Re-Titling Game

[sunnyskywalker]

So, there's this quote on Red Hen that I've been turning over in my mind:

"When you take a clear overview, Rowling’s books stopped being “about” their titles after PoA. [...] The Goblet [...] was carried in, got confunded, spouted something that tossed Harry into the soup, boogied off and we never saw it again. [...] The Order was just about totally irrelevant to the course of the actual story [...] The Half-Blood Prince was a somewhat different proposition, I agree, but he wasn’t the story either. Or not the main story. [...] [The Deathly Hallows] would be the McGuffin that kicks off a major part of the adventure, or they will be some gaudy peripheral issue that Harry cannot access, until the final showdown."

Whereas the philosopher's stone was a driving force (albeit mysterious) to the first book, the Chamber of Secrets was essential to the second book, and the prisoner who escaped from Azkaban was absolutely essential to the book's unfolding plot and conclusion.

So, looking back at the latter four books...

- If you kept their titles, how would you make the titles actually relevant? (Maybe the Goblet of Fire not only spits out the Champions' names, but is waiting for them at the end of the final task, and so it ends up being Harry's semi-goal and is the object which transports him and Cedric to the graveyard, for instance.)

- If not, which titles would you choose instead?

Goblet of Fire had a working title of Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament. Cheesy, but at least more relevant. Harry Potter and the Triwizard Tournament would be equally relevant, but also a bit boring. Harry Potter and the Three Tasks? There must be something better.

Order of the Phoenix might work better as Harry Potter and the Department of Mysteries, given that Harry's dreams/visions drive a lot of the action and are crucial to the climax. But I'm sure there are other options too.

Half-Blood Prince... I dunno. Harry Potter and the Room of Requirement? Not very zingy. You could go the movie route and make Draco's task less mysterious, and call it Harry Potter and the Vanishing Cabinet.

...and so on. We have some brilliant minds here; surely we can come up with good titles!

Comments

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

That depends on whether you want serious titles or facetious ones. My list of facetious titles would be:

Harry Potter and

4) the Stereotypical Foreign Visitors
5) the Voldie Visions
6) the Chest Monster
7) the Camping Trip from Hell/the Most Boring Camping Trip in History

It's fortunate for Rowing that truth in advertising laws don't apply to book titles, or DH would have sold a LOT fewer books. :-D

[sunnyskywalker]

You guys are great! I'm especially snickering over Harry Potter and the Stereotypical Foreign Visitors.

Did anyone else read or have relatives who read those American Girls books? Now I'm imagining the series going,

- Meet Harry
- Harry Learns a Lesson (Gryffindor is best!)
- Harry's Surprise (omg my godfather is a felon! wait, he's innocent!)
- Happy Birthday, Harry!
- Harry Saves the Day (Snape is gnashing his teeth, or perhaps rolling his eyes)
- Changes for Harry (camping is much different from living in a castle with magical servants!)

They went in six-book series, oh well.

[mooselord.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter and the cupboard of misery

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

I'm having trouble thinking of a good title for HBP because I'm not sure what the book is even about. It doesn't exactly have a plot, or even a central conflict.

[oryx_leucoryx]

We didn't know it when we read it, but in part it is Harry Potter and the Elder Wand, Part 1 - because Dumbly's plans for his death were motivated by his need to control the inheritance of his wand (and then Draco interfered). But from Harry's POV it was Harry Potter and the Dark Lord's Home Videos or Harry Potter and the Troubles of the Quidditch Team, and yes, Harry Potter and the Chest Monster of Doom.

Title

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

How about, Harry Stalks Slytherins?

[sunnyskywalker]

That's the trouble I'm having with it too. Harry Potter and Voldemort's Backstory? Harry Potter and Snape's Old Textbook Which Doesn't Actually Matter Much?

Other maybe-important elements: the Pensieve/Pensieve Memories, the Astronomy Tower, the Cave of the Inferi, the Birdbath of Doom, Felix Felicis, the Slug Club.

