Scattered Thoughts about HP 7

[ivyblossom]

Hmm well. I liked it over all, it was much better than the previous one.

• A half-hearted redemption for the Malfoys, at least. I'm disappointed that Draco didn't have a bigger (actual) role in the whole thing, but at least he's still alive.
  
• I realize it was inevitable, but I didn't buy the Ginny thing at all. I stand by my assessment that Ginny is an utterly failed character in these books. There was so much potential in her, and it all collapsed into exactly what we expected from her from the very first moment we saw her: hero bait. The woman worthy of being the good wife for the main character who really matters. I'm disappointed at her lack of dimension and lack of internal power. I'm still waiting for the dyed hair, goth clothes and bad, emo poetry. She's got it in her.
  
• I thought the Ron/Hermione thing was alright, though I wanted to hit Hermione a few times for being so shrieky and randomly pissy at Ron. At least we can see the attraction from Ron's side: he's marrying a woman exactly like his mother.
  
• The constant shout-outs about other books was annoying. This felt like a victory lap.
  
• Epilogue? Cripes, I won't even start. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
  
• Why is Voldemort so very stupid? Honestly now. The guy who's managing to destroy the world, does he need to be this ill-informed all the time?
  
• I believe that JKR had some of this plot planned out from the start, but I think that's mostly the key bit about Voldemort and Harry being linked (and partially the how and why). I don't think she had the deathly hallows thing worked before this book, though. Too many holes had to be filled in for it to have been planned. Now, if we had actually seen all three horcruxes (hallows, not horcruxes) hallows throughout the books, heard a rumour about them or a joke, maybe I would buy that it was all a great plan. Not that it really has to be, but...I think there are great swaths of this book that are really JKR flying by the seat of her pants.
  
• Why did we even have that tiara in the book? For a while I wondered if the diadem was actually aunt Muriel's tiara, which would have been cool, but...no.
  
• WIsh the Muggle Studies instructor from the beginning was someone we'd actually heard of. That would have been more horrifying, but it would have made more sense. By rights it should have been someone like Mr. Weasley, someone fascinated with Muggles whom we feel great affection for. Would have underscored the point better.
  
• Loved Neville. Loved him. There's a character who grew into himself from the beginning to the end. This whole series might just as well have been about his coming of age. I have this same criticism of Lord of the Rings; the main character is who he is from the beginning, and while he may learn some tips and tricks, he doesn't so much change from beginning to end. I sort of feel this about Harry at the moment.
  
• Did anyone else feel like the locket seemed a bit Lord of the Ringsy?
  
• The stuff about Dumbledore: fine, somewhat interesting, but it was foisted on us a bit fast. It would be cool to be able to rewrite the whole series and add just a few hints to things here and there. I was sort of with Harry through most of the book as he complained about all the things Dumbledore didn't tell him, but it felt like an attempt to hide poor planning. There was no actual reason for Dumbledore not to even hint that there were dark elements in his past that he didn't want to mention. Actually, that would have created more angst rather than less. Still could have had the terrible expose and have it hit more like "oh, so THAT's what he wouldn't tell me all this time."
  
• Ariana: why did they never have a doctor look at her? She'd never been to St. Mungo's? So your child gets ill and you just say, oh dear, well, best keep her locked up then! Seriously, that's never really answered for, as I recall. How could they be so sure that someone couldn't fix her up a bit if they never tried?
  
• Why did she suggest that Dumbledore's mother was native american without picking up on it further? What was that about?
  
• I loved the last words from Dudley.
  
• Why was this the first time we've heard about the "tracing"? We knew that underaged wizards couldn't use magic, and that the ministry would know if you did, but at no time was the term "trace" used so regularly (unless I'm misremembering?). It felt as though there were a lot of new "normal" rules of society in this book, which is off-putting to me.
  
• Loved seeing Dolores Umbridge back to her usual tricks. Asking muggle-borns who they stole their wands from was pretty genius.
  
• H/D is really not dead, folks. It's just been given a new lease on life.

So I guess that's it, then. I'm looking forward to reading more mature musings and ideas, particularly as we digest all this. I'll also enjoy having more maturing musings and ideas. :)

Comments

[tonights.livejournal.com]

H/D is not so much dead as completely revitalized. Their wives are obviously beards. *nods*

I too was a bit irked at the random Native American reference. Bwaaa?

