Manacled Aftermath

Manacled isn’t a casual read, and it definitely isn’t a simple “Dramione romance.” It’s a dystopian post war reimagining that feels like The Handmaid’s Tale crashed into the Wizarding World, then refused to look away. We talk about why the story can be both beautifully written and deeply upsetting, and why some of us finish it feeling changed, furious, and oddly grateful to have words for feelings we didn’t know how to name.

We get into the real logistics of how people even read Manacled now, from disappearing uploads to text versions with fan art that makes scenes hit harder. Then we unpack the structure: present day horror, an extended flashback descent, and the brutal click of context that reframes everything you thought you understood. Hermione’s memory loss and occlumency become more than “magic” they echo therapy language around dissociation, compartmentalizing, and the body holding what the mind can’t yet touch.

We also tackle the messy cultural layer: loving Harry Potter’s community while rejecting J.K. Rowling, choosing distance from the franchise while still carrying the characters in our history. From Draco’s portrayal to Ginny’s strange, grief soaked choices, to the paper cranes and the stolen memories, we keep coming back to one question: if you survive but can’t go home, is that peace or just a different kind of prison?

If Manacled wrecked you, confused you, or won’t stop haunting you, you’re not alone. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s still processing, and leave a review with the moment you can’t forget. What scene stayed with you the longest?

Check out our Bookshop.com book store where you can get your own copy of the books we are covering!  https://bookshop.org/shop/wreckedbyfiction

Transcript

Welcome And Why We Recorded

Emma 0:01

Welcome to the Racked by Fiction podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Did I read it on my watch break? Yeah.

Emma 0:13

Hey, everything's perfect while I was watching a movie with my six-year-old. Yeah. I didn't know I could be both right and so fucking wrong. Recked by Fiction, where we read, cry, and question our emotional stability.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Hi. Hi. Here we are again. Yep. And again, and again. And one more time.

Amanda 0:41

Again.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Oh, so.

Emma 0:45

We have been having like mini conversations about a book that I read last year and you just read. And then we finally realized that maybe we should just record it. And talk about it. Because these mini tiny conversations, I mean, we'll be talking about this book probably forever. Let's be so real. Because you were impacted pretty intensely by it, which I'm not surprised, but I can't bend my knee like that. Dumb. Um. But manicled.

SPEAKER_04 1:21

Mm-hmm.

Emma 1:23

And did you want to read it before I wanted to talk about it?

Amanda 1:28

I had never heard about it before you mentioned it and wanted to talk about it.

Emma 1:34

Really?

Amanda 1:36

I'm not into the book world as much as you.

Emma 1:39

Yeah, but with how much you like know and participate in the Harry Potter things, I would have thought that you would have paid attention to or seen, and maybe not even paid attention to, but seen or heard this like explosion of Manicold. Because Manicold is not new. Right. It's like Sen Lin Yu wrote that a while ago.

SPEAKER_05 2:08

Yeah.

Amanda 2:09

Um But you have to remember, most of my recent Harry Potter has been with my daughter. So I wasn't I wouldn't have been kind of in that side of Harry Potter.

Emma 2:24

That's true. The the fan fiction. Yes. Yeah.

Amanda 2:29

Yeah. And fanfic honestly wasn't even really anything on my radar for anything. Well, it's still not, though. Right. I mean it's not something that I really even knew. I mean, I knew that it existed, but it didn't exist. Does that make sense? Like I knew that there was stuff like that out there, but I didn't know that there was anything that I would be interested in that was fanfic.

Emma 2:53

Yeah. Well, so I put off reading Manicold for like a long time because

Finding Manacled Before It Vanished

Emma 3:02

I had been. I knew that it existed, and I had been um trying to figure out a way to get my hands on the original. Okay. Because by the time I finally read Manacold, Alchemized was in production.

SPEAKER_05 3:23

Okay.

Emma 3:23

Um, it hadn't been published yet, but it was being created, which means that every version of Manicold was being pulled from all corners of the internet. And luckily, as we know, because we're old people now, the internet is forever. Yes. And once something goes out, enough people have saved whatever that might be. You can't physically remove every trace. No. Um, and so I found it, um, which I don't I couldn't even tell you where, um, but I did. And I had originally started with the audiobook um because it was on Spotify. And the version that I listened to, uh, they had started removing chapters at a time. And so only like half the book by that point was still there. Yeah. And so I listened to all of those, and then I was like, oh, okay, well, now I have to find the rest of it. The text. Yeah. Because I have to finish it. Um, and so I did. Um, and it was and you read it, like, did you read the text or did you listen?

