GJ, and HP book 7
Aug. 3rd, 2007 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseI doubt this will ever become an issue, but since a lot of fandom folks seem to be thinking about this, I am on GreatestJournal with the same username as here. It's immensely out of date, but there you go.
Also, because![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miss_arel boggled me by saying she was actually curious what I thought...
I admit it - I haven’t always given Rowling enough credit for being willing to let the books - and her characters - grow up along with the series. In the end, she did the right thing and let in almost all the moral ambiguity that I would have wanted to see. Few characters were left as cardboard cut-outs of evil, and I appreciated that. The ones that were left as such, for the most part, were understandable. And, praise be to everything a writer ever learns, no character was left a cardboard cut-out of good. I think even Harry came to understand that at the end, which is something of a miracle given that, well... he’s still only seventeen. He is very seventeen in this book, as are Ron and Hermione, though in a good way, I suppose. I sometimes feel like I’d like the books a lot better if they focused on a slightly older crowd - witness my deep and abiding love for stories about the first war, when the lines between the sides were a great deal more malleable, and there was much more uncertainty about the world.
Straight off, we start out the book with the Dursleys, and find out that while Vernon and Petunia have changed little if at all, Dudley has actually managed to grow up some, and even respects Harry a bit. He might even like him. I’m not sure where the heck that came from, aside from Harry saving his arse in the last book, but.... it was interesting. I have a feeling it was meant to be heart-warming, but I mostly sort of felt like it was a convenient way to tie up an end. No great emotional attachment there.
We have the escape, then, and a fairly confusing battle wherein everyone is flying on various things, and in which Hedwig dies. That was sad, and a good warning, I suppose, to people reading the book - this is not a happy book, it’s not for small children, and it’s not taking prisoners, in the sense that there are going to be deaths. Nothing like killing a small fuzzy animal to let people know that, I guess. This is also pretty much the last we see of any of the kids’ pets... for which I suppose I’m grateful, since otherwise we would undoubtedly have been treated to Crookshanks dying, and given his resemblance to my cat, I wouldn’t have taken that well. I like to think Crookshanks, clever kneazle/cat that he is, high-tailed it to safety well in advance of all the big battles, and turned up on Hermione’s porch some time later only slightly worse for the wear and demanding food and pettings.
Never underestimate my ability to be distracted by a kitty. Anyway.
I will take a moment to crow in delight that we finally got to see Andromeda! Not for long, mind you, and she barely got to speak a few sentences, but we saw her (yes, and Ted, too) and found out that she looks a good deal like Bella, except with brown hair instead of black. *Polishes nails on shirt* Consider this the first of my “yay, the RP got it right” remarks. Also, I was amused by how sharply she spoke to everyone until Tonks had reappeared. Yup - she’s definitely a Black.
Speaking of Tonks... I feel mean saying it, but I still dislike how Rowling shoved her and Lupin together, particularly the speed with which they married. And then got pregnant, apparently much against Lupin’s will. Are we honestly meant to believe that ‘accidents happen’ in the modern Wizarding world? Contraceptive charms, man! I know we’re meant to take it as charming that he continues to be freaked out by having married Tonks, I know we’re supposed to interpret it as Lupin not thinking he’s worthy and as Lupin being afraid that he’ll pass on his curse to his child and all that, but... I’m sorry. Maybe I’m just too unrepentent in my Snape/Lupin pairing, but I still see Lupin being backed into that marriage, and then panicking and not having a frigging clue in the world how to get himself out without hurting someone. That’s Lupin, in my mind - unable to do a damned thing against someone else’s say-so. I love him, but he’s a moron that way, and I can’t seem to stop reading what he does here in that manner. To his credit, he did seem a lot happier after the baby was actually born - maybe he just had cold feet about the whole baby thing, and who could blame him? - but honestly. And we never did find out whether or not Teddy was a werewolf, did we? Presumably he’d be at least as wolfish as Bill, who apparently now takes his steaks “bloody.”
