HP: CoS

[mrv3000]

I'm nearly half way through the Chamber of Secrets now. A few notes:

• All I can think about when I read about Ginny is how she's the fandom pariah. So far she just seems like a cute kid! :D
  
  
• Ron actually seems slightly more mature than he does in the movies. Not 40-year-old mature, obviously, but different from the screen.
  
  
• Draco is still bland.
  
  
• I'm finally starting to get into scenes that didn't appear in the films. However I really don't mind that the film skipped the Deathday Party. Seemed very extraneous. And I really didn't need to see slugs coming out of Ron's mouth. Ick. (They didn't, did they? If so, I've completely blocked that bit out.)
  
  
• In my mind, Kenneth Branagh played Gilderoy Lockhart perfectly. :D

Comments

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Ron actually seems slightly more mature than he does in the movies. Not 40-year-old mature, obviously, but different from the screen.

Trufax: the screen-writer for the HP movies is a confirmed, on the record Harry/Hermione 'shipper, and goes out of his way to a) give Ron's cool scenes to someone else and b) make Ron look like a moron wherever possible. It bugs me.

I LOVE GINNY SO MUCH! And she only gets better.

I think the Deathday Party was pretty much an excuse for them not to go to the Halloween Feast.

KENNETH BRANAGH FTW!

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Trufax: the screen-writer for the HP movies is a confirmed, on the record Harry/Hermione 'shipper, and goes out of his way to a) give Ron's cool scenes to someone else and b) make Ron look like a moron wherever possible. It bugs me.

How very strange. I'll be curious how the books read when I get to obvious "moments" between Harry and Hermoine that the films played up.

I LOVE GINNY SO MUCH! And she only gets better.

:D

I think the Deathday Party was pretty much an excuse for them not to go to the Halloween Feast.

Yeah, pretty much, I think.

KENNETH BRANAGH FTW!

I normally don't picture actors when I'm reading somthing that's made it to screen, but he's there clear as day. XD

[leighleighla.livejournal.com]

Book!Ron is my hero. He can be a little oblivious at times, but he's so much more fun/smart/cool in the books.

I have a lot of issues with the HP movies. In my own mind, they get so many things wrong...

Ginny becomes kind of a HBIC in the later books, which is awesome.

Also? Yes, Kenneth Branagh was an AMAZING Lockhart. :)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Book!Ron is my hero. He can be a little oblivious at times, but he's so much more fun/smart/cool in the books.

It's a nice surprise!

I have a lot of issues with the HP movies. In my own mind, they get so many things wrong...

Heh heh heh.

Ginny becomes kind of a HBIC in the later books, which is awesome.

Sounds good to me!

Also? Yes, Kenneth Branagh was an AMAZING Lockhart. :)

I keep picturing his grin!

[elirrina.livejournal.com]

I like Ginny. And I think they dumb down Ron in the films. (I never got into the Harry Potter online fandom. I just read the books and talked about them with my friends, but we were all in college, so...)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

It's a shame they watered down Ron's character. So far I'm liking him much better in the books. He's not this complete whining scaredy cat he so often is in the movies.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_thirty2flavors/]

A lot of what film!Hermione does is actually Ron in the books. IDK, in the movies it tends to be more like 'BFFS HARRY AND HERMIONE and that kooky ginger Ron!!!" but in the books it's really more the Harry/Ron bromance with Hermione there to keep them in line. I'm not saying Hermione isn't their bff too, but the balance is definitely different than it is in the movies.

lol poor Ginny suffers from the Canon Love Interest syndrome. She's not that bad, really. She wasn't my favourite, but she's not as bad as fandom makes her out to be by any means.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

A lot of what film!Hermione does is actually Ron in the books. IDK, in the movies it tends to be more like 'BFFS HARRY AND HERMIONE and that kooky ginger Ron!!!" but in the books it's really more the Harry/Ron bromance with Hermione there to keep them in line. I'm not saying Hermione isn't their bff too, but the balance is definitely different than it is in the movies.

You know, I'm starting to see that more and more.

lol poor Ginny suffers from the Canon Love Interest syndrome. She's not that bad, really. She wasn't my favourite, but she's not as bad as fandom makes her out to be by any means.

Poor Ginny. Right now she's reminding me of my friend's daughter, and I want to pinch her cheeks. :D

[http://users.livejournal.com/_thirty2flavors/]

It becomes more and more obvious as the books go on I think. Harry and Hermione are good friends, but Harry is kind of oblivious, so you wind up with scenes in the movies -- like the one where he comforts Hermione while she cries over Ron/Lavender in HBP -- whereas in the books it's more like Harry goes "???????????" for a bit until Hermione goes off to cry alone. LIRL He doesn't really... know what to do with her a lot of the time, I think.


Ickle Ginny is cute. She changes a lot later in the books -- or, she comes out of her shell around Harry more, which I guess sent lots of fandom into a tizzy. I remember thinking "oh hey, Ginny got awesome" around OOTP, lol.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

whereas in the books it's more like Harry goes "???????????" for a bit until Hermione goes off to cry alone. LIRL He doesn't really... know what to do with her a lot of the time, I think.

*snickers* I guess they figured that wouldn't play well on screen.

