If I weren't already married...

[saeriellyn]

...I would totally propose to this guy.

He's written a full treatise on why The Prydain Chronicles beat Harry Potter, which you can see here.Be warned, Potterfans: he is not at all kind to Harry; some of his accusations are unfair and not quite accurate, and as this was written before Book 6, some of his points no longer hold up. Still, anyone who

Comments

[witteafval]

I love it! Eilonwy's similes were a scream. Rhun vs. Neville, and his parents vs. the Weasleys, were hilarious as well.

He did forget that Fflewddur already had giant-fighting experience against Glew, who was much larger than Hagrid and probably just as dangerous. King Smoit could beat Hagrid in a fight as well, on more equal terms.

And Achren, even with her diminished powers shown in The Book of Three would have owned all the evil adult females in the Potterverse combined (Narcissa, Bellatrix, Umbridge, etc.). She was once the Lady of Death; those other women were merely deranged fanatics.

[deliriumdriver]

I agree that Smoit should have been paired with Hagrid. I think Mr. Weasley is the character who best corresponds to Fflewddur-- they're the nice guys who don't seem like tough stuff until they're put in a tight spot. But I think it would be a draw, because they'd just become good pals; though if they were provoked into fighting, Fflewddur would totally win. (And, unsurprisingly, I was offended when he said that Fflewddur was more trouble than he's worth

[seyrah]

Oh my dear..."It goes without saying that Voldemort would wet his pants if this sword showed up."

*wipes a tear*

Excellent. There are plenty of things I would add, but all in all, I may have to use this--spoilers and all--to convince T to finally read the Chronicles. He has had so many of the same criticisms of Potter.

He's so very, very right.

Oh, and also...

[seyrah]

Incidentally, I'd love to hear what you think was not right in his condemnation of Potter. I read book 6 and it didn't change pretty much anything that he criticized.

Re: Oh, and also...

[saeriellyn]

I was thinking primarily of the accusations of Draco's 2-Dness, since in Book 6 we have all that weird stuff about his crying in the loo and then not being able to do the deed on the rooftop. It felt a little off-putting and out of character for Draco to suddenly have an attack of conscience, which of course just confirms this guy's complaints about him, but still, it's in there.

Plus, you can hardly let Prydain off the hook in this regard, since Arawn and the Horned King are also rather cardboardish evil figures. They're made up for by all the complex villians, but still, you know.

And just because I'm still laughing about this...

[saeriellyn]

Do not mess with Dallben! He owns your ass already because he read about it in the Book of Three!

Totally my favorite line.

That, and his match between Voldemort and Arawn. Man, I'm going to be reading that for days.

[mushfromnewsies]

But why would you *want* Prydain to be popular? They have critical acclaim -- you can't really be wanting them to make an overly-glossy, over-produced movie series, or people like Katie Couric to be asking stupid questions and have little kids lisping that their favorite character is Eilonwy, because she's a pretty princess, or have book publishers pushing out different glittery book covers every two years, and people on the internet writing Gurgi/Achren porn and making "fanon" versions of our clean, beloved characters. Bah! I'm so, so thankful they're not popular! They are well-known in children's lit circles, and really not that obscure, but they've maintained their purity, and I can still feel like they're *mine*, not anyone else's. That's what I hate the most about books getting popular -- while at first it's exciting and vindicating, really people are just imprinting their own public-ness on your private books. I'm dreading, positively *dreading* the day some idiot at Walden Media decides to make the movies! God protect us

[saeriellyn]

I think you need not dread. I see no hope of films happening given Disney's stranglehold on the material and the still-smarting scorch marks from the flamingly spectacular failure of The Black Cauldron.

And you've put your finger on my own internal struggle, of course, because your points are perfectly valid. Although in my perfect fantasy-world I can imagine high-quality, artistic films that would bring the series to gorgeous life, I am not so naive as to expect the material to be given the kind of respect it deserves in real-world Hollywood. Indeed these books are so preciously vivid in my mind that I have set myself up to be disappointed by any attempt to film them since it could never live up to my imaginings. Another Black Cauldron would break my heart

[sdmaturin]

I agree completely. No more movies, ever. The Black Cauldron burned a wound in my soul that can only be healed with time.

I wasn't arguing that Alexander's work should be a household name, only that Rowling's was too highly praised, to the point that I suspect some kind of contagious virus spread by book covers. My girlfriend and her family have it, alas; it's too late to save them.

[randomopera]

I love it, I love it, I LOVE it! Thanks for sharing that with me. I love the part about Dallben reading the book of three it was what I was thinking as I started the appendix.

[aka_centimetre2]

Here you are :)