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lilypxtter · 9 years ago

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in defence/criticism of the cursed child (spoilers + review)

okay i’ve seen a lot of complaints about harry potter and the cursed child. i went to see it (parts one and two) last saturday and i have mixed feelings honestly, my initial reactions were very contradictory and now that i’ve had more time to think about i’ve found that there’s some things that i really liked and really didn’t.

(tons of spoilers under the cut)

first of all i want to talk about the overall premise. we’ve had seven books of well, angst and it was pretty painful to see harry and co. under threat again

but i wouldn’t necessarily say that the play overall is a bad thing. something that a lot of us disapproved of in the dh epilogue was the idea that harry ends up in a 2.4 (or 3) style nuclear family, white picket fence etc etc. so it was nice to see a variation from that because in the play we see that harry’s life is far from perfect; dh had a resolution but that doesn’t mean that the effects of it are completely gone. harry - as he says in the play - will always be an orphan and he will always know what it was to have a part of voldemort inside him. i actually thought this part was really well done and thought-out

storyline

so anyway i want to address the plot itself: it’s received a lot of backlash, particularly on tumblr, for being a “my immortal” type story which. it’s not exactly true, but not exactly a lie either. there are definitely bits of the plot that are ridiculous and to an extent silly, but overall the bits that people are saying are bad - voldemort day, delphie diggory - remain part of the “alternate universe” part of the plot and therefore aren’t technically even canon

(in case you don’t know what i’m talking about, the summary is that albus + scorpius find a time turner and screw up the past in an attempt to stop the death of cedric diggory during the fourth book. what follows is a shitstorm of events that leads to a terrifyingly awful alternate universe(s) in which voldemort won the war and harry died in book seven, etc etc.)

full plot can be found here because i cannot be bothered to recount it, bear in mind that this is brief and decontextualised so feel free to ask me for more info (if i can remember it!)

staging/casting

if i have one super super super positive thing to say it is about the play as a play itself. i think a lot of us had our doubts about having hogwarts on stage but i was really surprised and pleased at the result

personally i don’t like the idea of the play being for a limited audience which is why i think it’s good they’re printing the script, but i do think the experience of seeing it as a play was amazing! hoping they take it across the country & abroad soon

the special effects were fantastic. the spells themselves were done really well and i really liked the use of potions - polyjuice in particular! my favourite thing was probably the telephone box used to get into the ministry as the characters were literally swallowed into the phone receiver. it was pretty awesome

also: the staging. at first i was like ‘how the hell are they going to put a giant castle on stage’ but the use of staircases and classroom set-ups were actually really effective. also liked how frames were used as portraits and doors as well.

and oh my god the cloaks! they basically had the cast sweeping across the stage with some great cloak-work (?) & choreography to change the scenes which was really cool

in terms of time jumping - which there was a lot of - the effects were really cool in emphasising the shifts between albus’ school years as well as time itself as they travelled back to harry’s fourth year. so much levitation

the casting!!! obviously the casting of a black actress as hermione caused a lot of controversy but she was great. i’ll come onto characterisation in a bit but in general i would say the play was casted really well, the kids were all fantastic as were the adults. i thought the guy who played harry especially was really fab at capturing harry’s sassy hero/concerned father dynamic.

characterisation/relationships

honestly i’m not sure who to start with but i have tons to say so here goes:

i’m gonna start with the old crew and then move onto the next gen characters. so starting with harry: let me just say that i did overall approve of his characterisation, from his communications with portrait!dumbledore, his relationships with ron, hermione, ginny and draco, and his position as head of the DMLE. his interactions with albus (main character, will come onto this later) were strained and whilst i am firm in my belief that harry james potter would never, ever tell his son that “sometimes he wishes he wasn’t his son”, i do admit that harry has always been a hotheaded character who does, on occasion, let things slip that he doesn’t mean. we saw this throughout all the books - that said, i wholeheartedly approve of how we see albus and harry reconciliate at the end, especially with his revealed fear of pigeons lmao.