Going backward a little, I’d like to point out that the scene in HBP where it’s revealed that Lupin and Tonks are potentially together is... umm... pretty weird. All through the scene, Lupin refuses to meet Tonks’ eyes. When he says that she deserves someone else, he’s described as speaking “steadily,” and when Mr. Weasley pushes the point, Remus demurs and changes the subject, “avoiding everybody’s eyes as he looked around distractedly” (HBP, 624). And directly after that, McGonagall pushes him toward getting together with Tonks. Everybody’s ganging up on the poor boy, and what’s he doing? Displaying typical submissive-wolf behavior and trying to avoid the whole issue! The next time we see him and Tonks, they “seemed to be holding hands,” and Tonks’ hair is back to vivid pink (641). So we know straight out that Tonks is happy, but we get no sign whatsoever of what Lupin thinks of things, aside from the fact that he tried to avoid it altogether, seemingly in every way possible. This is repeated in DH, where while Tonks looks “radiant,” Lupin smiles but looks nervous when asked about their wedding. Later, he says that he married her against his better judgment (or something like that - my roommate is currently reading my copy, so I can’t confirm the exact text).
Also... what about time, here? I know we only get the parts of the relationship that Harry can see, but all we know is that Tonks has been pining for Lupin for about a year when all this blows up. Then at some time in June (I can’t seem to find an exact date for those scenes - if anybody can, I’d be pleased to know it!), they seem to come to at least a tentative agreement to court or date or whatever you want to call it. The next time we see them, a little over a month later, they’re married.
...Is it just me, or is that awfully fast?
I know, there’s a war on. But... Lupin seems pretty miserable about the whole situation early on in DH, while Tonks is practically ecstatic. And then... there’s the baby. We hear about the baby... sometime after the mention of Easter holiday for the students? So... July to April. August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March... April. Nine months. I counted that out three times just to be sure. For Lupin not having wanted to have a kid, that’s moving.... pretty quick.
I don’t really know what to say beyond that, except that I miss the happy little world wherein I could pretend that Lupin was secretly in love with Snape. :P
I also still miss the Tonks of book 5 - happy, punk, cheery Tonks who didn’t get depressed and moon over people, but just fought and was brave and silly and kind of dumb and hapless at times, but still very clever and very... very much a twenty-something, which is rare in these books. I still resent how much she changed in book 6, and I saw nothing in this book to convince me otherwise. I would have been thrilled to see her as an exciting, fun heroine, but I don’t think Rowling succeeded at that.
My biggest issue with their relationship, honestly, is that even though Remus is clearly miserable (“I married her against my better judgment, and I’ve regretted it ever since,” he says, or something very like that), Tonks is completely clueless. And they have the baby anyway. This is not the mark of a stable, healthy relationship. Particularly not a relationship to try to raise a child in. And after the baby comes, Remus seems perfectly happy! Either that or neurotic, manic, and scared out of his wits. You could read it either way. And since I don’t believe in children just sort of magically fixing a relationship that was on unsteady ground... you can imagine which I believe is more likely. What disturbs me is the suspicion that Rowling might have intended the baby to fix all of Remus’ misgivings about their marriage. I get the sense that we might very well be meant to read all his fear and depression as feeling guilty and unworthy of what he’s been given, and worrying about the potential future for his child if they do turn out to be a werewolf, but, for me at least, that’s not how the lines actually read. Given that Rowling has stated in interviews that Remus has trouble with not being able to say no to people because he doesn’t want them to dislike him or be upset with him, that he’ll effectively do anything for people to like him, that pretty much tells me that’s exactly what happened here. Tonks was miserable because she was in love with him, and when she wouldn’t give up, and everyone else seemed hell-bent on seeing the two of them together, Remus just sort of gave up and went along with it, against his better judgment. He didn’t want to have a baby, but he either went along with Tonks’ desire (in which case he was being very reckless and irresponsible, which isn’t at all against Remus’ established canon behavior - he knew that Sirius was a animagus and thought that he might be out to kill Harry, but he still didn’t tell anyone) or there was an accident, or Tonks tricked him. Knowing that she’s half Black, I tend to favor the latter explanation. I could see her deciding in an immature sort of way that having a baby would make things better for them, would make Remus happier, would make them a real couple, and then just sort of... forgetting whatever contraceptives she was supposed to have been on. Oops. It was an accident, but we’re happy, right?
Question: Lycanthropy seems to be passed by bodily fluids in this universe. Even if full lycanthropy is only passed during the full moon, doesn’t that put Tonks herself at some risk? Obviously this is not a question for the up-and-up text of a children’s book, at least not in this political climate (me, I think it’s a good thing for kids to be bloody well aware of pretty early, given modern STD rates...), but... it does make one wonder. Not that it will matter, given how Rowling “solved” all their problems by killing of both of them.
