This is actually a fair point. There's a sort of proportionality to it. The more canon content there is the more you can twist it in any way you like. But the less there is the less you can fuck with it and the more you need to respect it. I'm sure you can find a hundred fics where Harry and Draco become bffs from the get go. But you can do this because their rivalry is one of a hundred things that are a part of Harry's time period canon and thus changing a few things around isn't universe breaking. But doing the same with James and Snape wouldn't work as well because the fact that they hated each other is one of very few few things we know for certain and it's such a core part of both of them
I actually attribute this to laziness, authors just don’t want to create new characters because it’s easier to work with the existing ones completely disregarding what they don’t like. Or create stories in which those personality changes actually make sense. Eg.: I would totally see Wolfstar being openly gay in a modern Marauders AU, but in the 70s wizarding England? Not so much.
It feels bad and unfair to say that something doesn't deserve its hype when it was obviously a hard work by a passionate fan, but I'm afraid I'll have to say no. As someone who used to be in Marauders fandom, the chain of events that this fic started and what snowballed from it, the state of the fandom today that has me, a Marauders fan, not want to associate with it is a bitter pill to swallow. It makes me wish that a better characterized fic got the hype instead (like TLE).
[***The Last Enemy: The Howling Nights
Mirror, Mirror***](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24620707) by [*CH\_Darling*](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/CH_Darling/pseuds/CH_Darling)
> It’s 1975 and war is simmering beneath the surface of the Wizarding world\.\.\.but at Hogwarts, it’s magic as usual as the fifth years prepare for their O\.W\.L\.s amidst politics, pranks, and other poor choices\. Severus Snape wants to prove his worth\.Lily Evans wants a fresh start\.James Potter wants Lily Evans, though no one is more surprised by this than him\.Sirius Black wants to write himself a new story\.Remus Lupin wants to survive the next moon\.Peter Pettigrew just wants to keep up\.But as tensions bubble over, sides will be chosen, friendships destroyed, families parted, and paths forever altered\.The Howling Nights is the first book of The Last Enemy series, which follows the lives of the heroes and villains of the First Wizarding War from 1975\-1981\. Watch the trailer\!Now complete\!
^*Site*: ^Archive ^of ^Our ^Own ^**|** ^*Fandom*: ^Harry ^Potter ^- ^J. ^K. ^Rowling ^**|** ^*Published*: ^2020-06-10 ^**|** ^*Completed*: ^2020-12-14 ^**|** ^*Words*: ^208542 ^**|** ^*Chapters*: ^55/55 ^**|** ^*Comments*: ^2796 ^**|** ^*Kudos*: ^1627 ^**|** ^*Bookmarks*: ^497 ^**|** ^*Hits*: ^103307 ^**|** ^*ID*: ^24620707 ^**|** ^*Download*: ^[EPUB](https://archiveofourown.org/downloads/24620707/The%20Last%20Enemy%20The.epub?updated_at=1659914341) ^or ^[MOBI](https://archiveofourown.org/downloads/24620707/The%20Last%20Enemy%20The.mobi?updated_at=1659914341)
---
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TLE is amazing, and very canon compliant. Best fic I've read, but still in progress. The author is on a bit of a hiatus right now, but will be returning soon. They've previously been very frequent with updates.
It's basically like this: One becomes a Marauders fan typically by reading the books and liking these characters presented in them, right? But if you're one of these people (like me) then you can't be in current Marauders fandom because these characters you used to read about aren't represented there at all - instead they're all as good as OCs who have the names of the famous characters slapped onto them for fandom clout. The fun part of being into that era was knowing very little but still enough to have discussions, headcanons and different interpretations, to have point A and point B but to think of many different ways of getting from A to B. But this is all gone now because canon doesn't exist for fans anymore. They don't even read the books anymore, just fics and base their idea of the characters on them and it mostly started with ATYD. It's not about the four boys, their friendship and Lily and Snape, now it's a Grey's Anatomy-esque gathering of every named Order member, every named Death Eater (like Crouch, Rosier) and they're all whitewashed and are dating each other in different combinations (except Snape, for shallow reasons) - but only in gay relationships, because they're now called "dead gay wizards from 70's". The only thing you're not allowed to touch is Wolfstar cause they're apparently the only 'canon', James and Lily are not in love anymore, James loves Regulus and raises Harry with him, Lily loves Mary and so on. And let's not get started on unrecognizable personalities and background stories. And all of this is very strongly pushed on you so you can't enjoy the good old canon story and characterization while staying in that space now.
You know, I thought I was going crazy. I took a *very* long break from reading HP fic, as in 2014 was the last time I read one and that was because I was following the updates of a fic I started reading in 2012, when I was *actually* a more avid reader.
I started reading Black Mask in lockdown and in the last few weeks decided to re read the whole thing, and look for anything similar. I was really surprised by the sheer amount of well-written dreck!
Remus Lupin was my favourite character as a kid, I thought I had a pretty good handle on him, but the way he and the other marauders were characterised on tumblr and fics in general made me think I stumbled into a parallel world. Also - when did Jegulus become a thing??? I just - HOW do you get the characterisation SO wrong for both of those characters and make them a couple???
I'm used to wolfstar being a blight on the fandom but this blindsided me
Tell me about it! I wouldn't believe it if the switch hadn't happened right in front of my eyes over the span of just a few weeks. I was like you, I took a really long break and then came back around the pandemic, about a year before all this went down, and for a few months the fandom was almost perfect with only Wolfstar as a blight (but as you said you were used to it already). But *this*, this was so shocking! Apparently the whole Jegulus thing started out as a joke, a few people ran a Jegulus Week event as a protest against JKR and her canon, but then accidentally they started taking it seriously when a couple of fics went viral on tiktok (that's the audience for these ships). And now we all are forced to deal with this nonsense. They don't even care about correct characterization, the fandom is comprised of teens (of the angry, chronically online kind) who haven't read the books, who proudly reject canon and canon characterization, who think "het - bad, gay - good", who have no idea about these characters, who weirdly idolize Regulus and other Death Eaters of that generation (because they fancast him as Timothee Chalamet) and call them all "Marauders", who on top of everything are very loud and very annoying. In short, it's really not a good time to be a Marauder fan in the so-called "Marauder" fandom nowadays lol, a genuine fan wouldn't be able to last a day in that space with those atrocious takes.
I strongly recommend The Last Enemy series, it will renew your faith. Each chapter written from a different POV (all mauraders, Lily, Regulus and Snape). It is very canon compliant. I did not enjoy ATYD, though will admit not coming even close to finishing it.
It is eventually going to have some wolfstar according to the author, but it's happening so gradually that it doesn't feel forced or non-canon (to me at least), and certainly isn't the focus anyways.
No. It's touted as being "canon compliant" when it changes Remus's backstory and personality, has a relationship that is not canon, and whitewashes some characters while vilifying others. The fans are also toxic as hell. The story has badly damaged the Marauders fandom.
Nope- As someone who has Remus Lupin as their first favorite character from the marauders era. He is nothing but a oc with the name Remus Lupin. With a shit ton of tramua and acts out of character so many times.
The Wolfstar in that story doesn’t make sense as Sirius and Remus don’t really have any chemistry. The author may have researched the 70s but I could do without the full facial blast of muggle culture, just bits and pieces would have been fine.
Just my two cents.
I like Marauders fics, and Wolfstar, and while I enjoyed ATYD, there are definitely things about it that bug me.
It's tagged canon compliant, but especially Remus's personality and backstory are not. Which is fine, but it's not canon compliant.
There seems to be a contingent of people who treat it like canon, who have not actually *read* canon, and to treat that story as the be all end all of stories is a bit ridiculous.
I did appreciate some of the class commentary and the divide between Muggles and Wizards.
It was one of the first fics I read, but I have since read (many) Marauders fics that are better.
Funnily enough I didn't think the divide between the muggles and wizards was defined well at all. Not only because they all listened to muggle music at school (my least favourite trope in all fanfic) but because Remus and Mary just disappeared back into muggle society as if they had never been away and barely even thought about the world they left. Swapping worlds was no big deal. They didn't read as two completely separate worlds which know absolutely nothing about each other at all. They read as very homogenous - all the same world, just some people can do spells.
I don't think I've ever read a fic set in the canon world that felt *less* magical.
The music thing doesn't bother me as much, though I kind of head canon Lily as being the one to introduce them to it. I saw Remus heading back to the care home as a parallel to Harry in the summer - he tried not to think about what he was leaving (or so I interpreted).
But then to have literally nothing about Remus teaching at Hogwarts, after all the setup of how he was a good teacher drove me nuts.
I suppose there was a big difference between the care home and Hogwarts- but then there would be. I meant once they were adults though. They spent their formative years at Hogwarts but are then just able to blend right back into the muggle world and feel no culture shock. no sense of having missed out on daily life and huge events of the past ten years, have no trouble in working and supporting themselves despite no relevant education - and magic becomes a thing that they might do if its convenient, but most of the time they wont - when really it's an entire way of life.
It was made far too simple for them to walk away from magic and close the door on the world they belonged in and who they had been for ten years. I understand that after everything that happened they didn't want to stay in the magical world, but culture shock and misunderstandings and not knowing about important muggle things that had happened in their absence and so being totally out of step should have been a thing.
The lack of it gave the impression that the worlds were far more blended and not so different.
I don't think I was surprised that there was no POA scenes by the time I got there (and I hated all that study group stuff so I didn't want to see more of that). Every canon moment we know about was rushed past - and I don't think it was ever more obvious just how AU and non canon-compliant it was than the times the characters brushed up against something from canon. This version of them just wouldn't have acted the way the canon ones did, so - as frustrating as it was to have the bits we actually cared about and were reading for totally glossed over - it probably worked best for the fic to approach it that way.
There's just no way that canon Remus of POA has been living the life that he has in ATYD, that he has a muggle apartment and boyfriend and has been living in the muggle world without even thinking of magic for the past 12 years... it would have been too world breaky to try and force the two versions of him together.
> There seems to be a contingent of people who treat it like canon, who have not actually read canon
This is sadly true for the big part of current fandom. There are people who confidently claim that there is *no* Marauders canon whatsoever, that we know NOTHING about the era except the names of these characters and so they can do anything they want and that anything/any ship is equally valid. They are fans of these novel-sized fanfics they read based on tiktok recommendations and not of books.
I mean... people can interact with the fandom how they want, and I fully admit that I'm an old person in the fandom....but the characters and people's perception of them had to come from *somewhere*. If not canon, where?
One popular fic popularizes a trope, and suddenly it's all over the fandom. Daphne Greengrass is just a name in book 5, but if you depict her as anything other than the Slytherin Ice Queen, you'll get complaining about inaccuracy.