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Yes, not so much dead as VERY MUCH ALIVE AND SOON TO TAKE OVER FANDOM AGAIN. Yes. That. Hehehe. Ginny being a completely 2 dimensional character makes it so much easier to dismiss her, and as a woman and a feminist that bothers me. But. Still. I mean, Draco and Harry are clearly an item already in that epilogue. I guess I should be grateful for it, really. :)

[tonights.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. Draco's little nod to Harry is obviously meant to convey "I will meet you later in the usual place to sex you up."

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

"Now that the kids are gone, it will be so much easier to get down to serious business."

[surrey-d.livejournal.com]

Oh, and how Harry finds Draco's hand while fighting Voldemort... One tiny little sentence that suggests so much.

[applekid.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, I LOVED Narcissa's part. That bit where she lies to Voldemort at the end about Harry, so AWESOME. *_*

I've always thought of all these books as seriously flawed, and this one is no exeception, but they have always been wonderful fandom fodder, and again this one is no exception!

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

So true, so true. From the very beginning of my time in fandom I was worried she would kill Draco, so I'm glad to know she didn't do that. Still disappointed about Ginny, though.

[applekid.livejournal.com]

yeah, i guess i never had much hope for her. i think HP's success has largely been based on stereotypes, and it would have been going too far out of the character of the books to flout the harry/ginny set-up, but who cares! it just leaves more room for masterful fan writers to fix it all. :D

...i wish i was a masterful fan writer... ;_;

[ciceronianus.livejournal.com]

Re: Ariana. They didn't want anyone knowing how unbalanced - magically - she had become because the Ministry would have taken her away. The family assumed (likely rightly, considered that father Dumbldore was by then a Muggle murderer) the Ministry would consider her a threat.

Maybe it was a bad decision on the part of the family, but it's hard to say - have your daughter locked up in an institution forever or keep her at home with you. Tough call.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Well, Muggles did something to her that seems somewhat unusual...how could the family possibly know that it was incurable without seeking some professional help? That there wasn't some sort of cure? Now, if Dumbledore's mother had been a specialist in these sorts of things, maybe I could see it, but...I dunno, it just doesn't work for me.

[ciceronianus.livejournal.com]

I suppose it depends on how soon after the incident the Muggles were killed. If the murders took place almost directly after the attack on Ariana ... I can see why they wouldn't want to draw attention to her.

Taking her to St. Mungo's might have helped, but regardless of whether it did or not, I'm sure the Dumbledores felt justified in their fear of never seeing her home again (again, taking into account what her father did). It's pretty selfish on their part, but I think, considering how brilliant Albus was, and also taking into account the wizarding community seems to doctor itself a lot, it wouldn't have been too unlikely that they were aware nothing could be done for her.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I assumed that Ariana was sexually assaulted in some way; JKR was veiled about it, but isn't it the classic gruesome fairy tale event - girl raped by a different social class, male familial protector takes revenge and is punished, remaining family goes into hiding to cover their shame (esp since this happened decades ago in a less progressive time), girl eventually becomes a martyr to someone else's cause. So I read assuming that her "illness" was post-trauma survivor's whatchamacallit, for which I equally assume the wizarding world had no cure.

Also, you are spot on about the locket thing.

[mariannec.livejournal.com]

I assumed that Ariana was sexually assaulted in some way;
Read it that way as well.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you know, I figured that too...i think that's what makes it all the more appalling for me. I'm sure that's what it was, and is it possible that somehow rape destroys a witch forever, to the point that she can't go out in public? I don't like what she's suggesting with that. :/

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't like the suggestion if Ariana had been a young adult or older, but she was six years old, which ... well. I can't even think about it.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I don't like the suggestion in any case! As if girls who are abused as kids are completely out of control for the rest of their lives and need to be locked away! Sheeesh. But none of this is explicit, so it's sort of tilting at windmills, I suppose. I want to push on her on this point, though.

[manzai.livejournal.com]

Actually, you should. Those repressed memories could have become somewhat 'Carrie-esque' - which it seemes she is hinting at, albeit in a terribly poor way - or, reasonably, they could have been excorcised by proper treatment, which the girl obviously didn't get.

What ticks me off is that this woman's writing will be read by millions, hearalding a 'new age of reading' for children, and yet, what did she demonstrate? That the best she can do is build a world where psychologically damaged young girls are deemed irrepairable. It's her choice, of course, but that really stinks.

I was sorry that Neville's grandmother didn't get more time, or that Hermione didn't get time with her. If she did, I doubt she would have been as teary, pissy or weepy as she was. IMO, JKR wrote her reacting the way she thought 'girls should react.' That ticked me off, too.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

JKR wrote her reacting the way she thought 'girls should react.'

