Has anyone noticed that, lately, quite a few "second chance" fics have come out?

The basic premise of the stories seems to be that Harry has lost everyone that he loved (friends, family, etc.) in the war. When he finally defeats Voldemort, he is somehow sent back to the past to change what happened the first time around.

I kind of like the idea. We (usually) get to see a more independent Harry with more kickass abilities and a better work ethic concerning training and all that sort of stuff.

What do you guys think?

 

In 90% of this stories, Harry usually declares love to Hermione/Ginny/etc in the span of the few chapters, then go to Hogwarts and behaves like the good little boy, repeating the canon events only with little different and insignificant details.

 

most of those stories are harry/ginny so i tend to avoid the second chance fics

 

i've seen a few harry, almost always goe's beck either before his sorting or to his third year (summer). it does make for a good independent harry stories but the idea has been overused to the point i've stopped reading them unless it's a dark harry fic, i've only seen one or two of those and i forgot where there are.

 

I would love to see a Harry as a Dark Lord goes back in time cos he lost fic. Don't think I've ever seen one of those before but I'm gonna have to go look now

 

I honestly liked the idea for a long time, but it never really seemed to have been done well. Really killed most of my interest in it. There's only so many bad stories I can read in search of -one- well written one before I just give up.

In truth, the idea itself is the "easy way out" for both the author and Harry. It's what made it so appealing, I suppose. So many stories have Harry swimming in angst, nice to see the hero get his way for once.

I agree that they tend to be more "Independent!Harry" based, but it just continues with all the problems that are normally found in that section. Same old cliches, same old pairings we either despise, or are sick to death of.. I'm sure I'll look forward to the day when an exceptional one comes out, because, you know.. it has to. [/end denial]

So yeah.. that's my opinion. >_<

 

This is the perfect sort of a genre for people who can write decently, but lack skills and/or patience to develop their own ideas and plot.

Just by chosing this genre, they get the perfect setting handed to them on a silver platter:
- Familiar Hogwarts surrounding from canon books
- Canon plots they can follow, without having to invent any sort of plot themselves
- Powerful and smart Harry, without having to describe him training and studying
- Harry knowing everything, without them (the authors) having to wreck their little brains by trying to invent and place clues or anything alike a proper plot twists.
- Angst overtones, thanks to Harry's 'future past' (which can be twisted at any point using irritating flashbacks).
- A reason to have Harry lust after some pre-teen Marry-Sue.

See? Everything is nice, safe, color-coded and generally, idiot-friendly. If you have two hands attached to a pair of brain cells and original Rowling's books for copy & paste purposes, you can write a story like this.

Oh, and the only exception from this rule is Taliath's story, which is perfectly sweet and original. All the others, as far as I know, are boring, angst-ridden filler-fests.

 

While I agree with IP82, I must say I'm eagerly anticipatiing the day someone writes a Harry that returns in the middle of the Hogwarts year, and not in some convenient time like the summer or before he was born.

Even better would be a Pre-Third Task return that ends up considerably worse than before, making Harry realize how goddamn lucky he was last time.

Either that or have him return in the middle of Sixth Year and avert the absolute diaster HBP turned out to be.

 

This is all like infinite monkey theorem, where ff.net authors are monkeys producing random stories, and we all are waiting for nearly infinite amount of time before come out our dream fic Sorry, couldn't resist. But this analog is almost true, considering stuff people write nowadays on ff.net.

 

Hmm, fascinating ideas Amerision... if you come up across any fics like this out there, please post the links here - in the mean time, maybe these notions will inspire some actual good quality fics.

-J

 

I actually like this idea, does anyone know if there is a story out there like this?

 

The idea has a lot of stuff going for it but it is just destroyed by people focusing to much on him "Living his life" rather then leaving hogwarts behind and hunting down Voldy and the death eaters before they can organise.

 

Now, I like second chance story where Harry kicks some ass but sometimes... it gets a little unbearable. Sometimes, when Harry goes back he merges with himself and increases his power by ten-fold making it just plain ridculous. There's also the fact that he knows that everythings going to happen in a specific way making him a God, what the authors don't emphasize on though are that the enemies are human. This enables them to think and allow them to do different actions when another isn't working or by just going on a whim! BUT NO, the authors just make them do the same thing from the original HP timeline and in just a few seconds they're dead or captured.