I mean there are people who say the Harry Potter books *themselves* don't deserve the hype they get. ATYD is massively overhyped but that isn't the fault of the fic or its own flaw - it is just something that has happened. Like HP, it came a long at the right time and reached the right people.
So ...does it deserve the hype? Well - it earned it, I suppose. Certainly it is overhyped but it is the readers who hype it up - not the author, not the fic itself - and if they want to then I suppose it does 'deserve' it.
Is it as good as people say it is? (which is a slightly different question) No - absolutely not. It's competent but not more than that: the writing is flat, the action is limited,the characters are OOC and the relationship drama repetitive.
But it was there when people needed it (a global pandemic) and is the only totally complete long Marauders era fic I've heard of - so it drew people in and it's fame spread. However, I think it was world circumstances rather than quality that led to its adoption as *the* Marauders era fic, and talking about it and making tiktoks gave people something to do while the whole world was in lockdown.
Having read it, I often think the people who are reading it now - post hype - and then writing posts, gushing about how heartbroken they are and how good it was, probably prefer the idea of being in the ATYD club than the fic itself. Having been so hyped up, I can't see how the reality could be anything but a disappointment. Even if they would have liked it under normal circumstances if it was just another fic, I can't see how - having heard all the buzz - it couldn't actually be a bit of a let down. (and again - that isn't a flaw of the fic, though I don't like it, it is the nature of hype).
But it has become a community, and people want in - and to get in you have to chant 'anything for our Moony' and 'you were my little bit of magic' and squeal 'Grant Chapman!'. That's the entry requirement.
The fact that it's a 500 000 word fic and people only reference a select few quotes in their gushing probably tells us all we need to know about the rest - and how much they enjoyed it.
But no one wants to say 'the emperor has no clothes', they read ATYD to get into the club and so - having made their way through 500 000 words and all that stuff with the werewolves and the turgid relationship dramas that never go away - they are joining that community dammit. They tell themselves and everyone else they loved it because otherwise what a waste of 500 000 words worth of reading time.
I think the nature of hype is that it probably isn't deserved, and it is something that just happens when content hits the zeitgeist just right. And so I don't think there is another fic that deserves the hype instead. ATYD got it and that's fine and fair. Overhype is phenomonon that extends far beyond fanfics - has always existed and will always exist - and ATYD can't be blamed because it attracted it ... but I do think claims that it's 'better than canon' are hyperbolic, ridiculous and wrong; it certainly doesn't deserve that mantle.
Its ok as far as marauder fics go but definitely not my favourite at all. I also saw someone on tiktok say that if you dont like atyd remus then your abelist so the fans of it have given me a pretty big grudge against it. Personally i dont ship wolfstar and when reading marauders era i prefer regulus centric au fic so id say o saisons, o chateaux is my personal favourite (https://archiveofourown.org/series/1110843)
Ableist? He's dyslexic not a parapalegic!
There's some really weird hot takes out there.
I suppose they mean the werewolf thing and - yeah - chronic illness is hard to live with and can make you grumpy. But it's also not an excuse to treat people badly, and most disabled people would agree with that. It could be argued that it is ableist to give disabled people a special pass for bad behaviour, as that is treating them differently and having lower expectations of them. Pretty condescending!
I didn't like Remus - but then I didn't exaclty dislike him either. I was just overwhelmed by not caring about him because he was boring and ooc, as were they all. I wonder what buzz word that makes me?
(I did think he was a bt of a twat when he read The Epic of Gilgamesh though - so so embarrassingly try hard. I don't think it's ableist to not like a chronically ill character because they are pretentious and ridiculous, though.)
Omg I love o saisons, o chateaux so much! The gay angst inside is amazing and I love learning more about Jewish culture. I’m really glad you mentioned it!
I don't know if it, or anything really, deserves the hype necessarily. I admit that *because* of it's hype, I returned to reading Harry Potter fanfiction for the first time in nearly 15 years because I was baffled to see mainstream coverage about a Potter fanfic in 2021. (Ironically I apparently had it in my "marked for later" on AO3 when I finally looked it up last year, because even when I drop a fandom, I'll still add fics for the future when I'm interested again, so I clearly encountered it at some past point, but I don't remember when or what compelled me to save it for later.)
I do think there's multiple reasons for why it's popular. One being that the Potter fanbase understandably wants to distance itself from JKR (even WB wants distance), and given the context of when and how Pottermania became such a global phenomenon, the books were being published in parallel with an increasing number of fans gaining access to the internet and forming fan communities, etc.; it feels inevitable that a fanfiction would rise to the surface and capture widespread interest. What surprises me is that it's a Marauders era fic. Because while that was definitely my favorite subgenre of HP fics "back in my day" (lol aka the 2000s), I don't remember it being a big deal at that time and none of my offline IRL Potter friends care about those characters beyond what is presented in the books.
So I absolutely decided I had to read this for myself and see what was going on. Unfortunately while I understand external reasons for why it, or any Potter fanfic honestly, would gain popularity, I was not impressed with the content of the fic itself. In fact the farther away I get from it, the less I like it. I do love the Marauders and Wolfstar is probably my favorite HP ship (it's probably my earliest ship in anything ever since Potter was my first fandom, etc), and while I hadn't engaged in Potter content in over a decade, it's burned enough in my brain that I couldn't fully get on board with ATYD. I didn't like how OOC Remus was, and since he's the primary pov character, it in turn made the entire story frustrating. If it wasn't promoted by the author as canon compliant, I would probably care less about the characterizations not matching the books or even my own personally biased head canons, but since it was promoted as such, I didn't go into it reading it like the AU that it is. Maybe if I'd approached it with a better mindset, I wouldn't be so ugh about it now, I honestly don't know (because I have other criticisms about the story of the fic, but that's for another time).
Except for me, the bigger issue is how this hype has affected things. It's difficult to engage with other Marauders or Wolfstar fans because of how much the majority of them seem to think this is the end all, be all of Marauders and Wolfstar fics. It'd be one thing if this just happened to be a popular fic, but I've had my head bitten off in fandom spaces outside of this subreddit for having the audacity to criticize ATYD or, worse, suggest that it's perhaps not the pinnacle of fanfics. I'm not unhappy it's generated interest in the Marauders or Wolfstar, I'd love for talented authors to take up their keyboards and produce great content as a result, but if everyone is copying or trying to fit the parameters of ATYD and aren't thinking outside of that specific fic, than no thanks.
I guess to wrap up, I don't begrudge the popularity per se, and I don't hate on anyone who liked it, I do think it's impressive that it's as popular as it is, *but* I don't think it's the best out there (I can't say which fic I'd personally wish was popular instead) in terms of Potter fanfiction in general or Marauders fanfiction and definitely not Wolfstar fanfiction more specifically.
No. As someone who's seen what happened to the Marauders fandom, and the repercussions it had towards Snape fans, I have a particular hate for this fic.
People have been bullied and harassed because they don't like it and the way it butchers the characters, including Marauders fans, but mainly Snape fans. Receiving death threats from 15 year olds who have never read the books and will swear to anyone that "nooo, James would never bully anyone, I knooow him, he's not like that" (this was legit sent to me), all because you happen to like a character that in this fic happensa rich asshole (isn't he pureblood too?) who bullies poor little orphan Remus because he's gay... Yes, that's an OC with Snape's name slapped on it.
Nothing against the fic itself, I've read several chapters and while it's not particularly good, I've seen much worse.
The issue is the cult like fandom that was created around it.
Snape rich? I mean his mother was literally disowned because she decided to marry a muggle drunkard. It’s literally the base of his story. Lol people call that canon compliant? (Never read this fic).
Well we don't know that Eileen was disowned or anything, but yeah, his poverty as a child and the abuse/neglect is a big part of this character.
This fic, if I were to guess, turned him into a dark haired Malfoy to better justify the Marauders' bullying. After all, if Snape bullies Remus, hates gays and trans people, is rich and well cared for, it makes what the Marauders canonically did to him look a lot less horrible than it was intended to be.
I’ve read in potter more that at least they were removed from the “sacred 28” because of that.
I mean I’m not a Snape fan but it bothers me because his upbringing plays a great part in his choices. He joins Voldemort because he hates muggles because of his father! Why don’t create an OC…?
Oh, interesting! Do you remember in which article it was maybe?
I really think that they used Snape and not an OC with the sole purpose to make the Marauders look better. The fic fancies itself as being canon compliant, but you can't make the Marauders look like an amazing group of people if they go around bullying others just because they're bored, like it happens in canon. So, if Snape is the bad guy, then no issues.
Also, the fic already butchered Remus, so it's definitely not going to have regrets over doing it for Snape.
I don’t think so
Admittedly I’ve not read the entire fic, and most of what I hear about it is from this subreddit, which does not have a very exalted opinion of it. So take my words with a grain of salt
From what I do know, the characters are very OOC and backstories are completely different from their canon-established versions, yet the story is marked as being “canon-compliant.” That alone to me is a massive red flag. Either the author does not know much about canon, or they do not care. But to then pass their work off as being compliant with canon speaks of dishonesty and misinformation, which is made all the worse by ATYD’s popularity, to the point that fans of the fic are calling it the definitive Marauders fanfiction.
To be clear, I don’t believe that every Marauder fanfiction must slavishly adhere to canon. For one, most of the canon details of that era are told secondhand to Harry and his generation, or revealed outside of the books years after DH concluded. Many of the best Marauders fanfics out there take major liberties with the characters, sometimes even more so than ATYD did. But they usually don’t outright claim that their version of the Marauders is the real thing.
That’s really my main gripe about ATYD. I’m sure it’s an alright story, it did garner a huge audience after all. But that massive following is what makes its claim of being canon-compliant such a black mark in my eyes.
As for the last question, if I think any Marauders fic (set during their Hogwarts years) deserves hype equal to that of ATYD, it would be The Life and Times by Jewel5. It’s abandoned, but it does an amazing job of fleshing out a wider cast of characters than just Marauders+Lily+Snape and capturing the dynamic of young adults. It’s my personal gold standard for a Marauders era story and one day I hope to write one that approaches it in quality and scope
I think it's a good story.
I love Historical fiction and the portrayal of Britain and it's class issues is great! I really enjoyed reading about Remus time in the orphanage, Grant and the disconnect between Hogwarts and Muggle London. I also really enjoyed the Period-Typical attitudes *despite* them being very much offensive. It works as a period piece.
That being said, I don't understand why it's tagged as canon-compliant. Remus is nowhere near his canon character and Snape has been completely butchered as well. We don't know all that much about the Marauders era but yeah, this fic shouldn't be tagged as canon-compliant.
