The Harry Potter series
 

Any one remember this series? Books or films? I loved both. Movie six and book six was my least favorite of the bunch, too much romance not enough action. Worst part of the film, they cut out the biggest scenes towards the end, I never understood why they did that. FYI I didn't get the Harry / Ginny pairing, if they wanted Hermonie / Ron pairing to happen fine, they could have paired Harry with Luna instead, on screen I thought they had more chemistry and enjoyed the scenes they had in the books, just never made sense to me.

What did you guy's think of the series?

Gosh I miss it :(

It's fun to re watch the films at least though :P

I love the HP books, the movies could have been (a lot) better, but their okay as an live-action synopsis.

The books were the best thing ever. The prophecy was my main gripe in the whole series, but probably could have been worse...

It's going to be fun seeing the new movie series based on one of the school books. You know I really hope Rowling gets a boost from this and decides to write more books.

Overall I like HP but there were a few things that bugged me... like that heteronormative ship-all-the-pairs ending that Rowling cooked up for the last book.

IMO books 4 and 5 were the strongest. Book 6 bothered me in a lot of ways - I think primarily because I would have liked the way Rowling handled the Slytherins and Draco to have been a bit different. I would've liked for some of the Slytherins to have stood against Voldemort in the battle at Hogwarts. I would've liked for Draco to have actively chosen to be different than his parents. I just felt it was a missed opportunity - particularly when Rowling's treatment of Snape shows that she's capable of writing really complex character motivations.

It was a bit disappointing to just have Slytherins=generic bad guys (with the exception of Snape). I think a person can be dark and still not be a total jerk who wants to see people killed... and people can see the error of their ways and learn to overcome their biases. Which I know some characters did (like Ron's bias towards house elves), I just felt like Draco got the short straw. Oh well, I guess that's what fanfics are for! 8)

The movies weren't as great as the books (I feel), but then when you're reading a book, we all get an idea of how things should look based on our own imaginations - it's hard for a movie to meet that a lot of the time.

One thing I will say - the moment where Harry and Hermione were dancing in the seventh movie was a really great addition, even though it wasn't in the books - I thought it was a really great emotive scene.

Most awkward movie moment... the Voldemort hug. To this day, I still don't know what to think of it. :lol:

I didn't get to read the books all that much until recently. They are crazy expensive to purchase on audio and they were always checked out of any library I went to. Forget buying them in braille because they cost entirely too much. My fiance has them, so she read all 7 to me last Summer. We usually fly through series together but we went through these even faster. We both like the books better than the movies. She doesn't like watching any of the movies because she says all the changes get on her nerves. I didn't mind them sans Harry receiving his new Nimbus at the end of movie III rather than somewhere in the middle. That felt sort of tagged on. Speaking of the books, glad I'm finally able to read them myself via an online library service called Bard. I'm thinking about rereading them this Summer. Summer feels like the perfect time to read all of these. Might watch the movies as well. And can't wait for Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them in movie form. I like HP, but it'll be interesting to meet new characters and hopefully explore more of Rowling's world.

I like the books a lot better then the movies for some reason. I once read all 7 within 3 weeks.

I loved the Harry Potter series my fav was book 3 prisoner of Azkaban. the movies where ok I guess could have been better.

Love the films and am currently reading through the books. On bbok 4 at the moment and loving them!

Harry Potter is the biggest phenomenon in publishing ever. I think it's safe to assume people "remember" the series.

[]And why do I feel like I'm the only one who actually read the books as they were published (well, starting with #4)?

Anyways, I love them. Anytime I decide to reread one I always get sucked into it like I'm reading it for the first time.

I've had similar thoughts as well. I thought it would be cool to have a Slytherin character like that. Maybe even somewhat friendly with Harry and co.

Who doesn't, right?

