This is my only Harry Potter icon :( Lame.
So I finished the book earlier today and I've been reading the thoughts and the wank and everything. There isn't much I wanted to say that hasn't already been covered, but Here's a few things, anyway, and a question.
I want to preface by saying I loved the book and I want to read it again, but Miko's reading it, lol. I think what I'm going to do now is read through the whole series from beginning to end, in order. I haven't done that in a very long time, and I think doing it with the perspective I have now on some of the characters and events will be very revealing.
Now some stuff, in no particular order:
So a lot of people were annoyed at the epilogue, it seemed. I dunno. I liked that we got to see the pairings, and the kids, and it was like coming full circle, which was very sweet and happy-making for me. I do agree with the people who wanted to know what happened to everyone else, and wanted more details about what they're all doing, career-wise and such. On the other hand, that's just more fodder for fanfiction, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm sure the fandom can fill up those 19 years in a month or two. Easy.
I do think it's a little silly to accuse JKR of trying to thumb her nose at the shippers and say "SEE SEE, THIS IS HOW IT IS, NONE OF THIS H/Hr OR H/D CRAP" because really? It's her book, and she had the ships worked out LONG before any of us came along or even read the first book. She doesn't have anything to prove.
I finished the book filled with a deep abiding love of Severus Snape. I mean, I always liked him as a character, ever since he got some depth. And I was absolutely terrified that it was going to turn out that he was just evil, and there was no real reason for it except that he was a dark-arts-obsessed-git, and he betrayed Dumbledore and we'd never really know why Dumbledore had such faith in him. After all, Dumbledore made some really stupid moves in latter books. I'm so happy we got to see all of those sides of him, and how he was redeemed, and I really GET him now.
I also finished the book feeling really sorry for Draco. I feel like he was really given short shrift as a character, and that he really just came off as a loser. I kept hoping, through the books, that he would start to show not only some regret (which he finally FINALLY did) but also some spine. The latter would have made my day even if he hadn't shown regret and had become a fully-fledged Death Eater. But instead he really did dick-all but cower and whine. There was some neato stuff, showing the parallels between the trio and the other trio, but I feel in a way like despite EVERYTHING said in the books, Rowling was basically saying "Slytherins are either born mean, or cowards, and despite them looking cool and seeming badass, they're the crappiest house and we should all hate them".
I mean, NONE of the Slytherins stayed to fight. None. That was a STRONG statement on Rowling's part, that every single one of the Slytherins was either actively working to bring about Voldemort's rise to power, or cared so little about anything other than their own hide that they wouldn't fight for their own freedom. Oh, except Slughorn.
Apparently all purebloods are evil, except for the blood traiters and oddballs, too.
Meh, that just hit me as I was typing it, and turned into a rant I wasn't expecting o.o Sorry.
I did like that it seemed the deal with the Malfoys was that they realized that their family was more important to them than serving the Dark Lord. The fact that they obviously loved each other was a strong theme throughout the series, and in stark contrast with Severus' family life. I'm forced to wonder why Severus' family apparently didn't give a crap about him, but I don't remember if more information about his family was revealed in HBP.
Is Lucius young enough to be Severus' prefect? I thought that wasn't actually possible and the ages of the respective Weasleys (because Arthur and Lucius went to school together), but I thought it was neat.
There's fic in that, lol, though I know it's been written for years.
I hated that Remus and Tonks died so suddenly and randomly, though it fit. Still - Remus! T____T
I also hated the Remus and Tonks relationship more and more with every page. I really really WANTED to believe it, but it came out of left field in the last book and JKR didn't do a thing to make it believable to me in this book, by doing everything off-screen. I don't want to be a big yaoi loser about it and be all "But Sirius/Remus is my OTP!!!111!!!" but I just. Don't. Get. The. Relationship. Period.
I tried, I failed.
And anyway, my question, or rather, confusion thingy! This is purely random, but I want to hear people's thoughts.
