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since i posted this on tumblr i guess i'll put it here, too
Um, so I may actually be working on my HP rewrite-of-DH-epic? Let's not talk about it. And so basically all I have done the last week or so is eat sleep and breathe Harry Potter (except for a brief break today to watch The Hour which entirely won me over in one episode and OMG ROMOLA AND BEN. BENNNNNNNNNNNNN. Watch it). So I've accumulated a lot of thoughts and thought I might as well share. They are legion. I warn you.
+ The best books are Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix.
+ The best movies are Prisoner of Azkaban (HELLO ALFONSO CUARON WOULD YOU PLEASE BE MARRYING ME NOW) and Deathly Hallows Part I. The first two films obviously don't have any depth, and all the rest feel less like movies and more like strings of scenes tied loosely together. Like really long montages, actually. But PoA and DH1 both feel like movies. And DH1 actually improves upon the text in some ways.
+ The prettiest movies are PoA and OotP. PoA has this lovely aged quality to it that's rough around the edges and kind of reminds me of a daguerreotype. OotP has the PRETTIEST COLORS OMG I AM DYING.
+ The more I watch of the films the more I grow convinced that if you haven't read the books you won't be able to follow them. Which isn't a bad thing, necessarily, just an observation.
+ The thing that pissed me off most in the last movie was all the Slytherins being completely evil. LIFE DOESN'T WORK LIKE THIS. ELEVEN YEAR OLDS ARE NOT DOOMED TO BE EVIL. UGH IT MAKES ME SO MAD. I really wanted to see more Slytherins turn out to be good people. AND I WANTED THE MOVIE NOT TO TAKE THEM ALL TO THE DUNGEON BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL EVIL.
+ The first two books are charming but nothing really all that special (JKR's imagination aside, which is truly wondrous), and the last two are a major disappointment to me. HBP and DH don't do almost any of the things that I want them to, and war-wise, especially, they don't live up to the promise of the middle three (especially OotP, which made me think that we were ACTUALLY GOING TO GET A WAR NARRATIVE AND TALK ABOUT CHILD SOLDIERS AND THEN WE DIDN'T REALLY). There are some great and moving scenes in both of them, but on the whole they just don't deliver for me.
+ The cast for these films is the MOST DELIGHTFUL GROUP OF PEOPLE EVER ACCUMULATED. I do not understand. DanRad is gloriously lovable and Emma could be my BFF any time she would like and Rupert is probably the best person alive. And that's not even getting into people like Jason Isaacs and Emma Thompson. WHY SO FLAWLESS, CAST?
+ The single thing that moved me most in this entire month or so of revived HP love is when Jason Isaacs said in an interview about the people who showed up for the London premiere: "They're not here to see us. They're here to say goodbye to their childhoods." HOW DOES HE GET IT? I LOVE THAT HE GETS IT.
+ I love Gary Oldman as much as the next person, but the ages on the Marauders + Lily are SO WRONG. SO VERY VERY WRONG. These people were like 21 when Harry was born! They should not look so old! Sirius, especially, is supposed to be youngish and handsome, and while Gary Oldman is not harsh on the eyes, he is not at all right for this role (yes, yes, I know Azkaban would have aged him, but not that much). See also: David Thewlis and the other actors who are all supposed to be the same age. I always thought that at least part of the tragedy of these people is that they died/had their lives destroyed so incredibly young by this war. We're supposed to believe that Sirius is immature enough to want to treat Harry just like he's James, but I just don't see that with Gary Oldman. TOO OLD. HIS LAST NAME IS EVEN OLDMAN THAT SHOULD BE A HINT. Also: Snape, though Alan Rickman is so good I almost don't care.
+ I feel really bad for Bonnie Wright, because while she was perfectly decent at playing young!Ginny, she doesn't have the onscreen energy to play Ginny as she gets older. Say what you will about book!Ginny not being well-developed (an argument that has some legitimacy), but she's nothing if not vibrant and energetic. That's absolutely necessary to Ginny's characterization, and she completely lacks it. She may be a very fine young actress, but she's so woefully miscast that it's just painful to watch sometimes. Poor girl. I hope she's in stuff she's good in later.
+ All of Dan's kissing scenes are awkwardawkwardawkward, and I'm pretty sure this is because of the lack of chemistry between him and the actresses. Who knows, though--maybe he's just an awkward kisser?
