Harry Potter
Warning! Serious spoilers, if you haven't read the 7th book or watched the 5th film and don't want to know about them please don't read under the cut!
So I meant to post this ages ago, but never actually got round to it. Here are some of my thoughts on the latest Harry Potter offerings.
First the film. I absolutely loved it! I've learnt to take the films as seperate from the books and not be too disappointed at the things they miss out, even if I see them as important parts! I do however still get a little annoyed when they insert scenes they have just made up. If they cut scenes that weren't actually in the book they're be much more time for scenes that were (the fourth film was particularly guilty of this crime). Thankfully the fifth film didn't have too much of this so I was happy! Okay some points:
* Luna was a lot better than I expected her too be, even if her hair was completely the wrong shade of blonde. She and Draco ought to swap hair colours in the films, I think that would be more accurate!
*The actress who plays Dolores Umbridge was as fantastic as I expected!
*I was a little disappinted about not seeing more of the exams and Fred and George's tricks, although I'm glad they put they're leaving scene in.
*Why wasn't Lily in Snape's memory! I mean, hello, IT's KIND OF IMPORTANT TO THE SEVENTH BOOK! *cough* Ok I can see why she might not have looked important at the time and maybe JK Rowling didn't want to give anything away by insisting she was there, but I think it was a very important moment in the seventh book.
*Umbridge: "Tell them I mean them no harm!" Harry: "I'm sorry Professor. I must not tell lies." Best Line Ever.
Okay so who was it who put Mrs Weasley's line "You don't have to whip your wands out for every little thing!" into the script. I mean when you read it in the book you can conceed that perhaps the rudeness of the line wasn't noticed, however the script writer clearly wrote that line into the script with his tongue very firmly in his cheek.
Moving on now to the seventh book.
I cannot begin to express how depressed I am about them ending! :( I really feel like I've lost this huge part of my life and that I've lost some true friends. I read an article in the paper just after I read the book. It was by a 16 year old girl who had grown up reading the books and was saying how much she'd miss them. Something she wrote has really stuck in my head, it was "Harry has grown up and left me." That's exactly how I feel. Reading the epilogue it's as if these friends I've had for so long have suddenly gone away and come back all grown up and I've suddenly found that they've outgrown me. They've moved on with their lives, we've grown apart and things can never be the same again. Of course then I tell myself I'm being silly and that it's just a book. The other day though I was looking at my photobucket account and I saw this icon, which I made ages ago:
Suddenly that line "Harry has grown up and left me," hit me and I felt this overwhelming rush of nausea, like I really had lost a friend. I can't believe I'm admitting this, it sounds so daft, but it is weird to think of Harry all grown up, even if he is a character in a book.
So enough about that, what about the actual story? Well I loved it! I couldn't believe Harry turned out to be a sort of Horcrux, that was the one thing I thought would never happen! I thought it was much too cheesy and refused to read all but one (extremely good) fanfic which involved Harry being a Horcrux. When I first read that line I though "You've got to be joking, this cannot be happening!" but once I read on, I though she made it really plausable and I was pleased it happened like that.
Snape of course turned out to be good, I knew he would and that he would have somehow planned with Dumbledore about killing him. I'm sad Draco didn't do a little more to change his ways thouhg, apart from not giving away Harry at the Manor there was nothing, and even that didn't get explained properly. I did notice however in the epilogue Draco got a rather big mention, compared to a lot of Harry's friends who didn't get one at all. (Luna, Seamus, Dean, some of the Weasley's) and I thought that might be because JK Rowling knows Draco has this huge following who would just about go insane if they didn't find out from the book what happened to him! I still want more detail though, exactly how did he get away with everything? Did Harry stick up for him? Why didn't Harry become an international Quidditch player? (Okay I'll answer that one - he's fed up of being famous and wants a quiet life - what a waste of talent.) What about the others? Where's Luna? Did Dean and Seamus survive the battle? Who were those 50 other people lying dead next to Fred, Lupin and Tonks?
You see now we come to the really important part. The deaths. JK Rowling has said the character who got a reprieve was Arthur Weasley because in the end she just couldn't bear to kill him. Thank goodness for that! However who were the two she didn't mean to die, but who did? Fred? Lupin and Tonks? Their deaths seemed to be dealt with in a very offhand manner considering everything. They had just become parents and suddenly they were BOTH dead? Lupin hardly got a mention considering how long he's been around and poor Tonks got nothing more than a cursory glance it seems to me!