One inconsistency from early on in the book - Harry can’t cast any spells until he turns 17, but Hermione is able before the book even starts to enchant her mother and father so that they don’t remember her and think that they’re other people entirely, people who want to go off and live in Australia. It’s a very noble (and also very sad) thing that Hermione does, there... but isn’t she under 17 as well? I could have sworn it was established some time ago that Hermione was actually younger than both Harry and Ron. I know Rowling stated that Hermione’s birthday was in September. (Note to people who think it’s odd that I remember this: given the amount of time that I spent playing Hermione in a few text and journal RPGs, it will not at all surprise you that I also noticed that Hermione’s middle name seems mysteriously to have reshuffled itself - I’m quite sure her full name used to be Hermione Jane Granger, but in book 7 it’s stated as Hermione Jean Granger. I do not find this a great improvement.) Either way, that should have been something that was stated clearly to avoid confusion.
Bill and Fleur... are cute, but I mostly don’t give a damn. Enough of that.
Harry and Ginny... are cute, but I still don’t give a damn.
Hermione and Ron... are cute. And Ron has actually grown up enough that I mostly find them amusing, even if I still find it ever-so-slightly ooky that Ron seems to regard her as a younger incarnation of his mother. I accept that people tend to end up with people who are a lot like the parent-of-opposite-gender, but... must we make it so very obvious? Or maybe it’s just that I’ve never been all that terribly fond of Molly, whereas Hermione, aside from the icky feelings given to me by one Emma Watson AKA the worst actress it has ever been my misfortune to be stuck watching for five movies with two more in sight... is still one of My Characters, and I will love her no matter what happens, and am sitting here right now feeling slightly upset that she doesn’t appear to leave Hogwarts and go straight off to university as I’d always expected she would. What about running off to read history and physics and come up with all those wonderful theories about how magic and physics are really the same thing viewed from two different perspectives? What about bringing Ginny to dorm parties and introducing her to all the cute Muggle boys who can’t understand why her cute red-headed friend doesn’t know how to work a computer or a can opener or a lightswitch?What about meeting up with a very intelligent and academically-inclined and very much not-Ron half-blood man who she can settle down with and have wonderful intellectual discussions, because honestly, no girl that intelligent and academically inclined should have to live with a man who seems to regard reading and learning as the ultimate punishment in life?
...Like I said, I’m still used to thinking of Hermione as One of Mine, and thus have done a bit too much of investing my own feelings into her. I was Hermione when I was young, folks - minus the genius and the magic, I grant you, but still. I can’t help identifying.
Right, where was I?
Well, while I’m fapping on about My Characters, I might as well cut to the Malfoys, right?
I played Narcissa for years, both as a teenager in an alternate-universe 1970s era game called Anno Domini Voldemort, and as an adult in its sister game, Infusco Bonitas (don’t think about the Latin too hard on that one - none of us were ever quite sure what the original mod had intended with it, but we were aware that it didn’t quite work). I loved all of her, even when I sometimes thought she was an idiot, and one of my favorite things about the last two books is that the canonical Narcissa Malfoy, who used to be little more than a name and a turned-up nose under blonde hair, came fairly close to becoming exactly that woman I built up and loved in my mind for the years that I played her.
We saw her relationship with Bella, the love and the anger and the fear, and we saw that she brooked no offense to her husband, even from her beloved sister. We saw that she had been friendly with Snape in the past, at least enough to call him by his first name and demand a great and very dangerous favor of him. We saw her willingness to beg and cry for the sake of her son. And in this last book, although we didn’t get anything nearly as good as that first scene in HBP, we did see a little bit more of that, particularly that she was willing to protect and cooperate with the Dark Lord’s worst enemy for the sake of her son. It wasn’t quite the turn-around I was hoping for - I admit that I treasured the image of a desperate Narcissa, left alone now that her husband was in Azkaban and her son had been dishonored among the Death Eaters, turning to the Order’s side. But it was enough, for me. I was happy to see the three Malfoys curled up together in Hogwarts, pathetic and stupid but still living and together. And I was happy that it was Narcissa who brought it around to that, even if I’d like to point out that Rowling has a serious mother-love complex working for her in these books. And I was happy to see that Lucius was broken by his time in Azkaban, that the other Death Eaters mocked him for the arrogant twit he is (the white peacocks!), and that Draco is still a weenie, hopeless little bastard who can’t even manage to choose a side. I liked all of that, because it was so true to how I saw all of them. If we could have had a bit more, I’d have been thrilled, but this was about as much as I’d ever expected, and it was truer than I’d hoped to how I would have wanted them to turn out.
