The patched robes and chipped cups seem a lot like JKR porting over real-world stuff without thinking through how magic might affect it all. We Muggles might have to make do with chipped teacups (which I could see being either ones Remus brought or school-provided ones that have been knocking about in the cupboard for fifty years), but wizards have some very simple spells to fix things like that. Robes might be harder, if wizarding tailors put anti-magical-alterations spells on them to force customers to bring them in for repairs... but we never hear of such spells. And you'd think that would only apply to new robes, anyway, not second-hand ones (which is presumably what he wears).
I thought maybe we could explain it as Remus being too exhausted to waste energy on doing lots of minor spells like that (the combo of chronic illness and a crushing teaching load would be a lot!), but I don't think it quite works. For one, no one ever seems to feel depleted by minor spells like Reparo. And he only has to fix the stuff once. He could do the robes and skip the cups, if he needs to ration his energy. So... are robe-mending spells really difficult? Are they just really difficult for him, the same way some people just can't get the hang of not killing plants or whatever? Does he not care? Does he like the boho look?
The Hogsmeade issue is probably giving Harry bad (unconscious) memories of being left out of everything for ten years. It's like watching Dudley go out to play with his friends or go on a cool excursion and knowing he'll never be included because no one values him. Unfortunately, the books never let the kid recognize that this is an issue, never mind even start working through it.
All the magical creatures study might be useful if they want to get jobs protecting or somehow using the animals... but yeah, that seems more CoMC territory. I guess knowing how to fend off grindylows makes it safer for them to swim in the lake. But what are they most likely to encounter in Britain otherwise? Are doxies and the other pests in Grimmauld Place "Dark"? (They are irritating, so probably.) We know there are a few dragons, but mostly out in the Hebrides, I think. And anyway, they're cool, and so probably not considered Dark. Um, maybe pooka? The Grim? (That would have been a relevant lesson, actually! "How do you tell the difference between the Grim and a big shaggy dog?")
Honestly, the Dark creature they're most likely to encounter is probably... werewolves. Awkward.
And Acromantulae, of course. Surely someone has noticed the colony of giant spiders over the last 50 years? Haven't the centaurs complained? Why don't they spend a couple of weeks on that?
I do like the idea that Crookshanks is the one bravely fending off an Acromantula invasion for the next several books, though :-)
Sirius could also wait until Ron and Scabbers are outside and ambush them there instead of trying to break in. Or, I don't know, write a note pretending to be from Hagrid saying he has a special tonic for Scabbers to lure Ron out after dark. I mean... Sirius does have some experience luring people into traps, yes?
A new theory: during his work as a magical exterminator, Remus managed to piss off some kind of fey based creature and ended up being cursed. Some kind of bad luck curse, so no matter how much he repairs his teacups he always manages to chip them. Usually in the most ridiculous way.
Yeah, that could work, especially considering how reckless Harry is in this book. It just rubs me the wrong way when the author creates set up for a thriller and/or horror, while the main character acts like he is stuck in a slice of life story.... which pretty much explains over half of my annoyances when it comes to this series. Huh, I never thought about it this way.
Jo made a big mistake when it comes to magical creatures. UK is rich in cryptids and paranormal creatures. By reducing fairies to pixies and house elves she not only reduced her pool of potential magical creatures but also (IMHO) made Statute of Secrecy way less important than it should be in her setting. Let's take Dresden Files series as an example: there is a whole society with courts of Fay folk on the neighbour plane. They have totally different morality and laws from humans or for that matter wizards. And while elites prefer to not be on humans' radar they won't stop their underlings from preying on humans. And that is what I was expecting from OotP after a rather dramatic ending of GoF: creature politics.But we know how that ended :(
Well, Pixies were presented by Lockhart in CoS, so I suppose that to UK's WW they are dark creatures.
I'm going to blame Hagrid for this one. Forbidden Forest is off-limits for students, and while there could be some researchers going to the forest, there doesn't seem to be any legislation concerning Acromantulae or there would be even more angsty Hagrid. So perhaps the ministry doesn't know how bad the situation is? I mean they probably Aragog ran off to the Forbidden Forest, but they might not know that Hagrid was considerate enough to provide Aragog with a mate.
Crookshanks is an unsung hero of the series. That is my new fanon and nobody is going to convince me otherwise :)
There are many ways for how Sirius could deal with the situation, but Rowling needed him to break into the Gryffindor dorms for story reasons, so I decided to be nice enough and not poke holes in that direction :)
Cursed to chip teacups! I love it. That also seems like the kind of petty, vindictive curse that we should see more of in the ww.
Yeah, I think the "genre soup" aspect of the series is both a strength, in that it makes it more layered and can put a fresh spin on old situations, and a weakness, in that sometimes the genres just do not work together. Or at least, they don't in this case; I don't know that it's impossible in general. But either way, it's frustrating.
