Of This and Other Worlds

And all of them are of a Doctor Who nature. How very neat and topical!

First, my result on the Companion Quiz:

( I could not be happier with this, personally )

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Then there is the Dalek Pumpkin, which has to be one of the best ideas ever. Once you've looked at the design specs, make sure to watch the YouTube video of it trundling around the kitchen. I want one RIGHT NOW.

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Finally, a conversation in calapine's journal inspired me with a highly amusing new theory regarding Rose. Unfortunately, it kind of depends on the Big Finish audios being canon, but that's not too much of a stretch really, is it? Especially with BF stories being adapted for New Who, and all those canonical actors doing the voices.

Anyway, I hereby propose that Rose is Nine's subconscious attempt to find a substitute for Charley.

( Explanation, with spoilers for 'Scherzo' and all three seasons of New Who )

Seriously, though, it makes at least as much sense as some of the other theories I've seen out there. I like it. *nods emphatically*

People are asking me what I thought of Deathly Hallows, and I don't want to disappoint them, but the fact is, I feel like I need to re-read it to decide how I ultimately feel about it. Yet I have no desire to re-read it any time soon, so that makes me feel like I'd better just keep my mouth shut. In the meantime I'm afraid you'll have to put me down as "ambivalent".

I will say, however, that I am pleased and surprised that in my Snapefic "If We Survive" (which is SO NOT CANON otherwise, alas) I anticipated by more than five years the idea of ( SPOILER )

I was also right about ( MOAR SPOILERS PLS )

And with regard to the deaths in general: ( Spoilers -- O RLY? )

Finally, some things I really did love: ( Guess what's under here? )

So there, some thoughts. Not a full review, but better than nothing, right?

I just thought of another piece of evidence for the ( spoilery ) theory. It's stated on this page at the official Harold Saxon site that Lucy studied Italian at university.

Italian. Italy. Rome.

Seriously, if Lucy is not ( that girl ), then RTD & Co. are deliberately messing with the Old Skool fen just for kicks. In which case they are SO MEEN and need to be smacked. Stop getting our hopes up, people!

I am now all out of spoilers, so these are based on nothing but speculation and gut instinct. However, I feel confident that in the last two episodes of S3 we will see at least one, probably more, of the following:

( Enter at your own risk )

How likely do you think it is that I've got at least three of the above right? I'm thinking the odds are pretty good.

Now it's your turn. What are your predictions?

Want to hear my cracked-out Heroes theory?

( It's about Mr. Muggles! )

In other news: spent two hours lying in bed. Couldn't sleep. Still feel like crud. Going to have a shower now.

So there I was getting the baby ready for bed tonight, not thinking about anything in particular, tra la la, when all of a sudden I was mugged by two humongous HP plot bunnies. Did you think I'd pretty much forgotten about HP for the time being and was just sitting here waiting for Book 7? I bet you did. I know I did.

( The premise of the first and lesser bunny )

However, the second one really freaked me out when I thought of it, and the more I thought about it from various angles the more fearfully plausible it became, until I began to think that if JKR doesn't do something along these lines in Book 7 I won't just be disappointed, I'll actually be surprised. I ran it past lizbee and cesario and they agreed that it was definitely worth posting for public consumption, so here it is, ( the plot bunny that ate the fandom )

So there you have it. Fire away.

I just watched this again to see if it was as eyebuggingly, earwormingly horrific as I remembered, and yes, yes it was. I think the cracked-out dancing girls may actually be the worst bit, because dude, the choreography. Anyway, the only way I could make the pain go away was to share it, once more, with the rest of you:

The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.

In other and completely unrelated news (unless you think that Leonard Nimoy reminds you of Snape, which is possible in a random sort of way), I have actually started writing a post-HBP Snape/Maud fic, to serve as a more canonical alternative to the now-AU If We Survive.

I've been moving toward a less romanticized portrayal of Snape for a while -- you can see it in "Cold Water" and "Bewitching the Mind, Ensnaring the Senses", both of which were written after OotP. But the "Spinner's End" chapter of HBP was, in a strange way, comforting and confirming to me: it showed that I hadn't been that far off the mark in guessing what Snape might be like, how he might converse, in a situation where he was on reasonably civil terms with the others present and his hatred of James Potter & Co. wasn't uppermost on his mind. (Plus, so totally Snape pulling the wool over Bellatrix's eyes and manipulating the situation to play out with his and Dumbledore's planned endgame, but I digress.) So while Snape is certainly not any normal person's idea of a good date, and I can no longer imagine him in a situation like the one I wrote in IWS Ch. 3 (pity, as I rather liked that crimson turtleneck), I still don't think he is hopelessly screwed up when it comes to all human relationships.

Anyway, the fic. Don't worry, it's short -- I have not completely parted ways with sanity. But the challenge of writing Snape again, given what we now know of his personality, was too tempting to resist. lizbee and cesario have seen the little bits I've written so far and seem to think they're all right, so I shall continue as time and responsibilities permit, and hope to have something to post here soon.

Well, lizbee, Melanie a.k.a. DrummerGirl, and anyone else I've forgotten who attempted without success to persuade me of the virtues (or at least the plausibility) of a certain ship over the years... I repent in sackcloth and ashes.

( Reactions to Part III of the TLC/MuggleNet Interview )

And now that I have impressed you all with my maturity, I shall wander off and work some more on my fic.

Or, in other words, the refined version of the theories I've been expounding on for the past week or so, in one handy linkable place (for those of you who've been asking if they could link). Thanks to everyone who contributed suggestions, objections, and questions for me to answer -- the idea has been much improved and refined in the process.

( The [Hor]crux of the Matter: An Essay With Many Spoilers )

I'm still working on refining the ideas stated in the previous post and tying in various bits of data as people remind me of them, including ( spoilers ), so hopefully nobody will mistake the ideas I've stated so far for a proper systematic essay on the subject.

When I have time I hope to set things down more clearly and answer the various questions people have raised, so it might be a good idea to wait until I've made that post before linking to it (as several folks have asked if they could do).

However, if you want to go ahead and link now, that's fine as well -- just so anyone coming here realizes that what they're looking at is basically me thinking out loud and working my way through the evidence in bits and pieces, as opposed to a well-rounded and coherent argument of the sort I hope to present later.

Thanks to everybody's who's thrown in their questions, additions, agreements and objections so far! I haven't had so much fun in HP fandom for a long time.

And now I shall be gone all day, so those waiting for more info will have to wait until Monday, I'm afraid. Sorry!