Transcript #78

MuggleCast 78 Transcript


Show Intro


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[Intro music begins to play]

Andrew: Because we’re more interesting than adding friends on Myspace, this is MuggleCast Episode 78 for February 24, 2007.

[Music continues to play]

Jamie: They did some car crash research, okay, into the causes of car crashes. And in most of the states, the final words of the people in the car were, “Oh no,” or something like that, but in Kansas – hello, Ben…

[Andrew and Jamie laugh]

Jamie: The final words of the people were, “Hold my beer, I’m going to try something.”

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Oh!

Jamie: May I say, may I say – I have to thank my housemate Tom on pain of death for that joke. So, thank you.

Andrew: You know, I actually heard Ben say that once, but I guess that’s for another time. Jamie, where have you been?

Jamie: I’ve been all over the place. America…

Andrew: The fans are not happy.

Jamie: England – well, I have, you know…

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: I’ve been extremely busy, I’ve been all over the place. However, I come back and I see a new person has arrived. One person who I haven’t done a show before with ever. Right, Mikey?

Andrew: Well, see…

Mikey: Yeah, right.

Andrew: You might remember that the last time you recorded was actually when you were here, and I don’t know if you remember, but after that show there was a little bit of a fall out with Ben. So, we actually fired him and this is his new replacement.

Jamie: I heard it was sort of a punch up more than a fall out. Didn’t he…

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Mikey: Yeah. Well, I think he left to go watch The OC actually, yeah.

Andrew: Ah, yes. The OC tonight, the big season finale is tonight.

Micah: No, series finale.

Andrew: That’s why – series?

Eric: Series.

Jamie: Series finale, isn’t it, because it’s all over?

Eric: Yes.

Andrew: Holy crap.

Mikey: Series, it’s done. There’s no more OC after it. I live in the OC, so I know.

Jamie: So you can just open your window, Mikey, can’t you?

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Yeah. I’m looking out the window right now, you know, I see what’s going on.

Andrew: So, are you going to get kicked out of town tomorrow or what?

Eric: [over Andrew] You’re going to go outside tomorrow morning to get the paper… [trails off]

Mikey: Yeah.

Micah: Yeah, well.

Eric: There will just be a white line on the horizon. That’s tomorrow afternoon.

Andrew: I’m Andrew Sims.

Eric: I’m Eric Scull.

Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.

Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.

Mikey: And I’m Mikey Bouchereau.

[Music continues to play]


News


Andrew: Micah Tan the MuggleCast Anchor-Man is in the studio with the past weeks top Harry Potter news stories. Micah!

Micah: Thanks, Grand Master Andrew.

EA, the maker of the Harry Potter videogames, has released details on the production of the upcoming Order of the Phoenix videogame.

WB Interactive Entertainment stated, “Working with EA, we look forward to offering fans the most authentic Harry Potter game to date, one which captures the compelling story of the fiction and high visual quality of the movie.”

Last week we told you about LEGO’s plans for a new Hogwarts Castle set to coincide with the Order of the Phoenix film release. Our friends over at MillionairePlayboy.com have now informed us that this is the only set planned to be released in 2007.

This is the first time that LEGO has only created one set to go along with a Potter movie. Goblet of Fire saw four sets released alongside the film.

Speaking of Goblet of Fire, High-Definition TV News has a very positive review of the recently released Goblet of Fire High-Definition DVD. The review stated that “Goblet of Fire is possibly one of the best HD transfers to date, with clean crisp pictures looking stunning and at times almost 3D like in quality. The whole experience is an assault on the senses that will leave you demanding more of the same.”

New photos have surfaced from Daniel Radcliffe’s appearance in Equus, also new photos from Order of the Phoenix, you can take a look at Tonks, the Young Marauders, and Snape. All of them are available over on MuggleNet.com.

Michael Riedel of the New York Post recently posted his thoughts on Equus and notes that the production is already being considered for Broadway. Riedel says:

“The London revival of Peter Shaffer’s powerful drama about a teenage boy who takes off his clothes and blinds horses began previews on Friday, but it has caused so much buzz that producers already are planning to bring it to Broadway in the fall. One problem, however, tends to be the length of Equus. It clocks in at nearly three hours, which is a bit of a slog, according to London theater sources who sneaked in early because they couldn’t wait to get a look at John Napier’s stunning set.”

And as of late, many British tabloids have falsely reported that Warner Brothers was displeased with Daniel Radcliffe’s decision to perform in the play Equus. A WB spokesperson has in response to these claims issued the following statement:

“Daniel Radcliffe is an extremely talented actor, as well as a great collaborator and friend to Warner Brothers Pictures. We’ve had great experiences working with him on our films and fully support any artistic choices he makes as an actor.”

Finally, we’re thrilled to announce that MuggleNet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7, written entirely by MuggleNet staff, has been selected as an Editors’ Choice by The New York Times Book Review! More than 100,000 copies of the book have been printed.

That’s all the news for this February 24, 2007 edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show!

Andrew: Thank you, Micah.

Micah: You’re welcome, Andrew.

Andrew: Micah, we have a few things to discuss this week concernig news.

Micah: Do we?

Andrew: But I wanted to point out… Yes, but I wanted to point out…


Jamie’s Thoughts on the Release Date


Andrew: We’ve been getting a lot of e-mails lately, saying, “Where can I get the links in the – to all the pictures that you guys talk about on the show?” Just go to MuggleNet.com and you’ll see all the past, like, 20 stories or so, and usually we’ll talk about everything on the MuggleNet main page, so you’ll be able to find the links there. But, Jamie, you have not been on for so long, that we have not heard your thoughts on the release date.

Jamie: Oh, okay.

Andrew: What do you think about – what do you think about it?

Jamie: Well, you know…

Andrew: A mere eight days!

Jamie: I think it’s, I think it’s extremely weird, but I was holding out for a 2008 release, so I’m kind of upset about it. I think it’s just weird for, you know, a few reasons. Like, putting them so close together. I know people say it’s going to up the hype for both of them, and it’s going to be a “Harry Potter summer,” but, you know, it’s the…

Andrew: “Summer to remember,” in the words of Dylan Spartz.

Jamie: Yeah. Oh, yes, it is going to be a summer to remember, but it’s the, sort of, high before the, you know, fall. It’s going to be a huge summer, and then it’s going to be nothing, whereas, I think I’d rather see it spread out with like, it next year. And also, I seem – I’ve had a few e-mails telling me that I said that if it was…

Andrew: [laughs] I was just going to bring that up.

Jamie: …released in 2007 – oh, right, I would have to eat…

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: …50 sausages, which I seem to remember, I actually said that if Harry died, I’d have to do that.

Andrew: Well, actually, I checked in the transcripts, and you said, you’ve said both. And…

Jamie: Well, Micah was wrong when he transcribed it, then. I’m sorry, Micah.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Do your job properly.

[Micah and Eric laugh]

Andrew: Jamie, I’m afraid you’re going to have to hold up your end of the deal, here…

Mikey: Hey, Jamie…

Andrew: …and, you know, eat 50 sausages. When do you want to do this?

Mikey: Jamie, what kind of sausages did you want?

Jamie: I want the huge ones, Mikey.

Mikey: [laughs] The Polish ones, or the…

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: We meant to eat for the bet, Jamie.

Jamie: I want the German five-footers.

[Everyone laughs]

Jamie: No, I don’t know. I’ll have to do it sometime, but I – do you know, I was going to ask if… Do you think – can I just go double or nothing? And then if Harry…

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: …dies, I’ll eat 100, and then if…

Andrew: I think that’s fair.

Jamie: …he lives, I’ll eat nothing.

Andrew: I think that’s fair.

Jamie: Because, to be fair, if I ate 50 sausages, I’d die and…

[Andrew and Micah laugh]

Jamie: …the book’s coming out now, but Harry isn’t going to die, so I’ve got a pretty safe bet there. And I shouldn’t…

Eric: You…

Jamie: …have said that, because now everyone’s going to say no. Sorry?

Eric: You should’ve thought about this before you say these things.

Jamie: Yeah, I should.

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: I don’t think…

Mikey: Jamie, I got your back, yo, but you’ve got to – because Harry’s eventually going to die, because we discussed this already, that he will die. So, if he dies in the context of the Voldemort-Harry fight, correct?

[Andrew and Mikey laugh]

Jamie: Yes.

Mikey: I’m just saying, man, because eventually, everybody dies. So…

Jamie: Yeah.

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: If he’s lying in his bed and has a heart attack, then no, I’m not eating those 50 sausages.

Micah: Well, Jamie.

Jamie: Not a single one. Yeah?

Micah: This is why you haven’t been on the show, right? Once she put out the release date, you just crawled into a corner and cried yourself…

Jamie: Yeah, I did. I did.

Micah: …for hours, days.

Jamie: I went to a sausage-free place for five weeks so I didn’t have to think of them.

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Andrew: How did you survive?

Jamie: I don’t know.

Eric: Sausagephobia.

Jamie: Yeah.


New OOTP Pictures


Andrew: So, anyway, moving along. We got a couple of new Order of the Phoenix photos this week from the film. Again, more from DanLatino.com and HarryLatino.com. These guys are getting some “unauthorized pictures,” in the words of WB.

Eric: Some serious love.

Andrew: I still don’t know where they’re getting them from, but anyway. We saw a picture of young Snape. You guys see this yet?

Micah: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah.

Micah: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: What do you think? Maybe it’s the quality of the picture, but…

Jamie: It looks like…

Andrew: It looks fake. [laughs]

Jamie: He looks like a Snape with just a younger face. It doesn’t look like…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: …a young Snape, because if you take, sort of, you know, like an older person, take their face off, and put a younger face on it, they still look like the older person. You know, your hair doesn’t just remain the same. It’s just like – I think it shouldn’t, he shouldn’t have long, black hair. He should have, like, middle-length hair, or sort of, shorter hair, just to show that he’s, you know…

Andrew: Young.

Jamie: And, and, and – yeah. Don’t get started on how bad James looks.

Eric: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Oh, god.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: That’s what I’d like to change it to. What is he, blond?

Andrew: What do you think of that, Eric? I know.

Jamie: Yeah, basically.

Eric: What, bleach it blond? I mean…

Andrew: There’s something to it. Young Sirius, though, I think is great, although again, it looks like he has the same exact hair…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: …as Gary Oldman does.

Eric: Well, yeah, very similar from the Azkaban photo, anyway.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: I don’t know, James just…

Andrew: And…

Eric: Which one’s Pettigrew and which one’s Lupin? I guess Lupin’s like…

Andrew: Pettigrew’s the right, there.

Micah: I don’t know if Lupin’s in the picture.

Andrew: He’s the one with the mullet.

Mikey: Yeah, like, isn’t that James? That’s James, not Lupin, next to Sirius, right?

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: Or is it Lupin? Do we know for sure?

Andrew: I’m guessing that…

Micah: I don’t think Lupin’s in that picture, unless he’s sort of in the background, there.

Andrew: In the back.

Mikey: Yeah. I assumed it was James, but people were telling me that it can’t be because he doesn’t have black hair.

Micah: He looks like he has glasses on, though, doesn’t he?

Eric: Yeah, I don’t know who else it would be. It looks like he has glasses.

Andrew: Who, Wormtail?

Mikey: Yeah, there are glasses on there. I’m zooming in like, really far, but they’re not really standing out.

Andrew: I don’t know, I’m more concerned about young Snape, I was sort of…

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: I’m not worried about young Snape.

Andrew: …wanted one of Gary – Alan Rickman’s offspring to take the part. That’s what they needed to do.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: You want to do some good casting, take their kids.

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: Yeah, I agree.

Eric: Not just take their kids.

Jamie: Although…

Eric: Cast their kids.

Jamie: Although…

Andrew: Who cares if they’re four years old, take them.

Jamie: But by that logic, Andrew, you’d have to take Daniel Radcliffe’s dad and shrink him down to when he was younger.

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Jamie: Or just have Daniel Radcliffe…

Andrew: Or just take Dan Radcliffe, exactly.

