![\"\"](\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/whoisdelphicover_LargeWide.jpg\")
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SPOILERS BELOW. You’ve been warned.<\/p>\n
For years I genuinely \u00a0thought that J.K. Rowling had little more to squeeze out of her billion-dollar \u00a0toothpaste tube than the \u00a0<\/em>theme park in Orlando. Friends, how ignorant \u00a0I was. Enter: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child<\/em>, a \u00a0two-part play and accompanying script that \u00a0follows our beloved characters and their children (!) through a plot based on time-travel (!!).<\/p>\n Yes, this sounds<\/em> like a travesty, but credible sources<\/a> will assure you<\/a> it is not<\/a>. I, for one, am at least \u00a080% \u00a0on board with this \u00a0play. But because this is \u00a0the Harry Potter<\/em> fandom we’re talking about, it almost goes without saying that no matter the critics’ consensus, the play must live \u00a0in a cocoon of controversy until the end of time.<\/p>\n Besides \u00a0the queerbaiting<\/a>, I’d say its \u00a0main point of contention is the existence of \u00a0Delphi(ni)<\/strong>. \u00a0Who is Delphi? Good question. I’m \u00a0mostly going off \u00a0of is this moodboard I found on Tumblr:<\/p>\n But I also read the script and about one \u00a0hundred HP \u00a0<\/em>subreddits that informed me \u00a0she is the offspring of \u00a0Bellatrix Lestrange and Lord Voldemort<\/a>. Bellamort, if you will (Google the ‘ship \u00a0at your own risk).<\/p>\n Though Cursed Child<\/em> \u00a0serves its purpose in plugging the \u00a0Time-Turner plothole<\/a>, Delphi opens up a whole other can of worms<\/a> that makes \u00a0me wonder if this was all worth it, really. \u00a0Burning questions include:<\/p>\n Is she really Voldemort’s daughter or is this her own delusion? Did Voldemort have to get intimate with Bellatrix or was it a kind of artificial insemination situation? Why did the writers choose to torture us by forcing speculation \u00a0about that? Maybe she was \u00a0incubated in a snake egg? What is her \u00a0last name, and is it hyphenated? What is her zodiac sign? Did she even ask to be a part of this narrative?<\/p>\n A pretty big margin \u00a0of fans \u00a0are angry about her, and I understand where they’re coming from. \u00a0I’ve seen \u00a0people cast her off as a \u00a0“Tonks\/Luna wannabe.” Some \u00a0think \u00a0she’s a slapdash \u00a0fusion of Bellatrix and Voldemort in a way that seems ungenuine. \u00a0Others don’t have reasons, they just hate her on principle. \u00a0And then we have this:<\/p>\n In the other camp, there are the fans who think it’s unfair to reduce her to the embodiment of \u00a0early 2000s emocore aesthetic. They think it’s time to give her character some credit. \u00a0She was orphaned at a young age and raised by a stone cold set of \u00a0foster parents and a bird with malice in its heart, and she had no friends until at least age fourteen. Can you really blame her for wanting to bring her father back? To be able to feel important and noticed for once in her life?<\/p>\n Yes, she’s a lightening rod of evil doomed for \u00a0Azkaban. But \u00a0she’s complex, gripping, and devastating. All in the best way possible, in my own opinion. But what about you?<\/strong> Have you accepted Delphi as part of the series, or do you want to throw this script \u00a0into Fiendfyre? Below, you’ll find a handful of opinions from our bloggers and editors, because in \u00a0the words of our illustrator\/Harry Potter<\/em> maestro \u00a0Vitoria, “We gotta stop pretending Delphi Voldemort never happened and just start coping.”<\/span><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Courtney<\/strong><\/p>\n I hate that she’s the daughter of Voldemort and Bellatrix, because I refuse to believe that \u201cVoldemort\u201d and \u201csex\u201d are two things that could ever happen concurrently. However? I can’t bring myself to dislike her as a character. Her role in the story speaks to the continued existence of orphans of war, a common (and tragic) motif in the overarching series. War made orphans of Teddy Lupin, Neville Longbottom (to an extent), and most obviously Harry. Delphi serves to remind us that tragedy doesn’t only create heroes\u2014it also creates villains. And that’s some good storytelling.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Jessie<\/strong><\/p>\n Who among us has not wanted to be a weird, all-powerful bird?<\/em><\/p>\n Vitoria<\/strong><\/p>\n Plot wise, I don’t like her existence. I don’t think it makes sense and I wish we found out in the end she’s not reeeally Voldemort’s daughter, just a lonely girl who really thought she was. I’d like her better this way.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n But on stage, I thought she was great. Started off really kooky and likable like a fun big sister before she gets evil. I thought she was very convincing. And I really like the design\u2014I think seeing the words “silvery blue hair” maybe evoked very 2005 pictures in people’s brains and everyone just jumped to a very emocore pastel goth “ebony dark’ness dementia raven way” and got a bit put off.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n But she really just looks like a cool 2016 girl. Which makes sense, considering the story is set today-ish.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Janet<\/strong><\/p>\n Even though I feel 50% she is just a plot device, 50% a sort of lazy ripoff of Deb from Empire Records, I don’t think I know how to put this into words because I was so focused on whether or not Albus + Scorpius would play out! But I \u00a0will say that it \u00a0does seem like <\/em>Harry Potter characters skip the wild 20s and just go high school > family men\/career women. There is no place in the wizarding world for gap years or contiki trips. Let’s discuss!<\/em><\/p>\n Maddy<\/strong><\/p>\n All I know is I liked her hair right off the bat.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SPOILERS BELOW. You’ve been warned. For years I genuinely \u00a0thought that J.K. Rowling had little more to squeeze out of her billion-dollar \u00a0toothpaste tube than the \u00a0theme park in Orlando. Friends, how ignorant \u00a0I was. continue reading<\/span>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/whoisdelphi_moodboard.jpg\")
Courtesy of \u00a0auguryblackgaunt.tumblr.com<\/a><\/em><\/small><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/delphini_1.jpg\")
\nSource<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/whoisdelphi_portrait.jpg\")
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