H Is For Harry Potter

Day 8 of my A to Z Challenge. H is for Harry Potter.

If you don't know how this works, I've posted the link back to the rules of the challenge at the end of this, along with a link to yesterday's post. If you want to read my full alphabet, just keep following the links. Each day has a link back to yesterday's post.

I couldn’t do the letter H without it being Harry Potter - simply because I love it! I was a little late to the party. I was never part of the crowd that queued up at midnight for the next book, or had to see the movie on the first day of its release.

In fact, I had never watched any of the movies, and one day I decided that that many people couldn’t be wrong so I went out and bought the DVD box set. That’s how late I was - not just fashionably late, but horrifically late.

Anyway, over the course of a couple of days, I watched them all.

I must admit to not being a massive fan of The Philosopher's Stone and The Chamber Of Secrets. I think maybe because Harry and Co are so young, they truly do feel like children’s films. I tend to skip those two when I re-watch them all, which is still a regular thing for me! 

By the end of The Prisoner Of Azkaban though, I was hooked. I got so into them. I cried more times than I can remember (not just the first time I watched them either). And I'm not someone who cries at movies generally.

I would say *spoiler alert* but I'm pretty sure everyone knows how they go by now. I cried when Dumbledore died, even more so when Dobby died (why would J K Rowling be that mean?), when Hermione wiped herself from her parents memory, when Ron left, when Harry watched Snape's memories of his mother and found out the whole truth, when Harry sacrificed himself (I cried so hard the first time at this, I totally missed the point that he wasn't dead, so when he miraculously "came back to life" I had to skip back and see what I'd missed).

And of course, when Sirius Black died. He isn't just part of the list, he gets his own section, because I still don't think I'm over this. Who is? I was an emotional wreck here. It's not just the fact he was arguably the best supporting character, it's the fact everyone Harry loves seems to die.

The flash to the future at the end was nice, they all lived happily ever after, but let's face it, in truth, they all would have been so messed up that none of them would have been happy.Harry would have turned to drink and died alone, scared to love anyone in case they became touched by the curse. Ron would have had serious self esteem issues, because in his mind he could never live up to the chosen one, and would always wonder why Hermione chose him. Hermione would secretly resent Ron, because deep down, she would know she made the wrong choice - it should have been Harry.

I then decided to give the books a whirl, and that’s where I seem to disagree with the rest of the world. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed them. They were well written and engaging. But (there’s always a but isn’t there?) I preferred the movies. There, I said it. Shoot me now!

The books didn't seem to hit that emotional chord with me in the way the movies had. Not even a lump in my throat, let alone tears.

It’s very rare for me to feel that way. Normally I prefer the book. I think it might be because I watched the movies first, so where the books and movies differed, I felt the movies were the “original” when usually it’s the other way around for me.

What do you think? Am I terrible human being for preferring the movies to the books? Anyone want to confess to feeling the same way?

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Link to rules: http://myrandommusings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/a-z-challenge-whos-with-me.html

Link to G is for Getting Motivated:

http://myrandommusings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/g-is-for-getting-motivated.html