tinyplasticdinos

Did you miss any of these new neopoint items this week?

 

Weapons

Earth Faerie Shield | Water Faerie Shield
See this item in the Battlepedia! | See this item in the Battlepedia!

Spooky Food

Angry Marshmallows | Disgruntled Candy Corn

School Supplies

Celery Pen | Carrot Pen

Wearable


Spilled Spaghetti

Fresh Food

Electric Nachos | Electric Taco

Oh my gosh, this petpet would be adorable with a Halloween pet! Look at the glowing eyes ^__^

Out of curiosity, who is everyone's least favorite and favorite character and why? Just to throw around some thoughts before my next reading and my ranking of the characters.

 

 

1) Snape. Yes, yes, he was acting as a spy all those years for the memory of the woman he pined for (and indirectly killed). Blah, blah, blah. He's still a cruel person, and I think Dumbledore was wrong for letting him anywhere near children. I don't like bullies, and Snape was one. I'm not talking about how he treated Harry, either, because I could understand if it were just Harry (it'd still be wrong, and I still think he shouldn't have been allowed to be Harry's teacher), but he also bullies Neville (and I'm sure every single other child who's a little slow or a little different). Teachers are supposed to protect the unpopular kids from bullies, not be the bully. Snape even knew what it was like to be bullied himself, and yet he utterly lacked empathy -- not just for Neville, but once he got inside Harry's head and saw how awful his early life had been, he could only use it to poke at him, rather than seeing their commonalities. He's also blatantly unfair and delights in cruelty; he invented the bullying spell levicorpus -- not to mention Sectumsempra. He only loved one person in his entire life, and sure, he died trying to redeem himself and fulfill his promise to protect her progeny's life (because apparently Harry's mental well-being didn't matter to Snape, as long as the boy lived)... but it's just not enough to make me like him. Plus, "look at me" was just way too creepy.

 

2) Hmm. Actually, Snape might be it. Excluding the ones you're obviously supposed to dislike, like Umbridge, Voldemort, the Malfoys, Fudge, Slughorn, the Dursleys, Marietta Edgecombe (okay, Hermione, that was a bit cruel to permanently disfigure her face), etc.

 

THANK YOU! I absolutely abhor Snape because he was a bully. He was nasty to the young children he was supposed to be teaching and mentoring. It was unwarranted, even in Harry's case. Harry had no control over the action of his parents. "He looks like his dad/reminds Snape of his mom" is not a reason to torment a child. Snape is a full grown man. He had no reason to act vindictively toward an eleven year old boy. But he didn't just stop with Harry. He was merciless toward Neville, and in the instance when Hermione's teeth were enlarged he didn't uphold the school rules like he should have, instead he was nasty toward her and claimed he "saw no difference". That is not an admirable individual. Being a strict but just professor would have in no way compromised his position as a double agent. It's just disgusting to me, and I wasn't convinced by his bid for redemption either. :/

 

I don't know that I would put Mrs. Malfoy in the same category as the others. I think she was calculating from the beginning as far as ensuring her son's safety, and I think that's admirable. I don't like that she enabled Lucius to do the things he did, but I don't believe for a moment that she was invested in the cause past putting on a front to keep Draco safe.

Aww, look at the precious eyes on those flotsam plushies! I don't need a reason to start an endless plushie collection, but seeing them in the updates sure makes it tempting!

I am looking to quick sale a Magical Pirate Krawk Plushie. It goes to the first person who offers 430k pure on the trade!

I did the virtual tour when it first came out and I'm so in love! none of my RL friends are as crazy about HP as me (except maybe my cousin.. LOL), so I doubt I could get any of them to go with me. and you have no idea how much the idea of a TDN meetup appeals to me! I'm so upset because I'm working next weekend and there's a Chive meetup going on about 7 hours away from me next Thursday =( I may just have to consider this Orlando trip for sure =) =)

 

You definitely have to keep me in the loop if you do start planning to head down! :D

 

In a slight shift in topic, what is everyone's Hogwarts house and why? (No mixed houses (Gryffinpuff etc) because that's cheating ;))

 

For a while I was pretty down with Slytherin, not because I feel like I'm the next big bad but because of qualities like being cunning and clever. But when I joined Pottermore I was actually sorted into Ravenclaw! At first I was like 'whaaa?' but after I read the detailed description of the house and history, I am 100% sold. Blue and bronze, baby!

Are you limited to only NP items or can you buy/trade for NC items as well?

The wig and shower on this are NC, but look fairly easy to find. (click through for live/list)

"You have given Red Poogle Morphing Potion to User 'azurazebra'. Click the button below to continue."

