OotP Chapter Five
Nov. 24th, 2007 01:44 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockQuickly getting this out before my internet goes down again!
*Sad that apparently the best thing the Order ever did was come up with their name, a name they never lived up to in decades.
* Harry continues his mood swings, appreciating things like Molly saying he might as well be a son but also impatient at her molly coddling. I would consider it presumptuous for some woman to claim I was basically her son, particularly if I were Harry, since people like to claim him for his name. Of course, in canon the only people who get criticized for this are bad guys--good guys are always assumed to like Harry for himself, though personally I think Molly's had plenty of Orphan!Harry fantasies where she's Mama Mary Sue. If I were Harry I'd never kid myself into thinking my best friend's mum really cared about me as much as she did even her least favorite child (if she had one) on his worst day. Particularly not in this world, where despite what people try to claim about it being about tolerance and modern-thinking, family seems to be everything.
* Fudge's story does, at least, make sense, the way he's convinced himself he's right. We also get a hint here that the rest of the world has no reason to believe Harry, which he will deal with by ranting about it and deciding they are stupid. It's still a shame the alternative must be Dumbledore. I will continue to dream of a Wizarding Society where people can make informed decisions and not constantly give up freedom for safety.
* The theory that liking us=good person gets more play with Harry feeling a surge of affection for Sirius because he doesn't like Dumbledore, which is both a nicely human touch for Harry but also not all that examined. I mean, Harry doesn't know Sirius that well, and their supposedly great bond therefore always seems very fake to me. This just underscores it. Harry likes Sirius as long as he's not standing in his way, which is the extent to which he likes most people.
*Why would Peter have just told Voldemort Sirius was an animagus? Wouldn't he have told him that years ago, like when he first joined up? Was he waiting for Remus to tell before he did or something?
* Then there's also Mundungus, of whom Molly does not approve, for understandable reasons. The last thing the twins need is a confirmed criminal regaling them with tales of how fun it is to be a crook as long as you're loyal to Dumbledore. I actually have no problem with the idea of working with shady people when necessary, and think it's pretty reasonable to say well, maybe he's not usually trustworthy but he's loyal to us so he's useful to an extent, but you don't have to romanticize him, which the twins are probably in danger of doing.
* Then there's the whole, "Don't tell Harry more than he needs to know" business. I'm still having a hard time buying anybody's plan, either the Order's or Voldemort's. It's just so obvious Harry should know more than he does. It's got nothing to do with not being the Order, because this is about him personally. Even now it's clear Harry could be told enough to help him without letting him know he's got to kill Voldemort on his own (in case he hadn't figured that out yet).
*ETA: But then, you haven't seen a stupid plan until you've read DH.
* There's lots of vague references to how secretly Voldemort works and how dangerous things in the Order are, but having seen both groups up close that just doesn't hold up much. If Harry wasn't supposed to survive GoF why oh why isn't he taken out effectively? Honestly, Tom. Hire some Muggles to do it. The Russian mob would have taken all of these people down with far less fuss. I saw it on Law and Order.
*A lot has been made of Harry suddenly becoming a brat or a teenager, depending how you see him. Others have replied that since Harry didn't act 11 when he was 11, why should he be 15 at 15? Why shouldn't he continue to be more mature? In this chapter what struck me was...why are ALL the kids regressing? I've complained in the past at the way Malfoy seems stuck at 11, but here we get:
* Hermione and Ginny giggling over Tonk's funny noses at the table--yeah, I'm sure it's funny once but if you're older than a toddler it would get thin pretty quickly. Ginny also giggles at Mundungus falling asleep at the meeting--presumably because he's drunk? Again at 14 I don't think that would send me into giggles. In fact, most 14 year-old girls can be become downright humorless about that kind of thing, and while obviously Ginny would never be one of those girls (now), I can't imagine Hermione finding it funny if Ron were making funny noses at her. Does she have a crush on Tonks or something?
* Ginny stomping upstairs yelling when she's sent up to bed, and waking the portraits. Okay, I know supposedly Ginny was "always" the way she was in OotP, but damn it's hard to imagine the girl in earlier books throwing a tantrum like this. I know there are some teenagers that do this, but it just adds to this general feeling for me that all the kids have suddenly turned into babies. Obviously you do need to go to bed now young lady, because you're getting cranky. And apparently Ginny's again left a pile of toys on the floor when she left.
