Tell Me About Yourselves

[candlewhisperer]

Hi! Since I'm new I thought this would be a good way to get to know each other. 

What are your hobbies?
Do you have a favourite food?
Who is your favourite Harry Potter character and why? Who is your least favourite?
What's your personal favourite Hogwarts House?

My hobbies include reading, playing video games, baking, hiking and yoga (although I am very new to yoga). 
I like a lot of food, if I had to pick one meal though I think I would pick spaghetti. 
My favourite character from Harry Potter is Snape, I think he is so tragic and I loved Alan Rickman as an actor. I also had a crush o Draco Malfoy/Tom Felton even though he was an awful boy, I  think he's misunderstood, plus I've always had a thing for the tragic bad boys lol. Of course I also love Hermione, the boys never would have gotten anywhere without her. Bellatrix is really cool too. It's so hard to just pick one! As for my least favourite, I think I would have to go with Umbridge, she almost ruined the colour pink for me, and I love pink!
My personal favourite House is Slytherin, I have been sorted by Pottermore in both Slytherin and Ravenclaw and love both those houses. The other two Houses are cool too. Frankly, I'll take being in any House if it means being in Hogwarts lol. Share your answers and feel free to ask more questions

[Kieran]

Forum roleplaying has been for the past two decades and still remains my most constant hobby and it's been the most important to me as it's the best way to escape real life for a time. Whether it's writing an in-game post or just thinking of and visioning one or about a character. Or creating a home for a character which leads me to my newest hobby which is creating floorplans and interior designs. I probbaly wouldn't love it as a job but a as hobby it's wonderfully enjoyable. Is why I have created near photo-realistic 720 degree tours of all my characters' houses and gardens so that they can be walked through as if you were literally in their home looking around.

I too read or these days rather listen to audiobooks. My most recent listens have been The Jungle Bookk (though not yet anywhere near through), and Bambi (which was good but this is one of the rare occasions where the Disney animated movie is actually better than the book), and Stick A Flag In It which is a delightfully humorous book by a funny British YouTuber about Britain's history.

I watch quite a lot of movies and have held on to a massive collection of DVDs and Blue-rays and even some VHS tapes. And am fortunate enough to have a second-hand shop all about movies and movie merch in my home town. I enjoy many genres but I guess mostly fantasy and scifi.

I'm a gamer too, but mostly a retro gamer. For the longest time my newest home console was PS2. Or the original Nintendo DS if hand-held ones are noted. In addition to those I have a Sega Mega Drive, and am considering getting Atari 2600 someday. But probably won't because space in my home is already a challenge with all the devices I have. (Which includes also a Blue-ray player and two VHS players.) So I'll probably just get one of those Atari classics collections on PS4 even though it's not at all the same thing as playing on the original hardware with actual cartidges. Anyway, the only reason I recently bought a modern gaming console (PS4) was Hogwarts Legacy and Stray, two games I did not want to miss out on playing but my ancient PC is not powerful enough for. I don't care at all for war games. Not even of fantasy genre. I enjoy platformers, especially puzzle platformers, some RPGs, and some racing games.

My favourite food is wiener soup / sausage soup, no contest. Out of less healthy options I would say BBQ chicken pizza.

My favourite Harry Potter character is Barty Crouch Jr. Has been ever since I first read Goblet of Fire twenty-ish years ago. So I mean the version of him from the book whom is not so one-note and obviously evil as the movie version is. I love the tragic background of his character which still leaves room for so many different interpretations. I believe my interpretation is more leaning towards good-guy than Rowling's own vision is but I also believe most interpretation of his character are likwise a bit too dark or evil. All I know for sure is that mine is vastly different from most people's vision. Anyway, I often am fascinated by villains with Daddy issues and Barty Jr. is one of the most interesting to me. Sirius Black is close second favourite, he was actually the character who got me to check out the books upon learning about his story. That is, the first HP book I read was the Prisoner of Azkaban. I actually didn't read teh first two until the whol series had been published and I'd finished it. I guess it's more broadly the story of Sirius moreso than anything specific about Sirius himself. Oh, and Remus Lupin. Because I heart werewolves and Remus is nice person.

