Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Children of Earth, and BONUS NAVEL GAZING

[lefaym]

The other day, pica_scribit mentioned that she'd been reading along with Mark Reads Harry Potter -- basically, a 26 year old guy who had never read Harry Potter before (and surprisingly, was unspoiled for almost all of the major plot developments), and is now blogging it as he reads through one chapter at a time. Pica's post reminded me that I'd been planning

Comments

[remuslives23]

The thing about OOTP for me was that even though it was bleak and dark and gutting, we were left with a spark of hope that there were still heroes fighting, heroes to be made and, even though the losses (and the stupidity that brought them about) hurt, they died to further their cause. They had a good death, honourable.

COE was bleak and dark and gutting, but we were left without hope at the end. Our heroes were dead, or running away, or left sobbing on a hilltop, mourning the loss of the man she'd put on a pedastal. There was no 'hero moment' as there was in 'Exit Wounds' with the three soldiers left standing, defiant and determined to carry on. There was only misery and loss here with nothing for the audience to hold onto. That's the difference for me.

When I watched COE, I hadn't heard any spoilers, didn't know anything much about the lead up to Series 3. I thought this was the end of the show. It felt like the end and I commented to my hubby that it was typical that I only start watching after it had been cancelled. Some would argue it should have been (or was) the end. :)

The parallels you've drawn between Harry and Ianto don't really fit for me, though, as Harry is the leader of his group, he is the one calling the shots, the one the others look to, and the one making the unfortunate decisions that lead to a death. The parallel seems to fit better with Jack here, although Ianto showed a remarkable lack of common sense and forethought (which shows how badly OOC he was written).

I've heard snippets about the place about Mark's reading and that he didn't know Sirius died. How did he react to that?

[lefaym]

Well, I wasn't so much comparing Ianto to Harry structurally (I don't think that sort of parallel would quite work with Jack either) -- it's just that in this particular instance they both engaged in an act of similar stupidity, but the two different stories dealt with that in different ways.

Mark was pretty gutted by Sirius' death, but he's dealing with it well.