Harry Potter & the Cursed Child

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

For anyone who's curious, the plot of the play has been discussed in spoilery comments at the following links:

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3 UPDATE: Snitchseeker took down their spoilers as JKR called out another website for doing the same and TPTB have been contacting people to request they don't post any details. *eyeroll*

But never fear, Andrew Sims of Hypable (whom JKR called 'Wormtaily' for betraying the secret, lmao) linked to a cohesive recap of the entire two-part play.

When I first read about this, I thought it was someone trolling, but there's multiple sources? Either there's a conspiracy afoot or it's legit, IDK what to believe!

What kind of crappy fanfic, lmao! A Time-Turner plot, seriously? To save CEDRIC DIGGORY, of all people, wtf?

How shitty that anti-Slytherin prejudice is still going strong to the point that Albus is ostracized for being sorted into Slytherin. :/

Cackling at Ron & Hermione never getting together as a result of the temporal shenanigans, hehe. But I'm pissed that her being single results in her becoming a bitter Hogwarts teacher as opposed to happily married Hermione being the Minister of Magic, the implications there are pretty gross.

I can't even process everything I just read. Wow. JKR should be fired from her own world, just what even.

Comments

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

Wtf?
I was expecting a disaster but this? It really exceed expectations.

All of it is so stupid, filled with unfortunate implications and only serves to make WW and everything and everyone in it; looks even worse then they did before.

It tells us that Harry never learned to control his anger and caps lock abuse. And that he and WW never bothered to learn anything.

Also, I supposed it's "nice" to know that Hermione's and Ron's relationship was fully and only based on jealousy on his part.
What with him never getting interested in her without seeing somebody else interested in Hermione.
Btw, are we to think that nobody ever asked Hermione out? So Ron never got to be jealous about it?
Or that she spent her life being bitter and only wishing to be with Ron? Hell, is that supposed to be some "Hermione turned into Snape" bs?

And yes, implications of married Hermione being Minister of Magic and unmarried bitter one being Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher are terrible. Also why that subject? Is it only because it's easiest and laziest choice for Jo (no need to retire any old teachers or come up with some other DADA teacher) or was it deliberately going for some warped Snape vibe?

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

omg, I was so caught up in the moment over R/Hr being torpedoed (for now, this is only Part 1) that I didn't fully grasp exactly how thoroughly, if unintentionally, JKR just crucified the ship. Because YES, as you say, it is entirely based on jealousy. WOW. That's pretty harsh treatment for the endgame pairing from its own creator!

I mean, anti-R/Hr folks have been pointing out for years that their relationship is toxic and unhealthy and we never see them actually enjoy each other's company, but that really takes the cake.

are we to think that nobody ever asked Hermione out? So Ron never got to be jealous about it?

I'm guessing that once the Yule Ball with Padma was a success, he only had eyes for her after they started dating and so didn't care what Hermione was up to. She probably then threw herself at Cormac, but it was too late to get Ron's attention once he was in a supportive, loving relationship, and that's what drove her to spend her life ~alone forever~

Lol at the 'warped Snape' idea. It's 'Snape-lite' since she didn't get Ron killed, just lost him to another girl, but I see it...

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

\\ It tells us that Harry never learned to control his anger and caps lock abuse. And that he and WW never bothered to learn anything.

This was evident from the end of DH. "All was well" = return to pre-Voldemort status quo, with all the conditions which produce a new Dark Lord every generation or so. I read quite a few essays on the subject.

And, why would anybody think Harry "learned to control his anger", when he evolves from being almost unable to hurt Bellatrix in Ootp to being praised for his gallant Crucio in DH?

In post-war days, only Ginny wouldn't be afraid to push / shout back at him to make Harry control himself. Considering her own shouting-bullying tendencies, she is hardly the person to teach Harry self-control. In general, the latter seems a mark of evil in HP: only Slytherins, politicians and worse among Ravenclaws are capable of controlling and hiding their emotions.

\\ Also, I supposed it's "nice" to know that Hermione's and Ron's relationship was fully and only based on jealousy on his part.

In sistermagpie's HBP recaps on this site, she showed how the same seems to be true also for Harry and Ginny.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Hell, is that supposed to be some "Hermione turned into Snape" bs?

