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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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Date: 2010-10-28 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-29 12:14 am (UTC)But then, look what she ended up giving us. Fail, just totally epic fail. Even by her own standards-- not that she'll ever admit it.
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Date: 2010-10-29 01:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-29 05:24 am (UTC)But then, this is the woman who said she blamed Snape more than Voldy because at least he had experienced love. *head!splodes*
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Date: 2010-10-29 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-29 06:01 am (UTC)(oh, poor Ginny, we hardly knew ye), and then imagine if there was diary!Tom and resurrected!Voldy running around! I wish there was a fanfic on that, heh.no subject
Date: 2010-10-29 06:56 am (UTC)She's over on ff.net.
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/352534/Arsinoe_de_BlassenvilleArsinoe_de_Blassenville
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Date: 2010-10-29 07:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-10-29 09:45 pm (UTC)Yes, when JKR had him be the amoral child of an inbred mother in HBP, I think that that's where she officially made it clear that we weren't supposed to feel any pity for him. I mean, she stated that Tom Riddle was hurting children and animals from the time that he was little. She even had Mrs. Cole call him a "funny baby," implying that even at the moment of birth, he was marked for evil. He was essentially Damien Thorn's English cousin. How on earth does that make him an understandable or sympathetic villain?
/I didn't think Voldy had any real motivations, let alone anything readers were supposed to understand!/
What were his motivations? Immortality was supposed to be his main goal. He claims to be against Muggle-borns and Muggles, but how much he believes his own rhetoric is debatable. And he wants to kill Harry Potter. Let's look at those motivations.
1) He wants to wipe Muggle-borns and Muggles off the face of the earth. Because...his Muggle daddy left him. And/or because he absorbed his prejudices from the wizarding world. Or because he's just Evil. Well, considering that most of us aren't genocidal maniacs, no, I don't think that we could understand that particular incentive.
2) He wants to kill Harry Potter because of the prophecy/because he failed the first time/because he can't look weak by failing to kill one of his enemies, etc. Well, again, considering that most of us aren't serial killers, I don't think that that reason's relatable either. And we don't ever get an outright reason in the text as to why Voldemort insists on killing Harry himself and won't let anybody else kill him.
3) Immortality. This is supposed to be Voldemort's main objective. Well, it's not that Muggles haven't already tried to find ways of gaining it (Fountain of Youth, alchemy, etc.), but the problem is that we never get an actual reason as to *why* he wants to be immortal. Sure, you can chalk it up to his ego, thirst for eternal power, desire to exploit magic's full potential, view of death as weakness, but again, all of those are speculations, they're never directly *stated* in the text. Voldemort never actually explains *why* he wants to "conquer death." And we never get a reason *why* he fears death so much. In DH, we hear Dumbledore say, "He fears the dead. He does not love."
Uh, Albus? A *lot* of people are afraid of death, myself included. Are we all horrible people, too? And a lot of living people are afraid of dead people. Why do you think that horror movies about zombies are so popular (assuming that you know what those are)? Why do you think there even exists the concept of a zombie as a creature of horror and fright? And did you just forget that Voldemort created an entire army of Inferi, otherwise known as *zombies?* You know, who are *dead?* Doesn't seem like he's that afraid of them if he's willing to create a whole army of them.
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Date: 2010-10-29 01:03 pm (UTC)And then have a more clever ending or f
The constant Voldie Voldie is so evil got lame. He's the most evil really? Dumbledore is a close second if you ask me....at the end of the series it just seemed sort of lame how it all ended.
Repeat offender spells.
I just kept thinking, this is the best JKR can come up with, the same exact spells again!?
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Date: 2010-10-29 01:23 pm (UTC)One of my favourite killing spells is from a fanfic where Harry casts "Accio heart!" That would have kept Harry dead in the Forest.
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Date: 2010-10-29 03:57 pm (UTC)How come I'm invisioning this outcome for that spell.
If I shout 'accio heart' this would mean, I'd end up being pelted by a million of those candy hearts that people like to buy on valentines day. You know the ones nobody ever wants to eat that have those stupid messages on them, me mine, etc.
