To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure.

So...

I saw Deathly Hallows Part 2 this morning. I can't even...

First of all, it was awesome. I'm one of those people who can completely separate an adaptation from its source material. It helps me to enjoy the adaptations more, since it's basically impossible to completely and perfectly adapt anything to screen without making a few concessions.

Anyway, I was seriously impressed by Alan Rickman's performance. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but that's what I'll say. All of the performances were great, but Alan just stood out as being just...amazing. Augh. DH wasn't my favourite of the books, but I'd have to say that the two films combined are the best in the series. I'm sad that there won't be any more films (at least with the cast to which I am accustomed).

People keep talking about how this is the end. That somehow, because there are no more books and no more movies, the magic will simply fade away. I'd like to respectfully disagree; so long as Harry Potter is a part of us, it will be a part of our world.

I can't wait to see what will happen next!

Question: Who is your favourite character in Harry Potter? Why?

Mine is Remus Lupin. he's just such an all-around good guy. He *does* have his flaws, but he's a powerful, kind and caring wizard. Close second is Snape...because Snape, that's why.

I wish there'd been less Harry Potter in Harry Potter

It's weird seeing everyone talking about "the end of Harry Potter" these days, since I've never been into the films that much. To me Harry Potter ended a few years ago, when Deathly Hallows was released. I think the last of the movies I actually saw in a cinema was Order of the Phoenix, and until a few days ago I hadn't even seen HBP. I still haven't seen Deathly Hallows 1 yet, but will take care of that on Saturday (more on that later). It's always been about the books for me.

Being mostly into Beat and drug culture literature*, YA (let alone YA fantasy) wasn't something I was paying attention to at all. At some point between GoF and OotP I'd gotten a livejournal, which basically was a shift from being active in communities focused on specific fandoms, to a community where people talked about all the stuff they liked in the same place. I have one particular online friend who is incredibly good at spreading enthusiasm for the things she loves, and at the time OotP came out it just happened to be that (well, with a good dose of "why oh why did she have to kill Padfoot? (poor Remus)"). I read a few fics she and others recommended, got interested in the characters, and finally started to buy the novels.

So that was that. As I said in the comments to one of your posts, I'm still mostly interested in the parent/teacher generation. I'm not quite sure whether it's the characters (Remus! Mr. Weasley! Snape! Sirius! *hearts*), or just me being used to reading about adults rather than teens, but I never cared about the pupils that much. I don't think I've reread the series after Deathly Hallows. I've read bits of the first three books, since I use translations to learn other languages, but that's it. Maybe I'll get around to it this summer.

BUT (ahahahahaha) two days ago I bought tickets for a Harry Potter movie marathon Friday night (or rather, Friday afternoon until Saturday afternoon). They're showing all eight movies in a row, which is so delightfully ridiculous I just couldn't not go (even if they're dubbed in German :( ). It's going to be awesome.

To do the question thing: What's your least favourite scene in the books/movies? What's your favourite?

As for least favourite, even considering I've only read it once, I have to go with the endless camping trip in Deathly Hallows (I don't care about the trio that much, so was pretty much waiting for it to be over from the second page on) (I like to pretend the epilogue doesn't exist). The scene I returned to over and over again, mostly because of the characters, if the Shrieking Shack bit in Prisoner of Azkaban (again: characters! so lovely.)

Finish What I Started

Yet another topic that I am not very inclined with. Only because I really wasn't that interested to begin with.

I watched all of the movies so far just for the sake of finishing something that I already started. But judging the story from the movies i'd say it was just ok for my taste, But entertaining enough to not hate it. 

My favorite part is the cinematography of the movies which really wouldn't make you read the book at all. Considering that they have had four different directors and six different directors of photography, I was very intrigued with what's going to come next each time they come out.

I have never had those biases between the book and the movie, specially in this case because I haven't read any of the books, but also I can understand how things can be difficult to translate to film considering the complexity of one's imagination. Which is why the interpretation, or imagination, of each individual involved, may it be the actors, writers, directors, editors, producers, etc., in making of the film is key to the potential success of a book turned movie.

QsOTD: What's your favorite HP movie so far? Which is your favorite novel based movie?

Hear from you guys soon

RUBEN IV

Harry Potter, determinism, and time travel.

Good Morning Nerdy Bunch it's Monday!

Warning spoilers ahead.

Since I am 95% percent sure I choose the theme this week I am going with the obvious. Harry Potter. I didn't get into Harry Potter until after it had been out for a while. I was a voracious reader and read above my grade level. I kind of dismissed Harry Potter as being "trendy" and for little kids. (wow reading that, little Allysa sure had a hipster attitude). Anyway I got the first one for my dad for Christmas a year or two after it had come out and of course I read it too. I like it, alot Harry Potter has a way of catching the imagination. I definitely played witch in the field behind my house. The first book of the series will always be my favorite and I think it is the strongest of the series and gets the most things right. So I'm not a Harry Potter hater, but, there are things I don't love about the series. I think because Harry Potter is such a phenomenon and so many people love it so much there is a reluctance to talk about the fact that some parts of it aren't great.

