Long review, but this is very interesting!tomatoe18December 31 2008, 07:02:07 UTC
You must be proud of me! *grins* I promised you I would read your dark fic, didn't I? :D Well, I managed to read every word of this fic until the very end (despite the flinching throughout)!
I apologize in advance but I'm not going to lie to you, I wrinkled my nose a lot at this. Not because I think your writing is bad, of course, but because of Umbridge, who is the character I hate the most in HP universe, be it canon or fanfics. That said, you get MAJOR PROPS for choosing Dolores Umbridge as a main character for this fic. What inspired you? Did you always want to write about Umbridge? :o
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Re: Long review - my answer part 1catsintheatticJanuary 1 2009, 10:29:32 UTC
Dearest, thank you so much for your courage to read my darkfic and for leaving such a wonderfully detailed review. I love you so much and I'm totally proud of you! *hugs you* Yes, of course I knew that you meant the fic and not your review. Silly girl! *hugs you some more*
That said, you get MAJOR PROPS for choosing Dolores Umbridge as a main character for this fic. What inspired you? Did you always want to write about Umbridge? :oI chose "ambition" as my prompt-word (you give a word and get a quotation back as a prompt, but are still free to write any character you'd like - that's the amount of freedom I love!), and once I had chosen that, I was looking at the ambitious characters. And Tom Riddle would have been too obvious and therefore boring to write about. *g
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Re: Long review - my answer part 1tomatoe18January 2 2009, 04:41:28 UTC
That's interesting! So the fic came from the prompt "ambition" (I didn't know it was a prompt-based thing, because I didn't follow the darkfest at all). I agree that choosing Riddle would've been obvious. Umbridge would be the more interesting choice of character and I think you made the right choice.
It got me thinking, though, that if I'd joined the fest and chosen this prompt, I would've written about Lucius Malfoy. LOL. It's a passing thought and I don't know why it crossed my mind at all. :P
But you know how much I abhor one-dimensional characters. And this is why I had to give her this kind of back-story.Did you find her one-dimensional in JKR's books? I think JKR sometimes neglect to give some of her side characters depth, but this was never the case for me personally with Umbridge's character. One of the reasons why I thoroughly hated Umbridge in JKR's book was because I could imagine all kinds of other things to her character just from the way JKR wrote about her. That's why I find your fic overwhelmingly terrifying to read
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Re: Long review - my answer part 1catsintheatticJanuary 2 2009, 09:34:26 UTC
Ah, no, I didn't want to imply that JKR wrote her one-dimensional. On the other hand, JKR has this tendency to write her villains one-dimensional. It always shocked me that Dumbledore didn't ever feel the slightest bit of compassion toward a young boy who had to grow up in an orphanage.
That's why I find your fic overwhelmingly terrifying to read; it made all those 'imagined' things become all too real for me, as I have pointed out with the punishment scene with the quill.
That's what I try to do with the fic I write: dive into the character as I see them in canon and imagine what else they could do and what the wouldn't do at all. I write almost completely character-driven, the plot is always second. I start with an idea and some scenes, and to connect the scenes and explain how I see them, I develop the story. JKR is a writer who, IMHO, writes plot-driven. That's why she rocks so much at action scenes - which I don't. Lol.
I thought that Umbridge is just as evil as Voldemort.I think she is even more evil, from the perspective
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Re: Long review - my answer part 1tomatoe18January 2 2009, 11:47:33 UTC
It always shocked me that Dumbledore didn't ever feel the slightest bit of compassion toward a young boy who had to grow up in an orphanage.With regards to Tom Riddle, you mean? If that's what you mean, I think he DID show some compassion. Perhaps not a lot, but I think it was mostly because Dumbledore knew that Riddle had displayed some signs of terrible magic and it made the old man wary of him. That's how I see him. (I am so going to check the book again tonight
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Re: Long review - my answer part 1catsintheatticJanuary 3 2009, 21:37:22 UTC
AD showed some compassion, but I always found it cold-hearted. He saw TR's flaws, he has that knack for seeing through people, but to me he seemed prejudiced right from the beginning. If he truly believed that choices make what we are, he could have tried harder to let TR see the wrongness of his decisions. I cannot imagine that he ever sat down to talk to Tom like he did with Harry.