fave harry moments: asking dumbledore for help as per usual, when he starts crying and has a heart to heart with draco, not doing his paperwork and getting told off by hermione (honestly how in character is that), the harry-draco duel, breaking down as he watches his parents die

going off harry i want to talk about ginny who i fear has been a little sidelined in this. she does have some great moments where she talks harry out of his crap ideas and i really liked the interactions between her and the trio but i think she definitely could have had more of a role. the one bit that was very actually ginny was when she stopped the duel between draco and harry. also when she threatened to tell on ron to mrs. weasley :’)

also, ginny weasley (potter, whatever) would not have a sugar ban in her house. sorry, no

likewise i feel like ron was also turned into a character more for comic relief than anything else. that being said his comedic value was 100% ron and 100% on point! also the romione moments were perfect, particularly in the ~alternate universes~ where they aren’t married and ron spends the whole time being like wOw i love you. also, ron asking to renew their vows!!! how cute

hermione was amazing. it was totally perfect to have her as minister for magic and i loved her balance of logic and caring throughout. au!hermione was also entertaining - most wanted witch alive? hell yeah - though i wasn’t sold on her being a bitter defence teacher quite honestly. i really loved the hug she had with rose upon realising that her daughter hadn’t been born in the alternate universe. she had all the best sardonic lines and was a total badass and i just really love hermione, okay?

okay okay okay moving onto draco. i’ve seen a lot of pro-draco stuff in the fandom obviously and if you like draco you’ll like this play. his storyline with astoria dying from an illness and rumours floating around about scorpius being voldemort’s son fits with his whole ~tragic antihero~ dynamic and i really liked how draco’s light side is emphasised, from his love for scorpius to his willingness to work with harry and co. to get his son back. he was by no means a “nice guy” or a hero in the play and i think the writers stuck true to book!draco in this play and showed him as a capable and caring - if a bit overprotective and therefore distant - father.

time for the next gen!!! as our main character i approve a lot of albus. albeit i will always take issue with his full name (”bravest men i ever knew” my ass), i could really see the impact of middle child syndrome, legacy pressure and social pressure on this kid. i like that he was sorted into slytherin in the canon universe and gryffindor in the alternate; it feels like he’s a lot like harry in that way and it makes sense in the way that the reason the two of them find it hard to get along is because they have so much in common really. albus is living under the pressure of being harry potter’s son and harry is living under the pressure of being, well, the chosen one. if you look at book five harry and then look at albus and their respective angst levels, they are remarkably similar. albus is the loser-hero type, the underdog kid who has popular gryffindor siblings and cousins, a dork of a best friend, and no overtly spectacular magic skills. in any other context he’d be your average teenage boy but because of his parents he has this ridiculous slytherin urge to prove himself and that’s what makes him a great protagonist; like he says, he’s driven by his need to save cedric who was the ‘spare’ because that’s how he himself feels. he’ll do anything, risk anything, because - like his parents - he doesn’t always think of the consequences and goes in with his heart first.

speaking of using your heart over your head, let’s talk about scorpius. this boy was 100/10 my fave, i love him so so so so much because he’s a fucking dork, a nerd, a self-named loser and he knows it. scorpius can easily be labelled as the star of the show despite the fact that albus is at the forefront; he’s the one who gets albus out of and into tons of sticky situations and finally figures out that delphie diggory is not all she seems. he’s brave to a fault and could easily fit into the other 3 houses but he’s in slytherin for his ambition - he doesn’t give up even when he gets stuck in the hellish alternate universe in which he’s a dickhead who tortures muggleborns for fun. his relationship with his dad is, like albus and harry’s, deeply flawed but deeply affectionate and we see that despite draco’s cold front and scorpius’ shy/stutter-y attitude, from when he tells draco that astoria always saw the light in him to their hug at the end. scorpius “i love quizzes” “do we really have to die albus” “i was evil in the other world what’s wrong with me” malfoy is everything i hoped he would be and possibly more, which takes me onto the famous albus x scorpius issue

i ship it so hard. ngl i’ve always been a scorose shipper since reading the epilogue and the cursed child definitely pushes the scorose angle in that scorpius is trailing after a popular, cute girl (side note, i really loved rose in this - headstrong, a slight show-off, great at quidditch - wish we could have seen more of her) until she starts to like him back at the end of the play. BUT.

