I did very much miss Snape's presence... but as I had figured that most of the book would be the trio wandering around for Horcruxes, I didn't expect him to be in it much. What I didn't expect was his whole explanation to be given in a penseive. I had guessed that Voldemort would kill him, but I was hoping that it would at least be in some sort of battle... I wanted to see Snape duel with Harry.
I thought it was not only anticlimatic, but also out of character for Snape to give practically his whole life in memories to Harry. After all, he was furious when Harry had looked before, and although that was a humiliating memory, it also showed Harry that his dad could be a jerk... I would have thought that Snape would have deemed most of his relationship with Lily unnecessary knowledge for Harry. One could argue that Harry needed to see it to understand why Dumbledore trusted him so... but I don't picture Snape being terribly concerned with either making amends with Harry by showing him the reason he was always so mad at him, or that Snape would feel the need to prove why Dumbledore trusted him. I would think that it would be enough for Snape to show Dumbledore asking him to kill him and take over Hogwarts and that would be the final, "See, I'm not a coward!" And that's all I see him really caring for Harry to know.
Of course, storytelling blah blah readers need to know... but exposition is, one thing I don't think JKR ever handled well... and it's very typical of her to explain everything in the last 40 pages... I hate that tendency in film and I hate it even more in books where, in theory, there's not a "time limit" or such strict structure to follow.
... and it's very typical of her to explain everything in the last 40 pages I didn't mind her wrapping it up at the end, although I would very much have liked seeing more of Snape and what was going on at Hogwarts than we did - one of the disadvantages of telling these stories entirely from Harry's POV, I suppose. But the place she put it in - wrapping up the Snape storyline in the middle of the battle sequence? The more I think about it, the more I think that I she had decided to make the wrapup with Snape an afterthought at the end of the book, which it ended up becoming, then surely there was a better place to put that. Even after the battle would have been better. I found it a bit of stretch, in terms of suspension of disbelief, that in the middle of a battle with all of his friends dying, Harry would take a time-out to run up to the Headmaster's study to look at Snape's memories. Surely any sane person would have tucked it in their pocket for later and continue the battle. When I read that, I actually stopped and said, "WTF?"
I think that's a reason why I always feel like the exposition is so poorly handled, since it's from such a limited POV, the only real way Harry, and thus us, can find out information is if someone actually tells him, which then tends to turn into the long, almost siligoquey. Not that I find these poorly written or uninteresting, I just wish I didn't have to happen so much. I think she sort of ending up backing herself into a corner with the POV (which I think she realized in book 4, when she started having to open books with a scene that wasn't in Harry's POV), but there are also a lot of good advantages for us to know Harry better with the POV she chose.
And I also had the same thought, of "Really, Harry? Right now? Okay, go on then" I guess technically he had the half hour before Voldemort's deadline and figured that maybe Snape had something important to tell him about defeating Voldemort... was that where he learned he'd have to die? I can't remember, but either way, it struck me as a bit iffy too, though not completely out of character for Harry, who tends to do things rashly and irrationally anyway.
I thought it was not only anticlimatic, but also out of character for Snape to give practically his whole life in memories to Harry. After all, he was furious when Harry had looked before, and although that was a humiliating memory, it also showed Harry that his dad could be a jerk... I would have thought that Snape would have deemed most of his relationship with Lily unnecessary knowledge for Harry. One could argue that Harry needed to see it to understand why Dumbledore trusted him so... but I don't picture Snape being terribly concerned with either making amends with Harry by showing him the reason he was always so mad at him, or that Snape would feel the need to prove why Dumbledore trusted him. I would think that it would be enough for Snape to show Dumbledore asking him to kill him and take over Hogwarts and that would be the final, "See, I'm not a coward!" And that's all I see him really caring for Harry to know.
Of course, storytelling blah blah readers need to know... but exposition is, one thing I don't think JKR ever handled well... and it's very typical of her to explain everything in the last 40 pages... I hate that tendency in film and I hate it even more in books where, in theory, there's not a "time limit" or such strict structure to follow.
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I didn't mind her wrapping it up at the end, although I would very much have liked seeing more of Snape and what was going on at Hogwarts than we did - one of the disadvantages of telling these stories entirely from Harry's POV, I suppose. But the place she put it in - wrapping up the Snape storyline in the middle of the battle sequence? The more I think about it, the more I think that I she had decided to make the wrapup with Snape an afterthought at the end of the book, which it ended up becoming, then surely there was a better place to put that. Even after the battle would have been better. I found it a bit of stretch, in terms of suspension of disbelief, that in the middle of a battle with all of his friends dying, Harry would take a time-out to run up to the Headmaster's study to look at Snape's memories. Surely any sane person would have tucked it in their pocket for later and continue the battle. When I read that, I actually stopped and said, "WTF?"
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And I also had the same thought, of "Really, Harry? Right now? Okay, go on then" I guess technically he had the half hour before Voldemort's deadline and figured that maybe Snape had something important to tell him about defeating Voldemort... was that where he learned he'd have to die? I can't remember, but either way, it struck me as a bit iffy too, though not completely out of character for Harry, who tends to do things rashly and irrationally anyway.
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