Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Here's the entry I started on Sunday:
"I think the rum is wearing off, I can post something about Deathly Hallows now with a 50/50 that shot that it will be coherent. (I might have been a little gone when I started reading too. XD; What can I say, they were passing out wine at the bookstore and I never turn down free drinks.)"
...but I must have been drunker than I thought, because at that point, I fell asleep without writing anything about the book. ^^; I've been reading reviews here and there, and have noted with a sinking feeling that most are not nearly as fun to read as Deathly Hallows. It's not that I loved the book without reservations and anything negative harshes my squee, it's more that...some of these reviews are so personal. Like calling my friend and listening to her complain about how she didn't like the ending because she'd predicted all the deaths and wanted J. K. Rowling to surprise her. And, okay, reviews are personal, they're a personal reaction to the work of another person, but there's a point where it's not even about the book anymore, you know?
So that, and market saturation, and knowledge of my own un-hardcoreness (I've read most of the books within a few weeks of release, but I haven't reread any of them), are why I haven't written anything about Deathly Hallows. But I have to now, don't I, or this entire entry will have been one long complaint.
1. "A mysterious shadow emerged from the darkness. A voice spoke out from gloom. Silhouetted against the fire, a third man replied." Not that this is not suitably cinematic atmospheric, but couldn't we get on with it? Also, didn't book six start exactly this way?
2. Loooooooove the first five chapters, though. *rereads* The prose in these chapters is so good, whether the editors had their way with it or whether Rowling has improved as a writer (and after more than 5,000 pages, why not?), the quality is sooooooo much better than the first few books'. Also, I really love the "excerpts" in this book, they're so perfectly voiced.
4. The Trio abandons Kreacher! After all the trouble they went through to help the human wizards under questioning at the Ministry of Magic, they decide it's too risky to summon him: house-elf apparation might work like normal apparation, and one of Voldemort's cronies might be touching Kreacher, in which case he might be transported to their location, and then they'd have to relocate somewhere else. (Nevermind that they eventually do this anyway....) I told fledermauskid how mad I was about Kreacher, and she explained that unlike the Mudbloods, he was never really in danger, and after that I felt a bit better. (But Voldemort tortures for information! I said. Yes, but just like most wizards, he doesn't pay any attention to house-elves, she said patiently.)
5. Quick aside, hurrah, Hermione's time with SPEW actually pays off! *cheers*
6. And then, insult to injury, Mad-Eye Moony's mad eye, which I was sure must be a plot element since Harry was willing to risk so much for it (when he wouldn't risk anything for Kreacher), is immediately buried, never to be heard from again! What a waste. I guess the burial scene was supposed to be Rowling's acknowledgment that she'd killed off an awesome character -- certainly none of the characters are shown grieving for him, at least not after the first scene where they learn he's dead (though even this is overshadowed by George's lost ear).
7. Another aside, when George lost his ear, I really thought the twins were safe, since they'd already met their quota in terms of horrible divisive trauma. Little did I realize, only George was safe... *cry*
8. Partly because of the thing with Kreacher, I could only roll my eyes when what's his name, the goblin, tells Harry he has an "unusual respect" for non-humans. Uhhhhhh, no. Maybe Hermoine does, but the closest Harry or Ron come is, they try to be polite even when they personally dislike a non-human, since who knows, maybe he'll be useful. And anyway, why should Harry Potter get any credit for avoiding prejudices he was never exposed to? I realize this line of inquiry is getting old, I'll stop. In any case that goblin had every reason to flatter, and no one ever said Harry was supposed to be an embodiment of morality. (Just an embodiment of certain admirable Griffindor traits.)
9. Man, when the three of them are out in the woods, Hermione really saves the day. XDXDXD Who casts the spells? Packs the bags? Keeps her head? Hermione! Forget Harry Potter being the leader, she is definitely the leader here, Harry Potter is just that kid with the useful psychic connection to Lord Voldemort. (Meanwhile, Ron is useful only as another pair of hands, which I suppose is why Harry gives him Godric's sword -- at least that way he'd have something to do.)
