Vi

I usually hate remakes myself, so I do get where they are coming from, but the thing is:

This is NOT a remake and the films are NOT the original work! The originals are the books, and both the films and tv show are just different adaptations of those books. Full stop!

It happens to every single popular book or book series. Why would Harry Potter be different?

Take Louisa May Alcott’s book “Little women”, for instance. How many adaptations are there? Well, I’ll tell you, because I bothered to Google it:

- Six different film adaptations!

- Four different tv series (one of them being animated);

- A ballet adaptation;

- An opera adaptation;

- Two Broadway plays;

In the Harry Potter case, the new adaptation isn’t even a film, it’s a tv show, a totally different format, a totally different media!

And I absolutely get why people are mad about Snape being black. I also don’t like the fact that Vernon, Dudley and Neville are skinny. I’d much rather see the characters as they are described in the books. That was what I wanted to see. But what really matters is that they capture the essence of the characters (which, let’s be honest, almost no one in the films did, and Snape is one of the biggest examples).

I started reading the books in 2002. I became a fan because of the third book (Prisoner of Azkaban) and later the fifth one (Order of the Phoenix). Can you imagine how robbed I felt by the films? I mean, despite everything, PoA is still my favourite HP film, but in OotP, they cut literally ALL the moments I loved the most in the book except from the twins’ fireworks.

So, everyone who is hating on the tv adaptation should just think that the films are not going anywhere, and that even before they were born, there were already people reading the books and wishing for something more faithful after watching the films. 🥹

So, yes, show me book Snape (in essence, not looks! Rickman didn’t have the looks either and was 60 years old!!)

Show me book Lupin (I’m a huge fan of David Thewlis, and he performed a true miracle being able to capture his essence with the little text and the mixed directions he was given, but where’s his story?)

Show me book Tonks, not the special extra with 9 lines they turned her into in the movies!

Show me book Ron! (I love film Ron, but those are two different people)

Show me book Ginny! (Do I have to say anything?)

Show me book Sirius (Heck, even Gary Oldman himself says he would have played him a lot differently had he read the books before filming!!)

If you’re totally happy with the movies, great for you, keep enjoying them (I will too!), but please, let us book fans watch the characters we read about and fell in love with!

Like 2 or 3 years after having Harry, a daughter, Violet or some other flower name to carry on Lily's family tradition, middle name Effie, after her grandmother. She kind of looks like Lily, but with James' hair and eye color.

Then maybe a year later another son, Andrew, maybe after Lily's dad, who knows. He is the one who gets his mom's hair color, but James' eyes still. Harry remains the only one to have Lily's eyes.

Harry grows up with built-in friends in his house, surrounded by love, everyday is games and jokes and occasionally breaking something and getting scolded for it.

He develops a very natural older brother attitude, looking after his sibilings and sometimes being the voice of reason (but sometimes not, and it seems like a genuinely wonderful idea to the three of them to fly off the roof in a broom or something)

james: wait. just one more kiss, please?

lily: baby, i'm going to be late for class

james: but i was a good boy today... just one more?

lily: ... fine

so. after the war, he buys ever single beatles record ever. he doesn't actually know which songs james liked, but he guesses that probably the ones he likes, he would too. he is able to connect with his dad as a person, having something so mundane to hold onto.

one day, he is home alone, so he puts on a record. double fantasy by john lennon and yoko ono. and everything's fine, until.

he hears the opening chords to beautiful boy and his body has a reaction. he starts sobbing inexplicably. so he replays it, over and over again until he falls asleep.

he dreams of james, bent over a crib, singing softly to a baby while the song plays in the background. he feels james kissing his temple, he feels it in his hands, the way the soft hair in the nape of james' neck felt beneath his baby hands. he visualizes soft, brown eyes and a dimple on a left cheek, just like his own. a house where there was laughter and music, a home, if only for a year.

