Monthly Archive
Browsing entries posted on December 2005
Featuring Guest Artistes
The two friends below pointed out the excessive narcissism of my blog as a whole, since I seem to feature no one but myself, me and I. Well, but of course! It’s a shrine to me, after all.
But since I’ve had requests from certain quarters to put faces to names, fine, here. These are the 2 friends who suffered my presence on the trip to Genting.
I know it’s small. Click on it lar!
And now to fix the V-girls site so that kimberly is prominently featured. And hey, I might have another V-girls update soon!
Have a happy New Year, everyone. Me, I’ll be busy divinely intervening and crushing enemy armies in Black and White 2.
And then we were flying.
My two friends and I went to Genting Highlands for a day trip. I don’t suppose I have to describe Genting, since most of my target audience already know where it is, but here goes, just in case.
Genting Highlands is (supposedly) located 6000 feet or 2000 metres above sea level. According to my calculations, this makes it about 12 degrees Celsius cooler than it is at sea level, but that’s just a rough guide. If I’m not wrong, the whole mountain (or at least relevant money-earning bits) is owned privately. It’s kind of hard to classify Genting. There’s no reason to go up there except for Genting-the-bit-that-is-commercial, such as the occasional concerts, and the theme parks, and the casinos. But at the same time, its commercial ventures are made special by the fact that it’s up there on a mountain peak. I suppose it’s one of the best examples of “build it and they will come”.
Well anyway, the 3 of us girls went to Genting early in the morning, on the 8am bus up to the Skyway terminal. Their cable car service is the fastest and easiest way to go up the mountain, because the winding roads will drive you mad. I’m afraid of heights, so the cable car was a wee bit frightening at times, but nothing I couldn’t handle, and anyway we were too busy yabbering away for me to have an anxiety attack.
It’s beautifully misty in the morning, large rolling clouds just envelop you, and as you approach the hotel on the peak, it gently appears out of the white veil. So pretty. At night it’s lit up, but I left the peak a wee bit too early and wasn’t able to capture a shot. From afar (meaning the Skyway lower station), the hotels on the peak and the streetlights form a very pretty constellation in the mountain jungle.
We went for a very disappointing MotionMaster simulation ride. I don’t think it was the ride itself, it was the movie. Alice in Wonderland. I ask you. What happened to the exciting ones like Mine Train or something? It was mostly bewildering, and the 3D effects didn’t really work for us. We wandered off for second breakfasts at Burger King, and then decided to hit the outdoor theme park.
First we went on the Spinner, which hurtles you in a circular motion at breakneck speed. It was a wee bit scarier than I expected it to be, mostly because I had underestimated the height at which the ride operated. And being 10 degrees short of parallel with the ground might have made me a little insecure, I dunno.
Then we went on the Space Shot, which had a very long queue (about 45 mins) and a fearsome reputation. Its stature overlooking the park is very commanding, and my friend’s estimate is that it’s about 12 storeys high. As previously mentioned, I have major height issues, so this was a real challenge for me. Just the thought of sitting in the open air at the top of a 12-storey tower was enough to turn my stomach. The ride itself is short and scary, they drop you from the top, bounce you back up and do it a few more times. My mother is going to scold me if she finds out I went on this ride. Nearly 5 years ago, she wouldn’t let me ride it.
It would have been nice if it had been misty when I rode it, but the sun was out by then. Gee, you’d think I’d never seen clouds before in my life, the way I kept snapping pictures of wispy clouds.
After a leisurely monorail ride on a yellow-and-black bug, and a not-very-nice putt-putt on an antique car, we rode the final challenge. But first, a word about the antique cars. Our car was weak on gas and didn’t accelerate as much as we would have liked, so the car behind kept ramming into us. Most rude of them, I must say, especially since they could have controlled their speed, but we couldn’t do anything about ours. The culprits? Two grade-school-age girls. You’d have thought they were adolescent males with an attitude, and we were shocked at both their age and sex. Road rage maniacs in the making.
