I know exactly what you mean. I stopped reading right around when they were boarding the Hogwarts Express. All I could think was that Not-Harry should get along with Ron much better than Draco, because Draco's so anti-Muggle, and at least Ron's used to it from his dad. It just felt like gratuitous Ron-bashing. And why Draco, of all characters? Why not have him sit with Hermione?

I kept wanting to shake Not-Harry when he was claiming that the entire wizarding world must be stupid and backwards because they haven't figured out how magic works. I dearly hope that at some point he discovers that magic can't be scientifically explained because it simply isn't rational, but I sincerely doubt that will ever happen.

Also, why does one of his last names have to be Verres? I kept on expecting it to be an El Goonish Shive crossover.

The writing is wonderful, and the world-building is brilliant, but... I just couldn't get into HPMoR. In fact, I did mostly the same thing you did. Several of my friends really, really like it, and so I decided to try it out, but... after only a few chapters, I really didn't like Harry, and somewhere between chapters 6 and 10 (I don't quite remember when), I just gave up in disgust. I just couldn't stand it anymore. Rationalist!Harry just has this super stuck-up, condescending attitude of "I am so much better than you in every way" and everyone else has a sort of background acceptance "yes, you are better than us in every way." I despise people like that in real life, so I don't want to read about them, either - especially when I liked the original Harry so much.

"Luminosity," the Twilight one with rationalist!Bella, was the same way for me. I actually enjoyed it at first - pretty much any change you make to Bella Swan's "personality" will be an improvement - but after I while I couldn't stand even that either, for the same reasons. She was just so pretentious and stuck-up and acted as though being a rationalist automatically made her just better than anyone else.

And that can make a good character, sure. But not a main character that I'm expected to sympathize with.


I still agree that they're both very, very good fics. I personally just can't stand them.

I, um, actaully quite like HPMoR. It's one of my favorite Potterfics.

Yes, Harry Not-Potter is not exactly the most likeable or nice characters. This does not actually make him a /bad/ character. Yes, he is a bit of a Stu- especially compared to the original Harry- but then again, the power levels of the villains do seem to have been upped accordingly, and Harry does actually have a good characterization.

Plus, the premise and plot surrounding it is actually /interesting/, and that excuses a lot of things. It's how Verne was able to get away with pages and pages of tech description and lists of fish in 20K Leagues, for instance. It helps if the world being revealed through such exposition is interesting, and I actually really like the what-if-everybody-in-HP-wasn't-holding-the-idiot-ball concept.

On the other hand, when I browse other Potter boards that discuss this fic, everybody hates it, so maybe I'm just missing something.

I mean, yes, Harry's personality change is rather drastic. But the plot more than excuses it, I think. And he's not that Stuish, in my opinion, since he DOES have flaws, and there's at least one thing that he is very, very wrong about.

I can see that he could be consider Stuish and sorry, he doesn't get any better. In fact it probably gets worse. However, the point of the AU was: what if Harry really wanted to ask questions. The author did go a bit overboard with the increased intelligence, but there is a reasonably good bit about Hermione later on.
I have a 'problem' with heroes as it is and I think I liked the idea of an intelligent anti-hero. Actually now I stop and think about it, I'm not sure what I like about it.