#my potterhead ass is satisfied

[weird-bookworm]

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[saschafierce78]

the thing I HATE the most about the harry potter fandom (potterheads)

I don’t do a lot of "drama” on my blog. most of the time I just post some art but now I’m done with you guys! (no I’m not gonna be talking about “you-know-who”, the mysterious “gender critical” author of the harry potter books. or maybe not today)

1. “ELITIST” POTTERHEADS

 In our community, the potterheads who have read the books (they like to call themselves “the real potterheads”. that speaks volumes about their ego) like to look down on the harry potter films as though they were the shittiest film adaptations ever made and not even good films. First and foremost, the level of DISRESPECT, guys ! Besides, I know exactly why you’re doing that ! You want to be seen as intellectuals who prefer “elitist” medias such as books over “pop culture”. <<Because pop  (air quotes) “culture” is for the masses. hew ! >> If you were not blinded by your elitist big ass ego, you would’ve realised that the Harry Potter films are one of the best - if not the best - film adaptations from books ever (ex: Percy Jackson’s and Artemis Fowl’s fans know what I’m talking about).

2. “It’S nOt LiKe ThAt In ThE bOokS” type of whinging 

I don’t say that we cannot make valid criticism about the films (ex: treatment of Ginny Weasley) but most of the time, the critics of “elitist potterheads” revolve around the “iT’s NoT LiKe In ThE bOoKs” type of arguments. 

So let’s address the main point of my argumentation: 

THE QUALITY OF AN ADAPTATION DOESN’T DEPEND ON ITS FIDELITY TO THE ORIGINAL WORK ONLY.

First and foremost, adaptations which are quite similar to the original work they’re based on, aren’t necessarily good. I would go as far as to say that they are unsurprisingly bad. Let’s take for example the Japanese live action film adaptation of ‘Death Note’ released in 2006. I’m a big fan of ‘Death Note’, and yet I felt like I was attending a bad cosplay contest when watching this film. Almost everything is exactly like in the manga, but cheap.

More generally, such adaptations carry no ambitions, but to satisfy fans. These kind of films can be successful and praised by the fans in question, but they are hardly good or even interesting.

Now here are some examples are film adaptations which are the furthest from faithful to the original work adapted but are yet considered as great films. Comics such as “Men In Black” and “The Mask” are indeed particularly dark in comparison to their adaptation. In these cases, modifications were made in the adaptation to enable a larger public to discover a work that they would have never known otherwise. For example, children who watched “The Mask” back in the 90’s must be all grown up now, and thus, can read the original work without being traumatised. However, if the film “The Mask” was as dark as the comics, it is most likely that most of these children wouldn’t have known either the film or the comics.

Finally, I think, we must asses the quality of an adaptation like we would for a ‘regular’ film. 

3. CUT SCENES (OR YOU DON’T NO SHIT ABOUT THE FILM INDUSTRY AND IT SHOWS)

On YouTube as well as on a lot of social networks, a lot of cut scenes of Harry Potter films can be found. Scenes that, according to Potterheads, should have been part of the film as if the directors decided to delete them on a whim, which is utterly wrong.

First and foremost, in the American film industry, the final cut doesn’t belong to the directors rather to the producers of a film. Only the most popular directors such as “Tarantino and Friends” are granted this final cut. Although the final cut lines up with the director’s cut most of the time, I’d just like to remind you that almost all directors are strings attached when it comes to the final edit of a film. And if you think such “minor” modifications to a film cannot ruin it, go see the remake of Rollerball (2002) which - as evidenced, by a lot of questionnable edit choices-  ended up being nothing like it was supposed to be. We can speculate hours about how the “real film” looked like but, unfortunately,  we’ll never know.

All I want to say is whether a scene is removed from the film (or not) it is for a reason ! 

Moreover, books and films are two different mediums. 

In a book we must TELL and in a film we must SHOW. That’s why it is difficult to re-transcript internal thoughts in a film, for example. That’s why some scenes, line of dialogues and even characters can be necessary in the books but completely irrelevant in a film. 