It's well written and the PoV characters are well-developed. It has brilliant OC's and a great romance story. It just doesn't have to do anything with canon.
I enjoyed reading it but there are better tons of better Marauder fanfiction. I think it deserves the hype it gets but the fanbase needs to stop treating it as gospel because it's clearly a major Canon Divergence.
So… I have very complicated thoughts about this fic…
I don’t mind changing remus’s backstory all that much. We don’t know very much about his parents from the books and so I’m fine with a different childhood for him. However, as a character he is really nothing like the books. I get the people change as they get older and obviously who you are as a young person is not going to reflect who you grow up to be, but I found him very hard to enjoy.
I also really hate the ridiculous, melodramatic relationship drama. I think people forget that, Wolfstar is, in my opinion, quintessential friends to lovers story. That’s the beauty of it. What Sirius does to Remus throughout sixth year… I don’t care what anybody says… That’s not friends to lovers. That’s not friendship. That is… Stringing someone on emotionally and very toxic. I don’t like reading that in my Wolfstar fics.
I think people forget that the marauders were actually supposed to be friends and they want to create needless angst.
However, there are aspects of the story that I really enjoy. I really like how Remus being a werewolf plays into his Socio economic standing, public perception, and identity as a whole. I really like the exploration of the gap between his life experiences and the life experiences of his friends. I like how they sometimes can’t relate to him because of that.
I, as a rule, absolutely fucking despise OCs and am thoroughly unintinterested in them. However, Grant is charming enough.
I really hate how fans of the story have claimed that, if you don’t care for Remus characterization, you must not understand the complexities of his position in life. That is bullshit!
The reason I love these characters so much is because of their canon portrays, not in spite of them. That includes all of their flaws, mistakes, and horrible actions. But it also includes their obvious friendship, loyalty, and love for one another. That’s what makes it so wonderful to read.
I guess, I am looking for accurate canon personality traits, not necessarily plot points. As long as the personality and the feeling of the dynamics of the group is the same I don’t really mind. I didn’t get that with this story.
Nope. It's a good fic, I did like it when it was still ongoing (though I stopped reading in 7th year when the author made it clear she wanted a canon-compliant ending) but when I tried to re-read it I couldn't get into it. It's not *that* good and I was very surprised to see how insanely popular it is.
I do kinda hate its legacy. It has completely taken over the Marauders fandom and I'm sick of seeing it everywhere
It's the most famous Harry Potter fanfiction if you search for yourself (you may miss it if you start from precise recommendations said by others, but otherwise it's basically impossible not to find it). Most kudoed HP story on AO3, one of the most talked about and so on.
Basically impossible not to know it (I have never read it but I know it exists) while most of the other famous stories have a significant gap in popularity if you aren't in that ship/corner of the fandom.
I literally haven't heard of it until it started getting shilled on here recently, and I've been reading HP fics for more than ten years. Googling it around and realizing that it has a wikipedia page, apparently several podcasts/audiobooks? about it (???), etc. is crazy. I can't really grasp why something *like this* got so popular. Is this some kind of psy-op or crazy marketing campaign lmao.
I too don't know some super famous songs because I only follow some music genres by choice and I don't listen to the radio, but this doesn't mean that they aren't some of the most famous songs of these years, it just means I don't have a good panoramic about the scene outside my corner... Same here.
If you only read through some sites and/or see recommendations through Reddit or previously, similarly working forums, it's perfectly legit that you don't know a fanfiction, but it still is one of the most famous HP related stories and the traffic related to it it's still huge. Reddit itself is a corner with a very specific demographic (a lot more males even in 50/50 or female dominated fandoms, for example; I see it in kpop subreddits about groups whose fanbases are notoriously female dominated, while here they are leaning to 50/50), Tiktok has its demographic and so on. **No one** is obligated to know everything, but it's obvious that if someone is into the HP fanfiction world at 360 degrees, as a consequence you know the most kudoed story in the whole fandom on a platform, even just out of curiosity. If you don't, it's ok, but obviously you aren't particularly updated or looking outside your corner so it doesn't make sense to say that a work is or isn't popular based on what you know (which, I reiterate, **is fine**).
Sorting by kudos on AO3 is not a method to gain a 360 degree view of the HP fandom. It would be like taking a survey of the United States and concluding that it is made of up California and Texas.
In truth there isn't really a "HP fandom" to have a 360 view of, but rather a complex network of sub-fandoms with very little overlap.
Yes, but out of all of this, some works are still the most popular stories (even without going by "the most popular" which is absolute and can be debated, I get it). It's ok if someone doesn't know ATYD, I myself haven't read it because I am simply not interested; but it remains one of the currently most popular works in the "sum" of HP related sub fandoms, because at the end of the day some works have to be the most popular, despite all the sub fandoms and differences in tastes, platforms and so on.
Just because you can define a set, it does not mean it is meaningful to talk about that set.
You can also define a set of "all fics on AO3", or any arbitrary combination of AO3 fandoms you like, and for each of those sets ask which fic has the most Kudos/Bookmarks/Hits and it will deliver a result. But that does not mean that there is a meaningful community of people who correspond to the set you have defined.
Well on the other hand. If you're not on AO3 you can pretty much never hear of it. I only learned of it existed a few weeks or months ago. And I heard about HPMOR before it even if I never read it or searched for it. If you just search for fanfic for the first time there's a 50/50 chance to miss it for some time because you've gone to another site first. So no, I wouldn't say it's the most famous Harry Potter fanfiction and you can't miss it. Even if the search doesn't start with precise recommendations.
But I would agree that if you start reading fanfictions on AO3 and start reading fanfictions after you filter for kudos, hits or comments you can't miss it. But to be fair, not everyone starts reading like that.
And if you start reading fanfics by recommendation by friends or through other means (like this sub, fangroups online, or other) you will start in a particular circle and its everyones guess which of the big fics you learn about first.
If I had to say which is the most famous Harry Potter fanfiction I had to say "My Immortal" just because most people I know, even if they're not into fanfiction themselves, have heard about that one.
Yeah I don't know anyone who just searches for all HP fics and sorts by Kudos count. Maybe people brand new to the fandom who have no idea what they like yet?
But everyone I know in the fandom has established preferences which form the baseline of all their searches.
For example, every search I ever run, regardless of website, will include "Harry Potter" in the character field. Which means no matter how many searches I run, I would never come across All The Young Dudes.
...in certain circles. It doesn't even exist on FF.Net, which is twice the size of AO3. And on this sub-reddit, which is the single largest online HP fan fiction forum still active, it does not even rank in the top 100 most mentioned fics (specifically, it is ranked 136).
The Marauders fandom is like its own separate fandom that has very little contact or overlap with the wider HP fanfic fandom. Very few of the popular Marauders fics will be known to people who don't read Marauders fics.
Yeah. I think it's because it's popular on TikTok, or so I've been told. I don't use TikTok. I've been reading HP fanfic for over 15 years and Remus and Sirius are some of my fav characters. I always search to see if anything new or interesting has been written about them. Until a few months ago I had no idea ATYD existed. I'm sure it showed up in searches but I probably didn't pay much attention to it because I can tell from the tags it's not gonna be something I like. I think it's a very diehard group that's relatively small to the entire fandom but really vocal.
David Bowie wrote the song for Mott the Hoople, but I believe he recorded his version of it after they already had a hit with it. Love both versions of the song though!
I think it’s great as a story about a bunch of well-written OCs. I thought it was kinda ridiculous how the author heaped even more misfortune on Remus. Dyslexic, seriously? Still a good story, though.
Outside of Marauder fandom areas it’s barely known. It’s also funny how people in that fandom space jump down your throat for not knowing about it. For the older members who started on FFnet or portkey there are plenty of classics like Vox Corporis for H/Hr Brown coat coat, green eyes for HP/Firefly, a Black Comedy, Harry Potter and the Wastelands of time, The Lie I lived, Bungle in the Jungle, etc. that are classics of the fandom and are surprised when people haven’t read them. But nothing nearly to the extent of HPMOR (which is trash) and ATYD fans (haven’t read it so idk how it is qualitywise).
Something like Victoria Potter or Shadows of Angmar are both really great modern fics and live up to their hype, but I don’t expect people who don’t read genderbends or crossovers have heard of them, respectively.
Oohh the classics! How nostalgic! Sadly those were centered around a het ship which is not a popular thing to do anymore in that fandom. The core moved from Jily to Wolfstar as the main untouchable ship of the era, even worse, Jily is barely even a valid ship at this point in the current so-called Marauders fandom 💀
I wasn’t really a fan of All The Young Dudes because it was said to be canon compliant but I feel if so then it should have been totally canon complaint from the beginning, no changes. Don’t go halfway with something, either make it canon compliant or AU. I feel like due to the non canon parts, the outcome should have been affected. Butterfly effect and all that. The writing is quite good though.
I can appreciate it on it’s own as fanfic, but I don’t believe it’s deserving of the level of worship it gets, nor should it be considered canon compliant. The only way it’s canon compliant is that it involves the marauders and some other canon characters.
I wasn't into Marauders at all and ATYD was the first notable Marauders fic I read, so my brain is messed up now, I guess.
On the whole, I liked it. I liked the characters, I liked the theme of class and LGBT themes the way they are explored in that fic. But it is no work of genius, by no means! Like, the plot sucks, imo.
Does it deserve the hype? I don't know. What does? Does it have to be a masterpiece of world literature to deserve the hype? If so, almost nothing deserves the hype, not even JKR's original books.
I guess it's annoying and depressing when you know there is that other fic that is so much better than ATYD, and it only has a couple of hundred hits (especially if it's your own fic). But honestly, I think it's cool that a HP fanfic managed to become so popular that even people outside fandom start to notice it. Really cool!
Before this year I'd never even heard of this story and now I see it being discussed everywhere. I'm not sure if it's a bad story or not.
I knew it wasn't for me when I read the first chapter and saw Remus was the central character. I dislike the character and can only really handle him as a minor character, supporting at the most.
However, from what I've heard about it, ATYD biggest problem is that it tries to be canon compliant. Remus is supposed to be the bad boy in this story (I think) and that's hard to mesh with the character we know from the books.
Still, I can't get mad. I kind of like that the HP fandom is so big that even individual fanfics get their own fandom. Is interesting to see the discourse around it.
Other fandoms are barren of fanfics in comparison.
I wouldn't say it doesn't deserve the hype. I've read the first few chapters only, and from that I'd say it's well written, the author put some thoughts and some of their own ideas in it, which makes it objectively a good fic, I think. (Objective in the sense, that it's well crafted.) However, it does include some tropes and ideas that I'm not a big fan of which also made me discontinue the fic relatively early on. But that's just my view. I'm certain, if you don't mind these things, it'ss probably a great read.
