I think we can all agree that the Cursed Child is mediocre at best (if you're really generous), so what would you do with it to fix it?

If you had to keep a few basic plot points the same, where would you take the story? For example, it still has to be set at the time the next generation are going to Hogwarts, and the antagonist should be Voldemort's secret daughter by Bellatrix.

Personally I think I'd have kept with the idea of Delphini trying to bring Voldemort back, but perhaps have presented her as a new Tom Riddle style character. Have her at Hogwarts at the same time as the Potter children, an apparent muggleborn who goes on to learn their true parentage and decides to try and bring Voldemort back to life. You could then keep a lot of the feeling of the original series, adventures at Hogwarts with Albus taking the place of Harry.

Any thoughts from anyone else how you'd go about fixing Cursed child?

 

I think the time-travel parts would have to be completely nixed, and the characters of the older cast completely fixed.

Delphini could try and bring back Tom Riddle by finding out what happened with his body and trying to do a ritual again, maybe like that recent comp entry 6 by making a faux-horcrux. Albus' inner drama could continue as it did in Cursed Child but with Delphini befriending him and then betraying him in the end. She would have to spend the whole year researching and finding out the truth behind voldemort and etc.

All in all, I think it'd still be pretty mediocre whichever way you try and fix it up. For instance her being Bellatrix and Voldemorts daughter is so absurd, I could never see that as a canon possibility.

 

What do you mean by completely fixed? What about the older cast didn't you like?

I like that, give Albus a proper moral quandary with his 'friend' using him and then turning on him.

Have to disagree on this, it seems reasonable to me. I recall when Bellatrix being Voldemort's lover was so common in fics it was near cliche. She's devoted to him. If he wasn't rendered asexual by his rituals and dark magic, then of all his death eaters its her I could imagine being his...concubine I suppose would be the best word for it.

 

Honestly, for me, the only problem with Cursed Child is the fact that Delphini was Voldemort's daughter. I find it fundamentally unbelievable and consider it a major retcon to Voldemort's character. Bellatrix being infatuated with Voldemort is pretty canonical; Voldemort taking advantage of that to gain her loyalty makes sense; Voldemort actually having a sexual appetite is just totally out of character.

The other problem with it is that it makes magical power far to determined by inheritance.

So: have Delphini be Bellatrix's daughter by someone other than Voldemort, and have her power be closer to that of a regular dangerous witch than Voldemort 2.0.

Cursed Child is now fixed.

The other two "problems" that people talk about are:

1. Time travel conflicting with PoA. This is just people not reading PoA closely enough. Hermione specifically states that it's possible to change the past, it's just against the law to do so, and tends to result in Bad Things Happening. Closed loop time travel is best practice time travel, not the only form of time travel possible.

2. Harry being a dick to Albus Severus. I consider this to be a much bigger problem in the script than in the play itself. When you see the play live, it's very much presented as Harry being reasonable and Albus Severus being a moody entitled teenager.

 

Delete it.

 

You say that its out of character for Voldemort to have a sexual appetite. But is that perhaps more to do with the eyes we see the world through? Harry never had any reason to know anything about Voldemort's sexual proclivities. Does cutting off portions of your soul automatically render you asexual?

An interesting idea. Pull her power levels down to be inline with Albus, make her a well matched antagonist.

Although, perhaps if we wanted to reverse the question and make the Cursed Child worse we could have the secret love child of Albus Dumbledore come out of nowhere and be the only one able to match Delphini's power?

Thanks for that input Salsa.

 

This is what I meant about not liking/needing to fix the older cast @Mordecai I haven't watched the play, I only skimmed the script really. Older Harry, Cedric, and to a lesser extent Ron/Hermione seemed very OC in it.

 

Actually I have an explanation that I like well enough for my headcanon: she's never been a love child, she was only a ill-conceived (no pun intended) way to gain the power to defeat Harry.

After the Seven Potters, according to Ollivander, Voldemort has no idea how Harry keeps surviving, so he turns to the last explanation, the one Dumbledore kept repeating for 50 years. Now, Dumbledore is an crazy old idealist, but he knows magic. Voldemort might not understand love, and certainly not parental love, but he understands Power. He sees a power that he doesn't have, so he wants it. And since he doesn't understand anything about love, he thinks just procreating will be enough to magically get it. And of course he turns to Bellatrix for this, she's at once completely alright with it, pureblood and the most powerful of his followers.

