Comments | runeharmonic: The Half-Blood Prince Inconsistency Theory

runeharmonic

The Half-Blood Prince Inconsistency Theory

Jul 17, 2005 02:41

I posted this at HF, but I thought I'd share it on LJ as well because it's the nagging idea that's keeping me sane.

( More spoilers, less blinding fury, and a small dose of hope. )

Comments 29

selene_13 July 17 2005, 13:02:55 UTC

Oh, Dark Rune... I wish it could be true. I don't believe it anymore. JKR wrote VOMIT (not even OBHWF, but pure VOMIT), she trampled H/Hr and desecrated Hermione, and she's pleased she did. I can't believe there's anything behind it.

I'll read book 7 for closure on my beloved Harry, but I doubt JKR will redeem herself from HBP. One book to go, four horcruxes to be found, Harry in love with Ginny, Goodship!Hermy simpering after Ron, and Voldemort to be killed by an inexperienced Harry.

The Harmonians that keep heart warm mine though. I wish that you were right, but I've never put much stock in JKR's interviews before now, and I'm not starting now. Canon stands as it is, doesn't it?

I agreed fully with the review/rant you posted, by the way. Verbalised exactly my first reaction too. *slinks off*

runeharmonic July 17 2005, 19:44:53 UTC

I did say that perhaps I'm just in denial. Don't get me wrong; even if JKR writes Harmony in the end, my respect for her has been irrevocably shattered.

But I'm still a logical Harmonian through and through, and what I see is a book with characterization that does not match the rest. The biggest assumption here is that JKR really knows what she's doing, that she actually has depth as an author. After five books of decent writing, why did she stop now and do a complete 180? Unless she really didn't and there's a better explanation for this?

HBP just doesn't make any sense, and the part of me that wants to believe in a greater good says to wait until the last book.

Of course, I still loathe the VOMIT-filled garbage that was HBP. :(

cheeringcharm July 17 2005, 20:29:18 UTC

I hate to admit that I'm with selene_13 here. I'd love for you to be right, and if she were writing one book and she had about 100 pages of throw them off the track stuff, then I might believe it. But an entire book? I just don't buy it. Of course, this is probably me just hardening my heart/mind to allieviate the disappointment that I have with JKR, Hermione's character and the overall plot of HBP.

I believe, 100%, that she will sink the H/Hr ship in her interview with Melissa and Emerson. After a book like this how could she not? Wouldn't it be ironic though, if she doesn't, and she instead is vague on the h/hr and our ship is the one that is clinging to her quotes for the next two years?

Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen.

runeharmonic July 18 2005, 04:13:07 UTC

The thing is, HBP is just one book. We've had five books before July 16 all clearly pointing to Harmony. HBP is the exception to the rule, and in my opinion, that just doesn't cut it. Unless JKR is really that bad of an author, some other factor, carefully hidden by JKR, must be at work here.

Of course, this theory requires just a small amount of faith in JKR's writing ability--and I know many have lost it. Only time will tell. It'd be sadly ironic if Harmonians were the ones to rely on JKR's quotes, but if she's that good of an author, the clues we need should be in canon already. I don't think Harmonians would ever resort to quotes, so we'll see.

Thread 6

_tealeaves_ July 17 2005, 13:56:10 UTC

i had that same feeling too earlier this morning when i woke up. HBP just doesn't feel right, and perhaps rowling did do it for a reason. desecration doesn't even begin to describe what she did to these characters. i thought she loved them?! and yes, i will still read the 7th book b/c i have just enough (meaning an EXTREMELY little bit) faith that perhaps this VOMIT-inducing book will make better sense (glad i wasn't the only one thrown off by the hippogriff tattoo thing. and why was buckbeak suddenly called witherwings without any explanation?) anyways, i'm glad the first day is over and i can get back to a normal life again. i do hope JKR clears some things up in her interview today. she has a long way to go before she gets my respect back. *sighs and exits stage left as the lights fade to black*

runeharmonic July 17 2005, 19:49:21 UTC

I suppose we're a little optimistic about JKR, aren't we? It's hard to be positive right now, with the shock of such a horrendously written book, but in time, I hope there'll be an explanation for the murder of Hermione Granger. Murder is what happened when JKR wrote VOMIT, and Harmonians knew all along that's what had to happen for VOMIT to become canon.

Witherwings sounds like a direct attack on H/Hr,but I'm hoping there's something more to JKR's choice of the name... as well as everything else that went wrong in HBP.

_tealeaves_ July 17 2005, 19:52:18 UTC

after letting everything settle for a day or so, i'm actually feeling better. i'm looking forward to JKR's interview, and i still do love her. honestly i do. but i think she's been reading too many fanfics. read your own books, jo! hehe.

and yes, hermione was murdered in the most horrible way possible. i sure hope things change in the next book. too bad we have to wait two more years or so.

runeharmonic July 18 2005, 04:19:17 UTC

JKR seems to make fun of fandom a lot in HBP, doesn't she? I wouldn't be surprised if she reads VOMIT fanfic, either. I've now gotten over my HBP fury and have decided that JKR is up to something... but that doesn't make me miss the real Hermione any less. :(

Thread 8

caveat_lect0r July 17 2005, 17:21:09 UTC

runeharmonic July 17 2005, 19:54:06 UTC

That small, foolishly hopeful part of me wants to believe that those jabs at Harmony are merely red herrings, and that JKR is still above being a Mary Sue author. Wishful thinking? Perhaps.