When I think about the sereis as a whole I divide it into three parts books 1-3 book 4 and books 5-7. Part One I see as being really good children's fantasy fiction, top of it's class (but not untouchable). In the same category as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, Or the Book of Three By Lloyd Alexander. The third part I see as being ok but not great YA fantasy. Book Four goes back and forth between the two, with elements of each.

I have some very specific issues with the series as well. First of all and least seriously no one talks about or has sex in the books. Now I don't think that every seventeen year old is out there bed hopping but, they are sure as heck talking sex. Every romantic relationship in the book reads like they are all thirteen the entire time. I'm not saying there should have been a sex scene in any of the books but it felt like an issue that was very carefully stepped around.

Issue number two: determinism. So generally I don't enjoy fiction that involves time travel. I have to turn off my brain to watch Doctor Who. Mostly because in fiction the rules of time travel are rarely well explained and are full of logic holes. Harry Potter obviously skips past most of these problems with MAGIC which is good, it makes my brain not hurt to much, if I don't think about it to hard. However the rules of time travel are deterministic. In the third book when we go through the central sequence of events the first time certain events happen that can only happen if they travel through time. If they do not travel through time, those events do not happen. So they have no choice about what to do, or their choice has already made in the future. This is the first symptom of determinism in Harry Potter. The second symptom of determinism and my biggest pet peeve in all of literature prophecy.

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies

I strongly dislike fantasy novels that include prophecy. Very very rarely it can be done well and create a sense of mystery and excitement. I almost always get the sense that the author is being lazy, like they couldn't figure out a way to get from the beginning of their story to the end so PROPHECY bam right there forcing the characters. Maybe it's just me but I saw the ending coming from miles away and that was disappointing the suspense was gone. We don't get a startling twist where the prophecy turns out to be something no one expected or a tragic self-fulfilling prophecy in the traditional Greek style. No one ever questions whether they should be helping the prophecy come to fruition, everyone just does it. Not only do they apparently lack free will in the Harry Potter universe but they don't even question that they lack free will. Oh man I'm all riled up now. Really it's a pet peeve of mine and there is so much good about the books but when I think about it I first, get confused and then steamed up.

Well that was longer and more involved than I intended and it doesn't even scratch the surface of my thoughts on the Harry Potter Universe, something I probably think to much about. I am really excited about the movie coming out and will probably go see it on the weekend yay!

My question for you all this week is what house would you have been sorted in when you were eleven? How about now? When I was eleven I would have been a Ravenclaw hands down, now I'm more of a Hufflepuff.

Best Wishes,

Allysa

P.S. On a non Harry Potter but still nerdy note have you listened to Still Got Legs yet. If not go do it now. RIGHT HERE

Online pet peeves?

I've got a few.

Firstly, much like Allysa it really annoys me when people are mean just for the sake of being mean. Just because there's supposedly more anonymity on the internet, it doesn't give people leave to go and say mean and nasty things to/about other people. I've never encountered this in Nerdfighteria, but elsewhere on the internet, people seem to revel in belittling someone else.

Secondly, living in Australia means that some things, especially TV shows and movies, are simply not available to me (legally) online, and when they are, they are disproportionately expensive. I bought the Game of Thrones soundtrack on iTunes for $16 when it cost (I think) $9 for people in the US. This completely annoys and baffles me, since there's no real difference in distribution costs when you're selling DOWNLOADS. Guh. Expecting people to pay more and/or wait longer for things than people in other countries is so not jokes.

Actually, I think that's it. Hope everyone's having an awesome week. <3

Nothing to add :(

Hm, I don't really know what to write about, since most of my internet pet peeves already came up in Allysa's and sterling's posts.

Businesses (libraries, offices...) that hide their opening hours are evil. My university's libraries are brilliant at this. For some reason the institutes rarely link to their own libraries, so you have go through a labyrinth of pages starting from the main library to find out when the institute ones are open. You'd think they'd link to that from the library database. It tells you all sorts of crap about the library that holds whatever book you're looking for except opening hours & the address.

Carelessly bad English does bother me, especially when native speakers do it, but I'm somewhat guilty of it as well (of/off is my main problem, I don't pay enough attention to the little words - I know the difference between the two, of course, I just keep on dropping the second f when it's off). But what bugs me even more is when people jump on others just because their English isn't perfect. The nerdfighter ning was especially bad, even though people on there knew we had a lot of members that weren't native speakers (and a lot of dyslexics). But as soon as you made a typo or grammatical error people called you stupid, and (ergo) your argument invalid.

I guess that's it for this week? Sorry...

I can't think of any

I have been staring at my computer for a while now and I really can't think of any online pet peeves. I really don't have that many pet peeves in general.

I'm not fond of seeing people being too affectionate in  public but it never seems to bother me online. Like when I read couples baby-talking or exchanging sexual innuendos on Facebook. Maybe because not too many of my friends would do that and if they do, it's just easier to avoid online.

Anyway it's been an hour of surfing and thinking and I still don't have anything.

QOTD: what helps you cool your head when you're irritated or mad at something?

Hear from you guys soon

RUBEN IV