This book definitely needs focus. I actually like The Half-Blood Prince, and would like to figure out how to make that title more relevant. Maybe Harry could have started discovering that Snape and Lily used to be friends in this book (maybe Slughorn tells him), and then the revelation that the potions book had a Draco-eviscerating hex and Snape killing Dumbledore would feel doubly like betrayals - he wouldn't just be freaked that Snape was the one who gave Voldemort the prophecy, but that he betrayed his best friend Lily and created dangerous magic while still in school and fooled Dumbledore for years to finish the betrayal. (This would also require Harry worrying about the hexes from the book which he used and what that means about him.) He'd probably decide Snape was never a real friend, of course, being Harry. So then the Prince's tale in the next book would be not information from nowhere, but the revelation that yes, they really were friends, Snape really did want to protect Lily from the Marauders, and that he's been working essentially for Lily's memory all along. And, um, maybe playing up the Snape-as-Draco's-mentor (whom Draco is now resisting) role in all that for generational parallels and connecting subplots.

[sunnyskywalker]

Better the Dark Lord's home videos than the chest monster...

It's too bad we didn't get more of Snape's DADA lessons. I bet those could have been relevant to the book somehow. Especially of JKR played up that Harry resisted learning from Snape-in-class but loved learning from the Prince's book. (And hey, maybe the inferi lesson could have stuck with Harry better and he actually remembered the fire trick himself, and then got to feel pissy that Snape had taught him something useful. How dare an evil person be competent!)

Re: Title

[sunnyskywalker]

Ha! Yes, Harry Potter and Draco's Dot on the Marauders' Map was a pretty major part of the book.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

That would be a good change to the story, I think.

As for a title for the book Rowling gave us, maybe HP and the Dark Arts?

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Oh! For Book 6: Harry Potter and the Unbreakable Vow

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

4 - Harry Potter and the Black Magic Champion
5 - Harry Potter and the Disappointing Mentor
6 - Harry Potter and the Personal Trainer
7 - Harry Potter and the Crisis of Faith (or Harry Potter and the Plot That Had to Last a School Year)

[sunnyskywalker]

Oh, I like that! It appears early on, drives a lot of the action (not that Harry knows, but you can see it in retrospect), and is crucial to the climax.

[sunnyskywalker]

That sounds like volume 1 of Harry's autobiography (written with assistance from Rita Skeeter). I like it!

[sunnyskywalker]

Personal trainer is unfortunately so appropriate for Book 6...

Someone could probably have fun writing a story about how Hogwarts is so central to wizarding mentality, such a brake on them ever growing up, that even Voldemort just can't help scheduling everything around the school calendar.

Harry Potter and the Death Eaters might work for Book 4 as well, though I like "black magic champion" too. (Like Danny's suggestion of HP and the Dark Arts above, maybe a title like this would get Rowling to actually tell us what makes them different from non-dark, non-black magic.)

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Though I think Rowling was trying to make Snape's true allegiances a surprise in Book 7. I wonder if the Unbreakable Vow as a title would have been too much of a hint.

[sunnyskywalker]

I think since we see an Unbreakable Vow actually being made in chapter 2 of book 6, it would work. While reading, we wouldn't be quite sure what Draco's task was and so what Snape was promising, but we would feel it as an ominous force throughout just because it's in the title, and that conversation Harry overhears between Snape and Draco would seem even more portentous. At the end of the book, we still wouldn't know Snape's motives for making it - was he really trying to support V's cause and killing Dumbledore was a major goal, or protect Draco (or both), or was it on Dumbledore's orders? And we could have spent the time between 6 and 7 wondering whether that was the only UV in play, or whether the Dark Mark is a variant of it and so Snape has to be a loyal DE since he's still alive, or whether Snape ever made one to Dumbledore (and if so, what was it), and so on.

Come to think of it, why didn't Voldemort work some of the function of an Unbreakable Vow into the Dark Mark? You take it, which means you swear loyalty to the Dark Lord or drop dead.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Ah, but don't the American Girl books involve some sort of character development for the main characters? Harry, of course, is a perfect paragon of love just the way he is. He doesn't need to change one bit! *blargh*

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

5. Harry Potter and His Irritating Hormones
6. Harry Potter and The Super-Mature and Grown-Up Themes, Seriously!!!!
7. Harry Potter and the Author-Approved Sociopath (ie, Hermione)

Maybe I shouldn't be allowed to play this game.

