I agree with nonjon in basicaly everything he said.
Its a bit inconceivable that Dumbledore could do all that without people discovering earlier... I see him as a manipulative man too but I cant really see him doing all those things for his own merit. And you dont saying what (if there is) pairing it will be its like those indecise new authors that do the pairing based in how many people asked for it so them wont loose his reviewers.

ps: Its just me or there has been a lot of H/G fan joining this forum?

 

You people are so damn funny. First off, let me say thank you for the reviews, as any input is appreciated. Now, on to the amusing points for me, myself and I.

There are no pairings because I have not decided if I am even going to bother with the cliche of using romance to get reviews/readers. It is not necessary for this story, so...no pairings. No offense to all of the shippers out there, but the number of votes/reviews I get asking for a particular pairing isn't going to influence my choice. If it did, this would have to be a Harry/Everyone story...LOL

While my beta does enjoy nonjon's Browncoat, Green eyes story, he is most curious as to why nonjon would rag on The Sleeping Dragon so much, then say that it a story that most of the people on the site would enjoy.

As for the individual who is planning on waiting for a lot more chapters before reading again...this is over 100K words now and I'm just getting warmed up. I hope you like playing catch up. (Sweet smile)

Anyhoo, that's all this very not new writer has to say for now. You guys have fun!

 

First off, yay for an author taking an active part in this thread and discussing/promoting her fic.

It sounds like romance won't be playing any significant role at all, which was one of my misconceptions. There was discussion about will-it-or-won't-it be slash in this thread and I was responding to that to a degree. And I read this fic on a recommendation on Potter's Place 3 (it was here if the author was curious), which pointed towards it's home on ficwad. I'd never even noticed the thread on DLP nor realized it was on ff.net. I was going to start a thread for it here actually, but like a good forum user I searched first and located this thread. Anyways, on ficwad two of the genres listed are "Erotica" and "Romance" and the summary includes "Will contain het/slash in later chapters." So you'll forgive me for presuming future romance was in the plans.

Hearing the author admit that it's unnecessary and not as of yet in the plans certainly changes the assumptions I had.

As for why I would rag on it? To be honest, that's my favorite part of DLP. The ability to be as brutally mean and blunt about a fic, because you expect the dislike. It's fun to mock. (On a side note, sadly, I don't receive much of this myself, and I know it's not because it's not deserved but that's neither here nor there. And this is supposed to be about your fic.) But by pointing out all the negative bits, I think you help the author more than simply praising it and moving on. Flames can be eye-opening if you are open-minded enough to see just what ticked someone off to *that* degree. Far more than dozens of "great work more please" reviews. Even if we DLPers do get a little over the top in our more fervent dislikes (look at someone like Bobmin's fic's threads). It all stems from our desire to see something else from a fic. Those stories that have the potential for being so good, but in our eyes just get plain ruined. Those are the ones I'm most inclined to wail on.

And I was the one who said I'd wait for more chapters. When I reviewed and read just about a month ago, it was 7 chapters and a little shy of 80K words. Nice seeing a big fat chapter update, but when I say I want to wait for more, it's usually because there is something about a fic that annoys me. Greatly. To the point that I have trouble enjoying reading the fic. In this case, it's your portrayal of Snape. I fail to see anything good or likable about it. Or at least in the first 7 chapters, that was how I felt. And usually one or two chapters won't turn those parts that annoy me around. Kinda how some people will wait until the end to read it, I want to see if my reasons for disliking something up to this point are going to be resolved/fixed/addressed. There are an awful lot of fics in this category in my head. And usually, some rainy day, I'll be looking for something to read and hopefully find a half dozen more chapters of a fic. Or maybe it'll be finished by then. Who knows? But for me, I gotta really enjoy and appreciate a fic to run off to read it as soon as there's a new chapter. Because I could just as easily get even more ticked off by an unresolved annoying bit, which won't help the author any or improve my mood. But if there's more chapters, the odds are better. If the story's done, then I'll almost always finish reading it then.

That's just how I like my fanfic. Some stories, particularly those with irregular update schedules (which are the majority), it's better to read three new chapters once they're all up than one that just irritates me more and then waiting another month or two and disliking the fic in the interim. One of the hazards about a WIP is your mind can get made up, when if you'd just read the whole thing your opinion might have been very different.

And I do think, the stereotypical young teenage testosterone-filled males that probably are the largest group on DLP will like this fic. A number of cliches, but they're decent ones. A very manipulative!Dumbledore will earn you a lot of freedom in that people will overlook your other shortcomings (coincidentally is the only reason I can think of for why Wheezy1's fic was so highly regarded). And definitely a powerful Harry ready to take control of his life and start kicking ass. Many DLPers will like it a lot. I'm still somewhat on the fence myself.

 

I can fully appreciate what you're saying and I do appreciate any constructive criticism, no matter how snarky I may sound in a reply. LOL

I can't say how many fics I have read a few chapters of in the desperate hope that they would turn into something I wanted to read, only to dump them because they just didn't measure up to what I was looking for. That in no way means they were 'bad'...I just didn't enjoy the path the author was taking, so I do understand your point of view.

I don't know if Snape will become more the type of character you prefer to see him be in a fic, but I guess we'll both find that out as I continue writing. (Wry chuckle) Every time I think I know exactly, 100% where a character or a scene is going to go, my muse takes the keyboard away and shows me where it was 'supposed' to go.