* Ron and Hermione don't help with their whining when they're sent upstairs and their, "Harry's just going to tell us anyway! We want to staaaayyyy!" I understand their point but like I said, it just adds to this general feeling that kids who up till now have been characteristically calm and well-behaved have turned into something more childish. I know that at 11 they'd almost have an advantage because they wouldn't imagine they had any right to be at the meeting, while now they feel more like adults, but still you'd think they'd know how to handle adults better.
* Finally, there's the twins spilling things over everything when they try to set the table. Molly's way of chastizing them by pointing out that Bill didn't apparate everywhere, Charlie didn't whip out his wand for everything is bad news because it sets them against their brothers, but her general point is absolutely correct. They really are acting like complete babies who can't control themselves with a new toy. Yes, boys, we know you can do magic now, but it's not cute. I mean, presumably it's supposed to be part of their whole jokester personality but there's nothing particularly funny about trying to fling the pots around and stopping them short--where else would that lead but a big mess and somebody almost getting hurt? I feel like JKR is trying to add a certain kind of chaotic humor to the situation that clashes with the other characterization thusfar. This scene was almost like a tiny ad for the Malfoy way of parenting--you know Lucius would have responded to this with some withering remark about even getting a bowl of stew from one end of the room to the other was beyond their abilities, then he'd probably order a house elf to cut up their meat for them at dinner to further make his humiliating point. That would have so worked on me.
*Sad that apparently the best thing the Order ever did was come up with their name, a name they never lived up to in decades.
* Harry continues his mood swings, appreciating things like Molly saying he might as well be a son but also impatient at her molly coddling. I would consider it presumptuous for some woman to claim I was basically her son, particularly if I were Harry, since people like to claim him for his name. Of course, in canon the only people who get criticized for this are bad guys--good guys are always assumed to like Harry for himself, though personally I think Molly's had plenty of Orphan!Harry fantasies where she's Mama Mary Sue. If I were Harry I'd never kid myself into thinking my best friend's mum really cared about me as much as she did even her least favorite child (if she had one) on his worst day. Particularly not in this world, where despite what people try to claim about it being about tolerance and modern-thinking, family seems to be everything.
* Fudge's story does, at least, make sense, the way he's convinced himself he's right. We also get a hint here that the rest of the world has no reason to believe Harry, which he will deal with by ranting about it and deciding they are stupid. It's still a shame the alternative must be Dumbledore. I will continue to dream of a Wizarding Society where people can make informed decisions and not constantly give up freedom for safety.
* The theory that liking us=good person gets more play with Harry feeling a surge of affection for Sirius because he doesn't like Dumbledore, which is both a nicely human touch for Harry but also not all that examined. I mean, Harry doesn't know Sirius that well, and their supposedly great bond therefore always seems very fake to me. This just underscores it. Harry likes Sirius as long as he's not standing in his way, which is the extent to which he likes most people.
*Why would Peter have just told Voldemort Sirius was an animagus? Wouldn't he have told him that years ago, like when he first joined up? Was he waiting for Remus to tell before he did or something?
* Then there's also Mundungus, of whom Molly does not approve, for understandable reasons. The last thing the twins need is a confirmed criminal regaling them with tales of how fun it is to be a crook as long as you're loyal to Dumbledore. I actually have no problem with the idea of working with shady people when necessary, and think it's pretty reasonable to say well, maybe he's not usually trustworthy but he's loyal to us so he's useful to an extent, but you don't have to romanticize him, which the twins are probably in danger of doing.
* Then there's the whole, "Don't tell Harry more than he needs to know" business. I'm still having a hard time buying anybody's plan, either the Order's or Voldemort's. It's just so obvious Harry should know more than he does. It's got nothing to do with not being the Order, because this is about him personally. Even now it's clear Harry could be told enough to help him without letting him know he's got to kill Voldemort on his own (in case he hadn't figured that out yet).
*ETA: But then, you haven't seen a stupid plan until you've read DH.
* There's lots of vague references to how secretly Voldemort works and how dangerous things in the Order are, but having seen both groups up close that just doesn't hold up much. If Harry wasn't supposed to survive GoF why oh why isn't he taken out effectively? Honestly, Tom. Hire some Muggles to do it. The Russian mob would have taken all of these people down with far less fuss. I saw it on Law and Order.