I am still annoyed that we got six books of buildup about goblin rebellions and then never got to see one. The wizards are weakened! This is their moment! And just think, if they can break into the House-Elf Relocation Office, maybe they can reassign all the elves to themselves, or at least free them en masse and cause chaos.
We know that Firenze, at least, talks to Dumbledore. So he could have told him that hey, there's this giant spider invasion, and Dumbledore could have quietly suggested it as a lesson plan to Remus without the Ministry being any the wiser. So, it's only partly Hagrid's fault ;-)
I support Team Crookshanks!
I think most of Sirius's behavior in PoA has to be handwaved with, "Well, he wasn't thinking clearly because of the twelve years of dementors and being starving and on the run and stuff... and he wasn't the most emotionally stable to begin with... so I guess he was just so focused on getting in that he wasn't able to rationally contemplate alternatives..." It's a little iffy, because the year is a whole year for him, not hours like it is for us, and he surely had some downtime to regroup... but it's probably good enough.
It's petty but still better than being cursed to step on legos. Stil it fits Jo's wizards :P
Mixing and matching genres can be done, but it requires skill, knowledge and some common sense. In this book we have mystery (Hermione's misadventures in time travel), lowkey courtroom drama (Buckbeak), thriller/horror (Sirius hunting Peter), boarding school and time travel itself- which I would argue should be considered its own genre. Rowling pulls the plot in too many directions so scenes often feel off because she fails to meet readers expectations. You are focused on Sirius breaking into Gryffindor's tower to kill Harry? Well, then Harry being annoyed with the staff and his friends for trying to keep him alive looks strange. You focus more on Harry's life as a student in a magical school? Then Harry having a murderer after him feels off.
Well, we can always ignore the epilogue (which I'm all for) and imagine that shortly after Voldie war II when wizards are weakened and goblins are pissed off by Harry's stunt, they decide to rebel :) After all, wizards will be busy cleaning the messes so they won't expect any retaliation from goblins. And possibly centaurs and merpeople :P
I don't know, Sirius struck me as a guy who would spend his time in prison plotting his revenge. And honestly, no matter what Sirius says, revenge was his main driving force. Despite him being the person whom Potters trusted with Harry's life, he never really tries to be his parental figure or at least guardian. Starting from the moment where he hands over Harry without wanting to go with Hagrid to talk Albus out of the idea, ending with spending almost year camping near Hogwarts' so he could kill Peter instead of using him to gain freedom.
I think the epilogue is a dream Harry had after he finished eating that sandwich he wanted to call Kreacher for. The reality when he wakes up could be quite different. Magical Beings of the world, unite!
Not just revenge, but suicidal revenge: he told Hagrid he wouldn't be needing the motorcycle anymore in that eerily final way. I think that in GoF, he gets to a point where he wants to be a good guardian (at least in theory)... but the rest of the time we know him, he has way too much else going on for it to really register with him as a driving motivation.
I thought maybe we could explain it as Remus being too exhausted to waste energy on doing lots of minor spells like that (the combo of chronic illness and a crushing teaching load would be a lot!), but I don't think it quite works. For one, no one ever seems to feel depleted by minor spells like Reparo. And he only has to fix the stuff once. He could do the robes and skip the cups, if he needs to ration his energy. So... are robe-mending spells really difficult? Are they just really difficult for him, the same way some people just can't get the hang of not killing plants or whatever? Does he not care? Does he like the boho look?
The Hogsmeade issue is probably giving Harry bad (unconscious) memories of being left out of everything for ten years. It's like watching Dudley go out to play with his friends or go on a cool excursion and knowing he'll never be included because no one values him. Unfortunately, the books never let the kid recognize that this is an issue, never mind even start working through it.
All the magical creatures study might be useful if they want to get jobs protecting or somehow using the animals... but yeah, that seems more CoMC territory. I guess knowing how to fend off grindylows makes it safer for them to swim in the lake. But what are they most likely to encounter in Britain otherwise? Are doxies and the other pests in Grimmauld Place "Dark"? (They are irritating, so probably.) We know there are a few dragons, but mostly out in the Hebrides, I think. And anyway, they're cool, and so probably not considered Dark. Um, maybe pooka? The Grim? (That would have been a relevant lesson, actually! "How do you tell the difference between the Grim and a big shaggy dog?")
Honestly, the Dark creature they're most likely to encounter is probably... werewolves. Awkward.
And Acromantulae, of course. Surely someone has noticed the colony of giant spiders over the last 50 years? Haven't the centaurs complained? Why don't they spend a couple of weeks on that?
I do like the idea that Crookshanks is the one bravely fending off an Acromantula invasion for the next several books, though :-)
Sirius could also wait until Ron and Scabbers are outside and ambush them there instead of trying to break in. Or, I don't know, write a note pretending to be from Hagrid saying he has a special tonic for Scabbers to lure Ron out after dark. I mean... Sirius does have some experience luring people into traps, yes?