Wait - I need to put one exception on that: Scorpius?
What the fuck kind of name is that? ...Seriously, though. Scorpius Malfoy. Clearly, Draco just didn’t want to be the worst-named in the family anymore. :P And who the hell did he marry, anyway? They never said, and I’ve always wondered. If it’d been Pansy I suppose they would’ve said as much, so... are we meant to assume he hooked up with someone from outside England, then? It’d be good for the family, that’s for sure. With the amount of in-breeding in the Black family... ah, whatever.
Speaking of the Black family, how about Regulus? Regulus Arcturus Black. I’d had my bet on it be Antares (as it was in the old games), but I’m willing for “Arcturus.” Anything star- or constellation-derived is fine by me as far as the Black family goes. ...So long as it doesn’t sound too stupid, that is. (Scorpius!) And it turns out he was a Seeker! That made me quite happy, mostly because I expected that it might just tweak Harry’s brain a little, finding out that he had to respect this Slytherin on that level, and then again on the level of him doing quite an impressive bit of work with that locket. Incidentally, I’d be curious to know what turned Regulus against Voldemort in the first place - too bad we never got that information. And I’ll never be all the way convinced that he’s dead, I don’t think. Something about drinking all that poison... just seemed a little too pat, I guess. I was convinced that he’d be back, and slightly disappointed when he stayed good and dead, without so much as a moment’s reappearance. Same goes for Sirius, who I incidentally totally didn’t buy in his amazing miraculous reappearance as the excessively handsome twenty-something. Why are people always young and handsome again after they’ve died? Lupin, too.
Oh. Lupin. Poor Lupin.
I had a feeling he’d die, although I was pissed off at not actually seeing it happen, and I really could’ve done without him leaving behind his baby son. It felt too much like an intentional re-spinning of the wheel, with a little baby boy being left behind after his parents died heroically at Voldemort’s hands. I suppose we’re meant to assume that little Teddy grew up loved and doted on by his Grandma Tonks and his young god-father, but it was just a little too pat for my tastes, I guess.
And then there’s Snape. Bitter, cranky, constantly-foiled Snape, who I’ve loved loved loved from the minute I saw him. I never doubted for a minute that Dumbledore had ordered him to kill him and that he was really doing the best he could to keep things under control while not blowing his cover. He’s a double-agent, people - nothing can be so important as his cover. But he kept his promise to Narcissa, and we heard enough of conversations between him and Dumbledore that I always thought it was completely obvious that he was doing exactly what the Headmaster wanted him to, even when I didn’t know exactly why he’d wanted that. I cried when Voldemort killed him, not because he died, exactly (I knew he was going to die, I’ve been preparing myself for that for years), but because I wanted him to die redeemed. I wanted him to die a hero. I wanted him to die somewhere very public, where everyone, for once, could see that he had really been on the side of right, that he had fully dragged himself out of the mire he’d gotten sucked into as a young man. That he was not a nice man, no, not at all - but that he was a good one. Instead, he died alone, with only Voldemort and a boy who’d always hated him (and whom he’d hated in return, no question on that) beside him. And for absolutely no good reason. So I cried. For the little boy who’d had such a fearful, unpleasant childhood, for the miserable, poor, angry young man who was mocked by his classmates and desperate to gain respect at any cost, and for the bitter, nasty adult who continued his childhood grudges to the point of sheer ludicrousness. He was mean and cruel and an abysmal teacher, but I’d wanted better for him. I wanted a chance for him to be happy. Just once, because it seems like he never has been.
I think we’re supposed to take some comfort from the fact that Harry immediately found out his whole story. And what does it start with? Him falling in love with Lily. I said before I started the book that if one more person, especially Snape, was found to have been in love with Lily, I would scream.
