Friday 24 April 2015

U is for Unimportant Umbridge

A to Z Challenge - U

U is for "I've never met anyone unimportant"
I may have taken a little bit of poetic license with this quote.  Or at least, remembered it wrong until after I'd finished and uploaded the pattern.  The real quote is either "I've never met anyone who was unimportant" or "I've never met anyone was wasn't important."  The internet tends to differ, however I think the second one is the real quote.  Which doesn't have a U in it at all.  Shhhhhhh it can be our little secret ;). 


The original quote comes from the episode A Christmas Carol, Matt Smith's first Christmas special as the Doctor. This episode is one of my favourite Christmas specials as it was such an unusual take on a classic story - an episode that someone who wasn't a Doctor Who fan could easily sit down and enjoy without getting too confused.  Plus it had Michael Gambon in it which was a nice bonus for a Harry Potter fan like myself. 


Actually, the full quote is "Blimey.  You know, in 900 years of time and space I've never met anyone who was unimportant" (or "wasn't important" if you want to be technical).  Which kind of contradicts something David's Doctor said when he first met Donna Noble in Runaway Bride: "You're not special, you're not powerful, you're not connected, you're not clever, you're not important".  Not David's nicest/proudest moment I agree, but still contradicts what Matt says.  Then again, Rose Tyler tells Donna that she is the most important person in the universe, so maybe David was just wrong.  (**shock, horror, faints**). 

U is for Dolores Umbridge
The most evil Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.  She was so creepy with her little girl dresses and her high pitched voice and her girly bows, and her insane rules and smarmyness.  Utterly disturbing.  I think I was more put off by her character than by any other character in the books or movie.  Gilderoy Lockhart was uncomfortable to read, and one reason why the second novel is my least favourite, but this woman was worse.  Her holier-than-thou, Ministry-knows-best, pure-blood-humans only attitude was just unnerving.  She was worse than any Death Eater because there was absolutely nothing redeamable about her.  Nothing at all.  She was also the one character I didn't agree with the casting of.  Don't get me wrong, Imelda Stauton had the smarmy unnerving attitude down to a tee, but she wasn't toad-like, which is how Umbridge is repeatedly described in the books.  Toad attitude, yes, toad appearance no.  I always pictured Umbridge looking more like Annette Badland who played Margaret the Slitheen in Doctor Who - to me there was a similar look and attitude between Margaret and Umbridge.

Happy Stitching - and remember, only 5 days of the challenge to go!

3 comments:

  1. Hello there.
    Nice work. I always found cross stitch made my eyes go funny after a while.
    Thanks for sharing.

    Entrepreneurial Goddess

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