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deathtocapslock* I’m going on holiday tomorrow, so I’m putting this
up a bit earlier than usual.
* Fred and George bewitch a snowball to fly into
Ron’s face. I’m surprised he doesn’t think to dock points for that. I’m sure we
saw Percy taking points off Ron in COS.
* Hermione stood outside Hagrid’s door for over half
an hour? Man, that girl’s determined. I’d have given up after a couple of
minutes.
* Of course, she’ll show her determination later on
in the series, when she successfully plots to ensnare Ron.
* Hermione can do a warming spell to dry out her
clothes. Is this the only time in canon we see such a spell being used? Because
it seems to me that people ought to be using it all the time.
* Also, why is it that Hogwarts children learn
useless things like how to turn a rabbit into a pair of slippers, but never
anything that might be useful, like drying or cleaning spells?
* I think it’s interesting that JKR recognises Hagrid’s
incompetence as a teacher here. That woman can do good characterisation when
she sets her mind to it – Malfoy’s story in HBP, for example, is quite
realistic and well-done – but it seems that most of the time she’s too blinded
to the faults of her heroes to write them well. Which might be why the minor
characters whom she can allow herself to write as having both good and bad
qualities (e.g., Percy, Mr. Crouch) generally come across as more realistic.
* Harry is worried about “Malfoy and his cronies”.
Malfoy, as a Slytherin, can’t have proper friends; they’re always cronies,
minions, servants, goons, and so on.
* Ironically, though, it’s Harry who has friends who
are terrified of contradicting him, not Malfoy.
* Malfoy gets all panicky when he hears Hagrid
saying “they prefer the dark”. Because as well as being snobbish, weak, and
generally outshone by Harry in literally everything he does, he has to be a
coward as well.
* “‘Mind yer own business!’ said Hagrid, angrily.”
Yup, that’s really going to allay the pupils’ fears and make Hagrid look like a
responsible adult.
* On second thoughts, I’m acting as if Hagrid
actually cares about allaying pupils’ fears or looking like a responsible adult.
Ignore that.
* I don’t see how people can be so terrified of
Hagrid’s lessons and still learn much from them. That man clearly needs
replacing.
* I can’t really imagine why Dumbledore wouldn’t
want to apparate on a long journey. The twins were apparating all over the
place earlier in the book, so it doesn’t seem that difficult.
* Hagrid’s never heard Umbridge’s “Hem, hem” before,
and assumes one of the threstrals is making it. I’d have hoped that a teacher
showing semi-wild animals to a group of schoolchildren would have known enough
about them to distinguish between the noises they make and the sound of
somebody coughing, but knowing Dumbledore’s hiring practices this is probably
too much to hope for.
* Umbridge speaks to Hagrid “as though she were
addressing someone both foreign and very slow.” I’m not sure about the foreign
part, but given that Hermione spent several hours trying to convince him not to
give Umbridge an excuse to fire him and he still didn’t get what she was going
on about, I think that “very slow” would be a rather fair description of
Hagrid.
* Just in case we were thinking that Hagrid is a bad teacher after all, Umbridge
starts acting like a total bitch in order to put us off supporting her.
* “‘Threstrals aren’ dangerous! All righ’, they migh’
take a bite outta yeh if yeh really annoy ’em.’” I was going to come up with
some sarcastic comment, but I think this sentence rather speaks for itself.
* Although Hippogriffs attack people who blink too
much and Hagrid thought them safe enough to take to class, so his definition of
“not dangerous” and “really annoying” are probably somewhat broader than most
people’s.
* I’m not surprised that Malfoy enjoys seeing
Umbridge criticising Hagrid like that. Being attacked by a wild animal due to
inadequate instructions, and then being blamed for that attack himself,
wouldn’t really make him feel particularly well-disposed towards COMC. I can’t
imagine the other Slytherins would feel particularly happy about that, either.
For all that people go on about the Hufflepuffs being the stick-together House,
Slytherins seem pretty close as well.
