melannen | it is very, very late

Did I underestimate or overestimate this fandom? Apparently *nobody* else picked up on the long-lost relative thing.
Or else nobody else is paranoid enough to think that the presence of a brave kid named "Michael Evans", in Little Whinging, near Harry's age, actually means something.
Me, I think he's Petunia and Peter's secret illegitimate son, but that's just silly.

Also, This is the best thing to come out of OotP yet. Please share it with all your lawyerish friends, I want to read more decisions!

The meme covers some of the rest of what I said last entry, but I'll elaborate a bit.

1. Describe in five words or less how you feel about Order of the Phoenix.

Earns A(cceptable), not E(xceeds Expectations).

2. What are your feelings on Harry's personality? Do you think he is overly cynical, depressed, etc. . . .?

I think she's finally developing him realistically and three-dimensionallt\y. Unfortunately it came at the expense of Hermione's character. And Ron's. And Ginny's. And Sirius', and Cho's, and Lupin's, and Molly's, and--

3. Do you think Order of the Phoenix is appropriate for children 13 and younger? Why or why not?

I think age limits are silly; if they stay involved all the way through it,it's appropriate for them. At the same time I wouldn't call it a children's book, or even a young adult; some of the scene and themes are really, really dark.

4. List your five most hated characters (either in Book 5 or the whole series, non-humans can be included).

Hated for personal reasons: Umbridge, Fudge, Kreacher, James, Snape
Hated for literary reasons: Firenze, Grawp, Mimbulus, Flitwick, Lavender

5. Percy turned away from his family. Will he come crawling back to them now or . . .?

Former Head Boys don't crawl. He will come strutting back, and refuse to admit he was ever wrong.

6. What did you think of the new DADA's punishment? Why didn't Harry nor Lee complain?

It is sadistic, cruel, dangerous, and about what I expected of the wizarding world. Also, let's hope she and Lockhart never combine detentions.

Harry and Lee are both from groups of students not known for turning to adults in extremity, and they had good reason to think complaining wouldn't help. Also, she's a good practical psychologist, and invoked their male pride; it became an us-against-her thing.

7. What do you think of James and Lily now?

I despise James with the fire of a thousand, um, fire-breathing chickens. And fifteen and popular is not excuse; were I Lily I'd have made up to Snape just to spite them all. But he's much more rounded now. The love-hate thing-- ehh. Lily is just as I always expected her, but now we have evidence, which is good.

It's Peter who destroyed it. HOW COULD SHE DO THAT TO MY PETEY?

8. Has your opinion (which is probably not too good) of Petunia Dursley changed? If yes, how so?

More canon evidnce for my gut feelings about her! Also, Petey/Pet forever!

9. What's the meaning of Snape's nickname in your opinion?

Clearly Snuffles is madly in love with him, and has been since boyhood. What's in question here?

10. What do you think of the character death? Do you think s/he will return?

If character does return, will be satisfied by way death was pulled off, because if she wanted to make me doubt it she did a perfect job.
On the other hand, doubt he will come back. Wahh.

11. Do you think fanfiction will be hurt by Book 5? Do you see any new pairings arising? Do you see any huge ships falling apart?

It will be helped. Fanon needed the shot of new blood. Knowing nobody else has written my ideas is enormously freeing, as well.

There will be new ships, of course. This is the HP fandom: All the new characters will be paired with every other person/beast/plant/object in the books/world. Huge ships might decline, though I doubt it; ships a certain size are positive-feedback mechanisms, and besides they're mostly built of dreams and wishes anyway.

12. What was your favourite chapter in Order of the Phoenix? Why?

No book to check, but I liked all the scenes with Luna or McGonagall in them.

13. Talk about Fred and George's "flight."

They could have done a better job. In their situation, I'd have simply disappeared and framed Voldemort for it. They have a Death Eater's penchant for the dramatic over the effective.

14. Give some thoughts on Ron.

Ron is groovy, always has been. Also he's seeing Draco.