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Date: 2010-10-29 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-29 09:14 pm (UTC)I remember reading one fan's review of DH where she said that she liked that Harry cast Expelliarmus during the final duel with Voldemort because it was familiar and because it was a spell that he'd been using all along. *shrugs*
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Date: 2010-10-30 01:16 am (UTC)Sorry to keep quoting at you, but the mindset people have towards this series flabbergasts me so much, I just...
Yeah....Harry who likes crucio a little too much when he finally unleashes it, Harry who had no issue hurling Dark spells at Snape in HBP...and yet it's betraying his character to use something a little more aggressive than a disarming spell? This is the boy who hexed a Squib in the corridors for fun! But to defeat the evil villain who's killed so many people- his own parents, FFS!- who's injured and victimized countless others, all he can muster is an Expelliarmus? O.o
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Date: 2010-10-30 02:59 am (UTC)But I still disagree with most of what the poster said. Harry did tell Sirius and Remus to spare Peter's life in PoA, true, but it was only because he didn't think his father would want his friends to be murderers. When he and Peter met up again in DH, Harry didn't plead for his life; he outright *demanded* Peter to spare him as a right, reminding him of the bargain in a way that's not so different from how I'd imagine James would rub the bond in Snape's face if he knew about it.
And the "try for a little remorse, Tom" line just seemed random to me. I don't think that there was any other time where Harry asked Voldemort to feel remorse. Was it only because of his confidence in knowing how the duel would end and knowing what Voldemort's soul looked like that made Harry tell him that?
Besides, whenever Harry *does* sympathize with his enemies, it's not for very long and it doesn't mean much in the long run. He does feel a little drop of pity for Draco in HBP, but it's only a little drop, and he does feel bad for Draco when he sees him forced to perform the Cruciatus Curse in Voldemort's visions, but again, he only sees Draco from afar; he doesn't have to deal with him personally. With Voldemort, it's even worse. The one time that Harry feels sorry for Tom, where he indignantly asks why Merope couldn't have tried to save herself for the sake of her son, and Dumbledore instantly raises his eyebrows and asks, "Are you feeling sorry for Lord Voldemort?"
You know, just to remind us that however wretched and unhappy that little boy was, he still grew up to be Voldemort, so there's no point in feeling the slightest bit of sympathy for him. Just like there was no point in helping the wounded baby of his fragmented soul. Come on, Dumbledore, Harry has every reason in the world to hate Voldemort; he isn't going to immediately become Tom's fanboy if he takes a moment to feel sorry for him.
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Date: 2010-10-30 06:29 pm (UTC)To each their own! I actually *don't* appreciate that Harry didn't use Avada Kedavra. Harry was out to kill Voldemort. In fact, he spent the entire book out to kill Voldemort -- not to fight the DE's in any other way, as I recall, just to kill this one guy.
So, without some theoretical background on Dark Magic in general, or Avada Kedavra in particular, I can't appreciate the distinction between using that spell and something else to kill him. We know that Avada Kedavra is *illegal*, but killing people usually is.
It's kind of like... if Harry tasered Voldemort to try to kill him, knowing that he had a weak heart, and Voldemort did indeed die from it. And part of the reason why Voldemort had a weak heart was because Harry'd been spending months slipping some kind of poison into his food, and it was all part of the plan.
Why is that morally superior to using a typical gun?
I don't mean to suggest that it was wrong for Harry to kill Voldemort -- far from it. But that's what he did, and was trying to do. I don't think that using a different spell would have made it any worse.
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Date: 2010-10-31 01:37 am (UTC)I agree with Lynn that Harry's last stand was lame. There is no moral difference between killing with AK or any other method. If the act of killing is a murder it would split the soul of the perpetrator in either case. The only magical difference between AK and other methods is that the AK apparently requires magical intent, which seems to translates to a strong desire for the intended outcome. If the point is that Harry *couldn't* AK Tom then what it means that he didn't really want him dead that much. Maybe it was hard to let go of the Tom-influenced life.
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Date: 2010-10-31 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 03:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 01:08 pm (UTC)Yes, exactly. You can't force that kind of crap on anyone, no matter what kind of evil they've done. Harry's 'try for a little remorse' doesn't come across as any kind of request, it does come across as a taunt and it certainly doesn't seem to be coming from a person who is attempting to give forgiveness or get it.
