MuggleCast 125 Transcript
Show Intro
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[Show music begins]
Micah: Because Santa brought Jamie back for our holiday show, this is MuggleCast Episode 125 for December 23rd, 2007.
[Show music continues to play]
Andrew: All right the holidays are upon us this week, and Jamie’s back finally.
Jamie: Hey guys, and girls, and…
Andrew: [makes voice deeper] Why are you talking in such a deep voice?
Jamie: I was because I haven’t been here for so long my voice has broken again, which I’ve just disproven…
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: …because I’ve started talking in my normal voice, so that’s a good start.
Andrew: Ah, Jamie. It’s been awhile. A lot of people have missed you.
Jamie: It has been awhile. I’ve missed everyone and the show, and I’ve missed everything. It’s been a tough semester, that’s why. And my internet there is awful.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Seriously, I can’t even tell you how bad it is. It’s very fast. I can download 3-megs-a-second, which, by the way, is awesome. However it doesn’t work, which is dreadful.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: And the internet sucks anyway.
Andrew: Awww. That’s terrible.
Jamie: But yeah, I’m very, very pleased to be back. Very pleased to be back.
Andrew: This isn’t really the best time for you to come back. I mean, because we are in this holiday season, you’re not really a fan of…
Jamie: No, I’m not a fan of this holiday season. I hate commercialization. Matt, do you agree?
Matt: I usually just fast forward through the commercials.
Jamie: No, no, no. I mean…
[Laura laughs]
Jamie: Christmas now is just so – all you seen on TV is “treat you’re family this Christmas.” And it’s like, “Oh, wow! Christmas is in a week, I should really be buying stuff.” Then you remember that it happens next year, and the year after…
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: …and the year after that, and “Oh wow! I don’t have to do anything special this year!” Once you realize that, you realize that it’s just another day.
Matt: It should portray someone who’s poor and depressed.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: Yeah, exactly. Help someone out. Help someone out.
Andrew: Well, we got a great show for everyone. I’m Andrew Sims.
Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Matt: And I’m Matt Britton.
[Show music continues to play]
News
Andrew: Micah Tannenbaum is in the MuggleCast News Center with the past week’s top Harry Potter news stories. Micah.
Micah: All right, thanks Andrew. TIME magazine has announced its top people of 2007 and J.K. Rowling made the list at number three, behind Vladimir Putin and Al Gore. The article features some new quotes from the author saying:
“There have been times since finishing, weak moments,” she says, “when I’ve said, ‘Yeah, all right,’ to the eighth novel.” But she’s convinced she’s doing the right thing to take some time away, do something else. She’s working on two projects now, an adult novel and a political fairy tale. “If, and it’s a big if, I ever write an eighth book about the [wizarding] world, I doubt that Harry would be the central character,” she says. “I feel like I’ve already told his story. But these are big “ifs”. Let’s give it 10 years and see how we feel then.”
CBBC Newsround has revealed information about casting for the following Hogwarts student roles in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:
Cormac McLaggen will be played Freddie Stroma, Blaise Zabini by Louis Cordice, Romilda Vane by Anna Shaffer, Katie Bell by Georgina Leonidas, Leanne (Katie Bell’s friend) by Isabella Laughland, and Marcus Belby by Robert Knox.
All the actors and actresses are relative newcomers so not much is known about them at the moment – we will update you as information is released. The film is set to be shown in theatres on November 21st, 2008.
ITV has sent MuggleNet two preview clips of the J.K. Rowling documentary, J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life, which will air on December 30th on ITV1 at 7 PM, lasting one hour.
MSN has released its Most Influential Women list for the year 2007 and Jo Rowling made the cut. Notably, she was the only author featured. MSN writes:
“Rowling’s wizarding world has not so much influenced modern culture as grown deep roots into the heart of it. Rowling’s epic fantasy series has made a lasting impact on, well, just about all of us.”
J.K. Rowling updated her official website earlier this week with a new news entry, FAQ, and fan site award. In her news update, Jo reflects on her experience watching the bids climb for the seventh copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. She said:
“It is fortunate that nobody was filming my reaction while the bids climbed higher and higher. Fiddy, Angela, Christine and I were sitting around Fiddy’s laptop in our office (the aforementioned being my PA and the invaluable assistants who deal with the postbag), watching a live link to Sotheby’s. Once the amount hit a million, I kept swearing loudly…”
See, I knew she had this side in her.
“…with every successive bid, and when we reached the final amount, the air turned a lovely shade of blue.”
Finally, Yahoo! recently released some of their year-end awards with the Harry Potter series grabbing various honors. Emma Watson came in at number three and Dan Radcliffe at number ten on the list of the 10 Most Popular Stars of 2007.
Order of the Phoenix was named one of the 10 Most Popular Movies of the year, claiming the number five spot, and the trailer for the fifth Harry Potter film ranked at number four in the category of 10 Most Popular Trailers of 2007.
That is all the news for this December 23rd, 2007 edition of MuggleCast. Happy Holidays and back to the show.
News Discussion: Half-Blood Prince Filming
Andrew: Alright, thank you, Micah. Hey, we have some news to go over this week, some good news. WB has made some more casting announcements for Cormac McLaggen, Blaise Zabini, Romilda Vane, Katie Bell, Leanne (Katie Bell’s best friend), and Marcus Belby. The thing about this casting announcement is that these are all no-names.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: They’re – they really don’t have a name for themselves…
Laura: Who’s Leanne?
Jamie: Oh come on, Laura. You’re – Harry Potter knowledge, oh my God.
Matt: Come on.
Andrew: It’s Katie Bell’s best friend.
Matt: Hello? She’s the…
Laura: I don’t remember.
Matt: She’s the one who’s friends with Katie Bell.
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Laura: No but, I mean – really, I don’t remember this character.
Jamie: Matt hits the nail on the head.
Matt: Yeah…
Andrew: She’s the one who…
Matt: She was the one – remember when Katie got a hold of one the cursed objects and she went out – crying out.
Jamie: [laughs] Oh, Matt…
Laura: I thought that Alicia Spinnet was Katie Bell’s best friend.
Jamie: Come on, guys. This terminology is so unspecific.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: “Remember when in that place Katie Bell…”
Andrew: Well wait, is Matt being serious? Are you being serious, Matt?
Jamie: Of course he’s being serious.
Matt: Of course I’m being serious.
Jamie: What’s happened to you guys since I’ve been gone?
Andrew: Well, that’s pretty good, because I can’t remember Leanne or Katie Bell’s best friend. [laughs]
Jamie: What’s happened to you all?
Matt: Geez.
Jamie: Have you – -do you even remember what we’re talking about? What this podcast is about?
Andrew: Oh, whatever, Jamie. Whatever.
Jamie: I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed.
Andrew: It’s a Harry Potter podcast.
Matt: Oh, shut up, Jamie, you don’t remember either.
Jamie: I do. I can tell you everything about that. Everything, Matt. Everything. Shall I?
Laura: Jamie, you haven’t been on in ten billion years. You don’t remember anything.
Jamie: Okay, fine. Laura, Leanne is her friend. When they were in Hogsmeade and she got given the necklace, Matthew, Matthew.
Matt: Well, I knew it was a necklace; I didn’t want to say it was a Horcrux, because I didn’t think it was. I don’t know what the *bleep* it was called.
Andrew: So we do know who she is. But anyway, back to the point, these aren’t really any, none of these actors we know, so it’s sort of disappointing.
Jamie: It’s true.
Andrew: We can’t really talk about them.
Matt: I think it’s nice, though. They actually cast an actual Katie Bell, though.
Jamie: I agree, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. That’s a positive confirmation.
Jamie: It’s kind of nice to have unknowns as well, because, you know, I find it extremely hard to un-typecast actors and actresses.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: Especially, you know, for these kind of roles.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: So, if it’s a famous person and they play basically a character who doesn’t really matter, like…
Matt: And it’s cheaper.
Jamie: …Romilda Vane. I know that’s mean, but I didn’t mean it like that. I just mean a character who isn’t a main character.
Andrew: Right. And I think we’ve seen that through Evanna, who came out of nowhere and did a fantastic job, that they can pick some really good no-names, so to speak, and create some great portrayals.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it’s nice to see some untapped talent come into the limelight, as well. So, it’s good. But wait a minute, Andrew, isn’t Zabini his first name? Isn’t Blaise his second name?
Laura: No.
Jamie: Oh. Well done, I was testing you after ten weeks. Both of you are still very, very good. Well done. Ten out of ten.
News Discussion: J.K. Rowling and TIME‘s Person of the Year
Andrew: In some other news, J.K. Rowling was not named Time‘s “Person of the Year.” She was the second runner-up, coming behind Vladimir Putin…
Jamie: Who looks like Dobby.
Andrew: …and number two Al Gore.
Jamie: Who doesn’t look like Dobby.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: What do you guys think of this? There has already been some controversy over Vladimir Putin being named the TIME “Person of the Year.” Someone described it as “disgusting.” I forget who, but I saw it on CNN.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: You heard it here first, guys.
Laura: Well, it’s not necessarily the person who had the best influence, I suppose. I think it’s just the person who had the most influence.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: What’s it ranked on? It’s weird. It’s sort of… There’s quite a mix of people there. You know, a head of state – what’s Al Gore now? Is he like a Vice President, or is he…
Laura: No, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Jamie: Oh, I see. That’s cool.
Andrew: He’s been recognized a lot for his work against global warming.
Jamie: I see.
Andrew: So he’s been very adamant on that. So, yeah, I can definitely see him being…
Jamie: And then Jo third. That’s pretty cool.
Andrew: …the “Person of the Year.” I guess that’s pretty good.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Coming behind the guy that stopped global warming. Or, is trying to stop it.
Jamie: But then, we have to remember that TIME also voted Hitler their person of the year, so I wasn’t too sure about that.
Andrew: Right. [laughs] That’s true. I think they did this just to create controversy.
Jamie: You were a front runner, Andrew, but they decided against you in the end.
Andrew: Oh, no, last year it was me. And it was you.
Jamie: Oh, yes. Oh, I forgot about that.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: That was it, yeah.
Andrew: We were all TIME‘s “Person of the Year.”
Jamie: TIME “Person of the Year.”
News Discussion: Amazon Reveals Beedle the Bard Summaries
Andrew: Yeah. In other news, Amazon has posted all five reviews for the five tales in Beedle the Bard. I don’t know if you guys have read these yet, but Amazon did a really good job reviewing these tales, and they give you a good look at what J.K. Rowling has written in Beedle the Bard. And I was really impressed. I mean, these are just like classic fairy tales, and they’re so clever. They’re so fun. They’re so just witty and delectable.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I just love them. Have you guys read these reviews?
