Amph Gaming Diagon Alley: The Official Harry Potter Thread/Hogwarts Legacy

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Honestly, even for a script, this read a bit odd. Having spent a previous semester reading A Raisin in the Sun, Fences and several other plays, I was used to a bit more stage direction. This script is light on a lot of that aside from perhaps

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the Trolley Witch's transformation.

I think ultimately, this works as a play. But as an addition to the 7 books? Not so much. This is the start of a new adventure and Harry and Company are along for the ride.

Albus and Scorpius are great but their fathers left something to be desired. It seemed at the end of 7 that Harry and Draco had a mutual respect for each other. Here though, they seem like they are still bitter enemies up until the second half of the play. The growth that appeared to be in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows is nowhere to be seen.

Again because this is a play, I'll give it a pass but we barely see anything of James, Lily and Hugo. Rose is in and out but because she is underused, it's hard to really understand why Scorpius has a crush on her or believe it for that matter. More importantly, it makes it hard to care that she and Hugo are gone as a result of the time turner or care when they are back. Far more effective is the death of Harry. But the main point here is the choice of focus. I think the play had to make some tough choices and I assume that is why a character like Teddy Lupin was completely cut. It was implied by Rowling that Harry had a pretty good relationship with his godson. I would think that between that and James, he would be better equipped to help Albus than he is. And I guess what bothers me most about that is it happens over four years and isn't resolved sooner.

But as a result of that cut, and the lack of development James and Lily get, it's actually harder for me to understand why Harry is having such a hard time relating to Albus. Not only that but again, the whole encouraging words from Harry at the end of DH seem to be ignored in this story. Now I get part of that is because Albus goes to Hogwarts and nothing goes right for him so while Harry was the best at Quidditch and a great student in DADA, Albus has nothing except his friendship with the alleged son of Voldemort. But, and again I get this is due to it being a play and not a full novel, the decision to skip through this first year and the subsequent years so quickly causes this to be a bigger problem then it perhaps had to be.

And that does beg the question: Why did we need to skip ahead three more years? My only assumption is to further Scorpius and Albus' friendship, kill off Astoria over a that passage of time and show how Albus is basically no longer friends with Rose and to further strain his relationship with Harry. But the thing is, the main plot: Saving Cedric, could have happened at any time. Considering how much Rowling often packed into a year, the decision to skip ahead so much is very curious.

I could have easily seen this playing out over a year:

We get the Albus/Severus bonding stuff
Within those next few months, Astoria dies offscreen as before. Harry gets the time turner and Herminone hides it.
The kids go home for Christmas holiday. At this time Harry and Albus have their big fight. Amos also comes by and Albus overhears. Also, Draco is devastated by Astoria's death and has trouble connecting with Scorpius
Albus gets on the train and he and Scorpius get off, same issue with the trolley witch. Same stuff with the nursing home and ministry.
Everything plays out as the rest of act 2 played out.

The time jump to me just seems unneeded.

Also the constant running around was a bit much.

At first I had an issue with McGonagall agreeing to monitor Albus, but my guess is that because Harry's scar was hurting and because it was coming from him, she agreed to do it for his protection at first. But as is typically her, once she determined for herself that they weren't the danger that Harry feared, she turned a blind eye and told Harry she was done. I do think in that instance it was a bit of trust in Harry/Fear of Voldemort that took over and she realized it was ridiculous. Far more interesting to me is that she even is Headmistress. I swore Rowling had said she would be retired by the time Albus was a first year when asked about this years ago.

I think honestly I would have enjoyed this more in a novel format because it would have had far more room to breathe. Taking it as a play though, it seems very ambitious and accomplishes a lot in this script. I also gather that some of the decisions (the running back and forth for instance) has more to do with the logistics of the play perhaps than the service of the story. So taking that type of issue into account, it really is quite good.

 

Got the book yesterday afternoon, currently on Act 4 Scene 7. Really enjoying things so far. Personally I don't find the script format to be distracting in the least. It took a few pages to adjust to, but once I got rolling it was all good.

