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Post by Belle on Jun 29, 2007 19:44:39 GMT -5
I've reserved a copy of Book 7 at the local bookstore already. ^__^ I'm excited to find out what happens next...
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Post by M is for Morphine on Sept 12, 2013 10:56:17 GMT -5
I hope this level of thread necromancy is kosher, but I didn't know where else to put this. New Harry Potter moviesort of. Sounds like it could be neat. |
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Post by Ginz ❤ on Sept 12, 2013 11:34:55 GMT -5
I just heard about it! I saw it on facebook and I actually wanted to come post about it, but I'm glad you already did! I think it sounds really exciting, especially cause J.K. Rowling is writing it herself. It wouldn't be the same if it was an HP spin-off by anyone else. I can't wait to see how it goes!
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Post by Shinko on Dec 5, 2014 20:41:09 GMT -5
Thread necromancy, and I apologize, but this seemed like the best place to mention this so! time.com/3620743/j-k-rowling-christmas/^If you have a Pottermore, this might be relevant to your interests. |
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Post by Liou on May 30, 2016 16:13:59 GMT -5
*dusts off thread* Aaah, I knew there had to be a HP thread somewhere. (it's not thread necromancy, I got permission >.>) I've been meaning to share some stuff for a while, but really wasn't sure where to start... A relative of mine is an English teacher and a huge Potterhead; she uses HP in her classes, for everything she possibly can. It gives us hilarious English-to-French mistranslations whenever she's marking papers. My all time favourite is when Gilderoy Lockhart somehow ended up wearing a scuba diving suit instead of aquamarine robes. In the last batch, we've had Aunt Petunia described as a woman with a horse's head, Mrs Weasley described as a woman with a short, bulging, benevolent face, and the Burrow renamed the Bureau and then the Executioner. What's even better, though, is the Harry Potter club that started this year. A weekly gathering, usually around a pot of tea in a special owl-patterned tea set, or some homemade "Butterbeer". (More like spiced tea. Very loose interpretation of the name Butterbeer.) After discussing the books for a while, they started to act out a few scenes, and eventually put on a little show. Yeah, they were that enthusiastic. That's the point when I let myself get roped into it. The show was amazingly disorganised. They had only had two rehearsals (and only one on the actual stage). They were pretty good, though, considering. And the audience was larger than I expected, I didn't think there would be that many HP fans in this little French uni. (actual book fans, because they recognised Peeves) One of the best scenes was the "Have a biscuit" in McGonagall's office (from OotP). And Hermione attacking Ron when he returns with Gryffindor's sword. (from DH) I got to be Lucius Malfoy, strutting around with my swishy cloak and #swag while that meddlesome Potter freed my house-elf. I actually had a cane, with a snake head and all.  (homemade, origami snake head, just cardboard and tin foil and beads, lol. It even had a forked tongue. I pretended to make out with it to entertain people after the show.) (You never know what Lucius does when no one's watching...) My other part was Peeves briefly taunting Harry. I got to shout Peeves' little song from backstage, in my wackiest voice, with an almost Spongebob-like cackle. Idk, it worked. There was food afterwards - homemade, HP-themed food. Someone had made an exact replica of Harry's first birthday cake, brought by Hagrid in the first movie. ;w; Same icing and all. Amazing. I teared up a little when I saw it. It tasted like Hagrid-love. After that super hectic night, we all agreed to tone it down and only do dramatic readings. (With a few props. And maybe a few costumes. And maybe a bit of acting. They're getting carried away again. >_>; ) We have a bunch of scenes from OotP. My characters are Umbridge, and Lucius again, to which I may or may not add He Who Must Not Be Named. predictable, moi? I have a bright pink clipboard for my script to inspect various teachers, and then I get to pull Harry out of my fire (;D) and torture him a bit, oh boy \o/ Then I become Lucius again and meet up with my mate Bellatrix to get a prophecy. (Give me the prophecy, Potter. Yes but give me the prophecy. Give it. Give iiit. Gimme the bloody prophecy alreadyyyy T___T) There were only two of us at today's meeting. (most students are taking a breather atm) We practiced some of our lines, and then we... I'm not sure what happened, but we started swapping character voices. We read the Career Advice scene from OotP, but my friend read McGonagall's lines with a Snape voice, and I read Umbridge's lines with my best Voldemort voice. And then another read with Bellatrix instead of McG and Moody as Umbridge. It got hilarious when we reached "Any questions, Potter?" Yeah, he might have a few questions. Then I made Voldemort-voice show up at Grimauld Place and in the Gryffindor common room with Snape, and then everything devolved into Snape. Snape-voice for every character. Snape arguing with other Snapes until Snape comes to fetch them for dinner and the portrait of Snape yells at them in the hall. Snape asking Snape to give Snape the prophecy while Snape stalls for time. Snape escorting Snape to King's Cross and threatening Snape. It really is a useful exercise, though. Really. I recommend it. >_> We sure got a lot of practice doing Snape-voice. Yep, that sort of stuff happens. SOOO, I haven't really been keeping up with Pottermore, Fantastic Beasts or Cursed Child in detail. Hopefully someone will come and discuss the latest news in this newly-reawaked thread. =D |