All Harry has that's going for him is the advantage of suprise, being able to tell what they might do, in a specific time but what if they didn't?

Eh, enough for ranting... what I'd really like to see would be Harry having a second chance but for him to forget everything. Having his whole memory of his past life split into fragments and Harry in second chance having glimmers of what might be in the future from his past self. This way a whole lot of things can happen and the glimmars could mislead Harry creating a whole new future!

 

I would like to see Harry come back to 1st year, 3rd year, whenever, and think that he knows whats going to happen...but he's wrong.

Harry and Ron sprinted down the hallway towards the girl's bathroom. Wrinkling their noses at the stench, they shoved open the door, only to be faced by a gigantic mountain troll. Huddled in the corner was Hermione, sobbing. Harry looked over at Ron, remembering in his first life when Ron had levitated the troll's club.

Ron looked between the troll and Hermione, a panicked expression upon his youthful face. Suddenly, a fire appeared in his eyes, and he stood up just a little bit straighter, pointed his wand at the gargantuan creature's club, and bellowed, "Wingardium Leviofa!"

With a small pop, a buffalo was conjured above the freckled wizard. Harry looked on, horrified, as the massive animal let gravity take over and fell to the ground, flattening the red-haired boy underneath.

"RON!" screamed Harry, astonished at the turn of events. Not a moment later, a crash was heard from the back of the bathroom. The troll had swung its club, its aim true, and now Harry's bushy-haired friend was transformed into a bloody mass on the club of a troll.

"No, no, NO! This isn't how it's supposed to be! WHAT HAPPENED?" Harry shouted, on his knees, tears streaming down his face. He only had a second left to live, as he looked up to be faced by a hurtling club...

...

BWAHAHAHAHA! Not very good, but I'm tired, so it made me giggle.

 

Didn't DGOC write one where Harry goes back in time and learns he was actually Tom Riddle/LV all along?


I agree with the sentiment that most stories in this genre are terrible, which is a shame considering how much fun you could have with it. Instead of just changing one or two details (maybe having Harry/Hermione or Harry/Ginny date because that's the whole point of writing the story) have a canon event happen in the year you choose for him to go back, have him change the outcome dramatically, and then explore the results.

If you're going to just have a fluff piece set in an old book, label it AU and move on, don't waste our time with your poorly executed plot.

 

IP82 already talked about liath's fic, although the time period in that is quite low. I'd like to add Tarken's Nightmare's of Future's Past. I mean, it may have the dreaded H/G at preteen ages and a load of angst, but it's written well. You have to admit that - the characterization's amazing. And it's the banner ship for all the other fics out there.

 

Actually, this is the poster-child for the kind of trash-fics I've been talking about - good writing style and not much else.

 

S'TarKan's is written really well, it's just nothing at all about the story he's telling interests me in the slightest. The pre-teen romance, the angsting over things and the very canon-like sequence of events... it's like every potentially interesting plot direction there is, S'TarKan chose the one I wish he hadn't. I've tried to get into that fic. And considering it's popularity, sometimes I really think I'm just being too picky, or missing something... but I'm with IP. It's the poster-child for everything wrong with these sorts of fics. But it's written well enough most people don't notice.

Really before this genre took off, I thought feanor hit on the most logical storyline that would result from this sort of sequence of events in Ashes in our Mouths. Harry goes back, wakes up just after Quirrell just before the end of his first year. And then basically ties everything up and all loose plot lines by the leaving feast. No crying, whining, completely messed up unintelligent plans. No angsting or sickening pre-teen romance for our 93 year old dirty man in a 11 year old body. Just fixing the problems and moving on.

Instead most of these fics are retread of canon after retread of canon. I think I said this in some other thread, but I just wish people would take future!Harry and bring him back to post-OotP or even post-HBP, so that we might have an original plotline or two to go with our freshly independent!Harry. Just maybe. Ruskbyte's Backwards Compatible is the only one I can think of that actually takes the future smarts or power, puts them back in a young more independent Harry body and then doesn't retread canon.

Maybe it's that fear of 'altering the timeline' getting an extra dose of suckitude when we're fully cognizant of the timeline. I'd rather see some things play out and not know if we're along the path we're supposed to be or not.

 

I would not mind seeing a chase/suspense drama.
Harry goes back in time. He decides to kill the death eaters before the can cause more trouble. Every one is after this unknown killer, harry is running/hiding
from the ministry, the death eaters etc.