereof is to maintain the canon rehash.

On another topic: here's a fic that's actually good. It would be library worthy if it wasn't still on chapter three and thus starting:

What You Leave Behind by Lane Anasazi
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10758358/3/What-You-Leave-Behind

AU where Harry is a year older (becoming friends with Cedric and Cho), and where Ariana survived and thus Dumbledore's involvement with Grindelwald is publicly known (because they worked together for years afterwards). As such the wizarding world is rather darker for the lack of Dumbledore's influence.

Harry/Fleur promised for the future.

An interesting mystery which causes you frustration but in the good "I need to know what's happening" kind of way.

The opening chapter is slow, but the fic is worth it.

 

I second that story rec.

 

Pretty sure it's been mentioned somewhere on DLP recently.

 

It really isn't a canon rehash. If you think it is, I doubt you've really read the whole thing. There are major differences(that I won't reveal) though there are also quite a few similarities. The author definitely uses some mechanics to make sure it the Fellowship stays relatively on course despite Harry being present but I don't think it's particularly glaring like in many other fics.

Don't really get why you decide to focus on this, it's really minor compared to the other points I tried to get across but whatever, if you want to nitpick instead of focusing on the substance, I can't stop you.
The author does use this mechanic, not going to dispute that, but it's definitely not as egregious as you make it out to be. You'll notice that the Maia only actually take over when it comes to conversations when talking to people she already knew from before and even then it's only done rarely and not really used to avoid divergence aside from with Glorfindel. It's also specifically stated that she couldn't actually heal Frodo, even if she wanted to.

 

That sounds awesome, to be honest. Let's hope it does not disappoint...

...oh.