Ponderations on Harry Potter fic

[Sirrocco]

I was just thinking about HP fanfic, and the way that so many authors break the power balances so severely and believably. I think I've realized the problem. The problem is that Rowling, though she is many things, and many of them admirable, is not a particularly good tactician, let alone a particularly good strategist. She doesn't think like that, so her characters don't think like that. It's rather unfortunate because you can be certain that otherwise there would be characters who thought strategically. Mad-eye, for one, would be breaking down Dumbledore's door and haranguing him until he got a better grasp of the art, let alone the fact that Dumbledore himself would be more ept - as would Voldemort, a fair smattering of Aurors, most of the Death Eaters, and so on.
Many of her readers, however, *are* tacticians, so when we transplant our own grasp of tactics on to one or more characters, that alone (even without the all-too-frequent author bias that enSues) renders the characters far more effective - to an overbalancing degree, given the amount that the current parities are held together by wishes and fairy dust.
I'm not sure what my reaction would be, except perhaps to propose an AU where the Initial Big Change was that the appropriate people *were* decent tacticians/strategists/etc. Keep it balanced - if you upgrade Dumbledore to where he ought to be, you should do the same for Voldemort. Give Lucious the intellect that he ought to have to balance out Mad-eye, and so on.
The problem is, really, that you'ld have to take it all the way back, and there are so *many* differences that spring from this one thing.
- Assume that the Potters die bravely as normal. There weren't any major errors in judgement there - just terrible surprises
- Black demands truth serum and gets it. He doesn't get Azkaban, but he does have to dea with that whole "unregistered animagus" thing. A manhunt ensues for Scabbers, who *does* get the Azkaban treatment if/when he is caught.
- We will assume that Putting The Dementors In Charge Of Azkaban was done by one of those people who come by their stupidity naturally. Fudge, say.
- Even if you chalk up the Dursleys initially to a horrifying attack of senility, Harry gets checked in on from time to time. Pretty quickly, they realize he's being horribly mistreated, Dumbledore decides that he doesn't *want* another Riddle, and they either Fix The Dursleys or put him Somewhere Else. Meanwhile, someone starts training Harry in magical duelling.
further dominoes fall later.

[WengFook]

Hmm I was pondering your ponderings and I got to ask, do you think that maybe because the books were targeted at young children that JK Rowling had to "dumb down" the competency level of her characters?
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[classicdrogn]

Givne the number of basic continuity and logic holes, on top of the tactics and strategy thing? No, I havew to agree, she's just not that good sat it. Part of it of course is that no one can be good at everything and readers outnumber her by millions to one, even just within the fanfic community thousands to one, all picking apart one or another aspect and batting around variations through the multitude of fics, most likely a lot of it is not having been a novelist for long before getting the big break. Beyond and above all that... it can't be too bad, or people wouldn't be aused enough by the stories to keep buying those millions of copies every few years, as the next book comes out, now would they?
I'm not one of them, but I expect I'll give her third series a try, if there is one, some day in the 2030s or so.
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[Valles]

I would very much think not. Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest books are, I think, aimed at about the same level of audience, and Cimorene is without a doubt one of the sharpest heroines I've ever run across.
Ja, -n

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

[Herr Bad Moon]

The example in my mind that comes to hand is Cimorene immediately recognizing the difference between being invincible and undefeatable.
And just like to give major props for mentioning Wrede's books at all.---------------
-Jon
Being the Mariner hitting coach is like being the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.
-Poster on USSMariner.com
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Jon
"And that must have caused my dad's brain to break in half, replaced by a purely mechanical engine of revenge!"

[Acyl]

I've never heard of Patricia Wrede. I may need to rectify this gap in my knowledge at some future date. >_>
It's true that Rowling makes a lot of...I don't know, "oversights", for lack of a better word. But she does know how to spin a good mystery, and that involves a certain amount of depth in planning - the first three books managed to keep me wondering all the way. The later ones not so much, but enh.
Granted, being able to weave a mystery plot isn't the same thing as...good strategic and tactical planning. And I'm fairly sure she simply doesn't consider the minutiae and implications like, well, many of us reader types do. I suspect she's also the sort of writer who subordinates little things like details to the demands of the plot.
If you consider the basic premise, no, it doesn't make sense for Harry to have been locked up and mistreated for all of his childhood, without anyone looking in on him. But it does make for an interesting and sympathetic background for our hero. Shades of Cinderella and all that.
-- Acyl

[Disruptor]

Wrede had fun writing the dialogue of certain characters.
Telemain comes to mind quite well. Cimorene keeps going "What?!" after Telemain explains something.--------------------
Tom Mathews aka Disruptor
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Tom Mathews aka Disruptor

[Kokuten]

I hate to say it, but J.K. Rowling is a hack author.
The 'quality' of the potter books has been going downhill since #2, and the half-blood prince.. well lemme put it this way. My roomate came across, before release, the first 3 chapters of HbP as a PDF, and was reading it. I cruised by, unknowing, and shoulder-surfed for a few minutes.
I was puzzled, and I asked him, "Dave, why are you reading bad Harry Potter fanfiction?"Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[zojojojo]

i think the problem is, she wrote the first one to amuse her kids, became overly popular, and then had to scramble to keep the story going... if her market had stayed 11-year-old, i rather suspect that books 3-7 would have had a different tone, and the glaring plot/logic holes would have not been an issue... and then, eventually, if she kept writing, her books and characters would have passed muster with the scientifically-minded adults... but as it is, she's trying to force a children's story into the mold of adult fiction, without losing either audience... and she just doesn't have the experience for that.
personally, i'm going to finish out the series just because i'm curious where she intends to take it (or, more to the point, how she intends to get there)...
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
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If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
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If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.