It was based on a lot of things, far more than just personality. Realistically if there was one thing you could boil down magical performance to it would almost certainly be I.Q.

 

Crabbe was regularly described as dumb. He conjured Fiendfyre. Hermione struggled with Patronus and Defence (without proper instruction). She is vastly superior to Harry in intellect. Neville's I.Q. didn't see any change in OotP. He just overcame his own issues.

I.Q. is just as important as any other parameter. It isn't the most important trait or the deciding factor.

Edit: Isn't this the wrong thread for a discussion on magical theory?

 

Ok? You won't accept a logical, realistic explanation for how someone might be more talented at magic than someone else just because...its logical and realistic?

Thats nonsense. Sorry, but you're making things up if you say canon magical ability is solely based on personality and mental state. Based on what you've just said Dumbledore is the best wizard around because he's what? The most confident? And to suggest that "personality and mental state" is a more reasonable and logical basis for magical ability than genetics is a really strange argument to make.

Again you've not actually given a reason for saying that a criticism of "this fanfic isn't canon therefor its shit" isn't a stupid criticism.

Of course its different from canon. Thats the point. If you want to read canon, I'm sure you've got the books on a shelf. Reading fanfiction is about reading things that are different from canon.

Criticise it because you don't like it, because its badly written, because you can think of how you would have written it. But to criticise it for not being canon is ridiculous.

 

Solely based on...? There's an etc. at the end for a reason. I just pointed out the two most obvious ones.

I never said changing canon is bad. More than half the fics I like have 'magical exhaustion' and non-canonical elements. I just made an observation that's apparently stupid.

I didn't criticise the fic because I don't hate it. I just refuted some other guy's statement because it was (partly) factually incorrect. I didn't pass any judgement over the entire fic, just a magic system that is overused.

 

If your sensibilities of fanfiction are based entirely off of canon compliance then 99% of the fics in the Library shouldn't be there (just operating under your logic). But these are indisputably good fics. And while this is a bad fic, the reasonings for such should not be "IT'S NOT CANON IT DOESN'T FOLLOW CANON".

We've seen countless times where tropes have been reutilized and made sensible/better. Calling something a trope doesn't somehow make it bad in and of itself. The story, characters, dialogue and portrayal of the Magic system? Perfectly capable of being criticized. But just saying that something is bad because it isn't a canon depiction of another thing completely undermines the point of FF. Which is that it is made to be OOC events and settings with familiar faces.

 

Honestly I think instead of James using Imperio on just Jim, he should have also used it on Harry. And maybe force him to do something bad in order frame him. I think it would really spice up the tension with EVERY character pretty nicely.

 

James and Harry were rarely alone enough for that to have happened and not only does Harry have some amount of mental protection he was also protected by his Heir status and by making sure that James never knew what Harry was really doing. James also would normally never use the Imperius curse (or any of the unforgivable curses) without something like the Prophecy altering his thoughts.

 

Whilst you're correct it certainly would have spiced things up, I think its important to remember that James used the Imperius Curse as a spur of the moment, panicked reaction. He didn't think it through or plan it out. I'm sure you could reasonably infer from the fic that he probably had at some point considered doing it to Harry, as it would be a quick and reasonably easy way to be rid of the perceived problem. But in the end he never did, because he's not that bad a guy.

 

Fleur Delacour is a spy, I somehow don't find this ridiculous.

 

I really was not a fan of this chapter. It felt very disconnected, and lacked a single idea running through.

I also despise this muggle-wanking-Wizarding-economy-is-dumb nonsense. I get why the author did it. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

 

The Summer chapters are usually either deep dives into one character or little slices from a number of characters in this case with everything going on it helps readers remember where everyone is. On the economy thing it isn't even muggle wank really there is no logical reason for the Wizarding Economy to be very strong relative to the Muggle Economy given the massive difference in population and especially in Wizarding Britain the concentration of wealth in the hands of very few.

 

It being potentially accurate doesnt mean it has to be interesting or worth reading about.

And more to the point, we dont need to know where everyone is. I dont care about Alexander Nott, and definitely dont care about the fact that Narcissa is going full on "Step-son, what are you doing?" with him. I dont care about the Yaxleys, I dont care about Harry's Harem as George put it gushing over his win in dueling, and I dont care about Severus's thing either. There is too much stuff, not enough focus.

If literally every other character POV was eliminated, and we only had Harry's POV, I think I'd go back to liking this story as much as I did back at the start of Year 3.

 

The thing I‘ve come to dislike the most about this story is the author insisting on having roughly 30 POV characters (and the fact that I don‘t even know whether this is an exaggeration or not should also tell you something) for no particular reason.

In the last chapter, there would‘ve been no issue at all with letting the economy section play out from Harry‘s POV: We could’ve gotten some insight about whether he feels his Muggle issue is affecting Finch-Fletchley and the tickets also could‘ve been a surprise. Instead, we had the main character’s surprise spelled out for us in advance.

 

I have mixed feelings about this chapter.

On one hand I like the treatment of Fleur. She's a gifted woman who hides much of her skills, some intentionally (her English), and some her parents force her to. The spy part was a bit over the top, but I like where her character is going.

On the other, there's a lot of fluff that I find hard to sift through. Lily never learned to cook eggs benedict. Okay? Justin's dad is adjusting to the wizarding world. Cool?

I think I agree with the general consensus. The interesting bits are really interesting, they're just scattered in between a bunch of fluff.

 

The summer chapters are always a bit of fluff, I'm not concerned about it. Looking forward to the plot picking back up post summer.

 

The other big thing is that year three wrapped/exposed a lot of the secrets/mysteries that had been building over the past three books: what is that secret legacy that Harry has, what is that second Potter prophecy that has been causing tension, when will Peter be outed. These three had been teased since the end of book 1 at the latest (plus year 3 had something up with Hermione) and all of which have been resolved now which means that we need new ones like: what is Tom Riddle's real plan, what did Belby entrust to Snape, when will Jim's Animagus form be revealed to the world, plus now what is the real deal with Fleur and her family. POS takes the position that the war won't just end with the chosen one killing the dark lord and that as a result Harry needs allies in order to win the day therefore we need to know and understand his allies and what motivates them and what they want and are interested in so we can see how Harry can get them what they want while at the same time Harry ensures he gets what he needs from them. So the summer chapters are far more disjointed plus Potter family drama is unlikely to go away since we are still in the now that you have fallen from grace how much does your life suck portion of the character arc for them.

 

Spoiler: 30 examples

1. Harry
2. Jim
3. James
4. Lily
5. Snape
6. Hermione
7. Regulus
8. Sirius
9. Dumbledore
10. Theo
11. Alexander Nott
12. Fleur
13. Neville
14. Blaise
15. Pettigrew
16. Lupin
17. Ron
18. George
19. Mrs Weasley
20. Umbridge
21. Mr Weasley
22. Amy Wilkes
23. Ginny
24. Dobby
25. Pius Thickness
26. Lucius Malfoy
27. Draco
28. Marcus Flint
29. Augusta Longbottom
30. Rufus Scrimgeour

There's definitely more as well, but its at least 30 at this point and I'm pretty sure that all of these are within the last 15 Chapters.