I think you're bang on. That describes so many of the women in the books, unfortunately, even down to that wonderful scene where Narcissa lies to Voldemort in order to get to Draco.

[dizzy-chisel.livejournal.com]

(Can't believe I overlooked your actual post ...)

Well you're more unforgiving and sharp-tongued than me here -- it makes sense if you think that extreme behaviour like actually killing the Muggle kids (D's father) and becoming the super-magician over-achiever (Albus) comes from somewhere. (Youthful Albus actually reminded me of a classmate (minus the fascistoid tendencies).) Hubris -- and paranoia.

I must have missed the Native American allusion.

Total agreement on Neville, and the bit about Muggleborns being accused of "stealing" magic -- that one hit the nail on the head. It's how you perpetuate and intensify prejudice.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Now, if she had had their secret keeper be a former specialist at St. Mungo's who had told them that if the Ministry caught wind of Ariana they would have locked her away for life, then that would sense. From the information we're given, the threat was calculated completely within the family, which makes it so much less credible. :/

[aldiara.livejournal.com]

Agreed about Ginny. That girl just was such a waste of potential.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I mean, there was CHICKEN BLOOD. Why no angsty poetry? I just don't understand!

[aldiara.livejournal.com]

LOL. That is so true.

[harlequincy.livejournal.com]

Not to pounce on you or anything, but WHERE did you find the picture in your icon. I have been looking for that image for YEARS, and no one knows where to find it. Nefeleo drew it, yes? Do you know where I can get it?

[aldiara.livejournal.com]

I got it as a gift a while ago, so I'm not sure where it came from (other than, yes, it's one of Nefeleo's, and I love it to bits). I'll ask the person I got it from :)

[harlequincy.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I love that picture so much! I would venture to say I'm emotionally attached to it. If you can find it, please, please tell me where.

[aldiara.livejournal.com]

Well, seems like it's not available online anymore, but I asked and she still had the image itself saved. So if you want to give me an email address, I can pass that on.

(and I know! It's possible the single best piece of fanart out there.)

[harlequincy.livejournal.com]

harlequincy@gmail.com

Ahh! Thank you so much! *squeeee*

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

On a second reading of the bits that mattered, I have to broadly agree with you; someone, possibly JK Rowling, clearly has some kind of deus ex machine in her basement that she turns on whenever a plothole needs filling. I think it probably looks like a sewing machine, and it runs on the blood of her vanquished enemies...

I strongly suspect that while the basic plot thread was drawn from the start - I can buy that, it's called planning - there must have come a point, probably somewhere in that infernal gap between GoF and OotP, when she realised what she'd got on her hands and had to suddenly pull a whole lot more time down in the basement with the old plot machine, and that's why Order and Half-Blood are not the best in the series.

And the successor to the H/D ship is AS/S. There are few words for how much this pleases me...

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Though I wish she'd buried some of these plot points in Order and Half-Blood rather than saving most of them to appear at random in this book, right before they're needed. But what can you do.

Poor Draco and his receding hairline.

[auntbeast.livejournal.com]

when i think of blond, english and evilish with a receding hairline, i think julian sands, so it's not such a bad thing..

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

You make a good point, there....

Yeah, I love post-hogwarts fanfiction. :)

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I think of Jude Law *g*, also not too shabby.

[laurenmitchell.livejournal.com]

I loved Neville too, but then I always have.

[harlequincy.livejournal.com]

1:
About the muggle studies professor: I disagree. I think it actually helped that it wasn't someone we knew. It showed that even people not directly involved in the Order, the Ministry, or the Death Eaters were suffering from this war. It showed that it wasn't personal at all, which I think is actually more horrifying than it being personal. At least when it's personal, there's an emotional excuse or motivation behind your actions. The poor muggle studies professor was merely doing her job, not even lifting a finger to defy Voldy. I think it was actually more disturbing the way JKR wrote it.

2:
Also loved Neville. Can't even express it. Just loved him.

3:
I do think Harry changed slightly, however. I think he became wiser - not so impulsive. I also think he became, if it's possible, more compassionate. He was rather extraordinary to begin with, though. He was always so loving and forgiving, when most people wouldn't be, if they'd grown up in his shoes. He started out innocent and trusting, and got ANGREH and cynical circa OotP, when he lost his beloved mentors. I think he's had to struggle very hard to maintain his faith in love after enduring so much pain, and has become a lot wiser. He did not understand, initially, the value of love, trust, and friendship, though he had them. I think he has learned it, though. That is, after all, why he defeated Voldemort.

