18 KiB
LF Rational HP fics (NOT HPMOR)
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Author: u/Gapaot *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/9he4i7/lf_rational_hp_fics_not_hpmor/
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Score: 31
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Created: 2018-09-20T10:24:21
Post:
So, I'm looking for 'rational' stories that aren't self-sure mary sue wankery - HPMOR is, in my opinion, and I've met few more that made me drop this line of fics, but recently I've met link to "Hermione Granger and the Perfectly Reasonable Explanation" and loved it.
So, I'm looking for similar stories - MC being properly awed and confused by magic world and ignorant in magical life the same way mages ignorant of muggles, non-MC characters actually being smart and having their own agenda, magical world with it's own reasons, magic being 'magical' or having different base rules to known muggle sciences, and so on.
Comments:
u/OutOfNiceUsernames [+30] fear of last pages (3 hours later)
Natural 20, HP & the — rational protag, LitRPG, D&D ×-over
Well Groomed Mind, The — rational protags
Stages of Hope — rational protags, dimension travel, squad \ teamwork competency
Too Young to Die — rational protag (in the context of his self-set goal), ruthless protag
Elizium for the Sleepless Souls — no OoC behaviour, good worldbuilding
Forging the Sword — rational protags
On the Way to Greatness — many rational protags and antags
Emperor — machiavellian protag, rational-ish protag
Temporal Beacon, HP & the — save scumming, munchkining, mostly rational protags
Lawyers Against the Cup, The; Muggle-Raised Champion; Poison Pen — self-interested protag, boring but practical solutions
Petrification Proliferation — boring but practical v.s. the school Basilisk
Short stories:
- Disillusion, by Hermione Granger
- Methods of Ricktionality, HP & the — good worldbuilding, good humour, ratcrackfic, some rational characters
- Wish Carefully — rational-ish characters
- Cauterize — good character designs
- No Curiosity — for want of a nail inquiry
- Across the Universe
TVT also says:
- Hogwarts Battle School tries to show combat among wizards a bit more realistically.
- Child of the Storm, a Mega Crossover that started as simply between Harry Potter and Marvel Cinematic Universe, is written at least partially in this style (it helps that the magic is drawn heavily from The Dresden Files), with the author noting that his main interest was in exploring the consequences of mixing worlds, with the reactions to the premise (Thor was James Potter, as part of a first run at the whole humility thing), and the reactions to those reactions, driving the plot. ...
u/HereticalRants [+8] (a day later)
Too Young to Die
I have to give an anti-recommendation for this one. As stated it has a "ruthless" protagonist, which in this story translates to edgy with a really slapdash tragic start.
If I hadn't seen it here the premise alone, of an emotionally-abused-by-Lily-and-James Harry with a spoiled twin who defeated the dark lord, has enough red flags to make me drop it. The first tragic event happens before I can connect to anyone and falls completely flat. Later I find that "ruthless" means he casually casts dark magic on people for little more than the pleasure it provides?
I'm having a lot of trouble connecting with anything in this story and given how the first few conflicts were handled it seems to have at least an order of magnitude more "self-sure mary sue wankery" than HPMOR.
u/HereticalRants [+2] (3 days later)
On a more positive note, out of that list I rather liked Forging the Sword and Temporal Beacon, HP & the
u/OutOfNiceUsernames [+2] fear of last pages (4 days later)
There’s also a recursive one-shot offshooting from Temporal Beacon, so once you get finished with the Beacon, you could try it out as well.
u/Gapaot [+2] (4 hours later)
Wow, that's a lot of links. Thanks.
u/Chimerasame [+1] (5 days later)
Methods of Ricktionality, HP & the
oh my, I just got to the Worm reference. This... I like this.
u/HeroOfOldIron [+23] (2 hours later)
Wasn't there a weird HP fic posted here a while ago where everyone's names were subtly misspelled and wizards discovered spells basically by performing some kind of hashing algorithm?
u/SvalbardCaretaker [+4] Mouse Army (4 hours later)
HP and The cup of magic! Unfortunately not enough to google it, but is very similar to that. "Previously,the highest thaum concentration ever measured was in the cup of midnight during the ritual that enacted Merlins Interdict. The thaum concentration in the cup of magic was 20 million times that".
EDIT: searching for "cup" here on /r/rational did it https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12299677/1/The-Universe-Is-An-Optimisation-Problem
u/Flashbunny [+31] (4 hours later)
No, I'm pretty sure they meant this one: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12717474/1/Horry-Patter-and-the-Philologer-s-Stone
u/DTravers [+14] (an hour later)
Harry Potter and the Natural 20? It's a fic following a DnD character that's transported to the HP-verse. Also the police eventually figure out what's going on thanks to technology.
u/gfe98 [+6] (an hour later)
Has some good humor too, I'd recommend it in general (not just as a rational fic).
u/DTravers [+26] (2 hours later)
"Is this—can this be—"
"Tom, I thought I asked you to stop doing that to every student who passes through here?" McGonagall said sharply.
