CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

uc pseudonym wrote:Note, however, that Rowling has generally endorsed the representations from the American editions. I can't cite the interview, but I'm fairly confident about this.

She also endorsed the shrunken heads on the PoA movie... She's not TOO strict about what she allows outside of her own writings...

But, more important right now is uh.... this... piece of news.
At this point, I have a suspicion Rowling is trying to screw with people's heads. Otherwise, I don't really know what to make of a bizarro plot twist...[/QUOTE]

Yeah, and that sort of clashes with all the biblical interpretations of the last book and makes it easier for Christian groups to bash this, but in the end [spoiler]gay or not, dumbledore's a bit of a jerk...[/spoiler] Not looking forward to the next few pottercasts...

On a different note [spoiler] WHEN oh when does Hermione kiss harry? I read DH 3 times, and I don't remember that... Is it the Riddle Hermione or the real one?[/spoiler]

Bobtheduck wrote:On a different note [spoiler] WHEN oh when does Hermione kiss harry? I read DH 3 times, and I don't remember that... Is it the Riddle Hermione or the real one?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]When Harry opens the locket Horcrux for Ron to destroy it, the images of Harry and Hermione come out of it, taunting Ron. Then Hermione kisses Harry, because one of Ron's ugly (and false) suspicions is that Hermione actually loves Harry, not Ron.[/spoiler]

When I read that article I was wondering if people were going to bring it up. That really came out of left field (I was assuming it was a joke until midway through the article).

BobtheDuck wrote:dumbledore's a bit of a jerk...

You thought so? This book, for me, redeemed him as my favorite character.

uc pseudonym wrote:
You thought so? This book, for me, redeemed him as my favorite character.

Speaking of redeemed , I enjoyed his entire back story because [spoiler] of how it revolves around his redemption... How he admits he was a fool in his youth and came to understand how power can corrupt and so forth... Removes the whole 'Dumbledore is perfect' to a 'Dumbledore is human', because like anyone, he too, made mistakes. This made a very realistic and believable character. [/spoiler]

Bobtheduck wrote:But, more important right now is uh.... this... piece of news.
At this point, I have a suspicion Rowling is trying to screw with people's heads. Otherwise, I don't really know what to make of a bizarro plot twist...

I agree. Anyone else think she's just going to randomly blurt out totally ridiculous character facts from now on? Y'know, just every once in a while. It annoys me that she thinks she can get away with not putting any of this interesting or relevant info in her actual books, but instead reel us all in with juicy tidbits of info she slips into interviews. When kids read Harry Potter 30 years from now, the books aren't going to be satisfying or make any sense because they won't have the background info to flesh out the terrible ending.

My thoughts on the "shocking" revelation:

[SPOILER]I still have a soft spot for DD, but I'm pretty uncomfortable knowing his sexuality. He was always asexual to me (come on he's ANCIENT, eww!), like the embodiment of pure (platonic) love. And I just don't like having even more of the mystery about him ruined. At least she didn't make it a big deal in the books... [/SPOILER]

Now that I think about it, about Dumbledore... [spoiler] no seriously, where does it hint that he's gay?? I mean, sure it never mentioned him being with a woman or close to one or anything, and I know he loves Harry, but not in THAT way of course, so I don't understand where this part came from... care to explain? [/spoiler]

I don't think it even qualifies as a subtext either. Again, I can't cite this, but I'm fairly certain Rowling said she didn't include this in the book because she felt it was already polarizing enough. That strikes me as understandable, though I don't think the anti-HP crowd really needs any more reasons to condemn the books.

I'm just sort of pretending I didn't hear anything, because Rowling's "revelation" seems so far removed from the character I've come to know throughout the series. I guess this is where the imagination comes in handy....

uc pseudonym wrote:I don't think it even qualifies as a subtext either.

I know. All it does is maybe provide an explanation as to why DD hesitated so much in disposing of Grindewald.

But still..... the betrayal of a close childhood friendship isn't deep enough characterization these days? Did it really have to turn into a

[spoiler] TRAGIC GAY LOVE STORY for it to be really moving? The badly-written fanfiction must be seeping into her brain. [/spoiler]

Besides, didn't we already get our required dose of 'lost unrequited love' angst out of Snape?

uc pseudonym wrote:You thought so? This book, for me, redeemed him as my favorite character.

[spoiler]No, I find him to be a jerk because he's so manipulative... He's trying to have this perfect clockwork series of events, and he puts so much faith in his "strong hunches", in the end, he really was gambling the whole time... And the way he treated Snape... I mean, yeah, Snape was sort of a jerk, too, but Dumbledore has seen so much and has so much greater of a view of what's happening, he should know better than to treat Snape the way he did...[/spoiler]

As for dumbledore

[spoiler] The mere mention of someone being gay doesn't mean too much... he was gay and manipulative, Harry was rebelious and arrogant, Snape was bitter and vengeful, Hermione was a bit full of herself and overly skeptical, Ron was a bit of a Chameleon and wishy washy... The only one that comes out of this really looking good is Neville... Well, that's an exaggeration, but still... It's full of partially negative characters (gray hats?) with a good message behind the story... Whether Rowling is ok with Homosexuality or not (she probably is) it doesn't factor into the story in an approving or disapproving way, but just that it is... I've actually planned on doing the same thing with one of my stories for a long time, because a chronic liar or thief or promiscuous straight man or backbiter are really all on the same page, but that doesn't mean a story shouldn't feature people like that, or even go out of its way all the time to make those people look entirely negative... Sometimes it's appropriate to just let people act like people, potential faults and all... Granted, I've been around when the discussion got onto, say, language and I can see this going a similar direction, so I promise not to answer if it goes that way longer than one more post[/spoiler]

In other news, I listen to Pottercast all the time. They go on and on and on about how wonderful a person Rowling is, and one of their frequent contributers and guest commenters is the guy who made the Harry Potter lexicon, which makes this news a bit ironic...

http://www.reuters.com/article/peopleNews/idUSN3133972420071031

Methinks the power has gone to her head...

And why didn't I put the open quotes tag in my last post? Gah!

What do you expect from someone who's just revealed that
[spoiler] Dumbledore happens to be gay. Which I think is just so ridiculous, since there were clues whatsoever[/spoiler]

rocklobster: In her defense, she said she intentionally removed all reference to it in the novels to avoid controversy. That can't be verified either, but it is very different from retroactively changing the sexual orientation of characters for fun and/or publicity.

As far as the lawsuit, Rowling is probably in the right. However, I found this amusing:

article wrote:"The Harry Potter Lexicon" due to be released by RDR Books on November 28 in the United States -- had inappropriately referenced Rowling's fictional characters and universe

Gasp! Really?

*I think this was an old draft, and I already responded to what I wanted to respond to... Wasn't paying attention when I posted this*

In the mean time, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4