But could she really be that hateful towards a ship that constantly lauded and defended her abilities as a writer? The VOMIT ships always made her out to be a shallow author; we've always given her a lot of credit.

If you think about it, what is so inherently bad about H/Hr, enough for her to hate it? We've got essays upon essays about H/Hr, uncovering the depth in JKR's writing, so why should she downright hate us, as she appears to in HBP?

Something's fishy.

cheeringcharm July 17 2005, 20:35:31 UTC

I'd love to agree with you, and I definitely would if not for the tacky, tasteless moments gratuitously inserted into HBP that were deliberately meant to smash the Harmony ship in the cruelest and most snide way possible.

Obviously, JKR loathes two ships: Harry/Hermione and Remus/Sirius, and took great pains to destroy them once and for all. She ground them into the dust under her heel, laughing diabolically all the while.To me, this is the most inmature thing in the world for her to do. Until the interviews are out, the jury is still out if these things were intentional. I think they were. Part of me hopes she is scornful toward our ship so my hatred of her will be justified ( ... )

silverjedi July 17 2005, 17:51:10 UTC

I agree. There is something seriously wrong with this book. Not the ships. The characters were seriously wrong here. Character development from the past five books went down the tubes.

Until I get book seven, I refuse to believe that JK would willing do this to her beloved characters.

runeharmonic July 17 2005, 19:56:57 UTC

Definitely. I don't understand how the consistent and gradual development of Hermione Granger came to an abrupt crash in HBP. It just doesn't make any sense, but until HBP, JKR did nothing to show me that she lacks rationality and logic. There's just got to be more to this.

annearchy July 17 2005, 17:57:08 UTC

draws suspicion to what JKR ominously said about HBP in the first place: it did what it was supposed to do and a lot of people weren't going to like it.Well, she certainly achieved that goal. Perhaps HBP was Horrormione's dark year of the soul, just as GOF was for Ron and OotP was for Harry. I just wonder what's going on, when Hermione (after 5 years of being obsessive about Harry's safety), is barely around during the book, and when she is she's setting flocks of birds pecking at Ron and just generally acting like she's got permanent PMS. Hell, maybe she didn't GET her period until 6th year -- that could account for something ( ... )

runeharmonic July 17 2005, 20:07:07 UTC

LOL!

Horrormione! That's brilliant! :P

And PMS could explain that ridiculous Hermione impersonator we got in HBP. It really doesn't add up from the last five books, and the overall crapiness of HBP sticks out enough to make me think there's something else there. I'm glad I'm not the only one. :)

The last thing I want to have to do is rely on JKR's quotes, when all along, Harmonians have been sticking with canon while the opposition runs off with quotes. Given the suckines of current canon, however, quotes may be all we'll have to hint at a greater purpose behind the VOMIT.

I do agree that there are a lot of suspicious hints in the VOMIT canon that we did get. Despite my nausea, the "monster" in Harry and Ginny's "hard look" set off alarm bells in my head when I read them. If that's JKR's idea of love...

Hm. What the hell is going on, and where's my Hermione, and why is JKR mangling her series? I may be a fool to believe and to want to believe that JKR is a capable author, but HBP is so wrong that I can't fathom any other

annearchy July 17 2005, 20:21:45 UTC

I think HBP is hard for us H/Hr shippers to read because we wished/believed that JKR would FOLLOW UP on the giant hints she laid in OotP, like how Harry panicked in the DoM. That?? Totally dropped. NO introspection from Harry about anything he felt surrounding the DoM incident. It's almost like it never happened. I think that's part of why this book stings us so much -- she set up what seemed like a wonderful progression of Hermione's character, then took Hermione and turned her into...umm...maybe a normal teenage girl *hides* who can be bitchy and vindictive and all sorts of things we've NEVER thought about Hermione. I guess she had some reason to do this. It will probably take me 2 years to figure out.

runeharmonic July 18 2005, 04:24:28 UTC

That's definitely why this book stings and stinks so much. We had five books of steady buildup. FIVE. For example, Harry's reaction to the DoM was something I'd been looking forward to, so it was a stunning blow when JKR didn't put any real significance on what happened in the DoM.

VOMITers couldn't claim they have as much canon as we do, and if they tried, at least pre-HBP, they'd be lying. This is precisely why I think our ship is far from sunk, and why HBP is the biggest red herring of all.

Maybe having faith in JKR's talent is foolish at this point, but we couldn't have invested that much time and effort for nothing, could we? Not when logic points our way.

Thread 7