yours_truly | Entries tagged with fandom: harry potter

I don’t enjoy being a Negative Nancy, honestly. Although my impression of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was not favourable as a whole, there were things that I liked in it. In fact, there were things that I liked very, very much. So, partly to make my review of the book a bit more balanced, and partly to try to convince myself to like it a little more, here’s a list of the things that I think Jo got right in DH.

1. Sexual innuendos. Fans have been making inappropriate jokes about wands and broomstick handles for years, and I was extremely amused to note that Jo included some. Not only were they hilarious for readers, but they are exactly the kinds of jokes I can imagine seventeen- and eighteen-year-old wizards in Harry’s world making. They were subtle enough that children reading the series wouldn’t understand them, but dirty enough that those of us who could got a good laugh out of them.

2. Hermione moving her parents to Australia. The passage about Hermione Obliviating her parents and moving them to Australia was sooooo sad. It was exactly the kind of thing Hermione would do, and I thought it was a very good touch from Jo.

3. Ron’s return and destruction of the locket. I still don’t know how I feel about Ron leaving in the first place, and I’m definitely not a fan of the deus ex machina way he found Harry and Hermione by using the Deluminator, but everything about his return was triumphant and heart-warming. I was so pleased that he saved Harry, that he overcame the temptations of the Horcrux, and that an honest and frank conversation with Harry about Hermione finally took place. (PS: I totally thought we were in for a corny, teen-movie type kiss with Hermione when he arrived back at the camp, and it was just perfect that she starts punching and slapping him instead!)

4. Dobby’s death and funeral. Jo managed to spend just the right amount of time on Dobby, even when every other death was either glossed over quickly or else dragged on unbearably. Imagining Dobby standing there with the knife stuck in his chest, raising his arms to Harry… And then reading as Harry dug the grave and carved the headstone… It was beautiful and poignant, and definitely got the most tears out of me in the book.

5. Percy’s redemption. It was sweet, and just a bit awkward, exactly as it should be. I still think it would have been better off a bit earlier in the story, but I’ll take it!

6. Luna. I’ve always enjoyed Luna, but seeing Evanna Lynch in Order of the Phoenix gave me a whole new way of looking at her, and I think she might be one of my favourite characters now. At the very end when she offers to distract everyone so Harry can talk to Ron and Hermione, and just shouts out something about one of her ridiculous creatures, I realized how incredibly fun, loyal, and generally amazing she is. Another awesome part? The way Ravenclaws have to answer a riddle to get into their Common Room instead of giving a password. It makes so much sense that Luna would be good at that! I <3 her.

7. Ginny carrying on the DA. I love Ginny as a character, and I felt like she really got shafted in this book (“Hey, Harry, I forgot to get you a birthday present. Come into my room and let’s have wilde, craisy secks before you totally leave me for 600 pages.” “Epilogue!Ginny: I’ve been really badass for three books now, but since my b/f didn’t die, I am content to just pop out the kiddies in gratitude!”), but it was totally believable to me that she would carry on Dumbledore’s Army and be subversive in Hogwarts. It was off-screen, so to speak, but it was daring and perfect.

8. MCGONAGALL. I wish she could have been in the book more, ‘cause I absolutely adore her, but I thought her scenes were brilliant. “Professor Snape has done a bunk!” The way she Transfigured all of the statues, suits of armor, desks, etc. to help fight was fricking awesome, and even though she had no idea what was going on she was willing to trust Dumbledore and Harry that there was a plan. Her scream when she thought Harry was dead almost got tears out of me, even in the midst of my disappointment about how the book was going. McGonagall is really the way I imagine a grown-up Ginny: powerful, trusting, disdainful of corrupt authority, badass, and loyal, but with this hilarious sense of humour if you know exactly what to look for.

9. Harry saving Draco. I know some people who are displeased that Draco looked like a complete fool in the Room of Requirement scene, but honestly, re-read HBP. Malfoy gained a lot of ‘tude and cred’ in that book, but in the end he was still too much of a… wimp… to do anything truly evil like kill Dumbledore. Obviously he was going to chicken out in a big confrontation with the Trio. But I’m extremely glad that Jo let Harry sorta-kinda forgive him, at least enough to save his ass. By this point we’d had Harry performing Imperiuses and Crucios, been influenced by the locket, etc, and I thought for a moment that Jo would let Harry let Malfoy die, and I’m very happy that he didn’t. Their semi-reconciliation was well done. (And I loved when Ron punched him!)

