1) Mmm, reminds me of how I used to freeze Mars bars.
2) PS has this feeling of "looking back on it, with us meeting like that, maybe it's not so strange that we fell in love later on" for Harry and Hermione. I mean, the very first chapter after they befriend Hermione starts with a glowing description of how much that meant to Harry. And then there's the "friendship and bravery" scene, all of it. From the lip-quivering, to the bullrush hug, to the "Harry has to use logic to convince Hermione to do something rational", to the mutual admiration, to the everything about it dammit! Plus, when it comes to the troll-meeting, I'm looking at intentions and actions before I look at results. Just because Ron's use of Wingardium saved the day, doesn't make it more heroic than jumping a freakin' troll because you just have to save the girl! Plus Ron is literally only there because of Harry. If Harry hadn't had Hermione on his mind enough to remember that she couldn't know, Ron would have just gone along with the others.
To me it's all written in the sort of children's book way of a set up that if you were to read an epilogue where those two later got together and married, you wouldn't be too surprised. Their friendship started off as so indispensable, they needed each other. Sort of, I don't think you'd think they were in love (puppy love or otherwise) but you'd think they'd form a friendship that would grow into something like that.
3) Hold the characters hostage indeed. Death and rape are generally never well used in media, being the cheap scare tactics that are used to get the audience to think what you want them to. But because they don't consider the actual follow up, the reverse reaction is not too uncommon. You become annoyed instead of sad, raging mad instead of worried. All because the writers decided to put in an event without actual thoughts of consequences and characterisation, thinking it should be enough on its own. It's sort of how I think Rowling kind of embarrassed herself by thinking it strange that people were more upset with the death of Hedwig than they were with the death of nameless Muggle studies teacher that never had a line. She had forgotten that she had through the previous six books been investing the readers' emotions into this character, and that it therefor didn't matter if the character was an owl that couldn't speak. The owl was more "alive" to us than the teacher, even if the teacher was supposed to be "a fellow human being". But that's not how it works, because in the end? That teacher was never a human being, but a fictional character. You can't equate ink on paper with blood and flesh.
2) PS has this feeling of "looking back on it, with us meeting like that, maybe it's not so strange that we fell in love later on" for Harry and Hermione. I mean, the very first chapter after they befriend Hermione starts with a glowing description of how much that meant to Harry. And then there's the "friendship and bravery" scene, all of it. From the lip-quivering, to the bullrush hug, to the "Harry has to use logic to convince Hermione to do something rational", to the mutual admiration, to the everything about it dammit! Plus, when it comes to the troll-meeting, I'm looking at intentions and actions before I look at results. Just because Ron's use of Wingardium saved the day, doesn't make it more heroic than jumping a freakin' troll because you just have to save the girl! Plus Ron is literally only there because of Harry. If Harry hadn't had Hermione on his mind enough to remember that she couldn't know, Ron would have just gone along with the others.
To me it's all written in the sort of children's book way of a set up that if you were to read an epilogue where those two later got together and married, you wouldn't be too surprised. Their friendship started off as so indispensable, they needed each other. Sort of, I don't think you'd think they were in love (puppy love or otherwise) but you'd think they'd form a friendship that would grow into something like that.
3) Hold the characters hostage indeed. Death and rape are generally never well used in media, being the cheap scare tactics that are used to get the audience to think what you want them to. But because they don't consider the actual follow up, the reverse reaction is not too uncommon. You become annoyed instead of sad, raging mad instead of worried. All because the writers decided to put in an event without actual thoughts of consequences and characterisation, thinking it should be enough on its own. It's sort of how I think Rowling kind of embarrassed herself by thinking it strange that people were more upset with the death of Hedwig than they were with the death of nameless Muggle studies teacher that never had a line. She had forgotten that she had through the previous six books been investing the readers' emotions into this character, and that it therefor didn't matter if the character was an owl that couldn't speak. The owl was more "alive" to us than the teacher, even if the teacher was supposed to be "a fellow human being". But that's not how it works, because in the end? That teacher was never a human being, but a fictional character. You can't equate ink on paper with blood and flesh.
Reply
Leave a comment