I need a Harry Potter history lesson

[Gaith]

See I think that's a red herring. Textual proof of my thoughts would be long, since it's just a general trend, not anything specific. I can see the Slytherin connection as being an inspiration, but I don't see it as conclusive that it was in his nature. There's a lot of stuff in his upbringing that point to a nurture viewpoint of why he is. There's also the whole Harry-Riddle connection that would be meaningless if bloodline is the only factor.

In fact, bloodlines have been shown to be given too much weight in the wizarding world, which is why you have mud bloods and squibbs. They trace their lineage like it means something, when it really doesn't. But, like I said, my arguments are a little too nuanced for me to feel like writing right now (especially since I haven't read HBP in quite a long time).

Very well, but if you think of even one specific example of Voldy being driven to evil rather than as being a total bad seed from the get-go, I'll be rather impressed.

 

[Timby]

I would love to be able to see the movies without knowing the books, so I slightly envy you actually. I'd love to know how they work as a separate product.

That would be me then. Years and years ago someone lent me an HP book but it was a children's book and I didn't get past the first page.

I only discovered HP films this year when someone lent us a set of the DVDs. I was pleasantly surprised by them and thought they were all very good except for the Goblet of Fire. Their strength as far as I can see is the cast, since most movies are stuffed with special effects nowadays. On the downside I think the stories come across as confused but maybe that's because a lot has to be trimmed for the movie format.

Loads was trimmed out. To the point that, particularly in films 4 and 6, imho the narrative is almost lost and we get instead 'Some Short Films About Hogwarts' - basically, just filmed versions of a sequence of scenes from the book without too much tying them together. I enjoy them a lot, don't get me wrong, but confusion abounds where things are missing.

It's a common criticism, but it would have made a lot more sense for Warner Bros. to wait on making movies until all the books were out. Some of the plotting decisions made (like cutting the Marauders out of Prisoner of Azkaban) are really huge mistakes, in retrospect.