As for the timing, conceiving in the end of July is just enough to have her be born before the Battle of Hogwarts. To hide it, you would only have to pretend Bellatrix is accompanying him on his continental travels and no-one's the wiser. The only problem is the Trio's visit at the Manor, end of March, where Bellatrix is both present and not visibly pregnant. Either they're hiding it magically, of Delphi was born premature, she might even be cared for by a Healer at the time to ensure she lives.

For the other suggestions, the problem I have with her being at school at the same time as Albus is that, Voldemort and Bellatrix both dying in May 98, at the latest Delphi is born in early 99, thus would be out of Hogwarts by the time Albus enters. You'd have to either change both her parents or completely ignore the epilogue and assume Harry and Ginny had a kid right after Hogwarts. Or you could make Teddy the hero of the play, which conveniently allows you to forget those kids with horrible names ever existed, by the way.

 

I hate to bring muggle concepts into a magical universe but rather than Voldemort having a "Sexual appetite", could we go with some kind of artificial insemination? Or whatever the magical equivalent would be. It doesn't have to be stated outright but some hints that her conception had ritualistic origins.

 

Fair point, I hadn't considered the timing. Making it a Teddy centric story could work. Or forget the kids entirely, set the story after Delphini is out of Hogwarts and make Harry the protagonist.

 

Here's are all my problem with the cast (or at least all the one I remember from reading the script (Spoiler alert for the lucky one who didn't read/ saw this garbage):

Harry is a dick to Albus because he is Slytherin. Not only it is a bit out of character for Harry, but it also completely invalidate all the epilogue where he basically says to Albus it's ok to be a Slytherin. Also, I CC Harry must have taken a lot of hits in the head if he thinks a dirty blanket (who was never mentionned during HP and if I remember right was never washed during the 40+ years he "had" it) is at the same level of gift than a freaking Invisibility Cloack and the ability to know where everyone is in the castle at any moment.

Ron and Hermione. They both give a very "fanfic" feel with an overcompetent Hermione and a sidekick/ comic relief Ron (as a Ron supporter, this part just pissed me off). Also, Rowling apparently said in an interview that their relationship is unhealthy and that they would need counselling, yet she seems fine with their characterization in Cursed Child where, when separated, Ron become a completely boring, whipped (and unhappy?) husband, and Hermione the female version of Snape. Oh yeah, and Ron gives a Love potion to Albus. I can buy the whole "fun uncle who gives prohibited stuff to his nephew" thing, but I feel like a love potion would be the ONE thing who would be completely off limit for Ron (since he kinda almost died because of one).

Snape, it's been pretty long since I read CC but from what I remember, the "divergence" point of his timeline happen after his death. Which beg the question : Why is he still alive, and why didn't Canon Snape survived then? But even if we ignore his sudden survival, he is also very OOC. I have trouble believing that Severus Snape would either be "proud" of a Potter carrying his name (I think that his general opinion of Harry was mild acceptance, at best, at the moment of his death), and even if it was the case, I can't see him say it. In fact, I have the same "Fanfic" feel that I have with Ron and Hermione.

Cedric : not really a character but still stupid. In canon, he is presented as the perfect student, attractive, intelligent, with high morals, Rowling made a ridiculously likeable character so everyone would feel bad at his death. In CC, "he had very bad result during the Triwizard Tournament so he became a Death Eater, and not even a good one". Just . . . no.

Delphini : I have a lot of troubles with this character, starting by his simple existence.
Would Bellatrix want to sleep with Voldemort? Hell yeah, he just would have to whistle for her to come.
Would Voldemort want to sleep with Bellatrix? Not something I would have thought about, but why not. Maybe he kept some base desire, maybe he is just amused about the idea of a Half Blood like him defiling a Pureblood? Strange but believable.
Would Bellatrix be able to have children? Not sure, 15 years in Azkaban can't be good for the body, but until proved otherwise, I guess the baby makers are still working.
Would Voldemort be able to have children? Hue, I don't really think so. Between the dark magic rituals who gave him his appearance (is he also half snake down there) and the fact that he gained this body after a dark magic ritual (is it really "his" body, or a kind of homonculus with the same appearance that he can control?), I don't really think and can have children.
Would Voldemort want children? That's my biggest problem, Voldemort is a sociopath who is convinced he is immortal. From his point of view, a child is just a potential rival that could one day rise to try to challenge him. Confronted with a pregnancy, I can't see him take any other action that a killing curse toward the child (with one toward the mother too, for good measure).
Also, Delphini really gives a bad fanfic vibe (seem recurent in CC). "Long silver hair with blue pick at the end; good enough to dueal several adults to a stalemate, including both an Ex Auror and an active one, while being less than twenty; So very cool . . .".



