Discussions - Part One

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

I wrote a next generation story, and my characters are so real in my mind, that I can't change them. I'm only writing about the families of my main characters.

THE POTTERS: (Harry and Ginny)
They have fourteen-year-old twins named Haley and Jordan (a boy). Haley is short for Harriet-Lily, (Ginny got to pick the daughter's name, but Harry said, "Ginny, I'm not dead yet! Why would you name a kid after me!" So she's been Haley her whole life.) I didn't actually pick the names myself-- I used names that my friend made up and based my own characters. They both have black hair, green eyes, and freckles, but their features are more similar to the Weasley family's. Haley is very perky, a bit immature, and slightly hyperactive, and she doesn't really do much work in school. She's very devoted to the Marauders of the past, having inherited the map, and likes to pull pranks with her friends. Jordan is a very, very strange boy. He's extremely intelligent and a bit obsessive about school, and he's talented in many areas, but he always feels like he's living in his father's shadow. He has a bit of a dark personality-- he doesn't yell, he sulks, and he's a withdrawn. Still, he's a good kid at heart, and he outgrows his inferiority complex when he gets older. Both Haley and Jordan are musically talented-- Haley sings and likes to act, and Jordan has a guitar and can sing, though he doesn't do it in front of people. The Potters also have two small children who aren't really in the story much.

THE WEASLEYS: (Ron and Hermione)
They have just one daughter, named Emma. I don't like her name, either-- it was another one my friend gave me, but I can't change it, because it's like deciding that Ron's name should be changed to Raoul for the last book. She's already a person. Emma is very pretty, but she's sort of a tomboy, you could say. She's very brave, which means she keeps ending up in sticky situations, and she has a tendency to be a bit insensitive. Emma's pretty smart (she gets pretty good grades without working too hard) and good at Quidditch, but her favourite activity is creating mischief with Haley, who is her best friend and cousin. Emma has long, wavy auburn hair, brown eyes, a nice smile, and is widely considered to be one of the prettiest girls in the school. She isn't stick-thin like most good-looking OCs, though-- she's got curves like a normal girl.

THE MALFOYS: (Draco and Pansy)
Well, I can't give away too much about the story here, but Draco Malfoy causes a lot of trouble in England during this story for reasons mostly having to do with revenge. They have two children. Their son, Ophidias, is a sixth year Slytherin who's not in the story much. But their daughter Ivy is in Gryffindor with the other main characters. She was adopted by the Potters when her parents got into some... trouble... and she's a sweet, shy girl who can be rather nervous. She always feels ashamed about her background, even though it's not her fault. When she started school, some people were cruel to her, including Emma, but now they're very good friends. Ivy's learned to stand up for herself more as she's gotten older, which has a lot to do with the support she's gotten from her friends and adoptive family. Ophidias treats her like scum, though. (By the way, Ophidias means of or relating to snakes. I came up with this name when I was asleep, believe it or not. I dreamed that I owned 60 dollars to a guy named Ophidias Malfoy, and he would beat me up if I didn't give it to him.) Ivy has long blonde hair that she almost always wears in a tight braid, grey eyes, and sharp features. She dresses conservatively and never wears makeup, and seems almost afraid to look too pretty or noticeable. She is, as I said, quite shy.

THE LUPINS: (Remus and Dora-- short for Nymphadora.)
Even though they're older than the parents of my other OCs, they would probably get married about the same time, yes? They have three kids. Their eldest, Christina, is 19 and works in public relations for some Scottish Quidditch team. Their middle child is Jon, who is 17 and in his last year at Hogwarts. Neither of the elder two are in the story much. Their youngest is Ted, who is 14 and friends with the other main characters. He was Jordan's best friend when he was younger, but Jordan's become a bit antisocial lately, and so Ted's drifted toward Ivy. He's a nice guy, mellow and easygoing, an optimist, and very perceptive. He's also a werewolf. No, his father did not attack him. A werewolf was sent to bite anyone in the Potter family, and Ted was over at their house at the time. He jumped in between Haley and the werewolf and was attacked by it. Luckily, Ted deals with it pretty well, both because he's used to the condition what with his dad, not to mention his natural temperament is to go with the flow. It helps that he was already in his teens when attacked-- he doesn't grow up feeling inferior like his father did. Ted has shaggy light brown hair and blue eyes, and is often rather tired-looking from transformations. He's kind of awkward-- very tall and thin and has a constantly-cracking voice that can't decide what it wants to do with itself. Ted's also very good at art and likes to draw cartoons-- he has a good sense of humour.