Dark Mark

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

In one of Pasi's stories, it is impossible to take the Dark Mark with treason to the Dark Lord in one's heart. The story opens with Moody attending the funeral of a brilliant young Auror, a superb Occlumens who managed to fool Voldemort into being offered the Mark--and the Mark killed him. I think it was the sequel to Apothecary and Auror.

However, once someone is in... well, think about it. If the Mark killed anyone who felt disloyalty, then the first time a follower felt the flicker of a qualm at what he was ordered to do, or was disturbed by how Voldemort treated a fellow DE (perhaps a relative or close friend), good-bye to that follower. You'd be having DE's dropping dead on their first serious "operation" left and right, as they found out what they were in for. Even if you tied it to overt disobedience to order--a momentary hesitation to act would kill the follower. Exactly what happened to Peter, in fact.
Maybe Tom had tried it (he did expertly tie a loyalty clause into Peter's hand, after all) and found he lost too many DE's that way.

Whereas as we saw with Draco casting the Cruciatus, initial reluctance can often be overcome when the stakes are high enough. Indeed Tom enjoys watching the struggle to do so. So why waste followers, so long as they learn in the end to obey promptly?

No, better to use Legilimency to monitor his DE's loyalty, and fear to keep them obedient.

Or, maybe Tom just didn't think of it at first, couldn't imagine that anyone having once joined him would wish or dare to turn. But then his long vacation in Albania gave him a lot of time to reflect on how loyal his devoted followers apparently were. However, by then it was too late to redesign the Dark Mark itself.

Either of those work for you?

[sunnyskywalker]

I remember Addy making up with a school rival... nope, you're right, Harry wouldn't fit in here, unless they came out with a *darker, edgier, like totally dark man* version.

Re: Dark Mark

[sunnyskywalker]

Hm, maybe. But we see that you can have a Vow about actions rather than feelings only (watch and protect, fulfill the task if necessary, etc. - involving concrete actions, with wiggle room like "to the best of your ability"). So could he have designed one that lets you feel as disloyal as you like, so long as none of your actual deeds are intended to harm the Dark Lord or his cause. "Act obediently and promptly to the best of your ability" would allow for plenty of squirming without killing too many followers, and "Don't do anything expressly intended to counteract my orders or harm my wellbeing" probably offers enough wiggle room too (eg hesitating is fine, zapping a fellow DE to stop him from carrying out orders isn't, but hitting him by mistake is also fine; trying to build up power and influence for yourself is fine, so long as you aren't doing it as part of a plan to depose and/or kill Voldemort).

So, yeah, maybe he just didn't think of it because he couldn't imagine someone not being awed or terrified enough to actually betray him. He does think better of his abilities than seems warranted.

[sunnyskywalker]

In a community called deathtocapslock, I think you have full permission XD

Harry Potter and the Capslocks of Rage! There we go.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

I think you mean, Harry Potter and the Deathly Capslocks. (grin)

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Now I am trying to imagine some sort of gritty reboot of the American Girls series... that would be fantastic.

Addy Learns a Lesson... in Kicking Ass!

That's terrible, isn't it...

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

YES.

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

We know what Brad would call book 6: Harry Potter and the Awesomeness that is Ginny! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Oh. Sigh. I made that comment regarding DHs before the book even came out.

I would have so liked to be proven wrong.

[sunnyskywalker]

I think most of us went into DH hoping to be wrong. Alas... But hey, at least we have a new game as consolation prize. Yay?

[sunnyskywalker]

Ginny Weasley and the Hair Like Flickering Flames! Ginny Weasley and the Flowery Scent!

[sunnyskywalker]

Kirsten Saves the Day... by fighting off wolves in a blizzard with her bare hands! Samantha's Surprise... a little pearl-handled revolver, to take care of Nellie's factory bosses once and for all! You know, someone on the internet has probably done this. I'm both afraid and tempted to look.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling there. There are a lot of ideas that are cool in theory but have the potential to be incredibly scarring in the hands of (un)capable fanfic writers.