(no subject)

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one a little bothered by Dumbledore? Not only with the fact he could end up in the Guinness Book Of World Records for "Most Incompetent Headmaster of All Time" (though I'm sure there's worse. :P), but also because...he just bugs me. I know JKR was trying to write him as the "flawed Yoda", so to speak (and to be fair, he's nowhere near Yoda. XD), but it's also how...preachy he gets. Towards Fudge, for example. You know, in Goblet of Fire, with, "You place too much importance on purity of blood, yadda yadda et cetera et cetera" -- which considering how he treated Tom Riddle and the Slytherins is...slightly hypocritical isn't it? Probably bad writing on JKR's part, though. :/

Anyways, sorry 'bout the rambling. Thoughts?

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/That still has no bearing on whether or not she "chose" to die in childbirth, because it's awfully hard to just up and die for no physical reason./

Why do I get the feeling that JKR has the same view of dying in childbirth as George Lucas does? -_-

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

"Why do I get the feeling that JKR has the same view of dying in childbirth as George Lucas does? -_-"

That's a little harsh, but...I'll take it. :3

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to be harsh, but it just seems that both of them portray dying in childbirth as something that one can actually choose to do. Merope "chose" to die in childbirth by giving up because she "lacked Lily's courage," according to Dumbledore. Padmé "chose" to die in childbirth by "losing the will to live," even though the medical droid told Obi-Wan and Yoda that there was nothing physically wrong with her. I don't know, I just find both situations to be dumb and offensive.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

True. :/

In all honesty though, Padme mostly "lost the will to live" because...*sigh* Okay, okay, I'll call logic fail on Lucas too. :/ (Matt Stover's novelization is better about this, trust me. :) /Shameless Matt Stover pimpage. XD)

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

I think part of the problem with Padme may have been that the medical droid didn't want to admit that it had put her at an angle such that she had to push the babies out against gravity! What genius storyboarded that scene and built those props?

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

And by genius you mean complete and utter idiot, right? ;-)

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Clearly a genius utterly, completely unfamiliar with the birth process and possibly basic physics as well.

[sunnyskywalker]

A genius who also does not know about prenatal care. Do they not have doctor-patient confidentiality in the GFFA so she could get an ultrasound and notice that wait, there's two babies in there?

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

I've read fanfics that explain that away by saying that Padmé didn't get an ultrasound because she wanted the gender of the baby to be a surprise. Which works, but I think that the real reason why she and Anakin didn't find out that Padmé was carrying twins was because that would created even more plot holes and inconsistencies (and the prequels already had plenty).

It's one thing for Vader to not recognize Leia in "A New Hope" (even though there have been plenty of fan theories about that). It would be quite another for him to have known from the beginning that Padmé was pregnant with twins and not put two and two together once he found out about Luke. The obvious question that would come to mind would be, "Okay, so one of my kids is alive, so what happened to the other one?"

[sunnyskywalker]

She could always have the doctor not tell her! The way real people do.

How to keep Anakin from knowing there were two is another matter. Unless she wanted to surprise him... again? Hm. Well, that is George's job.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

It *does* say in the ROTS novelization exactly that: that she didn't want the medical droid to spoil the surprise. *Has ROTS novelization as personal head!canon*

But that said...really good point. :)

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

They wouldn't even need an ultrasound to find out there are twins. A competent doctor could tell by the two heartbeats, two heads, larger girth and weight gain. That's how they knew, not just suspected, twin births before ultrasound.

And, usually, mothers have an instinct though, for some, there is a hope for twins that can skew that.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

*Sighs* Anyone got any useful facepalm gifs to sum up the sheer "WTF" of how a GFFA doctor couldn't have noticed *twins*? /bitch mode.

[sunnyskywalker]

No, but I bet there's a great pic of Leonard McCoy somewhere being cranky. ("Good God, man, you call yourself a doctor?") Spock probably thinks it's illogical too, and they're annoyed about agreeing with each other.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

XD.

That's brilliant. XD XD

I'll accept that. :)

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Sorry to ask a silly question, but what are George Lucas' views on dying in childbirth?

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

I wasn't being completely serious, since I don't know his personal views about it because I don't know him personally. I was just snarking on the fact that the treatment of Padmé's death in "Revenge of the Sith" is similar to the treatment of Merope's death in HBP. The medical droid tells Obi-Wan and Yoda that Padmé is physically fine, but that there's still something wrong with her. It turns out that she's "dying of a broken heart" and she "has lost the will to live."

In other words, she's not dying because Anakin Force-choked her or because of complications in childbirth, either of which would have been sufficient explanations. No, she's dying because she just can't bear to live anymore. She's so depressed that she gives up. Padmé effectively "chooses" to die. Like Merope, she just didn't have the "moral courage" to live for her children. Which, if one knows anything about women who die in childbirth, is utterly preposterous.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Well...it could also be complications from the Force Choking. :/ Dumb medical droids...

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

So you're saying she was mortally wounded by the Force Choke but managed to hold on long enough to pop out the kids against gravity, and her "losing the will to live " (and just how did the droid measure that, exactly?) is more like "losing the will to lift up a truck under which your child is trapped, having received an adrenalin boost or whatever the cause is that grants people extra strength in real life for this sort of thing"? (Didn't Luke mentioni n RotJ that his mother was strong with the Force, or am I misremembering?)

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Luke didn't really say anything about his mom being strong with the Force (although there *was* a deleted AOTC scene that implied Padme may be Force Sensitive...). Unfortunately. :(

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately?

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

I kind of meant about Padme not being strong with the Force. (But then again, being strong with the Force is no measure of awesomeness. :) *Embarrassed* It's mostly unfortunate that this idea didn't make it in; it would have been neat. :(

YMMV, naturally. :)