Measure for Measure is amazing. I'll be the first to say it is filled to the brim with cringe worthy cliche moments of the indie!harry trying to be a bad ass moments, along with a Mary Sueesque 'Tori' and a kinda-ice-queen-but-not-really!Daphne... all this is 100% true.

And yet, it totally redeems itself in some bizarre way that makes it the best thing I've read in the last few months, hands down. Because the author knows not to take his stuff too seriously - the characters themselves recognize that most of the situations Harry finds himself in (Katie) are fucked up, and yet they do so without shattering the fourth wall. I'm with Xiph on this one - Measure is awesome.

On topic: Ebbs and Flows. Right now, I'm feeling like it's a down time for HP fics... but then that's more cause I've got more shit on my plate, and don't have time for the mindless happy mediocre I'd normally find acceptable. There's still plenty of good stuff being written at reasonable rates.

 

I dunno, I guess one of the things I've noticed (to mingled feelings of elation and disappointment) is the HUGE expansion of the Twilight fandom compared to the Harry Poter fandom. Sure, it's great that most of the more insane fangirls were sucked off into a different universe (with the exception of those god-awful cross-overs that deserve to die in HELL), but with their departure, I'm thinking that a significant amount of the reader base left too. It's a hypothesis, nothing more, but it's the only real correlation I can find (and I'm not going to lie that I'm looking for another thing to blame Twilight for).

One of the other things I've noticed is the timing in a lot of the major fanfic releases. Most were between OOTP, HBP, and DH - people trying to fill in the gaps. Another reason I'm guessing why the fandom has died off a bit (and I think this was mentioned earlier, but I don't mind saying more on it) is because there's a serious lack of original ideas coming out. It's genuinely hard sometimes to find truly excellent fics that aren't a rehash of cliche after cliche after cliche.

I would guess, though, that when the next HP movies come out, we'll see a bit of an upswing in fanfic (or if Rowling decides to have a WTF! moment and write another novel - and knowing her capacities to have those, I'm still considering that as a possibility). HP fanfic might be down for a bit, but it definitely is not dead.

 

I don't necessarily care about cliches. I just want a well written, believable story.

If that includes Harry being a Phoenix animagus, then so be it.

(Though I have to say, I haven't seen any of those in a long, long time.)

 

Oh lawdy, a thread on the death of HP fanfiction. What's next? Slash is bad? Cliches are annoying? We seem to get another thread like this every time someone's standards get higher and they've read all the main HP classics.

Ain't nuthin' but a n00b thing.