orichalcum

Today is a day when I share such things. It began with an extremely boring and unsubtle dream. I was at a Quest game, except that, because we were with Mac, I couldn't actually really participate, so I did a tiny bit of NPCing and mostly just sat there and watched other people LARP. To give context here, I frequently dream of Quest as an apparent metaphor for my work life/writing projects. For instance, I had a dream several months ago in which I was running a game, but half the people were sitting around being lazy and unhelpful, and a bunch of other folks were trying to be helpful but ket coming up with totally extraneous and unworkable ideas. (In retrospect, I think that all the people involved were different facets of my own brain.) So yes, subconscious, I know just how anxious you are about being functionally unemployed, and feeling out-of-it and so forth, but really? Massively boring dream.

The second surprisingly boring thing of the day is this original Princess Bride Trailer, which was linked to by people commenting on why Stardust seems to be tanking in the theaters, and blaming it partially on its preview. This trailer for PB explains entirely why that movie flopped in the theaters, pretty much. It's horrific. Also, DO NOT watch it if you haven't seen the PB, as it takes spoilers to a new level. It's worth watching to marvel at the incompetence.

Finally, more in the unsubtle category, this lengthy interview with J. K. Rowling explains a variety of the issues that many of us had with Deathly Hallows.

For instance, she deliberately killed Lupin and Tonks because she wanted to show the horrific impact that war has on kids and to draw a parallel to Harry's orphanhood. But first of all, Harry's parents' death meant something (everything, in fact), and secondly, in many ways there's more of a lasting impact if only one parent dies. It also totally doesn't excuse the off-screen ness of their deaths. Mr. Weasley, who was initially slated to die (in Book V) rather than Lupin and Tonks, in order to make the same point, would have been much more effective. (And frankly, the Bellatrix/Molly Weasley scene would have worked better.)

I liked some of her explanations. Fred died partially because he was crueler - and yes, this is a crucial lesson of the series. Fred and George were _cruel._ Funny, and loyal to their friends, and very brave, and very good at Charms, but they're also the pair who saw nothing wrong with trapping a random Slytherin in an extradimensional space for months until he Splinched himself self-Apparating out. The good guys may be on the side of light, but they can still be jerks. (I still wish we knew why Lily married James, beyond "he toned down his bombasticness.")

I like the futures of the characters, in general, although I wish Ron didn't perpetuate himself as Harry's sidekick, and Hermione as a lawyer seems simplistic. I wish she had published the epilogue separately, as she suggests.

And I still don't really buy her explanation of the whole Elder Wand business.

What do other folks think?