Love HP to death and always will. I thought the books were also better than the movies and thought that the worst movie was Prisoner of Azkaban mainly because they didn't reveal that Lupin, Sirius, Wormtail, and James were the Marauders and founders of The Marauder's Map. That was the biggest let down in that movie for me, so I'll always prefer the books. But I do watch the movies of course because I do enjoy them.

wow I very shocked at the negativity towards the movies or disappointment. I have never read any of the books. I personally enjoyed the movies and This The Deathly Hallow Part 1 really made me sad just the storyline in general very depressing

Like I said before, I think it's just that the books have a lot more stuff in them, more character development, more info and insight into the wizarding world, more lore and worldbuilding - and everybody has those parts of the books that they love and due to time restrictions, those things don't always make it into the movie.

To be fair, I think it's a rare book-to-movie adaptation that leaves original book fans completely satisfied! We can be a pretty brutal bunch - just ask the Tolkien fans. :lol:

I liked the films, sure I was sad they edit some great scenes from the books and messed up book five pretty bad, ignoring those things they were fun in my opinion.

Only thing I was disappointed with this series was we really never really dove into James character, if any thing Rowling really made him look bad. It really had me question why Lilly would fall for a guy like him, I'm sure he had some good quality's in him but we never saw them. Only thing we saw about him was picking on Snape who in the end turned out to be an amazing character.

Oh, like I said the random Harry x Ginny couple, it just never made sense to me. Always seemed like a silly school girl crush. Wasn't Ginny really young? I forget :ohwell: In the films again my opinion, didn't have any chemistry.

The books were decent.

As for the films - one, two, and maybe three were great. The rest sucked. Especially the last one.

I perpetually read through the books for years. Only in the last 2 or 3 years have I gotten away from that habit. I absolutely love them. I'm less keen on the movies, but they're pretty fun for what they are.

I wish I was at Hogwarts.

I never got into Harry Potter, mainly because I was already a teenager when the first book came out, and it was out of my target audience.

Damn sounds like I should read the books. Like I said I have only watched the movies, but even just watching the movies I could tell how well written and enthralling the books were. The whole fiction I thought for the most part had a good plot and great fictional characters.

Yeah, James always came off as a bit of an asshat to me...

I'm pretty sure you're just messing with me there :P ...IMO, everything from the third book onwards wasn't really a kids book anyway, it got into some pretty dark stuff.

Redeemer, you should definitely pick up the books - I'm sure you'll enjoy them. :)

The books were primarily aimed at kids and young teenagers. That's not to say adults can't enjoy it, but her target audience was kids, especially with that very first book before she knew it would be a success.

The difference is the kids who started with the first book aged and became adults themselves, so now it seems like its for adults when it originally wasn't. The fanbase aged.

Ah, I follow you now - sorry, I didn't totally understand how you meant it before. I agree that it definitely started out being for kids and teenagers, but during the running of the series I think it did change so it was marketed to all ages. Probably why they ended up doing a print run on the books with more adult-looking covers.

That being said, I can only speak for the adult fandom that I've been exposed to in the bookstores and cinemas on my side of the pond - it might have been different in the US.

The fanbase aged as the books were written. If you read the books you'd know they matured along with their audience. By the end the books weren't something I'd ever read to a child, nor do they read like they were written for one.

Philosophers Stone is the clearest "kid book" out of them all, which makes it the most difficult to go back to. The style of writing seems almost altogether different. Chamber still has a bit of that feel, but by the time you get to Azkaban and especially Goblet of Fire, the kid gloves had come off.

It's pretty obvious that the target audience for any book or film in the series is whatever age Harry happens to be in it. Simple concept.

That's what I meant. The first book was intended for kids but then as the real-life audience aged, the books grew up along with them. Harry Potter is the one series that matured with its audience.

Ah, okay.

Also, unrelated but look what just popped up on my dash:
http://i.imgur.com/pL2bVjg.png

Super unfunny alternate names to HP books? Relevant.