Mikey: With brown eyes, right?

Andrew: Exactly.

Jamie: With brown eyes, yeah. That’d be perfect.

Mikey: And no scar.

Jamie: And no scar. And no glasses, and – actually, no. Sorry, I didn’t mean that. Oh, my god. [laughs]

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: Is there a horse involved?

Jamie: And a lot of messy hair.

Mikey: Is there a horse involved?

[Andrew laughs]


Order of the Phoenix LEGOs


Andrew: Any Lego fans here?

Mikey: I’m a Lego fan.

Eric: Did they – do we have a picture of that?

Andrew: Are you? Eric, are you? I picture you as – yes, Eric, but I picture you as a Lego fan.

Eric: You’re actually right.

[Jamie laughs]

Eric: I was a really, really large Lego fan, yes. I invented Star Wars LEGOs before they came out with Star Wars Legos.

Andrew: Of course you did.

Eric: I did, I’m dead serious.

Andrew: They’re – I used to be a Lego fan, too, and then I grew up. But we found out today that there won’t – there will only be one set related to Order of the Phoenix, which is a castle and it’s going to come with several different figurines, little Lego people, including Harry, Hermione, Ron, even Luna, Dumbledore, and a few others, Snape. So it’s going to be a good set, but it’s only, they’re only releasing one set. Seem a little weird to you, Mikey?

Jamie: What? What?

Mikey: Yeah, it does. I’m kind of sad, you know? Although, if you take a look at the book, you know, Order of the Phoenix does predominantly take place at Hogwarts, the castle, but I would love to get, you know, the Veil, or something like that, or maybe Grimmauld Place. That’d be kind of cool.

Andrew: Or how about the atrium?

Mikey: Yeah, the atrium.

Eric: Well, yeah.

Mikey: Personally, I think Grimmauld Place would be kind of cool. Grimmauld Place would be cool. I could imagine like, Sirius’s mom, like a little button you push, and her just yell like, obscenities little children can have.

Andrew: Yeah.

[Eric laughs]

Mikey: That would be amazing.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: It’s just like one giant Lego piece. [laughs] Or you have to build her.

Jamie: Although, do you know something? There’s one thing about Lego, that some of the pictures, sorry, some of the pieces look a bit weird. Like I was watching a TV show, and they said the Gandalf figure – his beard – he looks like he’s eating a seal. I’m going to show you all the photo, and then put it into the show notes, alright, Andrew?

Andrew: [laughs] Oh, okay.

Jamie: Can we do that?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Okay.

Andrew: [laughs] It kind of does!

Jamie: It actually looks like he’s either eating a seal or throwing it up.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: I can’t decide which one.

[Mikey laughs]

Eric: The Lego sets. You’re right, as far as – we need a veil room. I mean, that was what? A whole shell of stuff, and the atrium, the pictures we’ve seen…

Jamie: The Room of Requirement.

Eric: …would be so colorful. The Room of Requirement and stuff – it’s just so many opportunities. The reason I didn’t like the Harry Potter Lego sets before – I mean, even the Goblet of Fire ones; they were okay – was because they kind of repeat themselves. Even this, if you look at this, there are pictures of this new version of Hogwarts Castle, and it’s kind of like the same…

Andrew: Yeah, it’s nothing special. It’s a remake.

Eric: Yeah, it’s like the same pieces, obviously, just more of them and constructed to make this thing, so it’s like I would really like to see some of the other cool sets that they could make, but it seems like they’re just kind of repeating themselves with some of these sets. So, I don’t know.

Mikey: Yeah. It’s…

Andrew: Yeah. Now we do have a little interview with one of the guys who runs Millionaireplayboy.com. He actually got a chance to check out the Lego sets.


Equus to Broadway?


Andrew: That’s pretty much it for news this week. It was kind of a slow news week, you know, new pictures blah, blah, blah. What else? Equus under consideration for Broadway already.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: That’s a little goofy, isn’t it? Is that going to work out for Daniel Radcliffe if he’s going to be filming Half-Blood Prince later this year? I don’t think he’s going to have time for that, so he’d have to be re-casted.

Jamie: I agree.

Andrew: Especially if he doesn’t turn 18, he can’t do that scene in the United States. So, at least before his birthday. After his birthday, sure.


Announcements


Andrew: All right, now we have a few announcements to remind everyone about: Enlightening 2007 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philly, coming up July 12th to the 15th. It’s going to be a good time. Jamie, Ben, Micah, and I will all be there to do a live podcast, and also we’re going to do a workshop on podcasting and how to make your own podcast. Jamie, people want to know the secrets of podcasting, and you’re going to show them how you come up with your British jokes.

Jamie: Well it’s pretty – it’s quite a tough job…

Andrew: It’s complicated.

Jamie: …really. Yeah, you need a computer; you need Google, yes…

Andrew: I told the Enlightening people we’re going to need a whole day just for that part of the seminar.

Jamie: Yeah, I’d say – give it a day-and-a-half, Andrew, just to be on the safe side.

Andrew: All right. All right.

Jamie: It’s pretty complicated.

Andrew: Then, also, we want to thank everyone for voting for us over at Podcast Alley. I think right now – right now, we’re number two, underneath Free Talk Live. For some reason that podcast actually has listeners. So, thanks…

Jamie: What the hell is it about?

Andrew: Eh, it’s free talk, I guess. I don’t know. Sort of like our show.

Jamie: Well, so anyone can go on and talk about just anything?

Andrew: I guess.

Jamie: Sounds like ours…

Andrew: It’s live, and it’s free.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: It’s probably done tastefully though.

Andrew: So if you haven’t voted, just go to PodcastAlley.com and click on us on the right and place your vote. We appreciate that very much, because it gives us exposure in the podcasting community, of course.


Jamie’s Suitcase


Andrew: And Jamie, we never really talked about this to you – at least on the show – about giving away pieces of your suitcase.

Jamie: Oh, no.

Andrew: It’s still sitting here.

Jamie: Is it?

Andrew: Yeah. It’s starting to smell. Actually, it smelled when you brought it here.

[Mikey laughs]

Andrew: And the dead body, I don’t want to get rid of it yet. I don’t know what you were planning on doing with it.

Jamie: Why, is it still in your freezer?

Andrew: Well, I put it back in the suitcase. I didn’t – my mom didn’t appreciate it in the freezer with all the ice cream.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: But anyway, all the three winners from the Deathly Hallows theory contest winners – the three of them all claimed their prizes. One of them wants your flight ticket thing on there, and two of them want parts of the suitcase that have a part of your zipper.

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: Get this: I haven’t told you this yet. I’m taking it into school either tomorrow or sometime next week. I’m going into the wood shop, and we’re going to cut this sucker up. It’s going to go on YouTube.

Jamie: Cool.

Andrew: I’ve hired Mr. Capello’s brother, who’s a wood shop teacher, to help me…

Jamie: Awesome.

Andrew: …and it’s going to be a big event. I don’t know what to do with the remaining pieces.

Jamie: Eat it.

Andrew: I’m thinking of just handing them out in school randomly, or I don’t know. I’m going to do something.

Eric: Save it. Sell it on eBay.

Andrew: You can have them if you want. You want them?

Jamie: No, it’s okay. Really, I don’t.

Andrew: As for the dead body…

Jamie: Eat it. Eat that as well.

Andrew: I will eat that. It smells good. [laughs]


UK Meetup


Andrew: Also, Jamie, we’re thinking about doing a little meet-up in London.

Jamie: Yes! It will be very nice. We’re going to be there on March 17th?

Andrew: Saint Patty’s day!

Jamie: Huh?

Andrew: Saint Patty’s day. Saint Patrick’s Day..

Jamie: Yes. Exactly. Saint Patty’s day. We’re probably going to do something some time in the afternoon whether it be, as I wrote on the website, “an extravagant, exciting, and hunger-curing day in London,” I think. Hopefully we can do that and get some food, or if something horribly goes wrong, we can just do a meet-up in a park somewhere, where surely it will rain, because it’s England, so we’ll have to find somewhere else, where surely we’ll get chucked out, because there will be quite a few of us. [laughs]

Andrew: [laughs] But then we’ll all go back to the hotel room.

Jamie: …on a street corner being bored, so yeah.

Andrew: Oh, that sounds like fun. [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah, definitely. I’d go. Okay, and if you’d like to attend this event, whether it be hunger-curing and exciting, or boring and raining…

Andrew: On a street corner.

Jamie: Yeah, or boring and street corner-ish, then e-mail mcmeetup at gmail dot com, and hopefully, if we get enough people e-mailing, we will sort something out, and book that street corner.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Jamie: So get your e-mails in soon.

Andrew: So, and then we’ll probably record a little something with the fans. I don’t know, fan interviews or I don’t know, something fun that we’ll put on the show. So, it will be a fun time, and we look forward to seeing everyone there. We’ll probably make the decision by sometime in the middle of this week, so get your RSVP in soon, including how many people you’re going to be bringing with you, so we can get a good handle on how many people to expect. And then we’ll e-mail everyone, Jamie, I guess? Or we’ll make a post on MuggleNet or something like that.

Jamie: Yeah. Yeah, something like that.


Listener Rebuttal: Daddy Voldy


Andrew: Okay, we have a few rebuttals now. Micah, you want to take the first one?

Micah: Sure. The first rebuttal comes from Sarah, 24, of Houston, Texas. She says:

“In the latest MuggleCast, someone called in and said she wondered why Voldemort didn’t consider fathering a child in order to achieve immortality. I think he never considered this, not only because he’s a loner, but because of his own parents.”

[Jamie laughs]

Micah: “In his eyes, his dad was a useless, gullible Muggle, and Merope, despite being of the house of Slytherin, died because she was weak. He is ashamed of where he comes from – notice that many Death Eaters don’t know he’s half and half – so why would he see someone from his own bloodline as important? I think a child would be useless to him because it would carry the blood of the parents who disgust him.”

Jamie: That’s a very good point.

Eric: An interesting take.

Mikey: That makes sense. Yeah, because he’s not pureblood and if his whole thing is the purebloodness, and…

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: You know? He’s got the Muggle blood in – that he killed Mr. Tom Riddle, so…

Eric: Yeah, so I think he’s taken it upon himself to be the best of any of his – of his bloodline, you know, like, instead of furthering and seeing his children are better than him, he just basically made it so that he’d be the one, so he didn’t really father any children because he hates his bloodline to begin with. So, he just wants to be big and bad and…

Andrew: And end his family.

Jamie: And also he’d hate it…

Eric: …and not worry.

Jamie: Yeah, and also the idea that he was not reliant on something, but the idea that something could, you know, something would be that close to him. I don’t think he could stand it, and also, it doesn’t really, you know, continue his immortality because he doesn’t, as you’ve all just said, consider a bloodline to be immortality. It’s just him, regardless of, you know, offspring or ancestors or anything like that.

Micah: I like how she called him “half and half,” like he’s some sort of milk or something.

Andrew: Cream.

[Everyone laughs]

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: Something you put in your coffee.

Eric: Voldemort cream.

Mikey: Also… Also, it’s kind of like the – Voldemort’s personality, I think he’s too much of an egomaniac in the sense that he wants the immortality himself.

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: He wants to live forever. He doesn’t care about the kids.

Eric: Yeah, the…

Mikey: He’s not a friendly person.

Eric: The alternative methods of being immortal just simply don’t interest him. And…

Mikey: No, he wants to…

Eric: I don’t know, would you go to Starbucks and order a Marvolo Mocha?

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Zing!

Andrew: That was pretty good. But in the words of Freddie Mercury – no, I knew he was dead all along.

Jamie: No, okay, Andrew I’m going to put that…

Andrew: No, no…

Jamie: …into the show so…

Andrew: No, no. And you know what? Hold on.

Jamie: No, I am so…

Andrew: Queen, Queen is – there’s like – they’re touring again.

Jamie: Okay.

Andrew: Like they’re getting someone else…

Jamie: Whatever.

Andrew: …to tour with them.