* Umbridge is “trying to make out Hagrid’s some kind
of dim-witted troll, just because he had a giantess for a mother.” Hermione’s
probably right about Umbridge’s motivations, although there are still good
reasons for making Hagrid out to be a dim-witted troll, not least the fact that
is it, actually, extremely dim-witted.
* Threstrals are really good, “for Hagrid”. The fact
that Hermione feels the need to qualify her statement like that should tell us
that Hagrid’s lessons are not actually very good.
* Trust Harry to get all passive-agressive with his
“Do you?”
* Hermione’s surprised that as many as three people
in the class could see the Threstrals. Knowing the wizarding world’s lax
attitude to personal safety, I’m surprised there aren’t more.
* Unfortunately, patrolling the corridors with Filch
doesn’t lead to any sympathy for him among the Trio.
* Hermione’s fretting because she hasn’t yet tricked
enough elves into leaving their home and living a life of shame, ostracism and
uncertainty.
* Ron finds the idea of strapping bits of wood to
your feet and sliding down a mountain to be very funny, although he doesn’t
have time to laugh too much, because he’s got to go sit on a household cleaning
implement and stop balls from flying through an oversized blow-bubble hoop.
* Am I the only one to find Dobby’s obsession with
Harry to be slightly creepy?
* Harry’s first reaction to the news that he’s been
replaced on the Quidditch Team is to retort that he resents the ban more.
Nobody suffers more than the Chosen One, Angelina!
* Zach Smith’s being irritating, because everybody
who criticises Harry has to be annoying in order to stop us from agreeing with
them.
* Neville has “improved beyond all recognition”.
Presumably this is related to the idea of magic sometimes developing later in
life, because I can’t see how Harry’s non-existent teaching skills could have
anything to do with it.
* I like the idea of Harry having to resist the
temptation to keep walking past Cho. It seems realistic and natural for a
teenage boy, quite unlike the usual way of depicting romance in these books.
* Although in retrospect I suppose this shows that
their relationship was doomed from the start. If he’d tried maiming her with
magical canaries and sending her to the hospital wing, then they might have had
a chance.
* Harry’s heart sank. “He ought to have known. She
wanted to talk about Cedric.” Yeah, Harry, how unreasonable of her to want to
talk about her dead boyfriend, instead of just trashing Dumbledore’s office and
then totally forgetting about him. It’s not like people ever try and make
themselves feel better about things by talking about them with other people.
You self-centred little twerp.
* BTW, isn’t this the first time she’s tried to
start a conversation about Cedric with Harry? So it’s not like she’s been
talking about it non-stop for the past year. So whence the resigned note in
Harry’s interior monologue?
* Harry is “in a state of shock” after kissing Cho.
Part of me wants that shock to come from him realising that he was actually
moaning Draco’s name rather than Cho’s. :p
* Hermione’s asking about Cho in a “brisk” and “business-like”
way. Somehow that doesn’t seem to me to be the way in which a girl eager to
hear a bit of romantic gossip would talk. More like somebody who’s been told
that the plot requires her to ask what Harry did, and who’s just trying to get
it out of the way as quickly as possible.
* Hermione’s got to explain Cho’s feelings to Harry
and Ron, because she’s just so caring and sympathetic all of a sudden.
* I thought that this scene was done better in the
movie. Having everybody laugh after the “Just because you’ve got the emotional
range of a teaspoon…” comment made it seem like a bit of good-natured teasing,
rather than a nasty put-down.
* Come to think of it, the movies are just overall
better full-stop. They manage to make the Trio seem like nice, ordinary people,
which is more than I can say for the books
* Seriously, Ron, grow a bit of self-control. Yes, I
know you want to get into Hermione’s underpants, but you shouldn’t fly off the
handle every time Viktor Krum comes up in conversation.
* I don’t know why, but “His body felt smooth,
powerful and flexible” seemed like a very slash-y sentence to me.
* Other than that, though, this scene is quite
exciting and well-done, which unfortunately is rather rare for scenes in the
later books.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 02:27 am (UTC)Ron’s face.
In PS they sent snowballs at Quirrell's turban. Not sure what that says of their opinion of Ron.
Hermione can do a warming spell to dry out her
clothes. Is this the only time in canon we see such a spell being used?
