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Vire posted:I guess having 250 people in the common rooms would make things a bit confusing. Don't think about such things too hard, like how less than 10 teachers can teach 14 classes (7 years, 4 houses, 2 houses together per class) or where the 12 other dormitories in the Gryffindor tower are. Or Harry being unable to convert his wizard riches into British Pounds during summer when the Granger's did the opposite in book two just fine. Or that wizards apparently even buying their milk, eggs and meat in wizard shops instead of the supermarket judging how stumped they usually are about the normal world. World building is really quite flimsy and usually if it is the choice between "realistically working but boring" and funny Rowling rightly chose funny. Hell, I already would be annoyed living in that world that wizards apparently only sell wizard sweets on the train. I'm sure people would enjoy a Snickers bar just fine even if you don't have to wrestle it down as soon as you open it. Decius fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Aug 15, 2010 |
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Aug 15, 2010 07:02
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caleramaen posted:That's Half Blood Prince, not Deathly Hallows. If I hadn't been spoiled already before I read it, I would have have done similar things to this book when Snape killed Dumbledore.
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Sep 1, 2010 16:00
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Snape was already a Death Eater when he was in his sixth year at Hogwarts (since Lily calls him out on it), so it is possible they entered the Order around the same time, when they came of age, which would have been in their sixth/seventh year.
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Sep 2, 2010 06:56
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Timeless Appeal posted:I actually like the epilogue outside of the names of the children being a little silly. It's a happy ending with good closure. I especially like the little detail of Harry's son going off to have tea with Hagrid. I agree on both accounts. I like the epilogue, although the book would have worked without it just fine too. Also, I never got why people think Ginny is a slut because she had three(!) relationships in six years, while Ron, Hermione, Harry are perfectly innocent with their two (three if you count Hermione's "make Ron angry with the jock jerk"-date). Although an epilogue with Luna and Harry married would have been fun too...
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Sep 2, 2010 19:10
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FrensaGeran posted:I'm loving that they gave prefects the ability to give detentions. Is that an English Boarding School thing because the idea of a 15 year old doling out detentions responsibly just sounds retarded. Yes, that's a British Boarding School thing. Prefects basically run discipline and day-to-day business outside of lessons itself in the old system. It was much abused and prefects lorded often over other students like tyrants. Paragon8 posted:I always found it strange that there was a house that was essentially evil and they just kept putting more evil people in it. If Rowlings had shown that more people in Slytherin stayed and fought instead of leaving in book 7 it would have gone a long way to show more redeeming qualities in them. So we only have Slughorn, Snape and two unnamed Slytherin people. Also, I'm sure there are some half-blood and Muggle-born people sorted into Slytherin every year (because of their ambition and lack of scruples), who would more than disagree with the social structure developing in book 7, regarding them as second-class citizens to concentration camp fodder. She should have shown more clearly that they aren't automatically evil, they are just more likely to turn out more evil people due to the whole ambition+pure-blood-thing putting them on the fast track to Voldemort supporters. Lyon posted:My only issue with the series is how terrible of a wizard Harry is. Hermione was a great wizard but Harry never really did anything that impressive. A lot of what he did do that was cool more or less plot forced. I find it really well done that Harry isn't really a prodigy at doing magic, except for a few things he trained hard (Patronus, Stunning, Disarming). It ties in with him just being an average guy who was thrown in the role by a self-fulfilling prophecy. He isn't anything special ability-wise, unlike his father, mediocre, rule-breaking, lazy, without regard for authority as Snape so aptly said. Of course he left out Harry's redeeming qualities, but from a teacher's perspective he's just a good-to-average student depending on how much he likes the subject. By the way, am I the only one who finds it odd that wizards apparently don't need to know more than 4th grade English, Math, Geography, Physics... Seems wizards don't need to bother with Irrational numbers or which continent Uruguay is on. Even worse for pure-bloods who apparently don't have any formal education before attending Hogwarts.
