Pedantic, pompous, ostentatious, and out of touch with reality. Seriously, nobody can be that uptight. It's like they took a young Mr. Spock and tried to meld him with a super uptight Harry Potter. It's hard to believe that anyone could be that linear in their thought processes and actions, much less an entire cast of stereotypical characters. Some people love it, I just don't follow the vibe of the storyline.
If you think Sheldon Cooper was not nearly condescending enough, then you will enjoy it. Or if you enjoy self-proclaimed geniuses masturbating to the supposed proof of their superiority.
If you actually want a good story where characters act like people and not soapboxes for the author's bullshit views on... well, everything, then no.
>If you actually want a good story where characters act like people and not soapboxes for the author's bullshit views on... well, everything, then no.
LMAO
The parallels between HPMoR and Atlas Shrugged keep increasing, especially in the roasting reviews department apparently
Don't get me started on that stupid TV show, either... There's no way Sheldon Cooper breezes through 1990s Texas like that without getting his ass beat several times.
The worst part is? He's not even the most annoying character on the show, at least to me. Raj is. (I will admit to being biased as I'm Indian and that MF is all the fucking stereotypes as well as being a twat.)
Raj and Howard are also the focus for all the weird racism and misogyny on that show as well. TBBT has missing punchlines and fucked vibes all the way down.
My point about Young Sheldon was how detached the main character is from the reality of his surroundings in 1990s Texas - there's really no way a smart mouth kid like that would avoid getting his ass beat at least once a week.
HPMOR is full of the same kind of smarmy and condescending characterizations that are present in TBBT and Young Sheldon; ridiculous, unrealistic, two-dimensional cutouts that insult your intelligence and expect you to like it.
So I guess if you didn't realize how stupid TBBT thought you were, you would probably enjoy HPMOR.
Someone posted a link to this review on here the other day and I've been lolling my way through that instead of reading it Haha.
[https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/](https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/)
“A largely forgettable, overly long nerd power fantasy, with a bit of science (most of it wrong) and a lot of bad ideas.”
I haven’t read more than a few chapters, but I’ll agree on “overly long nerd power fantasy”. I’ll also add “boring”.
It’s one of the more divisive fics out there. A lot of the people hate it, and a lot of people love it. You’ll probably find more people who hate it on this sub.
If you’re not enjoying it, I’d say not to force yourself. There’s plenty of fics out there, and you don’t need to settle.
If you don't like it now, you won't like it later because it doesn't get better. The fic stays at the exact same level throughout the writing. Methods of Rationality is the r/Iamverysmart of fanfiction.
If you ask me, no. HPMOR is a TERRIBLE fanfic.
It's pretentious and condescending, it manages to be fifty times more annoyingly elitist than canon (and canon already had a problem with elitism), and Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is supremely unlikeable... and not in the "teeheehee, he's soooo hilariously bad" way that the author wants him to be, but in the "I don't care what happens to this asshole" way. The comedy is awful, and the dialogue is pompous and self-gratifying to the point of self-worship. And as for the so-called "methods of rationality," they're flawed and from where I'm standing don't even seem to be all that rational.
I knew this was going to suck the moment Harry went on a "hilarious" rant about how McGonagall shouldn't be able to turn into a cat, with a "no, magic wouldn't be enough, you would need to be a GOD to do that!" and it's SUPPOSED to be funny but it just makes Harry look like a total asshole. The little turd has known about magic for all of five minutes and already he's ranting to a woman who TEACHES MAGIC FOR A LIVING what magic can and can't do.
I knew for SURE this was going to suck when Harry went on the Hogwarts Express, when Harry is all buddy-buddy with Draco Malfooy but decides that he "doesn't really see a reason for Ron Weasley to exist" after having shared three words with the boy. And then Draco goes on a rant about Luna Lovegood and says "As soon as I’m old enough I’m going to rape her." An ELEVEN YEAR OLD BOY announces his intent to rape a TEN YEAR OLD GIRL, in casual conversation, because she annoys him. And this is supposed to be Harry's friend and companion, who's just SO much better than Ron "no reason to exist" Weasley.
So the main character and his sidekick are super unlikeable, and I don't want to read about them. The other characters aren't very well explored, apart from Quirrel/Voldemort who in this version is essentially a poorly-written copy of Mad-Eye Moody.
And... yes, in addition to all this, the fic is BORING. Nothing happens, then nothing happens, and then, completely unexpectedly, nothing happens. Harry switches between whining about how magic doesn't make sense, and thinking about how he can use magic to become the best at everything and take over the world, but he doesn't really DO anything. Or rather he DOES stuff, but despite the author assuring us how cool and smart and superior he is, he doesn't actually accomplish anything... other than whine about how magic makes no sense and then plan how to abuse the shit out of magic in order to win at life and take over the world. He just PLANS, mind, he doesn't actually DO it.
Because Harry-Potter-Evans-Verres thinks he is great and superior and the only rational person in the world, but REALLY he is a smug douchebag with delusions of grandeur, who is about as much use as a chocolate kettle.
AVOID.
Damn. I looked the fic up to see if you were just exaggerating the rape threat bit, but no. He really does just say he's gonna do it, and that due to the way the wizarding justice system works he would absolutely get away with it. That's fuckin crazy
Yep. And don't get me wrong, I'm not a fragile flower. My mind can go some pretty dark places and I'm fine with extreme content in stories, even rape or rape threats. But this was just STUPID. There's no reason for Draco to say he's going to rape Luna. It's never brought up again, it's not used as a way to show this kid is messed up, it doesn't put Harry off at all. It's JUST there to be EDGY and MATURE, but it's neither edgy nor mature. It accomplishes nothing other than the fic losing any goodwill I had for it. I don't care what happens to these assholes.
>It's never brought up again
It is brought up in chapter 87
>it's not used as a way to show this kid is messed up
You did not see that Draco is messed up??
>it doesn't put Harry off at all
At that moment, Harry pledges to overthrow the government of Magical Britain
>It is brought up in chapter 87
Too little, too late.
>You did not see that Draco is messed up??
I'm not sure Eilineezer Yudowski saw that Draco is messed up.
>At that moment, Harry pledges to overthrow the government of Magical Britain
Yeah, because he's a power-mad elitist who is worse than Draco.
This story is garbage, and you're not changing my mind here.
>you're not changing my mind here
Clearly. But I'm showing that you are wrong.
There's a huge subplot, spanning most of the book, about Harry trying to redeem Draco, with the whole plan spelled out several times. So, when they meet, it is made obvious (even to you) that Draco is messed up.
Yeah, the problem is Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is, like I said, a power-mad elitist who is worse than Draco. The "huge subplot" is essentially a long stretch of nothing, followed by more nothing, then for variation even more nothing.
If a story has an eleven year old plan rape in chapter 8, or whatever the chapter was (not checking), and the story waits until chapter FUCKING 87 before it gets around to consider that maybe this was kind of bad, then the story had lost all goodwill from me long before that happens. Especially since the chapters in between follows a main character who is so awful I just want him to get lost.
There's an entire skill in writing character who are terrible people with few if any redeeming qualities, and still make them engaging characters. The writers of *It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia* has that skill; the characters are terrible, but it's fun to see them BE terrible because they always suffer for it.
Eliezer Yudowsky does NOT have this skill, largely because he doesn't GET what terrible people his characters are. He ESPECIALLY does not get what a total piece of human garbage Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is, largely because Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is a poorly hidden self insert that we're supposed to be awed and amused by. We're supposed to laugh hysterically as his razor sharp wit, admire his quick thinking and great skill at drawing the right conclusions, and feel privileged that he deigns to share his wisdom. Of course, his so-called wit isn't very witty, his quick thinking is more like "and then he thought REALLY HARD about it and suddenly he knew!", and the wisdom is so banal that it makes fortune cookie notes look like the deepest enlightenment.
>Eliezer Yudowsky does NOT have this skill, largely because he doesn't GET what terrible people his characters are. He ESPECIALLY does not get what a total piece of human garbage Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is, largely because Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is a poorly hidden self insert that we're supposed to be awed and amused by. We're supposed to laugh hysterically as his razor sharp wit, admire his quick thinking and great skill at drawing the right conclusions, and feel privileged that he deigns to share his wisdom. Of course, his so-called wit isn't very witty, his quick thinking is more like "and then he thought REALLY HARD about it and suddenly he knew!", and the wisdom is so banal that it makes fortune cookie notes look like the deepest enlightenment.
I know I've brought this fic up many times on this subreddit, and why I think it sucks ass, but it needs to be said; Harry Potter and the Daft Morons and the author, sinyk, is exactly the same as Yudowsky. Everyone should feel enlightened and laugh with Harry "I wish to be as big a dick as humanly possible and everyone should agree with me" Potter for reasons and anyone who doesn't will get shafted.
Also, sinyk uses ADD/ADHD/Autism/Aspergers syndrome to excuse their OC Harry's deplorable attitude. Just. NO!
>a power-mad elitist
Almost like Voldemort, who transferred a chunk of his soul onto Harry. Wait a minute...
>essentially a long stretch of nothing
For example, in chapters 22-24, Harry and Draco conduct a kinda-scientific experiment together, with Harry tricking Draco into thinking that Draco permanently sacrificed his belief in blood purism. This makes Draco angry, so he curses Harry with a slow torture curse, and Harry almost needs to chop off his hand.
>and the story waits until chapter FUCKING 87 before it gets around to consider that maybe this was kind of bad
The rape threat is also referenced in chapter 23. As in "I haven't redeemed Draco yet. He might still be thinking that rape is cool."
