Chocolate in Harry Potter

Once upon a time, when I had my chocolate club in college, one of the topics was Books & Chocolate. Out of all the books that reference chocolate, Harry Potter was, naturally, the story everyone in the room was familiar with. But what I realize, months later, after further thought is that the series covers two very different aspects of chocolate. It does not go into what I like to call couture chocolate, but it does address nostalgic chocolate and healing chocolate.

Nostalgic chocolate centers around the Chocolate Frogs. They're one of the treats to buy on the Hogwarts Express and something to give as a gift to a friend. That hits at the comfort of childhood, when a chocolate candy was enough to brighten your day and connect you to other people. Chocolate confections have enough impact that even years later, when you might not enjoy their taste in the same way anymore, still they remain special because of the memories they evoke.

Healing chocolate is what Lupin gives to Harry after his encounter with the dementors. The idea here seems to be based on the fact that the dementors force you into unhappy feelings and chocolate is something positive, therefore chocolate can help bring you out of that negative mood. Chocolate doesn't have such a direct healing aspect in our world, but you can still consider it to have healing properties. Emotionally, once again, it is positive. But depending on the type of chocolate, it can in fact be a natural and even healthy food. Chocolate made with good quality cocoa beans and pure ingredients instead of fillers, well, that helps make for a rounded diet, I say.

Nostalgic chocolate is the more common view of chocolate, unsurprising to find in a YA series. Healing chocolate is less common to find expressed, especially without the mention of cacao beans (like in the movie version of Chocolat). Both of these sides coming together in this book, then, sets up a rather uncommon dichotomy.

The Return of Hilly Potter

You can watch The Hillywood Show's new parody, Harry Potter - So You Think You're a Wizard, by clicking here and behind the scenes by clicking here. 

By popular demand, The Hillywood Show has returned with another Harry Potter-based parody, this time focusing on the last movie but with some added twists. Big twists. So if you haven't watched yet, go do so before reading on.

While all the Twilight parodies follow a similar format, there are now three quite different Harry Potter videos: the first is a sketch with dialogue, the second is a music video with multiple scenes, and the newest is mainly a dance sequence. Having a mix of formats in fact makes for a nice collection of videos. And, of course, the format of this latest addition means that Hilly and Hannah didn't have to go scour the world in search of a castle to shoot in (just think of how many t-shirts we would all have to buy to fund that).

What this parody does offer is a healthy measure of ridiculousness and another draught of intense dance choreography. Though there aren't many costumes/makeup jobs, they are all as spot on as always and Voldemort looks properly creepy. And while there may not be too many specific points that are parodied, putting Harry and Voldemort into a twisted dance competition against each other fits in well both with the movie and its trailer: so much seemed to consist of the two running around each other and shouting curses with their wands. That was a nicely handled twist.

And once again, I am so happy that Hilly and Hannah's new partnership with Peter Facinelli and myISH has so far meant that behind the scenes come out at the same time as parodies. Twenty-three minutes of behind the scenes? I watched it without so much as a wink, as quick and excited as I would accept a free chocolate bar. There is some great footage here about rehearsing the dance sequence, recording sound, and working out makeup, so don't skip it.

The return of Hilly Potter is welcome indeed.

Countdown Part 4: The Book

View my outline for this "countdown" here, Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.


Aren't you so proud of me? In between reading Paradise Lost, Moll Flanders, Ken Brosky's Grendel (which is positively depressing), The Jungle Books, Mrs. Dalloway, and some James Joyce, I still managed to read the first half of Breaking Dawn. That is, I read Books One and Two and the first chapter of Book Three; this is what I expect the first movie will cover. (I'm going to finish the rest, but this was all I could get through before the movie.)

Now I have the daunting task of deciding what I think the movie must include. The thing is, as a whole, Breaking Dawn isn't really my favorite book--Twilight probably is. So I know that the movie must give proper attention to the wedding and the honeymoon, etc., but those aren't exactly things I'm looking forward to seeing in, er, so much detail. (Things like feathers make me glad I'm planning to see the movie alone the first time--that'll give me a chance to get over my embarrassment. These books are just so personal . . . which is what I like about them, but that complicates things when you bring the plot onscreen. To me, at least.) So Part 1 should include these two things, plus the pregnancy, the wolf-pack politics, and the birth scene. Interesting.

But let me get into themes here. One of the entertaining things about Book Two is the friendship that slowly develops between Edward and Jacob; that needs to be in the movie because it sets things up for Book Three/Part 2. This is very vague-sounding, but we also need to understand everyone's perspectives to what is happening. By this point, three books have established who the couple dozen main characters are: now we see application of their different natures. Bella keeps Renesmee because of her ability to make strong attachments. Edward doesn't want to do the same at first because he is too caught up in his worry about Bella. Rosalie helps Bella because she still mourns what she lost with her own life. Sam calls for the attack on the Cullens because his foremost priority is protecting his people. Seth joins Jacob because he has developed a friendship with the Cullens (which the last movie didn't get a chance to show). Leah joins Jacob to be free from Sam. It goes on, going into more detail. My point is that the plot of this book in particular seems very dependent on the individual perspectives of these groups of characters: understanding them is crucial to understanding the plot properly.

The books also draw connections between characters who belong to different groups. Alice is something like Jessica and also like Jane. Carlisle and Sam share similarities. Emmett and Felix. Rosalie and Leah. Emily and Esme. Some of these, especially Rosalie and Leah, come in most in Breaking Dawn. They help us understand the characters as individuals and also to move toward the final book moment when everyone is able to draw together on one side, realizing that their differences aren't so very great.

