The actors who played Snape, Sirius, Lupin, etc were all too old in the movies..

[TheHulksPurplePanties]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Alan Rickman. But I recently started playing the new Harry Potter "Mystery at Hogwarts" game and I came to the realization (because I OBVIOUSLY don't have better things to think about) that Snape should only be 23/24 in this game. He should have been 31 at the start of the Potter series, but Rickman was in late 50's. I know life was difficult in the Potterverse but come-on, a 31 year old does not look 50.

I'm sure the reasoning was that they wanted bigger names in the movies to get more of a draw, but surely there were actors in their 30's who could have played the roles?

CC is the biggest load of tripe that I have ever had the misfortune to read. It's an insult to the series and I honestly wish I'd never read it. OK, I do get that years of trauma would have affected Harry badly, PTSD etc and parenting may well have been difficult for him under the circumstances. And I did like the friendship between Draco and Harry's sons but the rest? I'm sorry but I thought it was horrendous. As has already been said well Voldemort would never have had a child for all the reasons already mentioned, plus the physical act of sex would have been far to human for him. And Bellatrix as a mother? Really?

Also, Snape was willing to hand the husband and baby of the woman he supposedly loved to Voldermort, knowing what would happen to them. He's far from innocent and deeply selfish. He only changed because Lily was killed

But he didn’t realise at the time he overheard the prophesy that it applied to Lily. When he found out Mouldy was going after the Potters he went to Dumbledore for help. That’s when he became a member of the OOTP.

Unicorn

Bellatrix as a willing parent does make a tiny amount of sense. She was fanatical enough and unhinged enough to find glory and honour in serving Voldemort that way.

So that's maybe about 1/1000 things that made sense.

Oh god, I forgot the 'Harry as an awful parent' bits. And the corresponding 'Ron and Hermione raising Rose as a bossy toerag' bits. And the queerbaiting of Albus and Scorpius only for Scorpius to end up fancying the toerag Rose...

Er, BlackandWhite, it wasn't me that mentioned "proper fans", which was why I put that in inverted commas.

And no, I don't mean in Florida. I'm British. Also, why should I simmer down? Because a random on an Internet forum tells me to? Nope. I'm not riled up enough to simmer down, I don't have the energy.

Where did I mention my superior knowledge? It is, but I don't believe I mentioned it.

ICant

Ok, no problem. Let's see this superior knowledge - challenge accepted!

You said upthread that you can never understand why people like Snape.

How does that square with his lost hero revision in Cursed Child?

You say it has to be seen. Never mind that JKR says that, what about seeing it changes the plot failings people (who both have and haven't seen it) identify above? What changes about those things when you hear an actor say them on a set on stage, as opposed to reading them?

Does Hermione trill away the bitterness that comes off the page when she's a lonely professor at Hogwarts? Does that come across really well? Does that have a different, more profound meaning?

Take any example and argue with the details (with your superior knowledge and all ), NOT with who knows the biggest fans.

FYI, I don't do any fan stuff, unless you count reading the books a bajillion times and discussing them with my sister. I haven't been sorted (totes Ravenclaw though - which is why I'm so into literary analysis). I write myself too - and very carefully - something I learned to do from reading BAD writing. I'd genuinely love to hear a postive analysis of CC that is better than just 'JKR says you have to see it for real'.

Erm, no. As if I have time - I'm a very busy teacher

Perhaps I'll get back to you during the summer holidays.

But he didn’t realise at the time he overheard the prophesy that it applied to Lily. When he found out Mouldy was going after the Potters he went to Dumbledore for help. That’s when he became a member of the OOTP.

I don't understand this argument in defence of Snape. It's irrelevant whether he knew it was Lily or not. Either way he knew full well he was getting a baby murdered by Voldemort.

ICantCope, i did wonder why you’d put it in inverted commas but I couldn’t see anyone else who’d mentioned ‘proper fans’. Sorry if i misunderstood. But I did find your posts a bit patronising tbh. Like all these important people you’ve met who are ‘wizarding world employees’ (what does that mean anyway?) all LOVE the play and we don’t love it because we’ve misunderstood something.

Anyone can be a Harry Potter fan, if they've read the books once, or a million times, heck, even if they haven't. No one can monopolise enjoying something.