THE THOMASES: (Dean and Parvati)
They have a son named Tyrone, who is very handsome and well-liked. He can also be a bit, well, full of himself, but is a good guy. He's somewhat girl-crazy, and has a bit of a James-and-Lily relationship with Emma, who for quite awhile would choose a crocodile over him. But in his fourth year, his mother dies, and Emma, unknowing, makes a comment like, "So why weren't you in class, Thomas? House burned down? Mum died? Or something really important, like you broke a nail?" Tyrone gets extremely offended by this and doesn't speak to her for a long time, but when they're caught in a sticky situation, they have to work together. Eventually, they become friends, and Tyrone stops trying to ask Emma out. He's tall and well-built, with short, curly black hair (always gelled), high cheekbones, perfect teeth, and creamy light brown skin. He can be quite vain, but at least he's not in denial about it.

I try to make my characters a lot like real people. They all have strength and flaws, both the villains and the good guys. Some aspects to their lives are a bit cliche, but I wrote their story before I even read my first fanfiction, and I can't change that now. I have their pasts and futures all mapped out, and so by now, they're almost like imaginary friends!

[Dennys]

I feel as if three characters are most altered by the films: Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Harry in the first film seemed to be like in the books. Amazed at the magical world, loyal friend, etc. etc. Film two I felt was relatively the same, as was book three. But in the fourth film, I felt Harry made a drastic turn. He seemed a lot more mean-spirited and to eagerly join Ron in being a sort of gossiper behind people's backs. (them making fun of Neville, then Eloise Midgen.) Ron had a kind of mean-streak in the books, but Harry never took part in it like he did in the movie. I just didn't feel that.

Ron's character tends to be rather scatty for me. I feel as the films go on, he tends to stray farther and farther away from canon. His reasonings for things (ahem-getting-mad-at-Harry-ahem) seem to be irrational and kind of random. He's becoming more of a sidekick and less of a natural, 3D character. His motivations are also put down to the simplest way possible: jealous of Harry, wants a date. Again, he seems to cliche and not natural. Why is he jealous? Dunno, he hasn't really shown jealousy in the past. Why does he want a date? Dunno, he hasn't really shown interest in girls in the past. There's no way for a non-reader to know that Ron has felt like the second-rate in his family, his brothers get all of the glory, Harry gets all of the glory, he's in the background. They don't know his and Hermione's relationship and the reasoning behind him getting upset at her for going with Viktor. I think that his character has lost all of his dimensions and is now the best friend-side kick, that's it.

Hermione, to me, has strayed entirely from the books. She is becoming more and more confident, more of a girly-girl, less bookwormish/know-it-all. The thing I love about Hermione was that she wasn't the cliched hero's gorgeous best friend that he is in love with. She wasn't stunningly beautiful, she wasn't perfect, and her personality could sometimes rub you the wrong way. Again, I think that the film makers have taken out what I love about Hermione and made her a 2D character.

[bittersweet_lullaby]

So, do you have an OC closely related to a familiar canon character? How are they alike their family members, and how are they different?

I have quite a few, mostly from a long time ago. I don't like a couple of them very much, but there are a few that I enjoy.

There's Ron and Luna's son, whom they named for Harry (a bit of a cliche, but it fits him better than any of the other names I looked at). His full name is actually Harry Baldric Weasley. So far I haven't gotten past his first few years of life, but he's a handful for Luna to take care of, and Ron's not the best father to him sometimes. I've seen too many fics where Luna loses her character after having children, so I've tried to keep them in character, which makes it a bit difficult for them to take care of Harry, since neither of them are the best parents in the world.

