Prequel

[t0ra-chan.livejournal.com]

I hope it's okay if I post this here.

As some of you might have heard, JKR wrote a 800 words long Marauder prequel for charity. And you can already read it here:
Marauder Prequel

Warning, it's hand-written and very hard to read in some parts.

ETA: Thanks to r_ganymede we have a link to a transcript for easier reading:
Prequel Transcript

Anyway, here's my take on it.



So Sirius and James drive around on Sirius's motorcycle, get caught by the police, get oh-so-witty with the officers, attack some Death Eaters (I think) and piss off again.

What the hell was the point of that? Bad enough that she again couldn't keep her word about being finished with HP, but she broke it to write that? That's not only boring, it tells us absolutely nothing about the characters we didn't know. Heck, it's just more proof what irresponsible jackasses Sirius and James were. Again Muggles are portrayed as stupid and clueless and it's perfectly fine for wizards to have fun at their expense. And look, another chance to make jokes about fat people, haven't seen those in a while. Whatever, JKR.

Comments

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Oh even better. As someone on one of my discussion boards pointed out, they left a couple of Muggle policemen babysitting three unconsious DEs. What's supposed to happen when they wake up?

That list is also currently tying itself in knots trying to reconcile Sirius's long hair when Moody pointed out in the old photo that back then Sirius had short hair.

And t-shirts with Phoenix logo don't do a lot for the contention that the Order was some sort of "secret society" either. But then I never believed that.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Or were the men on Broomsticks from the Ministry?

[j-lunatic.livejournal.com]

That list is also currently tying itself in knots trying to reconcile Sirius's long hair when Moody pointed out in the old photo that back then Sirius had short hair.

I was about to say that this prequel was supposed to be set in 1977, and the Order supposedly wasn't formed until after Trelawney's 1980 prophecy. But should we NOW presume that the Order existed before said prophecy? For the squidzillionth time, Rowling, a good editor can be your friend.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Oh, Rowling seems to think the Order has been around a good while longer than the prophecy. WHY it should have been around before the prophecy she has never explained. One would have thought that Albus had quite enough on his plate already, particularly since his silly Order just duplicated the Ministry's efforts and added another layer of unreasonableness to the whole war effort. In an embarassing lot of areas Rowling is a fool. But of course this little squib is just pure pandering to the audience in a good cause. It probably doesn't need to make sense.

I think it was my own theory (I was probably not the only one to come up with it, I just don't know who did it first) that the Order was formed in response to the Trelawney prophecy. That at least would have made some sense, given the Ministry's attitude toward the proper handling of prophecies.

But really, can you think of a single actual *function* that the Order served in VWI that wasn't already covered elsewhere? In OotP it served a legitimate function, since the Ministry was dragging its feet. It served it in a lame-arsed manner and doesn't seem to have accomplished anything but getting a couple of their members imprisoned or injured. But in the first war the best that seems to be said for it is that Albus put together his own psuedo-Ministry, loyal only to himself. I suppose he might as well have called it the "Mini-Me-Ministry".

[j-lunatic.livejournal.com]

But really, can you think of a single actual *function* that the Order served in VWI that wasn't already covered elsewhere?...But in the first war the best that seems to be said for it is that Albus put together his own psuedo-Ministry, loyal only to himself.

Bingo. While most of the Wizarding World was at Dumbledore's disposal, the Order's original purpose was to get him information, resources, and services at which the Ministry might have balked.

[t0ra-chan.livejournal.com]

Did the Order serve any real function the second time around? Everything they tried to do, they almost always fucked things up and once DD is gone, they don't even try anymore.

Also, if this is how the original Order members acted, it's no wonder so many of them got killed the first time around.

[artystone.livejournal.com]

In an embarassing lot of areas Rowling is a fool. But of course this little squib is just pure pandering to the audience in a good cause. It probably doesn't need to make sense.

OMG U H8ER YOU H8 WIDOWS, ORPHANS AND UNWED MOTHERS! It's for CHARITY!!!

[artystone.livejournal.com]

And t-shirts with Phoenix logo don't do a lot for the contention that the Order was some sort of "secret society" either

OMG yes. I saw that and thought WTF?

[savagedamsel10.livejournal.com]

They made them at Cafe Press!!!

That or maybe at the very first Order meeting/whenever new people join Dumbledore gave out a stack of plain t shirts and some glitter, glue, paint, safety pins, dye, feathers, scissors etc. to make their own t shirts. That might be why the Order seems so useless. They should have just tried to make a crust with customised t shirts. They were after all existing around the time of the British Punk movement. :D

[artystone.livejournal.com]

ROFL.
*pictures OoP as Brownie troop*

[lachlanm.livejournal.com]

jodel_from_aol: And t-shirts with Phoenix logo don't do a lot for the contention that the Order was some sort of "secret society" either.

Maybe it's a prelude to some sort of merchandising deal.

(And I'm sorry I'm replying so late. I was on vacation in New Mexico.)

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Oh, don't you just *know* that there are going to be phoenix t-shirts in every gift shop in the theme park...

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

The theme park that JKR used to say was her worst nightmare...