 

"You have given Striped Paint Brush to User 'azurazebra'. Click the button below to continue."

Good luck obtaining your dreamies! It's a long process, but it's worth it in the end :)

Did you miss any of these new neopoint items this week?

 

Food

Plain Crackers | Extra Fancy Crackers

Books

How to Roll Cheese | 1001 Types of Cheese

Plushies

Woodland Cybunny Plushie | Woodland Uni Plushie

Toys

Faerie Techo Plushie Collectable Charm | Faerie Buzz Plushie Collectable Charm



Snorkle Balloon | Noil Balloon

Qasalan Food

Aubergine Salad | Aubergine Casserole

Space Armor

Solar Flare Shield| Nebula Force Generator
See this item in the Battlepedia! | See this item in the Battlepedia!

There is a user named whenlife and they send people the item "lemon." They sent one our staff members the item and she sent him back lemonade.

 

There was like 100 lemons in this guys gallery and 1 lemonade in it (from our fabulous staff member)... so everyone else just sent the lemon back to whenlife hahaha

 

I thought it was brilliant and amazing.

 

One of my fav galleries. Now this user has a bunch of other lemon items in it - which other users sent him in return.

 

That is so friggin' cool! I am dying over that idea. Brilliance.

Yes! Aly's Angry Assortment is super fantastic. She's just got an awesome theme to her neopia life in general, all of her pets are great too and she's a super fun person. Definitely one of the best galleries I've seen.

@Austin++ for your excellent choice in music. I'm sorry I missed the serenade, I bet it was awesome.

But I do have to ask.. has anyone visited the HP theme park yet? I've added that to my bucket list.. just waiting for someone to share the experience with =)

 

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is incredibly cool! I went for the first time this past Christmas and I literally teared up as we were approaching Hogwarts. The area is a little smaller than I expected, but what does exist is utterly fantastic. (And they're going to be building a Diagon Alley area soon, cue the uncontrollable screams of joy!!) I won't go into details because I really feel like a huge part of the enjoyment is seeing things first hand and noticing all of the little things yourself (I obsessively read about it online and looked at pictures and still was blown away by a bunch of things people didn't mention online). I will say the first day you are there get to the park early. During busier times of the year the HP section of the park will fill to capacity and they will actually block it off and not allow more people in. My siblings and I actually went up during the morning the first day and basked in the glory and took tons of pictures, waited a ridiculously long time to ride the Hogwarts ride, and then split. We spent the day exploring the rest of the park (There is a Marvel section, a Dr. Seuss secion, AND a Jurassic Park section, you'll be busy!) Then we came back at nighttime, and it was practically empty. That is when we ate at the Three Broomsticks, looked in all of the shops, and rode all of the rides a ton. All of the kids were in bed and the employees seemed more relaxed and willing to chat with us, it was a great experience. My brother and I are actually going to live in Orlando for the next few years for school, so we'll be frequenting it for sure! (and if you do plan to come down you'll have to hit me up! TDN meetup ftw :D)

 

Anyway, for the last book, I was staying with my other sister for the summer, and wanted to make a costume for the last book party to kill some time. Since I have thick curly hair, I decided to go for Bellatrix rather than Hermione (the OotP film had just come out). I was the only Bellatrix there, and I got so many freebies from the bookstore!

 

YOU LOOK AMAZING! (!!!)

 

I absolutely love "No I'm Hermione polyjuiced as Bellatrix" line, ten points to Gryffindor for your cleverness. ;)

 

I am not saying that people should be excluded from being a Harry Potter fan because they haven't read the books. Like I said before, I am enjoy the Warner Brothers franchise and what it has done to bring the story to life. It's great if people want to join a college quidditch team or make movie scarves and sell them on etsy. It brings the magic to life in whole new forms! But here is where we have a missed connection:

Yes, books and movies are different. (gasp!!) Your post very thoroughly explores just how different they are, which is to be expected. You get more time with the characters in books. More development, more plot, etc etc. The movies aren't as deep and don't go into the full story of the book, but that is okay. You can say that the movie plot is incoherent to non-book fans all you want, but that is not true.

You are saying the exact same thing I am saying. The movies and the books are different. You do not get the time with the characters, the plot details, the intricacies, the underlying themes and subtleties that JKR intended for readers to have and experience. Movie watchers understand the movie plots, but the plots in the movies are not the same as the plots in the books. Therefore it's not an understanding of the original story.

At it's heart, Harry Potter is a story about a boy who enters the world of magic, makes friends, learns spells, and defeats the dark lord. Yeehaw.

