User blog comment:GravityMan/Literature vs History 1: Harry Potter vs Harry Houdini/@comment-27019625-20160117003140

Welcome to another miraculous, magnificent review with Brandon Service!

For the sake of clarity, this review will be done under a specialized set of circumstances, that cater to my own preferences as a reader. First of all, I will be reading without a beat. This is a natural preference of mine, as I treat fanmade rap battles more as pieces of literature {fittingly enough!}, rather than songs. If a line is critiqued, and your response is that it works better with a beat, I stand by my opinion, as many read battles in their own ways, and my way focuses mostly on lyricism. For further clarity, and simplicity on my end, both Thy and Grav will be referred to as a singular figure, as I have no real sense of who carries what responsibility, nor a particular interest.

Secondly, I review on a verse-by-verse basis, as I read along with the rap. Generally, I read one verse, and then write a review of that individual verse, to the best of my abilities, followed by a review of the piece as a whole later on. This may be unnoticeable, this may be glaring. I'm simply telling you, for the sake of posterity, and understanding of how I word things. Besides the general formatting, these reviews are largely an extended stream of thought. If you believe any point needs further elaboration/clarification, please alert me below.

Now, on to the work itself. Unlike many, I have no problem with new series being made based off of the '____ vs. History' format. I believe that it allows for a wide variety of interesting battle concepts, and an even basis for the entire series to follow. For a series centering mainly around literature, it's quite fitting to choose the Boy Who Lived, quite possibly the most famous literary character of the last who-knows-how-many decades, Harry Potter.

As a character of such high esteem, Harry Potter had many potential opponents. As he was considered shafted by ERB, and less likely to be used {due to one of his prime opponents being used in an official rap battle, and, to some, due to not wanting more representation of Harry Potter, post-Dumbledore vs. Gandalf.} the fanmade community has taken use of it. Merlin, Frodo, and Houdini are, by far, the most popular suggestions, with occasional wantings of Twilight Sparkle, Rasputin, or my personal favorite, Mary Poppins. As you may notice, most of these characters are fictional, or, in the case of Merlin, mythological. For a series based around Literature facing off against History, pitting Literature's most famous Wizard against History's most famous Magician was a wise choice.

Prior to reading the raps, I would like to take a look at the end result of Wonder's whoring, the title card. This is a mixed bag, right off the bat. The logo is excellent-- it portrays an interesting design lacking symmetry and sense, a fun sort of writing that lends itself well to this battle, and to the diversity of literature itself. Though, having a whimsical sort of logo may not lend itself well to darker battles, featuring such famous literary characters as those from the mind of Stephen King, or Katniss Everdeen. But, for the moment, it fits.

Speaking of the logo's visual selections, I find the pictures you chose for the two odd. For Harry Houdini, the choice of picture is rather fitting. Though I initially viewed it as making Houdini look rather slimey, upon further inspection, he appears more like what he was: a showman. However, on the case of Potter, the picture chosen, in my opinion, does not properly represent the Harry Potter franchise, or character. Beyond the odd decision of having him portrayed as his film self in a series about literature {something excusable by the bounty of usable pictures for Film-Potter, in contrast to the relatively limited variety of Literary-Potter pictures.} he appears too intense in this picture. On a whole, Potter is not a very intense guy. He's silly, he's joking... yes, I understand the usage of symmetry, having the two in the same general pose, but, even that is mucked up, by the fact that Harry is riding a heavily-concealed broom, that appears to look more like a wooden penis. This is not a major issue, but, it is odd to have Potter as the more intense figure, next to Houdini. It's like if Lewis and Clarke were grinning on their title card, while Bill and Ted glared menacingly toward the viewer.

Now, without further ado, let us dive into the raps themselves!

Right off the bat, you divert the portrayals of your Houdini interpretation, from ERB's own. A common pitfall in the fanmade rap battle community is losing your own spark, your own originality, in favor of aping ERB's own thoughts. It's like LEGO pieces-- sure, the buildings crafted by following the instruction books are serviceable, but, the real wonder and the real fun comes when you lose the book under the couch, and have to think for yourself. Forcing yourself to divert from ERB, and the fact that you did being immediately noticeable, means that you did something wonderful: create a defined personality for your rapper. Rather than a common fanmade rap mistake, having the character simply be venues for dissing, rather than characters acting out rage against other characters, based off of their own mannerisms, thoughts, and opinions. In the case of the first verse, no line is overtly-familiar, from watching ERB's own Houdini battle.

