Random, Harry Potter, Inception, and fic
Jul. 18th, 2011 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bennet_7On the fuglification of Richard Armitage: Oh Peter Jackson, how could you do this to Richard Armitage? For those not familiar with Mr Armitage, he normally looks like this. Better, right?
On Harry Potter: I'm not super fannish about Harry Potter. I only went to the midnight screening because a friend organised it and I've never been involved in the fandom. Occasionally I feel the urge to read fic for certain characters - I went through a Tonks/Lupin phase last year and right now I'm reading a quite good James/Lily fic (though it does have the most appalling overuse of epithets I've ever seen. The Gryffindor/the redhead/the witch/the prefect - just call her Lily).
I've always been bothered by the representation of Slytherin as being the evil house of evil people with four exceptions: Professor Slughorn, Andromeda Tonks, Snape (and that one's debatable because it's not like Snape's reason for joining the Order of the Phoenix was a moral and ethical objection to genocide - he joined because of Lily), and Regulus Black (also debatable as was originally a death eater and didn't he change sides because Voldemort wanted to harm Kreacher? I can't remember). I wish that there had been a couple of Slytherins who had been portrayed not as pure-blood obsessives or dimwitted bullies but just as more cunning and ambitious than the average Hogwarts student. In the book and the film McGonagall orders the Slytherin students to be taken away so that they can't participate in the battle of Hogwarts - it's assumed that they won't fight for Hogwarts. I would have loved for some to object and insist that not all of Slytherin was hanging out for Voldemort to be in charge.
In all other areas but this Rowling handled the shades of grey much better - Fudge and Srimgeour are two good examples. But the division between Slytherin and the other houses is so black and white that it hurts. And what's worse is that Rowling never acknowledges how the conflict is created by the sorting process. Of course kids are going to come out of Hogwarts believing in the pure-blood crap if you get them to spend seven years with a group of people who are also susceptible to that nonsense. I really wish that there had been some realisation of how problematic the houses and the house rivalry are. My dream for the epilogue was not learning who had babies with whom and what ridiculous names they gave them, but finding out that Hogwarts had since done away with the original houses and was trying to foster a sense of community within the school as a whole.
On Inception: Five ways I would describe Arthur in canon: loyal, capable, intelligent, sarcastic, well-dressed.
Five ways I would describe Arthur in fanon: repressed, aloof, unimaginative, cold, constantly wearing a three-piece suit.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I've gotten a couple of comments during the past month on the costume meta that I wrote and they've all mentioned that they also think that canonical Arthur is nowhere near as uptight as the fandom generally writes him. It occurred to me the other day that I have no problem picturing Arthur in jeans, but I can't manage it with Eames. I think this is partly because regular Eames-wear is quite casual, but also because his whole look is a throwback to an earlier time - putting him in anything contemporary feels wrong to me. I can imagine him having a different look when he was younger, but more and more I think that Eames created a very specific look and personality for himself in reality as a kind of front, I think to protect himself but also, perhaps, to start over.
So if with Eames we see the tip of the ice berg, I think that with Arthur what you see is what you get. But Arthur is naturally made up of so many potentially contrary elements that you could mistake him for also putting up a front. Why would someone so young and in this weird profession dress as he does? Easy answer: he's repressed. But he's not. He's easy with Ariadne to the point that he pulls a frankly juvenile move with her - stealing the kiss. And if you look at his face when he finds out that Cobb lied to them about the effects of the sedation, my oh my is he angry and hurt. He feels these emotions but, because the projections are bearing down on their position and they have a job to do, he doesn't dwell on them.
He knew Mal well enough to think that she was lovely.
He ribs Nash, Eames, and Yusuf.
He makes WTF faces at the radio.
He tries to pull Cobb from the car and looks absolutely gutted when he thinks Cobb is lost in Limbo.
Arthur is not an uptight, emotionally repressed suit obsessive. But I do understand why he gets written that way.
On Harry Potter and Inception: My dashboard on Tumblr was 40% Harry Potter and 40% Inception all weekend. So I sent the dream team to Hogwarts.
