Beyond annoyed.

So as I was on Twitter earlier I found a link through Nathan Bransford. It was an article about how the Harry Potter movies were better than the books.

The-article-that-should-not-be-named.


I rarely comment on such garbage, but this article annoyed me to no end. Below is my response.

This was obviously a great attempt at trying to generate traffic by inciting Harry Potter fans only days before the final movie is released. Congratulations! You succeeded.  And as much as I wanted to just ignore this article and not comment, it has annoyed me since I first read it, so I am back to add in my two cents.

I am a fan of the movies because I love the books. I overlook the giant plot holes in the movies because as a fan of the series, I know the things that are being missed. The movies are visually stunning and lots of fun to watch, but they can't even begin to compare to the heart that drives the books forward.

This comment "Harry himself remained stuck in the whiny, adolescent act two of his story, storming away from the Order of the Phoenix because he can’t come to terms with being important." made me laugh out loud. Do you remember being a teenager?

At the time of Order of the Phoenix, Harry is 15 years old and he'd just lost his godfather. The man who was best friends with his father. The man who could have helped him escape the horrors of his Aunt's house. With the loss of Sirius, Harry lost yet another connection to his parents who he never had a chance to know. And you thought a normal 15 year old grieving boy would just accept the fact that he is important? That he'd accept the fact that if Sirius weren't protecting him, he never would have been killed? Really? His reaction may not have been right but it was one of the many things that made me adore these stories. She made us feel his pain with that temper tantrum of his, she made us care that much more about him. She made him seem even more real.

And despite what you suggested, he does grow through the stories. By the end, he gives his life willingly in order to defeat Voldemort. It was a selfless and mature reaction, one that he likely wouldn't have done if he'd not gone through the loss of Sirius and the loss of Dumbledore. He gave his life in order to save so many others. Not exactly the reaction of a whiny adolescent, is it?

The movies were wonderful, but they were wonderful because they had a brilliant series as their basis. The books were the heart. They were what captured the hearts and imaginations of millions and the movies cashed in on that.

Edit: My friend, Jessi has a fantastic rebuttal to this article on her blog