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deathtocapslock
* Collin’s really acting like an obsessive stalker here. I wonder if that’s how Harry appeared to Draco in HBP?
* Ron’s malfunctioning wand actually sounds quite dangerous, but nobody thinks it might be a good idea to replace it. Although OTOH having a lax attitude towards safety seems to be one of the few things about the WW that seems consistent throughout the books (they’ll show it again when Percy tries to stop people using dangerous cauldrons), so maybe I should be thankful that it isn’t just one of these things that changes whenever the plot demands.
* I assume that JKR’s just forgotten to mention the try-outs that every Quidditch team apparently does each year.
* I’m just going to tune out while Harry recaps the rules of Quidditch for Collin.
* Everyone’s not bothering to pay attention to Wood’s new tactics. Remember kids, teamwork’s for suckers! You just do what you want to do!
* Wood is still upset over Gryffindor losing last year. Serves him right for being too thick to have a reserve Seeker, IMHO.
* Note how Wood’s first reaction upon seeing Collin is to jump to the conclusion that he’s a Slytherin spy. Not that he’s in any way biased against Slytherin, or anything like that.
* Remember chaps, looking like a troll = evil. Part-giant, OTOH, = misunderstood woobie. Even though trolls don’t really seem much worse than giants.
* There are no girls on the Slytherin team, just to remind everyone that they’re sexist, and therefore evil. JKR hates sexism, which is why she took care to include so many liberated, independent-minded women in the novels.
* Wood’s “spitting with rage” now. Christ, Oliver, calm down, it’s not the end of the world. Maybe the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams could just play a friendly, or something.
* “Aren’t you Lucius Malfoy’s son?” says Fred, looking at Draco with dislike. Remember kids, it’s wrong to judge people based on their family.
* Is it possible to smirk so broadly that your eyes are “reduced to slits”, or is Draco actually grinning with happiness here?
* I don’t think that Malfoy did buy his way onto the team. For a start, Seeker is the most (i.e., only) important position in the game, and I don’t think that flying on better brooms would compensate for having an inferior Seeker. Secondly, he’s on the team for at least three years, when the Slytherins could easily have ditched him as soon as they’d got the brooms. They’d even have had a good excuse after losing that Quidditch match in “The Rogue Bludger”.
* Lucius seemed like quite a harsh, demanding father when we saw him in Borgin and Burke’s, IMHO, so the thought that he’s pleased daddy enough to make him buy new brooms for the team is probably making Draco grin even more.
* I bet he looks adorable in this scene.
* Now I can’t stop thinking of Lauren Lopez in A Very Potter Sequel. “Don’t worry, daddy, you’ll love me after this! I’ll catch that Snitch, mark my words!”
* Just thought it interesting to note that Malfoy wasn’t involved in the conversation until Ron brought him in. It’s not like he was strutting up and down, boasting about his new broom, or anything like that.
* Hermione’s the one who starts with the personal insults. Really, I think that the good [sic] guys are acting worse than the baddies here.
* If the theory that Draco’s really just happy because he’s finally made his daddy proud is right, then implying that he’d just bought his way onto the team is probably one of the most offensive things Hermione could say. Unsurprisingly, he responds with one of the most offensive things that he could say.
* Draco calls Hermione a “Mudblood”, despite the fact that she’s a Muggleborn, and therefore cannot be expected to know what it means, suggesting that either she’s upset him so much he’s not thinking straight, or that he wants to keep face in front of his teammates by responding to her insults, but at the same time doesn’t want to upset her. If the latter, it could be evidence for some kind of D/Hr ship.