There's Hermione and Charlie's daughter (because I don't like R/Hr and I got tired of my normal Hermione/Terry pairing), Cordelia. Like Harry, I haven't gotten past her first year of life. She started talking at rather a late age, which puzzled her parents a bit, and she's not very playful as a child. Harry torments her without meaning to, because he is more playful and often hurts her unknowingly.

I've also got a character that I love called Tiara. She's Ginny's daughter, but she's not actually Harry's child. In the fic, Harry died instead of Voldemort, and Ginny somehow (I hadn't figured that out before I abandoned the fic) got pregnant and had Tiara. She left her with Hermione and Terry Boot to raise because she had to go into hiding. She died a few months later, so Tiara lived with Hermione and Terry, along with their daughter, Libby, who I'm not particularly fond of.

I've tried to make them unlike the cliché, and I don't know if it's worked yet, because I haven't written enough about them to tell.

What is the best way to go about developing such a character? Do you take into account Nature versus Nurture when crafting their personality? What about genetics when crafting their physical traits

I haven't thought about their physical features yet, but I think I had Cordelia down as having brown hair. Their personalities are more important to me.

For instance, Tiara isn't like her mother or her godparents. She's more of a dreamer, she loves nature, and she can be quite reckless some of the time. She's a bit like her uncles, Fred and George, but she doesn't often play tricks on people, she just likes to have fun as much of the time as possible. She has a fear of being emotional, because she lives with a girl (Elizabeth Boot, called Libby) who discourages crying and so on, and when Tiara was just a little girl, Libby was perfectly horrible to her whenever she showed emotion, so Tiara tries to avoid anything to do with negative emotions. A good example of Tiara's relationship with her cousin and godsister is a sentence from the fic itself: "Libby and Marina were more the types to sit under a tree and read while Tiara dropped acorns on their heads."

And, is important to have a plot first, before creating these OC's? Or does everyone have a right to write next-gen or prev-gen 'just because'? Does having a plot first help reduce the number of cliches?

Hmm, sometimes, but I almost never have plots, and when I do they're just hazy thoughts of what I want to happen, it's never a solid plot, though I am trying to write a chaptered fic with a plot and actually finish it this time. Most of the stuff I use for my Next-Gen charries comes off the top of my head. I try to make them like any other character would be, and not give them special attention just because their parents are the canon characters.

I think that's the trouble with Next-Gen characters with canon characters for parents - writers try to make them too much like their parents, forgetting that their construction should be just like any other character.

Also, the hair/eye thing - in Harry and Ginny's case, I wish more people would give their kids brown hair. My father had Weasley hair, my mom has black hair; I have brown hair with natural red highlights. Black hair runs in my mom's side, red hair runs in my dad's. I got both. My mom has brown eyes, my dad has blue eyes; I have green eyes. You don't have to make your character a Mini-Me of one of their parents. Harry and Ginny don't have to have a kid with emerald green eyes and flaming red hair. They could just as easily have a kid with brown hair and hazel eyes. They could also have a child whose hair started out a lighter color and got darker, or vice versa. My aunt was born with light blond hair which stayed until she was about three or four, and now she has black hair like the rest of my mom's side. It does happen, and it could just as easily happen in Harry and Ginny's family, or Ron and Hermione's.

Well, now it's 9:30, and I haven't had breakfast, so... /long post.

- TF

[Undividable410]

Just to comment on some of the things that have been mentioned several times already. I have to agree that Hermione has been completely OOC since PoA, but GoF was still better than the Time-Turner scene in movie 3 AKA: "Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?" I was displeased with the Yule Ball scene in GoF, however, because to me, there was absolutely no change in "Hermione"'s appearence, which is entirely contradicting to book canon, where she was unrecognizable.

I really don't understand what all people are saying about Alan Rickman making Snape "sexy", to me, well, he's just as I imagined... long-ish black hair, and, in my opinion, ugly. (But that may just be because I'm younger and have about 0% attraction to Alan Rickman)

Ron also seems to have been a huge topic here. He unfortunately has, as previously mentioned, been turned into a joke, but also remember, since the movies are forced to be so short, the more important scenes are really the ones where he has been pushed into the background, expecially in The Goblet of Fire. In the second movie and book, the main scenes they had to include happened to include spiders and giant trees that do indeed hit back. In the first film, he was probably conveyed the best, because the important scenes included ones where he was able to share his knowledge and skills. The others unfortunately didn't include it. I must admit, in the book The Prisoner of Azkaban (book) Ron was by far braver ( and in much more pain) inside the Shrieking Shack than was show at all in the movies.