We queued up for this monster, and though the queue was long, it moved fast. All through the wait, we were psyching each other up, saying things like “if I faint, just roll me out” and “this is what Harry Potter’s Quidditch feels like”, along with the more usual “why did I queue for this? Why?” There are 4 cages on the Flying Coaster, which is the monster of metal you see above, and cage number 4 is not used. I don’t know if it’s for superstitious reasons, but it completes its rounds with no passengers. Creepy. Anyway we were in the cage after number 4, as we resigned ourselves to our fate.
Grabbing the metal handles for dear life, we were gently tilted into a belly-down position, and a spiral took us ever higher. Can I just say how much I like this spiral? I think it’s a really inspired way of raising the cages to a greater height. Most roller-coasters just pull you up an incline. I didn’t enjoy the ascent, due to the aforementioned height issues, but once we were moving there was no blood left to think with.
The first plunge comes right after the ascent, but it’s not as prolonged as one would expect, which is good because we’re already scared to the point of becoming human jelly. A few twists and turns, and the 360-degree rotation comes into play. The G-force here is awesome. We were screaming our lungs out the entire ride, but if we could have varied the volume of our screams, this would have been a full-throated shriek. There were 2 of these rotations, and the requisite ups and downs elsewhere. Towards the end, the cage approached a flat platform and slowed down so that a camera can take your picture, which the ride operators try to sell to you for an exorbitant sum. I made the excuse that I didn’t look so good, and didn’t buy it. Besides, you don’t need a picture to prove you went on it. The experience speaks for itself. *shake shake*
After this final adrenalin rush, we went off to eat a very delayed lunch and reward ourselves for being so brave. Then we hit the casinos, where we probably chased Lady Luck away from all those who were hoping for her patronage. After that we went for a stroll in the bracingly cold air, and I took this cheesy look-ma-I-was-there picture:
Look, I’ll never get away with this pose in future, and my kids will run away screaming before they’d be associated with a madwoman doing this pose, so might as well do it now while I still have the excuse of youthful folly. Besides, it was a madcap adventure so it needs a similarly mad picture to sum it up.
Good day trip, definitely. I enjoyed myself most thoroughly.
Results are out!
Right, here we go. It’s mostly good news, my CAP went up (only very marginally) and my predictions were mostly spot-on.
LAJ1201 Japanese Language 1
Pessimistic: A-
Optimistic: A+
Result: A
Well, I was right in the middle for this one. Neatly right smack between the parameters. Objective accomplished.
PL3234 Developmental Psychology
Pessimistic: B-
Optimistic: B+
Result: B+
My prayers are answered! I couldn’t have expected much better since I felt the whole course was cocked up, so again, objective accomplished. However, taking into account how much I enjoyed the module (not much), I’d have to say there’s a direct positive correlation between how much I like a course and how highly I score for it. It may seem obvious, but it’s held very true in my case.
GEK 2500 Living with Chemistry is:
Pessimistic: B-
Optimistic: B+
Result: A-
Well well well! It feels good to be wrong in this case. It also maintains my 100% record of getting only A- for my GEM. Semester 1 GEMs were Genes and Society (A-) and the Arts GEM was about geisha, yakuza and samurai, for which I think I scored an A. Sem 2 was Science of Music, also A-, and now this. I shall try to improve in this area, but I think it will be difficult considering the competition in GEMs, as they are open to the whole uni.
LAC 2201 Chinese 2:
Pessimistic: B+
Optimistic: A
Result: B+
I am most depressingly right for this one. Oh well, at least it wasn’t any worse. My gamble in taking 2 language modules in one sem only paid off halfway. No more Chinese for me. This was also one of the classes I didn’t enjoy as much as I should have.
