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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: 2010-11-02 03:59 am (UTC)Canon vs. Non-Canon
Date: 2010-11-02 12:42 pm (UTC)For fanfics there is always the Original character who does not exist in canon.
I don't particularly like Hermione/Snape - I know it's popular but I just don't see Snape being the kind of guy who would date a former student. I just don't feel comfortable with it even when she is portrayed as being older. I just don't see the attraction.
I don't really see the attraction in McGonagall/Snape either.
Someone like, Charity Burbage I could deal with, and there are other female professors we never know the age of like Sinestra who I'm more confortable with Snape being associated with on a romantic level.
Personally when I choose to read a fic I generally like females that are not originally in canon.
And I know people tend to mark those females and fics as being 'mary sue' but not all of them are. It's just my personal preference, mostly because we've already seen where the canon characters go, what they do, how they choose to live in canon. I like seeing other new characters brought in who are intersting and different.
Besides my own fanfic and Lego comic has an original character as the main female role so maybe I am a little bias, but even before I started writing my own fic, the non-canon characters mixed in made it more intersting to me than just all the standard canon parade.
But if I go by canon alone, I just feel like IF the character of Snape was looking I don't think he would be prowling the halls of his workplace for a date.
Re: Canon vs. Non-Canon
Date: 2010-11-03 03:18 am (UTC)Re: Canon vs. Non-Canon
Date: 2010-11-04 12:45 am (UTC)That's what I love about the ship- he gets her to reflect on things and see a different POV. When she's surrounded by people telling her everything she does is awesome, validating the nasty cruel things she does, she's never giong to question it, whereas in a lot of fics, I see Snape making Hermione look back on past actions/situations and realizing she was wrong or that there was another way to interpret what was going on and just basically growing up.
And I also like that's she's so loyal and determined, because it means she's going to be able to stick it out with Snape, and won't cut and run when it gets difficult. I like it when writers have Snape realize that Hermione's not going to flake out on him and ditch him, because it's not in her nature to give up on people.
IDK, I've never shipped such an AU couple before, but this is my #1 OTP, I ♥ it so much. :D
Re: Canon vs. Non-Canon
Date: 2010-11-04 03:15 am (UTC)Re: Canon vs. Non-Canon
Date: 2010-11-04 03:20 pm (UTC)And of course there are all those little things like Viktor, Hermione's first date, being described like a teen version of Severus.
I haven't read GOF in a long time. Do you mean appearance or? I never got a Sev-vibe or Sev-like feel from him...I must have missed it. I got more of the Mr. Popular vibe from him but I admit I haven't read the book in a while, or at least not the parts that had Viktor in them.
And the Half-Blood Prince being the only one to challenge Hermione intellectually. Also Severus' statement that Harry had survived because of his more talented friends.
Maybe I am just more of the mindset that Snape deserves something new and shinny that he's never seen before. Shinny new characters that are well written get more fic-points from me than another Hermione/Snape fic.
Re: Canon vs. Non-Canon
Date: 2010-11-05 02:39 am (UTC)Yes, appearance. Rowling uses almost exactly the same description for both, including the hook nose and sallow skin. It took me for ever to realize Rowling used that description because the reader is supposed to be suspicious of Viktor. (I had a feeling she did not intend to encourage SSHG shipping, so why the hell use those words? Oh, right, she thinks describing people as resembling Severus will put us off.)
Re: Canon vs. Non-Canon
Date: 2010-11-04 03:07 pm (UTC)I mean unless the story is just a fic driven by sex and one long trashy romance novel then I get that there is a difference in what is being written or what a author is trying to do with their story.
Which technically there is nothing wrong with romance novels or even trashy ones.
But I guess on a certain level my fic being SS/OC driven I am a little bias to those kind of stories.
It just depends on the fic but I think a story that does more than just do romance an OC is just as good a story to read as a story with Hermione as the female role.
But I still must admit I'm turned off by the paring and I just don't see the attraction, even to an older presumably mature Hermione. It just doesn't work for me personally, I only find it interesting when it's someone else that is non-canon or someone that wasn't one of his students.
Obviously that limits things on the canon side but I just can't get into Hermione (heart) Snape or vise/versa.
Re: Canon vs. Non-Canon
Date: 2010-11-05 02:57 am (UTC)They are hooking him up romantically while also giving his perspective - either in contrast with Hermione's or as already processed by Hermione. The reader already knows how Hermione views canon events and situations during canon years, his views are a matter of inference and guesswork.
Then there are all those SSHG stories (not necessarily romantic) that take place behind the scenes in canon. Since Harry is so self-centered, characters he wasn't watching could have been doing just about anything out of his sight. Maybe Severus was training Hermione in advanced defense (or Occlumency or anything else) while Harry was obsessing about Draco in HBP. Maybe all her library research about the Half-Blood Prince was cover. It's fun to imagine along those lines.
Age differences, history at Hogwarts (or present at Hogwarts) are all challenges for them to overcome - they all spice the story up.
Also, AU-shipping of two well-developed canon characters is a different kind of challenge than creating a new character that would go well with a familiar one. How to bring A and B together while leaving them recognizable enough as their canon-selves (plus whatever development the author had them undergo).
Obviously that limits things on the canon side but I just can't get into Hermione (heart) Snape or vise/versa.
Well, fandom is a huge place, there is room for everyone. If you search enough you will probably find stories pairing any 2 HP characters that ever were in the same chapter in canon, even if they were never described in the same room together.