Amanda 4:54

I mostly listened, but I had I had the text to go with the so that I could kind of highlight I sent you or the ones that you got off of the library. I got them from because I remember we tried for me to send it to you. Yeah, the one that I got from you would not open.

Emma 5:12

Yep.

Amanda 5:13

Um, and so a friend of mine that also had it sent it to you.

Emma 5:16

Right. So the one that I had had all of the original link stuff from the original posting, um, internet posting of it. Okay. Where you could, it was like they had like a works cited page at the end of every chapter.

Amanda 5:38

Oh dang. Okay.

Emma 5:39

So if there was art, there was a citation. I don't know if that was is the version that you had.

Amanda 5:46

I think now that I think about it, I know that there was a lot of art in it that I thought was really cool to see that.

Emma 5:52

And that at the end of every chapter it told you where you could find. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So that was one of the reasons that I am glad that I read it, like um, the text version, because the art was my favorite part about that book. That feels like a lie. There there are a lot of favorite things about that book, but I did really enjoy the addition the addition of the art. Um it was helpful and it did make an impact on my reading experience for sure.

SPEAKER_05 6:27

Yeah.

The Art And Reading Experience

Emma 6:28

Um, however, when I read it, I still to this, like, we all lived through the Handmaid's Tale, um, kind of blowing shit up on Hulu and um the state of our current political system and the country that we live in. We know what it's like to be a feminine person in America right now. Yeah. Um and the transparency that Handmaid's Tale handed us years ago, um, where the author of Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, told us, I didn't write that had never happened. She's like, I took things from pieces of history that have happened that have already happened. Yeah. Um, and so we you get that in Handmaid's Tale and Manicle does Handmaid's Tale meets Harry Potter. Right. But post the Wizarding War. Yeah. Or the second Wizarding War. Yeah. And there that probably did trigger me in some way. Um, and it is why I don't necessarily consider it like high on my recommendations list. Yeah. Um, because I'm not triggered by a lot of things um when reading. So that list isn't like super long. There aren't like a lot of books that I'm like, maybe that's not for everybody. But I didn't know if you were gonna like it. I hoped. Because, and even if you didn't like it, I didn't care. I I needed for us to talk about it so bad.

SPEAKER_05 8:17

Yeah.

Emma 8:18

Because it stays with you.

SPEAKER_05 8:20

Yeah.

Amanda 8:20

Like, especially if you grew up with Harry Potter as something that was a part of your life. Like, it sucks that J.K. Rowling has the controversy around her, right? Because so many of us have that connection with Harry Potter and Hermione and Ron, right, and and everybody in that universe. And so it's just a struggle

Handmaid’s Tale Vibes And Triggers

Amanda 8:50

to have to, you know, go and be I'm trying to think of the word, like just to have that black cloud over it now, right, is frustrating. But it was nice to have this to kind of have a future version of them.

Emma 9:12

Well, and we have discussed that well, we discussed that specific piece of it, the J.K. Rowling is a turf piece. Right. When deciding if we should record this episode. Right. Because I don't disagree with the statement I just said. She is horrible. Yes. And the things that she stands for are horrible. Right. Um, I any Harry Potter book that I own um has not been purchased um, you know, new secondhand situation. Um, you know, there are there are so many things, there are ways that we are not, we are actively not providing money to the franchise. Right, right? Yeah. Um however, like you said, those of us that grew up on Harry Potter and the way that those things made us feel like I have um a significantly sized Harry Potter tattoo on my on my body. Um like it's pretty it's pretty big actually. Um and do I regret that now as a almost 32-year-old? No. Um, because at the time that I got it, those things, the thing that it was for, um, still stands to this day. Yeah. Um, my distaste and like distancing from the franchise itself does not impact the reason that I got the tattoo in the first place. Right. Um, I think that the community that Harry Potter helped us build stands. You know, I mean, it doesn't, it that didn't go away. No. The things that it changed my life. It helped me through a lot of really awful pieces of my life. Um, from book releases to midnight movie premers to um, you know, the first time you saw somebody in cosplay as Voldemort standing in line at 7 a.m. to get into the movie that didn't play until midnight. Right. Um, I think that there is a way to separate those two things. And I know that that's controversial, that statement itself. Yeah. Um, because I have separated them. My love for Harry Potter and my hate for J.K. Rowling in my mind can coexist.

