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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

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Yep, 15 chapters so far and 328,899 words. Not to mention it was only started around April of this year, and that the writing is consistently high quality.

Crazy. This one's pretty long itself, but at least it mostly has sensible chapter lengths.

Yeah, same here. I fell in love with the characters, why would I read fic about people who just share their names? That said, I have read one or two AUs that were amazing.

I rather like AUs. Lets us see things from a different angle.
 
Yeah, same here. I fell in love with the characters, why would I read fic about people who just share their names? That said, I have read one or two AUs that were amazing.

But for instance, in the Buffy fandom, 'All Human AUs' were incredibly popular. But I hated them, for the simple fact that taking away any elements of supernatural made them...not Buffy fanfic.
I hate those too. In various fandoms I always see those 'lets transport the characters to high school' which makes them into every other high school drama show. And the characters end up too OOC.

I can handle AU if the characters and setting doesn't vary greatly, for instance it ignores the epilogue from Harry Potter, or if its a comedy fic.

I rather like AUs. Lets us see things from a different angle.
I understand why people would enjoy them but they're not for me. I always want to read about the characters in their world. A story that wouldn't be too out of place in the author's creation if they had expanded or gone in a different direction with their work.
 
At least there's no fanfiction of NeoGAF. Yet.

Rule 34, man.

"Oh blame space, I love you, but we can never be together. We're from different worlds. I'm a mod and you're a member, it would never work." said Bish, doing his best to suppress the tears. Blame space stood up and took Bish's hands "We have to try. We cannot give up. Now now."

Now you've started it.
 
He knew that the "Awesome" fanart thread was wrong. That what he would find there would change his life forever.

He didn't care.

With a box of tissues at hand and his door securely closed, he clicked his mouse and was lost in bliss.
 
Oh there's been GAF fan-fiction, I'm sure of it. You think those steam sales or E3 conference mega threads get that long through normal discussion? Hype does crazy things to people

Anyway, what does "AU" mean? (although I think I figured it out through context)
 
Oh there's been GAF fan-fiction, I'm sure of it. You think those steam sales or E3 conference mega threads get that long through normal discussion? Hype does crazy things to people

Anyway, what does "AU" mean? (although I think I figured it out through context)

Alternate Universe. It is used to describe a fanfic that transports characters into a different setting or modifies canon events such as a character's upbringing.
 
Why do I get the feeling this is a really long winded Harry-Hermione shipping story (or the other alternative, a Hermione-Draco shipping story)
 
Why do I get the feeling this is a really long winded Harry-Hermione shipping story (or the other alternative, a Hermione-Draco shipping story)

Because it is.

When I say it's didactic, I'm actually referring to the author's endless rants on relationships and romance and the mental mechanisms of love, as well as his all-caps soapbox diatribes against Ginny Weasley and JKR and anyone who thinks a redhead could ever be the perfect waifu for Harry Potter.

Oh, just because
they kiss.

;)
 
To be fair, Rowling deserves a lot of shit for making Ginny into a Canon Mary Sue who had no flaws at all for no apparent reason other than to exist to give Harry a perfect waifu without any particular personality - in fact, she had an established personality that was just discarded by Rowling announcing in text she had off-screen character development.

I always thought that the whole Harry-Ginny thing was the weakest part of the series. Practically any female character would have worked better, I mean, even Luna Lovegood would had more impact than now-perfect Ginny.
 
Some more recent progress reports.

From Nov 1:
Under the circumstances, I think I’d better answer a question that I’ve been a bit coy about up until now:

-I knew from literally the first chapter how the story would end. We have not gotten lost.
-The fic’s plot will resolve at least as much as got resolved in the original Rowling books. All currently open plot parentheses will be closed – I never drop a stitch without meaning to pick it up.
-We have two major story arcs (and a couple of intervening chapters) left to go before the end of the story.

From Dec 1:
This Report won’t be long, since I spent all day working on HPMOR instead of composing the Progress Report. 22,000 words into Ch. 86 which is proving incredibly difficult. The True version of Ch. 85, which I could not manage to write to my satisfaction in time for the previous series of updates, has been completed. I intend to post the revised Ch. 85 and the new Ch. 86 as soon as Ch. 86 is done – it won’t be the perfect reading experience that it would be if I had the other chapters ready, but HPMOR has gone too long without an update. If I can manage to finish 86 in December, the update will be on 7PM Pacific Time of Sunday of whatever week. (Probably not the 2nd or the 9th, though – I’m not that close to finishing 86.)
Geez. I mean, I know he's busy, but he's been working on this one chapter for a while now. Some of us wrote 50k in November! :P

Glad to hear we'll be getting an update soonish, though.