 For example, the scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part. 2, in which Draco ran toward Harry and throw him his wand. This scene would have made it more self-evident that Draco deeply regrets his past as a Death Eater and would have taken Harry’s side if given the opportunity. However, his reluctance to join his parents in itself can be considered as a proof of repentance. Moreover, Tom Felton’s sad look conveyed all of Draco’s feelings. That’s what I call acting ! And  good one ! 

do we need unnecessary lines of dialogues to see the regret in his eyes ?????

To conclude, (1)  don’t be an elistist moron (2) don’t criticise a film too harshly if you don’t know shit about cinema and (3) WEAR A MASK ! 

[stowawayproductions-blog]

The Crimes of Grindelwald — It Might Be Time to Mourn Our Childhood

This film was too disappointing to spend too much time on, so let me get this out of the way: it was all plot with no character, heart, or theme. The small message that was vaguely gestured at was absolutely no different than what was explored in Harry Potter, please do something new. The CGI was numbing and very done, not impressive or necessary. The various twists were eye-roll-inducing. Grindelwald was just Voldemort 2.0 and way less cool ’cause Ralph Fiennes can kick Johnny Depp’s ass any day. And finally, the hints to things from the original series (portkeys, Travers, McLaggen) were so obviously fan-service that they weren’t even fun for us die-hard Potterheads. The only good parts were the cute creatures, Queenie and Jacob, and Eddie Redmayne being awkward. That concludes my technical review. Onto being emotional:

I was as excited as the next person when Fantastic Beasts was announced a few years ago. Cautious, sure, but excited. This will come as no surprise to anyone, but I was one of those kids. One of the millions who stood in line every year at midnight to get the next book, who read it feverishly as if my life depended on it, who prepared every year by re-reading all the previous novels, and who still, to this day, can answer any Harry Potter trivia question (within reason).

The movies were hard, as they were for most of us. This story became our bible, our text explaining good and evil, right and wrong. Harry Potter taught me how to be a good friend, how to be brave, how to trust my gut, and how to love the weirdos with good hearts (and love myself for being one). Even though I’m only now healing from what Alfonso Cuaron did to Hermione’s character in the third movie, and I’m still working on forgiving David Yates for his glossy, overexposed interpretation of my favorite quiet moments (don’t even ask about Mike Newell, that man is dead to me), I’ve come to terms with the films because Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson are my trio. They are perfect, they are beloved, and they shaped my childhood and enhanced this world that I spent so much of my life exploring.

As an official Potterhead, how could I not be hopeful about a movie starring all the monsters from that little red book that I bought as a kid? And continuing the world by going to America and learning about the history of wizards? Hell yes! Of course I was nervous after the disastrous finale of Deathly Hallows pt. 2, but still cautiously optimistic; and I was pleasantly surprised! The monsters were adorable, especially the niffler, Eddie Redmayne did a fine job, and David Yates began redeeming himself in my mind.

In this latest iteration, however, I was quite disappointed, and it’s come to that unfortunate time in my life that I must consider how to move forward. This sounds melodramatic, but I feel I’m in a state of mourning for a couple different reasons. First and foremost, I must accept that no expansion of this universe will ever live up to the original series, not necessarily because J.K. Rowling doesn’t have it in her, but because I am no longer in a place to accept it. I don’t need another sacred text, the one I had as a child is still in fine shape. Revisiting Harry, Ron and Hermione is satisfying enough, I don’t need anything else. I also must come to terms with bringing J.K. Rowling off of her pedestal. She’s only human, not some superhero as I saw her in my youth. She’s trying new things, and they’re not very good, and that has to be okay. It’s painful and this probably won’t be the end of my denial, but it’s a step, and feels oddly important to my growing up.

I credit Harry Potter for a lot of the strength being used by our generation. We were raised to break the rules, to find the good in people different from us, to fight evil until the very end, and that love is the most powerful kind of magic. I find it to be no coincidence that the Harry Potter generation is changing society to be more inclusive, more loving, and more noble. For this, J.K. Rowling will always have my undying respect. It is time, however, to part ways. I hope she does well in her future ventures and I hope she can manage to inspire a new generation of wanna be wizards and witches the way she inspired us, but the time for me to be awed by her creations has passed. I will go back to my beaten up old copies of Harry Potter, reread them shamelessly, and learn new things each time, and that will have to be good enough.