These characters, plus the wobbly scenario (how does Time Travel even work there, and why is it different than in canon?) make me consider Cursed Child more like a fanfiction than a actual book/ piece. And not even a good one, this is at the point I doubt I would have gone beyond chapter 2 if I had seen this one fanfiction.net or AO3. To fix it, you would need so much changes that it would be way easier to just adapt a good fanfic.

 

My main problem with CC is that it takes everything I loved about the original series and flips it on its head. The fact that the actual play is better is of little consequence because the script itself is bad.

To avoid this post becoming a rehash of my other post in the spoilers thread, I'll add my two cents on how it can be improved:

First off, find a way to avoid the character assassination of Cedric. Have him not become a death eater, instead find a way to make his survival cause a butterfly effect of somehow making things worse. Or if you want to stick to the original route have him be captured and brainwashed instead of volunteering.

Rewrite the dialogues between Harry and Albus so that Harry doesn't come across as so much of a dick.

I need to see more of Harry's growth as someone to be reckoned with. Someone who shows strength in magic as well as character. Instead of Delphi taking him out in a direct duel, have her find a different way to keep him out of the fight. Have her acknowledge the threat he can be to her plans.

Those are some of the things I can think of at the moment. But this can be a start.

 

To give an actual contribution to the thread (sorry for my previous post @Mordecai , I was feeling shitposty) :

I never could get invested in the Cursed Child because of the mediocre plot. Sure, it could be worse, but there's a million other, better ways Rowling could have written a post-Hogwarts story.

Something along the lines of The Song of the Trees. The plot Rowling cooked up was something I could never get behind.

If she made a not-generic, yet creative, gripping plot, I feel the story could stand much stronger as a result.

 

"If she avoided bad story-telling and wrote a good story with a good plot, it would have been stronger"

 

How would I fix this?

I’ve never read the script, I avoided it to avoid prejudicing the stage show which I saw some years ago now.

I do remember thinking the visual effects were great, the actor was pretty decent but that the story did feel sub-par.

What did I dislike about it?

- It’s difficult to separate character from performance, but certainly the whining of Scorpius and Albus.

- I disliked Harry’s inability to fight well.

- I disliked the introduction of Delphini, and also, her working in the care home and what it showed about elderly (80) wheelchair bound wizards (though I can’t remember exactly his purpose in the plot).

- I disliked the reveal and change of Delphini. Allies becoming antagonists is a hallmark of HP, but I think it’s generally not the main antagonist themselves.

Essential characteristics:

- As much as I like fanfiction going its own way, JK is a mystery writer and so there has to be some central conundrum and reveal.

- It has to feature the same central theme, your parents don’t define you/parenting doesn’t mean defining your child’s life.

- It has to have that shitty time travel mechanic.

Suggested changes:

- Harry has to be a more absent father due to his kickass magical fighting powers. He’s out there, globally doing the ICW’s James Bond auror project and when he arrives into his children’s lives he blazed through and disrupts and encourages in great measure. Ginny, similarly, is the chaser, she’s touring. We start later than the epilogue and don’t rehash that. And rather we see a well adjusted James and a lonely Albus in their school holidays with Molly as the character introduction. Harry and Ginny are so secure in the love of the good Weasley family that initially blind to the fact that one of their kids needs more than affection and hugs when they’re there. Harry because of his childhood and how weirdly well adjusted he is and Ginny as the girl with six brothers. Hermione and Ron would feature here. They’re a big part of Harry’s kids lives and instead of the drama we see in the play and that subplot, they’re the shining example. Albus is envious of their family.

- The cursed child isn’t actually Voldemort’s, but Bellatrix and her husbands and in fact her life was intended to be a vehicle for his security and Bellatrix went a bit far, writing all this kookiness about his role in Delphini’s life that she believes he’s her father. You can play this ambiguously rather than being explicit and having her view crack but something for the audience. Voldemort should be singular.

- The central mystery at present is so bad that I can remember why they go back in time the first time. I think make it personal and make it relevant to how the above has changed. So, dark forces are rising and someone’s killing old heroes, with a spate of murderers of old Hogwarts alumni and Dark Mark memorabilia appearing in odd places. In fact, make it murders of the children of the old guard. Make it so that a new mark, an augary is there, and have the stress of it all come back, have it set in hogwarts with the murders consistent across timelines, despite the altered circumstances, but have each timeline reveal a different clue, and have the relationship between Harry and kids stressed by the dangers to their lives, and his suddenly presence in their lives as a dad and as an auror guarding Hogwarts.

A very scattered post. But yes, keep it more family focused is my rough though. And make Harry more active in the the problems of the plot and Albus’ school life.