The personality you chose, a showman, fits the core of Houdini and Potter themselves, in contrast, and is a good element to accentuate, Houdini, of course, being what basically amounts to one of the most famous actors/stuntman ever, and Potter being someone unwillingly struck into the role of 'most famous Wizard alive', and a rather shy, plain boy at heart. This verse accurately represents this choice, and fits with the core point-- '''Your books are lame, irrelevant, and already outdated. You're overly fantastical, best suited for reading whilst taking a shit.' ''Without any contradictions to be found, the entire verse fits this point. Though, with that, while the verse is steadily sensical, there's a lack of lines with any real punch, and some of the lines feel fairly forced, rather due to weariness due to length {the final two lines.} or fairly forced puns {Dumble-doornail.}. Nevertheless, the verse has some fun wordplay, and a strong core, balancing out the negatives that bog it down, slightly.

Potter's own verse quickly contrasts with Houdini's own. Lacking in the wordplay of Houdini's own purple prose, Potter's verse is fairly direct, to-the-point, and decently aggressive, with a few drops of humility, sounding like an actual teenager, with some Wizarding World references plopped in. These references avoid a common pitfall of fanmade rapping; when lyricism and proper research are a massive focus, the references often get too obscure, such as disses based around the deep personal lives of the rappers, or, in the case of fictional universes, references made for people who already experienced the works they originate from, both of which hurt accessibility for the readers. With your Potter references, they all tap into fairly well known elements, like the chocolate frog, the House Cup, and Hermione's most notable trait. The dig at Houdini's personal life, referring to his marriage, is accessible, even without knowing the events or context surrounding it. This is similar to the style of ERB itself-- nearly all disses are accessible on the surface of someone who knows nothing about the characters beside a cursory knowledge, and only become better upon gaining a knowledge/having a prior knowledge. Anyways, I ramble. On the subject of Potter's personality, the traits you've given him are good accentuations of his canon behavior, and provide a nice contrast to Houdini's bombastic attitude.

Though Potter's verse is easily accessible, there's some positives and negatives to it. On one hand, out of the first two verses presented thus far, Potter is the only one with a really hard diss. The kind of diss that stings, the kind where you think, I can't believe he'd say that.. In this context, that line is the amazingly timed and executed line about Houdini's marriage disappearing. Though it isn't treading new ground in the fanmade community, it is well set-up, brief, to the point, and accessible to anyone, as detailled in an earlier rambling. However, Potter's verse has one glaring flaw-- nonsensical, or poor, choices in what to talk about. The slippery frogs line makes no real sense as a diss, from what I can tell. Having 'bright rhymes like Hermione's mind' is an odd choice of words, as are criticizing Houdini on his rapping being fast. On initial reading, the 'packing a punch' line was going to be listed as an odd choice. But, upon rereading to write this paragraph, my view changed. I came to realize that it was both a retort to one of Houdini's previous lines, and a creative way to reference Houdini's death. That's the sort of ''eureka! ''moment that I love, that can only come from creative wordplay, and adds a second strong diss to Harry's verse, slightly offsetting the nonsensical finishing line.

Houdini comes back strong from Potter's verse. It appears, now, that you embraced the double-edged sword. You gave Potter that nonsensical final line, to segue into a retorting diss from Houdini. This strategy has its advantages and drawbacks-- namely, while it delivers the retorting rapper an opportunity for a strong line, it takes away from the punch of the reciever's own verse. As Potter's rap dropped a few bombs, something accentuated by following Houdini's own middling first verse, this is a good tradeoff to even out the battle. Though comparing your own balls to that of a child is an odd choice, both of the lines Houdini spits are sensible to his portrayed character, and genuinely good lines.

Potter's own returning verse, unfortunately, does not keep the same level of quality. On the plus side, Ron, off the bat, shows an obvious personality, that gels well with the presentation of the two Harrys'. The bile line may be some sort of quote, which, without any good context {instead being preceeded by a fairly generic line.} lacks any punch, or any meaning. Though I like how you include the constant theme of friendship aiding Potter in any sort of conflict, it doesn't benefit Potter's performance in any way. Potter's own last line of the verse sounds more like a gesture to segue into Houdini's rap, rather than a diss for Houdini to retort.

