Title: Fate Be Changed (HP/Hobbit... Kinda)
Author: Araceil
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Chapters: 30
Words: 141,977
Published: June 21st, 2014
Status: WIP
Library Category: The Alternates
Pairings: Fem!Harry/Thorin

Summary: Reborn as a Hobbit, Willowyn Proudfoot isn't about to let a doughy potato like Bilbo Baggins get himself killed on Gandalf's hairbrained idea of an adventure. She's taking his place. For better or worse. (fem!Hobbit!Harry, major canon!divergence)

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10473466/1/Fate-be-Changed

Right. So this fic is making me question my own sanity. I'm not even sure posting it here is a good idea, it's not even really Harry Potter even if it says it is. A list of things it has that make me think twice:

1. Fem!Harry.
2. Completely OC Harry, in fact 'Harry' is mentioned approximately 4 times.
3. MarySueish!Hobbit.
4. Hobbit-Dwarf relations (admittedly it went 140k words without touching on it but it's coming in more towards the end).
5. Kíli/Tauriel is something that doesn't really fit in my head.
6. Pointlessly concealed gender.

And some more stuff that has temporarily slipped my mind. I should hate it or, at the very least, get to the end of the first chapter and call it a day. Yet here I am re-reading it a third time. I have no idea why.

It's not even Harry Potter. Willowyn is 'Harry Potter reincarnated'. What that means is every 20k words or so Harry's 'memories' will be mentioned in briefest passing. Basically a beautiful, proficient, intelligent, Ranger Hobbit OC with a troubled past. Why am I even submitting this? She kills three trolls single handedly! The hell am I even doing?

Despite all that I enjoy reading it. And I have no idea why. It is technically well written, characters are distinct and for the most part interesting (difficult with so many interchangeable Dwarves). It does a nice job of seamlessly interweaving original background with canon. The 'romances' are very much played down and I'm able to ignore them.

And that's it. But I'm still rating it 4/5. The only fics I've reread this much are my own and that's because I have to for proofing. There must be something there that makes me like it. I still have no idea what it might be. Maybe I'm turning into a teenage girl?

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

Oh man, I need to lie down.

 

NO, STEELBADGER! BAD STEELBADGER!

 

You Fool!
You've doomed us all!

 

I agree with everything steelbadger said. I don't even know why I started reading this story, but once I did, I couldn't put it down.

The MC, despite being a male Harry reborn, is OC enough that his sex change doesn't bother me.

The interactions between characters are so well done that the 'Mary Sue'ishness of the character passes by without being an annoyance. It's there, and it's blatant enough that there is no way to actually avoid noticing it, but it doesn't matter as much.

What it is, in one word, is enjoyable. I think it's one of the most enjoyable fics I've read recently.

4/5

 

Maybe you are just too into LotR for your own good, SB.

 

NuScorpii I think I'm glad that someone else is exhibiting the same symptoms. Give your family my condolences.

I thought that might be it but after reading this I tried out some other Hobbit fan fiction with a fem!Bilbo and was unable to get more than a few chapters in. I was most grateful to discover that my madness did not extend to... Uhhh... 'Mainstream' Bagginshield. I still have no desire to read Bilbo/Thorin stuff, even if I do like LotR quite a lot. There's something about this fic that makes me simply not care.

 

Hold my beer, I'm going in!

 

I don't understand, it has all the ingredients, all the makings of what should amount to pure shit and yet I couldn't stop reading it. At work, before going to bed, couldn't fucking stop.

You're like some weird kinda Tolkien-crossover niffler, Steelbadger.

 

I found this quite a while back and decided to follow.

It's pretty awful. Harry isn't Harry in any way really and for some reason a change of gender caused a complete change of personality and sexuality (the author intends to ship Harry with a short bearded guy). It barely qualified as Harry potter until the latest chapter where Harry borrows Gandalf's staff to cast some magic. I suspect Harry is an author insert so the author can fulfill her dwarf shipping fantasies but I have no proof of that.

Really, the story would have been cooler if Harry realized she had kept her magic after being reborn and spent her time attempting to find suitable magical ingredients to make a wand. There simply isn't enough Harry Potter stuff in it.

Still, despite these flaws it is does have good grammar, spelling and structure, and for some reason I can't explain I've been following it though some of the chapters before the battle were boring as fuck causing me to gloss over them.

I'm giving it a 2/5 because I know it's awful, even if I've been following it from around chapter 10

 

.txt download:
Fate Be Changed by Araceil (Chapter 1-32) - (Mega, Mediafire)