Funny, as a Polyamorous Man, I've seen more than one situation where it was pretty damn close.

The smarter thing to say would have been 'It's not always male wish fulfillment'. There are all sorts of dynamics and lifestyles and practices out there amongst people of a.. kinkier bent. To assume that your experience is the defining state of all similar situations is either ignorant or arrogant.

 

True, but there's a pretty fundamental difference between the vast majority of polyamorous relationships and harem fantasies.

Regardless, the last thread was literally just closed because of incessant debates on things not germane to the thread, let's not go 2 for 2.

 

Fair enough, and a good point.

 

I'm gonna have to throw in my favorite Taure quote of all time and say that most of these over-sexualized AUs and harem fics are in fact most likely written by 12 year old boys in bathtubs full of their own semen.

 

I think dirty old men syndrome has a bigger share of these harem pedo stories than you or Taure assume(d). Just check who writes these big Harmony/Luna stories. They aren't young male/teenagers.

zArkham is a good example for this group I suppose.

 

Kinsfire is the most egregious example.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2818448/Captain-Compass is pretty creepy too.

 

Creepiest.

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1452437/Mionefan

 

Bond fics at his age, he should be ashamed.

 

*sees above posts*

Stahp. Please.

 

I'm going to break with tradition and offer a story rec, one that was mentioned briefly in the Recommended Crossovers thread. (On the plus side, the story appears to have little to do with polyamorous relationships or harems.) A Google search indicated that it has not been discussed in this thread.

The Traveller
Author: tthorn
Condemned to die, Harry Potter grasps life. It will take him far away from everything he knows and change him in ways that many will tremble to see. He will witness the war to end all wars and in it he shall make a name that will last until all life in all the worlds ceases. Multicrossover Powerful, Political Harry
Rated: Fiction M - English - Adventure/Supernatural - Harry P. - Chapters: 15 - Words: 76,866 - Reviews: 606 - Favs: 1,007 - Follows: 1,130 - Updated: 02-15-13 - Published: 09-26-12 - id: 8558584

Apparently, the HP/LOTR portion of the story is the first in the author's grand plans for an "epic" multi-cross; I don't hold out a lot of hope for success in this grand ambition, but he does have a fair chunk of words written so far for this first crossover.

The story opens with Harry tossed through the Veil for contrived reasons (his Cruciatus curse in the DOM, Dumbledore abandoning him), arriving in Middle Earth in the early part of the War of the Rings and eventually building a power base with one of the Blue wizards as a third front in the war. Amusing circumstances early on cause him to despise Gondor and be sympathetic to Sauron.

I find elements of the plot and premise to be interesting, as I've not seen "Harry as Black Númenórean" done before in any semi-competent way. The overarching law/chaos/balance deity framework for the story (above the LOTR pantheon) is, at some level, workable, though perhaps too convenient in explaining away how Harry can get away with having no compunctions whatsoever for what amounts to some pretty heinous decisions on his part.

On the downside, the writing is bland and I find myself unable to become invested in Harry or anyone else in the story. It's essentially a Harry-in-Name-Only tale, where Harry instantly turns into an amoral badass bastard who betrays and backstabs when it suits him. Were he to have arrived at such a state through the weight of experience, I would celebrate the transition, but here he was pretty much throwing around Unforgivables from the moment his boots hit Middle Earth ground.

One scene in particular turned me off:

Spoiler

At one point, Harry's betrothed, which whom he's developing a rapport of sorts, begs him to spare her father, a leader in a rival city. Harry agrees, yet a chapter or so later, he conspires with her younger brother to not only have their father assassinated, but also to have the younger brother fingered as the mastermind and killed as well as he stages a coup and takes over their city, setting his wife-to-be on the throne. This double-betrayal has no consequences whatsoever in the story, no change in his relationship with his fiancée, no hint of guilt on Harry's part as an oath-breaker. While I grant that the world he's in is a harsh one, requiring some draconian behavior if one is to survive, the lack of any response on his part pretty much sealed the character as only wearing Harry's skin and name.