Out of deference to our very nice neighbor, I didn’t scream. I just felt tired and annoyed. Seriously, is there anybody in these books who didn’t think Lily was So Very Perfect? I hate her just hearing about her. I’m sure she was a perfectly nice person, but nobody’s that perfect. Nobody. And just because she’s the hero’s mother, and just because she died to save him, and just because James was passionately in love with her... for god’s sake, isn’t that enough? Can we drop everything else, please? Can we leave off on the movie-implications that Remus was in love with her, and then the book flat-out insisting the Snape was? Seriously? Next thing we’ll find out that Sirius was, and Pettigrew, too. Oh, and Lucius. Because god forbid anybody feel anything less than undying love for the great and holy Lily.
Sorry. But that really got on my nerves. And not just because it smashed my most beloved pairing and my most beloved friendship-pairing in this series into itty little bits. I’ve seen it coming ever since “Snape’s Worst Memory,” but I always hoped that they’d leave it in the background, just a little thing to take or leave as you like, maybe. And in some ways, if there wasn’t this whole fuss about how frigging perfect Lily Evans is, I might have liked it, I suppose. It was endearing, sort of. Bitty!Snape was sort of adorably pedantic and earnest, with his hideously mismatched clothes and his solemn manner and random hexing of Petunia. And I liked the little comment about them being best friends. That was nice. You don’t see enough girls and boys being best friends in fiction without it turning into a love thing by default. In the long run, though... it made me feel even more miserable for Snape (and I’d already started out feeling horrible for the poor guy), and in some ways I felt like it was... I don’t know, smacking us upside the head with “Snape must be good, because he fell in love with Lily!”
Also, on a completely unrelated note, if he was already suspecting Lupin of being a werewolf (“always on the full moon,” he says, when Lily comments that Lupin gets sick a lot), why on god’s green earth would he have followed Sirius’ advice to go down into the Shack on the full moon? Sure he’s curious, but if he suspects what Lupin is, wouldn’t that be kind of... suicidal?
Another inconsistency - I can’t seem to find my copy of book 5, so I can’t confirm it, but I’m pretty sure that Sirius said he left Grimmauld Place when he was a teenager. In the movie he said when he was sixteen. So... how was a letter from after Harry was born in his room there? He’d already moved out and been disowned, and if Lily was sending him letters there she must’ve been seriously confused. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Additionally, I find it strange that his mother would burn his name off the tapestry, but keep his bedroom exactly as it had been. I mean, Harry seems to think that they couldn’t undo the charms he’d used to stick the pictures to the walls, but that doesn’t explain why there were still letters... from a mudblood... Details, Rowling. Details. This woman needs a continuity editor like nobody’s business. Yes, it’s a huge universe to deal with, but, come on. That’s the kind of thing that would be easy to check for.
I loved that the thing with the house elves was tied up neatly. The thing with the goblins, not so much. But... whatever. We can’t ask for everything. It was great seeing Kreacher, the quintessential Bad House Elf, get redeemed. And I liked that what finally put Hermione over the edge with Ron was him restating exactly her opinion of the whole House Elf thing, entirely of his own free will. They’ve grown on me, bless ‘em. I still don’t entirely approve of the pairing, but I’m definitely warming to it. Doesn’t hurt that Rupert Grint is the most adorable of all the kids in these movies, not to mention the best of the young actors. He’s adorkable. <3
Grawp was important. Thank god that whole thing had a point. Otherwise, I would have hated to have had to go through it. I hated that whole plot device, both in the movies and in the book.
Neville was awesome. And so was his Gran. I was excessively pleased with how well he stepped into the leadership role in Harry’s absence and became a hero in his own right. I also like that they’re still pointing softly, subtley, at the possibility of him and Luna, because Luna is adorable and very amusing as well as heroic, and I think they’d be good for each other. Love that Neville is the one of the kids, in the end, who turns out to be a professor. ...Do not love that we get no indication whatsoever of what any of the girls are doing except being mothers. This displeases me immensely. Way to go, Rowling, for reinforcing the idea that girls just finish school, get married, and have loads of babies. To be fair, we don’t get much about what the boys are doing, either, but... argh. Couldn’t we get something? Please? For absolutely anybody? It felt sort of like they weren’t doing anything except hanging around having babies. Which... dear gods, they all did seem to have rather a lot, didn’t they? Maybe I was just overwhelmed by the pile of new names.