10. Harry dreams as Voldemort and obsesses over the Elder Wand, skip skip skip. I get why Rowling puts in these page-long digressions on his mental state, it's so we-the-readers know there's something Not Right about Harry going after the Elder Wand, and so when Harry goes back to hunting Horcruxes and back to his old self, we breathe a sigh of relief. Otherwise we might not have seen what was so wrong about going after the Wand, which after all is a perfectly logical plan, fairy tales of DOOM aside. (Especially since at this point, we're supposed to have doubts about Dumbledore, and wonder whether maybe Harry shouldn't blindly follow his last orders.)
11. Boooooo, Harry's "go home to your child! children are the most important thing!" speech to Lupin. A friend pointed out that it was really out of character for Lupin to have left Tonks in the first place, and I agree. Added to that, Harry's speech is such hypocrisy -- if children were really the most important thing, always, no parent would ever join the resistance. And Harry would have taken a kinder view of Xenophillis Lovegood, who after all only did what he did to save Luna. Maybe children are only the most important thing when they're below a certain age. The one good thing about this section is, Harry impresses on Lupin that it's not just the mother that has a responsibility to the child, the father has the same responsibility.
12. Probably the worst thing about this speech though, is that it sidelines Lupin and Tonks for the whole book -- and then, at the end, they die offscreen. Offscreen! And Harry is so busy, he can't afford to grieve for them, and within two pages he compartmentalizes them. Lupin smiles at him when he's brought back, so I guess there were no hard feelings, but man, what a raw deal. There's no way Lupin is gets an offscreen death in the movie, the audience won't stand for it.
13. I love how the "connection" between Harry and Voldemort lets him skip steps B through Y, and arrive straight at Z from A. XDXD It's the solve-the-mystery-by-reading-your-opponent's-mind technique employed so often in fiction (*cough*Death Note*cough*), only this time, there is an actual canonical justification for it.
14. Even more than Rowling's "Remember that thing you thought wasn't important in book three? Well..." reveals, what really impressed me was the way she had the characters comment on whether or not something would work, based on what they knew from previous books. ^___^ It's obvious that Rowling thought about every single new development, and whether it mades sense in the universe she has created.
15. Not so fond of the time Ron, Harry, and Hermione and then just Harry and Hermione spend wandering around in the woods, stupidly wearing a depression-inducing pendant around their necks for no reason, though. (Ron: At least we can't wear [the cup]! Readers: ... )
16. After Harry, Ron, Hermione and their inside man spend an entire month plotting their infiltration of Grimvaults, I was expecting Mission: Impossible, not the total disaster that apparently passes for a plan around these parts. I mean, seriously?! If all you were going to do is Polyjuice a Bellatrix while the other two stooges hid under the cloak, it would have been better to do it right away, before word of the Dark Lord's displeasure with her had spread. And then, why Hermione? She's an awful liar! And, she's the best spellcaster! Ron would have made a much better Bellatrix.
17. Though apparently Hermione is not as bad a liar as she used to be, considering she was able to lie under torture. o_O I can't believe J. K. Crucio'd her. I can't believe she was fine the next day! Actually, I've decided, characters in Harry Potter 'verse definitely don't experience pain the way I do. It's the only thing that makes sense, considering how much pain they're in all the time, and how casual they are about it. (Think about the Fred and George's "practical jokes," or that Harry thought it was funny that a botched apparation means missing chunks of skin...) If you take the line, as J. K. Rowling apparently does, that it's all healed magically afterward, so any pain is immaterial, it starts to make a certain kind of sense.
18. On the subject of Unforgivable Curses: holy shit, that was Imperius. o_O I get that these are desperate times, but I was really expecting a paragraph, even a line, of reflection or regret or remorse or something. No one even comments...later, Harry Crucio's the Carrow brother, who is no threat to him, from underneath the invisible cloak, because he spat on McGonagal. What the hell, man, what the hell. -_-;
19. I was talking with a friend about how come Obliviate isn't an unforgivable curse since you can use it to permanently alter another person's behavior, just like Imperius (and unlike Confound, which is short-term). He suggested it was because wizards need to Obliviate any passing Muggles who happens to witness them being wizardly. I thought that made sense, so I'm passing it along.
