Augurey or loosing of sanity
(my comments on “The Augurey” by La Matrona, originally
published on Reddit)
What is my pet-peeve is when the characters behave like idiots
just to keep the plot together. Let’s see. I have just deleted
“The Augurey” from my computer.
First of all, just let me state, I have nothing serious against
Harmony. I probably prefer Hinny, just because I don’t feel like
going against canon when not necessary, and because Northumbrian
and “Inner Demons by serendipity_50” have shown me it can be
done well, but otherwise it doesn’t bother me. For example,
“Escape by SingularOddities” is a rather decent story (I wrote
a review of it). So, it is not that.
SPOILERS AHEAD, so please skip if it bothers you (and it doesn’t
make sense to mark everything as a spoiler, not much will make
sense without them).
It is not even the original premise of the story. The Trio while
still hiding in the Grimmauld Place finds out through the Family
Black Tree wallpaper (finally somebody found some good use for
it!) that Delphini happened (after all, Bellatrix was Black
originally). Harry, having a soft heart for orphans, finds her
after the war (completely neglected and abused), saves her and
brings her as his own. I have never heard about it before, and it
could lead to a nice story. So, it is not the basic plot either.
What bothers me, is how it is done. Harry for reasons nobody
ever explained (and which don’t make sense either) decides to
hide his wish to look for Delphini from everybody (including and
especially from Ginny; it looks like the only reason is to make
a tension between them, which could lead to their break up). Then
he asks (only!) Hermione for help, and finally he breaks in in
the middle of night to the house where Delphini lives hidden,
takes her away, and presumably kills her neglectful foster mother
(he “takes care of her” in rage after finding out how horribly
Delphini was neglected). Then he brings her to the Grimmauld
Place, where Hermione finds a book on the paediatric care and
cures her. So, to summarize, Harry (who still planned to be an
officer of the law at that point) just committed completely
useless breaking and entering, abduction of a baby, murder, and
non-reporting of crime, and I wonder whether not-bringing her to
St. Mungo for professional help does not constitute a criminal
neglect as well. What’s Hermione’s reaction? She doesn’t report
him to the law officers, but she gushes about his big heart and
how great a man he is. Sorry, I thrown the story away in that
moment, so I don’t know how it continued.
There are zillion other things he can do (even if the existence
of Delphini should stay hidden from the wizarding world), just to
mention the first idea which came to my mind, he can ask for help
his buddy The Minister for Magic, there is zero reasons to keep
this whole thing hidden from Ginny and other Weasleys.
There are many decent ways how to break up with your girlfriend
decently, and there are many possible reasons which could be
found. I can happily imagine that after Ginny haven’t heard about
him for a year fallen apart for the biggest hero of them all,
Neville. I can imagine Hermioine deciding that after all her
affection towards Ron was more curiosity or wish to have her
first crush completed than true love (no, Hermione not forgetting
Ron his leave after being cursed by the locket makes as much
sense as anybody accusing Ginny of bringing the basilisk to the
castle, i.e. none at all). So, I believe even post-War Harmony
can be written in a reasonable manner (I tried to make
a suggested talk between Hermione and Ron in “Late Morning
Talks” to show how I would do it). However, the author was lazy
and he just wanted to to get to the Harmony cooing over small
baby as easily as possible, so he went straight ahead. Grrr.
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What’s wrong with Ginny?
(my comments on “The Character Development of Ginny Weasley”
by u/goodlife23)
For me the main idea of everything written (originally I have
this from an excellent book by Walter Kerr “How Not to Write
a Play”) is that the plot (and character development and many
other things in any …
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Harry and Ginny as siblings
Originally published as “Harry & Ginny are brother and sister” on Reddit.
I see it like this. Lily was already pregnant with her second
child (it is slightly over a year between Harry and Ginny so it
is biologically possible), when they found out about the Prophecy
and need to hide …
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On anger and forgiveness
(my comments on “the thread on reddit”)
I have been thinking about this thread for the last couple of
days, and I am sorry I let myself to be side-tracked into
a stupid argument about the Christianity and religion and stuff.
Right now I read linkffn(9203082) and that made …
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Conference of the inner healing
When John wrote about himself he didn’t see himself us an
evangelist, a gospel-writer, an apostle, he identified himself as
the one whom Jesus loved.
The situation where John leaned on the Jesus’ chest: we cannot
just read it, we have to have the experience it ourselves. Living
like …
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To přece ví každé malé dítě
Někde v nějaké diskusi jsem zmínil, že přece každé malé dítě ví,
co je Geiger a tak jsem neodolal a přepíšu sem příslušnou úvahu
Karla Čapka (ze sbírky novinových sloupků „V zajetí slov“,
Svoboda, Praha, 1969, str. 135):
To přece ví každé malé dítě. To mi řekl jeden
automobilista, když …
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Smashing of Death Eaters?
