...I wished the dream sequence actually happened.

 

lol that would have been a sudden ending to the story.
he should have left it as a cliff-hanger.

 

I read Hpnmofp and I loved it so much.

 

You know... while I agree that this fic isnt the best in fandom and the fact that the pairing is H/G is disappointing, I think that this author is being done a great disservice.

I think the fic has several plus points -

1) Good spelling and grammar
2) Decent length chapters
3) Canon characterizations
4) He hasn't done the whole H/G soul bond thing like Intromit

I suppose one could say that the fic's action scenes leave a lot to be desired but I don't think he is trying to write a action centric or super powered Harry fic. Lets face it, JK's Harry isn't superpowerful (A big turn off for me) and neither is he superpowered in NofP. I think he is above average in power and the 30 years of experience gives him an edge over others.

I think one of the main reasons the fic is so popular is because of the H/G pairing. The H/G shipper community is huge and they love that he's writing a decent H/G fic.

I also saw that there were complaints that Harry is a 30 yr old and Ginny is 12.. and it makes him a pedophile. I personally think its no big deal. Firstly, Harry has merged with his 12 yr old self so somewhere in there exists a 12 yr old Harry. Secondly, if we can read Harry/Lily and Harry/Bellatrix fics and not make too much of a fuss why nitpick and complain here?

Also it is wrong to compare his fics with those of LT2000. They have completely different writing styles. LT2000 is a master of writing dark, action packed fics, while S'Tarkan is more of a canon type author.

Personally I think the guy has talent.

 

You joined and posted just to defend one of the most popular fics in all of fandom?

This fic doesn't have an audience simply because of H/G. In fact a lot of its audience enjoys the fic in spite of the H/G. It's a very well-written story with a style that is very smooth, polished, and readable. Those qualities are about the only similarities I can think of between Viridian and LT2000.

That said, the choice of storyline, the plot, and the vast of majority of events in this story are not anything I enjoy reading and the same can be said for a lot of DLPers. I got about ten chapters into it before I gave up because it was only making me frustrated and I got absolutely no enjoyment from reading it.

He is talented and this fic has a massive following. But by the same measure, I don't care if a movie has the best action sequences in the world, or it's easily Scorsese's best movie in decades, if the movie is about my mom humping my dog, I probably won't enjoy it. If it weren't my mom, or more realisitically, if it weren't my dog, than maybe it's a different story. And I can easily see why tons of people might love a well-produced movie about the love between a woman and a dog. But it's still an annoying canon-like Harry, who plays the innocent idiot card leaving Sirius rotting in prison for at least a dozen chapters (I gave up after he'd thought about him maybe once, I think) dealing with 12 year old main characters acting like 12 year olds, learning wandless magic and going through semi-normalish Hogwarts years. While we're still five years and a few hundred thousand words from any sort of conflict that sounds interesting to me. It's a pro-Weasley lovefest with a whole slew of ideas and concepts that have been done before, just not always this well.

No matter how well-written or engaging it is, I'd still probably rather watch my mom humping my dog.

 

Nope, I didn't join just to defend NotfP.

I was just stating my opinion. Isn't what this forum is about?

What I believe is that it all comes down to a matter of taste. Some people will hate it.. others will love it. But one thing stands out - The guy is a good writer.

And thats all I was trying to say

 

Absolutely. And I wasn't saying you shouldn't have posted what you did. I was just adding my own two cents in return.

But if you're gonna troll around and chime in, go ahead and introduce yourself. Though I'm guessing you're at least aware how welcome most Harry/Ginny sentiments and perhaps some of your own H/G fics will be.

 

LOL

I'm well aware... thats why i'll never rec my stuff. Its all horrible anyway.

Personally i'm not a shipper. The plot matters more to me. Harry could be with any character and I wouldn't care. (Unless its someone like Millicent Bulstrode)

But off late i'm a bit put off by the H/G ship. I've just got tired of the OBHWF scenario after reading countless fics like that. Ofcourse, this leaves me in a bit of a spot since my own fic is H/G. But i'm happy that so far its not put me off writing.

And i'll take your advice and go introduce myself

 

What's wrong with a good Harry/Millie ship? Girls with back hair need love too!