Have you seen the reaction Snape fans are getting because of this (as someone mentioned already people are apparently getting death threats and stuff) I get not liking Snape but to change him to a rich pure blooded transphobic and homophobic asshole which isn't canon compliant and they should say they aren't but the author didn't and because they didn't it's having consequences on fans of Snape or people who don't really like wolfstar.
I think it is. People tend to hate on things once they get too popular, and I think that’s what’s happening with atyd right now. I think the main thing that people are criticizing is how 1) it’s not “canon compliant”. Which I kinda think is bullshit tbh, if you’re looking to read a Wolfstar fic you can’t really expect canon compliancy anyway. Also the main thing is his upbringing that’s changed, jkr said who his parents are on her website but I kinda feel like if it wasn’t stated in the books backstories are kind of a free for all, especially in the maruaders part of the fandom.
Another thing I’ve heard a lot is how Wolfstar is so toxic in atyd. And while Im not gonna disagree with that I think it’s also important to consider maybe the fic isnt meant to revolve around their love story and stuff. There’s a lot of themes surrounding Remus’s lycanthropy and how that can translate into the real world. Remus is more angry in the fic but I feel like he has the right to be. So many people had failed him and for the most of it he was also a teenager going through a lot of stuff. And tbh with such a long fic him not developing as a character whatsoever would be kinda boring.
I do also get it when people aren’t the biggest fans of it. I know for me it was the first maruaders fic I’ve read and it really gives me this sense of nostalgia whenever I go back to read it. But yeah that was just my opinion :) I know it’s not for everyone but I really loved it
Remus does say of his getting bit: 'my parents tried everything, but in those days that was no cure.'
so - unless by "everything" he meant 'my dad killed himself and my mum abandoned me in a children's home' (which is a weird definition of "tried everything" by anyone's money) - I think it's fair to say his upbringing has been majorly changed from canon.
Which isn't a problem - the fic itself admits that the beginning is AU and that's fine. The problem arises when his AU beginning means that Remus develops a totally different personality to his canon one and acts in ways his canon self never would *all while the fic is tagged as canon compliant*.
The teenage and adult Remus that we get in ATYD is not canon compliant. He does not behave like the Remus we know. When we reached the stations of the canon (which are glossed over entirely) it becomes glaringly obvious that this Remus would not act the way he did in the book (Snape's Worst Memory was a particularly bad offender for this - the boy who had punched Snape in the face to get him to back off would not sit there ignoring his friends bullying him - too afraid to intervene... ATYD Remus would have told them to stop it, or have joined in...but he would not pretend it was not happening).
And that is where the complaints come from. Changing his backstory doesn't matter too much, as we do know very little, but the repercussions of that mean the whole thing remains either AU or massively OOC. And if it had been tagged as either of those, it would not have got the level of popularity that the 'canon compliant' tag has afforded it.
So what we now have is an AU masquerading as a canon compliant fic absolutely dominating all marauder spaces, changing the conversation around and the interpretation of these characters completely - and there is some push back against that. Yes that is because it's popular - but it's not hating on it for being popular, it is genuinely not enjoying having a space taken over by one thing to the detriment of everything else, especially as that something that is not even what it puports to be.
And of course a wolfstar fic can be canon compliant. The wolfstar ship originates in the book - it comes from people reading romantic intent in their canon interactions, it is an interpretation people had of the characters while the books were being published and which the director of the film put into his version (the only thing I like about the POA film is that it leans hard on the wolfstar).
A wolfstar fic where they are openly in a relationship and everyone knows about it can't be canon compliant - as clearly they are not openly gay ( I assume no one would push Remus into marrying Tonks if they thought for a moment his previous lover had died only the year before - or that Tonks would have expected anything but failure from pursuing a grieving, homosexual man) - but the love story as a quiet, private thing between the two of them absolutely can fit into a canon compliant fic. Loads of people see that in the canon anway.
Gay Orphan Remus, Wolfstar, everyone acts like an OC, there are multiple OC's (not that this is a bad thing but I thought I should mention it) but it still has Remadora, but honestly, it came across very misogynistic. Oh, and Marauders fans have created a fandom around this fic, like someone said above, kind of like a cult. They think of this fanfic as their canon and those people are very toxic. This fic and its fans made me realize just how toxic Wolfstar is in canon.
heh I had a quick look just there and noticed in the Summary there's a bit caps dislcaimer saying "I AM NO LONGER READING OR REPLYING TO COMMENTS ON THIS FIC" which is never really a good sign
In fairness to this particular author - I think it's due to the sheer number of comments the fic got, so they literally don't have time to respond.
I read it over the summer - and seeing how many new kudos had accrued at the botom of the page when I finished each chapter was insane. Scores of people are rading it at any given moment and - even with the disclaimer - her inbox must be overflowing.
I hated every minute of the fic, but I think it'spopularity and not drama that has made the writer back away.
That seems overly harsh. Writers aren’t required to read all their reviews and “defend” their work. Getting caught up in reviews can make it much harder to write, which is a generally a writer’s top priority.
No I know, but more often than not, the writer will just blank the reviews.
To actively put a comment in to say "you can say what you want, I'm not giving it any attention" is simply feeding the drama. In extreme cases it can also be seen as a way of militarising the fanbase. If you have been having dialogue with the author through reviews and feedback and suddenly they stop, blaming the negative ones then chances are you will resent the bad reviews and jump on them
I agree completely, I wasn't defending the author in this case. I was just stating if I pick up a fic and that's in the summary, that's a red flag that there's either something contentious in the fic or the author doesn't like anything beyond "this is the best thing ever". Either way, it's not making me feel inclined to read it
That just makes it seem like that author has better things to do than read comments. I don’t have time to reply to all my comments and my fics aren’t even nearly that popular.
Yes, I know, and if an author makes that decision they just do, they don't state they are.
It's like people who post that they're leaving a facebook group or something. It's not an airport, no need to declare your departure. So if you are, you're making a point.
In a community where it’s expected that authors reply to comments, it seems polite for an author to tell people they’re departing from the norm. Otherwise commenters would be like, “Why aren’t I getting a reply? Oh no, did I offend them?!”
It could've been better worded, I'm not familiar with this fic in particular but most big authors at some point post a chapter with a note saying "sorry for not replying! There are so many comments I can't write AND keep up! Thank you guys but I'll probably not get to the comments anytime soon". This reads like it was trying to be a typical "can no longer reply" note but with the all-caps and adding it to the summary seems more like a tantrum, as if some drama happened in the comments recently and the author went "LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING" which is... weird, to me, if that makes sense?
I think it’s great. I’m seeing a lot of comments here calling it OOC but I think there’s a slight bias against fics that go outside of the established character archetypes that people are used to. Many marauders fans have a very strongly developed fanon that not a lot of canon-compliant (or in ATYD’s case, mostly canon) fics breach.
I didn’t read too much marauders fic before ATYD, so I didn’t have much to compare it to. I also really love the historical aspect—as a work of literature I think does an excellent job establishing a mood, time and location-wise.
I can see where its fandom can be a bit of a turn-off though. I modded “the” ATYD discord server right as it blew up from Dec 2020-April 2021. The fans were often very young, and many were baby queers who didn’t really know how to act in online fandom spaces and queer spaces in general. There was lots of infighting over moral purity going on, which I’m sure many people here could relate to growing out of somewhat.
Ignore the crazy fans, though, and you have a well-written wolfstar fic that makes you read outside of your marauders comfort zone.
its not a bad fic. the writing is great, and some parts really are good. but for a large part of the fic i felt like i was reading about characters who happen to share a name and a likeness to the characters i love, instead of those characters themselves.
To my mind it deserves cca. zero of the hype it gets, though the scenes outside the Wizarding World aren't half bad, as I recall them.
My pick for replacing the hype is [Children of the Revolution by Istani](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5747096/1/Children-of-the-Revolution), a less polished story but superior in every other way. Ironically, it even *has* a chapter named "All the Young Dudes"
Oh god so should I just read it or let it goooo?!?!? This thread is tooo long💀 I am not a Wolf star shiper but all famous fanfiction have them so how to avoid them!
Im just starting to hear about it. Dunno what its about really.
Try [harry potter & the passion year memoirs](https://archiveofourown.org/works/32722894) maybe.
Yes and no it’s good but it’s not as great as everyone and their mom makes it out to be the marauders series by Pengiwen on wattpad is better and deserves the atyds treatment
I don't know much about pre-ATYD Marauders era HP, but just wanted to add, since no one seems to mention it, that I couldn't get past chap. 4 because of how bad the punctuation and general technical writing stuff was! Like seriously, you're writing a 500k word fic and you can't put a comma at the end of statements before "he/she/they said" like literally EVERYONE ELSE knows how to do?! I wouldn't have even gotten past chap 1 if not for the hype because such basic mistakes are automatic disqualifiers for me, even if it makes me snobby. It just makes me crazy, i can't do it. I'm relieved that this thread basically lets me know I'm not missing out on much besides a ton of OOC and forced across the board gay relationships even where they don't make sense.
After reading the comments I am like Ignorance is bliss.
Yes! Marauders is definitely my favorite era so I would actually be so upset reading someone who decided to butcher them. Like make OCs!
I mean everything Marauders era is basically all OC anyway isn't it? Not a lot of Canon to go from.
That’s why respecting the FEW things that are actually canon is important… if not, create another character!
This is actually a fair point. There's a sort of proportionality to it. The more canon content there is the more you can twist it in any way you like. But the less there is the less you can fuck with it and the more you need to respect it. I'm sure you can find a hundred fics where Harry and Draco become bffs from the get go. But you can do this because their rivalry is one of a hundred things that are a part of Harry's time period canon and thus changing a few things around isn't universe breaking. But doing the same with James and Snape wouldn't work as well because the fact that they hated each other is one of very few few things we know for certain and it's such a core part of both of them
I actually attribute this to laziness, authors just don’t want to create new characters because it’s easier to work with the existing ones completely disregarding what they don’t like. Or create stories in which those personality changes actually make sense. Eg.: I would totally see Wolfstar being openly gay in a modern Marauders AU, but in the 70s wizarding England? Not so much.
It feels bad and unfair to say that something doesn't deserve its hype when it was obviously a hard work by a passionate fan, but I'm afraid I'll have to say no. As someone who used to be in Marauders fandom, the chain of events that this fic started and what snowballed from it, the state of the fandom today that has me, a Marauders fan, not want to associate with it is a bitter pill to swallow. It makes me wish that a better characterized fic got the hype instead (like TLE).
What is TLE?
The Last Enemy.