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Post by Coaster on Jun 25, 2016 2:01:33 GMT -5
Sooooo after growing up in one of those households that was all "nuuu, it's WITCHCRAFT, you are not getting anywhere near that" I have suddenly found myself with a surplus of electronics-free leisure time and asked a friend if I could borrow the first few books on a whim
and proceeded to read the entirety of The Philosopher's Stone in one day (I'm not a particularly avid or fast reader in general) and I'm almost halfway through Chamber of Secrets, so, uh
as reminded by page 77 of the latter ("better hope Creevey doesn't meet Ginny") I figured I should post here, so hai 8D
In the vein of the first page:
Name: Coaster
Sex: maybe, but take me out to dinner and put a ring on it first ...Gender: Female
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Post by Shinko on Aug 2, 2016 15:49:24 GMT -5
So according to my kindle reader I'm about 70% of the way through Cursed Child: don't spoil the ending for me! But I did want to ramble a little bit on how I'm feeling about it so far. (I've stopped on Act 3: Scene 19, so nothing I say will spoil anything past that point.) I'll be totally honest, reading through most of Act 1 I kinda wanted to throttle all of the characters collectively. I feel like the pacing introduced was zippy to the point of forgetting that the beginning of a story should, yanno, make the characters sympathetic and endear them to the audience in some way. While I totally see where the writers were trying to go with Albus' character, they slide him way too fast from nervous Papa's Boy at eleven to Raging Teenage Angstbucket at fourteen-ish, and it makes him a very hard character to like much in the opening act. There is a whole lot of tell-don't-show (for example there's a bit where Scorpius and Albus have an exchange about how Scorpius' mother has recently died that feels entirely unnatural to how two people would actual talk to one another) and it almost ruined things for me enough that I stopped reading.
Act 2 dives us into the main story though, slowing down the speeding-past-years-of-character-development nonsense and actually letting us see a wild Albus and Scorpius in their natural habitat. The two of them have a very fun dynamic. Scorpius is probably my favorite character so far in the whole play; he's a precious sweet bab and I love that they went that direction with the character of a Malfoy because it's the opposite of what you'd expect. (On that note, Draco is a lot of fun in this so far. It's great to see him in the role of someone besides a bully, and his admitting that he was actually jealous of the friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione in school really yanked my hearstrings. Let's not forget, even setting aside that Crabbe and Goyle were Draco's idiot cronies as he points out, they also turned on him during the Battle of Hogwarts and almost got him killed. It is awesome to see Draco putting aside his hate for Harry because he knows how much the friendship between Albus and Scorpius means for his son.)
Also Snape. Aaaaaaaah Snape. His entire bit had me melting inside. Nnnnnngggggggggg.
I'll probably post here again once I'm done but wanted to get some of this off my chest and clear my head for reading the rest. EDIT: Okay I just finished reading it but I'll wait to post my thoughts on the story as a whole until someone else posts in here so I know I'm not geeking at a void, ahaha. XD |
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Post by Liou on Oct 4, 2016 14:04:38 GMT -5
I've finally finished reading the Cursed Child myself! (You know when you're being nagged to read something by excited people who can't wait to discuss it with you? :'D That made me dread finishing the book. I actually don't dare tell any of them that I've finished reading.) Anyway, I can now come in here to tell Shinko... that I agree with a lot of what you said and felt quite similar to you while reading. Well, I mainly felt bored while reading, tbh. >_> The Cursed Child mainly helped me to appreciate Rowling's prose and the narrator from the main series. (this spoiler box is not a gif, it contains some Cursed Child spoilers) I never thought it might be possible, but I think TCC has destroyed Ron's character even more than the movies. To me, there is just no Ronald Weasley in TCC.