Jamie: Whatever. Still…

Andrew: So, technically I was…

Eric: But Freddy is…

Andrew: So, let me finish my thought.

Jamie: Okay.

Andrew: In the words of Freddie Mercury, “Who wants to live forever?”


Listener Rebuttal: HP Sauce and Squibs


Andrew: Anyway, the next rebuttal comes from Victoria, 25, of Chicago, concerning HP sauce. I don’t have any recollection of bringing this up last week but, anyway.

“Micah, HP sauce is not Harry Potter sauce.”

Oh, this is why. [laughs]

“HP sauce is not ‘Harry Potter’ sauce as you said in the news, quoting Jason Isaacs on Episode 77. Instead, it’s a British condiment a bit like steak sauce over here. I thought you might like to know.”

Eric: Like A1 steak sauce?

Andrew: Is that true? You ever have HP sauce?

Jamie: Yeah, it is. Do you know that actually stands for Houses of Parliament, and I don’t know why. I can’t remember. But it does, and it’s yeah, it’s like, brown sauce or like spicy, sort of fruity, kind of thing.

Micah: Well…

Jamie: And yeah.

Micah: It worked out well. I mean – I thought he meant sauce…

Jamie: Well apart from the fact that…

Micah: …like some sort of gossip or whatever.

Eric: Yeah, sauce.

Micah: You know?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: Actually I’m looking that up, Jamie.

Andrew: And then she…

Eric: I’ve had HP sauce last night for…

Jamie: It worked out well apart from the fact that you had it completely wrong.

[Andrew laughs]

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: She goes on to say also:

“Question: can a squib attend Hogwarts? You’d think an eleven year-old from a wizarding family that has showed no magical abilities would be sent to Hogwarts, in the hope that they’re a late bloomer. If not, do they have to stay at home and miss the opportunity to make friends, effectively becoming a social outcast? This does not seem fair either way and may explain a lot of Filch’s bitterness. I wondered what you thought.”

I don’t think they can attend Hogwarts.

Jamie: No…

Andrew: If you can’t do magic, you can’t do magic.

Jamie: It’s a magic school, yeah. It’s like a…

Andrew: It’s like what are you going to do in Transfiguration?

Jamie: Yeah, just sit there?

Andrew: Yeah.


Listener Rebuttal: Filchy


Jamie: This is from Fransisco, age 16, from Chile. Subject: Filchy.

“When I was hearing your podcast, I started thinking – couldn’t Voldemort make Filch perform magic if he does something for him? Probably getting him into Hogwarts or getting him something that is in Hogwarts, maybe another Horcrux? Well, anyway, love the show, bye!”

Isn’t that kind of Faust-esque, you know, selling your soul to the devil and then him…

Andrew: Basically…

Jamie: … giving you something in return?

Andrew: Yeah, plus, Filch cares for – Filch is not an evil person, so…

Jamie: Right.

Andrew: …I don’t think Filch would…

Jamie: And he’s loyal to Dumbledore and Hogwarts, even though he is bitter and moody and twisted.

Mikey: My question is, how could Voldemort make Filch perform magic?

Andrew: Well, that’s – yeah, a good question.

Mikey: Yeah, that right there…

Micah: Giving him the ability to, maybe?

Mikey: Yeah, well, that’s what it says, it says, “Voldemort – couldn’t Voldemort make Filch perform magic?” Meaning Filch is the one performing magic.

Eric: That’s interesting.

Mikey: Not like…

Andrew: Well, that’s what we were…

Mikey: Yeah, that right there confuses me.

Andrew: I mean, that’s what we were asking last week. What would let a squib do magic? Because we were saying maybe it’s Filch who practices magic later in life. So, maybe she’s suggesting Voldemort could make that something that we were talking about click.

Jamie: Well, doesn’t that bring up the point that, how does Quikspell teach you to do magic? Because that implies that being a squib is a temporary, acute, you know, thing. That it’s like a mental block; it sounds like writer’s block. You can’t do magic until that block is lifted. But in, you know, I can’t remember where else, it’s been suggested that being a squib is, you know, you do not – you do not inherit your parents’ magical ability.

Eric: Right, you’re just a dub.

Jamie: Which is chronic, yeah. You’re the black sheep of the family.

Andrew: Probably we’ll probably never know.

Micah: I was going to say, but what if it’s a trade-off though. Like, what if Voldemort gives him temporary magical ability and then…

Eric: Well, could you – could you do that? Could you give someone temporary magical ability? I mean.

Micah: Who knows? Maybe.

Eric: Yeah, well, I know you can bring dead bodies back to life, to – to at least movement. I would think, you know, you would have to be…

Micah: Yeah.

Eric: …innately magical, you know, to do it. Like…

Jamie: Agreed.

Eric: …it’s in your blood.

Micah: Another rebuttal that was kind of along this line was saying perhaps Harry teaches Filch because he was such a good teacher in Order of the Phoenix. Maybe he teaches him how to do magic in, you know…

Eric: I don’t think he has time to do that.

Jamie: No. “I’ve got ten minutes, so I’ll teach you a quick spell. Then I’ll go and find the other four Horcruxes.”

[Everyone laughs]


Main Discussion: Fawkes


Andrew: Yeah, well, anyway, we’re going to move on now to our main discussion this week. Actually a character discussion, a creature discussion, we’re going to talk about Fawkes.

Mikey: Yes.

Andrew: It could be a very important creature in Book 7.

Jamie: You think he would be.

Andrew: We’ve talked about him in the past, what did Fawkes’ song at the end of Half-Blood Prince possibly mean?

Eric: His cry.

Jamie: He was singing Bohemian Rhapsody, Andrew.

[Andrew laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: So, Micah, take it away.

Micah: Sure… just a brief overview. The phoenix is a magical bird about the size of a swan. It has crimson feathers on its body and a golden tail as long as a peacock’s. It’s claws and beaks are gleaming gold and its eyes are black. These colors also happen to be the colors of Gryffindor house, interestingly enough. The scarlet body feathers glow faintly in darkness, while the golden tail feathers are hot to the touch. Phoenix tail feathers are a powerful magical substance according to Mr. Ollivander, and are suitable for use as wand cores, and that came from the Harry Potter Lexicon.


Harry First Sees Fawkes on a Burning Day


Micah: So, the first question all for up is that when Harry first sees Fawkes in Chamber of Secrets, it happens to be on a burning day. Now, do you guys think that this is a foreshadowing of something to come?

Jamie: Oooh.

Andrew: Like what? Bad timing? Bad coincidence?

Micah: A bad omen, perhaps?

Eric: Well, I think if you look in the movie at least – I know you shouldn’t base too much on the movies, but it was kind of comedic relief in a way. I mean, it was – you know – [in British accent] “Your bird, sir. He just died!” You know, Harry’s accused of committing all these crimes and stuff and then he goes into Dumbledore’s office and….

Jamie: Bird arson.

Eric: …his bird blows up! [laughs]

Jamie: Sorry.

Eric: So, I think it was just a matter of that – it’s more… I think it fit with the theme of the book. Harry being accused of something, he’s not but having self-doubt.

Jamie: Yeah. I think that about covers it.

Andrew: I mean, yeah. What I was trying to say was that Harry met him in bad timing, so perhaps the foreshadowing in Book 7 could be – he would make bad timing.

Jamie: The thing is tough, doesn’t the phoenix live for hundreds of years? So it’s pretty rare to have a burning day.

Micah: It’s immortal.

Jamie: Huh? No, but I mean, it lives until it’s reborn.

Eric: I guess so. Is it rare?

Jamie: It isn’t like two days and then – that would suck.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: What did Dumbledore say? It’s a certain period, isn’t it?

Jamie: No, yeah, but isn’t it a long time?

Andrew: That’s true.

Mikey: I don’t think, does it?

Eric: One wouldn’t think it would be every two days.

Jamie: He doesn’t burst into flame every two days. Yeah.

Eric: That’s a lot of rebirthing that is happening.

Jamie: And he has to grow as well, because he turns into a tiny baby.

Micah: Well, it only takes a couple of days. That’s what it said – for him to re-grow.

Jamie: Oh.

Andrew: Oh, that’s probably what I’m thinking of.

Mikey: Yeah. Also, I think we’re – we might be taking a little going a little too much into it because really – now we know that Fawkes can be…

Jamie: That’s what we do, Mikey.

Micah: Yeah, that’s what I was just going to say.

Mikey: Well, no, this also says that the phoenix is reborn from the ashes too, which we see Fawkes do lots of things where he gives his life up for Dumbledore by taking the Avada Kedavra curse.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: But we know Fawkes is okay. You know what I mean?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: I think it just sets us up to know that Fawkes is kind of this super bird. You know what I mean?

Micah: It’s an introduction to us.

Mikey: Yeah. It’s don’t think it’s anything major specific to the point of foreshadowing, because Harry first met him on a burning day. I think it kind of sets up that we know it’s okay, because Harry kind of freaks out.

Jamie: It’s cool.

Mikey: Again, even in the movie, Harry kind of freaks out. “Your bird! He just burst into flames!” He didn’t do anything.

[Eric laughs]

Mikey: [laughs] He freaks out, you know? But it’s the same thing. The bird bursts into flames. You’re kind of worried at first, but then you find out, “Oh, he’s going to be okay,” and every time you see that again, you know it’s going to be okay because he’s reborn.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: So, I think it’s more that.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: I think it was a plot message, a plot device, rather.

Mikey: Yeah, foreshadowing. Yeah, definitely. It’s a plot device.

Andrew: Yeah, it was a good way to meet him for both for Harry and us.

Eric: Yeah, to see what he is.

Jamie: He’s a kind of a – sorry.

Eric: No, go on.

Jamie: He’s a kind of a MacGuffin, isn’t he? Something that is there to save the day and can be brought in to save the day. Kind of like “god from the machine,” “deus ex.” I’ve pronounced that completely wrong, I’m sure. When there’s something that can come in and make everything right, like in Order of the Phoenix when he comes and swallows Dumbledore’s thing.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: It’s one thing that can save the day.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: He’s clearly ridiculously powerful. I’d like a phoenix.


Fawkes Encounters


Andrew: Let’s talk about the encounters we’ve had with Fawkes. There’s been five here that Micah brought up to us. First one, he saves Harry from when he was bitten by the Basilisk in Chamber of Secrets, and he also pokes out the Basilisk’s eyes…

Eric: You go, Fawkes! You go, girl!

Andrew: …and he brings the Sorting Hat and Gryffindor’s sword. Another time – now, this is a quote, Micah? This is what Dumbledore says to Harry in Chamber of Secrets after what happened down in the chamber. “You must have shown me real loyalty down in the chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you.” Foreshadowing, Micah, with calling Fawkes?


Loyalty


Micah: Well, yeah. I think maybe more so that than the first thing we took a look at on the burning day. You know? Could this be, in Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore talking to Harry saying, “You must have shown me real loyalty down there…” Could that be foreshadowing to something? I mean, could he show loyalty in some way to Dumbledore in Book 7 that may call Fawkes back to his side?

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: Definitely.

Andrew: Oh, that’s true.

Mikey: I think that’s definitely more, because throughout Half-Blood Prince, he’s “Dumbledore’s man, through and through” against Scrimgeour.

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: So, I think that is a little bit more.

Eric: Fawkes might become Harry’s bird. Maybe Hedwig and Fawkes will get together.

Jamie: Make babies.

Mikey: Make little owl-phoenixes.

Eric: [laughs] Owl-phoenixes.

Mikey: They’ll be pink. Red and white – pink.

Eric: No, I mean.

Jamie: Half of them will burst into flame and be reborn the next day.

Mikey: [laughs] Pink birds everywhere!

Eric: Fawkes will be… Fawkes will be… Fawkes is alone. He doesn’t really have an owner. I think what’s being foreshadowed in Book 2 especially is the loyalty. Like, Fawkes is Dumbledore’s phoenix. Dumbledore was always compared to being a phoenix and having those kinds of qualities. But Fawkes is Dumbledore’s phoenix and that’s how you call Fawkes is you show loyalty to Dumbledore. So, Harry will easily be able to – you know. Well, they hitched a ride on his tail feather to get out of the chamber to begin with. I mean, Fawkes has helped Harry plenty of times.