And... Albus Severus. Albus Severus Potter. I find that... well, very fan-fic-y, honestly. If somebody’d done it in a fic, I’d have thought it was a lame-ass way of fiating forgiveness and remorse, and I still sort of do. I guess it’s kind of cute given Snape’s obsession with Lily, but... I don’t know. It still sort of makes me go “bleh.”
Also - why, in the final battle, do we have Voldemort battling three strong, adult wizards... and Bellatrix battling three female students? Is the female villain only allowed to fight the female heroes? Where the fuck was Neville, and why was he not hexing the living daylights out of the woman who destroyed his parents’ minds? And sure, Bella’s Voldemort’s best lieutenant, but she’s apparently defeated by... Mrs. Weasley. I’d have been surprised, too, if I was her. I suppose I should be happy that Molly got to do something cool for once, but... really I just sort of felt confused, and rather as though it cheapened Bella. Silly of me, I suppose - if it’d been a Terry Pratchett book and Lady Sibyll striding into battle against some evil amazon-type, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. Possibly because Sibyll would be fighting just as evenly against the men, and so would the evil amazon-type... now that I think about it, with the exception of Sirius (who, by virtue of their familial ties, doesn’t really count in this argument because murdering him is almost a domestic issue for Bella), Bellatrix is almost exclusively pitted against women in the books. Please, somebody, prove me wrong on this? I really don’t want to think that it’s true.
Also, Snape apparently turning into a bat (or bat-ish? I read the book very quickly, and haven’t had a chance to go back over parts yet) was completely... unnecessary. Suddenly he can fly? WTF?
Also, because
miss_arel boggled me by saying she was actually curious what I thought... I admit it - I haven’t always given Rowling enough credit for being willing to let the books - and her characters - grow up along with the series. In the end, she did the right thing and let in almost all the moral ambiguity that I would have wanted to see. Few characters were left as cardboard cut-outs of evil, and I appreciated that. The ones that were left as such, for the most part, were understandable. And, praise be to everything a writer ever learns, no character was left a cardboard cut-out of good. I think even Harry came to understand that at the end, which is something of a miracle given that, well... he’s still only seventeen. He is very seventeen in this book, as are Ron and Hermione, though in a good way, I suppose. I sometimes feel like I’d like the books a lot better if they focused on a slightly older crowd - witness my deep and abiding love for stories about the first war, when the lines between the sides were a great deal more malleable, and there was much more uncertainty about the world.
Straight off, we start out the book with the Dursleys, and find out that while Vernon and Petunia have changed little if at all, Dudley has actually managed to grow up some, and even respects Harry a bit. He might even like him. I’m not sure where the heck that came from, aside from Harry saving his arse in the last book, but.... it was interesting. I have a feeling it was meant to be heart-warming, but I mostly sort of felt like it was a convenient way to tie up an end. No great emotional attachment there.
We have the escape, then, and a fairly confusing battle wherein everyone is flying on various things, and in which Hedwig dies. That was sad, and a good warning, I suppose, to people reading the book - this is not a happy book, it’s not for small children, and it’s not taking prisoners, in the sense that there are going to be deaths. Nothing like killing a small fuzzy animal to let people know that, I guess. This is also pretty much the last we see of any of the kids’ pets... for which I suppose I’m grateful, since otherwise we would undoubtedly have been treated to Crookshanks dying, and given his resemblance to my cat, I wouldn’t have taken that well. I like to think Crookshanks, clever kneazle/cat that he is, high-tailed it to safety well in advance of all the big battles, and turned up on Hermione’s porch some time later only slightly worse for the wear and demanding food and pettings.
Never underestimate my ability to be distracted by a kitty. Anyway.
I will take a moment to crow in delight that we finally got to see Andromeda! Not for long, mind you, and she barely got to speak a few sentences, but we saw her (yes, and Ted, too) and found out that she looks a good deal like Bella, except with brown hair instead of black. *Polishes nails on shirt* Consider this the first of my “yay, the RP got it right” remarks. Also, I was amused by how sharply she spoke to everyone until Tonks had reappeared. Yup - she’s definitely a Black.
