History YMMV / HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality

** The [[NiceGuysFinishLast apparent take]] on the breakdown of Snape and Lily's friendship has [[{{Understatement}} drawn some flak]], causing Yudkowsky to irritatedly point out that 'views expressed by Severus Snape are not necessarily those of the author'. He later admitted that he had been labouring under certain misconceptions regarding the nature of their relationship prior to the whole '[[FantasticRacism mudblood]]' incident - see DidNotDoTheResearch, above.

** It's actually a bit of FridgeBrilliance. If Ron really does represent emotion, then ''of course'' Rationalist!Harry doesn't understand why he exists!

* AuthorTract: Definitely, but [[TropesAreTools it's not]] [[YourMileageMayVary necessarily]] [[TropesAreTools a bad thing]].

* TheWoobie: Poor, poor Bellatrix. Quite remarkable, considering that her characterization here is merely an expansion upon her characterization in canon.
* YourMileageMayVary: This story, as pointed out earlier, seems to be a LoveItOrHateIt situation all around. Reviewers seem torn between loving the story for its rationalist approach and the comedic situations that follow to hating it for its re-characterizations, pacing, and often rather scattershot tone. Consider: In nine months, the 60-chapter, 336,500-word story has [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale over 9,000]] reviews, yet has only made it to February of Harry's first year at Hogwarts. This has led many to wonder just how many [[WrongTurnAtAlbuquerque Wrong Turns]] will actually drive the plot in some manner.
** Additionally, what some reviewers might identify as fallacies in the author's own reasoning (as well as the UnfortunateImplications above) are not universally accepted as such, so there's been a lot of spirited debate on both sides of any perceived issue with the fic.

** Read chapter 31; the "no reason to exist" comment was meant to set up a flaw of Harry's- namely the assumption that he is always the smartest one in the room and as such no one else can contribute. Harry (and Draco) tries to run his army by himself while Hermione uses the strategic genius of Ron (and others) to make up for any shortcomings of her's.
* NightmareFuel:
** [[spoiler: DO NOT MESS WITH TIME]]
** [[spoiler: When Harry catches the Remembrall, and it glows like a sun.]]
** [=McGonagall=]'s speech about the dangers of transfiguration.
--> If you transfigure your hair blonde it will fall out. If you transform your skin to be clear...you will be very ill and spend a long time at St.Mungos.
** The terrifying ''Welcome to the Real World'' {{Omake}} in Chapter 64.
** [[spoiler:After meeting the Dementors, Harry briefly becomes hyper-rationalist. Specifically, he divides everyone into useful or non-useful categories. If they aren't useful, if they're doing so much as annoying him by crying, he wants to kill them.]]

** Also and [[YMMV arguably more so]] the very next chapter, Chapter 47.

** Exhibit A: The Pioneer plaque.
** Exhibit B: [[ItMakesSenseInContext The remains of a beautiful blue beetle.]]
** Exhibit C: Bellatrix Black.

** He's still a VillainProtagonist at worst. And there's a little "pantsification" when Harry points out to himself that Draco is not a psychopath -- he's just the product of a very old and familiar culture in which nobles are above the law and in which you don't treat enemies as people. One of Harry's major goals after all is to "turn" Draco.

* TheWoobie: Poor, poor Bella. Quite remarkable, considering that her characterization here is merely an expansion upon her characterization in canon.

* OrwellianRetCon: See UnfortunateImplications below.

* LowestCommonDenominator: Harry suspects the Sorting Hat is being forced to fill up Slytherin with these people because Death Eater reputation leads to anyone with a brain pleading with the hat not to be put into Slytherin.

*** That strikes me as being more of a TakeThat against English-speaking cultures than a mockery of non-English-speaking cultures.

*** That strikes me as being more of a TakeThat against English-speakers.

* NoTrueScotsman: Harry tries to convince the Sorting Hat that he's not like the other potential Dark Lords the hat has met:
-->'''Harry:''' Just what kind of statistical summary do your 'feelings' come from, anyway! Do they take into account that I come from an Enlightenment culture, or were these other potential Dark Lords the children of spoiled Dark Age nobility, who didn't know doodly-squat about the historical lessons of how Lenin and Hitler actually turned out, or about the evolutionary psychology of self-delusion, or the value of self-awareness and rationality, or -
-->'''Hat:''' No, of course they were not in this new reference class which you have [[MovingTheGoalposts just now constructed]] in such a way [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative as to contain only yourself.]]