Jamie: Mhm.

Andrew: Yeah. Well – which we’re going to talk about in a second. Really, Harry’s going to be loyal to Dumbledore throughout all of Book 7, trying to get those Horcruxes.

Eric: Oh yeah.

Andrew: Because hat’s what Dumbledore wants him to do, so really that almost makes Fawkes Harry’s the entire book.

Jamie: But, he’s not doing it because Dumbledore wants him to.

Andrew: No, but that’s just part of his inspiration, I think. His influence.

Jamie: Yeah, but if it’s a case of showing loyalty, you can’t just speak out and say that Dumbledore’s awesome. I think it has to be a certain thing. It’s got to be from within you.

Micah: Right.

Jamie: You know?

Andrew: Yeah.

Micah: Yeah.

Micah: Well, think about the chamber, when Harry says to Tom Riddle…

Jamie: Yeah.

Micah: “Dumbledore will never be gone as long as people here are loyal to him.”

Jamie: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah.

Micah: I think that’s what called Fawkes to him.

Jamie: Yeah, yeah, but I’m sure he had to mean that. He couldn’t just say it to save himself.

Eric: Yeah.

Micah: Right, right.

Mikey: We don’t have any background how Dumbledore domesticated Fawkes, do we?

Jamie: No.

Mikey: Because I’m looking through the Fantastical Beasts one and it says they are given a high rating simply because the creature is not necessarily act ferocious…

Jamie: Impossible to…yeah.

Mikey: …but it’s the rarity of successfully attempting to domesticate it.

Jamie: But isn’t that just one more thing…

Micah: Well, we’re going to get to that.

Mikey: Oh, sorry. Jumping ahead.

Jamie: I was going to say, isn’t that just one more thing – not, that’s okay.

Micah: No, it’s all right.

Jamie: No, isn’t that just one more thing which sort of shows Dumbledore’s powers, you know?

Eric: Yeah.

Jamie: It’s that and sort of like – And in Order of the Phoenix when Hagrid points out that he lit that fire – I don’t know how to pronounce it: Gabruthian [mispronounces Gubraithian] fire, or something like that, and only Dumbledore could do that and stuff like that. So, it’s just one more testament to Dumbledore’s power. But also, it’s the only Phoenix that we see, and obviously there are other creatures in that book that we don’t see, as well, but it’s just – it’s clearly a powerful creature.


Phoenixes Choose Their Owners


Micah: Yeah, the interesting thing about that, not jumping off too far ahead, was that Phoenixes choose their owners, not the other way around.

Jamie: Yeah.

Micah: So, the next question is…

Eric: Now, that’s quite interesting.

Micah: …obviously, is why did he choose Dumbledore?

Jamie: “I like his beard.”

Eric: That’s interesting, too. The wand chooses the wizard, and the Phoenix chooses its owner. So, I don’t know, that’s kind of cool.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: And Harry’s wand has a Phoenix feather in it.

Jamie: Yeah. Fawkes’, in fact.


Picking Apart The “Pure of Heart”


Andrew: We’ll talk more about how Dumbledore got Fawkes later, but another encounter was in Goblet of Fire, when Harry claims he hears the Phoenix song in the graveyard, and it empowers him. “The Phoenix song strengthens the pure of heart and strikes fear in the heart of evil.” Maybe not so much for Fawkes – now, wait a second. Where did that come from, Micah? Was that something that was in the books?

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: Strengthens – yeah. Hmmm. So…

Jamie: You sure it’s the “heart of evil”? Because you can be pure of heart and be morally vapid.

Micah: Purely evil, is that what you were going to say?

Jamie: No, no. It’s – I mean you don’t have to be evil to be… I don’t know how to say this, but you don’t have to be good to be pure of heart, because good’s a subjective concept, so you could be – I don’t know. Maybe Im – I could actually be completely wrong on that.

Micah: I know what you’re saying.

Eric: Yeah, I think I know what you’re saying, essentially.

Micah: I think that the context is that it’s supposed to be good.

Jamie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Micah: You know?

Jamie: Yeah. I think you’re right. I’m just an idiot.


More Fawkes Encounters


Andrew: And then also in Goblet of Fire, when Harry encountered a spider bite, Fawkes healed it with one of his tears. And then the fifth attempt – the fifth encounter with Fawkes is when he absorbs the Killing Curse in Order of the Phoenix. Now, if he has already shown that he is willing and capable to hear and protect – heal and protect Dumbledore, why didn’t he show up on the Tower in Half-Blood Prince?

Jamie: Because Dumbledore told him not to.

Andrew: Really?

Jamie: Because – yeah.

Eric: Yeah.

Jamie: Snape’s good, and…

Eric: It makes perfect sense.

Jamie: …Dumbledore wanted him to die, so he said, “Fawkes…”

Andrew: Oh. “Don’t save me.”

Jamie: “…don’t show up and save my ass.”

[Eric laughs]

Jamie: “I need to die.” So, yeah.

Eric: “Don’t save me this time, Fawkes.”

Jamie: So, yeah.

Micah: “Radio Fawkes, radio Fawkes.”

[Everyone laughs]

Jamie: “Mayday. Mayday.”

Mikey: “Fawkes, this is Dumby. Dumby One.”

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: “I’m going to – I’m going to take a hit right now, just don’t worry.”

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: “Red bird! This isWhite Beard.”

Andrew: “Ten-four, Number One! Ten-four, Number One!”

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: “Over and out, Dumby One. Have a good life.”

Jamie: [laughs] “Over and out, forever.”

Eric: [laughs] Yeah!

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. But anyway, guys, let’s stay focused, come on.

Mikey: Okay. Focused, focused.

Andrew: We’re a serious podcast. We don’t mess around.

Mikey: We do.

Jamie: Story of our lives.

Mikey: We need to be Sirius.


Fawkes’ Connection with the School


Micah: Sure. We mentioned Dumbledore’s quote before, saying, “I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me.” And still going along the foreshadowing lines, do you think maybe this means that Harry will return to Hogwarts in Book 7, in Deathly Hallows? And do you guys think that Fawkes may be connected to this statement?

Mikey: Possibly.

Andrew: I think that wherever Harry is going to be, Fawkes is going to be.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: And…

Jamie: Perhaps Fawkes is going to stay behind to look after the school.

Eric: Yeah, but what does Fawkes do that specifically looks after the school?

Andrew: But, Fawkes…

Eric: I think Fawkes…

Andrew: He needs someone else to – he needs – Harry – he’s an assistant. Fawkes is an assistant.

Eric: Well, I don’t think he assists…

Jamie: Yeah, he takes Harry’s memos and phone calls and stuff.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: Well, not an office assistant, more like a partner in crime.

[Eric laughs]

Mikey: Evil assistant.

Andrew: Partner in crime. Partner in crime.

Jamie: He’s a secretary.

Eric: No, I don’t think Fawkes is necessary to run the school. It’s not like he’s going to sit at McGonagall’s side and help the school. I think Fawkes was there ever since the beginning on Dumbledore’s behalf, really. He doesn’t really help, or he’s not needed in running the school because he’s always been the other part of Dumbledore’s job, which is protecting the world from Voldemort and finding out everything he can about Voldemort, and protecting Harry and all that stuff. The Order of the Phoenix – Fawkes’ job is not anything to do with the school or the running of the school. He’s not necessary. The only reason he was in…

Jamie: Yeah, but…

Eric: He was with Dumbledore.

Jamie: Yeah, but in the Order of the Phoenix, isn’t Phoenix just a sort of metaphor for Dumbledore? Because it’s Order of Dumbledore, really, because he commands what people do and stuff.

Eric: Well, it does. Well, see, I don’t think he commands.

Mikey: Well, it’s really Dumbledore’s Army.

Eric: I don’t think he commands it, necessarily.

Jamie: Yeah, but he tells people what to do without them.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Sorry. Without him now, they’re leaderless, as it were, and they have to get new person to do it, because he knows every – ou know? I don’t want to – he didn’t know what do to. He just knew what to do, and everyone else just were sheep in the grand scheme of things.

Eric: Yeah.

Jamie: Following his command, and now it’s going to be…

Mikey: They were pawns.

Jamie: Yeah, exactly.

Micah: Well, the reason I chose this quote, too, for Fawkes, was just because of that loyalty connection…

Jamie: Yeah.

Micah: …that seems to exist there. In both the quotes that Dumbledore has, he’s bringing up the loyalty and maybe Harry doesn’t have to go to Hogwarts to remain loyal to Dumbledore or to the school. He can sort of be by extension in a way

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Well, I think Harry will eventually go to Hogwarts sometime. We will see Hogwarts in Book 7.

Jamie: He’s got to, yeah.

Mikey: He’s got to. We spent six books there, the story is supposed to be Harry’s time at Hogwarts. If Book 7 has no Hogwarts in it…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: …why is this the last one?

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: Right.

Mikey: You know what I mean?

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: So, it’s – he’s going to go to Hogwarts. Now, regardless whether Fawkes shows up when he’s at Hogwarts or somewhere else, definitely I think Fawkes will show up somewhere.

Jamie: Yeah, he’s go to.

Mikey: And in connection to Harry, but not necessarily Hogwarts. But Hogwarts will be seen. I can almost guarantee it.


Jo’s Quote About Dumbledore


Eric: And did you catch what J.K.R. said? I’m sorry, on the red carpet, or whatever it was to – Somebody asked if Dumbledore, “Isn’t he dead?” And she said, “Yeah, but he’s giving me a lot of problems, and he’s not that simple.”

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. Dude, weren’t you…

Eric: Like, there’s still a lot of important stuff to come from Dumbledore.

Andrew: Weren’t you here this week? Last week?

Mikey: Yeah, we talked about that.

Eric: Oh, did we? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mikey: It was a Dan Radcliffe quote.

Eric: I was, I was, I was.

Andrew: Dan Radcliffe? It had nothing to do with a red carpet.

Mikey: [laughs] Yeah. It was a Dan Radcliffe quote, man!

Andrew: [laughs] She went on the set.

Eric: Sorry, when I read these…

Mikey: He was thinking of Equus, man.

Eric: No, no, no.

Jamie: Yeah, yeah.

Eric: What I was saying was…

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: …there’s a lot more to come from Dumbledore himself, not to mention Aberforth Dumbledore will show up so, we’ll be sure to see Fawkes.

Jamie: Yeah.


Fawkes’ Cry


Micah: All right. Well, what do you guys think about his cry at the end of Half-Blood Prince? Do you think it was a message, a warning, maybe even a rally cry?

Andrew: I think his cry, it was just to mourn Dumbledore. I don’t think there’s anything else that can explain it.

Eric: It’s “The Phoenix Lament.” It’s just sadness overall, because whether or not it was planned or anything, you’ve lost this great wizard, and…

Andrew: You also…

Eric: …the whole school had to know.

Micah: Do you think there’s a further connection, though? I mean, if he’s going around singing, is he perhaps sending any type of message for people to band together? That, you know…

Eric: Oooh. Yeah, I got…

Jamie: Isn’t there…

Micah: …something’s coming.

Eric: I kind of got that it was a magical significance. It wasn’t necessarily Fawkes putting protection, but when I was reading about Fawkes going around crying, it felt kind of ceremonious in a way, but also maybe the Phoenix – Phoenix, you know, make those who are pure of heart and everything, you know, feel stronger. So, I think it had some kind of magical effect like that.

Jamie: Wasn’t it closure as well, though? It was just a cry of, you know…

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah.

Jamie: Because he had to, really. It’s a nice – and I’m sure there’s another story, a famous story, where there’s been a low, wailing cry of death, you know? It’s that kind of thing, it’s just – And it’s also a funeral, you know, which is what people do there. So… It was just a nice touch, I think. Because you know some things in these books – I know that everyone says, you know, there’s no such thing as a coincidence.

Micah: Not everything has a double meaning. Is that what you were going to say?