*A lot has been made of Harry suddenly becoming a brat or a teenager, depending how you see him. Others have replied that since Harry didn't act 11 when he was 11, why should he be 15 at 15? Why shouldn't he continue to be more mature? In this chapter what struck me was...why are ALL the kids regressing? I've complained in the past at the way Malfoy seems stuck at 11, but here we get:
* Hermione and Ginny giggling over Tonk's funny noses at the table--yeah, I'm sure it's funny once but if you're older than a toddler it would get thin pretty quickly. Ginny also giggles at Mundungus falling asleep at the meeting--presumably because he's drunk? Again at 14 I don't think that would send me into giggles. In fact, most 14 year-old girls can be become downright humorless about that kind of thing, and while obviously Ginny would never be one of those girls (now), I can't imagine Hermione finding it funny if Ron were making funny noses at her. Does she have a crush on Tonks or something?
* Ginny stomping upstairs yelling when she's sent up to bed, and waking the portraits. Okay, I know supposedly Ginny was "always" the way she was in OotP, but damn it's hard to imagine the girl in earlier books throwing a tantrum like this. I know there are some teenagers that do this, but it just adds to this general feeling for me that all the kids have suddenly turned into babies. Obviously you do need to go to bed now young lady, because you're getting cranky. And apparently Ginny's again left a pile of toys on the floor when she left.
* Ron and Hermione don't help with their whining when they're sent upstairs and their, "Harry's just going to tell us anyway! We want to staaaayyyy!" I understand their point but like I said, it just adds to this general feeling that kids who up till now have been characteristically calm and well-behaved have turned into something more childish. I know that at 11 they'd almost have an advantage because they wouldn't imagine they had any right to be at the meeting, while now they feel more like adults, but still you'd think they'd know how to handle adults better.
* Finally, there's the twins spilling things over everything when they try to set the table. Molly's way of chastizing them by pointing out that Bill didn't apparate everywhere, Charlie didn't whip out his wand for everything is bad news because it sets them against their brothers, but her general point is absolutely correct. They really are acting like complete babies who can't control themselves with a new toy. Yes, boys, we know you can do magic now, but it's not cute. I mean, presumably it's supposed to be part of their whole jokester personality but there's nothing particularly funny about trying to fling the pots around and stopping them short--where else would that lead but a big mess and somebody almost getting hurt? I feel like JKR is trying to add a certain kind of chaotic humor to the situation that clashes with the other characterization thusfar. This scene was almost like a tiny ad for the Malfoy way of parenting--you know Lucius would have responded to this with some withering remark about even getting a bowl of stew from one end of the room to the other was beyond their abilities, then he'd probably order a house elf to cut up their meat for them at dinner to further make his humiliating point. That would have so worked on me.
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Re: Of plotholes and padding
Date: 2007-11-29 05:24 pm (UTC)As to the hole in GoF; she was still getting edited in GoF, and I suspect that something an editor said made the penny drop. In any event, she claimed at the time that she suddenly realized that Mafalda, the Weasley cousin, who I gather was sorted into Slytherin as a First year and was planned to serve as an infodump on legs, simply had *no way of knowing* the information that she was supposed to relay to the trio.
At any event it was the fact that Mafalda had no access to the info she was supposed to deliver is the reason she was written out of the book, and it took rewriting about a third of it to excise all the references and to replace them with some other way of getting the info across. Rita ended up delivering much of it.
Re: Of plotholes and padding
Date: 2007-11-29 10:50 pm (UTC)Re: Of plotholes and padding
Date: 2007-11-29 11:36 pm (UTC)If she was a 1st year in GoF she would have only been in 4th year by DHs, so she'd have been chivvied out of the castle, regardless. But she might have snuck back.
More probably, she wasn't real enough to Rowling to have even considered where she would have been when the battle finally came to Hogwarts.
(The kid was a Prewett, actually. At least if we can take Ron's statement that the Squib in the family was a cousin of his mother's as accurate.)
Re: Of plotholes and padding
Date: 2007-11-30 08:03 pm (UTC)Re: Of plotholes and padding
Date: 2007-11-30 10:35 pm (UTC)I think the comments may be buried somewhere on the official site. But they could be in an interview somewhere else. They aren't from all that long ago. Not from back when GoF came out anyway. More like in the aftermath of OotP or HBP.
And of course we cannot believe anything that Rowling tells us in an interview. I have no idea what Rita is supposed to tell us that Mafalda couldn't unless it was hinting at the Bagman backstory.
Re: Of plotholes and padding
Date: 2007-12-02 03:15 pm (UTC)Which never went anywhere anyway *sigh*. Remember when everyone thought "I know things about Ludo Bagman that would curl your hair" was going to be very significant?
I do remember the pre-GoF rumors about an evil Wealey cousin (thought at the time to be named Icicle!). Didn't realize there was so much information about what that plotline would actually have contained.