To think Dumbledore was a massive cheater?

[Slytherine]

Just finished watching the first Harry Potter film on TV and forgot about the injustice for the Slytherins at the end. I have changed my name in solidarity.

So the Slytherins get the most House Points (presumably fairly as most of the professors at Hogwarts could barely hide their disdain for Slytherin House so wouldn’t have been dishing out points to them for no reason) and are sat there enjoying their win of the House Cup, and celebrating with the room decorated in their House colours, and then former Gryffindor Dumbledore just decides (even though the school year was officially over!!) to throw out an unreasonable amount of points to Harry, Hermione and Ron drawing them level with Slytherin, and then a further 10 points to Neville pushing Gryffindor over the edge and into the win. And then, just to rub salt into the wound, publicly humiliated them by casting a spell to replace all the Slytherin colours with the Gryffindor colours and gives them the award instead and they all celebrate, including him and most of the teachers, and Slytherin has to sit there and just accept it??

AIBU to think WTAF and that was very unfair and he was biased by doing this and it’s no wonder the Slytherins were openly hostile and dismissive of him after that!? I’d be fuming if I were a Slytherin student and if I were a parent of a Slytherin student I’d be marching up to the school myself and having a word with the head.

@Kanaloa

I do agree with the miscasting of Sirius/Lupin/Snape though. Surely they were supposed to be young, that’s part of the whole thing. I think in the first book Snape should have been thirty-ish? Or thereabouts. And it does slightly change things in my opinion. James and Lily’s death and how people react to it makes more sense when you think that they were 20/21. Also the fact that people have very little to really say about them other than James played quidditch and Lily was prefect at school. In the books it makes sense because they hadn’t had the chance to do anything else as they were so young.

I agree they were too old, but Alan Rickman was so perfect in it it’s forgivable. And then once you cast him for film one, you need similar ages for Lupin, Sirius, and Pettigrew.

Itsnotallaboutyoubaby From what I've seen, I thought the later films were better - but that might be because the kids' acting improved, rather than the change in director.

@Itsnotallaboutyoubaby

This is interesting:

www.hollywood.com/movies/actors-who-were-almost-in-harry-potter-60405450/#/ms-22504/1

I personally think Hugh Grant would have been a wonderful Lockhart.

I agree.

I know that link says Robin Williams was Warner Bros first pick for Hagrid, and I’ve also read that he really wanted to be in it as well. Columbus said he called him wanting to be Hagrid, and again later wanting to be Lupin. But they turned him down as they only wanted British actors for British parts - I think that was Rowling’s requirement. Which is a shame because I love Robin Williams.

[quote Itsnotallaboutyoubaby]@FeedMeSantiago I agree about Gambon. I always wondered if he had actually read the books.[/quote]
I think that he stated that he didn't.

Does it say in the book Lily and James were 20 odd when Harry was born?

It had a knock-on effect on even more as well — Tonks was only supposed to be 23/24 when she and Lupin got married. Which would have seemed a bit funny with a late-forties David Thewlis.

She's actually closer in age to Harry than she is to a lot of the 'adult' characters (she's younger than Bill and I think Charlie too), which comes across far more in the books than in the films.

@Glassofshloer

Does it say in the book Lily and James were 20 odd when Harry was born?

They were 21.

21! Never knew that. Imagined they were late 20s or early 30s.

@Kanaloa

I do agree with the miscasting of Sirius/Lupin/Snape though. Surely they were supposed to be young, that’s part of the whole thing. I think in the first book Snape should have been thirty-ish? Or thereabouts. And it does slightly change things in my opinion. James and Lily’s death and how people react to it makes more sense when you think that they were 20/21. Also the fact that people have very little to really say about them other than James played quidditch and Lily was prefect at school. In the books it makes sense because they hadn’t had the chance to do anything else as they were so young.

Thing is that apart from the fact that he was 55, Alan Rickman was otherwise perfect for the role. So Rowling agreed to bend the time line to suit.

@Itsnotallaboutyoubaby

This is interesting:

www.hollywood.com/movies/actors-who-were-almost-in-harry-potter-60405450/#/ms-22504/1

I personally think Hugh Grant would have been a wonderful Lockhart.

Oh yes! I always loved Kenneth Branagh's performance but I never felt he looked quite right. Grant would have been brilliant and he could have brought a bit of his Daniel Cleaver predatory charm to it as well.

