Sunday morning HP pondering

Today's Harry Potter Topic of Great Significance is...hair.

JKR spends a fair amount of time on Harry's hair, particularly on how unruly it is. Once, when Petunia cuts it all off, it grows back overnight. Hermione's "bushy" hair is similarly hard to control, except when she uses immense amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on it. Snape's hair is perpetually greasy. I read a fic that suggested that his hair was greasy no matter how much he washed it.

So maybe these people just have problem hair. But how boring! Much more interesting to speculate that wizards with strong magical ability are always subconsciously affecting their own appearance.

So, Snape's greasy hair is due to his subconscious making him look as he thinks he deserves, or possibly trying to look unattractive so that no one will want to engage him.

Harry has a subconscious memory of his father's artfully dishevelled locks and wants to be him.

Hermione...well, maybe Hermione just has problem hair.

Also, JKR puts quite a lot of emphasis on hair colour. I find it most interesting that the Dursleys and the Malfoys are all blonds. (I don't think Vernon is definitely stated to be blond, but his resemblance to Dudley, who *is* blond, indicates that he is.)

Riddle, of course, has "jet-black" hair, just like Harry.

The Weasleys and their red hair have got to be significant somehow. I'd like to read a study of redheads in fiction. Are they usually sidekicks? Tricksters? Villains?

You know what would be cool? A character guide to HP that had little coloured boxes for everyone's hair colours. Then we could more easily engage in this sort of vital in-depth analysis.

You mean all 4 Jaffa get attacks of opportunity?

Since one of the guys we game with has been wanting to try it, the boy picked up the Stargate RPG. It uses the Spycraft D20 rules. I'm not too keen on Spycraft, but I like how they adapted the D20 system, so that should be OK.

I can't really report on the game itself until I make a character and play. I'm honestly not too thrilled to try it -- I think gaming in beloved media universes is a ticket for big disappointment (vide Living Force) and I'm more into social than results-oriented gaming. But it might be fun. It depends on how closely we have to stick within the existing plotline.

Of course, I flipped to the end to see the stats on our beloved SG-1. They actually have three sets of stats for each, for low, middle, and high level campagins. I'll give the base stats for the low versions. Just the stats -- I'm not about to type up all their skills and feats. :)

( numbers )

I must say, I think Sam's INT is too low, but I guess they had to balance, blahblahblah.

Anyone else picking this up? It actually could be a good source book for fic details as well, I think.

Forth Eorlingas!

ETA: I now have a victim beta so everyone can breathe easier. :)

Is there an intrepid soul out there who could give me a lightning fast macro-beta on a 1400 word Eomer/Eowyn story?

When I say "macro-beta", I mean, don't bother with line-by-line stuff, just tell me if the 30 verse song Eomer sings is boring or if the scene where Eowyn jumps on a chair because she's afraid of mice is out of character.

When I say lightning fast, I mean I need to submit this story tomorrow and I don't really have any time to work on it past 8 AM or so.

If you feel like doing a quick read-through and giving me a few swift kicks, please comment or email me (hal@prillalar.com). It would be much appreciated.

I'm usually much better at getting these things done in time; I had a difficult week. Also, I usually don't post three times in one day. Sorry.