Jeconais has his bad moments but I really do think that you can look over them and really enjoy his stories. Try reading it again, you might not be completely dissapointed

 

Enh, I don't know about that. If you start a fic expecting to not like it, from a bad summary or a known blerg!pairing, it can be really hard for it to get past that. And Tim's stuff is so long and expounds on so many areas other fics don't, you can just tire of it and lose interest with the right negative mindset.

But I'm a complete Jeconais fanboy, so I'll enjoy about everything and always recommend him. This chapter I felt was... unimpressive. A solid chapter, continues the story some, but the last two I thought were both more engaging and had more bits that I enjoyed. Viktor is quite nice, but I hardly think it's a revolutionary take on Krum. If you've read sloth's series, it rings very similar. They're about the only two quidditch rivals at that level, they trade off who ends up winning, they respect each other for their skill, intensity, the challenge of each other, etc... Certainly better than just making him the bad guy since he's got the americanized version of a bad guy accent and build.

As for Dumbledore, this chapter hints as to there being more going on than meets the eye. Yes he has been trying to get Harry back, but he's been strangely defensive and proud of Hogwarts, we know Snape and Trelawney have been secretly plotting all they can against Harry. I'm not saying Dumbledore has been controlled, but there might be more going on. It's not so much as making Dumbles either manipulative or a sad shell of his former self, as it is a changing of the guard, so to speak. It's been Dumbledore's world for a half dozen decades now. Now it's Harry's world. And losing the respect and title as the supreme wizard in the land isn't something most would just quietly relinquish. It's a blow to their pride. Same with athletes that don't want to retire. The game is their life, and they don't want to think about what to do next. We'll see what happens to Dumbledore in the next few chapters, but there's certainly hints towards something bigger. Minerva's open admittance that she's 'confused' and 'he's not the same man' with questions of dementia are not characteristics of simply manipulative dumbledore. Maybe we'll finally have a nice official Alzheimers!Dumbledore. Dunno.

But overall, a very solid chapter. Decent in every area, spectacular by Tim's standards in very few areas. Miles better than 99% of the other stuff out there, but I thought both 6 and 7 seemed better chapters than 8.

 

See i liked chapter 8, it really cleared some things up, i thought gabrielle single handedly beating durmstrang was a bit over the top. But the Draco bashing along with old senile dumbledore is great. That and i personally think the pairing is phenomonal, its the only "romance" i can stomach..

 

Well, she is the Seeker. So she winning the game for her team is not too much of a stretch. After all, chasers and beaters especially get better with experience as they refine their skills, so its understandable that the team didn’t exactly do as well in their first game. Nerves help as well.

Anyways, it twas a great chapter. I like the twist in regards to Dumbledore. And I'm curious about Snape and Trelaway. The fact that Harry is actively worried and just announced that he wont let it carry on any longer seems like a promise for more sneakiness to be had, and more manipulations to be severely outmaneuvered.

I'm looking forward to see how everything turns out.

 

I hate to admit it but i'm a sucker for love, hence, a sucker for this story. I gave "this means war" a chance and I found out that i could actually stomach the Harry/Ginny pairing there. joe's hero trilogy is good too mostly because it had great action and little fluff. I got through most of the chapters seeing blanks where ginny's name is supposed to be. :twisted:

Being a romance fic, Hope is probably the best out there. The romance isn't rushed, there are parts with great humor and everything and i mean EVERYTHING is great. The only bad thing i can say about this story is that it's too much of a fairytale. Stories like Jeconais' never happen in real life. Hell, in fairy tales, you steal a guy's girl, the guy usually becomes understanding and wishes them both 'the best of luck.' In real life, the guy offended will probably steal the other guy's wife, elope, or point a gun at his girlfriend and his supposed friend.

Hope is a great romance. I love it. But the only point i can find against it is that it is too fairytale-ish and harry is a gary-sue; mysterious, strong on the outside but really a big softie... Other than that, it's a great story.

 

it took me years to finally sit down and read 'This Means War!'

i mean, i've appreciated jeconais' fics from the get-go...but between the pairing, and the weird mmail setup...i could never seem to get past the first chappie.

i'm pretty glad i gave it the old college try though.

and yeah, i think jeconais just keeps getting more refined with every fic, and every chapter he throws out.

 

"This Means War" is his only fic I like and that is coz of the humor, m-mail (that is stolen from another fic but still great), super!Harry and the lack of angst. And even that story started getting on my nerves with all that fluff in the later chapters.

Sorry, but I simply can't stand romance the way HE writes it - it's just too girly for my taste.

 

I thought that his stories were well written...but I wish Harry and Gabby would hurry up and just be together in Hope. Love the Dumbldore/Malfoy/Snape bashing in the story though.

 

But then that would ruin what makes Jaconais's writings such unique finds.

 

i tried reading "this means war" and couldn't stand it, mainly cuz i hate ginny.. Hope though is very good, i wish someone would write a h/gabrielle story that contained some action, that would be great, but for some reason authors don't like to write original shit anymore..

 

I don't really like this story so much. Everyone says something, then says, "true." I could pull out quotes, but it happened I know with Aimee, Gabrielle, and McGonagall. All said something, someone counters, they say "True" and acknowledge it. The characters all talk the same. There is o reflection of character in word choice, only in tone/ description (i.e. McGonagall as stern, Gabrielle as lovingly, etc.)

Also, Everyone seems overly impressed by Harry and even a basic thought he has. Examples, Harry tells Olympe his plan for faculty quidditch and she says, "Remind me not to get on your bad side." He tells Jean, and Jean responds, "If Harry was interested in politics, I'd be terrified," or something. Harry glowers and everyone shits their pants ("They all gulped nervously at the look in his eye.") Its all cliche non-threatening stuff. Harry casually intimidates people, but in a "righteous and just" way. And Gabrielle is admired just as much. Apparently, neither make mistakes, and the world just FUCKS WITH THEM. Neither have wrongly lost their temper and both seem POSITIVE that everything will work out fine in the end. THere is no jeopardy here, emotional or otherwise.