What makes it even more awkward is that Hermione isn't any less of a sadist than Snape (in fact, she's worse, because she doesn't just say mean things--she actually physically attacks people!). So it probably would be in-character, if Hermione was a teacher, for her to be every bit as harsh as Snape if not moreso, all on her own!

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

Until I read these spoilers I didn't even consider Rose/Scorpius being a thing, but now I'm like: duh, she hinted at it in the epilogue. And as much as I love Albus and Scorpius being friend, I don't think I could stomach any Rose/Scorpius.

Also, yeah. This sounds like really bad fan fiction. They should have spent a few months reading all the good fan fiction before they tried this.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Rose/Scorpius is pretty popular in fandom - but not as popular as Albus/Scorpius! :P Apparently they're 'lowkey gay' in the play, haha, so there's equal opportunity fuel for shippers.

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

Since I almost never liked time-travel fanfic, I was disappointed to hear it's such a central point in the new book.

Also, I was shocked to see Draco claiming "do you know who else had no one Harry?! VOLDEMORT DID AND SO DID I GROWING UP!"

Wasn't Narcissa's love for him crucial in HBP and DH, leading her to betray Voldemort and save Harry's life? She begged Snape to save Draco's life too.

\\ there's a rumor that Scorp is Voldy's son

Completely ridiculous. Scorp was born long after V's death and for all 7 HP books, we have never seen wizards having easy access to Time-Turners or explaining any mystery by linking it to time travel.

Also, Voldemort, as we've seen him, would be much more likely to kill Astoria rather than sleep with her, being an asexual representation of evil. Being uninterested in children suits V for another reason too: since he wishes for immortality, he has no need for heirs.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

JKR shows time and time again she has zero respect for her own bloody canon, lol.

The Malfoys are a tight-knit family, they love each other, that's a key point as you say! At the very least, NARCISSA's love for Draco is beyond refute.

The Voldemort thing is being taken out of context, I believe. From what I gather, it's just what's rumored at school, kids being the mean bullies they are. As Draco's son and a Slytherin, that's the sort of nonsense they WOULD come up with. :/

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

Over a long series it isn't surprising to see contradictions. But it should be small details - not MAJOR PLOT POINTS!

TimeTurning

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

It IS completely ridiculous to 'believe' Scorp is Voldy's child. Aside from the idea that one can use a TimeTurner to go 'forward' in time - something never even discussed as a possibility in canon - this rumor would mean that you could move forward into a time when you are dead. One would think that if one tried this, one would end up dead as well.

After all, the only indication we have that a timeturner could move by increments of years (instead of hours, like Hermione's) was during the fight in the DoM's timeturner room. The one DE whose head fell into the timeturner kept vacillating between adult-to-baby head. That would imply that particular timeturner could jump very quickly multiple years, but that it also affected the state of one's body. Presumably, if one went too far back, one would become a "gleam in your father's eye" - before your own birth.

However, that would rule out most timeturner fics - and ASP and Scorp would just 'disappear' on their first trip into the past. And I suppose I can understand the concept that one must be able to jump forward in time or they would have been forced to live their lives in Harry's teen years.

[vermouth1991.livejournal.com]

Laventadorn (on FF dot net and AO3) has finished the first part (Year Two to Year Four) of her AU girl!Harry fic called "The Never-ending Road". Go read that instead.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I loooove that fic so damn much, I don't have the words ♥

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

I’ll explain in two words: Bad fanfic. Honestly, I wouldn’t read this story if I found it on fanfic-dot-net.

A niece named Delphinus? Are we talking about a female-to-male transsexual who has changed hir name from Delphina or Delphinina to fit hir self-identified sex? Or a male-to-female transsexual who has not bothered to change hir original name? I know wizarding Latin is bad, but I didn’t think it was so bad as to screw up the simplest point of grammatical gender.

Ron married Padma because you can’t marry anyone you didn’t have a date with in high school. And Hermione is teaching Defense because it was always her weakest subject.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Ron married Padma because you can’t marry anyone you didn’t have a date with in high school.

Hee. giggle-out-loud. Rowling's HP is so simplistic in some ways, isn't it? And continues to be so.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I haven't absorbed too much of the plot but it sounds horrible, 'bad fanfic' as so many fans seem to have opined. Major mistake to bring in time travel - that's a topic that automatically makes for a failed story unless the author knows what she's doing.