Laura: Yeah. I read – I paid particularly close attention to the one about the Three Brothers, and I just thought it was really cool, because you hear a little bit about it in the book, but I think you get a better perspective on what exactly went on with that when you read the Amazon review.
Jamie: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: I had a quick look, but the thing that gets me about this is I always think that it’s funny when like a corporation buys something because I imagine, you know, Amazon to be this huge daunting giant, made up of made up of everyone from Amazon.
Andrew: Right.
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Andrew: Right, right.
Jamie: It’s quite weird. So who actually reviewed it? Was it like, the head of Amazon, or did every employee write like one word?
Andrew: Well I’m looking at the Beedle of the Bard page right now, and at the end of the intro it’s signed Daphnie Durham. So, I’m assuming it’s that girl who did it. I think it was just one reviewer, it must – you know, it had to be a really big Harry Potter fan from Amazon.
Jamie: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: And overall I think it’s pretty cool, I think they’ve done a really good job. This is definitely a fantastic person to own this, because otherwise if it was some random guy bidding for this book, we never would have heard more about these tales.
Jamie: Yeah. [laughs] Exactly.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: And I assume Jo is happy about it, having the reviews out there. I mean, that’s a – I don’t know.
Jamie: It’s pretty cool though. I mean…
Andrew: It is cool. Yeah.
Laura: I think it’s cool that they’re taking it on tour and stuff so that people can see it.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: Right.
Jamie: Right. I e-mailed them asking if they had any about the tour and they said it’s all very early in the planning stages. I also asked them whether or not they would be taking it to England, back to England, because I assume it’s going to be in the United States, mostly.
Jamie: Are they?
Andrew: So, they said they don’t know yet
Jamie: I e-mailed them, too, Andrew.
Andrew: What?
Jamie: [laughs] I e-mailed them too and said, can I have it? And they said, “No.”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Nice try. Yeah, you and 50,000 other people. Did you mention that you were from MuggleCast? That would have helped.
Jamie: Yes, I did. And they said, “Especially no.”
Andrew: Wow, geez. They’re so mean.
Jamie: Yeah, they are.
News Discussion: ITV J.K. Rowling Documentary Preview
Andrew: And lastly, probably one of the coolest things this week, ITV released a preview of their J.K. Rowling documentary. The clip was released to just a couple fansites, and it shows Jo finishing the book. It’s really cool.
Jamie: It is cool.
Andrew: This, I mean, it was pretty funny seeing this, because of course Jo is in the Balmoral Hotel, and they have some shots of Jo typing on her laptop, and she’s got a pack of Orbitz gum there, and she’s got a cup of tea with some of her lipstick on it. [laughs] It’s very funny.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: Most people put lipstick on their lips, but fair play to here.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Well usually when you drink the tea or the coffee, you know, it transfers.
Jamie: [laughs] No, I know. I was just kidding.
Matt: I bet you that camera guy, while she was writing he was establishing the shot. He was moving her tea cup to just the right position.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, definitely.
Matt: And saying, “Oh Jo, this Orbitz come is not wrapped properly; I’m going to redo it for you.”
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Laura: Isn’t it a bit weird when you look back on it, like when she posted on her site talking about ending the book, and at the time we thought she was just alone in her hotel room, and now knowing that there was a camera crew there, it’s just weird.
Andrew: Right. [laughs] Yeah.
Jamie: I could not write with a camera on me.
Laura: No, I couldn’t.
Jamie: Because it’s a very interactive experience, isn’t it? Like, you might swear, you might you know, scratch parts of you that you don’t want to appear on camera.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: You might, you know, stretch or you might like go for a shower or something. You might do stuff that you don’t want to be on camera.
Matt: [laughs] Yeah.
Jamie: It must be weird to finish the book.
Andrew: I’d be sitting there naked.
[All laugh]
Jamie: Oh, is that how you write? Naked?
Andrew: Yeah! Well, I don’t write much, but when I do. When I was watching this, I was thinking, you know if I was Jo and I was sitting there I wouldn’t be able to concentrate properly while writing the final book.
Jamie: Exactly, yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Like, I would almost half-ass it, just so I could talk to them more, just to get it done. [laughs]
Jamie: Yeah, exactly. And does like, the camera man, you know, talk to her? Because after…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: ..two hours of silence.
Andrew: Once she says she’s finished, she says…
Jamie: Just kidding.
Andrew: You know, they’re like: “Good job, Jo.”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: And she is like, “Well, you haven’t read it yet.”
Matt: “Shut-up.”
Laura: “High fives.”
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: That would have been funny.
Andrew: The only thing that got me was the fact that she was just sitting there on her laptop with Microsoft Word writing the final book. [laughs] I would think they had, like, Jo would have her own special application for writing Harry Potter.
Jamie: Yeah, and like…
Matt: Mhm.
Jamie: …eight uninterrupted power supplies just incase one goes down and the other goes down and the next goes down and the third goes down.
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Jamie: …and Word, Andrew. What does she save it as? “Book 7”?
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Oh my god. Oh, I must know. How big is that Google document?
Jamie: Imagine if she lost it. Oh my god.
Andrew: Imagine if she accidentally was attaching it to a file to someone in an e-mail.
[Laura laughs]
Jamie: Oh my god.
Andrew: And she accidentally sends the book. [laughs] And it is to some tabloid or something. [laughs]
Matt: Wow.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: A lot can go wrong there. I wonder if she has that laptop password protected.
Jamie: She must.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: “Harry Potter Rocks” is the password, I hear.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Password is, like, “MuggleNet Four.”
[Andrew, Jamie, and Matt laugh]
Jamie: That is funny. But, yeah. Word…
Matt: She can type pretty fast, too.
Jamie: …and a Windows laptop.
Andrew: Yeah, she can type pretty fast. Very disappointed to see that she wasn’t using a Mac.
Jamie: That is a bit bad, yeah.
Laura: Yeah, I mean if you are really concerned about, you know, you got this huge book on your computer, I would be very concerned to be writing that on a PC.
Jamie: Me too.
Matt: Geez.
Andrew: Yeah. Wouldn’t want a virus to beat it up and but, anyway can anyone tell what part of the book she is writing here? I am reading, it says, “‘A hollow tree?’ said Harry ‘What tree? Where were you?’ ‘A forest in Azkaban,’ she sighed ‘apparently…” something, something.
Jamie: That is not in the book though. That must be rewrite of it. Or a…
Laura: No, wasn’t that when he was talking to the ghost of Rowena Ravenclaw’s daughter?
Andrew: Oh!
Jamie: Well done, Laura. Second test, you passed it with flying colors.
Matt: Oh!
Andrew: [laughs] “‘You told Tom Riddle didn’t you?’ his eyelashes flattened beneath his gaze'” or something like that.
Announcements
Andrew: Let’s move on to some announcements for now. First up, Happy Birthday to Laura!
Laura: Awww.
Jamie: Happy Birthday, Laura.
Andrew: Laura celebrated her birthday on Wednesday.
Jamie: How old are you Laura?
Laura: Nineteen. I feel so old.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah. Do you know how old I just turned?
Laura: Twenty-one, Jamie.
Jamie: Twenty-one, Laura. Don’t feel old yet.
Laura: I knew you were going to say that. [impersonating Jamie] “You’re old Laura? You’re old? I’m 21.”
[Jamie laughs]
Laura: It is just like last year, you were like [impersonating Jamie] “I am turning 20! Oh my god!”
Jamie: Stop saying you‘re old then. Stop saying you’re old, because you’re not, you are fine. You have literally a couple more years. After you turn 21e you can complain.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Okay. I will do that.
Jamie: Even though I have been complaining since I was 16.
Andrew: Another thing I want to mention was of course we have gotten a lot of reaction in terms to our announcement that we are going to be ending the show. Laura and Jamie, do you want to throw in your two cents into the hat?
Laura: We are ending the show?
Andrew: Yeah, we’re ending the show.
Laura: Oh my god. I have to start sending out applications, I need a new job.
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Jamie: I was…
Andrew: Actually, guys, it was a big joke.
Jamie: Yeah, April fools, early.
Andrew: April Fools!
Laura: Oh, no. That is so mean you guys. We can’t do that.
Andrew: That would be terrible. No, no, we are dead serious.
Jamie: We are serious.
Andrew: You guys want to add your input to it?
Jamie: I would say that if you listen to it carefully, we are not actually ending it; we are just stopping doing weekly shows. So we are changing the format, basically. We do not know what we are going to do, but it’s not going be the end of MuggleCast. It is just going to be a significant change to how we do things. The biggest change we have done since we started in August 2005?
Andrew: Yeah, right.
Jamie: So, it is not like 16 more episodes and then the line is cut. The guillotine goes and MuggleCast is over.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: We are just changing it, and we are putting out weekly with exactly the same format. So the candle will still burn, it is just going to be a bit shorter, that’s all.
Andrew: Right. Some people have suggested we do a monthly show, which I wouldn’t be totally against. I mean, I think we would have enough to talk about month-to-month.
Jamie: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
Laura: I think it is something to consider. It is just; a lot of it depends on what, how much is left come April. I mean, we’ll be done with our Book 7 discussion, really all that will be left to discuss will be news at that point.
Andrew: Right.
Laura: And movies of course. I mean there is no reason why we wouldn’t do special shows to cover movies or conventions or things like that. But I really and I feel so bad, because we have gotten so many emails and there is even a Facebook group now to try and get us to not stop weekly shows.
Andrew: I know. I know.
Laura: But honestly, you would rather us stop while we are still ahead than keep doing shows five years from now.
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: And bringing up these…
[Jamie laughs]
Laura: …contrived points that we have already heard before.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: But you have to agree that if we get seven billion signatures…
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: In the Facebook group, we will start doing daily shows, so guys…
Andrew: Yeah right.
Jamie: …tell your friends. Tell your friends.
Andrew: Yeah. And everyone has to keep in mind, you know, it is, we are ending it in April. That is pretty far away. I mean some people are acting like, “the end is now. We are dead. No!” But we will still have four months.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: That is still a long time.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Just thinking to get to April feels like a while from now, so don’t just – what I have to say to the listeners is this: Don’t lose faith in us.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Don’t give up on us just because we are ending the show. We are still going to make the show just as good as it has ever been, and we are working on some things to make the show even better, but just don’t give up on us. Please keep listening. [laughs]
Jamie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew: At least until April!
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: I mean come on! [laughs]
Jamie: What I want to say is – you guys don’t mind if I say this, I hope. But this is just one podcast, hopefully this will just be one podcast, and we hope to do something else as well at some point.
Laura: Oh, definitely.
Andrew: We said that on last week’s show.
Jamie: Oh, okay.
Andrew: That we would like to start a new podcast.
Jamie: So, you know, MuggleCast is going to change considerably, so please stay with us.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yes.
Jamie: Please stay with us.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: And I was thinking…
Matt: Don’t get – oh, sorry.
