Just finished Deathly Hallows ***SPOILERS UNDER CUT!***

[thewayne]

Very much enjoyed it and have passed it on to the spousal unit.

And just to repeat the warning, SPOILERS UNDER CUT!


I knew Snape was working with Dumbledor, I was rather surprised by the method of his death, though. I thought his final pensive trick was good. I knew he would be redeemed in the end, I kinda like the way they did it.

I also liked the conversion of Kreacher. That was cool. And now we know why Rowling insisted that Kreacher appear in the film of Order of the Phoenix. The death of Dobby was pretty sad, though. I thought it would have been nice to see Bellatrix's knife that killed Dobby used to kill her. Still, Mrs. Weasley got her in fairly spectacular fashion.

Why do I think that Harry is getting a bit of Luna loving on the side? ;-)

I liked the revelation that Dumbledor was mortal and frail like the rest of us. He came off as so perfect, you had to know he had some serious flaws and weaknesses.

I thought the revelation of what happened to his hand in Halfblood Prince was pretty spiff.

Did Harry actually kill anyone directly? I don't think that he did, but I could have easily overlooked it.

One thing bothered me. During the initial escape, Hedwig is killed and Harry loses his broom. Why didn't he summon it back with an Accio? Likewise, when Harry et al were out camping and the other group of refugees come by and start doing "Accio Salmon!", why didn't Harry et al start emulating that?


One thing that I'm curious about is what Rowling is going to do in the future. She doesn't need to do anything, she has more than enough money to not write another word for the rest of her life. I'd like to see other Potterverse stories, they wouldn't have to continue with Harry et al though. But it would be difficult to top what she's written now, anything else could be a severe let-down. I'd definitely like to see what magic is like in other countries, especially in America, but the thing that is constantly reinforced to writers is "write what you know", and Rowling knows the British education and government system, so it could be quite hard for her to write anything else, at least with any verisimilitude.


I was kind of expecting Deathly Hallows to start with a time-gash. Re-reading Halfblood Prince and Order of the Phoenix, and seeing Order of the Phoenix, amply demonstrated that Potter and Crew were not up to a knock-down battle with Deatheaters, so how was Potter supposed to take on Voldy? I thought the "destroy the horcruxes" quest as a great way to sidestep that issue.


I hope they make the final movie three hours long. I'd say there's a good chance of it. I think the movie is going to be pretty spectacular, especially the final battle and the break-in at and escape from Gringot's.

Comments

[ateji.livejournal.com]

I rather wish Hedwig had been mixed up with the stuffed owls the body-doubles were carrying. That would have been a nice, "Whew, sad thing averted!"

And here I quote Ursula Vernon regarding something that annoyed me: "Is somebody punishing fandom for all that Sirius/Remus fan fic?"

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I think Hedwig's death was a demonstration that bad things were going to happen: first Hedwig is blasted, then we think Hagrid is dead and he turns out alive, then we find out about Moody. All in the first 50 pages.

We were warned that there were going to be multiple deaths, at least none were the core characters.

And that's a great quote from Ursula! Must pass it on to my wife.

[ateji.livejournal.com]

I guess it works as a "look at the innocents being harmed because of this stupid war" scenario, but it still makes me grumble about turning her in to the RSPCA. ;)

I know a lot of fans who're going to be whining that Harry cheated death. I may even side with them.

Ursula's journal and DeviantArt are some of the best fun on the 'net. Hope Russet enjoys the quote.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Someone also pointed out that Hedwig would be (no pun intended) dead weight while the three were out camping, trying to figure out where and how to go for the other horcruxes. I think that was a good point.

As far as the cheating death part, I'm not sure that I agree. I think Voldy's first blast killed the horcrux in Harry and he was seriously stunned.

[ateji.livejournal.com]

Hedwig could hunt; I think she would have been fine. Or she could have stayed with the Weaseleys or something.

It smacks very strongly of deus ex machina to me. I think the final draft needed a few more rewrites, but I've thought that of most of the series in the first place.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

One of the themes of the book was loss: Harry had recently lost Sirius and more recently Dumbledor, she obviously wanted to continue the theme. Short of Ron & Hermione, Hedwig was the only one remaining who really meant a lot to him. And off-hand, I can't think of anything that Hedwig did in the previous books except pass messages, and Rowling wanted to emphasize the isolation of Harry & Co., so I think killing Hedwig was probably a good idea.