Tag: spells

Rowling with the Homies

~ amberinsch ~ Leave a comment

lillyIt’s probably really easy to be overly critical of the way it’s written (some say “poorly”) i.e. very short sentences repeated lines and so on, but the fact is, Rowling created an unbelievably detailed world with every micro detail connecting. She made something that is far bigger than even she could have imagined. It’s an open world, so it could go on forever and that’s such a clever idea. I’m not saying she’s the greatest writer I’ve ever read by any means, but she is by far one of the best story tellers. Regarding Harry’s role in the writing of the books, I really appreciated that for almost the entirety of the series, we only got the knowledge as and when Harry got it. If something happened when he wasn’t there, we didn’t know about it. There were some obvious exceptions a bit later on, but they were few and far between. It seems like an obvious thing to say ‘well of course, he’s the title character, it’s about him’, but I’ve read far too many books that try and describe how the main character knows what happened, even when they were nowhere to be seen. They seem to be able to tell someone’s whole life story by a look they have in their eyes, and it’s annoying and boring and takes you out of the story. It meant you understood entirely about his isolation, and isolation is a huge theme in almost all these character’s lives. The anguish that was shared between Snape and Harry was the one time neither of them would have had to suffer in isolation, but he was never able to divulge. Harry constantly being described as having his mum’s eyes, his Dad’s temperament, it was just one big confusing pot of emotions. The last thing Snape ever did was look into those eyes again…the ones that were so like the ones he loved. Almost like the last thing he wanted to see, even if it wasn’t coming from the right face. I obviously didn’t have any idea why “look at me” in the book was so important until the pensieve chapter, and at the time I thought he was going to confess something. That was me holding on to one piece of hope that he was the good guy. The reality was way worse.

I have to say, I did find it comforting that Harry’s parents didn’t come back as ghosts. They clearly weren’t scared of death (as mentioned early in the series ghosts are there due to the humans being afraid of death) and died under no doubt about wanting to protect him. It struck me that support and trust are also big themes, which are a whole lot happier than isolation and dying family members. Their strong bonds and the ‘friendship (never ends)’ Spice Girls style song that they would all no doubt be singing together, was very cute.

I didn’t grow up reading the book like almost all the fan base did, so the feeling of them being my friends was totally lost on a 27-year-old. However, if I had started reading the books at the so-called “right time” I certainly would have felt that way! I can absolutely understand why as a young reader the same age as the characters, going through school and dealing with the same emotions as them, you could get very caught up and see them as peers. It’s like I’ve said before, she had a very clever way of making them real and relatable, even though they could make themselves invisible and turn into anyone they wanted. I’d be the person that’s in charge of the Barbie Instagram account btw! (Hint, hint)

Granger Things

~ amberinsch ~ 3 Comments

ronsspoon

Moving swiftly from the Dark Lord straight to Supergirl herself, Hermione. At first, she was my absolute favourite character. I loved how she was shown as a goody-goody in conflict with herself, as she realised that the rules aren’t always black and white. It was really quite interesting watching her work out that the world wasn’t so straight forward, it’s not always fair, and you have to find a balance. Using her brain, she found ways around certain rules without breaking her moral code. She justified it to herself which I think is great, and she stuck by those two boys going against her initial value’s countless times. I mean, this is the girl that said being expelled was worse than being killed, come on!

There wasn’t one time she didn’t save their skin by knowing virtually everything there was to know, and the list of useful facts she has in that noggin of hers could be longer than Grawp’s right arm. The first time she created the Polyjuice Potion so they could sneak in to the Slytherin’s lair was hugely noble to me. Mainly because it was so early on in their relationships. She was wise beyond her years and every caution showed that. Knowing Sirius was taking his role a bit far, she was the only one that could see Black had got a bit too caught up in the past and kept forgetting that Harry wasn’t James. (Molly probably recognised this too, but she wasn’t in early adolescence, so it’s not as notable from her…sorry).

