Help me, O Potterphiles

[Naga Viper]

Maybe that was just a nod to the books taking place in the '90s; I don't remember a lot of those sort of period touches in the movies, though. Maybe Jarvis Cocker's cameo, sort of.

Having already derailed this thread, can I just bitch for a second about Tonks' pointless death? I always thought she had spinoff potential, being sufficiently different from Harry (female, Auror, parent, metamorphmagi) that she could've been a wholly different perspective in an established world. Not that I'd have wanted Arthur Weasley dead either, but offing Tonks and Lupin (another favorite of mine, granted) just to fulfill Rowling's personal quota—and in such a cursory fashion too—has always bugged. If only Molly had gotten there sooner... [/rant]

[quincygal]

I absolutely fell in love with Neville. He reminds me so much of DH that it made me thrilled me made it through OK:) The pointless death that upset me was when Harry's owl was killed (am blanking on her name). It made me cry. Unfortunately, I was sobbing in my cousin's living room & had to explain what happened.

[RandomTrivia]

Especially literally. I believe it was around Order of the Phoenix (the film) that I found myself sitting up in the theater and thinking, "Holy shit, when did Matthew Lewis become hot?"

No kidding. Matthew Lewis did a Jerry O'Connell - look at pictures from Stand By Me and Sliders or later, and it's "Wait, who's that?"

http://www.jerryoconnellfansite.com/photog/sbm11.htm. grew up to be http://www.jerryoconnellfansite.com/pho ... dan_11.htm. (sorry, cut n paste on a Kindle is almost impossible)

Matt Lewis did the same kind of change, where Dan Radcliffe, Rupert, and Tom Felting looked pretty much the same through all the movies.

[Boogalou]

I absolutely fell in love with Neville. He reminds me so much of DH that it made me thrilled me made it through OK:) The pointless death that upset me was when Harry's owl was killed (am blanking on her name). It made me cry. Unfortunately, I was sobbing in my cousin's living room & had to explain what happened.

Hedwig! OMG, that was probably the saddest death for me to because it was so unexpected. I was ready for people to die towards the end of the book but I was not ready for anyone to die so early on so it came as quite a surprise.

[Minerva]

Random fact: In Prisoner of Azkaban, they purposefully made Matt Lewis look goofier, with oversized shoes, false teeth, sticking out ears, etc. Heard it in an interview somewhere.

[dianapavelovna]

I think I hate Snape the way I do because I spent approximately 97% of my life in the HP superfan corner of the internet between 2002 & 2006 or so. So many Snape fangirls. So little critical thinking. Because I like the character Snape well enough....but I can hardly stand the reactions to and slobbering over him.

And maybe it's because I spent so many years overanalyzing the books while waiting for the next one to be released, but I was a little disappointed because the Prince's Tale storyline seemed so fucking obvious for ages before the big reveal.

[Sprocket]

Yes, his character did evolve beautifully. :) I love Neville so much. I wanted him to marry Luna, though, lol!

I think he professes his love for Luna in the movie, but I read somewhere that he ends up marrying Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff. I always watched out for her in the movies and didn't think they would make a good pair -- she didn't have a major presence in the book.

I so wish that J.K. Rowling would do just one more book on the other characters. She said somewhere that Michael Corner (I think that was his name) had a very interesting back story but it didn't make into the orininal 7 books.

[Naga Viper]

Did Michael Corner have an untold backstory too? I know Dean Thomas was originally intended as a main character and Rowling even included him as such in an early sketch, but Corner I barely remember.

I don't know that I need to see another entire book on Harry and his crowd, but I agree it's so rich a world that it'd be a shame not to see it ever again. Since my Tonks spinoff won't happen, I'm quietly hoping for something set somewhere else with a different character—Beauxbatons, perhaps, or a school we haven't heard of, in a post-Voldemort world. That way we might still hear of Harry's further accomplishments without having to dragoon him into action again; like the man himself said, he's had enough for one lifetime.

[JesusFightClub]

Hannah Abbott would make sense, they were both big into Herbology, innit? Luna would be too smart for Neville and they would piss each other off. Neville has a specialised talent but he won't win Brain of Britain any time soon.

