Guilty Pleasure does not equal almost recommendable.

I read Harry Twin fics as a guilty pleasure sometimes. I would never submit any of them to this thread because they are all cliche filled, pseudo-victim!Harry, or suck in some way, shape, or form. Almost Recommendable is something that is decent, not amazing, but decent.

Also I closed it out right after this

I've always wondered what the hell HP fanfic writers get off on the word freak so damn much. I recall freak being used in canon once maybe twice, and the word loses the touch it would inflict on Harry's psyche if the Dursleys run around saying "That freaky freak he better be grateful that we deal with his freakishness."

Also, my eye twitches when I read dialogue that is written like this:

"It is okay".

It'd be more okay if you had the fucking period inside your goddamn quotes.

I do have a soft spot for the name Hadrian. Mostly because words ending in 'ian' always make me feel pleased for some reason.

Okay, I went a bit further. Exact closing point:

What. This shit is stupid. I doubt Dumbledore told them the prophecy at all, and suggested they go into hiding because you know. They were constantly fighting Voldemort. Hell, half the Order was probably in hiding or whatever, it's just that Dumbledore pulled his "I am very wise and you should listen to me and use this spell" and they agreed. Shit like this is fucking retarded. They were in hiding, they didn't have goddamn time to file a fucking will. I wouldn't put a bunch of shit about how my kid is the last hope for humanity in my last will, because that's fucking cruel. Also, James seems like a giant dick, even more so then canon. He doesn't know Peter is a Death Eater, so it wouldn't be betrayal, so much as James would say "He has broken under torture."

tl;dr:

Guilty Pleasure does not equal Almost Recommendable. Freak is a stupid gimmick. That will is so fucking stupid that it made me want to carve out my eyes.

My eyes betrayed me and scrolled down a bit.

WHY DOES THE AUTHOR SWITCH BETWEEN HARRY AND HADRIAN LIKE NAMES ARE A FUCKING GAME OF PING PONG

 

This is an awful story. If you are looking for good stories to post on DLP, even in this thread, you are not going to find them anywhere near the HP/DG section of FFN. There's nothing redeemable in this story, which is not surprising. It just a conglomeration of every cliche that everyone should avoid using in their own stories, and they are not even done in an remotely new or interesting way. This story fails beginning with it's title. You could just name it "Generic cliche Daphne fic" and you would have the exact plot of this.

Guilty pleasures, for the most part, do not belong in here. A guilty pleasure is just another term for a shitty fic that you like, even though you know you shouldn't. Its like admitting that you get your jollies off watching midget porn. Keep it to yourself. We all know its out there, no need to show the rest of us.

 

We really need a guilty pleasures thread, if only to laugh at each other for the horrible crap we secretly like.

 

Green Eyed Wolf Boy
It was bad. It has ONE idea that could be interesting and then is unreadable.
It might have been almost recommendable if it was written better.
The last words in the fic probably sum it up the best.

2/5

Rise to Power
It was... Somewhat good. I mean it has it all - the powers, the money, the gryffindor legacy and the dual core wands (i think, i don't really pay much attention to the details that never come up as important) and the dual animagus forms.
Funniest thing is that the author is surprised when someone calls his fic full of Clichés and in the end adds a rant about everyone else just ading it for kiks, but he has everything planned and it's important to the plot.

To tell the truth it's just that - the full on powerful harry approach and nothing else. Yet it's decently written.
2.4/5

Talking about both of these fics, if GEWB was written with such quality as HPRTP it would be an ok job.
---

Also, on guilty and almost recommendable - it's different,. yet somewhat interchangeable - only for the reason that if you like to work, you always evaluate it higher.

I'll probably write more on that later, as I have to run now ;D
EDIT(1)
{
I think that mostly we are misusing the term guilty pleasure.

Yes, but it's similar.
Now, bear with me for a moment and I hope I can explain it as I see this.
Almost recommendable is a fic that is bad in a few ways, but good in a few others. For example the idea is good, the plot is solid, yet the executions lacks. Or the idea is so much overused that it hurts*.
The good fic is the one where the good things outweigh the bad. And bear in mind that it's not just an exercise where you would take a checklist and say "it has 6/10 things done right, it's good" - sometimes few of the aspects are so good that they outshine the bad, and sometimes its opposite.
Almost recommendable is something, that you realize, has done something wrong, yet you still feel, that for you, it's still readable and well.

And here we arive at the guilty pleasure fics - they are esentially the same, just, they have an aspect that is horrible, or the bad aspects outweight the good so much that it makes you twitch. Yet, for some unknown reason you find that you quite enjoy the good bits. And you bear with every pain just to read it to the end.

The main and perhaps only difference is that with guilty ones you have to look past their bad parts to enjoy them, and almost recommendables you read without the filter on.

The confusion arises only because some people cannot filter some aspects as well as others, and a question of weather we trully nedd to even try.

The bad side of this all? We cannot be impartial* and we judge everything by ourselves. Filtering can be learned and unlearned both, and thus the rise in rating that shouldn't have been. So basically when posting a guilty pleasure we just admit it "Guilty - Liked it for the 'X' part, and filtered everything else." And everyone else will know - 'if you don't like "X", just treat it as 1.5 score lower'

In short - Guilty fics and almost recommendable ones differ not with their quality, but with relative single readers ability/disability/preference to filter the bad. (Still one persones, guilty is usually < than his almost, but can be subjective when others look.)

Ended up the usual mess of my mind. Meh.

Maybe, but then wouldn't it become even more difficult to look if something has been posted yet?