Very much like Luna, she never let her peers calling her a mudblood put her off and she sure showed them! She saved the entire planet, and I mean ENTIRE planet. The V man was genuinely killing the general public with his shenanigans. Her face off with Lestrange showed her growth from the first book and I mean, yeah maybe she was always a bit bossy and quite stubborn but these people are a whole different playing field. This is a former Azkaban inmate! She also punched Draco Malfoy so, yeah, that’s something. I’ll give Rowling her due, she sure knows how to write kick-ass women!

Say Aloha-mora to Christmassy treats

~ amberinsch ~ 2 Comments

So now I’ve fallen fully into the Harry Potter badger hole (repping my hufflepuff buds), it’s now opened a whole new world of merchandising. Christmas is 122 days away (!!) and it’s been revealed that Boots, the high street pharmacy and beauty goods shop, are teaming up and bringing out a new Advent Calendar for 2019. I know they have done beauty products in the past, and I also know Harry Potter advent calendars aren’t anything new, but this is about me now so this is what we’re doing.

Contained behind the little doors of Pottery goodness there are such delights as the returning super cool Golden Snitch bath bomb, for those times you want to sneak in to the Prefect’s bathroom, and have yourself a toasty soak. They have been pretty tight lipped about what’s included, but it seems that nail varnishes and an eye mask are must haves so definitely expect them! Every little window will be like your own room of requirement.

The rise of the beauty advent calendar a few years back means you can spend upwards of £175 for the coveted luxury Balmain release, but this spellbinding collection will only set you back £35. It truly is the most magical time of the year!

Its definitely on my wish list, is it on yours?

Edit: I called it alohamora because you open doors like an advent calendar and it’s aloha like hello…its a multi-layered pun, like an onion…a punion

No nose…how does he smell? Like death, actually!

~ amberinsch ~ Leave a comment

kreacher

Well, I have put it off long enough but unfortunately, we have to give the V man some time too. I must admit I was pretty freaked out by all his scenes, and the fact that he didn’t have a proper face tripped me out. He was totally evil to the core. He was pretty much born bad. There didn’t seem to be a catalyst of change and there was certainly no redeeming feature of his personality. I suppose sometimes the villains are just the villains. We don’t always NEED a redemption arc. This was interesting though, as all the other characters seemed to understand that sometimes you were good, and at times you were bad, but there was usually a history or a reason. Every time I had to read the words ‘Avada Kedavra’ I sucked in so sharply I was in danger of causing myself a mischief. Haunting stuff. Even the Death Eaters were mostly just obeying from fear, and probably a small bit due to the fact they saw him suspend and kill a teacher, and who am I to judge? I would have let Kreacher ride on my back Yoda-style if Voldemort told me too. Until he had to talk to me, because whenever he went to speak he was super high pitched in his delivery and that just made me laugh. I was trying to get the image of the Alpha Doberman from ‘UP’ out of my head, and describing it ‘cold and calculating’ wasn’t really doing it for me on that front. Terrifying visually, but audibly hilarious. Kind of like that Goat that screams at Taylor Swift songs. No one else find Goats absolutely horrifying to look at? No?

Aside from his voice though, I did find the fact that he was always able to see where Harry was quite a lot scarier than it should have been. It’s that fear of the unknown, when the unknown is constantly hunting you down. The catalyst moment in the final book where he had the genius thought of cursing his own name? Forget about it. Reading Harry utter those words and knowing what it would bring on, or not knowing more to the point, was truly petrifying. It meant that I developed a totally irrational fear of being whipped out of bed by some horrible people, and forced to kill other innocent people with a wand. Got PTSD from the time I read V for Vendetta. I really don’t want to be bald! I didn’t instantly recognise all the things that he was doing towards the end (finding Ollivander etc) or the reasons why, I was a bit slow on the up take there. The clear way Harry spelled it out piece by piece once he had sussed it, meant Rowling was obviously expecting some people like me to be reading. Granted they would have been a bit younger than I was!