"Sorry, Professor," the barman mumbled, somewhat sheepishly.
"I remember you when you were this tall," she said, gesturing to about her waist. "A wide-eyed, innocent young Hufflepuff, not that that's anything to be ashamed of, in my Transfiguration class. Such promise. Such potential." She shook her head slowly. "And what do you do with it? Prank every little boy who comes your way into thinking they're secretly the Boy-Who-Lived. Honestly, I don't know how you sleep at night."
u/AurelianoTampa [+22] (2 hours later)
Hufflepuff, not that that's anything to be ashamed of
One of my favorite running gags in the story!
u/RobinDrew [+12] Ravenclaw - (Author: HGPRE) (9 hours later)
I'd put HGPRE aside for a while due to scheduling and writing-anxiety issues, but I'm actively trying to get myself in a place to pick it back up. Thanks so much for the shout-out, it helps a lot!
u/sheikheddy [+3] (10 hours later)
I JUST finished binging it and it was really super good and I love every word you've written! Thank you! Will eagerly look out for more whenever you're ready to put some out!
u/Gapaot [+1] (11 hours later)
Oh boy, I'd love to see more chapters, that Hermione is amazing. Glad it helped!
u/LazarusRises [+1] (6 days later)
This thread was the first I'd heard of it. 21 chapters in, just finished the "big" interlude, and wanted to add my support and desire for more! If it helps at all with the anxiety, I (and I think probably a lot of others) don't care nearly as much about regularity of updates as about reading a good story. And this is a very good story.
u/SamuelTailor [+1] Biweekly Challenge Winner (a month later)
still working my way through it. it's fantastic. and references to both dale carnegie and dirk gently? bonus! :)
u/4t0m [+5] Chaos Legion (a day later)
Applied Cultural Anthropology is a great fic centered on a Slytherin!Hermione. Includes psychologically realistic development, a smart/competent but not overpowered protagonist, and a sufficiently "agenty" cast that it doesn't feel as if the protagonist's actions alone are driving the narrative.
u/AurelianoTampa [+11] (2 hours later)
The Arithmancer is a good read, though not strictly rational. It focuses on Hermione, who in this fic has an eidetic memory and a love of maths, and delves deeply into (obviously) arithmancy and spell creation. The book goes through years 1-4 in Hogwarts. I enjoyed it more than its sequel, Lady Archemedes (covering years 5-7), which I didn't actually finish... though looking online I think I just got to the end and never went back, as it's now finished. I might do so at some point...
I remember a lot of talk a while back about Horry Patter and the Philologer's Stone, but it's not really rational. Like, at all. But it appeals to a lot of readers on r/rational (somewhat like how Unsong does, I think) so it might appeal to you too. I'm not up to date on it, but it basically sets up the world of HP as an alternate timeline where everything is slightly, uncomfortably, off. Don't get confused by the character names when you're reading - they are definitely different people than the normal HP timeline, and the seemingly annoying changes to the spellings are that way for a reason.
And Significant Digits is the unofficial (but endorsed by Eliezer Yudkowsky) sequel to HPMOR if you haven't read it yet.
Finally, I second the other recommendations for Harry Potter and the Natural 20. It's highly amusing if you have any fondness for D&D. It's also unfinished, though; we've had, what, one update in the past three years? So be warned of that.
u/RMcD94 [+8] (2 hours later)
Horry patter captures a lot of the mystique of the original hp series
u/AurelianoTampa [+7] (2 hours later)
Hmmm, it definitely has mystique but to me it felt more like "The Magicians" than "Harry Potter," despite the obvious HP setting and influence. Rather than magic feeling mysterious and cool and amazing, it felt like magic was powerful and fearful and dangerous. It felt like a disaster was always looming just out of sight, and things would come crashing down at any moment. It's a sign of good writing that it inspired that uneasiness in me, but it was definitely a different feeling than when I read HP for the first time!
u/RMcD94 [+1] (2 hours later)
I guess you're right but to me it is the same curiosity at what the author will imagine next
u/None [+2] (13 hours later)
The Arithmancer is a good read, though not strictly rational. It focuses on Hermione, who in this fic has an eidetic memory and a love of maths, and delves deeply into (obviously) arithmancy and spell creation.