Andrew: No, go ahead.
Matt: I’m just saying, don’t get too hostile, because I am starting to read some of the comments, and…
Andrew: Yeah, some of them are really depressing. We realize – it makes us so, so, so, so, so, happy to hear how big of an impact MuggleCast has had in your lives.
Jamie: Yes, it really is nice.
Andrew: And that is the most flattering…
Jamie: But…
Andrew: …thing I have ever heard, and we are so glad to hear it’s made that difference, but at the same time we do have to move on at some point. And as we keep saying it’s not going to be the final MuggleCast, we’re still going to do them. I think we should do – after we end in April, we should start calling the shows MuggleCast Update or something like that, sort of to separate these shows in April from the ones we have done in the past. So, at least we know that MuggleCast was always a huge success.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: No matter how many downloads MuggleCast Update gets.
[Jamie, Laura, and Matt laugh]
Jamie: That’s an awful name, Andrew! [laughs]
Andrew: What, MugglecCast Update?
Jamie: It’s dreadful.
Andrew: Fine. We’ll come up with something better.
Matt: I don’t know. I thought it was pretty creative. How long did it take you to create that one?
Andrew: About five minutes.
Jamie: That’s surprising. Sorry, no.
[Andrew, Laura, and Matt laugh]
Jamie: I mean. It’s a very good name.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: I just, personally I don’t like it.
Looking Back to 2006
Andrew: Okay, and as this is our holiday show, Matt suggested this a couple weeks ago, we should talk about things that happened a year ago that week.
Jamie: Oh yeah.
Andrew: And I listened to our episode a year ago this Christmas, and what was the big news then? Don’t look at the show schedule. [laughs]
Matt: Wait, wait, let me scroll up.
Laura: How could we not know what it was?
Andrew: Honestly, I forgot. It’s all a blur to me.
Laura: Andrew! Oh my gosh.
Andrew: The title of Book 7 was released right before Christmas. And we didn’t even talk about – it wasn’t even a holiday show. We were saved by the bell, because Jo made that announcement, so we just discussed the title that whole time. That was a very good show that time.
Laura: It really was! You think about all the things we thought the Deathly Hallows were and…
Jamie: Yeah, I know!
Laura: …we weren’t even close.
Jamie: The thing is, though, if you think, it was there all along. If you read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and look about Invisibility Cloaks, you know, Harry’s invisibility cloak is special and I guess it’s kind of weird that we didn’t notice. Although, of course, you can say everything in hindsight, and actually, that’s not true at all because it’s very well hidden.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: That kind of thing, but it’s cool.
Andrew: And the other thing that was made a year ago was our final announcement to sell MuggleCast t-shirts.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Which I thought was kind of fun, because it feels like such a long time ago.
Jamie: It does.
Andrew: Maybe we’ll try to do it again.
Jamie: But it’s fine, Andrew, because we can start doing MuggleCast Update t-shirts, which are going to be all the rage, I tell you.
Andrew: Oh, come on, I thought it was good.
Jamie: Get your MuggleCast Update t-shirts here.
Andrew: Today!
Jamie: Today! Whoa!
Andrew: All right, let’s move on to some Muggle Mail now. Jamie, we renamed – well, I renamed listener rebuttals Muggle Mail; what do you think of that?
Jamie: I like that. No, no, I think that’s awesome because they weren’t always rebuttals, were they? No, no, I really, really like that.
Andrew: All right, I’m glad.
Jamie: But since this is really sort of an add-on to the previous Muggle Mail, shouldn’t this be like, Muggle Mail Update or something like that?
[Everyone laughs]
Muggle Mail: DVD Troubles
Andrew: Shut up. Anyway, first piece of mail comes from Danielle. She writes in response to my DVD problems last week. She says:
“My Order of the Phoenix DVD from Wal-mart is screwed up too. I thought it was just my TV, but I watched it on my friend’s plasma and it was even worse. When you mentioned that the problem was during the first half-hour and the last 15 minutes I couldn’t believe it, because that’s exactly when mine has the issue. Just wanted to let you know it’s not just you.”
Laura: It’s because you got it at Wal-Mart, that’s why.
Andrew: I meant to – yeah. I meant to prepare for this on the show, but maybe next week for the New Year’s show, we’ll call WB on the air and see if I can complain and get some results.
Jamie: Imagine doing a recall of 100 million DVDs. That would be so bad.
Andrew: They’ll probably just tell us to replace it.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: But next week we’ll do that. One more…
Matt: We should’ve all went to Target, though. Target’s the best.
Andrew: I know.
Matt: Right, Laura?
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Muggle Mail: More DVD Troubles
Andrew: Another e-mail about the DVD comes from Emily. She writes:
“I was just listening to Episode 124 where you were discussing the new Order of the Phoenix DVD. I also had a problem with my DVD. I bought the two-disc Special Edition and instead of one DVD with the movie and one with special features, I got two DVDs with the movie.”
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: “Since finding out about the problem, my mom and I have returned to Wal-mMart and gotten another copy. There’s no problem with the second copy.”
Laura: See? Wal-mart again. I’m telling you guys. Bad employment practices. This is what happens.
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Well, I mean, I don’t think it’s the employees at Wal-Mart. They are fine employees at Wal-Mart.
Laura: No, I’m saying they’re a crappy company.
Andrew: Oh, that’s mean.
Laura: They are.
Andrew: I’m sorry to all those listeners out there who do work at Wal-Mart.
Jamie: Potential libel suit as well there, Laura. You got to be careful.
Matt: Yeah, geez.
Jamie: But if you prefix it with the word “allegedly” you’re fine. Allegedly.
Andrew: Don’t say that, because now people who don’t like us will accuse us again of copyright.
Jamie: Okay, yeah, I didn’t get it from there, I got it from the show, Have I Got News For You, which is a U.K. satirical thing. So, I got it from them. Everything’s copied now, Andrew, nothing’s original.
Andrew: I know.
Jamie: You know, like, everything’s been done before. It’s just done in a different way.
Andrew: Yeah.
Muggle Mail: The Seven Potters
Laura: Our next Muggle Mail update comes from Aasa Andersson, 35, of Sweden. She says:
“Hi there. I realize that I am a week too late, but I simply have to ask you guys about this (from “The Seven Potters”). When the seven Potters change clothes in the Dursley’s kitchen, Ron remarks to Harry that ‘I knew Ginny was lying about that tattoo’ as he looks down at his bare chest. I just want to know: how likely is it that Ron never would have seen Harry’s bare chest after six years in the same dormitory and changes in the Quidditch changing room on top of that?”
Jamie: Jesus.
Laura: “It seems less likely that Ginny would have seen it, though I suppose it is possible.”
Jamie: Okay, this is a PG-13 podcast. I think we should ignore this one piece of MuggleMail.
Andrew: I think that’s a fair question. Unless they used their magic to change their clothes without ever becoming nakie.
Jamie: Well, they don’t wash either, you know, and they don’t do anything.
Laura: Or go to the bathroom.
Jamie: Or, yeah, go to the bathroom. So, it’s like anything could have happened.
Andrew: That’s true.
Jamie: I guess- I guess, you know…
Laura: Ron could have been joking.
Jamie: Yeah, and he could have got a tattoo as well, like – he could have gone to the Hogwarts tattoo parlor at some point.
[Laura laughs]
Matt: Or maybe they were just lying about where the location was.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Exactly. Yeah.
[Jamie and Laura laugh]
Jamie: Exactly.
Andrew: It could be elsewhere.
Jamie: Anyway…
Andrew: [in dumb voice] I don’t know about you girls, but I can’t wait to see that scene in the movie.
[Laura and Matt laugh]
Jamie: Me too. I’m so excited.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: No.
Andrew: I wonder how they are going to do that in the movie. That would be so much work on Dan’s half.
Matt: Well, he’s not going to take half of the credit.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: He’s not even going to do half the work. He’s just going to say, “I love magic” or something.
Laura: Isn’t that just an inherently awkward scene? You know, you think about it, like…
Andrew: Yeah.
[Laura laughs]
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: But I mean – what I mean is, it’s going to be a lot of work to film.
Laura: Oh, definitely.
Matt: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew: I mean, eight Harrys – or no, seven – filming him seven times doing different things and then putting all those together. I cannot wait to see how they do that. I hope they do a special look on that.
Jamie: Oh yeah, that will be interesting. That will be so interesting.
Andrew: Yeah, definitely.
Jamie: Or they’ll just scout the world for six very, very good look-a-likes.
[Andrew and Matt laughs]
Andrew: They might, yeah.
Jamie: Yeah.
MuggleCast 125 Transcript (continued)
Muggle Mail: Chapter Title
Matt: Our next email comes from Kenneth Logan Jr., 20, from Hampton, Virginia. He writes:
“I don’t know about ya’ll, but when I first saw the chapter title I immediately thought of the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End scene hallucinates on a ship in Davey Jones’ Locker and see’s multiple Jacks. I thought Harry was going crazy, or something.”
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Andrew: I put that e-mail in there for you Jamie.
Jamie: Well, I was oing to say. It’s like, yeah, in the eighth book, Harry becomes an alcoholic and starts drinking rum like there’s no tomorrow and…
[Andrew, Laura, and Matt laugh]
Jamie: Then he starts hallucinating. But no, no, that’s very interesting. I – it was a very clever plan, but I just think, it’s magic, there has to be some other way of transporting people. Without magic you can, like, you know, there are ways to get people to places, and this is turning into some kind of conspiracy theory, but there are ways to, you know, to sort of bring people to different places secretly. But then I thought…
Laura: Like what?
Jamie: Well, Laura, it’s a secret. That’s why, you know, no one knows.
[Laura laughs]
Jamie: But, like, Delta Force and the Navy Seals SAS, I’m sure, have ways.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: But, like, I just mean – but then magic cancels that out because if one side can do it, than the other side can do it as well. So, it just becomes hard still. But it was a good plan, but I just don’t know – surely they could have mixed everything up, like – it’s like everyone puts their wands into, like, a pot and then they pull out wands and each person turns into that person, so everyone’s different. So, they can’t possibly tell who’s who. So, you have, like…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: …two Moodys, four Kingsleys, eight Harrys, you know? So…
Matt: Yeah, did they have to do – did they even have to multiply Harry? Couldn’t just…
Jamie: Well, yeah.
Matt: …Harry just takes someone else’s Polyjuice Potion and then they just…
Jamie: Exactly, yeah, he could’ve been anyone, absolutely anyone.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: Or they could’ve – see what I don’t understand is why they don’t teach him to be an Animagus.
Matt: Animagus, yeah.
Jamie: And then he could be a single-celled organism.
[Andrew, Jamie and Laura laugh]
Jamie: So no one can see him unless Voldemort carries around a microscope.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: They could lose him that way.