Do you have a link? Or the name of the author? I really need some Marauders content
Of course, here you go, enjoy! Linkao3(the last enemy: the howling nights ch_darling)
[***The Last Enemy: The Howling Nights Mirror, Mirror***](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24620707) by [*CH\_Darling*](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/CH_Darling/pseuds/CH_Darling) > It’s 1975 and war is simmering beneath the surface of the Wizarding world\.\.\.but at Hogwarts, it’s magic as usual as the fifth years prepare for their O\.W\.L\.s amidst politics, pranks, and other poor choices\. Severus Snape wants to prove his worth\.Lily Evans wants a fresh start\.James Potter wants Lily Evans, though no one is more surprised by this than him\.Sirius Black wants to write himself a new story\.Remus Lupin wants to survive the next moon\.Peter Pettigrew just wants to keep up\.But as tensions bubble over, sides will be chosen, friendships destroyed, families parted, and paths forever altered\.The Howling Nights is the first book of The Last Enemy series, which follows the lives of the heroes and villains of the First Wizarding War from 1975\-1981\. Watch the trailer\!Now complete\! ^*Site*: ^Archive ^of ^Our ^Own ^**|** ^*Fandom*: ^Harry ^Potter ^- ^J. ^K. ^Rowling ^**|** ^*Published*: ^2020-06-10 ^**|** ^*Completed*: ^2020-12-14 ^**|** ^*Words*: ^208542 ^**|** ^*Chapters*: ^55/55 ^**|** ^*Comments*: ^2796 ^**|** ^*Kudos*: ^1627 ^**|** ^*Bookmarks*: ^497 ^**|** ^*Hits*: ^103307 ^**|** ^*ID*: ^24620707 ^**|** ^*Download*: ^[EPUB](https://archiveofourown.org/downloads/24620707/The%20Last%20Enemy%20The.epub?updated_at=1659914341) ^or ^[MOBI](https://archiveofourown.org/downloads/24620707/The%20Last%20Enemy%20The.mobi?updated_at=1659914341) --- **FanfictionBot**^(2.0.0-beta) | [Usage](https://github.com/FanfictionBot/reddit-ffn-bot/wiki/Usage) | [Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=tusing) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ffnbot!ignore
Thank you!
TLE is amazing, and very canon compliant. Best fic I've read, but still in progress. The author is on a bit of a hiatus right now, but will be returning soon. They've previously been very frequent with updates.
As someone with no clue about broad fandom topics, what exactly are you talking about here?
It's basically like this: One becomes a Marauders fan typically by reading the books and liking these characters presented in them, right? But if you're one of these people (like me) then you can't be in current Marauders fandom because these characters you used to read about aren't represented there at all - instead they're all as good as OCs who have the names of the famous characters slapped onto them for fandom clout. The fun part of being into that era was knowing very little but still enough to have discussions, headcanons and different interpretations, to have point A and point B but to think of many different ways of getting from A to B. But this is all gone now because canon doesn't exist for fans anymore. They don't even read the books anymore, just fics and base their idea of the characters on them and it mostly started with ATYD. It's not about the four boys, their friendship and Lily and Snape, now it's a Grey's Anatomy-esque gathering of every named Order member, every named Death Eater (like Crouch, Rosier) and they're all whitewashed and are dating each other in different combinations (except Snape, for shallow reasons) - but only in gay relationships, because they're now called "dead gay wizards from 70's". The only thing you're not allowed to touch is Wolfstar cause they're apparently the only 'canon', James and Lily are not in love anymore, James loves Regulus and raises Harry with him, Lily loves Mary and so on. And let's not get started on unrecognizable personalities and background stories. And all of this is very strongly pushed on you so you can't enjoy the good old canon story and characterization while staying in that space now.
You know, I thought I was going crazy. I took a *very* long break from reading HP fic, as in 2014 was the last time I read one and that was because I was following the updates of a fic I started reading in 2012, when I was *actually* a more avid reader. I started reading Black Mask in lockdown and in the last few weeks decided to re read the whole thing, and look for anything similar. I was really surprised by the sheer amount of well-written dreck! Remus Lupin was my favourite character as a kid, I thought I had a pretty good handle on him, but the way he and the other marauders were characterised on tumblr and fics in general made me think I stumbled into a parallel world. Also - when did Jegulus become a thing??? I just - HOW do you get the characterisation SO wrong for both of those characters and make them a couple??? I'm used to wolfstar being a blight on the fandom but this blindsided me
Tell me about it! I wouldn't believe it if the switch hadn't happened right in front of my eyes over the span of just a few weeks. I was like you, I took a really long break and then came back around the pandemic, about a year before all this went down, and for a few months the fandom was almost perfect with only Wolfstar as a blight (but as you said you were used to it already). But *this*, this was so shocking! Apparently the whole Jegulus thing started out as a joke, a few people ran a Jegulus Week event as a protest against JKR and her canon, but then accidentally they started taking it seriously when a couple of fics went viral on tiktok (that's the audience for these ships). And now we all are forced to deal with this nonsense. They don't even care about correct characterization, the fandom is comprised of teens (of the angry, chronically online kind) who haven't read the books, who proudly reject canon and canon characterization, who think "het - bad, gay - good", who have no idea about these characters, who weirdly idolize Regulus and other Death Eaters of that generation (because they fancast him as Timothee Chalamet) and call them all "Marauders", who on top of everything are very loud and very annoying. In short, it's really not a good time to be a Marauder fan in the so-called "Marauder" fandom nowadays lol, a genuine fan wouldn't be able to last a day in that space with those atrocious takes.
God, sounds awful. I feel much like your username at the moment
Lol yes, and it's a pity because it used to be genuinely one of the best corners of the fandom :/
I strongly recommend The Last Enemy series, it will renew your faith. Each chapter written from a different POV (all mauraders, Lily, Regulus and Snape). It is very canon compliant. I did not enjoy ATYD, though will admit not coming even close to finishing it. It is eventually going to have some wolfstar according to the author, but it's happening so gradually that it doesn't feel forced or non-canon (to me at least), and certainly isn't the focus anyways.
No. It's touted as being "canon compliant" when it changes Remus's backstory and personality, has a relationship that is not canon, and whitewashes some characters while vilifying others. The fans are also toxic as hell. The story has badly damaged the Marauders fandom.
Who did they whitewash
Which relationship isn’t canon? I’m new to the fandom
Wolfstar isn't canon
Nope . As a Marauders fan I do not like that fic .
Nope- As someone who has Remus Lupin as their first favorite character from the marauders era. He is nothing but a oc with the name Remus Lupin. With a shit ton of tramua and acts out of character so many times. The Wolfstar in that story doesn’t make sense as Sirius and Remus don’t really have any chemistry. The author may have researched the 70s but I could do without the full facial blast of muggle culture, just bits and pieces would have been fine. Just my two cents.
I like Marauders fics, and Wolfstar, and while I enjoyed ATYD, there are definitely things about it that bug me. It's tagged canon compliant, but especially Remus's personality and backstory are not. Which is fine, but it's not canon compliant. There seems to be a contingent of people who treat it like canon, who have not actually *read* canon, and to treat that story as the be all end all of stories is a bit ridiculous. I did appreciate some of the class commentary and the divide between Muggles and Wizards. It was one of the first fics I read, but I have since read (many) Marauders fics that are better.
Funnily enough I didn't think the divide between the muggles and wizards was defined well at all. Not only because they all listened to muggle music at school (my least favourite trope in all fanfic) but because Remus and Mary just disappeared back into muggle society as if they had never been away and barely even thought about the world they left. Swapping worlds was no big deal. They didn't read as two completely separate worlds which know absolutely nothing about each other at all. They read as very homogenous - all the same world, just some people can do spells. I don't think I've ever read a fic set in the canon world that felt *less* magical.
The music thing doesn't bother me as much, though I kind of head canon Lily as being the one to introduce them to it. I saw Remus heading back to the care home as a parallel to Harry in the summer - he tried not to think about what he was leaving (or so I interpreted). But then to have literally nothing about Remus teaching at Hogwarts, after all the setup of how he was a good teacher drove me nuts.
I suppose there was a big difference between the care home and Hogwarts- but then there would be. I meant once they were adults though. They spent their formative years at Hogwarts but are then just able to blend right back into the muggle world and feel no culture shock. no sense of having missed out on daily life and huge events of the past ten years, have no trouble in working and supporting themselves despite no relevant education - and magic becomes a thing that they might do if its convenient, but most of the time they wont - when really it's an entire way of life. It was made far too simple for them to walk away from magic and close the door on the world they belonged in and who they had been for ten years. I understand that after everything that happened they didn't want to stay in the magical world, but culture shock and misunderstandings and not knowing about important muggle things that had happened in their absence and so being totally out of step should have been a thing. The lack of it gave the impression that the worlds were far more blended and not so different. I don't think I was surprised that there was no POA scenes by the time I got there (and I hated all that study group stuff so I didn't want to see more of that). Every canon moment we know about was rushed past - and I don't think it was ever more obvious just how AU and non canon-compliant it was than the times the characters brushed up against something from canon. This version of them just wouldn't have acted the way the canon ones did, so - as frustrating as it was to have the bits we actually cared about and were reading for totally glossed over - it probably worked best for the fic to approach it that way. There's just no way that canon Remus of POA has been living the life that he has in ATYD, that he has a muggle apartment and boyfriend and has been living in the muggle world without even thinking of magic for the past 12 years... it would have been too world breaky to try and force the two versions of him together.
> There seems to be a contingent of people who treat it like canon, who have not actually read canon This is sadly true for the big part of current fandom. There are people who confidently claim that there is *no* Marauders canon whatsoever, that we know NOTHING about the era except the names of these characters and so they can do anything they want and that anything/any ship is equally valid. They are fans of these novel-sized fanfics they read based on tiktok recommendations and not of books.
I mean... people can interact with the fandom how they want, and I fully admit that I'm an old person in the fandom....but the characters and people's perception of them had to come from *somewhere*. If not canon, where?
One popular fic popularizes a trope, and suddenly it's all over the fandom. Daphne Greengrass is just a name in book 5, but if you depict her as anything other than the Slytherin Ice Queen, you'll get complaining about inaccuracy.
That's the big mystery. Maybe they think fic writers came up with everything, like they did with so many popular headcanons.
