(no subject)

[lizzieladie]

First off....never, never again will I go to a midnight party for a book that going to take me 8 hours to read when I got up at six the day before to go work in the The Factory without taking a nap somewhere in there. (I'm blaming that run-on, and any typos that occur later on in this post on lack of sleep. ;))

Anyway-

Overall I think I liked it, but I haven't really had enough time to think with a clear non-sleepy head about the plot holes, so we shall see. But in general, I only read through HBP twice, the night it came out and for the last two days and I realized that there was a reason for that...I didn't dislike that book as violently as some people did, but it just wasn't any fun for me to read. But this one was entertaining, and I can't imagine that I'm going to set it aside and never pick it up again even if the plotholes eventually get to me.

Things I didn't like:
The giant diss on the value of intelligence, and the suggestion that the Gryffindor values are the only good ones.

The fact that not a single Slytherin decided to stay for the battle...I understand that given their value system the majority of them would have picked survival...but that not one of them would get pissed enough at being asked to practice torture in lessons that he wanted a bite out of say, Alecto and Amycus.

So despite the fact that there are just as many Ravenclaws as Hufflepuffs directly involved in the DA, when it comes down to the wire more Ravenclaws leave the battle...because Rowling likes them less?

The casual way that the supposedly good and pure characters were throwing around imperious and memory charms...it's pretty clear that while Rowling thinks that fucking up your own memory is bad and cowardly (i.e. Slughorn) playing with someone else's mind doesn't come at any cost.

That Hermione's ruthless streak that's been developing for the last couple of books was never something that she had to come to terms with.

The fact Ginny's connection to Voldemort was never dealt with.

The fact after Ron suggests getting houseevles out, Hermione's reaction is to make out with him, instead of doing something about that.

The fucking epilogue. Not because it reads like bad fanfic. Not because the girls are popping out babies right away. I merely disliked those factors, as opposed to loathing them (I know, I know, this is a list of dislikes, that point is not totally relevant...) I hate with a deathly passion because it suggests that Voldemort was the only thing wrong with the wizarding world. That with his death the attitude of wizards to people without magic, to species with different kinds of magic, ect. will suddenly melt away. That the fact that wizards do not have rights, or a free press, or elections is not a problem a might have made the fight against Voldemort very different. That the fact that wizards do not check the validity of their historical sources, or consider the accounts of people who aren't wizards is not a problem. There was no recognition that the reason that the goblins and the centaurs hate wizards go back centuries before Voldemort's birth, and that the main characters who seem to have some grasp of this idea, however incomplete, are doing nothing to change it. That there is no suggestion that perhaps wizards ought to be studying literature and economics and art and sociology in their schools, that they could benefit from knowing those things. That there is no suggestion that perhaps it would be a good idea to study muggle science, and to reconcile it with magic to try to understand how the whole world works, not just how magic does.


Things I want clarification on:
Did the Dursleys survive?

Did Hermione's parents disown for her for screwing with their memory?

What does the rest of the world know/think about the war?

So if the Ministry can trace Voldemort's name, why didn't they just trace Harry's or Hermione's or Ron's or some other word that they would have been likely to use and find them that way?


Things I liked:

The Malfoys risking the extreme displeasure of the Dark Lord in order to find Draco, i.e. valuing family above their own necks and showing that Slytherins are capable of sacrifice and so on, they just do it at different times and for different reasons than Gryffindors.

The way that Voldemort managed to steal control of the government so that everyone had known what he had done but no one could say it - that's the Voldemort that we ought to be frightened of, and quite frankly had he not bothered with the Horcruxes and his fear of death he could probably be running the world right now.

That Dumbledore himself admitted to being sneaky and ambitious and not worthy of being trusted with power. Mostly because an admission from his own mouth was the only thing that'd shut up this obnoxious guy I was talking to at the release party who was talking about rereading Dumbledore's words in the previous books in a way that I normally associate with people talking about reading religious texts and who thinks that bickering is quote "the fun part in relationships!" (That one touched a nerve cause as regards the relationship I'm in right now, the bickering is hands down the worst thing about it, not the best.) Me, petty? Never...

Also regarding Dumbledore, the fact that his feelings on Muggles (distinct from muggleborns who have magic)are never made clear. Particularly in light of his muggle-baiting the Dursleys and of his sister's history I personally like to think that at his heart he's a prejudiced old coot.

Snape not being loyal to Voldemort. I won't say I was thrilled that he's Dumbledore's man too, or that he's doing it all because he's been in love since he was ten not because he has his own view of right and wrong and Voldemort crossed lines that he wasn't willing to, but I really liked the early scenes of him and Lily and Petunia, mostly cause it shows that Petunia and Lily were friends before the witch thing got in the way.

Harry and Snape kind of coming to an accord...what with Snape trusting Harry enough to show him his relationship to Lily and Harry not only naming his child after Snape, but also using him (who he used to hate more than just about any other character) as a reason for his son not to be frightened of being Slytherin. That was the one little bright spot in that whole gag-worthy epilogue. (Since book 5 I've wanted to bang their heads together and be like "You two actually have a lot in common, you hate each other for the stupidest reasons imaginable, get over your fucking issues already!)

The death toll. I know that people are pissed because their favorite characters were killed off screen, that mostly minor characters died, ect. but in my opinion this was a serious war against an enemy who was shooting to kill and for the death toll not to have been high would have been completely unrealistic. It is also not likely that Hermione or Ron would have died, given that they spent a pretty big chunk of the battle dealing with Horcrux shit with Harry. So that leaves minor characters, and it sucks that Rowling didn't kill them all onscreen, but since Harry wasn't at much of the battle either swinging that one would have been nightmare to write, I think.

That Dudley was shown to be capable of love and gratefulness. It makes me think that Dudley's story has something that Voldemort's lacks and really ought to have - the possibility that if Dudley had been raised by someone other than Petunia and Vernon (even if he was still their son) that he might have been a different person. That he didn't have some sort of spoiled innate nature that would have shown through no matter what happened in his life.

The reprisal of the "Are you a witch or not?!" joke, and the fact that seven years later magic has become more instinctive to Hermione than it is to Ron. It stands in stark contrast to the Ministry policy of "muggleborns have stolen their magic..."