A Healthy Dose of Deathly Hallows and Balderdash
So I wasn't even counting on having read this by now, but by Saturday night my sheep sensibilities kicked in and I read the chapter summaries of HPB on Sparknotes in order to avoid actually reading that one again. (I had forgotten what a horcrux was, SO FUCKING WHAT). I went into it with a sparkling, spoiler-free mind (amazing what not using the Internet will do), and the Sparknotes recap was quite beneficial, so that I only had to ask "Who in God's name is THAT" a couple of times during DH.
Spoilerific stuff ahead, as one might guess.
The most exciting thing for me is that it was exciting at all, that I WANTED to drive my circadian rhythm off the edge of a cliff and read all night. DH has to be one of my favorites, second to PoA, I suppose. My powers of critical perception and analysis (and believe me, they are vast) are rather diminished right now. My reaction to the book was, shall we say, visceral (OKAY, ABSURDLY SENTIMENTAL), dictated almost entirely by what I like to call "The 'Guh' Factor." Have I mentioned I have become absurdly sentimental, in my old age? It seemed my mouth popped open almost every other page, especially in the second half of the book.
In no particular order, here are some moments and themes that spoke to the maudlin puppy in my soul:
1. Nearly any mention of Dumbledore. How much do I love that old man? It's never been about him being a saint, which he clearly wasn't, and which is not the point. I always loved his genial old grandfatherly ways but as the books progressed and he became, alternately, distant or more human or, you know, dead, he became one of the most interesting characters in the series for me. And that capricious summerlong ideology exchange with Hitler I mean Grindelwald? WOW. Life and times, indeed.
2. Nearly any mention of James, Lily, or Sirius. (Wanted more of the third, but a girl can't have everything. One of my favorite moments, however, was Lily's letter to Sirius, I like thinking of them as close, and you know what else I like is the fact that in his teenage rebellion Sirius opted for Muggle girlie pictures.) I was a mess in the Godric's Hollow chapter. The messages on their house! Halloween '81! (As I was reading that they were wandless I heard Eowyn's voice from TTT saying, "They were unarmed!" God help you when fandoms collide.) Don't even get me started on the Lily, James, Sirius and Remus Escort Harry on the Deadly Fieldtrip scene. Ooh, I was beside myself. I was covering the unread portions of the current page with my hand (I accidentally read ahead sometimes and fucking ruin it) and going, OH LORD THIS IS TERRIBLE! AND RIGHT! AND TERRIBLE! And oh so right. Was quite possibly (as I am wont to do) humming "Reunited (And It Feels So Good)" in the inappropriate corners of my mind. Note that I was reading this around 2 in the morning and I had a fever.
3. The redemptions and the occasional revelation of somewhat squishy edges. Who knew Big D had a soul?! I was smiling so hard when they shook hands. And I never really gave a damn one way or the other about the Malfoys and their sundry, unsavory deeds and traits, but I was really happy to see that at the end of the day they just wanted to be Mama and Papa Bear with their wee cub Draco. I don't suppose it should warm my heart that that's what they got in the end, considering the families torn apart (that of the title character's, for a start!) by their actions and those of others like them. But fuck it! It made me happy.
And Snape. I guess I should have seen THAT one coming - I mean, I fully expected that Dumbledore arranged his own death, and that Snape really was trying to mitigate things through his role as Voldemort's righthand man. (I had one or two doubts along the way about this latter one, not big ones though.) I never anticipated the Lily thing, despite its being a pet theory of many distinguished authors on ff.net (OKAY SORRY, I'm sure there has been plenty of quality fic about this as well). I just never expected it to become canon as anything. When Harry said Snape was the bravest man he knew? Okay, that got to me.
And poor Petunia!
4. Any time anyone stood up, had beneficial change of heart, displayed loyalty, bravery, went proverbial extra mile, decapitated evil death snake, etc. They feel like such easy moments, like, I know I'm supposed to cheer wildly, and so the protesting harpie within says not to cheer precisely because I'm supposed to, but I can't help it and cheer wildly anyway. When Ron came back. When no one (who matters, ha ha) turned Harry in. The battle at Hogwarts. I love the other Gryffindors - McGonagall (v. v. happy she made it), Neville, and Luna, especially.
I think Luna is a goddess, by the way.
5. The Weasleys. Oh god. Sometimes I go back and forth on Molly but grieving mothers will win me back every time. I don't know if I feel sorrier for her or George.
6. Potterwatch was one of my absolute favorite moments from any of the books. Long live the irreverent resistance! That is powerful.
