Loads and Loads of Characters: Difference between revisions

** [[J. K. Rowling]] has actually stated that she intentionally fleshed out 40 or so classmates (10 in each house in Harry's year plus presumably some that are not in Harry's year like Luna Lovegood and Katie Bell) before she even started writing.

** That's not even counting Beaubatons and Durmstrang students and staff, ministry members, Muggles, student family members, Order of the Phoenix members, Hogwarts staff, Death Eaters, or non-human characters like Buckbeak or Dobby. And of course, this is all shown off nicely in the glorious end battle in ''Deathly Hallows''.

** This is the primary reason why there is so much [[Demoted to Extra]] in [[Harry Potter (film)|the movies]]. When there are ten zillion supporting characters and each book is pared down to a two and half hour film, inevitably some "regulars" will only get a [[Mandatory Line]] per movie if that.

* The ancient Hindu epic ''[[Mahabharata]]'', part literature and part mythology, defined Loads and Loads of Characters for possibly the first time ever, and then ''re''defined it just for fun. For most of the story, it's just the five heroes and their wife having wacky adventures. In the final year of the story, the cast suddenly balloons as the heroes are boarded up with a royal family, which naturally includes the extended family and several orders' staff and servants, all named. Then you get to [[The War Sequence]], and it's the main heroes, miscellaneous friends and political allies, their extended families, and sons and nephews in the double digits ''each'', against the enemy force of ''one hundred'' named villains and ''their'' allies, cousins, sons and nephews. This is just the named characters -- [[Mooks]] are in the thousands. And ''each named character'' gets [[Character Focus|his own story]]. This, kids, is why the ''Mahabharata'' is the longest poem ever written by an incredibly wide margin.