Jamie: Yeah, yeah. And there’s no such thing as a coincidence. But we can’t forget that she’s writing to entertain, as well, and she’s writing for herself, and some things just, you know, make sense, and that just looks like one of those things. Saying that, it will probably turn out to be a huge plot clue and it will foreshadow everything.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: And pretty soon you’ll owe the world another 50 sausages.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: You’re going to eat until you die, Jamie.

Jamie: I’ll be on 10,000 by the end of Book 7.

Andrew: [laughs] I think it was just for the imagery. I mean, everyone is hearing this cry throughout the entire school and on the grounds, so it sort of brings everyone together because they’re all hearing Fawkes.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, it’s a unification song, you know?

Andrew: Exactly.

Jamie: Yeah.


Could Harry Inherit Fawkes?


Micah: Well, this goes back to what Eric was trying to talk about before. In a Raincoast Book interview somebody asked, “Could Harry have a pet dragon?” and Jo responded by saying, “You can’t domesticate a dragon, whatever Hagrid thinks. That’s simply impossible. So no. He’s got more sense. He might get a different pet at some point but I’m saying no more at this moment.”

Andrew: Now, when was this?

Jamie: That was a long time ago, wasn’t it?

Micah: This…

Jamie: The Raincoast one was a long time ago.

Micah: Yeah…March 2001.

Andrew: March 2001, there you go.

Mikey: Wow!

Andrew: So, this was pre-Book 4.

Eric: No, it wasn’t.

Andrew: Ummm, yeah.

Eric: No.

Andrew: Oh, no.

Andrew and

Eric: After Book 4, but…

Jamie: But pre-Book 5, obviously. [laughs]

Eric: There’s much more coming about dragons, I guess, you know?

Mikey: Well…

Jamie: No, no.

Mikey: …maybe it could be Buckbeak, you know?

Micah: No, no, no! My point was Fawkes.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: Oh, wait, what…sorry. [laughs] Wasn’t she talking about domesticating a dragon?

Jamie: No, no, no, what she’s trying to say is that…

Andrew: She said she’s putting it off.

Jamie: …he’s getting a different pet. That’s the most important point.

Eric: Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Mikey: But he get Buckbeak, though, or Witherwings, so it might not be Fawkes.

Jamie: Yeah, that’s true. But it just seems right that, you know…

Mikey: I want Harry to have a Phoenix.

Jamie: That Harry has the Gryffindor connection.

Eric: Yeah, Dumbledore’s bird.

Jamie: Yeah, and it – yeah, it, you know…

Mikey: No, I agree.

Jamie: It just seems right.

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: It would be. I want Harry to have Fawkes. I want Harry to have a Phoenix.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Even if it’s not Fawkes, another one. Maybe a little Fawkes offspring.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: But, but…

Andrew: Fawkes Jr. [laughs]

Mikey: But who knows? Who knows? I’m not going to pretend…

Andrew: Fawksey.

Mikey: We’ll call it Fawksey.

Eric: No…yeah.

Jamie: He better not, or I’m going to…

Mikey: FJ. Fawkes Jr.

Eric: Fawksey lady.

Mikey: FJ, come save me! Ahhh!

Andrew: [laughs] I’m – I act like I know, but I’m positive that Dumbledore must have told Fawkes to be Harry’s assistant, to help him when need be, to be there at his side.

Eric: He told the exact same thing to Harry. I mean, the opposite. He told Harry not to trust anybody but Ron and Hermione, and Harry didn’t even trust McGonagall with the information of the Horcruxes and stuff. So like…

Mikey: Yeah. Because…

Eric: …Dumbledore is pretty much setting up this closed group society, which I think includes Fawkes, which will consist of the people who take down Voldemort, you know?


Tangent: Will Harry Lead the Order?


Mikey: Yeah, I think the Order is there just to provide…

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: …back-up and take every one else down.

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: But it’s going to come down to Harry, mono-e-mono with the bald man himself. And…

Eric: Guys, wouldn’t it be crazy…

Mikey: …with Fawkes there.

Eric: …if Harry led the Order?

Mikey: That would be cool.

Jamie: No, it’s…

Eric: Like now?

Jamie: It’s not going to happen, though.

Eric: Do you think it’s…

Jamie: It’s…it’s…

Eric: Really?

Jamie: Well, he’s – you can’t, however much, you can’t sort of jump from what his task is to his powerfulness and, you know, how good he is. It’s like, he’s still a 16-year old – actually, wait, how old is he now?

Eric: 17.

Jamie: Yeah, sorry.

Eric: He’ll be seventeen.

Jamie: He’s still an almost seventeen year old under, you know, almost unqualified wizard with, you know, not as great magical powers. I’m sure if he and Lupin dueled now, Lupin would win. If he and Snape dueled as shown in Half-Blood Prince he wouldn’t even stand a chance. You know, he’s still, he may… Just because he has a great task it doesn’t mean, you know, he’s going to lead it.

Eric: Right.

Jamie: Like in Lord of the Rings, just because Frodo had the immense task he still listened to Gandalf and, you know, he didn’t lead anything, really.

Eric: Yeah, well, our Gandalf is dead. I mean…

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: It’s just a matter of, I mean we were saying, would the Ministry, you know, interfere with Harry’s plan to find the Horcruxes and get rid of Voldemort, but will the Order, I mean…

Mikey: The Ministry’s always going to try to interfere. I hate the Ministry.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: No, no, no, I’m not talking about that. I’m saying, we talked about that before. But what I’m saying now is…

Jamie: I hate the Ministry. Decadent and corrupt.

Eric: …who’s going to run the Order? And how is…

Andrew: I don’t think it matters.

Eric: The Order is backing Harry. The Order was created for Dumbledore, Dumbledore’s purpose of getting rid of Voldemort, and now it’s turned to Harry to do that.

Jamie: But Harry can’t run it, though. He can’t run it. It’s just not…

Andrew: He wants to do this one his own, too, and he’s not going to want to manage the Order.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: Well, he shouldn’t want to do things on his own. He’s got the whole Order.

Mikey: It’s going to be Shacklebolt or Arthur Weasley. Someone that we all know, we trust.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: He’s got…

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: That has that commanding, you know – May not be an obvious candidate. But it’s someone that everyone trusts and everyone listens to. So, like Shacklebolt.

Eric: Hey, wait.

Mikey: Shacklebolt.

Andrew: Exactly.

Eric: I think it should be Mr. Weasley, Mikey. Because wasn’t there old speculation that Mr. Weasley would be the new Minister of Magic and she said, “No, but” type of thing?

Mikey: I don’t remember, but I wouldn’t be surprised…

Andrew: I do remember her being asked that question.

Jamie: She always says, “No, but.”

Mikey: I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Weasley comes up and does something majorly significant for everyone.

Jamie: Yeah, I agree.

Mikey: Because he’s been there through all the books, you know. He’s helped Harry out. Basically, Harry is like a son to him. His other son, Ron, is so deep in this, you know. It’s – He’s going to do something that, you know. Plus, Dumbledore always trusted Arthur to take care of Harry, you know, in between stuff.

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: So, I think Arthur or someone we know, obviously from the Order, is going to be there. You know what I mean?

Eric: What I’m saying is, will Harry consult – not consult, but will Harry – I mean, they have to be led into the last battle. I mean, they are Aurors; they are people who get rid of people like Bellatrix Lestrange and stuff. I agree that Neville should have Bellatrix, but the fact is, they’re all adults and there’s all these good adults who are in the Order, who want to help Harry, and who are going to be on his side. Like Lupin, he’s going to fight in Harry’s last battle.

Mikey: No, no, they will be, they will be. Come on…

Jamie: Of course they will, yeah.

Mikey: Harry’s confided in Arthur in, what was it, Half-Blood Prince when he said…

Eric: Yeah.

Mikey: …”This is what happened when we followed Draco, can you take a look at it?” And he – you know, I think Arthur Weasley is one of those parents that are like, okay, he raised Fred and George, he knows they’re going to get in trouble.

Jamie: Yeah, exactly.

Mikey: It’s someone that Harry can relate to as an adult, you know what I mean?

Jamie: But Eric, I don’t think it’s going to be like, you know, Two Towers type of thing, the film Two Towers where, you know, Harry walks over the hill with a look in his eyes and then all of the Order of the Phoenix comes up behind him and, you know…

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: …they are all standing together. It’s like – it’s a different, it’s like a proxy battle for them. They aren’t in on Harry’s task. It’s his to kill Voldemort and theirs to clear the way.

Andrew: And just to clarify, Eric, I just checked and Jo actually answered that question on her official site and she just answered, “Alas, no.” Would Arthur Weasley would be the new Minister?

Eric: Well, I know, and I wasn’t saying he was. I’m saying people were guessing that he would be a power position.

Andrew: Well, I’m not saying that. I’m saying you said, “She said, ‘No, but’…”

Eric: Well, “Alas, no,” is exactly like a “No, but,” she just doesn’t…

Andrew: Well, “No, but,” usually ends with…

Eric: But. [laughs]

Andrew: “No, but,” something…

Eric: What I am saying is she didn’t rule out that he would gain power. She just ruled out that he wouldn’t be Minister of Magic.

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: You know, so…

Andrew: Fair enough.

Micah: All right.

Mikey: Let’s move on.

Jamie: Yes, let’s.

Andrew: Yeah.


Would Fawkes Choose Voldemort?


Micah: So, I think we’re all pretty much in agreement, based on the fact that Phoenixes choose their owners, that probably Fawkes would choose Harry in Deathly Hallows.

Jamie: Yeah.

Micah: If it came to down to it?

Andrew: Yeah.

Mikey: Well, wouldn’t he choose Voldemort? I mean, ah, no, sorry. Imessed up.

Jamie: Yes, he’s going to, yeah.

Mikey: He’s going to choose Voldemort because…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: He will. He likes power.

Micah: Well, that’s an interesting question.

Jamie: He’s a power hungry Phoenix.

[Eric laughs]

Micah: Well, let’s think about that, though. No, because his feather is in Fawkes’ – Fawkes’ feather is in Voldemort’s wand. Why did it choose him the first place?


Tangent: Jamie’s Theory


Jamie: You know what’s going to happen? He’s going to… [laughs] He is going to… [laughs]

Micah: Oh, god, do I want to hear this?

Jamie: No, you don’t, it is going to be awful. It’s awful.

Mikey: [laughs] Yes. Come on, Jamie.

Jamie: He’s going to do two things: He is going to become Voldemort’s pet, then he’s going to fly up his butt and set himself on fire.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: And he’s reborn inside Voldemort.

Jamie: And he’s reborn.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Inside his stomach. [laughs]

Jamie: He crawls away…

Eric: “Aww, man, something’s crawled up there and died!”

Mikey: He’s going to pop out of his stomach…

Jamie: In Alien, yeah.

Mikey: …just like in Alien. AH!


Back to Fawkes Choosing Voldemort


Micah: But seriously, though, why do you think – why would his, a wand with his feather? Jamie, that was a great joke, by the way.

Jamie: Thank you.

Micah: Why do you think he would choose Voldemort? I mean, he chose Harry, we can probably see good reason for that. But why Voldemort?

Jamie: He didn’t choose him. It’s the wand. It’s like – I don’t think it’s the bird that chooses him, it’s the wand altogether, the combination of the wood and the inches. [laughs]

Eric: Yeah, the fact remains that part of Fawkes is still in Voldemort’s wand and part of the Fawkes was part of a wand that chose Voldemort.

Jamie: Perhaps it chose him. Perhaps it picks it on power. If you were a wand you would want the most powerful person to pick you. So, you have a fun time, you know, you don’t want somebody who just…

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.

Jamie: …you know? So, perhaps it’s picked the two people. The two most – not magically powerful, but the two most sort of, not ambitious, I can’t think of the word. The two most…

Eric: Ummm…

Jamie: What’s the word when someone will go far? The two most…

Eric: Well, potential. Have high potential.

Andrew: Potential, yeah.