Dumbledore, has by far, been the greatest dissapointment for me in the last two movies. when portrayed by Richard Harris in the first two, Dumbledore seemed to have a nice mystical sort of aura surrounding him, that made him seem to be in his own peaceful world as well as in the same world as the other characters, which is exactly how he is described in the books. In the books he is shown to be kind, gentle, and always able to give advice when it is needed. In the later two movies however, the Headmaster no longer seems to have that magical touch. To me the only time when he seems to be in character is for the night scene in the great hall, where he is talking to Snape about whether to wake Harry and inform him of why Sirius has escaped from Azkaban. It is here that he talks wisely about dreams. It seems to be the only real wisdom we hear from him through out the entire movie. In Goblet of Fire we seem to come across annoyed/angry/insensitive!Dumbledore. We here him yell across the Great Hall, with tones of anger in his voice, and just generally seem not to care as much about his students.

Neville has also been represented somewhat poorly. It is through potions lessons that we learned he can be a bit clumsly and sometimes rather cowardly. The only movie we saw that Neville in was, once again, PS/SS. I'm glad, however, that they did fit in his knack for herbology in the 4th movie, since it is well mentioned in the books.

Overall, the person who probably has the most effect on the characterization is the screenwriter. They decide who gets what line and when. Lines themselves can make a person seem entirely different. For example, had (in the movies) it been Ron who had told Harry he was scared for him in GoF, instead of Hermione, it would have made him seem either concerned, or a whimp. Or, perchance, instead of Sirius telling Harry it was somebody inside Hogwarts, who was working to help Voldemort, it was Hermione or Professor McGonagall. The lines and the way we would precieve those characters would be completely different.

Next, unfortunately is appearance. From book descriptions, most people are able to make a mental image of what they believe the characters should look like. However, it's extremely unlikely that two people would come up with the exact same mental image, so when transfering book to screen characters, casting, hair and make-up really need to be done to (preferably the author's) taste. In the first couple of movies, especially the first, I found the imagery to be great, but as the films went on, the touch seems to have been lost. Some characters changed so much infact that if someone who had never read any of the books or seen any of the movies was given a physical description of the character from the book and a set of pictures, some fake and one real of "the character", they would never be able to pick out the correct photo. *cough*hermione*cough*

After appearence would probably be portrayal through acting. As shown by Richard Harris and Micheal Gambon, just an actors take on a part can deeply effect the way we all see that character. Simply put, if an actor exaggerates certain expressions and moods in a character and underexaggerates others we will come up with a character far from that in the books.

When I come across Movie fanon in fanfictions, it really only bugs me if it's something completely out of place. Most of the time I don't mind much, unless it is extremely exaggerated or factors are ignored. I really don't have too much of a problem with it, since I never consider anything I read in a fanfiction to become canon in my mind. I read it for pure entertainment.

I agree with everybody else however that the best way to check for canon is, indeed, to just open up the book or check on a trusted site.

[Scarlet]

At the moment, I don't have a character in the past or future who is related to any of the present-day students. Maybe I'll write one someday...


This little bit is about the children of current characters...

When it comes to physical traits, I think it's necessary to take a few dominant traits from both parents, but not go overboard with it. For instance, I resemble both my mother and my father, but I still have several physical attributes that make me my own person. If you write the daughter of Harry/Ginny, it's not necessary to make her have reddish-brown hair and brilliant green eyes. I find it more appealing when the slighter features are stressed. When the daughter smiles, the way the smile tugs at her lips could mirror Ginny’s smile. The daughter could have a thin face like Harry, but also have her own little dimples and frowns. She could even pick up a few physical attributes of someone from Ginny’s side of the family, or even Harry’s parents.