+ It really is amazing how much better Emma is in the last two films. She learned to act, and did a really, really love job. I hope she
+ But let's face it: Rupert is the most effortlessly talented of all the kids. His line delivery often kills me ("It's been known to happen" sends me into FITS OF RAPTURE) in all the best ways. And if you haven't read **this article about him, your life is sad and you need to fix it. I want him to be in ALL THE MOVIES from now on. Or possibly be a ginger!Doctor. After we have a not-a-white-guy!Doctor, because that's more important.
+ Ron gets shortchanged. All the time. I will not start talking about this or else I will start to cry.
+ This is something that's very, very specific to me, but: it really bugs me that after the 2nd movie, there's no way that you could claim that Hermione's hair is bushy. As someone with massively curly (big) hair who grew up having major issues with frizz (it's mostly settled down now, thankfully), I always LOVED that Hermione had this totally unmanageable hair. They could have done something with Emma's to make it bushier. It's not that hard. Besides, the power of the Yule Ball scene in GoF was completely undercut because she looked just like she always did, only in a dress.
+ Is it just me or are wizarding parents the worst people ever? The Ministry has fallen, Dumbledore is dead, and yet they decided to still send their kids to school? Oh, we'll just send them off to be far away from us and minimally supervised during the MIDDLE OF A WAR with a group of people who obviously have no problem killing children. Oh, that'll turn out well! And do we get any reference to them trying to get to their kids at any point during DH? I guess it would make sense if they tried and couldn't, but WHAT WERE THEY THINKING leaving those kids with the Carrows? Worst parents ever, I say.
+ The fact that we know nothing at all about Hermione's life in the Muggle world will never fail to vex me.
+ Okay, so the whole blood purity thing. I'm pretty sure at some point it's said that there are very few purebloods left? Correct? So quite a few of the Death Eaters, at least, must have at least some Muggle blood. So what's the cut off? When do you become too Muggle not to be on their side? Do you have to be half-Muggle? Entirely Muggle-born? Or just really willing to kill people who haven't done anything to you?
+ I must be the only person alive who doesn't have a lot of Snape feelings. I mean, my feelings are that he's pretty much a horrible person who terrorizes eleven-year-old children, joined the wizarding equivalent of the Nazis, called a girl who wanted to be his friend and who stood up for him a racial slur, and was basically a giant jerk. That's not to say that he didn't do some good things or that there's no good in him at all, but the idea that he's some kind of wonderful woobie hero pisses me off. And yet, I'm not overly invested in him in the books. Everybody else was all worried about The Prince's Tale section of the movies, and I was just meh. Also: I think I would have more respect for him if he'd been a double-agent for any other reason than being in love with Lily. Meh.
+ Lavender Brown does not deserve to be hated and I hope she goes on to be very happy. I would love to read a fic about her and Bill Weasley becoming BFFs and struggling with the werewolf thing together.
+ I love Fleur madly and think the whole scene where she's telling Molly off for thinking that she wouldn't want to marry Bill now that he's scarred is ONE OF MY FAVORITE SCENES IN THE WHOLE THING. It made me ship that soooooo hard.
+ I would commit murder for some really good information on what the wizarding world is like outside of Britain. DO THEY KNOW ABOUT VOLDEMORT? DO THEY CARE?
+ If I had written these books, they would be about Andromeda Black Tonks and her relationship with her sisters and her struggle to break free of this horrible world she was born into and also about Ted Tonks and how the war being fought over people like him affected him and how they fell in love and were wonderful. (Yes, I've read A Keen Observer and it is excellent.) Barring that, the books would be about Hermione. But clearly I didn't write these books, so they are about the white hero boy. Who I am fond of and all that, I'm just saying that I wouldn't have written them this way.
+ I ship Harry with nobody, really. I can understand the appeal of Luna (definitely) and I can get how people ship him with Ginny, but I just think he's better on his own for the length of the books. Unless the Trio decides to actually be a trio...which would actually make loads of sense, if we're honest. On the other hand, I want him to have a family of his own because he so obviously wants one and we all know he'd make a wonderful dad. But I really think it would have made more sense for him not to end up with anyone in the books.
