The Deathly Hallows
21 July 2007 19:17![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kribuWell. That was probably my longest absence from the computer in a long time... from last night until now.
In the meantime, I picked up a book from the store... got a lovely special Harry Potter orange paper bag with it, too. Oh, and I also read the book.
Well... wasn't that a cheerful book?
I can't really yet say whether it was crap or not. I don't think it was, if I go by my general feeling. It was certainly full of glaring plot holes and canon errors and general rubbish and way too much stuff about wands and owners and choices and wand masters etc that I didn't really get my brain around properly, but I think I'm mostly satisfied with it. Except for certain bits, of course, and the epilogue was... well, way too cheesy would be one way to put it, I suppose.
Although I'm almost tempted to forgive for the cheese, as it managed to get a tear out of me anyway, with Harry & Ginny's second son's middle name. I mean, it was expected, but I was already half-wondering if Rowling had actually decided not to go for something quite that obvious after all.
Anyway, yeah... I'm not exactly pleased with quite a few things, but at least I was right about Snape. Although I kind of wish he hadn't had to die. Although of course the way he died, he could easily live on in fanfic at least - no mention of the body later, and no portrait in the headmaster's office!! Which should have been there immediately upon his death, shouldn't it?
I was so worried though for most of the book that Rowling would actually somehow make him out to have been evil all along... when I had some 100 pages or so left, I was getting really anxious. Although I'd been more or less sure that the silver doe was his Patronus, but I was starting to worry that it was just wishful thinking on my part. And that perhaps I shouldn't have read too much in the fact that he had punished Ginny, Neville and Luna with something that really wasn't much of a punishment.
Poor Sevvie. He really didn't get much right or good in his life, did he? Bleh.
I'd rather not say anything about Ron & Hermione. Gah. I know, I know, Ron came through in the end and proved his loyalty and he wasn't really himself when under the influence of the locket, bla bla bla... but honestly, he's just a bit of a jerk sometimes, yes? Even after all they'd been through in the end, I'm not sure I'd ever completely trust him. But maybe that's just me.
Edit note: I just can't believe how JKR and the editors could have let a few of those glaring errors by! Okay, maybe Hermione's new middle name was a typo, or maybe she's just changed her mind (it hasn't actually been in any of the books before, right? just said by Rowling on her website/interviews/whatever, that it was Jane?), but the memory charm?? Hermione made her parents believe they were totally random people that never had a daughter and made them move all the way to Australia, and then claims about two pages on that she has never performed a memory charm?? Huh? Although I guess it's possible that maybe a complete modification of people's minds and memories isn't considered "the Memory Charm" (i.e. Obliviate), but that's grasping at straws, really.
In the meantime, I picked up a book from the store... got a lovely special Harry Potter orange paper bag with it, too. Oh, and I also read the book.
Well... wasn't that a cheerful book?
I can't really yet say whether it was crap or not. I don't think it was, if I go by my general feeling. It was certainly full of glaring plot holes and canon errors and general rubbish and way too much stuff about wands and owners and choices and wand masters etc that I didn't really get my brain around properly, but I think I'm mostly satisfied with it. Except for certain bits, of course, and the epilogue was... well, way too cheesy would be one way to put it, I suppose.
Although I'm almost tempted to forgive for the cheese, as it managed to get a tear out of me anyway, with Harry & Ginny's second son's middle name. I mean, it was expected, but I was already half-wondering if Rowling had actually decided not to go for something quite that obvious after all.
Anyway, yeah... I'm not exactly pleased with quite a few things, but at least I was right about Snape. Although I kind of wish he hadn't had to die. Although of course the way he died, he could easily live on in fanfic at least - no mention of the body later, and no portrait in the headmaster's office!! Which should have been there immediately upon his death, shouldn't it?
I was so worried though for most of the book that Rowling would actually somehow make him out to have been evil all along... when I had some 100 pages or so left, I was getting really anxious. Although I'd been more or less sure that the silver doe was his Patronus, but I was starting to worry that it was just wishful thinking on my part. And that perhaps I shouldn't have read too much in the fact that he had punished Ginny, Neville and Luna with something that really wasn't much of a punishment.
Poor Sevvie. He really didn't get much right or good in his life, did he? Bleh.
I'd rather not say anything about Ron & Hermione. Gah. I know, I know, Ron came through in the end and proved his loyalty and he wasn't really himself when under the influence of the locket, bla bla bla... but honestly, he's just a bit of a jerk sometimes, yes? Even after all they'd been through in the end, I'm not sure I'd ever completely trust him. But maybe that's just me.
Edit note: I just can't believe how JKR and the editors could have let a few of those glaring errors by! Okay, maybe Hermione's new middle name was a typo, or maybe she's just changed her mind (it hasn't actually been in any of the books before, right? just said by Rowling on her website/interviews/whatever, that it was Jane?), but the memory charm?? Hermione made her parents believe they were totally random people that never had a daughter and made them move all the way to Australia, and then claims about two pages on that she has never performed a memory charm?? Huh? Although I guess it's possible that maybe a complete modification of people's minds and memories isn't considered "the Memory Charm" (i.e. Obliviate), but that's grasping at straws, really.
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no subject
Date: 22 July 2007 02:14 (UTC)And no, Snape just gets *nothing* (except a last look in Lily's eye. Bah.) A miserable life, a miserable death.
That book really was a downer.
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Date: 22 July 2007 06:25 (UTC)No, it wouldn't have, I quite agree. I'm very glad I didn't read it (or the ending in general) first - this way I could at least enjoy the rest of the book a lot more, and I do think most of it was far better than the ending, let alone the epilogue.
At least most of the big problems I have are with the final parts (Snape's fate, the way Lupin & Tonks just dropped dead somewhere, the epilogue).
I didn't really mind the quest part, even with its various plot holes, that much, as it was pretty much what I expected the book to be, and I was actually interested in the Dumbledore/Grindelwald back story, although considering how badly quite a few other plot threads were left hanging, and how badly certain familiar characters got treated (Lupin especially), I'm really not sure that introducing that whole new very large story in the final book was a good idea.