Joanne ('oh, maths!') Rowling is not that sort of author.

We'll have to look up our books and see exactly where Time Turners are mentioned. Wasn't there a hard-and-fast rule that they couldn't alter the timeline? Or if they did the universe would explode? This will have to be checked out.

Thanks for the links and post!

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I admit, I posted this thinking that you might get a kick out of R/Hr being retconned out of existence - I'm sure the universe will be set to rights by the end of Part 2 (and how ridiculous and blatant a money-grab is that), but still. ^_^

I can't be bothered looking up PoA to see what JKR said on Time-Turners, but let's be real, JKR wouldn't have even taken the time (lol) to fact-check herself. From what I recall, you weren't able to alter the timeline, it was something to do with a closed loop, ie. you could only change things if you ORIGINALLY changed it and therefore you were only making it happen as it was MEANT to happen. (so the kids could only save Buckbeak because they didn't see him getting executed because they had already gone back in time to free him something something timey-wimey handwave)

I actually thought that was pretty clever, it was a neat way of explaining why nobody ever used Time-Turners to change history because it wasn't possible, but obviously she had to ruin one of the good things she established.

In the comments at one of the posts, someone pointed out that if Albus and Scorpius prevent Cedric from competing in the maze, thus keeping him from being killed in front of Harry, that means Harry isn't able to see thestrals which were a big plot point in OotP... (I guess Voldy could've killed someone else, but this is the problem with time-travel, you pull out one thread and the whole thing unravels)

[fdsfd (from livejournal.com)]

ok sorry for the intrusion but can I join please? I need a place to vent/erupt like a volcano made of hate...

All JKR's post DH stuff has been so thoughtless that it really made me reread the entire series in a new (worse) light. She is quite a callous author, it seems to me now. And based on the spoilers I'd say that CC seems "callous" for the following reasons:

1. Harry re-enacting his trauma with his own children. I never bought the "oh he's such a loving hero" the first time I read the books, but on reflection he never did much to empathise with other people, like properly empathise, by treating other people as equals - naming his son Albus almost seemed like a condescending gesture to a dead guy - "oh I will bestow forgiveness upon you from on high" (as if Snape would ever old out for his approval) but even worse is to impress a child with some other guy's sins and then forcing the child to bear witness to your own childhood abuse (like wtf is it with giving his youngest son his orphan blanket when the other kids get bomb gifts... like dude your kid doesn't need to know every detail of your life that you failed to come to terms with or get proper help for)
... ofc he'd still hate Slytherin and fail to move on from his past and become a cog in a Ministry Machine that probably still perpetuates the rotten status quo... and treat his kid poorly based on his own shitty prejudices... ofc... progress is for muggles....

2. Girls, especially Next-gen girls being plot points rather than people (Rose, Delphina (who kind of looks like a less well thought out version of Calypso in Harry Potter and the Boy Who Lives), Ginny, Hermione demonstrating what happens when she doesn't marry Ron in another timeline (becoming a shrew))
with Hermione and Ron...whats the bet she posted a ship manifesto in 2007 under a pseud and got shredded online for it?? she comes across as so bitter to her fandom

3. "Harry Potter and the ode to manpain" - see Draco's "redemptive arc" (which ofc his wife has to be dead for); Albus's pain of having a shitty father; Harry's pain of having a shitty childhood, Albus (the first)'s pain of being a shitty person, Snape's pain of treating a dead girl like an icon rather than a person (somewhat understandable but does he need to be in this play???), etc... but of course (before you even ask) Delphina's pain of having a dead father and mother and a non-existent childhood is revolting

4. Re-writing her own established facts in a way that is obvious (like explaining how time-turners work, destroying all of them, oh one was saved, oh Sirius never appears at GH)... like she is the only one whose reading of her own book counts even if she never bothered to re-read it...

5. Albus and Scorpius's relationship is best friends but not gay!!!! No gays at Hogwarts no sir!!!

6. Treating Cedric like a disposable toy is probably the worst part of the spoilers imho... like her characters are her own personal toys and she can just change whatever integrity they had based on her own whims... ugh I wish she'd never written this horrible play.

Thank god I still have my favourite fanfics; gotta get the taste of these awful spoilers out of my mouth

[traverse.livejournal.com]

"Harry Potter and the ode to manpain"

Had to laugh at this one :) And it actually fits quite well with your point no.2 and JKR's routine dismissal of all her female characters who are seen, as it were, through the male gaze, which, it would seem, the author had thoroughly internalised.