We know that when Dumbledore died, the security at Grimmauld Place was breached so now Severus was one of the secret keepers and would be able to get in and lead others there. (I think it was telling that he apparently did NOT reveal this to the other DEs, as they all had to stand around outside and watch for errant elbows, but that didn't occur to me at the time or I might have been more sure that Snape was good).
We also know that Mad-Eye put "jinxes" up to prevent Snape from going in. These jinxes apparently involved Moody's voice saying Severus' name, and then a ghost of Dumbledore coming at you all scary-like.
Lame.
But we don't really know what would happen if you really were Snape and couldn't say "hey, I didn't kill you, Albus, let me in". Maybe you die a horrible horrible death, or an alarm goes off, or SOMETHING.
Except that Snape ransacked the place. We know that, because he took the second page of the letter and part of the picture. So how did he get past these defenses without anyone knowing, and without any apparent difficulty? Is it possible that all Moody could come up with was a scary ghost of Dumbledore to frighten Snape off? Because that...would not work, yo.
Discuss.
Also, an actual question that is a question. I got very confused and turned around during the explanation of how Harry got the Elder Wand. I got that the Elder Wand was won by Draco, not Severus, but why? I completely couldn't understand. Was it because Dumbledore accepted his death long before Draco actually killed him, that at that moment it transferred to him? That seems weird to me, but maybe that's what they were getting at. Only when Dumbledore accepted his death, he was planning for Snape to kill him, so shouldn't it have still transferred to Snape?
And the wand in Dumbledore's coffin WAS the Elder Wand, right? So Voldemort DID have it. Except that because Harry won Draco's OTHER wand off of him, this nifty wand that was also Draco's was also transferred to him? WTF?
So confused.
Anyway, yes, love the book, can't wait to see it on screen, can't wait to read it again. I love Snape, still love Lupin, basically am filled with love for everyone and I cried like a lunatic over Dobby's death. Fred hurt me, too. Now there's only one twin, and he's holey.
I was thinking a really neat RPG to come out of this would be one following the events of the book, but from Hogwarts. All of the Death Eaters and Severus would be NPCs, and the administration of the game would toss in the various outside events - Neville's grandmother being attacked, for example - at appropriate times in the plotline. I think it'd be neat to run a game to find out what happened while Harry wasn't at school.
I want to preface by saying I loved the book and I want to read it again, but Miko's reading it, lol. I think what I'm going to do now is read through the whole series from beginning to end, in order. I haven't done that in a very long time, and I think doing it with the perspective I have now on some of the characters and events will be very revealing.
Now some stuff, in no particular order:
So a lot of people were annoyed at the epilogue, it seemed. I dunno. I liked that we got to see the pairings, and the kids, and it was like coming full circle, which was very sweet and happy-making for me. I do agree with the people who wanted to know what happened to everyone else, and wanted more details about what they're all doing, career-wise and such. On the other hand, that's just more fodder for fanfiction, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm sure the fandom can fill up those 19 years in a month or two. Easy.
I do think it's a little silly to accuse JKR of trying to thumb her nose at the shippers and say "SEE SEE, THIS IS HOW IT IS, NONE OF THIS H/Hr OR H/D CRAP" because really? It's her book, and she had the ships worked out LONG before any of us came along or even read the first book. She doesn't have anything to prove.
I finished the book filled with a deep abiding love of Severus Snape. I mean, I always liked him as a character, ever since he got some depth. And I was absolutely terrified that it was going to turn out that he was just evil, and there was no real reason for it except that he was a dark-arts-obsessed-git, and he betrayed Dumbledore and we'd never really know why Dumbledore had such faith in him. After all, Dumbledore made some really stupid moves in latter books. I'm so happy we got to see all of those sides of him, and how he was redeemed, and I really GET him now.
I also finished the book feeling really sorry for Draco. I feel like he was really given short shrift as a character, and that he really just came off as a loser. I kept hoping, through the books, that he would start to show not only some regret (which he finally FINALLY did) but also some spine. The latter would have made my day even if he hadn't shown regret and had become a fully-fledged Death Eater. But instead he really did dick-all but cower and whine. There was some neato stuff, showing the parallels between the trio and the other trio, but I feel in a way like despite EVERYTHING said in the books, Rowling was basically saying "Slytherins are either born mean, or cowards, and despite them looking cool and seeming badass, they're the crappiest house and we should all hate them".
