WOMBAT and Wiggenweld

[Annemehr]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "severelysigune" 
<severelysigune at ...> wrote:
>
> Anne wrote:

> I really think it must mean that JKR wrote some cards to begin 
with -- 
> the "originals" -- but then EA must have added to them, just as 
they 
> added new spells ("Flippendo."  Honestly, what kind of a spell is 
> that?).
>  
>  
> So... what the heck *does* conquer DOLD???  Nothing really seems to 
fit.>

 
> Sigune: 
> 
> I am highly skeptical of all those side-thingies that JKR is 
supposed
> to be "closely involved" in. People keep saying the same thing about
> the films, but seriously, if the film scripts are representative of
> JKR's plot, and the Marauders backstory can be cut out in its
> entirity, I do ask myself a few questions. I suspect that Rowling 
only
> really interferes when she thinks something is wholly unacceptable*,
> and those Famous Wizard cards in the computer games are probably not
> among her priorities. I bet you are right in surmising that she 
maybe
> wrote a few, at the beginning, or as background for her books, and
> passed those on to the game people; I highly doubt that she kept a
> close eye on them since.


Anne, again:
Well, and here's another thing.  Leticia Somnolens's card is a Famous 
Hag card from the PoA game.  Amost *all* the new cards for that game 
are non-human: Famous Vampires, Goblins, Hags, and Giants.  Now, as 
far as we know from other JKR canon, she herself has only made Witch 
and Wizard cards, with one partial exception: Lorcan d'Eath, the 
*part*-vampire wizard-of-the-month for Nov. 2006 (correct me if I 
missed someone).

It just makes me wonder, along with that WOMBAT question, if we can 
really trust all of them as canon, you know?

Another thing...today, something rustled in the corner of my brain.  
We have the SS Harry Potter PC game, which I've played...er...several 
times in the past.  One thing you do is find ingredients to make a 
Wiggenweld Potion.

As I said, I played the PC version; as I understand it, some of the 
other versions have a more complicated potion, but in my game you 
just have to find four ingredients: Moly, Flobberworm mucus, Dittany, 
and...Wiggen tree bark.

I googled a bit. It's a real tree.

Wiggen tree, or Wiggin tree, is Rowan.  Mountain Ash.  And, both the 
berries and *bark* are used for ritual/magic purposes.  Here's rather 
a nice site:

http://www.shee-eire.com/Herbs,Trees&Fungi/Trees/Rowan/rwn.htm

So, EA Games has been using Wiggenweld potion since its development 
of the first game, released in 2001.

I don't know if this proves anything or is merely suggestive.  But, 
we're talking about a possible antidote to THE Draught. of. the. 
Living. Death.  I mean, if JKR ever made up this antidote -- and gave 
it to EA before 2001, and gave them the Somnolens card before 2004 -- 
she just *can't* have accidentally left it out of the WOMBAT, can 
she?  It's not like forgetting what color the prefects' badges are, 
right?  Right???

By the way, the following source noted that you can collect 24 Wizard 
cards in this game (17 in the PS version):

http://www.answers.com/topic/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerer-s-stone-
game-1?cat=entertainment

They don't list them, and neither does the Lexicon (it might be that 
they all reappear in the CoS list, so the Lex doesn't bother to list 
them separately).  I just wonder if *these* could be the "original" 
cards JKR spoke of in her FAQ answer.

Am I obsessing?  Yeah, probably. Just call it pre-release nervous 
energy. :D


Sigune:
> 
> * I do wonder why Kreacher is so much more important than the whole
> Snape/Marauders backstory. JKR requested that Kreacher at least
> *appear* in OotP, when the character was in danger of being cut out
> entirely. Hm.
>

Anne:
Really.  IIRC, the word was the movie people figured they'd slip a 
Marauder explanation into a later movie.  (I.e., Cuaron fobbed it off 
on some future director.)  Yeah, right, like they have *so* much 
extra time to fill.

I dunno, maybe JKR got fed up -- or, maybe, since Kreacher came with 
the house, he sort of had to appear when the house did? And I suppose 
Harry has to *hate* him, which he wouldn't if he merely inherited 
Kreacher sight unseen in the beginning of the HBP movie...

Anne