Realizations

Fic Title: Realizations
Author: Wishweaver
Links: Realizations on fanfiction.net, Wishweaver’s Yahoo Group
Content: PG for the most part.
Status: Work in progress
Rating: E-Excellent

Realizations is an AU Harry Potter fic that begins the summer after Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I mentioned in an earlier post that it is tied with Harry Potter and the Acceptance of Fate for being my favorite Harry Potter fanfic. Every time I read one, that one becomes my favorite. Then I reread the other, and my opinion changes. Both are top-notch fics, either way.

Realizations is a nice, long fic (although not as long as Acceptance of Fate). Currently it is about 160,000+ words spread out over 27 chapters.

I don’t want to give any real details about the plot, other than to say it is very interesting and flows seemlessly. I do feel that I should mention that Realizations is not a ‘shipper fic. Also, there seems to be a little more interaction between the Muggle and Wizarding worlds than in the novels, which I think Wishweaver has actually handled better than in the real books.

Characterizations are also nicely done – all of the main characters seem to be canon. I especially like the way Wishweaver has portrayed Dumbledore. Dumbledore is powerful and wise, but also human and fallible. I also think Wishweaver did an excellent job with Hermione.

In addition to the major characters from the books, Wishweaver has fleshed out the Grangers making them seem quite real and three dimensional. Wishweaver has also created some original characters (the Wrights) so interesting I wish they would show up in J.K. Rowling’s books.

Realizations is a work in progress, with Wishweaver posting a new chapter about every month or so.

Added wpPaginate Plugin

Added scriptygoddess’ wpPaginate plugin, so categories with more than 10 entries will have their posts split over more than one page. For some reason, it was seperating variables in the pagination links with “?”. I modified the the code to change that to “&” and it seems to work now.

Also added links to all categories in the archive list.

Harry Potter and the Acceptance of Fate

Fic Title: Harry Potter and the Acceptance of Fate
Author: Arya
Links: Acceptance of Fate Yahoo Group, Acceptance of Fate on Fanfiction.net, Arya’s Livejournal
Content: Varies. A few R & NC-17 sections, but mostly non-smutty.
Status: Work in progress
Rating: E-Excellent

Harry Potter and the Acceptance of Fate by Arya is tied with Realizations for being my favorite Harry Potter fanfic. It begins the summer following Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and continues into Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts.

Acceptance of Fate is a long, plot-heavy fic with excellent characterizations. At the time of this review, it has 52 chapters and well over 400,000 words. The plot is somewhat darker than J.K. Rowling’s stories, but other than that, I think it has much of the same feel.

While Acceptance of Fate is a Harry/Hermione shipper fic, I find that Arya has managed to integrate said relationship into the story in logically and seamlessly. In addition, Arya has shown Harry becoming a highly-skilled wizard, without turning him into über-Harry. The rest of the characters are either portrayed as they are in canon or as logical extrapolations of canon.

The fic is updated regularly – Arya generally posts a new chapter on her Yahoo group every other week or so. She has also said there will be a sequel set in Harry’s seventh year, although not as long.

Favorite quote:
“Harry occasionally found Dudley staring at him in a peculiar way. Harry thought he may have been thinking again but really could not believe Dudley would do such a thing.”

Upgraded to WordPress 1.2

WordPress 1.2 came out the day after I installed 1.02. Oh, well – such is life.

I have just upgraded to WordPress 1.2. Everthing seems to be working properly (knock on wood), but I have barely had a chance to test anything.

The upgrade was really easy. The people at WordPress did an excellent job. 🙂

Site News

Posted last night’s Succubus Club chat transcript.

Fanfiction Recommendations And Fic Rating System

I haven’t been converting much fanfiction into E-books lately. It is not because I am not reading any… I am just not reading many on my PDA. Since I am not converting fics, I figured it might be a nice if I pointed out the good ones I come across, therefore I am adding a Fanfiction Recs category to the website.

Fanfiction that I read (and I feel is worth the effort) will be rated on a five point scale:

E – Excellent.
G – Good
A – Acceptable
P – Poor
T – Terrible

Some items I look for in a fic: good plotting, pacing, characterization. Items I dislike: Slash, poor grammar and spelling, out of character action, Mary Sues.