i cannot even express how important the relationship between albus and scorpius is throughout the cursed child. i would actually go as far as to call it queerbaiting given that had one of them been a female character, they would have undoubtably been paired off together. scorpius is driven by albus and vice-versa; at the beginning in albus’ first year he is invited to sit with him at the slytherin table “you can sit with me!” and everything spirals from there. the importance of this is highlighted when albus says to harry “i don’t need anyone else” because he feels like scorpius is the only friend he’ll ever want, and when harry strives to keep albus away from scorpius because he fears that he’s in danger, we see how difficult it is to keep these two boys apart because they’ve been so dependent on each other since the very beginning. the fact that even harry, a father supposedly “blinded by his love for albus” eventually sees that to keep them apart was a mistake, because “[they] belong together” is a clear indicator of a relationship stronger than ron and harry’s because albus and scorpius understand each other. albus gets that scorpius is a loner and a dork and that he likes books a lot and loves his dead mother and his half-absent father. scorpius gets that albus is under a lot of pressure and that he needs him and they need each other. the most emotional part of the play, for me, was definitely the part where scorpius discovers that in the alternate hellish universe albus had never been born, and the hug when it’s all resolved was honestly just too cute <3 also near the end when scorpius says something like “if i was going to be sent back in time to die by an evil witch, i would have always wanted it to be with you” and albus replies “no offense but i would have picked someone stronger and better at magic” kind of encapsulates their friendship - platonic or otherwise - which is definitely the strongest point of the play

things i really liked

like i said, the albus/scorpius relationship

also really liked the harry & albus similarities/differences

harry/ginny being domestic

ron weasley and hermione granger being in love in every universe regardless of marital status

special! effects!

hermione badass granger-weasley as minister for magic

ron working at weasleys wizard wheezes

“i don’t like doing homework?!” - the scorpion king :’) (aka our dork)

mcgonagall being a badass “i’m not taking your shit potter”

albus and scorpius fucking up the world not once but twice

JAMES AND LILY POTTER JUST FUCK ME UP MAN I NEARLY CRIED WHEN THEY WERE ON STAGE W H A T

scorpius “let’s destroy the time turner we can’t trust the government” albus “cool i’ll just call my death eater girlfriend yeah cool”

albus’ weakness being scorpius o m g

the blanket!! from lily evans!!! brb sobbing

harry admitting his fears to albus and that he does not have a role model but is trying his best to be a good dad

things i really didn’t like / things i would have liked to have seen

^the albus/scorpius relationship should have been romantic. i saw the play during pride and let me just say they tick all the boxes for the cutest gay couple ever. also it would totally add to the narrative of them being ‘outsiders’ okay don’t argue with me on this

lack of ginny inclusion! yeah she was in it but she could have had more participation overall. i just feel like she was written well but not enough

similarly i would have liked to have seen more rose inclusion although i suppose none of the shit that goes down because of scorpius/albus would have happened if she’d been around. likewise i think we should have had more james sirius and lily luna in there but i guess it’s a long set of plays and you can’t fit everything in!

severus snape apologists. enough said

delphie not-diggory. i gotta admit that this does feel like a ‘my immortal’ spin-off in her case considering she’s the angsty emo daughter of voldemort and bellatrix. as a character she’s pretty flat and it was just so predictable to see albus being led into her ‘attractive girl’ trap. and the aurgury thing/voldemort day/headmistress umbridge etc was laughable ngl

on the same line i find it hard to believe that cedric diggory would have become a death eater in the alternate universe?? he was supposed to be a good, loyal kid and i just cannot see that as plausible tbh

some of the plot was just kinda ridiculous really. like the part where albus, scorpius and delphie are able to steal the time turner just by getting swallowed by hermione’s bookcase. or when harry is transfigured into a voldemort lookalike - is human transfiguration on that scale even possible???? or when scorpius and albus oh-so-conveniently find the potion to react with the love potion on the blanket so they can send a message to harry. so, yeah. plot holes!

tl;dr did i like the play? yes. would i spend money to see it again? probably but not a lot. do i think it stays true to the books? with a few exceptions in the case of cedric diggory and harry, yes. is it the best play i’ve ever seen? no, there’s too many plot issues to say that. do i think it’s being unfairly judged? definitely. the experience of seeing it as a play is honestly the best part. am i going to go drown in tears about james and lily dying all over again and harry not being able to stop it and breaking down on stage? yes. do i think that albus and scorpius are eventually going to work out that they’re super gay for each other? yes.

i think this is everything (phew) feel free to send me questions! i’m tagging everything as ‘cursed child spoilers’

#promonetwork #jilyslags #maraudereranet #thehpnextgen #cursed child #cursed child spoilers #hp #no one cares lol but i wanted to type out all my thoughts

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lilypxtter · 9 years ago

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ust james n lily get caught in a storm and have to share a very very close tight space.... ;))

okay so clearly i don’t understand the concept of a drabble…oops? anyway this is slightly silly but literally the only scenario i could think of so enjoy 1.7k of ust jily!

“Potter,you fucking idiot.”

Lily Evans was pretty much thedefinition of furious at this exact point in time. Actually, she was certainthat if you went to the library and found a dictionary, her disgruntled facewould appear right under the word “angry”.