Some concerns I have about the movie are, of course, about how it will deal with the "mind" thing. More than any of the previous books, Breaking Dawn includes many conversations that take place either half or fully in the mind. You can present a little of this onscreen very simply with voiceover, but too much voiceover would be weird; unless they found a different way to convey it, I can't see that the movie will be able to keep these conversations quite the same. And that would take away from the tone a bit, I think.

Now a note on the Part 1/Part 2 thing. I think it's slightly awkward to split up a book like this. But I guess I should just be glad there's a market to do this for this book; the only other books that usually get a similar treatment are the classics BBC makes into miniseries. Indeed, my favorite version of Jane Eyre is in two parts, each a full movie length; yet I always watch both together as one movie. I felt there was some incongruity with the first of all these Part 1/Part 2 movies floating around right now: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The Hillywood Show did a good job of expressing this in their parody. Part 1 was done well, but didn't really have the moments most people were looking forward to. Part 2 did, but it ended up being almost a whole movie devoted to a finale. That's great when you're a fan, but it gets hard to watch and rewatch. Will Breaking Dawn be similar? In Part 1, will we just be looking forward to Bella waking up to her new life, to our favorites from the piles of characters that will come in Part 2, to seeing the Volturi in action again? In Part 2, will we just get to see the events leading up to the final confrontation?

Even as I write these things, I begin to feel that the splitting won't be much of a problem. The book is already divided into three parts, with a more distinct division at the halfway point. It reminds me of The Lord of the Rings: with all this movie-splitting that's going on, I love to think about how there could have easily been six of those movies instead of three given enough time, money, and energy to do so. Because Breaking Dawn, as I think I mentioned before, is something like the sequel to the trilogy of the first three books; it is separate in its plot and its themes. Even whether or not it was necessary to make two movies out of it, it should work.

These are very random thoughts. I don't think I even addressed very specifically what the movie should include. But sometimes it's better to be more vague, isn't it? If I say, for instance, that I really want the quote on page 284 to be in the movie, I'll just be setting myself up for disappointment. You can't get your way with all the details, so you have to remember what is most important.

Darth Snape

So I was one of those people who had neither read nor watched Harry Potter (unless you count my fourth grade teacher reading the first book to the class). This year, I felt finally that I wanted to be able to have an opinion on the series. So I watched the first six movies. And I realized I was only getting part of the story. So I read all the books in three weeks (quite a feat considering it was in the middle of the spring semester). Then I watched the movies again, finishing with the seventh. That enabled me, two months later, to actually see the final one in theatres.

My opinion of these books is complicated and I won’t go into it here (for now) since I have been over it in my head and in conversation so much already. But I will say this: I enjoyed a few months’ immersion in the series, but I’m definitely not one of the huge fans—even still, I do find interest, like so many other readers before me, in one particular character’s plotline. Naturally, I am referring to Snape. Now, I was also watching Star Wars again this summer, when I found someone with a ridiculous similarity to Snape.


So here is my case for the Darth Vader and Severus Snape comparison.


1) Storyline: George Lucas said that he had envisioned the original series as Darth Vader's story. This is not unlike how many readers consider the book series Snape's story, more so than Harry's.


2) Background: We are first introduced to both characters in a "present" time, before we launch backwards to learn about their real motives. 


3) Love: Enter those real motives. Vader/Anakin, of course, loved Padme, and Snape loved Lily. Both characters could not ever really move past these first, early loves. In fact, both relationships took place at about the same time--ages ten-ish on. The tragic difference is that while Padme did choose Anakin, Lily did not choose Snape. Which leads us to . . . 


4) Power: As a Slytherin, we know Snape has interest in power. Anakin has serious issues with power and control, which ultimately cause him to be taken in by the Emperor; he essentially sacrifices Padme in his very attempt to keep her safe. After this, it seems like he loses his will to maintain any goodness in himself. Now Snape is a little different. His interest in power also led to his interest in a dark force, Voldemort, but at an earlier stage than for Anakin. Snape's choice to follow Voldemort was, it seems, what led Lily not to choose him. So when Snape's actions lead to Lily's death, he, too, is in that awful position of despair. Only he takes quicker action than Vader does.


5) Overthrowing the Evil Guy: It turns out that Darth Vader's character arc really is kind of cool: in the end, he is convinced by his son's unwavering belief in the Good to turn from the life he has been leading and finally overthrow the Emperor. One does wish he could have had this glorious revelation, say, twenty years earlier, but, hey, better late than never. Snape, however, turned to Dumbledore as soon as he knew Lily was in danger, which put him on the "good side" from much earlier on. I will admit that you can argue that this is exactly what Anakin did when he listened to the Emperor's words and did as he instructed just to keep Padme safe, but, no, I still think that Anakin was more unstable than Snape. Neither one has the best concept of Good/Evil, it is true, but Anakin's a little more scatterbrained and less focused than Snape, I think.


6) Visually: We can't leave out the fact that both these characters wander around in black robes/capes that billow out behind them. Both make imposing figures, in their own way. And you might just be able to say that the literal mask Vader wears is akin to the figurative mask Snape wears when he goes about his day as a double agent.


7) The Others: Let's not forget to match up the characters that surround them. I've already said that Padme is to Lily and the Emperor is to Voldemort. You can add in Obi Wan to Dumbledore, as well. And don't forget Luke to Harry--although Harry is not actually Snape's son, there is just as much of a connection there (if not more) as between Luke and Anakin. James Potter gets left out entirely, unless you say that he shares traits with Obi Wan (think Anakin's jealousy of him). The trio of Luke, Leia, and Han Solo is not entirely different from that of Harry, Hermione, and Ron--at least you can say that both trios include the hero and the two buddies who end up "together." Let's see, then there's Jabba the Hut to Mundungus Fletcher and R2D2 to Dobby and Chewbacca to Lavender Brown . . . maybe I should stop now, eh?