Comparative Opinions: Episode 10 – Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Welcome to the Comparative Opinions podcast! This week hosts Holly and David were joined by Julia to discuss Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. As Julia said, she had… thoughts. And as Holly said, she had to talk to someone about it! Spoilers abound as we describe and take apart this play. Sorry it’s a little long, but hey, it’s shorter than the 5 hours it would take to see the play…

Comparative Opinions is a weekly half-hour-ish podcast hosted on ComparativeGeeks.com. Subscribe for new episodes every Sunday!

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Music is by Scott Gratton: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Gratton/Intros_and_Outros

H is for Hermione and Harry – Throwback Thursday

Having just read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – and planning to podcast on it for Sunday – I thought back to this post originally from our 2014 A to Z Challenge. The original post sparked quite a bit of conversation so if you’re interested, definitely click through to read that. Even just reading my own thoughts here, it’s fascinating looking at what has since happened, in the form of a sequel story like Cursed Child. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

So maybe you’ve heard about it, and maybe you haven’t, but recently Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling did an interview saying that she thought that Hermione Granger and Harry Potter should have ended up together, instead of Hermione and Ron Weasley.

In keeping with our A to Z challenge, I will look a bit at why this doesn’t work for these characters, but I also want to look at the idea of an author making these sorts of declarations or changes after the fact. So it’s sort of a character study… hey, they both start with H, that has to count for something, right?

Five of My Favorite Things From Harry Potter

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So in honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child I thought it would be fun to remember some of my favorite moments from Harry Potter. These books are ones that David and I have both loved and I am excited to read this next chapter in the life of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Throughout the books there have been just superb moments that were heartbreaking, funny, exciting, or just plain awesome. So here are some of my favorite moments, characters, or things from Harry Potter.

X is for Xander Harris – the Zeppo

You may have thought we had made it through the month with no Joss Whedon characters, but take heart! For X is for Xander Harris! Just your average, socially awkward, class clown of a teen, he ends up an integral part of the Scooby Gang in Buffy, saving the world from demons, vampires, and general badness. 

Right? He matters, right? The defining Xander episode was The Zeppo, where Xander has a solo adventure while his friends, Buffy and the gang, fight off what is described as “the worst thing they have ever faced” – which happens off-screen. And meanwhile, trying to find his identity and figure out what it is that is his “thing” – what makes him cool or unique – Xander gets mixed up with some undead who want to blow up the high school. He beats them all, and saves the school, while his friends save the world – something they couldn’t have done if they had blown up.

So let me look at Xander, but also at this idea of “the Zeppo,” this character who is at once essential and expendable.

H is for Hermione and Harry

So maybe you’ve heard about it, and maybe you haven’t, but recently Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling did an interview saying that she thought that Hermione Granger and Harry Potter should have ended up together, instead of Hermione and Ron Weasley.

In keeping with our A to Z challenge, I will look a bit at why this doesn’t work for these characters, but I also want to look at the idea of an author making these sorts of declarations or changes after the fact. So it’s sort of a character study… hey, they both start with H, that has to count for something, right?