The end of the book went by too quickly for me to really pay attention to or care about trifling details, so I'll just quickly note:
20. WHY ARE THE SLYTHERINS SO EVIL.
21. Is it bad that when I found out about Ginny, Neville, and Luna leading the Hogwarts Resistance, I really wished I'd been reading that story instead?
22. <3<3<3 Ravenclaw common room and "password".
23. I REALLY THOUGHT HARRY WAS GOING TO DIE, but then I remembered that fledermauskid was happy with the ending. I asked myself, would Katie have enjoyed an ending where Harry dies? (hint: no.) And then, after I'd realized, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and was able to relax and enjoy the ending.
24. "You know what happened to my sister," Dumbledore said to not!dead Harry. Um, no, actually he doesn't, and neither do the readers -- this section was conveniently glossed over the first time. Considering the trauma we've seen other characters go through, I actually can't imagine what could have been so bad it drove his sister insane, and I'm willing to bet J. K. Rowling couldn't either.
25. It really does take Dumbledore an entire chapter to explain his evil scheme. o_O
26. NEVILLE!!!! XD What must the Goblins be thinking, I wonder.
27. I haven't said this yet so: LUNA!!!!!!!! <333333333
28. SNAPE AND LILY oh my god. That chapter was excellent. (There were a lot of really excellent mini-stories in this story.) I thought it was perfect that Lily was introduced floating down from the swingset -- such a striking image, you can see why he was obsessed with her -- and that magic became this wedge that drove her and Petunia apart. And I loved Snape's just-friends relationship with her, the sense you got of him holding on to his early advantage (first wizard she met) for dear life. And then, Lily putting up with it a long as she could, but eventually severing (haha) the connection. And then! His devotion to her memory kinnnnnnd of redeeming him, many years after she was gone -- though he was then, and remains, a creepy creepy man. In short, this whole section was perfect.
29. This scene is going to look so awesome in the movie.
30. This one too!!
31. You know, I didn't really get the attraction of the stone -- no one I really love has died yet -- until the scene where Harry decides not to look for it. And then, it wasn't anything in Deathly Hallows that made the temptation sink in, it was remembering this Phillip K. Dick story where the main character gets high and watches holographs of his dead wife every night, and never comes to terms with his grief, because he's continually re-opening old wounds. Then I kind of got it. ^^; I noticed some people have been complaining that Harry just leaves the stone in the woods, actually I had this complaint too, but fledermauskid set me straight: it's a stone in the middle of the woods, and not even Harry knows which stone it is. It's probably safer there than any "hiding place" he came up with. I mean, imagine if Voldemort had left Helga's diadem in some random tree in Albania.
30. The Epilogue: We don't know what anyone's job is or what 90% of the characters are doing, but we do know that Harry and Ginny end up together, (ditto Hermione and Ron), Draco lives!, Nevile is becomes a professor (<3 Neville), and there is absolutely no reform at Hogwarts despite the House system clearly being a bad idea. -_-; Ah, well.
Final analysis: I know J. K. Rowling has only admitted to one character (Professor Vain) being based on someone she knows in real life, but her characterization is so consistent, I really think there must have been others. In the end, characterization and consistency are the strongest parts of these books. Logic and a workable timeline are not. ^^; And if you were looking for reform, you'll have to look elsewhere -- there's nothing for you here.
I'm probably forgetting a few points but I really have to go eat something, before I pass out ^^;;.
EDIT: HP7 reactions I agreed with enjoyed:
http://mistful.livejournal.com/102591.html
http://rashaka.livejournal.com/1239846.html
http://supacat.livejournal.com/99235.html
http://canis-m.livejournal.com/295559.html
http://petronia.livejournal.com/531010.html
http://penelope-z.livejournal.com/197880.html
http://lacewood.livejournal.com/133304.html
http://chupachup.livejournal.com/113517.html
"I think the rum is wearing off, I can post something about Deathly Hallows now with a 50/50 that shot that it will be coherent. (I might have been a little gone when I started reading too. XD; What can I say, they were passing out wine at the bookstore and I never turn down free drinks.)"