Other stuff:
1. So, romance. The odd hunk of banana dotted through the Death and Destruction cereal that was Deathly Hallows. Right away, chapter 1, I expected to be annoyed by Remus and Tonks, but I wasn't. I still don't like them as a couple, which could be sparked by throbs from my OTP asunder (which, as has been said many times before, shouldn't logically have anything to do with it). But I find I don't like a lot of the romance in the series. Ron and Hermione? They're sweet, I laughed aloud at the whole rescue-the-house-elves ploy because that's some good shit, but honestly, I just...didn't care terribly. I'm glad they're together but I wouldn't have cared if it were otherwise. As for Harry and Ginny, I don't know. I like Ginny, I like the idea of Harry and Ginny but every time I read about how Ginny's hair smelled like red Froot Loops and Harry Wanted Her Oh So Much I just went kind of glazey-eyed. I felt like every romantically-inclined line had been written off in a dash to replace what might have previously said "[Insert romance here]," which is basically how I felt every time Remus revealed some aspect of his relationship with Tonks, as well.
I really thought those two were going to survive, by the way. Then when I saw Dolohov's name pop up when/where it did, I was like, Oh, shit, they're dead aren't they. Their poor kid is coming into this world 1. parentless, 2. with the name TEDDY REMUS. THAT POOR CHILD. Couldn't they at least have gone with "Theodore"?!
2. Wizard metaphysics is fucking crazy!
3. Bathilda Bagshot. "JESUS! THEY SHOULD NOT LET CHILDREN READ THIS!!!" That was my reactionary reaction to her being dead and the whole snake-leaping-out-of-neck incident.
4. Can I just say I love the idea of Dumbledore submitting papers to the relevant technical journals of this and that. I wonder about the concept of science in the wizard world, if they would ever think of it as such or if it's some other obscure Muggle pastime they had to invent to get through the daily grind of having to summon things MANUALLY.
5. The tying up of ends that were never really loose to begin with, e.g. Bloody Baron killed the Grey Lady. I eat that stuff up. I have always liked that about the series, trying to anticipate which person, which note in passing will come back later, and to what extent, and for the most part I have been hilariously wrong in all my predictions. It's been excellent fun, though.
ETA 6. HEDWIG. You know what makes me especially sad about that? Harry and his damn bird were not at one when Hedwig died. I'm not kidding.
7. That epilogue has to have been the cheesiest thing I have ever read in my life. I wish it hadn't been there.
I am going to stop trying to put sentences together now.
Spoilerific stuff ahead, as one might guess.
The most exciting thing for me is that it was exciting at all, that I WANTED to drive my circadian rhythm off the edge of a cliff and read all night. DH has to be one of my favorites, second to PoA, I suppose. My powers of critical perception and analysis (and believe me, they are vast) are rather diminished right now. My reaction to the book was, shall we say, visceral (OKAY, ABSURDLY SENTIMENTAL), dictated almost entirely by what I like to call "The 'Guh' Factor." Have I mentioned I have become absurdly sentimental, in my old age? It seemed my mouth popped open almost every other page, especially in the second half of the book.
In no particular order, here are some moments and themes that spoke to the maudlin puppy in my soul:
1. Nearly any mention of Dumbledore. How much do I love that old man? It's never been about him being a saint, which he clearly wasn't, and which is not the point. I always loved his genial old grandfatherly ways but as the books progressed and he became, alternately, distant or more human or, you know, dead, he became one of the most interesting characters in the series for me. And that capricious summerlong ideology exchange with Hitler I mean Grindelwald? WOW. Life and times, indeed.
2. Nearly any mention of James, Lily, or Sirius. (Wanted more of the third, but a girl can't have everything. One of my favorite moments, however, was Lily's letter to Sirius, I like thinking of them as close, and you know what else I like is the fact that in his teenage rebellion Sirius opted for Muggle girlie pictures.) I was a mess in the Godric's Hollow chapter. The messages on their house! Halloween '81! (As I was reading that they were wandless I heard Eowyn's voice from TTT saying, "They were unarmed!" God help you when fandoms collide.) Don't even get me started on the Lily, James, Sirius and Remus Escort Harry on the Deadly Fieldtrip scene. Ooh, I was beside myself. I was covering the unread portions of the current page with my hand (I accidentally read ahead sometimes and fucking ruin it) and going, OH LORD THIS IS TERRIBLE! AND RIGHT! AND TERRIBLE! And oh so right. Was quite possibly (as I am wont to do) humming "Reunited (And It Feels So Good)" in the inappropriate corners of my mind. Note that I was reading this around 2 in the morning and I had a fever.