Jamie: Yeah, exactly. The two people with the most potential, perhaps. Perhaps…

Mikey: Well, Dumbledore is always saying it’s the choices that you make. Kind of like, you know, when Harry questioned whether he should have been in Slytherin…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: …instead of Gryffindor. And I think at the time that the wand chose Tom Riddle, you know, as a boy, even though he made some bad choices, he was consciously already using magic for his own benefit. He could have changed, you know what I mean?

Jamie: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Mikey: It’s his choices. So, I think the fact that that wand chose him, it’s possibly maybe… Because Fawkes and Dumbledore were so close together – maybe it was a hope that this wand would help Tom Riddle become a better person.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Sure enough his choices led him down the wrong path. Same thing with Harry, you know.

Jamie: That is… Yeah.

Mikey: Maybe if Harry had his family the whole time, maybe that wand wouldn’t have chose him.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Because you know that whole thing – the prophecy wouldn’t have happened with him. But because the way Harry grew up, and it’s again his choices that kind of chose him, that wand was there to kind of bring balance.

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: And I’m not taking from anything on this but, can bring balance between the two.

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: Ah, well…

Micah: Well, going off on that.

Eric: What does this the prophecize?

Jamie: You aren’t taking it from anything, are you, at all?

Eric: By chance is this the prophecy? Is Harry the Chosen One like in what? What is it? Star Wars?

Mikey: [laughs] I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up.

Eric: No, no, no, it’s fine.

Mikey: It’s a balance between the forces of good and evil.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: Yeah.


Fawkes Ties Harry to Voldemort and a Pokémon Tangent


Micah: But when these two wands meet, do you guys think that we’ll finally learn what it means that the biggest connection between Harry and Voldemort is, in fact, Fawkes?

Jamie: Yeah. Doesn’t it just show that they can’t battle using magic, so Harry has to find a different way to…

Andrew: Oh my god! It’s another Pokémon reference! Voldemort’s got Nagini, Harry’s got Fawkes, you duel them together, and whoever wins, that’s it! I got it!

[Everyone laughs]

Jamie: “Fawkes, I choose you!”

Mikey: I choose you, Fawkes!

[Andrew hums Pokémon theme music]

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Fawkes used – Pika Ball! Thunderball.

Jamie: Is it just a feature of – Yeah, yeah, used on – yeah.

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: [in low voice] “Fawkes!” [laughs] “Char char!”

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: [in high voice] “Fawkes!”

Jamie: Is it just a feature of anime…

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Jamie: …butlike in Pokémon, when, sort of – like – Ash’s mum would come along and say, “And don’t forget to change your underwear!” Ash would do this funny thing where he’d sort of move and then drop down and sort of…

Andrew: It’s Japanese anime, man. That’s how they do things.

Jamie: What is that thing called when they do that? And he goes [makes weird sound]

Andrew: There used to be a name for it.

Eric: It’s H-U-N-H. It’s “hunh.”

Jamie: That’s it, yeah. It’s like “hunh!” And then they…

Andrew: Oh, yeah. [laughs]

Jamie: But what is it? I don’t know what it is.

Andrew: It’s their style. What do you mean?

Mikey: It’s embarrassment or something like that.

Jamie: Oh, yeah. It’s – yeah. I love Pokémon.

Eric: Fawkes, it’s true that – I loved it, too, for years.

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: I love Pokémon too, Jamie. We are going to start a Facebook group. Seriously.

Andrew: Let’s all be honest. We all had Pokémon cards. We all had Pokémon Red and Blue and teal and color-me-purple…

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: I never did.

Jamie: Of course you did, Mikey. Of course you did. Don’t lie. You loved it.


Back to Fawkes


Eric: Anyway – Fawkes. Seeing as Harry and Voldemort all have the same wand, and their wands can’t duel, I think the fact that Harry might have Fawkes on his side would kind of overrule the wand thing.

Jamie: Push it in his favor. Yeah.

Eric: Or push it in his favor at least because if you look at it as how many tail feathers of Fawkes do you have? Voldemort has one, and Harry’s got…

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: How many power points you have? [laughs]

Eric: Yeah, how many power points? Exactly. What level is your Fawkes compared to…

Mikey: What level is your wand at?

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: I keep mine in a gold ball.

[Mikey laughs]

Eric: Master ball.

Mikey: Well, I think it’s going to be not necessarily Fawkes and Nagini that go battle it out. I think it’s going to be “the power the Dark Lord knows not,” guys. Y’all. It’s going to be love. We know that. It’s Harry’s love. And Fawkes’ love.

Micah: Speaking of quotes…

Eric: [in a British accent] “This is how Dumbledore sends his protection? A mangy old hat and a stupid bird?”

Andrew: I don’t know, guys. I continue to maintain all my Pokémon theories and I still think it all comes down to Pokémon.

Jamie: It does, it does.

Andrew: All these Lord of the Rings connections, all the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings. Ooh!

Eric: Not to mention, Lord of the Rings is about 60 years old, and Pokémon came out in ’96.

Jamie: Exactly. [laughs]

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: No, send in your Pokémon/Harry Potter connections. There’s too many to ignore. We’ll read some of them off next week. What has the show become? I thought for sure we were going to make it longer than 78 episodes. Now, we’re reduced to Pokémon. All right, but to wrap it up today…


Fawkes Only Owned by Dumbledore


Micah: We got to finish this. Let me run through this quote, because it’s an important quote.

Andrew: All right. Go ahead. Let’s wrap this up.

Micah: Oh, god. This guy’s name is going to get me in trouble. Peter Humphreys, from the BBC Newsround. He asked a question of J.K. Rowling, “Who did Fawkes previously belong to and will he play a vital role in the next book?” She responded by saying, “I’m not going to answer about the role in the next book, which probably gives you a big clue, but he has never been owned by anyone but Dumbledore.” So, I think a lot of people will suggest that he belonged to Godric Gryffindor. This kind of puts all theories down.

Andrew: Aside.

Micah: Yeah.

Eric: But it doesn’t mean Fawkes wasn’t alive before Dumbledore came around. But it just meant that Dumbledore had to have been the one to domesticate him.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: And that is -Jamie’s right – a testament to his power.

Jamie: But do you know what’s going to happen in Book 7? Fawkes is going to get owned by Harry, but Voldemort is going to get “owned” by Fawkes and Harry, in fact.

Eric: Zing!


Fawkes, Dumbledore and Rebirth


Andrew: Oooh! So, what is the deal? Why is Dumbledore tied so closely to a bird that is symbolic of rebirth? I think Dumbledore sort of represents rebirth.

Jamie: Yeah. Because he’s always there.

Andrew: Dumbledore is always there. He’ll still be here.

Mikey: He’s omnipresent. He knows everything.

Jamie: Omnipresent, yeah.

Andrew: All right. Well, I guess that wraps up today’s character discussion.

Jamie: Can I just say one last thing?

Andrew: Sure.


Fawkes’ Etymology


Jamie: I was going to say that we haven’t talked about the etymology of his name which I don’t say clearly is from, but it’s probably from Guy Fawkes.

[Micah laughs]

Jamie: Who was the person who among with other conspirators tried to blow up the hoses of Parliament quite a long time ago.

Eric: November 5th.

Jamie: Yes. Which I guess has the fire connection, but he was captured, tortured, hung, drawn and quartered – so, which, incidentally is a very, very horrible British way of killing people which they reserved solely for people who had committed treason.

Andrew: All right. Well, that concludes today’s character discussion on Fawkes. If you disagree with anything we said here on the show, which I can’t imagine what.

Jamie: Don’t write in.

Andrew: Yeah, don’t write in. Just stop listening.

Jamie: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: E-mail mugglecast at staff dot mugglenet dot com and let us know what you think and we’ll read some of your e-mails next week on the show. Right now we’re going to go to an interview I conducted earlier this week with Joe Fulton of millionaireplayboy.com. Here it is.


Interview with Joe Fulton


Andrew: All right. We are now joined by Joe Fulton of MillionairePlayboy.com. Hey, Joe.

Joe: Hi, Andrew. How are you doing?

Andrew: Doing pretty good, thanks. Welcome back to the show.

Joe: Oh, no problem.

Andrew: Now, last time you were on, you and I talked about the latest Harry Potter Legos, right?

Joe: Yup, and we also did the Lego Potter LEGO contest where we had all your listeners build LEGO sets based on Book 6.

Andrew: So, just last week you were at the American National Toy Fair to cover the latest toys being made available by LEGO and a few other companies for MillionairePlayboy.com. Is that right?

Joe: Yeah. Toy Fair is actually something that happens every February in New York City. All the toy companies there showcase all the products they’re intending to release this year. So of course, the biggest toy companies, you know, have the big lines. For instance, the Harry Potter. So, companies like LEGO, NECA, and Cards Inc. which is distributing toys through Corgi, showcased all their new Harry Potter products.

Andrew: Now, can you tell us about some of the things that you saw?

Joe: Well again, obviously LEGO is my favorite toy company. So far, they’ve only released this one new product related to Order of the Phoenix, and that is Set 5378, which is another Hogwarts castle. It’s 943 pieces, and it comes in three different parts. The first part is basically just a section of the Hogwarts castle that has Umbridge’s office and Professor Snape’s Potions room, but it also separates into the greenhouse and the Room of Requirement. It also includes nine mini figures, which is a lot of figures to be included in just one set.

Andrew: Cool.

Joe: We get Harry Potter. We get Ron. We get Hermione. The basic ones, but we also get Dumbledore, Hagrid, Draco, and Severus Snape, and then two new ones which is a thestral and Dolores Umbridge.

Andrew: Oh, very cool. Now, you said this is a 943 piece set. I’m not the biggest LEGO expert, but that seems pretty big to me. Is this one of the biggest sets that they’ve released for the Harry Potter series at least?

Joe: For the Harry Potters, yes. Actually, the biggest set they’ve just actually released was this year. If you go to our Toy Fair coverage on MillionairePlayboy.com, you’ll actually see pictures of the largest LEGO set which is for Star Wars. They release a 5190-some piece LEGO set…

Andrew: Wow.

Joe: …that’s going to actually retail for about $500.

Andrew: Wow. That’s unbelievable.

Joe: Yeah.

Andrew: Do you know any other details about this set? What it might price for or when exactly it’s going to go on sale?

Joe: You’re probably going to see it around August is my best guess is for when you’ll probably see this, and it’s probably going to retail about $90.

Andrew: Okay. Wow, so this is pretty big.

Joe: It’s a big set for LEGO – for Harry Potter sets, yes.

Andrew: Okay, cool. So, what else do you got for us?

Joe: Well, the biggest news is NECA. The Harry Potter action figures have been pretty crappy over the years. There have never been any really good ones. Mattel has had the license for the past three films. Last year they didn’t produce anything for Goblet of Fire. This year the license now was given to NECA to produce Harry Potter action figures, and they are now just starting to release the figures that will be going for Order of the Phoenix set. If you’ve seen – a few months ago they released images of seven inch figures that they’re releasing for the Goblet of Fire. Those ones should probably be hitting stores next March, and those include Harry Potter, Voldemort, Death Eaters. But the biggest news is the Order of the Phoenix series. So far, they’ve officially announced that they are doing two different waves. The first wave, which you’ll probably see around May, is Harry Potter, Hermione, Ron, and Sirius.

Andrew: I’m looking at these pictures now that you have MillionairePlayboy.com. They are beautiful pieces. I mean, the detail is incredible.

Joe: That is exactly why I am ecstatic about these figures. The details that have been put into these are far superior than any of the previous Harry Potter action figure lines that you have seen. Probably the best two sculpts I believe are probably Hermione and Sirius.

Andrew: Yeah, I was just going to say. I’m looking at the big one of Sirius, and you can see every little last hair on his mustache and around his chin.

Joe: Exactly, and it really looks like Gary Oldman…

Andrew: Yeah.

Joe: …which is obviously, you know, a priority. The other one that I like is Hermione, only because if you’ve ever looked at female action figures, they never really quite look right and I actually think they got Emma Watson down pretty darn well.

Andrew: I would agree. It does look just like her.