PL3237 Language and Cognitive Processes
Pessimistic: B
Optimistic: A
Result: A
Aiming high can do wonders, I think, as long as you’ve put in the requisite effort and you have some idea what your final grade is going to be. I definitely enjoyed this module, even though I didn’t grasp the subject matter in the beginning. I am very well pleased with myself, actually. I should use this to remind myself to take a personal interest in my modules, rather than just “I’m taking it because I have to” since I find it yields better grades.
So far, I’m still on the Honours track, although not for a First Class. I suppose it’s worth trying to push it up to a CAP of 4.5 since I’m already so close. At least, if I didn’t make it in the end, it wouldn’t have been for lack of trying. (Aren’t I the peppy prepster.)
Scared, are ya?
Warning: Strong language ahead.
I got some spam recently on the blog comments. I just deleted another hyperlink spam -
nothing malicious, though certainly annoying, and anyway the spam filter caught that. I think my spam filter’s cool! Comments moderation is certainly one of the nicest things about Wordpress.
It’s the other bit of spam that prompted this. To be more precise, it’s trolling. Yeah, trolls. Like its fantasy namesake, a troll looks scary but doesn’t have a single brain cell in that large skull. This troll comment had no email address (not even a nonsense one, like mmm@ooh.com) and no URL, not even a false one like http://www.yousuck.com. Yeah. *yawn* Hello, troll, if you want to make it past the moderation queue, you got to fill in the fields, okay?
Well, I could be wrong, and it could be a computer program written by a bored script kiddie that goes around targeting random blogs and posting vulgarities. I mean, the comment was for a post written 7 months ago, and it had totally no relevance to the post (which, by the way, was “Return of the Tiny Sith Lordette). The total word count was 3: the name, “fuck u”, and the actual comment, “whore”. Now, I do take comments seriously, so I read through the post to see what could have inspired such a comment, but nothing. Nada. And I figured that a human troll would at least have the brains to troll the latest post, instead of hiding in an old post.
But then again, I could be wrong, since trolls are known to be big fat cowards. Hiding in an old post seems like a perfectly reasonable modus operandi, too. Extremely lame, of course, but reasonable. After all, if I wanted to feel like I had some degree of control over some stranger’s life, I’d go and write something “nasty” on an old post that no one reads, too! Come on. “fuck u”? What are you, 10 years old? How is that supposed to even scare anyone? What, just because you can say a swear word makes you all tough, is it? Well, newsflash, kiddo. I started flipping the finger at 11. That’s right, 11. I hadn’t even hit puberty yet. And my sister knew how to use the word “fuck” at 8. So unless you really ARE a kid, don’t go using such lame swear words. It only shows that you’re still being controlled enough to think that “ooh I use bad words so I must be really cool and rebellious”. And before anyone starts taking me to task for my early adoption of vulgarities, all I have to say is: Did I ever say that I used them? Have you ever seen or heard me using them? I rest my case.
And what’s up with the ‘whore’ thing? Well, I must say at least you managed to spell it right. Most people just take the easy way out and say ‘ho’, but then with Christmas coming soon, I might have misinterpreted it as a seasonal greeting. Here’s a tip, kid. To make the label ‘whore’ really hurt, it has to be in context. Like, try putting it on a post where I actually act like a sexually available and promiscuous girl. Oh, you tried? But you couldn’t find one? Gee, I wonder what that tells us.
Of course, it could be that using such a sexually connotative label means you’ve been having naughty thoughts. Look, it’s not my problem you can’t control your own compulsive wanking off to my pictures (or to any pictures, actually). What you need is therapy. Stat. That’s jargon for “right away, before your eyesight deteriorates further”.
Now to take on the critics. If I didn’t want the troll to get attention, then why am I blogging about it? Well, because I’m feeling snarky today, and this just scratches that itch. Conversely, if I’m being so open about trolls on my blog, why did I delete the comment? The answer to that, I’m afraid, is simply pragmatic. I don’t see the point of letting useless comments take up webspace. I only delete comments if they have nothing to contribute to the issue at hand, or if there’s no way of replying personally to the individual. And as we all know, trolls delight in dark anonymity, so I have no choice but to delete such comments. Besides, if they were capable of actually saying something worthwhile, why be shy about it? Go ahead, give me a REAL name and email address, and I’ll get back to you.