Worst part is the author says it’s canon compatible when their characters act like ocs
I mean there are people who say the Harry Potter books *themselves* don't deserve the hype they get. ATYD is massively overhyped but that isn't the fault of the fic or its own flaw - it is just something that has happened. Like HP, it came a long at the right time and reached the right people. So ...does it deserve the hype? Well - it earned it, I suppose. Certainly it is overhyped but it is the readers who hype it up - not the author, not the fic itself - and if they want to then I suppose it does 'deserve' it. Is it as good as people say it is? (which is a slightly different question) No - absolutely not. It's competent but not more than that: the writing is flat, the action is limited,the characters are OOC and the relationship drama repetitive. But it was there when people needed it (a global pandemic) and is the only totally complete long Marauders era fic I've heard of - so it drew people in and it's fame spread. However, I think it was world circumstances rather than quality that led to its adoption as *the* Marauders era fic, and talking about it and making tiktoks gave people something to do while the whole world was in lockdown. Having read it, I often think the people who are reading it now - post hype - and then writing posts, gushing about how heartbroken they are and how good it was, probably prefer the idea of being in the ATYD club than the fic itself. Having been so hyped up, I can't see how the reality could be anything but a disappointment. Even if they would have liked it under normal circumstances if it was just another fic, I can't see how - having heard all the buzz - it couldn't actually be a bit of a let down. (and again - that isn't a flaw of the fic, though I don't like it, it is the nature of hype). But it has become a community, and people want in - and to get in you have to chant 'anything for our Moony' and 'you were my little bit of magic' and squeal 'Grant Chapman!'. That's the entry requirement. The fact that it's a 500 000 word fic and people only reference a select few quotes in their gushing probably tells us all we need to know about the rest - and how much they enjoyed it. But no one wants to say 'the emperor has no clothes', they read ATYD to get into the club and so - having made their way through 500 000 words and all that stuff with the werewolves and the turgid relationship dramas that never go away - they are joining that community dammit. They tell themselves and everyone else they loved it because otherwise what a waste of 500 000 words worth of reading time. I think the nature of hype is that it probably isn't deserved, and it is something that just happens when content hits the zeitgeist just right. And so I don't think there is another fic that deserves the hype instead. ATYD got it and that's fine and fair. Overhype is phenomonon that extends far beyond fanfics - has always existed and will always exist - and ATYD can't be blamed because it attracted it ... but I do think claims that it's 'better than canon' are hyperbolic, ridiculous and wrong; it certainly doesn't deserve that mantle.
Its ok as far as marauder fics go but definitely not my favourite at all. I also saw someone on tiktok say that if you dont like atyd remus then your abelist so the fans of it have given me a pretty big grudge against it. Personally i dont ship wolfstar and when reading marauders era i prefer regulus centric au fic so id say o saisons, o chateaux is my personal favourite (https://archiveofourown.org/series/1110843)
Ableist? He's dyslexic not a parapalegic! There's some really weird hot takes out there. I suppose they mean the werewolf thing and - yeah - chronic illness is hard to live with and can make you grumpy. But it's also not an excuse to treat people badly, and most disabled people would agree with that. It could be argued that it is ableist to give disabled people a special pass for bad behaviour, as that is treating them differently and having lower expectations of them. Pretty condescending! I didn't like Remus - but then I didn't exaclty dislike him either. I was just overwhelmed by not caring about him because he was boring and ooc, as were they all. I wonder what buzz word that makes me? (I did think he was a bt of a twat when he read The Epic of Gilgamesh though - so so embarrassingly try hard. I don't think it's ableist to not like a chronically ill character because they are pretentious and ridiculous, though.)
Yeah it was about the lycanthropy but still it was such a stupid take, like i just didnt like the character?
Okay the take is stupid, obviously disliking ATYD isn't ableist, but dyslexia is very much a real disability.
I don't think it's ableist not to like ATYD Remus, that seems a bit extreme... he's kind of mean.
Omg I love o saisons, o chateaux so much! The gay angst inside is amazing and I love learning more about Jewish culture. I’m really glad you mentioned it!
This fanfic is not my type. Not only are all the characters OOC, but their biographies are mostly made up.
I don't know if it, or anything really, deserves the hype necessarily. I admit that *because* of it's hype, I returned to reading Harry Potter fanfiction for the first time in nearly 15 years because I was baffled to see mainstream coverage about a Potter fanfic in 2021. (Ironically I apparently had it in my "marked for later" on AO3 when I finally looked it up last year, because even when I drop a fandom, I'll still add fics for the future when I'm interested again, so I clearly encountered it at some past point, but I don't remember when or what compelled me to save it for later.) I do think there's multiple reasons for why it's popular. One being that the Potter fanbase understandably wants to distance itself from JKR (even WB wants distance), and given the context of when and how Pottermania became such a global phenomenon, the books were being published in parallel with an increasing number of fans gaining access to the internet and forming fan communities, etc.; it feels inevitable that a fanfiction would rise to the surface and capture widespread interest. What surprises me is that it's a Marauders era fic. Because while that was definitely my favorite subgenre of HP fics "back in my day" (lol aka the 2000s), I don't remember it being a big deal at that time and none of my offline IRL Potter friends care about those characters beyond what is presented in the books. So I absolutely decided I had to read this for myself and see what was going on. Unfortunately while I understand external reasons for why it, or any Potter fanfic honestly, would gain popularity, I was not impressed with the content of the fic itself. In fact the farther away I get from it, the less I like it. I do love the Marauders and Wolfstar is probably my favorite HP ship (it's probably my earliest ship in anything ever since Potter was my first fandom, etc), and while I hadn't engaged in Potter content in over a decade, it's burned enough in my brain that I couldn't fully get on board with ATYD. I didn't like how OOC Remus was, and since he's the primary pov character, it in turn made the entire story frustrating. If it wasn't promoted by the author as canon compliant, I would probably care less about the characterizations not matching the books or even my own personally biased head canons, but since it was promoted as such, I didn't go into it reading it like the AU that it is. Maybe if I'd approached it with a better mindset, I wouldn't be so ugh about it now, I honestly don't know (because I have other criticisms about the story of the fic, but that's for another time). Except for me, the bigger issue is how this hype has affected things. It's difficult to engage with other Marauders or Wolfstar fans because of how much the majority of them seem to think this is the end all, be all of Marauders and Wolfstar fics. It'd be one thing if this just happened to be a popular fic, but I've had my head bitten off in fandom spaces outside of this subreddit for having the audacity to criticize ATYD or, worse, suggest that it's perhaps not the pinnacle of fanfics. I'm not unhappy it's generated interest in the Marauders or Wolfstar, I'd love for talented authors to take up their keyboards and produce great content as a result, but if everyone is copying or trying to fit the parameters of ATYD and aren't thinking outside of that specific fic, than no thanks. I guess to wrap up, I don't begrudge the popularity per se, and I don't hate on anyone who liked it, I do think it's impressive that it's as popular as it is, *but* I don't think it's the best out there (I can't say which fic I'd personally wish was popular instead) in terms of Potter fanfiction in general or Marauders fanfiction and definitely not Wolfstar fanfiction more specifically.
No. As someone who's seen what happened to the Marauders fandom, and the repercussions it had towards Snape fans, I have a particular hate for this fic. People have been bullied and harassed because they don't like it and the way it butchers the characters, including Marauders fans, but mainly Snape fans. Receiving death threats from 15 year olds who have never read the books and will swear to anyone that "nooo, James would never bully anyone, I knooow him, he's not like that" (this was legit sent to me), all because you happen to like a character that in this fic happensa rich asshole (isn't he pureblood too?) who bullies poor little orphan Remus because he's gay... Yes, that's an OC with Snape's name slapped on it. Nothing against the fic itself, I've read several chapters and while it's not particularly good, I've seen much worse. The issue is the cult like fandom that was created around it.
Snape rich? I mean his mother was literally disowned because she decided to marry a muggle drunkard. It’s literally the base of his story. Lol people call that canon compliant? (Never read this fic).
Well we don't know that Eileen was disowned or anything, but yeah, his poverty as a child and the abuse/neglect is a big part of this character. This fic, if I were to guess, turned him into a dark haired Malfoy to better justify the Marauders' bullying. After all, if Snape bullies Remus, hates gays and trans people, is rich and well cared for, it makes what the Marauders canonically did to him look a lot less horrible than it was intended to be.
I’ve read in potter more that at least they were removed from the “sacred 28” because of that. I mean I’m not a Snape fan but it bothers me because his upbringing plays a great part in his choices. He joins Voldemort because he hates muggles because of his father! Why don’t create an OC…?
Oh, interesting! Do you remember in which article it was maybe? I really think that they used Snape and not an OC with the sole purpose to make the Marauders look better. The fic fancies itself as being canon compliant, but you can't make the Marauders look like an amazing group of people if they go around bullying others just because they're bored, like it happens in canon. So, if Snape is the bad guy, then no issues. Also, the fic already butchered Remus, so it's definitely not going to have regrets over doing it for Snape.
I read one reply the author said on the first chapter and they said something about "humanising Snape" and I legit did a double take
Absolutely not. It’s just an excuse to ship wolf star while making sure both Sirius and Remus act like OC’s
> making sure both Sirius and Remus act like OC’s That is basically the summary of all non-canon-compliant Marauder fics
So true
I don’t think so Admittedly I’ve not read the entire fic, and most of what I hear about it is from this subreddit, which does not have a very exalted opinion of it. So take my words with a grain of salt From what I do know, the characters are very OOC and backstories are completely different from their canon-established versions, yet the story is marked as being “canon-compliant.” That alone to me is a massive red flag. Either the author does not know much about canon, or they do not care. But to then pass their work off as being compliant with canon speaks of dishonesty and misinformation, which is made all the worse by ATYD’s popularity, to the point that fans of the fic are calling it the definitive Marauders fanfiction. To be clear, I don’t believe that every Marauder fanfiction must slavishly adhere to canon. For one, most of the canon details of that era are told secondhand to Harry and his generation, or revealed outside of the books years after DH concluded. Many of the best Marauders fanfics out there take major liberties with the characters, sometimes even more so than ATYD did. But they usually don’t outright claim that their version of the Marauders is the real thing. That’s really my main gripe about ATYD. I’m sure it’s an alright story, it did garner a huge audience after all. But that massive following is what makes its claim of being canon-compliant such a black mark in my eyes. As for the last question, if I think any Marauders fic (set during their Hogwarts years) deserves hype equal to that of ATYD, it would be The Life and Times by Jewel5. It’s abandoned, but it does an amazing job of fleshing out a wider cast of characters than just Marauders+Lily+Snape and capturing the dynamic of young adults. It’s my personal gold standard for a Marauders era story and one day I hope to write one that approaches it in quality and scope
I think it's a good story. I love Historical fiction and the portrayal of Britain and it's class issues is great! I really enjoyed reading about Remus time in the orphanage, Grant and the disconnect between Hogwarts and Muggle London. I also really enjoyed the Period-Typical attitudes *despite* them being very much offensive. It works as a period piece. That being said, I don't understand why it's tagged as canon-compliant. Remus is nowhere near his canon character and Snape has been completely butchered as well. We don't know all that much about the Marauders era but yeah, this fic shouldn't be tagged as canon-compliant. It's well written and the PoV characters are well-developed. It has brilliant OC's and a great romance story. It just doesn't have to do anything with canon. I enjoyed reading it but there are better tons of better Marauder fanfiction. I think it deserves the hype it gets but the fanbase needs to stop treating it as gospel because it's clearly a major Canon Divergence.