Matt: I was questioning about that chapter – oh, sorry.
Laura: No, I was just saying they could lose him very easily.
Jamie: [laughs] Yeah, they could!
Laura: You get back to the Burrow and it’s like he doesn’t change back and they’re like…
Jamie: Yeah. [laughs]
Laura: Oh. Whoops.
Jamie: That would suck.
Andrew: That’s funny.
Matt: Mhm.
The Eighth Book
Andrew: That’s very funny. You know, there’s one more story I forgot to put in the news here and I think it’s worth noting. Well, we did talk about it. J.K. is TIME’s second runner-up Person of the Year, but she – there was a new little interview with her in this article and let me quote what she said.
“There have been times since finishing – weak moments – when I’ve said ‘Yeah, all right,’ to the eighth novel. If, and it’s a big if, I ever write an eighth book about the wizarding world, I doubt that Harry would be the central character. I feel like I’ve already told his story. But these are big ifs. Let’s give it ten years and see how we feel then.”
Jamie: Hmmm.
Andrew: To me, it seems like Jo is leaving it a lot more open…
Jamie: She is. Hinting, isn’t she?
Andrew: …than she has in the past.
Laura: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: There’s so much more she can write, though. There really is.
Matt: I know.
Jamie: I wouldn’t be surprised if she did write something else.
Laura: Well, yeah. Why doesn’t she write about James Potter and Elder’s Crossing?
Matt: Yeah.
Laura: Isn’t that the new one?
Andrew: Right. [laughs]
Jamie: Yeah.
Matt: Or, like, Snape’s story.
Jamie: Yeah!
Matt: Or something.
Jamie: There’s so much. There really is.
Andrew: Yeah, absolutely.
Matt: Or even Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
Jamie: That would be so cool!
Matt: A tale of lost lovers or something.
Jamie: That would be the NC-17 book, Matt, but…
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: That would be a romance novel.
Jamie: That would be the romance novel.
Andrew: I would love…
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Seriously!
Matt: I was just seeing two very muscular wizards in one of those romantic novel covers…
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: Just as a joke…
Jamie: That would be, oh yeah.
Matt: And their hair.
Jamie: Grindelwald looked at Albus. And Albus looked at Grindelwald. Albus and Grindelwald looked at each other. Wow. I might write it.
Andrew: [laughs] I – it just seems like, you know, it was left open more than we’ve heard her say in the past.
Jamie: It was. Yeah.
Chapter-by-Chapter: Fallen Warrior
Andrew: We’ll see. We’ll see. Alright, let’s move on to Chapter-by-Chapter now. This week we have Chapter 5: Fallen Warrior, and also Chapter 6: Ghoul in Pajamas. We’re going to start doing two chapters a week now to wrap things up by April. So we’re going to make one minor change. We’re just going to highlight the top three events in each chapter, rather than the top five. Other than that, everything else is still the same. So we’ll start off – we’ll start off withFallen Warrior, and this is the chapter where everyone arrives at the Burrow and Harry and the rest of them all anxiously await each new pair to arrive at the Burrow. So first of all, when you’re reading this chapter, it’s set up very well because it begins – the chapter title is called Fallen Warrior, so the readers know that somebody is going to die.
Matt: Yes.
Andrew: But at the same time, what’s great about this chapter is that you are waiting along with everyone else. And although they don’t know who is going to die, they feel like someone may because it was a dangerous journey and they seem to be set on believing that something is going to happen. So the whole time we’re waiting and we’re following we are with the characters.
Matt: We are also left at the end of the chapter thinking that probably Hagrid died anyway.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: And I – I thought it was either Hagrid or even Hedwig because…
Andrew: Huh?
Laura: Hedwig was devastating.
Andrew: Hedwig was – well, he was already dead.
Laura: I know, but…
Matt: It’s a she, for one.
Andrew: She. I’m sorry.
Matt: There you go.
Laura: I was mortified when I read that. I couldn’t believe it.
Jamie: What?
Laura: I was so upset. That Hedwig was dead!
Jamie: That Hedwig died?
Laura: Oh my god.
Jamie: Laura, you’ve got to see the bigger picture. She’s just an owl. I know, you know, obviously, she’s…
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: She is an important character and, obviously, the symbolism of the pureness and the whiteness is very important and it shows something dear to Harry, but, you know?
Laura: But then he, like…
Matt: She’s just an owl.
Jamie: Well, yeah.
Laura: Didn’t he kind of like, blow her up on accident after she died too?
Jamie: [laughs] Yeah, he did.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: [laughs] Wow. That’s got to suck.
Matt: Well, if it makes you feel better, Laura, she didn’t feel a thing.
[Jamie laughs]
Laura: Yeah, but can you imagine blowing up your pet?
Jamie: It was closure, though. It was closure. He could still see her and he was like, “She’s got to go, she’s got to go.”
Matt: Some kind of closure, though.
Jamie: Yeah, it is.
How did the Death Eaters Know Who Harry Was?
Andrew: That’s that for that first point, I guess. Next point – Harry and Lupin discuss how the Death Eaters find out that he was the real Harry – and we were talking about this briefly last week. Lupin even describes Expelliarmus as his signature move and it’s funny because Ben’s always been calling it his signature move, but I guess Ben read it out of one of the chapters, I don’t think he remembers.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: I don’t think he remembers that it was an actual chapter. And then, even after Lupin yells at Harry to stop doing it, Harry continues to use the spell through the rest of the book. Would it be fair to say that, even though, you know, we may have thought that this was Jo’s – a fault in Jo’s writing, maybe Harry kept using it just to – because he was so confident in the spell, and he felt that this would get him through until the end. Because obviously it did, but why do you think he kept using it? Do you guys have any input on this?
Jamie: Wasn’t it more of his defiance and stubbornness rather than, his sort of confidence in it? He won’t – and it’s altruism as well – he won’t kill people that are just there, you know? He’s – it does show something about his character. It also shows, perhaps, he doesn’t… I mean he obviously does appreciate the implications of where he is and the war he’s in, but perhaps he doesn’t, sort of, you know, like – the adults are supposed to be more sensible, obviously, and they see that there’s a need for killing in that. And obviously, you know, the Order of the Phoenix has to be against killing because it’s Dumbledore’s thing and he hated Horcruxes and that kind of thing, but for Harry to only use Expelliarmus and not Avada Kedavra and things like that, is both defiant and it shows him as a good character, but it also shows him as a bit stubborn and perhaps immature depending on how you look at it, because the time there was over for, you know, disarming. If you read that chapter, it’s a family torn apart, because people argue about stuff they wouldn’t normally argue about in the heat of the moment and, you know, people are dying all over the place. So, I mean like, I like to think if I was there with a wand, had magical powers inside a book, I would Avada Kedavra people, but then, you know, it’s a lot harder to do.
Matt: But he also has to mean it.
Jamie: He has to mean it as well, exactly.
Matt: I think he believes that he can never do an Unforgivable Curse because he knows that he’ll never actually mean to kill someone.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. I agree completely. Like, when he does the Imperius Curse is completely different to Avada Kedavra because, you know, he obviously thinks there is never any need to kill someone, whereas the Imperius Curse had to be done in Gringotts when he was…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah, I can – yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. The thing that go me about this was that even Lupin was berating him for this and I thought that was sort of – that should’ve been a wake up call to Harry. The Death Eaters know that this is your spell and they’re prepared for it. They’re prepared to fight it off.
Matt: I think he was really upset with Lupin though, only due to the fact that, you know, he’s seen Lupin as his uncle…
Andrew: Mhm.
Matt: …sort of, and this is the first time he’s actually defiant to Harry.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: He’s kind of upset with Harry because he’s not really – I don’t really know. Why do you think he’s a little upset with Harry in this chapter?
Andrew: Just because I think he set himself up for possible death.
Matt: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: And, I mean, he gave his cover away. That was the most important thing. He blew his cover.
Jamie: It was also because Lupin, even though he was the best of friends with James, knew that he was a flawed character and he’s seen those flaws in Harry. And he knows those flaws. Some of them aren’t good, although James was altogether a nice guy. He wasn’t always nice and he’s seeing the defiance in Harry and he likes it. He wants him to improve for father’s sake and his parents’ sake and for Sirius’ sake, I gues.
Andrew: Yeah. He even said that in this chapter. Lupin said, “You remind me of your father, James.”
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: You’re father, yeah.
Matt: I don’t want to entirely think that the – I don’t want to say “anger,” but the feelings he had towards Harry after he heard about Harry and his Expelliarmus spell, how I don’t think it’s directed mostly to Harry. It’s also to himself, too. He’s putting a lot of blame on him for not informing Harry…
Jamie: Yeah, that’s very true. Yeah.
Matt: And helping him out.
The Death of Mad-Eye Moody
Andrew: All right, so Mad-Eye Moody is the one who dies in this chapter, we find out. What were you guys’ initial reactions to his death? Were you surprised? Did you care?
Laura: I mean…
Matt: I didn’t even…
Laura: Oh, sorry Matt…
Matt: Sorry Laura, your turn.
Laura: I was surprised. I wasn’t terribly upset by it, I guess. I mean, I always thought Mad-Eye was cool.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: But he wasn’t the kind of character I’d cry over.
Andrew: Yeah, I think he was the kind of character we never – I never really had a connection to. It was sad and while you’re reading their reactions, the characters reactions, to his death, you feel for them but it just doesn’t seem like all that of an important death to me.
Laura: I think it was just getting us ready for the bloodbath at the end of the book.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah, I always envisioned him dying in a huge battle or something because that’s the kind of person that he’s known for – fighting in huge amounts, battling a lot of Death Eaters. I just thought it was kind of a cheap shot for him to die.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s what I thought too. It wasn’t his right time. Do you guys think he was – is it a stupid question to ask if he was the right character to go?
Laura: I don’t know, I think at this point in the series a lot of it was about showing that random deaths happen in war, there’s not necessarily a reason for it.
Matt: Exactly.
Laura: It just happens.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Unexpectedly.
Mundungus’ Reliability
Andrew: Yeah and also in this chapter they discuss whether or not Mundungus gave up their cover or was he really just panicking. Do you think he was just panicking? Because I mean, I think for anyone saw Voldemort and he was ready to attack them as Harry he would panic, legitimately.
Laura: Yeah, I don’t know. I think Mundungus was a weak person to begin with.
Jamie: I don’t think he was an evil-minded character. I think it takes a lot and you can see straight away if a character is mentally evil. But he was just out for what he could get. Very, very self-indulgent. Very, very self-specific. He only really cared for himself. Not to say he doesn’t care for other people, but I think seeing Voldemort, you have got to appreciate the circumstances. Seeing him is basically instant death, you know?