Amanda 11:58

Agreed. So same with mine. Because I have also read other series of hers. You have mentioned that. That I really, really like that they came out, they started to come out before this information about JK, and it's under a different name that she uses. Sure. And I never finished it because I didn't want to continue to support her after that happened, and it sucks because I really liked that series. Um but I mean, you can't really justify.

Emma 12:36

No, we're not I mean, we're not purchasing a human being that is um a walking garbage can. So but I think that they're like you, you know, to I don't know, put into words, there is like this happy like space that was created by Manicold because you get the universe. Yes, um, and you get the characters, and you get a continuation where in those in the original franchise, there is it ends at the Wizarding War, right? You get very, very little, you know, future epilogue stuff. Yeah um and this is like yes, it is Hermione and Malfoy and Ron and Harry and Ginny and everybody else. Snape and you know, you get everybody, right? It now, especially now, I mean, as far out as I am from having read it the first time, doesn't register as Harry Potter to me. Like, I don't, it's not within the same category in my head.

Amanda 13:52

Yeah.

Emma 13:52

Like the storyline is so because I I wasn't like a secret um, you know, like hoping for Hermione and Malfoy in the original series. And so their story in Manicold, it's easy to separate for me.

Amanda 14:13

I can see that.

Emma 14:14

From it's an entirely different story.

Amanda 14:17

Yeah, I don't think I thought of it as a continuation of Harry Potter, like because it's such a different writing style and vibe. That's true. It was just that the characters got to continue on in my brain. So I still had the attachment to them as the characters. Um but I didn't have it to me, it was not a continuation of it. But years later. And so there was separation there, and it didn't to me it was different to um, it wasn't as childlike and yeah, it's not YA.

Emma 15:01

No, not none not nothing about Manicold is YA. No. Um well, and that's kind of leads me into the next piece about Manicold is so Manicold is written in essentially three parts, right? You get it start the the novel starts um in present day. Right. Um, and you get months of time, and then part two is flashbacks, and then you work all the way through the flashbacks, and then you jump to the end of part one, part one, so your present slash go few

Separating Harry Potter From Rowling

Emma 15:50

future forward, whatever. Yeah. Um it has been said that you can read it with the flashbacks first. You can read it in chronological order. Yeah. If you had known that, now that you finished it, if you had known that before you read it, would you have read it in chronological order? No. No. You think it is worth the way that it's written? Well, and I mean, personally, she wrote it like that. I'm gonna read it the way she wrote it. Right. The intent was to have that middle part be passed. Yes. Um, I'm gonna read it that way. Yeah. But I agree.

Amanda 16:28

Well, because in part one, they talk about Hermione having missing things in her memory. So to me, it doesn't to me it is in chronological order because they are flashbacks, right? It's not like it's not like part two is years connected together. It's blips of time, right? That are spread out. Some of them are close together. Yes. But the majority of them have time in between them.

Emma 17:00

Yes. However, they're not, you're not getting present day in between the flashbacks, is what I'm saying. Right.

Amanda 17:09

Okay.

Emma 17:10

So like I get it. So like if you read whatever n chapter whatever it is through whatever it is, yes, it there are gaps sometimes in between where you don't get the information of what happened in that time. Right. Um, but you're also not getting the present design. Right. Like, as if she's remembering.

SPEAKER_05 17:33

Yeah.

Emma 17:34

You know what I mean? So it wouldn't fit to like stick those chapters into because really, um, and I don't I you know, most people that want to read Manicold have probably read Manicold already. Um, let's be real. Yeah. Um, but you she doesn't like start to remember things in pieces. She has like a like painful awakening of sorts. Yeah. Um, where all of a sudden things are um on earth. Yeah. Yeah. I think one of the reasons that I loved this book so much is because of the, well, number one, we get the handmaid's tale, which is, you know, very like is a very modern take. Right. Um, but on the other side, there are like the magic in Manicold mimics modern day psychiatric work. So like like you could lay it on top of each other and they are mirror images. Yeah. I just love that piece. Because her um walling off parts of her brain is a conversation that we have in therapy all the time. Right. Like with severe trauma and severe, like very, very intense and very sick people with psychiatric disorders and things like that. But obviously, in Manicold, she it's not forever. Um, and that's obviously different than if you were sick in real life, but yeah.

