Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J. K. Rowling – Episode 106

The Buddies read what might be their favorite book ever written in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. They are joined by special guest, and Harry Potter super fan, Jimmy for the fourth installment of the greatest series to ever live. This is a long one and they touch on pretty much every topic you can imagine. From the true dark lord, to wizard gambling, to going out on top (that is to say dying on top). So hold on to your broom handles, because we’re flying right into the action on this one.

Intro (0:00-1:16)
Stock Up/Down (1:17-30:37)
Favorite Scene/Character/Magical Elements (30:38-51:48)
Love/Hate (51:19- 1:03:39)
Listener Email (1:03:40-1:07:35)
Lingering Questions (1:07:36-1:10:06)
Conclusion/Awarding the House Cup (1:10:07-1:15:03)

Next EPISODE: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – MOVIE

NEXT BOOK : Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling

 

Transcript for SEO Purposes 🙂

Alright. Welcome to book club. I’m Dylan, here with the man who looks like he’s taking an aging potion. Keith, what’s up, buddy? Sophisticated dusting of gray hair, sir.

 

Sophisticated dusting. You’re just always trying to pass that age line. That’s that’s your thing. Yeah. I would’ve easily passed it.

 

We’re also joined by a very special guest who you may remember from one of our several Mitch Rap episodes. Jimmy, welcome back. Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here. Harry Potter is one of my favorite book series, so, it’s an honor.

 

Buddy book cover. We’re breaking down some bestsellers, and this week, we’ll be entering the Triwizard Tournament discussing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling. If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us any past episodes, you can visit our website, buddybookhub.com. Send us an OWL on Twitter, Instagram, buddybookhubodcast. You can listen to us atunespotifyreproduct.

 

You can podcast download 5 star reviews, all those things. Say hate if you want it. Doesn’t matter. Be a Malfoy. No one cares.

 

If nothing else, give us a follow on social channels, please, and thank you. Quick disclaimer for the Harry Potter series, there are spoilers. There’s gonna be spoilers for this book, Goblet of Fire. There’s probably gonna be spoilers for future books. If you haven’t read any of them, just let the whole episode play so that the algorithm works, but then don’t listen to it.

 

Keith, let’s get into some stock up, stock down. What do you have for stock up? Stock up, the return of the dark lord. Okay. Always great to have the true villain rise back up to power.

 

And and, of course, I’m talking about Moody, Barty Crouch junior. He is my true dark lord. Can I just go through his resume real quick and tell me why this guy isn’t the best and how he’s much better than Voldemort? He’s the 1st actual prisoner to escape Azkaban. He got away with it.

 

He’s not like Sirius getting getting, caught on the run. You’re saying he’s the 1st prisoner to escape because he did it before. Yeah. He did it before and he got away with it. Yeah.

 

He breaks away from the imperious curse. Is able to not be put onto that spell. Mhmm. Then he goes out disables and captures the best aura ever in Moody. He then he puts him under that same curse which holds him there even though he’s technically supposed to be the best aura ever.

 

Goes to Hogwarts day 1, and he starts bouncing, Malfoy like a ferret. I fucking love that. That was amazing. It’s not like there was Allen Iverson out there just dribbling him on the floor. I loved it.

 

He’s teaching kids how to fight off these spells. He’s teaching them all these dark spells. He prevents Harry from being murdered 3 different times with the 3 different tasks. Mhmm. So even though ultimately that wasn’t an end goal, he is a good guy.

 

I mean, everything about him is great. He kills his shitty dad at Hogwarts on the ground and gets away with it. The list goes on and on and on. Like, he’s by far the best dark wizard we’ve been introduced to in this book. And then we get the juxtaposition of him versus Voldemort, who’s like, I’m gonna show everyone how good I am.

 

I’m gonna fight this 13 year old, then lose this to him. That’s our our dark lord. That’s the person everyone’s, you know, jumping to follow. Let’s get Barty Croats junior out here. This is my guy.

 

Yeah. Let’s go. Yeah. That’s who I would follow. And I hate this as a stock up, Keith, because to tell you honestly, this was my house cup winner.

 

It was the dark lord, and the dark lord is Barty Crouch junior. Because Oh, god. Alright. Yeah. So I’m I’m upset you stalled for me, but it’s a 100%.

 

The classroom where he does the 3 unforgivable curses, that lesson, we haven’t seen a defense against the dark arts lesson that good since our Boggart dates with Lupin. So that lesson, phenomenal. So well done. I even appreciate how he taught the kids that, but also because he’s a a death eater and a terrible human being. He also made sure that Harry was there, whose both of his parents have died from Avada Kedavra curses, and he barely survived.

 

So he ruined his life from that. Hey, Harry. Here’s what it looked like when your parents died, by the way. And then also Neville. Like, hey, Neville.

 

I know you go see your your parents at Saint Bongo’s because they were tortured until they went insane. So here, let me show you what that looks like on a spider. Yeah. But he comforted both of those people after the fact. Yeah.

 

Well, it was, you know, from a from a different place in his heart, his dark, dark heart, but I respect it. Like, I’m not a big LeBron James fan, but I respect his game. I do also appreciate that, that he shows the imperious curse, which is basically, like, controlling someone. Right? And he and people are laughing because it’s, like, funny.

 

And he’s like, you fuckers. Don’t laugh at this. You know how evil this is? Meanwhile, 10 minutes earlier, he literally turns one of the students into a ferret and is bouncing him on the ground. It’s like, wait.

 

What’s the difference between these two things? So, I respect him a lot. And and just to add in, he goes the whole year basically doing a perfect moody impression. Oh, great actor. Yes.

 

Yes. And let’s think about it. It’s so good that in the later books, basically, the new moody is the old moody. It’s like basically the scene from Beer Fest Yeah. Where Landfill dies.

 

They get his twin in. They’re like, oh, we’re just gonna call you Landfill. The new moody is the old moody. He crushed that. Great reference and I couldn’t agree with you more.

 

It was one of my lingering questions was how did he do moody so well? Because you’re a 100% right. In the later books, it’s the exact same character, and it obviously would have had to have been because it was fooling Albus Dumbledore right under his long crooked nose. So I’m not sure how he was able to to do the Moody so well, considering that he was in prison for all those years and presumably didn’t run-in the same circles as as Moody during the, the heydays of the dark lord. So not a 100% sure how he got into the the character, but, yeah, he’s probably just another Dale Day Lewis, and and he just, you know, manned up and figured it out.

 

I I do love that Dumbledore never suspects Moody. And then Moody takes him away for, like, 2 seconds after he’s like, just stay here, Harry. At the end of the, Triwizard Tournament, he’s like, oh, I knew. I knew something was up. Like, this this was completely off.

 

It’s like, yeah. Bro, you had a whole year to be like, something’s wrong with this dude. Perfect. So well said because, yeah, that’s a 100% right. He’s, like, almost bragging to Harry.

 

He’s like, I knew the real Moody wouldn’t take you away from me. He’s like, And you didn’t know any other real Moody moments before this when maybe when you’re going off to your 5:30 bowel movement that you had to tell everybody about while they’re eating dinner? You didn’t you didn’t think about that. So, yeah, very very well said. I called back to you.

 

Rumor requirements, by the way. That’s that’s the room that that Dumbledore found, which will play into the later books. Spoilers ahead. Jimmy, what do you got for stock up? You know, in honor of, football season, I’m gonna have to go stock up parlays.

 

Just absolutely crushed it here with the Weasleys. I’m surprised that JK Rowling is up to date on her, you know, sports betting. But they come to the cup, the Quidditch Cup. The Quidditch World Cup. Yeah.

 

You know, with their entire life savings, we’re talking 37 plus galleons. And they put it all on a parlay. Now, you know, I know you’re a big time sports bettor, but normal sports people, they think parlays are for fools. Screw that. Parlays are the best part of sports.

 

And they just go all Absolutely. In. And even Ludo Bagan, he’s like, I’m gonna give you some good odds on this. This is a soccer’s bet. I mean, what are they even doing?

 

They’re betting on Irish to win but they’re also betting on Crumb to catch the snitch? That makes no sense. Why would Crum ever catch the snitch if he’s gonna lose the game? But they say, screw it. We love the odds here.

 

And they go all in and they win. And, you know, good for them because that’s what sports is all about. It’s all about potentially losing your shirt. Yeah. It’s a great call, and it was my 1st stock up as well.

 

Granted, I just went with gambling, but parlay makes much more sense. And for those that aren’t in the know, parlay is just when you combine multiple bets together to increase the odds. And you’re right that in the gambling circles, the wise guys aren’t aren’t fans of the parlay, but the 2 team parlay is where they’ll often bend the rules and allow themselves to do it because you actually get decent odds there. The 3 team, it starts to get a little crazy. But yeah, this particular bet, and I also enjoyed the fact that it was the their entire life savings of 37 galloons, plus they had a funny wand, which he threw in for 5 galloons.

 

Seems like a lot, but, yeah, they threw their whole life savings. It’s like I read the gambler, and I talked about it on the pod before, the Billy Walters book, who’s a, you know, one of the most famous gamblers in the world, and that’s what he would do. He’d spend his whole summer as a kid mowing lawns, and then get it up to, like, $300, and then he just bet it all on, on one horse or something like that. Just absolutely savage. The bet itself, I agree, a little questionable, but I thought Ludo as just like a first intro of a character, like Ludo Bagman, he’s, was making an early push for our house cup award with how hard he’s pushing those around him to gamble.