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: You can’t fight Voldemort, it’s futile.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: It’s like – even though it’s – anyone who goes against Voldemort will basically die. It’s like if you watch The Matrix – when you fight an Agent, unless you’re Neo, you will die.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Jamie: You know? So, it’s kind of like that. I don’t think he gave up their cover. I think it was literally spur of the moment flight of fight. His adrenaline didn’t want to come out and he disappeared. Like, I think a lot more people…
Matt: Well, we know he’s loyal too.
Jamie: Exactly, yeah.
Matt: Because he was in the Hog’s Head looking over Harry in Book 5.
Jamie: Exactly, yeah.
Jamie: He isn’t a bad person…
Matt: He’s not stupid.
Jamie: Exactly. I think more people would get into street fights if they knew they could disappear in a blink in of an eye.
Andrew: Right. [laughs]
Jamie: They could just swear at someone and once they came over they just “pop!” and they’d appear in Siberia.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yep.
Jamie: So… Go on, sorry.
Matt: Maybe when he Apparated it was an instinct or something.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Matt: Like if I saw Voldemort my first instinct would be to get the hell out of there.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, I really don’t think magic would hold up in the real world. If you think about bringing magic into our society today, I think our world would just be a mess.
Jamie: Oh it would be completely.
Matt: It would be gone. It wouldn’t even be there.
Andrew: The reason I say that is Jamie’s point about people just Apparating after they’ve picked a fight. This world would be so bad.
Laura: Yeah.
Tribute to Moody
Andrew: Let’s move onto Chapter 6 now, The Ghoul in Pajamas. Laura, do you want to handle this one?
Laura: Yeah sure, this is the chapter in which the Weasleys are busy…
Andrew: Oh wait, wait, wait, oh – sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Laura: Are you trying to interrupt me?
Andrew: No, no, no, I forgot Song Memory and Favorite Lines.
Laura: Fine, fine.
Andrew: Okay before we go onto our next chapter, we’re going to start a new thing now. Every time there is a death in the book we’re going to play a clip of a song in their memory.
Matt: Really? [laughs]
Andrew: And the song will relate to the character. This was actually Micah’s idea, so props to him. So, now we take a moment to remember Mad-Eye Moody.
[Eye of the Tiger plays]
Jamie: Godspeed, Mad-Eye.
Andrew: I’m crying a bit, it’s kind of sad.
Jamie: I think that’s a nice word, “Godspeed.” It’s so under used these days.
Favorite Lines
Andrew: It is. Anyway. Also, favorite lines from this chapter! I just put in one, “What was the last thing Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us?” Was that Weasley to Kingsley or was it vice-versa?
Jamie: It was Kingsley to Luna.
Andrew: Yeah, my bad. “Harry’s the best hope we have. Trust him.”
[Everyone “awwws”]
Jamie: That is nice. That is nice.
Jamie: You think he’d say good-bye, last of all though.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: Yeah. [laughs]
Jamie: “Harry’s the best hope we have. Trust him.” Right. “I’m off to die! See you all later.”
Matt: [impersonating Dumbledore] “Harry’s the best choice we have.”
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: [laughs] Oh man, that was just a shame. And too bad Molly didn’t listen to that quote.
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, really.
Andrew: I would think Molly was in the room because then Molly raises the fuss about – which leads us into Chapter 6, The Ghoul in Pajamas.
Matt: I keep hearing “The Golden Pajamas.”
Laura: The Gold…
Jamie: The Golden Pajamas.
Jamie: Matt, Matt, that’s the sequel to The Golden Compass.
Laura: The Golden Compass.
[Everyone laughs]
Tangent: The Golden Compass
Andrew: Hey, good thing you brought that up! Jamie can we just do a quick Golden Compass review before we get to the next chapter?
Jamie: Okay, but don’t spoil it please.
Andrew: No, we won’t, it was okay.
Matt: Oh my god! Did you see this one part of the film? It was so good.
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Laura: I heard it was awful – like, in terms of being an adaption.
Andrew: Yeah, it was. It was not…
Laura: I haven’t seen it yet but I’ve read the book and the book is fantastic.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: The movie, I heard they took out every bit of religious symbolism or any…
Andrew: Yes…
Laura: Oh gosh.
Matt: Yeah they did.
Laura: That’s ridiculous.
Andrew: They did. And…
Matt: It is.
Andrew: I got an e-mail saying that they took out the last ten chapters of the book.
Laura: What?
Matt: Yeah!
Jamie: That’s bad.
Matt: Yeah they – they took out like a huge – they filmed it and everything but what they’re going to do is, kind of like with the Two Towers in Lord of the Rings, they’re going to – they took the ending from the first movie and they’re going to put it in the beginning of the second one.
Laura: Where did the first – where did The Golden Compass end?
Matt: If there’s a second one. It’s a toss-up right now if there’s even going to be a second film. So pretty much they just took out the ending and then just threw it away.
Laura: Where did the film end?
Matt: The film ended with – well, I don’t want to spoil it because Jamie’s going to watch it.
Andrew: It ended with a long speech.
Matt: It ended with the blimp.
Laura: What?
Matt: Right after the big fight.
Laura: Oh my god.
Matt: Yeah.
Laura: Oh okay, yeah, no. That’s all I have to say, no.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Yes.
Matt: Yeah. That was pretty much everyone’s reaction to – when they saw it.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: I went, “Are you serious?”
Andrew: Yeah, it was a bit of a letdown. But, I do have to say the polar bear fights were very cool though. The polar bears in general were very cool.
Matt: Well I liked – my favorites are just the daemons in general. I just thought that whole concept was perfect.
Laura: Okay and can…
Matt: I want a daemon.
Laura: Can some listeners please correct me if I’m wrong, but I was almost positive that in the book it’s pronounced like “day-mon.” Not “demon.”
Andrew: They say “demons” in the movie.
Laura: Why would you call them demons? They’re so worried about all of the…
Matt: Yeah, so… Because they say it in the movie.
Laura: No, no, no. I don’t think that’s how it’s said in the book. But…
Andrew: I don’t know.
Matt: Well the “a” and the “e” are connected, so isn’t it its own letter too?
Laura: I thought it was “day-mon,” but I know that…
Matt: It’s like “day-e-mons.”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Well, they’re so concerned about fundamentalists, you know, boycotting this film and yet they call these extensions of people’s souls daemons.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: Yeah, it’s funny.
Matt: Maybe it’s just the American version of daemon.
Andrew: Maybe. That could be it.
Jamie: Damon! [laughs] Isn’t he a Senior Staff Member?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Oh!
Matt: Matt Damon.
Andrew: I wonder what Damon’s daemon is?
Jamie: It’s a small version of himself.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: Damon daemon.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: Encyclopaedia. That’s what it should be.
Chapter-by-Chapter: The Ghoul in Pajamas
Andrew: Well, let’s move on now to Chapter 6, Laura. Sorry, I won’t to interrupt you this time.
Laura: Yeah ok.
Andrew: That was the Matt and Andrew Movie Review! Ho! Back to you.
Laura: Yay. Okay so, this is Chapter 6, The Ghoul in Pajamas. It’s the chapter where the Weasleys are busy with wedding preparations for Bill and Fleur and throughout the entire chapter, Mrs. Weasley is completely annoying with her attempts to distract Harry, Ron, and Hermione…
Jamie: She is.
Laura: …from doing their mission. We also begin learning some of the basics about Horcruxes.
Matt: Mhm.
Is Mrs. Weasley Too Overprotecting?
Laura: So, let’s see. The first thing we have here is: Mrs. Weasley’s motherly concern with what she’s – throughout the entire chapter she barges in on them during the few moments the trio have together to try and discuss what they’re going to do. There’s one point where they’re in Ron’s room and she comes in and tells them to go sort presents or something. They’re also outside at one point and she interrupts them. So, my question is – is Mrs. Weasley right to let her motherly concern get in the way of what they need to do?
Andrew: Yes!
Matt: She doesn’t know what they need to do.
Andrew: Well that’s the other thing.
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: But, I don’t know. I think a lot of this kind of relates to – and I don’t want to get too opinionated here, but when there’s a war going on, people who are for the war tend to say, “Well, it’s something that is worth dying for.” But people who are against the war…
Jamie: Isn’t that worth fighting for?
Laura: People who are against it say, “It’s not worth dying for,” and I think it’s – I think it’s, I don’t know. I see you…
Matt: Well she’s also in a state of shock over her son, too. She doesn’t want anything else to happen.
Jamie: Yeah.
Matt: Pretty much her adrenaline is running and her motherly instinct is just taking over…
Laura: Oh, I think so too.
Matt: …pretty much all of her actions too.
Jamie: I think it’s quite – I mean, like, when we were – Andrew do you remember this? We were – I can’t remember where we were but, we were sitting after a podcast on the live tour and this lady came up to us and just said, “Never underestimate the power of a mother’s love.”
Andrew: Yes!
Jamie: So, I’d say it’s quite, you know, tough for us to say should she let this go in the way or shouldn’t she. I think it’s probably not possible for her to stop it getting in the way. You know, a parent’s concern for their children often overrides any instinct or anything like that.
Matt: Yes.
Jamie: So, saying that, it’s probably a hindrance for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to do it; but it’s something that has to be dealt with and dealt with accordingly.
Andrew: Right.
Laura: Mhm.
Matt: Right.
Andrew: And Mrs. Weasley is nothing but concerned. I mean, when you think about it, they are going out to fight Voldemort. I mean – that’s – she knows that’s what they’re doing, or at least…
Jamie: Exactly, yeah!
Andrew: What their mission relates to. So, it’s very scary for a mother. And yeah, what it comes down to is – it’s the mother’s protection. But there’s nothing she can do about it, you know?
Laura: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. But, I mean – still, I think, we can all pretty much figure that our parents, our mother, would do the same thing.
Laura: Oh, for sure!
Jamie: Yeha.
Matt: So…
Andrew: Well, let me give you a sort of example.
Matt: Okay.
Andrew: I’ve said on this show maybe, or maybe at least on Pickle Pack, that – I think it was just on Pickle Pack – that I plan on moving to California. My mom hates this idea. However, she knows that I’m going to do it no matter what. And one time she even said to me, “I don’t really want you to do it but I know I can’t stop you.” So… [laughs] That’s basically the same way….
Jamie: Awww! Don’t laugh, Andrew! That’s lovely!
Andrew: I’m not laughing, that’s very nice, I know.
Matt: My mother would never do that.
[Jamie and Andrew laughs]
Andrew: What’s that, Laura?
Laura: My Mom kind of did the same thing when I moved to Maryland.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: It’s sad for Mom because she’s losing her child. When you think about it, if I was in her position or, even say, if my brother or my sister decided to leave, at first I’d be like, “Good riddance!” But then after a while, I’d realize that I probably do miss them a bit. [laughs]
Matt: But, you know, I think your mother will see the whole gist of it. I mean, she’s not really loosing a son, she’s gaining a bedroom!