3. The redemptions and the occasional revelation of somewhat squishy edges. Who knew Big D had a soul?! I was smiling so hard when they shook hands. And I never really gave a damn one way or the other about the Malfoys and their sundry, unsavory deeds and traits, but I was really happy to see that at the end of the day they just wanted to be Mama and Papa Bear with their wee cub Draco. I don't suppose it should warm my heart that that's what they got in the end, considering the families torn apart (that of the title character's, for a start!) by their actions and those of others like them. But fuck it! It made me happy.
And Snape. I guess I should have seen THAT one coming - I mean, I fully expected that Dumbledore arranged his own death, and that Snape really was trying to mitigate things through his role as Voldemort's righthand man. (I had one or two doubts along the way about this latter one, not big ones though.) I never anticipated the Lily thing, despite its being a pet theory of many distinguished authors on ff.net (OKAY SORRY, I'm sure there has been plenty of quality fic about this as well). I just never expected it to become canon as anything. When Harry said Snape was the bravest man he knew? Okay, that got to me.
And poor Petunia!
4. Any time anyone stood up, had beneficial change of heart, displayed loyalty, bravery, went proverbial extra mile, decapitated evil death snake, etc. They feel like such easy moments, like, I know I'm supposed to cheer wildly, and so the protesting harpie within says not to cheer precisely because I'm supposed to, but I can't help it and cheer wildly anyway. When Ron came back. When no one (who matters, ha ha) turned Harry in. The battle at Hogwarts. I love the other Gryffindors - McGonagall (v. v. happy she made it), Neville, and Luna, especially.
I think Luna is a goddess, by the way.
5. The Weasleys. Oh god. Sometimes I go back and forth on Molly but grieving mothers will win me back every time. I don't know if I feel sorrier for her or George.
6. Potterwatch was one of my absolute favorite moments from any of the books. Long live the irreverent resistance! That is powerful.
Other stuff:
1. So, romance. The odd hunk of banana dotted through the Death and Destruction cereal that was Deathly Hallows. Right away, chapter 1, I expected to be annoyed by Remus and Tonks, but I wasn't. I still don't like them as a couple, which could be sparked by throbs from my OTP asunder (which, as has been said many times before, shouldn't logically have anything to do with it). But I find I don't like a lot of the romance in the series. Ron and Hermione? They're sweet, I laughed aloud at the whole rescue-the-house-elves ploy because that's some good shit, but honestly, I just...didn't care terribly. I'm glad they're together but I wouldn't have cared if it were otherwise. As for Harry and Ginny, I don't know. I like Ginny, I like the idea of Harry and Ginny but every time I read about how Ginny's hair smelled like red Froot Loops and Harry Wanted Her Oh So Much I just went kind of glazey-eyed. I felt like every romantically-inclined line had been written off in a dash to replace what might have previously said "[Insert romance here]," which is basically how I felt every time Remus revealed some aspect of his relationship with Tonks, as well.
I really thought those two were going to survive, by the way. Then when I saw Dolohov's name pop up when/where it did, I was like, Oh, shit, they're dead aren't they. Their poor kid is coming into this world 1. parentless, 2. with the name TEDDY REMUS. THAT POOR CHILD. Couldn't they at least have gone with "Theodore"?!
2. Wizard metaphysics is fucking crazy!
3. Bathilda Bagshot. "JESUS! THEY SHOULD NOT LET CHILDREN READ THIS!!!" That was my reactionary reaction to her being dead and the whole snake-leaping-out-of-neck incident.
4. Can I just say I love the idea of Dumbledore submitting papers to the relevant technical journals of this and that. I wonder about the concept of science in the wizard world, if they would ever think of it as such or if it's some other obscure Muggle pastime they had to invent to get through the daily grind of having to summon things MANUALLY.
5. The tying up of ends that were never really loose to begin with, e.g. Bloody Baron killed the Grey Lady. I eat that stuff up. I have always liked that about the series, trying to anticipate which person, which note in passing will come back later, and to what extent, and for the most part I have been hilariously wrong in all my predictions. It's been excellent fun, though.
ETA 6. HEDWIG. You know what makes me especially sad about that? Harry and his damn bird were not at one when Hedwig died. I'm not kidding.
7. That epilogue has to have been the cheesiest thing I have ever read in my life. I wish it hadn't been there.
I am going to stop trying to put sentences together now.