(my comments on “Canon and the Moral Dimensions of Killing in
War” thread on reddit)
This is no question of agreeing and disagreeing with me. What I wrote
was not exactly my opinion (which I specifically emphasized), but what I
consider the prevalent notion among Europeans. Discussion here is very …
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Religionless universe of Harry Potter
(my comments on the thread “Probably gonna catch some hate for
this. Religion and Mythology and its place in fiction.” on
Reddit by RhysThornbery; edited for this blog)
The question is about the role of religion in the HP
universe, and it is very interesting one. I am a …
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Terms of Matrimony
(my comments on “Terms of Matrimony” by Galad Estel)
First of all, this story has broken link on Fanfiction.net, so
I have had to look up and down all over the Internet to find that
only working copy known to me is at ff2ebook.com link shown
above. Even …
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Ad “A magical love affair”
(my comments on “A magical love affair” by charmed9292)
I have to admit reading of this story was an exercise in
frustration for me. I think the general idea of Petunia and
Severus crying over one another’s shoulder is a great. Both of
them are nicely complicated and somehow …
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Harry Potter and Aristotle
Aristotle in the seventh and eighth chapter of his Poetics
writes:
Now, according to our definition, Tragedy is an imitation of
an action that is complete, and whole, and of a certain
magnitude … As therefore, in the other imitative arts, the
imitation is one when the object imitated is one …
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Dudley has a witch as a daughter
(review of Must Have Changed A Lot)
This certainly works as a one-shot, but as many (most?) fanfics
it is necessary to distinguish between exposition and story.
There are zillion fanfics with at least interesting exposition
(OK, so not only "what if Harry was a girl/has a sister"), but …
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Evangelium království
(kázání pronesené ve sboru ČCE Praha-Braník, 29. července 2018)
Po Janově uvěznění přišel Ježíš do Galileje a hlásal evangelium Boží.
A říkal: „Naplnil se čas a přiblížilo se Boží království;
čiňte pokání a věřte evangeliu.“
—Marek 1:14-15
Když se zeptám křesťanů na to, co je evangelium, většinou dostanu
celkem …
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Loving Vincent
Movie “Loving Vincent” is certainly an experience worthy of the
tickets to go to the cinema. The main idea of it is to make
“animated” film by painting endless number of quality oil
paintings in the style of Vincent van Gogh about the painter
himself. I have been warned that …
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Pokud nebude hnutí ANO trvat na účasti A. Babiše ve vládě, měli bychom …
(odpověď v interním dotazníku KDÚ-ČSL)
Podle mého „na jednání o naší případné účasti ve vládě
přistoupit“. Zde je můj komentář (který se do formuláře nevešel).
Zároveň zcela souhlasím s tím, že lidovci (a každá politická
strana) vstupovala do voleb s tím, že jsou ochotni se zasazovat
o správu věcí veřejných …
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O panu Drahošovi a ozbrojení obyvatelstva
(komentář k diskusi na Facebooku k včerejší diskusi
prezidentských kandidátů panů Drahoše a Zemana)
Byl jsem z té včerejší diskuse upřímně nešťastný (tedy z pěti
minut, které jsem vydržel sledovat).
Ne, proto, že by novinář Primy byl neschopný minimální novinářské
práce a jenom se snažil přivést diváctvo co nejvíce do …
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On Lying
(a comment to the blogpost by Robert O’Callahan)
I think the truthfulness among Christians is overrated. Here,
I said it.
OK, before saying anything else, I have to say that being honest
is very important, and I know what I am talking about. I had my
brush with an …
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Podpora kandidátů na prezidenta
(z emailové diskuse)
K obavám z roztříštěnosti:
Pokud v prvním kole bude mít Zeman více než 50% hlasů, bude
zvolen. Pak je úplně jedno, kolik hlasů dostane Drahoš
a Fišer. Pokud v prvním kole nedostane více než 50%,
a předpokládejme, že do druhého kola se dostane, pak záleží na
kandidátovi …
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Review of “Escape” and “Mr and Mrs Percy Weasley”
There is a biblical verse from Galatians 3:3: “Are you so
foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected
by the flesh?” What I mean is that “Escape” and “Mr and Mrs
Percy Weasley” started as one of the best fanfictions I found
anywhere. Obviously, from …
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Úvaha postvolební
Co jsem napsal dnes ráno jednomu kamarádovi na IM:
Tak já Ti nevím. Jsem hodně nešťastnej z té včerejší
post-volební diskuse předesedů vítězných stran. Kromě toho,
že jsou morálně radikální názory dost neuctivé k milionu
a půl našich spoluobčanů, tak efektivně dotlačili Bureše
k tomu, že v této chvíli jediná …
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On The Third Way or the Reply to Dave
(Comment to the article by Dave Schmelzer on a Christian and
politics)
Hi, Dave,
let me add couple of comments from this side of The Pond.
First of all, of course, I blame completely confused American
terminology, especially in the political matters. Here Socialists
are not afraid to call themselves …
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Yet another on the infallibility in the Church
(written originally as yet another comment to the blogpost “How Many
Theologians Does it Take To Define Infallibility?” by Melinda Selyms)
First of all: thank you, these are very good questions, which actually made me
think (doesn’t happen that often on blog comments).
Certainly, some rules are necessary even …
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The Holy Protestant Tradition?
(written originally as a comment to the blogpost “How Many
Theologians Does it Take To Define Infallibility?” by Melinda
Selyms)
I am a Protestant, so I am not entitled to bring much to this
discussion, but we were yesterday with my wife in Wittenberg, so
I cannot resist to add …
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On “A Painfully Familiar Reason for Using NFP”
Record of my comment to another nice article by Melinda Selmys.
This is one of those sad places where I am afraid my voice will
be completely ignored, because exactly the people who will most
dogmatically insist on NFP will be the ones who will be the least
likely to …
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Review of Aftershocks
Some thoughts on the fan fiction Aftershocks.
We need to know without a shadow of a doubt that Padma did not
kill Parvati before we can move on.
I am extremely confused about this whole work. On the one hand
there are some parts which are really trully excellent. Whole …
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