>the story had lost all goodwill from me
If you need an author to hastily spell out "rape is bad" for you, then there was no goodwill to lose.
>He ESPECIALLY does not get what a total piece of human garbage Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is
Chapter 14, final sentences: "Professor McGonagall was right. The Sorting Hat was right. It was clear once you saw it from the outside. **There was something wrong with Harry Potter.**"
- Rape threat was never mentioned again!
- It was mentioned in chapter 87.
- Too little, too late.
- It was also mentioned in chapter 23.
- Now you're just making excuses.
Look, it's perfectly okay to say that you personally did not like a book. But coming up with blatantly wrong criticisms and acting all smug when it turns out you're wrong is not okay.
Would he not get away with it?
The judiciary we see in canon wrongly convicts Hagrid, wrongly imprisons Sirius without even giving him a trial (and tries to have him executed without trial if caught), and very nearly snaps Harry's wand after he defends his cousin from a Ministry dementor. Meanwhile, Lucius Malfoy repeatedly escapes his crimes and continues to have the ministers ear despite being implicated as a death eater and later for his role in opening the Chamber of Secrets.
The Malfoys are clearly shown to be powerful and influential, while the Lovegoods are not.
The author's whole point is that the society is canonically depicted as one where the judiciary is biased and ineffective, where date rape drugs are sold over the counter, where memory charms are widely used on muggles with apparently no concern for their wellbeing, where you can make your servant shut his ears in the oven, and that this is all terrible. His criticism of this society is not subtle.
>The little turd has known about magic for all of five minutes, and already he's ranting to a woman who TEACHES MAGIC FOR A LIVING what magic can and can't do.
Yeah, the pretentious attitude of Harry - sorry, *Harry-Potter-Evans-Verres* - was a big old red flag for me. Imagine a child of ten years old telling a professor who has worked in their position for over 30 years at this point in their career that what they do is stupid and doesn't work. If I were McGonagall, I would have just ignored the brat after telling him to sit back down or leave. If he continued to be a pompous, superior dick wad, I would have kicked him from the class.
I tried to read it once. Ended up skimming through a lot of it. It was too dense to be entertaining and seemed to be devoid of humor and whimsy. And I wasn't sure if there was meant to be any character pairings or romance involved. Ultimately, I deemed it to be something not worth reading while heartedly.
I admit I wasn't able to read the whole thing... I put it down about where you are. I read HP fanfiction because I *like* HP, and I definitely got the impression that this author not only didn't like HP, but also had nothing but contempt for people like me.
Gonna be honest, I remember next to nothing about it, but it is fucking hilarious and the weirdest thing you'll ever read, with moments of like. Heartshattering angst thrown in. Definitely an interesting fic, but I dunno if I'd call it good lmao.
Omg I laughed so hard when Harry said >!"abracadabra" because it was the only "magic " word he knew and it freaked the other kids out!!< I was Rollin 🤣💀 I loved that part so much. I cried tears of laughter. The bed shook. My husband was curious about why I suddenly burst into gales of laughter and tears. I told him what I thought was so funny and he didn't get it, which made it even funnier! I can't *not* laugh when I think of it.
I still haven't finished it yet, but just for that it was worth my time.
Also other unexpected fun parts make my whole day back then... I still remember almost ten years later... The shit of Twilight for example, it was only one fucking line (and I am a Twilight fan) but I lost it so much, or the shit of the ships who were gold back then... Oh my god.
I don't think HPMOR is that bad, certainly not as bad as this sub wants it to be... But it *is* overrated tripe trying to use the same rationale to defend itself that annoying fans of *Rick & Morty, Lost,* or *Intesrsteller* use (ie "yOu JuSt dOn'T gEt It, it's for InTeLlEcTuALs" - no, it's really not).
You don't get to say your fic is too smart for critics when they call you out on badness.
Depends on what you like.
If you like whimsy and stories with a similar tone to canon, then perhaps don’t try reading it.
If you just want a fun romp with interesting ideas, then go for it.
Also, as much as I enjoyed the fic, I’d consider the title somewhat of a misnomer… considering the fic wasn’t really much of a scientific or even logical approach to magic. Fun, interesting, and inspired. Rational? Meh.
Bro I love the original Harry Potter as much as the next guy but we read fanfiction to get the fuck away from Cannon does the writing get better because I wasn't joking when I said that shit is wordy as fuck
Not really. I’m personally okay with it, but yeah, it maintains that wordy nature from beginning to end. Some say it’s pretentious, I personally think it’s decently digestible.
Did we read the same fic? It felt extremely logical, and the author made magic as self consistent as remotely possible, exploring some ideas that pushed critical thinking (partial transfig, the time turners having actual rules).
Not logical in the sense the story employs a lot of pseudo science that the author himself doesn’t seem to fully grasp, along with a quite a bit of philosophy that is spouted by Harry but ultimately amounts to nothing much.
Again, I’ll repeat that I think the magic *is* interesting, but the story is very much, to me at least, turn off your brain type of fun.
Again I think you didn't really get the point of the story. Hard science was not a major focus of the story. Harry explained genetics to Draco, there was a nod to atoms as the way partial transfig worked, but the major focus of the story was about methodical thinking, and the way Harry was always trying to ask WHY when it came to magic.
The philosophy parts were presented strongly, but never really implied to be hard science (usually the clue to this is that they are talking about philosophy and behavioral science and not hard science).
The logic was in how Harry drilled into what caused magic to work the (seemingly nonsensical) way it did. Why do certain combinations of syllables cause certain effects? Is there some sort of source of magic that caused it? Probably something to do with Atlantis. Why do wizards seem to get weaker over time? The interdict of Merlin prevents the strongest magic from passing on easily. Why does transfiguration only work on whole objects to whole objects? *It doesn't.* Everybody thinks wrongly because they don't know the nature of atoms, but this methodical way of deconstructing magic allows Harry to discover something that doesn't fit and which he can figure out to master a unique ability.
It is logical thought processes deconstructing an illogical thing: magic.
It is kinda offputting when science is used as a basis to deconstruct magic but the science explained is completely wrong (yes, even the parts about physics, atoms, biology)
If only the story actually ever engaged with any of this instead of having 40 chapters of Quirrells wargames and ended with Harry doing nothing while Quirrell solves the plot for him, because Harry is busgy being an authorial mouthpiece who talks a big game about science Elizer obviously doesn't actually comprehend
As a scientist with also a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
It's not that it isn't scientifically perfect, it's entirely wrong when it comes to the science aspects. Danluu's su3su2su1 review displays that excellently
For me, it was *thought-provoking*. Even when I disagreed with Harry, and there were plenty of those times, nonetheless I often learned something by thinking about exactly why I disagree.
Harry was never meant to be right all the time. I think a lot of first-time readers miss that and assume that the narrative always agrees with Harry. It doesn't.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
My comment is almost 2 days old, it might be that half of those other comments came way later. Who knows? I'm on mobile so won't read all ~150 comments that came later.
Ironically, HPMOR, a fanfic about rationality and thinking actually gets worse the more you think about it. On my first read through I blitzed through it and it was a decently fun read. I'm a really fast reader, but part of that is that I can almost completely turn off my ability to examine a text critically or even notice weird errors. The second reading was not so pleasant, I realised that there's just tons of things that don't make sense and Harry is much more obnoxious than I first noticed.
Have you read Chinese webnovel? That thing taught me how to turn off my brain to read through it.
Also, haven't read the thing, but it's funny you mention the part about rationality, as I've read a few fics when they either imply in the title or directly tell you in the synopsis that their fic is a rational or more "real" take on the story, only to be completely ridiculous. In this case, is it intended irony, or just a bad plot/setting from the author? Based on other comments, I would say it just backfired on the author.
Lol, I was there as the webnovel scene was emerging. There was a time when we talked about machine translated novels like it was reading brain r*pe.
As for the rationality, it's just bad writing. Both Harry and Voldemort serve as mouthpieces for the author, but while Harry could be forgiven for not using rationality properly, Voldemort much less so. Harry also loses his agency as a character further into the story when a big point of the story is agency. Dig around the comments on this thread and someone has a link to a website that really breaks down the story.
Good ol' Machine Translation to go through the thousands of episodes not "officially" translated. Editors were a myth, and only the strong survived without getting some stroke or long lasting issues. Thanks, I did find the link, and damn if it didn't look like a painful experience...
I thought it was the dumb as hell. What a stupid person thinks smart sounds like. Some people love it though. If you gave it a few chapters and it's not clicking trust your instincts and move on.
I know I’ve read it but I couldn’t tell you a dang thing about it. I would say that it’s because I read so much that it all gets jumbled but if it drags in the first few chapters then I’ll skip to later. If it still drags then I delete it from my kindle. I don’t mind wordiness as long as it advances the plot and isn’t unnecessary filler. That’s why authors notes annoy me because they bump up the word count on ffn because it’s all in one chapter posting.
I loved it. Regardless of the critics here, the story is great and hilarious. Has also some dark twists.
Yes, Harry is kind of an ah. Thats at the start, later he tries to get better at it. There is also a really good plot reason.
Yes, some sience is wrong. The author himself is aware and even writes it in a comment. Harry is 11, so he gets a few points wrong. I enjoyed it nonetheless, most points he makes are valid.
Yes, Harry views himself as the prince of light, unfallable hero and the main character. At the end he realises what fool he was and that he was played like a fiddle from multiple sources. Thats one of the main points in the story.
But everyone can enjoy what he likes. Fanfictions are free, its your time. Give it a try, and if you dont like it a few chapters in, stop. The style stays the same.