* JKR seems to be expecting us to go “ZOMG Draco’s an evil racist!” suggesting that she’s forgotten why exactly it is that racism’s considered so wrong. I don’t think it’s just that you’re looking down on people for the way they were born – if it were, then jokes about stupid blondes would be considered as bad as jokes about stupid black people. Rather, it’s wrong because minorities often suffer from discrimination (and in many cases have suffered from it even more in the relatively recent past), and racist language helps to reinforce and normalise the prejudiced attitudes which lead to such discrimination. Because we haven’t really see people suffering from anti-Muggleborn prejudice, it’s hard to think of “Mudblood” as a particularly serious insult.
* This, BTW, is why I disagree with people who say things like “Rowling uses the Harry Potter books to teach children not to be racist.” If she were really doing that, she’d show how racism affects people’s lives (cf. To Kill a Mockingbird). What she’s actually doing is taking real racism and using it in lieu of actual worldbuilding and characterisation. We already know that racism is wrong, and we think Draco’s a bad person because his use of the term “Mudblood” is superficially similar to real-life examples of racism; we don’t learn about how racism is bad from its effects on HP characters, because it doesn’t really have any.
* Anyway, back to the actual story…
* Once again, the good guys are the first to use force. Why am I not surprised?
* I think it’s sweet the way Flint dives in front of Malfoy to stop him being attacked. The Slytherins often seem to look out for each other the most (see also Lucius patting Snape on the back when he’s first Sorted). Contrast this with the Gryffindors in PS, who refuse to speak to Harry, Hermione, Ron or Neville after they lose some House Points.
* What’s this, one of the good guys has suffered some negative consequences as a result of attacking someone else? Hold on while I go make a note of this in my diary.
* Again with the clothes! Lockhart’s wearing robes of “palest mauve” today. Harry’s really starting to look rather gay now; given JKR’s fondness for stereotypes (viz. the Finnegans) and inability to write a decent romance (chest monster!), I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find her way of showing homosexuality would be having someone spend all their time looking at their crush’s clothes.
* Note how Hagrid doesn’t remonstrate with Ron for trying to curse Malfoy. Clearly he’s a responsible adult and an excellent candidate for a prestigious teaching position.
* I know Hagrid doesn’t like Lockhart, but he really should know better than to undermine him like that in front of his pupils.
* So the jinx on DADA has been in place for what, forty or so years now? And people are only just starting to twig? I know wizards are slow learners, but really…
* Also, couldn’t Dumbledore find ways to either discover how Riddle jinxed the position and undo it somehow, or to get around it, such as hiring two teachers who each teach on alternate years or getting rid of DADA and replacing it with a class which is functionally indistinguishable but has a different name (“battle magic”, perhaps?).
* I think that this scene was one which the film actually did better than the books. Yes, having Hermione getting all upset may not have been fully logical, but it at least made Draco look like a hurtful bully rather than an eccentric crank. It also suggested that someone might have called Hermione that before, hinting at actual day-to-day anti-Muggleborn prejudice, which is more than the books ever managed to do.
* “Maybe it was a good thing yer wand backfired.” Wait, is Hagrid glad that Ron got to be on the receiving end in the hope that he’ll be less likely to curse people in future? No, of course not, he’s worrying that Ron might otherwise have got in trouble.
* Hagrid comes across as so judgemental when he says “’Spect Lucius Malfoy would’ve come marchin’ up ter school if yeh’d cursed his son.” Clearly, caring about your children being attacked is a sign of great evil. Good guys know that being randomly hexed is what makes a man out of you.
* Although Lucius doesn’t seem to have done much when Draco was hexed into unconsciousness on the train (twice!), which probably foreshadows the Redeemed!Malfoys situation at the end of DH.
* Hagrid’s been breaking the law to make his pumpkins grow faster. Which couldn’t possibly be dangerous in any way, oh no.
* Suddenly, Draco’s gossip about him getting drunk and setting his bed on fire looks awfully plausible.
* Everybody hates Filch, which is entirely understandable, given all the times he complains about having to clean up the mess children make and, erm, gives them detention for breaking the rules. Yep, entirely understandable.
