YMMV / Tough Guide to Harry Potter

• Hilarious in Hindsight: The entry for Azkaban prison mocks the notion of Death Eaters being easily capable of escaping from it. Order of the Phoenix sees a mass outbreak of Death Eaters from Azkaban occur partway through the book.
• I Knew It!:
  • Approximately three seconds after it was announced that the fifth book would be titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, fans guessed that the eponymous Order of the Phoenix would be some kind of heroic organization formed by Dumbledore to battle the newly-risen Voldemort. Most fanfic ran with this theory, and the Guide just presumes it to be correct. Of course, it turns out the theory was correct.
  • One of Ginny Weasley's characterizations, "GINNY HAS FINALLY COME INTO HER OWN," gives a fairly accurate description of how she's portrayed in the then-unpublished last three books, right down to her playing Chaser on the Quidditch team and Ron stifling her love life. On the other hand, the description of her post-Hogwarts life is entirely off.
  • In addition to Ginny becoming Chaser, the entry on Quidditch also mentions Ron becoming Keeper.
  • The entry on Lucius Malfoy refers to his family's residence as "Malfoy Manor," a name that was fanon when the Guide was written. It was later canonized in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
  • Of all the characterizations listed for Snape, "TROUBLED YOUTH" gets the closest to his eventual Back Story. It mentions the possibilities of him having an abusive father, getting rejected by Lily, and falling in with the Death Eaters because he wanted friends, all of which would turn out to be canon. However, Snape's defection to Dumbledore is described as more principled than it turned out to be in the actual series.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Very much a product of the "Three-Year Summer" era of Harry Potter fandom (2000-03, between the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix); all of its analysis is based on prevailing trends, practices, and overall fanon of the period. This exhibits itself in several different ways:
  • "Female Characters, Lack Thereof" is a recurring theme throughout. Order of the Phoenix introduced not one, not two, but three major female characters: Luna Lovegood, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Nymphadora Tonks, lessening this phenomenon considerably (along with the increased prominence of characters like Ginny Weasley, which to be fair the Guide does predict will happen).
  • The shipping, though colored more by the domain the story is hosted on (the pro-Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny Sugarquill.net), still reflects popular ships of the early 2000s, including the once-very-popular Draco/Ginny, which has since fallen into obscurity.
  • Lucius Malfoy is consistently depicted as Voldemort's top lieutenant and a truly vile character in his own right. Canon would subsequently depict both Snape and Bellatrix fitting those descriptions much better. Voldemort does quarter himself at Malfoy Manor in canon but he clearly does not think much of his hosts. Lucius is also often depicted as an abusive father and husband when, in canon, the one positive quality he has is his genuine love for his wife and son. Another notable aspect is that the Guide predates the release of the Chamber of Secrets film, meaning this is Lucius as fanfic authors treated him before they were influenced by the Jason Isaacs version, which made the character more popular.
  • Although The Draco Trilogy continues to have a massive legacy on fandom to this day, it was at its absolute height during the Three-Year Summer, with Draco's prominence in fandom and the universal assumption that he would play a huge role in the events of the subsequent books being prevalent throughout. Instead Draco spends most of the last three books being humiliated by virtually everyone around him, and ends the series as an object of pity and derision.
  • James Potter's depiction as an entirely virtuous character predates the revelation that he was a vicious, immature bully who had a lot of growing up to do before Lily Evans noticed him.
  • Angsty depictions of Harry tend to assume he will go into a catatonic fugue state, clearly not anticipating the infamous ALLCAPS phase he would later go through in the fifth book.
  • Since Sirius's family history wouldn't be revealed until Order of the Phoenix the entry on him noting how popular it was to depict him as a Half-Blood from a poor family is deeply ironic given we would later learn that he actually came from an extremely wealthy Pure-Blood family. It's even more ironic that the poor half-blood backstory would instead go to Snape, who was assumed to be the one from a wealthy pure-blood family like all the other Voldemort aligned characters at the time.
  • The entry on Dumbledore is almost laughable for how it presents him as a great noble and virtuous Big Good. This is an attitude that shifted drastically after Order of the Phoenix came out and broke his infallible image both for Harry and the fandom. Nowadays his most common portrayal tends to heavily suffer from Ron the Death Eater, the exact opposite of how he's described here.

---