Amanda 19:20

Yeah, she well, through pregnancy it starts to open up that wall.

Emma 19:25

Heal herself.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

I don't know.

Emma 19:28

There are so many pieces of manicold that are worth talking about. So number one, I can appreciate the uh the lack of details when it comes to the sexual assault that takes place. I also can appreciate where you are getting. So having both of us read the book, we know that the history between Malfoy and Hermione led to Malfoy being as kind as he possibly could be in a scenario where Hermione had no idea what was going on. Right. And so now, you know, you get when you read the first part and he is raping her, right, but he's using things to make her more calm or like make it not hurt, or like all these things, that can be confusing as a first-time reader because you're like, a piece is missing, and you just can't really figure out what that piece is.

Amanda 20:38

Right. Like he doesn't like her, right, is what you're supposed to automatically assumption, yeah. And then to find out that they had had a relationship, and I can't imagine the mind fuck that that had

Manacled’s Three Part Structure

Amanda 20:54

to have been, even for him.

Emma 20:55

Oh, I think maybe especially for him. Yeah, if I'm being honest, because she actively doesn't remember.

Amanda 21:01

Right. And he does, but also has to keep up pretenses to not get found out. Yep. But he's also trying to protect her because he knows their relationship.

Emma 21:13

Yeah, protect her, the pretenses of um who he is supposed to be, right, and the pain of being around her nearly every day. Yeah, knowing that she doesn't remember. Yeah. That's just brutal. Yeah. Because really, by the end of, or well, let me rephrase, by the point where she the war was over and she had been imprisoned, they were so woven together on like a soul level, and I like magically and like emotionally because they she had taken on so much of his dark magic, and I just he had to have been in pain. Every day. You know what I mean? Just horrible. And then to know that he is having to do this to her. Right. And then and then you get all the flashbacks, and then you realize, like, oh, okay, that's why he storms out and or throws up afterwards or disappears for two weeks, or because God, that's a mindful.

Amanda 22:25

It wasn't because he was disgusted, it was because he was hurting and heartbroken.

Emma 22:30

And it was because he was disgusted with himself. Yeah. He wasn't upset that he had to touch her.

SPEAKER_05 22:36

Yeah.

Emma 22:36

He was upset that he had to touch her like that. Yeah. Yeah. Um. God. And I loved, I've I always loved Draco. Um Draco was I was a Draco fan, and especially when the movies came out, I liked Draco, and that's how I like the way that Sen Lanew portrayed him as like a grown man is exactly what I would have like if the original series had carried on. That's how I would have pictured him as well.

Amanda 23:12

See, and I this clued me into a crush on Draco that I didn't realize that I had had.

Emma 23:19

No.

Amanda 23:19

I didn't think that I had a crush on any of the characters in Harry Potter. Maybe the twins, maybe, just because you know they were goofy as shit. But like, yeah, no, reading this is like, oh yeah, I did actually like Draco.

Emma 23:34

Yeah, and opened up something for you. Yeah. Well, I think maybe, I mean, it's possible that a crush on Draco Malfoy can be impacted on whether or not you still picture Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. Because let's be real, Tom Felton still pictures Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. So I mean, um, if he hasn't let it go, do I have to? Because I'm not ready. Um, anyway, side note, um, if you would really um like to dive further into your feelings about the twins, there's some fanfic I can recommend.

Amanda 24:13

Okay, good to know.

Emma 24:16

I mean both?

Amanda 24:18

Is it love triangle? Why choose both? Oh, okay. We might have to talk later. All of the above. Okay. You know.

Emma 24:29

Um could be interesting. I mean, it really depends on how you feel about the taboo uh corner of why choose where there are brothers involved. Because some people are into that. I don't mind a book with a with a brother why choose.

Amanda 24:43

Sometimes you never know until you read it. I mean, well.

Emma 24:50

Okay.

Trauma Memory Loss And Occlumency

Emma 24:53

I I'm fine. I've read so many where of twins, so it doesn't bother me. But there's I mean, there are people who are like, that's incest. And I'm like, but they're not having sex with each other. They're just having sex with the same person at the same time. So they're rubbing like this. But that's not just a little, just a little, you know. I mean, I don't know. I think uh an argument can be made for or against, okay? Both. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

100% insatiaus. Can't argue that away.