In HBP Albus will use a drying spell for himself and Harry on their Horcrux hunt. But on the way back neither of them performed it. So Harry and Albus should have been soaking wet on the tower.
But more interestingly, in GOF the kids arrive at school on a rainy day, they enter the castle wet already, and just then Peeves drops water balloons all over them. Nobody does anything to dry the students. Maybe Hermione researched drying spells after that. And taught them to Albus.
I can’t really imagine why Dumbledore wouldn’t
want to apparate on a long journey. The twins were apparating all over the
place earlier in the book, so it doesn’t seem that difficult.
We only saw the twins Apparating inside one house. According to some interview or other international Apparition is illegal, but I don't see how that can be enforced. OTOH read swythyv's essay on thestrals where she proposes that thestrals can help you find the right location even if you don't know where it is - but only if you give them the right kind of directions.
Hermione’s got to explain Cho’s feelings to Harry
and Ron, because she’s just so caring and sympathetic all of a sudden.
I think she read some self-help books during the summer.
You realize that the moment Rowling does something right you fall silent? Great recap!
no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 10:00 am (UTC)Slytherins seem pretty close as well.
Far more so than the gryffs anyway
no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 11:10 am (UTC)Learned helplessness.
“‘Threstrals aren’ dangerous! All righ’, they migh’ take a bite outta yeh if yeh really annoy ’em.’”
I see the point you're trying to make. But pretty much any animal, including humans, will "take a bite outta yeh if yeh really annoy ’em". Hagrid might have taken this point to tell the students how not to annoy the thestrals. Same way Hermione might have elaborated on how not to give Umbridge a reason to fire him. No, it's not her job, but it goes in with her meddling nature.
I like the idea of Harry having to resist the
temptation to keep walking past Cho. It seems realistic and natural for a
teenage boy, quite unlike the usual way of depicting romance in these books.
I do, too. There are a lot of good things in the books, as well as a lot of things we enjoy about them. That's why we're fans. Pointing out the silly/stupid/unfair bits doesn't make us any less of fans. It's the ones that get butthurt when people point out the criticism that have insecurity about the series.
That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-05 11:22 am (UTC)Having everybody laugh after the “Just because you’ve got the emotional
range of a teaspoon…” comment made it seem like a bit of good-natured teasing,
rather than a nasty put-down.
This is the chapter that launched the line that would forever be one of the glaring defining problems of the R/Hr relationship. After this line, I heard so many fans taking it as canon that Ron had no emotions, then citing that line as evidence. It was meant to be a put-down, as you said (in the books) and I'm so happy that Kloves made it glaringly obvious that it was not supposed to be meant as Hermione observing a hard fact.
It really defines the "Hermione is always right and you can't spell wrong without R-O-N!". The "big, dumb, insensitive" trope really took off from here, leading beyond, onto people actually (I'm not making this up) saying "Ron can't be slashed, he's way too much of a boy to be gay". Drives me up a wall how this line fed into the whole thing and was taken way too far by a lot of the fans.
Poor big, dumb Ron, where would he be without Hermione or his mama? He can't do anything on his own. Good thing Hermione was there to clap for him and cheer him on in Deathly Hallows. Good thing Hermione assigned herself his babysitter for life.
It's not just Ron that this whole setup hurts, but Hermione, too. The mistrust in Ron (on behalf of both parties) and nannying is holding her back as well. If she can't trust him to do or know anything by himself, if he's learned that he can't do anything by himself and if he does, it'll probably be wrong, but that's ok because she'll correct it (with that air of "Oh, Ron *slide whistle*), then how is this a healthy relationship at all?
Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-05 01:28 pm (UTC)...
So many things one could say to that but for now I'll just fantasise about going up to those idiots and shouting a lot about Spartans.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 01:34 pm (UTC)Ron’s face. I’m surprised he doesn’t think to dock points for that. I’m sure we
saw Percy taking points off Ron in COS.
If you were Ron, would you want to antagonise them in a way that reminded them of Percy?
* I can’t really imagine why Dumbledore wouldn’t
want to apparate on a long journey. The twins were apparating all over the
place earlier in the book, so it doesn’t seem that difficult.