I mean, NONE of the Slytherins stayed to fight. None. That was a STRONG statement on Rowling's part, that every single one of the Slytherins was either actively working to bring about Voldemort's rise to power, or cared so little about anything other than their own hide that they wouldn't fight for their own freedom. Oh, except Slughorn.
Apparently all purebloods are evil, except for the blood traiters and oddballs, too.
Meh, that just hit me as I was typing it, and turned into a rant I wasn't expecting o.o Sorry.
I did like that it seemed the deal with the Malfoys was that they realized that their family was more important to them than serving the Dark Lord. The fact that they obviously loved each other was a strong theme throughout the series, and in stark contrast with Severus' family life. I'm forced to wonder why Severus' family apparently didn't give a crap about him, but I don't remember if more information about his family was revealed in HBP.
Is Lucius young enough to be Severus' prefect? I thought that wasn't actually possible and the ages of the respective Weasleys (because Arthur and Lucius went to school together), but I thought it was neat.
There's fic in that, lol, though I know it's been written for years.
I hated that Remus and Tonks died so suddenly and randomly, though it fit. Still - Remus! T____T
I also hated the Remus and Tonks relationship more and more with every page. I really really WANTED to believe it, but it came out of left field in the last book and JKR didn't do a thing to make it believable to me in this book, by doing everything off-screen. I don't want to be a big yaoi loser about it and be all "But Sirius/Remus is my OTP!!!111!!!" but I just. Don't. Get. The. Relationship. Period.
I tried, I failed.
And anyway, my question, or rather, confusion thingy! This is purely random, but I want to hear people's thoughts.
We know that when Dumbledore died, the security at Grimmauld Place was breached so now Severus was one of the secret keepers and would be able to get in and lead others there. (I think it was telling that he apparently did NOT reveal this to the other DEs, as they all had to stand around outside and watch for errant elbows, but that didn't occur to me at the time or I might have been more sure that Snape was good).
We also know that Mad-Eye put "jinxes" up to prevent Snape from going in. These jinxes apparently involved Moody's voice saying Severus' name, and then a ghost of Dumbledore coming at you all scary-like.
Lame.
But we don't really know what would happen if you really were Snape and couldn't say "hey, I didn't kill you, Albus, let me in". Maybe you die a horrible horrible death, or an alarm goes off, or SOMETHING.
Except that Snape ransacked the place. We know that, because he took the second page of the letter and part of the picture. So how did he get past these defenses without anyone knowing, and without any apparent difficulty? Is it possible that all Moody could come up with was a scary ghost of Dumbledore to frighten Snape off? Because that...would not work, yo.
Discuss.
Also, an actual question that is a question. I got very confused and turned around during the explanation of how Harry got the Elder Wand. I got that the Elder Wand was won by Draco, not Severus, but why? I completely couldn't understand. Was it because Dumbledore accepted his death long before Draco actually killed him, that at that moment it transferred to him? That seems weird to me, but maybe that's what they were getting at. Only when Dumbledore accepted his death, he was planning for Snape to kill him, so shouldn't it have still transferred to Snape?
And the wand in Dumbledore's coffin WAS the Elder Wand, right? So Voldemort DID have it. Except that because Harry won Draco's OTHER wand off of him, this nifty wand that was also Draco's was also transferred to him? WTF?
So confused.
Anyway, yes, love the book, can't wait to see it on screen, can't wait to read it again. I love Snape, still love Lupin, basically am filled with love for everyone and I cried like a lunatic over Dobby's death. Fred hurt me, too. Now there's only one twin, and he's holey.
I was thinking a really neat RPG to come out of this would be one following the events of the book, but from Hogwarts. All of the Death Eaters and Severus would be NPCs, and the administration of the game would toss in the various outside events - Neville's grandmother being attacked, for example - at appropriate times in the plotline. I think it'd be neat to run a game to find out what happened while Harry wasn't at school.