Obligatory Deathly Hallows reaction post.
Using this icon only because it is my Harry Potter icon. It is usually my 'I'm really pissed off' icon, but not this time.
I liked it. I laughed, I cried, I clutched the book joyfully to my chest, I shook it as if I could stop the characters doing the really stupid thing they were about to do. Good book.
Just for a start, ALBUS SEVERUS OMFG POTTER. That is, of course, his full name... the epilogue bit was gratuitous (and incestuous or was that just me?) but it was worth it just for that.
(*glances around at the general online consensus* What? I thought it was fantastic...)
So, yes. Many more people survived than I was expecting. They only lost one Weasley, after all. I was betting on at least one parent, at least one twin, and at least one other. Partly right, then. George without Fred. God, I am so sad about Fred I almost have nothing to say about it except *twitch*.
Also Colin Creevey, I burst into tears when they mentioned him. He wasn't one of my pets but but, WAH.
And OH, MOLLY VS BELLATRIX. That was quite joyous.
Umm. Too many thoughts, not enough coherency.
eleanorkat has it right, Book!Lupin has never been anywhere near as good as Fic!Lupin, and lo, he wasn't as good - I didn't like the argument with Harry, didn't like it one little bit, there was no part of it that felt in character for him, so much so I thought that he was a Polyjuiced imposter for a good few pages after he'd left. Worried about the werewolf thing yes, angsting about Sirius possibly, but... even so. I didn't buy it. Which was a shame.
On the other hand, see slasheuse's thoughts about Teddy. She has bullet points. And just imagine what dead!Sirius is going to say to dead!Remus about the fact that he has a son called Teddy. There will be pointing and laughing.
*sigh* I wish I didn't believe so much in Sirius/Remus, I really do. Usually I can seperate fanon and canon well enough to celebrate the actual couples - cheers for both Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione, they are all adorable. But I know for a fact that I was less sad about Tonks' death, despite the fact that off-screen she was clearly awesome, because she'd spent most of the book having Remus' baby... not not sad at all of course, but less sad.
Anyway. Um...
Harry-death. Spent most of the book going 'She is going to kill him - no, maybe she's not - no she really is - no wait - no - no, definitely going to survive - oh wait he's going to die - that's too obvious though, he's going to do make the sacrifice and survive somehow - oh look, he's dead - no he's not - yes he is there's dumbledore - no he isn't. Oh.' And in the end, I didn't really mind either way, so... yeah. Happy, ish.
HEDWIG. OMG Hedwig, and Mad-Eye, but... oh, oh, and DOBBY. *flails* oh that was lovely and I sobbed...
And all my favourite kids had some great moments, I love Luna, and Percy was great, and NEVILLE, and NEVILLE'S GRAN. And especially NEVILLE. Who PULLED THE SWORD OUT OF THE HAT ALL ON HIS OWN EVEN THOUGH IT WAS ON FIRE and just, *snuggles him*
Draco was... a bit disappointing. I just wanted more. I wanted him to make some proper gesture of, if not support for Harry, then non-support for Voldie. Personally obviously I would've liked something a bit heroic, but self-serving and cowardly would've done.
(My own personal fanfic version was that he'd go insane from all the torturing people, make the heroic gesture and then, knowing he'd get caught and being a coward, kill himself before they could get him.)
On the other hand, I really really liked what Narcissa did with Harry. It fits in better with the luff-conquers-all moral than some of the metaphysical magical stuff does. She saved the world a little bit because she loves her son and doesn't care about anything else. I like Narcissa, wet and incompetant as she is, I always got the feeling that the Malfoys were much happier with Voldie gone and it was just a matter of time before either Narcissa or Draco (whose wand has got unicorn hair in it, I don't know why I feel the need to note this, I just do) snapped.
I didn't like that there were no Slytherins who stayed to fight. Not one. And yet, having conclusively proved that the whole of Slytherin house was started by a maniac and accepted only selfish cowards, why not do away with it altogether? Sort those kids into one of the other three houses where their selvishness and cowardliness can be diluted by the others.
A quarter of the kids at Hogwarts are evil? Really? And you can tell just by the colour of their ties? It's one of the things I have never liked about the HP world, and generally I love the world very much. There ought to be kind and noble Slytherins just like there are cowardly Gryffindors and stupid Ravenclaws. I thought she might make some kind of gesture to this end, at some point in the last book, maybe.
Ahem. Anyway. On that note: Snape. It wasn't surprising, not in the least, but it was relatively satisfying, to have it all laid out - the thing with Lily (oh, the Patronus, that was so lovely) and Dumbledore's death and all of it. I was surprised, though pleasantly, by Harry's reaction to it.
There are plenty of other things I could say. Flaws in the internal logic, repetitive plot devices, moments of completely irrelevant joy like Dudley Dursley turning out to be a human being after all which was definitely one of my favourite moments in the whole book.
Dumbledore's murky past was a bit... well... if I say it was a bit too murky for my taste... I think that the pretty Nazi might have been a bit overkill as well as the sister (GAHOMGGAH the total lack of detail as to what those boys did to her GAH) (also the only place - so far - that our boys have elbowed their way in is that Rhys identifies with Ariana waaaay more than he should) but then, he was the plot point and she wasn't, so. Yeah. But ABERFORTH, yay Aberforth, he rocked.
I had no memory at all of the thing with the tiara. But I couldn't be bothered to reread book six before starting this one, so.