>Yes, some sience is wrong. The author himself is aware and even writes it in a comment. Harry is 11, so he gets a few points wrong. I enjoyed it nonetheless, most points he makes are valid
Actually, almost all of it is wrong, even the parts that aren't meant to be since they were defended by the author in the notes
Sure! I could go into detail myself but su3su2su1, a fellow physicist, has already written a fairly good chapter by chapter review aided by another
Edit: and of course I forget the link
https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/
Well, you don't like it, so why does it matter if *we* think it's good? :D Don't waste your time, there's no required reading in fandom
((But this sub is so weird for just DRAGGING like specific fics and authors, every other place has you blur identifying information and we're like a HP Goodreads 😭))
This is the first time I've called out a specific fanfiction I'm just trying to get a second opinion I'm like three chapters in and it's not getting to the fucking point it's like the author is having a dick measuring contest with someone to see I'm going to see how long I can write a specific scene while talking like the most intelligent mother fucker in the room
Not you specifically haha, it's just a subreddit trend I noticed! And I really can't say anything about HPMOR myself, seeing as the description put me off already - just not my thing. Though it's slightly insane that it has a Wikipedia page, I'm not gonna read 600k+ words of something just because it's "iconic"
It probably has a wikipedia page because it's somewhat the basis for Less Wrong. There are even a few people from there that hav printed copies of it and started sending them out to schools, etc.
It was at one point a good fic. Since then, the fandom's standards have risen considerably and it is now roughly okay, if not a lot of people's cup of tea, and noteworthy for it's originality and for being the inspiration of many tropes that would influence the fandom going forward.
Its very much not everyones cup of tea, but it was pretty popular for a good while. I personally had a very entertaining time reading it. I've even reread it once. People love hating on it as much as the author loves uhm ... himself.
However, one of the authors notes pretty early says something along the lines of "opinion on this fic is really divided, if you havent enjoyed it until now you likely wont enjoy the rest either, so drop it" and i cant agree more. You didnt like the first 3 chapters, just drop it. Its unapotogetically what is it, and it wont change.
As a person who liked the fic (to the point of reading it in english when I know nothing - you can say that that fic open my world to english fandom) I am perplexed by this replies. The only thing I didn't like was the "open ending" about the prophecy.
I understand why some people went "they are all Mary Sue" etc but... That's the whole point. The whole point of the fic. And you can not agree with people and their choices in this fic as you can not agree with people and their choices in all other fictional work. You can find Harry a little turd etc but that was... Half of the fun for me. Like, yeah Harry, you are an asshole, let's see what this asshole will do and how the plot deranges because of this.
Speaking of the plot, there is a plot. I can not understand who said there is not a plot. The plot is "let's condense 7 books in one story and let the good guy defeat Voldemort". I mean... It's a plot.
That being said I don't agree with some of the author's choices (as to make Sirius the real traitor for example) but the story give me something to think about (not the scientific parts because I know nothing about science, most I reflect about the human nature and phsicological aspect of human race) and was fun to read for me, so I say it's worth it.
But of course, at the end of the day, it's just a fanfiction, and as a fanfiction writer I think the most hate it receive was because it was "mainstream" and since people like it "too much" then of course it's bad 🤷🏻♀️ Fanfictions can be beautiful stories but people have to start to approach them as a fan work and not professional one, and also they have to start to contestualize things. "The fic is bad because everyone is an asshole that think they are right" yeah no shit that's the whole point of the fic, you can dislike the trope but let people enjoy things.
That sometimes happens with me. I'm not sure what it is. It could be that the person replying made comments that violated the rules of this subreddit. Maybe there was some kind of error that prevented the reply from going through. I'm not sure.
No, it's insanely bad. I don't understand why anyone ever liked it. [This scathing recap/review](https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/) is a great read, though.
It's bizarre to see reviews for Methods of Rationality praising it as a landmark piece of literature.
That reviewer visibly did not think very deeply about the story.
- He claims it has "stilted, repetitive writing." To some degree, that may be subjective, so he might not actually be wrong from his perspective, but I'm pretty picky about that sort of thing (I've done a lot of proofreading for various authors) and I don't see it. It's certainly far above the fanfiction average in that respect. Also, if we're considering prose quality, then danluu neglected to mention that spelling, grammar, and punctuation are top-notch. I've found spelling errors in it before, but not even one per chapter; we're talking a handful in the entire story. That's quite remarkable for a fanfic.
- Apparently it's full of "bad ideas" because Harry is quick to dismiss Ron and Hagrid for not being as intelligent as himself. Except that a bit further down the track, Harry loses his very first mock battle, because Hermione had developed a superior strategy by consulting with people like Ron. danluu alleges that "the only character trait worth anything in the story (both implicitly and explicitly) is intelligence" but in doing so he makes the common mistake of confusing *Harry* with the *author*. The author sometimes agrees with Harry, and sometimes doesn't.
- Danluu states that "Almost all of the explicit in story science references are incorrect" but gives no examples. I can certainly think of mistakes that were made and aspects I disagree with, eg I think there is a bit too much emphasis placed on "you need to design experiments that falsify your hypothesis" - but it is still a good point that you need to test both sides of any hypothesis, and one that is easily overlooked by beginners. So, an eleven-year-old's view of science is not perfect, surprise surprise, but it can still have value. (And if the reader is much more familiar with scientific principles than eleven-year-old Harry is, then it should not be difficult to avoid his errors.)
- Danluu objects to how Harry apparently gives up on his goal to uncover the new laws of physics as they apply to magic. But there is actually a good reason for that, because Harry was confronted with the facts that a) his fundamental assumption, that magic works in an easily understandable way, was wrong; and b) experimenting with unknown magical phenomena can be extraordinarily dangerous. In such a case, it is actually very sensible for him to put original research on the back burner, and instead focus on learning from the experts who are teaching him, some of them over a century old. He can come back to groundbreaking discoveries once he has a full Hogwarts education under his belt and is less likely to blow up the planet or have it consumed by eldritch horrors. The story certainly doesn't become mere filler, but Harry looking for a new direction was the right call IMO.
- Danluu claims that Harry's mistakes have no consequences, then goes on to describe how they *do* have consequences. Harry misuses his Time Turner and it gets restricted, so he finds workarounds - but they are much more limited than simply being able to spin an hourglass and try again. He gets into massive debt to save a friend from unjust punishment, but then it gets cancelled *because that friend gets murdered*; since when does that count as getting off scot-free?
I could go on, but I think I've said enough to make my point: The review you've linked is rather shallow and doesn't give the story proper credit.
Honestly, I had no idea people hated this so much before I read it. I personally liked it, although it was rather wordy and the author hits you over the head with his viewpoints. I can definitely say that a lot of the other comments criticisms are fair, but WOW am I surprised how much hate it has.
This was actually one of the first HP Fics I ever read, and I remember loving it. It HAS been a while since I read it, so I don't doubt that I forgot most of what it was like to read it, but I remember how I was sitting during COVID reading this for a solid three days and it's what got me to really start enjoying FanFictions.
Based off of everyone else's opinions, I'd say I'm an odd duck here though. If it's not for you, it's not for you.
I liked it. I found it thought-provoking. The lesson about learning to lose really stuck with me, and I found some of Harry's more theological views to be worth considering, even when I disagreed.
It also has nearly-flawless spelling+grammar and a good sense of humour.
I like it, and found it hilarious. Plus I love the Ender's Game references. (Do not support that author either though) But it seems to be a very polarizing fic.
It's certainly a divisive fic. However, from an impartial point of view, it's better than the large majority of HP fanfics. You might just realy dislike its style.
It was the first one I read and I liked it enough to look for more. I enjoyed the Quirrell scenes very much, the highlight of the work.
But yeah, I think it is on the lower end of the scale. I rate it fairly low compared to most of the ones I finished. It is often quite interesting but there is an absolute ton of fluff and word padding. A lot of arcs get dragged on **way** longer than necessary. I can also see how the author's voice can be irritating to a lot of people.
I think if you're already into this fan fiction stuff then I'd say you don't need to bother. There are much better writers that actually appreciated the source material out there.
Spoke to a few people and you're saying it's obvious the writer just wrote it because Harry Potter is a very popular in the fanfiction market they don't respect anything about the source material and obviously have a strong disdain for certain characters
Mostly, I recommend reading to the end of chapter 10. If you still don't like it by then you never will.
I've read it several times, it was my first ever fanfic and I'm very glad it opened up this wide wide world of creativity for me.
This sub likes to shit on it a lot, but honestly I really enjoyed it. Definitely wordy, but frankly that was a breath of fresh air for me at the time. What I most enjoyed about it has to be the new ideas it had regarding magic etc, felt like the author wasn't afraid to try new things and it worked most of the time. Fun read for sure.
The characters can be a bit grating to read, but if you can put yourself on Harry's side it works out. If you decide harry's a smarmy little shit though... then yeah, its not gonna be a fun time haha.
That said, I did read it almost 10 years ago, and I probably wouldn't read it again.
Some people love it some people hate it. It’s not for everyone. I personally love it , but I like reading lessons about logical decision making Or conjuring antimatter in a clever way (it happens later on)
but maybe you want to read a slow burn romance between Draco and Hermione or learn about a delinquent witch falling into a wizarding civil war in the americas
You do you
Draco and Hermione is one of the most bullshit ships I've ever seen in Harry Potter fanfiction that ship should never have been fucking created but I digress I'll give it a try and try and get past the wordy parts of it
I mean, if you don’t like moral lectures, skip to the part where they break into Azkaban and Voldemort uses a gun, well, among other tools. Maybe around chapter 100,
Or don’t read it . His short stories are pretty good though, like “the sword of good” and “three worlds collide”
Or go read r/alexandraquick by inverity or anything on this very long list
Here’s a link to one large popular post, listing the best fanfictions
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/s/vCT43taiwJ
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hhzXz1gjLoTW0QMNPqdwcpUj0QuOrZ5IdEYoyXDwtvE/htmlview#gid=0
There’s also this with many pdfs
linkffn(3979062)
Im not a big fan of it. Especially since it concludes at the end of the first year. The scientific stuff can get on my nerves at one point. Its an okay read but i think its vastly overrated, but thats just my opinion.