After all, I’m not the one with something to hide. I’m not the one who thinks that a connection to the internet gives me anonymity. I’m not that stupid. I’m willing to put my name and face out there, because I have the guts and the conviction to stand behind my opinions, and take criticism from others. Now run along, and look at yourself in the mirror. It won’t help you find guts or conviction, but at least it’ll keep you occupied for some time, away from the internet where weak-minded individuals like you are only a nuisance.
And a final parting gift from me:
iiIii
A Bourgeoisie in Downtown KL
There was a massive traffic jam leading out of the Mid Valley circle today (sorry non-KLites, basically there was just a giant jam) so my mum and I took a bus downtown so that my dad could pick us up without getting caught in that nasty congestion.
Apparently on weekends, the normally office-worker-swamped streets of KL are not emptied, but instead filled with a different kind of worker. The migrant kind. Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Myanmarese… swarms of them milling around the roadsides. (Swarms, like hardworking bees. Better than hordes, like Warcraft baddies, no?) There were so many of them! At one point, I looked out of the bus window to see the entire length of a nearby road full of them. The invisible workforce that builds our highways and paves our roads.
We had to walk a bit from one bus stop to the other, and while threading my way among the (mostly male) crowds, my eyes chanced upon a road sign. It said “Jalan Yap Ah Loy”. Then it really hit me. KL today is an echo of KL 150 years ago. Yap Ah Loy was a Kapitan of the Chinese community in the really old tin-mining days. KL back then was built on the hard labour of the migrant Chinese population, and so is KL now, only it’s not the Chinese mining tin any more, it’s the Indonesians and Bangladeshis mixing cement.
The heart of the city those hundred-odd years ago is still the heart of the city today. The founding site of Kuala Lumpur (according to legend) is the confluence of the Rivers Klang and Gombak. If I recall my history correctly, the river was a main site for tin-mining (as if there was anything else to do then).
In the present day, it’s still a pretty vital area. There’s an LRT station in the vicinity, named for the Masjid Jamek (Jamek Mosque) which sits on the confluence. The surrounding area is full of banks’ head offices and shophouses. I think the whole thing about civilisations arising near rivers is kinda true, even in the modern age. Singapore’s Central Business District is located riverside too. It’s probably a carry-over from the actual river-based activities of the past.
Yeah. So anyway, it is quite amazing how similar KL then and KL now are, even over a span of 150 years. And the KL that I saw today is so different from my little slice of suburbia. A city, like a person, has mutiple facets of personality. My suburban life is one of clean houses, one mobile phone to every person over 12 and pedigree dogs barking. The urban scene is grimy, dirty and noisy. Bus conductors yelling, construction noises and the general hubbub that comes from having many humans together in the same place. And of course the people are very different. I’d like to act the snob and call them the great unwashed masses, but the fact is, a city or country is most remembered for those unwashed masses. London in the 1800s was as much a London of the street waif and artful dodger as it was a London of high society balls and learned men. Besides, who am I to look down on those masses when I myself am of migrant stock?
So our little detour downtown today turned out to be a real eye-opener, even though I was born and bred here, and my parents go downtown every day. In fact, my mother pointed out to me how each ethnic or national group stuck to its own side of the street, and God help you if you dared to venture to the other side. Another echo of the past: in the KL of yore, the gang-fights were between the Chinese ‘kongsi’ which represented different dialect groups. The wheel of time slowly turns, and though it shows us a different scene, they are all variations of the same theme.
I’ll Never Buy A Swatch Again
Never. Again. No matter how pretty it is. You want to know why? Because they don’t last.