It came across as rather masturbatory.
u/AurelianoTampa [+2] (13 hours later)
That's... nowhere close to the word I'd use to describe the series. I disliked the series as it went on because Hermione seemed to become a Mary Sue who could do no wrong. Exploring the magical world and making sense of its rules? I loved it. Mastering those rules when convenient and becoming an overpowered shounen protagonist? Eh... not appealing to me.
u/None [+11] (14 hours later)
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u/None [+1] (14 hours later)
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u/None [+7] (14 hours later)
Friendo, if you're on here to sneer at rational fiction
I've been putting "rational" in quotes because some people will not define the most excessive self-labeled rational fics as being rational fics.
I'll admit, I'm getting a wee bit creeped out by how you're ascribing sexual pleasure to this stuff.
If you want, I can call it self indulgent.
Also keep in mind that in this specific example in HPMOR, Harry doesn't do this, because as on the spectrum and as single-minded as he seems to be, even he realizes there must be more going on.
Or it could be because the author wanted the conflict to be about something besides arbitrage. Regardless of the motive, the scene is still grating.
Your seem to be defending the canon, but the canon is there to explore, and various authors offer various explanations. That's... sort of exactly how fan fiction works, isn't it?
Yes, and some explanations are worse than others.
u/None [-2] (14 hours later)
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u/None [+4] (16 hours later)
There's nothing to be ashamed of for not putting up with the Troll text patterns.
u/SimoneNonvelodico [+6] Dai-Gurren Brigade (a day later)
Friendo, if you're on here to sneer at rational fiction, you're gonna have a bad time. Just a word of warning.
That doesn't really come off well at all. He's making some pretty reasonable criticism, and you sound like you're making some sort of threat.
I'll admit, I'm getting a wee bit creeped out by how you're ascribing sexual pleasure to this stuff.
See below, "masturbatory" in this case is just a way to say it's very self-indulgent. Equivalent to calling it a self-insert Mary Sue/Gary Stu power fantasy or something like that. I think it's justified IMHO in HPMOR as it was the first time it was done that way, and in itself it provided a hilarious subversion of the canon - not to mention, being overconfident is actually an established in-universe flaw of Harry Potter-Evans-Verres. However I can see how it would quickly get old. In a way, when things go too easy for the "rational" protagonist it feels like it contradicts the same thing Lucius said to Draco in HPMOR: super-complicated plans never work, because there's too many factors that you just can't control, no matter how clever you are. So even in a ratfic, it can break suspension of disbelief to see a protagonist just outperform everyone else all the time and crack in a few months systems that had resisted centuries of study.
u/Frommerman [+2] (8 hours later)
The end of Lady Archemedes is absolutely worth the read. I'm rereading it right now.
u/Lightwavers [+1] * s̮̹̃rͭ͆̄͊̓̍ͪ͝e̮̹̜͈ͫ̓̀̋̂v̥̭̻̖̗͕̓ͫ̎ͦa̵͇ͥ͆ͣ͐w̞͎̩̻̮̏̆̈́̅͂t͕̝̼͒̂͗͂h̋̿* (9 days later)
I remember a lot of talk a while back about Horry Patter and the Philologer's Stone, but it's not really rational. Like, at all.
I heavily disagree with this statement. We just haven't reached the part where 'Horry' is properly introduced to magic yet. And even still he's made great starts, such as copying parts of his self-book. Take this excerpt:
A portal appears across from Lucas, "Oblivius, expedited ceritificate. Now,"
Lucas rolls his eyes and points the wand through the portal, "Oblivius," he says. The portal closes with a 'pop'.
The speaker on his desk chimes, "You are in mortal peril in two seconds,"
What?!
A thundercrack, and the old man stands across from him, eye blazing blue. Another small portal opens, and the brilliant glow diminishes.
"Oblivius, standard certificate," says the him on the other side. A speaker on the other side says something imperceptible.
"Immediately," the other him says, again.
Lucas looks past the portal at Alvin, and raises an eyebrow. "Oblivius," he says, pointing his wand towards the portal, and it slams shut.
Alvin watches Lucas, silent. Then, "You're too clever for you own good, Lucas,"
Lucas eyes the threat assessments blaring in red all across Britain to his right. Six…seven…eight…all eight locations?
"Can…I help you, Alvin?"
"Burning the candle at all available ends, it would appear. For how many years now? Ten? Twenty?"
u/lolbifrons [+4] Fifteenth Legion of Terror (7 hours later)
I don’t have any recommendations, but if you’re looking for terminology to narrow down your search, the category of ratfic you’re looking to avoid is called “competence porn”.
u/Gapaot [+2] (8 hours later)
That helps!
u/Wiron [+5] (2 hours later)