It's also a story about deconstructing social norms, deep seated racism in a culture and the affect that spans over multiple generations, violent oppression and brutal war time, the extreme power of love -- none of which is properly conveyed in the movies. When you consume an off shoot of something without consuming the original format your thing becomes different from the original thing.

If your only experience with Neopets is playing "The Darkest Faerie" on PS2, you are going to have a different view of Neopets than someone who plays on the website daily. People who only watch Veggie Tales without reading the Bible are going to have some interesting things to say about the story of Noah (Like how does a cucumber pick things up without hands?!). So, when your only experience with Harry Potter is the movies you have the Hollywood version of things, with many degrees of separation from the the book story. Thus making it a different thing.

I am not supporting exclusion, in anyway. And frankly I don't get how you made that jump. I am extremely critical of the movies, yes. But I embrace inclusion in all forms and I am more than happy to squeal about being a Ravenclaw with a movie-only fan or go to the Harry Potter theme park with my mom who only experience Harry Potter through me. But my question then is if you have the basis of people enjoy the movies and the universe, why wouldn't you want to encourage people to read the books? Because they are a better experience than the movie alone, and having the in depth knowledge does make it that much more magical.

And that's where the conversation started. Converting movie-only people into full-fledged book reading, wand wielding, chocolate frog eating Potterheads. No one's talking exclusion of movie-only people. Criticism of the poorly planned movie franchise? Yes. Less love for those fans who weren't reading the books from day one? Never.

I doubt this is the case. I checked Neojetter's profile and found this:

Munchy the Yellow Taigar

(2155 days and 9 hours old)

 

[ Zapped by the Petpet Lab Ray ]

 

Like I said, I wanted to mention it so the owner didn't find themselves in hot water. Good to know that's not that case :)

Petpet: Munchy the Yellow Taigar

 

Just so you know, it's against TNT's rules to include a petpet in order to increase the "worth" of the pet you're trading. It's okay if you're just mentioning the petpet because you will be leaving it on the pet, but you cannot ask for or expect compensation. I just mention this because Yellow Taigars are fairly expensive so I was unsure of your intent.

I would just like to say that only watching the movies doesn't make anyone less of a fan, and doesn't mean that a person doesn't understand what's going on, or the plot. The movies did a very good job of capturing the plot and themes of the books and keeping them coherent in movie format (ie: cutting some beloved but nonessential characters and plotpoints). Of course the movies aren't perfect, but they're pretty damn good and if someone doesn't want to spend countless hours reading the books, then I won't begrudge them. Also I want to point out I'm not angry with you or anything, you're entitled to your opinion. I just think it's annoying when people belittle other fans, or create imaginary criteria for being a true fan. If someone likes harry potter, then they like harry potter. We're all just nerds who love magic and flying brooms. Oh and that video is awesome!! I'm surprised I haven't seen it before. It's always awesome to find new fanmade stuffs!!!

 

I am going to have to politely, but strongly, disagree. Watching only the movies makes you a fan of the movies. It is an entirely different experience to read (or listen to!) the books and watch the movies. The movies did not in fact keep the plot and themes of the book coherent in movie format. They cut major plot points and character developments, which makes the plot incoherent to people who have not read the books. This is something that people who have read the books cannot wrap their heads around, because we do know the bigger, detailed story of the books and we fill in the blanks that people who only watch the movies cannot.

 

In the movies the character of Harry is made into a brooding jerk. He is completely lacking the witty sarcasm and personality that makes him the lovable hero that the entire series revolves around. What is his motivation for refusing Draco's friendship? Why don't we see his deep, true love for the Weasley family, Sirius Black, and Hagrid? Do we get to see just how good he is at DADA, and just how pathetic he is at Potions until he finds the book previously owned by the Half Blood Prince? No. The story telling of who he is as a person is choppy so that bits and pieces of these aspects are present, but not enough that non-book readers completely understand.

 

Ginny is cut down to next to nothing in the movies, as well. In the books she is smart, strong-willed, determined, and a true match for Harry. She shows magical aptitude, fierce Gryffindor loyalty, and casts a mean bat-boogey hex. In the movies she's a simpering pretty girl, who barely says two words in any situation. I would venture to say that based on word count Ginny speaks less than Dobby in the movies. The most acting Bonnie Wright ever gets to do as Ginny is look like a wide-eyed doe in the presence of the great Harry Potter. And that's a darn shame because Ginny is an awesome character.