Emma 25:28

I can argue anything away. I appreciate your input though. Um, if you'd like a list of books to read to check it out, I'll let you know. I have many. Anyway, the floating voice. Uh if it's a dang peanut gallery. If it's on I doubt it caught it, but if it did, because he yelled loud enough. Well, so I think there are God, get away the twins is now in my brain. Okay, that's not what we're talking about.

Amanda 26:00

You brought it up. You brought up your uh crush on the twins. I said a maybe crush on the twins, and then you're the one that brought up the venturing into that thing.

Emma 26:11

I'm just saying it's unoptioned for you. I do think that there is the end of, or let's not say the end, part three of Manicold, where you get Ginny and her baby on their secluded island slash home, whatever. Yeah, can be um kind of confusing a little because Hermione is so fucking traumatized by the time they get out there, af with everything she's had to do, but also what the magic has done to her body, right? She's she's deteriorating, um, and they haven't figured out a way to stop it. Right. Um and Jenny is a fucking weirdo. I don't I don't think I have still to this day have a full grasp on why it was so weird when Hermione got there. Well, like for them to be friends again or whatever.

Amanda 27:16

Yeah, I mean, there's a part of me that could see Jenny's initial reaction being normal where she got protective of Hermione because she didn't Jenny didn't know about Hermione and Malfoy's relationship, right?

SPEAKER_04 27:31

Yeah.

Amanda 27:32

So to be protective over Hermione and initially to try to get Hermione away from him and not she probably thought Hermione had Stockholm syndrome and was like you know, thinking that Hermione was with him because she had been through the trauma with him and was just like, oh my god, I'm in love with him now, right? Right. Not knowing that they had a future or had a previous relationship that you know Hermione remembered.

Emma 28:00

Right.

Amanda 28:00

So I could see that initially, but yeah, it was kind of a weird interaction for how close the two of them were prior to all of that.

Emma 28:09

Yeah, yeah. I and I don't know, I think that there's I mean, you know, it could be said that she was isolated for so long, like she hasn't had like Ginny, hasn't had human interaction really because from a toddler. Yeah, but then she also like she even said like that Draco would come and essentially like make sure she was alive, yeah, and then leave again. Yeah. So and he obviously couldn't and never did tell her why she was there in the first place, and the fact that he had made an agreement with Hermione before Hermione sacrificed herself and all of that. Yeah. Um but I yeah, and then Jenny leaving and leaving her child and saying, you know, saying she needed to go be a part of it now because she wasn't a part of it then because sh they sent her away.

Amanda 29:10

Right. Which I think is a totally valid feeling. However, I could not leave my child like that.

Emma 29:18

I think she's just got the most intense case of survivor's guilt to ever exist.

Amanda 29:23

For sure.

Emma 29:24

And unfortunately, she would rather die than live with the guilt that she did nothing. Right. And that's horrible, and that's obviously not the ideal situation. No. But yeah, I mean, obviously that's not ideal, but she wouldn't you though, like I don't not wouldn't you leave, but wouldn't you just Oh, I'd feel like scary Yeah. Absolutely the worst.

Amanda 29:55

Absolutely. It would be especially to find out what Hermione went through.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

Mm-hmm.

Amanda 30:04

Even though even after finding out everything that Harry and Ron and her family and everybody else had gone through, but then to also find out everything Hermione went through.

Emma 30:14

Right afterwards?

Amanda 30:15

Afterwards.

Emma 30:16

Yeah.

Amanda 30:17

And then Hermione still is like, I'm having a kid and I'm gonna be okay. And you know, yeah, I could I would absolutely be in a mess for sure.

Emma 30:28

Yeah. There are so many, I keep thinking of all of these other random little things to what do you have on do you have other things to touch on?

Amanda 30:38

Because I have one other thing, but I mostly just have like quotes that were said that that made that hit home for me. Um I mean, we talked about the how she was practicing oclumency as like before she officially lost her. Yeah, but it was like the closest

Consent Confusion And Draco’s Pain

Amanda 31:00

thing to mental peace that she could find. And it was like Yeah. Yeah. Right? Like I could I could see how blocking all of that out and get you there.

Emma 31:12

Well, and don't we do that?

Amanda 31:15

Yeah.

