Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
So... that's a thing that happened.
My guess is that however a person felt about the epilogue of Deathly Hallows is how they'll feel about this book/script. I remained largely uninterested in the new generation, disappointed in the adult versions of Harry's generation, and annoyed at the ubiquitous (hetero-)coupling-up.
(-)
The dialogue was painful and the characterizations often OOC. Like, very young author attempts their first fanfic kind of bad. Maybe it watches better than it reads? But I can't imagine that even a performance of this script comes across as being for a target audience as old as that of the original HP books. Which wasn't that old. Parts of the story also read like metacommentary replies to the original series in a clunky and/or distracting way: for example, Harry and Dumbledore explicating their feelings.
Bizarre queerbaiting/no-homo stuff between Albus and Scorpius. We almost had an adorable story about two young wizards in love. We did have an adorable story about two wizards finding friendship across House and family boundaries. But the slashy subtext being so strong and then being denied by end-of-story girlfriend-snaring was not pleasant.
Not much was done with exploring/redeeming the strengths of Slytherin -- in fact, IMO Albus behaved like a Gryffindor and Scorpius like a Ravenclaw -- or the Malfoy family. Draco seemed to have backslid since Book 7. I didn't think I had strong feelings about Draco one way or the other, but I had a hard time reading the character called "Draco" as really Draco. Same for Harry half the time, and Ron (wtf), and even Hermione. McGonagall was great, though. As always.
Witches? Were... not really present, and largely there to either (a) support or be liked by a wizard, (b) get fridged or (c) be evil?
No mention of Teddy Lupin? :( Even if he's a few years older than Albus, which I can't remember, and so wouldn't interact with him at school as much as someone like Scorpius, he would have tied into the theme of orphans and/or sons of famous fathers who have issues with said fathers. Maybe it would have introduced one too many characters, but then there were original characters who took up time and didn't serve much purpose. Teddy's total absence implied that the Potter family doesn't see him, and that's sad.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, except it's a play about Teddy Lupin, interspersed with multimedia flashbacks from the Shoebox Project.
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor) August 3, 2016
Was thrown a few times that the book pulled from movie canon as well as book canon.
Strange amount of time spent showing scenes we already knew from the original books. In addition to other scenes that didn't seem to further the plot or character arcs.
Assorted little things, like how did Albus get his wand back at Godric's Hollow after Delphi broke it at Hogwarts? And I lost my sense of how the alternate timeline logistics worked when we had a scene from Harry, Ron and Hermione's perspective after Albus, Scorpius and Delphi went back to Godric's Hollow.
(For someone named Delphi, she's not so great at making or manipulating prophecies, is she.)
Also I laughed a few times at how much detail Albus and Scorpius had absorbed about their parents' histories and the wizarding wars. I don't know many kids who memorize whom their parents took to junior prom or whatever, especially pre-teens who claim non-interest. But then, I don't know many kids with super-famous parents.
(+)
Alternate timelines! The Darkest Timeline! Fun to see, and fun to expand upon.
The story at a high level was not bad. It was just the execution that faltered.
Snape, alive again for a little while. <3 Snape doing good even after Dumbledore's death and Voldemort's triumph. Snape et al willing to sacrifice themselves for a better timeline.
McGonagall's line, minus some em dashes: "You were -- reckless -- with the world some people -- some very dear friends of mine and yours -- sacrificed a huge amount to create and sustain."
Admission that Harry has some post-traumatic issues in addition to his nightmares. Fear of the dark and small spaces.
A couple of laughs. Dry humor. Scorpius had some good quips.
I learned a new bondage spell.
(~)
One of the few things I'd heard was that there would be a twist. That Delphi would turn out to be a villain seemed too predictable, so for a hopeful little while, I wondered if Albus and Scorpius' time travel would somehow end up making Scorpius -- or Albus -- Voldemort's son, in a nice brain-bending chronological conundrum. But no dice. Alas.
I was surprised to see in the back of the book that Thorne and Tiffany worked on the stage production of Let the Right One In, because that was beautifully staged and a sleek adaptation. It implies they'll do well with the special effects they wrote into the HP script, but the dialogue... The dialogue. Why?
Other links, for reference:
Originally posted at http://bironic.dreamwidth.org/340462.html, where there are
comments.
