Yeah...

I only responded to that because it was the only thing worth responding to. The rest was you simply asserting your preferences, which can't be argued against. For example, I completely disagree with you that this Harry has any resemblance at all to canon Harry. You quote his "saving people thing" (and holy god do I hate that phrase) but that is a basic trait of every protagonist in the entire fantasy genre, so if it's the best you can muster to show identity then we're not going to agree. We simply have completely different ideas about what constitutes canon Harry. Apparently you think he's a kind of cross between Nymphadora Tonks and Parvati Patil.

Similarly, I completely disagree with you that Harry being female has done anything to change the plot. People will occasionally make a comment about it not being proper for a woman to do X or Y but Harry just does that thing anyway, so it doesn't amount to anything. The only other thing Harry being female has done is result in Legolas falling in love with him, but the fic would be better off without that so I'd hardly call it a plus.

... which is exactly the point. The author has chosen arbitrarily what skills to give Harry via being a maia in an inconsistent way, the inconsistency acting to maintain the rehash.

People always defend bad plot points by pointing out the existence of an explanation in-story as to how it had to go down in that way. But that doesn't mean anything, because the author chose for the universe to work in that way and not another.

 

I thought this was a good one shot. Snape never heard the prophecy and the fic covers the repercussions. The story is written from Lily's POV and I think the author does a good job writing her character.

There was one cringe worthy moment when Sirius called Voldemort "Moldy Voldy" but it was one time and never done again.

 

Catalyst By: jaded-alchemist In which Harry, Hermione, and Ron get sucked into Middle Earth by way of a defunct portkey on their way to the Quidditch World Cup. Set in the beginning of GoF/The Hobbit. Rated M for violence and language.
Rated: Fiction M - English - Adventure - Harry P., Ron W., Hermione G., Gandalf - Chapters: 4 - Words: 21,907 - Reviews: 17 - Favs: 48 - Follows: 88 - Updated: Oct 26 - Published: Sep 3 - id: 10666911

A pretty decent crossover between HP/LOTR. It follows canon closely at first, but looks to be heading in its own direction. First story I've read that has a Harry that is slightly jealous of Ron, besides the whole 'he has a family and I don't' from canon. My only complaints are the lack of magic in some places and how short the story currently is.

 

I'm sorry, but what the fuck are you talking about? You can hate the phrase as much as you may like, because it's overused as fuck, but that doesn't make it any less true for Harry or any other fantasy hero, it's part of the trope. I wasn't really going to start talking about a bunch of characteristics in Harry because the point I specifically made was that people change, from being a teenager to a 69 to a fucking immortal, millennium old being! She shares other characteristics with Harry like being loyal, curious and friendly though she seems bitter in the story because she's been "betrayed."

The reason Harry can do that shit is because he's a wizard/maia. Whether you like something or not doesn't change the fact that is has had/will have consequences for the plot. If you think that Legolas being in love with Harry isn't going to play a major part of the plot in the future then that's fine, but I seriously doubt that's the case.

If the reason why she doesn't have the skills is explained in the story, then it isn't fucking arbitrary! The maia doesn't have the skills because surprise, she didn't learn that shit in Valinor. Gandalf can't heal Frodo either despite being a maia, so it's not like it's odd that she can't either.
YOUR point, which was what I responded to, was that the maia could just have taken over and healed Frodo. My counter argument was that even if she had taken over, she couldn't have healed Frodo. What you're now saying is: "Well, that's stupid, she should have been able to," which is just fucking ridiculous because there's no evidence to support that.

 

I've spent the last few days with this fic: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3998455/1/Every-Other-Midnight and I think it might be hands down the best first war story ever. It is long and it is AU but it's quality. Fair warning there is a bit of romance but this is not a fluffy story. We all know it's not going to have a happy ending.

 

It just pushes the arbitrariness back a step. Instead of the event being arbitrary, the explanation is arbitrary.

(She was able to heal Frodo a significant amount, because she knew a significant part of the song of healing, which she just forgot to use.)

But that aside, your mention of evidence is off the point. I'm not judging the author subject to the standard that the author has set up for themselves, I'm judging the author subject to the standard of what would have made a good story.