Least favourite Harry Potter character would be...Peter Pettigrew? Probably because I don't recall Rowling writing anything positive about him at all. He seemed all-in-all an unpleasent person who didn't have much of anch. I guess I feel he should have had because he was so strongly affiliated with the heroes to begin with. I do remember violently hating Umbridge when I first read the fifth book, but even so Pettigrew is worse in my opinion. Really might be mostly the wasted potential or his origins among the good guys.

My personal favourite Hogwarts House I've never really much though of. Probably Hufflepuff as that's the kinda neutral one I mostly identify as. Pottermore sorted me in Hufflepuff the first time I registered, and then twice in Gryffindor. But I indeed do feel most like a Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw is a seconf favourite though probably mostly becuase blue is my fave colour, eagle is one of my favourite birds, and Luna is a delightful character. Also, whenever I think of Ravenclaw I imagine future scientists and inventors which makes me think of humanity's progress and potential. Even if it is a fictional House ina fictional school, it's nice.

Personally, I wouldn't want to live at Hogwarts for years. Castles are drafty and not very cosy, and there are way too many stairs to climb. I would sure love to live there for a little while though, if it was real.

[candlewhisperer]

Roleplaying is definitely a great way to escape real life. In fact, I’ve started feeling better mental health wise since returning to roleplaying. It’s refreshing to imagine a world different from your own. I saw your post about your characters houses, they’re awesome! That’s a really neat hobby to have.

I didn’t realise Bambi was a book, I’ll have to read it although as a child the movie made me cry for days. I wish I had a VHS player and my old VHS tapes, I used to have so many, but my mom gave them all away.

I’m fairly new to gaming, currently I’m playing Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom. I also play Hogwarts Legacy and I love it, it’s one of my favorite games although that just might be the nostalgia talking lol. How did you like Hogwarts Legacy?

You’re absolutely right about the book version of Barty Crough Jr. He is pretty darn tragic. One thing I noticed when I reread the Harry Potter books as an adult was how many characters are actually so tragic. That flew over my head when I was a kid reading them. Peter Pettrigrew would be my second least favourite character after Umbridge.

I would imagine Hogwarts being so large and old would be very drafty, but I would hope that somehow the magical folk would have figured out a way to magic away the drafts lol.

[Kieran]

I saw your post about your characters houses, they’re awesome! That’s a really neat hobby to have.

Thank you. I did work super hard on them nearly every day for many months. At some points it wasn't even fun anymore due to problems with the software, but overall and in the end it was really good fun. And for me, they make my characters feel more real in a way as their homes no longer exist only in my own head but have been manifested into photo-realistic virtual tours. And they're useful and important for me personally if nothing else, when it comes to checking details and visualising their homes when I write in-game posts.

I didn’t realise Bambi was a book, I’ll have to read it although as a child the movie made me cry for days.

The book is nowhere near as sad or graphic about anything. It was interesting and worth a read but not very emotional, at least not in the way the Disney version is.

I’m fairly new to gaming, currently I’m playing Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom. I also play Hogwarts Legacy and I love it, it’s one of my favorite games although that just might be the nostalgia talking lol. How did you like Hogwarts Legacy?

The only Zelda game I've ever played is a Nintendo Game & Watch version from the early '90s. Of course nothing like the home console games so I'm not passing any judgment on the franchise based on it. I still haven't played Hogwarts Legacy through, but so far I like it a lot when it comes to the Harry Potter universe aspect. I just wish it had a more deep and emotional main storyline instead such a generic adventure one. That combined with how I got infuriatingly stuck with one big enemy challenge, unable to beat it due to not having levelled up enough before taking that quest, I dropped the game for months. When I picked it up again I'd forgotten so much of the gameplay functions that I just started a whole new game recently. This time instead of just picking the default character appearance, I designed the character's looks to resemble my original character Phoenix Scamander as much as possible. It helped, I feel more invested in the story and game now. So, I like it okay but I feel the main story and main character are too generic. I won't pass a final judgment yet becuase I'm only at the beginning. Perhaps it does get better and deeper towards the end.