 

Like, he’s trying to get Barty Crouch to gamble. Like, he’s trying to get everyone that is in his voice distance, and he’s got a big distance because he does that sonarose on his throat, so he can scream to the mountain tops. But he’s trying to get every everyone involved. Keith, were you a big fan of the gambling aspect? Oh, I loved it.

 

I was trying to handicap what the odds would be there. So okay. I was thinking about this as well because Ireland wins is obviously the favorite, but if there was a prop bet for Crumb getting the snitch, he’s also the favorite because Ireland has a much better team, but Crumb’s the best seeker in the world. With those two things happening, though, I feel like the odds would increase significantly. I know, Jimmy, you were alluding to the idea that why the hell would Krum get the snitch?

 

It was my one of my lingering questions. So how did you feel about Krum getting the snitch, which Harry says is like he wanted to end the game on his terms because he knew that Bulgaria wasn’t gonna wasn’t gonna, like, score anymore or something, but they were only down a 160 points. They get one more goal. He catches the snitch. It’s a draw, which is much better than losing.

 

That was my thought exactly as well. You know? You’re down by, let’s say, 300 points, 400 points. You’re not coming back. Okay.

 

Krum’s catching the snitch. To just be down, and I think the final score was 170160, you just hold out a little bit longer and you might be able to win the whole thing. Which almost makes me think is is this like a Black Sox like scandal level with Krum that somehow the Weasley Twins got got aware of. Yeah. It just didn’t make a lot of sense because it’s it’s 2 goals.

 

Like, I know your team is worse, but you could score 2 goals. Get down by 140. Krum gets the snitch. You know, wonky faints him out there. So, yeah, I I thought that was great, and and I feel like we should move on from the gambling stuff because we could just talk about this the whole time, but I do have to say that this must be the best year for gamblers in the wizarding world.

 

You get the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament, which, of course, you can bet on. You have to be able to. It’s the UK. They got betting boots on every corner, so I can’t imagine a better year for sports gambling. Okay.

 

One more gambling question. Who is the favorite to win the Trip Wizard tournament? Like, who is the favorite to 4th? What do you guys think? So, obviously, Victor Crum’s a favorite.

 

We got the best athlete in the world. Ben, the guy that’s in the the the library studying him the books all the time. Like, that’s the ultimate combination. That’s, it’s like Tom Brady, but, like, if he were Michael Vick’s athleticism, that’s what it sounds like. Right?

 

Yeah. So Krome’s like a plus 120 or something. I see what you’re saying, but is is Krome’s intelligence a factor here? Because, like, if we’re talking like this is a crib Chris Webber situation where he’s calling a time out, he doesn’t have any time outs in the Twitch World Cup. Like, that’s gotta play a factor in the try was determined as well.

 

I I I think it’s, you know, Jamarcus Russell He’s booked smart. Like intelligence. He’s he failed the Wunderlich score. Don’t know if I’m putting my money on him. Yeah.

 

That’s a good point. Well, we have to think Krum started off with trying to do the conjunctivitis charm on the dragon which seems like a a long shot but it worked. You know, he’s able to do it. Then he does the the transfiguration to turn himself into a shark that he didn’t do super well. You know?

 

At that point, then he just gets, he gets the imperious curse on him. So that one’s a that one’s a tough call, but the him hanging out in the library was really just to see Hermione and Keith. Oh, okay. That makes more sense. Yeah.

 

I thought you’re just a a bookworm. I was like, I appreciate that. Yeah. So I I feel like him and Cedric would be up there. Krum’s probably the favorite.

 

Cedric’s right behind him. It has to be Fleur as 3rd because Harry’s 2 years younger. Like, he can’t possibly but it’s obviously a very good bet for those in the know because, you know, Harry’s Harry’s got that Gryffindor in him. So my first stock down is slave labor or excuse me, stock up. Slave labor.

 

Jesus. Okay. Yeah. Obviously not a fan, but hey, this this stock is selling for nothing, and we’re gonna buy here because we learn in this book that it’s house elves that are doing all the work around Hogwarts. You know, everything felt super magical when it came to eating at Hogwarts, especially now that we’ve seen the movies and seen a couple of the movies, and you just see these massive trays of all the things you would possibly want to eat just magically show up on the table.

 

We think that they’re just getting, I don’t know, Uber Eats dinner or something like that, but it’s house elves who are legitimately slaving down in the kitchens where it’s gotta be super hot. I can’t imagine the ventilation’s any good. And they’re putting all this food out for all these students and teachers. And then on top of that, they have to do all the cleaning. They’re talking about how they have to light the fires and the entire castle.

 

They clean everyone’s dormitories and whatnot, and they do it while no one’s there, no one sees them. I don’t know how this organization, because Hogwarts is an organization, how would this organization be able to function without this slave labor? Like, if they had to pay these people, these house elves, they’d be they’d be screwed, but they don’t. So here we go. Hogwarts is what it is.

 

All the magic is on the backs of these, these house elves. I kind of have to support Hermione and and Spew. I I gotta be on I gotta be on that team because I I just I I can’t stand for it. What say you? So you’re asking us if we’re against slavery or for it?

 

Exactly. You have to make a decision. Okay. Yeah. I’ll let Jimmy take that one first.

 

Well, it does kinda tie into my my one of my stock downs, which was the, the woke liberal media, which was AKA Hermione here. You have you know, you’re talking about slave labor. That’s a strong word but these guys love what they do and it really just goes to that, you know, slavery is in the mind not really, like, in reality. Oh, okay. And so every single person is telling Hermione’s like, look, these guys love what they do.

 

Like, you’re gonna make them unhappy. Hagrid even who loves all sorts of creatures is like like, get off this Hermione. Like, they love it. They live to work. They live to serve.

 

They’re basically the entire scene from Beauty and the Beast, you know. Be our guest. We got you. Hermione is, like, trying to unionize and it’s like, chill, Hermione. Because Hermione is an unhappy person and she wants to make other people unhappy.

 

And it’s just it’s really sad to see. At least pay him. That’s all I’m saying. You just give him give him a galleon here and there. I mean, Dumbledore came at it from from the right approach.

 

He he offered Dobby payment, and Dobby said that’d be wonderful. Dumbledore said, okay. I’ll give you, you know, galleon a month, and he was like, woah. No way. Give me a penny.

 

He was like, alright. Cool. So there’s an agreement there. It’s a contract. I I I stand I stand for that as opposed to just passing a house elf down.

 

And also the physical abuse has to go, which obviously doesn’t happen in Hogwarts. No way that would happen under Dumbledore’s nose. Like, no way Moody would be able to be an imposter. Or Old Baltimore would have already come to the castle 2 other times and defeated, defeated Aaron. Don’t get me wrong.

 

If you ask for your freedom, you should be allowed your freedom. I’m not going that far. But, you know, the rest of the unionization, let’s get out of here, Hermione. My other stock up was chat gbt. You know, a lot of times in the whizzing world, you know, magic makes you work smarter, not harder sort of thing.

 

And in line with that, we have Rita Skeeter who is not writing anything. She has this magical pen which just basically creates all her articles for her. She’s living the life and, you know, really, that’s kind of the dream. So she’s just interviewing. The pen’s just doing its thing.

 

I’m not even sure why she even needs to be there. Yeah. I mean, I have a I have a friend who I will obviously not name here who works for a very successful real estate company, and he said he uses chat gpt for legitimately everything he does. He just like, all meetings he does through Microsoft Teams, he just has it, like, transcribed. Summaries of the meeting, he just asked chat GPT to do it and then sends that out to people.

 

And if he needs to, like, read through some document, he just puts it into chat GPT, and he’s like, hey. Tell me the deal points in this. And then chat GPT, like, kicks it back out. And that’s how he does all of his work, and I was like, hey. Work smarter, not harder for sure.

 

I’m proud of you, and soon enough, none of us will have jobs. And then she put the setting in there too of, like, embellish everything and make make stuff up. So I think, yeah. She she had that AI, fine tuned pretty well. So, yeah.

 

Good good call. It’s too bad Rowling was obviously on top of this years ago. It’s too bad she didn’t take her $1,000,000,000 and just start chat GPD and then, you know, she would have Bezos. Well, she would create the very thing that would destroy her. We should ask Chad GPD to come up with the 8th Harry Potter book.

 

Keith, do you have any other stock ups? The last one, conspiracy theories stock up. Yeah. I I’ve obviously stocked up this a few times. But the problem with the people at Hogwarts, the ministry, the people reading the newspapers is there just isn’t enough distress or belief in conspiracy theories in the community at all.

 

And a lot of it’s not even really needs to be conspiracy theories. It’s just basic logic. Yeah. We’re we’re in the beginning of the book and everyone’s like, Harry must have put his name in. Harry must put his name in.

 

Like, it’s not one person being like, the Dumbledore has made that, like, age thing a little bit hard to do. And what would be the motive for him to put his name in there? Like, there’s not none of them no one asking, like, the other questions? I think the most logical answer is that Harry did figure out how to beat the age line and put his name in there because, I mean, it seems like he’s such a glory hog because every year, it’s like, oh, Gryffindor’s not supposed to win the House Cup. Oh, they won the House Cup because Harry did this.