The first big time that he turns up with all his cronies in the graveyard (not creepy at all by the way) during the Tri-Wizard Tournament is a bit menacing and tense, but I was quite bored by the end of that book. This continued on to the next book too. It wasn’t the size of ‘The Order’, it was the content. I didn’t find it all that interesting and read a few things in between as I had to keep putting it down. I have since heard others say the same thing, and at the time I knew I was totally bored with it, but it’s still not meant to be taken as a criticism. The Order of the Phoenix was completely necessary for filling in gaps and bridging them all together, it was just a bit hard going. Saying that, I was slightly surprised that he battled him so early on. While I understand that leaving it to the final battle might have felt a bit lingering, I personally would have found that terrifying. Building it up through his Occlumency and then in the final book he catches up with him! Chilling. Thankfully not everyone’s like me.

It’s AriAna, not ArianAhhh

~ amberinsch ~ 2 Comments

dumblesaur

I would like to start with something a little controversial. I didn’t exactly find Dumbledore as endearing as others do. Sorry. I know some people are very protective over him! The constant ‘this is something I should have told you a while ago’ point that kept coming up started to wear a bit thin, and his motivations behind “helping” Harry got me a bit suspicious. I couldn’t quite work out whether it was because he was a means to an end for the war and violence, and he wasn’t so bothered about the quality of Harry’s life due to the fact he was a ticking time bomb. He asked too much of two largely innocent people, and Harry was left with all the tasks without knowing the truth about his own life. Did he keep it a secret because he was a child and thought it would be too much, or did he keep it a secret because he might not want to be involved anymore? He clearly knew pretty much everything right from the start and so went to any lengths necessary to make sure the plan worked out. This hurt A LOT of people in the process. I understand that technically a lot more people would have been hurt if Voldemort (sorry) wasn’t stopped, so I don’t envy him his moral dilemma. I just obviously didn’t know about this at the time. There was a huge roller-coaster of feelings towards him that I still haven’t levelled out.

When Dumbledore was being killed I was touched that he used Petrificus Totalus on Harry but went through a varied range of emotions and thoughts on this when more was revealed. At first, Dumbledore was protecting Harry knowing he would try and valiantly stop Snape and he didn’t want harm coming to him. Then I thought ‘well, is it selfishly motivated?’ He obviously didn’t want Harry to hurt Snape knowing what he was doing for him, and all the double-crossing mess that was happening, but then he didn’t want Harry to be hurt either as he is the only one who could have stopped Voldemort. Maybe it was a mixture of everything. The whole plan would have been usurped by just one flick of Harry’s wand and then all that work was for nothing.

I did get more interested in him when his family history started coming in to it, but it took a long time to get there so I wasn’t initially that taken by it all. I also got a bit distracted when I found out his Sister was called Ariana and his Mum was called Kendra and zoned out imagining ‘Keeping Up with The Dumbledores’. I had to snap back in after my brain thought up an episode involving Ariana breaking her curfew to “just go and get a frothy no fat Butterbeer it’s so totally not a big deal” and told Kendra she was fired. This was clearly in a time when ‘literally’ meant ‘in a literal sense’ and most of the world, for good reason, had never even heard of the phrase ‘Momager’. J.K. Rowling probably thought that these were mystical, pretty names. And they are! They just conjure The Valley, Ugg’s and Pumpkin Spice instead of locked up and Hollow. Actually, never mind. Let’s continue. The parallels between Harry and Ariana – his time in the cupboard under the stairs, being set upon by Dudley for being different when they found out about his magical powers, and spending his whole life being hidden away due to him being a ‘freak’, was possibly why Dumbledore was, in his own way, so keen to help him. He felt that he owed something to the Sister he badly mistreated, and this went some way to alleviating his guilt. It also explains his dislike of the Dudley’s and why he always seemed so disdainful of the family whenever he showed up. I can’t deny I was annoyed for a while about him sending Harry back to the Dursleys. He quite clearly knew how he was being treated there. When the reason for that did become apparent though, you’ll be relieved to know I was fine about it. His stoic and calm influence in the face of aggression was something I did always find refreshing. Making enemies seem like fools by refusing to stoop to their level was something I immediately liked about him. It’s a great thing to teach children. All these lessons we’re learning…