[t0ra-chan.livejournal.com]

Wow, if that is really the plot of the play, then Rowling has truly lost any talent she might have had. She basically destroyed the whole message of HP that was so important to her: death is final and we need to accept it. But nope, instead we just go back in time to save a character nobody in canon has cared about since book 5. And didn't she destroy all the time turners in book 5 precisely to avoid people asking why the characters don't use them to save people?

And then there is all the minor stuff:

Why is Albus in Slytherin when he clearly didn't want to end up there and Harry told him that he can ask the hat to put him somewhere else? He seemed neither cunning nor ambitious, so it seems he is there just for drama.

Why is Draco saying his parents didn't love him when at least Narcissa clearly did?

Why would Harry give a shit about this blanket? He has no positive connection to the Dursleys and he never came across as sentimental to me.

Does Rowling have any idea how often they would have to spin the time turner to get back more than 25 years? That would be about a quarter million spins, that would take ages.

It's all just so stupid, filled with plot holes and characters being ooc.

[snapes-witch.livejournal.com]

Here's Part 2. Read it and weep.

http://victorkrvm.tumblr.com/post/145680264471/in-depth-plot-summary-of-cursed-child-part-two

The Epitome of Bad Fanfic

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

Delphinus/Delphina/Delphi is Voldemort's daughter.

Need I say more?

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds like an unintentional comedy? So...Harry's son Albus is upset that people shun him and his friend Scorpio, and so they decide to travel through time to make everyone love them? But they just fuck shit up further? Sounds like the comedic possibilities are endless.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Haha, if only it WERE written as a comedy, that would have had potential. ;)

Am I a bad person-

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

-for liking all the Snapey goodness in part two? Honestly, Rowling seems to treat him better here than she did in either the books or her interviews. And I love the idea of his being friends with Ron and Hermione. That said:

Voldemort's daughter. Ugh! More genetic determinism; of course the child has to be evil because both her parents were evil.

No real attempt, in either universe, to examine the root of evil in the Wizarding World. Again, it's all got to be related to Voldemort. There's no suggestion that racism is natural to this world, nor that Albus Dumbledore contributed to Voldemort's rise.

Harry as a lousy father. That I can believe, unfortunately, but I can't get over his giving Al that ratty blanket. I had to read the second part to even understand why Harry himself would have been fond of the blanket, and what it meant to him. Even so, what a lousy gift for a young teen boy!

And then, the whole thing -- both parts, both universes--seems inconsistent with the books in small and large ways. To give one example, why is Draco so evil in the alternate universe? Wouldn't his whole family still have been under threat, and wouldn't his mother still have risked her life twice to save him? I don't see how that leads to his being a monster. I also can't see Cedric turning to the dark side just because he lost the triwizard tournament. That good, brave, selfless boy who was willing to share the prize? That's just ridiculous!

I'm probably curious enough to read the book when it comes out, but it does seem an awful mess. And yes, everyone is right about the relationships, and how they are based on jealousy. But I will read it for the Ron/Hermione/Severus stuff.

Re: Am I a bad person-

[penguinsuzie.livejournal.com]

I'm relieved that the Snape stuff doesn't sound too bad, I want to be hopeful about it but I'm keeping my expectations pretty low. I'm worried that how he's portrayed only sounds positive coming from people who clearly despise his character. Or that it'll pile on the idea that Snape only ever did anything good in his life "because Lily".

The Delphi stuff is hilariously bad. Apparently she also has about a dozen Mary Sue traits to the point of sounding like a parody of Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. The hair and tattoo, being a half-breed despite it making zero sense, being a powerful Dark Wizard with a weird mix of her parents personalities mashed together, the prophecy scribbled over the walls of her bedroom which is locked with a parseltongue password. I wish I was kidding.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

So, how sure are we that the reports of the (horrible, terrible, ridiculous) play's script are correct?

I've told a few other people about it and their first reaction is "you must be joking".

And face it, Rowling has the resources to foist a con on the entire internet, and can hire the smarts to do it. She's internet-savvy these days, lecturing everyone from Twitter, making up hash-tags at the drop of a hat, the idea might have occurred to her. The "don't read the tweets of @hypable" might have been a cute way of getting people to do exactly that and take the bait.

