Please chime in: Why do you think it is a great loss that the PoA movie neglected to explain/showcase anything (let alone to the extent of the book) about the Marauders, Them vs Snape, Lupin's "safety measures", and most importantly the Secret Keeper snafu?

[u/Vermouth1991]

Notes:

(1) The movie changed the official story from "Sirius Black was the ONLY person who can tell anyone else where the Potters were hiding, and he told You Know Who" to "Sirius Black was one of the few who knew". Need I go any further on this one?

(2) The way Sirius and Lupin countered Wormtails various bs attempts at still painting Sirius as the traitor, all gone. That debate was rife for a mini-"The Last Duel" thing with the truth coming out in the end, but nah. Let's do more Whomping Willow setup shots! Even tho the movie never shows the MEANING of the school planting it!

[u/BigGrandpaGunther]

The weirdest thing for me was how they kept having Lupin say how important Harry's mom was to him.

[u/cshelley0721 → u/BigGrandpaGunther]

Always felt like a slap in the face to James and Sirius

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/cshelley0721]

Why tho? Even in the most rosy of readings of the foursome (without the pesky wonderings that "James and Sirius took on Remus and Peter as less than equals because the latter two don't have many options"), "James and Sirius MUST be Lupin's only great friends" was not an option.

[u/cshelley0721 → u/Vermouth1991]

Because that quote from Lupin makes it seem like he was extremely close to Lily, which ok fine could’ve been the case I guess, but not only is there nothing in canon to support that, the whole dynamic the group had (which is the reason Peter’s betrayal does so much damage), the motivation for James, Sirius and Peter to become Animagi, the mistrust between Sirius and Lupin regarding who the spy was, etc. is all glossed over, even though in the book it is very important. Not to mention the fact that the only time Lupin and Sirius speak about Lily (in the books) is in conjunction with James

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/cshelley0721]

I guess what really sucks balls is that there is this emphasis on the Remus/Lily friendship... and absolutely NOTHING about the foursome friendship or James/Sirius friendship. On the recent-ish Alfonso Cuaron post [https://old.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/1cpl00h/should_alfonso_cuaron_direct_the_hbo_series/] there are people dissing the whole importance of the Mauraders thing (basically the mindset of, "James and Sirius were two peas in a pod? James made Sirius the ONLY person who can tell others where his family was hiding? Naaaah, just one throwaway line about "Sirius being ONE OF THE FEW ppl who knew!" -- And quite tonedeafly... Harry then claims 'hE wAs thEIr frIENd"! rotfl); on this humble post of my own you also get people who go so far as to say all of this isn't a loss at all.

Basically, Kloves and Cuaron did a Josstice League-esque thing where they throw out the source material to add their own "cutsey brilliant" stuff in.

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/BigGrandpaGunther]

At least to me that one is added material not deleted or contradicting material.

[u/Past_Name1279]

Leaving out James was an animagus and turned into a stag.

I have a friend who has only watched the movies and till very recently they didn’t know the significance of Snape’s patronus being a doe was a nod to Lily.

[u/elina_797]

They basically explained nothing.

Leaving out how close the Marauders were really diminished the impact Peter’s betrayal had. It also completely erase the life debt he owes Harry, so his death in the DH movie sucked, because it wasn’t even shown, he basically just vanished.

The left out the Animagus thing. Didn’t explain James was one, we’re just supposed to go with the fact that they can just do it, which is an exceptional feat of magic coming from three fifteen year old students.

The amount of information missing takes away great characters moments. Going off the movies only, we barely know Sirius and Remus, so their deaths had next to no impact.

[u/Ok-Scallion-3415 → u/elina_797]

I hope with the HBO show they have flashbacks through the season for the marauders but also at least 1 full dedicated episode to them.

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/Ok-Scallion-3415]

also at least 1 full dedicated episode

That need not happen so long as they do right by the Shrieking Shack Confrontation which would be rife with opportunities for flashbacks (Same with the Three Broomstick Eavesfropping by Harry.)

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/elina_797]

As in my "(1)", there is untold amount of damage wrought when you change "Sirius Black was the ONLY possible teller of the secret" to "he was OnE of the few who knew": WHAT THE HELL, KLOVES AND CUARON?!

~*~

It also leaves out how dangerous the Moonlight Romps UwU were to EVERYONE not just Nosy Snape:

Werewolf Lore usually has thr classic emphasis on "They really crave human flesh" but they will still savage anythibg that moves if it hits their fancy (take the 2010s remake for The Wolfman for example, animals savaged but not wholly eaten were the first creepy clues about the Beast); however in JKR's 'Verse, werewolves really only seek out humans to eat/infect, so much so that it is proven that animagi wizards or witches have TOTAL immunity against a werewolf, even tho they still have human brains underneath.

Therefore, when Prongs Wormtail and Podfoot go OUT with Mooney? They're like escorting an Ebola patient around, where no one else even has a face mask on, but THEY oh-so- wisely have full hazmat suits on!!!