...but I must have been drunker than I thought, because at that point, I fell asleep without writing anything about the book. ^^; I've been reading reviews here and there, and have noted with a sinking feeling that most are not nearly as fun to read as Deathly Hallows. It's not that I loved the book without reservations and anything negative harshes my squee, it's more that...some of these reviews are so personal. Like calling my friend and listening to her complain about how she didn't like the ending because she'd predicted all the deaths and wanted J. K. Rowling to surprise her. And, okay, reviews are personal, they're a personal reaction to the work of another person, but there's a point where it's not even about the book anymore, you know?
So that, and market saturation, and knowledge of my own un-hardcoreness (I've read most of the books within a few weeks of release, but I haven't reread any of them), are why I haven't written anything about Deathly Hallows. But I have to now, don't I, or this entire entry will have been one long complaint.
1. "A mysterious shadow emerged from the darkness. A voice spoke out from gloom. Silhouetted against the fire, a third man replied." Not that this is not suitably cinematic atmospheric, but couldn't we get on with it? Also, didn't book six start exactly this way?
2. Loooooooove the first five chapters, though. *rereads* The prose in these chapters is so good, whether the editors had their way with it or whether Rowling has improved as a writer (and after more than 5,000 pages, why not?), the quality is sooooooo much better than the first few books'. Also, I really love the "excerpts" in this book, they're so perfectly voiced.
4. The Trio abandons Kreacher! After all the trouble they went through to help the human wizards under questioning at the Ministry of Magic, they decide it's too risky to summon him: house-elf apparation might work like normal apparation, and one of Voldemort's cronies might be touching Kreacher, in which case he might be transported to their location, and then they'd have to relocate somewhere else. (Nevermind that they eventually do this anyway....) I told fledermauskid how mad I was about Kreacher, and she explained that unlike the Mudbloods, he was never really in danger, and after that I felt a bit better. (But Voldemort tortures for information! I said. Yes, but just like most wizards, he doesn't pay any attention to house-elves, she said patiently.)
5. Quick aside, hurrah, Hermione's time with SPEW actually pays off! *cheers*
6. And then, insult to injury, Mad-Eye Moony's mad eye, which I was sure must be a plot element since Harry was willing to risk so much for it (when he wouldn't risk anything for Kreacher), is immediately buried, never to be heard from again! What a waste. I guess the burial scene was supposed to be Rowling's acknowledgment that she'd killed off an awesome character -- certainly none of the characters are shown grieving for him, at least not after the first scene where they learn he's dead (though even this is overshadowed by George's lost ear).
7. Another aside, when George lost his ear, I really thought the twins were safe, since they'd already met their quota in terms of horrible divisive trauma. Little did I realize, only George was safe... *cry*
8. Partly because of the thing with Kreacher, I could only roll my eyes when what's his name, the goblin, tells Harry he has an "unusual respect" for non-humans. Uhhhhhh, no. Maybe Hermoine does, but the closest Harry or Ron come is, they try to be polite even when they personally dislike a non-human, since who knows, maybe he'll be useful. And anyway, why should Harry Potter get any credit for avoiding prejudices he was never exposed to? I realize this line of inquiry is getting old, I'll stop. In any case that goblin had every reason to flatter, and no one ever said Harry was supposed to be an embodiment of morality. (Just an embodiment of certain admirable Griffindor traits.)
9. Man, when the three of them are out in the woods, Hermione really saves the day. XDXDXD Who casts the spells? Packs the bags? Keeps her head? Hermione! Forget Harry Potter being the leader, she is definitely the leader here, Harry Potter is just that kid with the useful psychic connection to Lord Voldemort. (Meanwhile, Ron is useful only as another pair of hands, which I suppose is why Harry gives him Godric's sword -- at least that way he'd have something to do.)