My Swatch Irony had a stuck knob, and I couldn’t adjust the date, so I went to the Swatch shop to see if they could fix it. They said they couldn’t open the case, and they didn’t want to force the knob out in case the entire case broke apart, so it was stuck that way.
I can pretty much understand that the case can’t be opened, since it’s all one piece. But what kind of company makes a watch that can’t be repaired? Isn’t that ridiculous? Why would you spend time and effort designing and producing pretty watches that can’t be fixed if something goes wrong?
My warranty was finished, so I couldn’t ask for a replacement unit. I have no problems with that. But I was perfectly willing to pay for servicing, only I can’t, now can I? It just comes back to the fact that Swatch products, like the old iPod, aren’t repairable. (Remember the non-replaceable iPod battery?)
I’m going to go straight to the service centre downtown, and if THEY can’t fix it, then I’ll just leave it at that. The watch still tells time properly, it’s just the date that’s wonky. I figured that maybe the sales staff at the shop are only trained to do the basics like change batteries, adjust straps and simple stuff like that.
So anyway, I’m never going to buy a Swatch again, ever. I wasn’t going to buy one for myself anyway, I’ve said before that the next watch I buy will be a kinetic model that will last me the rest of my life. But now I wouldn’t even buy Swatches for my boyfriend, my kids or anyone else. It just doesn’t make sense to me, to buy a watch that can’t be repaired.
Now if you’re some diehard Swatch collector who has never had any problems with your watches, or your watches are somehow very repairable, well good for you. But I’m talking about my particular watch, which I love to bits because it’s so beautiful, but which is crippled now. Heck, I don’t think I could even buy a replacement. I suspect that the collection undergoes a complete overhaul every few years, and my watch has been phased out. Bah.
Many pictures from KL
Life in KL is quiet, so here are pictures since to tell you in words would be a waste of time.
Dementorrrrr… in the middle of a bath… and you disturbed it…
So now it’s coming to get you! (Personally I like the dynamism of the clawed hand reaching out.)
So yeah, I was at Mid Valley and the Christmas decorations were quite nice. Creative and suitably seasonal… or unsuitably, if you consider that we are a tropical country… I’ve always liked the profusion of white, though, so I quite liked it. It was a Saturday, and tons of shoppers were having their picture taken with the decorations so it was a bit difficult getting a shot.
My friend asked me to steal the wings off the trees, but when I pulled on one, it was firmly attached so I gave it up as a bad job. Plus the security guard was walking around, so it probably wasn’t a good idea to nick one.
Oooh, look what a little swot I am, reading such thick books! And on holiday, too!
Of course they weren’t schoolbooks! If only my schoolbooks were as good to read…
I got a dye job, and after that my hair was phenomenally sleek and smooth. I don’t know if it’s due to the dye itself (dye formulas have become very hair-friendly), the shampoo and conditioner they washed the hair with, or the blowdrying (which gives a sleek finish because it blows the cuticle smooth) or the oil they finished up with. But it feels oh-so-good and smooth! Ignore the stupid grin.
Those are the red reflects I was after. I can’t be a real redhead, because that colour is just way too unnatural for my skin, so I settled for this. It’s quite lovely in the light, no? RM 180, which is quite expensive considering that my other salon charged SGD 55 (RM 130) for the colouring alone.
When I opened my wallet to pay, I was horrified to see that I had the wrong wallet - the one without the credit card. In fact I didn’t even have an ATM card. I had RM120, and borrowed the rest from my sister since my mum had given her much more than she actually needed. So I had a lucky escape, but just in case, I put the credit card into that wallet. It’s not so bad if I’m in Singapore using the other wallet and get caught out without the card, since I can always NETS it.
And those are the adventures I’ve had in the one week I’ve been back.
More about the “Got-name” boy
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Oh man oh man oh man. I did enjoy the movie, it was quite well done, did justice to the book (if I don’t take issue with the little glitches) and I suppose it deserves all the money it made.