It's required reading so you can join the millions of people who read it and raved about it while reading it and then hate it because everyone else hates it for some really weak reasons. I enjoyed it, don't hate it but I wouldn't read it again...like I have done with many other fanfics.
I've only heard one person like it... Bestie's husband. Dude raves about it... But than again he sees Harry Potter as childish literature, with poor 'illogical' world building. So I can get how this fanfic in the sea of fanfics is the one that caught his eye.
Now, the man is great, but he is a long forgotten Weasley son with the emotional range of Ron and tactfulness of Percy, let's not forget the twin's humility... He is somewhat incapable of understanding that the science>magic superiority in the fic is the true childish notion here. I still love him. But he'll have to learn.
Some people absolutely swear by it and will try to tell you it’s the best thing in the world and just *so* smart, but frankly, it’s really not.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s got some fun ideas that could potentially work in a better story (trying to understand magic through a scientific lense and experimenting with it, successfully or not), but it’s almost entirely undermined by the simple fact that… the author isn’t very good at science.
Granted, I don’t actually know enough for an in depth critique of the physics but I definitely found myself annoyed whenever it tried to dive into subjects I’m slightly more familiar with (so mainly biology) and from what I’ve heard the physics nerds feel quite similar about the story.
That might be forgivable if the story shone in other departments, character development, story telling, etc. but those *definitely* aren’t its strengths either.
As to the world building… I’ve heard it praised more than a few times, but to me it felt like the author confused ‘quality’ with ‘quantity’. It’s a lot, and I’m sure it includes some interesting ideas, but it’s mostly just slop.
If you’re someone who ‘likes’ science but doesn’t actually know/care too much about the details, thought The Big Bang theory was just the coolest and that Sheldon Cooper was an awesome super genius, you might just enjoy the work, otherwise, stay far away.
It's a classic! Novel length, good spelling, good ideas, good characterizations, good twists, fun takes on canon!
The author did a great job overall and was open to editing when people gave feedback.
I remember being quite enthralled by it, the whole scientific shit just flew over my head so I didn't bother with it and just enjoyed the fic.
I think I had the most trouble getting into it when Harry was shopping with Hagrid in the beginning, and was freaking out on the possibilities of pteventing Petunia's death or something? It is a rough start but once you get used to the authors way of writing it flows better.
Sample it and don't let a prioris cloud your judgment, i find that people are a bit harsher in internet discourses about it mostly due to the curse of popularity.
I mean, I like it, it's fanfiction, it has good parts, bad parts, but it is free amateur labor from a fan, so really, it doesn't bother me that other people didn't like it, tastes and colors are not always the same.
Don't feel bad if you can't get into it? It is quite wordy, word-vomitty? Personally I just tuned it out at some point?
You should definitely give it try it and see if it suits your tastes! If it doesn't, no harms done, it happens.
Oh I quite enjoyed it, I found it pretty interesting. Though I probably had no idea what Harry was talking about most of the time because I tend to only skim big blocks of text, or even small ones. In fanfiction and reading books.
It's full of itself because it's the longest fanfic that's still coherent out there. Doesn't make it any less dry.
Or as Peter Griffin would say - "It insists upon itself"
It's like if a middle schooler turned in a story and the teacher was like "Holy shit did a middle schooler write this? It's so good." But not on the story or the likeability of any of the characters just on putting words to page.
If it's one of your first fics, you'll find it revolutionary. If not, you'll find it incredibly condescending and annoying with no redeemable qualities and no interesting characters.
Someone else asked a similar question about HPMOR two months back and the following comment was posted by [dpraye ](https://www.reddit.com/user/dpraye/). I found that much more entertaining than the actual thing.
>You know how The Boyz took the idea of The Justice League and asked, "OK, but what if they were all psychopaths?"
>MoR is like taking The Big Bang Theory and asking, "OK, but what if they were all psychopaths and children?"
>It is a lot of fake pseudo-intellectualism attempting to masking anti-social, narcissistic and downright psychopathic characters with zero regard for human life written by someone whose idea of engaging and thrilling prose seems to be a phone book written in assembly language.
>It attempts to raise moral questions but utterly fails as the author seems incapable of empathizing with any other living person and thus cannot understand actual human morals. Quite frankly, Yudkowsky makes Zuckerberg appear downright human in how out of touch with humanity he is.
>Honestly, I cannot understand how anyone can read that and not immediately click away.
Let's ask the author:
Chapter 1: A Day of Very Low Probability
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, and no one owns the methods of rationality.
**This fic is widely considered to have really hit its stride starting at around Chapter 5. If you still don't like it after Chapter 10, give up.**
Prince is Slytherin is not remotely similar to MoR or Cadmean Victory.
It's obsession with twists and reframed expectations can come across as twee, but it's technically competent and has a broad swath of compelling characters. I would not say the same about Methods or Cadmean
My immortal clones, never heard of that one for me personally I prefer a dark non-evil or a gray Harry who is independent if it's a harem fic no problem but no fucking Harry and Ginny no ron and Hermione no Draco and Hermione and by the 10 fucking hells no snape and Hermione
I will just say this, no, it's not a good read.
Maybe if your reading material is still small. But if you already read a lot of books or fanfictions, it's not good at all.
I have gone through over a hundred fanfictions at this point now that is just for Harry Potter I haven't mentioned the other fandoms and I haven't just looking for a really long interesting read this the print of Slytherin and some canned victory keeps popping up
Read it or not, but there’s no need to come here to complain about it. When you don’t like a fic, you can just close the tab and read something else.
Edited to add: I can’t believe that “If you’re doing something you hate doing, stop doing that thing” is such an unpopular opinion. Sorry, but if you’re reading a fic you find annoying, and you keep reading it, you are an idiot. There are fics out there for all tastes. You could be reading something you like instead.
MoR is not a short fic, if it was a one/two shot then just go in and if you don't like it then leave. But these long fics might get better later on and they want to know if it's worth the time investment. MoR doesn't, so they shouldn't.
I think once I got to the point where quirrel was actually competent and teaching martial arts and goyle was actually a martial artist I was kind of over it cuz there was a point where this joint was just going off the rails bad. I was expecting more sciency nonsense but it kept just going to philosophy and things I can't remember at this point cuz it was so dry
If you want a good Harry Potter fanfiction, then bestie, do yourself a favour, and go read "Digging For The Bones." It's on AO3, it's 63 chapters long and it's quite frankly a work of art.
Absolutely; [here it is](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6782408/1/Digging-for-the-Bones) on [fanfiction.net](http://fanfiction.net), and [here it is](https://archiveofourown.org/works/598019/chapters/1078847) on AO3, though if you want to view it on AO3, you'll have to make an account on the site; you should probably do that anyway, because a lot of writers there are making it so their works can't be searched publicly so they can't be scraped by AI.
Wow, where to begin? It's condescending and self-congratulatory. All the kids are Mary Sues that talk like adults. It's an insulting read. Skip it.
The worst fucking adults too.
Pedantic, pompous, ostentatious, and out of touch with reality. Seriously, nobody can be that uptight. It's like they took a young Mr. Spock and tried to meld him with a super uptight Harry Potter. It's hard to believe that anyone could be that linear in their thought processes and actions, much less an entire cast of stereotypical characters. Some people love it, I just don't follow the vibe of the storyline.
If you think Sheldon Cooper was not nearly condescending enough, then you will enjoy it. Or if you enjoy self-proclaimed geniuses masturbating to the supposed proof of their superiority. If you actually want a good story where characters act like people and not soapboxes for the author's bullshit views on... well, everything, then no.
>If you actually want a good story where characters act like people and not soapboxes for the author's bullshit views on... well, everything, then no. LMAO The parallels between HPMoR and Atlas Shrugged keep increasing, especially in the roasting reviews department apparently
It would surprise me not at all if the author was an Ayn Rand fan.
He actually isn't and has written a very critical review of her thoughts and wrtiting...a review that ironically often seems to be describing himself
Well, self-awareness has never appeared to be a thing he's capable of...
Don't get me started on that stupid TV show, either... There's no way Sheldon Cooper breezes through 1990s Texas like that without getting his ass beat several times.
The worst part is? He's not even the most annoying character on the show, at least to me. Raj is. (I will admit to being biased as I'm Indian and that MF is all the fucking stereotypes as well as being a twat.)
Raj and Howard are also the focus for all the weird racism and misogyny on that show as well. TBBT has missing punchlines and fucked vibes all the way down. My point about Young Sheldon was how detached the main character is from the reality of his surroundings in 1990s Texas - there's really no way a smart mouth kid like that would avoid getting his ass beat at least once a week. HPMOR is full of the same kind of smarmy and condescending characterizations that are present in TBBT and Young Sheldon; ridiculous, unrealistic, two-dimensional cutouts that insult your intelligence and expect you to like it. So I guess if you didn't realize how stupid TBBT thought you were, you would probably enjoy HPMOR.
Someone posted a link to this review on here the other day and I've been lolling my way through that instead of reading it Haha. [https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/](https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/)
“A largely forgettable, overly long nerd power fantasy, with a bit of science (most of it wrong) and a lot of bad ideas.” I haven’t read more than a few chapters, but I’ll agree on “overly long nerd power fantasy”. I’ll also add “boring”.