Emma 31:16

I mean, don't you compartmentalize? Don't you decide that right now is not the time to feel those things? And so into a box they go and into the filing cabinet system that is your brain, and bye. Talk to those later. See you later or never. Yep. Yeah. And that's, you know, kind of ties back into that, like the magic piece of this with her memory loss, and is so, so close to things that you know we see all the time. Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda 31:55

One of the other things that she said was, I didn't realize I how I was still waiting in regards to her and Malfoy both still kind of waiting for something bad to happen, even though they were out. And I think we all do that too. There's a lot of us that have experienced so much trauma that when things are good, we're constantly waiting for the shoe to drop. Right. Yeah, the expectation is the next bad thing that you're gonna have to tackle. Um so that was very relatable as well.

Emma 32:27

Yeah.

Amanda 32:28

I think that one of the things that struck me the most was when Hermione's daughter got to go to Hogwarts and she wanted to find a way for her mom to get recognition. But the only way to do that was going to be basically outing who her parents were, and nobody knew that.

Emma 32:52

Yep. She couldn't say who she actually was.

Amanda 32:54

And I thought that that was touching that she wanted to do it and heartbreaking at the same time because she couldn't do it. And so basically Hermione never got recognized for all of the freaking work she did.

Emma 33:09

I think it's I mean as a rule, right? There's there's one quote in Manicold that as like a the manicold community, right? It's the picture at the end of the book where she's sitting in between, and it's from that celebration that the picture was taken, and you know, her face is like dead in the center of it, and um, and after that picture was taken, they get into that big fight and everything. But like where it says, you know, Hermione Granger, um, you know, last surviving member of Order the uh non-active member of the Order with Phoenix. Right.

Amanda 33:49

And she was probably the most active.

Emma 33:52

She literally built fucking bombs and like she figured out a way through their defenses, and she she was the their side, she was their main sacrifice. She was she was the answer to all of their questions. Right. If there was a problem, she figured it out. Well, between her and like her and Snape. Right. They figured it out. Yeah. Um and she they the ministry sacrificed her to turn Draco onto their side because they were like, well, if the if he falls in love with you, then he'll give us the answers that we need. Guess what? You all fucking died anyway. Right. Like, yeah, they killed you all.

Amanda 34:41

Yeah.

Emma 34:42

And you wasted her.

Amanda 34:44

Yeah. Can you imagine how much more she could have done if they had listened to her?

SPEAKER_05 34:50

Mm-hmm.

Amanda 34:51

Especially about the dark magic piece, where she was like, we have to use a little bit of it, right? Like how much faster the war could have been over, and how much different it all could have been, and how many lives could have been saved.

Emma 35:05

I can. I think the magic piece that sticks with me in this book so like heavily is the description of the curses that were being that um they were that were getting cast on them, and they were like coming into the hospital to the ward, and she was trying to fix them, but they were like their skin was literally like sloughing off of their bodies, yeah, or it was like death by a thousand cuts, but a curse, and every time I was like fucking imagery in this book. Yeah. Fin Liniew is top-notch. And here's where we say the point where we haven't read Alchemized yet. No. Um, we only have one copy at this point in time.

SPEAKER_05 35:54

Yeah.

Emma 35:55

Um, I am I I have to go into Alchemized recognizing it is not the same book. Right. It's not. No. The characters are different, the magic system is different. Um, like, yes, I know that it is close enough. Right. And there will be characters that have the same name because they're not a part of the original, right? Yeah. Um, Stroud is in this book too. Yeah. But it's not the same book. And if I go into it with Hermione and Draco in my head, I don't know if I will be able to be attached to these characters in the same way.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

Agreed.

Emma 36:43

Um, and I don't want to do that. That's not fair to Sen Linou because it's another masterpiece that well, fingers crossed, but probably. Right. But I think one of the last things that I want to talk about real quick about Manicold is just

Crushes Fanfic Rabbit Holes And Twins

Emma 37:00

is the paper cranes. Because her she had these flashbacks and she couldn't figure out why she could remember how to do this with her hands. Right. And I think it's very like we talk about imagery a lot on the podcast. Um, we've done it with the finish line, we've done it with um other books. Um, but the piece of this the imagery that you get where she's remembering how to do something, but she doesn't know why she remembers it.

SPEAKER_05 37:33

Right.