10. Dudley's reconciliation with Harry. Dudley really tugged my heart-strings in this book. I thought the cup of tea outside of Harry's door was genius. Of course he would have no clue how to articulate his feelings for a cousin that he has always loathed, yet who saved his life. But when confronted with the fact that he would never see Harry again, he managed to force it out by saying, "I don't think you're a waste of space." The funny part is that I actually had a kid in one of my families at Convo/SHC once who had trouble verbalizing, and affirmed their sibling at the end of the week by saying, "Getting to know you wasn't a waste of my time." You're taken aback at first, but when you realize what it really means to the person saying it, it's incredibly sweet. Dudley was well written in DH. (As, btw, was Petunia. She wrote to Hogwarts begging for a spot, but didn't know how to tell her sister how jealous she was? *tears up*)

11. Harry finding himself unclothed so often. He strips to go after the Sword of Gryffindor, he’s constantly changing disguises, he’s in his birthday suit in King’s Cross… PLZ O PLZ KAN DANIEL RADLCIFFE GIT NECKID IN TEH MOOVY???

12. Voldemort Spears.

This shouldn’t be something I liked about the book, because it made me completely incapable of taking Voldy seriously, but I had this image in my head throughout the entire thing, and frankly it’s one of the funniest things ever. So, it goes on the list.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Making that manip is another thing that should send me to hell. They just keep piling up, don’t they? =)>

13. AS/S. Ah, the fandom’s way of giving the finger to JKR for the Crapilogue! Harry/Draco shippers may have to live with the disappointment of their ship never leaving port, but there’s always the next generation ship of Albus Severus/Scorpius! Seriously, Jo, after all these years how did you not realize that you were walking right into that one?

This is another thing that technically shouldn’t be on the list, but it makes me feel more fondly about the book, so I think that it has earned its place! This ship was already being talked about only hours after the book’s release, and I doubt I’ll ever know who first came up with it, but they deserve lots of cookies.

I guess somehow I didn't really think last weekend would ever come. It was just so completely surreal.

I know I said I'd have my reaction to the book up on Sunday, but I got started and just couldn't stop. This post is sixteen freaking pages long in Microsoft Word, so I'm going to do my best to break it up into smaller chunks with LJ cuts. It's really written mostly for myself, but if you want to read it to know how I felt about the book, then by all means go ahead.

( Why I Think People Who Spoiled the Book For Others are Douchebags - spoiler free )

( Harvard Square Party and Concert Memories - also spoiler free )

( Grading My Predictions - VERY DEFINITELY NOT SPOILER FREE )

( My Overall Reaction - ALSO TONS OF SPOILERS )

I've made it this far and only sort of half been told one tiny spoiler by my dad (whom I thoroughly informed how little I appreciated that). Since the whole book has been on the net for several days I'm really worried about getting spoiled at the concert and while I wait in line for the book, but I've been excited for this concert for months, so I'm not going to let some petty people who get their kicks by ruining the joy of others kill the experience for me.

I have a lot of things I'd like to say about the various news outlets that have been reporting spoilers (I'm looking at you, New York Times), but I'm going to save all those thoughts for the undoubtedly massive post that I will be making after I finish the book, probably on Sunday. I'll discuss why I'm so thoroughly disgusted with the Times et al, I'll recap the concert and party, and I'll probably post my gut reactions to the book.

Eight years of speculation and anticipation end tomorrow night at midnight. Bring it on.

I have processed, I have contemplated, I have compared, and I have come to the same conclusion that I did last night: Order of the Phoenix was the best Potter film yet.

*spoilers*

I have soooo many incoherent thoughts about this movie that I don’t think I’ll really be able to organize them into a cohesive review, but please bear with me!

THE GOOD

The HP films usually do a pretty darn good job with their casting (the only characters they’ve gotten grossly wrong in my opinion are Lupin and Wormtail), and the new characters in Order of the Phoenix were no exception. Evanna Lynch as Luna was absolutely magical. She was Luna, seriously. She was ethereal, weird, disconcerting, and sweet all at the same time. I am so happy that the part went to someone from the fandom who loves the character as much as we all do. She did an amazing job with it. She and Dan had great chemistry, perhaps even a little too much, because I was really getting a Harry/Luna vibe from the flick (well, I was picking up vibes between Harry and someone else, too, but we’ll get to that later).

