Book Talk Reading Challenge April 2025 || RESULTS P.100|| - Page 86

Originally posted by: Leprechaun

I handpicked a modern decent one for you and you-

When did I ask you for a decent one?

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

I’m on my best stats ever and that won’t be good enough

Doesn’t feel right competing with super humans

@b: Ji I need her skills in multi tasking. agli baar se yeh akeli ek team aur baaki sab ek team mein rahenge varna hum kabhi match nahi kar payenge unke saath

Originally posted by: ssttuuttii

Oops... ye 18000 word limit nahi hoti (for online fiction) to mera page count double hota at least 🤦🏻‍♀️. With a busy schedule, I usually prefer smaller stories that can be finished in one sitting.. but I'll try to change that for the remaining days of this month 🙈. Chalo team... we need to buck up

Same... I've read so many short fics in this month but can't add any of them

Rn 3-10k is my sweet spot for fics ❤️

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

whatever the reasons behna, you’re kicking our collective asses in this. Next time will have to think about having you in any team

Next month onwards, ye ek team mein aur hum sab alag team mein

Tab jaake fair competition banega

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

T, I'm tagging you cos I just finished this wild ride of a book called Wrong place, wrong time and it's about a time loop gone wrong and reminded me of your Fichain prompt.

We never finished that fic btw

Tagging some others that I remember wrote chapters for that fic! It was crazy town, wasn't it? Just like this book. You guys should check it out!

Warning: This isn't as much Sci-fi or fantasy as I thought it would be though there are 'explanations' for the time loop that occurs.

Wait I have this book and I thought it was a mystery thriller. Had no idea it's about time travel.

Originally posted by: itsShonali

In a fanfiction that I read, the author has Snape saying how Harry, Hermione and Ron were sacrificial lambs for Dumbledore. He knew everything but never told the kids and let the kids fight the evil guy without any proper assistance which my friends and my sister who have read HP series and watched every movie and still continue to watch other people reacting to the movies agree with.

Also, even though my HP knowledge is limited, my friends and sister are enough to fill me

Ron seems like a childish, jealous, and insecure character who is sometimes disrespectful as well. Ginny's behavior isn't much appealing either, in fact, she comes off as a bully sometimes, and Ginny-Harry felt forced

See... if you had read the books first (or at least read them before getting into the HP fandom and spaces online), you would like the Weasleys and find Hermione fairly irritating. It's because the books are from Harry's PoV and he finds Hermione boring while Ron is his chilled out / sporty best friend who is almost always loyally stuck to his side (I know Ron has his jealous / insecure moments but for the most part, he is very supportive of Harry). Hermione on the hand is always getting on their nerves - harping on about homework, exams, following rules, etc. When Harry has a fight with Hermione, he and Ron go their jolly way and don't miss her except when they have to do their homework by themselves... but when Harry and Ron have a fight, he and Hermione have nothing in common to talk about and he continuously misses Ron.

[The above is not my viewpoint, just the vibe you get from the book... which is from a teenage boy's PoV so it makes sense.]

But then you got the movies where Ron is side-lined and reduced to a stupid jock while Hermione is made out to be this super-cool witch instead of a nerdy know-it-all who has the theoretical knowledge but always fumbles at the practical application in times of need. Movie Hermione is intelligent, bold and badass... and the actress good-looking... so you see how the narrative changed?

Now, Hermione was too good for Ron, so who else could you pair her with? Well here's this other good-looking and cool guy... and the actors are friends too! That's how Dramione started... and if you want to turn Draco into a good guy, someone else has to take the blame... which lead to Ron bashing.

Subsequently, Snape and the Blacks including Regulus Black (who is barely characterized in the books) caught everyone's interest... Slytherin turned into the go-to house... and so on. This made Weasleys (Ron-Ginny and sometimes whole fam) and Dumbledore the punching bag.

If you have been in the fandom long enough... you can practically make out this accession in the form of posts and fics. That is not to say I dislike Draco or Snape and love Dumbledore... I merely believe they are gray characters and should be allowed to remain so. JKR put in so much effort to give the characters life... they all have their virtues and vices... there's no need to turn them into one-dimensional cardboard caricatures.