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: And a recording studio as well! [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] A recording studio. I’m bringing all the stuff with me.
Jamie: She can start her own podcast.
Andrew: Oh god! Anyway. So, yeah. I think that sums up that point. And I think that woman said it to us best on that tour – “Never underestimate the power mother’s love.”
Laura: Yeah.
Jamie: Yep.
The Trio are Growing Up
Laura: And I think that kind of ties into the next point, about how a lot of the time, parents kind of struggle with the idea of their kids growing up. You know? In Order of the Phoenix, she continually insists that Harry is too young to be told any of what the Order is doing. Even in this chapter, she says about Dumbledore that: “Probably he was telling you to do something he wanted done, and you took it to mean he wanted you to do it.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: So we see, even though she has a great deal of love for him, she still treats him like a kid. Like he couldn’t possibly understand the concept.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: But isn’t she more trying to get any excuse to get them to not do it?
Laura: Oh, I think so.
Jamie: It’s like – logic gets completely out of the window when it comes to that. And although she can be annoying – and to me, she is one of the most annoying characters in the – I don’t like how she interferes into everything. Like, there are things you have to do alone, there are things you don’t do with your mother’s guidance. And stuff like that. Although she is caring and means well, she is one of those characters that does only have good heart, you know?
Matt: But weren’t you a little annoyed in Book 5 in that chapter when she says, “He is as good as my son?”
Jamie: That was just – yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Jamie: I hated that. Seriously, I felt so sorry for Sirius then. I really did. I hated it. Matt, she needed a punch then. Between the eyes. Like the carol singers.
Matt: Yeah. Or at least a slap or something.
Laura: I think she needed…
Jamie: A slap, yeah. A punch is a bit much.
Matt: Just to let her know who’s boss, you know?
Jamie: I – yeah, yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Just a small one.
Matt: Just so she could pull her tail between her legs.
Laura: I mean…
Jamie: Exactly. Yeah. Not too mean.
Laura: I understand completely where she’s coming from. Like, if I had a kid, I would never want them to go do that. But that one scene where she pulls Harry into a sort of side room, you know, under the pretense of getting him to identify a sock, and then she immediately…
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah.
Laura: …starts hammering on him, “So why are you dropping out of school?” And it’s like, “Ughhh!” Because you just know how much he has to do, and he doesn’t need her to be…
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah.
Laura: Guilting him.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: Exactly. Yeah. And it’s – but – she means well, but her methods are occasionally thrown into question, you know?
Matt: Well, she has to have an extreme emotion of something.
Jamie: Exactly. Yeah.
Matt: I mean every character has to have something. She can’t be perfect.
Jamie: No, she can’t. She can’t.
Relationship Tensions
Laura: All right, well the next thing we see in this chapter (and I think a lot of shippers were really happy about this) was a lot of tension between Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione. One of the first things we see in the chapter is when Harry and Ginny are setting the table together. They have a moment of “unspoken understanding” where they both remember times when they were together.
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: And it seems weird to me. And I’m like, reading these books, and it seems weird to me that Ron seems to be the only one in their entire family who knows or acknowledges that Harry and Ginny were together. Like – it just – you would think that other characters would mention it, but…
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: …I feel like we never see that, and I wonder if the family knew.
Matt: Well, I’m pretty positive that Fred and George…
Jamie: Yeah.
Matt: …may know a little something. And of course we know Hermione knows, but I think – I think Ron is one of those characters who can’t really keep his feelings to himself…
Laura: Mhm.
Jamie: Yeah.
Matt: …very much, especially when it comes to his little sister, because I think he’s been the most protective of Ginny.
Laura: Oh, for sure.
Matt: …then…
Laura: It just seemed weird to me because there’s, you know, one point where they’re all having dinner together and Harry says that he found himself scrunched beside Ginny, and I’m just thinking of Mrs. Weasley who is constantly the perfectionist when it comes to meal plans or any sort of party situation.
Andrew: Mhm.
Laura: And there Harry and Ginny are, sitting by each other, and you would think she would realize how incredibly awkward that would be.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Laura: So…
Matt: I don’t think Mrs. Weasley knew…
Laura: You don’t think she knew they were dating?
Matt: No.
Jamie: No, no, I…
Matt: Sometimes I think – sometimes parents are really oblivious to it.
Jamie: Oh…
Laura: Yeah, that’s true.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: Especially with all the things that are going on, I think she’s pretty much – if she did have any assumption, I think that’s being put on the back burner at this point.
Laura: Yeah.
Jamie: And also, Fred and George have a great deal of respect for Harry.
Matt: Definitely.
Jamie: I don’t think they’d be the kind of people to joke about something as serious as that in front of – you know, because…
Matt: If anything, they’d be pushing for it.
Laura: Mhm.
Jamie: Exactly, yeah.
Laura: Yeah I just didn’t know if maybe like, it was possible that Mrs. Weasley was trying to get them back together, or, you know, maybe?
Andrew: I think people knew it was sort of an awkward situation so nobody really wanted to bring it up.
Laura: Mhm.
Andrew: Does that make sense?
Laura: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah.
Matt: Well I’m sure Mrs. Weasley knew…
Jamie: Yeah.
Matt: …that Ginny had a crush – I mean she knew she had a crush on him in the beginning, so…
Andrew: Even when we look back to Chamber of Secrets, even the movie when they were – when they dropped in those little hints, which was nice.
Laura: Yeah.
Matt: Mhm.
Laura: Just like a side note, did you guys, like, when you were reading the beginning of the series, think that Harry and Ginny were going to get together?
Andrew: Beginning of the series?
Laura: Yeah, like in Books 2 and 3…
Jamie: I can’t remember them.
Andrew: No.
Laura: I never thought of it at all, to be perfectly honest. Not until really the fifth book did I actually think, “Oh, that could happen.” But…
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Matt: Yeah.
Laura: Earlier in the series I was just like – I thought she was just, like, this cute little girl who had a crush on Harry.
Jamie: A friend. Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, I didn’t think of it that way at all.
Matt: Mhm, yep. If anything the thought would have been, really, just in and out really quickly whenever they mentioned that Ginny was dating this guy and this other guy.
Jamie: That’s disgusting, Matthew!
Matt: What?!
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: In and out very quickly?! Harry’s got more game than that!
Matt: I made no assumption…
Andrew: Jamie, you made it disgusting.
Matt: I am not judging. I know!
Jamie: Huh?
Andrew: You made it disgusting.
Jamie: No! Well, maybe, maybe.
Matt: He did catch the only time I didn’t have anything behind it. That was like the only time.
[Jamie and Laura laugh]
Jamie: That’s funny.
Andrew: That’s terrible. I think it also depends on what age you’re reading the book at.
Laura: Yeah, that’s true.
Andrew: Because, like, at our age…
Jamie: Yeah, definitely.
Andrew: …I don’t think when we were reading Sorcerer’s Stone through Goblet of Fire, Goblet of Fire came out in 2000. We were…
Laura: Eleven. [laughs]
Andrew: …eleven. Yeah, we weren’t thinking about relationships. At least I wasn’t. Hell, I’m still not thinking about relationships.
[Laura laughs]
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: I mean, you know, maybe once I hit puberty or something, but…
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: [laughs] When your voice cracks.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Why are we stopping this show? It’s so much fun.
Jamie: It is fun!
Andrew: Let’s continue. A thousand more shows!
Jamie: We will.
MuggleCast 125 Transcript (continued)
Ron’s Insensitivity
Laura: So, did anyone else want to slap Ron in this chapter? I just wanted to beat him.
Andrew: Why?
Laura: Okay, because as a girl…
Matt: As a woman.
[Jamie laughs]
Laura: …I’m reading this, and I see these attempts to show that he knows how to talk to girls now or whatever, but we all know he got them from a book; he admits it to Harry later. And it just seems so fake. He’s not actually trying to comfort her because he completely identifies with how she feels, he’s trying to comfort her to make her like him. And I’m just…
Matt: Well, yeah!
Jamie: But she moves in mysterious ways and it’s – and he does…
Laura: No, that’s not how it works, that’s not how it works. You are supposed to sympathize.
Matt: No, no, no, no, no. He has come to terms with the fact that he has no game.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: He knows that, he has come to terms with that.
Jamie: And Laura…
Matt: And he knows he likes Hermione, and he’s actually come to terms with that too, so now he’s trying to get with her.
Jamie: It’s all he can do.
Matt: Why are you trying to take it away from him?
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: Because he’s not trying to – it’s so annoying, because he should sympathize with her just because he sympathizes with her, but he only does it to try and get with her.
Matt: No.
Laura: It’s not right.
Jamie: But that’s – no, but…
Laura: I don’t feel like it’s until half-way through the book where he really understands. And at the same…
Jamie: He’s not being mean, though.
Matt: You know you like it.
Laura: No.
Jamie: It’s all he can do, though. It’s all he knows what to do. It’s not his fault. It’s just…
Laura: It’s because he’s pathetic.
Jamie: You know? Now, Laura.
Matt: But you know that he’s going to come through in the end anyway. So…
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: But still, it makes me want to smack him.
Matt: It’s something that his brothers gave to him.
Laura: Okay, let me just say something. You guys don’t understand. But girls who are listening, they get it.
Matt: No, no, I don’t think you understand, Laura.
Jamie: You’re talking to three guys about a guy’s actions.
Matt: There has always been at least one or two times in a man’s life where he has had help from somebody else with advice.
Jamie: Yeah.
Matt: This doesn’t come naturally to guys.
Laura: No, because you’re all dense.
Jamie: “Game” is not natural, you learn “game.”
Matt: Most guys won’t even approach a woman until they were like 25.
Jamie: Pretty sure of – yeah, and pretty sure of the attraction.
Matt: Until they were at the height of their sexual peak, so to speak.
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: Whatever. I don’t like it.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: But there was this…
Matt: Stop reading those novels.
Jamie: [laughs] Yeah!
Laura: What novels?
Matt: It’s putting dirty thoughts in your head. They’re all lies. We’re not all like that.
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Laura: What? Okay, I’m not going to pretend to understand. [laughs] Anyway, there was one quote that I thought was pretty funny, where it was talking about – Ron went over to comfort Hermione again, and he kind of glared at Harry after Harry said something that made her cry, and it said: “Harry could not think of anything to say, not least because it was highly unusual for Ron to be teaching anyone else tact.”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: [laughs] And I think that’s just another way to show that Ron is tactless, and he’s a prat.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Oh no, but he’s not tactless. Well, no, he is, but he isn’t a prat, he’s just – he doesn’t know what to do. It’s not malicious, you know, it’s just how he acts, he doesn’t know what else to do.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: You have to read the side notes, Laura.
Laura: No.