Umbridge = bureaucracy - exactly!!! I was looking for that word and didn't find it. Lol. That's also one of her Nazi characteristics to me: that kind of perfected machine to weed out those who weren't wanted. And it is her efficiency which makes her so evil. *shudders*
Re: Long review - my answer part 2catsintheatticJanuary 1 2009, 10:31:41 UTC
I say interesting because this is not my cup of tea at all and I wouldn't have read this fic at all if you weren't the one who wrote it, but now that I've read it, I feel like I want to discuss it at length and I find that this fic has opened a door to many thoughts that I've kept locked inside my head about Dolores Umbridge. I hope that makes sense. :P
I cannot thank you enough for your openness and willingness to read outside your comfort zone and I feel deeply honoured that you trusted my writing skills enough to take that risk. This means such a lot to me! *deep bow*
And I'm very much looking forward to hear your thoughts and discuss the fic at length with you. Never fear that there is something you can't say about my writing or my stories. I know that you would never intend to say something bad or hurt me, so even if you find something disturbing or unbelievable or unclear, don't hesitate to say so. Feedback in general is a wonderful treat, and feedback like yours is a treasure.
I apologize in advance but I'm not going to lie to you, I wrinkled my nose a lot at this. Not because I think your writing is bad, of course, but because of Umbridge, who is the character I hate the most in HP universe, be it canon or fanfics. That said, you get MAJOR PROPS for choosing Dolores Umbridge as a main character for this fic. What inspired you? Did you always want to write about Umbridge? :o ( ... )
Reply
That said, you get MAJOR PROPS for choosing Dolores Umbridge as a main character for this fic. What inspired you? Did you always want to write about Umbridge? :oI chose "ambition" as my prompt-word (you give a word and get a quotation back as a prompt, but are still free to write any character you'd like - that's the amount of freedom I love!), and once I had chosen that, I was looking at the ambitious characters. And Tom Riddle would have been too obvious and therefore boring to write about. *g ( ... )
Reply
It got me thinking, though, that if I'd joined the fest and chosen this prompt, I would've written about Lucius Malfoy. LOL. It's a passing thought and I don't know why it crossed my mind at all. :P
But you know how much I abhor one-dimensional characters. And this is why I had to give her this kind of back-story.Did you find her one-dimensional in JKR's books? I think JKR sometimes neglect to give some of her side characters depth, but this was never the case for me personally with Umbridge's character. One of the reasons why I thoroughly hated Umbridge in JKR's book was because I could imagine all kinds of other things to her character just from the way JKR wrote about her. That's why I find your fic overwhelmingly terrifying to read ( ... )
Reply
That's why I find your fic overwhelmingly terrifying to read; it made all those 'imagined' things become all too real for me, as I have pointed out with the punishment scene with the quill.
That's what I try to do with the fic I write: dive into the character as I see them in canon and imagine what else they could do and what the wouldn't do at all. I write almost completely character-driven, the plot is always second. I start with an idea and some scenes, and to connect the scenes and explain how I see them, I develop the story. JKR is a writer who, IMHO, writes plot-driven. That's why she rocks so much at action scenes - which I don't. Lol.
I thought that Umbridge is just as evil as Voldemort.I think she is even more evil, from the perspective ( ... )
Reply
Reply
Umbridge = bureaucracy - exactly!!! I was looking for that word and didn't find it. Lol. That's also one of her Nazi characteristics to me: that kind of perfected machine to weed out those who weren't wanted. And it is her efficiency which makes her so evil. *shudders*
Reply
I cannot thank you enough for your openness and willingness to read outside your comfort zone and I feel deeply honoured that you trusted my writing skills enough to take that risk. This means such a lot to me! *deep bow*
And I'm very much looking forward to hear your thoughts and discuss the fic at length with you. Never fear that there is something you can't say about my writing or my stories. I know that you would never intend to say something bad or hurt me, so even if you find something disturbing or unbelievable or unclear, don't hesitate to say so. Feedback in general is a wonderful treat, and feedback like yours is a treasure.
*HUGS*
Reply
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