The deadline to submit to C&A has passed, however, if you had something in the works and might still finish in the next week or so, you can send it along and take your chances. I'd like to have C&A finished sometime in early August, which means we're working on the layout now, but until it's further along, we can still be flexible.
This is the last post I will make on the zine, though, until it debuts. I still feel like we could have used more full-page art, but I understand that the regular community artists are a bit worn out right now. ~_^
So, if you have something in the works and still want to get it in, you're on borrowed time. No need to ask for an extension or to let me know it's coming - just submit. I'll let you know pretty quickly whether you're too late or not.
***** Snape I have one overwhelming thought about Snape in HBP and it is that he was cheated out of the pinnacle of his character and, arguably, his most important line in the series.
Snape does not scream "I AM NOT A COWARD" at Harry.
Instead of a gloriously bad fight down to the Hogwarts anti-Apparation line, where Snape is still attempting to teach Harry right up until his last second on the grounds, ending in an outpouring of painful emotion that lets us know that Snape knew exactly what he was doing to his reputation, standing and very psyche when he killed Dumbledore, *breathe*
we are given some flat twaddle about Snape being the "how dare you use my spell against me" Half-Blood Prince. BFD, we knew that! I was sure the director was building toward that line because Snape is called a coward throughout the film, but there was no payoff with the actual line.
There's evidence that Rowling and the film-makers are using the movies to course-correct some supposed mis-conceptions the readers have taken from the books. For example, it is hammered home in this film that Harry and Hermione are "just friends, really" and see each other like brother and sister.
I am beginning to wonder if all the coward-talk without the denial is Rowling meddling with perceptions. Will Snape be depicted as a coward throughout the Deathly Hallows movies so that Rowling can drive home her preferred take on the character, despite her very own writing that painted Snape in a slightly more noble, brave light?
Finally, I predict that you will see Snape's funeral in the final DH movie, as Rowling continues to shore up her canon through the movies. I wouldn't be surprised if they go so far as to show a body in a casket, but I bet you will at least get a headstone if not a complete funeral scene.
Remus On one hand, the Remus/Tonks relationship being presented as fact does let us out of a lot of very stupid hand-wringing and bad characterization on both their parts. We can continue to see Tonks as strong here, and not the silly little girl Rowling turned her into - at least, not yet.
On the other hand, we're given a somewhat yell-y Remus and yet more Rowling retconning her own canon by Tonks stating that Remus is just more irritable as his "cycle" begins. In Rowling's Fantastic Beasts, she clearly states that werewolves are completely normal humans every day of the month except on the night or day of the full moon. Even by DH, the only time Rowling has implied that Remus can be wolfy is when Harry thought he saw the wolf rising in Remus' eyes at Grimmauld Place. I believe this new wolfiness of Remus' is a conceit of the movies and lazy writing on Rowling's part. Stay out of our fanon, Rowling!
Thankfully, the one long scene Remus is in includes the most important part of the film:
The Snupin! Yes, we are at least given Christmas at the Burrow, with Remus vehemently defending and declaring his trust in Snape. There's no cauldron of red-hot love in the background, but the defense seems more solid and true when viewed onscreen.
Unfortunately, I don't have the scene memorized, but it did go on longer than it seemed to in the book, mainly because we come in on the argument as it starts and there's none of the Harry meandering his way to the main question, as there is in the book. In fact, there's even more witnesses to Remus' declarations, although Tonks is notably absent from the conversation.
It was an appropriately swoony moment for me in the film, one of the few I didn't give the finger (hey, I needed an outlet!). Tonks can dismiss Remus' passion as part of his "cycle", but we all know who really gets him going. Muahahahahaha!