Yes, the story explains that she only knows part of the song. But that doesn't get the author off the hook. We then have to ask why it is that she only knows part of the song, especially given all the other songs she knows in full. And the answer is clear: the only reason why this is the only song which she doesn't know in full is because if she had known it, she could have healed Frodo and disrupted the canon rehash. So the author has constructed the entire back story of this character in an inconsistent way, just to justify the rehash.

Yes, he is. But him being a female maia does not impact on it.

On the subject of Legolas, it's pretty clear at this stage that his love is unrequited so it's likely to remain contained to a feeling he has. Again: no impact on events.

I'm not even sure what you're trying to argue anymore. You start by arguing that 17 year old Harry, 70 year-old Harry and Sataressë are of course all very different characters, then you move on to say they're similar.

To reiterate, I'm making several separate but interrelated points.

1. Sataressë is not recognisably Harry in any real sense, despite them being the same being (one soul). This makes the fic feel like Harry is accidentally possessing someone else's body. The fic should be merging the two characters to make a single identity which is recognisably Harry but significantly more mature and wise.

2. Harry has no real impact on the plot, because the fic has been arranged to keep going along canon lines. Sataressë's choices as to when to intervene and when not to are a part of this.

3. Even in those parts where Harry is allowed free reign, he's unrecognisable as Harry, nor is he a good interpretation of what Harry would be like at 70. If anything he's even less mature than he was at 17, getting into regular petty arguments and shifting wildly between one extreme emotional state to another. He's extremely chatty and open about his feelings. He lets himself be rebuked by characters at times, but other times flies off the wall at a sign of criticism. His character voice is also less mature than that of Harry at 17, far more "jokey" (only without being funny).

4. In so far as Sataressë is calling all the shots (2), is an OC separate from Harry (1) and is mostly along for the ride following a canon rehash plot, she is a self-insert.

5. Harry's gender shift has had no impact on events, at most drawing comments and observations about his gender from other characters.

6. The author's choices as to the world's backstory and set-up explain the above, but do not excuse it, because the author chose that backstory.

 

I'll try to summarise our differences so the discussion doesn't get bloated.
The answer is to why Sataresse doesn't know the song is that she didn't learn the full version from the Vala. Just because we aren't told why she didn't, doesn't make the reason arbitrary because it isn't actually random. The story doesn't have omnicient narrator so we never get all the facts.
Regarding canon rehash, Frodo being completely healed by Sataresse wouldn't actually change that they were going to Rivendel and the council would still take place. It's only far later on the journey(IIRC) that Frodo is affected by the wound, and even then it's effect is minor.

Spoiler

How is the story moving along canon lines when Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli are all going along Frodo and Sam into Mordor and Boromir and Theodred are still alive with Aragorn and Harry in Rohan?

The author differentiates between what is essentially nature and nurture. They share the same soul(nature) but have different spirits.(nurture) I was arguing that while there are major differences between the characters, they also share several similarities. The differences could be explained by the huge age gap. Harry's different reactions could be explained due to the fact that he's in a completely different world in a younger female body with a voice in his head. That would fuck with anyone's mental stability to be frank.
Sataresse isn't "calling all the shots." It's more like she states an overall goal(help Aragorn) and Harry does it to the best of his abilities with her assisting through "dream training/remembering." Harry does quite a few things that she's opposed to. I seriously disagree with your definition of self-insert here btw.
I said that the gender swap could definitely have been done better but we'll have to agree to disagree on the plot importance, since it's hard to determine until the fic is actually complete in my opinion.(your criticism is valid though.)

 

This is unbelievably good.

To read all of it and not get the urge to skim once is nothing sort of a miracle. If the author continues in the same way, this will be a 5 star story.

 

No pressure

Edit:

Also, this is in WbA if anyone wants to discuss/nitpick. Always looking to make it better.

https://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=27381

Next chapter will be up this weekend.

 

Hail-Odysseus finished. Not sure if I'm satisfied or whether I'd read though the whole thing in the first place If it was going to end like that.

 

Bit annoyed at the blatent using magic to get rich in the muggle world shit as well. In my view that's what the magical governments are there for. To regulate that

 

I'm a bit annoyed Voldemort is still kicking.

@Taure - I'm not sure how you can say the LotR stayed the same. By Moria it has started to diverge and by the breaking of the Fellowship it's quite unrecognisable.