Going to shut up now. May have to post again later with the vitally important thing I've forgotten to say.
I liked it. I laughed, I cried, I clutched the book joyfully to my chest, I shook it as if I could stop the characters doing the really stupid thing they were about to do. Good book.
Just for a start, ALBUS SEVERUS OMFG POTTER. That is, of course, his full name... the epilogue bit was gratuitous (and incestuous or was that just me?) but it was worth it just for that.
(*glances around at the general online consensus* What? I thought it was fantastic...)
So, yes. Many more people survived than I was expecting. They only lost one Weasley, after all. I was betting on at least one parent, at least one twin, and at least one other. Partly right, then. George without Fred. God, I am so sad about Fred I almost have nothing to say about it except *twitch*.
Also Colin Creevey, I burst into tears when they mentioned him. He wasn't one of my pets but but, WAH.
And OH, MOLLY VS BELLATRIX. That was quite joyous.
Umm. Too many thoughts, not enough coherency.
eleanorkat has it right, Book!Lupin has never been anywhere near as good as Fic!Lupin, and lo, he wasn't as good - I didn't like the argument with Harry, didn't like it one little bit, there was no part of it that felt in character for him, so much so I thought that he was a Polyjuiced imposter for a good few pages after he'd left. Worried about the werewolf thing yes, angsting about Sirius possibly, but... even so. I didn't buy it. Which was a shame.
On the other hand, see slasheuse's thoughts about Teddy. She has bullet points. And just imagine what dead!Sirius is going to say to dead!Remus about the fact that he has a son called Teddy. There will be pointing and laughing.
*sigh* I wish I didn't believe so much in Sirius/Remus, I really do. Usually I can seperate fanon and canon well enough to celebrate the actual couples - cheers for both Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione, they are all adorable. But I know for a fact that I was less sad about Tonks' death, despite the fact that off-screen she was clearly awesome, because she'd spent most of the book having Remus' baby... not not sad at all of course, but less sad.
Anyway. Um...
Harry-death. Spent most of the book going 'She is going to kill him - no, maybe she's not - no she really is - no wait - no - no, definitely going to survive - oh wait he's going to die - that's too obvious though, he's going to do make the sacrifice and survive somehow - oh look, he's dead - no he's not - yes he is there's dumbledore - no he isn't. Oh.' And in the end, I didn't really mind either way, so... yeah. Happy, ish.
HEDWIG. OMG Hedwig, and Mad-Eye, but... oh, oh, and DOBBY. *flails* oh that was lovely and I sobbed...
And all my favourite kids had some great moments, I love Luna, and Percy was great, and NEVILLE, and NEVILLE'S GRAN. And especially NEVILLE. Who PULLED THE SWORD OUT OF THE HAT ALL ON HIS OWN EVEN THOUGH IT WAS ON FIRE and just, *snuggles him*
Draco was... a bit disappointing. I just wanted more. I wanted him to make some proper gesture of, if not support for Harry, then non-support for Voldie. Personally obviously I would've liked something a bit heroic, but self-serving and cowardly would've done.
(My own personal fanfic version was that he'd go insane from all the torturing people, make the heroic gesture and then, knowing he'd get caught and being a coward, kill himself before they could get him.)
On the other hand, I really really liked what Narcissa did with Harry. It fits in better with the luff-conquers-all moral than some of the metaphysical magical stuff does. She saved the world a little bit because she loves her son and doesn't care about anything else. I like Narcissa, wet and incompetant as she is, I always got the feeling that the Malfoys were much happier with Voldie gone and it was just a matter of time before either Narcissa or Draco (whose wand has got unicorn hair in it, I don't know why I feel the need to note this, I just do) snapped.
I didn't like that there were no Slytherins who stayed to fight. Not one. And yet, having conclusively proved that the whole of Slytherin house was started by a maniac and accepted only selfish cowards, why not do away with it altogether? Sort those kids into one of the other three houses where their selvishness and cowardliness can be diluted by the others.
A quarter of the kids at Hogwarts are evil? Really? And you can tell just by the colour of their ties? It's one of the things I have never liked about the HP world, and generally I love the world very much. There ought to be kind and noble Slytherins just like there are cowardly Gryffindors and stupid Ravenclaws. I thought she might make some kind of gesture to this end, at some point in the last book, maybe.
Ahem. Anyway. On that note: Snape. It wasn't surprising, not in the least, but it was relatively satisfying, to have it all laid out - the thing with Lily (oh, the Patronus, that was so lovely) and Dumbledore's death and all of it. I was surprised, though pleasantly, by Harry's reaction to it.
There are plenty of other things I could say. Flaws in the internal logic, repetitive plot devices, moments of completely irrelevant joy like Dudley Dursley turning out to be a human being after all which was definitely one of my favourite moments in the whole book.
Dumbledore's murky past was a bit... well... if I say it was a bit too murky for my taste... I think that the pretty Nazi might have been a bit overkill as well as the sister (GAHOMGGAH the total lack of detail as to what those boys did to her GAH) (also the only place - so far - that our boys have elbowed their way in is that Rhys identifies with Ariana waaaay more than he should) but then, he was the plot point and she wasn't, so. Yeah. But ABERFORTH, yay Aberforth, he rocked.
I had no memory at all of the thing with the tiara. But I couldn't be bothered to reread book six before starting this one, so.
Going to shut up now. May have to post again later with the vitally important thing I've forgotten to say.