 

Dumbledore's complex character is so compressed in the movies he's almost unrecognizable. He is meant to be grandfatherly, wise beyond the ages, and one of the most powerful wizards in the world. In the movies his personality is lacking the quirks that make him lovable, leaving him to come off as almost distant and calculating. The full scope of his character being cut down also takes more casualties with him, such as Nicholas Flammel (there is minimal mention of him in the first movie, so much so that his part in the origin of the Sorcerer's Stone is not clear), the story of Dumbledore's brother and sister, and the important back story of Grindelwald. The omission of the last point changes the reason for the trio to go looking for horcruxes completely. Instead of going out with the knowledge of what they are looking for and why, the trio seemingly wanders around with no direction trying to find things they know nothing about.

 

And though it is true that minor characters do generally take cuts when books become movies, the cuts made to characters such as Remus Lupin, Narcissa Malfoy, and the basic non-existence of Mrs. Figg change the story line drastically. They all have background roles in the development of Harry's life, and without the full scope of what they do the story begins to have gaping holes.

 

But if that isn't enough, for the later movies the entire thing starts to become unrecognizable.

 

Take Order of the Phoenix for example. It was a joke. They failed to capture how truly evil and dangerous Umbridge was and instead decided to have quirky montages of Filch and Draco trying to get into the Room of Requirement. While the book was a serious, and almost dark affair, the movie decided to go in a whimsical direction that did a huge disservice to the story. Additionally they completely changed the events that lead up to Harry and his friends going to the Ministry, taking away the rock solid reasons that Harry was concerned and determined to save his godfather, and instead making him take a stupid risk for no reason. The importance of the members of Dumbledore's Army was downplayed as well, so instead of being determined young wizards and witches who were doing what they thought was right, they were dumb teenagers following their dumb friends into danger.

 

None of this means that I don't enjoy the movies. I find it thrilling to see Hogwarts and the magical world come to life. I think Maggie Smith is a perfect McGonagall, and you can bet that when the new HP section of Universal opens I will spill blood to be there on opening day. But I appreciate the movies for what they are, not what I want to pretend they are. And just like you wouldn't claim lions are the exact same thing as tigers, I don't think people who only watch the movies have the same understanding of the world of Harry Potter like people who have read the books.

Pre-paid visa cards would work just fine, but they aren't reloadable so you would have to deal with that when it was time to pay again.

So I decided to try my hand at the BC, and this is what I came up with! I'm pretty proud of it, and if you wouldn't mind sparing a chomby vote it would be much appreciated! Vote link is right here, or in my signature. :)

Follow TDN every where she says...here comes the mob!

 

I have to admit that I like Drarry as well! I've written a few pieces of Drarry and one Dramione that I kept, but they're mature, so I won't link to them.

 

I think I'm gonna have an artsy night tonight when I get off work.. do some sketches and maybe crank out some drabble =)

 

Err, yes. I didn't link to a mature fic, I swear >.>

 

(I should be better at this, I am on staff...)

 

But if you have an account you keep your stuff on somewhere I'd totally love for you to PM me so I can check it out :D

 

My ships were mainly Sirius/Remus and Luna/Ginny. :D Though, I admit to liking some dark Harry/Voldemort fics. :O

 

Oh man, I can't read Voldemort in anything. You are a brave soul.

Right now your pet should look like this:

 

And when you use the baby paint brush it will turn into this:

 

So the constant is the pet breed, and the color won't carry over if you make it a baby. The same applies when you paint it something other than baby, it reverts to being a larger Xweetok and becomes the new color. Baby is a color of it's own :)

my question is: does anyone have any favorite ships outside of canon? for instance, I'm quite the Dramione shipper! =P

 

 

EDIT! I just discovered Pottermore... between that and Neopets, I'm not going to have a life! oh, and my UN is DragonHazel10475 if anyone is interested =)

 

I am an avid Drarry shipper. It's summer which means fest season! I have a few friends who will be writing all summer now, I'm stoked to read what they write. One of my friends wrote "Here's a pencil make it work" for the last ever HD Hols, and it's probably my favorite thing I've read lately.

 

I also ship Sirius/Remus, but I refuse to believe that wasn't canon. :P

 

As far as Pottermore goes, I think it's a really interesting idea but they took way too long to open it. I think they lost a lot of their momentum and I don't find it to be a compelling place that I want to frequent like I do Neopets.

Oh, I too am digging the eye shadow! I'm not big on faeries so the other stuff isn't my cuppa, but I'll have to keep an eye out for the shadow.

Yokonita the Grey Grundo up for quick adoption! Neomail me @tinyplasticdinos, pretty much first come first serve because I need room!

 

Pounded! Hopefully she finds a good home :)