Construction G | 256 | Inception x Harry Potter | Cobb, Ariadne, Arthur
construction n.: a structure, such as a building, framework, or model; or the way in which something is built or put together.
::
All first years stop and gape at the shifting staircases the first time they encounter one, wizard-bred and Muggle-born alike. Dom’s seen it every year – he did it himself.
But he’s never seen someone so transfixed as the tiny girl staring in open-mouth wonder as a staircase arcs to the opposite wall.
“How?” she asks, eyes wide and a smile edging on her lips. She touches a banister tentatively.
“Um, magic?”
Her head turns and she fixes him with a glare. “Yes,” she says sharply; you moron, is implied. “But how?”
Dom doesn’t have time for this. He needs to find Eames before curfew and then, somewhere in this building is Mal and he doesn’t know whether he wants to see her or not. But Dom recognises the girl’s need to know, to understand, even if it’s not a particularly convenient time.
So he collars Arthur as he walks past.
“Hey, this girl – ”
“Ariadne,” she interrupts.
“Ariadne,” Dom says with a nod, “wants to know how the staircases shift.”
Arthur raises an eyebrow. “And you aren't telling her because...”
“I've got to go.” Dom claps him on the back and hurries off.
The staircase starts moving again, swinging out over the forty-foot drop, and Ariadne looks down, amazed.
“Do you ever get used to this?”
Arthur loosens his tie and joins her. “I haven’t yet.”
She smiles up at him.
“So,” he says as they sit down on the steps, “it’s a combination of charms, potions, and these weird ancient building techniques...”
They ride the staircase back and forth until curfew.
::
Note: The staircases only shift in the movies. Trick staircases are mentioned in the books. But I always loved the visual of it and I wrote this at 1:00 AM. *handwaves*
On Harry Potter: I'm not super fannish about Harry Potter. I only went to the midnight screening because a friend organised it and I've never been involved in the fandom. Occasionally I feel the urge to read fic for certain characters - I went through a Tonks/Lupin phase last year and right now I'm reading a quite good James/Lily fic (though it does have the most appalling overuse of epithets I've ever seen. The Gryffindor/the redhead/the witch/the prefect - just call her Lily).
I've always been bothered by the representation of Slytherin as being the evil house of evil people with four exceptions: Professor Slughorn, Andromeda Tonks, Snape (and that one's debatable because it's not like Snape's reason for joining the Order of the Phoenix was a moral and ethical objection to genocide - he joined because of Lily), and Regulus Black (also debatable as was originally a death eater and didn't he change sides because Voldemort wanted to harm Kreacher? I can't remember). I wish that there had been a couple of Slytherins who had been portrayed not as pure-blood obsessives or dimwitted bullies but just as more cunning and ambitious than the average Hogwarts student. In the book and the film McGonagall orders the Slytherin students to be taken away so that they can't participate in the battle of Hogwarts - it's assumed that they won't fight for Hogwarts. I would have loved for some to object and insist that not all of Slytherin was hanging out for Voldemort to be in charge.
In all other areas but this Rowling handled the shades of grey much better - Fudge and Srimgeour are two good examples. But the division between Slytherin and the other houses is so black and white that it hurts. And what's worse is that Rowling never acknowledges how the conflict is created by the sorting process. Of course kids are going to come out of Hogwarts believing in the pure-blood crap if you get them to spend seven years with a group of people who are also susceptible to that nonsense. I really wish that there had been some realisation of how problematic the houses and the house rivalry are. My dream for the epilogue was not learning who had babies with whom and what ridiculous names they gave them, but finding out that Hogwarts had since done away with the original houses and was trying to foster a sense of community within the school as a whole.
On Inception: Five ways I would describe Arthur in canon: loyal, capable, intelligent, sarcastic, well-dressed.
