#and portrayed not the teachers but Neville's fear of authority

[danadiadea]

The boggart argument never fails to make me giggle, because you know who else is "13 year old's biggest fear"? Minerva McGonagall, who is usually portrayed by the fandom as nothing less than a perfect teacher. And unlike Neville, who couldn't remember his parents tortured, Hermione almost got killed by a troll and a basilisk. And while Neville was laughing apologetically, Hermione screamed and stuttered.

[ealeczander]

Fuck “death of the author” I have a new solution to Harry Potter. From now on, the only canon I will acknowledge the existence of is “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” the movie. Not because it’s the best movie, even though that can be reason enough, but also:

The movie builds on the story of the book and expands it to such a great extent that it can exist on it’s own merit. I remember as I child watching the movie first, liking it so much that I wanted to read the book, and when I finally got to the fun part of the story, where the characters travel back in time, sneak around and solve the mystery.. - the book ends. All the fun stuff are only in the movie, which I deem enough of a reason for the movie to be considered it’s own thing.

Every ship that the fandom loves is in this movie. Alfonso Cuaron, being the mad genius that he is, even back then knew how prejudice she-who-must-not-be-named is, so he secretly told Lupin’s actor to play gay and in love but to not tell anyone about it. This action single-handedly brought to canon the entire Marauders fandom with wolfstar in the lead. Apart from that, we got Drarry being their usual selves (was Draco sending a paper bird to Harry in this movie, I’m not sure, but they were definitely in their “i had a crush and didn’t know how to deal with it so I wrote him a letter that said “leave my school” era). And let’s not forget Hermione punching Draco in the face which is the beginning of the Dramione enemies to lovers arc. We got Ron x Hermione, Harry x Hermione, literally every major ship started here.

The theme of characters being black and white, good and bad. From Sirius being considered a criminal to finding out he was innocent, Lupin being a nice teacher but also a dangerous werewolf, Harry being the protagonist but also threatening the Dursleys with magic etc. You cannot convince me that this was done intentionally in the book, but I’m 100% sure it was on purpose in the movie. The way the movie portrays it is so impactful. For example Snape being Neville, a student, biggest fear, but also trying to save the trio at the end of the movie. This had such an effect that people still quote it in their argument for or against Snape.

The movie is just a million times better than the book. It also changed the direction of the series to a darker tone, which I can argue, means that the other movies derived from this one, making this one the original and the other ones fan fiction. The cinematography is breathtaking, the characters are fleshed out, the conflict is intense, even the time travel was explained in a way that is intriguing but also easy to understand for children. Nothing else is canon to me from now on, only this movie.