 

So I get that as you’re a student that doesn’t know him, but at the same time, there I agree there should be a strong group of people that are like, well, let’s just say he didn’t, then what? You know, what what’s the deal with that? Well, you have to be such a powerful wizard that you can both break the age barrier, trick the the goblet of fire to then think of there’s a 4th house. So you basically have to be the best wizard, one of the best wizards in the school or the dark lord AKA Barracush Junior. Mhmm.

 

There’s no one leaping to the like, being like, what’s more realistic? Someone else did this nefariously? Or Harry did this by himself and is the greatest wizard of all time? There’s a couple other conspiracy theories. Nobody’s thinking that there’s a little bit of inside job, a little, point shaving, if you will, that’s going on with Viktor Krum and and the Weasleys boys.

 

Like, we already touched on it. Come on. Nobody’s put in that much unless it’s a sure thing on that kind of parlay. A little bit questionable there. Yeah.

 

The end, we get, obviously, do they think just Harry straight up murdered Cedric Diggory? Like, who where how do they think he died? What’s the logic there? It’s a kind of lingering question for me as well because how do they say that Harry’s story wasn’t true and that Dumbledore believes? And the idea being, I guess, Cedric died because of one of the creatures in the maze, and no one saw him or got to him in time, but then somehow they were transported by Portkey, like, out in front of people, or maybe that’s just been the movie there, transported in front of people.

 

And then what about Barty Crouch? It’s like, oh, the guy that was Mad Eye Moody all year was actually a death eater, and he did all this. So it’s either was Barty Crouch junior who somehow killed Cedric, but why would he kill Cedric to and he was trying to kill Harry Potter, but he didn’t succeed. It just a lot of it didn’t didn’t seem to No. No.

 

It doesn’t add up a lot. What do you think the prop bet on someone dying in the Triwizard Tournament would be? Because they do talk about it hap it’s happened years past. So I don’t even think it’d be that good of odds. It’s really not even surprising.

 

Yeah. That’s a good point because they have said, yeah, people die in the in the Triwizard Tournament. And how often does it happen? Is it supposed to happen? I’d say the odds would probably be, like, plus 500 that someone dies.

 

I mean, that’s And, Jimmy, if Keith hasn’t sent you that, Instagram video that I saw of the guy that’s parleying all the things that happen in the Triwizard Tournament. Keith, you have to send that to him because I I laugh every time I watch it. I have not seen that. My last stock up is and this is a quick one. Just the muggle penal system.

 

You know, we get our cold open, at the old riddle house, and Frank Bryce, they’re telling the story about how Frank stumbled upon the riddles dead. And you know what us muggle cops do? I’m not a muggle cop, but I’m a muggle, and we have police officers. The cops just don’t throw Frank Bryce the gardener in jail on hearsay and circumstance. They go in.

 

They say, oh, he obviously didn’t kill these people. They’re just lying here dead. That doesn’t look like there was any sort of murder. You’re free to go. They don’t just throw you in Azkaban without a trial and let the Dementor suck out your soul and make you insane after after 2 weeks.

 

They say, yep. No problem here. We’re gonna move on. And that’s why muggle police are much better than whatever this ministry of magic is. With that, we’ll move on to Stockdown.

 

Jimmy, what do you got for Stockdown? My other one was buying a 3 day festival pass to the, Triwizard Tournament. You know, you go to your favorite festivals 3 days. Usually, one day is, like, the ultimate lineup. And, you know, maybe one’s, like, okay and the other one’s, like, above average.

 

But you buy them all because it’s a good deal. And, you know, you buy it to the Triwizard Tournament here. And the 1st day, amazing lineup. You got dragons. You get to see them all.

 

You’re like, this is the best thing ever. This is the coolest tournament ever. 2nd challenge, let’s see. You’re just sitting there for an hour plus while they dive into a lake and you can’t see anything. That sounds terrible.

 

Why am I even here? Like, I can just read about that in the paper. I I wanna know exactly what were they were doing. Just sitting in their seats just like chilling? I don’t know.

 

Like, was there underwater TV? Like, what are we even doing? The third one, how about we do a maze where no one can see anything? Like, what in the world are we doing here? Isn’t this supposed to be about entertainment?

 

I’m not being entertained. It’s literally just like you get to see who the winner is at the end. Absolutely terrible planning. They had all this time to plan this thing and they have 2 of the 3 you can’t even see anything going on. Awful.

 

I couldn’t agree more. The lingering question for me was, is the second task of the Triwizard Tournament the worst sporting event to be a spectator at that’s ever existed? I think it is. I had spectator sports as a stock down as well. I think you also missed, Jimmy, the the Quidditch World Cup.

 

They show up to it. They have the best seats in the house. And what do they need to buy? Like, binoculars? And they’re like, oh, the binoculars are great because it slows things down and lets you replay it.

 

I’m like, so they’re just watching TV when they get into the the best seats in the the house? Like, so what’s the even point of being there? They need some TVs. They need some entertainment, updates here. So I a 100% agree with you.

 

Yeah. I almost felt like the Omnioculars was somewhat of a, like, a jab at how people go to sporting events now because even yourself, like, you know, if you go to a sporting event with a big screen TV that’s there, you find yourself, like, staring at it, especially if you don’t have, like, the greatest seats. But if they have the best seats in the house, if you’re at the 50 yard line, you’re not pulling your binoculars. Right? We have talked before about how Quidditch might not be the best of spectator sports just because there’s, you know, people flying all over the place and and the speeds and whatnot.

 

So I felt like the Omni oculars were an interesting creation, but also if you’re, like, trying to rewind and fast forward and there’s, like, real time going on. If it’s your first time being there and seeing that, you know, you probably just wanna take it in and and put the put the omnicholers down. But Yeah. I couldn’t agree more about the try wizard. The the first task is the ticket to get.

 

That’s where you wanna be there. Other than that, see you later. And I just assumed that the second task, they had, like, the underwater camera like they do in the Olympics for synchronized swimming, like, the group synchronized swimming. Yeah. That was the only way that they could make it worth sitting there for because I didn’t understand it.

 

But that they they don’t because the, the judges have to ask, like, the the mer chief merk person. Right? What what even happened down there? It’s like, why why are we even having judges then? Yeah.

 

That’s such a great point. Why aren’t the merpeople just judging? That seems like they should do it. But, yeah. They even the judges didn’t know.

 

They just sat there, had a glass of butterbeer, and and waited. Keith, what do you have for Stock Down? So that was one of mine, but the last one for me is Freedom of the Press, Stock Down. This book taught me anything that it’s it’s basically, if you don’t like what someone’s saying, especially in the press, you capture them, imprison them, and and and keep them in prison until they promise to do what you want. If someone reports a story, you don’t agree with it, just hold them hostage.

 

And that’s what Hermione taught me. And obviously, it is kinda funny that Hermione’s both fighting for the freedom of house house while also enslaving a person for reporting news you didn’t like. But it’s fake news. Yeah. Well, that’s true.

 

I do also wanna bring up the fact that Hermione gets mailed anthrax hazardous chemicals, and Ron blames her for it. He’s like, well, you shouldn’t have messed with Rheesquita. This is what you get. You get the poisonous letter. Say you’re getting it.

 

You have, like, smallpox in your arms and stuff now. That’s on you. What? Alright, Ron. I have a few questions.

 

1, no one’s looking through the mail or anything at at this children’s school, so people can just, like, you know the Unabomber can just send a bomb to Hogwarts. Is that normal, though? Are we anticipating that there’d be a common occurrence? The fact that it’s a wizarding world, you can just put a hex in a letter and send it, seems like people would do that stuff all the time, at least in my mind. I I don’t know.

 

But it was also one of my soft downs was just the media in general, and I know that you were going off doing, the Hermione thing. But I did love that JK just starts kids young with the idea that they just can’t trust the media. She taught all children that whatever you read Yeah. Is is gonna be, like, skewed one way or the other. Or the government.

 

For the next books. Not being able to trust authority has been, like, a main theme of Harry Potter in general. First, it was like, oh, teachers at your school. Okay. Now it’s the media.

 

You can’t trust what you read in the newspapers. And then the next ones are gonna be like, you can’t trust the governing bodies. You just gotta fight for your right. So I respected it. I loved the Rita Skeeter character in general.

 

I thought she was just like a great addition, although she’s a deplorable human being. My other question was, why isn’t there any good media person there? It’s a chart wizard tournament. Why is the only person that’s there, Rita Skeeter, who She’s got the inside scoop. Is just like a slant she works for the National Enquirer, basically.

 

That was my question as well because it’s like, you know, we’d see in the pensive in the past, she’s there covering the Nuremberg trials. Like, what, like, what in the world is is going on where it should -Does it all. – the Daily Prophet and Rita Skeeter, like, are the go to for news in this in this world. And Harry is even, like, questioning everyone. Like, oh, you must be reading the Daily Prophet.

 

Like, oh, you must be reading the Daily Prophet. And, you know, everyone’s kinda bashful about it, but that apparently is our only news source. Cornelius Fudge is taking truth from what Rita Skeeter is saying, even though he should know that her stories are complete what is it, libel? Is that the written one or slander the written one? Whichever one is the written one.

 

It blows my mind that she’s the only news source, and I understand that, okay, we all have kind of one news source. Like, all of these different companies kinda trickle up to to one giant, think tank here, but at the same time, it’s like, at least pretend wizarding world. At least at least do what we do and pretend that these things are different. A little bit of defense of Rita Skeeter. She’s not making things up completely.