Five ways I would describe Arthur in fanon: repressed, aloof, unimaginative, cold, constantly wearing a three-piece suit.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I've gotten a couple of comments during the past month on the costume meta that I wrote and they've all mentioned that they also think that canonical Arthur is nowhere near as uptight as the fandom generally writes him. It occurred to me the other day that I have no problem picturing Arthur in jeans, but I can't manage it with Eames. I think this is partly because regular Eames-wear is quite casual, but also because his whole look is a throwback to an earlier time - putting him in anything contemporary feels wrong to me. I can imagine him having a different look when he was younger, but more and more I think that Eames created a very specific look and personality for himself in reality as a kind of front, I think to protect himself but also, perhaps, to start over.
So if with Eames we see the tip of the ice berg, I think that with Arthur what you see is what you get. But Arthur is naturally made up of so many potentially contrary elements that you could mistake him for also putting up a front. Why would someone so young and in this weird profession dress as he does? Easy answer: he's repressed. But he's not. He's easy with Ariadne to the point that he pulls a frankly juvenile move with her - stealing the kiss. And if you look at his face when he finds out that Cobb lied to them about the effects of the sedation, my oh my is he angry and hurt. He feels these emotions but, because the projections are bearing down on their position and they have a job to do, he doesn't dwell on them.
He knew Mal well enough to think that she was lovely.
He ribs Nash, Eames, and Yusuf.
He makes WTF faces at the radio.
He tries to pull Cobb from the car and looks absolutely gutted when he thinks Cobb is lost in Limbo.
Arthur is not an uptight, emotionally repressed suit obsessive. But I do understand why he gets written that way.
On Harry Potter and Inception: My dashboard on Tumblr was 40% Harry Potter and 40% Inception all weekend. So I sent the dream team to Hogwarts.
Construction G | 256 | Inception x Harry Potter | Cobb, Ariadne, Arthur
construction n.: a structure, such as a building, framework, or model; or the way in which something is built or put together.
All first years stop and gape at the shifting staircases the first time they encounter one, wizard-bred and Muggle-born alike. Dom’s seen it every year – he did it himself.
But he’s never seen someone so transfixed as the tiny girl staring in open-mouth wonder as a staircase arcs to the opposite wall.
“How?” she asks, eyes wide and a smile edging on her lips. She touches a banister tentatively.
“Um, magic?”
Her head turns and she fixes him with a glare. “Yes,” she says sharply; you moron, is implied. “But how?”
Dom doesn’t have time for this. He needs to find Eames before curfew and then, somewhere in this building is Mal and he doesn’t know whether he wants to see her or not. But Dom recognises the girl’s need to know, to understand, even if it’s not a particularly convenient time.
So he collars Arthur as he walks past.
“Hey, this girl – ”
“Ariadne,” she interrupts.
“Ariadne,” Dom says with a nod, “wants to know how the staircases shift.”
Arthur raises an eyebrow. “And you aren't telling her because...”
“I've got to go.” Dom claps him on the back and hurries off.
The staircase starts moving again, swinging out over the forty-foot drop, and Ariadne looks down, amazed.
“Do you ever get used to this?”
Arthur loosens his tie and joins her. “I haven’t yet.”
She smiles up at him.
“So,” he says as they sit down on the steps, “it’s a combination of charms, potions, and these weird ancient building techniques...”
They ride the staircase back and forth until curfew.
Note: The staircases only shift in the movies. Trick staircases are mentioned in the books. But I always loved the visual of it and I wrote this at 1:00 AM. *handwaves*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 04:23 pm (UTC)Very cute crossover, and those staircases are kinda paradoxical to look at.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 06:26 pm (UTC)I love reading your meta about Inception. :D And I definitely agree re: HP. I wanted to see that SOMETHING had changed in the epilogue, more integration, something bridging the gap...it didn't seem like anything had, which was disappointing.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 06:48 pm (UTC)Normally I am stringent about adapting books to the screen but I really think there was room for improvement there. It's awful to think that after all that bloodshed, the same system of division that pits children against each other and which singles out a handful of qualities to become their defining characteristics would continue on.
I'd like to take a tour of Hogwarts. I wouldn't actually want to be a student there.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-24 09:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-24 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-31 06:00 pm (UTC)