Alright. I'll give ya that. (Off-Topic)

by cheapLEY , Wednesday, July 04, 2018, 20:21 (2114 days ago) @ Avateur

Do you think that's a fair way to judge the thing without seeing it performed?

No, which is why I brought up that I hadn't actually seen the performance. However, they did publish the script and basically advertised it as the new Harry Potter book.

Does the fact that Rowling herself contributed impact your thoughts on it?

I honestly don't know. The fact that she was involved makes it harder to ignore than if she hadn't been, I guess. I probably wouldn't have even read it otherwise.

Regardless of the first two questions, does this play have any major bearing on what came before in a way that retcons, undoes, or (in your own opinion) destroys what came before?

No, I don't think it destroys what came before, even where I don't think it lines up with what came before (see below). That was my point. I just ignore it, forget about it, and I continue to enjoy Harry Potter as much as I always have.

I have no idea what this play is. I literally just looked up the writers, and I didn't read a plot synopsis. I assume it's a prequel? There are also the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them things (I haven't seen the movie, but apparently there's a sequel coming out sooner or later). Is Rowling invovled with those? I know Harry Potter people, and I can't say I've heard tales of tragedy and woe regarding canon being destroyed or characters being portrayed completely differently and illogically compared to what came before.

The Cursed Child is a sequel, dealing with children of the main characters of the original series. It does a lot of stuff that I feel like doesn't make sense. It fucks with Time Turners, and how those things explicitly worked in the main series. Voldemort had a kid, something that is also almost explicitly against his character as presented in the main series. That's the thing I was talking about--I see myself making the same sort of arguments that the author in the Star Wars piece was criticizing. Those details are important, they matter, but, at the end of the day, they're secondary to telling a good story (in my opinion). Either you believe Luke could close himself off to the Force and become the man we saw in The Last Jedi or you don't--the fact that we didn't personally see the events that led to that transformation isn't important, or even that relevant to the story The Last Jedi was trying to tell. At a certain point, you just have to meet the film half way. I totally do, and I can easily see Luke making that transformation, especially as the film does do quite a bit to lay it out for the audience. We heard it explicitly from Luke's own mouth, what more could we need?

It's been a while since I actually read The Cursed Child, so I'm fuzzy on the details. I might be interested to read it again, to judge if it's actually a good story, but I did get lost in those details the firs time, and could help but think it was garbage because of them. This comes back around to your first question. No, I don't think reading the script is a good way to judge that--it's not like reading a novel, and it's hard (for me at least) to feel like I'm reading anything but a script, which makes it easier for me to get caught up in those nagging details that I feel like don't match with the universe I know.

But, as I said, I'm willing to just let it go. Maybe I'd be a better person for attempting to read it again, to try and judge it more fairly. But, honestly, I don't care enough. I didn't like it, I'm content to just let that be that. But, more importantly, I don't spend my time jumping into conversations about Harry Potter trying to let everyone know how much I hate The Cursed Child, which is what happens anytime anyone anywhere on the internet brings up Star Wars, or Destiny for that matter, or, hell, even Halo.

I really understand be bummed about not liking the new Star Wars (or Halo, or Harry Potter, or Star Trek, or whatever thing you love with a new entry that you don't--I can only imagine how Mustang fans felt when the Mustang II hit the streets).

As for Fantastic Beasts: I liked the first film well enough, and the trailers for the second have me intrigued. I don't particularly feel like we need to see the story of Dumbledore and Grindelwald (especially as told through the eyes of neither one of them), but I also don't hate the idea. It's the same sort of thing Rogue One and Solo are--wholly unnecessary, but ultimately well done films, fun movies. I like the Harry Potter world enough to want to soak up more of it, and if this is what that looks like, I'm okay with it.

The last I knew, Rowling was involved with those films, but I don't know in what capacity. It could be as much as writing and consulting on design or whatever, or as little as just slapping her name on it so people think it's "official."