15. What did you think of Dumbledore's explanation?

Reassuring, in that none of my theories (including the "evil dumbledore" one were overturned); disappointing in that he didn't say anything we didn't a;ready know; completely in character.

16. Do you feel satisfied by this book?

Ah, sure. Luna and Tonks make up for a lot.

17. How anxious are you now for Book 6?

Not at all. There was no real cliffhanger here, and I want time to enjoy the fanfic! What's coming will come.

Now, non-ootp stuff:

As a way of not feeling guilty about being happily unemployed, I am going to try to write full-time the rest of the summer. (unless my neighbor gets me that job at Microsoft). That means: Up by 8:30, breakfast &cetera, then write until lunch, eat, free time until dinner, then write until bed.
By that schedule I should have been abed three hours ago.
On the other hand, in two days of this schedule, I've got an amazing amount of stuff done. Caught up on my friendslist, too, finally. *whew*.

Someone (okay, it was

speakerender) asked if I was going to do the interview thing. I don't care enough to do the whole elaborate meme, but if anyone wants to ask me five questions I'll answer them. Probably.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You do a whole huge meme for OotP, but won't do a simple listing of 5 questions? *grin* Perhaps I'll come up with 5 questions for you, probably...

I'm doing that with comics ;) Drew and inked 14 yesterday x_x Today I get to photoshop them all into real comics! Woo!

1. Apart from reading/writing fiction (which i STILL say are related hobbies), what hobbies take up your time?

2. So as not to go into a trite "Where do you see yourself in 10 years" thing, I'll ask: Where do you see yourself in 2 years?

3. If you could change any one aspect of yourself; physically, personality-ly, mentally, spiritually, geographically, mathematically, sporadically, franticly or any other -ly, what would you change?

4. How did you first get into HP?

5. What kind of glove, if any, would you recommend for torch-carrying? (Need to know, been holding this thing for 2 years now.)

6. And finally, what is your opinion of "pointed" questioning?

Oh wait... that's 6... I never get lists right.

5.

It was "Mark" Evans, actually, not that it matters. When're you going to steal your book back from Mom, or did she start reading it now?

What's this fascination with people falling in love with their mortal enemies? I don't get it. Only one you've mentioned that makes sense at all is the H/G/T posted a while back, and that's only because G's the intermediary.

Here's my list of "stuff I noticed" from OotP, some of which I've already asked you about ..
- Is Percy still dating Penelope Clearwater?
- Why aren't there any 6th or 7th year prefects?
- Why wasn't Dumbledore afraid to talk to Harry at the end of the book - surely Voldemort wasn't weakened *that* badly this time ..
- Ok, lots of people are whingeing about characters saying "damn". I have no problem with the concept, but it does lead to some interesting speculation. I seem to recall wizards saying things like "good god!" in earlier books, too. Either 1) some wizards are practicing Christians, 2) wizards pick up swear words from Muggles, or 3) HP magic could really be the old-fashioned, good vs. evil = god vs. devil sort ...
- A lot more Britishisms. I don't recall hearing Harry and Ron call each other "mate" before, or McGonagall refer to "bicuits." Wonder how different the two editions really were this time?

Oh, and if you're taking requests for fanfics, I wouldn't mind seeing:
1) post-book-V, realistic Harry/Luna;
2) conversation between Harry and Cho while he's sitting alone by the lake at the end.

Back to homework.

Oh, and I think from context that Mark's got to be at least a few years younger than Harry and Dudley - possibly even younger than 11, so he may yet turn up a Muggle-born wizard. So it's indeed very silly to say he's P & P's, unless you claim he snuck in as Scabbers when Vernon was away, and then she had a baby without his noticing. Unlikely in the extreme, I think. More likely Petunia and Lily had a brother, or it's their father's brother's son's kid (all male line, to keep the last name straight).

I think the other characters are less-developed while Harry's is more-developed because, well, Harry's the main character, and his high degree of angst makes everyone else seem one-dimensional to *him*. Or is that stretching it?

Now, *really* back to homework.

it is very, very late

memes...

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Meh. Might as well.

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