BOOK DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[cmere]

“Why are you worrying about YOU-KNOW-WHO, when you should be worrying about YOU-NO-POO? The constipation sensation that's gripping the nation!”Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published in 2005. Clocking in at slightly shorter than its predecessor, the book nevertheless contained a wealth of new information for fans. Book Six included new

Comments

[cmere]

Newly introduced characters in Book Six include Rufus Scrimgeour, Fenrir Greyback, Horace Slughorn, Romilda Vane, Cormac McLaggen, the Gaunts - Marvolo, Merope, and Morfin, and Tom Riddle Sr.. Share your thoughts and opinions on any new characters or development of recurring characters.

[philstar22]

Fenrir Greyback was suitably dark and creepy I thought and a good counterpoint to Remus.

Rufus Scrimgeour was interesting, I thought. Not quite as naive, paranoid, or foolish as Fudge and yet still a politician.

Slughorn was interesting. But I think his ambition and his sidling up to powerful people regardless of what side they were on was glossed over a bit too much and I think I sympathized with him less than we were maybe supposed to.

The Gaunts were interesting. I felt so bad for Merope and it made me understand why she did what she did to Tom Riddle Sr. Although, the whole idea of not being conceived in love meant Voldemort turned out evil bugged me a lot.

[author_by_night]

Although, the whole idea of not being conceived in love meant Voldemort turned out evil bugged me a lot.

Yeah, I... still prefer to think it was his upbringing and the fact that no one ever gave him the attention he so clearly needed. It's not that I blame anyone, it was the 1930's and 40's, but... still. Just not my favorite.

[drinkingcocoa]

Slughorn! What a clever invention!

Cormac McLaggen, too. Ugh! He ate a pound of doxy eggs for a bet! Sooooo not my type. I could not believe the dangerous game Hermione was playing and the way she realized she had a proto-date rapist on her hands. Gah. Genuinely scary.

[woldy]

At first I didn't like Slughorn, but he's grown on me. I like the way his character unfolds, with the very obvious flaws - his initial cowardice, his favoritism with students and love of powerful people - but real strengths too, from his attempt to build bridges across House lines through the Slug Club to the strong teaching (in part through incentives like the Felix Felicis) and the loyalty he shows to Hogwarts during DH.

[portkey]

Fenrir still freaks me the fuck out, and I'm still kind of impressed that Rowling went there.

I pity Merope a lot, and one of my favourite things about this book is all the backstory we get. Again, I was kind of impressed with just how dark and downright, well, bleak Rowling allowed things to get.

And I kind of love Slughorn. He's one of the only true "neutral" characters in the series, really, and I think he catches some flak from some readers for not being a heroic character, but I like that he's just kind of doing his own thing. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with his kind of ambition, even if he can be a tiny bit sleazy about it. And I'll probably talk about this more in DH, but I like that it's just one of many things in the last few books that challenge the earlier books' ( / younger Harry's*) naive perspective on what exactly a Slytherin is.

*read: Hagrid's

[portkey]

And actually some of the discussion above made me reevaluate Slughorn's good qualities too, so maybe I wasn't giving him enough credit. But yeah I think he's a really underrated character because his first impression (aided by Harry's perspective) is somewhat negative.

[zorb]

Largely disappointing, to be honest. I found Slughorn quite dull; it took me a long time after finishing to properly remember his name (I kept thinking of him as Slugworth, instead). The others weren't very memorable either, and were rather sketchily drawn.

But by the time you're at a book 6, the existing cast is large enough to deserve more focus, anyway.

[kate34books]

I liked Rufus Scrimgeour immensely when he was first introduced as I thought he be a better Minister than Fudge. Was dissapointed he was just as focused on keeping appearances and antagonizing Dumbledore and Harry.

Fenrir Greyback was absolutely terrifying, even more so with the very dark implication that 'he liked to bite children'.

Horace Slughorn creeped me out with his need to 'collect famous people'

Romilda Vane was highly amusing and it was interesting to see in her and Cormac McLaggen what a 'bad/self-centered' Gryffindor was like. They were amusing in their stereotypes of the fangirl & the jock.

did not expected the Gaunts at all, and I felt really bad for poor Merope.