I totally agree with a book on Beauxbatons or Durmstrang. How cool would that be? :D

[Minerva]

Did Michael Corner have an untold backstory too? I know Dean Thomas was originally intended as a main character and Rowling even included him as such in an early sketch, but Corner I barely remember.

I don't know that I need to see another entire book on Harry and his crowd, but I agree it's so rich a world that it'd be a shame not to see it ever again. Since my Tonks spinoff won't happen, I'm quietly hoping for something set somewhere else with a different character—Beauxbatons, perhaps, or a school we haven't heard of, in a post-Voldemort world. That way we might still hear of Harry's further accomplishments without having to dragoon him into action again; like the man himself said, he's had enough for one lifetime.

Michael Corner was just one of Ginny's ex-boyfriends in the books. Here's hoping JKR dishes on him on Pottermore.

[AuntCloud]

Re-read Order of the Phoenix and now re-reading the Half-Blood Prince over the holiday. Risking as being as un-popular as the poster who said she's not a Snape fangirl, but I honestly can't see Ron and Hermione being attracted to one another or compatible in any way, for numerous reasons.

Also: I can't blame Harry for spending most of book 5 being angry with the world, nothing seems to have gone right for him then, did it?

Also: I have a *huge* issue with the "blood is thicker than water" adage. Dumbledore (RIP) explained to Harry that the reason he was stuck with the Dursleys was the blood connection between him and his aunt. It didn't matter how reluctantly they took him in as long as the blood protection was in place. Which makes perfect sense, why send a baby to grow with a family who would love and cherish him if there is no blood connection? This really hit a sour note with me as both my daughters have close friends who were adopted. Both friends are as loved, nurtured and cherished as any child can hope for. But hey, it's for the common good so in the long run it doesn't really matter if a child is unloved, right?

Also: Snape hated James (and rightfully so), so he hated Harry by association. Petunia hated Lily (since she was a petty jealous twit), so she hated Harry and everything about him by association. Kid was intensely hated by several people just by existing. That's not very nice.

Also: it's mentioned in several places that wizards sometimes make very interesting interpretations of Muggle clothes. Don't wizards live among Muggles, so they would have an inkling of how to dress? Even the high and mighty Gaunts lived right besides Muggles.

Also: are all Hogwarts teachers single? does no one at all have a family?

[Maggie Mae]

Also: are all Hogwarts teachers single? does no one at all have a family?

McGonagall was briefly married and lived in Hogsmead with her husband. Her backstory is on Pottermore and it's sad and wonderful all at the same time.

[StarrieEyedKat]

Also: Snape hated James (and rightfully so), so he hated Harry by association. Petunia hated Lily (since she was a petty jealous twit), so she hated Harry and everything about him by association. Kid was intensely hated by several people just by existing. That's not very nice.

This is actually one of the things that I really liked about the book. While you're right, it's not very nice, it is a pretty "human" response. Same with most of the good and bad guys having flaws and positive attributes, it makes the story more realistic.

[AuntCloud]

Poor wording on my side - my bad. I had a sudden flashback to a heated discussion I had when I was in high-school with the owner of a used-book store I used as my hangout about the word "nice" and its various meanings. It ended with him almost chasing me out of the store yelling that "nice" is the worst thing you can say about someone.

What I meant to say was - it's rough having to live with intense hate directed towards you just for being you and for your parents being who they are. It makes for a very different outlook on life than someone who knows nothing but acceptance and unconditional love has. (Look at Draco Malfoy - he was obviously adored by all around him from the moment he was born, and see how *he* turned out). If I wanted a cutesy book where no one ever feels anything negative towards anyone, I'd invest in the Moody Adventures boxed set.

[Minerva]

I didn't think Ron and Hermione made a good couple, either. I was rooting for Harry and Ginny all along, though.

[fauxmenno]

A lot of the characters were assholes, Snape, Harry, Ron, and Sirius all included, and sometimes their immaturity ticked me off, but overall they were mostly brilliantly written characters. Rowling did a wonderful job of developing most of her characters as fully dimensional beings.

I never thought to question the Ron/Hermione thing, but yeah, it does seem a bit odd when you think about it. That's love though, right? Mr. Menno is very type A, rigid, never breaks the rules or questions authority and I'm nearly the opposite always asking why. If I was an outsider looking at us, I would think we are a terrible couple, but we love each other very deeply and we balance each other.