James Potter, for his part,looked a mixture of amused and scared as he backed away from her, palms raisedin defence. “Listen, Evans,” he began, “I know this wasn’t the best idea-”

“What, so now you admit it?”

James had the decency to looksheepish, if only for a moment, “Well, yeah. The plan was to get you inhere and teach you how to fly properly. Clearly I missed out some of the finerdetails, like how to stop my idiot friends from locking us into the pitch -”

“Oh,that’s just great. James Potter, master ofpranks -”

“Why, Evans, I had no idea youthought so highly of me -”

“- didn’t consider the fact thatSirius Black is an idiot, and Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew are a pair ofplotting wankers.”

James shrugged. “What can Isay? It’s hard to notice your friends are evil when you’re usually in on theirplans.”

Lily ignored him, huffing andsitting down in the middle of the pitch where the pair of them were. The grasstickled her bare shins and she scowled, thumbing along the edge of her skirtand looking anywhere but at Potter.

“Don’t you want to learn?” Jamesasked. He sounded almost hurt now, which only irritated her further.

“Yes, that’s why I asked you for help in the firstplace! I didn’t want to get locked in here with you.”

James flopped down in front ofher, and - to her mild delight and dismay - took her hands in his. “Lily,I am sorry about the others. Honestly, I had no clue they were going to dothis. But there’s lots of space, it’s not raining, and I’ve got a spare broomin the locker rooms.”

She took a deep breath.Truthfully, Lily was more embarrassed than angry - it wasn’t exactly ideal tobe stuck anywhere with the boy she had a massive crush on.

“You jinxed it. You fuckingjinxed it.”

Now she was mad.

“I didn’t jinx anything, Evans,Sirius nicked my wand and you know I haven’t quite mastered wandless magic yet-”

“Oh, shut up, Potter - it’s a figure of speech! Yousaid ‘it’s not raining’ and now look outside!”

In unison, they turned theirheads to the window of the locker room. The glass was being pelted with raindrops(which was probably hail) and Lily saw a bright flash of lightning that shealmost wished would just strike her on the head so she could get out of thissituation.

“I didn’t cause the rain, Lily,that’s ridiculous.”

“You’re ridiculous,” she said, crossing her armsover her wet shirt. She was pretty certain that James kept staring, because herbra was very much visible under it, but somehow, this made her more smug thanhumiliated.

“I already said sorry -”

Lily groaned, “Okay, nevermind. Isn’t there - I dunno - a radiator or something in here?”

“A what?” James’ eyes squinted inconfusion behind his glasses.

Lilyswore, “Wizards.”

“Lily.”

“Huh?”

It was getting dark. The pair ofthem were sat leaning against the lockers, gradually listening to the sounds ofthe thunder both outside and in their stomachs as they thought about the dinnerthey were missing.

James had a sudden realisationwhilst missing his treacle tart. “Did we have an essay for Flitwick?”

“Fuck.”

“It’s fine, you can copy mine,”he said, “Once I’ve copied Remus’.”

“Cheers. You owe me for this, youknow. Big time.”

James sighed exaggeratedly, “Areyou going to hold this over me for the rest of the year?”

“And next year. And after we’ve left school.”

There was a pause.Then, “What d’you think will happen? After we’ve left school?”

Lilywrinkled her nose. “I guess we’ll get jobs or something. Although I think itkind of depends on all this anti-muggleborn shit that’s been going aroundlately, for me at least.”

“I’msorry you have to deal with that,” he said, sounding surprisingly sincere. They’dformed a sort of friendship over the last few months, but that didn’t mean theyoften had serious conversations.

“It’sfine,” Lily said, “Well, it’s not. But I’m dealing with it. We all are.”

Theystayed silent as the rain continued incessantly, and the temperature droppedlower and lower. Lily found herself leaning into him just to gain some warmth. Minutespassed - maybe even hours - and they talked in broken pieces, about school andtheir friends and how they were going to get back at the others for leavingthem in a freezing Quidditch changing room for half a day.

“Are theyever coming back,” James groaned after what must have been more than threehours. Lily patted his leg absently in commiseration, not noticing how hejumped at her touch.

“Probably,”she considered, “Although I don’t think it will happen today, given that it’sstill raining.”

“I wishone of us had a wand,” he said, “Then at least we’d have something warm.”

“We couldgo stand in the showers with the hot water on,” Lily suggested.

“Nah, don’thave any towels. So you’d just get colder.”

“Spareclothes?”