And Sending confidence through a bond? BLECH! This whole magical, emotional connection thing REALLY sucks. It takes away all of the drama and romantic conflict. There are no mis-communications or uncertainty as they each know EXACTLY what the other wants. He's not writing a romance, Jeconais is writing an idealized, unrealistic, not humanly possible, FANTASY of what PERFECT love is like. He already gutted the emotional heart when he did that. And including Gabrielle's friends was a BAD choice. I understand that people were wondering why the girl had no friends, but he could have made her a loner consumed by her love for Harry. Now, she has a bunch of friends who are ALL on the Quidditch team (the popular kids) and are ALL cookie-cutter characters, SHAPED THE SAME WAY!!! They are truly indistinguishable from each other. None of them resent her (NATURALLY!!! She's perfect, so why would they!!) except for one girl who does only the most light and mild manner.

And the whole thing about an 8 year-old doing something romantic still sours me. I understand the rationale of "Veela are different" but still. And Jean's attempts to cure her are the worst thing possible. Why didn't they tell Harry after the war about the bond? Maybe they could have broken the bond with BOTH participants actively trying to break it. But that would make too much sense.

And why does the bond have NO repercussions? According to the story,

OF COURSE!!! How foolish of me to think that there would be repercussions to emotionally tying yourself during your adolescense and childhood. Why would there be consequences? Their love is too pure to allow being forced to bend yourself to some stranger's desires and ALWAYS thinking of somebody else to ACTUALLY affect you!

And don't all the characters seem to exist to either show how great and wonderful Harry and Gabrielle are or to provide the illusion of conflict? None of these characters seem thought out. Does anyone REALLY buy this version of Snape? I don't.

That's it.

 

And I just finished it. Its funny that Hermione will, in less than 6 months find a way to block the bond (and break it if she wanted to according to her) BUT Jean couldn't find anything over the course of 8 YEARS!!!!

He dug a whole for himself with the blatant inequity of having a bond so now he has to provethe feelings are real. Keep digging, Jeconais. You'll eventually get to China. :wink:


Gabriel's reaction is ridiculous. I mean, my GOD!!! She's like the girl in the plastic BUBBLE!!! No Man can touch her other than Harry and "Papa"?! She LITERALLY throws up?! Ok, the secret to defeating Gabrielle Delacour is, 1.) Learn Occlumency. 2.) Imperio some guy to touch her. 3.) When she's throwing up, kill her. She can't fight back as apparently this girl is "sensitive." That's it.


And this line

WOW. I feel like this is wasteful, honestly. Someone should get a bucket and start bottling this sap. I feel diabetic just from reading this sacharine GARBAGE.

 

And that, along with other Chuck's comments, is exactly why I stopped reading Jeconais.

It seems that all his dramatic, humor and action elements are getting more shorter and simplistic in his each new story, so there could be more place for girly love-forever shit.

So like I said, I just don't like romance the way HE (or she?... never mind) writes it. Some other authors know how to write good romance, with drama, unceartainity and angst intermixed, making the story exciteing and interesting to read (Mehetabelo comes to my mind).

Jeconais... what he writtes is sugarcoated teenage girl mastrubation material. You can't afford your own Barbie house? Read Jeconais.

 

^That line is a classic

I agree with both IP and Chuck, these are the same reasons why I stopped reading as well.

 

It may be fluffy, but I really liked this story. It's one of my favorite romance stories, while its going over the top with the romance, its written, from a grammatical(sp?) standpoint, very well, which is a huge plus for me. I also really like the pairing.

 

I must admit, Chuck may not have phrased his criticisms in the kindest way, but between him and ip82, that is probably the best argument I've heard for reasons to not like Tim's fic or writing style.

He does completely write fairy tales. He's always insisted that, his heroes are heroes and near perfect and they get the perfect girl. It does take away some of the conflict, when reading Hope for example, we all *know* that Harry and Gabby are going to live happily ever after.

He writes Harrys in a sort of super!Harry way, but without necessarily making his skills and abilities over-the-top super. He just dances good, he's completely aware, smooches like a casanova, etc... The characters do have a fair amount of perfection to them.

Although I think you're underestimating Tim when you're making presuppositions about the impossibilities of for example Hermione figuring out a way to work the bond or the effects of Mating and Veela abilities, etc... I don't think he's just making up new rules as he goes here or doing odd things about how the bond works. I think when he wrote it and planned the bond and effects, he knew it would only work if she were independent and not completely subservient. It wasn't like that issue came up so he made up a solution. It was he planned the story, and he wasn't going to write it if he didn't have that solution.

Of course not always, but Tim's abilities to lay out a plan and avoid those gaping plot holes are why he has like 5 betas and it can take a month going through all of the various levels of editing before it's ever posted. His choices and subject matter can easily be distasteful enough for you to never like reading it. I'm just saying his talent for story-telling is better than you're implying.

Hell, I'll be first in line to get rid of romance entirely. But this is a romance fic, and I do look very forward to updates to it. I don't think there's any other fics with near this much romance that I enjoy.

And I also think, him being Jeconais and as popular as he is, we hold him to a much higher standard than others. Which personally, I think he deserves as he is practically in a class of his own at writing fanfic.

 

anyone know of anymore h/gabrielle stories?

 

damn, it seems that people can't write a good action story without the h/g h/hr h/l h/bella h/tonks h/narcissa pairing ( iknow that takes up a lot of the pairings) it's really a shame that authors can't or won't write a story where there is a different pairing and action..