[Markie]

I really like Luna and wished there was more of a back story on her. I imagine she travelled an extensive part of the time, while continuing with her studies and writing. While Harry and his gang married quite soon out of highschool, I see Luna as having several affairs and eventually marrying a wizard who had went to Beauxbatons.

I always wondered why Ron or Ginny didn't name one of their sons, Fred. But perhaps George's son was named after his twin. I would like to know what happened to George after the Deathly Hallows. Oops, just checked the Harry Potter Wiki and George did, in fact, name his eldest son after his twin.

[nokidsmom]

I really enjoyed seeing how the characters, particularly Harry, Ron, Hermione, Snape and Dumbledore, developed throughout the books. And JK Rowling did an amazing job of weaving all the story threads together at the end.

I haven't spent much time on any HP Forums but am not surprised at the fangirling over Snape. While he's the most complex and interesting character in the books IMHO, it's all in context of a fictitious and somewhat romantic story, meaning his love for Lily and how it drove his actions. It would be entirely different in real life. He would be pretty close to how he's shown in the book; a totally unattractive person both physically and in terms of personality. St. Alan did an awesome job portraying Snape but it's a more handsome version of him. IRL, Someone with a hooked nose and greasy black hair (yuck) coupled with a bullying and mean personality is not going to be appealing to anyone. I would bet same fangirls would not want to even near him, much less try to change him. And he wouldn't want to be around any of them because he's a loner at heart.

[JesusFightClub]

I liked the character of Snape a lot as one of the most interesting ones, as you say nokidsmom. I actually found the Lily backstory to be shit though.

It kind of de-complexified him. I'm not one of the folk who thought he was gay (though it might have been interesting if he was) but I was expecting something a little less obvious than "YEEARGH UNREQUITED LUV" for him. I hadn't read his character that way at all and was hoping for something a little more...nuanced?

I'm probably just a weirdo...

[nokidsmom]

I liked the character of Snape a lot as one of the most interesting ones, as you say nokidsmom. I actually found the Lily backstory to be shit though.

It kind of de-complexified him. I'm not one of the folk who thought he was gay (though it might have been interesting if he was) but I was expecting something a little less obvious than "YEEARGH UNREQUITED LUV" for him. I hadn't read his character that way at all and was hoping for something a little more...nuanced?

I'm probably just a weirdo...

JFC, actually that's not weird at all. I had a couple of friends that positively hated the "unrequited love" thing. While it made Snape more human and it was behind his redemption, it was too predictable of a backstory for such a complex character and I had to agree. It's hinted fairly early in the books that there was some connection between Snape and Harry's mother and I wondered what it could be. While I did think that Snape could have been in love with Lily, I somewhat dismissed it because it was just too darn obvious. I was thinking we would see something a bit more complicated than that. Though I didn't think he was gay either.

[JesusFightClub]

Yes, this. I was expecting the connection to be...different?

Dark, brooding man in unrequited love shock has been the plot of so many books, films and everything else that it seems like a lazy way out. I also didn't get a "read" from Snape's character that he was particularly bothered by such things in later life (some people aren't, really) but I did get that he was one of those people who are naturally very studious and fascinated by his work, to the extent that work takes over normal human emotions sometimes. Then it was kind of implied that he flung himself into it so he wouldn't have to think about Lily, but where was the impulse towards the Dark Arts and potion studies coming from in the first place? That wasn't really made clear.

Fuck, I'm really overthinking a children's book series - but I enjoyed them so much, and I hadn't been expecting to at all! I wish there had been books like that around when I was a kid, I would have been obsessed. *Hmm, thread idea*

[JesusFightClub]

I didn't think Ron and Hermione made a good couple, either. I was rooting for Harry and Ginny all along, though.

Ah! Harry and Ginny are well matched, they have the same fiery nature and adventurous look on life. Hermione would get really pissed off with Ron though IMO, because he doesn't approach her intellectual level (and in the books, frequently taunts her for it). I've seen relationships like that, where one partner is much more "book smart" (also in Hermione's case, life smart) than the other, and one partner feels trapped, the other feels resentful.

