Reviews FanFic / Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality

Decent, but with glaring flaws (And I didn't even get into Quirrell with the lack of space)

I don't normally read fanfiction, for many reasons. Some are that the authors miss the point of the original story, that they misinterpret the characters or that the whole thing becomes a mouthpiece for how the authors think the story should have gone. I made an exception for this one after a recommendation from my husband.

First off, what the story did right: It was well-written, from a technical standpoint. The author is capable of building dramatic tension, point of no return, blah, blah, all the basic stuff. The story can be funny, very funny, when it wants to be. And it contains some interesting interpretations of characters like Mc Gonagall and Dumbledore that aren't changed too much. Finally, it does make some changes that I found more interesting, such as delving into the toll it really took on Dumbledore to lead a war. All that stuff was good.

So. The bad stuff. There's quite a lot. First off is the fact that Harry, Hermione and Draco, but especially Harry just don't act like kids. I'm not talking about Harry's "dark side" here either. Again and again, the author puts words, concepts and explanations into their mouths which simply don't fit into those of 11 and 12 year old children. This makes them feel less like characters and more like mouthpieces for the author to express his dissatisfaction or love of this and that with. It's fairly grating too, because the characters can go from acting fairly normally for intelligent children at one point, to soapboxing with the author's words the next.

On this page, you will also see a fair amount of accusations that Harry in this is a Mary Sue. There's absolutely no denying this. Mo R Harry basically achieves in one year, at age 11 (I had to repeat both of these things to myself repeatedly as a reminder) everything that canon Harry achieved throughout the entire series, and more. Here, he is just way too perfect. Occasionally we will be reminded that he does have limits and is only a kid, but these moments ring rather hollow when Harry manages to do things that have been deemed impossible by every wizard until now.

I mean, I get what the story is, I get what it's trying to do. It's not a deconstruction as much as it is the author's alternate take on the universe. But it just feels contrived how all this stuff happens in just one year, and how Harry is such an incredible prodigy.