Jamie: Yeah, the footnotes, haven’t you read them yet?
Laura: Really? There are footnotes in this series, Jamie?
Jamie: Yeah, it’s in size 1, Times New Roman.
Laura: Oh, okay.
Jamie: So you really, really have to really squint.
Matt: Yeah.
Laura: But yeah, I think Ron just – he fails in this chapter, pretty much.
Matt: But he gets rewarded handsomely in the end.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Well, doesn’t everyone in the end of the fairy-tale?
Laura: Bow-chika-wow-wow.
Matt: I don’t know…
Jamie: [laughs] Wow!
[Jamie and Laura laugh]
Matt: …Bellatrix didn’t really win very much.
Andrew: All the good guys, all the good guys. Obviously, not everyone.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: That’s true they did, yeah.
Andrew: Like Mad-Eye
Matt: Like Mad-Eye and Lupin…
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: All right, all right.
Matt: …and Tonks…
Andrew: Hedwig.
Laura: Dobby.
Andrew: All right, you win.
Laura: Okay.
[Andrew laughs]
Hermione’s Parents Get Their Minds Altered
Laura: And we see a good chunk of this chapter dedicated to the measures taken for the beginning of the Horcrux hunt.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: And one of the saddest things I think about reading this chapter was learning that Hermione had modified her parents’ memories so they didn’t remember they had a daughter. And, in fact, they thought they were completely different people and moved to Australia. That…
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Can you image having to do something like that? I mean…
Jamie: Yeah.
Matt: Well, do you think that was actually kind of like a nod to all the fans in Australia, since there’s a huge fandom out there?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Maybe. You know what I was thinking, though? I was thinking, there must be holes in this plan. Now that her parents don’t think she has a child, what if they decided to have another child? Or what if they decided to adopt a child, or something? Then they’re stuck with it.
Jamie: She’d have a sister, then. [laughs]
Andrew: But it doesn’t matter because then once Hermione took her parents out of the charm, then they’d be like, “What’s this other kid?”
Laura: They’re going to be pissed at her, anyway.
Jamie: [laughs] No, they wouldn’t!
Laura: I mean, when she brings them back out, she’s going to have to explain what she did.
Andrew: No, she wouldn’t.
Laura: They’d probably kill her.
Matt: They could just – she could probably just redo their memory and just rename the kid if they name their first daughter – or their second daughter, so to speak – Hermione.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: No, they would name her Emma, I think.
Jamie: Yeah. [laughs] No but, they – I’m sure she can change them. I mean, it does kind of complicate sort of parent-offspring relations when the offspring can change the memories of the parents.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Like if they get grounded, and they perform a memory charm, so they forgot they did. And, actually, it’s their birthday and they were feeling very generous that day, so they give them lots of money. You know, it’s like, it doesn’t change how things work when they can do that.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: But it just shows how committed she is to Harry’s quest, and…
Andrew: Absolutely.
Jamie: And, you know?
Andrew: I thought one of the most…
Matt: She’s been the most loyal in the entire book for Harry.
Jamie: She really has, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: She’s been more than Ron.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, we can’t even say Ron’s been loyal now because of that whole thing later in the book. I think one of the most bad-ass things she says in this chapter was she says she’s ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: I was like, “that’s so cool,” because she could just pick up and go. I just thought that was kind of cool.
Does Ron’s Ghoul Compare to Hermione’s Actions?
Laura: Yeah. I feel like it’s just another way of showing that Ron is like the last of them to grow up. And it bothers me so much.
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: Because it’s just – his way of helping Harry just seems so lame in comparison to Hermione’s. When he disguises the ghoul in the attic to look like him and just puts it in his bed.
Jamie: Yes.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: And, I mean, yeah, it’s an embarrassing illness or whatever, because they talked about it in the fifth book. And, apparently, Ron was really embarrassed that anyone would think he had it. But I just don’t think that really compares to making your parents forget they had you, you know?
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. Well, I think it is a really good plan.
Laura: Mhm.
Andrew: I think it’s a really good idea. And as long as Mr. Weasley’s down with it, you know, they could easily make that work.
Jamie: It’s weird that that’s, you know, quite a minor point in the chapter as a whole, yet it’s the chapter title, which, again, sort of illustrates your point that it is Ron growing up finally and knowing what has to be done.
Laura: Mhm.
Jamie: So, Jo makes it the object of the chapter, even though it’s just a tiny bit at the end.
Accio Horcrux Books
Laura: So another thing – okay, and we’ve talked about this before. Where Hermione talks about how she just Accio-ed the Horcrux books out of Dumbledore’s office. Haven’t we talked about this before?
Jamie: Yeah, and you’d think he would’ve put some kind of charm on it. Yeah
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Laura: You’re just sitting there imagining her going, “Accio Horcrux books!” And it’s like, “no.”
Matt: Yeah, that was pretty much a scapegoat.
Andrew: That’s one of those flaws in the magical system that I don’t really get. It’s sort of like being able to Apparate on a moment’s notice.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: And get out of a sticky situation.
Matt: Well, didn’t all the charms break after Dumbledore died, too, the ones that he made?
Jamie: Oh, that’s true. That’s probably why she could do it, yeah.
Laura: Yeah, that’s true.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. But wasn’t there another point earlier in this book where someone Accio-ed a person?
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Wasn’t it Hedwig?
Jamie: You’re talking to someone, and suddenly you fly out of the window and go to someone’s wand.
Andrew: Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: “What’s up?”
Jamie: [laughs] “Hey!”
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. No but, seriously, earlier in this book, didn’t they say, “Accio Hedwig” or…
Laura: I don’t remember.
Jamie: Oh, no! That was the cage. Didn’t Harry need her to be near him, so he Accio-ed the – well, accio-ed [pronounces “assio-ed”] is the word.
Andrew: Yeah, I guess so. But I thought he was trying to find a dead body – I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong. But yeah, that’s another flaw. I could be sitting here recording right now then Jamie could just go, from England, “Accio Andrew.” And I’d come flying.
Jamie: That’d be so cool!
Andrew: I wonder the rules…
Laura: How long would it take?
Jamie: Flights.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: No, because like airlines would lose so much money.
Matt: I think it’s called – I think it’s called Apparating, isn’t it?
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Well, no, no, no – okay but, you know, they also do the Accio thing a lot. So, I’m saying Jamie could pull me across the world right now if he had magical powers.
Jamie: And it would cost a lot less than British Airways.
[Laura laughs]
Matt: Yeah, only two cents a minute.
Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.
Laura: Okay.
Andrew: Okay.
Let The Horcrux Hunt Begin
Laura: So, they started talking a little bit about Horcruxes from when Hermione had read in the books. And what I found interesting was that there’s actually potential to reverse the damage done to your soul if you feel remorse for what you’ve done.
Jamie: That’s a very weird point.
Laura: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah, it’s very – how – I mean like, do you think you’re like, “Oh damn, I shouldn’t have done that.” And then your soul comes back to you? Or you have to go through a stage? And then do you have to cast a spell to do it for it to egain whole?
Laura: I don’t know.
Jamie: It just seems – the words “split soul” seems to imply you can’t put it together. Like, you know, it doesn’t seem like a temporary thing. Like, even if you stick it back together, it’s still held by glue or, you know, magical glue. So…
[Laura laughs]
Jamie: I mean, obviously, it isn’t a physical object but, you know, it’s like – can you put something together that’s been torn? Even if you break a china implement, if you glue it back together it’s not the same thing.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, well, Hermione says that, “The pain of feeling the remorse can kill you.” It can just completely destroy you. So it almost seems like it’s a very small chance that you can actually repair your soul.
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: And I’m wondering…
Jamie: And also – sorry, go on.
Laura: …what exactly does it mean when she says “remorse?” Do you have to cry? Do you…?
Jamie: Well, if you go back to Dumbledore’s point, that killing is not as easy as the innocent believe, he’s saying that you have to be of a certain mind set to kill someone. Not everyone can kill someone. And it seems that there are very few people who are capable of both killing and remorse. So, it’s like killing – if you can kill, perhaps you can’t un-kill, if that’s the right word.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Like – it just seems like very, very few people – like a very minor percentage of the population can kill and then feel the same feeling as someone who can’t kill, if you take Dumbledore’s thing to be gospel. But I agree. I seems very unlikely. But, in the case of Voldemort, she said he’s completely beyond repair. His soul’s gone, basically.
Laura: Yeah.
Jamie: And it won’t come back. And he’s dead, as well.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: And I don’t think Voldemort would be feeling remorse at any point.
Laura: No.
Jamie: No, exactly, yeah.
Laura: I mean, Harry tries to make him feel remorse at the end of the book.
Andrew: Yeah?
Laura: But…
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: It’s just weird to me because if you compare it to our society, and generally, people who kill are not regarded as people who can be rehabilitated.
Jamie: But that’s so weird because they’re situations. I personally think there are certain situations that sort of – there are situations that people find themselves in very, very rarely that – like self defense. You know, if someone attacks you.
Laura: Oh. I mean, I’m talking about cold-blooded killers.
Jamie: Oh right, yeah. I see what you mean.
Matt: Of course.
Jamie: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, people who – you know, I mean, I think everyone’s capable of killing. Not killing, but, you know, well, yes, killing. Sorry. Not murdering people. People are capable of killing when it comes to a loved one or self-defense, or something like that. Very, very rarely and they have to be put under significant and indescribable strain. And they can feel remorse, obviously. And guilt. But someone like Voldemort, a cold-blooded sociopath can’t really think well, “Shouldn’t have killed all those people.”
Andrew: Right. Right.
Jamie: You know?
[Matt laughs]
Laura: But I guess the difference is here, the person who killed out of self-defense isn’t going to use it to make a Horcrux.
Jamie: No. [laughs] That’s very true.
Laura: You really only assume that the only people who are going to make a Horcrux is people who are cold-blooded killers. And it’s just weird that there’s even the remotest possibility that they could come back from that.
Matt: Yeah. I highly doubt Voldemort’s going to stop and say, “Probably shouldn’t have killed all those people.”
Laura: [laughs] No. Probably not. We also learned that as long as the device that a Horcrux is living in is still intact, it can actually flit in and out of the device.
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: Like, with the people who get too close to it. The best example, before this point in the series, is Ginny and Riddle’s diary, which answers a lot about what exactly happened there, because at the time when we were reading Sorcerer’s Stone, it’s not – or not Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets – it’s not very clear how this diary came to be.
All we know is that Riddle says he, you know, put his 16 year-old self into it. And that’s all we really know. So, I think this clarifies a lot.
Jamie: Yeah.