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Yeah, that could work, especially considering how reckless Harry is in this book. It just rubs me the wrong way when the author creates set up for a thriller and/or horror, while the main character acts like he is stuck in a slice of life story.... which pretty much explains over half of my annoyances when it comes to this series. Huh, I never thought about it this way.
Jo made a big mistake when it comes to magical creatures. UK is rich in cryptids and paranormal creatures. By reducing fairies to pixies and house elves she not only reduced her pool of potential magical creatures but also (IMHO) made Statute of Secrecy way less important than it should be in her setting.
Let's take Dresden Files series as an example: there is a whole society with courts of Fay folk on the neighbour plane. They have totally different morality and laws from humans or for that matter wizards. And while elites prefer to not be on humans' radar they won't stop their underlings from preying on humans.
And that is what I was expecting from OotP after a rather dramatic ending of GoF: creature politics.But we know how that ended :(
Well, Pixies were presented by Lockhart in CoS, so I suppose that to UK's WW they are dark creatures.
I'm going to blame Hagrid for this one. Forbidden Forest is off-limits for students, and while there could be some researchers going to the forest, there doesn't seem to be any legislation concerning Acromantulae or there would be even more angsty Hagrid. So perhaps the ministry doesn't know how bad the situation is? I mean they probably Aragog ran off to the Forbidden Forest, but they might not know that Hagrid was considerate enough to provide Aragog with a mate.
Crookshanks is an unsung hero of the series. That is my new fanon and nobody is going to convince me otherwise :)
There are many ways for how Sirius could deal with the situation, but Rowling needed him to break into the Gryffindor dorms for story reasons, so I decided to be nice enough and not poke holes in that direction :)
Reply
Yeah, I think the "genre soup" aspect of the series is both a strength, in that it makes it more layered and can put a fresh spin on old situations, and a weakness, in that sometimes the genres just do not work together. Or at least, they don't in this case; I don't know that it's impossible in general. But either way, it's frustrating.
I am still annoyed that we got six books of buildup about goblin rebellions and then never got to see one. The wizards are weakened! This is their moment! And just think, if they can break into the House-Elf Relocation Office, maybe they can reassign all the elves to themselves, or at least free them en masse and cause chaos.
We know that Firenze, at least, talks to Dumbledore. So he could have told him that hey, there's this giant spider invasion, and Dumbledore could have quietly suggested it as a lesson plan to Remus without the Ministry being any the wiser. So, it's only partly Hagrid's fault ;-)
I support Team Crookshanks!
I think most of Sirius's behavior in PoA has to be handwaved with, "Well, he wasn't thinking clearly because of the twelve years of dementors and being starving and on the run and stuff... and he wasn't the most emotionally stable to begin with... so I guess he was just so focused on getting in that he wasn't able to rationally contemplate alternatives..." It's a little iffy, because the year is a whole year for him, not hours like it is for us, and he surely had some downtime to regroup... but it's probably good enough.
Reply
Mixing and matching genres can be done, but it requires skill, knowledge and some common sense. In this book we have mystery (Hermione's misadventures in time travel), lowkey courtroom drama (Buckbeak), thriller/horror (Sirius hunting Peter), boarding school and time travel itself- which I would argue should be considered its own genre. Rowling pulls the plot in too many directions so scenes often feel off because she fails to meet readers expectations. You are focused on Sirius breaking into Gryffindor's tower to kill Harry? Well, then Harry being annoyed with the staff and his friends for trying to keep him alive looks strange. You focus more on Harry's life as a student in a magical school? Then Harry having a murderer after him feels off.
Well, we can always ignore the epilogue (which I'm all for) and imagine that shortly after Voldie war II when wizards are weakened and goblins are pissed off by Harry's stunt, they decide to rebel :)
After all, wizards will be busy cleaning the messes so they won't expect any retaliation from goblins. And possibly centaurs and merpeople :P
I don't know, Sirius struck me as a guy who would spend his time in prison plotting his revenge. And honestly, no matter what Sirius says, revenge was his main driving force. Despite him being the person whom Potters trusted with Harry's life, he never really tries to be his parental figure or at least guardian. Starting from the moment where he hands over Harry without wanting to go with Hagrid to talk Albus out of the idea, ending with spending almost year camping near Hogwarts' so he could kill Peter instead of using him to gain freedom.
Reply
Not just revenge, but suicidal revenge: he told Hagrid he wouldn't be needing the motorcycle anymore in that eerily final way. I think that in GoF, he gets to a point where he wants to be a good guardian (at least in theory)... but the rest of the time we know him, he has way too much else going on for it to really register with him as a driving motivation.
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