Ickle Ginny is cute. She changes a lot later in the books -- or, she comes out of her shell around Harry more, which I guess sent lots of fandom into a tizzy. I remember thinking "oh hey, Ginny got awesome" around OOTP, lol.

:D

[http://users.livejournal.com/_thirty2flavors/]

LOL YEAH.

I noticed on my pre-DH reread that Ron has a line early on in COS about how weird Ginny is around Harry and how usually you can't get her to shut up. I think we are supposed to accept that she doesn't start being herself around Harry until GOF or OOTP, but I guess that didn't really work for some people.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I noticed that line, which is why it reminded me of a little girl I know. So I could buy the idea that she's really outgoing, just not around Harry because of her crush.

[earenwe.livejournal.com]

The thing with Ginny is that she clearly is a character JKR enjoys, and she must have had this whole plot and back story envisioned for, but the downside to that is...because of the whole "hey, there's a Dark Lord and we found Harry Potter" thing that story gets shoved to the wayside. (Sure you can say because she's the youngest of a huge family of boys and some other things, but, I don't think that's enough for such a difference.)

So even though later on she becomes this kick-ass girl who you think everyone would love, we never saw that transformation, so it seems like super-Ginny came from nowhere. I do like her, but I don't think she's as amazing as a lot of people who enjoy her do.

I don't like Ron, either, but that difference sure is there. It always amazes me on what they decide to edit out plot-wise to fulfill the overall arc, but forget that character development is pretty crucial.

Loved Kenneth Branagh. He absolutely made the movie.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I wonder if some of that lack of seen transformation can be attributed to clueless!Harry POV. (Not that I know yet.) But it's still not fun whenever character development gets skipped.

I started to notice Ron more and more, and then there was a scene where he tried to zap Draco, which is a very different guy than the one onscreen.

[professor-spork.livejournal.com]

IMO, Ginny's the fandom pariah in the same way Rose is-- i.e., for stupid reasons. But then again, she's also my favorite character, so I'm bound to be biased.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Poor, poor Ginny. *pats her*

[ginamak.livejournal.com]

Suddenly the fact that I always liked Ginny makes a lot more sense. XD

[elismor.livejournal.com]

Oh, there were slugs in the movie. :)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Really? Totally gone from my mind. :D

[shinyopals.livejournal.com]

Bless you. Talking so sweetly and innocently about HP fandom. YOU'RE COURTING THE DRAMA ON PURPOSE NOW, AREN'T YOU? ALL THIS SAYING THINGS LIKE "RON IS COOL" OR "I LIKE GINNY".

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR ME.

[outforawalk.livejournal.com]

HA! I feel like it is probably for the best that I didn't participate in HP fandom online, since I share several of these controversial opinions.

[typbrunette.livejournal.com]

Ron kind of gets shafted to pure comic relief in the movies, it's a little disappointing, honestly. They take a lot of his more important lines or actions from the books and give them to Hermione. It's very annoying, half the time Ron winds up looking like a simpering idiot and Hermione looks a lot cooler than her character is supposed to be (I love Hermione, but she's SUPPOSED to be a little bit nervous and annoying, damnit, it's what makes her a CHARACTER and not a generic badass female sidekick). He comes across a lot smarter, braver, and more loyal in the books.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

*nods* I'm starting to think that. It's kind of a nice surprise to find Ron much more interesting in the books.

[sherbertglasses.livejournal.com]

Ginny is awesome, period. Anything you've heard to the contrary is just butthurt from Harry/Hermione shippers.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Just more general impressions rather than anything concrete. But I'm glad it's not just me that's finding her non-pariah-ish. :D

[fauxkaren.livejournal.com]

Lol. Idk if that's true. I don't care for Ginny (I think she's a rather uninteresting character), but I am not a Harry/Hermione shipper by any stretch of the imagination.

[shaela]

All I can think about when I read about Ginny is how she’s the fandom pariah. So far she just seems like a cute kid! :D

She is a cute kid! I <3 Ginny. I don’t think she needed the personality transplant she got in the later books, but there was enough left of my Ginny that she’s still one of my favorite characters. And I don’t think the changes are the reason she’s a fandom pariah—when I joined the fandom, she was already so unpopular that I went looking for the Harry Potter version of oh_she_knows and forted up.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

MEEP! I'm really really glad I missed all that fandom stuff!

[shaela]

It wasn’t all bad. I got to go to three midnight release parties. I got to read fanfic I would’ve missed if I’d gotten into the fandom later—a lot of it has been Jossed, and some of it isn’t even online anymore. I got to read Deathly Hallows and not know how it ended.

You know. All that fandom stuff. ;)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

That part sounds good. :D

[fauxkaren.livejournal.com]

Honestly Draco only gets interesting in Book 6, so I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. Also the books mature and improve significantly from Book 3 on, so if you don't love the series yet, give it a bit more time. Also I love Ron and I think that he tends to get the short end of the stick in the movies.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I'd say that right now I'm enjoying reading the book, but I'm not rushing towards it the minute I get home. :D

[audrich.livejournal.com]

You know, you kinda making me think I should do a similar thing - I tried reading HP The First with Spriglet but she was too young then I think.

At least all of them are easy to get hold of :)

Ken Branagh, god bless him, the ham that he is :D

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about recommending it to my friend's son, but I think he might be a little bit young yet. It's not so much that he'd be scared, just I don't think he'd find it all that interesting yet.