Rating: Disappointing. In my bottom 5 of 2018.

Some Issues 37) Halloween 38) The Spy Who Dumped Me 39) Disobedience 40) Boy Erased 41) Bohemian Rhapsody 42) A Star Is Born 43) Pick of the Litter 44) A Simple Favor

Disappointing 45) Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 46) Beautiful Boy 47) Lizzie 48) The Party 49) Ready Player One

[andeverythingisalright]

Harry Potter: 10 years late

I have finally finished The Deathly Hallows.

This book took me the longest to finish. At first, it was because my heart was so broken at the end of Half-Blood Prince. Then my heart was STILL breaking at the beginning of Deathly Hallows. HEDWIG. I stopped for a long while after Hedwig died and Hagrid’s condition was unclear. I just had a ARE YOU KIDDING ME, ROWLING?! moment. Not the same as the ones she’s been receiving lately. This was good, heart-wrenching writing at this point.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. As usual, there were many moments and twists I attempted to predict, but pretty much always got wrong. It has now been a while since I finished reading, and the reading overall was very spread out over time, so my reaction just can’t be as well developed as former ones. Oops.

LOVED reading through Harry, Hermione, and sometimes Ron as they kept themselves hidden. THE FUCKING DOE HAD ME CONFUSED FOR A LONG DAMN TIME. I did like what that came to. Which leads us right to....

Snape. It is my understanding that there are some absolute Snape Stans. I am not one of them. I do very much enjoy Snape’s character, how he is written, and how everything tied up. I also enjoy him from a psychological perspective, and definitely have sympathy for this bullied, confused, full of love, lonely soul. However, I cannot ignore all the abuse Harry received from him which essentially sprouted from a hate for his father (which is pretty justified. Teenage James Potter was an ass). He straight up abused Harry as well as some other students--perhaps moreso in the movies than books. Either way, it’s not okay. I do enjoy the depth of his character. There is good in there.

Neville. Is. Life. He is just. I’m so proud of him. I love him. He’s so good. He’s the hero we don’t deserve. When he slayed (slew?) Nagini...Yes. Not to mention all of his bad-assery for the entire book.

Ron had some good moments too. His character developed more here. Maturing definitely happened, and I love that he had his super smart moment in destroying a Horcrux.

Hermione is queen as usual. She is so damn smart. Her getting tortured was hard to read through, but also exciting in that I wanted to just get to the part where she was okay again. She is wonderful.

All of the deaths killed me. Not so much of deatheaters and Voldy, of course, but yeah. So many greats took falls. I don’t know why I was expecting any different. Damn, Rowling.

I enjoyed how Hermione and Ron’s relationship unraveled in this book. While it has been hinted at for many books now, it was nice to finally have a kiss as well as more depth added. I really loved when/how/where/why the kiss occurred too. I’m hoping the movie does it justice.

Molly. Fucking. Weasley. Witch of the year. Mother of the century. Boss. I have loved her throughout the series, and when she killed Bellatrix...mmm. It was about as satisfying as when mama Weasley called her a bitch. Love it. Bring the heat. She is so powerful. Yes.

Harry had a lot of growth and development too. There was still angst, of course, but also a lot of maturing. I’m proud of Harry. He done good. He could NEVER do it alone, but he done good.

Draco. Alright.

That epilogue, though. I do have a bit of a soft spot for seeing beloved child/teen characters all grown up. I can’t help it. I like it. I am definitely judging Harry and Ginny’s children’s names, though. I mean, I get it as well as I can, but really? I have lost loved ones in my life that have been comparatively as close as some Harry has lost, but I really don’t think I would name my children after them. I guess it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Remembering their fictional, it just feels kind of lazy and uncreative.

Anyway, I’m a total Potterhead, and I love everything. I’ll be watching the last two movies together, hopefully at a planned party with many HP themed things.