Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows discussion thread (SPOILERS)

[CletusVanDamme]

My thoughts on the books:

1. Deaths. I thought this worked out pretty well. Enough deaths of important characters to illustrate the war, but not so many to kill the feeling of a happy ending.

Considering the first death was a previously unseen professor, I thought we might be in for a book full of meaningless deaths, but Hedwig and Moody soon solved that problem.

Poor Dobby! But, at least he went out helping his hero. That was, IMO, the most emotional death in the book.

I wish Fred didn't have to die, only because I wanted the entire Weasley family to make it through, but considering the whole family was on the front lines, someone was going to have to die.

Lupin and Pettigrew were going to have to reunite the Marauders in death, so no surprise there. (Did you notice they died in reverse order of their signatures on the Marauders Map, Moody, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?)

Voldermorts death was a bit of a letdown. I guess after six books worth of his evilness, I wanted him to go down a bit more painfully.

Epilouge: Sure, there are things I'd like to know, but I think the point of Rowlings series was not about what job Harry, Ron or Hermione end up taking (although, I'll guess, in order, Quidditch player, Auror and Healer), but that these people, and their friends loved each other, that love helped them in their battles and that it will continue to the next generation.

Overall, a good story, but it seemed to read much differently from earlier books in the series.

[traz]

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.

[mattnxtc]

I am also rereading the book..this time more for pleasure as opposed to finding out what happens before it gets spoiled. I plan to take a bit more time to make sure I grasp it all.

I think that though the Snape concept was kinda obvious in that we all kind of expected something like this since we all held Dumbledore to such a high standard. I actually like the thought that Harry was able to look past the House rivalries to see that all houses can produce good wizards. Many people have commented on how from the start Harry never really gave the Slytherines a chance and so seeing it from Snapes view really opened our eyes to the bravery that Snape really possessed.

Ill agree that watchin him walk to his "death" with his freinds and family was intense. I dont think anybody here can say that didnt honestly cause them to get a little emotional.

While everybody agrees that NEville would have been the right character to kill Belletrix. I think we need to remember taht Neville wasnt a talented at dueling and so we wouldnt expect him to actually beat a skilled wizard 1 on 1.

[traz]

oh and also, the whole locket thing was too LOTR for me, but somehow I reckon that was purposeful

[traz]

One more thing haha, the biggest question I have is how the whole Dumbledore/Harry conversation was able to take place at the end, before Harry went back.

I know that Dumbledore said it was in Harry's head, but it was still real...but HOW did it happen? Was it some medium between death and life? And if so, why was Dumbledore special enough to talk to Harry, and not his parents etc?

[mattnxtc]

Eh..I think the locket also was there to show the difference between Harry and Voldemort.

Think about it...as he held the locket he became closer and closer to Voldemort in that he drove all his freinds away and was becoming more alone. It was his friends that eventually saved him from death (Ron pulls him out of the water) and his remembering this (letting Ron break the locket) that lead to the eventual downfall of Vodlemort.

It just reinforces the point that Voldemort's downfall was that he trusted no one, and in the end he had no one to save him.

[gumpzilla]

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-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.

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On the contrary - I think it was very clearly an arc that he seemed to be heading for for quite some time. While even in the earlier books he shows some character (the incident in Chamber of Secrets where he tries to stop Harry et al. from busting out of the common room or whatever), there was the whole bumbling incompetence thing. But I thought that his involvement with Dumbledore's Army and the battle at the Ministry marked a turning point where he became more confident in himself, and from there I think it makes a ton of sense. Besides, the characters are all supposed to be 17 year old kids; it would be pretty weird if they DIDN'T change.

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-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.

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These seem kinda like contradictory impulses to me - you dislike unhappiness of characters you like and yet still felt Harry should die?

[jaffa]

Literally just finished this book.

It was pretty good i thought, not my favourite of the 7, but good none the less. Got a bit bored of them aimlessly moving around the countryside, would've prefered them to have explored some of the magical world we heard so much about in previous books. e.g. Albania, Durmstrang, Azkaban etc.

Was pretty stoked that one of the key chapters took place in the Forest of Dean, as that's where i live.

I was quite dissapointed in the deaths, i don't think they were emphasised enough, except for maybe Dobby's. No one seemed to make enough fuss that Moody was gone, same with Lupin and Tonks.

I thought the last few chapters were awesome, especially the one about Snape who's always been a favourite character of mine. The Gringotts chapter was good too, the idea of the burning, multiplying treasure was pretty dark.

The Epilogue was crap and predictable.

[gharp]

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!?

Also, I thought Snape's "look...at...me" was a nice touch (Harry has her eyes).

[traz]

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On the contrary - I think it was very clearly an arc that he seemed to be heading for for quite some time. While even in the earlier books he shows some character (the incident in Chamber of Secrets where he tries to stop Harry et al. from busting out of the common room or whatever), there was the whole bumbling incompetence thing. But I thought that his involvement with Dumbledore's Army and the battle at the Ministry marked a turning point where he became more confident in himself, and from there I think it makes a ton of sense. Besides, the characters are all supposed to be 17 year old kids; it would be pretty weird if they DIDN'T change.


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I agree that it was an obvious arc, but I don't find it realistic.


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These seem kinda like contradictory impulses to me - you dislike unhappiness of characters you like and yet still felt Harry should die?

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What? I never said I dislike unhappiness, I said that it made me upset, because I didn't like the 2 characters arguing in such a way. I was more stating that the scene between Harry/Lupin had a strong impact on me.