GoF Chapter Seven

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

*I think the whole Muggle vs. Wizard World thing is one of those things that comes and goes as humor is needed. A kilt and a poncho? Wouldn't he look just as weird in his robes? They're supposed to live right in the center of Muggles, yet hand a wizard something with a zipper and he turns into a clown. It's not like it's something subtle like normal tee-shirts with ridiculous slogans or bands or something. Oh wait, Tonks wears that in OotP, suggesting that wizarding clothing is just the same as Muggles. Comes and goes, comes and goes...

*Yes, Arthur, the money has numbers on it. It's just that simple.

*Anyone else find Mr. Roberts handing over the map "placidly" a little terrifying? Yes, he's just so much more docile with the brain damage. It's not at all like an Imperio. He needs a memory charm "ten times a day" to "keep him happy." Keep him happy??? And this is going to have exactly what kind of long-term effect?

*You know, is it really that big of a deal to have Muggles hear the word "bludger?" It's just a game and they already think this whole group has something in common. Can't they just pretend they're Trekkies? Nobody in my city would look twice at these guys.

*I love how Arthur gets even more misty-eyed about his good buddy Bagman when someone brings up the fact that he's a fuck-up. He's lax about security, but who cares? Memory charming Muggles isn't at all as bad as making their toilets explode. Doesn't even occur to Arthur anti-Muggle security's sort of his job.

*Oh ho ho, so the tent looks and smells like Mrs. Figg's house! Is Mrs. Figg's house made of something similar to the tent, I wonder?

*Don't trust Perkins, Arthur! He's Pellenor Wilkes, a metamorphagus Death Eater who...oh wait. Wrong canon.

*And yet he has lumbago. Is that the one Muggle illness wizards get and can't cure?

*Why doesn't the girls' tent smell of cats? Perhaps more to the point, why does the boys' tent smell of cats? Did Mr. Weasley make Mrs. Figg's house?!

*Harry had never much thought about wizards in other countries. Well, there's a shock. I guess Harry was spending too much time not learning the names of the kids in his very own class to think about there being people in other countries.

*It's kind of funny that everybody's being so shocked about people using magic because really I'd suspect most wizards would be so used to magic they might not even be aware of what is and what isn't. Like, the kids are flying around on their toy brooms, and I can imagine a wizard just not registering this as a Muggle would see it.

*I wonder if Seamus protested to the author about having to make his entrance out of a giant Shamrock. I mean, honestly. Is he Riverdancing and drinking a pint o'Guinness too?

*Seems like young genius Seeker prodigies are really a dime a dozen in the WW. What's the big deal with Harry again?

*Reading my UK copy: so in Britain you call it a "pen friend" instead of a "pen pal?" *files away info* Btw, friend or pal, Bill's is kind of a jerk.

*Seriously Harry, you thought Hogwarts was the only school in the entire world? Harry makes the most insular red-stater look positively continental.

*I hope everyone's catching that Arthur could totally be using magic with no one noticing but he's trying to do things the Muggle way because it's fun, right? Right.

*Obliviator doesn't sound too ominous, huh?

*Unspeakables seem important to anyone? Yeah, me too. RIP, Bode.

*Geez, Harry, can you blame Percy for not liking Ludo? "Not much for me to do," he says while everyone else is running themselves ragged doing his job. That's real cute when you don't have to pick up the slack for the guy. Otherwise, doing nothing and coasting on your professional Quidditch career from years ago is not going to endear you to other people at the office.

*Also, do I detect a note of judgment at the idea of Percy greeting Ludo professionally and politely despite having criticism of him in private? That's pretty normal, Harry. Not everybody has Snape and Hagrid's boss.

*Everyone thank Mr. Bagman for bribing daddy, children.

*Percy sounds a lot like Hermione, yes, but somehow it's worse with him.

*That's the Weasleys for you, feast or famine. Bet your whole life savings on a game? Why not. Still, you wonder if their winning it is just luck...Didn't they win the lottery too?

*It's not petty at all for the twins to put down Mr. Crouch just because Percy is impressed by him.

*When asked if he's heard from Bertha, Bagman says he's heard "Not a dicky bird," and he says it "comfortably." I really think that surely we're leading up to that Jane Austen type thing pharnabazus recently wrote about. Bagman's being a "great guy" means he's pleasant to be around socially but he's really not a good person in the least. Unlike Mr. Crouch, who follows the rules and keeps telling him to look for her.

