I just read this, on your rec, and it's quite good. It's a bit jarring at first - the characters are vivid and jump off the page, and possibly because of this the quirks and differences between them and canon Mass Effect really pop out at you. Admiral Hackett, in particular, in the first section just reads kind of...bizarre. Not anything I could picture Hackett saying.

You do sink into it, though. I was hooked the moment Shepard appeared on-screen - the prison, with the marines going along with his song, the one marine playing air-guitar and shit. That was just... perfect.

Thanks for bringing this one up; I'd have probably passed it over because of the fairly bland summary.

 

For me it would have to be Santi's Harry Potter and the boy who lived though admittedly Harry Potter and The Prince of slytherin by The Sinister Man is a close second and may look to surpass it soon

 

Wand and Shield

I've said this before and I'll say it again: this fic is a godsend for anyone interested in a HP/Marvel crossover. A diamond in a steaming pile of shit filled with harems, one-dimensional characters, and OP mains who are HP in name only. It's the only decent HP/Marvel crossover I can remember.

 

My personal favourite is - and will probably always be - mira mirth's "On the Way to Greatness". I love how well she builds up the different characterisations, how she shows Harry's conflict about what's right and what has to be done and especially his change in opinion concerning Dumbledore. In addition to that, the writing is absolutely superb and that's why I happily forgive the story the first six chapters, which are basically a canon rehash.

Spoiler

As for ongoing stories, and after that much time between the last update, I don't consider "OWG" ongoing, that won't be a surprise for anyone that's ever been to the "Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin" thread. Yeah, that one. The first twenty-five chapters are largely utter shit - and then, nearly out of the blue, this story becomes truly great. The author might overdo it at times, but his subversions of fanfiction or canon, his interpretation of Dumbledore (which is a very important point for me in every fanfiction) and his incredible ability to put great and unforeseeable plots together- everyone who's read the story knows exactly what I'm talking about now - make this story my current favourite and one of my top five stories of all time; in some regards even the best I've ever read.

 

Rise of the Wizards

My Favourite Crossover:

Oh boy, a major crossover that i haven't seen on here yet is 'A Third Path to The Future'. Its a HP/Marvel Crossover of epic length and has a diverse plot.

Length: 1296K+
Published: 30 Jun 2013
Updated: 30 November 2016
Rating: M
Status: In Progress

Summary: Rescued from the Negative Zone by the Fantastic Four, Harry Potter discovers he is a mutant and decides to take up the cause of equality between mutants and humans (among other causes). How will a dimensionally displaced Harry Potter, one who is extremely intelligent, proactive and not afraid to get his hands dirty effect the marvel universe? Pairings: Harry/Jean/Ororo/others pos.

This Harry goes through an epic journey where he meets the variouss characters of the Marvel universe and forms alliances with the likes of X-Men and Fantastic 4 and makes of Villains from Juggernaught to Thanos(THE MAD TITAN).

The relationship between Harry and his women have good foundations laced with character development as well as being realistic. Smut in this story is pretty good aswell. The currently 1.25 million word story rarely gets boring as the multiple plotlines keeps the reader engaged.

Multiple PoV's and different factions are shown in this story, from the Brotherhood to the Kree Empire.
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9443327/1/


My all time favourite based off my Favourite character:

Title: The Dark Lord Exposed
Words: 180k+
Published: 2 Feb 2015
Updated: 6 Jun 2015
Rating: T
Status: Completed

Summary:
The story of Lord Voldemort's life, from the moment he becomes a wizard to the moment he dies. Everything—Slug Club, Horcruxes, Chamber of Secrets, Death Eaters, working at Borgin's, both wars, banishment, resurrection. With details of what happened in Albania. Names and dates are all canon. Gets significantly darker as the story progresses.




This is what you base the character of Lord Voldemort off. This is his charaterization done perfectly, thoughts,actions and decisions. Follows cannon completely but very original material.
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11015768/1/The-Dark-Lord-Exposed


NOTE: can't find anywhere else to post a few of these so i posted some here. New to forums.

 

The Phoenix and the Serpent

Almost fifteen years since it was published, yet the characterisation and world-building in this story cannot be touched by any other story in the fandom.

 

I tried reading this series because I was curious about what held up about it for you guys... resulting in a nice cathartic rant review. I can see why you'd like it enough for it still to be your favourite ten years on though.