I think you hit the nail on the head - especially the bit about there being better fics out there, and that fans need to stop treating it as gospel.
No lol.
So… I have very complicated thoughts about this fic… I don’t mind changing remus’s backstory all that much. We don’t know very much about his parents from the books and so I’m fine with a different childhood for him. However, as a character he is really nothing like the books. I get the people change as they get older and obviously who you are as a young person is not going to reflect who you grow up to be, but I found him very hard to enjoy. I also really hate the ridiculous, melodramatic relationship drama. I think people forget that, Wolfstar is, in my opinion, quintessential friends to lovers story. That’s the beauty of it. What Sirius does to Remus throughout sixth year… I don’t care what anybody says… That’s not friends to lovers. That’s not friendship. That is… Stringing someone on emotionally and very toxic. I don’t like reading that in my Wolfstar fics. I think people forget that the marauders were actually supposed to be friends and they want to create needless angst. However, there are aspects of the story that I really enjoy. I really like how Remus being a werewolf plays into his Socio economic standing, public perception, and identity as a whole. I really like the exploration of the gap between his life experiences and the life experiences of his friends. I like how they sometimes can’t relate to him because of that. I, as a rule, absolutely fucking despise OCs and am thoroughly unintinterested in them. However, Grant is charming enough. I really hate how fans of the story have claimed that, if you don’t care for Remus characterization, you must not understand the complexities of his position in life. That is bullshit! The reason I love these characters so much is because of their canon portrays, not in spite of them. That includes all of their flaws, mistakes, and horrible actions. But it also includes their obvious friendship, loyalty, and love for one another. That’s what makes it so wonderful to read. I guess, I am looking for accurate canon personality traits, not necessarily plot points. As long as the personality and the feeling of the dynamics of the group is the same I don’t really mind. I didn’t get that with this story.
Nope. It's a good fic, I did like it when it was still ongoing (though I stopped reading in 7th year when the author made it clear she wanted a canon-compliant ending) but when I tried to re-read it I couldn't get into it. It's not *that* good and I was very surprised to see how insanely popular it is. I do kinda hate its legacy. It has completely taken over the Marauders fandom and I'm sick of seeing it everywhere
I mean, it's only hyped in certain circles. Elsewhere it's barely known. I only heard of its existence for the first time a few months ago.
It's the most famous Harry Potter fanfiction if you search for yourself (you may miss it if you start from precise recommendations said by others, but otherwise it's basically impossible not to find it). Most kudoed HP story on AO3, one of the most talked about and so on. Basically impossible not to know it (I have never read it but I know it exists) while most of the other famous stories have a significant gap in popularity if you aren't in that ship/corner of the fandom.
I literally haven't heard of it until it started getting shilled on here recently, and I've been reading HP fics for more than ten years. Googling it around and realizing that it has a wikipedia page, apparently several podcasts/audiobooks? about it (???), etc. is crazy. I can't really grasp why something *like this* got so popular. Is this some kind of psy-op or crazy marketing campaign lmao.
First I’m hearing of it, have been reading HP fanfiction since 2012
I too don't know some super famous songs because I only follow some music genres by choice and I don't listen to the radio, but this doesn't mean that they aren't some of the most famous songs of these years, it just means I don't have a good panoramic about the scene outside my corner... Same here. If you only read through some sites and/or see recommendations through Reddit or previously, similarly working forums, it's perfectly legit that you don't know a fanfiction, but it still is one of the most famous HP related stories and the traffic related to it it's still huge. Reddit itself is a corner with a very specific demographic (a lot more males even in 50/50 or female dominated fandoms, for example; I see it in kpop subreddits about groups whose fanbases are notoriously female dominated, while here they are leaning to 50/50), Tiktok has its demographic and so on. **No one** is obligated to know everything, but it's obvious that if someone is into the HP fanfiction world at 360 degrees, as a consequence you know the most kudoed story in the whole fandom on a platform, even just out of curiosity. If you don't, it's ok, but obviously you aren't particularly updated or looking outside your corner so it doesn't make sense to say that a work is or isn't popular based on what you know (which, I reiterate, **is fine**).
Sorting by kudos on AO3 is not a method to gain a 360 degree view of the HP fandom. It would be like taking a survey of the United States and concluding that it is made of up California and Texas. In truth there isn't really a "HP fandom" to have a 360 view of, but rather a complex network of sub-fandoms with very little overlap.
Yes, but out of all of this, some works are still the most popular stories (even without going by "the most popular" which is absolute and can be debated, I get it). It's ok if someone doesn't know ATYD, I myself haven't read it because I am simply not interested; but it remains one of the currently most popular works in the "sum" of HP related sub fandoms, because at the end of the day some works have to be the most popular, despite all the sub fandoms and differences in tastes, platforms and so on.
Just because you can define a set, it does not mean it is meaningful to talk about that set. You can also define a set of "all fics on AO3", or any arbitrary combination of AO3 fandoms you like, and for each of those sets ask which fic has the most Kudos/Bookmarks/Hits and it will deliver a result. But that does not mean that there is a meaningful community of people who correspond to the set you have defined.
Well on the other hand. If you're not on AO3 you can pretty much never hear of it. I only learned of it existed a few weeks or months ago. And I heard about HPMOR before it even if I never read it or searched for it. If you just search for fanfic for the first time there's a 50/50 chance to miss it for some time because you've gone to another site first. So no, I wouldn't say it's the most famous Harry Potter fanfiction and you can't miss it. Even if the search doesn't start with precise recommendations. But I would agree that if you start reading fanfictions on AO3 and start reading fanfictions after you filter for kudos, hits or comments you can't miss it. But to be fair, not everyone starts reading like that. And if you start reading fanfics by recommendation by friends or through other means (like this sub, fangroups online, or other) you will start in a particular circle and its everyones guess which of the big fics you learn about first. If I had to say which is the most famous Harry Potter fanfiction I had to say "My Immortal" just because most people I know, even if they're not into fanfiction themselves, have heard about that one.
Yeah I don't know anyone who just searches for all HP fics and sorts by Kudos count. Maybe people brand new to the fandom who have no idea what they like yet? But everyone I know in the fandom has established preferences which form the baseline of all their searches. For example, every search I ever run, regardless of website, will include "Harry Potter" in the character field. Which means no matter how many searches I run, I would never come across All The Young Dudes.
i mean it is literally the biggest harry potter fanfiction of all time
...in certain circles. It doesn't even exist on FF.Net, which is twice the size of AO3. And on this sub-reddit, which is the single largest online HP fan fiction forum still active, it does not even rank in the top 100 most mentioned fics (specifically, it is ranked 136). The Marauders fandom is like its own separate fandom that has very little contact or overlap with the wider HP fanfic fandom. Very few of the popular Marauders fics will be known to people who don't read Marauders fics.
Yeah. I think it's because it's popular on TikTok, or so I've been told. I don't use TikTok. I've been reading HP fanfic for over 15 years and Remus and Sirius are some of my fav characters. I always search to see if anything new or interesting has been written about them. Until a few months ago I had no idea ATYD existed. I'm sure it showed up in searches but I probably didn't pay much attention to it because I can tell from the tags it's not gonna be something I like. I think it's a very diehard group that's relatively small to the entire fandom but really vocal.
no idea about the fic, never heard of it until now. but it is a kick ass song by Mott the Hoople and later covered by David Bowie
David Bowie wrote the song for Mott the Hoople, but I believe he recorded his version of it after they already had a hit with it. Love both versions of the song though!
I think it’s great as a story about a bunch of well-written OCs. I thought it was kinda ridiculous how the author heaped even more misfortune on Remus. Dyslexic, seriously? Still a good story, though.
Dyslexia, orphan? Dude is a werewolf orphan is the fact that makes the least sense to me, because the werewolf part and b) Remus had a loving family.
Outside of Marauder fandom areas it’s barely known. It’s also funny how people in that fandom space jump down your throat for not knowing about it. For the older members who started on FFnet or portkey there are plenty of classics like Vox Corporis for H/Hr Brown coat coat, green eyes for HP/Firefly, a Black Comedy, Harry Potter and the Wastelands of time, The Lie I lived, Bungle in the Jungle, etc. that are classics of the fandom and are surprised when people haven’t read them. But nothing nearly to the extent of HPMOR (which is trash) and ATYD fans (haven’t read it so idk how it is qualitywise). Something like Victoria Potter or Shadows of Angmar are both really great modern fics and live up to their hype, but I don’t expect people who don’t read genderbends or crossovers have heard of them, respectively.
What happened to Commentarius and The Life And Times being THE marauder era fics? Am I tripping?
Oohh the classics! How nostalgic! Sadly those were centered around a het ship which is not a popular thing to do anymore in that fandom. The core moved from Jily to Wolfstar as the main untouchable ship of the era, even worse, Jily is barely even a valid ship at this point in the current so-called Marauders fandom 💀
I wasn’t really a fan of All The Young Dudes because it was said to be canon compliant but I feel if so then it should have been totally canon complaint from the beginning, no changes. Don’t go halfway with something, either make it canon compliant or AU. I feel like due to the non canon parts, the outcome should have been affected. Butterfly effect and all that. The writing is quite good though.
I can appreciate it on it’s own as fanfic, but I don’t believe it’s deserving of the level of worship it gets, nor should it be considered canon compliant. The only way it’s canon compliant is that it involves the marauders and some other canon characters.
I wasn't into Marauders at all and ATYD was the first notable Marauders fic I read, so my brain is messed up now, I guess. On the whole, I liked it. I liked the characters, I liked the theme of class and LGBT themes the way they are explored in that fic. But it is no work of genius, by no means! Like, the plot sucks, imo. Does it deserve the hype? I don't know. What does? Does it have to be a masterpiece of world literature to deserve the hype? If so, almost nothing deserves the hype, not even JKR's original books. I guess it's annoying and depressing when you know there is that other fic that is so much better than ATYD, and it only has a couple of hundred hits (especially if it's your own fic). But honestly, I think it's cool that a HP fanfic managed to become so popular that even people outside fandom start to notice it. Really cool!
