7 years of Harry: Harry

I know, I know, the actual franchize of Harry Potter has been around a lot longer than 7 years, and even the movies, and these corresponding pictures have been going on for about 9 years, but the point is there are 7 books and 7 (ish) movies that are supposed to cover 7 years. That means there were 7 different versions of each character as not only the characters grew in the books, but as the actors portraying them in the movies grew.

 So I decided, in honor of the first half the final installment coming out next month (Just got my tickets for midnight!) I would put up some pictures of the characters from the various movies. It's really fun to see how different the actors look going from the first all the way to the seventh, and to think about how different they and their characters really act. This will probably be in a few parts, since there's a lot of characters I wanted to cover, and a lot of fun pictures. So without further ado, Harry, from year 1 to year 7!

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe):

Year 1: Sorcerer's Stone

Imagine what it must have been like for some 10/11 year old kid to find out he was going to be Harry Potter. Even if the series didn't have quite the, errrr... following, it does now, it still was every kid's dream to be him, to get to go to Hogwarts. And maybe it wasn't the real Hogwarts, but until the theme park came out last year, it was as close as you could get.

Year 2: Chamber of Secrets

I thought he was so cute when I was 12. I loved that the series followed my age so well. The books were pretty close, and the movies were for a while, and since the actors age at normal speed XD Daniel Radcliffe was always only a year older than me. He got a lot older looking between the first and second movies. This exact picture was in my assignment book in 8th grade.

Year 3: Prisoner of Azkaban

My favorite of both the early books and movies (That's 1-4.) People say the year 5 is when it gets darker, but really for Harry it was dark all along. Year 3 is when it really starts getting dark for him though because it isn't just "stay away from the bad guy trying to kill you" anymore. This is where Harry starts learning the twisted backstory behind his parents death, has to deal with other people being evil not just Voldemort, and is faced with the decision of possibly personally killing someone for revenge. Quite a bit for a 13-year-old to deal with, don't you think?

Year 4: Goblet of Fire

This picture was on one of my binders in high school. The last picture of him that made it onto anything of mine, since he then cut all his hair off. The costumes from these movies (the wizarding ones, not when they're just wearing normal clothes) are awesome. I want them all. *Runs off to change costume construction project.* The quidditch uniform in this picture makes me really want to play quidditch and their school uniforms and robes are very fun. Also some of the adult wizards have cool robes, but I might get into that later.

Year 5: Order of the Pheonix

And then Harry Potter chopped off all his hair. The end. >< I did like the 5th book a lot, and the movie was ok, but it was the beginning of a new style of Harry Potter. The books were more mature, more indepth, and intense. The movies really started focusing more on the characters and main plot, and less on the "wizarding world" novelty. Also, Harry in year 5, besides being rather angsty, becomes more confident and empowered, and starts empowering others as well with Dumbledore's Army.

Year 6: Half Blood Prince

They really got uncreative with the promotional pictures didn't they? And he still had no hair! I did like Harry in this book though, he toned down the angst and was really very mature about things, even things with Ginny relatively. I really liked the movie as well and thought Daniel Radcliffe did a good job in this one, with all the little quirks he gave Harry. The interesting thing in this one is Harry is more of a bystander in a lot of it. He doesn't go out and do a lot of big stuff himself. He's learning from and accompanying Dumbledore, witnessing Ron and Hermione's issues, he even is frozen and has to just watch Dumbledore's death. Instead in this one you see a lot of the other characters' personalities and what they're capable of.

Year 7: Deathly Hallows

This one has everything. Epic Battles, mystical desired tokens, exposition, fugitives, undercover missions, snakes popping out old ladies, secret pasts, redemption, bad guys who are actually good, resurrection, romance, marraige, birth, betrayal, loyalty, tension between friends, explosions, ghosts of dead parents, underdogs, mom-power, imprisonment, bank robbery, dragons, clues falling into place, back story, dismemberment, secret organizations, government take-overs, Christian allegory, and of course death, death, and more death. In the book, and hopefully the movie, Harry has to undergo a lot of sadness, disappointment, and loss, before getting to the final battle. And throughout he learns and changes a lot, as you see a much more mature, experienced, confident, and disillusioned Harry than the little 11-year-old boy who first got a letter to Hogwarts.

I'll do the rest of the characters later. Next up will be Ron and Hermione!

-Krys-

-"Harry Potter, Harry Potter, oo! Harry Potter, Harry Potter, that's me!"-