+ And in closing: RONALD WEASLEY AND RON/HERMIONE STILL GIVE ME ALL THE FEELINGS IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A HUMAN BEING TO HAVE.
The end.
+ The best books are Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix.
+ The best movies are Prisoner of Azkaban (HELLO ALFONSO CUARON WOULD YOU PLEASE BE MARRYING ME NOW) and Deathly Hallows Part I. The first two films obviously don't have any depth, and all the rest feel less like movies and more like strings of scenes tied loosely together. Like really long montages, actually. But PoA and DH1 both feel like movies. And DH1 actually improves upon the text in some ways.
+ The prettiest movies are PoA and OotP. PoA has this lovely aged quality to it that's rough around the edges and kind of reminds me of a daguerreotype. OotP has the PRETTIEST COLORS OMG I AM DYING.
+ The more I watch of the films the more I grow convinced that if you haven't read the books you won't be able to follow them. Which isn't a bad thing, necessarily, just an observation.
+ The thing that pissed me off most in the last movie was all the Slytherins being completely evil. LIFE DOESN'T WORK LIKE THIS. ELEVEN YEAR OLDS ARE NOT DOOMED TO BE EVIL. UGH IT MAKES ME SO MAD. I really wanted to see more Slytherins turn out to be good people. AND I WANTED THE MOVIE NOT TO TAKE THEM ALL TO THE DUNGEON BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL EVIL.
+ The first two books are charming but nothing really all that special (JKR's imagination aside, which is truly wondrous), and the last two are a major disappointment to me. HBP and DH don't do almost any of the things that I want them to, and war-wise, especially, they don't live up to the promise of the middle three (especially OotP, which made me think that we were ACTUALLY GOING TO GET A WAR NARRATIVE AND TALK ABOUT CHILD SOLDIERS AND THEN WE DIDN'T REALLY). There are some great and moving scenes in both of them, but on the whole they just don't deliver for me.
+ The cast for these films is the MOST DELIGHTFUL GROUP OF PEOPLE EVER ACCUMULATED. I do not understand. DanRad is gloriously lovable and Emma could be my BFF any time she would like and Rupert is probably the best person alive. And that's not even getting into people like Jason Isaacs and Emma Thompson. WHY SO FLAWLESS, CAST?
+ The single thing that moved me most in this entire month or so of revived HP love is when Jason Isaacs said in an interview about the people who showed up for the London premiere: "They're not here to see us. They're here to say goodbye to their childhoods." HOW DOES HE GET IT? I LOVE THAT HE GETS IT.
+ I love Gary Oldman as much as the next person, but the ages on the Marauders + Lily are SO WRONG. SO VERY VERY WRONG. These people were like 21 when Harry was born! They should not look so old! Sirius, especially, is supposed to be youngish and handsome, and while Gary Oldman is not harsh on the eyes, he is not at all right for this role (yes, yes, I know Azkaban would have aged him, but not that much). See also: David Thewlis and the other actors who are all supposed to be the same age. I always thought that at least part of the tragedy of these people is that they died/had their lives destroyed so incredibly young by this war. We're supposed to believe that Sirius is immature enough to want to treat Harry just like he's James, but I just don't see that with Gary Oldman. TOO OLD. HIS LAST NAME IS EVEN OLDMAN THAT SHOULD BE A HINT. Also: Snape, though Alan Rickman is so good I almost don't care.
+ I feel really bad for Bonnie Wright, because while she was perfectly decent at playing young!Ginny, she doesn't have the onscreen energy to play Ginny as she gets older. Say what you will about book!Ginny not being well-developed (an argument that has some legitimacy), but she's nothing if not vibrant and energetic. That's absolutely necessary to Ginny's characterization, and she completely lacks it. She may be a very fine young actress, but she's so woefully miscast that it's just painful to watch sometimes. Poor girl. I hope she's in stuff she's good in later.
+ All of Dan's kissing scenes are awkwardawkwardawkward, and I'm pretty sure this is because of the lack of chemistry between him and the actresses. Who knows, though--maybe he's just an awkward kisser?