That's not what made me really mad though. What I absolutely hated, what made me want to scream with rage, what really offended me right down to my very soul, was the death of Fred Weasley. She killed off one half of a pair of identical twins. How dare she?! How could she possibly do that?! I have this huge thing about the bond between identical twins. I always have and I loved Fred and George's characters because everything they did just had that magical bond running through it. Then she went and killed one of them and broke it all down! I seriously couldn't believe she'd done it. I knew, statistically, that since there were so many Weasley's one of them was bound to die, but I never imagined she would ever kill one twin and break that bond. I thought Percy might die when he suddenly appeared and made up with the family. You know, he comes back and makes up with everyone just in time because he then sacrifices himself for the cause? Or I thought perhaps Charlie might be killed (not Bill because he got unlucky at the end of book 6). But no, it had to be one of the twins. I would almost rather it had been Arthur. No, scratch that, I would have prefered it to have been Arthur everytime. I hope she didn't let Arthur off and then decide to kill Fred instead. Much as I love his character and wouldn't have wanted him to die really either. I guess no one dying would have been the best situation, but that was never going to happen.
Okay, okay, I'm sounding manic and obsessive about this now. Let's move on. Poor Dobby. He was a great character. Poor Mad-Eye Moody - I always forget he died whenever I think of the book. I could never warm to him after what happened at the end of book 4, even though technically it wasn't him. Poor Hedwig as well. I was talking about that to my friend and we were saying that it was so shocking the way she died so suddenly and so soon. I suddenly realised that the reason might have been because it would have been extremely difficult plot wise to do anything with Hedwig after that point. She could hardly have gone into Hermione's handbag could she? And if she'd been flying around it would have been a bit of a giveaway. Even leaving her at the Weasley's would have meant people would have thought they were hiding Harry. I guess in the end there was nothing else that could have happened to her that wouldn't have looked slightly odd and contrived. Poor Hedwig.
The poor Firebolt as well. Harry lost his dead Godfathers gift, his precious and beloved broomstick, and it barely even got a mention. I thought that was slightly odd, although I guess there were more important things at the time, like Hedwig and Voldemort and everyone returning safely. Later though, I thought maybe it would get a mention, when things calmed down and Harry was back at the Weasley's and taking a breather so to speak.
Ah well. That's it now, it's all over. Harry, Hermione and Ron survived. They grew up, they got jobs. Harry married Mary-Sue, sorry, Ginny, Ron married Hermione and they had all had children, even if it did take them 8 whole years to procreate, and they all lived happily ever after. I guess we can now too. All is well.
So I meant to post this ages ago, but never actually got round to it. Here are some of my thoughts on the latest Harry Potter offerings.
First the film. I absolutely loved it! I've learnt to take the films as seperate from the books and not be too disappointed at the things they miss out, even if I see them as important parts! I do however still get a little annoyed when they insert scenes they have just made up. If they cut scenes that weren't actually in the book they're be much more time for scenes that were (the fourth film was particularly guilty of this crime). Thankfully the fifth film didn't have too much of this so I was happy! Okay some points:
* Luna was a lot better than I expected her too be, even if her hair was completely the wrong shade of blonde. She and Draco ought to swap hair colours in the films, I think that would be more accurate!
*The actress who plays Dolores Umbridge was as fantastic as I expected!
*I was a little disappinted about not seeing more of the exams and Fred and George's tricks, although I'm glad they put they're leaving scene in.
*Why wasn't Lily in Snape's memory! I mean, hello, IT's KIND OF IMPORTANT TO THE SEVENTH BOOK! *cough* Ok I can see why she might not have looked important at the time and maybe JK Rowling didn't want to give anything away by insisting she was there, but I think it was a very important moment in the seventh book.
*Umbridge: "Tell them I mean them no harm!" Harry: "I'm sorry Professor. I must not tell lies." Best Line Ever.
Okay so who was it who put Mrs Weasley's line "You don't have to whip your wands out for every little thing!" into the script. I mean when you read it in the book you can conceed that perhaps the rudeness of the line wasn't noticed, however the script writer clearly wrote that line into the script with his tongue very firmly in his cheek.
Moving on now to the seventh book.
I cannot begin to express how depressed I am about them ending! :( I really feel like I've lost this huge part of my life and that I've lost some true friends. I read an article in the paper just after I read the book. It was by a 16 year old girl who had grown up reading the books and was saying how much she'd miss them. Something she wrote has really stuck in my head, it was "Harry has grown up and left me." That's exactly how I feel. Reading the epilogue it's as if these friends I've had for so long have suddenly gone away and come back all grown up and I've suddenly found that they've outgrown me. They've moved on with their lives, we've grown apart and things can never be the same again. Of course then I tell myself I'm being silly and that it's just a book. The other day though I was looking at my photobucket account and I saw this icon, which I made ages ago:
Suddenly that line "Harry has grown up and left me," hit me and I felt this overwhelming rush of nausea, like I really had lost a friend. I can't believe I'm admitting this, it sounds so daft, but it is weird to think of Harry all grown up, even if he is a character in a book.
