On Saturday, May 7th 2022, at 1 P.M. Hogwarts time, James and Lily were in Lily's room to record another video for Lily Luna's World.

"Hello, all," greeted Lily cheerfully as the recording began, "My name is Lily Luna Potter and welcome back to Lily Luna's World. I am once again joined by my favorite brother James Sirius Potter and today we are going to be reviewing the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

James held up the book for the viewers to see the front cover.

The background was green, and the title Harry Poter was at the top in embroidered gold lettering and the subtitle, and the Goblet of Fire was just below this in scarlet lettering in a kind of yellowish gold rectangular box. All four Triwizard Champions were featured on the cover with Harry being the most prominent. Harry was shown holding up his wand so that it touched the letter O in Potter in the title.

"So," said James bluntly, "We are not going to cover everything. This book is literally longer than Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets combined."

"Instead, " explained Lily, "We're going to highlight some key points and evaluate the overall writing."

"So," began James, "I don't feel like this book was that well written. The writing feels rough and gives an aura of having been written under duress."

"In my opinion," piped up Lily, "A major weakness of Goblet of Fire is that the early chapters spend too much time on review. It's almost as though it was written with the assumption that the reader hadn't read the previous books."

"I agree," nodded James, "I also think there were too many subplots. The focus should have stuck to the Triwizard Tournament itself and Voldemort's return. I could have done without the Yule Ball and spew although Dobby's and Winky's stories are interesting enough."

"Dobby's and Winky's stories could have been included without spew, just as the Triwizard Tournament could have happened without the Yule Ball. That's kind of the point here," said Lily matter of factly, "This book has too much content."

"We're going to focus mostly on the Triwizard Tournament and Voldemort's return in this review," said James in a businesslike voice, "But we first want to address this book's elephant in the room. Namely, our dad having a disloyal fair weather friend."

"indeed," agreed Lily angrily, "Ronald proved to be a disloyal fair weather friend who didn't deserve Harry's friendship by not standing by Harry 1000% after Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire."

"That has to sting when your supposed best friend throws you away like wilted salad at first sign of murky waters," said James testily, "I just wish dad would have had the backbone not let Ronald fish him out the trash after the First Task when it looked like the waters were starting to clear."

"And when dad told Hermione the same truth that he hadn't put his own name in the Goblet of Fire, Hermione immediately believed him without question. She trusted him and stood by him," praised Lily.

"We wanted to acknowledge that, " said James, "But let's move on to the Triwizard Tasks starting with the First Task."

"Well," piped up Lily, "From a spectator point of view, the First Task would have been by far and away the best. Let's be honest, watching the champions compete against dragons would have been quite exciting to watch in person."

"It would have been an adrenaline rush, " said James dreamily, "But let's talk about how the Champions performed. I'd have to say Cedric was the worst since he actually got burned and his plan failed him about halfway through although he did get his egg. "

"It wasn't a very well thought strategy to begin with, " opined Lily, "No dragon is going to be distracted by a dog for too long. But who do you think was better, Viktor, or Fleur?"

"Easily Fleur," answered James at once, "Viktor, although he had a better strategy than Cedric, still did damage to the real eggs, Fleur did not. I say the sleepy approach was better than the hit the eye approach for that reason. In fact, I think Fleur was the best Champion in the First Task."

"Better than dad?" questioned Lily.

"Yes," replied James decisively, "Dad hurt his got his shoulder hurt, Fleur was uninjured. Cedric and dad got hurt and Viktor did damage to the real eggs. Only Fleur was neither hurt nor damaged the real eggs."

"That's a very well thought out argument, James, " acknowledged Lily.

"The Flying bit would have been amazing to watch, " cooed James, "But Fleur's approach was more practical."

"What about the Second Task then?" said Lily to move things forward.

"While Fleur had to get last place because of her inability to complete the task," said James briskly, "I think Viktor had the worst approach. Gillyweed and the Bubble Head Charm are both pretty solid approaches. Viktor got his hostage, but my issue with him in the Second Task is that partial human transfiguration is EXTREMELY dangerous."

"I understand what you're saying," said Lily thoughtfully, "But we do need to keep in perspective that Harry was three years younger than his opponents. Perhaps Viktor had already mastered more difficult and dangerous magic than we would think of using."

"That's a valid counterpoint," admitted James, "But I still think Gillyweed, and the Bubble Head were better ideas given their ease of execution."

"That's fair," said Lily calmly, "But there's something about dad using the Gillyweed that bothers me."

"What's that?" wondered James.

"When fake Moody explains that he staged a loud conversation in the staffroom about whether dad would think to use Gillyweed after bringing Dobby to the staffroom, why was no one suspicious of the fact that dad used the EXACT method that fake Moody predicted he would?" said Lily uncertainly.