Voldemort has to fly close enough to Britain to apparate to Godric's Hollow in DH, so I think we're supposed to assume Apparation becomes dangerous when the distance is too far. That being said, how fast do Thestrals fly that Albus would prefer riding them over inter-continental distances rather than, say, apparating his maximum distance in stages to get to where he wants to be? (And how fast can Voldemort fly? The comparisons to Superman are suddenly looking a lot more reasonable.)
Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-05 03:06 pm (UTC)Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-05 04:04 pm (UTC)Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-05 06:51 pm (UTC)That line is so homophobic and sexist that I don't even know where to begin. How about this: not all gay men are effeminate and emotional pretty boys! Many of them are just as masculine, rugged, and stoic as many straight men out there. And guess what, some *straight* men are effeminate and emotional pretty boys!
/Poor big, dumb Ron, where would he be without Hermione or his mama? He can't do anything on his own. Good thing Hermione was there to clap for him and cheer him on in Deathly Hallows. Good thing Hermione assigned herself his babysitter for life./
How degrading for Ron. Was his last moment of glory really the chess game in PS/SS (because at least there, his insecurities weren't shouted to the rooftops for all to hear, unlike the scene of the destruction of the Horcrux)?
/It's not just Ron that this whole setup hurts, but Hermione, too. The mistrust in Ron (on behalf of both parties) and nannying is holding her back as well. If she can't trust him to do or know anything by himself, if he's learned that he can't do anything by himself and if he does, it'll probably be wrong, but that's ok because she'll correct it (with that air of "Oh, Ron *slide whistle*), then how is this a healthy relationship at all?/
This is often a trend in lousy romantic-comedies and I can't understand it at all. If the lady is really so smart and the guy is really so dumb, then why does she *want* to be with someone like that? Why does she want to be with someone whom she views as a complete infant, someone for her to "train" and scold? Why does she want to be in the position of acting like his mother? And why do guys need a woman in order to grow up? Why can't they just do it on their own, like normal people? Why do they need women to "fix" them?
Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-05 08:11 pm (UTC)I didn't say that this was the kind of crap that makes people think that yaoi fans are all a bunch of girls who want to be yaoi!boys so that they're pretty and can have gay sex, but I was thinkin' it. I still am, in fact.
*Grumbles about spoiled little yaoi fans these days and how back in 1999/2002, we had to draw our own pictures of gay sex by candle light uphill both ways in a snowstorm*
Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-05 08:19 pm (UTC)My theory is that it's an attempt at showing female!power. But it fails on so many levels. "We're going to show how smart this girl is by giving her someone that's an absolute moron!" It's reverse sexism and everyone loses.
How about if everyone gets someone equal? That way, their fights are fun because they're actually fights, not swatting a fly with a plank of wood. That's why I ship Ron/Draco- there's no obvious winner in any argument.
(Slight tangent, but it needs saying)
Hermione... well, Eyore wrote me this great fic where Hermione was with Lavender and that was truly a case of "balancing each other out". At some point, Hermione was trying to apologize to Lavender and Lavender said to her, very patiently "what are you sorry for, Hermione?". I don't even have to describe why that's such a great thing to ask.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 04:37 am (UTC)way. Somehow that doesn’t seem to me to be the way in which a girl eager to
hear a bit of romantic gossip would talk. More like somebody who’s been told
that the plot requires her to ask what Harry did, and who’s just trying to get
it out of the way as quickly as possible.
Or somebody who is going to pass the information along to Harry's future "soulmate", who is in the midst of trying to get Harry to notice her by dating other guys.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 02:29 pm (UTC)Important point - he started improving before Bellatrix escaped. In part it may have been because he had opportunities to practice, because his main problem was aim. Also, perhaps seeing others make mistakes made him less self-conscious.
Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-07 04:19 pm (UTC)Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-07 04:59 pm (UTC)Word. You see the same thing with female pop stars, and a lot of young girls are buying that sort of image. :(
Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-07 05:14 pm (UTC)Re: That Damned Line
Date: 2011-08-09 03:18 am (UTC)