 

She’s going the distance in terms of investigative reporting, turning into a, you know, a bug, getting, like, some shred of truth to then build a story out of it. You kinda have to do respect that. Yeah. Okay. So you’ve so far respected Rita Skeeter and slavery so far.

 

Bye bye. Take your time. Cheer for your time. She got the Hagrid giant story, which is, probably something that that shouldn’t be put in print, but at the same time, it probably should be known to parents if their teacher’s a giant. Although these prejudices, like Dumbledore is very clear on, are usually unfounded.

 

Let me let me back it up real quick there though. Didn’t all the giants side with Voldemort? Yes. Hey. You were on the bad side in World War 2.

 

Yeah. Maybe not all Italians were bad on World War 2, but you did side with the bad news. Woah. Back it up, may maybe the world was treating the Italians pretty poorly. And so, you know, the Germans said, hey, like, you know, we’ll treat you a little bit better.

 

Here we go. I’m, you know, I’m not saying that’s what happened, but that’s all Dumbledore is saying. He’s like treat the giants a little nicer because maybe then they won’t go straight to Voldemort when, you know, the world goes to shit. I’m just saying. Yeah.

 

Rita Skeeter, slavery, and Mussolini. Okay. Let’s we’ll we’ll keep we’ll keep going. Hopefully, we can get a couple more out of you. I had one quick stock down, which and I just need to address it because it’s been bothering me for several books.

 

I need to get off my chest. Wizarding beverages might be some of the worst beverages, even drank in the human world. I don’t understand it. Everything’s about pumpkin juice, butterbeer, and mead, which if you’ve had mead, it’s terrible. Butterbeer, I know it’s like hip at the Disney resorts and whatnot, but it it honestly sounds disgusting.

 

It’s like cream soda with with butter sauce in it. I mean, I’m sure in the actual wizarding world, it’s better, but it’s still not something I wanna crush, like, 6 of. And then pumpkin juice, like, haven’t these people heard of apple juice? Like, apple juice is delicious. Pumpkin juice, hard pass.

 

I think they’re they’re misnomers. I mean, would you think root beer would taste good? That sounds disgusting. Would you think Bush Lights would sound would taste good? No.

 

Those both are amazing beverages. So, yeah, I’m gonna put yeah. Bush Lights are delicious. So, yeah, obviously, it’s just a misnomer. I think you’re you’re taking you’re reading into it way too much.

 

You tell me pumpkin juice is not pumpkin juice? No. Do you think root beer has roots in it? Well, kinda. Got them.

 

Goblet of Fire, the longest Harry Potter book we have seen to date. It took book 3 and, like, doubled it pretty much. I mean, I was even texting Keith at the beginning when I just started reading it, and I was, like, 20% in. I was, like, we haven’t even got to Hogwarts yet. I’m still doing wizard world cup and all this other stuff.

 

I haven’t even got gotten to the meat of it. So there’s so much of this book. Was there any section or chapter that really stuck with you, and you said, oh, this is the best part of the book? Jimmy, what do you think? Think?

 

Yeah. I’d I had a pretty serious scene. It was indivination. And, you know, they’re talking about all the plants and everything. And Trelawny mentions Uranus.

 

And Ron just comes out of nowhere and says, hey, can I have a look at Uranus 2 lavender? Oh, my God. Like this is this is a 14 year old kid and he’s just shooting his shot. Just absolutely crazy. And this is what I love about J.

 

1. Rowling is she puts these little breadcrumbs, you know, like Sirius and Book 1. And here, too, we see it. We see the breadcrumb where Ron’s like literally just being like, Hey, Lavender, I want to see your ass. I want to see you.

 

And fast forward to book, I think it was, what, 6? They’re going out snogging everywhere. Ron shot his shot and then got it later. And when they’re looking for dates for the Yule Ball, Harry asks one of the Partil’s, twins and being like, Hey, Do you know if lavender’s free for my boy Ron? Harry knows.

 

Harry’s like, you know, the ultimate wingman. He’s like, Ron wants it. I’m gonna get it for him. And unfortunately, Shiara was taken but it’s just a a beautiful breadcrumb left by JK Rowling. And, honestly, it it made me laugh and made me cry.

 

And this is why Jimmy is such a great guest here because he’s not only on the same page as us, but I had a sneak peek into our listener mail, and he’s right on the same page as the listener mail as well. So I do have a follow-up, so keep it in your mind, but I just wanna say kudos to you. I couldn’t agree with you more. Keith, what section did you love? Every single scene in this book, I think, you could say is a favorite dude.

 

The book is just, it’s a 10 out of 10. In my mind, this is probably the best book ever written. The scene that I really and I told you, d man, the emotional journey that I went through. Like, I’d get done reading the book, I’d be upset. Or I get done reading the book, I’d be happy.

 

So the best part for me about this book is after the first Triwizard task, Harry completes the task. He survives. He’s one of the best. Ron may and him make up. Everyone’s having a good time.

 

We’re about to go on Christmas break. I felt like I was back in high school again, the perfect weekend. Everything was lining up. Felt good. Then I went back to the real world.

 

I forgot that that’s not where we’re at. But for that brief moment, I felt something again. So that that was my favorite. So did Harry. You were I think that was probably Harry’s peak for the whole thing too because he was so concerned about the driver’s return.

 

Generally, he got through the first task. No problem. Top marks. And then Ron’s defending him because Karkaroff is trying to throw him under the bus with a with a 4 out of 10, which is absurd. The the Russian judge should be kicked out for that.

 

The best part is he’s like, I would have given anything. I would have given 0 points just to know that Ron was back on my side again. Yet, when Harry gets a 1,000 galleons, he’s like, here you go, twins. Ron, you get nothing. You know, keep wearing your old school dress robes.

 

You know, I just feel like you could have thrown a cup couple galleons to Ron. Break them off, though. Yeah. A few. Yeah.

 

For sure. Mine was probably it’s a tie, I think, between the pensive chapter with Harry and Dumbledore. And I like that one not only because of the information we get about the past, which is always interesting in terms of like creating lore and canon and whatnot. And just the idea of we’ve been living in the present, and all of this stuff with Voldemort, it happened. And it didn’t happen that long ago.

 

It was 12 years ago that he went down, or at this point, it’s 14 years ago that that he went down. So to kinda see what went down, and these they are Nuremberg trials, very well said. So what happened there was really interesting, and I like that scene because we usually have to wait until the end of the book to get our Harry, Dumbledore one on one time, where Dumbledore kind of sheds light on things that Harry had no idea about that we obviously as the reader had no idea about. And this time we get it, like, 3 quarters of the way through the book. It was kind of a nice breath of fresh air to once again be back with Harry and Dumbledore just just chatting, just the 2 of them.

 

I was a big fan of the pensive. And then obviously, you gotta throw it in there, and we haven’t talked about it yet, but the 3 chapters back to back to back, Flesh, Blood, and Bone, The Death Eaters, and Priory and Kentatum are it’s like The Beatles medley from Abbey Road. Is it one song? No. But they are the sum of their parts.

 

And that scene, in general, is just like holy smokes. Like, it felt like this was what the entire series at that point had been building up to, and it paid off. Off. I love that we get the story from Voldemort’s perspective. Just the idea that we didn’t have any idea what he had been doing or feeling necessarily, and not that we really, like, support Voldemort.

 

We’re no death eaters here, except for maybe Jimmy, as he’s an access supporter. But you get his side of the story, which is, like, twisted and wrong, but at the same time, super interesting. And how it all played out and just the the plan and how the whole plan worked out, I thought was was awesome. So I loved it. Great ending with the Priory incantatem.

 

I also like talking about breadcrumbs. That’s the same spell that it’s Amos Digory. He uses that same spell on Harry’s wand at the at the, Quidditch Pearl Cup when they’re like, whose wand is this and what did this was this wand the same wand that that put the dark mark in the air? And he’s like, we can find out, and he does he touches the wand tips together and says, like, prior incantatem, and and that happens. So we get an idea of what that spell is, but we don’t even think about it.

 

It’s just such a throwaway moment, and then it comes back at the end of the book in a massive, massive way. Something from that, graveyard scene that and this is a little I don’t know if you guys thought the same thing initially, but, you know, I probably read this book 20 plus times. And this was the first time I realized that Crabbe and Goyle weren’t like the 14 year old Crabbe and Goyle, like, death eaters. I remember forever I’ve been like, wow, like, this is really early to indoctrinate some, 14 year old kids and, like, they’re just going to school. Like, when did they, like, find the time to become Death Eaters?

 

And I’m finally, like, hit me. Like, oh, this is definitely their dad’s. Yeah. That’s their last name. Oh, it could have been hey.

 

It could have been, like, Voldemort’s Hitler Youth. You know? Yeah. So that that was a that was a nice realization for me. You learn something new every time you reread.

 

Every time you reread, you learn something new. Let’s get into the burning and bots every flavor categories. Let’s go first with, pick your character. We had a bunch of new characters in this one. I’m not gonna go through them all, but Ludo Bagman rings a bell, obviously.

 

And I forgot to say we’re having that Ludo Bagman talk earlier that I just loved the fact that he paid the Weasley twins their bet money back with, like, the wizarding equivalent of gelt. You know, it’s like it was awesome. It’s like total trickster way to pay someone back, and I loved it. Barty Crouch, Winky, Rita Skeeter, Krum, Fleur, Karkaroff, Madame Maxey, and Mad Eye Moody, Amos Diggory. Who did you guys have for maybe a favorite or even a least favorite character?