I didn't say they were important, just that I've come across a lot of people who have worked on the sets, with the cast of CC etc and I've never come across anyone who didn't enjoy the actual play. It's full of holes, yes, but an enjoyable play nonetheless.

I don't think it's enjoyable solely as a screenplay. I don't feel that people can judge it so harshly until they've seen it. I feel as though the fact that it's an enjoyable experience as a play is separate from the holes within the plot. It has MANY faults but most people have still been able to enjoy it.

My main issue is with people saying it's not canon when it is. I think most people choose to forget about it as part of the Harry Potter story, but it's still canon.

ICantCope I am surprised- I have never come across anyone who liked CC (although surely people who worked on the play are more likely to be biased). Everyone is entitled to their opinion though of course :)

As I said, I don't consider it, or any extra info Rowling gives in tweets/pottermore, as canon- only the seven books. Half the fun of reading, in my opinion, is thinking up your own endings. At the end of the day, it's all imaginary (sorry everyone).

I havent come across anyone who has not loved Cursed Child and know a lot of people who have seen it. Ive seen it twice, Ds twice, dd probably 20 times and made a new group of friends who have seen it probably more times than dd and one about 80 times. Most of them are going to Broadway see it, dd has a ticket for when she finishes Camp America.

I havent come across anyone who has not loved Cursed Child

Now you have. It was total rubbish and I do love Harry Potter so was very disappointed.

aharddaysnight

Read Minerva McGonagalls back story on Pottermore. It explains so much about her and its a wonderful story in its own right. I would love a film about her and her life. I see Carey Mulligan playing a young Prof. McG.

If CC is canon, then alot of the rest of series has been completely retconned.

CC is just bad fanfiction being passed canon.

sapphire that video is me, right after seeing it. Getting all high pitched and angry! I’m never really able to move past that with JKR, when I was already annoyed by her lack of character development, plot holes etc etc. Again, I cite Pullman as a master of beautiful writing in a similar genre, and JKR even took a few names and ideas from him without ever crediting him. I mean, look at Game of Thrones, the books I mean, not the show. The character development is incredibly dense and far-reaching. I don’t know why JKR uses the same lines and same words continuously, it really irritates me when she shoves in the same adjectives sentence after sentence. I can’t know if she actively meant to do it, but I feel that it could be a cynical ploy to make it more saleable, rather than an inability to write well. When you think of how Pullman or GRRM describes a face, a lock of hair, a spine tingling feeling of impending doom... JKR falls so very short, and yet I absolutely LOVE the series! How is that possible? To love a series because I’ve padded it out in my own mind, and despite holding such a dim view of JKR’s writing skills and essentially thinking of her as a sellout? There’s some kind of weird psychology there that I don’t have the skills to unpick

I haven't read Phillip Pullman in years! I borrowed the books from my school library, read them, loved them, but haven't gone back. They're next on my list to re-read. (He got massive bonus points from me for setting the start of his story in Oxford, and for using the word 'evanescence' in a sentence. It's a beautiful word.) Haven't read Game of Thrones, I know people who have but I don't fancy it.
RE Harry Potter, I've read fanfiction that I think is better written than the main series, which is probably a terrible thing to say. I'm going to be charitable and say that's just her writing style, and the first book was certainly aimed at youngish children, so it wasn't that complex. As it the series progressed it certainly got darker and I think was aimed more at young adults, but the style didn't really change. I know people who struggled with reading who found her writing style easy to read, which is a good thing. Apart from that, I've got nothing. The plot has more holes than a lace dress. She annoyed me with all the stuff she came out with after the last book, which I'm choosing to ignore.

Sapphire deifinitely go back to Pullman, I loved his Sally Lockhart series too! You’re right about HP being an easy read and therefore nicely accesible for kids, I feel horrible for moaning about it being to basic - it’s for kids 🤦‍♀️ I can imagine that the more complex writing in books like the golden compass probably would put a huge percent of children off. Also kind of don’t forgive JKR for killing Lupin, and Tonks, although Tonks I was only sad about because of Lupin. Also her lack of real development for Ginny, she seemed like she was probably great! I needed to get a life, ha!

*too