Covers And A Preview

[filkertom]

This morning, the various covers to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were revealed. (Note that the hyphen is in there now.) Here's the Scholastic cover, the British adult version, and the British child's version. All courtesy of The Leaky Cauldron.

Also, there's a new trailer for Frank Miller's Sin City.

Comments

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

And I'll re-state my belief that the title character is Seamus Finnegan.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

I'm betting on Neville.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'm in the Neville camp as well, but the only ones it can't be (as specifically stated by JKR) are Harry and Voldemort. Somehow I don't think it's Ron.

[ororo.livejournal.com]

I looked at the adult version of the cover, couple that with "the editor wouldn't confirm if it was" and I think we have our answer.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Nevile, though is a full blood and Seamus's father was a muggle.

[daisy-knotwise.livejournal.com]

Colin Creavy. From things that JKR said when rumers of six were coming out, Six is based in stuff laid down in Two. I went back and read two again. Colin was introduced with great fanfare, and then pretty much ignored.

GHR

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Wonderful. Annoying Photo Boy. ;)

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Could be. I've just started re-reading book two to Robin (well, I'm re-reading it. She hasn't read it before.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

WHOA.. Someone hacked Leaky Cauldron.. it now routes to a porn site. Not good people.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Hah? I just double-checked all the links myself.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Fixed now.

[cthulhulovesme.livejournal.com]

The new trailer for Sin City makes me wish a cryogenic nap until April 1st were possible. I want to see it now. ((grins))

Oh-- and add another one to the Neville camp. *raises hand*

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

We saw the SIN CITY trailer in front of CONSTANTINE last weekend. Whoa.

It can't be Neville, he's a full-blood wizard. So are all of the Weasleys.

I'm thinking Hagrid, he is a half blood. Where does it say that the other half has to be Human?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

"Ah-yup. Yeah, shouldn'ta told ya that."

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Now having seen the covers, for the first time, I like the American cover the best. The British Adult is kinda eh, and the British Children's is a little over the top.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Dont' like the American one for the same reason I didn't like the previous American one. You can't really see the title in a bookstore (although this one is less bad than the previous one). It relies solely on the name Harry Potter to sell (which is really all that's necessary), but the purple on green is rather eye-numbing.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I am obviously spending too much time on LJ, reading about slash fic.

I totally expected something else from the "British Adult Version" cover.

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

Those of us who still hang out on Order of the Phoenix MUSH have our own set of theories.

Our concensus right now is that the Half-Blood Prince isn't anyone in current time. We generally believe it was Godric Gryffindor.

Pull ye out yon history tomes, mes amis, and walk with me into the dark and dusty past.

Godric owned a sword... typically, only landowners/rich guys/knights/royalty got to have those kinds of sharp pointy objects back in the day (when back in the day was roughly 1000 years ago - before William the Conqueror). My lovely history degree reminds me that the kingdoms hadn't really been united (or united for all that long) at the time of Hogwarts' founding... therefore, kings and princes littered the countryside. It's not anywhere near as much of a stretch back then to have been a king or a prince (or pretended to be one and actually got away with it for awhile or just beat everyone up until they agreed to the notion). Today, there are limited numbers of princes in the UK... but that of course assumes the HBP is of British Isle descent in general. In today's world, we all know or can easily find out who the actual royals are in any of the major families, thus it doesn't make too much sense for Jo to suddenly trot out a completely fictitious prince from a real country. While the books are fiction and fantasy, she hasn't yet really tossed out a character who cannot exist in the real world, or directly contradicts the real world (such as making up a different Prime Minister).

Also, bear in mind, none of the wizarding characters are said to have titles, and you can bet that if you have an aristocratic/old money/pureblood family who'd have titles, it'd be the Malfoys. Perhaps the wizarding world shrugged off the aristocracy when Hogwarts was founded. If Gryffindor gave up his familial inheritance, that might explain it.

Finally, Jo has indicated that some of the events and concepts in Book 6 were originally slated for Book 2... and the whole big thing about Book 2 was the heir of Slytherin and linkages to the Old Days (tm). I am of the firm opinion that if there was a current-day HBP, we'd already know they were a prince. Jo's good with foreshadowing and hinting... but it would simply be too much of a jarring thing for one of the current-time characters we know to suddenly be revealed to be a prince. It's far too much of a stretch for me.

So my vote is on Godric Gryffindor.

See you in the funny pages! :)