Also, this cracked me up:
It’s getting shockingly hard to find enjoyable reading material anywhere, including in mainstream science fiction and fantasy. I think that reading fanfiction has trained me to expect a certain amount of funny and awesome in my stories, and mainstream SF&F, whatever its other virtues, is not delivering the quantity of hedons per second I have come to expect. I mean, yes, have your characters suffer and character-develop, but also have them strap a solid-fuel rocket to a broomstick, ya know? I try to read the mainstream stuff now and nobody in the novels is having any fun even when I’m a third of the way through the book. It’s like they don’t even realize their readers might want sympathetic hedons along with the suffering and character development.
I mean, I understand what he's saying... but the main reason fanfic can do that funny/awesome stuff is that it uses characters you already know all about and have an emotional connection with. That allows it to skip over all the stuff that sets up understanding/connecting with the characters.
 
Woohoo, finally a new chapter!

The previous chapter has been heavily revised (seriously--there's a significant event there that wasn't there before) and can be found here.

Aaaaand the new chapter, which I'm about to go read is here.

Excite!
 
Oh man, I remember reading this couple of months ago, didn't know you'd made a thread on it.
Nice to see a new chapter, but I can't remember anything of what's happened up until this point :p
 
I dunno, that bit was kinda dry. :P

The Mad-Eye Moody part, on the other hand... <3

I'm glad Mad-Eye Moody hasn't been turned into a dumb fool like every other character. Even through the lense of rationality, he's good.

I'm starting to get really tired of the "oh, I'm such a clever boy, I could take over the entire world, the wizarding world is at the level of a 5-year old" even if it is true.
 
Subscribed! Will try and read the one Cyan recommended and that leaked one from the first page. lol

Edit: DAMN, thats a lot of chapters. x____x
 
I'm glad Mad-Eye Moody hasn't been turned into a dumb fool like every other character. Even through the lense of rationality, he's good.

I'm starting to get really tired of the "oh, I'm such a clever boy, I could take over the entire world, the wizarding world is at the level of a 5-year old" even if it is true.

The other folks have a pretty good point about Harry being overconfident, especially regarding Voldemort.

Just because Harry can think of all kinds of ways to take over the country quickly and easily, it doesn't mean that Voldemort didn't also think of them and decide to take the third option.

In fact, given the nature of this fanfic, it's all but certain that that's exactly what happened. Which of course raises the question of what Voldemort's plan was. Playing both sides against each other for some greater gain down the line? I dunno.
 
Why didn't this guy just write a story with original characters?

For the exact same reason that there are a bunch of different takes on fairy tales or old books and characters. Why don't people just make new detectives instead of making Sherlock Holmes movies and shows? Why are there movie versions of books? Why are there movies, books, comics, and TV shows based on old fairy tales?
 
Posting to remind gaffers that three new chapters are out (88, 89 and 90) and that another chapter will be added on july 3's night.

Story is advancing like hell. I think first year should be closing soon.
 
Posting to remind gaffers that three new chapters are out (88, 89 and 90) and that another chapter will be added on july 3's night.

Story is advancing like hell. I think first year should be closing soon.
Woooop. Might have to re-read a few of the chapters before
 
I remember reading the leaked Deathly Hollows book.

Then Harry and Ginny started fucking in a tent.

That's when I realized I just read a 700 page fucking fanfic.

I had a similar experience when the 7th book came out. I started reading a leaked copy, and fifteen minutes in, said, "Nope, this has to be fanfic. Poorly written too."

How surprised I was when the book I bought ended up being exactly the same.

EDIT: I think it was the scenes with
Dudley sticking up for Harry and the multiple Harrys
that threw me.
 
Posting to remind gaffers that three new chapters are out (88, 89 and 90) and that another chapter will be added on july 3's night.

Story is advancing like hell. I think first year should be closing soon.

Over 500,000 words and still in the first year? Hahaha. Simply terrible.
 
Actually, the writing kind of stood out because it was better than Rowling's usual work.

The weird thing is, while events were different, the fanfic was on a similar trajectory as the real work.

Edit: Found it

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071005181006AAfgVNO

A link to the fanfic and a detailed summary comparing it to the real work.

My god those differences are so much better than what Deathly Hallows actually did, I really want to see what a 4 person adventure with Ginny would be like. ALLLL DAAAAT INTERACTION.

And Umbridge allying with snape, I don't like the snape is evil part though.
 
I love Harry Potter

Tell me about it, it was the first English literature I ever read and it's stuck with me since then. Spent tons of money buying all 7 books physically rather than just getting the rest digitally for my Kindle since I liked them so much.
 
Posting to remind gaffers that three new chapters are out (88, 89 and 90) and that another chapter will be added on july 3's night.

Story is advancing like hell. I think first year should be closing soon.
Awesome! Will read tonight.

Over 500,000 words and still in the first year? Hahaha. Simply terrible.
End of first year is pretty likely to be the end of the story.
 
I'm really torn on this one to be honest. On one hand, I am a huge fan of Harry Potter and being back in the universe is lovely. On the other hand, I feel like more than just altering Harry's background he's turned him into a completely different (incredibly obnoxious and completely socially inept) character. In fact most of the characters aren't really behaving in a canon way. And it's kind of bothering me to the point where I feel like the series is being butchered. I'll admit there were bits that had me giggling, but I just feel really uncomfortable reading it (especially what he did to Draco, wtf). Did he start writing before the series was finished?