I get the impression that Ginny is only there to be Harry's confidante and... mentor, advisor, muse?, and I don't know, I just didn't see enough of her or her motivations, that's Ginny, she's a boss, there is no way she wouldn't be more active in this kind of situation.
I'm kind of glad that Hermione is the Minister... a bit tired of having Hermione pushed towards Flawless Strong Female Character perfection as in the movies, but hey, she can do it, and it's definitely better than having another old white dude in charge.
I found Minerva absolutely perfect.
Not talking about acts 3 and 4 yet because I don't know how to initiate, ahaha. Overall, my impression is that the writers threw together as many cool plot elements as possible that would make sense in HP world, and didn't focus quite as much on the characters. |
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Post by Gelquie on Dec 26, 2016 21:36:16 GMT -5
So I got the Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them books for Christmas. I was kind of waffling on reading them, but I got them, so I figured why not. xD Though I haven't decided if I should read the Fantastic Beasts book first or if I should watch the movie. But I just finished reading the Cursed Child, so... Yeah, I definitely see the flaws in the book, and the beginning is definitely not my favorite. But I did kind of have fun reading it once things picked up; I was entertained. Although I did have a few moments of... Well, okay, I'll just go into a spoiler box, and it's spoilers for the entire book. I did have a few moments of "okay, problem solved, issues are settling, this book can end now", but as I knew I was only halfway or a quarter way into the book, obviously there had to be more. xD So I did occasionally have the feeling that they were tacking on more. But I did like the twist with Delphi, although I had nagging suspicions. Although I did have questions regarding her... ah, existence. I knew Bellatrix may have crushed on Voldemort, but I didn't feel like that was ever reciprocated, especially to that point. Or maybe he didn't feel love for her but just went for it, for... I don't know, it just feels weird of Voldemort. Although I guess it's not entirely impossible, so I guess I'm just nitpicking here. Besides, I did really like Delphi. I thought she was a cool villain.
Anyway, the other character, it kind of felt like a "let's revisit these characters", especially when they pulled back dead characters for one scene just to go "hey, remember when?". Such as with Snape and other one-shot characters in the past. But it was done well enough that I'm not complaining too much, at least not with Snape. I did feel a few moments of it in other places, though.
Speaking of characters, the characters themselves...
I liked Scorpius' character. It was nice to see him different from his father and not just continuing the bullying tradition (which makes some sense, given Draco's character development towards the end of the original series and how he seemed to grow here, which I also really liked; nice to see him more mature, especially in the face of what's happened in this book), and I just... well, I liked him. xD Though I don't get his crush on Rose. He actually seemed way more attached to Albus to me, and meanwhile he'd only really seen Rose from afar who'd never really done anything with him. And there was very little development on that and I just don't see it.
Albus himself... Graaaaargh, he annoyed me. xD I agree with the sentiment that they tried to shoot him from nervous 11-year-old to teenage rebel far too fast and far too intensely. Through the first parts of the book (and even at times around the end), I was kind of facepalming and going "oh come on!". On the one hand, he's a teenager, and thus immature and thus not fully understanding the implications of things, which in fairness, he did learn later as he went through time. On the other hand, it was too much too fast.
And yeah, there was a lot of telling instead of showing. Although then again, it's supposed to be a play, in which you only have so much time to put stuff on stage, and on stage, yeah, there is a lot of telling because they don't have time to show it. But I still feel there could have been more put into the words to do more showing. Dialogue can tell a lot without outright stating their actions and "I feel this specific emotion". ...Then again, I know, it's a common thing in plays, but I've seen plays that don't do that so much either.