There's not much to say, on the subject of Houdini's third verse, beyond the fact that it's a repeat of the same, regarding Houdini's second verse, in subject matter. An overtly-sexual reference on a child, that services for a fairly good diss, in addition to dropping a killer final line, that is quite possibly the best line dropped in the rap thus far. It's more reminiscent of Potter's first verse-- highly accessible references that everyone knows, based around the Wizarding World, used to creatively diss the opponent. In addition to this, it has become quite clear that Houdini is being angered by Potter's disrespect, as he's grown more threatening, and less jovial/showmanly.

Meanwhile, Potter's third verse is a massive improvement on his second. It properly represents the thematic of Potter's friends aiding him, while making Ron's contribution remotely helpful, by him dropping what is not necessarily a diss, but, instead, a simple ranting threat. Potter bounces off of this, seguing the two into an actual diss around Houdini. It's fun to see Ron and Potter act like genuine friends, and notable to see inter-duo conflict in a battle, that doesn't lead to an East vs. West style bickering match, instead acting as an actual thing someone would actually say to a friend.

It is, at this point, I realize that, at no point, does Houdini call, or even imply, that Potter is an inferior magician. This is an amazing touch, as inconsequential and minor as it may be. The obvious way to write this battle would be injecting both rappers with a plentitude of 'your magic sucks, i'm better than you!' But, Houdini knows that his own magic tricks are not real. He knows that Potter is a real wizard. They're two different types of magic, and you treat them as such. The only line mentioning Houdini ending Potter's magic is the first line of Houdini's final verse, which is more of a 'I'll kick your ass, kid, no matter who you are'. On top of that, Houdini doesn't just say a generic 'you may be a better magician, but at least i'm ____' line. Houdini just keeps on dissing, keeps on bragging. For the sake of sense, this fight avoids obvious line fodder, which is something I absolutely adore about it.

Continuing the evolution of Houdini into a more angry individual as the fight goes on, and contributing to the running pattern of Houdini uncomfortably alluding to a minor's sex life, Houdini's final verse is strongly on the offensive. Dropping most sense of charade or showmanship, Houdini bursts into an angry, threatening tirade. Is this for the better? Well, it's back and forth. Though largely quality content, it lacks hard disses. The final line had material for a hard diss, but, the way you phrased it, removes any sense of real diss. Instead of alluding to people not caring about his abuse, which would be a genuine diss to the thematic core of the franchise, it instead references people not noticing. Something that says nothing of Potter or his friends, and, therefore, has nobody to offend. Unfortunately, this disappointing line is followed by an aversion of one of this battle's strengths-- the pin reference, which is obscure to Houdini's personal life, something that, without deeper knowledge, carries no real gravity.

Potter, meanwhile, has reflected the character development within his own series, by growing into a more confrontational person, in addition to being more self-confident. This allows for a fun, appealing combination and fairly equal balance of bragging and dissing. While the first line may be a little disappointing, due to being bloated, teetering the line of too obscure, and a soft diss, the rest of the verse is Potter casting gold, with quality flow, quality wordplay, and, as said before, a good balance, providing the battle with a strong final line.

Who won? Well, on further inflection, and several rereadings, I'd have to say that Potter won. Though he came to a slight faulter in his second verse, that lead up to a solid third and fourth verse. While Houdini stayed routinely adequate in quality, there were a few noticeable dips, such as the middling first and last verses. Potter's verses made you think much more, while, at the same time, being easily accessible. His wordplay was intelligent, his points were solid, and he was, overall, a much more enjoyable read.

On further reflection, based around Potter's characterization, relative to the title card, it's more fitting than my immediate first thoughts. The title card, overall, makes sense, based off of the character presented in the battle, and their development throughout. Houdini is taunting; a showman, highlighting flaws in his opponent. Potter, meanwhile, appears tired, yet determined, with a symbol of both his strength, his love, and his weakness-- the Thunderbolt scar-- only partially revealed. Though, I still believe that the choice of the broom was poor, doesn't mesh well with Houdini's photo, and likely could have been replaced, with the same general concept and appearance in Potter himself staying the same.

So, my final thoughts on this episode. A lovely premiere, for a lovely new series. Though there's some rather glaring flaws presented throughout, I have the sincere faith that you will be able to iron them out, and they're heavily outweighed by the positives. A simple battle, but, it has enough small details and fun lines to explore, to be seen as a good premiere. It's clear that you are experienced in writing battles, and understand what goes into making a quality rap. Most series, generally, start off on the worst foot, and improve with time. If you improve in such a manner, while keeping up the quality of your premiere, I believe that you will soon be amongst the greats.