 

Bungle in the Jungle
(Along with the sequel of course)

The story has great original characters, good characterization of those in canon, and an interesting take on runes and wards. The scenes describing animaguses (or is it animagi?) made up for the frustrating ones involving Luna that I forced myself to read. That's not to say that the characterization of her was bad, but rather that Harry's incompetence in the story was frustrating. Later on in the sequel I started to feel the urge to skim, but it was good nonetheless. I suggest this as my second favorite, due to A Black Comedy having already been vouched for multiple times.

 

The faults of Sacrifices are even more egregious in the light of all those rants the author wrote about the tired tropes of fantasy fiction and how she would never fall for them if she wrote her own stuff. Way to go.

After giving the series another try recently, I stopped midway through the second book. I just can't take this stuff seriously. If the series was a third of the 3mln word count maybe I could finish it, but when 2/3 of it is angst, I say goodbye and good riddance.

Edit: Rant #2 on that list: Not writing crap. Helpful advice like "don't be afraid to try something new", "don't run with your first plot idea", "don't get too attached to your writing". Excuse me while I headdesk at the irony. Seriously, read that rant, keeping Sacrifices in mind.

 

'A Third Path to the Future' is a better HP/Marvel Crossover.

 

Vimesenthusiast is on my list of authors I can't stand to read. Not nearly as high up as megamatt09, but still on it.

As for Wand and Shield, there's just something about it that gives off a vibe that makes me not want to read it. But it's been so long that I can't recall what exactly.

 

That fic is the shining example of everything that's wrong with HP crossovers.

 

I'll second Phoenix and the Serpent.

1. The villains are properly competent, well fleshed out and entrenched in the lore of the Universe.

2. Its B story is a lot more compelling than many A plots; that of a Harry Potter homonculus attempting to come to terms with its own existence.

3. The fights feel fresh and interesting, people tire and grind on, have flashes of inspiration and use environmental hazards against each other.

4. It has a redemption story for a villain that feels properly earnt and incredibly heartfelt.

Although if we are weighing up the lives of fellow forumites with abandoned fics, there aren't a lot of you that would remain safe in the face of my desire to see, "Queens of Darkness, Ladies of Light", being updated.

 

"Twenty Times Uzumaki Naruto Didn't Die" and the rest of the "Matters, Secrets, Times" series. Kraken's Ghost blew me away when I first read these in Middle School. My only prior experience with the fandom was shitty sakura/itachi fics that i would rather shoot myself than read now, and this story showed me that there was a whole other side to fanfiction. To this day the series can bring a tear to my just from sheer nostalgia value alone, and I blame it for being the reason I adore sad/make you want to cry stories.

If I had to choose one fic to to update though? Shezza's "Life in Konoha's Anbu" or for Shezza to revive "Denarian Apocalypse." And of course The Black Prince, which has to be my favourite Harry Potter story.

There are many more that have left a lasting impact of course but most of them have already been touched upon by other posters so i'll refrain from typing it all out.

 

I'm going to name the first fanfic I ever read that I actually finished:
Wastelands.

And if we're also including unfinished ones we'd like to see updated:
Heartlands.

Start drinking again, @Joe.

 

Fuck me if that isn't all the encouragement I need. Gonna drink me a bowl of rum punch and watch the food channel until the sun comes up!

OT: There's a lot of better, more nuanced stuff out there, but this one still grabs me, so I guess it remains my favourite: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1312532/1/The-Human-Condition

 

This is a great thread for bringing back nostalgia for certain fics. Like anything by Kraken's Ghost. Those were amazing fics back when I read them and I'll still occasionally reread them.

However my favorite story that I know isn't perfect but makes me smile is The Night The House of Cards Was Built.

A Naruto 2-shot where a very young Naruto somehow makes his way to a card game among some of the village leaders. As you can probably tell from that. Entirely comedy.

 

It is also up for adoption with a few people trying their hands on the whole thing.

 

Really? I only ever saw one variation of it and it wasn't even worth reading. Are there any decent attempts?

 

A lot of my favorites have been mentioned already, particularly On the Way to Greatness and Grow Young With Me.

So FWIW, I'll throw in my vote for Tinn's The Song of the Trees.

I'm a relative newcomer to the story considering I started reading only a couple months before the most recent update and she apparently started writing it in '06, but it's amazing to me how even after 10 years the story's premise is still one-of-a-kind and the writing remains impeccable throughout.

Not gonna lie, squee'd a little when she popped up here with the whole plagiarism shitstorm that happened last year.

EDIT: Oh, and if we're also voting for favorite completed story, I'll vote for Cauterize. Because.. well.. it's Cauterize. The most beautiful, haunting one-shot I've seen.