 

I already spoiled mine. Mine’s Mad Eye Moody slash Barty Crouch. Yeah. So I’m not gonna go much more into it, but he’s just awesome. He’s exactly what we needed at Hogwarts.

 

I’m hoping he he shows it more. I can’t remember. So I’m hoping he does, though. Yeah. He will be in it, Keith.

 

Don’t you worry. Jimmy, do you have a favorite or least favorite? I don’t know if we call it the real Mad Eye Moody or the fake Mad Eye Moody, but just the Mad Eye Moody that just goes around doing whatever the hell he wants when he wants. Like, that’s just the best. Like and and all the other teachers are afraid of him.

 

So he just he’s allowed to do what he wants. It’s just incredible, you know, teaching the kids, like, unforgettable curses. Just I loved every minute of it. Yeah. I agree.

 

I had him as mine as well. It was moody with an asterisk for me, you know, because it’s not actually him. But, you know, we talked about the Malfoy thing, and the Malfoy thing all started because Harry issued a well timed yo mama joke, which we have to appreciate as well. And then talk about appreciation. We gotta send props to our boy, Hagrid, for finally clapping back at Malfoy.

 

Malfoy is in class, and he’s talking shit again, and Hagrid’s like, hey. Is that Mad Eye Moody over there? And it’s like, what? What? What?

 

What? He’s like, yeah. I might turn you into Farrar. Watch out. So, you know, I I I respect that as well, and I do think we have to have an honorable mention for mister Weasley.

 

You know, he’s on the list, because although he has a short stint in the book, he comes in with fire. At the beginning, the Dursleys refused to say goodbye to Harry, and and mister Weasley stops dead in his tracks. He’s like, woah. Not on my watch. I thought he was about to throw hands again, because, you know, we know mister Weasley’s just jacked out of his mind on creatine, and he’s, like, waiting to throw hands.

 

He doesn’t this time he lets he lets the twins take care of it on his behalf. But so Moody’s, I think, everyone’s favorite. I do have to say that my least favorite character is Amos Diggory, which is saying something because we do get introduced to Rita Skeeter and Lord Voldemort in this book, and yet Amos Diggory takes the cake here. He is just ragging on Harry to his face, which is so uncomfortable. You know, he says at the beginning, he’s like, the best man won.

 

I’m sure Harry would say the same. It’s like, what? Like, you’re you’re telling me in a in a Quidditch match that happened a year ago that you’re gonna say that I’m gonna tell you your kid’s better than me and what? He said, one guy fell off his broom, one didn’t. Don’t have to be a genius to know who the better flyer is.

 

It’s like, I’m right here, dude. I’m I’m standing right in front of you. That you’re not at the bar with your buddies shooting the shit. You’re talking shit straight to a 14 year old boy. Like, calm down.

 

Even Cedric’s like, dad, chill. And he does the same thing, at the end. So I was hoping Harry, when he was gonna offer them the 1,000 galleons, was gonna, like, do a, like, nope or something like that just to get back at Amos’ degree. But I I’m gonna push back on that. I mean, would you rather have the people snickering in the corner and wearing those badges or a guy come up to your face and say, listen, bitch.

 

My son’s better than you. What are you gonna say about it? And you’re gonna do nothing about it, which I respected, you know, right to his face. He’s not talking behind his back. He’s saying it right to your face.

 

What are you gonna do about it? Yeah. But you’re comparing him, this grown wizard, to a bunch of children who are wearing badges. He’s a grown ass man. Just be proud of your kid and and move on.

 

I mean, none of these guys have closed the yearbook. We all know that. Lucius Malfoy is is, like, still, you know, trying to kill kids in the in the in the hallways. So, I mean, we’re we’re all Not canon. Not canon.

 

Yeah. Voldemort’s being like, I’m gonna show everyone how good I am. I’m fighting this 13 year. I still can’t get over that. What a what a terrible move I am.

 

Yeah. Amos Amos Diggory was just, to me, like, the worst hockey dad who, like, goes on the ice and, like, starts trying to fight kids during a hockey game. Yeah, well, Harry got the last laugh. He killed his son, so it’s fun. Alright, let’s get into oh, hey.

 

Wow. I was going to move on, but yikes. Alright, you and Jimmy are on one side of the bus. I don’t go So let’s pick our magical elements here. So once again, a bunch of new magical elements that are, you know, new in this book.

 

We got port keys, the pensive. We’ve talked about apparating before, but like now people are like actively apparating, disaparating, and we hear about splinching, which sounds terrible. Wizarding tents, omnioculars, which you’ve talked about, the goblet of fire itself, phoeglass, Moody’s trunk, lots of others. Did you guys have a favorite magical element? I’m not sure I’d say favorite, but, like, the goblet of fire, I just have so many questions about.

 

1st and foremost like why can’t you just say I’m not competing? Like what happens to you? Like do you just die? Yeah. It’s pretty obvious that Harry’s like hey, I didn’t put my name in.

 

So if they say like okay Harry, like are you willing to put your life on it that you didn’t put your name in? And Harry says, yeah. And he just doesn’t compete. Like, he he still has to compete or or what? Like, I wanna know I wanna know what happens.

 

Part 2, what if he doesn’t try very hard? Like, he’s just like, hey. Give me the 0 marks on the dragon. I’ll just sit this you know, sit on the sideline. Does he die again because the goblet of fire just killed him?

 

I I need to know. That that’s probably the biggest one. And it it seems like it’s easy to manipulate since Moody’s just like, oh, I just added another house in, put your name in, and automatically did that. So I I just don’t I wanna know more about it. It’s a really good point because, yeah, why not why wouldn’t Dumbledore just be like, okay, if you didn’t put your name in, then you obviously don’t wanna compete.

 

So there’s, like, just don’t compete. Like, oh, what? Does lightning come down and strike some dead right there? And if that’s not the case, like you said, just take the 0 marks on every single one. Don’t get into the lake.

 

Don’t go near the dragon, and don’t enter the maze and shoot red sparks. Done. Over. If I got detention, and this is when I was most angry in the book when Harry got got good attention for, like, talking back and defending himself to Snape, and everyone’s, like, hating on him and, like, his best friends don’t even like talking to him. I’m a 1000% boycotted.

 

I’m not even I’m not showing up at all. I’m there’s not one chance I show up to that thing. Harry’s different than I am, I guess. But Yeah. I’d also put this, like, Harry Sucks badge on, lean into it, if they like to make it for myself.

 

That’s smart. Yeah. So those are 2 things I would do. Did you have a favorite magical element, Keith? This is more of a magical industry, but Okay.

 

The magical entrepreneurship, Fred and George creating the joke shop, amazing. You give me 2 or 3 chapters on just that. I’m I’m in. Why are his parents shitting all over them? That’s like they’re being super entrepreneurial and going out there and they just want to work for the shitty government instead.

 

Like, they’re doing something they wanna do. Like, this is gonna make the world better, in my opinion. You know, by the end of the of the book, we we hear that. Yeah. But this is why the wizarding world is not advanced.

 

We talked about how where are the underwater TVs? How why are these viewing vents so terrible? It’s because everyone’s stuck in their ways. We have the same families getting passed on generation to generation owning the same shops. We have no innovation.

 

We need more entrepreneurship, more innovations happening. Everyone’s dressed like they’re in the 1600 still. Let’s let’s revamp some things here. Yeah. I agree with you.

 

And you’d assume that, like, their parents know what people get at these joke shops because their kids have for years, and they’d see what Fred and George are creating and be like, wow. This is different. You know? This is something. They must also be really good at both potions and, the class McGonagall teaches.

 

Transfiguration and charms. Like, there’s, like, charms built into this. Yeah. Like, all these different things. Yeah.

 

Super educational to figure out how to do these things. Yeah. Absolutely. And I couldn’t agree with you more that they’re just, like, stuck in their ways. I mean, they hate muggles so much as a society that they haven’t even accepted pens.

 

Like, they’re still just using quills and ink. Quills. So Yeah. They go on spilling ink all over all the papers like what what? I think you know just use the space pen.

 

It’s from Seinfeld. It works upside down. I was partial myself. I thought the pensieve was pretty cool just in the sense of if you have you don’t have to do any, like, recording of stuff or anything like that. You can just, you know, live your life at a sporting event.

 

No one’s pulling out their phones. When fireworks are going off, no one’s pulling out their phones and saying, hey, everyone. Just look at these fireworks. Like, isn’t that cool? You just you watch it.

 

You enjoy your life. Then later, you put a little thought thread into the pensive, and when you’re 80, you can go back and enjoy all of those moments. I thought that was a a pretty cool That’s a good point. Yeah. I was a big fan of that and just wizarding tents in general sound awesome.

 

I mean I’m not a huge camper. I did a bunch of camping when I grew up, but if I had a wizard tent I would be all in. What about spells? We got we got a ton here. I’m not even gonna go through them because there’s so many.

 

Obviously, we have the, Well, mine is Cristiata’s curse. Okay. I’ll lead off with that. I’m sick. I’m sick in the head.

 

I think this is, like, the type of curse you need and the type of stuff you need to understand what dark magic is and make the evildoers eviler. So I’m all for it. Learning about Neville’s parents going through it, it makes you again be on Neville’s side and and root for Neville. And I thought it was a good addition. Did you have a favorite spell, Jim?