4:
Dumbledore Stuff: I see where you're coming from. Perhaps it was a bit sloppy, though I think she pulled it off OK. We did, after all, know about Aberforth. We knew he was the bartender at the Hog's Head, we knew he was odd, and we knew that he and Dumbledore weren't OMGTOTALLY BFF. There was always some indication that something was going on.

I do wish, however, that they had said more about Grindelwald. I, personally, was not all that horrified, or even emotionally stricken at all, when I discovered they had been friends. Perhaps a bit confused, but that is all. I feel like there should've been more buildup, so that this fact would be more shocking. It seemed like it was supposed to be shocking.

5:
TOTALLY AGREE with you on Ginny. What a wasted character. SO MUCH POTENTIAL. She was a seventh daughter! They made such a huge deal about what a good witch she was! I was waiting with highly bated breath, and she just turns out to be this 2-D hero's trophy. Ugh! Thoroughly ugh!

6:
H/D def not dead. If anything, rejuvenated.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

About the muggle studies professor: I disagree. I think it actually helped that it wasn't someone we knew. It showed that even people not directly involved in the Order, the Ministry, or the Death Eaters were suffering from this war.

It wouldn't have to have been someone directly involved in the order or the ministry for that instructor to have been someone we'd heard of. We've been at Hogwarts for 6 years, surely it wouldn't be so difficult to have another professor who has been hovering in the background appear for that scene. Instead we got a red shirt who appears for the first time and dies in the same damn scene. We get much more sense of who is suffering in this war throughout the book, we hardly needed a random, unknown Muggle Studies professor to underscore that point. Besides, professors at Hogwarts aren't the least involved people in the wizarding world, after all.

[harlequincy.livejournal.com]

I see what you're saying. I suppose it would've been better if this book seemed more *attached* to the other books - with hints dropped ahead of time, and all that. I suppose you're right.

[sinisteral.livejournal.com]

I half expected Harry and Draco to duel, save each others lives, then team up against death eaters. Wishful thinking. There was so much hope hinted along the way, but they eventually ended up as back story.

# Epilogue? Cripes, I won't even start. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

It was an absurd slap in the face for me. I pity how both Harry and Ginny's character were butchered to the limit.

# Why is Voldemort so very stupid? Honestly now. The guy who's managing to destroy the world, does he need to be this ill-informed all the time?

He seemed almost worthy as Dumbledore's equal in OotP (almost psychic). He relies way too much on his death eaters despite all their mistakes. Long live the Dark Lord.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I've never felt that he was Dumbledore's equal. He makes way too many mistakes for that. He seems to be just one disaster after another. For some reason he has a lot of followers, and that's the only thing that appears to make him a threat. He's not even Harry's equal, and poor Harry is only 17.

You know, i wish the epilogue had instead shown us what Harry's like minus the Voldemort part of him. Presumably he's not a Parseltongue anymore. There must be more than just that; maybe some of his rage came from Voldemort as well, who knows. That would have been interesting. If Harry finds some peace because his Voldemort side is dead and gone.

[rachfrank.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about the Deathly Hallows. That whole subplot was kinda awkward. It felt like she just pasted it in there at the last minute.

H/D is really not dead, folks. It's just been given a new lease on life.

Yes, definitely. There so many possibilities for H/D now. Personally, I'm excited.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

The post-hogwarts, post-epilogue plotbunnies are attacking!!

[heinous_bitca.livejournal.com]

*clears throat*

No comment on Snape? You were so certain with the ending of HBP.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Well, I was certain at the time because I hated Snape, but I was convinced by fandom at the time. :)

[chaya.livejournal.com]

Did anyone else feel like the locket seemed a bit Lord of the Ringsy?

PAINFULLY so.

Why did she suggest that Dumbledore's mother was native american without picking up on it further? What was that about?

Where was that?

[maruchina.livejournal.com]

Man, I'd really like to see another post-Hogwarts fic by you, after reading HPDH.

I agree with basically all of your points. I'm still not sure whether I liked the book or not - I think that I liked the story overall, but I wasn't that impressed by the way she wrapped up the series. There was a lot of new terminology that seemed awkward to me, and the epilogue was just...really, really bad fanfiction. LOL.

H/D is so alive! I'm still figuring out a way for Harry/Snape to be alive too, because there's so much good fic in that ship.