On balance, an interesting story premise suffering from weak characterization and, in places, contrived plotting. I suspect most here will find it Almost Recommended, perhaps at the lower end of the range. (It falls between 2/5 and 3/5 for me.)

Edit: typo fix.

 

I read it a while back and hardly remembered what happened in it. There is an interesting premise and plenty of things going on, but it's written in such a flat way that nothing sticks with you.

This story reminds me of The star empire(and the billion other versions the author has posted). A completely unlikable Harry thrust into an interesting world, ruined by execution.

I would still recommend it to anyone that is interested in a lotr xover, that is not about the fellowship or bumming Legolas.

 

I feel like I should point out that people don't become asexual as they age, despite what children might think of their parents. I shouldn't have looked too closely at some of those profiles, though.

To me, the opposite issue is odd, too: there are a few middle-aged authors that have their characters freely admit to each other what they are and are not ready for sexually. It usually involves waiting for marriage (or legal marriage, since many of them involve Soul Bonds as well), as if some arbitrary date is better than any other time. I get the feeling that they are parents themselves and choose to be willfully ignorant of what they (or at least others their age) were like back then.

EDIT:

On topic: I've actually downloaded The Traveller, but never got too far because of Harry's characterization in the first chapter. Maybe I'll give it another shot, though.

 

The biggest problem with The Traveller for me was that I just got bored. I found myself skimming huge chunks of text.

 

"The Traveller" is nearly unreadable. I felt myself getting dumber digesting all those awkward sentences, deciphering tons of obscure orthographical errors and enduring horrible plot holes.

 

The Traveller is pretty much bang on for the Almost Recommended thread. The writing is okay but this Harry is just completely unlikeable. And that's just the start of its problems.

Spoiler

Harry goes from being executed in the veil to wanting to side with Sauron instantly... until he gets his own city. He's using the Killing Curse without remorse AND torturing a man into insanity with the Cruciatus Curse. There's no transition at all, its just instant and even if the development happened over time it'd need a better writer.

I'm torn because there's potential but the author is intent on having Harry sticking with this town of Jaffa where there are no interesting characters at all. Let me see Rohan or Gondor, these are the people that should be Harry's Allies and there are characters there that we know from the original books/movies. Then there's the Blue Wizard who's just the worst cliché of the whole story. He just shows up 1000 years after his last sighting and instantly Harry trusts him and is all chummy chum chum. I'll admit that the Darkness is an interesting concept but, on its current path its a Guilty Pleasure at most.

 

Gemini by Shadow Rebirth.
Bring the world to boil, add corrupt governments, repressive laws, unhappy Muggleborns, an evil Dark Lord, and stir well with a determined time-traveling wizard. World domination has never been easier. Now if only Harry didn't have to clean up the mess... [Time travel, no pairings.]
Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure - Size: 9/40,195 - Reviews: 130 - Published: 9/1/2012 - Updated: 3 weeks, 5 days ago (bimonthly) - Harry P.

Potentially awesome. There are two Harry Potters, one is canon Harry at school, another - a time traveller running around and causing mayhem. Possibly deus-ex-machina mercenaries, and could spin out of control. Still, way better than other recent time-travel stories I've come across.

 

I read this this weekend and agree that it's well placed here in the Almost Recommended thread. I think the author does a good job with keeping the original timeline Harry appearing authentic, but I find the other Harry to be a bit over the top at times in terms of mad skills and the like. Also, there are some plot inconsistencies (e.g., Dumbledore never seeing through his invisibility cloak) that are a bit annoying.

I'll probably rate it a 3/5 based on what's written and will be following it in the future.

 

I really wanted to like Gemini when I realized that the author was writing another HP fic, but... either my standards went up or her writing got worse.

 

'Reducto's on three' by Lily meet Ginny.

An entirely plausible crack fic that depicts an alternate ending to GOF.

Summary:As Harry and Cedric stood in front of the cup, little did they know that one different spell could change everything. Set during the Third Task.

Link: Here