 

I don’t think they named the spell but Moody turning Malfoy into the ferret. I’m I’m curious how animals work here because, like, you can, you know, transfiguration, you know, you know, turning to the animal permanently being on the register. That seems really hard, but, like, how long can you just turn someone into an animal if you feel like it? I thought that’s, like, a really good element. That’s a good point.

 

And I I think I dropped out, back there, but I did just wanna add one thing to the whole pensive comment. And that was that Harry got really lucky that the scene that, like, he was in there was the Nuremberg trials and everything related to that. Like, could it easily been Dumbledore thinking about the days with, you know, Grindelwald and, you know, maybe some some unsavory scenes there. So and then maybe Dumbledore is going to jail for the rest of his life. Harry got into that stash, so lucky we avoided that.

 

Yeah. Harry could’ve learned some important life lessons if he’d heard some of this, or could’ve been Dumbledore recording his BM in the morning because he’s like, hey. You know what? That was pretty crazy. I just ran into a bunch of, chamber pots.

 

I need to record it, and then it’s just Dumbledore taking a poop. So, yeah, he did indeed get lucky. For me, kind of surprised. I thought Keith was going to be in Gorgio, and we all know why, but and I think the imperious curse as an unforgivable curse is maybe the worst possible curse. You already talked about how Barty Crouch fights it off.

 

Then you talk about how his dad eventually fights it off as well. Harry seems somewhat impervious to the imperious curse. So, you know, he immediately fights it off in class and then later against Voldemort. So, it doesn’t seem like it’s that good of a spell. If you have a strong mind, you can just beat it.

 

So it seems like it should be harder, you know, it should be harder to get out of. Yeah. So I’m gonna I’m gonna have to go with Assio. You know, it’s a simple one, but at the same time, talk about a way that I could soon be featured on my 600 pound life if I just had that spell at the ready because Sundays when the football season’s on, I would just be like, Assio Miller Lite over and over and over again, and I would never get up, and I would have 0 steps in the day. It’d be perfect.

 

I think just as one of the more useful spells in the wizarding world, I think that one’s it personally. What about creatures? Do you guys have any creatures you like? We got a bunch in this one. Leprechauns, vela, booboo tubers, blasted its roots, snifflers, mermaids, manicores, sphinx, dragons.

 

I mean, we’ve already seen dragons, but any one of those jump out to you? Velas perhaps? I think for me, it’s the sphinx. Like, just this random creature that they plop down and they’re just doing riddles and just like, hey, if you get wrong, I’m gonna kill you. So I’m gonna go for more of that.

 

I want a whole series based on what the hell sphinxes are doing in the wizarding world and like what’s their purpose. Did you think that the sphinx was actually gonna kill them if they did it or was that just like part of the part of the thing and they would have, like, stunned them and then that would have been that? I mean, I think it was attacked. I I will say that the riddle itself was kinda weird. I don’t know that, you know, hard to find word, you know, when you’re when you’re thinking like, like, really?

 

Is that is that what I would necessarily go with? It’s also very British, though. The r is is a is a British thing because I’ve personally thought I was like, that’s the easiest one I’ve ever heard. And it’s like, these kids are supposed to be 17. Like, they should figure it out.

 

It’s one word. It’s an animal. You know what I mean? Like, I think sphinxes are definitely up there for some of the more interesting character or like creatures in the wizard world. Because I’m also wondering like where do they live and they just go around like telling people that answer this riddle that they’re gonna murder them, and that’s okay.

 

I don’t know. Kinda like the toll trolls. They’re already they have that, that disposition of wanting to to kill people anyways, and someone’s like, hey. We got a job for you, and they’re like, yeah. Sign me up.

 

This is fun. So I think that’s just their their mentality. Yeah. I thought the both the vela and the and the leprechauns were interesting. And once again, I’m I’m not sure how the breeding thing works in the wizarding world because, like, a man and a giant, Tess, you know, slept together in a Hagrid, and, like, Fleur de la Courte has some vela in her, but they’re not human.

 

They’re, like, creatures, so I don’t really know how that works, and then where do we draw the line? Because then that brings the whole, like, house elf thing back up where it’s like, should they still be slaves if they’re like people? They’re humans, they’re humanoid. I don’t know. It’s confusing.

 

No one’s gonna mate with a blasted screw, but, a Veel is well, maybe someone would. Maybe Aberforth Dumbledore would because, we you know, he did some weird stuff to a goat that got him in trouble that was quickly talked about and then brushed under the rug by Dumbledore. Alright. Let’s jump into some love hate. Keith, what do you have for love?

 

Love, I mean, I already talked about it much. I like this book, but the amount of death in this book, I love that. It got real dark real quickly. You know, all of a sudden, we’re like, we went from 0 deaths outside of, like, Harry’s parents that we which we kind of Yeah. Referenced it now.

 

Yeah. Hear about, but we never see it. To, like, people dying left and right. When, Barty Crouch just, like, disappears, I’m like, oh, that’s cool. That’s just, like, we’ll find him later.

 

And it’s, like, no, I murdered him. And he’s under invisibility cloak. Like, he’s dead. You know, people are just dying left to write in this book. We went from 0 to, like, 8 deaths in this book.

 

So I’m all for it. Get darker. Get get more into the death scene. Yeah. It’s Appreciate it.

 

Like, have you seen the Rambo death tolls if you look at the different Rambo movies? It’s like Rambo 1 was, like, 2 people died. In the 2nd movie, like, 4 people died. In the 3rd movie, 47 people died. It’s like, oh, okay.

 

I think then and then next one, it was, like, a 150. So Yeah. So, yeah, that as well. Jimmy, what about you? What’d you love?

 

Obviously, I love the darkness. I also love the kind of whole challengers sort of relationship between Ron, Hermione, and Krum. This is the first book, like, we’re really getting into some, like, love dynamics and triangles. And, you know, Ron and Hermione have this game where, like, they’re both, like, trying to make each other jealous. And I think Ron’s not as aware of it as Hermione is.

 

And I wonder if Hermione even likes Krum at all or if he’s just a tool to use to get to Ron. I don’t know if you guys picked up on this on the ending scene where Ron asked Krum for a autograph, and Hermione just, like, has a sly smile. Hermione in her head is like, I am going to do some things with Krum and make Ron watch. Like, that’s that’s her mentality right there. Oh, alright.

 

Yeah. You went even further than I did. I I was in threesome. You went for the whole cuckold situation. I I mean, I think we can tell that’s what she’s into.

 

Yeah. No. I liked this book definitely show that these kids are growing up and, like, they’re interested in the opposite sex or the same sex or giants and giantesses. It doesn’t matter, but the point is that they’re interested in something, and we get that going further in the book, like, we’ve talked about with Lavender and whatnot, so I love that. For this one as well, I love the cold open with the riddle house.

 

Keith talks about it in the death stuff, but for the past two books, we’re just it’s Harry waking up in his bedroom at the Dursley’s, like, getting upset. The first one opens with Vernon Dursley. You know, they’re both fairly innocuous, and then things go awry, but for this one, it’s like immediately we’re in some different place. We don’t even know what’s going on. We’re starting with a muggle.

 

We’re not even starting with a wizarding person, and you’re seeing this crazy stuff happen with Voldemort that it was, like, such a great start to this that I immediately, you’re like, this book is gonna be different, and this book is gonna be amazing. You know that right off the bat. Mhmm. What else were you keeping? Harry and Cedric’s relationship partnership, despite seemingly being enemies and everything, I I did like that they were like sharing advice for each, of the different challenges and then kind of together like, hey, we’ll both win this together.

 

It really did make it so that when Cedric died, it like meant something. Whereas if they just were like, oh yeah, he’s the other guy that’s competing and like there wasn’t in like either just all love or all hate, you know, one way or the other, it wouldn’t have hit as much. But like the fact that there was some turmoil but also like he respected him and you know, different things there. I like that. It was like a full fledged relationship, which made the death much much harder.

 

Yeah. And and we obviously don’t live in Harry’s mind the whole time during the book, but you can imagine in the time we’re not seeing Harry on the page that he’s thinking about this situation with Cedric a lot because he, you know, he’s into Cho and Cedric’s doing that thing, but then at the same time, there’s, like, this camaraderie there, and they’re both Hogwarts champions. I did think that Cedric could have done a little bit better for him on the second task, though, besides just, like, go take a bath. It’s like, I literally told you it was dragons. Yeah.

 

Just say we’re going to the lake and we gotta save someone. Yeah. You set him up to, like, the the the bathroom. That was pretty nice. You know, like that Oh, yeah.

 

Big, like The bubble it wasn’t even, like, a hot tub. It was like a it was a pool that was all hot. It was pretty awesome. Yeah. And Myrtle’s just voyeuristic there.

 

She’s right out of Jimmy’s story, you know? I just felt like the story is just so well done. I know we say this a lot with Harry Potter, but this one, more than any other book, the story was was it was perfect. She was able to put so much into this book without it feeling like there was too much going on or, like, things were left hanging. There’s there’s a bunch of red herrings for what’s happening and who’s doing it that you almost forget at times that there’s something, like, very serious going on at Hogwarts.