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Sep 5, 2010 07:24
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Brannock posted:Didn't Harry end up as an Auror? I thought you needed high marks for that. You need to pass enough OWLs to get on to the NEWTs, and if Snape hadn't been given DADA and Harry hadn't Snape's old book he would have to reconsider his career choice in the sixth year already. Passing OWLs seem to be really easy considering Neville didn't too bad in the subjects he wasn't good during lessons. Passing OWLs high enough to continue them in the sixth year seems a lot harder. We don't really know if Harry went back to do the seventh year to get some NEWTs (which seem to function as kind of college version of wizarding degrees, since you can already get jobs with OWLs too). Although Hermione not getting her diploma/finishing her education seems really wrong. Harry fought Voldemort several times and survived it, battled and defeated his lieutenants on mutiple occasions, broke into Gringotts, broke into the Ministry (and Auror headquarter) twice. (Co-)organized the Battle of Hogwarts and basically successfully taught DADA in his fifth year. He survived (barely and mostly thanks to Hermione) nearly a year on the run in enemy territory. Then he went on and defeated Voldemort in a duel. I rather doubt they really asked him or Ron for academic credentials after that, especially if Kingsley stayed as Minister. Decius fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Sep 5, 2010 |
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Sep 5, 2010 08:00
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I never had the impression Neville grew up in a crappy household. Sure, his grandmother and the rest of the family were apparently quite strict and especially harsh when trying to get him to show some magical talent (his great-uncle holding him out of the window) and were seemingly disappointed that he didn't show his parent's abilities for a long time, but it didn't seem that they didn't love him or didn't care for him, especially once he found something he liked and was good in (Herbology and the plants he got from his relatives over the years). But yeah, the world would have been screwed if Neville was the Boy-Who-Lived, simply because he lacked the unique Invisibility Cloak, which was instrumental in nearly all books - although it could have made for a neat Un Lun Dun-like twist regarding the Chosen One. Decius fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Sep 7, 2010 |
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Sep 7, 2010 06:01
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Dickeye posted:This is actually explained a lot better in Dresden Files: Magic and technology don't mix. The newer something is, technology-wise, the better the chances of it exploding around him. He can't even have cassettes or credit cards. The magnetic strip and the tape just stop working. Also, Magic is costly in the Dresden-universe for humans at least (in terms of concentration, exhaustion, physical and mental well-being and/or ingredients), so it isn't really used much for mundane tasks like warming up your soup. Which puts Harry Dresden in a world of poo poo regarding regular warm showers. It's different for "magical" beings, but they run into other problems outside of the Nevernever (a kind of spirit/fairy world) - like for example fairy magic being powerful but only very short-term.
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Sep 12, 2010 17:51
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FrensaGeran posted:The loving quiddich. Last year Harry was being ridiculed and called a liar and a murderer, and this year he just has to put up with being the Captain and he still loving whines about it. I just don't care about the tough homework and oh no double potions and FIFTY POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR OH NO when she hasn't even told us who won for the past 3 years. Why not just shout "Hey I've taken on Voldemort and won like thirty times so why don't you just stfu and let me do my business. K?" I'm pretty sure the President whines about his favourite TV show being cancelled, his favourite Basketball team losing or having to pick up his socks too. Meaning, simply because you have important things to care about doesn't mean the trivial ones disappear between saving the world and saving it again. However, this book features the last Quidditch game of the series anyway, with the best commentary to boot. Decius fucked around with this message at 11:18 on Sep 15, 2010 |
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Sep 15, 2010 10:09
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FrensaGeran posted:I think Harry mighta got duped. The Cloak of Invisibility that's the third Hallow is claimed to be perfect. But Mad Eye's blue eye saw through it in year 4. I don't think that's the Hallow, Harry old pal. Well, Death/the brother who made the cloak didn't account for (fake) Moody's awesomeness. Checking out chicks naked through the back of your head through walls, is there any better magical artifact in the world?
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Sep 23, 2010 10:12
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IRQ posted:I really don't think it should have been split into two movies either. Has any reason for that been given beyond "we like money"? It would have been rushed if all of it was pressed in 2.5h, the result probably pretty similar to the incomprehensible, jumbled mess that was The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix (despite some really great scenes, they didn't work well as movies). It might have been 30 min to long (although unlike the book I didn't find the camping trip boring, and the feeling of despair/aimlessness was far better conveyed in the movie), but adding the Gringotts' heist and the Battle of Hogwarts into it would have made in probably 2h too short. Even so they left out nearly all of Dumbledore's backstory and probably will do the same with Snape's.
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Nov 22, 2010 11:15
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CaptainJuan posted:I'm sure I'm missing a really obvious joke here. Who the gently caress is Naomi? The secret character with bonus lesbian sex scene you only get in the UK hardcover edition.  I guess he means Nagini - the scene in Godrick's Hollow, which scared the poo poo out of the kids in the cinema when I saw the movie (since they don't know yet that if something goes down a hole and the camera stays on the hole only one thing can and will happen).
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Jan 1, 2011 16:35
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Spent the last few days with listening to the audio books read by Stephen Fry. He makes the books even more enjoyable. He even managed to make ...and the Order of the Phoenix - nearly 30h of reading - sound interesting, hell of a job.
