Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows discussion thread (SPOILERS)

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On the other hand I expected one of Ron, Hermione, Harry, and I guess including Ginny to die. That none did was surprising given what Rowling had said.

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What did she say?

[OneSweetWorld]

To go along with the deaths I think Rowling played the deaths perfectly. Thats how war is, there is no time to mourn for fallen comrades. If everytime someone died there would be a big fuss then it wouldn't have seemed like a real war. When everyone was preparing to fight at Hogwarts that was so bad ass. They better make that scene in the movie own.

[Misfitsbeevers]

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Overall, I thought the book was very good. Various comments:

-Out of all the deaths, the two that struck me the most were Hedwig and Dobby. They were...so innocent! Those deaths were more important and meaningful to me than any of the wizard deaths in this book.

-I loved all of the history on Dumbledore and Grindelwald

-I HATE the way neville killed the snake, seems too contrived to me. He charges Voldie, doesn't get killed, somehow pulls the sword out of the hat, even though the goblin stole it...and then just kills the snake? It's all too much for me.

-Neville being a leader just doesn't fit imo. I understand she wanted to give him some limelight...but it just doesn't jive with everything we know about him.

-I'm ok with the Snape/Lily thing, though it may be a stretch to imagine that he loved her THAT much, given that they didn't really have a relationship...similar idea with Harry/Ginny.

-With the book revolving around wands, I really thought Voldemort's wand needed to be a horcrux. I don't really like the 4 houses idea.

-When McGonagall first stated that Hogwarts would defend itself and put up a fight, I felt a gigantic rush of excitement that I cannot describe. THe thought of Hogwarts being under seige and fighting back...an awesome image in my head.

-I actually felt upset when Harry and Lupin had their spat...I love Lupin as a character, and it was kind of "painful" to read

-I'm not terribly pleased with the Happy Ending. I think alot of this series has indicated that Harry cannot lead a happy life, and I wish that would have been displayed somehow. If she wanted to keep Harry alive, I think he had to become a very tortured soul, not lead a happy life.

-Alternatively, I would have been happy with both Voldie and Harry dying.

-For a man touted to be so smart, I really felt that Voldie was made way too dumb in this book. I mean...he doesn't know when any of his horcruxes are gone, he ends up being tricked several times, not the least of w hich is Harry being alive right in front of him? For the past 6 books, this wizard was supposed to be incredible, a mind reader, intuitive...but yet makes so many mistakes? It just kind of shatters the whole image I have of him.

That's it for now, I'm sure I"ll think of more later.

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My thoughts exactly!

I really hated the happy ending, at least make harry a tortured soul like Frodo or something if you're not gonna kill him of

[luckybacon]

I think that the only thing that stopped Voldie from his dominance was the limitations he put on himself. He didnt know the horcruxes were gone b/c his soul was so torn he couldnt feel it die, he was numb to all feelings of that sort. I think DD explained it somewhere. A lot of his mistakes where from his arrogance knowing how brilliant he was. Didnt think anything as lowly as a house elf could ever be a nuisance to him. The whole thing about getting tricked is just shows how brilliant Snape really is and how love motivates to do extraordinary things.
With that being said, i just wish Harry could be more a badass at the end in the duel.

[the_scalp]

I, for one, really appreciated the Weasley twins' cavalear demeanear in the face of searious injury . . .

[Jamougha]

The bit here harry and voldemort stand around for like 10 minutes while Harry explains to the readers why he's about to win the duel kinda annoyed me.

[Dids]

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The bit here harry and voldemort stand around for like 10 minutes while Harry explains to the readers why he's about to win the duel kinda annoyed me.

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Agreed. The only time this really works is when it's an X-Men comic book and the conversation takes place all over the course of one long leap. My assumption is that Voldemort is so confident that he's going to win he simply is willing to let Harry blather until he nukes him. Still, it's basically "bad fiction ending #6*" and super cliche.



*- #5 is when the villian explains his plan to the heroes while he's got them captured, this is also known as THE END OF EVERY HARDY BOY'S MYSTERY EVER.

[Silent A]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the whole blatant Christian allegory bit, namely:

1) Harry willingly sacrifices himself to save everyone
2) Harry returns from the dead
3) Everyone is protected/saved from Voldemort's evil magic through Harry's sacrifice

[Dynasty]

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I loved the book, but I'm still trying to figure out how Dumbledore's portrait knew they switched the date for Harry's departure. I spent the whole book thinking there was a traitor in the Order, and it turns out Snape's source is Dumbledore!?



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Snape's source was Mundungus Fletcher. We see that when we go through Snape's memories.

[omgitsmatt]

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I'm surprised no one has mentioned the whole blatant Christian allegory bit, namely:

1) Harry willingly sacrifices himself to save everyone
2) Harry returns from the dead
3) Everyone is protected/saved from Voldemort's evil magic through Harry's sacrifice

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Just like basically every heroic story ever? I read an article ages ago, talking about how there are seven "template" stories, and basically every story is based off of these original templates (i.e., betrayal (a la judas), epic (odyssey/iliad), etc.)

Anyway, there are a lot of blatant allegories in the HP universe (most specifically, the WW2 one...a halfblood leads an army of purebloods to power? hmm...)

Anyway, my original post before 2p2 decided it wanted to try to eat it:

Neville was [censored] metal, it was badass. I just watched the Goblet of Fire movie and he's such a noob in it, that him taking torture all year, and then pulling the sword out of the hat (Which, because it belonged to Gryffindor, according to book 1, any Gryffindor that needs it will have it pop out. Which, in turn, probably led to a few pissed off goblins.) to own Nagini? The only way that would have been more hardcore is if he bit the snake's head off, a la Bear Grylls.

I do dislike how she handled finding the horcruxes, though. "Man, we're stuck in the forest and we can't find [censored], what are we suppos--oh wait, Voldemort's thinking about the horcruxes somebody grab a pencil."

It just didn't seem very hard for them to get all of the horcruxes -- especially in Gringotts. I thought Gringotts was like a magical Fort Knox. Though I guess the hard part would be in getting a goblin to help you.

And I like the Hallows plot line, it adds a lot to the saintly Dumbledore...he craved power just as much as Voldemort, and although he was doing it under different auspices (wizards being in control is in muggles interest), the net result was exactly the same as Voldemort's powergrab; that is, wizard domination of "lower" species. I think Hermione says something to that effect -- "Magic Is Might" is basically the same as saying "for their own good."