Have there been multiple sources/corroborations of this, such that we know the reports are authentic? The Reddit site seemed to have different sources than the hypable one.

[traverse.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the 'carpet book' nine years ago, when what many people believed to be a hoax turned out to be... well, the horrible truth.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

If the point was to save Cedric, wouldn't it have been better to stop Barty Jr. from tinkering with the Goblet?

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

To be fair (omg, am I really defending this mess?), WE know all the details about how the events of GoF transpired, but it's not necessarily the case that Scorpius and Albus would. This was a painful part of Harry's past, he probably wouldn't have sat Albus down and told him how the events leading up to Cedric's death went down.

Ditto for Scorpius - Draco's not going to say how a Death Eater friend of his father's was Polyjuiced as an Auror and set the stage of Voldie's return.

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

. . . okay.
I've just read all of this (here and all linked spoilers) and I don't even.
Sadly, I'm sure it's all true. But I'm having troubles understand how it happened.
Yes, JKR lost any ability to write even slightly okay HP (or anything else). But we knew that since, at least, book six.
What I don't get is; why did everybody just nod and go along with this BS? There must have been many, many people involved in the process. How is it that nobody noticed that everything about this is crap?

It's worse then a lot of badfic. Hell, it sounds more like a crack/bashing fic then anything else.
Nothing makes any sense and all characters are shown as abusive or unsympathetic idiots.

[vault712]

It almost sounds like how the Star Wars prequels were so bad, because everyone involved was afraid of Lucas, who himself had absolute control over every aspect of the movies, no one dared to criticize him despite noticing the bad/stupid ideas thrown in. He simply went for the easiest less demanding stuff knowing he'd make billions no matter how bad it would turn out to be, since his target audience doesn't have difficult taste and doesn't spend hours online arguing with other nerds breaking down the movies finding inconsistencies and how and why they're bad.

Maybe Rowling has total control over that story and dismissed anyone who might have suggested "don't you think it sounds like bad fanfic?", then why did no one, years earlier, said the same thing about DH being bad fanfic? or even for some part of HBP? Her editors clearly stopped doing their job when they saw the phenomenal success of the books, I'd say around book 4, 5.

I don't know if there is really a "JKtatoRship", but I'm sure there is a hardcore portion of the fandom, much more visible, louder, and probably younger, who seem to literally worship JKR and who are blind to plot holes/inconsistencies/plain old logic, as long as they get something directly from Rowling. And Rowling oblige them as they are the most "pleasant" and easy to please fans, and because they also fit in her view of what HP fan should be today and they should like.

If you ever checked HP book release parties in the media on TV, you mostly see young kids about 11-12 waiting in lines, never the older more critic crowd, who ironically are the one who contribute the most to the fandom, by keeping up discussion, fan sites, writing the fanfic, organizing meetups, etc.

I prefer analyzing the books, except DH, and browse tin foil hats theories that are smarter and more entertaining than her own declarations and her post-DH released materials.

It's worse than bad fanfic, but at least bad fanfic remains fanfic, this is a play from the author of the source material, though she can't seem to remember what she has written in those old books. In fact I doubt she would never be able to write the whole series again

As for me I'd just throw the story to the Dementors.

[traverse.livejournal.com]

Andrew Sims of Hypable (whom JKR called 'Wormtaily' for betraying the secret, lmao)

She has an extremely juvenile morality, befitting a 10-year old, not a grown woman. This actually explains a lot about the books. :)

[oryx_leucoryx]

It looks like Rowling decided to play 'Best of Possible Worlds'. It is a common response to people raising 'The Problem of Evil' as a criticism of the belief that our world is being run or supervised by an omnibenevolent and omnipotent deity. The claim is that bad things happen because if they did not things would be much worse. I'm not sure if this is what Rowling uses to answer critics of her plot or something she uses to console herself (it was OK that her mother died of a terrible illness, because otherwise some catastrophe would have certainly happened and God in his ultimate kindness just had to kill Rowling's mother like that to prevent disaster).

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

A best-of-all-possible-worlds time-travel theodicy story could actually be quite interesting in the right hands. Even if Rowling had something like this in mind, though, she isn't really the sort of writer who'd be likely to pull it off successfully.