Cursed Child: playscript review

[inkvoices]

Non-spoilery review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child reads like fanfiction - which, essentially, it is. Don't get me wrong, I like fanfiction, but if you've read a bunch of fics then there's not really anything special or unique here. Some parts I liked, some parts I was less keen on, and much of it was predictable. I did like some of the

Comments

[darth_kittius]

I agree that there was an overall fanfic feel to this as I was reading it.... especially with some of the AS/S lines, which I will imagine as being confirmed to be true now. Snape and the old folks' home were my two absolute favorite parts.

In addition to wishing Delphi wasn't *actually* you-know-who's daughter, I can't believe I'm saying this, but the other part that annoyed me was Ron's characterization. I mean, this Ron is how I like my fanfic Ron - a bit dim, but lovable. But that doesn't really track with books 1-7 Ron - he's never actually that dim, other than not understanding he liked Hermione, which, again, while I disagree with, is actually very realistic for a teenage boy. There is no way I believe Minister of Magic Hermione is with this Ron, and there is no way I believe this is where Ron ends up.

[inkvoices]

Heh, I think the AS/S is enough for it to be true to those who want it to be true and a good friendship for those who don't. Which I like, because it keeps the focus on family and friendship over romance, keeps them wonderfully young and awkward, but doesn't step on the dreams of anyone who imagines them together

[author_by_night]

Found this via google!

I agree with you 100% that the Delphi arc was too cliche, and I too would have preferred her be the child of a Death Eater. Or, as you said, something like that.

I'm not convinced about the idea of Cedric Diggory - the guy who believed so much in fairness that he gave Harry the hint about the egg in the Tournament - becoming a Death Eater in an alternate furture just because he was humiliated during the Tournament.

Yeah, same. Especially with the scene where Albus and Scorpius meet him in the maze in the future they're trying to correct, and it's supposed to be sad. It would've been less sad if apparently Cedric not dying would've meant he became a Death Eater. (Or maybe not, since he wouldn't have been humiliated, but still.)

[inkvoices]

Well hello! And thank you google I guess *grins*.

I think it would have been a nice nod to peripheral characters, to all the others killed in the Battle of Hogwarts and during the rough years, all the other lives affected, if she hadn't been an in-the-shadows but-actually-linked-to-a-main-character person.

Yeah, that just by being humiliated in front of a bunch of people he turns to being a Death Eater... I mean, he's a Hufflepuff. To some degree he's used to being mocked and made fun of. And the hassle during the Tournament. It didn't seem to do him any harm. As much as we can never know the paths a person might take, and it's interesting to consider, I don't think that fits with the character development we were given for Cedric. At least not for me anyway. And you're right, the impact of that on emotions in that scene muddles things.

(Actually, I went back the other day and started reading an older fanfic by Minisioo where Harry goes back in time to rescue Cedric, but then Dumbledore is killed instead. Interesting to see

[franztastisch]

My flatmate has seen the play and says that for all its fanfic trope-y-ness it's utterly delightful. And very well acted. ANd the stagings brilliant. That being said, she did watch it immediately after Day X. Everyone needed good things after Day X.

[inkvoices]

I heard that the magical parts, such as the telephone box and apparation, are amazingly well done and that the dementors and scary parts are appropriately spine-chilling :) The immediacy of it too, being a play, bet that creates a great atmosphere.

[franztastisch]

And often a lot of the emotion isn't in plays because they're meant to be performed. So I'm not super surprised that the script isn't The Best Thing Ever.

[inkvoices]

Exactly. (I appreciate Shakespeare's use of language, but his plays were never all that interesting to me until I started to see them :) ) But I do like that they released the script, because it looks ridiculously hard to get tickets if you live in the UK never mind anywhere else!