I do read NoFP, but it isn't among my favorites any more. As for him not being super powered, I don't know there are quite a few of those flashback scenes that lead me to believe otherwise. One in particular where he was apparating all around the the ruins of hogsmeade and killing a whole slew of DEs. It seems like Harry is always angsting about bad things happening to him while not diverging enough from the canon timeline to him. He is a good writer, but I don't necessarily want to call him a creative writer as I haven't really seen anything beyond him working within the framework of JKR's events. He has a Naruto fic that is popular. I don't read that genre of fiction and his yahoo group shows that he has some original work.

Its as good of a "redo" fic as you can find, (though I like Dr. T's Harry's second chance slightly better) but it shows some of my disatisfaction with those types of stories. Take a story like your own, mine or Draco664's Journeyman/Apprentice Potter stories that tries to leap off and try to blaze a trail forward instead of rehashing the old stuff.

His rate of updating has been steadily slowing down. I know as well as anyone else, but many people who try to do a sweeping rewrite of canon fall prey to entropy. The R-series is a prime example of this as is Dethryls They shook hands, haven't seen an update to it in awhile.

And those are my 2 knuts. (I still laugh everytime I type that! Sad isn't it?)

Jim

 

I suppose I'll chime in...

NoFP is executed about as well as any canon-redo I've seen, my problem with it is that the story has gotten bogged down of late.

While Viridian didn't fall into the trap of a point-by-point rehash of canon, he's making Harry's development more tedious than it need be. It's a fine line, admittedly: Too little conflict and a story ends up being yet another wish-fulfillment, Harry gets SOOPER POWERZ!! exercise in fanfic masturbation... Too much and a story becomes (yet another) emo-tard angst fest.

In this case, while the story hasn't strayed too far into either territory, the reader is treated to a hundred thousand words of grinding (Harry trains, and plans, and trains his friends, and worries, and eats, and sleeps...) and at the end of everything Harry & Co are *still* too young to really be effective against the dark. There's been significant character development, but much of it could have been achieved in a lot fewer words and the author wouldn't have been remiss in using a time-jump forward or three.

As for me, I'm with nonjon: Can we please get to the interesting part now?

-Sean

 

At times I like the methodical nature of this fic. At other times aspects of it annoy me - eg. the precocious romance, and the author's lack of ability to use line dividers to cleanly separate scenes which should be separate.

Overall, though, I can take this fic, warts and the lot, and enjoy it. The thing is, a lot of re-do-for-Harry fics ignore the fact that Trelawney was triggered to make a very specific prophecy about Wormtail's disappearance, and this, in a way, set in motion the entire events of GoF and OotP. S'Tarkan (Viridian) has clearly taken that into account here, by having Harry free Wormtail, but run into stumbling blocks as that idiot Fudge (And yes, the man is an idiot, okay? If morons like Idi Amin can run countries into the ground, then so can people like Fudge) wants to cover his you-know-what with the connivance of Death Eater sympathizers in the Ministry.

The thing is, springing Sirius and just offing Wormtail without taking into account that Trelawney is involved seems a bit cheap to me.

If you all are really worried about this fic I could recommend Sil'vinya's Interpretations of Fate, instead.

 

This is a most excellent story. Umfortunately the updates are ever so slow. One almosts expect it to be abanoded because of the slow updates.

 

I dont actually know the fuss about H/G fics but if the plot is good, who cares? The problem I feel is that there are too many of those "I saw GInny... When did she grow up.. wham I'm in love" kinda fics that give that ship a bad name... There is no actual development of the fic... Though in this case, it is actually well developed... The authors does not necessarily mean that they are dating now are they? I really like the fact that Harry is a troubled individual... If a guy goes through war and lose so many people, he has to have major scars...

The author, even now in 30 chapters does not indicate that Harry is over his nightmares or emotional problems. This is one of the better fics coz it is a detailed fic with plausible explanations for events that occur.

 

For those interested, now updated to chapter 32.

 

This is one of the few WIP's that I have started. I had started it because the concept was very similar to one of my favorite science fiction books, Steven Gould's Replay. (side note - If you are looking for a quality non-Harry Potter work, I highly recommend it, although since much of the story takes place in the 70's and 80's, it would probably appeal more to the older crowd.)

I have always been fascinated with the idea of what would a person do if they got a second chance. And Viridian's (or S'Tarkan) does this superbly. I know many have been bothered by the seemingly pedophile!Harry, but since young Harry is in there somewhere and he hasn't rushed them into a relationship, I can overlook it.