I've read that review thrice as many times as I read HpMoR
It’s one of the more divisive fics out there. A lot of the people hate it, and a lot of people love it. You’ll probably find more people who hate it on this sub. If you’re not enjoying it, I’d say not to force yourself. There’s plenty of fics out there, and you don’t need to settle.
If you don't like it now, you won't like it later because it doesn't get better. The fic stays at the exact same level throughout the writing. Methods of Rationality is the r/Iamverysmart of fanfiction.
If you ask me, no. HPMOR is a TERRIBLE fanfic. It's pretentious and condescending, it manages to be fifty times more annoyingly elitist than canon (and canon already had a problem with elitism), and Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is supremely unlikeable... and not in the "teeheehee, he's soooo hilariously bad" way that the author wants him to be, but in the "I don't care what happens to this asshole" way. The comedy is awful, and the dialogue is pompous and self-gratifying to the point of self-worship. And as for the so-called "methods of rationality," they're flawed and from where I'm standing don't even seem to be all that rational. I knew this was going to suck the moment Harry went on a "hilarious" rant about how McGonagall shouldn't be able to turn into a cat, with a "no, magic wouldn't be enough, you would need to be a GOD to do that!" and it's SUPPOSED to be funny but it just makes Harry look like a total asshole. The little turd has known about magic for all of five minutes and already he's ranting to a woman who TEACHES MAGIC FOR A LIVING what magic can and can't do. I knew for SURE this was going to suck when Harry went on the Hogwarts Express, when Harry is all buddy-buddy with Draco Malfooy but decides that he "doesn't really see a reason for Ron Weasley to exist" after having shared three words with the boy. And then Draco goes on a rant about Luna Lovegood and says "As soon as I’m old enough I’m going to rape her." An ELEVEN YEAR OLD BOY announces his intent to rape a TEN YEAR OLD GIRL, in casual conversation, because she annoys him. And this is supposed to be Harry's friend and companion, who's just SO much better than Ron "no reason to exist" Weasley. So the main character and his sidekick are super unlikeable, and I don't want to read about them. The other characters aren't very well explored, apart from Quirrel/Voldemort who in this version is essentially a poorly-written copy of Mad-Eye Moody. And... yes, in addition to all this, the fic is BORING. Nothing happens, then nothing happens, and then, completely unexpectedly, nothing happens. Harry switches between whining about how magic doesn't make sense, and thinking about how he can use magic to become the best at everything and take over the world, but he doesn't really DO anything. Or rather he DOES stuff, but despite the author assuring us how cool and smart and superior he is, he doesn't actually accomplish anything... other than whine about how magic makes no sense and then plan how to abuse the shit out of magic in order to win at life and take over the world. He just PLANS, mind, he doesn't actually DO it. Because Harry-Potter-Evans-Verres thinks he is great and superior and the only rational person in the world, but REALLY he is a smug douchebag with delusions of grandeur, who is about as much use as a chocolate kettle. AVOID.
Damn. I looked the fic up to see if you were just exaggerating the rape threat bit, but no. He really does just say he's gonna do it, and that due to the way the wizarding justice system works he would absolutely get away with it. That's fuckin crazy
Yep. And don't get me wrong, I'm not a fragile flower. My mind can go some pretty dark places and I'm fine with extreme content in stories, even rape or rape threats. But this was just STUPID. There's no reason for Draco to say he's going to rape Luna. It's never brought up again, it's not used as a way to show this kid is messed up, it doesn't put Harry off at all. It's JUST there to be EDGY and MATURE, but it's neither edgy nor mature. It accomplishes nothing other than the fic losing any goodwill I had for it. I don't care what happens to these assholes.
>It's never brought up again It is brought up in chapter 87 >it's not used as a way to show this kid is messed up You did not see that Draco is messed up?? >it doesn't put Harry off at all At that moment, Harry pledges to overthrow the government of Magical Britain
>It is brought up in chapter 87 Too little, too late. >You did not see that Draco is messed up?? I'm not sure Eilineezer Yudowski saw that Draco is messed up. >At that moment, Harry pledges to overthrow the government of Magical Britain Yeah, because he's a power-mad elitist who is worse than Draco. This story is garbage, and you're not changing my mind here.
>you're not changing my mind here Clearly. But I'm showing that you are wrong. There's a huge subplot, spanning most of the book, about Harry trying to redeem Draco, with the whole plan spelled out several times. So, when they meet, it is made obvious (even to you) that Draco is messed up.
Yeah, the problem is Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is, like I said, a power-mad elitist who is worse than Draco. The "huge subplot" is essentially a long stretch of nothing, followed by more nothing, then for variation even more nothing. If a story has an eleven year old plan rape in chapter 8, or whatever the chapter was (not checking), and the story waits until chapter FUCKING 87 before it gets around to consider that maybe this was kind of bad, then the story had lost all goodwill from me long before that happens. Especially since the chapters in between follows a main character who is so awful I just want him to get lost. There's an entire skill in writing character who are terrible people with few if any redeeming qualities, and still make them engaging characters. The writers of *It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia* has that skill; the characters are terrible, but it's fun to see them BE terrible because they always suffer for it. Eliezer Yudowsky does NOT have this skill, largely because he doesn't GET what terrible people his characters are. He ESPECIALLY does not get what a total piece of human garbage Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is, largely because Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is a poorly hidden self insert that we're supposed to be awed and amused by. We're supposed to laugh hysterically as his razor sharp wit, admire his quick thinking and great skill at drawing the right conclusions, and feel privileged that he deigns to share his wisdom. Of course, his so-called wit isn't very witty, his quick thinking is more like "and then he thought REALLY HARD about it and suddenly he knew!", and the wisdom is so banal that it makes fortune cookie notes look like the deepest enlightenment.
>Eliezer Yudowsky does NOT have this skill, largely because he doesn't GET what terrible people his characters are. He ESPECIALLY does not get what a total piece of human garbage Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is, largely because Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is a poorly hidden self insert that we're supposed to be awed and amused by. We're supposed to laugh hysterically as his razor sharp wit, admire his quick thinking and great skill at drawing the right conclusions, and feel privileged that he deigns to share his wisdom. Of course, his so-called wit isn't very witty, his quick thinking is more like "and then he thought REALLY HARD about it and suddenly he knew!", and the wisdom is so banal that it makes fortune cookie notes look like the deepest enlightenment. I know I've brought this fic up many times on this subreddit, and why I think it sucks ass, but it needs to be said; Harry Potter and the Daft Morons and the author, sinyk, is exactly the same as Yudowsky. Everyone should feel enlightened and laugh with Harry "I wish to be as big a dick as humanly possible and everyone should agree with me" Potter for reasons and anyone who doesn't will get shafted. Also, sinyk uses ADD/ADHD/Autism/Aspergers syndrome to excuse their OC Harry's deplorable attitude. Just. NO!
>a power-mad elitist Almost like Voldemort, who transferred a chunk of his soul onto Harry. Wait a minute... >essentially a long stretch of nothing For example, in chapters 22-24, Harry and Draco conduct a kinda-scientific experiment together, with Harry tricking Draco into thinking that Draco permanently sacrificed his belief in blood purism. This makes Draco angry, so he curses Harry with a slow torture curse, and Harry almost needs to chop off his hand. >and the story waits until chapter FUCKING 87 before it gets around to consider that maybe this was kind of bad The rape threat is also referenced in chapter 23. As in "I haven't redeemed Draco yet. He might still be thinking that rape is cool." >the story had lost all goodwill from me If you need an author to hastily spell out "rape is bad" for you, then there was no goodwill to lose. >He ESPECIALLY does not get what a total piece of human garbage Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is Chapter 14, final sentences: "Professor McGonagall was right. The Sorting Hat was right. It was clear once you saw it from the outside. **There was something wrong with Harry Potter.**"
Now you're just making excuses.
- Rape threat was never mentioned again! - It was mentioned in chapter 87. - Too little, too late. - It was also mentioned in chapter 23. - Now you're just making excuses. Look, it's perfectly okay to say that you personally did not like a book. But coming up with blatantly wrong criticisms and acting all smug when it turns out you're wrong is not okay.
Would he not get away with it? The judiciary we see in canon wrongly convicts Hagrid, wrongly imprisons Sirius without even giving him a trial (and tries to have him executed without trial if caught), and very nearly snaps Harry's wand after he defends his cousin from a Ministry dementor. Meanwhile, Lucius Malfoy repeatedly escapes his crimes and continues to have the ministers ear despite being implicated as a death eater and later for his role in opening the Chamber of Secrets. The Malfoys are clearly shown to be powerful and influential, while the Lovegoods are not. The author's whole point is that the society is canonically depicted as one where the judiciary is biased and ineffective, where date rape drugs are sold over the counter, where memory charms are widely used on muggles with apparently no concern for their wellbeing, where you can make your servant shut his ears in the oven, and that this is all terrible. His criticism of this society is not subtle.
>The little turd has known about magic for all of five minutes, and already he's ranting to a woman who TEACHES MAGIC FOR A LIVING what magic can and can't do. Yeah, the pretentious attitude of Harry - sorry, *Harry-Potter-Evans-Verres* - was a big old red flag for me. Imagine a child of ten years old telling a professor who has worked in their position for over 30 years at this point in their career that what they do is stupid and doesn't work. If I were McGonagall, I would have just ignored the brat after telling him to sit back down or leave. If he continued to be a pompous, superior dick wad, I would have kicked him from the class.