My friends commented that it went a bit fast, such as by cutting out the Quidditch World Cup final. Just as I was happily thinking “Whee! Now for the match!” it cut suddenly to the scene inside the Weasleys’ tent. Huh? What was that about? I suppose it’ll be bonus material on the DVD, otherwise the movie would have gone on too long, but still, it was a bit abrupt. Bah.
Also, there were severe liberties taken with the movie. I’m all for not being a slave to the book (Movies 1 and 2 were slaves, and they were pleasing but lacklustre) but honestly, some of the things they did were just too much! A lot of people have already commented on the many “glitches” and other mistakes, but it’s the fabrications that really got me.
Firstly, Beauxbatons. Whether or not they are a girls’ school, I don’t think any self-respecting school would ask its girls to prance and go “ahhhh” suggestively. That was just dumb. Why would competing students do that? It’s just slightly demeaning. Unless they are merely a finishing school, shouldn’t they try to project a more serious image? Honestly.
Secondly, did Harry actually see Barty Crouch? We know it was Barty Crouch Jr who cast Morsmordre (now I know how to pronounce it), but Harry didn’t actually see him now, did he? Ah well, chalk this one up to the ‘need to make movie shorter’ category. I kind of expected Nagini to look more exotic, not merely a python, but I guess that would have to do. Hmm, and while we’re there, this movie invented more dialogue than the last one. I did like some parts of it… “Babbling, bumbling band of baboons” is a classic, but the rest was merely, well, middling. I didn’t think Snape would resort to physical violence (or physical comedy). Hitting them over the head with a book? How very slapstick.
And Padma and Parvati Patil, though they are twins, are not in the same house. The other one is in Ravenclaw, so what’s she doing prancing into the Gryffindor common room, eh? Artistic license… and they were forced to cut out Rita Skeeter’s unmasking as a you-know-what, which really was a good bit of detective work on Hermione’s part.
I did like some bits very very much, though. Daniel Radcliffe has either improved tremendously as an actor, or Chris Columbus is lousy at directing kids. Because Harry is solid, sensitive and believeable in this movie. The nervous glances, the dribbling of pumpkin juice, the whole trying-to-figure-girls-out thing… very nicely carried off. It bodes well for his romantic development in the next two movies. And Ron, at least, has learned more than the fearful “Harry…” expression so prevalent in Chamber of Secrets. Harry in love is such a sweet sight, you want to jump (or glomp, if you know what I mean) him and kiss him all over, because he’s just so freaking adorable!
No, I don’t like Cho Chang, and it’s NOT because I’m a Potter fangirl (I have the hots for Draco, however). Leaving aside her Scottish accent and her looks, I just don’t get why Harry likes her! I just don’t see why! Why not Hermione? Falling for your best friend is plenty common. Why not Lavender? Why not Ginny? Why not, I don’t know, another Beauxbatons girl? What does Cho have that the other girls don’t? An ability to fly and catch the Snitch? I suppose, seeing how JK Rowling never explained it properly either, it was just a teenage crush. Harry’s later love affair develops more slowly and more intensely than his one with Cho, so I suppose the crush hypothesis is the most probable. And also, Cho’s characterization in the books wasn’t fully developed before this either, so don’t tell me that Lavender or Ginny are improbable ideas.
Hermione and Krum: Firstly, Hermione’s dress. Fine from the waist up, horrible from the waist down. I did like the dancing scene though, I’m pretty sure I saw a certain white-blond head among the slow dancers… awww. Didn’t get a good look at his date, pity. Yes, I’d have loved it to be me. While we’re on the issue, they might’ve shown more of Neville and Ginny dancing, they do make such a cute couple.
Now for the sad bits: I nearly cried in the Defence against the Dark Arts class scene, when Neville was watching the Cruciated spider (actually it was a scorpion). Knowing how difficult it must have been to see that, my heart really ached for him. No idea why Hermione was so upset though, it wasn’t as though she’s supposed to have a little something for Neville… or DOES SHE? Hahahaha. And thinking back upon it, we see how truly twisted Barty Crouch is - to show the child of Cruciated parents how his parents must have suffered. That’s truly horrible, it is.