Future jobs, Hermione as minister as pretty cool, Harry's position was fairly expected. The other adult characters, it was good to explore how Harry is handling adult things, and I liked to see the issues between Harry and Albus worked through and resolved eventually. Even through the moments of "oh gosh, why are you doing that". Mostly from Albus, but from Harry too, especially when he went through his "this is my chance to get through to my son after a scare, TIME TO FORCE HIM AWAY FROM HIS OBVIOUSLY INNOCENT FRIEND AND MAKE HIM EVEN MORE MISERABLE, RARGH!" stage. Like, Harry, really, how does that help anyone? Though I loved the scene where Draco yelled at him for it, but it just seemed like an obvious thing to avoid in the first place. But those moments aside, I did like seeing that develop.
Anyway, Ron, I expected him to not work at the ministry or anything, but his character... I feel like they completely forgot his character and turned him into a total joke. (For instance, "taking out your wand and pointing it the wrong way"? In Voldemort world? Really?) And I don't feel like he came around enough by the end. And this is something I've noticed in the Harry Potter movies too, where they took Ron's good smart (or at least straightforward) moments from the books and gave them to Hermione. But Ron did have voices of reason. He did have moments of balancing out Hermione because Hermione could get intense to the point where he'd go "uh, no", and the audience would agree with him on it. And I feel like that's stretched into here a bit, and I just feel like... I dunno, I feel like he's a better character than he was portrayed.
As for Ginny, I liked seeing her again and I did feel her character through it, especially when she started calling people out on things, because that's one trait that really strikes me with Ginny. I do feel like she should have been more involved around the beginning, but I like how she had more of a role towards the end.
The plot itself, it initially made me go "oh boy" because it felt like an excuse to revisit things, and the motive for the plot had an extremely obvious moral from the beginning: "Don't mess with time." A kid could tell you that. But I still enjoyed the ride. It was rather fun to see the cause and effect, and I think the ripple effects were well explained. Though I'm also kind of a geek and really like seeing how they laid out the chain of events (or rather, figured them out, which is a better way to do it). Although I did kind of facepalm at the kids obviously acting strangely and ask direct questions when it'd be better for them to be more subtle and gradually piece stuff out and/or read some of the revised history books first (and not after asking a billion questions that would be suspicious to ask) so that they wouldn't draw suspicion, especially in Voldemort world. On the one hand, true, they're kids and may not have a full handle on subtlety. On the other hand, it felt a bit too on point and obvious.
Anything else I have to say, I either can't remember or it's too small to really mention. Anyway, I just came from reading the book, so I haven't had time to completely separate myself from it. But my impression, I thought it was an okay read. Not my favorite Harry Potter story, and I definitely had my moments of "um". But I still found there were things to enjoy about it, and I was able to get into those. |
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Post by Lizica on May 1, 2017 23:36:37 GMT -5
Sorry for resurrecting another old clubhouse thread. I’ve been kind of feeling like I should say something about Cursed Child for a long while now. xD (I’ve actually had this post rotting on my computer half-finished since last fall.) First, though, a confession: I have not read all of Cursed Child. I’ve only reread and skimmed over my favorite parts, because last summer when I went to England for a wedding, my cousin and I had the extreme good fortune (like, crazy, insane, what-even-the-heck good fortune) of being able to go to one of the preview shows in London. (And then we were sworn to secrecy because #KeeptheSecrets.) Short review: We loved it. Long review: *cracks knuckles* Okay, so...uh... This sounds contradictory, since I just said we loved it, but I’m inclined to agree with almost everything said so far. For me personally, I went into the show with mixed expectations. I was not expecting an “eighth story,” and watching it was honestly more like watching a fanfic that Rowling wrote of her own world. (I haven’t read a ton of HP fanfics, but I’ve read enough to appreciate when the characters were spot-on tonally perfect.) Anyway, I personally still don’t accept Cursed Child as canon, but I think I’m okay with that?
This is also personal preference, but I absolutely ADORED the play format for this world. I couldn’t stand the aesthetic of the movies because it clashed too much with my own personal mental images--but for me, a stage play was the absolute perfect way to evoke magic and the setting while still allowing the viewer’s imagination some breathing space. (I feel like mentioning that the show did not strictly adhere to either the book illustrations or the movie designs. The Dark Mark, for example, was a different design from either. And an excellent example of the play utilizing the imagination-space was the Sorting Hat: Rather than have a puppet or something similar, the Sorting Hat was played by a man in a crisp tweed suit with a bowler hat. For each student’s sorting, he moved his own hat above their head while making magical sounds. Which I know doesn’t sound terribly mesmerizing, but it was actually very effective, and I’m pretty sure every single person in the audience understood the visual shorthand.)