*On Cliches and the like. There are really lots of overused stuff in HP fics. It's to the point of pain, when you read about it. Yet, to be fully impartial, we should judge it as if it was new - so that it doesn't spoil the opinion. It's hard, but with something that's only a common theme and not anything obviously copied (there is a difference between copying and using a cliche, but lets not go there now) it's only fair to the author. Cliches have to be started at some point, and reading the first super harry fic, the evaluation shouldn't be based on "cliched = bad". By the way, does anyone know the first one that used the whole heir of founders rich and powerful stuff? Was it as bad as some do now (putting everything in at one and never using most of it) or if it's even good?

}

Spoiler

Ignore this area. Thank you.

 

Ugh cliches. I was trudging through Doctor Who/Harry Potter crossovers (I read Visited By A Doctor, which was really really excellent, and had NormalPerson!Daphne), and then I found an abomination.

It was the first time I had ever seen Indy!Harry cliches. I cried a little bit.

He claims it to be epilogue compliant for a few chapters, but does what very few authors do:

throws it out the window when his plot doesn't go that way. It's pretty good, about a 3, 3.5 from me.

Fun fact: he also wrote the abomination of a crossover I was talking about, "7. Sorcery, UNITed, Independence, Space".

 

That's a really good point, we should take each fic separately, and not condemn them for having like ideas. It's like soul/veela bonds in some stories, We've all read them, we're all tired of them, and a few of us(ok like 80%) hate them.

But I bet when the first story to ever feature a soul bond came out, everyone was like, 'Awesome, you have such an original idea, I can't believe noone else has ever thought of this.'

 

Well it was more along the lines of guilty pleasure is the fic where you condition yourself not to see the bad. Thus raising the rating from yourself.

And probably some other stuff I found in the corner of my mind.

Spoiler

Nauro

Also, when the fuck did people start to care? ;P

EDIT:

Ah well, I guess if it makes you sick I can make do without...

 

You're only stumbling on Indy!Harry cliches now? And in Dr. Who crossovers of all places? I'm...impressed.

Also, I chuckled a little after reading your earlier post and looking at your avatar - they match very well. You will now be forever remembered as humanoid Twilight Sparkle.

 

This post is slightly confusing. When you are calling something full of indy!harry cliches, are you talking about Visited by a Doctor, or something else you read?

You've put it in as almost recommendable, and I'm quite interested in the idea of a HP/DW xover...but not if it's full of cliches that make your eyes bleed.

 

I'm talking about something else I read. Visited By A Doctor is not filled with Indy!Harry, but another fic by him (also a doctor who crossover) is filled with Indy!Harry.

In chapter 1 or 2 he ran into gay owners of a shop who slapped him on the ass and then Harry was like "WELL I DID SAY I'D BRANCH OUT" aaaaaah

Visited By A Doctor = Almost Recommendable.
Other Fic By Him = My Eyes, Why God Why

 

Something to read for anyone who likes AUs with Child!Harry:

The Blade of Knight

(linked file is in txt, should be copied and reformatted!)

This was an entertaining read, with a competent and powerful Harry, but without some of the cliches one meets when reading Independent!Harry. The technical writing isn't flawless but on an acceptable level. Biggest problem is that the story is abandoned.

3.5/5

 

Dragon Child, by Kirkmenistan, over at HPfanficarchive.com

Summary: Harry Potter's Magic reacts to being so cold on the durlseys doorstep. interesting effects.

Harry becomes a dragon, gets transported to Romania, has some dragon sex, and in the latest chapter, goes to school. I actually really enjoy reading it, rife with typos it may be. I'd rate it at 3/5, though definitely could be higher if the author cleaned his act up.

 

What.

Seriously what in the fuck?

 

Chapter 1.

Thaumologist...I hate to break it to you, but this is mind-numbingly bad. In every respect.

 

NSFW!

A quote from chapter 10:

A seven year old Harry having sex with a hungarian horntail? WTF?:fire
This should be in the "sick and perverse" subforum!

 

What he said, I was banging my head on the wall about 7 paragraphs in...

 

What the fuck, people. This is "Almost Recommendable", not a place to peddle whatever trash you come across...

Edit: Good rule of thumb - if you think it can survive For Review except for one or two flaws, then maybe it belongs here.

 

Title: An Old and New World
Author: Lens of Sanity
Pairing: Harry/Fleur/Various
Genre: Adventure/humor
Rating: T
Link:http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6849022/1/An_Old_and_New_World
Summary: Harry meets Bella and Sirius during the Azkaban Prologue… He comes out a little pissed off, and a whole lot apathetic… Then there was the Goblet and the Tournament… By fifth year he's a whole different animal… Heh well, the world wants its Hero…


This story is pure crack fun from How to slay jabberwocky's in the real world to Hermione/ Tom Riddle in Ginny Weasley's it's a roller coaster of laughs and wtf moments.

Cliche's are in this story in spades and are supposed to be, the author takes them and makes them funny if not just plain batshit crazy. Including animagi transformations, complex rune schemes, time travel, super harry, Independent Harry, and many more.

I think I said to myself Wow and just stared for a minute when Harry drops a nuclear weapon on a Voldemort controlled city (on british soil of course). To make it short, you don't know where you're going and you don't know how long it's gonna take you to get there but man you have a fun time on the trip.

I can't recommend because it's crack, and I don't know how well it would stand up here to be honest. But it's decent in my book 3/5.

Oh afterthought there's some semblance of a plot but it's really defeat Voldemort.