My guess is that however a person felt about the epilogue of Deathly Hallows is how they'll feel about this book/script. I remained largely uninterested in the new generation, disappointed in the adult versions of Harry's generation, and annoyed at the ubiquitous (hetero-)coupling-up.
(-)
The dialogue was painful and the characterizations often OOC. Like, very young author attempts their first fanfic kind of bad. Maybe it watches better than it reads? But I can't imagine that even a performance of this script comes across as being for a target audience as old as that of the original HP books. Which wasn't that old. Parts of the story also read like metacommentary replies to the original series in a clunky and/or distracting way: for example, Harry and Dumbledore explicating their feelings.
Bizarre queerbaiting/no-homo stuff between Albus and Scorpius. We almost had an adorable story about two young wizards in love. We did have an adorable story about two wizards finding friendship across House and family boundaries. But the slashy subtext being so strong and then being denied by end-of-story girlfriend-snaring was not pleasant.
Not much was done with exploring/redeeming the strengths of Slytherin -- in fact, IMO Albus behaved like a Gryffindor and Scorpius like a Ravenclaw -- or the Malfoy family. Draco seemed to have backslid since Book 7. I didn't think I had strong feelings about Draco one way or the other, but I had a hard time reading the character called "Draco" as really Draco. Same for Harry half the time, and Ron (wtf), and even Hermione. McGonagall was great, though. As always.
Witches? Were... not really present, and largely there to either (a) support or be liked by a wizard, (b) get fridged or (c) be evil?
No mention of Teddy Lupin? :( Even if he's a few years older than Albus, which I can't remember, and so wouldn't interact with him at school as much as someone like Scorpius, he would have tied into the theme of orphans and/or sons of famous fathers who have issues with said fathers. Maybe it would have introduced one too many characters, but then there were original characters who took up time and didn't serve much purpose. Teddy's total absence implied that the Potter family doesn't see him, and that's sad.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, except it's a play about Teddy Lupin, interspersed with multimedia flashbacks from the Shoebox Project.
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor) August 3, 2016
Was thrown a few times that the book pulled from movie canon as well as book canon.
Strange amount of time spent showing scenes we already knew from the original books. In addition to other scenes that didn't seem to further the plot or character arcs.
Assorted little things, like how did Albus get his wand back at Godric's Hollow after Delphi broke it at Hogwarts? And I lost my sense of how the alternate timeline logistics worked when we had a scene from Harry, Ron and Hermione's perspective after Albus, Scorpius and Delphi went back to Godric's Hollow.
(For someone named Delphi, she's not so great at making or manipulating prophecies, is she.)
Also I laughed a few times at how much detail Albus and Scorpius had absorbed about their parents' histories and the wizarding wars. I don't know many kids who memorize whom their parents took to junior prom or whatever, especially pre-teens who claim non-interest. But then, I don't know many kids with super-famous parents.
(+)
Alternate timelines! The Darkest Timeline! Fun to see, and fun to expand upon.
The story at a high level was not bad. It was just the execution that faltered.
Snape, alive again for a little while. <3 Snape doing good even after Dumbledore's death and Voldemort's triumph. Snape et al willing to sacrifice themselves for a better timeline.
McGonagall's line, minus some em dashes: "You were -- reckless -- with the world some people -- some very dear friends of mine and yours -- sacrificed a huge amount to create and sustain."
Admission that Harry has some post-traumatic issues in addition to his nightmares. Fear of the dark and small spaces.
A couple of laughs. Dry humor. Scorpius had some good quips.
I learned a new bondage spell.
(~)
One of the few things I'd heard was that there would be a twist. That Delphi would turn out to be a villain seemed too predictable, so for a hopeful little while, I wondered if Albus and Scorpius' time travel would somehow end up making Scorpius -- or Albus -- Voldemort's son, in a nice brain-bending chronological conundrum. But no dice. Alas.
I was surprised to see in the back of the book that Thorne and Tiffany worked on the stage production of Let the Right One In, because that was beautifully staged and a sleek adaptation. It implies they'll do well with the special effects they wrote into the HP script, but the dialogue... The dialogue. Why?
Other links, for reference:
Originally posted at http://bironic.dreamwidth.org/340462.html, where there are
comments.