I know there was some controversy about the casting, but I thought it was great (plus aforementioned “I’m actually okay with plays changing some things and leaving some to imagination” thing). But can I just say, Ginny’s actress could shout down every single actor on stage, and that delighted me. xD
Draco was surprisingly hilarious in this, as well? xD I think his lines often got the biggest laughs. And throughout the whole play, he just had this resigned air, like, “Uuuuuggghhh, fine, I can’t believe I’m stuck in Potter’s posse, cripes. =I”
Also, Umbridge. She was perfect. Even with the minimal set, I think she still had despicable kitten flatware? xD Hopefully my memory’s not making that up. Also of note is that when we came back from intermission (after we’d been stuck on the cliffhanger of the altered universe for a day), it was Umbridge's voice that spoke the intro to the audience, where she told us to “turn off all those dirty Muggle devices.” And then she laughed. It was legitimately chilling.
...Also I feel like I should say something about Moaning Myrtle. I just don’t know what. xD She wasn’t how I imagined her, and yet, she was bizarrely perfect in her own way. I don’t even. She did her scenes lying and spinning in the sink soaking wet while flirting with the main characters. Again, I found it kinda bizarre. And yet oddly fitting. I don’t even know. xD
That’s just a few of them, but seriously, this was a great cast, and they were so talented and believable.
And and and the magic effects in this. So much love. You don’t understand, guys. *_* The stage tricks they used were friggin’ amazing. Sometimes you could tell how something was done (but didn’t care because it was so well done)--but other times you were just like, “How did they do that? How did they do that??? @___@”
One example: When people went to the Ministry of Magic via the phone booth, here’s how I think they pulled it off? The actors’ outer cloaks wore were pulled into the phone receiver while the actors themselves simultaneously dropped down a trapdoor--but it all happened so fast that you could swear they’d actually been sucked into the phone.
On the other hand, I have no idea how they did the trolley cart lady’s fingers. (Remote controls?) And every time they used the Time Turner, there was an amazing effect (done with lighting? actual magic? Who knows) where the stage and everything on it actually looked like it billowed and rippled. The audience audibly gasped with wonder the first time they did this.
I could go on, but speaking of Time Turners, maybe I should talk about the actual story now. xD
I think the story was okay? Not up to par with any of the original books, but it was okay. (As I already mentioned, I don’t perrrrsonally consider it canon?) The stage play completely drew us in, honestly, and it really wasn’t until after an act was over that I realized how sore my legs were from the seats we got. xD But objectively, the story was just...okay. Again, I agree with most of what’s been said. At times, I did get the impression that they were trying to juggle way too many characters, and some of the relationships suffered a little, but I really don’t remember being disappointed with any of them. (Though maybe if I had gone in expecting canon, I might have been more discriminating.) (That part where Harry forbade Albus and Scorpius from talking, though... *headwall*) (And even though there were already too many characters, I almost feel that if this was really intended to be an “eighth story,” maybe we would have heard more about Luna or Teddy, and maybe Neville wouldn't have been relegated to a historical footnote. Yes, I'm still a little upset about that. xD)
I was disappointed when they brought a prophecy into the plot, but I trusted the writers enough to hope that they’d do something interesting with it. Which, to their credit, they sort of did, what with the whole prophecy prevention concept being fully utilized.
But the part where they revealed that Delphi was Voldemort’s daughter? I managed not to make any audible noise in the theatre when they confirmed it, but I would have groaned. I was just, “...Really? You’re really going in this direction? The whole child of the Dark Lord thing? Aw, come on.” I will grant them one point in their favor for introducing the theme of Voldemort’s child early on with the rumors about Scorpius, but still. More points docked than gained for actually moving the plot in that direction. There are just so many things about it that bother me, both writing-wise and worldbuilding-wise. World-wise, it just doesn’t mesh with my perception of the world somehow, like it was tacked on rather than planned. (And I agree, I never got the impression that Bellatrix’s crush was reciprocated.) And writing-wise, I dunno, it just reeks of that lazy writing so many bad sequels have where they pull a “child of the villain” card because it’s easier to establish EVILS that way than to actually develop the new antagonist’s motives.