Joe: The second series of Order of the Phoenix is probably going to hit stores around July. The four figures for that will be Severus Snape, Harry Potter with a new sculpt that they haven’t shown yet, a Dumbledore with a sculpt we haven’t seen, and three different variations of the Death Eaters. Now, each one of those figures is also going to come with a piece of the Requirement Room Death Eater Build-a-Figure. And I have yet to see pictures of what that actually will make up, but to build up the Death Eater you’ll have to be able to collect all four pieces from all four figures.

Andrew: I see. That’s some interesting marketing they’re doing there.

Joe: It’s slowly becoming the newest thing to do, is to include a piece to make you buy, of course, every figure to build a new figure that you can only get if you buy everything.

Andrew: Yeah.

Joe: Now, the biggest thing is there is going to be a massive box set that’s going to be coming out that you’re going to be able to have your Harry Potter action figure versus Lord Voldemort in front of the Tom Riddle crypt, which is also going to be cool. And then, along with others sold separately, there will also be a deluxe ten inch Hagrid box set that he will also come with Fang and Norbert. Now, this one is actually going to be two scale to the seven inch, meaning this is why he will be ten inches…

Andrew: Ten inches. [laughs]

Joe: …tall.

Andrew: [laughs] That’s awesome.

Joe: Pretty big for an action figure.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, that would not have been any good if he was a seven-inch doll like the rest of them.

Joe: Well, that’s the good thing. They’re keeping everything to scale, which is really good.

Andrew: Yeah.

Joe: Then, for all you people who don’t collect action figures, they’re releasing a ton of different products, lots of plush toys of the different creatures: Hedwig, Crookshanks, Scabbers. But you can also get – they’re also selling lunch boxes. You can get a Sorting Hat, and a Marauders Map pillow.

Andrew: Very nice. I’m looking at these pictures now. They’re really going all out this year. Actually, I have a question for you about the action figures. What demographic are they aiming for when selling these? Because, I mean, do little kids buy these, and do adult collectors buy them? Is there a mix of teenagers?

Joe: I think they’re really going for the adult market. NECA action figures typically only are sold through some mostly online stores. I’m not sure if this is – if these are ever going to hit your Toys ‘R Us’ or Wal-Marts, but adult collector fans will probably eat these things up.

Andrew: Yeah.

Joe: NECA is very well-known for their sculpts. I think they do a tremendous job with all their other lines that they have. But I think these ones will probably attract more adult collectors than anything else. But that doesn’t mean that, you know, these aren’t kid-friendly, because most likely they’re going to be for eight and up. So – but I fully anticipate buying every single one of them. So…

Andrew: Yeah. I mean, personally, these would be nice things for me to just have here on my desk, as a little collector’s item.

Joe: Oh, yeah.

Andrew: Who knows, whenever I’m bored, maybe do a little wizard dueling.

Joe: [laughs] Displaying is probably the biggest thing for adult toy collectors.

Andrew: Yeah.

Joe: It’s not like we actually sit and have the battle…

Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, yeah.

Joe: …of Voldemort versus Harry Potter, although I probably have been known to do that.

Andrew: I’m going to admit, I used to be, too – I used to do that with the LEGOs.

[Andrew and Joe laugh]

Joe: Yeah. Now, the figures that really, though, will – kids will probably eat up more are going to be the ones that are distributed by – from Cards, Inc. Now Cards, Inc. – it’s an interesting thing that there is two different action figure lines for Harry Potter

Andrew: Yeah.

Joe: … because that usually doesn’t happen.

Andrew: So why is that?

Joe: Well, NECA has the license to distribute in America, and Cards, Inc is a European company, and for some reason, they’ve gotten around to be able to be, having all their figures distributed by – through Corgi / Master Replicas which is one company now. So now, they’ve started producing another line of Harry Potter figures, which are three and three-fourth-inch figures, which is basically your GI Joe, Star Wars action figure size.

Andrew: Right, right.

Joe: These ones will have a lot more articulation than the NECA ones. Just judging by the pictures, and again, I haven’t held one yet, but it looks like they’ll have probably about 14 different points of articulation of movement.

Andrew: Okay.

Joe: Now the downfall to these ones are the details. Because they’re smaller, the details cannot be as nice as the seven-inch NECA figures. And…

Andrew: And is it also because of the movements that they have to scale back a little bit with the detail? Just, like, the material?

Joe: Not necessarily. It’s – I think it’s just a new focus, that NECA traditionally does larger, seven-inch-type size figures, and I think that they – Cards, Inc is more going for the Star Wars market. Star Wars figures, or action figures, are still the number one action figure that’s bought these days. They’re a three and three-fourth-inch line, most successful line, obviously you’re going to try to mimic that. So, I think that’s sort of what they’re going after. And it’s interesting, but, again, compared to the NECA figures, I’m just not as – I’m not as into these ones as I should be, I guess.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, I guess if you’re comparing the two, and you have a choice between one or the other – and I guess you and I are, since we, as we just said, we’re less of actually playing with the action figures, more of a display – we’re display guys.

Joe: [laughs] Exactly. Mhm.

Andrew: [laughs] We go for NECA.

Joe: Now, the biggest thing is that they’ve not really released too much information about these. We grabbed some images from Cards, Inc’s website of the four figures that they’ve released images for so far, which is Harry Potter, Dumbledore, Mad-Eye Moody, and a Dementor. But at Toy Fair, we were given a sneak peak at the line. We were taken into – they weren’t allowing photography, but they were wanting to show us what is coming out. And I can tell you right now I have seen figures for Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Hagrid, Luna, and Snape.

Andrew: Ah, cool.

Joe: As well as a playset which I believe is supposed to be the Gryffindor common room. So hopefully, more of these figures will come about, but it looks like all of them will have some sort of excessory, like action figures do these days.

Andrew: Okay.

Joe: Harry comes with his wand and his Patronus, and Dumbledore comes with a wand, of course, and the talking – the podium, with the candles.

Andrew: Okay.

Joe: Mad-Eye Moody comes with a broom that he can ride on, and it looks like the Dementor just can fly. It comes with a little stand to make him look like he’s hovering.

Andrew: Oh, okay.

Joe: Mhm.

Andrew: Now, how do the other action figures look: Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Hagrid, Luna and Snape, do they look like their real – the actors who play them?

Joe: Oh, yes. Everything’s portrayed from the movies.

Andrew: Okay.

Joe: I think by now that is the look and feel that people will most recognize.

Andrew: Right, right.

Joe: You know? When the books first came out, if you remember some of the art and stuff that came out, everything was always based on the drawings and characters that are done in the books, but since the movies came out, there’s more of a face to Harry Potter, and Ron and Hermione, so now they have to look like Daniel, and they have to look like Emma, and…

Andrew: Yeah.

Joe: …I think that’s sort of the way it’s always going to be from now on.

Andrew: Now, what do you think about the timing of these products with the release of the seventh book? Do you think the seventh book might influence sales, or do you think it might hurt them, depending on when these toys come out?

Joe: Well, I’ve always heard that, you know, Harry – for some reason, the one thing that boggles my mind, is that Harry Potter has not had a very successful action figure line to date, which pretty much blows my mind because Harry Potter is as big as Star Wars was in the 70’s these days.

Andrew: Yeah.

Joe: And a lot of people say to me, “Oh, I don’t think Harry Potter fans are action figure collectors,” and I just don’t agree with that. I think that we haven’t gotten good quality figures yet and people have recognized that. I think, though, that there is quite a bit of merchandise coming out in the months of May through August.

Andrew: Okay.

Joe: And there’s a lot of different things for people to buy. So, I think people are going to have very empty wallets over the summer, let’s just leave it at that. [laughs]

Andrew: Yeah it always seems silly to me that LEGO would be releasing their Hogwarts set in August after the film and book come out, because if they would release the LEGO set, say early July, they would get the excitement and the hype for the book and the film together, whereas in August it’s over a bit. Wouldn’t you agree with that?

Joe: I agree with that. Now, that’s what they were telling us at Toy Fair in August that they can be easily moved up. So, again we’ll have to wait and see. The Goblet of Fire sets actually did not come out until after the movie was released.

Andrew: Oh, okay. Do…

Joe: So, again, there’s a marketing plan some – They’re planning something. What that is, I’m not quite sure yet.

Andrew: All right. So, anything else you wanted to add?

Joe: If I can, I’d like to give a shout out to all the people, the companies who sort of sponsored our trip to Toy Fair.

Andrew: Okay.

Joe: If you want to check out any of our sponsors; NoWhereLimited.com, Boo Market Toys, Brine Toys, FreeBento.com, YouBuyNow.com, SuperHeroStuff.com, and Iron Cow Productions.

Andrew: Alright. Very cool, and we look forward to hearing more from you about these toys as the releases get closer and come LEGO time, the LEGO release, we’ll probably do something again?

Joe: Yeah, I’ve already sent an email to LEGO, let them know that we’re very much interested in sponsoring another LEGO contest. Maybe we can get the prize being Hogwarts castle. Which would be a really, really cool prize. So, obviously once it gets a little bit closer to the movie we’ll have a real good idea of what we can do, but for all you LEGO fans just start thinking about projects that you could be putting together.

Andrew: Yeah. Alright, very cool. Well, Joe Fulton of MillionairePlayboy.com, thank you once again for joining us.

Joe: No problem.

Andrew: Hope to see you again soon.

Joe: Right. Thanks a lot!


Listener Rebuttal: Harry’s Soul


Jaime: And we’ve got two more rebuttals. The first one comes from Jen, 17, of Canada, subject; Harry’s death.

In Episode 77 you were discussing that death might not be the worst thing that happens to Harry. If killing tears your soul into several pieces, and if Harry kills Voldemort, will his soul be torn apart and Harry become a broken person? Could that be the worst thing that happens to Harry? Love the show, and Eric, don’t be discouraged. You aren’t hated.

[Clears throat] Wrong there, Jen. Sorry, Eric.

Keep up the good work, Jen.

Eric: What?

Jamie: I was making a joke. I love you, really. I do.

Eric: Oh, okay. Cool.

Micah: Is it really killing overall, or is it just when you perform the curse?

Mikey: I think it might be taking someone’s life, but again, I think love is what’s going to do Voldemort in, and if you kill someone with love, how can that rip your soul in half? Because it’s love.

Jaime: Yeah, exactly.


Listener Rebuttal: Posting Deathly Hallows Spoiler Alerts?


Andrew: The final rebuttal today comes from Denis P., 26 of New-Brunswick, Canada. He writes,

After the seventh book is released, should I stay away from MuggleCast until I have completed reading it? I’m assuming that you guys and gals will be talking all about what happens in Book 7 in the show following the release and I don’t want to spoil the ending like I did with Book 6. L-O-L. Maybe you should answer this on the show so that others don’t get their ‘Deathly Hallows’ spoiled.

PS: You are doing a great job, I listen to the other ‘Harry Potter’ podcast…

Oh, can’t put that in. [laughs]

Keep it up, Denis

So, no, what we’ll do is we’ll let everyone know when we’ll be talking about spoiler areas. So, we’ll talk about the latest news or something, and once we get into the book discussion, we’ll be like, “All right, spoilers here!” Maybe we’ll tell people what time code to fast forward to so that they could completely skip it. We’ll work something out.

Micah: I think – didn’t we do show notes? When we did show notes, we put a spoiler warning in it for Half-Blood Prince.

Andrew: Yeah, we did do that, and then the audio for the first ten shows I’d be like…

Micah: “Do not listen…”

Andrew: “Do not… This is MuggleCast” – No, I had a higher voice back then.

Micah: It would be more like, [high pitched voice] “Do not listen.”

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: [High pitched voice] “This is MuggleCast Episode 4.”

Eric: [High pitched voice] “It’s a spoiler everybody!”

Andrew: [High pitched voice] “For July 4th, and yes, there are spoilers.”

Eric: [High pitched voice] Oh boy! You’re a bad, bad man, Andrew!

Jamie: [High pitched voice] Raichu, I choose you!