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Jan 23, 2011 19:02
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Aravenna posted:I want to know why Sirius's/Hagrid's flying motorcycle was considered a-ok but Mr. Weasley's flying car could have gotten him thrown into Azkaban. Sirius never seemed to me a guy who would give anything about rules. Also, rich, pure-blood family name might get some traction with Magic-cops and Magic traffic court too. Or he bribed some MoM guys to get a license.
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Mar 1, 2011 07:31
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Hedrigall posted:The loving worst is Jason Isaacs in the second movie going "Avada..." right after Harry frees Dobby, but then is stopped by Dobby. Haha, that's exactly how I felt when I saw this scene. Probably the dumbest and most mindboggling "did the guy read and understand the story?" moment in the movie adaptions.
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Mar 9, 2011 07:31
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Hedrigall posted:I stopped reading his stuff because it went from interesting reviews from a first timer to endless posts of "OMG YOU GUYS THIS IS THE SADDEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!!" and tons of animated gifs Yes, it quickly became unreadable. I would however love to see a reread done in the style of the one currently on Tor.com for the Malazan Books of the Fallen. Someone who hasn't read the books and someone who has writing down their thoughts on it. Both of them able to string together full sentences without resorting to smileys for every second word.
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Apr 6, 2011 05:59
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Paragon8 posted:From a business standpoint it's probably the only way to get people to re-buy the books. There are always children coming into reading age. And the books are well written for YA, very entertaining and fun. They won't sell millions every year, but I don't see any reason why they shouldn't sell well over decades.
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Jun 22, 2011 15:15
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bitterandtwisted posted:The wizard money thing is a joke about the old British money system. Before decimalization in the 1970s, the UK had pounds, shillings and pence. Twelve pennies to a shilling, twenty shillings to a pound. 2 shillings and sixpence was a half-crown, one pound and a shilling was a guinea. A sixpence is worth two and a half new pennies. Which was set by Newton. If it good enough for Sir Isaac... Quidditch does make more sense if you accept games lasting for several hours or days. Because when the score is 2230:1950 the Snitch counts a lot less all of a sudden.
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Jun 26, 2011 16:06
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Lamadrid posted:All that stuff about muggles with shotguns , I'd like to read some fan fiction about some SAS platoon sent by the defence minister to the wizard world with the mission to go nuts on Death Eaters.Storming Lucius Malfoy house with some enchanted M4 with fiendfire bullets via HALO jump from a broom. Considering the Death Eaters can transform the guns into flowers quite easily it probably would be short and end with a lot of dead guys in fatigues.
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Jul 6, 2011 11:47
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In other news, the eBook version of the books will be released on Google Books. http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/21/j-k-rowling-google-to-bring-pottermania-to-your-e-reader/ There'd better be a Kindle version too. I don't really want to use Calibre to convert the books around just because they limit the sale to one specific platform (ePub).
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Jul 22, 2011 06:03
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Sugar Bean posted:I don't get this, apparently they say in a lot of contracts that the actor can't change their hair (among other things) but with extensions and wigs they can make your hair look so completely different and realistic that it shouldn't make a difference. I wonder why scalp hair is such a big deal still. Wigs can still look quite fake under certain conditions, even really well done and expensive ones (GoT is a recent example. Good work, but the wigs still don't work perfectly). Also, more expensive and a lot of time wasted on applying the wig every day during filming.
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Jul 29, 2011 14:17
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New movie (and book I guess):quote:The wizarding world of Harry Potter is coming back to the big screen through a new spin-off movie written by J.K. Rowling herself. The movie will be set 70 years before the events of Harry Potter, and will follow the adventures of Newt Scamander. For big fans, Scamander's name may be familiar — in the original series, he was the author of a textbook called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which Harry was required to buy. Warner Bros. announced the new film this morning, saying that it would be the first in a whole new series, and that some familiar characters and creatures could turn up once again. http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/12/4722670/new-harry-potter-movie-spin-off-series-jk-rowling-writing
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Sep 12, 2013 15:39
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Paragon8 posted:
No, as someone explained very well a few pages ago (and much better than I'm doing now), Rowling only shows the way Hermione goes around to try to change things is bad - meaning the usual "college student from privilege discovering injustice and thinking to fix it with some flashy actions like sit-ins, protests, banners" instead of really going to the bottom of things and trying to make real change - the thing Hermione does later on from inside the Ministry, with the Elves and other creatures instead of basically enacting her version of "White Man's Burden" and trying to set them free without a plan and even against their will.
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Feb 4, 2014 21:04
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