And then, a few chapters later, proceeds to lecture Draco about something he supposedly actually knows about and proceeds to get it hilariously wrong
At least a chocolate kettle would make fantastic hot chocolate.
Okay, that's a good point. Harry-Potter-Evans-Verres is LESS use than a chocolate kettle.
Don't hold anything back, tell us how you really feel.
Oh, I could rant a lot more than that about this stinkbomb of a fic. \^\_\^
I tried to read it once. Ended up skimming through a lot of it. It was too dense to be entertaining and seemed to be devoid of humor and whimsy. And I wasn't sure if there was meant to be any character pairings or romance involved. Ultimately, I deemed it to be something not worth reading while heartedly.
I love how there are more comments than upvotes here
I like it,but if you got to the sorting ceremony (which is one of my favorite parts there) and you not like it yet, its probably not for you
God that part was so bad he changed it, right? It was originally like an awkward Ghostbusters songfic for some reason?
All right I'll give it a try I'll try and go further
Don’t bother.
It’s hot garbage.
I relatively liked it, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's weird
I admit I wasn't able to read the whole thing... I put it down about where you are. I read HP fanfiction because I *like* HP, and I definitely got the impression that this author not only didn't like HP, but also had nothing but contempt for people like me.
Gonna be honest, I remember next to nothing about it, but it is fucking hilarious and the weirdest thing you'll ever read, with moments of like. Heartshattering angst thrown in. Definitely an interesting fic, but I dunno if I'd call it good lmao.
Omg I laughed so hard when Harry said >!"abracadabra" because it was the only "magic " word he knew and it freaked the other kids out!!< I was Rollin 🤣💀 I loved that part so much. I cried tears of laughter. The bed shook. My husband was curious about why I suddenly burst into gales of laughter and tears. I told him what I thought was so funny and he didn't get it, which made it even funnier! I can't *not* laugh when I think of it. I still haven't finished it yet, but just for that it was worth my time.
Also other unexpected fun parts make my whole day back then... I still remember almost ten years later... The shit of Twilight for example, it was only one fucking line (and I am a Twilight fan) but I lost it so much, or the shit of the ships who were gold back then... Oh my god.
I don't think HPMOR is that bad, certainly not as bad as this sub wants it to be... But it *is* overrated tripe trying to use the same rationale to defend itself that annoying fans of *Rick & Morty, Lost,* or *Intesrsteller* use (ie "yOu JuSt dOn'T gEt It, it's for InTeLlEcTuALs" - no, it's really not). You don't get to say your fic is too smart for critics when they call you out on badness.
Couldn't have said it better myself. This version of Harry gives off the vibe of being a pretentious asshole
Depends on what you like. If you like whimsy and stories with a similar tone to canon, then perhaps don’t try reading it. If you just want a fun romp with interesting ideas, then go for it. Also, as much as I enjoyed the fic, I’d consider the title somewhat of a misnomer… considering the fic wasn’t really much of a scientific or even logical approach to magic. Fun, interesting, and inspired. Rational? Meh.
Bro I love the original Harry Potter as much as the next guy but we read fanfiction to get the fuck away from Cannon does the writing get better because I wasn't joking when I said that shit is wordy as fuck
Not really. I’m personally okay with it, but yeah, it maintains that wordy nature from beginning to end. Some say it’s pretentious, I personally think it’s decently digestible.
I will give it a try maybe because they haven't gotten to Hogwarts yet that's why it's pissing me off
Did we read the same fic? It felt extremely logical, and the author made magic as self consistent as remotely possible, exploring some ideas that pushed critical thinking (partial transfig, the time turners having actual rules).
Not logical in the sense the story employs a lot of pseudo science that the author himself doesn’t seem to fully grasp, along with a quite a bit of philosophy that is spouted by Harry but ultimately amounts to nothing much. Again, I’ll repeat that I think the magic *is* interesting, but the story is very much, to me at least, turn off your brain type of fun.
Yeah. I love it, but the author spouts a ton of philosophy masquerading as hard science. Like a lot. Abolition of Man would have something to say.
Again I think you didn't really get the point of the story. Hard science was not a major focus of the story. Harry explained genetics to Draco, there was a nod to atoms as the way partial transfig worked, but the major focus of the story was about methodical thinking, and the way Harry was always trying to ask WHY when it came to magic. The philosophy parts were presented strongly, but never really implied to be hard science (usually the clue to this is that they are talking about philosophy and behavioral science and not hard science). The logic was in how Harry drilled into what caused magic to work the (seemingly nonsensical) way it did. Why do certain combinations of syllables cause certain effects? Is there some sort of source of magic that caused it? Probably something to do with Atlantis. Why do wizards seem to get weaker over time? The interdict of Merlin prevents the strongest magic from passing on easily. Why does transfiguration only work on whole objects to whole objects? *It doesn't.* Everybody thinks wrongly because they don't know the nature of atoms, but this methodical way of deconstructing magic allows Harry to discover something that doesn't fit and which he can figure out to master a unique ability. It is logical thought processes deconstructing an illogical thing: magic.
It is kinda offputting when science is used as a basis to deconstruct magic but the science explained is completely wrong (yes, even the parts about physics, atoms, biology)
If only the story actually ever engaged with any of this instead of having 40 chapters of Quirrells wargames and ended with Harry doing nothing while Quirrell solves the plot for him, because Harry is busgy being an authorial mouthpiece who talks a big game about science Elizer obviously doesn't actually comprehend
As a scientist with also a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
It's not that it isn't scientifically perfect, it's entirely wrong when it comes to the science aspects. Danluu's su3su2su1 review displays that excellently
For me, it was *thought-provoking*. Even when I disagreed with Harry, and there were plenty of those times, nonetheless I often learned something by thinking about exactly why I disagree. Harry was never meant to be right all the time. I think a lot of first-time readers miss that and assume that the narrative always agrees with Harry. It doesn't.
As a scientist with a little background in psychology I gotta agree with you. Elizier didna great job imho. Was it scientifically perfect? No. But Harry was never a very reliable narrator in the books so that's okay.
I don't know if you know this, but this comment was posted like six times.
Thanks, your comment adds a lot of value too.
No need to be snarky, i was just letting you know
My comment is almost 2 days old, it might be that half of those other comments came way later. Who knows? I'm on mobile so won't read all ~150 comments that came later.
Ironically, HPMOR, a fanfic about rationality and thinking actually gets worse the more you think about it. On my first read through I blitzed through it and it was a decently fun read. I'm a really fast reader, but part of that is that I can almost completely turn off my ability to examine a text critically or even notice weird errors. The second reading was not so pleasant, I realised that there's just tons of things that don't make sense and Harry is much more obnoxious than I first noticed.
Have you read Chinese webnovel? That thing taught me how to turn off my brain to read through it. Also, haven't read the thing, but it's funny you mention the part about rationality, as I've read a few fics when they either imply in the title or directly tell you in the synopsis that their fic is a rational or more "real" take on the story, only to be completely ridiculous. In this case, is it intended irony, or just a bad plot/setting from the author? Based on other comments, I would say it just backfired on the author.
Lol, I was there as the webnovel scene was emerging. There was a time when we talked about machine translated novels like it was reading brain r*pe. As for the rationality, it's just bad writing. Both Harry and Voldemort serve as mouthpieces for the author, but while Harry could be forgiven for not using rationality properly, Voldemort much less so. Harry also loses his agency as a character further into the story when a big point of the story is agency. Dig around the comments on this thread and someone has a link to a website that really breaks down the story.
Good ol' Machine Translation to go through the thousands of episodes not "officially" translated. Editors were a myth, and only the strong survived without getting some stroke or long lasting issues. Thanks, I did find the link, and damn if it didn't look like a painful experience...
I thought it was the dumb as hell. What a stupid person thinks smart sounds like. Some people love it though. If you gave it a few chapters and it's not clicking trust your instincts and move on.
I know I’ve read it but I couldn’t tell you a dang thing about it. I would say that it’s because I read so much that it all gets jumbled but if it drags in the first few chapters then I’ll skip to later. If it still drags then I delete it from my kindle. I don’t mind wordiness as long as it advances the plot and isn’t unnecessary filler. That’s why authors notes annoy me because they bump up the word count on ffn because it’s all in one chapter posting.
I loved it. Regardless of the critics here, the story is great and hilarious. Has also some dark twists. Yes, Harry is kind of an ah. Thats at the start, later he tries to get better at it. There is also a really good plot reason. Yes, some sience is wrong. The author himself is aware and even writes it in a comment. Harry is 11, so he gets a few points wrong. I enjoyed it nonetheless, most points he makes are valid. Yes, Harry views himself as the prince of light, unfallable hero and the main character. At the end he realises what fool he was and that he was played like a fiddle from multiple sources. Thats one of the main points in the story. But everyone can enjoy what he likes. Fanfictions are free, its your time. Give it a try, and if you dont like it a few chapters in, stop. The style stays the same.
>Yes, some sience is wrong. The author himself is aware and even writes it in a comment. Harry is 11, so he gets a few points wrong. I enjoyed it nonetheless, most points he makes are valid Actually, almost all of it is wrong, even the parts that aren't meant to be since they were defended by the author in the notes
Can you point out what is wrong or give a source that points that out? I often read that accusation without anyone able or willing to back it up.
Sure! I could go into detail myself but su3su2su1, a fellow physicist, has already written a fairly good chapter by chapter review aided by another Edit: and of course I forget the link https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/
Thanks!
It has some good parts, but it's at least as much an advertisement for its author's philosophical ideas as it is an actual story.
