Not My Canon!

Dang, there's an exclamation point in that title!

Heh, I know. I want to tread carefully here, because it's easy for us to be quick to judge or to get irritated at times with JKR. I'm certainly not giving myself a pass on that. I've been tough on her, for sure. And talk about high expectations! You're going to step out and give the world exactly what they were asking for - an 8th Harry Potter story! For a lot of people, no matter what they were given, it would fail to meet expectations. The franchise is so big and Potterheads have been dreaming for years about what would happen next in the lives of Harry and his friends. And, yeah, CURSED CHILD was irritating. But we need to remember who to thank before we grumble and inevitably throw the book across the room.

You've seen how some fans treated George Lucas when he meddled with established characters and original material. Emotions tend to run high when superfans start claiming that this was a cash grab, or complain that they are taking advantage of us by reprinting the books to nab our money, etc. I was in college when they were constantly reproducing different versions of Star Wars and I remember the arguments vividly. Yes, JKR made a lot of money in 2016, some of the highest earnings she's made since Deathly Hallows, but I just... I want us to be careful because, let's not forget, she is a huge inspiration!

I'm such a massive fan of hers, and JKR really stands up for such awesome causes. At the moment I was first writing this book, it was the 20th Anniversary of Harry Potter. Just like that, you begin to realize how much our lives have been affected because of what we've gotten from her beautiful mind. Which is the main reason why, before putting pen to paper on my fan edit of the play, I wanted to take time to study the characters, study her, and figure out what really went wrong with Cursed Child before giving something back. Because this play doesn't feel like something that would have gotten JKR's precious seal of approval.

Originally, NOT MY CANON! was going to be a handful of posts. Almost like a preface to the MOD. Haha...that didn't happen.

First, I want to revisit the events of what got us to this place. I think it's vital to study all the factors relating to the success or failure of the play before I make any decisions of my own for the fan edit. It seems clear (as most of the fans are in agreement) that somewhere in the mix of things, the creative team got it wrong. Here are two quotes that define why I'm thinking along these lines:

"We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do."
- Margaret MacMillan

"Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
- Winston Churchill

(Doom? Really, Winston? Chill, bruh.)

Second, I'll provide a summary of the original play to refamiliarize readers. Obviously, in doing this, I'm assuming you've read the play script and won't be concerned with spoilers.

Lastly, I'll give an in-depth explanation of the issues I and others have had with the play. Call it the Analysis / WTF / Mike take a breath / every. thing. will. be. okay! section. It's the point-by-point reason why calling this play "canon" does a disservice to everything the seven books represented to us as fans.

As a final statement, I want to make it clear that, although there are some things that I don't necessarily agree with in the text, I don't think my view on the play is the definitive view. Far from it. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them in the comments.

- M.