Cedric (was No Quidditch??)

[Emily F]

Susan said:
>-Cedric Diggory catches the Snitch, but offers a rematch
>
>I believe this is VASTLY significant, because it proves Harry is not 
>infallible or invincible. It also demonstrates Cedric is honourable and 
>honest, which sets up the sympathy vote for him in GoF. I can't see any 
>other way of doing this, but I suppose they might cut it anyway.

And I can't agree more:
This IS vastly significant.  However, I am concerned about how Cedric's 
character is going to be built-up for GoF in general.  My concern has 
nothing to do with the PoA movie, but rather with Cedric as a character.  We 
don't even meet him until PoA (right? or at least, he doesn't play a role in 
the plot before then), and we really only see him a little during GoF.

In PoA, we see that Cedric seems to have great character.  Is he the only 
one?  Hardly.  We know that Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, and Dumbledore 
seem to have good character thus far (more or less, just humor me).  I've 
got nothing against Neville, McGonagal, Cho, or Madam Pomphrey for that 
matter.  The point I'm trying miserably to make is that we are supposed to 
assume that Cedric's a great guy based on that one instance (I'll get to GoF 
in a second).  Was that sufficient to establish him as a wonderful person?  
I don't know.  I guess I assume that children are inherently good until I 
learn otherwise, so Cedric's actions weren't surprising to me.  In fact, if 
I were a parent, I would expect that kind of honest behavior from my 
16-year-old child.

On to GoF...  It's been a while since I've read it, so bear with me.  We see 
Cedric treating Harry kindly while most of the school doesn't.  There is an 
alternate explanation for this: Perhaps Cedric knows Harry has no chance to 
compete, so he sort of feels sorry for him.  We also see Cedric and Harry 
help each other out early on.  Alternate explanation: It's better that a 
Hogwarts student win than someone from one of the other schools.  We also 
know that neither Harry nor Cedric was letting the other in on his hard 
work; they both had help, and were essentially passing on that help.  
(Incidentally, I bring up these alternate explanations because we're seeing 
Cedric's character from Harry's eyes and we really don't know Cedric's 
motivations.)  I think the first time we really get the glimpse of Cedric's 
true character is at the end of the maze - I'll admit that that moment 
almost brought tears to my eyes.  Unfortunately, the character development 
was just too late.  I didn't cry when Cedric died.  I might have if Rowling 
had put more time into developing this character, but the books are focused 
on Harry and what he sees, so I didn't see enough development to love Cedric 
as much as I do some other characters.

GET BACK ON TOPIC, you say?  :D  Okay, how my ramblings tie in to the 
movies:  If Cedric's death didn't make me cry in GoF, I'm not going to be 
disappointed if my friend who hasn't read the books isn't in tears.  The 
most important thing is that a student died.  Hogwarts is not untouchable 
(and possibly even not safe; we'll see where Rowling takes this in future 
books).  That's the message I expect from Cedric's death in the movie.  So 
I'm not going to be too bummed if Cedric's character isn't developed in the 
movie.  After all, I don't think it was developed enough in the books.

Let's also keep in mind that people even closer to Harry, and presumably 
people that we've grown to love, will be dying in the future.  I won't talk 
about who, but it's safe to say that by the end of Book 7, we'll all be hurt 
by someone's death at some point along the way.  I would much rather have 
them spend time in future movies on the deaths of characters that we know 
much better than Cedric.

Oops, forgot something.  As to the Hufflepuff match showing Harry's 
invincibility - again, I'm okay with leaving that until GoF.  The graveyard 
scene did more for me than the Hufflepuff match.  Let's just hope Cuaron can 
direct the graveyard scene well (hint hint).

Emily

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