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

[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.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Treating Cedric like a disposable toy is probably the worst part of the spoilers imho...

Upon further consideration that is pretty awful. "Oh, we'd totally save this guy, except...a worse future happens if he doesn't die, sorry, nothing to be done!" I think the worst part of it is that he seems to get no choice in the matter whatsoever. Does he even know what's going on?

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Well, considering that in his alternate reality where he lives, he inexplicably turns into a Death Eater that murders Neville, among other things...he's better off dead, I guess. :/

The Hufflepuff fans are in outrage over this - the only prominent Hufflepuff (aside from Zacharias, but who wants to claim him) and this is the character assassination he gets!

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

What she did to Cedric is just terrible.
It wasn't enough that he was killed. No, she had to turn him into a Death Eater???

The Hufflepuff fans have every right to be outraged. Hell, everybody should be outraged! Even if you don't like (or are just "meh") on Hufflepuff; this is still insulting.
Not just to Cedric and Hufflepuff: but to our intelligence as well.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

The gift of a moldy blanket is pretty crap. It's not even something that was of sentimental value to Harry anywhere at any point in the books, so WTF. Even in Once Upon A Time, which has very little grasp on continuity or characterization, at least the main orphan Chosen One character's baby blanket was brought up a couple times and shown to have value to her prior to it becoming an important plot point.

I don't know what the point of Rose even was - there was so much hype about her (especially being a black girl) and then she was non-existent throughout the play, except for a scene or two of being snotty to Scorpius. Because in JKR's world, being an asshat to someone is a sign of Twu Wuv.

Poor Cedric. You'd've thought being dead was enough, but she had to tarnish his character even after he's dead and buried! Cedric the Death Eater is even more ridiculous than the fanon RON the Death Eater.

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

Here's the thing; that old blanket could have actually been touching.
If JKR wrote a play about a grown up Harry being contacted by Dursley. It could have been a play about Harry coming to terms with many things. About actually building a friendship with Dudley (maybe even have Dudley's child turn out to be a wizard).

But the most important part; it could have been about Petunia's guilt and love that had her keep the blanket. The blanket really had no emotional significant to Harry. It was Petunia that keep it for all those years. The play could have explored that.
Showed us what made her mourn her sister and keep the last thing she had of her; but at the same time act terribly toward Harry. Showed us her inner turmoil. It could have also been used to give us Dursleys that are more then caricatures.
And been used to explain but also to condemn their action during Harry's childhood. Even shows us Just how badly DD messed up and just how did his and Petunia's comunication looked like.

Really, the whole blanket thing had so much potential. But the way it was used is just, well, a wet blanket on everything.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/she was non-existent throughout the play, except for a scene or two of being snotty to Scorpius. Because in JKR's world, being an asshat to someone is a sign of Twu Wuv./

That's why, if this was an attempt to coast on the popularity of Rose/Scorpius or Draco/Hermione in fandom, it backfired. Because you're right, Rose has nothing to do with the whole time-travel plot. She doesn't go with Scorpius and Albus, and doesn't even help out during the final showdown with Delphina. In fact, a measuring stick is what she really is. She sniffs at Scorpius and Albus to show how bad their social status is in the beginning, she's a talented Quidditch player just to be a contrast to the socially inferior Albus and Scorpius, and then she grudgingly agrees to date Scorpius to show how much Scorpius has risen in confidence or something like that.

So, I don't see why Scorpius/Rose fans would like it, since her character is pointless and she's just as much of a shallow, stuck-up, and catty prima donna towards him as Lily was to Snape, and I don't see why Draco/Hermione fans would like it because he hasn't given any reason for Rose to dislike him. There's no rivalry between them about grades; there's no ideological conflict about blood purity. She's just being a brat because the HP narrative inexplicably thinks that girls treating their male love interests like dirt is cute.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

What did Cedric do to deserve this? Maybe it is because he was too heroic. Only Harry is allowed to be a hero.

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

Amazing comment! Vent or no; this is very well said.