[AuntCloud]

Ah! Harry and Ginny are well matched, they have the same fiery nature and adventurous look on life. Hermione would get really pissed off with Ron though IMO, because he doesn't approach her intellectual level (and in the books, frequently taunts her for it). I've seen relationships like that, where one partner is much more "book smart" (also in Hermione's case, life smart) than the other, and one partner feels trapped, the other feels resentful.

Hermione also seems to be light-years ahead of Ron in terms of emotional maturity. Between me and Headship, I'm the book-smart one (on paper only), but he is the one who can read people, say the right thing to the right person, charm the pants off others and trim the cat's nails. I didn't feel any physical attraction between Ron and Hermione, and frankly I can't imagine what they have to talk about when they're not hunting down horcruxes and death eaters. Hermione doesn't strike me as one who can settle for comfortable domesticity without being intellectually attracted to her partner. Hermione has deep respect to people who excel at what they do - anything at all. Ron needs someone like Lavender, who actually finds him attractive and won't rip him a new one for embarrassing her when her high-brow friends are around.

I'm reading the Half-Blood Prince now and it looks like Ron played a much more important part in the earlier books. He's definitely a secondary character now, while the plot couldn't have moved forward without Hermione (cue to her magnificent save at Umbridge's office).

Another thought about Hermione: she doesn't have any female friends, does she? it looks like she and Ginny get along fine but don't really have a lot in common. Seems like Ginny doesn't have the patience to listen to Hermione's theories about life and would rather be outside on her broom. The other Gryffindor girls also seem shallow, and Luna is too far out there for anyone.

[HarryPotterFan]

*rubs hands together excitedly* Ooooh, I like this thread.

After taking a psychology class on relationships in college I was like, "Wow, Hermione and Ron really won't work out." The whole "opposites attract" usually doesn't work, what attracts them is the excitement. This is a "misattribution of arousal" and they attribute the excitement they feel with fighting (the corner stone to any healthy relationship, right?) and being in the middle of the war to feelings for each other. That moment just made me sad, lol.

I love Harry and Ginny together. The movies did not to Ginny justice. I will admit to the fact that the second Cho Chang entered the series and Harry felt butterflies in his stomach I hated her with a passion (jealousy much? lol). I was fine with Ginny though. She kicks ass and we both pined after Harry.

Autcloud, I don't blame Harry either. Harry is hugely justified to be incredibly angsty in the Order of the Phoenix.

1. He's a teenager, hormones.

2. He's had an incredibly traumatic life. He likely has PTSD (flashbacks) and grew up without love. That can really mess a person up. He also never learned coping mechanisms to deal with stressors.

3. He just saw Voldemort come back to life, use his own blood, and witnessed someone die.

4. Everyone is ignoring him and keeping secrets when he truly needs support. He probably has trust issues and was bullied and ignored as a child, so those negative feelings were probably coming back.

And he's supposed to calmly deal with all these things? Or is the psych major coming out in me?

[HarryPotterFan]

I think he professes his love for Luna in the movie, but I read somewhere that he ends up marrying Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff. I always watched out for her in the movies and didn't think they would make a good pair -- she didn't have a major presence in the book.

I so wish that J.K. Rowling would do just one more book on the other characters. She said somewhere that Michael Corner (I think that was his name) had a very interesting back story but it didn't make into the orininal 7 books.

That was my favorite deviation from the series, Neville and Luna. And I nitpick on these things. I just love them together, maybe it's because they are both odd in their own ways and kind of outcasts so they have that in common and could support and understand each other. I cannot see Neville with Hannah Abbott. No, nope. No. I think the movie made it different because the director realized how popular that pairing was (or maybe JKR realized how popular the pairing was after the fact, not sure).

I googled her feelings on the pair:

Luna and Neville Longbottom?

When she was first asked about the possibility of Luna hooking up with Neville Longbottom several years ago, Rowling's response was "Definitely not." But as time passed and she watched her characters mature, Rowling started to "feel a bit of a pull" between the unlikely pair.

Ultimately, Rowling left the question of their relationship open at the end of the book because doing otherwise "felt too neat."

Basically, THEY WERE TOO WONDERFUL TOGETHER.