Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Twelve Days of Listmas Day 6: Harry Potter!

Halfway through the Days of Listmas, so get your wand at the ready and open your spellbooks to page 394 as I count down my favorite things about the world of Harry Potter!

NOTE: When talking about Harry Potter on this website, I will refer to the first book as "Philosopher's Stone", since that is a real (mythical) object and J.K. Rowling knows this. The story goes that it was changed to "Sorcerer's Stone" in the US because Scholastic thought American kids would never know what a Philosopher was. Well, I know what it is, and I know what the Stone is, and I know who Nicolas Flamel is (granted mostly from this book). In casual conversation I would normally refer to it as either "Stone" or "The first one", but here I'm going the snooty route because, for once, it's right.



Top 11 Favorite Harry Potter Characters
11. Tom Marvolo Riddle/Lord Voldemort
10. Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
9. Rubeus Hagrid
8. Hermione Granger
7. Neville Longbottom
6. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
5. Fred and George Weasley
4. Luna Lovegood
3. Sirius Black
2. Severus Snape
1. Remus Lupin

My Hogwarts House According to Pottermore
Ravenclaw

My Wand According to Pottermore
Maple and Unicorn Hair, 10 3/4", Slightly Springy

Top 5 Favorite Hogwarts Subjects
5. Quidditch
4. Transfiguration
3. Defense Against the Dark Arts
2. Potions
1. Care of Magical Creatures

Top 5 Spells and/or Abilities I Would Love to Master
5. Brewing Any Kind of Potion
4. Caring for Dragons
3. The Patronus Charm
2. Learning to Ride Any Flying Mount (from Broomsticks to Thestrals)
1. Becoming an Animagus

The Harry Potter Films, In Order of Least Favorite to Most Favorite
7. Goblet of Fire
6. Half-Blood Prince
5. Chamber of Secrets
4. Order of the Phoenix
3. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Philosopher's Stone
1. Deathly Hallows

The Harry Potter Books, In Order of Least Favorite to Most Favorite
7. Chamber of Secrets
6. Order of the Phoenix
5. Philosopher's Stone
4. Half-Blood Prince
3. Goblet of Fire
2. Deathly Hallows
1. Prisoner of Azkaban

11 comments:

  1. I always wanted to be a Griffindor as a kid, even though TBH I've seen myself as a Hufflepuff as I got older. Yet all the quizzes say I'm a Griffindor! I like both houses, but it's hard to choose! I also love Ravenclaw as well, but facing facts I'm WAY too stupid for Ravenclaw.

    Some people see Harry Potter ad more of a nostalgia thing, but the heavy duty fans see it as life, like animation fans who watch shows from their childhood. It kind bugs me that people say one is being nostalgic for your childhood by watching cartoons, bu it's like "dude. U just like watching animation period." Does certain media always have to stem from childhood? Some people in there 20s just HAPPEN to watch said shows as a daily thing. I always felt I had to be nostalgic in order to enjoy animation. It's so frustrating! And then there was that one teacher in that social skills group that told me "Oh boys don't like it when you talk too much about cartoons."


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    1. Is she joking? A girlfriend who not only condones cartoon watching but will join in?! It's us guys who have to hide our animation love from women at large!

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    2. It's a girl problem too. With guys, it's understandable to be awkward and geeky but with girls, we have to be conventionally attractive confident and intimidating. It makes me fucking sick!!! So damn sexist! Seriously, at one of my old workplaces, I asked someone what I needed to do and he said "just stand there and look beautiful." URGH!

      Hence why I liked HP-diverese set of characters. Strong girl characters. No sexism.

      I consider myself to be fiction kin with Luna, but she's one of those characters I feel self conscious about identifying with because people don't think I'm that much like her because I'm too hyper. I hate identifying with a character well but people not agreeing with you, making it feel like you aren't cool enough to "be" them.

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    3. I always felt women had the advantage because the majority of guys are just happy to get any sort of attention. So don't ever be afraid to just go for it.

      Provided, of course, that your target is actually single and of some form of legal age.

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    4. I took offense to it as I needed to know something but my question wasn't being answered plus the person saying it was older by at least 30 years. Yick.

      Back on topic, am I the only one who doesn't think Prizoner of Azkaban was that bad of a movie?



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    5. None of the Potter films were bad, but from Prisoner on they had the fatal flaw of excluding important bits of exposition, requiring someone to read the books to understand what was going on.

      They're still the #1 best casted films I've ever seen.

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    6. I see. It was labeled as being "the worst" by the Fandom
      I only read the first book admittedly. I may reread them, but I have a bunch of library books to finish up.

      Have you ever had conflict to which Howarts house you identified with?

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    7. Not really. I've always been Ravenclaw, though sometimes I don't feel clever enough. Slytherin would be a good safety house if I didn't want to strangle everyone else in the house for being bigoted tusspots.

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    8. If it weren't the fact that Slytherins are the HP world's equivalent of racists, I'd find them cool. Then again, I like their common room and colors. Not all Slytherins end up bad.

      I looked at this comparison of Hermione to the books and the movies and it seems they made her more conventionally attractive, exaggerated her character and deviated a bit from the books for a more broad appeal. I don't think she gets "conventionally attractive" until the 3rd movie as Emma Watson ages, though they did cut stuff out for time and trying to make it appeal to more viewers. Any thoughts on Hermione's character in the films?

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  2. Am I the only one who dislikes Goblet of Fire? With all due respect, I find it hard to watch everyone being so mean to Harry for something he didn't do and Ron turning on him due to jealousy. It's sad. Thankfully they make up. Aside from that, it's just... eh compared to the other movies. IDK if the book is any different in the presenting of this.. .

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    1. *Ker-smack!"

      With all due respect, drop what you're doing and read the damn books before we all murder you.

      Minor spoiler: they're both acting like prats because they're fourteen at this point.

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