More About DH
My thoughts on how war was shown in DH, put under cut because they're naturally spoilery.
I’ve made a few very brief forays into fandom at large since I finished Deathly Hallows, and one thing keeps striking me. (Well, two, but the people who hate DH because it didn’t go the way they wanted it to aren’t worth writing about.)
It’s the people who keep saying that too much of the book was about fighting. That there were too many Death Eaters attacking the Order, too many battles in the book in general, too much violence, too many deaths. That these things weakened the book.
To these people (actually, to my LJ) I say: One of my favorite things about this book was just that. Rowling’s been setting up war in the Wizarding world for seven books. Would it be right to only have violence and death where it pleased the readers? Would it be an accurate portrayal of - of anything? - if the war wasn’t inescapable and unrelenting? If only those people who had a plot point to fill had died? Isn’t war filled with senseless death?
Would you really prefer that this book had been nothing but a lighthearted adventure tale? That Snape and Voldemort had been the only ones to die? That Rowling had allowed seven books of buildup to end with a few spells tossed either way, a taste of blood, and nothing else?
I don’t. It would have been cheap. And when I read the Potter books to my children (however many years from now that is), I want them to feel that slightest bit of fear at the ruthlessness of war. Violence in books shouldn’t be fun. It should be scary and sad, same as it is in real life.