elanor_x (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} elanor_x) wrote,@ 2007-07-26 15:54:00 |
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| Current mood: |  contemplative |
| Current music: | Deathly Hallows |
| Entry tags: | dh, hp |
My thoughts and questions about DH. *spoilers - not under the cut!*
We bought the book at ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
deathtocapslock will cease to exist, after rereading the entire series. If we don't pick another book, we'll degenerate as a community, which after all those years [I joined you yet at the previous com] of waiting for Fridays and been used to seeing more or less the same people, humorously discussing books together is hard for me to imagine. It’s like losing a friend in a way.
Since it's the last book I decided to use the final opportunity and post as many chapter recaps as I will manage. I’ll be brief here and hopefully develop the ideas in my recaps.
Here is a list of things that I loved [those getting emotional reaction out of me], things I didn’t like and unanswered questions, hoping that my lj friends will make the matters clearer, if possible.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
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PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
Loved:
- Kreacher’s Tale, even though his new attitude towards Harry was strange to read and felt like fan fiction.
Did you notice that Kreacher was happy most of his life, led house-elves into the battle and got a new owner he loves (Harry), while Dobby, A Free House-Elf, was miserable in slavery because of hating his owners, ostracized by his own kind in freedom (doubt whether other house-elves would listen to him as they did to Kreacher) and wound up dead (like Sirius by the family he betrayed)? Harry’s children will have Kreacher, a proper house-elf, not a freaky one.
- Snape’s death was the only death in this book, which made me feel something. I couldn’t hold my tears. Afterwards, read spare-change here:
“It just hit me that Snape wanted Harry to look into his eyes as he died because he wanted the last thing he would see to be “Lily’s eyes.” Poor little Snapey.
You know, I kind of want Snape to be still alive. *sad* You are still the awesomest character ever, Snape. Even if your backstory is crappy.”
- No Ginny! Yay!
- Harry’s going to be killed in the company of the dead, visible only to him since they were part of him. “The Forest Again” is an incredibly strong chapter.
- Most of “The Prince’s Tale”, Specially
Lily not believing D “could ever been friends with Gellert Grindelwald”;
D not resisting the temptation of putting on the ring because of his deep remorse and dying as a result;
Snape’s horror at the revelation that Harry was raised to die and his answer “Lately, only those whom I couldn’t save” to D’s question: “How many men and women have you watched die?”
- D’s and G’s friendship and G’s remorse in the end. G intrigued me since the first book and, based on one of JKR’s interviews, I was sure we would never see him again. The only thing lacking for full happiness is Maya writing a fic about them. [I don’t mean slash, but it would be fine for me too]. J
- V destroying both his body and soul to create Horcruxes. Now we know where his good looks went at last. The description of his eyes rattling like a trapped cockroach is great. Wouldn’t be fascinating twisted, if he had his mother’s eyes too, knew it and symbolically decided to put them in her locket?
- Hermione telling the goblin (?) that they were raised in a Muggle world and thus with different prejudices.
- Goblins having different views of property than wizards and the Polyjuice Potion designed “for human use only”, thus not working on Hagrid. I started getting the impression that we’re dealing with different species here, not with strangely looking humans.
Didn't like:
- V's "What is this?" to Harry's advice “try for some remorse, Riddle” sounded horrible, making V seem retarded, as if he didn’t understand the dictionary definition of the word. I understand the scene is supposed to be highly symbolical, but on the most basic, not symbolical level it made me cringe. In the whole fandom only I seem to find something to complain about it. What did you think?
- Reading the book, I felt myself constantly haunted, which was a good thing, conveying H’s life on the run. However, even fantasy should be believable to enjoy it, and Trio’s incessant escapes from V himself [on the way to the Burrow, from Nagini, from Malfoy Manor when V was coming, twice at the final confrontation] were hardly feasible. In GoF Harry escaped once due to his wand, in OoTF D & Order members fought for them and saved them, and here the Trio escape DEs and V freely? Almost in every chapter?
- Logical lapses: V seized power and Arthur Weasley goes to work as usual? And Ginny goes to school? Why weren’t all Weasleys held hostage and executed one by one until Harry showed up? OK, may be V keeps low profile, but it felt strange. There are other points too, like Ron’s fake Parseltongue.
- Liked the tale of the three brothers itself [I love fairy tales], but not how it was used in the series. The concepts of Deathly Hallows and of wand ownership had to be introduced in the former books, for the end not to feel like cheating.
la_onzaasked a question, which proves imo that JKR made up DH only in the last book: “if Harry's invisibility cloak is a legendary artifact that gives "constant and impenetrable concealment," how come Mad-Eye could see through it?” Of course, you could say that the eye was very special too, but I don’t buy it was as special as the 3 legendary gifts of Death. - All Slytherins leave the castle and are too cowardly or/and pro-V to fight.
- Snape did the right choice because of his love for Lily. So, I guess, if he fell in love with Slytherin beautiful girl, he would gladly continue killing those faceless people. Or, like somebody wrote in Russian HP forum, if another Dark Lord rose, it would be fine, unless he would kill Snape’s grandmother or something.
ptyx made me feel better about it by her post, saying that his love for Lily changed him. - Peter’s way of paying his life debt was anticlimactic after waiting for it since book 3.
- Remus and Tonks subplot was utterly redundant.
- The same for Hagrid and his giant brother. Why did she tell to keep him in the OoTF movie?
- Ditto about The House-Elves Liberation Front. The book ends (!) with Harry happily contemplating how his house-elf will make him a sandwich!
Questions:
* What is the ultimate moral lesson of HP series?
*Why did Snape have to die? Hasn't he suffered enough? Can only death bring redemption in Rowling's eyes?
* Why couldn't Harry have comforted the Voldemort-baby? What would happen, if Harry tried to touch / help the baby V? Who was this child – the bit of V’s soul still left in his body?
* Do we know that after death V will suffer for eternity as a small child, not understanding why he is suffering and who he is?
And the less important ones:
*Whom did Draco marry?
*Where Harry, Ron and Hermione work?
*Snape became D's spy only because of his romantic love for Lily. Should I understand that without her he would have been 100% evil? What does JKR want to say about love and morals / choices by this?
* Did Peter pay his life debt to Harry only but stopping for a second?
* A silly question, but G interested me since book 1: Do you think he really felt remorse?
* Why did Remus & Tonks have to die?
A few good links:
From andromakhe I got those 2 links:
If My F-List Wrote DH – a funny summery of the book.
Missing from 'Harry Potter' – a real moral struggle
Explains some readers’ dissatisfaction with the books and the secret of Snape’s appeal [hint: Not "the bad boy syndrome”, Rowling].
From Pandagon: Relatively short, funny summery of the DH.