*Isn't it interesting that Harry describes Crouch's perfect Muggle clothing as "following the rules" and assumes that's why Percy likes him? Because to me it seems like Percy is impressed by his competence and achievement: he speaks 150 languages so can deal with many situations, and he can blend in with Muggles because he takes five minutes and gets it right. No wonder he's impatient with Bagman. It's not like the others look stupid because they're rebelling against the rules, they're just clueless.

*Btw, why is everyone so mean about Percy's crush on Crouch and the fact that it's one-sided? (Though I can't blame them for the "Shut up, Weatherby" remark.)

*Btw, Percy, perhaps it's a good thing that he doesn't associate you with the name Weasley, since he knows your father. You know, I could actually believe that Percy lets him call him the wrong name on purpose for that reason.

*Poor Ali Bashir. Has he tried offering to do Arthur an illegal favor in return for his magic carpets? Or is Arthur more strict when it comes to weird foreign items like flying carpets trying to replace the British broom?

*Ron, showing a Weasley's money-sense, saves up all year and then throws it all away on a dancing shamrock hat five seconds before seeing something much better that's actually useful.



The Borgnine Proviso
Surely Ernest would play somebody here. Bagman maybe.

Idiot Picture
Wait, there's more than one wizarding school in the world? Wait, there are wizards in other countries besides Great Britain? Wait, THERE ARE COUNTRIES BESIDES GREAT BRITAIN? And what do those numbers on the money mean? This one says 5. That means it's a 20, right?

Informed Attributes
Viktor is totally the best Seeker ever. Except for Harry, who's really the best Seeker ever. And Malfoy only misses beating Harry by a second when Harry's got a better broom, but is so much worse. Can we just accept that there's only so impressive a Seeker can be?

Nut o’ Fun
Ron's bought a tiny little model of the guy he's going to be jealous of soon to preen on his hand.

Final score: 4

Comments

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

*Anyone else find Mr. Roberts handing over the map "placidly" a little terrifying? Yes, he's just so much more docile with the brain damage. It's not at all like an Imperio. He needs a memory charm "ten times a day" to "keep him happy." Keep him happy??? And this is going to have exactly what kind of long-term effect?

This is probably the most morally disturbing thing about the wizarding world--all the more disturbing because it's not recognized as such and is treated like a joke. Mind-control isn't a joke, and neither is memory-tampering, unless you're in a joke universe (like Roald Dahl's) which Rowling's is not. If we're expected to be outraged by the Imperius curse, then treating Memory Charms as acceptable is just bizarre.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Poor Ali Bashir. Has he tried offering to do Arthur an illegal favor in return for his magic carpets? Or is Arthur more strict when it comes to weird foreign items like flying carpets trying to replace the British broom?

Allowing magic carpets lets the terrorists win?

Seriously, though, you'd think Arthur "Pay No Attention To The Flying Car Behind The Curtain" Weasley would be all over the concept of a magic carpet.

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

*I wonder if Seamus protested to the author about having to make his entrance out of a giant Shamrock. I mean, honestly. Is he Riverdancing and drinking a pint o'Guinness too?

It was required by plot that Seamus fill in the ridiculous comedy requirement and no amount of ooc was going to stop that.

*Seriously Harry, you thought Hogwarts was the only school in the entire world? Harry makes the most insular red-stater look positively continental.

Harry is amazed by everything even after three years in the WW. At this stage his amazement would be called developmentally challenged and not naivety.

*Isn't it interesting that Harry describes Crouch's perfect Muggle clothing as "following the rules" and assumes that's why Percy likes him? Because to me it seems like Percy is impressed by his competence and achievement: he speaks 150 languages so can deal with many situations, and he can blend in with Muggles because he takes five minutes and gets it right. No wonder he's impatient with Bagman. It's not like the others look stupid because they're rebelling against the rules, they're just clueless.

Crouch is for the most part, competent. Which means he must have EVIL running in his family.

[sunnyskywalker]

Crouch is for the most part, competent. Which means he must have EVIL running in his family.