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: [High pitched voice] Raaaiiiccchhhuuu!

Andrew: [High pitched voice] “Please enjoy tonight’s main discussion.” [Back to normal voice] Anyway, yeah, we’ll have spoiler warnings. I proposed an idea to a couple of my co-hosts within the past week or so about what we’ll do with that show in the month of July. I don’t want to give away any surprises, because I know once we reveal it, every other podcast will be doing the same thing, but we have a good idea for what we are going to do in July pertaining to MuggleCast because we want to make the shows worth it to you guys. Of course, once it gets closer to July, we’ll talk about what our plans are.


Chicken Soup For The MuggleCast Soul


Andrew: For now, we’ll wrap things up with a Chicken Soup from Denise, 15 from California.

Eric: Yum, thanks Denise.

Andrew: Jaime, this is actually a Chicken Soup for Jaime’s Soul.

Jamie: Oooh!

Andrew: I think we’ll read this in spirit of you coming back. So, she writes,

Hey, everyone. So, basically, I was in the car on a Friday night with my parents, and was kind of down after another boring day at school. I got so bored that I started singing along with the cheesy love songs on the radio, and, randomly, the acoustic version of what else, but ‘Every Time We Touch’ came on. Then, when it was over the radio person said, “Have you ever had a crush and not seen that person in a while, but when you do, you get weak in the knees? Well, that’s how Jamie feels tonight, since he requested this song.”

The DJ actually said that.

What a happy coinkydink. Just wanted to share one of the many ways MuggleCast helps me cope. Thanks for the laugh. Love you all. Yes, even Andrew.

Don’t know what that means.

Jaime: Can I say that, when he said “person,” he meant to say favorite MuggleCast host. You know? I haven’t been on in awhile and missed you all so badly. And hen I came back I got weak in the knees. So…

Andrew: Ohhh.

Mikey: Oh, Jaime.

Andrew: You’re sitting down, so I don’t understand. Do you stand up while you podcast?

Jaime: Well, no. It was a dull ache. It was a dull ache in the knees, really. But that didn’t sound right, so I had to say “weak in the knees.”

Andrew: Or do you podcast on your knees, yeah. [laughs]


Show Close


Andrew: That actually concludes Episode 78 of MuggleCast. I want to thank everyone for listening again. We have the contact information for you now. If you want to send us some parcel mail you can always mail:

MuggleCast
PO Box 223
Moundridge, KS 67107

Eric, if people want to call us, what numbers can they use?

Eric: Well, in the US they dial 1-218-20-MAGIC. In Australia they use 011-004-007-88-99-35-42. And…

Andrew: You’re not serious with that.

Eric: I don’t actually have the numbers, Andrew. I don’t know where to look. I just…

Andrew: Oh I thought – I thought…

Eric: …know there’s a lot of doubles.

Andrew: Sorry, thought you were a good host. Prepped and ready to go. Guess not.

Eric: No, I just remember the US numbers.

Micah: [laughs] Ohhh!

Andrew: If in the United Kingdom you can dial 020-8144-0677. If you’re in Australia you can actually dial 02-8003-5668. You could also Skype the user name MuggleCast to leave a voicemail for us. And we’ll be back with some voicemail questions next week.

[Show music begins playing]

Jamie: You’ve left something out, Andrew. Or if you’re in the UK you can come down to London on March 17th for an amazing, exciting, and hunger-curing day and tell us your thoughts then. And we’ll make sure they get in the show.

Andrew: There you go.

Micah: Yes.

Jamie: If you want to take part in that.

Andrew: Where do they e-mail?

Jamie: The e-mail is mcmeetup at gmail dot com. E-mail us soon and we’ll get back to you with all the details. [In deep undertone] Boo.

Andrew: [In deep undertone] Coming up.

Jamie: [In deep undertone] Coming up.

Andrew: You can also use the handy Feedback Form located on MuggleCast.com. You can also contact any one of us with our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com. [laughs] So, oh, and also don’t forget, email in your Pokémon comparisons.

Jamie: Can I also say, if you can explain that [weird groaning sound] thing that Ash does whenever his mum asks him why he – if he’s going to change his underwear, then please email in so we can put it in the show. Because I have no idea.

Andrew: Also don’t forget our community outlets, people. We’ve got the MySpace with over 6000 friends. I didn’t even know that many people existed. It’s nuts. And then there’s also the Facebook group. We’ve got a group on YouTube, soon to feature Jamie’s suitcase being torn up into pieces in the Shawnee High School woodshop.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: We also have the Frappr map and Last.FM, Fanlisting Forums. It’s all there on MuggleCast.com. So once again, I’m Andrew Sims.

Eric: I’m Eric Scull.

Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.

Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.

Mikey: And I’m Mikey B.

Andrew: We’ll see everyone next week for Episode 79. Bye, bye.

Mikey: Bye.

Jamie: Bye.

Micah: Bye.

[Show music ends]


Bloopers


Andrew: That was…

Jamie: [singing] Touch my tears with your lips.

Andrew: Go ahead, tell your stupid story.

Jamie: However, my stupid – okay, my stupid story is, I was chatting to Andrew on AIM the other day and he – and we were talking about England. And since we’re going to London I said to him, “Do you want to go and see a show?” And I said “We Will Rock You” is an extremely good show. It’s…

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: No, no, sorry. Actually I said to him, “Do you like Queen?” And he said, “Yeah, I do! Are they touring again?”

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: So, I quite rightly said, “No. One of them is dead.” To which he didn’t really have [laughs] any response.

Andrew: See, I’m one of those people who just listens to music. I don’t look into it unless your name’s U2. So…

[Jamie laughs]

Andrew: I sort of just – now I’m well aware of Freddie Mercury and everything. But, they are tour – I’m pretty sure they are touring again…

Jamie: They did not, because he’s dead!

Andrew: Without Freddie Mercury.

Jamie: How can they tour?

Andrew: No, but they were doing a – maybe it was Guns N’ Roses,I don’t know.

Eric: Maybe it was Guns N’ Roses. [laughs]

Mikey: The Police are touring again, man.

Andrew: No. No, it wasn’t The Police. I don’t know. It was some band that someone died and they were getting a new band member.

Eric: Wait, Sting’s touring?

Mikey: No. No, The Police are playing for their 30th anniversary or something like that.

Micah: Oh wow.

Eric: With or without Sting?

Jamie: Andrew – Andrew…

Mikey: With Sting.

Jamie: I hear The Beatles are touring again soon.

Andrew: Oh, really? [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, all the original Beatles are playing again, Andrew.

Jamie: All the original Beatles are touring. Yeah. [laughs]


Eric: It’s also like the game Duck Hunt for Nintendo [laughs]. If any of you had it. Because it’s shooting down…

[Jamie and Mikey laugh]

Andrew: Oh my god, the ducks are…

[Falling and crash sound]

Andrew: The ducks are…

Mikey: Are Fawkes.

[Andrew laughs]

Mikey: I can just see a fan creating that game, you know…

Eric: Dude, that’d be awesome.

Mikey: You shoot the Fawkes…

Andrew: Fawkes Hunt.

Mikey: And it bursts into flames…

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Mikey: And just another one comes back up.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: I’m trying to remember the music from that.

Eric: I don’t know what it was.

Andrew: [Imitates Duck Hunt’s sound effects] Wa-wa-wa-wa-wa.

Eric: Yeah, yeah. Something like that.

Mikey: [laughsThat’s when Snape comes up and laughs at you.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: That’s awesome.


Mikey: I liked Digimon. I was never into Pokémon.

Jamie: Oh no!

[Everyone groans and laughs]

Andrew: Let’s not even go there.

Jamie: Mikey, you traitor. Get off now.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Yeah, I used to see that show – that was a Pokémon rip-off. That was such a joke.

Jamie: It was.

Andrew: Dragonball Z.

Micah: So, Andrew is there…

Andrew: Gah! Gah!

Micah: There’ll be a huge Snorlax blocking the entrance to Voldemort’s lair in…

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: It’s happening, man.

Micah: …Book 7.

Andrew: I can feel it coming.

Jamie: But you know what’s going to happen? Mewtwo will come along. ‘Cause he’s the master of everyone and just say…

Andrew: Mew is the equivalent to Fawkes.

Jamie: [deep voice] “You stupid fools.”

Andrew: Mew is the equivalent to Fawkes.

Jamie: No, Mew’s a lot more powerful.

Eric: [in Mew voice] Mew!

Jamie: Very good. Who just…

Eric: [in Mew voice] Mew!

Andrew: What’s the big snake in Pokémon?

Jamie: Who just – Arbok…

Andrew: Oh, come on. Anyone can do that.

Jamie: Arbok. Arbok.

Eric: [in Mew voice] Mew!

Andrew: Arbok?

Eric: [in Arbok voice] Charbok!

Andrew: I don’t remember him.

Jamie: [laughs] Very good!

Eric: [in Arbok voice] Charbok!

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: That was great.

Andrew: No, Onyx. Onyx, man.

Jamie: Onyx.

Eric: [in Koffing voice] Koffing!

Jamie: No, that’s the rock thing. That’s the big rock thing.

Eric: That was the basilisk.

Andrew: Yeah. It’s like basilisk, I guess.

Eric: [in Koffing voice] Koffing, Koffing!

Jamie: No, it was – it was Gyarados.

Mikey: Hey, Micah.

Eric: That was a crazy – crazy…

Jamie: Yeah, that was a monster of…

Andrew: New segment on the show.

Eric: Sea monster.


Eric: [singing] Da-na da-na da-na da-na da-na. Da-na da-da-na da.

I wanna be the very best.

Like no one ever was.

To catch them,

Is my real test.

To train them is my cause.

Bum-bum!

I will travel across the land,

Searching far and wide.

And teach each Pokémon to understand,

The power that’s inside.

Da-dum!

Mikey: Pok[laughs] Can’t even do it. [laughs]

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: I can’t do it, Eric, I’m sorry.

Eric: Just, just – no, just do it! Be like, W-T-F, [singing] Pokémon!

Mikey: [laughing] Pok – po – [laughs]

Eric: [singing] It’s you and me.

Mikey: Yeah, dude, that’s as far…

Eric: [singing] I know it’s my destiny.

Jamie: [joins in singing] I know it’s my destiny.

Eric: [singing] You teach me and…

Jamie: [singing] Pokémon, you’re my best friend. [talking] Although, can I just say…

[Eric laughs]

Alice: That was terrible!

Jamie: If your best friend is a…

Mikey: Is a yellow, little rat…

Jamie: If you’re – exactly…

Mikey: Or whatever it is.

Jamie: A yellow thing that can’t speak, who…

Mikey: That goes, “Pika! Pika!”

Jamie: Yeah, exactly.

Eric: Pika!

Jamie: Who lets electricity out of his body and you keep him in a ball in your bag, then you’ve got serious issues. Ash, I hope you’re listening. Because, seriously, I’m talking to you.

[Everyone laughs]

Mikey: [singing] Gotta catch them all! There we go.

Eric: Yeah, okay, so you – are you guys going sing or not? I just – I put myself on the…

[Everyone laughs]

Jamie: No, no we’re not.

Micah: No, we’ve found our next podcast.

Mikey: [laughing] No, we’re not. We were laughing at you. Eric, I love you, but no.

Micah: We know what we’re doing after MuggleCast, now.

Jamie: I love you, too. Poke-Cast!

Eric: Poke-Cast!

Mikey: [Pokémon voice] Poké – Poké! Bree!

Eric: Yeah, well Pokémon’s been on for longer.

Jamie: Yeah, Bree, Poké, Bree!


Micah: Thanks, Andrew. EA Sports, the maker of the Harry Potter video games, has release details on – ah, not EA Sports, EA. Could you imagine that, though? EA Sports: Quidditch 2007. [British accent] EA Sports – it’s in the game.

———————–

Written by: Micah, Adrienne, Allison, Amanda, Briana, Cindy, Eloise, Jessica, Laura, Leah, Mandie, Margaret, Matt, Megan, Roni, Samantha, Sarah, Shannon, Shelly, and Tina