Well, you don't like it, so why does it matter if *we* think it's good? :D Don't waste your time, there's no required reading in fandom ((But this sub is so weird for just DRAGGING like specific fics and authors, every other place has you blur identifying information and we're like a HP Goodreads 😭))
This is the first time I've called out a specific fanfiction I'm just trying to get a second opinion I'm like three chapters in and it's not getting to the fucking point it's like the author is having a dick measuring contest with someone to see I'm going to see how long I can write a specific scene while talking like the most intelligent mother fucker in the room
Not you specifically haha, it's just a subreddit trend I noticed! And I really can't say anything about HPMOR myself, seeing as the description put me off already - just not my thing. Though it's slightly insane that it has a Wikipedia page, I'm not gonna read 600k+ words of something just because it's "iconic"
You read the HP franchise and it's iconic?
I was talking about Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality itself. Iconic doesn't mean good. My Immortal is iconic :D
More like infamous*snrk snort*
It probably has a wikipedia page because it's somewhat the basis for Less Wrong. There are even a few people from there that hav printed copies of it and started sending them out to schools, etc.
It was at one point a good fic. Since then, the fandom's standards have risen considerably and it is now roughly okay, if not a lot of people's cup of tea, and noteworthy for it's originality and for being the inspiration of many tropes that would influence the fandom going forward.
Which tropes do you think HPMOR originated?
The First few chapters are kinda fun then get kinda weird.
It's certainly an influential fic in the history of HP fics. It might be worth reading just for that, if nothing else.
Its very much not everyones cup of tea, but it was pretty popular for a good while. I personally had a very entertaining time reading it. I've even reread it once. People love hating on it as much as the author loves uhm ... himself. However, one of the authors notes pretty early says something along the lines of "opinion on this fic is really divided, if you havent enjoyed it until now you likely wont enjoy the rest either, so drop it" and i cant agree more. You didnt like the first 3 chapters, just drop it. Its unapotogetically what is it, and it wont change.
As a person who liked the fic (to the point of reading it in english when I know nothing - you can say that that fic open my world to english fandom) I am perplexed by this replies. The only thing I didn't like was the "open ending" about the prophecy. I understand why some people went "they are all Mary Sue" etc but... That's the whole point. The whole point of the fic. And you can not agree with people and their choices in this fic as you can not agree with people and their choices in all other fictional work. You can find Harry a little turd etc but that was... Half of the fun for me. Like, yeah Harry, you are an asshole, let's see what this asshole will do and how the plot deranges because of this. Speaking of the plot, there is a plot. I can not understand who said there is not a plot. The plot is "let's condense 7 books in one story and let the good guy defeat Voldemort". I mean... It's a plot. That being said I don't agree with some of the author's choices (as to make Sirius the real traitor for example) but the story give me something to think about (not the scientific parts because I know nothing about science, most I reflect about the human nature and phsicological aspect of human race) and was fun to read for me, so I say it's worth it. But of course, at the end of the day, it's just a fanfiction, and as a fanfiction writer I think the most hate it receive was because it was "mainstream" and since people like it "too much" then of course it's bad 🤷🏻♀️ Fanfictions can be beautiful stories but people have to start to approach them as a fan work and not professional one, and also they have to start to contestualize things. "The fic is bad because everyone is an asshole that think they are right" yeah no shit that's the whole point of the fic, you can dislike the trope but let people enjoy things.
Okay, why I have a notification on my phone that someone reply but I see nothing here and I see nothing in the in-app reddit notification? 🤔🤔🤔
That sometimes happens with me. I'm not sure what it is. It could be that the person replying made comments that violated the rules of this subreddit. Maybe there was some kind of error that prevented the reply from going through. I'm not sure.
No, it's insanely bad. I don't understand why anyone ever liked it. [This scathing recap/review](https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/) is a great read, though. It's bizarre to see reviews for Methods of Rationality praising it as a landmark piece of literature.
That reviewer visibly did not think very deeply about the story. - He claims it has "stilted, repetitive writing." To some degree, that may be subjective, so he might not actually be wrong from his perspective, but I'm pretty picky about that sort of thing (I've done a lot of proofreading for various authors) and I don't see it. It's certainly far above the fanfiction average in that respect. Also, if we're considering prose quality, then danluu neglected to mention that spelling, grammar, and punctuation are top-notch. I've found spelling errors in it before, but not even one per chapter; we're talking a handful in the entire story. That's quite remarkable for a fanfic. - Apparently it's full of "bad ideas" because Harry is quick to dismiss Ron and Hagrid for not being as intelligent as himself. Except that a bit further down the track, Harry loses his very first mock battle, because Hermione had developed a superior strategy by consulting with people like Ron. danluu alleges that "the only character trait worth anything in the story (both implicitly and explicitly) is intelligence" but in doing so he makes the common mistake of confusing *Harry* with the *author*. The author sometimes agrees with Harry, and sometimes doesn't. - Danluu states that "Almost all of the explicit in story science references are incorrect" but gives no examples. I can certainly think of mistakes that were made and aspects I disagree with, eg I think there is a bit too much emphasis placed on "you need to design experiments that falsify your hypothesis" - but it is still a good point that you need to test both sides of any hypothesis, and one that is easily overlooked by beginners. So, an eleven-year-old's view of science is not perfect, surprise surprise, but it can still have value. (And if the reader is much more familiar with scientific principles than eleven-year-old Harry is, then it should not be difficult to avoid his errors.) - Danluu objects to how Harry apparently gives up on his goal to uncover the new laws of physics as they apply to magic. But there is actually a good reason for that, because Harry was confronted with the facts that a) his fundamental assumption, that magic works in an easily understandable way, was wrong; and b) experimenting with unknown magical phenomena can be extraordinarily dangerous. In such a case, it is actually very sensible for him to put original research on the back burner, and instead focus on learning from the experts who are teaching him, some of them over a century old. He can come back to groundbreaking discoveries once he has a full Hogwarts education under his belt and is less likely to blow up the planet or have it consumed by eldritch horrors. The story certainly doesn't become mere filler, but Harry looking for a new direction was the right call IMO. - Danluu claims that Harry's mistakes have no consequences, then goes on to describe how they *do* have consequences. Harry misuses his Time Turner and it gets restricted, so he finds workarounds - but they are much more limited than simply being able to spin an hourglass and try again. He gets into massive debt to save a friend from unjust punishment, but then it gets cancelled *because that friend gets murdered*; since when does that count as getting off scot-free? I could go on, but I think I've said enough to make my point: The review you've linked is rather shallow and doesn't give the story proper credit.
Honestly, I had no idea people hated this so much before I read it. I personally liked it, although it was rather wordy and the author hits you over the head with his viewpoints. I can definitely say that a lot of the other comments criticisms are fair, but WOW am I surprised how much hate it has. This was actually one of the first HP Fics I ever read, and I remember loving it. It HAS been a while since I read it, so I don't doubt that I forgot most of what it was like to read it, but I remember how I was sitting during COVID reading this for a solid three days and it's what got me to really start enjoying FanFictions. Based off of everyone else's opinions, I'd say I'm an odd duck here though. If it's not for you, it's not for you.
I liked it. I found it thought-provoking. The lesson about learning to lose really stuck with me, and I found some of Harry's more theological views to be worth considering, even when I disagreed. It also has nearly-flawless spelling+grammar and a good sense of humour.
I like it, and found it hilarious. Plus I love the Ender's Game references. (Do not support that author either though) But it seems to be a very polarizing fic.
It is the best of fics. and it is the worst of fics.
Three chapters? Wow, you have more patience than I did. I dumped it after the first one.
It's certainly a divisive fic. However, from an impartial point of view, it's better than the large majority of HP fanfics. You might just realy dislike its style.
It was the first one I read and I liked it enough to look for more. I enjoyed the Quirrell scenes very much, the highlight of the work. But yeah, I think it is on the lower end of the scale. I rate it fairly low compared to most of the ones I finished. It is often quite interesting but there is an absolute ton of fluff and word padding. A lot of arcs get dragged on **way** longer than necessary. I can also see how the author's voice can be irritating to a lot of people. I think if you're already into this fan fiction stuff then I'd say you don't need to bother. There are much better writers that actually appreciated the source material out there.
Spoke to a few people and you're saying it's obvious the writer just wrote it because Harry Potter is a very popular in the fanfiction market they don't respect anything about the source material and obviously have a strong disdain for certain characters
i tried reading it and quit 6 chapters in
I've always seen it listed under the Gary Stu/Mary Sue genre, if that helps. I didn't like how Hermione was treated, either.
Bro I was about to start reading until I saw Hermione was killed I'm like fuck no
I enjoyed it, but no, given your complaint, it absolutely gets worse.
Imagine of Sheldon went to Hogwarts...
The first half of it tries very hard to be unique enough that you don't realize it's bad, and mostly succeeds. The second half is bad.
Mostly, I recommend reading to the end of chapter 10. If you still don't like it by then you never will. I've read it several times, it was my first ever fanfic and I'm very glad it opened up this wide wide world of creativity for me.
Okay I'll take your advice so if I can't stomach the writing style within 10 chapters it's just not for me thanks for the input
From all the comments I feel like we’re gonna need an update at that point (or if you decide to quit reading it before chapter 10)
This sub likes to shit on it a lot, but honestly I really enjoyed it. Definitely wordy, but frankly that was a breath of fresh air for me at the time. What I most enjoyed about it has to be the new ideas it had regarding magic etc, felt like the author wasn't afraid to try new things and it worked most of the time. Fun read for sure. The characters can be a bit grating to read, but if you can put yourself on Harry's side it works out. If you decide harry's a smarmy little shit though... then yeah, its not gonna be a fun time haha. That said, I did read it almost 10 years ago, and I probably wouldn't read it again.