Cedric. Oh, Cedric. Apparently I cry, no matter whether it’s book or movie. I didn’t cry when he died, the tears came when he asked that his body be brought back. I sobbed a bit more as Harry choked out, “I couldn’t leave him there…”. And it was just so heartbreaking to see his father’s grief. Almost obscene, in a way. Sniff sniff. People die in this tournament, but not due to a Dark Wizard and certainly not because they were the “spare”.
Note to Lucius Malfoy: There’s not much point in wearing a mask and hood if you’re going to leave your blonde hair sticking out for everyone to see, idiot. How many wizards have that hair, eh? Dumb fool, no wonder he’s in Azkaban… of course when I blame the character, I’m really blaming the person who wrote the character or scene, who in this case would be the screenwriter. *ahem*
So, no one under 12 should view this film, some bits are a bit scary (like the beginning when they show the title screen) and some bits are just too sad. I don’t believe in sheltering children, but it’s really something I wouldn’t take little kids to. The concept of pure evil, so pure that they would rob a grave, kidnap and hurt a boy, imprison a wizard and kill not only someone who was kind and good and was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but anyone who was in the way… that concept is something I don’t think young minds can grasp.
Sniffle. Cedric. And while I’m on the matter, anyone know where I can get one of those Potter shirts with the two stripes down the sleeve and the name on the back? I think they look nifty. Ok, so I wasn’t really on the matter. Stop nitpicking, or you won’t enjoy the movie.
He Who Is Very Got-Name
“got name” is Cantonese for “famous”. Today I will be talking about the most “got-name” boy wizard of the decade. Yes, him.
I just finished re-reading “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. I read it through once, quickly, when I got it in the summer, and I re-read it over the past two days to absorb details and pick up hints for the next book. I finished it an hour ago and was ruminating on the series in the shower.
I think the tone of the books changed irrevocably when someone died. Every time a death happens, I cry. I cried when Sirius died, I cried when Cedric popped out momentarily in ghost form, I sniffled my way through the most recent funeral. It’s not as though I particularly liked those characters, it’s just that I felt the pain of those left behind. In Cedric’s case, can you imagine his parents’ pain? The pain of losing their handsome, clever son of whom they were so proud? He was the first casualty of Voldemort upon his return.
Another thing is how the books have changed in recent issues. In the first 3 issues, there was a main plot, there was a main villain, and everything wrapped up in time for the summer holidays. The Philosopher’s Stone was kept safe, the monster in the sewers was killed, and the Prisoner of Azkaban turned out to be a welcome addition. It was more in the vein of Enid Blyton’s boarding-school novels than a true 7-book series.
When Cedric died, it changed things. Suddenly, what happened in the book wasn’t easily wrapped up by the end. The repercussions extended beyond the plot of the book itself. Voldemort was back, and the carefree tone of the first 3 books was gone. I think this was the point that most people realised that the series was truly a series, not just 7 books on the same theme.
In the 5th book, they managed to get rid of the surface villain (Umbridge), but the underlying threat was always Voldemort, and if anything he was getting more powerful, with his Death Eaters back in service. The side of light had the Order of the Phoenix, but they seemed a bit of a ragtag group, and when Sirius died… *dissolves into sobs*
And finally in the 6th book they solved the mystery of the Half-Blood Prince, but little good it did them. Voldemort was very much back, and his Death Eaters ever more powerful, and it was bleak bleak bleak. The book was finished, but the story was far from done. There was a slightly unfinished feel to the book, a feeling that this was more like “The End Part 1″.
I have absolutely no idea how they’re going to film the movie, there are some parts in the 6th book that are quite scary if you were to interpret them visually. All I have to say is: I hope they keep Tom Felton. *giggle*
I’m going to see the movie tomorrow, so the critique will be up soon.
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