"If someone had picked up on that and investigated it, " said James slowly, "Maybe fake Moody's whole plan and things don't turn out the way they do."

"Hard to say," said Lily fairly, "But now let's talk about the Third Task."

"So," piped up James, "Let's just say that both the Second Task and the Third Task wouldn't be good spectator events. The Second Task was underwater and no one in the crowd would've been able to see what was going on in the maze."

"It's actually incredible how poorly thought out the Triwizard Tournament was from that standpoint," realized Lily, "I don't think we can judge the Third Task fairly given the interference of fake Moody stunning Fleur and Imperioing Viktor."

"Considering Fleur couldn't deal with Grindylows in the Second Task, I don't think she was good with magical creatures," reasoned James, "On the other hand, Cedric's dad literally was the head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical creatures. As such, I think Cedric would be very good with magical creatures and with no outside interference I think Cedric would still win the Third Task. I say still because Cedric did reach the cup first."

"Dad has always acknowledged this," smiled Lily proudly, "He knows when he is fairly beaten. But, from an in universe perspective, bringing back the Triwizard Tournament was asinine. The reason the tournament was discontinued in the first place was the high death rate! And it's not as though the version of the tournament we got was much of a spectator event anyway. It's mostly Fudge's, Bagman's and Crouch's fault for bringing the tournament back, though Dumbledore deserves some blame for making zero effort to stop or argue against it."

"So," said James, shivering a bit, "That's the Triwizard Tournament. We need to talk about Voldemort."

"Voldemort's whole plan was beyond retarded," said Lily firmly, "Seriously, going through all that trouble to set up a portkey? Voldemort could have had Crouch Jr. simply turn any object into a Portkey and give it to dad. He could have returned after Harry's first class with fake Moody/Crouch Jr and with far less risk. If he thought dad's blood was so valuable to him, well, dad could have been burned to death by the dragon, drowned in the lake, killed by any number of creatures in the maze and so on."

"Voldemort was no Ravenclaw, that's for sure," smirked James, "And he was no Hufflepuff either. Even the Dark Mark itself is cruelty to his followers. He likes inflicting pain, even to those on his side. I'm sure he loved how much pain the filthy double crosser had to endure after giving the flesh of the servant."

"I'm not sorry for the filthy double crosser, especially after he killed Cedric," said Lily bitterly, "I don't know what to make of the twin cores and the Reverse Spell effect."

"I don't either," admitted James, "But I will say that Voldemort really showed his arrogance by giving dad back his wand in the first place instead of trying to kill him when he was unarmed and defenseless. The whole I want there to be no doubt thing and being sure he'd be able to win the duel."

"Arrogance was always a weakness of Voldemort," declared Lily, "See the way fate favors Lord Voldemort. Yeah, he was always a bit too sure of himself."

"We have to end our discussion on a sad note," said James quietly, "Cedric's death."

"Cedric's death is the first death in the books you really feel," spoke Lily softly, "We don't feel sorry for Quirrell because we see him as a traitor. We simply don't get to know James, Lily, Nicolas, Frank, or Bertha well enough as characters to feel much emotion for their passings. Cedric's death hits more because we've gotten to know him as a character."

"He was also the most likeable of dad's opponents," said James warmly, "Cedric was kind, fair, humble, wise, and hard working. Krum was too aloof for us to know much about him, and Fleur didn't strike me as very likeable. She seemed almost like a rude houseguest at times."

"Honestly," said Lily crisply, "I wish someone would have taken Fleur aside and explained to her that the way she was acting was wrong."

"I wish that Harry, Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur would have all developed more of a relationship with each other."

"The lack of any meaningful relationship between any of the four of them was a lost opportunity, " exclaimed James, "Especially given that this is the book where foreign witches wizards are introduced."

"So," said Lily clearly, "Let's wrap it up. Overall, how do you rate Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?"

"Four out of ten," said James honestly, "I just think overall the writing is too rough and the story too unfocused to receive a higher score."

"I'll go even lower and go three out of ten," responded Lily, "Because of how incredibly stupid Voldemort's plan was. For me, it fails the believably test that Voldemort would go through all that when such a simpler solution was obviously available. Even if Voldemort is supposed to be stupid, this was a bit much to be believable."

"That's all we have," said James matter of factly, "But be on the lookout for our video review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

"We'll see you next time on Lily Luna's world," cooed Lily, "Until then, Potters out."

And James and Lily both waved to their viewers as the video ended.

A shout out to the following members who have added James, Lily, and Brother-Sister Fluff to their favorites and/or follows lists since the last update:

lupin512

Much love from Arizona for all the support. Love you all-Michael. :)