* So how does Parseltongue work, then? ’Cause surely Lockhart ought to have heard it, even if he didn’t understand what it was saying? Or is it a sort of telepathy? But then Ron managed to speak it in DH…
* Awfully convenient the way the basilisk goes around describing its evil plan to itself, isn’t it? Do basilisks just have really bad memories, and need to keep repeating their plans to themselves in case they forget?
* Part of me can’t help but feel pleased that Ron vomited slugs over that trophy. Maybe next time he’ll think twice before hexing someone. Or not.
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JKR and Math
Date: 2010-10-22 11:46 pm (UTC)My theory is that it didn't have particularly drastic effects until Voldemort's newest Horcrux started hanging around its victim. I'm guessing that before Harry turned up, it just produced natural-seeming reasons why they had to keep replacing the teacher.
I have to wonder if JKR really thought about the math of how many years went by between Voldemort's visit to Dumbledore to get the job and when Harry got to Hogwarts in 1991.
I just don't believe she really sat down and filled a notebook with that kind info/timelines.
I just don't see her as the kind of writer who actually plotting out Voldmort visited Dumbledore to get the job for DADA and also placed the Horcuxes in 19(--), and that means X number of years went by of DADA teachers not teaching but 1 year.
I think she just wrote the scene out of Voldie's visit and after that didn't go back and think about when this was occuring or even rationalized X number of teachers would have to fill the position for X number of years.
I know she says she has notebooks filled with information but I just have to ask what kinda info it is; I'm thinking it's probably just dialgue, character tidbits and bits of chapter and story that probably never got used.
I just feel like she writes in her notebooks but this writing doesn't have outlining timelines and that kinda stuff in it. I don't even know if early on it ever occur to her to do that or at least not in a serious enough way to make sure her canon conforms to a logical proper timelines.
Even she admited she didn't know about the missing time between Lily and James being attacked and Baby Harry ending up on the Dursleys doorstep. Which sort of attests to not have plotted out a effective timeline. That is the main event for how the story stars and she doesn't know exactly what happened and why there is missing time?
So I'm going to question the whole concept of time before Harry was born. I think she had general ideas on where she was going with the story but I don't know if she sat down and figured it all up and plotted out the timeline for each scene, in an effective way.
I don't really think JKR planned for the DADA job to be cursed that long. I think its another case of she just wasn't doing the math.
Re: JKR and Math
Date: 2010-10-23 01:45 am (UTC)Re: JKR and Math
Date: 2010-10-23 05:51 pm (UTC)It's odd that everyone stresses over the missing time but no-one wonders how they knew what had happened at the Potter house. They arrive, Lily and James are dead, Harry's alive, big hole in the wall - how did they conclude that Voldemort had been destroyed?
Re: JKR and Math
Date: 2010-10-23 06:15 pm (UTC)Yes, exactly. Hell, not even that, Dumbledore gives that speech to Severus in the office after Lily is dead. Dumbledore enslaves Severus stating that Voldemort would be back and that he needed Severus to stay around and protect Harry when Voldemort would return.
Inquiring minds want to know, how the hell Dumbledore knew Voldemort would be back way back right after Lily was killed in 1981.
We're lead to believe Dumbledore didn't know about Horcuxes back then but his statements to Severus suggest he already knew something then. Why else would he assum Voldemort would be back when he was telling Severus about Lily?
Surely he was telling Severus this information within the same 24-48 hours of Lily's death. So why is Dumbledore so sure that Voldie is going to be back?
Dumbledore was either telling Severus a lie to keep Severus in service to him or he either knew there was somethinng more going on between Harry/Voldiemort.
If he already knew or guessed you mean to tell me Dumbledore didn't try to figure it out till Harry had already comeback into the wizarding world. When is it that we're sure Dumbledore knows about the Horcuxes? OOTP? Yet he's suggesting back in 1981 that Voldie will be back.