Whoa there, don't hurt yourself being such a stick in the mud :V

I liked how the books got darker and darker with each one as it really enforced that things were changing, especially after Goblet of Fire. And I like how Harry's character changed throughout the books as well.

Yah man, Goblet of Fire was the one that broke the age limits I'd say :D

That was my favorite too, once released couldn't stop reading it.

Book five was another favorite. Awe man Cybs, once you get past what your talking about things really get crazy and intense :D

You really should give it a shot.

I must have been about 15 when I read the first one. Sure, it seemed to be aimed for younger people, but it was still good enough that I wanted to read the second one. Chamber was even better and really got me anticipating for the next one. And, don't you know it, Prisoner was just phenomenal. I read it in 5 days, because I had to stop from time to time just so it wouldn't be over too soon. I don't think I'll ever get that feeling again by reading any book.

I know. I always liked that anticipation of getting a new book and reading it. Mom and I went to midnight releases for Order of the Phoenix (my BF met us there and got the book, too), Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows. Ah, those were the days.

Yeah, those were fun. I believe the first one they did that for was Goblet of Fire. Is that right?

I was one of the first people in the line for Deathly Hallows. When I walked out of the store with my book, this girl on the line asked me "can I touch it?".

I've also seen a few of those videos on YouTube where there are jerk-offs who drive by the store shouting out spoilers. I actually brought headphones with me just in case that happened around the store I got my books from, but that was just with Deathly Hallows.

The day after that book came out, I had a class in the morning. I was reading the book to pass the time until the teacher arrived to start. When he walked in, he mentioned the book being released, and said that he looked on Wikipedia to see if Harry lives or dies at the end. Then he said he was going to tell us, but decided not to since he saw that I was reading the book. I appreciated that very much.

I had a friend in college-- well she actually goes all the way back to elementary, who went to several of the midnight releases. I never got to go to any of those because I just didn't have the cash to fork over for the audiobooks, but I bet they were a blast. I started the series my sophomore year of college and was hooked. Didn't think I'd like it, but I was drawn in pretty much at the beginning of chapter one of Sorcerer's Stone. I'm always sad when I reach the end of this seven book series. I've read a tun of series over the years, but this was actually the first one that left me feeling as if I was saying goodbye to old friends when finishing up. It has a very satisfying ending to me, but I always get this bittersweet feeling when reaching the final paragraph in book 7. I guess Broadway was right when discussing words on a page in a particular gargoyles episode I recently watched. When reading of Hogwarts and it's numerous characters, Rowlings pros really seem to,"take you there."

Yeah, but I like how she left it open-ended and I hope that eventually she would visit the Potterverse at some point. I'd love to see some prequel novels about The Marauders and their days at Hogwarts.

I'm really surprised there was never a Harry Potter cartoon after all this time, especially during the height of the fad. The cartoon could have been the next Pokemon.

This surprised me too. When I was in elementary school I remember saying that a cartoon was going to be next. It never was and I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

My memories of the books are pretty special - my kid sister grew up with them, we've always been extremely close so it was something that we shared together. We made her a Hogwarts cloak out of purple silk and black velvet and a Hogwarts patch, before any of the proper robes were able to be bought. I took her to the movies in it.

When we had Borders bookstores over here, they did special events for the premieres of the new books - they decorated the whole store and people showed up in costumes, they had special animal handlers there with snakes... I think they did that from Goblet of Fire onwards, so I took my sister to all of them, and for each of the last four books, we both bought hardcovers in-store and signed the inside of them for each other with little notes.

So to me the whole thing was a really enjoyable experience - lots of good, happy, special memories and something that I'll always treasure.

Yea, you and books the seem to grow with the characters, I am loving book 4 atm

Did you ever want Harry Potter Pez Dispensers?

No?

Too bad!

http://fasterpez.com/wp-content/uplo...y_Potter_3.jpg

Why would anyone want to take candy from a Voldemort dispenser?