to think that the Harry Potter are timeless literature and the films are woefully miscast?

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Inflammatory title to draw you in. I hope. I just fancied some HP chat.

I'm re-watching the films at the moment. Is it me or is there something old-ladyish about Alan Rickman's mouth? I realize I am thinking about this far too hard, and I know it's practically forbidden to speak ill of him on MN. But every time I see those films, I'm disappointed again that he just isn't as sexy as his voice.

I also think the Burrow looks all wrong to me. I love what they do with the reeds in the scene where Bellatrix taunts Harry and he and Ginny run after her. But I imagined the Burrow being rural and farmland-ish, with an overgrown garden around it - not plonked down in the middle of a marsh. Am I right?

What's your favourite bit of the films/books?

Ha ha LRD! Not sure I followed all that but fair enough. I only know one couple from school that are married I think. Maybe 2.

I agree Bland but I am a purist . I don't think the stupid stuff JKR says in interviews is 'canon' either - Dumbledore is not gay and Neville is not married to Hannah Abbott.

No, it's not terribly follow-able. But there are masses of us. I went back for my reunion a year or two ago and was really surprised how many people had ended up marrying blokes from the boys' school or their friends' brothers.

I guess it is unusual, but nice, because weddings are also like school reunions.

I loved the dance scene (mainly due to the music, to be honest.) I love Harry and Hermione's relationship, I never saw/hoped for them to be any more than friends. The Godric's hollow scene in DH...I'm welling up just thinking about it!
I spent a lot of time thinking about the practicalities of the Hogwarts Express. Is there any other way to get to Hogwarts (as a student)? If you live five minutes away from Hogwarts, do you still have to go down to King's Cross? If I could meet JK Rowling, I'd just ask her really mundane questions like this
(Also, in the first film, Hermione is called up for sorting first - whenever I watch it, I scream 'WHAT ABOUT HANNAH ABBOTT? internally.)

I like the dance in the tent personally.

I agree Ginny in the films is wet but that's the fault of the films not the actress nor the books.

Biggest problem for me is the casting of James and Lily/Petunia and Vernon. TOO OLD!

I always think Draco and Neville in the films are spot on.

Well you can drive a flying car there so there must be other ways.

Neville did so not marry Hannah Abbott. He married Luna in my world. Seeing as Harry missed his chance and married the only actor with a higher wood content than himself.

Why did JK throw that gay thing in, does anyone know? I mean, none of the teachers are in any kind of relationship, so why did she feel the need to be a) PC b) controversial.

Cos she's a gobshite Sangria.

Mmm. I thought that at first. It's the way she announced it that bugs me - she did that daft 'so I had to tell the director actually, Dumbledore is gay! Hee hee!" It just makes me want to yell 'he's not bloody real' at her.

But I do think it makes perfect sense in canon. If he and Grindelwald are in an, ah, intense friendship, it's so much more logical.

Though I do feel if she had wanted to go there (which is honestly a good thing), I wish she'd done it with an unremarkable minor character too. It would have been really easy to drop in some minor character having a same-sex boyfriend/girlfriend and would have given it all some context.

I also find it offensive that it's falling in love with a man that cause Ddore to go evil. And that he chooses abstinence over a relationship as it made him lose his way. Humph.

Mmm, yeah, hadn't thought of it that way.

Not so keen.

Tonks was too old too, and Narcissa shouldn't have had two-tone hair (although I thought the actress was great).

The ages are all a bit off (and then played by people completely the wrong age in the film).

I think Tonks only just missed being at school with Harry/Hermione etc - I'm pretty sure she's younger than Bill. Then there's the ones who are Harry's parents' age, Voldemort and Hagrid type, and then generically 'older' (and Dumbledore, who should really have had to retire many moons ago). Take Madam Rosmerta, who Ron has a bit of a crush on - she was landlady when Harry's parents were at school.

Also, (and I know I'm picking holes here, I do love the books really) how closely related are Teddy Tonks and Victoire?

Is Victoire Bill and Fleur's daughter? How would she be related to Teddy Lupin?

www.standard.co.uk/goingout/film/ginny-weasley-grows-up-bonnie-wright-interview-9207247.html

Ginny all grown up & a successful actress , no mention of famous parents ?

They're not, really, are they? Isn't Victoire Bill and Fleur's daughter, while Teddy is Lupin and Tonks's son. Sirius does say that he's distantly related to both Molly and Arthur, and Sirius is Tonks's mother's cousin. But that's about it, I thought?

Bonnie Wright:

• child of Sheila Teague and Gary Wright, owners of the jewellery company Wright & Teague.

Two small things (but hey we are nitpicking )

Sirius is described as turning into a bear like dog, film dog isn't bear like and that's not exactly hard to stick to.

Also the Weasley twins disrupting the exams in OOTP when they said in the book they waited for exams to be over as it wasn't fair otherwise.

I couldn't remember exactly - I knew both Molly and Arthur were related to Sirius, and Tonks is his first cousin once removed. But if Molly/Arthur are both distant relations of his then it's not so bad!

What does canon mean please?

isn't luna in Ginnys year?

i LOVED the conductor on the Knight Bus, Stan Shunpike. he was great

agree the lack of Peeves was annoying.

The official version.

With HP, you can refer to the book canon or the film canon, obviously, because they're different but both are official versions. Other stuff, like JKR's interviews, has a less official status. And then you have things popularly believed, or often said in fanfic.

Eg., I persist in being convinced Tonks is in for a sad disappointment concerning her husband's sexuality. That's non-canon, but a very common response.

(I sound very serious there - it is almost exactly how you talk about proper literature too, FWIW. So it's not purely geeky, honest.)

"Cos she's a gobshite Sangria."

Was that in your PhD proposal?

Thanks LRD, that makes the previous posts make sense to me now! I have an A-Level in English Lit so I probably should have known that

Lupin probably fulfilled that part of his sexuality as a wolf, dogs don't ever appear too concerned about gender when humping

Any time.

And I don't think it'd come up in A Level Lit, so don't feel bad. It's like when you talk about Pericles being non-canonical Shakespeare because we're not sure if he wrote it, that sort of thing.

And ewww to wolf/dogs!