In any case, if you continue reading TSDW, enjoy! If not, Cheers! It's all good to me.

Though I do not feel this way about constructive criticism, the following was too funny to ignore given the current discussion.

 

Well, Guys and Gals...those of you who hate Snape will probably love this chapter...I'm looking forward to what you think. :mrgreen:




:cheers:

 

That was a VERY, VERY good chapter. I especially loved the snape/voldemort scene and the awakening scenes. There isn't much constructive critisism that I can give you. I will however give you a warning this board is about to fill with flames aimed at your person for the cliche 5 minute wand construction (just add water). Along with the heir to many famous people one. Don't get me wrong I loved it but there are many that are far less forgiving for these kinds of cliches than I am .

(man that just sounded ominous didn't it .)

 

Now I officially hate the word 'Cub'. It makes me want to kill Remus on the spot with this rotten curse. Please try to incorporate different aspects in dueling in the future, not only spells and power behind them. Good insults at the end.

 

It was alright until the Lucius/Voldemort interaction during that revel..

Even skipping that part, I couldn't manage to revive my interest again. =/

 

I'm quite fond of this story. It moves in a pace that sometimes feels agonizingly slow, but at the same time urges me to read on. (Probably doesn't make any sense, but anywho...)
Since I found it I've been anxiously been watching my inbox for update info.
Sorry I'm not the least bit constructive, just thought I'd give a thumbs up!

 

Thank you. I greatly appreciate that. :banana:

The comment about pacing makes perfect sense.

I don't care if it's constructive or not...commentary of any kind is a wonderful thing for an author.

 

I've read this story, even though there were number of things that irritated me about it.

Probably the biggest peeve is that this is apparently one of those "Everyone loves Harry" stories; Or more precisely, all the characters are spending most of their lives thinking about Harry, talking about him, analyzing his actions, etc... He's Voldemort's little snake, the Trio's pilar and leader, Remus's cub... I'm just waiting for Snape to start calling him 'childE'...

Another thing that greatly pisses me off is a number of cliches that could have been easily avoided. Ron the ultra strategist, seer Luna, Remus calling Harry pup, Griphook, super-inheritence... These cliches are just applied as-is, without even attempting to change anything about them. The only redeeming factor here (and the reason I haven't dropped this story a long time ago) is very detailed execution of all aspects, including the aforementioned cliches. Too bad this hasn't come out 3 years ago...

And finally, some aspects of the plot are rather dubious IMO. Lily's letters for once. Why wait 16 years to send them, when Harry is at that point already grown up? Oh and let's not forget the idiotic inheritence thing, which completely ruined the setup of Harry and Riddle being blood brothers (which now isn't true, since Harry is a pureblood and heir to a bunch of randomly picked names the author has found cool).

That said, I rather enjoyed Harry's interaction with Riddle. Snape and Remus are blah, as long as they stay out of the way, I don't mind them. Goblins should be immedietely executed for ruining this story from chapter to chapter. Mad-Eye and other Order members are good. Albus is also good. The super friend, on the other hand, should die in some sort of a freak accident as soon as possible. The unrealistic sweetness and Marry Sue-ness of their friendship, inicated by their undying devotion to Harry and each other is one of the biggest things holding this fic down, at least as far as the tastes of the people on this site go.

All in all, would have been 3/5, if not for the last chapter, where the brightest subplot of the story (Harry-Riddle parallels) was ruined by making Harry heir to a telephone book. So now, it's 2.5/5

 

(Sits back in a comfy chair and roasts marshmallows)

Actually, I chose this site because of the general attitude of the membership - in other words, opinions are usually stated in a forthright manner that I greatly appreciate since most reviewers do tend to use the form letter response of "I love it! Please write more soon!".

As for my "cliches", well, there aren't many stories (fanfic or published) out there that avoid the use of well trodden ideas regardless of genre, and I'm just having a good time writing, so it's all good.

I'm glad you are enjoying at least some parts of the story and that you have taken the time to express your thoughts on what stood out to you whether it was good or bad.

Cheers!

 

Bah I just started reading this fic for the first time this morning. So far I have enjoyed most of it. I just hope I dont start seeing slash....?

 

I find the pacing of the story slow. This may be improved by opening up sub plots... or not.
I don't have any objections to the super friends thing.
The M6 group survived battle together, it forms a deep bound.
With the inheritance bit you run into the Superman factor.
With hero that is all powerful, how do you write the story that keep the readers interest? Then you went and had Harry "magically" know new spells!
You should of had him limited to "kiddie spells" with a lot of power and speed
and winging it. Banishing debris, shooting stunners though the now flying debris, I was wait for you to clean Bella's pot, but it was a nice action scene in the end.
What is with all the anger, will this be plot devise for later?

 

I've enjoyed this story quite a bit. While it does employ many of the Independent!Harry clichés, it manages to incorporate things I haven't seen before. I liked the idea of using Dobby as a mail carrier, and I really appreciated the fact that Harry's friends are actually getting help for all the crap they were thrown through in canon. I like that Dumbledore is cleverer than he is in most manipulative!Dumbledore stories as well. This actually kept my attention, which is hard to do these days as I throw away more stories than I actually read. 4/5