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Might be worth mentioning that in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s work “The Mists of Avalon” the title “Lady of the Lake” was passed down from Viviene to Morgan la Fey. While Bradley’s work is a feminist/revisionist look at Arthurian mythology (and stunning, everyone go read it) it is a VERY popular book/series and I wouldn’t be shocked if they used parts of it along with T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King”
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"A bit of both, to be honest. This isn’t a new villain coming which has largely become redundant at this point; it’s the Savior gone dark. It’s mythic and very old and very in line with other fantasy without the (now tired) Disney villain attached.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Yup. Nimue is probably Lancelot’s mother/Merlin’s love and *probably* the First Dark One whom Merlin has to kill for the greater good.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Is that where King George is, too? He wasn’t eaten by Ruby?
S2 deleted scene shows that George was kept in the mines. Not sure what happened to him since.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I’m laughing. Also, the bathroom must be full of babysitters and little kids.
Also. Plot devices.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Adam said at the end of 3B that Philip was returned to his human form and was just “in the bathroom” during the huge party scene at Granny’s.
I wonder how many characters are perpetually ‘in the bathroom’
The Bathroom is actually a nickname for Forgotten Character Island.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"There’s no way that can be a flashback back to her newly married status and when Snow and Charming were the age Charming is in that photo, Regina was going down Evil Queen route quite strongly, and actually WAS the Evil Queen when James died.
Do we know that Snow and Charming are the same age? I really am not sure if that was ever addressed.
Exact same? No. But they are, at most, only a few years apart. Certainly not enough for newly wed Regina to be dancing with a already adult James.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Thanks for the write up Macy!
Ah, the forest. You’re right that forests are often a place of mystery and that once you enter a forest you never come out the other side the same. To quote Mr. Dante
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straight-forward pathway had been lost.Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.–The Inferno, Canto I
Dante come out the other side of the forest having descended into the depths of Hell to find himself in Purgatory and then, after scaling a mountain, into Paradise.
Archetypically speaking, forests are usually very OLD and the older something is, the more magical or mysterious it tends to be. It’s not a coincidence, then, then while in the mystery forest Harry meets several “other” creatures who are much more mythical than the ones encountered thus far. Norbert was foreshadowing that there are magical and mythical things in the world Harry now lives, apart from the wizards and witches who are becoming background noise in Harry’s new world. The things found in the forest are almost exclusively part of the magical world, a magical world that is actually cut off from the magical world Harry is living in. This is why Bane gets so upset at Firenze for letting Harry ride on him. The centaurs are part of a magical world that even Harry isn’t supposed to touch. There are level to reality. We have the mundane human world and the magical but inside the magical there are deeper levels and Harry is just now beginning to enter those.
The forests always contain beings who are set apart as “other” by humans. Elves, fairy folk, sprites, gods and demons, unicorns. They live in the forest. That’s why humans never see them, they exist in a place where we fear to tread.
Along with the idea of very old and very mysterious, is transformation of self, something Macy already touched on. It’s a bit of an odd way to think about forests since at a glance forests don’t change. If left untouched, trees will live an insanely long time and there is very little in the way of change inside the forest itself. But people who go into this sedentary place often find that they must be the one to change, especially if they enter at night. The Forest Dark is a place where heroes are tested because (literally) they can’t see and it largely becomes about the kind of person you are if you want to survive the Forest. So when Harry exists the forest, long gone is the idea that he can’t meddle; now he knows that he MUST meddle in the affairs of Hogwarts. He has been changed because of his experience inside the forest.
Why are Ronan and Bane upset that Firenze helps Harry? What does Firenze think?
Their world is being trampled upon by the humans. It’s like I said, and like Slurpeez says above, they are set apart from the magical world. They live in a pocket of the world and expect to be left alone. They accept whatever fate has planned without thinking that they can change it. “Mars is bright tonight” is a sad statement. First, Mars is the god of war and it’s bright because war is coming to all the corners of the world. Voldemort is trying to return to power which means, if he wins, the end of their existence. But they passively accept their sad fate because “it is foretold.” Firenze takes a different approach; fate can be altered, the future can be undone because of choice. By helping Harry, by letting him into the secret of the forest, he puts Harry directly on the path of action. Harry enters the forest wanting nothing to do with whatever Snape has planned and he leaves knowing he has to help because his eyes were opened to the real dangers that lurk in the world.
Considering how dangerous the Forbidden Forest is, why would a) it be allowed for students to go there to serve detention and b) Hagrid split the students into two groups and allow one to wander about unsupervised?
Yeaaaaaah. That’s a bit of a shock. It’s an odd punishment because while we want children to understand the consequences of their actions, we don’t want their lives put in jeopardy. In a lot of ways, Harry entering the forest is less about what is proper or not at Hogwarts and has a lot more to do with his Heroes Journey and how he needs to see what he’s up against (not to mention being motivated to actually set himself against Voldemort). JKR needs to get Harry into that forest thematically and narrative-wise so any of the rules that were previously established about what students can and cannot do at Hogwarts gets brushed aside. One wonders who came up with the punishment: McGonagall or Dumbledore.
Just a few notes of interest
–I’ve always wondered if JKR didn’t name Ronan after the Rohirrim (Riders of Rohan) with a bit of a different spelling. The way Aragorn describes the Riders matches how Centaurs are presented in her world: “They are proud and willful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years.”
–We’ve talked about liminal spaces but Centaurs are liminal creatures, caught between animals and humans…something they seem to understand here in HP-land. They don’t belong to the human world, but they are more than the animals who exist in the forest.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I’ll take Bad Boy! James and Newly Married! Regina over Present Day Married! Charming and Present Day In Love With Robin! Regina anyday.
While she does look like she is dressed in Young Regina mode, when Regina was a married, Snow was like 10….so James/Charming would be around that age… So it is a flashback, it can’t be that far back.
Aaaaand you’re right. There’s no way that can be a flashback back to her newly married status and when Snow and Charming were the age Charming is in that photo, Regina was going down Evil Queen route quite strongly, and actually WAS the Evil Queen when James died.
Crap.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