So enough about that, what about the actual story? Well I loved it! I couldn't believe Harry turned out to be a sort of Horcrux, that was the one thing I thought would never happen! I thought it was much too cheesy and refused to read all but one (extremely good) fanfic which involved Harry being a Horcrux. When I first read that line I though "You've got to be joking, this cannot be happening!" but once I read on, I though she made it really plausable and I was pleased it happened like that.
Snape of course turned out to be good, I knew he would and that he would have somehow planned with Dumbledore about killing him. I'm sad Draco didn't do a little more to change his ways thouhg, apart from not giving away Harry at the Manor there was nothing, and even that didn't get explained properly. I did notice however in the epilogue Draco got a rather big mention, compared to a lot of Harry's friends who didn't get one at all. (Luna, Seamus, Dean, some of the Weasley's) and I thought that might be because JK Rowling knows Draco has this huge following who would just about go insane if they didn't find out from the book what happened to him! I still want more detail though, exactly how did he get away with everything? Did Harry stick up for him? Why didn't Harry become an international Quidditch player? (Okay I'll answer that one - he's fed up of being famous and wants a quiet life - what a waste of talent.) What about the others? Where's Luna? Did Dean and Seamus survive the battle? Who were those 50 other people lying dead next to Fred, Lupin and Tonks?
You see now we come to the really important part. The deaths. JK Rowling has said the character who got a reprieve was Arthur Weasley because in the end she just couldn't bear to kill him. Thank goodness for that! However who were the two she didn't mean to die, but who did? Fred? Lupin and Tonks? Their deaths seemed to be dealt with in a very offhand manner considering everything. They had just become parents and suddenly they were BOTH dead? Lupin hardly got a mention considering how long he's been around and poor Tonks got nothing more than a cursory glance it seems to me!
That's not what made me really mad though. What I absolutely hated, what made me want to scream with rage, what really offended me right down to my very soul, was the death of Fred Weasley. She killed off one half of a pair of identical twins. How dare she?! How could she possibly do that?! I have this huge thing about the bond between identical twins. I always have and I loved Fred and George's characters because everything they did just had that magical bond running through it. Then she went and killed one of them and broke it all down! I seriously couldn't believe she'd done it. I knew, statistically, that since there were so many Weasley's one of them was bound to die, but I never imagined she would ever kill one twin and break that bond. I thought Percy might die when he suddenly appeared and made up with the family. You know, he comes back and makes up with everyone just in time because he then sacrifices himself for the cause? Or I thought perhaps Charlie might be killed (not Bill because he got unlucky at the end of book 6). But no, it had to be one of the twins. I would almost rather it had been Arthur. No, scratch that, I would have prefered it to have been Arthur everytime. I hope she didn't let Arthur off and then decide to kill Fred instead. Much as I love his character and wouldn't have wanted him to die really either. I guess no one dying would have been the best situation, but that was never going to happen.
Okay, okay, I'm sounding manic and obsessive about this now. Let's move on. Poor Dobby. He was a great character. Poor Mad-Eye Moody - I always forget he died whenever I think of the book. I could never warm to him after what happened at the end of book 4, even though technically it wasn't him. Poor Hedwig as well. I was talking about that to my friend and we were saying that it was so shocking the way she died so suddenly and so soon. I suddenly realised that the reason might have been because it would have been extremely difficult plot wise to do anything with Hedwig after that point. She could hardly have gone into Hermione's handbag could she? And if she'd been flying around it would have been a bit of a giveaway. Even leaving her at the Weasley's would have meant people would have thought they were hiding Harry. I guess in the end there was nothing else that could have happened to her that wouldn't have looked slightly odd and contrived. Poor Hedwig.
The poor Firebolt as well. Harry lost his dead Godfathers gift, his precious and beloved broomstick, and it barely even got a mention. I thought that was slightly odd, although I guess there were more important things at the time, like Hedwig and Voldemort and everyone returning safely. Later though, I thought maybe it would get a mention, when things calmed down and Harry was back at the Weasley's and taking a breather so to speak.
Ah well. That's it now, it's all over. Harry, Hermione and Ron survived. They grew up, they got jobs. Harry married Mary-Sue, sorry, Ginny, Ron married Hermione and they had all had children, even if it did take them 8 whole years to procreate, and they all lived happily ever after. I guess we can now too. All is well.