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Friends In Your Head | Forums → Episodes → The 200th Episode 24-Hour Harry Potter Commentary Marathon
Clearly, Rowling did a lot of planning and built a fantastical world that served her very well the further she went. It just bothers me when people claim that she's a genius at planning the whole arc of the saga when she frequently first introduces things only when she needs to them to become central to the plot. That's clear evidence that she didn't plan ahead much, especially before book 5.
Maybe she didn't mention every single aspect of her massive world upfront because that's both terrible writing and it would rob the series of any reveals down the road?
+1 
Well, she wrote the first novel at least on a typewriter, but yeah.
I'm personally trying to get in the habit when I write of saving drafts as I go, partially just in case I accidentally stumble into something awesome and want to be able to show the path that led me there but more so that I can always go back to what I wrote before or cannibalize earlier drafts for descriptions or dialogue I like. If we're lucky, she did the same.
I want an "I'm with Zarban" t-shirt.
+1
Having DM'd several multi-year long RPG campaigns, the number of harmless background details and ass pulled events when something interesting needed to happen that later were retconned into having greater meaning is roughly equal to the number of things that had long term meaning from the second they appeared. What I've learned is, as long as it's done well, it doesn't matter. Your players/readers will enjoy it either way and, frankly, they never have to know which are which.
+1
It certainly can happen. One of the reasons I was so taken with Breaking Bad was the fact that they were quite openly making it up as they went and yet managed to frequently make things feel like they were coming full circle.
They did have a plan for the life of the entire show initially, but that involved killing Jesse at the end of the 1st season and that whole thing went out the window.
Azkaban is #1 for both of my lists.
+1
Me too, I really loved that book.
Books Films
1.) Prisoner of Azkaban 1.) Prisoner of Azkaban
2.) Deathly Hallows 2.) Order of the Phoenix
3.) Philosopher's Stone 3.) Deathly Hallows Part 1
4.) Half-Blood Prince 4.) Philosopher's Stone
5.) Chamber of Secrets 5.) Chamber of Secrets
6.) Order of the Phoenix 6.) Half Blood Prince
7.) Goblet of Fire 7.) Deathly Hallows Part 2
.
.
.
8.) Goblet of Fire
Books Films
1.) Order of the Phoenix 1.) Prisoner of Azkaban
2.) Chamber of Secrets 2.) Chamber of Secrets
3.) Prisoner of Azkaban 3.) Deathly Hallows Part 2
4.) Deathly Hallows 4.) Order of the Phoenix
5.) Sorceror's Stone 5.) Sorceror's Stone
6.) Half Blood Prince 6.) Half Blood Prince
7.) Goblet of Fire 7.) Deathly Hallows Part 1
.
.
.
8.) Goblet of Fire
I should note that my book list is tentative, since I've never gone back and re-read any of them, meaning it's been over a decade since I read the first one. As for the movies, I generally like most of them, with Goblet of Fire being the obvious terrible one. Deathly Hallows Part 1 is one of the best in the series for about an hour, and then turns into a shitty twilight movie for the last hour. I admit to being biased because I hate the trend of splitting stories in half and releasing them as seperate movies, meaning you get no climax and feel shitty walking out.
Prisoner of Azkaban and Chamber of Secrets are both great though. Like, for as progressively adult as the stories get, I'm always impressed by how dark Chamber of Secrets is for being only the 2nd one in the series. They're fighting giant killer spiders and snakes, and you've got your 12 year old kid protagonist bleeding to death at the end of it.
Books Films
1) Prisoner of Azkaban 1) Deathly Hallows Part 1
2) Deathly Hallows 2) Prisoner of Azkaban
3) Chamber of Secrets 3) Half-Blood Prince
4) Order of the Phoenix 4) Goblet of Fire
5) Goblet of Fire 5) Deathly Hallows Part 2
6) Half-Blood Prince 6) Order of the Phoenix
7) Sorcerer's Stone 7) Chamber of Secrets
8) Sorcerer's Stone
I think I'm in the minority on most of this. Azkaban isn't my favorite movie. I think it's great, but Hallows Part 1 just nailed the character stuff while maintaining a distinct, visually interesting style. Also, RIP Dobby. :'(
I also don't hate movies four and five. I think they're really fun adventures, especially Goblet of Fire. They've aged a lot better than the first two, and I think that when people look back on the series, they'll be thinking of stuff from those middle movies.
Books Films
1) Deathly Hallows 1) Prisoner of Azkaban
2) Prisoner of Azkaban 2) Deathly Hallows Part 1
3) Half-Blood Prince 3) Half-Blood Prince
4) Order of the Phoenix 4) Order of the Phoenix
5) Goblet of Fire 5) Chamber of Secrets
6) Chamber of Secrets 6) Goblet of Fire
7) Philosopher's Stone 7) Philosopher's Stone
8) Deathly Hallows Part 2
Azkaban was my #1 book until Deathly Hallows. The final book brings everything in for a landing and absolutely sticks it. The final film by contrast makes a complete hash of it. The buildup to the battle is great, but the battle itself and the complete failure to resolve the mystery plot or have the final confrontation be anything more than the magical equivalent of a knife fight... I mean, it was all there, right on the page. How you fuck that up when someone already figured it out for you is beyond me.
I can only rate the films.
1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Deathly Hallows Part 1
3. Order of the Phoenix
4. Chamber of Secrets
5. Deathly Hallows Part 2
6. Philosopher's Stone
7. Half-Blood Prince
8. Goblet of Fire
The first two are really the only ones I'd re-watch again, though.
I'm with Jimmy.
1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Philosopher's Stone
3. Chamber of Secrets
4. Deathly Hallows Part 1
5. Order of the Phoenix
6. Half-Blood Prince
7. Goblet of Fire
8. Deathly Hallows Part 2
Actually I did read Azkaban on a whim one Summer in high school. Liked it a lot.
Books:
1) Order Of The Phoenix
2) Deathly Hallows
3) Goblet of Fire
4) Prisoner Of Azkaban
5) Half Blood Prince
6) Chamber Of Secrets
7) Philosophers Stone
I know most people probably bawk when I put Chambers and Stone at the bottom, but for the most it's really just due to my preference for the darker, more twisted elements that started to really come in after Azkaban. That, and I also much prefer the longer reads, there's more happening, it's more complex the stories are more epic in scale. So I still love them dearly but they are definitely the 2 that are most aimed at a younger audience, and feel like it. (Which is the point yes, but this a preference list, get over it)
Movies:
1)Deathly Hallows Pt1
2) Philosophers Stone
3) Chamber Of Secrets
4)
5)
6)
7)
8) The rest
Deathly Hallows Pt 1 because I can distinctly remember sitting in front of it go, "wow, they actually finally managed to figure out how to make one of these damn movies" and then the movie ended, and I didn't hate it. And then DH2 came out, and all of that was undone.
Stone and Chambers, because I can still remember when I was too young to have ithem overshadowed by everything that came after it, and I could still enjoy them.
And the rest because it's been too long since I've actually sat down and watched them all in some sort of order to remember what each one was like individually. So they're pretty much all just a big ball of angry in my head.
Friends In Your Head | Forums → Episodes → The 200th Episode 24-Hour Harry Potter Commentary Marathon
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