Death of Richard Biggs from Babylon 5

Got this info off of the DNDContact Yahoo Group. Richard Biggs, who played Dr. Stephen Franklin on Babylon 5, died Saturday morning.

There is a condolence notice on Bruce Boxleitner’s and Melissa Gilbert’s website.

Memorial service information may be found on Richard Biggs official website .

Sad to see him go…he was only 43, with a one month old baby.

Angel Dangling Plot Threads and Mysteries

This post was inspired by a question on usenet by “Dan Lam” entitled, “Mysteries that may never be answered”.

After reading his post, I realized there where a lot of dangling plot threads and questions where we never learned the answers. My list (overlaps with Dan’s):

1. What about the Cyborgs from episode S5 E7, “Lineage”? Who sent them?
2. Who exactly are the Powers That Be and what did they really want? While we never saw the Senior Partners (except maybe for S2 E15, “Reprise”), I think it was fairly clear that they were out for power. We never found out why the PTBs helped Angel in the first place. Also, where were the PTBs this season? Did they give up on Angel? We had Cordelia’s vision that she gave to Angel and her temporary return from the dead, but that is about it. Did it have something to do with Jasmine dying at the end of S4?
3. In Epiphany, Angel was able to get into Kate’s apartment without an invitation. Was it the Powers That Be? If so why did they intervene? The same goes for the mysterious snowstorm in Sunnydale and Angel coming back from Hell.
4. Whatever happened to the Groosalug?
5. Why did Lindsey really return? When he left in “Dead End”, it seemed he realized the true price of working for Wolfram and Hart and figured it was too high. Envy at Angel for his becoming CEO of the LA branch seems a little off to me.
6. Does the Shansu Propechy now apply to Spike? Did it always? Has Angel really lost his chance to become human?
7. Illyria. How did she die in the first place? How did her tomb disappear in the first place? Drogyn (in “Hole In The World”) said he believed that is was “predestined” as part of Illyria’s escape plan, but I don’t recall her saying anything to that effect and I think she was somewhat surprised at her rebirth.
8. Gunn. Why did Wolfram and Hart choose to give him überlawyer powers? While their loss served to get Illyria into the country, from what Hamilton said (and I believe him), that was not something the Senior Partners wanted.
9. Drogyn. Who or what made him immortal in the first place and placed him in charge of the well?

Sigh…so many questions that will never be answered.

“Not Fade Away”

Well, I finally got around to watching “Not Fade Away”, the series finale to Angel. My thoughts, in no particular order (spoilers ahead!):
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Eulogy for a Fanfic

With the show finale of Angel the Series, it looks like the Buffyverse is coming to a close. While I have told people, “there is always fanfiction”, it looks like that well is drying up too. The usenet group, alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative, at one time my chief source for quality BTVS fanfiction, has fewer and fewer new fics being posted on it.

Then Ryan Kinkor, author of the Harsh Legacy and Black & White series, has announced that he will not be continuing the series:

Announcement 1
Announcement 2

I totally understand Ryan’s reasons for choosing to discontinue his series. This post is just to thank him for writing the series in the first place.

Ryan wrote 27 stories in all for Harsh Legacy and its sequel series, Black & White. His original character, Marcus Valmont, fit into the Buffyverse smoothly and unlike many original characters in fanfiction, enhanced the storyline rather than stealing it. Ryan’s characterizations of the various Buffyverse characters seemed to keep their essence, while still allowing room for growth. I particularly like what he did with Dawn and Xander. Dawn got to do the maturing the real show seemed to deny her, while Xander was never the “buttmonkey” in Ryan’s stories.

The plotlines and arcs of the series were also excellent. Nothing seemed forced, they were always interesting, and required no more suspension of disbelief (much less in cases) than the TV show.

All of this, while using proper English, grammar and spelling!

In some ways, I am more sorry to see the Black & White series end than I am to see Angel end. I never felt as much affinity for the characters on Angel as I did for the ones on BTVS, and Ryan’s stories primarily focused on the BTVS characters.

All of the Harsh Legacy and Black & White stories may be found at fanfiction.net,
http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=102069 or in the E-book section on this site.

Ryan – Once again, thanks for the stories 🙂 and sorry to see you go :(.