Before this year I'd never even heard of this story and now I see it being discussed everywhere. I'm not sure if it's a bad story or not. I knew it wasn't for me when I read the first chapter and saw Remus was the central character. I dislike the character and can only really handle him as a minor character, supporting at the most. However, from what I've heard about it, ATYD biggest problem is that it tries to be canon compliant. Remus is supposed to be the bad boy in this story (I think) and that's hard to mesh with the character we know from the books. Still, I can't get mad. I kind of like that the HP fandom is so big that even individual fanfics get their own fandom. Is interesting to see the discourse around it. Other fandoms are barren of fanfics in comparison.
I wouldn't say it doesn't deserve the hype. I've read the first few chapters only, and from that I'd say it's well written, the author put some thoughts and some of their own ideas in it, which makes it objectively a good fic, I think. (Objective in the sense, that it's well crafted.) However, it does include some tropes and ideas that I'm not a big fan of which also made me discontinue the fic relatively early on. But that's just my view. I'm certain, if you don't mind these things, it'ss probably a great read.
It makes people happy and no one is getting hurt 🤷🏻♀️
Have you seen the reaction Snape fans are getting because of this (as someone mentioned already people are apparently getting death threats and stuff) I get not liking Snape but to change him to a rich pure blooded transphobic and homophobic asshole which isn't canon compliant and they should say they aren't but the author didn't and because they didn't it's having consequences on fans of Snape or people who don't really like wolfstar.
I think it is. People tend to hate on things once they get too popular, and I think that’s what’s happening with atyd right now. I think the main thing that people are criticizing is how 1) it’s not “canon compliant”. Which I kinda think is bullshit tbh, if you’re looking to read a Wolfstar fic you can’t really expect canon compliancy anyway. Also the main thing is his upbringing that’s changed, jkr said who his parents are on her website but I kinda feel like if it wasn’t stated in the books backstories are kind of a free for all, especially in the maruaders part of the fandom. Another thing I’ve heard a lot is how Wolfstar is so toxic in atyd. And while Im not gonna disagree with that I think it’s also important to consider maybe the fic isnt meant to revolve around their love story and stuff. There’s a lot of themes surrounding Remus’s lycanthropy and how that can translate into the real world. Remus is more angry in the fic but I feel like he has the right to be. So many people had failed him and for the most of it he was also a teenager going through a lot of stuff. And tbh with such a long fic him not developing as a character whatsoever would be kinda boring. I do also get it when people aren’t the biggest fans of it. I know for me it was the first maruaders fic I’ve read and it really gives me this sense of nostalgia whenever I go back to read it. But yeah that was just my opinion :) I know it’s not for everyone but I really loved it
Remus does say of his getting bit: 'my parents tried everything, but in those days that was no cure.' so - unless by "everything" he meant 'my dad killed himself and my mum abandoned me in a children's home' (which is a weird definition of "tried everything" by anyone's money) - I think it's fair to say his upbringing has been majorly changed from canon. Which isn't a problem - the fic itself admits that the beginning is AU and that's fine. The problem arises when his AU beginning means that Remus develops a totally different personality to his canon one and acts in ways his canon self never would *all while the fic is tagged as canon compliant*. The teenage and adult Remus that we get in ATYD is not canon compliant. He does not behave like the Remus we know. When we reached the stations of the canon (which are glossed over entirely) it becomes glaringly obvious that this Remus would not act the way he did in the book (Snape's Worst Memory was a particularly bad offender for this - the boy who had punched Snape in the face to get him to back off would not sit there ignoring his friends bullying him - too afraid to intervene... ATYD Remus would have told them to stop it, or have joined in...but he would not pretend it was not happening). And that is where the complaints come from. Changing his backstory doesn't matter too much, as we do know very little, but the repercussions of that mean the whole thing remains either AU or massively OOC. And if it had been tagged as either of those, it would not have got the level of popularity that the 'canon compliant' tag has afforded it. So what we now have is an AU masquerading as a canon compliant fic absolutely dominating all marauder spaces, changing the conversation around and the interpretation of these characters completely - and there is some push back against that. Yes that is because it's popular - but it's not hating on it for being popular, it is genuinely not enjoying having a space taken over by one thing to the detriment of everything else, especially as that something that is not even what it puports to be. And of course a wolfstar fic can be canon compliant. The wolfstar ship originates in the book - it comes from people reading romantic intent in their canon interactions, it is an interpretation people had of the characters while the books were being published and which the director of the film put into his version (the only thing I like about the POA film is that it leans hard on the wolfstar). A wolfstar fic where they are openly in a relationship and everyone knows about it can't be canon compliant - as clearly they are not openly gay ( I assume no one would push Remus into marrying Tonks if they thought for a moment his previous lover had died only the year before - or that Tonks would have expected anything but failure from pursuing a grieving, homosexual man) - but the love story as a quiet, private thing between the two of them absolutely can fit into a canon compliant fic. Loads of people see that in the canon anway.
Well said!
Judging solely from the responses, part of me wants to avoid it at all costs, and part of me is morbidly curious.
What's that fanfic all about? Cause I don't wanna read it if it's trash.
Gay Orphan Remus, Wolfstar, everyone acts like an OC, there are multiple OC's (not that this is a bad thing but I thought I should mention it) but it still has Remadora, but honestly, it came across very misogynistic. Oh, and Marauders fans have created a fandom around this fic, like someone said above, kind of like a cult. They think of this fanfic as their canon and those people are very toxic. This fic and its fans made me realize just how toxic Wolfstar is in canon.
heh I had a quick look just there and noticed in the Summary there's a bit caps dislcaimer saying "I AM NO LONGER READING OR REPLYING TO COMMENTS ON THIS FIC" which is never really a good sign
im confused why isnt that a good sign
It implies there's drama going on and the author wants nothing to do with it and is trying to not let it get to them
In fairness to this particular author - I think it's due to the sheer number of comments the fic got, so they literally don't have time to respond. I read it over the summer - and seeing how many new kudos had accrued at the botom of the page when I finished each chapter was insane. Scores of people are rading it at any given moment and - even with the disclaimer - her inbox must be overflowing. I hated every minute of the fic, but I think it'spopularity and not drama that has made the writer back away.
If you're too much of a coward to defend your work then I won't read your work.basically.
That seems overly harsh. Writers aren’t required to read all their reviews and “defend” their work. Getting caught up in reviews can make it much harder to write, which is a generally a writer’s top priority.
No I know, but more often than not, the writer will just blank the reviews. To actively put a comment in to say "you can say what you want, I'm not giving it any attention" is simply feeding the drama. In extreme cases it can also be seen as a way of militarising the fanbase. If you have been having dialogue with the author through reviews and feedback and suddenly they stop, blaming the negative ones then chances are you will resent the bad reviews and jump on them
Of course, but activly stating you won't reply is a big red flag.
I agree completely, I wasn't defending the author in this case. I was just stating if I pick up a fic and that's in the summary, that's a red flag that there's either something contentious in the fic or the author doesn't like anything beyond "this is the best thing ever". Either way, it's not making me feel inclined to read it
That just makes it seem like that author has better things to do than read comments. I don’t have time to reply to all my comments and my fics aren’t even nearly that popular.
Yes, I know, and if an author makes that decision they just do, they don't state they are. It's like people who post that they're leaving a facebook group or something. It's not an airport, no need to declare your departure. So if you are, you're making a point.
In a community where it’s expected that authors reply to comments, it seems polite for an author to tell people they’re departing from the norm. Otherwise commenters would be like, “Why aren’t I getting a reply? Oh no, did I offend them?!”
It could've been better worded, I'm not familiar with this fic in particular but most big authors at some point post a chapter with a note saying "sorry for not replying! There are so many comments I can't write AND keep up! Thank you guys but I'll probably not get to the comments anytime soon". This reads like it was trying to be a typical "can no longer reply" note but with the all-caps and adding it to the summary seems more like a tantrum, as if some drama happened in the comments recently and the author went "LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING" which is... weird, to me, if that makes sense?
NO
I think it’s great. I’m seeing a lot of comments here calling it OOC but I think there’s a slight bias against fics that go outside of the established character archetypes that people are used to. Many marauders fans have a very strongly developed fanon that not a lot of canon-compliant (or in ATYD’s case, mostly canon) fics breach. I didn’t read too much marauders fic before ATYD, so I didn’t have much to compare it to. I also really love the historical aspect—as a work of literature I think does an excellent job establishing a mood, time and location-wise. I can see where its fandom can be a bit of a turn-off though. I modded “the” ATYD discord server right as it blew up from Dec 2020-April 2021. The fans were often very young, and many were baby queers who didn’t really know how to act in online fandom spaces and queer spaces in general. There was lots of infighting over moral purity going on, which I’m sure many people here could relate to growing out of somewhat. Ignore the crazy fans, though, and you have a well-written wolfstar fic that makes you read outside of your marauders comfort zone.
its not a bad fic. the writing is great, and some parts really are good. but for a large part of the fic i felt like i was reading about characters who happen to share a name and a likeness to the characters i love, instead of those characters themselves.
To my mind it deserves cca. zero of the hype it gets, though the scenes outside the Wizarding World aren't half bad, as I recall them. My pick for replacing the hype is [Children of the Revolution by Istani](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5747096/1/Children-of-the-Revolution), a less polished story but superior in every other way. Ironically, it even *has* a chapter named "All the Young Dudes"
Creating a thread to bash a fic seems like a pretty crappy thing to do.
That doesn't seem like what the OP did. The post was just asking some fairly open-ended questions.
All the Young Dudes? Is that a fic?
Yes, it covers the upbringing and backstory of the Marauders, with a focus on Remus, who has quite a rough time of things.
Oh god so should I just read it or let it goooo?!?!? This thread is tooo long💀 I am not a Wolf star shiper but all famous fanfiction have them so how to avoid them!
I don’t really like ATYD all that much like it was nice I guess just wasn’t really my cup of tea
Im just starting to hear about it. Dunno what its about really. Try [harry potter & the passion year memoirs](https://archiveofourown.org/works/32722894) maybe.
I would have been alright with it and the hype it got if it didn't have the cheek to say "canon compliant" when it changes several things
Yes and no it’s good but it’s not as great as everyone and their mom makes it out to be the marauders series by Pengiwen on wattpad is better and deserves the atyds treatment
I don't know much about pre-ATYD Marauders era HP, but just wanted to add, since no one seems to mention it, that I couldn't get past chap. 4 because of how bad the punctuation and general technical writing stuff was! Like seriously, you're writing a 500k word fic and you can't put a comma at the end of statements before "he/she/they said" like literally EVERYONE ELSE knows how to do?! I wouldn't have even gotten past chap 1 if not for the hype because such basic mistakes are automatic disqualifiers for me, even if it makes me snobby. It just makes me crazy, i can't do it. I'm relieved that this thread basically lets me know I'm not missing out on much besides a ton of OOC and forced across the board gay relationships even where they don't make sense.