Somebody mentioned it on the first page, but given I agree I'll just reiterate a bit. Basically, almost anybody who was introduced to magic would go nuts, wanting to learn everything. Sure, they would probably stop being so ridiculous quickly, but Harry acting even the least bit excited in the first book would have been great.
Some childish excitement from Harry would have been wonderful and probably easy to convey - even if its just Harry commenting on some of the cool stuff he's read [talking to Ron] 'Is it really true wizards can teleport?' (which also introduces apparation early). And really, any 11 year old would be interested in teleportation.

 

Probably too much, but James grandparents being alive or Sirius adopting Harry.

 

I'd like the first, but the second has been overdone in fan fiction.

 

I'd change the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament. It strikes me as odd that the level of difficulty went from, "Surprise, Dragons!" to solving a clue and having months to prepare for an hour long hunt in the lake.

The first seems to epitomize what the Tournament was supposed to be while the second should have been fairly easy to tackle within the allocated period assuming you got the clue quickly enough and put in the proper research. If not, then Harry should've had a more difficult time down there.

Also, making Fleur appear more competent would be nice, since as is we really just assume she's a decent witch because she was selected to compete, rather than for any skill she showed in the tournament itself.

 

I disagree. The three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament tested different skills.

The dragon test was supposed to be a surprise to show off the competitors' skills in dealing with an opponent they hadn't seen before.

The lake test was to showcase how each competitor went about researching and preparing for a specific task.

The maze test was to give the competitors the chance to show what they could do against multiple hazards and the other wizards after having lots of time to prepare for it. It's basically the wizard vs wizard finale to the tournament.

 

I always felt that the Third Task was undewhelming, and I think that 5 Tasks would have been much more interesting. More focus on the Tournament than Harry despairing, fights with Ron and bad dreams.

 

For the canon tournament, I'd perhaps introduce another task, with the canon third task now serving as a final round to test all the skills highlighted individually in the previous tasks.

 

That's a fair point, but I still find it difficult to equate the challenge of facing a dragon without forewarning to being given time to research an obscure magical solution to the problem of being underwater for an hour. It also wasn't much of a showcase, considering no one could see shit as far as I'm aware.

 

I like to imagine that there were viewing spells of one variety or another to watch all of them. Not much of a spectator sport if you can't spectate.

 

Dumbledore had to talk to the merpeople to learn what happened under the lake, appently, so i'd say nobody saw anything.

 

Yeah, that's because JKR didn't think the whole thing through. You don't hold a competition to show off the talents of a bunch of wizards and then don't show anyone what's happening. The lake thing was a good bit of tension building and fairly exciting, but in retrospect it doesn't make sense from an in universe perspective.

 

I was always hoping to the assumption that people knew roughly what was going on all the time, but they couldn't know what exactly was happening in detail.

As I imagined it, the commentary would perhaps mention someone getting to meet a giant squid, or that Harry and Diggory passed each other by, but there would be no "direct image" from the place of action. In my mind, they had to go with just the commentary.

Otherwise, they were kinda like some racing fans, where you only watch it while all competitors pass on a single turn of the long road, and then move to the very finish line, to wait for them to arrive.


It'd be good if some of these possible explanations were explored or implied in canon - would make a reading easier.

 

Make the TWT happen once every 2 years with the 6th and 7th years able to apply. Harry sees it in his second year and gets excited. Doesn't participate in his fourth year. Becomes a contender in year six because of his motivation. Proceeds to beat his way through the tasks that Beauxbatons sets up and screw his way through their upper years female classmates. Voldemort returns in Year 6 instead of year 4 to a somewhat different situation.

 

I thought you said TWT, not PWP.

 

My goodness, not every case of Harry not being a damn monk is PWP!

 

Smh.


/10char

 

While pith is a virtue, this post makes no sense to me as a non english native.

 

SMH

Shaking My Head. A non-verbal way to show disapproval or disagreement (huh - now there's irony: a nonverbal [non-linguistic] sign has become a written [linguistic] symbol).

 

What the actual fuck. No offense, but SMH sounds retarded to the extreme...

 

I didn't make it up. It's just shorthand for the action, so no offense taken.