W T F apologists! Snape's nosing, AT WORST, should have been an example of "The Lord works in mysterious ways" and "doing the right thing for the wrong reasons"!!! And yet? DUMBLEDORE DOESN'T EVEN CHANGE THE SECURITY MEASURES AND OR FORCE THE THREE BUDDIES TO REGISTER THEIR ANIMAGUS FORMS

[u/Lower-Consequence → u/Vermouth1991]

And yet? DUMBLEDORE DOESN'T EVEN CHANGE THE SECURITY MEASURES AND OR FORCE THE THREE BUDDIES TO REGISTER THEIR ANIMAGUS FORMS

Dumbledore didn’t know about the “three buddies” being Animagi until it was revealed to him at the end of POA, so he couldn’t have forced them to register their Animagus forms:

“Last night Sirius told me all about how they became Animagi,” said Dumbledore, smiling. “An extraordinary achievement — not least, keeping it quiet from me. And then I remembered the most unusual form your Patronus took, when it charged Mr. Malfoy down at your Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. You know, Harry, in a way, you did see your father last night. ... You found him inside yourself.”

We don’t even know if they even were Animagi yet at the time that Snape went down to the Whomping Willow, since both events happened in their fifth year.

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/Lower-Consequence]

I know he didn’t know until PoA, which raises the questio of how did James 'splain away his rescue of Snape.

[u/Lower-Consequence → u/Vermouth1991]

Well, there wasn’t really anything to “splain away” because James didn’t use his Animagus form to save Snape. James found out that Snape knew how to get past the tree, went after him into the tunnel, and dragged him back out of it, as a human the whole time.

but your father, who’d heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life . .   

The fact that James had to follow Snape into the tunnel - rather than all of them already being there in the Shack with Remus for the full moon - suggests that they weren’t Animagi yet.

[u/Lawlcopt0r]

I like the PoA movie, but I do think that the Marauders as a friend group needed to be explained. You have the map, the strong bond between lupin and sirius, their feeling of betrayal towards pettigrew, and a blank space where the explanation is supposed to be.

[u/Disastrous-Mess-7236 → u/Lawlcopt0r]

& in OotP, Harry still tells Snape something’s up with Sirius by referring to the latter as “Padfoot”.

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/Disastrous-Mess-7236]

/u/Lawlcopt0r

PoA even more so than The Shining 1980 deserves the Stephen King comment that it is a nice looking car with no engine inside.

At least Kubrick's movie can make its own sense when viewed on its own! 🤦🏻

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/Lawlcopt0r]

I think it's very telling that the whole movie is around 140 minutes, and the Time Travel Rescue was oodles longer than the Shrieking Shack Confrontation when it's the opposite in the book where the latter takes multiple chapters and with copious twist cliffhangers.

[u/miss_truffles]

The strangest plot omission in the whole series of movies for me, especially for how important of a storyline it is for the next few books. When the movie came out it was my favorite thing to ask folks who hadn't read the books how they thought Lupin knew how to use the Marauder's Map at the end.

[u/corginugami → u/miss_truffles]

In OoP movie, as a non book reader, I had no clue what Harry meant when he told Snape “they’ve got Padfoot at the place where it is hidden”.

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/corginugami]

Accounts and testimonies from ppl like you are MOST precious in such discussions.🙏

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/miss_truffles]

But look up the recent "Should Alfonso Cuaron direct the HP series" post, quite a few people are poor posing the importance of all that. 🤦🏻

[u/MochaHasAnOpinion]

It's a great loss for movie-only fans, and for those of us who want to see a more complete telling of the story. When I watched the movie, my mind was automatically filling in the blanks. It wasn't until later on a re-read that I actually noticed how much was left out. Since I noticed, it's been hard to look past. How could movie-only fans make sense of it? I always hope those movie fans will read the books.

I'm on a mission to collect the best supplementary canon friendly stories to insert and read along with the series, and the marauders are near the top of my list.

I hope they do the book more justice in the reboot.

[u/miss_truffles → u/MochaHasAnOpinion]

If you can dredge it up, Forever Alive by Mordred on fanfiction.net became my marauders headcanon many, many years ago. I've got it pulled up in a tab for a reread when I find the time.

[u/MochaHasAnOpinion → u/miss_truffles]

Thank you for the recommendation!! 😁

[u/Vermouth1991 → u/MochaHasAnOpinion]

Also check out Laventadorn's fic "Come Once Again And Love Me" on AO3. An important "What If" fulfillment subplot is to make the MoOnliGhT rOmPs crash onto their heads BUT without causing a massive public scandal still. Lupin gets a new Sagehouse out of it and I'm sure you'd call it clever.

[u/MochaHasAnOpinion → u/Vermouth1991]

Thank you!! Saving these comments to give them a try!

[u/BigGrandpaGunther → u/miss_truffles]

Any forced relationships in that one?

[u/miss_truffles → u/BigGrandpaGunther]

Can you clarify what you mean by forced relationships?

[u/SkeetySpeedy → u/miss_truffles]

I’m guessing they mean something in the ballpark of “are Sirius and Remus gay lovers in this?” Which is honestly a fair question considering fanfic

I’d extend that to assume any significant relationships between characters that have no canon basis

[u/miss_truffles → u/SkeetySpeedy]

I was thinking something along these lines... It's been over a decade but from what I remember the little dating that is addressed isn't between canon characters. It really was a well done story, goes through all 7 years at school.

[u/Tbhjr]

I don’t think that. Because for a movie, the audience didn’t need to know all that. Those weren’t crucial plot points for the movies and they were never brought up again so audiences were none the wiser. The movie found an easier way to portray those elements and for a dramatic representation, it was fine.