It’s interesting to pick up a few mannerisms from both parents – not apparent ones, but again, small mannerisms. If it’s a child of Ron and Hermione, his ears could turn red whenever he’s embarrassed, just like Ron’s do. Or, to throw in more interest, he could demonstrate a few characteristics that are derived from Ron’s family. For instance, he could be calm and optimistic, like Arthur – or be almost rudely ambitious, like Percy.

It’s always good to remember that child is often a product of his/her surroundings. The way a child of Ron and Hermione might behave won’t necessarily be the same as his parents, because he grew up at a different time, with different friends and different surroundings.

[Madame Marauder]

Here's the thing I can't get over: The movie Snape looks better than the movie Sirius. I understand that Sirius has been in Azkaban for twelve/thirteen years, but my God people, there are moments in the book where Harry recognizes him as the handsome, laughing man in the picture. Meanwhile, Snape isn't supposed to be attractive. But if you listen to my friends' moms and even my mother, you would assume that Snape was attractive, because Alan Rickman is.

This has had an effect of fanfiction, I think, because people see Alan Rickman in the movies and assume that's the perfect image of Snape. Although Alan Rickman's portrayal is impressive, he's just to... likable. Look at the romances and comedies he's been in. It effects fanfiction because author's mesh the character and actor into one entity.

The same goes for Lucius Malfoy. Since Jason Issacs is "hot", thus Lucius becomes "hot". It's in fanfics.


Granted, the perception of characters such as Lucius and Snape may also be garbled because of the books. Harry is narrating (although the stories are third person). Harry isn't going to think of Lucius or Snape as "hot". In fact, he's not even going to look for redeeming qualities-- he hates them too much. But, mostly, I think the garbled interpretations are derived from the movies.

***

With Hermione, I used to love Hermione, before the movies. To me, I was Hermione. Book smart, but not beautiful. When the movies came out, Hermione was book smart AND beautiful. It's uncomfortable for diehard fans of the books.

Emma Watson's effects on fans is immense. My sister, before she read the books, was offended when I said Hermione was ugly (my sister looks nearly identical to Emma Watson). And Emma Watson's effect on fanfiction has also been immense. In a lot of stories, Hermione is hot and with Harry. Although there is some canon support for H/Hr, most fanfiction authors draw their support from the movies. That annoys me to no end.

***


Dumbledore in the books is wise, caring, and other-worldly. I don't see these qualities in Michael Gambon's portrayal. In Gambon's Dumbledore, I see a hippie-hobo suit and a man who isn't recognizable as the Albus Dumbledore whose deepest desire is socks or the Albus Dumbledore who could take on Voldemort. I'm worried about Dumbledore's portrayal come Half Blood Prince.

I think, for fanfiction writers, Dumbledore's wisdom is/was hard enough to capture without Gambon interferring. With Gambon's Dumbledore, it's easy to mistake Dumbledore for someone who is angry and callous. That conflicts too much with JKR's Dumbledore.

***

In the movies, Ron's best lines are often given to Hermione. Thus, Ron seems shifty, unloyal, and wimpy. All of which, we know he isn't. I think the screenwriter's interpretation has undermined Ron's character so much, that he's discounted as a lousy sidekick.

Unfortunately, you see this a lot in fanfiction, too. I blame the movies. I think the best scene (in the movies) that encompassed Ron's personality was in PS/SS was the chess scene where he willingly sacrificed himself for his friends. That is Ron Weasley. Not the snivelling sidekick we see so often in PoA.

***

Sadly, the character I've been most impressed with is Cho. In GoF, she's no cheerleader (I mean that sexy, scantily clad chick who all the guys love). She's a normal girl, prettier than some, but believable. She's also nice to Harry when she turns him down-- something from the books. It was refreshing, despite the fact that she was only in the movie for maybe ten minutes.

Unfortuantely, I've yet to see many Cho fictions portraying the pre-Cedric's Death Cho.

I agree that fanfiction writers need to double check. If you don't, readers will know.

[kumydabookworm]

I'm very interested in how the movies will portray angst!Harry in the next movie. I personally think it will either be brilliant or terrible - there won't be a middle ground. As everyone has pointed out, the characters do change from the movies to the books.