Harry’s First Birthday

So, firstly, I love the way Marissa kinda leaves more of the description of places to the characters interpretation of the space then just like....what I call "dumping the author pov" and running. We see how Cinder views the market where she runs her stall and her perception of it a few different times, with different conclusions that can be drawn each time. For example, we get the idea in her first scene that while her workshop is cluttered and messy, it is uniquely hers, and a space she feels the most comfortable in (probably because Adri could most likely never be bothered to make her way down there herself). While Cinder feels pressure for knowing that most of the nearby shopkeepers dont like her stall, it's less overall about the stall itself and moreso about her in general (those in the know anyway). And Cinder doesnt really mind (comparatively) that her space may bother others. She's only really self conscious at all when Kai shows up, which is very 16 yr old girl of her - and not about what her shop looks like (if she is self conscious about that, it comes up later. In the moment shes more worried about Kai finding out shes a cyborg).

I think Cinder and Kai's first interaction not being the (in my opinion) very overdone "love (lust) at first sight" was 100% the right call, and I wouldnt even say by the end of the book theyre in love either, just two people in a very rough situation with some feelings for each other that due to circumstances out of their control, cant be presently explored fully. Which is why their love story takes 4.5 books and a short story collection. From what I remember I really like the pacing of their relationship across the series, and I really hope thats not a nostalgia lenses thing.

Iko is, as always, a joy and she is in my Top 3 characters, that likely will not change on my reread. Her getting dismantled by Adri made me cry when I first read Cinder, and if it had been even a little later at night when I finished my reread I wouldve cried again. Theres something so poetic about her character that I really like, and will get into as my reread goes on.

Kai. Apparently he's contentious right now but I cant really figure out why? He's a pretty regular and well adjusted teenager given the fact that hes a prince and heir to an empire that spans like...a quarter of the globe. Which, btw was not the best world building move on Marissa's part, but Ill let someone more qualified than me talk about why having all of Asia united under one empire is kinda...sketchy to put it very mildly. I have the same problem with all the country-empire style-govt. bodies actually, but given that New Beijing is the setting for this book it's the one that stands out as the most glaring.

Moving on.

I read in a post somewhere that Marissa didnt know Cinder would be Princess Selene until like, the end of her drafts of Cinder and Scarlet and Im not completely shocked, but Im also a little surprised. I agree with the consensus that it couldnt really be Cress or Scarlet. I just dont think the tragedy would have the same weight, and I really like their characters as is. Cinder just seems set up the best for the role, which probably came up later in revisions of her drafts. That ending scene with Cinder and Dr Erland feels different from the rest of the book in a way I cant really explain. A bit heavy handed of a call to action, but far from the worst way it couldve been done.

Overall the book is still on of my fav of all time, if not necessarily my favorite of the series (again, really like multiple POVs). But it was way more fun than I remember it being, given that I maybe reread it 3 times tops, compared to Scarlet which I must have reread at least a dozen.

I completely agree with the description of places; especially when cinder first wakes up in the lab after she gets forcefully taken in for the cyborg draft. To dr erland, it's a place that's professional, sterilised for exploiting cyborgs. But to cinder? she panics, because it's dehumanising her, making her more of a machine than a teenaged girl, and she hates it more than anything. "Cinder hated it. Hated Adri. Hated the mad voice behind the mirror. Hated the nameless people who had turned her into this." (ch. 8). It's a place where she believes she's going to be subjected to inhumane experiments before she eventually dies and gets thrown out like a broken object.

100% agree on cinder and kai's relationship spanning across 4.5 books, because they genuinely don't know ANYTHING about each other. cinder doesn't tell kai about her being a cyborg or lunar (when she finds out), and why should she when cyborgs are treated like 2nd class citizens? this guy is the son of the emperor who approved of the Cyborg Protection Act and has stated he hates lunars. of course, that all changes during cress, where he's had 3 books to realise that, yeah cinder is a cyborg, but she's still human, and yeah she may be lunar, but he has hope that she isn't like them at all.

I love iko so much, and I cried when we find out she gets dismantled by adri. she's such a complex character that I don't know if people realise, but her wanting to be human, her independent thoughts and opinions outside of her "faulty" programming, is what makes her so interesting. she feels so much like a human that you forget she's technically an object, property of the linh's, and she hates it whenever she's reminded of that fact.

while I do agree that kai should've been developed more, his conflicting feelings for cinder, responsibilities as the new emperor, and attempts to stop levana from becoming the earthen union's dictator, is what I enjoyed during his povs. he wants to be a good emperor, wants to do what is in his empire's best interest, but he also wants to be a teenaged boy who falls in love with a girl, he wants to be properly ready for when the time comes. we see him clearly struggling with his identity, and in my opinion, makes him a great character.

no comment on eastern commonwealth ruling all of asia. that's for another time 💀

the last chapters between dr erland and cinder, while it was slightly jarring compared to the whole book, I think it was the best way to properly set up the tone of the rest of the series. we don't truly understand the stakes until that scene, until we find out that cinder is princess selene, and that she's the best person to stop a war between earth and luna. I'm grateful that the whole book allowed us time to be familiar with the world, to fall in love with these characters and their complexities, before hitting us with a toneshift.