+ It really is amazing how much better Emma is in the last two films. She learned to act, and did a really, really love job. I hope she
+ But let's face it: Rupert is the most effortlessly talented of all the kids. His line delivery often kills me ("It's been known to happen" sends me into FITS OF RAPTURE) in all the best ways. And if you haven't read **this article about him, your life is sad and you need to fix it. I want him to be in ALL THE MOVIES from now on. Or possibly be a ginger!Doctor. After we have a not-a-white-guy!Doctor, because that's more important.
+ Ron gets shortchanged. All the time. I will not start talking about this or else I will start to cry.
+ This is something that's very, very specific to me, but: it really bugs me that after the 2nd movie, there's no way that you could claim that Hermione's hair is bushy. As someone with massively curly (big) hair who grew up having major issues with frizz (it's mostly settled down now, thankfully), I always LOVED that Hermione had this totally unmanageable hair. They could have done something with Emma's to make it bushier. It's not that hard. Besides, the power of the Yule Ball scene in GoF was completely undercut because she looked just like she always did, only in a dress.
+ Is it just me or are wizarding parents the worst people ever? The Ministry has fallen, Dumbledore is dead, and yet they decided to still send their kids to school? Oh, we'll just send them off to be far away from us and minimally supervised during the MIDDLE OF A WAR with a group of people who obviously have no problem killing children. Oh, that'll turn out well! And do we get any reference to them trying to get to their kids at any point during DH? I guess it would make sense if they tried and couldn't, but WHAT WERE THEY THINKING leaving those kids with the Carrows? Worst parents ever, I say.
+ The fact that we know nothing at all about Hermione's life in the Muggle world will never fail to vex me.
+ Okay, so the whole blood purity thing. I'm pretty sure at some point it's said that there are very few purebloods left? Correct? So quite a few of the Death Eaters, at least, must have at least some Muggle blood. So what's the cut off? When do you become too Muggle not to be on their side? Do you have to be half-Muggle? Entirely Muggle-born? Or just really willing to kill people who haven't done anything to you?
+ I must be the only person alive who doesn't have a lot of Snape feelings. I mean, my feelings are that he's pretty much a horrible person who terrorizes eleven-year-old children, joined the wizarding equivalent of the Nazis, called a girl who wanted to be his friend and who stood up for him a racial slur, and was basically a giant jerk. That's not to say that he didn't do some good things or that there's no good in him at all, but the idea that he's some kind of wonderful woobie hero pisses me off. And yet, I'm not overly invested in him in the books. Everybody else was all worried about The Prince's Tale section of the movies, and I was just meh. Also: I think I would have more respect for him if he'd been a double-agent for any other reason than being in love with Lily. Meh.
+ Lavender Brown does not deserve to be hated and I hope she goes on to be very happy. I would love to read a fic about her and Bill Weasley becoming BFFs and struggling with the werewolf thing together.
+ I love Fleur madly and think the whole scene where she's telling Molly off for thinking that she wouldn't want to marry Bill now that he's scarred is ONE OF MY FAVORITE SCENES IN THE WHOLE THING. It made me ship that soooooo hard.
+ I would commit murder for some really good information on what the wizarding world is like outside of Britain. DO THEY KNOW ABOUT VOLDEMORT? DO THEY CARE?
+ If I had written these books, they would be about Andromeda Black Tonks and her relationship with her sisters and her struggle to break free of this horrible world she was born into and also about Ted Tonks and how the war being fought over people like him affected him and how they fell in love and were wonderful. (Yes, I've read A Keen Observer and it is excellent.) Barring that, the books would be about Hermione. But clearly I didn't write these books, so they are about the white hero boy. Who I am fond of and all that, I'm just saying that I wouldn't have written them this way.
+ I ship Harry with nobody, really. I can understand the appeal of Luna (definitely) and I can get how people ship him with Ginny, but I just think he's better on his own for the length of the books. Unless the Trio decides to actually be a trio...which would actually make loads of sense, if we're honest. On the other hand, I want him to have a family of his own because he so obviously wants one and we all know he'd make a wonderful dad. But I really think it would have made more sense for him not to end up with anyone in the books.
+ And in closing: RONALD WEASLEY AND RON/HERMIONE STILL GIVE ME ALL THE FEELINGS IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A HUMAN BEING TO HAVE.
The end.
no subject
Haha as a fellow member of the big hair club I feel you on the point about Hermione.
I would read your book about Andromeda Blank Tonks.