 

We know from the beginning that Voldemort is trying to do something, but there’s so much other stuff happening that we sometimes, like, forget that’s even part of it until the end when it all comes, like, rushing back. And and I also love with the red herring stuff with, like, Ludo and Karkaroff because those are, like, our 2 biggest suspects, that they their stuff wasn’t just thrown in there to throw us off. It also had its own story arc. You know, Carcara being the death eater, and then, oh, that’s why he’s teaching the Dermeshoeck students dark arts, but then him turning. Okay, we get that.

 

And, Ludo, it’s like, oh, he’s just gambling. Like, but his gambling story was interesting with the, you know, they just throw it in in bits and parts with the goblins and then the Weasley twins. What are they doing? Oh, you know, so all that ties together so well. The ending, I felt like, was tied up so nicely.

 

You know, it’s like a sharper image gift that you pay the $10 extra extra to have it professionally gift wrapped is, like, how this thing came out. And by the end of this book, it really felt like she wanted to have a clean break from the early years at Hogwarts until what’s coming up next. And I think she did it so well with how Voldemort came back and just also just the the growth throughout this book of these characters. And now that they’ve seen the terrible things they’ve seen and how it’s gonna progress, it just felt like such an amazing break and such a great way to do it. I just thought it was it was perfect.

 

Yeah. A 100%. I I feel like there’s no stone, like, unturned in this one. Nothing skipped. No no element of the journey from the start to the finish that we like, they skipped, which I think as a Harry Potter fan, when you wanna be in that world for as long as possible, that’s much appreciated.

 

Yeah. That’s a great way of saying it because it you’d think that, oh, we have to I have so much extra I need to put in this book. We’re gonna I’m gonna have to cut all this other stuff we do. No. We actually get more.

 

We get the Sorting Hat back. We hear another sorting hat song, which we have missed for the last two books. We get the sorting hat back. She was able to put it all in there without making it, you know, a 1000 page book, but at the same time, it it’s long, but it it’s a page turner. Every page is is great.

 

Yeah. A couple of just quick last loves just to throw in there. Quidditch World Cup, loved it. We’ve already talked a lot about it, so I’m not gonna go back into it, but just such another great experience to get into the wizarding world outside of Hogwarts. Big fan.

 

Sorting Hat. And then I thought the Death Eaters were just great, the way they looked, the way they were explained, and also just the name. We didn’t even know about Death Eaters before. Death Eaters are just like a great name for a band of bad guys. I mean, we got Putties from Power Rangers, Foot Clan from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

 

I can’t think of some other ones, but I just think Death Eaters. It’s it’s it’s great. It’s it sounds like a metal band, and and that’s pretty much what, what the Death Eaters are. So Were the, Red Rising ones, like, Bone Collectors or something? Oh.

 

Bone Riders? Bone Riders. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, like, a name too.

 

Yeah. My Bone Riders. I like how you pulled putties out. Yeah. Putties.

 

Those are the foot soldiers. Yeah. That’s what they are. That’s the Death Eaters. I guess that’s true.

 

Yeah. They’re like pawns. They’re foot soldiers in Teenage Mutant New Jersey. They call them the foot clan. Oh, okay.

 

Yeah. Jimmy, do you have did you have any other loves before we jump at 8? My final love was just like the serious version of Dumbledore because we kinda get like a lot of joking Dumbledore in the past and you know the every flavor beans and earwax and all that. And this is the first time kinda starting with the fake moody where he, you know, busts open and does the, you know, stupefy spell and all that where he’s just now not joking at all. Like he’s coming in, he’s basically like, Voldemort’s back, this is what we’re doing, there’s no time to waste.

 

And I love spending a lot of time with that Dumbledore because you know, you just kinda trust him and you just wanna spend more time like, hey, like lead us to victory, what are you doing? Especially I think it all sort of culminates in the 6th book and and going on that adventure with Harry. I don’t wanna do any spoilers but the horcruxes. But, this is the first time we finally get, like, not playing around Dumbledore. Yeah.

 

We get Dumbledore the headmaster but we have yet to see Dumbledore the field marshal. And this is the first side of it, and it’s amazing. So let’s jump into hates. Keith, what did you have for hates? Big hit for me was early on in the book.

 

Harry gets invited by Ron to the prestigious World Cup, and the least you could do is buy the binoculars for Ron and not be like, now I don’t owe you a Christmas present. Like, bro, you’re getting invited to this thing with the best tickets in the house. I feel like you you don’t need to be like, nah, like, that rubbed me the wrong way. Come on Harry. Figure it out.

 

That’s funny because I read that totally differently. I read that as like, Ron being like a kinda dude who doesn’t want any handouts even though that’s kinda one of my hates is he just complains about not having money all the time. You know, either shut up or accept the handout. Yeah. I I thought he was like, no, like, I’m not doing it and and Basil Harris is like, no, to make him feel better, like, it’s your Christmas present.

 

It is kinda weird because I feel like, if you get invited to something and you’re not paying for it, you I feel like you’re like, alright, I got the I got the beers, you know, or something like that. But instead he’s like, I guess I’ll give you these binoculars. I read it like like Jimmy did. Ron didn’t want the handout, so he said it’s Christmas present kinda thing. Alright.

 

Fair enough. Then Harry also, like, Ron throws something at him later about money, and Harry kinda, like, brushed it off, like no big deal, which I thought I thought was pretty big of him. Jimmy, do you have any hates? Just to continue on that, like, Ron for a good portion of his book was was just a hate. He’s just moping around, jealous of Harry for like being in the Triwizard Tournament.

 

It’s like, hey, this is a day 1 friendship here. Like what are we even talking about? Like maybe just go up to him and be like, hey, did you really put your name in the gauntlet fire? Maybe just ask him instead of going on a little temper tantrum and being like, why is it always him and not me? Like, bro, first of all, you already got your best game wizard chest, like, little badge.

 

Like, you got that in book 1. Book 2, like, he was almost in almost in the Chamber of Secrets and stuff like that. I was like, dude, like, chill out. Like, Harry is your best bud. Just happy or scared for him or something.

 

Just be there for him. And it’s just it’s just a ridiculous move by Ron, and I just can’t support it. Yeah. That was honestly the only thing I had as well. It just seemed a little far out there for I know Ron is, like, you know, lived in the shadow of his brothers, and now he lives in the shadow of Harry.

 

But I feel like he would just he’s a good bloke. He would just ask and be like, dude, how’d you do that? And he’s like, I didn’t do it. It’s like, wow. Okay.

 

That’s pretty crazy. And because it’s if Harry’s like, yeah. Remember how I said I saw Voldemort in my dreams? And remember the last 2 years when we fought Dumbledore or fought Voldemort? Yeah.

 

So it could be him. So, yeah, probably. Wow. So, yeah, I I I felt like Ron wouldn’t have taken such a with such a hard line. Yeah.

 

When is, like, Harry lied to him also? Yeah. Because it seems like it was like, where’s that coming from? Doesn’t doesn’t make a ton of sense. It must be some some internal demons.

 

Yeah. You know? I think that’s all it was. Harry has a little bit of Batman in him where, like, all this time, like, Batman’s obviously helping people out, but then all of a sudden people hate him because one little thing happens and like blows up. Like, it’s the same sort of thing.

 

It’s crazy. It’s like, yo, Harry’s done all this stuff and all of a sudden the whole school hates him for being in the Triwizard Tournament. Like, it’s insane and it, you know, honestly, it’s kind of a little bit, either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. I think people are just tired of Harry being on top. They just wanna they wanna topple him down.

 

Yeah. Him and Bill Belichick. You got mail. Buddies, I know you all talked about the cleverness from JK leaving bread crumbs that show up and reveal in later books, but I think the humor in this book had me cracking up more than I can remember. The juxtaposition, Keith, is that a word?

 

Of life threatening situations being less intimidating to Harry than getting a date to the ball was an amazing chapter with him and Ron trying to get dates. Harry’s inner monologue was fantastic while Loki stalking Cho, and then the debrief in the common room with everyone after was also gold. Especially considering that the bread crumbs for future relationships that play out over the series with everyone involved that turn Harry and Ron down. Fleur, Hermione, Lavender, and Ginny, all culminating in twins, Basil. Do y’all have a funny moment?

 

PS, stock down hand up again, not signing off Azkaban pod with mischief managed. That’s on me, magic. There we go. It was my magic. Got it.

 

Yeah. Great points there. And do we have a favorite funny moment? We got Jimmy’s, so considering I said I was I was saving it, I’m going to just say that that was that was mine as well. I mean, how could it not be magic, honestly?

 

It’s Ron’s quote is, can I have a look at Uranus 2 lavender? It’s it was it’s so good. It’s the first time I noticed it, and actually, it was the wife who I was asked I asked her what was a funny moment, and this is the first thing that she called out. So I didn’t even remember it once again, even though when I read it at the time, I laughed. But I forgot about it.

 

And then I thought about it, and I said, this is this is a joke that is pretty strictly English, and this book has been translated into, like, a 120 languages. I was thinking back to Chamber Secrets when they had to change all the Tom Morvallo Riddle thing. So I was like, I wonder what did they did in other languages. Naturally, the Internet has this. The best one was in Norwegian, they they couldn’t figure it out, but they tried to include Uranus.

 

So the sentence was, which I can’t say anything, but it translates to, can I have a look at your ancient anus? So so that one is is probably the best. Okay. Noted. Because there’s, like, in Dutch, it was like, can I have a look at your heavenly body?

 

And, like, in French, it was something like, can I look at your butt? Were they double entendres for all of them, or are they all Some of them are on the notes. Yeah. Some of them are on the notes. Okay.