Also completely minor side note but it's been a while since I've read any fan fic and the stupid Japanese everywhere for no reason is also weirding me out.

Why didn't this guy just write a story with original characters?

Wait, it's a guy? I feel kind of silly, but based on the omake chapter in particular I kind of assumed it was a young girl... He writes in a very similar manner to a friend of mine who wrote fan fic in high school.

Chapter 6 :

Great Scott!" Harry said. (This was an expression he'd learned from the mad scientist Doc Brown in Back to the Future.)
Oh dear that's the kind of thing I did when I was writing my novel when I was 14. "HAY GUYS LOOK I'M DOING A REFERENCE TO A CLASSIC MOVIE LOOK I'M SO CULTURED AND SHOULD FEEL THAT WAY TOO IF YOU UNDERSTOOD IT IMMEDIATELY"

Well yeah, but it was also the only point where Harry actually sounded 10.
 
Yay new chapters!

Wait, it's a guy? I feel kind of silly, but based on the omake chapter in particular I kind of assumed it was a young girl... He writes in a very similar manner to a friend of mine who wrote fan fic in high school.

I thought Less Wong was a girl throughout my first read through of MoR. It took a long time before I realized there was an r after that w and it was a pseudonym.
 
I'm really torn on this one to be honest. On one hand, I am a huge fan of Harry Potter and being back in the universe is lovely. On the other hand, I feel like more than just altering Harry's background he's turned him into a completely different (incredibly obnoxious and completely socially inept) character. In fact most of the characters aren't really behaving in a canon way. And it's kind of bothering me to the point where I feel like the series is being butchered. I'll admit there were bits that had me giggling, but I just feel really uncomfortable reading it (especially what he did to Draco, wtf). Did he start writing before the series was finished?

This is really one of the problems with Harry Potter fanfic. It's so large that they've developed what they call a "fanon," which is a sort of group canon that grew organically out of the thousands of fanfic stories and it makes no sense at all when compared with the source material. The fanon turns characters, plots and themes into caricatures that the fanfictionbase adores.
 
This is really one of the problems with Harry Potter fanfic. It's so large that they've developed what they call a "fanon," which is a sort of group canon that grew organically out of the thousands of fanfic stories and it makes no sense at all when compared with the source material. The fanon turns characters, plots and themes into caricatures that the fanfictionbase adores.

Ugh. Ugh. I'm guessing that generally involves a lot of HarryxDraco SiriusxRemus slash pairings.

Now that I think about it, this definitely feels like it was based on fanfiction HP.
 
I used to follow this rather aptly.

Then at some point I began to be... I dunno, tired, at reading it. Way too wordy sometimes for its own good.

But at least it's Harry x Hermione, which is my thing, hahaha, and the author handled that rather well.
 
Finally got a chance to sit down and read the "Time Pressure" chapters.

O_O

There are three more chapters, but I... don't think I can read any more just yet.
 
Finally got a chance to sit down and read the "Time Pressure" chapters.

O_O

There are three more chapters, but I... don't think I can read any more just yet.

Those chapters made for some of the most tense reading I've ever experienced.
 
Oh dear. With the latest arc, the story's starting to get some feminism-related complaints. Which are sort of justified in that: [major, major spoilers for the latest chapters]
Hermione's death does feel a lot like the "fridge" trope, where a female character dies in order to give a male character a reason for vengeance or what have you. In fact, if we look at the probable murderer, that seems to be his explicit motivation for the murder. Or, if not vengeance exactly, at least moving Harry further towards an ends-justify-the-means mentality.

On the other hand,
the problem is that I can see how it will be important in story terms, and I can't see that Eliezer could've just picked another character. It wouldn't have nearly the same effect. And the reason it wouldn't have the same effect is that Hermione is the best-developed character in the entire story, apart from Harry himself.
 
Just finished all the chapters so far.

Can't wait for the next chapter to come out.

This is way better than any canon Harry Potter book.
 
It's completed up to chapter 98 now and the anticipation of what is to come is killing me. I'd become disappointed recently that
Draco had been sent out of the story and everything was focused enough on Harry that it barely seemed there was any longer a supporting cast. The last three chapters kind of cleared that up for me, especially the finale of Roles.

Next progress report is October 1st so hopefully by the end of October we'll get another decent stream of chapters.
 
Next progress report is October 1st so hopefully by the end of October we'll get another decent stream of chapters.

Given Eliezer's historical update schedule, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Though it might help that he's planning a few one-offs before the final arc. He might be able to get those done quicker.
 
Well in the last two months he managed 10 new chapters so while I'm used to a plodding pace, I'm hoping with the story moving into its final arc and having brisker chapters that he might be able to knock it out at a quicker pace.

Or not. I just don't want to have to wait long enough that I have to re-read it all for a fourth time ;.;
 
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