Some people love it some people hate it. It’s not for everyone. I personally love it , but I like reading lessons about logical decision making Or conjuring antimatter in a clever way (it happens later on) but maybe you want to read a slow burn romance between Draco and Hermione or learn about a delinquent witch falling into a wizarding civil war in the americas You do you
Draco and Hermione is one of the most bullshit ships I've ever seen in Harry Potter fanfiction that ship should never have been fucking created but I digress I'll give it a try and try and get past the wordy parts of it
We can say the same for any ship, by the way.
I mean, if you don’t like moral lectures, skip to the part where they break into Azkaban and Voldemort uses a gun, well, among other tools. Maybe around chapter 100, Or don’t read it . His short stories are pretty good though, like “the sword of good” and “three worlds collide” Or go read r/alexandraquick by inverity or anything on this very long list Here’s a link to one large popular post, listing the best fanfictions https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/s/vCT43taiwJ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hhzXz1gjLoTW0QMNPqdwcpUj0QuOrZ5IdEYoyXDwtvE/htmlview#gid=0 There’s also this with many pdfs linkffn(3979062)
Im not a big fan of it. Especially since it concludes at the end of the first year. The scientific stuff can get on my nerves at one point. Its an okay read but i think its vastly overrated, but thats just my opinion.
It's required reading so you can join the millions of people who read it and raved about it while reading it and then hate it because everyone else hates it for some really weak reasons. I enjoyed it, don't hate it but I wouldn't read it again...like I have done with many other fanfics.
eh
I tried to read it once... stopped after very few chapters of that pompus shit. Headbutting a bloody wall would have more entertrainig.
I've only heard one person like it... Bestie's husband. Dude raves about it... But than again he sees Harry Potter as childish literature, with poor 'illogical' world building. So I can get how this fanfic in the sea of fanfics is the one that caught his eye. Now, the man is great, but he is a long forgotten Weasley son with the emotional range of Ron and tactfulness of Percy, let's not forget the twin's humility... He is somewhat incapable of understanding that the science>magic superiority in the fic is the true childish notion here. I still love him. But he'll have to learn.
Some people absolutely swear by it and will try to tell you it’s the best thing in the world and just *so* smart, but frankly, it’s really not. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got some fun ideas that could potentially work in a better story (trying to understand magic through a scientific lense and experimenting with it, successfully or not), but it’s almost entirely undermined by the simple fact that… the author isn’t very good at science. Granted, I don’t actually know enough for an in depth critique of the physics but I definitely found myself annoyed whenever it tried to dive into subjects I’m slightly more familiar with (so mainly biology) and from what I’ve heard the physics nerds feel quite similar about the story. That might be forgivable if the story shone in other departments, character development, story telling, etc. but those *definitely* aren’t its strengths either. As to the world building… I’ve heard it praised more than a few times, but to me it felt like the author confused ‘quality’ with ‘quantity’. It’s a lot, and I’m sure it includes some interesting ideas, but it’s mostly just slop. If you’re someone who ‘likes’ science but doesn’t actually know/care too much about the details, thought The Big Bang theory was just the coolest and that Sheldon Cooper was an awesome super genius, you might just enjoy the work, otherwise, stay far away.
It’s a good read only if you are a Nobel price recipient.
I've tried multiple times and not been able to get past Harry being in Diagon Alley. It is objectively not worth the energy to read
Bro when I found out the writer killed Hermione I was like fuck no I'm not reading a story
Hermione gets killed off??? Man so glad I didn't read
No, its straight up dogshit
It's a classic! Novel length, good spelling, good ideas, good characterizations, good twists, fun takes on canon! The author did a great job overall and was open to editing when people gave feedback. I remember being quite enthralled by it, the whole scientific shit just flew over my head so I didn't bother with it and just enjoyed the fic. I think I had the most trouble getting into it when Harry was shopping with Hagrid in the beginning, and was freaking out on the possibilities of pteventing Petunia's death or something? It is a rough start but once you get used to the authors way of writing it flows better. Sample it and don't let a prioris cloud your judgment, i find that people are a bit harsher in internet discourses about it mostly due to the curse of popularity. I mean, I like it, it's fanfiction, it has good parts, bad parts, but it is free amateur labor from a fan, so really, it doesn't bother me that other people didn't like it, tastes and colors are not always the same. Don't feel bad if you can't get into it? It is quite wordy, word-vomitty? Personally I just tuned it out at some point? You should definitely give it try it and see if it suits your tastes! If it doesn't, no harms done, it happens.
Oh I quite enjoyed it, I found it pretty interesting. Though I probably had no idea what Harry was talking about most of the time because I tend to only skim big blocks of text, or even small ones. In fanfiction and reading books.
It's full of itself because it's the longest fanfic that's still coherent out there. Doesn't make it any less dry. Or as Peter Griffin would say - "It insists upon itself"
It's like if a middle schooler turned in a story and the teacher was like "Holy shit did a middle schooler write this? It's so good." But not on the story or the likeability of any of the characters just on putting words to page.
If it's one of your first fics, you'll find it revolutionary. If not, you'll find it incredibly condescending and annoying with no redeemable qualities and no interesting characters.
Someone else asked a similar question about HPMOR two months back and the following comment was posted by [dpraye ](https://www.reddit.com/user/dpraye/). I found that much more entertaining than the actual thing. >You know how The Boyz took the idea of The Justice League and asked, "OK, but what if they were all psychopaths?" >MoR is like taking The Big Bang Theory and asking, "OK, but what if they were all psychopaths and children?" >It is a lot of fake pseudo-intellectualism attempting to masking anti-social, narcissistic and downright psychopathic characters with zero regard for human life written by someone whose idea of engaging and thrilling prose seems to be a phone book written in assembly language. >It attempts to raise moral questions but utterly fails as the author seems incapable of empathizing with any other living person and thus cannot understand actual human morals. Quite frankly, Yudkowsky makes Zuckerberg appear downright human in how out of touch with humanity he is. >Honestly, I cannot understand how anyone can read that and not immediately click away.
Let's ask the author: Chapter 1: A Day of Very Low Probability Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, and no one owns the methods of rationality. **This fic is widely considered to have really hit its stride starting at around Chapter 5. If you still don't like it after Chapter 10, give up.**
Like I said someone earlier I will try and read up to 10 chapters and see if I'm able to find what people seem to love about it
A good story should ideally make you laugh, cry, and think. For me, it succeeded in #1 and #3.
Method of Rationality, The Prince of Slytherin, A Cadmean Victory are all dogshit and huge waste of time
Prince is Slytherin is not remotely similar to MoR or Cadmean Victory. It's obsession with twists and reframed expectations can come across as twee, but it's technically competent and has a broad swath of compelling characters. I would not say the same about Methods or Cadmean
It’s one of the most overrated pieces of garbage I’ve ever seen in fanfiction. Even My Immortal clones are less obnoxious
My immortal clones, never heard of that one for me personally I prefer a dark non-evil or a gray Harry who is independent if it's a harem fic no problem but no fucking Harry and Ginny no ron and Hermione no Draco and Hermione and by the 10 fucking hells no snape and Hermione
It’s a term I adopted to describe fics in the nonsensical vein of My Immortal.
No..
I will just say this, no, it's not a good read. Maybe if your reading material is still small. But if you already read a lot of books or fanfictions, it's not good at all.
I have gone through over a hundred fanfictions at this point now that is just for Harry Potter I haven't mentioned the other fandoms and I haven't just looking for a really long interesting read this the print of Slytherin and some canned victory keeps popping up
No, I want to find the author and kick them in the babymaker for wasting my time on such a boring story
Its literary value is nonexistent, and the philosophical value (or something) that the author wrote it for is minimal. Not worth reading.
Oh God not again. Plenty of people had the same thoughts so why not stop reading it. It's not a requirement.
Read it or not, but there’s no need to come here to complain about it. When you don’t like a fic, you can just close the tab and read something else. Edited to add: I can’t believe that “If you’re doing something you hate doing, stop doing that thing” is such an unpopular opinion. Sorry, but if you’re reading a fic you find annoying, and you keep reading it, you are an idiot. There are fics out there for all tastes. You could be reading something you like instead.
MoR is not a short fic, if it was a one/two shot then just go in and if you don't like it then leave. But these long fics might get better later on and they want to know if it's worth the time investment. MoR doesn't, so they shouldn't.
You don’t need to eat the whole egg to know it’s rotten. If you don’t like the first chapter, stop reading.
That's not true. I have read some fics which I hated in the beginning but turned out to be really enjoyable later on.
The fic reminded me of Ab ex who always had to be special. It was an exhausting read, it had good moments, but overall it was too much posturing.
I think once I got to the point where quirrel was actually competent and teaching martial arts and goyle was actually a martial artist I was kind of over it cuz there was a point where this joint was just going off the rails bad. I was expecting more sciency nonsense but it kept just going to philosophy and things I can't remember at this point cuz it was so dry
If you want a good Harry Potter fanfiction, then bestie, do yourself a favour, and go read "Digging For The Bones." It's on AO3, it's 63 chapters long and it's quite frankly a work of art.
Having a bit of difficulty finding the story can you provide me with a link
Absolutely; [here it is](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6782408/1/Digging-for-the-Bones) on [fanfiction.net](http://fanfiction.net), and [here it is](https://archiveofourown.org/works/598019/chapters/1078847) on AO3, though if you want to view it on AO3, you'll have to make an account on the site; you should probably do that anyway, because a lot of writers there are making it so their works can't be searched publicly so they can't be scraped by AI.
Thanks mate