Emma 37:33

And then in the flashbacks, you get her explaining why she makes paper cranes. Right. And her parents and the way that um it was something that she was taught to do. And then you get Voldy stealing that memory from her during one of his insane torture sessions of trying to break through and just the And she can't make them anymore. Yeah, and then all of a sudden she can't, and it's horrible. Yeah. That yeah, the paper cranes is huge to me. That book is so fucked up. Also, it has like the a happy ending, but not really. No. Like, did they die? No. No. They are alive.

Amanda 38:22

Yeah, they get to be together, but they don't they have to hide.

Emma 38:27

Yeah. And isn't and that's you know, maybe a controversial question. Is that better?

Amanda 38:34

No.

Emma 38:35

Like, they're together, they're alive, but they can't return to society. No. They can't go to their daughter's uh any of her school functions or something. Any of her like gr graduating from wizarding school and like any of that shoe, they can't be part of any of that. No.

Amanda 38:56

Well, and then even their daughter has to be someone else. Yeah.

Emma 39:00

She has to go by a different name.

Amanda 39:02

Yeah.

Emma 39:03

Yeah. So no, I I don't know. I mean, I I would I'd like to say that I think it w it's better than them having died in the first place. But I think in the grand scheme of like all of the shit they have both been through, I guess peace is enough. It has to be. So I don't know. I don't know. We started this by saying you wanted m more. You wished that you had gotten more. And by that you mean the next step, which is the daughter. Yeah. You want her story.

Amanda 39:42

What I would really like is justice for Hermione and her to be able to come clean. That's not right. But like her to be able to get the recognition that she deserves in her role of how things ended.

Emma 40:01

I think the trauma and the way that her body suffered and the things she had to deal with and the you know, all of the accommodations that are made now because of the what happened to her body because of the dark magic and the occlumcy and all of that.

SPEAKER_05 40:20

Right.

Emma 40:21

Um, I think she would tell you that it's fine, that it's enough. Because everyone that knew who she was is dead, except for Draco. Yeah. Um everything that or let me rephrase, everyone who knew what she had actually done is dead, except for except for Draco. Right. Because obviously there are still people alive who knew she was uh an um a member of the Order of Phoenix.

Amanda 40:48

Right.

Emma 40:49

Um But I think she would tell you that it's enough.

Amanda 40:54

As her friend, it's not enough.

Emma 40:58

I also think that while I believe that her love for Draco is true and you know, is real, I do think that it is a severe trauma bond and for sure um she would never have fallen in love with Draco Malfoy, given her own like under her own advisement. Right. That would not have been done on purpose. No. Um and not because of who Draco is as a person. I don't I just don't like if they had not if she had not had to do what she did for him, she would not have the bond with him that she does at the end of the book. No. But because the sacrificing that they both made for each other is is the foundation of their love.

Amanda 41:53

Yeah. That's what brought them together.

Emma 41:55

So also I just cried so fucking hard at that book, so I don't I don't know. That book has fucked me up. Yeah. So well eventually we'll read Alchemized. Maybe. I need a minute.

Amanda 42:16

I need some time to put some separation there.

Emma 42:18

Maybe. Yeah, like even just like talking about it, I don't view it's not Harry Potter to me.

SPEAKER_05 42:25

Yeah.

Emma 42:26

Yeah, it's it's not. It's different than like yes, all of the information that I know about Hermione Granger and who she is as a person, I guess I i I am drawing from the original. But I don't I don't know. I have separated them for sure in my head. The way that I am yeah, I have viewed her character development and how she has grown and everything. Is it is a separate entity for sure. So Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

Are you dead now?

Amanda 43:06

No. Okay.

Ginny’s Island Survivor’s Guilt

SPEAKER_00 43:09

What is it? There's a what's that thing I'm I'm stuck in? Do you know what I'm trying to say? No. You don't? Never mind. No.

Emma 43:17

I'll think of it as soon as we're done filming. Uh 50 cents of Venmo. Anybody who listens to this and can tell me what I am trying to say. Where I'm I'm pretty sure it's like Harry Styles or something, and he says I'm still stuck in the whatever. Um yep. That's enough. That's all I got. So maybe somebody knows what I'm trying to say. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 43:46

So okay. Well, uh, good talk, sad talk. Yeah.

Amanda 43:51

Uh we're both in our field now.

Emma 43:54

Yeah, I'm literally staring at the floor. Okay, well, that's enough of that.

unknown 44:00

Yeah.

Emma 44:00

Well, now that we're um obviously uh wrecked by fiction. See ya. Bye.