Monday, August 21, 2017

Thoughts While Rereading Harry Potter


I've mentioned lately how I've slowly been making my way through rereading the Harry Potter series. I wanted to reread the series this summer for a number of reasons; it's the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first book, I haven't read the series in its entirety since 2011, and the events of the epilogue take place next month. Rereading the series is an absolute joy because I still love it as much as the first time, plus there are so many details that I had forgotten about the books. I'm not entirely done with rereading the series but I've had so many thoughts about the reread that I wanted to share...
  • I've been splitting my time between reading physical copies of the books and listening to the audiobooks. I'm listening to the American editions and Jim Dale does a great job, but some of his voices for the characters and pronunciations is not how I hear them in my head. 
  • There are so many elements that I wish would have been in the movies: McGonagall's sass towards Umbridge, Luna Lovegood's quidditch commentary in book 6, the Marauder's backstory...
  • I don't understand why Snape was allowed to treat his students so terribly and bully them, he's really no better than Umbridge. 
  • GOF was my favorite as a kid and it still is (but it competes with POA some of the time)
  • I never noticed how prominent the foreshadowing for horcruxes is in all of the books, I noticed it especially in GOF.
  • Just the level of details that JKR put into each book is astonishing. 
  • Even the foreshadowing for the prophesy in PS/SS that comes up again in OOTP. 
  • And the character development is amazing (Draco, Neville...).
  • McGonagall has become my favorite character of this reread. I always admired her as a character but she is a total hero. Just everything about her in OOTP is amazing. (Hermione is still my fave of all time though).
  • The Marauder's storyline is still my favorite side plot in the novels, and if JKR ever decides to write their story, I would be the happiest person alive. 
  • Harry James Potter. He's put through so much in the novels and he doesn't deserve any of them. 
  • The part in COS where Tom states how Harry and him look similar freaked me out. It's crazy how they are both so similar and so different. 
  • Dumbledore's sense of humor is his best quality, and it is severely lacking in the movies. 
  • I'm always torn about liking Dumledore's character. I think the had Harry's best intentions in mind but I don't know if he went about them the right way, especially how he treated Harry's life like it was a game. 
  • Any time Fantastic Beasts is mentioned I get really excited. I love reading about the creatures now that I've seen them on screen. 
  • I wish we could have gotten more of Harry and Sirius' interactions. Their interactions have been some of my favorite moment in the reread as they had such a close connection.
  • When I was reading the series as a kid, I never noticed how much injustice there is in the Wizarding World. Especially when it comes to creatures and half creatures. I've had this picture of the Wizarding World and Hogwarts as a utopia, but seeing it in this light has made the world feel even more real to me. 
Hopefully some of my rambling made sense. I just really love reading my favorite series and I wanted to share some of my thoughts. - Jessica 

No comments:

Post a Comment