That is the reason I've stopped reading HP FFs. I don't mind someone's mistakes being called out... Was Dumbledore manipulative? Sure. He was a politically oriented man and had to look at the greater good (classic trolley problem)... but he still tried his best to turn the odds in Harry's favor. He keeps trying to look out for everyone around him as much as he can... this is a war, you can't really expect everyone to get out unscathed. But this was their only chance at winning against someone who is almost immortal... so what choice did he have? It's easy to forget this in the frame of FFs that can make people like Bellatrix seem like misunderstood kittens... but these were death eaters who were committing Genocide of sorts. If we were to compare Dumbledore to someone like Churchill or Roosevelt.... fighting against the Nazis... does that put things in a better context? Now do his actions seem more justifiable..? If causing more trauma to some kids could end a war, who wouldn't make the same choices? Mind you, he never sacrifices them. Near-death experience yes... but since Harry had Voldemort's soul inside him, that was a given. The fact that he made it out alive at all was because of Dumbledore (and some luck).

I'm not saying I agree with every action that Dumbledore takes. But then, is there any character in the book that you could stand behind 100% of the time? They all have their faults... so why pick on one more than the rest? If it's someone like Umbridge... then I can understand Turn her into a full villain all you want . But for most of the other characters... I like them the way they are... no need for either bashing or glorification. And without this balance, I find it tough to read any FFs. I've actually had a better time reading some cross-overs that utilize the world-building aspect of HP but with other characters as protagonists. Those are more fun and not colored by the extreme views of the fandom .

P.S. Sorry for the long-ass post.. I'm just sad about how the HP fandom has fallen so far from it's source material. But I'm hoping for better times in the future when the new series comes out and revives the interest in OG books. Perhaps the series might even stay more true to the characterizations (or is that too much to hope for ).

P.P.S. Completely forgot to mention... yeah I agree that Ginny and Harry was a little sudden and rushed. He was probably better off left as single in the end... he is a seventeen year old boy who just came out of a war where he lost so many people and nearly died himself. He doesn't need to have his life set in that very moment... aise hi chod dete to chalta . Like I said, I don't read HP for shipping... but if he has to be paired with anyone.... then Ginny, Cho or maybe even Luna are all good choices acc to me.

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

What does that mean? I haven't heard of this.

Not an MCU fan

No... but since you read Harry Potter FFs.. I tagged you. I was asking for that too...

In these fics, the characters are basically watching their own movies / reading their own books. It's usually in a group setting... with comments from the characters about the events going on. Its more fun in stories like HP where so much secret stuff happens... so like, everyone getting to know first-hand how Harry was mistreated by the Dursleys... or see his encounters with Voldemort, etc. Lots of things get revealed publicly and seeing the other characters reacting to it is fun

Originally posted by: Bee222

I used to read these fics in the PJO fandom, they were light and fun but I haven't tried them in any other fandom. I didn't even know these fics are still written, I thought they faded out like the 5+1 format of fics 😅

I haven't read much HP ff tbh, only the occasional marauder fic. MCU mein I mostly stick to Irondad or Lokius. And I used to love the "Avengers staying together in the Tower and chilling" sort of fics we used to get in the 2012 Avengers era, I miss them sm ab to MCU is saturated with Stucky content... followed by all the various Tony ships

I miss that 2012 "Team as Family" era too... Civil war ruined the MCU fandom and while IW/EG brought some changes, we are never really going to get over the Team Ironman / Team Cap divide .

I don't know if such fics are still written or not... but I don't mind old recs too . I like the 5+1 format as well... and manage to find good ones every once in a while... toh socha iske liye bhi puch lu.

If you want recs for the Watching / Reading type of fics in both MCU and HP, let me know. I've some old favs that I keep re-reading from time to time .

Originally posted by: heavenlybliss

Wait I have this book and I thought it was a mystery thriller. Had no idea it's about time travel.

It’s really good. Yeah it’s a mystery but it involves a time loop

Originally posted by: ssttuuttii

No... but since you read Harry Potter FFs.. I tagged you. I was asking for that too...

In these fics, the characters are basically watching their own movies / reading their own books. It's usually in a group setting... with comments from the characters about the events going on. Its more fun in stories like HP where so much secret stuff happens... so like, everyone getting to know first-hand how Harry was mistreated by the Dursleys... or see his encounters with Voldemort, etc. Lots of things get revealed publicly and seeing the other characters reacting to it is fun

I don’t normally read HP FFs. This one Dramione fic was highly recommended so read that one. So I don’t really have any recs apart from that one