Another reason I like this fic is the number of similar genre fics that this one fic has led to. There were a few earlier "redo" fic, but this one above all other spurned a slew of them.

The only problem with this fic is his update rate. It seems like every update is slightly longer than the last. There's only been one chapter in the last six month. Not good. At the time I started it, he was updating the fic on a weekly basis. If I knew he was going to slow down as he has, I would have never started the fic in the first place.

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure this fic is going to be abandoned. Historically the only way massive rewrites of the books get finished is if the author keeps constantly on it (3-4 chapters a month, minimum). I can't think of a single series rewrite that was eventually finished that is updated as slow as this one is. If he ends this fic after year 4 and assuming around 20 chapters per school year, it will take him over 10 years to complete this fic at his current rate. And if he does all 7 years, more than 25 years. Not going to happen my friends. Couple this with the fact he's got another novel-length work in progress, his own original fiction on the back burner, and the final book coming out in a couple of months puts the nail in the coffin in my opinion. I hope he proves me wrong.

Overall grade 4.5/5

 

I have always liked Back in Time!Harry fics, but now that I think about it, I find that they are rather stupid and pointless and they lead to nothing but pedophile problems when the 18-40 year old man (depending on the story) lusts after a super young version of his old love and overly done angst because of what has happened to him in his previous life.

And there isn't much to them anyways. I mean why would you ever need to write a back in time story unless you were going past his birth in time? This is fanfiction, so we can always find a way to change his early childhood for the better but keep the story suspenseful and interesting rather than having him come back to when he was young and then know everything that will happen.

I have read a few good ones in my time, but I have yet to read one that doesn't end up abandoned. This one in particular was okay, but he couldn't really work around a lot of the inate problems that have to do with this brand of fic. Harry is independent in some ways, as we all want him to be, but he is also so pathetically tragic and dramatic, concerning his old life, that I almost stopped reading many times when I read it weeks ago. Also, though I am more of a fluff fan than an overly done angst fan, he couldn't get around the Harry/Young girl age problems that are always a part in this story, and I don't think it is really possible to do so for any author unless you wait to write the romance for many years of his Hogwarts life.

I, like many on DLP, am not a fan of the H/G pairing as I hate Harry being some pathetic dog on a leash to the 'great redhead wills' of one Ginerva Weasley. I have read a few good ones, but most of those were humor rather than really serious fanfiction. Changes in Harry in his childhood are one of the few ways that I have seen H/G work as Harry is no pathetic 'all Potters love redheads' lap dog and he can get to the little ginslut before she ever even becomes the little ginslut.

All I have been really trying to get across is that back in time fanfiction, unless you bring his body with him past the Marauder time, has a lot of problems that usually leave it abandoned and unreadable to anyone but preteens with their hands in their shorts and lovers of emopants Harry who wants to be some sort of independent super!Harry but can't get passed the past that the writer just had to bring with him when there were many better ways to write an independent young Harry. To this story I give the max that I can to this Genre at 4/5.

 

Chapter 33 has been posted, and I think we'll see a clash of wills between Neville and his Grandmother soon.

Well, more than the one in this chapter, anyway.

 

A nice filler chapter, sort of settings things up for the future chapters.
Not worth the wait, but I got more than I paid, so I should not whine.

 

I started to read this fic a while back and I just tried again, but once again I can't get through it.

The Harry/Ginny scenes bug me. I think the author should have waited on the 12 year old fluff until 5th or 6th year. At least I wouldn't gouging out my eyes reading about 12 year olds falling for each other, even though Harry is 30. In my mind, if you have the mentality of a 30 year old, you should not be getting the hots for a 12 year old, no matter how much you loved them before.

I think the fic is more of a glorified version of an over used, clichéd plot. Out of the thousands of fics with similar plots his is written best, I will give him that. But his Harry pisses me off, he is too......canon. I would take a fic with a similar plot, not as well written, if it has a non canon Harry any day.

Personally I like his Naruto fic much better. Though I see a similar trend in that fic with the 12 year old romance soon. At least Naruto is actually 12 in that fic and doesn't have the mentality of his 36 year old self. Though it still disturbs me to read pre teen fluff.

 

Too canon? Is that the only problem? I think it's a credit to the writer's ability that you make that particular comment.