Exclusion is poorly written, utterly devoid of originality, and the ideas it's copying weren't even good the first time. I suppose it's at least not an incoherent mess, so 1/5?

 

I love me a good Pretentious!Harry...

 

lol. That story was horrible. Absolutely terrible. Just like every other godamn story in Harry P. and Hermione G. these days... and pretty much ever. Damn, it may be true but it hurts to say. So few decent stories.

 

Reading that crap makes me want to read some decent H/Hr, now.

I see that the story above is already suffering from "Harry is an extension of Hermione" syndrome.

 

There's less good HP/HG stories than there are HP/FD, so you're essentially dividing by zero. Enjoy your stay in fanfic purgatory

 

There bound to be some good H/Hr out there. There has to be!

I mean, Hell, butt-fucking Draco, Voldemort, or Snape aside, (and Ginny), Harry being with Hermione is one of the most popular pairings out there, so there's bound to be at least one or two nuggets of literary gold out there, amongst the ocean of horse shit...right?

 

Sure. If you can tell yourself that, and wish hard enough, I'm sure that the shit will turn into a five-course meal.

But at the end of the day, you're still eating shit.

 

Rewinding a bit:

I've gotta hand it to Lady Khali, author of The Well Groomed Mind. She's responded to every one of my reviews, and with more than just acknowledgement. She actually engages. If she does it for me, presumably she does it for many others too. My hat off to her.

 

Speaking of, I'm under the impression that she's got something big planned for Harry allying with Crouch like this.

While manipulative!Dumbledore is incredibly irksome to me for many reasons, Khali is doing it in a way that makes it plausible. He's manipulative and actually intelligent, but a facet of the character that she's exploring appears to be the fact that what he does, he thinks he's doing for the betterment of the public.

While that's used as every manipulative!Dumbledore ever's excuse, Khali is displaying a Dumbledore whose machinations, when viewed from Dumbledore's point of view, actually would benefit the public.

On another note, I'm still following this, but it's become a guilty pleasure rather than something I'd recommend to the library, due to reasons already cited in this thread.

 

I was impressed that she actually managed to find a plot hole that I haven't seen used before, even if it is just a nit-picky interview-induced hole...

No, I'm pretty sure there aren't. I like the idea of the pairing, but I can't actually think of a single good non-oneshot H/Hr fic where the relationship is more than a minor detail.

 

I like a few H/Hr one-shots by canoncansodoff, but I'm sure plenty of you will heartily disagree with me.

 

Your best bet for H/Hr is here. There is the occasional gem.

Honestly, you are limited to pretty much Vox Corporis, Resistance, More Equal Than You Know and perhaps The Other Boy Who Lived. There may be a few more honorable mentions, but H/Hr is a pile of shit that makes you wonder how the hell such a reasonable idea could possibly be so universally horrible.

EDIT: Also, Palimpsest from a page or two back has just gotten frickin weird. I mean really. The first bit was Almost Recommendable, but the rest of it? Just bad.

 

There are a couple of problems.

1. The fact that Hermione in many of these fics tries to fix Harry. Normally, Harry just takes it. So you have a bossy PS-style Hermione, a submissive Harry. Not a good combination.

2. True love bullshit. Most writers of H/HR are shippers of the highest degree and want to fix canon. Part of this is the terrible "I've loved you all along" trope, which is normally associated with confessions of true and absolute love on the first date. Or normally, not even a date. Just a conversation in the common room.

3. Hermione being characterised as a miniature McGonagall. Just the worst characterisation ever.

4. Either the understatement (becoming Harry's sex toy) or overstatement (Harry becoming Hermione's sex toy) of Hermione's talent.

 

My problem with Hermione (and subsequently Harry/Hermione) is that many people forget that Hermione, while never completely abandoning Harry like Ron did in GoF, is a jealous bitch at times. Perfect example is HBP where Hermione can't stand that Harry is doing better than her in potions. Furthermore Hermione is JKR's excuse for Harry not to better himself, anytime there is a problem in canon Harry turns to Hermione for help. Then she eventually solves the problem, hell even when she gets petrified in CoS she still figured out the beast of Slytherin beforehand. I see Hermione as a copout, an excuse for Harry not to better himself.

My personal view (if it isn't obvious) is that Hermione, like Ron, holds Harry back. She doesn't make Harry a better person, she's made Ron and Harry so reliant on her that they can't fathom school without her. In that way she's more Slytherin than Gryffindor. If Harry and her were to have a relationship it wouldn't be because she loves Harry, it would be because Harry validates her by making her feel wanted because without her Harry would be an oblivious child lost in a world that wants to take advantage of him (without realizing that she is also taking advantage of him). They wouldn't be equals, she'd have full control, and that's the only way Hermoine can fathom having a relationship with anyone.

 

Years of Rebellion. Just putting it out there.

Of course, Harry isn't Harry, but he's not a wimp either. Also features one of the best Harry/OC romances ever written.

 

I read 2 chapters, that may not be enough to grasp the depth of the story but just because an author changes the characterization doesn't make it okay. The reason I like Harry/Daphne Harry/Katie etc. (but hate Harry/OC) is because although the characters are underdeveloped, there are not previously developed, yet they already have a set age and house, and from the house you can make a very basic judge on the personality of said character. With Hermione, on the other hand, we get everything I wrote above but authors don't have the freedom to change them without looking like an idiot. When Harry is paired with someone besides Ginny/Hermione/Tonks/Luna the author has the opportunity to invent a character without making drastic change to their personalities. With the Susan/Daphne/Padma/Katie thing you have a recognizable name but no real characteristics to go off of (besides what house they're in).

 

So... you're ok with OCs when JKR gave them names, but not otherwise? Also, two chapters doesn't really give you any idea of the scope of the story. Try twenty, hah.

 

It may seem hypocritical but yeah. For some strange reason when JKR gives a name it seems more official than some mary-sue, although many still treat these characters like mary-sues, my point is I haven't seen a great Harry/OC pairing yet I've seen a handful of well-written Harry/OFC. As for the "2 chapters" argument she may only appear jealous in 2 chapters but her attitude is very consistent, she's very one-dimensional, she's the smart girl who lacks social skills, Harry never really defined himself as a character; from year one he was selfless and sacrificial, and ignorant. By the final battle he was selfless, sacrificial, and ignorant. I think that Harry's character, at times, showed flashes of greatness but that JKR used Hermione as an encyclopedia instead of having Harry develop as a character.

EDIT: SilverLasso is right, I had spelled Hermione wrong, my bad, I've fixed it. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

Hermione, not Hermoine