“Only muddystuff.” James said, shutting his eyes briefly and letting his head fall backagainst the locker, “Although I think I might have a spare jumper lyingaround somewhere…”

He stoodand opened a locker to her left, rummaging through it and pulling out spareQuaffles, shoes, and a scrappy Gryffindor banner. Then - “Aha!”

Jamespulled out a red and gold jumper, with a large Gryffindor crest on the frontand POTTER etched onto the back.

Lilybeamed. “James Potter, you are officially my favourite Marauder.”

He shother a mock offended look, gasping as he tossed her the jumper, “What, I wasn’tbefore?”

“Remusliterally is so much nicer than the rest of you,” she pointed out, “And we’reboth Prefects.”

“Fairenough,” he said, sitting back next to her on the bench, “You should put it on.”

Lilyraised her eyebrows at him and played with the sleeve of the jumper, “What aboutyou?”

“What kindof a chivalrous Gryffindor would I be if I didn’t let you wear my jumper?” Hesmiled, and she wanted to hug him.

Instead,she argued with him. “But it’s your jumper.”

“And you’recolder than I am.”

“How d’youknow?”

“Lily,”he sighed, as if speaking to a young child, “Look at me –“ he spread his armswide, before pointing to her, “I’m twice your size.”

“Only ifwe’re talking about your ego,” she pointed out, although she was still smiling.Lily pulled on the jumper without further debate whilst he clutcheddramatically at his chest, supposedly wounded.

Theshoulders of the jumper were far too broad, and it almost reached the edge ofher skirt, but it was warm. Lily tugged her hair out from the collar and smiledgratefully at James.

“It suitsyou.”

His voicewas low, quiet. Just like that, it seemed that the atmosphere in the room hadchanged, the temperature slowly rising for reasons completely separate to hernew clothing.

“Yeah?”she struggled to keep her tone in check, standing and twirling for him. Her redwavy hair, still damp from the rain, bounced against the POTTER writtenon the back of his jumper.

Jamessuppressed a sigh. “Yeah. It really does.”

Theylocked eyes. She wondered if she should just come out and say it, somethinglike I fancy the pants off you please go to Hogsmeade with me when we getout of this godforsaken changing room. Then again, she didn’t know what shewould do if his reaction was bad - it certainly didn’t look like she had aviable escape route at the moment.

James wascontemplating getting up and just snogging her, but reckoned it would be a bitof an abrupt move. His fantasy was broken by the scraping sound of the otherbench against the floor as Lily dragged it over to him until the two were sideby side.

“I’mmoving this so we can sleep. Must be around midnight now.”

He didn’task why she’d moved it so they could lie next to each other, assuming that shewanted to stay close for warmth. James lay down, and Lily flopped back onto herbench, wincing as the slats dug into her back.

Hefidgeted uncomfortably, imagining his soft mattress back in the dormitory - he wasgoing to murder Sirius, Remus and Peter.

Lilyspoke. “James?”

“Yeah?”

Shesounded almost shy in the dark, but Lily supposed that’s what happens when youlie down next to a very attractive boy. “Will you teach me to fly next week?”

“Once we’ve killed the others, I’ll teach you anytime.”

Jameswoke up with a face full of red hair. He wriggled his nose, glasses lostsomewhere on the floor, and held back a sneeze as he squinted down at Lily.

He couldn’tsee much, just blurry colours – her pale face slightly flushed with cold, theburgundy colour of his jumper blending with her hair. James gulped as henoticed that her skirt had ridden up her thighs in the night – he might behalfway to blindness, but he could definitely see a lot of skin.

Heconsidered waking her up and then thought better of it, instead enjoying thewarm weight of her body against his, breathing in her distinctly clean scentthat was so different to the dorm he was used to.

Lily wokeup shivering. Her legs were covered with goosebumps, her skirt crumpled.But in spite of her newfound neck pain, she was strangely comfortable – JamesPotter’s shoulder made for a surprisingly good pillow. She didn’t look up tosee if he was awake but something (the increasing pace of his heartbeat underher head, for one thing) told her that he was just as happy staying there asshe was.

Soinstead of moving, she started to plan what would definitely be a fantasticallysatisfying revenge against Sirius, Remus and Peter. Later, though, she wouldthank them – James let her keep his jumper, and she’d gotten to sleep next tohim on the pretence of staying warm – so she reckoned that they weren’t so badat planning after all.

#jily #jilyslags #maraudereranet #myfriendsalmostfoundmyblog #limes network #marauders #hp #my writing #dee does prompts #idk what that ending is oh well #asks

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