That said, though, moving out of the negative zone, I will admit that the theme of parenthood with that kind of awful twist was fairly interesting, and the scene where Harry has to tell Delphi why she will never meet her father was heartbreaking.
Speaking of heartbreaking, I didn’t really cry during the play...until the scene where Hagrid finds baby Harry amid the wreckage. After all the insanity and time-bending and drama, this part was just so quiet, and so understated, and so tragic. After so much in this story almost felt unreal in its scale and its twists, this part just really grounded it and reminded you how much was lost, but also how much was still to come.
As I mentioned, I haven’t read the whole script, so I can’t say if anything else was changed, but there was one part that I swear was different in the stage play when I saw it. (Although, again, this was almost a year ago, so my memory could just be wonky.) Near the end, in Act Four, Scene Fourteen, Rose calls Scorpius “Scorpion King,” which I guess is supposed to indicate she respects him on some level and may someday love him. But to me, that nickname is just dripping with negative connotations from the alternate timeline?? But I seem to recall that in the play I saw, Rose instead called him “Bread Head,” which was almost a running gag (from when Scorpius said she smelled nice). That nickname was sort of loaded with disdain, but was also rather sneakily endearing in this scene, and I think it sounds roughly a dozen times better and also less deferential than “Scorpion King.” So if my memory hasn’t failed me, yeah, the play version was better here.
But even without that, overall, this was definitely a story meant to be seen on a stage, not read in a book. Just in case this rambling review hasn’t conveyed that already, here’s another clear example: In Act Two, after Albus and Scorpius have been forbidden to talk to each other, there’s a scene comprised entirely of choreographed movements and magical moving staircases. Looking it up in the book (page 127 in my copy), the stage directions seriously do not do this scene justice. The description is kind of back-and-forth and not really interesting--but on the stage, this scene was set to music, and it was sad but utterly beautiful. I don’t think I could adequately describe how fluid and enchanting this part was through words alone, either.
Another example of the stage play being an experience: Dementors. Dementors flying over the audience. Friggin’ terrifying. 8’DD I was seated in the balcony and constantly leaning forward to get a better view of the stage, and so I felt some distance from the action. But when the Dementors came down from the ceiling, my cousin and I leaned way back and were secretly praying that they wouldn’t come over to us. There was no place in the theatre that was safe. Probably every single person in there felt exposed. The effects were, um, they were very effective.
And that’s something I can safely say about the entire show. Not only were the effects amazing, but how everything was executed was amazing--effects to acting to set design to choreography to pacing to costumes, sound, everything-else-basically. It was marvelously put together. Does the story have problems? Yeah. Are there some things I didn’t like? Sure. But was I also completely absorbed and entranced and invested? You better believe it. TL;DR, Cursed Child is a story that is simply okay on paper, but on stage, it was enthralling and breathtaking. It’s got problems, to be sure, but it’s definitely made to be seen, not read. (I didn’t know where to mention this above, so one last random thing: Was St. Oswald’s Home for Old Witches and Wizards ever mentioned in the original books? Because it was amazing. XD) |
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Miu
Occasional Commenter
Posts: 36
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Post by Miu on May 2, 2017 8:17:24 GMT -5
Hello to all fan here  May I recommend some HP fanfiction written by cywscross on archive of our own here? |
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Post by Ginz ❤ on Nov 9, 2017 1:14:42 GMT -5
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Post by Draco on Nov 9, 2017 4:05:42 GMT -5
It sounds interesting xD But if it takes up as much data as Pokemon Go, I probably won't be able to run it >_> |
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Post by The Scrac that Smiles Back on Nov 16, 2017 10:14:51 GMT -5
Going to have to convince myself not to play the Harry Potter GO game. I already play both Ingress and Pokemon GO, my phone does not have space for anything more!
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(homemade, origami snake head, just cardboard and tin foil and beads, lol. It even had a forked tongue. I pretended to make out with it to entertain people after the show.) (You never know what Lucius does when no one's watching...) 
