murfSTUFF

[Hey! Sorry about missing yesterday. The week went by so fast that it totally just slipped my mind. Don’t think I’ll let that happen again anytime soon.]

Grab your cloaks, wands and cauldrons boys and girls as murf is gearing up for the grandest of grand finales. That’s right. This month, the Harry Potter films are reaching their final hour as we watch Harry and Voldemort face off in an epic battle of wizardy goodness. I’m going to be celebrating the end of one of my favorite franchises with a whole month of Friday Five’s. Which oddly enough there are five Friday’s this July. So we’ll be celebrating a mixture of both the books and the films, but for the most part I’m basing my lists from the original novels.

I’m sorry for inundation of Potter this month, but I’m excited and really, how often to get you a see the closure of a decade long film series? So let’s begin. Oh, and for what it’s worth, this month is going to likely be all full of spoilers from every damn angle possible. So buckle up kiddies for our month-long ride to and through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After 7 novels, we not only got to know the main cast, but a whole array of awesome and wonderful characters in the wizarding world. For our first venture to Fiveing out Harry Potter, I’ll be discussing my favorite characters from the series.

Luna Lovegood

Luna Lovegood

Aloof, nonsensical and just plain strange. Luna is the kind of person my logical, skeptical and scientifically minded self most likely would just write off as a loon in the real world and likely wouldn’t bother giving her the time of day. However, her strange quirkiness it what sells and makes her character so memorable. Then again, with a father who writes the wizard equivalent of the Weekly World News, who can blame her? Between her ramblings of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and Nargles (fictitious creatures, even for magic) is a steadfast and loyal ally to Harry and the Gang. Besides, in a world where the whimsical is common place, having a crack-pot even by wizard standards is a fun thing to have.

Fred & George Weasley

Fred and George Weasley

In a series like Harry Potter, you need to have your fun-loving pranksters. Fred and George are just that to perfection. The elder twin brothers to Ron, these two spend their days in Hogwarts playing pranks and testing out new joke products on their classmates. What makes Fred and George so awesome though is that underneath the joking exterior are two guys who want to their part to the make the world a better place. They’d prefer to help people through the hard times by supplying a good laugh, but if they need to fight some Death Eaters they are more than willing to take up arms to do so.

Remus Lupin

Remus Lupin

By the time Lupin comes around, we’ve seen two barely competent Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers come through Hogwarts. Finally here is a man who knows what he is doing. He is collected, knowledgeable and well meaning. He eventually becomes an avuncular (“like an uncle”, new word for you today) figure in Harry’s life. The two bond over private lessons to help Harry deal with his dementor problem. Lupin, is still yet a tragic figure, who is afflicted with lycanthropy. He’s a werewolf. He is treated as diseased and subhuman by many wizards, except for his closets friends and allies. Through the series, we watch Lupin struggle with himself and his own inner demons. He’s a character that we want to see overcome his hardships. It makes him compelling and interesting.

Alastor “Mad-eye” Moody

Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody

The presence of Moody truly brings forth and understanding of how bad things really were before Voldemort’s fall. Here is a man who is missing body parts due to his battles with dark wizards. He’s the gruff old army guy who doesn’t take crap from anybody and has seen too much to not let it get to him. Moody is a man shaped by his experiences, and they aren’t good ones. Even though in Goblet of Fire, the Moody we see is an impostor we have to assume that he did a good enough job “playing Moody” that no one was suspicious of him. He’s paranoid, overly vigilant and just plain off-his-rocker. He isn’t a really compelling character, but his certainly entertaining and a needed addition to really make you understand just how dangerous the dark side of wizarding can be.

Dolores Umbridge

Dolores Umbridge

Villains often are not found in such lists, but Umbridge truly deserves this mention. A good character is one that draws emotion out of you. One that if there were lifted from the page into reality, you’d want to express that feeling in front of them. Whenever Umbridge was present, I wanted to throttle her with a good punch to the face. I’m not an avid reader, but I’ve come across my fair share of villains and evil doers in the media I consume, but there is none that I hate with every fiber of being as much as Umbridge. She is so perfectly sickening that is churns my stomach even just writing this bit about her. Sure there have been more evil and more competent villains in fiction, but Umbridge is one who just oozes with her sickeningly sweet but evil demeanor you just can’t help but hate her. To elicit a rise of emotion so consistently with so many people, it makes her stand out as a truly excellent character.

[The Friday Five is murf's weekly series on GeekLore. If you enjoyed this article, and want to see more geeky goodness from murf and others, please check out www.geeklore.net.]

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