Imelda Staunton in the role of Umbridge was also perfection. People always yell at me when I admit that Umbridge is one of my favourite characters, but it’s because I just love to hate her. She infuriates me, she amuses me, and she scares me, and Staunton managed to get all of that into the movie, so brava. Similarly, Helena Bonham Carter was great as Bellatrix, even with only three lines. I’m not sure how much acting she had to do, since I’m pretty sure Bonham Carter is a little crazy herself, but it was great to watch.

Michael Gambon will never replace Richard Harris for me as Dumbledore (I was rooting for Donald Sutherland to replace Harris), but he was oh so so so much better in this than in GoF. Whoever slipped him some Prozac gets a gold star. Gambon’s Dumbledore this time around was calm, cool, and collected, just like he needed to be, even if that slight twinkle of eccentricity was still a bit beyond his grasp.

Did anyone watch Ginny very carefully in this one? She was breaking my heart! They always made sure to have her in shots with Harry and Cho and stuff, and they would linger on her just a bit as she looked hurt and sad, and it was great! I can’t wait for Half-Blood Prince now. I hope that Dan and Bonnie have enough chemistry to make Harry and Ginny’s love believable.

Other amazing things include Fred and George’s escape, the Wall of Decrees, that adorable scene with Fred and George comforting the little boy after a detention, the initial DA interest meeting, and the Black family tree/tapestry room. Way to make sure that there were tons of people whose names started with A in the shots, Newell. Crafty. I still don’t think RAB is Regulus, though.

I loved the political undertones in this film, even if they were a bit heavy-handed sometimes. Donating long scenes to speeches written just for the movie that go on about how, “fear makes people do things, Harry, it’s fear that rules people’s lives and allows them to be taken advantage of, blah blah blah,” bothered me just a bit. Believe me, I’m all about making political connections to Harry Potter, and these were points that I agreed with, but a bit more subtlety could have been used.

Speaking of subtlety, Dan Radcliffe simply amazed me this time around. Let’s pretend for the next paragraph or so that I’m not pre-disposed to worship everything he does because I find him ridiculously attractive. Dan had CAPSLOCK!HARRY down pat, with maybe even more subtlety and nuance than Jo wrote him with. Had the movie been written a little better to include a few other key scenes (*cough*smashing*dumbledore’s*office*cough*), then Dan could have shown off even more. As it was, I thought his scenes were brilliant, especially when he finally loses it with Dumbledore, his reaction to Sirius’s death, and the possession scene.

Speaking of Sirius’s death and the possession scene, let’s talk about the entire Department of Mysteries sequence. There are things about it that I adored, but also things that annoyed me. Overall, though, it left me feeling absolutely elated, so most of it will be discussed here, and the things that bothered me in the next section.

I loved the way they did the Hall of Prophecy. It wouldn’t have hurt them to include the entire contents of the prophecy, but when all those shelves came crashing down as the kids ran I was just soooo excited. I had no problem with the segue to the Death Chamber, and the fight there with all the Death Eaters was equally brilliant. As I said before, Dan’s reaction to Sirius was heartbreaking, and I loved the way they removed the sound and slowed everything down.

The battle in the Atrium between Dumbledore and Voldemort was equally incredible. It could have used a break or two for some of the dialogue in the book about there being other ways to destroy a man than to kill him, but I’m extremely happy with it. The Snake of Fire, the smashing windows, the water chamber… It was just as badass as the book. Harry’s possession was great acting on Dan’s part, and it definitely got the job done making the point about love being Harry’s best weapon (I adored the montages of scenes from the other movies), and overall I loved it, but it could have been written so much better.

THE BAD

I’m no book purist, trust me; I’m all about cutting things and changing things so that the movies can be the best they can be. But I really really wanted to see Voldemort tell Dumbledore to “kill the boy”, and then hear Harry beg for death. It is an extremely important theme in the books that, yes, there are things worse than death: suffering, selfishness, pain, and the deaths of loved ones. The movie completely avoided bringing up this theme, and I’m sort of disappointed. Also, no way in hell does Harry say that he feels sorry for Voldemort. He wouldn’t even say it in HBP after watching the crap upbringing that Tom Riddle had.