10. Harry dreams as Voldemort and obsesses over the Elder Wand, skip skip skip. I get why Rowling puts in these page-long digressions on his mental state, it's so we-the-readers know there's something Not Right about Harry going after the Elder Wand, and so when Harry goes back to hunting Horcruxes and back to his old self, we breathe a sigh of relief. Otherwise we might not have seen what was so wrong about going after the Wand, which after all is a perfectly logical plan, fairy tales of DOOM aside. (Especially since at this point, we're supposed to have doubts about Dumbledore, and wonder whether maybe Harry shouldn't blindly follow his last orders.)
11. Boooooo, Harry's "go home to your child! children are the most important thing!" speech to Lupin. A friend pointed out that it was really out of character for Lupin to have left Tonks in the first place, and I agree. Added to that, Harry's speech is such hypocrisy -- if children were really the most important thing, always, no parent would ever join the resistance. And Harry would have taken a kinder view of Xenophillis Lovegood, who after all only did what he did to save Luna. Maybe children are only the most important thing when they're below a certain age. The one good thing about this section is, Harry impresses on Lupin that it's not just the mother that has a responsibility to the child, the father has the same responsibility.
12. Probably the worst thing about this speech though, is that it sidelines Lupin and Tonks for the whole book -- and then, at the end, they die offscreen. Offscreen! And Harry is so busy, he can't afford to grieve for them, and within two pages he compartmentalizes them. Lupin smiles at him when he's brought back, so I guess there were no hard feelings, but man, what a raw deal. There's no way Lupin is gets an offscreen death in the movie, the audience won't stand for it.
13. I love how the "connection" between Harry and Voldemort lets him skip steps B through Y, and arrive straight at Z from A. XDXD It's the solve-the-mystery-by-reading-your-opponent's-mind technique employed so often in fiction (*cough*Death Note*cough*), only this time, there is an actual canonical justification for it.
14. Even more than Rowling's "Remember that thing you thought wasn't important in book three? Well..." reveals, what really impressed me was the way she had the characters comment on whether or not something would work, based on what they knew from previous books. ^___^ It's obvious that Rowling thought about every single new development, and whether it mades sense in the universe she has created.
15. Not so fond of the time Ron, Harry, and Hermione and then just Harry and Hermione spend wandering around in the woods, stupidly wearing a depression-inducing pendant around their necks for no reason, though. (Ron: At least we can't wear [the cup]! Readers: ... )
16. After Harry, Ron, Hermione and their inside man spend an entire month plotting their infiltration of Grimvaults, I was expecting Mission: Impossible, not the total disaster that apparently passes for a plan around these parts. I mean, seriously?! If all you were going to do is Polyjuice a Bellatrix while the other two stooges hid under the cloak, it would have been better to do it right away, before word of the Dark Lord's displeasure with her had spread. And then, why Hermione? She's an awful liar! And, she's the best spellcaster! Ron would have made a much better Bellatrix.
17. Though apparently Hermione is not as bad a liar as she used to be, considering she was able to lie under torture. o_O I can't believe J. K. Crucio'd her. I can't believe she was fine the next day! Actually, I've decided, characters in Harry Potter 'verse definitely don't experience pain the way I do. It's the only thing that makes sense, considering how much pain they're in all the time, and how casual they are about it. (Think about the Fred and George's "practical jokes," or that Harry thought it was funny that a botched apparation means missing chunks of skin...) If you take the line, as J. K. Rowling apparently does, that it's all healed magically afterward, so any pain is immaterial, it starts to make a certain kind of sense.
18. On the subject of Unforgivable Curses: holy shit, that was Imperius. o_O I get that these are desperate times, but I was really expecting a paragraph, even a line, of reflection or regret or remorse or something. No one even comments...later, Harry Crucio's the Carrow brother, who is no threat to him, from underneath the invisible cloak, because he spat on McGonagal. What the hell, man, what the hell. -_-;
19. I was talking with a friend about how come Obliviate isn't an unforgivable curse since you can use it to permanently alter another person's behavior, just like Imperius (and unlike Confound, which is short-term). He suggested it was because wizards need to Obliviate any passing Muggles who happens to witness them being wizardly. I thought that made sense, so I'm passing it along.