Laura: And also later in the book we see the trio wearing the locket Horcrux around their necks and it’s like falling right over their hearts. So it seems like that’s another way to say that they made themselves vulnerable to the Horcrux by doing that.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
Favorite Lines
Laura: And we’ve got just a couple of favorite lines here from the chapter. Both are from Ron. The first one says, “‘And are they getting married in my bedroom?'” asked Ron furiously. ‘No! So why in the name of Merlin’s saggy left…'”
Andrew: [laughs] Whoa!
Laura: And then he gets cut off.
Andrew: That sounds like something I would say.
Matt: That’s definitely something.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: That’s a good point. You know how your mother – you know how your mom always tells you to clean your room, like say – like you’re having family over for Thanksgiving. “Clean your room.”
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: “Okay. nobody’s coming up here, but okay.”
[Jamie laughs]
Matt: Yeah.
Laura: Next time I get mad at my mom I’m going to ask her “why in the name of Merlin’s saggy left testicle I have to do that?”
Andrew: Another one?
Laura: [laughs] And the other one is, “‘Oh well, lucky we’ve got such a large supply of basilisk fangs then,'” said Ron. ‘I was wondering what we were going to do with them.'”
Andrew: Ha ha!
Jamie: That is funny, that is funny, I like that one.
Andrew: Jo is funny. Jo is legitimately funny.
Jamie: She is, yeah! I like – her sarcasm is very good. You know. It’s not bad at all.
Matt: I love it.
Muggle Mail: Keep Hagrid Alive
Andrew: We have one e-mail concerning Chapter-by-Chapter this week. This comes from Shannon, 18 of Novi, Michigan. She writes:
“Throughout this last book, there are a few times, starting with Chapter 5, that we think Hagrid has been killed. J.K. Rowling has said many times that most people asked her not to kill Hagrid, and so I assume this was just to keep us on our toes. To tease us. And while this has nothing to do as much with the chapter itself, I was wondering what you guys thought about this plea from fans? Why do you think Hagrid was the one character that the majority begged her not to kill?”
Andrew: I think this is an interesting question, because leading up to Book 7, everyone was worried that Hagrid was going to bite the dust because he’s always that, you know – he’s a big, strong character, but at the same time he’s innocent, he could get killed. Do you guys agree?
Jamie: He could, but he’s so tough.
Andrew: In Chapter 5, Harry, once he wakes up, he immediately starts looking for Hagrid and he tries to push Ted Tonks out of the way. He’s like, “Get out of the way, I need to find – I need to see Hagrid.” He wouldn’t believe Hagrid was okay until he saw him. So, it just shows how attached Harry is to Hagrid and how important Hagrid is in Harry’s life and he was the first magical character, or person in the magical world that he met! Hagrid has such a huge influence and it’s still a far way away, but that chapter where Hagrid carries Harry’s supposedly dead body out is just fantastic. So, do you guys think that there is a big fan connection with Hagrid?
Jamie: There is.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: He’s a complete special person in Harry’s life. He was the person who introduced him to the magical world, he’s the one who trusted, he’s the one who he knows is always going to be there. Like a different one to Hermione and Ron. They’re friends. Hagrid is a kind of friend and father figure, which I think Harry likes, because he’s had some type of trouble with father figures. Like Sirius hasn’t always told him what he wants, you know? Dumbledore didn’t always listen to him. He still loved these people but it was a completely different type, whereas Hagrid is both a friend and a mentor, so there’s a special connection, I think.
Andrew: I agree.
Matt: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, I agree completely.
Quote Quiz
Andrew: [laughs] All right, well let’s move on now to Quote Quiz Quiz Quiz Quiz…
Matt: Quiz Quiz Quiz Quiz Quiz Quiz Quiz…
Andrew: So, Jamie, we’re doing this new [laughs] thing where we quiz the listeners on a quote…
Jamie: Oh okay, cool.
Andrew: …in upcoming chapters, so this was just a little one. This comes in Chapter 7.
Matt: Oh, I don’t know that one.
Andrew: The quote is, “I shall tell you that when we are somewhere more private.”
Matt: Who said that!?
Andrew: And who is he talking?
Jamie: Which book is that from?
[Everybody laughs]
Laura: Oooh!
Andrew: It’s not a Harry Potter book. Guys, grow up!
Matt: It’s a Fan Fiction.
Jamie’s British Joke of the Day
Andrew: Seriously grow up. You guys are immature. Hey, here’s something we haven’t done in a while: Jamie’s British Joke of the Day!
Jamie: Oh yeah! Okay!
Andrew: After three months.
Jamie: After three months, so it better be good, okay. Well, there’s this couple, okay?
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Bob and Judy.
Andrew: Okay. And Bob is severely in trouble because he forgot his wedding anniversary and his wife was really annoyed. Very, very annoyed. And she told him, “Tomorrow morning, no excuses, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in six seconds, and it better be there.” So, the next morning he went up early and left for work. And his wife woke up. She looked out of the window and, sure enough, there was a box gift wrapped in the middle of the driveway, so she thought, “Wow, he’s made up for it! I shouldn’t be angry with him anymore.” And she got up, put on her robe, ran out to the driveway, brought the box back in the house and undid it, and she opened it to find a brand-new bathroom scale.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Oh, that’s terrible.
Laura: Oh, my god. That’s awful.
Andrew: It took six seconds for that little thing to reach up to 200, though? That’s pretty bad.
Matt: Well, it was probably going back and forth because it went all the way over.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: That’s true.
Matt: It probably took six seconds to stop.
[Laura and Jamie laugh]
Andrew: That’s funny, Jamie. That’s a good one to come back with.
Matt: That was funny.
Andrew: I was expecting for you to say like, “rocket ship,” or something. [laughs]
Matt: Yeah, I was going to say something like a snake or something.
Andrew: [laughs] Snake. A snake couldn’t go 200 in under six seconds.
[Laura laughs]
Ode to MuggleCast
Andrew: That’s funny. That’s good. [sighs] Well…
[Matt sighs]
Andrew: …since this week is our holiday show, Stephanie, 15, of California wrote in with a little Christmas contribution like I asked.
[Walking in a Winter Wonderland plays]
Laura: Ode to MuggleCast:
It’s raining here, at my home,
On a dreary afternoon,
I’m really bored, out of my mind,
But I know just what to do:
Andrew: Kick my brother off the computer
And plug my blue iPod in
Download MuggleCast to have some fun
Because it always makes me grin.
Matt: Micah, Jamie, Laura, Ben
Are always good for laughs
Andrew: And Matt.
Matt: Andrew, Mikey, Eric, Kevin
They’re one of the best staffs.
Jamie: Amazing, wonderful, incredibly insightful!
What an extraordinary group!
They warm my heart, and my ears,
Like a bowl of Chicken Soup.
Laura: No! It’s much too soon!
I haven’t met them yet!
But if they do go, soon in April,
Then they owe me a debt.
Andrew. Allegedly.
Two years of my life will be ending as well
For I’ve listened all the while
Arguments, jokes, debates, and tears
But still all ending with a smile.
Matt: Until that day, Merry Christmas to you,
To the Casters and the million fans.
May we all be blessed with people like you
Even after the hourglass runs out of sand.
Andrew: Awww, that was so sweet.
Jamie: Awww.
Laura: Awww.
Andrew: Thanks, Stephanie!
Laura: Thank you!
Andrew: That was very nice.
Matt: It’s kind of sad.
Christmas Plans
Andrew: What’s everyone doing – it was kind of sad, but it was bittersweet. What’s everyone doing for Christmas this year?
Matt: Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’m going to be – I’ll be at home opening presents.
Laura: [laughs] Okay. I’m going to go see Sweeney Todd with my family on Christmas Eve, and then I’m going to open presents.
Andrew: Oh, that’s great. And I’m going to be just here, at home, with the family. And then the day after that…
Matt: Yeah, this is going to be a weird Christmas.
Andrew: Why?
Matt: For a lot of us.
Andrew: Why?
Matt: Because the day after, we’re not going to be home.
Andrew: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Jamie and I are experts in this field. We know what…
Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.
Andrew: …it’s like to leave the day after Christmas.
Jamie: Or Christmas Day.
Andrew: Or Christmas Day. [laughs] Yeah, Jamie’s leaving Christmas Day.
Jamie: I tell you, I had to use all of my skills, convincing skills, to convince my mom to drive me to the airport on Christmas Day at 5:00 a.m.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Actually, I didn’t. [laughs]
Matt: Oh, my gosh.
Jamie: That’s not true, that’s not true. She didn’t mind at all.
Andrew: Wait, 5:00 a.m. Christmas Day, you’re leaving?
Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.
Andrew: Jesus.
Jamie: Because – my flight leaves at…
Laura: [laughs] Oh, my god.
Jamie: …11:15 a.m. from Heathrow, so I have to get there early, then check in.
Matt: Geez.
Andrew: Wait, is she actually driving you to Heathrow?
Jamie: No, I’m walking.
Andrew: No! I mean…
[Jamie and Laura laugh]
Andrew: …are you taking a train?
Jamie: No, she’s driving me, she’s driving me. Well, no, I’m driving there and she’s driving back.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
[Show music begins]
Matt: Wow. I’m still convincing my mom to let me go.
Andrew: Awww.
Matt: And this is the day after Christmas.
Andrew: Well, your flight’s already booked, so, I guess, you know, that’s one talking point. [laughs]
Show Close
Andrew: All right, yeah, so we’re going to have some fun. So, I think that’s it for this episode of MuggleCast. We’ve got to remind everyone about our contact information. Laura, what’s the PO Box?
Laura: It’s:
PO Box 3151
Cumming, Georgia
30028
Andrew: You can also visit MuggleCast.com for a handy feedback form, or you can contact any one of us at our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com, with the exception of Matt. He’s matthewb at staff dot mugglenet dot com. You can also visit the site for community outlets such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Frappr, Last.FM, and the Fanlisting. I think that just about does it for this week. Once again, I’m Andrew Sims.
Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Matt: And I’m Matt Britton.
Jamie: Merry Christmas.
Andrew: Thanks, everyone, for listening. Merry Christmas to all! Ho ho ho.
Matt: Ho.
Jamie: Happy, happy carol…
Laura: Happy Festivus!
Andrew: Happy Hanukkah! Yes, we’ve got to get through them all or otherwise people will…
Laura: Even though Hanukkah’s already over.
Andrew: Oh well.
Laura; We hope you had a Happy Hanukkah.
Andrew: Happy Kwanzaa.
Jamie: Happy 25th of December.
Andrew: Yes, Happy Holidays, ladies and gentlemen. Yay.
Jamie: Boys and girls.
Andrew: In the words of Micah Tannenbaum for Episode…
Jamie: Cats and dogs.
Andrew: …124, “Bah humbug.”
Matt: [imitates Micah] Bah humbug.
[Jamie and Laura laugh]
Andrew: We’ll see everyone for our New Years special, Episode 126. Bye bye!
Jamie: Bye bye!
Laura: Bye!
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