Alright then, in order to avoid busts like my first two recs, tell me, how welcome would Light side fics be?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by 'light side' fics. This isn't Star Wars, the world isn't split between light and dark sides. That's a fanon cliche, and an awful one at that.

 

The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.

 

Stupid philosophies aside, seriously; stop posting fics for review. Post them in the Almost Reccomended thread.

The problem is not characters being Dark. The problem is that it's a badly written, terrible cliche-ridden slash-fest.

 

A lot of people's favorites fics here can be surmised as, "Harry is forced to work against the Order of the Phoenix, walk among the enemy, or pursue dark ends to save the people or ideals he cares about."

A truly bad person, like, let's say, your typical gun-toting African warlord, has real reasons for fighting, for supporting conflict, and for doing what they do. We'd call this kind of protagonist an "anti-hero" - because they're hard to sympathize with as the reader, though they might have some redeemable qualities... See, people tend to like to read stories about people they can at least begin to understand. Becoming "dark" doesn't turn you into a simple-minded megalomaniac, just like becoming "light" doesn't cause you to begin dressing in pinks and yellows and never commit a sin again.

Nobody wants to read a fic either where Harry gets on his knees to kiss Dumbledore's feet, two-dimensionally denounces purebloods, deatheaters and peers -- that's just about as bad as two-dimensionally hating people who care(d) about you (or having those people turn on you for no good fucking reason), joining an insane "terrorist", and commiting acts of genocide for no good fucking reason.

You can't be this simple. I refuse to believe it. You found this board, this place isn't facebook or youtube -- you must have an ounce of intellect to discern something this basic.

Good stories reflect interesting aspect of reality. For me, a good light!Harry is someone who acts for the benefit of others in a believable way - he makes terrible sacrifices and we read his struggles through his decision to do what is just.

A good dark!Harry is more selfish but perhaps more pragmatic, cunning and successful, with a greater amount of power but with far less sympathy and allies, making him closer to a lone wolf. Either of these Harries are enjoyable to read when a good plot is thrown in.

Look at Nuhuh's Catharsis. It's a reasonably-sized story featuring a secritive, manipulative Harry who's interested only in himself and his cause. Although it's maybe a little over the place in places, yet it's a prime example of a prototype of such a dark!Harry with a couple interesting plot ideas to boot. Emulate that and you can't go wrong in my book. Retsu's Folly is another such example.

 

I completely agree with the fact that there is no good or evil side in the Second Blood War. That said, the way I've always understood this is that the 'Light' side of the war is the one led by Dumbledore and the Ministry, while the 'Dark' side is the side led by Voldemort, and that division is based on the fact that most if not all of the Death Eaters use Dark magic, not to mention the fact that Voldemort is called the Dark Lord, and Dumbledore is famous as the 'Light Lord'. When I refer to a Light Harry fic, I mean a story where Harry fights against Voldemort.

---------- Post automerged at 17:32 ---------- Previous post was at 17:29 ----------

And Republic, could you share a link to this 'Almost Recommended' Forum, because I don't see it in the list of Forums.

 

Read your own threads, as I had posted this link here.

 

Almost Recommended Thread.

Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic only fought briefly on the same side due to Fudge, then Death Eater infiltration.

When has Dumbledore ever been famous as a Light Lord? That term hasn't come up in any of the books.

 

Are you really surprised that someone who can actually enjoy a story with this many clichés has trouble differentiating fanon from canon?

 

Well, Dumbledore and the Ministry both fight against Voldemort, so technically speaking they are on the same side, even if their methods are different. Also, if you recall, Scrimgeour wished to work with Dumbledore but Dumbledore refused because he wanted to talk to Harry.

 

iirc, Voldemort is a self proclaimed "Dark Lord". I never got the impression that it's a title that is actually used by wizards. Case in point, I don't recall Grindelwald ever being referred to as a Dark Lord despite the fact he is regarded as being on Dumbledore's level. He's just known as the dark wizard Grindelwald. All of this also applies to the idea of a "Light Lord". Sure, if Dumbledore went around proclaiming himself as the Light Lord then I'm sure that people would start calling him it because he's Dumbledore.

 

I think someone should sic Taure on this guy and be done with it.

 

You know it's a bad story when the Thread discussing how bad it is makes for a good read.

I actually tried to read it, only to quickly see why it really was a bad idea.

The writing's pretty lousy, with a few spelling and grammar mistakes. Pup, cub, and Siri are still ridiculous nicknames. The characterizations are pretty terrible.

And that was all before I could finish the first chapter. I applaud anyone who could.

I give this a 1, for the reasons said above. If I could read much further, I'm sure I can find more reasons (the Dark Side being awesome and not Dark in any way, more Bashing to the point where Dumbledore drinks the blood of cute puppies for breakfast, and at least half of the male characters suddenly discovering that Surprise Butt Sex is the best thing ever, especially when it involves someone you spent the last few years sharing in a deep hatred of the other).

 

I hope people don't mistake the slash hate on this board for homophobia. I'm a dude who's got a healthy sized list of dudes he'd bang and I still wouldn't touch 99% of slash with a 10 foot dick, because it's almost always terribly written schlick bait.
Finding a good story outside of slash is already like finding a needle in a septic tank using your eyeball, if I ever found slash I like I'd just be furious I hadn't bought a lotto ticket instead.

 

No problem, I'm aware there's a big difference. A friend of mine is bisexual, and he hates Slash stories with a burning passion.

Personally, half the reason I avoid it is for the same reason I avoid stories with Romance, Ships, Soul Bounds, and other such things: I am simply not interested in reading about two people fall perfectly in love without any complications and despite a long list of reasons why they simply should not fall in love, all because the Author said so. Incidentally, it's part of my real problem with Harry/Draco, Harry/Snape, and Harry/Voldemort; replacing Harry with Hermione isn't going to make any of these pairings better, since it doesn't change the fact there are too many serious problems with why Harry or Hermione would end up with any one of those characters.

 

....I opened this up, read the summary closed it back down and came back here to post my review. Because that's all I needed to see. I opened it up a second time and tried as hard as I could but I couldn't get past the first chapter.

I'll leave this thread saying 1/5 and could you have expected any more? And that's all, because saying what's on my mind about this crap will probably get me banhammered again.

 

Honestly, I've always felt like people who post extremely, overtly, obviously terrible stories in For Review deserve at the very LEAST a week long ban. There is no reason why this should have ever been here, and the worst part is that there are at least three stories up for review that don't even deserve a 1 rating.

The library is like... the reason we came here. 'Course, all it takes it a delete to get it off of our minds, but look how many people wasted their time commenting on this thread (including myself) compared to the ones that ACTUALLY read it. What... maybe one in five?

 

I think Hadrian is a 12 year old girl sent by those in the nasty slash fangirls circles of ff.net in revenge for everything DLP made, like introducing standards and quality in the HP fics.

 

Ah, the misconceptions of some readers. Thinking that many slash fans are girls. Sheesh, you couldn't even get my gender right, and placed my age at half of what it actually is. I posted the stories here because A: I thought they were good reads, though I will admit I made a mistake about my first one, and B: I didn't know there was any other forum TO post potential stories for the library. Believe me, I won't make THAT mistake again.

 

Did you read the Stickies before posting this?

If you've read some other stories in the library, it should be obvious that this won't get in. In matter of fact, it probably wouldn't be Almost recommended material either.

Look. It seems to me that you really like this kind of stories. There is nothing wrong with liking them, but this forum is for the best stories that exist. If you compare this story with others on fanfiction.net, this one is average. That means it won't get in, so there is no reason to post it here.