The end of the book went by too quickly for me to really pay attention to or care about trifling details, so I'll just quickly note:
20. WHY ARE THE SLYTHERINS SO EVIL.
21. Is it bad that when I found out about Ginny, Neville, and Luna leading the Hogwarts Resistance, I really wished I'd been reading that story instead?
22. <3<3<3 Ravenclaw common room and "password".
23. I REALLY THOUGHT HARRY WAS GOING TO DIE, but then I remembered that fledermauskid was happy with the ending. I asked myself, would Katie have enjoyed an ending where Harry dies? (hint: no.) And then, after I'd realized, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and was able to relax and enjoy the ending.
24. "You know what happened to my sister," Dumbledore said to not!dead Harry. Um, no, actually he doesn't, and neither do the readers -- this section was conveniently glossed over the first time. Considering the trauma we've seen other characters go through, I actually can't imagine what could have been so bad it drove his sister insane, and I'm willing to bet J. K. Rowling couldn't either.
25. It really does take Dumbledore an entire chapter to explain his evil scheme. o_O
26. NEVILLE!!!! XD What must the Goblins be thinking, I wonder.
27. I haven't said this yet so: LUNA!!!!!!!! <333333333
28. SNAPE AND LILY oh my god. That chapter was excellent. (There were a lot of really excellent mini-stories in this story.) I thought it was perfect that Lily was introduced floating down from the swingset -- such a striking image, you can see why he was obsessed with her -- and that magic became this wedge that drove her and Petunia apart. And I loved Snape's just-friends relationship with her, the sense you got of him holding on to his early advantage (first wizard she met) for dear life. And then, Lily putting up with it a long as she could, but eventually severing (haha) the connection. And then! His devotion to her memory kinnnnnnd of redeeming him, many years after she was gone -- though he was then, and remains, a creepy creepy man. In short, this whole section was perfect.
29. This scene is going to look so awesome in the movie.
30. This one too!!
31. You know, I didn't really get the attraction of the stone -- no one I really love has died yet -- until the scene where Harry decides not to look for it. And then, it wasn't anything in Deathly Hallows that made the temptation sink in, it was remembering this Phillip K. Dick story where the main character gets high and watches holographs of his dead wife every night, and never comes to terms with his grief, because he's continually re-opening old wounds. Then I kind of got it. ^^; I noticed some people have been complaining that Harry just leaves the stone in the woods, actually I had this complaint too, but fledermauskid set me straight: it's a stone in the middle of the woods, and not even Harry knows which stone it is. It's probably safer there than any "hiding place" he came up with. I mean, imagine if Voldemort had left Helga's diadem in some random tree in Albania.
30. The Epilogue: We don't know what anyone's job is or what 90% of the characters are doing, but we do know that Harry and Ginny end up together, (ditto Hermione and Ron), Draco lives!, Nevile is becomes a professor (<3 Neville), and there is absolutely no reform at Hogwarts despite the House system clearly being a bad idea. -_-; Ah, well.
Final analysis: I know J. K. Rowling has only admitted to one character (Professor Vain) being based on someone she knows in real life, but her characterization is so consistent, I really think there must have been others. In the end, characterization and consistency are the strongest parts of these books. Logic and a workable timeline are not. ^^; And if you were looking for reform, you'll have to look elsewhere -- there's nothing for you here.
I'm probably forgetting a few points but I really have to go eat something, before I pass out ^^;;.
EDIT: HP7 reactions I agreed with enjoyed:
http://mistful.livejournal.com/102591.html
http://rashaka.livejournal.com/1239846.html
http://supacat.livejournal.com/99235.html
http://canis-m.livejournal.com/295559.html
http://petronia.livejournal.com/531010.html
http://penelope-z.livejournal.com/197880.html
http://lacewood.livejournal.com/133304.html
http://chupachup.livejournal.com/113517.html