The End of Innocence: Regarding the Goblet of Fire
We never see the things that hit us the hardest coming. That's a big reason why those incidents are so profound, so cataclysmic. The fourth installment of the Harry Potter series completely hinges on that axiom. It's also the first book in the series that's so expansive that it's larger than most bricks when it's in print. The Goblet of Fire starts and continues this narrative of celebration for the majority of the story; there's a World Cup that opens the tale, a tournament bringing three schools and their students together in the name of amazing feats of wizardry and witchcraft, and even a big school dance with a live band. Everyone is having a good time...until they're not. Life comes at you fast. But it can never quite outrace inevitability.
It varies, of course, but high school can be a hell of a lot of fun; I certainly had a lot of it. Goblet of Fire embraces that youthful effervescence where the end of the world and the best day of your life can happen in the span of minutes; high school is a fucking rollercoaster of emotions and Harry is on the ride of his life. At this point, readers and viewers are used to Harry pulling out the win, to being the prodigy that is apparently the best thing to happen to the world of witchcraft and wizardry. But for all his natural talent, Harry can't see that he's pushing away his best friend in the whole wide world. And he can't see that he's being set up all along the way.
Do you even remember reading this book for the first time and getting to that point when Voldemort was resurrected? Fuck all the plot twists combined that came before and after, THIS is where you realized Rowling was playing for keeps. Voldemort's return was always something of a certainty; it had been teased since the start. What threw everybody for a loop is that it happens halfway through the series. The mystery of who entered Harry's name into the titular goblet is almost completely brushed aside in the face of the competition and that comes with consequences. Just ask Cedric Diggory.
The adaptation of The Goblet of Fire is the most stylized entry in the entire film series, sometimes distractingly so. It is also somehow feels the most British which is impressive considering its the fourth film in the series. That comes with having the first British director helming the production so that sensibility and sense of humor carries over into the final product.
Up until The Goblet of Fire, there was a sense of freewheeling, coming-of-age reckless abandon that permeated through the Harry Potter series. But like all children in extraordinary times, the characters are forced to grow up faster than expected in the face of overwhelming pressure. The carefree days of yesteryear have evaporated by the final moments of The Goblet of Fire. The prologue is over. The main event is here.
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| Keep holding that golden egg, pal. You have no idea what's coming next. |
Do you even remember reading this book for the first time and getting to that point when Voldemort was resurrected? Fuck all the plot twists combined that came before and after, THIS is where you realized Rowling was playing for keeps. Voldemort's return was always something of a certainty; it had been teased since the start. What threw everybody for a loop is that it happens halfway through the series. The mystery of who entered Harry's name into the titular goblet is almost completely brushed aside in the face of the competition and that comes with consequences. Just ask Cedric Diggory.
The adaptation of The Goblet of Fire is the most stylized entry in the entire film series, sometimes distractingly so. It is also somehow feels the most British which is impressive considering its the fourth film in the series. That comes with having the first British director helming the production so that sensibility and sense of humor carries over into the final product.
Up until The Goblet of Fire, there was a sense of freewheeling, coming-of-age reckless abandon that permeated through the Harry Potter series. But like all children in extraordinary times, the characters are forced to grow up faster than expected in the face of overwhelming pressure. The carefree days of yesteryear have evaporated by the final moments of The Goblet of Fire. The prologue is over. The main event is here.
