Author Topic: Worst Witch vs. Harry Potter  (Read 8841 times)

Robot Master

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Worst Witch vs. Harry Potter
« on: November 25, 2010, 11:00:08 AM »
Alright, consider this a milestone. I'm creating my own first topic on these boards. Let's hope it goes well.

Lately my facebook has been filled to the ass with people raving on and on about how great the new Harry Potter movie is. I have never really been a gigantic Harry Potter fan-boy for a few reasons:

1. I reserve my absolute fanboy obsession for things that strike a deep nostalgia within me. Thusly, I am a "fanboy" of Star Wars, Transformers, the X-men, Dungeons and Dragons...ie all shit that I was into when I was a kid. I'm not trying to be too opinionated but I just can't become a super-fanboy for every new thing. New things gotta get their "big-boy britches on first" I guess.

2. While Harry Potter's entertained me when I've watched it and I don't have a lot of bad things to say about it, I'm just not awestruck and floored by how "awesome" J.K. Rowling is because I remember an 80's TV series called "The Worst Witch". I remember watching this as a kid, but there's also tons of YouTube clips online you can go an indulge yourself with. Basically, it's a show about a prestigious witch academy at a super secret castle location where the girls have to wear uniforms, practice riding broomsticks, get into hijinks, and constantly dodge their dark and overbrooding potions teacher.

...now...I know this sounds familiar. Take a closer look...

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>


So...the difference is that it's an all girl's school, the main character is a female, the brooding teacher is a female and that Harry Potter has a bit more plot to it.

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>


So I guess my point is this. While the world around me seems to freak out and J.K. Rowling earns more money than the Queen of England (literally, she has MORE MONEY than the Queen) I feel like I'm this slightly unimpressed guy going: "Uh...hey am I the only one that remembers this? This isn't exactly a new idea, you know?"

HOWEVER THERE IS SOME AWESOME TO BE FOUND HERE...

1. Ms. Garrett from Facts of Life was involved.
2. Fairuza Balk grew up to be hotter than hell.
3. This bomb-ass Tim Curry singing clip, complete with non-awesome 1980's (or circa 2009 Public Access TV) special effects.

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>


-peace.
Thanos: "I am going to sacrifice the Earth to gain the love of Death"
Me: (slowly raise eyebrow) "Destroy the Earth? That would be...illogical"
Vortex: "Yes...that...would be...highly...illogical."
Thanos: "Your Star Trek references bore me."

Joven

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Re: Worst Witch vs. Harry Potter
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2010, 12:38:07 PM »
Wait, Harry Potter has a plot?
I thought it was just, wander around staring in awe of stuff that should be commonplace, learn 1 or 2 spells per year and hope to not be expelled, and sometime near the end stumble upon and then rather haphazardly thwart a Voldemort plot, and throw in a corrupt "defense against the dark arts" teacher (maybe they should stop accepting Lord Voldemort as an acceptable reference when interviewing new teachers for that position?).

Robot Master

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Re: Worst Witch vs. Harry Potter
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2010, 10:57:51 AM »
The only plot credit I give to J.K. Rowling is the Harry vs. Voldemort as destined enemies plot. However, I'm one of those guys that believes that there's really only 10 or so plots used in fiction, they're all just told from different angles. If you look hard enough you'll probably find similar plots in Claremont's run of X-men with some trashy Harlequin romance novel. Harry being yang and Voldemort being yin isn't the first time we've seen that kind of plot. (i.e. Luke/Vader, Hal Jordan/Sinestro, Captain America/Red Skull, Mario/Wario, Daniel LaRusso/Johnny, The Jersey Shore cast/Intelligence, RPPR's Tom/Saving Throws)

Well I just did a search on whether or not there were any lawsuits due to "The Worst Witch" and found that while it doesn't appear that there was a lawsuit for "The Worst Witch" itself, J.K. Rowling has been involved in a a couple of lawsuits claiming copyright infringement of other authors' properties.

Also, this nerd librarian named James Vander Ark made some website (I found this out today) that was a lexicon of everything in the Harry Potter Universe. He then tried to make a print version of the so-called encyclopedia and was sued by J.K. Rowling, who claimed that this encyclopedia was in contention of an encyclopedia that she was planning to release. She then claimed that the "anguish" of the lawsuit sapped her creativity and she isn't going to release that encyclopedia. Eventually VanDerArk's book was released minus some protected content.

To this, Orson Scott Card, creator of the "Ender's Game" series blasted her. I love this.

"This frivolous lawsuit puts at serious risk the entire tradition of commentary on fiction. Any student writing a paper about the Harry Potter books, any scholarly treatise about it, will certainly do everything she's complaining about. Once you publish fiction, Ms. Rowling, anybody is free to write about it, to comment on it, and to quote liberally from it, as long as the source is cited.... She let herself be talked into being outraged over a perfectly normal publishing activity, one that she had actually made use of herself during its web incarnation. Now she is suing somebody who has devoted years to promoting her work and making no money from his efforts -- which actually helped her make some of her bazillions of dollars. Talent does not excuse Rowling's ingratitude, her vanity, her greed, her bullying of the little guy, and her pathetic claims of emotional distress."

I'm going back to sleep now

Thanos: "I am going to sacrifice the Earth to gain the love of Death"
Me: (slowly raise eyebrow) "Destroy the Earth? That would be...illogical"
Vortex: "Yes...that...would be...highly...illogical."
Thanos: "Your Star Trek references bore me."

Joven

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Re: Worst Witch vs. Harry Potter
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2010, 01:29:31 PM »
With that kind of attitude the world is destined to be overran with Carrier Knights.

Maybe she would just been pissed that cataloging the items in the world would lead people to the obvious conclusion that magic in her world is crap.

Her magic system is as well thought out as a bunch of 3rd graders arguing about how that laser blast would never hit them because they had an invisible anti-laser shield which also reflects them, so nuh uh you're the one it hit.

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Mckma

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Re: Worst Witch vs. Harry Potter
« Reply #5 on: November 27, 2010, 09:29:44 PM »
3. This bomb-ass Tim Curry singing clip, complete with non-awesome 1980's (or circa 2009 Public Access TV) special effects.

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>


I love this.  It looks like they went through their animations, said "which one of these might look like someone doing magic?" and then wrote a song specifically around those (the hair turning green is especially relevant to this observation)...