Finding Love in the Strangest of Places is a story of a Rebellion, yet for the generation that would come after Eddard Stark and the other adult once-protagonists of ASOIAF. Though the title may avert some people, I'd suggest giving it a read, as it's not long at all, and is quite an enjoyable spin, not simply a rehash, on the rebellion and all we know and loved about it.

And here's another fic: Children of Ice and Snow. It's a one-shot, 18k words, with a number of divergent events. As I'd like to avoid spoiling people, I'll refrain from trying to do a summary for it, because I'm terrible at making them without inadvertently spoiling.

 

Both are basically "Everything works out for the Starks". And in the second one I kept wondering why the hell did Freys betray the Starks, even though Robb did not any of his mistakes from canon. For me this fics ar fix-fics without any kind of substance to them.

 

Yeah Children of Ice and Snow was a decent enough way to kill time, but despite the changes it followed canon almost religiously despite most of the events no longer making sense.

Spoiler

Plus shouldn't the issues with who to make heir be moot when Bran and Rickton are born?

I think this does a much better job of giving a decent fem Robb story. Arianne Stark

 

I don't think it's actually supposed to be a fem!Robb. It's Arianne Martell born as a Stark. That said, agreed. It's decent.

 

Well Ned and Cat have a daughter as a first born. But yeah you're right about it being Arianne rather than Robb.

 

I'll have to disagree, but hey, that's just my opinion.

 

Are there any stories which have a Jedi or a Sith appearing in Westeros? The thought of someone like Darth Malgus or Darth Vader rising to power in an already crapsack world is horrifying and yet so interesting.

 

A Secret of Spells updated and intensified my desire to see Hermione crippled, tortured, flayed, burned, hanged, drowned and eaten by skunks at the same time.

Because honestly, I can only take so much of that particular annoying character before my anger starts to build up.

I really wish I knew what the fuck does she hope to achieve with what she does at the end of that chapter.

 

You still online?

 

That was pretty much my thought at the end of that chapter: WTF?!

Harry hasn't done anything at all to deserve this treatment.

 

I read the AN at the end of that chapter and decided not to get dissapointed too much. Is it really that bad? I really tried to give this story a try, and the premise and the writing was really ok. But the amount of Hermione wanking keeps me away...

 

With amount he contributes, I wonder why the author even put Harry in the story. The story might be little better if he wasn't and Harry's character, and by extension Hermione's, was not warped.

Everything anyone ever does or says is somehow linked with Hermione. Just edit Harry out so I don't have to watch that depressing shit.

Also, why do all the guys have to act so whipped around her? And that last scene with Harry... wtf.

 

The author is not writing about Harry and Hermione in Westeros. They are writing about about a shitty SI and her useless foil of a sidekick who just happens to be named Harry. I can't see canon Harry deciding not help Hermione with her wish to get back to their own dimension, I flat out can't. So the only possible explanation I can find for his behavior here is that the author wants to make Hermione seem reasonable for attacking him. And the fucking gender issues everywhere, holy fuck, there are almost literally a hundred other problems that a pair of wizards could fix, socially, economically, politically in the setting. The author decides to fixate on one of the problems will take a few generations to get close to Potterverse levels. Why this is not a story about a pair of wizards jumpstarting democracy I do not know.

 

I'm a bit annoyed. In one scene she's arguing with Jon that he's throwing his life and a chance at happiness away for the wall, but then shows she is perfectly willing to sacrifice Harry's personal freedom to be a Maester. Seems a bit hypocritical, but then again this is Hermione so it's okay.

 

Well, it was predictable. A Secret of Spells was always going to be a disaster.

 

WTF? Just read this. Why does this steaming pile have 700+ follows? Hermione is annoying in this but the author justifies all her actions. Everyone falls in love with Hermione for some fucking reason. Felt like i was reading a bad SI with Harry acting like a simpleton.

 

That's my main issue with it. Somehow, she expects him, and everyone else for that matter, to conform to what she sees is the right thing to do. She doesn't even give one tiny fuck about the fact that it's his life that she wishes to waste away on becoming a maester, just because of some deluded hope it might help them get back to Hogwarts.

Oh and let's not ignore the hypocrisy that she's trying to make Jon not go to the Wall because he would waste away there.

And the way she goes about it is hilarious. The whole 'It's different for you, you're a man. You can do whatever you want' just goes to show how fucking little she understands the world they landed in. Has she taken a good look at Harry? Provided this is canon!Harry looks and all, he's rather scrawny for that age, when in Westeros kids at that age have far more responsibility flung on their shoulders than they did at Hogwarts. Then there's that he's considered lowborn by everyone of importance, no matter how good and well-meaning Eddard Stark might be.

In the end, this always seemed to have been planned to become a Hermione-centric/wanking fic and honestly, I can't stand that for the same reason I wouldn't stand for if it was Harry-centric/wanking who has female characters fall in love with him and then he starts changing the world single-handedly, which is what Hermione apparently think is plausible.

I'll read the next chapter when it updates, because god knows, I really want to see her reasoning for stunning Harry with a spell, but at this point, it's more morbid curiosity than anything else.

 

I'm not proud to admit I'm one of the 700+ followers, thanks to it being a guilty pleasure of mine.

There really are a ridiculous amount of things that make it messed up. Harry's wand doesn't work because Phoenixes don't exist in Westeros, but his Animagus form is a Threstal (which most certainly doesn't exist in Westeros either). Hermione's wand inexplicably gets a power boost, despite the fact dragons are all dead at the time. The only person who seems to dislike Hermione is Catelyn (which is ok, since apparently she's being an unjustified bitch). Harry only seems to be there to serve as Hermione's sidekick.

BTW, a good sign of how much the author likes Hermione (or at least using her as a disguise for a Mary Sue, if not a Self-Insert) is that every single HP-related story of hers involves Hermione, including two Hermione/Draco, a Hermione/Tom, and a Crossover with Sherlock where she moves in the room under Sherlock and Watson for no reason.

 

As for Secret of Spells, I find that I enjoy people's review of this story (here in DLP, not on the actual ff.net reviews) rather more than the story itself.

Sad that Taure hasn't been around since way before to put up another analysis of Hermione, although to be fair, nothing new has happened, except for more of the same, so I understand that we won't be seeing another short comment on the story.


I was of half-mind to go and write a short half-serious review about how Hermione believably shifts from a good character to a manipulative villain, that with getting into everyone's good graces and attacking Harry at a perfect opportunity, but I can't help but feel like it would prove a waste of time.

Thus, imagine something yourself.


Also, they introduced Harry's animagus form as a magical beast, and then left it, and I guess we won't be seeing it ever. (Wouldn't Thestral ability to know directions help find them home, if that was possible?)

 

Is it even fun writing a Mary Sue self-insert? Seems like a lot of effort to go through just for a bit of emotional masturbation.