The next thing that totally irked me was the Veil. Um, wtf, David Yates? You guys couldn’t even get a piece of fabric right? You decided that “tattered curtain” meant “wall of smoky, watery, vapor kind of stuff”???? An AK killing Sirius wouldn’t have even bothered me if he had still fallen through a nice, normal, curtain kind of Veil. But having him stand there like a mannequin while tendrils of vapor crawl out and pull him in? Not cool, WB. It was awkward and weird and just wrong. Grrrrr.

I obviously already mentioned that the omission of the scene where Harry smashes Dumbledore’s office really disappointed me (because I really really love me some angsty Harry), but believe it or not, the next thing that bothered me a lot was the inclusion of a certain plot-line.

Grawpy, Grawpy, Grawpy. Grawp is to the Harry Potter fandom as Jar-Jar Binks is to the Star Wars fandom. Pretty much no one likes him. His scenes in the movie were adorable, but what in the world do they do for the plot? It would have been so easy to cut him and then have more time for other things (more on time in a bit). The only thing that the fandom has been able to think of is that Grawp must have a big role to play in Deathly Hallows. Otherwise, his existence is more or less completely unjustified, lol.

Before I discuss the length of the movie as the last thing that I disliked, I have to ask a question. I said earlier that I felt a lot of Harry/Luna chemistry in the movie, but I have to admit that I felt even more between Harry and Sirius. Am I tooooooootally off base in seeing a creepy amount of sexual tension between the two of them in this flick? I hate when people ship Harry/Sirius in the books, because I never saw any implications of that kind of relationship (plus there’s, you know, like 30 years of age difference!), but the amount of winking and hugging and private smiles in the film got a bit out of hand, in my humble opinion. I was uncomfortable watching it.

So, the last thing I will discuss is my usual complaint about the running time of the films. They’re too damn short, WB! This was the SHORTEST movie, for the LONGEST book in the series! Where are your brains??? I saw maybe five kids under the age of 13 last night at the theater. Nine-year-olds do not make up the majority of the fandom any more, and even if they did I guarantee you they would happily sit through a 3-hour Potter film. It will not affect your ticket sales. So please, I BEG YOU, give us the movie we, Jo, the actors, and the books deserve by allowing for a longer running time. Maybe then they wouldn’t feel like $300 million PowerPoint presentations at times.

And with that, Harry Potter Week is officially underway for me. Only eight days until the book. =/ I really hope the fandom continues strong at least until the last movie. I went to see OotP last night with my dad and sister, but ended up sitting next to a group of girls and we all laughed together through the whole movie and talked about it afterward. We didn’t need to know one another’s ages, or names, or anything, we were just happy to talk together about HP. That’s what the fandom is like. It doesn’t matter if you’ve ever met before or will ever see one another again; you’re instantly friends because you have HP in common.

This is a very long post. Due to its verbose nature, I will provide a quick summary for those who would rather not read it. (Seriously, I don’t blame you if you don’t.) If you choose to actually look at the whole thing, I must warn you again that this entry is essentially nothing more than a really huge geek-out (which is like a freak-out, but way more nerdy).

Summary: OMG, so, HP and the Deathly Hallows is like almost here ZOMGWHOALOLZ. I’m totally bummed because, like, I love Harry Potter and the fans and I just can’t believe it’s going to be over soon, and I know the one thing that’s totally been missing from your life is a three page history of how I came to love HP so much, so, like, here it is! And I’m, like, so totally a genius, so I’ve included a list of what I think’s going to happen in the book, cause, like, duh, obviously I’m way smart and I want to be able to laugh in all your faces and say, “I told you so!” Like, totally.

It is now July, boys and girls, the month of the end of Harry Potter. The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is only nineteen days away, and I’m feeling all kinds of emotions. Sometimes I’m more excited than I’ve ever been for anything, but other times I dread reading the book and wish it could be put off for another year or two. HP has been a part of my life for so long that I can’t believe it’s ending.

( The History of My Potter Fandom )

( Divination Practice: What I Think Will Happen in Deathly Hallows )

That's about it I guess. I dunno, I had a nostalgia attack. Don't judge me. =)