Well, clearly. Only someone evil would bother about things like dressing properly (or checking cauldron bottoms - a clear sign Percy is on the road to evil). We should have guessed that someone so competent would be secretly using an Unforgiveable on his escaped DE son! Although why that is actually so bad is beyond me, given the things good wizards do. Keeping Barty under Imperius is worse than keeping Barty in the company of soul-sucking demons who inflict massive depression on the prisoners how?

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

Evil Crouch, who didn't want to feed his insane son to a Dementor like any normal wizard of a Weasley caliber would. The author will make him feel her wrath! Oh yes, she will.

Only someone evil would bother about things like dressing properly

That is the true level of Crouch's evil. That he cared enough to discover well made, probably bespoke and fashionable clothing that muggles really admire, is just downright backwards. He probably *gasp* even likes medieval muggles! Oh No!

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

Nahh, He'll be buying all that kinky stuff for Penelope and taking her to clubs called "Dementoreater" LOL

[ellecain.livejournal.com]

They're supposed to live right in the center of Muggles, yet hand a wizard something with a zipper and he turns into a clown.

It makes me think the books themselves are just plain anti-muggle. I mean, muggleborns can assimilate quite easily, never having problems with robes or Galleons. But for a wizard to be able to convincingly act like a Muggle seems somehow demeaning; so even if you could do it, you wouldn't.

Behaving like a Muggle would require knowledge of Muggle customs, and a certain comfort with them. If you don't think batteries or zippers are unusual in any way, that sets you apart from the rest of the wizards, shows you have no problems with Muggles and their lifestyle. And the books make this seem derogatory somehow: like why would you aquaint yourself with Muggle culture when wizard culture is so much more superior?

I know these parts are supposed to be comic relief, and I'm just reading a bit too much into it, but I really just get that "Muggle culture is inferior" vibe coming from all over the place.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Maybe I am giving JKR too much credit here, but I always got the impression she depicted the wizards' mindframe as something like the colonists towards the nativs (or like conquerors towards the conquered people). It will always be the weaker side who endeavors to assimilate as well as possible, learning the other's language and customs etc. Muggleborns in this respect resemble e.g. Indian children who were admitted to English schools and were naturally expected to "rise above their origins", becoming the "better English pupils" - just like Hermione is the better witch.

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

A superior race doesn't legislate secrecy codes.

The WW is society that is dying. Because it resorts to fundementalist behavior to save themselves from actually doing something about their situation.

A well integrated and functioning wizard element taking their place in regular human society (i.e muggles) would have no need for a Dark Lord or even a Dumbledore.

[(Anonymous)]

I love how Arthur gets even more misty-eyed about his good buddy Bagman when someone brings up the fact that he's a fuck-up.

Gotta wonder what we're supposed to make of Arthur's taste in friends. Bonding over laziness and corruption, which he no doubt thinks of as being laid-back and obliging your mates, is one thing. Few wizards have much of a sense of morality anyway. But as you say, Bagman's clearly short on ethics as well, and anyone who talks to him for more than five minutes is bound to smell the dry rot. What does it say about Arthur that he likes Bagman so much?

Btw, Percy, perhaps it's a good thing that he doesn't associate you with the name Weasley, since he knows your father.

It's strange that Crouch, with his steel trap mind, can't remember that his new assistant is the son of someone he knows quite well. A subtle clue that he's already under Imperius, or just more forced humor at Percy's expense?

-L

[pacoman.livejournal.com]

It's strange that Crouch, with his steel trap mind, can't remember that his new assistant is the son of someone he knows quite well. A subtle clue that he's already under Imperius, or just more forced humor at Percy's expense?

Since it's later revealed that Voldemort didn't contact Junior - and by definition, Imperio Crouch - until after the World Cup, it's either forced humor, or Crouch subconsciously disassociating his eager, competent assistant from the oddball from the dead-end office who's friends with Bagman.

[saylee.livejournal.com]

*Anyone else find Mr. Roberts handing over the map "placidly" a little terrifying? Yes, he's just so much more docile with the brain damage. It's not at all like an Imperio. He needs a memory charm "ten times a day" to "keep him happy." Keep him happy??? And this is going to have exactly what kind of long-term effect?

I know I do. I'd almost prefer the Death Eater's approach -at least they don't think it's good for you.