I personally think Quirrell from the movies was brilliant. He stutters, but managed to show a darker side at the very end. He portrays the book character wonderfully, and maintains the correct characteristics until the end.

I think that one-time appearance characters who only show up for one movie are less likely to get skewed simply because they do not have to adapt to the plotlines. Lockhart, I think, was very well portrayed, and I'm thinking that Umbridge will be as well. Generally, I think physical appearances and personalities of the Trio get altered the most out of everything.

Since that is what gets skewed the most, that is what fanfiction represents as well. Authors and movie audiences mold the characters into what they want them to be. Hot!Sirius, for an utterly cliche example, is a figment of the fan's mind, because they want him to appear the way they see him.

In essence, characters get skewed because on camera, every personality characteristic has to be magnified, has to be exacerbated. That happens in fanfiction, too, and it's the main part of OOCness (besides pushing characters together in romance and changing their personalities to fit ).

Fanfiction is affected by the movies only when the authors allow themselves to be swayed. I stop that effect by checking all of my facts with the Lexicon or the books themselves (especially spells). I also read every published book before each movie comes out and after I see it. That keeps the line between movie and book clear for me.

The thing that infuriates me the most is people who write HP fanfiction who haven't read the books, only watched the movies. First, it results in out of date fanfiction, and second the characterization gets skewed totally.

Now, those are my thoughts on the movies, characterization and how to stick to the books in your own work.

Kumy

[cherryandphoenixfeather]

I think that the movies are accessible to a larger group of people than the books are. Let's face it: some people just don't like to read. So, when they hear all about this great Harry Potter phenomenon, they don't want to read the books, and thus they see the movies and adopt the characterizations that the movies give to the characters. I think this can explain some OOC in fanfiction--people don't want to read the books, so they assume the movies are "just as good."

I think the characters who have been most mistreated by the movies are Ron and Hermione. Ron has gone from the loyal and brave best friend to the whimpering sidekick, and this is a great injustice to him. Hermione, I have increasingly seen as attractive and sought-after and wise in fanfiction, and this really isn't her character. Emma Watson is a fabulous actress, and she portrays Hermione very well, but in the movies Hermione has become a combined Ron-Dumbledore-Molly/beauty queen. We've all seen that Hermione is capable of great transformations, as she showed us at the Yule Ball (in the books), but she is always beautiful in the movies now, and in fanfiction, I'm increasingly seeing her as always beautiful, and it's incorrect.

One character that I don't think has been dissected is Remus. The third movie did him a disservice, I think. He's portrayed as a little overbearing, I think, and he doesn't quite have the wise gravity Remus has in the books. He's not as much of a mentor as he should be.

Plus, his obsession with chocolate in fanon was directly derived from the third movie, and does that seriously bother anyone else? Because I can't stand chocolateobsessed!Remus.

[Konrad]

Well, of course the movies are more accessible than the books, but I doubt whether people who didn't like the books in the first place would go out and see the movies. There needs to be a basical interest I guess, or a period of time to change people's mind.

The great problem of the movies, of course is what they do to the characters. You could argue that if they want to have a broader public, they need to have the simplest characters. All blockbusters seem to have that problem. They think that the audience can't cope a bit complexity, so they flatten. They become archetypes.

Some of these stereotypes and archetypes have been in use since the Ancient Greek days, so you could say that those types of characters are universal. Or, you could say that time has made sure we recognize those archetype. Jung did a great deal with those archetypes and he defined a few of them. The screenplay writer of the Harry Potter movies, obviously recognized certain aspects of those archetypes and exploited them. If I had to write the screenplay for a blockbuster, I think I would have done the same.

We, as fans, don't like this, of course. We believe we know the characters beyond the archetypes and every little detail that's being ignored in the movies, only justifies our dislike of something which limits the imagination. Who, after have seen the movie, can really picture the characters the way you pictured them before the movies? I can't. The personification of the characters can have a repulsive reaction towards the movies, because they narrow your imagination. They narrow the possibility of reality, don't they?

One of the characters I find to be given a bad role is Dumbledore. Not because the actor got changed, but because Dumbledore was in the end the archetype of the wise old man, someone we all like to read about (because he gives answers no one else can give). In the movies, however, his wisedom fails a bit. The wise old man becomes more of an old man, and I can't say I like that.

