Yep. I got into fandom riiight before the release of the fourth book, although I don't think I really started reading fanfic until a few months after GoF came out.
Well then, you were slightly ahead of me - I changed fandoms from anime to LOTR and HP (though I was way more into the former than the latter) right after the English release of GoF. I remember it so clearly because GoF was the first book I read in English rather than in translation.
As far as the Marauder goes, I do think fandom - myself included - made them out to be more collected than the third book even implied. I really think that the trio is actually who MWPP could've been, and the trio basically learns from them not to make those mistakes. I mean, Peter even almost ruins Ron, Harry and Hermione's friendship by faking his own death again. And Remus went the whole year keeping a huge secret about Sirius because he was ashamed of the lie he told Dumbledore.
That's a very good observation you made there, regarding the Marauders and the Trio. I think we all assumed back then that MPPW were the positive predecessors of the Trio and the twins and not their negative mirror image. I think on the whole the TYS assumed that the Wizarding World was a whole lot less traumatised and fucked up than it turned out to be.
Oh, and I agree that it makes them all more interesting. I think that the only problem I have regarding the Wizarding World and JKRs world-building is that she built up the acknowledgment that the rise of Voldemort depended on the social structures he could exploit (blood status, House rivalries and House hierarchies etc) and then ultimately fell back on easier explanations at the end. I am still a bit angry about the lack of named Slytherins in the DA, or the fact that Albus Severus was still afraid of being Sorted there twenty years later...
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2017-05-23 01:11 pm (UTC)Well then, you were slightly ahead of me - I changed fandoms from anime to LOTR and HP (though I was way more into the former than the latter) right after the English release of GoF. I remember it so clearly because GoF was the first book I read in English rather than in translation.
That's a very good observation you made there, regarding the Marauders and the Trio. I think we all assumed back then that MPPW were the positive predecessors of the Trio and the twins and not their negative mirror image. I think on the whole the TYS assumed that the Wizarding World was a whole lot less traumatised and fucked up than it turned out to be.
Oh, and I agree that it makes them all more interesting. I think that the only problem I have regarding the Wizarding World and JKRs world-building is that she built up the acknowledgment that the rise of Voldemort depended on the social structures he could exploit (blood status, House rivalries and House hierarchies etc) and then ultimately fell back on easier explanations at the end. I am still a bit angry about the lack of named Slytherins in the DA, or the fact that Albus Severus was still afraid of being Sorted there twenty years later...