 

I believe he said rehashed a number of different times. This means the vast majority of everything stayed mostly the same, with a few variances, mostly shuffling people around, deleting a few scenes, and leaving everyone living. It's a retelling with a character added. I'm not saying there isn't any new material. There is. But it's very recognizable as Fellowship of the Ring. From the last chapter it looks like Holly will be stealing a lot of Gandalf's canon scenes in the near future since he's elsewhere.

Anyone want to lay any odds that Holly will be venturing into Fangorn Forest to rescue Merry, Pippin, and I(mumble), run into Treebeard, etc. I think it's a tossup whether or not Helm's Deep even comes into play. Most of the big battle scenes seem to be deleted from the story and most skirmishes skimmed over, often described in a sentence or two later.

I'm not reading this for the HP crossover, mostly because it's not HP in the story. It's an OC that happens to have his name sometimes (Mostly it's three other names.) and can do some HP magic. It stopped being HP after the first chapter. I wouldn't even care if Holly hooked up with the elf, because I don't see her as Harry. If you read it like that then it's a decent time waster and has its moments.

That said, I'm enjoying it for the most part. It is what it is, fan fiction.

 

Rehash is getting thrown around quite a lot on DLP and I think there are different opinions as to what exactly it is. To me, something being a canon rehash basically means that fanfic didn't add anything meaningful to the canon story or what it added was minor.
So in the case of this story, it basically comes down to whether there are significant changes to the plot. If there is, then it's not a canon rehash. While I think that the story sticks a bit too close to canon despite Harry being introduced, I think it's quite harsh and unfair to state that it basically just retells canon with some minor variations.

 

See, though, that's what it is. It's telling the same story, shuffling people around for various scenes, while deleting a lot of stuff. With the power that Holly seems to have, the Fellowship is entirely unneeded. Two or three people (Holly - for the transportation, Gandalf - for protection, and Frodo - to carry the ring) could be transported to Mount Doom in a few days via HP magic. Maybe throw in a few fights or problems along the way since the boss apparently can see her outside of Elf territory. Still, he wouldn't be able to move people around quick enough to really inconvenience Holly. They toss the ring in and poof, end of story, all before Sauron has time to muster his forces in any particular place other than Mount Doom.

But then it wouldn't be a story. So, something has to be told, hence the using the canon plotline, a number of canon scenes, a lot of canon dialog, retelling the same story with minor (subjective) variances.

The beginning was mostly original, up until it was time for the Fellowship to begin. I'm not knocking it. It has its problems, but every story does. I'm still reading it, so it's interesting enough to warrant continuing.

I think it would have been a lot better going an entirely different route, but then again, I'm not writing it.

I give it a 2/5 for its lack of originality and the OC main character Holly for the reasons Taure mentioned above. I don't think she's a self-insert, but she definitely isn't Harry. It's a decent time waster, at this point.

 

Again, it comes down to the fact that I think rehash is being used to loosely in the context of the story, but I'm not a native speaker so I might be totally wrong on this one. There are many scenes and dialogue in the story that aren't in the original and yes, quite a bit is being reused but not to the point that I think it warrants to have rehash slapped all over the whole story rather than certain parts of it.
If I had to rate it, it would probably be a 3.5/5 at this point so it's not like I'm saying it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.(you people have weird sayings)

Definitely agree with this. The story would've been a lot more interesting if it diverged more and I wished it did, but I doubt the writer has the ability to do that. It takes a lot of skill and sometimes it's important to concede that you don't have the ability to write an AU. A lot of the AU in Harry Potter and other fandoms that I've read have been ambitious and great in the beginning, but the story is often either abandoned or drops significantly in quality because the author can't juggle all the balls so to speak.

 

Rehash generally refers to the ends rather than means. Often content will vary, but so long as the end result remains the same it is a rehash. So, for example, you mentioned how the breaking of the fellowship happened differently. And yet there still was a breaking of the fellowship. Similar for Moria: though it happened slightly different, the end result was the same: they tried the mountain pass, failed, went through Moria, faced a Balrog, Gandalf fell and died before coming back as Gandalf the White. Really, none of that was necessary. With Harry's powers the mountain pass should not have been a problem.

 

I stopped reading for similar reasons to Taure. It's just like a HP story where Blaise and Daphne go with Slytherin Harry to save the Philosophers stone. Different people are going, yet the same things are happening.

 

All caught up with The Merging; left a review on FF.Net.