Again this could be a case for JKR just writing a scene and not thinking about it in context of the canon; of when Dumbledore would have known about the Horcuxes becuase him telling Severus for sure Voldemort would be back in 1981 suggests he knew a lot more than he let on. But I think I touched on this in another thread somewhere but still it just feels like another example of JKR writing something and not having it line up with the plotline/timeline.
Re: JKR and Math
Date: 2010-10-23 08:20 pm (UTC)He figured Harry was a Horcrux, but he didn't know there was another until Harry gave him the destroyed diary. And he only figured out there were even others when Harry reported Tom's speech from the graveyard. Albus didn't look for other Horcruxes until the graveyard because he thought he knew where Tom's one remaining Horcrux was.
Re: JKR and Math
Date: 2010-10-23 11:17 pm (UTC)So what you're saying is, he already knew Harry was a Horcuxes the night the Potters died?
Do you think the prophecy play into this in how he would know? I'm just wondering how he knew Harry was a Horcuxes back then?
I guess it gets to a point of it being our own guess due to missing canon facts. I seem to remember having debates/arguments with people on other lists who say DD didn't know Harry was a Horcuxes till later when I bring up the comment to Snape, so I'm still trying to be sure I have some sort of canon sorce other than my own speculation.
Re: JKR and Math
Date: 2010-10-24 12:01 am (UTC)Do you think the prophecy play into this in how he would know? I'm just wondering how he knew Harry was a Horcuxes back then?
The prophecy foretells at least 2 encounters between Tom and Harry: Once Tom marks Harry as his equal, and once 'either must die at the hand of the other'. So when Albus knew something happened at Godric's Hollow, he knew both Tom and Harry were still alive (in some way - there's still the 'neither can live while the other survives' part). So what happened at Godric's Hollow, and how could Albus have learned what happened?
Possible sources of information:
- Severus' Dark Mark
- the breaking of the Fidelius Charm (Albus being able to know where the Potters were staying)
- the report of a portrait from the Potter home
- the report of Bathilda Bagshot
- the reports of the wizard clean-up team (can't let Muggle firefighters find wands and other magical items)
The broken Fidelius Charm meant the Potters were betrayed by their Secret Keeper (supposedly Sirius). The Dark Mark showed that something happened to Voldemort, but the prophecy said he had to still be alive. To know more than that Albus needed the report of a wizard (living or dead) who had seen the aftermath. And the key finding is that Lily was found dead in front of Harry's crib, and without a wand on her person. This together with what Albus knew about Severus' request to Voldemort to save Lily was the basis of Albus' conclusion that Harry was saved by Lily's sacrificial magic. Which meant that if Voldemort tried to AK Harry the AK would hit Voldemort himself instead. So why was Voldemort not dead? And why did Harry have that scar? The only way Voldemort could be still alive in some form was if part of his soul was anchored to something on this side of the veil. Theoretically it could be anything. But the prophecy says Voldemort would mark Harry as his equal - which means Voldemort caused the scar. How? And in what way are Tom and Harry equals? Theoretically Voldemort could have done something that caused the scar before attempting to kill Harry - but how likely was that? Alternately, the scar was caused by Tom after he was hit by his own AK. But if the AK managed to send a bit of Tom's soul into Harry - that would explain how an AKed man can give someone a scar, how Tom can survive and why they are equals - they both have Tom's soul.
I seem to remember having debates/arguments with people on other lists who say DD didn't know Harry was a Horcuxes till later,/i>
This could only work if there were some other mechanism that allowed one to survive an AK. A Philosophers' Stone can't do that, it only prevents aging and sickness and delays natural death. And even if being a Master of Death with the Hallows worked, Albus knew Tom had neither the cloak nor the wand. We don't know of any other method to survive an AK.
And someone gave the wizarding world the wrong impression that Harry survived an AK. This is simply not true - the AK hit Voldemort, not Harry, as anyone who knew about Lily's sacrifice should realize. That someone was Albus. He must have had a reason.