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The time jumps have been a real treat. Just to even read some old names again has been like visiting an old friend you hadn't seen in a long time. And I love the relationship built between Scorpius and Albus. Delphi always left me feeling there was something more to her than she let on so now that it's been revealed there indeed is... can't wait to see how it plays out.

 

They look so similar!! (movie actress of Ginny and play actress of older Ginny)

 

That casting was spot on.

 

Halfway through Cursed Child and not that impressed with it.
Some good character moments and the time travel outcomes are interesting but a step down from the original 7 imo.

 

J K Rowling may do more with the harry potter universe, but I do believe We will get more stories from the history and folklore of harry potter. If we were to get more about Harry potter, we should try to focus on stories in-between the 19 years deathly hallows and Cursed child.

I did hear that Warner brothers is trying to make more movies about the universe beyond Fantastic beast and where to find them.

Here is an old link from 2014 on what Warner brothers is planning with the harry potter franchise universe. http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/15/...n-off-fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them

And here is another old link as well. http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/201...ing-our-way-with-more-movies-likely-to-follow

 

Which is quite frankly a good thing. Now that Cursed Child is out, bring on Fantastic Beasts and other stories NOT about Harry.

I really lit up when I saw the JK Rowling's Wizarding World logo at the back of the book.

 

Well, I wasn't going to get this in hardcover but both my local Waterstones and WH Smiths had it for half price today (£10) so I caved. Read it earlier in one sitting (I read fast) and I thought it was pretty good. If they did it as a film I'd definitely go. Not sure on the stage show though - depends on how expensive tickets are.

 

If they do a movie, I hope they do it 10 years from now when the original cast is older.

 

Yeah, I got it yesterday and I just finished reading it. It was really good. I hope it tours. I'd love to see it and I hope that this isn't the last we see of Albus and Scorpius.

 

I liked them as characters - wouldn't mind seeing more of them.

 

There are tickets on sale now for December 2017. There is a virtual queue online. For kicks, I waited "in queue" today (Aug 4th) from 10:36 AM to 10:56 AM and moved from 182398 to 180913 in line. So if one moves 1485 spaces every 20 minutes, that would be 74.25 spaces every minute. It would have been my turn to buy tickets on Aug 6th around 3:32 AM EST.

 

Ouch..think I will wait for the film.

 

The film will probably come out before that line shortens.

As for the picture with Bonnie Wright and the actress playing the older Ginny, great picture. I saw a picture somewhere else where Emma Watson posed with the actress playing older Hermione.

 

http://wizardsandwhatnot.com/2016/08/04/will-there-be-a-harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-movie/ Here is some recent news right here and maybe a likley hood of a cursed child Trilogy. Not saying it for certain but hell it would be a cool idea.

 

I'm not sure if there's enough material for a trilogy. Maybe another 2-parter (which would work with how the play is divided), but not a trilogy.

 

Maybe if you stretched out the breakdown of Harry and Albus' relationship, which occurred over three or four years, instead of compressing it into one scene.

 

The first part of the play essentially fast forwards Albus from 11 to 14 right? They could pad those scenes with more material if they wanted to make more than two movies.

 

It's a couple of scenes in particular, but essentially yes. I don't think it would be that hard to spin-off that material into an entire film and show Harry's relationship with his youngest son gradually breaking down, which would be the set up for Albus and Scorpius trying to save Cedric. Also, we'd have more screen time with the other Potter/Granger-Weasley kids.

 

They could also go into more detail of Harry's Ministry of Magic work - that's an area we haven't seen a lot of. The story does have potential for expansion.

 

Putting question in spoiler just in case:

Spoiler

So, question about his work at the Ministry: is he actually the Head of Magical Law Enforcement (what Amelia Bones and Pius Thicknesse were), or is he simply the head of the Aurors? I thought information by J.K. Rowling indicated it was the latter.