 

So people read it like, what the hell? In other words. But it’s also interesting because they were talking about celestial bodies. And you know, so it’s Oh, okay. That makes sense.

 

It’s already like a double entendre in Trelawn in Trelawney’s class, so great joke. It’s a perfect joke because not only is it like way smarter than I could come up with, but it’s like too smart for kids and like just smart enough for the adults reading it. So, I thought it was I thought it was great. It’s it’s also interesting to note with the, the whole later books uneasiness with Ron and like Harry Gating his sister where he pretty quickly offers up, like, oh, you can just take Ginny. Like, really?

 

Mhmm. Yeah. Good point. That’s Ron being, like, a good pal there. Like, hey, you need a date.

 

Like, I I got you. Yeah. I had 2 comments. 1 to remind me, there’s a Basil in this book. So twins Basil.

 

I didn’t even know Basil’s a real name. I thought it was strictly from Austin Powers. So I really appreciated that. Second question for you guys also is, how long after Cedric died is Harry thinking, well, she Joe’s single now. Like, how long do you think it took him to do that?

 

Like, an hour? If he’s Dennis from Always Sunny, he’s going up here and be like, hey. I’m pretty torn up, but you saw I brought Cedric back. I mean Yeah. I know you’re torn up too.

 

Like, do you wanna both get torn up together? And and that that’s the move. We’re in the, the graveyard, and he’s like, what did you say, Biltmore? I I I was sorry. I was thinking about something else.

 

Yeah. I just miss what you’re talking about for the last 30 minutes. I was having some, fantasies in my mind. Alright. Let’s get into some lingering questions and some potpourri here.

 

We have, how did Barty Crouch pass off as Moody? I think we discussed that. The Triwizard Tournament, the whole tournament itself seems impossible unless you’re cheating. Right? No 17 year is gonna be able to walk into in front of a dragon that they didn’t even know was there, and then be able to steal an egg from underneath it.

 

Everyone cheats on every task. Yeah. It seems like it’d be, like, one of those things where you either had to have just taken the class or it’s a fun fact. It’d be, like, coming up against like an alligator randomly. You just be like, I have no idea.

 

I’m a just run zigzag. Zig zag? Yeah. Because am I supposed to stare at the eyes? There’s like 10 there’s like 10 things you could do that I’ve heard before.

 

Yeah. So So we we also had, Dumbledore stumbling into the river requirements, which we talk about later books because he needs to have a BM at 5:30 in the morning. I think we have a life maxim in this in this book that’s given to us, which is you don’t ask a woman if she’s pregnant, and you definitely don’t ask her if she’s half giant. That’s like asking Jimmy where he was in 1945. Right, Jimmy?

 

What did your grandfather do in 1945? Did anyone have any, like, lingering questions or or other things about this book? Yeah. I’m not gonna go too much into this just to keep it, you know, you know, pg 13 podcast. But you know, I I think it has to be at least addressed to the age difference between Krum and Hermione.

 

And all of a sudden, Krum’s like inviting her back to Bulgaria and like you’re the, you know, most amazing, you know, different girl I’ve ever met. Like what in the world like And in terms of miss the thing you’re going to miss most, it’s Hermione for Krum. Like what in the world went on between them 2? It’s a lingering one. So Krum is 17 or maybe 18.

 

He’s like a senior in high school. She’s a freshman. Yeah. He’d be like a senior in high school and she’s a freshman in high school. Definitely, as someone that’s about to have a daughter, like, no.

 

That’s not gonna fly. So I I I get it, but I don’t think it’s, That wasn’t that crazy in high school, though. Right? Mike, making that up. I mean, I never dated anyone because I didn’t talk to girls, but, like, that that wasn’t that crazy.

 

Right? Big, like, story, I feel like. Yeah. I feel like it happened, but it wasn’t that common. And also, I feel like there’s a big jump, like, halfway through high school as to what’s allowable.

 

It would skeeve me, but I know it did happen at my own high school. Like, it was a little scarlet lettery. I don’t know. I also won’t ruin it for Keith because I know he hasn’t seen the movie. But once you get to that, that podcast, there’s a line they add in that Hermione says about Krum that’s just, like, adds even more fuel to the fire.

 

Oh. Mhmm. Noted. I’ll be on the lookout. Alright, Keith.

 

Who gets your house cut? I kind of previewed it earlier, but it’s going to just in general investing, your money and things that matter. I really did, like, appreciate that Harry was, like, I don’t want this money. It’s dirty money. I’m gonna give it a 1000 countions to Fred and George to start something that is beneficial to other people, that makes people happy, makes people laugh.

 

And it’s it’s you’re giving it to your friends. I really respected that. I liked it. It’s a sentimental one, but, better than throwing the the S and P 500. Yeah.

 

Why not? It was blood money to him anyways. I I feel like Harry is more like on like Shark Tank. Like, he’s like investing. He’s like, oh, this is this is something this is something I wanna put some seed money into.

 

Yeah. A 100%. Plus, I mean, what is the marauder’s map worth? Because you know, the the twins give that to him. That’s gotta be Yeah.

 

That’s gotta be up there. Like so Harry’s really just giving him, you know, a little, thank you very much here. Let me let me help help you back. That’s a good point. That is a very good point.

 

And I’m kinda surprised he didn’t pull I mean, Grady’s in the moment, so it’s a great time to for the Weasleys to get in there and get that money. But I’m surprised he didn’t pull, like, a mister wonderful and try to get some royalties on it or something. Yeah. A penny for every one sold or whatever the furvy joke one sold. Jimmy, do you have a, a house cup winner?

 

One of my favorite stand up comedians is Anthony Jelinek. And he has a a great, you know, kind of one liners. And it it really epitomizes my pick. So my pick is Cedric Diggory. And, let me just read this, this joke and it’s People get weird when kids die.

 

That’s a fact. Like about a month ago, some kids in my neighborhood were playing hide and seek and one of them ended up in an abandoned refrigerator. That’s all anyone talked about for weeks. I said, who cares? How many kids do you know that get to die a winner?

 

And that’s that’s Cedric. Like, dude just went out on top. You won Quidditch cup the year before. Now you’re try wizard tournament. It was all going downhill from from there.

 

Like, he was gonna have kids with Cho. It was gonna be awful. He was gonna turn into his dad where he’s just vicariously living through his kids. And he said, you know what? I’m going out on top.

 

So cup for him. Yeah. He was gonna be one of those guys who’s stuck in high school for the rest of his life because that was his glory days. So now he’s entombed there forever, and he has the glory to go along with it. So it’s it’s a good point.

                                                                                  

Although, he didn’t get killed by Voldemort. He got killed by Yeah. Cradogel. That’s a tough that’s a tough one. Tough one.

 

Voldemort had to have someone else, Avada cadaver you. But at the same time, that’s by Harry’s word. So, 1, people don’t believe Harry, so they’ll just say, oh, Voldemort did it. Or, 2, Harry could just Harry should do the right thing and just say it was at Voldemort’s hand. You know?

 

For me, I mean, I already said mine. It was it was the dark lord, which is, you know, Keith just stole it from me. Just straight up just straight up stole it. Did I make it a stock earlier? But stock up.

 

Stock up. It’s his first time. Yeah. He already bought it. So now I’m trying to buy, but but the market’s closed, and, yeah.

 

I thought I thought that was a great one. And he really is one of the better bad guys. The fact that he’s a good guy this whole time. It’s a classic movie who done it that ended up getting totally twisted around, and you realize your favorite character is actually the bad guy, which is perfect. They just they did it so well.

 

Mhmm. Jimmy, for you overall, where does Goblet rank in your in your 7 book series? I hate to do it but I think it’s number 1. Like it it really is. It’s it’s just the book that kinda had kinda had everything.

 

It was the first book that JK just like threw down and said, I’m just gonna do like these massive massive books and I know you guys love it and you’re not gonna complain how long they are. And you get movies now and you’re like, oh, like 3 and a half hour run time, 4 hour run time. Like, I don’t know if I wanna see that. With these books coming out, you would see the pages and you’re just like, I just need more. And I think this is the first time she was finally like, oh, you guys like really love this stuff.

 

Like, I’m just gonna give you more. And just I love reliving that feeling every time I read it. Her audience was growing in age with this story. So now it’s like, okay. The people that read this when they were kids are now teenagers.

 

Like, they’re ready for teenager stuff and also can read a longer book. So let’s, you know, write this for them, which which I appreciated. Keith, the first four that we’ve read, what’s your rank now? Yeah. This is gonna be number 1.

 

4312. Yeah. And I was always a 3 over 4 guy. You know, if you’d asked me right before I reread this, I would have said the same thing. But after rereading it, I I can’t not say that this is the best one yet.

 

So Wow. Yeah. There you go. 43 Changed your mind. 4312.

 

Guys, that was, a great thought. I’m glad we got to do this because I freaking love this book. Jimmy, it was great to have you. I’d like to leave you guys with a quote for the books from the books so we can remember it for next time, Keith. The quote is, and I quote, did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, Harry?

 

He asked calmly. That’s, Dumbledore, by the way. So so we’re gonna discuss that, on the movie pod. But, Jimmy, once again, thanks for joining us. We really appreciate it.

 

And, Keith, as always, it’s a blast. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. Love to be on, in the future.

 

Giddy up. Good stuff, boys. Bye now. Bye now.