-im even more excited than before seeing all the care and detail thats going into it!! i cant wait for chistmas

-HOLY SHIT the animatronics WHAT HOW!? i kinda wanna own a biting scabbers tbh

-love the magic + nature concept

-the kids are wonderful but alastair in particular is just soooo so freaking perfect AND IM SO HAPPY. ITS WHAT RON DESERVES

-I WANTED IT TO BE LONGER but also not bc i dont wanna get too spoiled

-no FG at all :( im gonna explode when they actually show up anywhere

artwork by our lord and savior @blvnk-art 🤍

WINNERS ROUND-UP

Favourite Canon Compliant (Short) 2025: Winner: Afterglow by @yallthemwitches Runners Up: falling like snow on an august winter night by @caslyra & two weeks too long by @missgryffin

Favourite Canon Compliant (Long) 2025: Winner: Method Acting by @yallthemwitches Runner Up: Catch the Wind: The Remastered Edition by @yallthemwitches

Favourite Canon Divergent (Short) 2025: Winner: Oh My God, She's Insane by @annabtg Runner Up: then yes by @gigglesandfreckles-hp

Favourite Canon Divergent (Long) 2025: Winner: one more time now, with feeling by @gigglesandfreckles-hp Runners Up: once more to see you by @juniperpyre & The Prophet's Fable by @petalsonparchment

Favourite Alternate Universe (Short) 2025: Winners: terms of engagement by @gigglesandfreckles-hp & In The Right Position by @yallthemwitches Runner Up: I Want You (She's So Heavy) by @jfleamont

Favourite Alternate Universe (Long) 2025: Winners: i don’t know why i like you (but i do) by @firefeufuego, it's brighter now by @gigglesandfreckles-hp & December's Valentine by @stonecoldhedwig *No runner up because of the 3-way tie

Favourite Microfic 2025: Winner: On the Battlefield by @formerlympp Runner Up: tea & talking by @juniperpyre

Favourite Fluff 2025: Winner: December's Valentine by @stonecoldhedwig Runner Up: Method Acting by @yallthemwitches

Favourite Angst 2025: Winner: one more time now, with feeling by @gigglesandfreckles-hp Runners Up: i don’t know why i like you (but i do) by @firefeufuego & Catch the Wind: The Remastered Edition by @yallthemwitches

Favourite Smut 2025: Winners: i don’t know why i like you (but i do) by @firefeufuego & In The Right Position by @yallthemwitches Runner Up: No Control by @formerlympp

Favourite Humour/Crack 2025: Winner: Oh My God, She's Insane by @annabtg Runner Up: Knickers On The Ceiling Fan by @petalsonparchment

Favourite James Characterisation 2025: Winner: Method Acting by @yallthemwitches Runner Up: i don’t know why i like you (but i do) by @firefeufuego

Favourite Lily Characterisation 2025: Winner: Method Acting by @yallthemwitches Runner Up: one more time now, with feeling by @gigglesandfreckles-hp

Art of the Year 2025: Winners: Heads in a cupboard by @constancezin & mermaid jily (NSFW) by @lupinflowrs Runner Up: im so normal about them by @daiziesssart

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Commenter of the Year 2025: Winner: @dreaming-irl-sleeping (Tumblr) / Lilith11 (AO3) Runner Up: @livelaughlovetoread

New Author of the Year 2025: Winner: @petalsandantlers Runner Up: @jilyflowers

Author of the Year 2025: Winner: @gigglesandfreckles-hp Runner Up: @yallthemwitches

Fic of the Year 2025: Winner: one more time now, with feeling by @gigglesandfreckles-hp Runners Up: December's Valentine by @stonecoldhedwig & Method Acting by @yallthemwitches

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