@Glassofshloer

Does it say in the book Lily and James were 20 odd when Harry was born?

It doesn't specifically say they were in their twenties, but they were born in 1960 (it says on their gravestones). Then there are enough other dates given in the book that you can set Harry's date of birth as July 1980.

@Glassofshloer

21! Never knew that. Imagined they were late 20s or early 30s.

Their gravestones state they were born in 1960 and Harry was born in 1981.

Snape couldn’t have been anyone other than Alan Rickman. He was absolutely perfect for the role.

They were 21.

They were 21 when they died but only 20 when Harry was born. Their dates of birth and death were on their gravestones in the seventh book.

Sorry, yes, Harry was born in 1980. He was one when his parents were killed.

@DdraigGoch I just googled. He didn’t read them. In fact he refused. I think he did himself a disservice not reading them personally.

Gambon was foolish not to have read the books. Especially when playing a character of Dumbledore's importance. It's not like he was playing a relatively minor role!

Yeah according to the dates Lily would have been pregnant at 19 with Harry, gave birth at 20 then died at 21. Definitely didn’t picture them so young, they are not far off Harry’s age in the last book. The film seemed to use older actors.

Snape is the same year group so should only be about 31 when Harry starts Hogwarts, ditto Lupin and Sirius. Again much older actors cast for films.

The “you have your mothers eyes” quote used constantly in the film was bloody annoying because they never once cast someone with blue eyes (like Daniel Radcliffe has) to play Lily Potter. All the Lily actresses had brown eyes!

Alan Rickman was perfect Snape, except he was 20 years too old.

If they left Hogwarts at 18 and she died at 21 it’s not that much of a stretch that he’s still pining for her. When you put them all in their late 40s its a bit weird.

@ThePunnyMonster

The “you have your mothers eyes” quote used constantly in the film was bloody annoying because they never once cast someone with blue eyes (like Daniel Radcliffe has) to play Lily Potter. All the Lily actresses had brown eyes!

This always bothered DH who saw the films but never read the books. I remember watching a scene where someone tells Harry ‘you really do have your mother’s eyes’ and DH said ‘does he really though?!’

I think it’s more annoying because we’re specifically told he has unusual bright green eyes. So it isn’t like they were plain blue/brown, they would stick out to people who knew Lily as they were unusual.

@ThePunnyMonster

The “you have your mothers eyes” quote used constantly in the film was bloody annoying because they never once cast someone with blue eyes (like Daniel Radcliffe has) to play Lily Potter. All the Lily actresses had brown eyes!

That’s especially odd since they did attempt to get the eyes right in the first film. In the books Harry and Lily have green eyes, and they gave Daniel Radcliffe green contacts, but he had an allergic reaction so couldn’t wear them. It seems that after that they just gave up with the eye colour.

@Kanaloa

I thought the whole point of Dumbledore is that you can’t imagine him doing these things. He has this gentle grandfatherly image and then suddenly he can raise this terrifying powerful magic, and it’s surprising and unexpected. I don’t think he was meant to appear a frightening or powerful person - he appeared benevolent and kindly.

Yes, I think that’s fair. He seems like a prankster, mildly eccentric granddad much of the time, saying nonsense words when he says he ‘has a few words’ at one of the feasts, and talking an awful lot about sweets, and the time he got a vomit-flavour Bertie Bott’s Magic Bean, and it’s definitely quite hard to reconcile with him being the vanquished of the wizard of Hitler

And I do concede that nobody ever could have played Snape better than Alan Rickman - but I think it changes the narrative. In a way it makes it all the more tragic that all these people are still wrapped up in the past after so many years. And I actually like the distance it lends the story to have the adults being a bit older. Does make it a bit confusing as to why Lily and James seemed to have done nothing with their lives though? They’re in their thirties or so when they die in the films but Harry never asks ‘what was my mum and dad’s job?’ Or anything like it.

@Redcrayons

Alan Rickman was perfect Snape, except he was 20 years too old. If they left Hogwarts at 18 and she died at 21 it’s not that much of a stretch that he’s still pining for her. When you put them all in their late 40s its a bit weird.

Not if you're in love, forever, and that was the point. Even Dumbledore said "After all this time?" and Snape replied, "Always."

Snape was presumably 20 years older than Harry, as he was the same age as James and Lily.