[BlackHairedWeasley]

Well, I think it's time for someone to speak in the Films' defense, and being a student filmmaker, I believe I will do just that.

When I watched the Academy Awards this year, Dustin Hoffman, while presenting the Best Adapted Screenplay award said something to the like of this -

My father once told me, "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." These nominees have had to take apart something that already worked and put it together in a different form, all while making sure it still worked.

As someone who has written a screenplay before (and is in the process of writing a novel), let me tell you how different the two formats really are. Though both are equally painstakingly difficult to compose, the style and delivery are almost unrecognizable, and I doubt anyone realizes how difficult it is to adapt a literary piece of any kind into something so new and different from what it used to be. The Harry Potter books worked - as books. To make them into films is an entirely different task altogether. Granted, I wouldn't have changed things so drastically, or added scenes when I should be adapting scenes from the books, but then again, if I were writing the films I wouldn't be on here, would I?

Then we come to how the characters look. I think that many are forgetting that no matter how devoted these actors may or may not be to the films or books, they are actors. Hermione may not be as (for lack of a better word) hot as Emma Watson, but she is an aspiring actress who has a very bright future ahead of her. Yes, she could pull a Renee Zelwegger ala Bridget Jones, but then one could assume her a typecast for her carreer like John Heder from Nepoleon Dynamite. She'll get movie roles, sure. But not in the wide range that most actors hope for.

Then with Tom!Draco and Jason!Lucius - Sure, you could add prosthetics to lengthen their noses, and sink their eyes, or whatever to make them look more like their literary counterparts, but then that would cost more money. I know what you're thinking: "Money? This is Harry Potter we're talking about! They have a huge budget!" The huge budget thingy may be true, however I doubt anyone here knows the real price of hollywood-worthy makeup. Hell, K-Mart makeup is expensive! (I should know, I used to work there in high school.. *ashamed*)

The same argument could be made for Alan!Snape. They did more than neccessary to make him unattractive; anyone who's seen the Kevin Smith film Dogma will know how hot he looks there, and how fugly he looks in the HP films by comparison. (Although I would have asked him to grow a goatee..) Then they might have allergic reactions like Danny and his green contact lenses, and a whole new spectrum of problems open up. You cast who you feel can make the screenplay!character work and appearances (I'm sorry to say) come second.

Getting to the topic of fanfiction, I do find it annoying when I read a H/Hr fic and find Hermione referring to the time she said "I'm scared for you..." or having Draco be all wishy-washy with Hermione before coming out of the closet and hearing Hermione say "I knew all along, Draco.." and the two embrace and become BFF's.. *gag* But as we vomit on our keyboards do we have the heart to look at our past work and say that we too have written our characters in a form of stereotype? I'll admit that I have.. That being said, the books are what to go to when you write fanfiction. There's jus nothing else for it.

I know that it's sad that the films are so different from the books, and many people had to do their job poorly in order for that to happen starting with the writers and ending with the director (I don't blame the actors too much. All they really do is what they're told to..). But no one really knows what it's like making a movie of any kind. The few student films I've made are like contolled chaos, so I don't even want to think about what a blockbuster must be like. Sure the characters might be stereotypical and the dialogue and body language might seem forced, but you do what you can when you're on the kind of deadline HP brings. Would any of you like to wait until 2009 for OotP to be released? Even if it meant it was more like the book, the general public would go insane having to wait that long.

Lastly, I think that we're forgetting one thing: Everyone percieves the books differently. You have the original writer's (JKR) perspective, then the screenplay writer's perspective, the director, actors and finally, the fanfic writer's perspective not only of the books but also with the film.

I know there are some girls who absolutely adore Ron and Ginny (the characters not the actors), and I personally can't stand them. I have yet to write either character in a positive light, simply because they are my least favorite characters. That is my writing based on my perception of the books and dispite what some think, I never take the films into account when writing a new fic, one-shot, or drabble. I'd better end this post.. I doubt anyone's still reading... (Oh hi, Jenna! Just you, then?)

- Jacie the Cat