Fandomania Podcast Episode 51: The Hogwarts Bicycle
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On this week’s episode:
00:00:16 – Episode Intro
Movie Talk:
- 00:01:14 – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (spoilers!)
TV Talk:
- 00:36:15 – We talk about the fandom backlash that has followed Torchwood: Children of Earth. (spoilers!)
- 00:42:02 – True Blood 2.04: Shake and Fingerpop (spoilers!)
- 00:49:42 – Warehouse 13 1.02: Resonance (spoilers!)
- 00:56:42 – Celeste gives her thoughts on the announcement of this year’s Emmy nominations.
01:05:00 – Episode Closing
July 20th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
i am loving the breakdown of HBP, and i knew from following twitter that i’d probably like what you’d have to say about the movie/book comparison. i do tend to agree with celeste more, i’m not necessarily “over” HP entirely, but i’m very miffed and annoyed. i am very eye to eye with your review about the book elements that were omitted, so many important plot points were just nonexistent.
the hogwarts bicycle joke = amazing. and i also agree that the PG rating is very lame. the fanfic feel of the movie is a very accurate way to describe what we saw – it was lots of the silly stuff, and none of the hard-to-swallow reality/truth about the state of the wizarding world during a war.
for the record, i dislike deathly hallows (the book) as well. JKR utterly sold out in books six and seven – it feels like her real intentions with the characters were abandoned in lieu of how successful and iconic the characters became; i think it went both ways as well – i think she did some things to please the fans, and others to go against mass predictions, just to have a “twist” or something unexpected. i always read/write/prefer AU fanfics that ignore DH.
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True Blood: i love that you just brought up the lady from wife swap. the bellhop being the mind reader was soo cool. i haven’t watched last night’s episode yet, but i think i’m about to pull it up On Demand and catch up right now. Jason, i’m so surprised that you don’t like true blood… its just great and i have been hooked from the beginning. i kinda feel that way about twilight though – no matter what, i just cannot get into twilight at all, books or movies.
some TB characters are kinda mary sue, and some i just don’t care for the actors. lafayette is great, agreed. i think what i like about TB is a vampire/misc. creature/paranormal story line told in the deep south, and on HBO – i love HBO series with their big budgets and lack of censorship. its all violence, swearing, and boobies – which totally keeps the 15 year old boy in me entertained.
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W13 – i am excited to pick up on the reviews! i’m certainly biding my time and i’m going to keep watching. i really like a lot going on, but i hope that the show goes in a direction to really hook me and keep me into it.
July 20th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I don’t really feel like JKR sold out in book 6, because I really did enjoy the book and loved the whole “mystery” it set up with the Horcruxes and RAB, etc. Like I said, right after I read the book I devoured philosophical essays analyzing everything in the book about that, Snape, and more that made me appreciate the book so much more. But then everyone figured it out so by the time DH came around I wasn’t really sure if JKR had always intended it to work out that way or if she was like “Hey, these guys came up with a really cool plot twist!” and went with it (not about Snape, but RAB and Kreacher and all that).
But anyway, I don’t really feel like it was “selling out” so much as “buying into her own hype” with book 7. Selling out, to me, is doing what the fans want. With DH I felt like she was trying to do everything the opposite of what the fans want (kinda like you said about going against mass predictions), like not having DD actually be alive (I didn’t want him to be, because that would be silly and negate the purpose of his death, but the phoenix thing was kind of misleading then) and killing half the characters which came across as her trying to “prove” the book was dark and emotionally nerve-striking. And then the Epilogue Of Suck where she basically slapped non-canon shippers in the face. I don’t even read HP fic, but it still annoyed me that she would be that obnoxious about it, especially since she obviously sucks at writing HP fanfic herself (the kids’ names make me gag) =P
Regarding True Blood: I think human girl plus vampire boy is kind of inherently Mary Sue, except for Buffy because Joss is a guy =) Sookie/Bill is kind of annoying to me and the only time they’re interesting is when someone else is in the scene, lately either Jessica or Eric.