Voldemort had ripped his soul to bits but JKR seems to ignore the fact. The man wasn't a whole person so how could he possibly feel remorse? Yea, he did it to himself but Harry's comment just seems a bit lame considering Voldie is damaged goods who has removed bits of himself in an attempt to remain alive forever.
Which, technically didn't he achieve his goal? If the Horcuxes hadn't been destroyed I wonder how long Voldie would survive.
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Date: 2010-11-03 05:29 pm (UTC)Because what actually happens if someone creates a Horcrux and then repents? Does the Horcrux remain ensouled but lose its connection to its creator? Does the soul fragment tear itself free and fly back to its owner? Inquiring minds want to know.
Spells
Date: 2010-10-30 12:59 pm (UTC)Where in the context of the argument has anyone suggested Harry needed to use Avada Kedavra?
Maybe tell them that, watch there head explode.
The context of dark magic seems to be made clear throughout the series that it's 'BAD', that dark magic affects you. That good people don't do it, that bad people do 'dark magic'
Yet we have situations where good characters are doing 'dark magic' including Mr. truly and deeply altruistic, and sympathizes with his enemies.
It is that the final meeting between Harry and Voldemort happened...over and over again, in practically the same manner. It would have been nice if there would have been a changeup in how Voldemort was finally defeated besides the two characters casting the same spell.
It isn't about what damn spell Harry cast - it's that we practically have this same confrontation from the main good and evil character over again. It's like we're seeing the exact same story over again.
It's like Voldemort is one of those cheesy horror movie guys that keeps coming back.
It would have been nice to see the Horcuxes used differently. Maybe some sort of spell at the end to join all the bits of Voldies soul back together, and the last bit was in Harry so When that part left Harry and joined with Voldie it would carry some of harry's super powered Love virus with it and THAT would have been what destroyed Voldie.
What JKR really had happen was the damn AK spell bounced off Harry and hit Voldie. Its sorta the same thing that happened twice before. It made the whole thing seem sort of comical and stupid.
So I don't think anyone who is arguing it's the 'same damn spells' is saying harry needed to do AK or dark magic or whatthehelleverspell.
I think most of us are complaining because we're getting the same scene handed to us over and over and the only difference seems to be the constumes and landscape of the scene was changed.
And I don't think the Harry is so uber good to his enemies is a good argument either seeing as how there doesn't seem to be much effect to the good guys using dark magic. There is nothing that seems to be bad about a spell except who is casting it. So all the nonsense we were spewed about dark magic is a lie and all the crap about young Snape being into 'dark magic' seems to only be true based on the accusers alligence.
Re: Spells
Date: 2010-10-30 09:54 pm (UTC)That actually never happened. In 1981 the AK just hit Tom. Because his soul just split (because he was committing murder) one bit went loose - and it happened to land in Harry's head (though it could have gone somewhere else).
In 1998 Tom's spell clashed with Harry's, like in Harry and Draco's duel in GOF. Fortunately the spells clashed head-on so the rebound hit Tom and not some bystander. And miraculously Tom was also hit by Harry's spell.
In 1981 Harry was protected by Lily - Voldemort couldn't touch him or cast spells directly at him, but he was vulnerable in all other ways. In 1998 he was protected by Tom himself - if he was hit by anything lethal from whatever source, as long as Tom still lived and Harry's body was still around Harry's soul could return to his body.
It's still comical stupid, because Harry had so many protections on him he really wasn't risking anything (and he knew it because Twinkles told him at King's Cross).
Re: Spells
Date: 2010-10-30 10:36 pm (UTC)It still bounced or if you prefer rebound.
The spell came out of Voldies wand, he did not cast it at himself. In effect the energy of the AK spell either bounced off Harry or bounced off the magic Lily created with her sacrifice. Take your pick which caused the bounce.
I really don't care if it actually hit Harry or not. Magic is energy, it came out of Voldemorts wand and went at the baby and something caused it to 'bounce' back at Voldemort.
I don't think JKR was into physics, but to me magic is nothing more than a form of energy and the AK came up against a force/wall/sheld/thing that can deflect it's own power and send it back in on itself.
The magic Lily created not only was powerful enough to be a shield it was powerful enough to send that AK spell energy back at Voldemort.
So, to me it doesn't matter if it hit Harry or not, it still in the basic sense, Bounced back at Voldemort.
And it kept getting kicked back at Voldemort.
Apparently 3 times is the charm.
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