Speaking of Tonks... I feel mean saying it, but I still dislike how Rowling shoved her and Lupin together, particularly the speed with which they married. And then got pregnant, apparently much against Lupin’s will. Are we honestly meant to believe that ‘accidents happen’ in the modern Wizarding world? Contraceptive charms, man! I know we’re meant to take it as charming that he continues to be freaked out by having married Tonks, I know we’re supposed to interpret it as Lupin not thinking he’s worthy and as Lupin being afraid that he’ll pass on his curse to his child and all that, but... I’m sorry. Maybe I’m just too unrepentent in my Snape/Lupin pairing, but I still see Lupin being backed into that marriage, and then panicking and not having a frigging clue in the world how to get himself out without hurting someone. That’s Lupin, in my mind - unable to do a damned thing against someone else’s say-so. I love him, but he’s a moron that way, and I can’t seem to stop reading what he does here in that manner. To his credit, he did seem a lot happier after the baby was actually born - maybe he just had cold feet about the whole baby thing, and who could blame him? - but honestly. And we never did find out whether or not Teddy was a werewolf, did we? Presumably he’d be at least as wolfish as Bill, who apparently now takes his steaks “bloody.”
Going backward a little, I’d like to point out that the scene in HBP where it’s revealed that Lupin and Tonks are potentially together is... umm... pretty weird. All through the scene, Lupin refuses to meet Tonks’ eyes. When he says that she deserves someone else, he’s described as speaking “steadily,” and when Mr. Weasley pushes the point, Remus demurs and changes the subject, “avoiding everybody’s eyes as he looked around distractedly” (HBP, 624). And directly after that, McGonagall pushes him toward getting together with Tonks. Everybody’s ganging up on the poor boy, and what’s he doing? Displaying typical submissive-wolf behavior and trying to avoid the whole issue! The next time we see him and Tonks, they “seemed to be holding hands,” and Tonks’ hair is back to vivid pink (641). So we know straight out that Tonks is happy, but we get no sign whatsoever of what Lupin thinks of things, aside from the fact that he tried to avoid it altogether, seemingly in every way possible. This is repeated in DH, where while Tonks looks “radiant,” Lupin smiles but looks nervous when asked about their wedding. Later, he says that he married her against his better judgment (or something like that - my roommate is currently reading my copy, so I can’t confirm the exact text).
Also... what about time, here? I know we only get the parts of the relationship that Harry can see, but all we know is that Tonks has been pining for Lupin for about a year when all this blows up. Then at some time in June (I can’t seem to find an exact date for those scenes - if anybody can, I’d be pleased to know it!), they seem to come to at least a tentative agreement to court or date or whatever you want to call it. The next time we see them, a little over a month later, they’re married.
...Is it just me, or is that awfully fast?
I know, there’s a war on. But... Lupin seems pretty miserable about the whole situation early on in DH, while Tonks is practically ecstatic. And then... there’s the baby. We hear about the baby... sometime after the mention of Easter holiday for the students? So... July to April. August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March... April. Nine months. I counted that out three times just to be sure. For Lupin not having wanted to have a kid, that’s moving.... pretty quick.
I don’t really know what to say beyond that, except that I miss the happy little world wherein I could pretend that Lupin was secretly in love with Snape. :P
I also still miss the Tonks of book 5 - happy, punk, cheery Tonks who didn’t get depressed and moon over people, but just fought and was brave and silly and kind of dumb and hapless at times, but still very clever and very... very much a twenty-something, which is rare in these books. I still resent how much she changed in book 6, and I saw nothing in this book to convince me otherwise. I would have been thrilled to see her as an exciting, fun heroine, but I don’t think Rowling succeeded at that.
My biggest issue with their relationship, honestly, is that even though Remus is clearly miserable (“I married her against my better judgment, and I’ve regretted it ever since,” he says, or something very like that), Tonks is completely clueless. And they have the baby anyway. This is not the mark of a stable, healthy relationship. Particularly not a relationship to try to raise a child in. And after the baby comes, Remus seems perfectly happy! Either that or neurotic, manic, and scared out of his wits. You could read it either way. And since I don’t believe in children just sort of magically fixing a relationship that was on unsteady ground... you can imagine which I believe is more likely. What disturbs me is the suspicion that Rowling might have intended the baby to fix all of Remus’ misgivings about their marriage. I get the sense that we might very well be meant to read all his fear and depression as feeling guilty and unworthy of what he’s been given, and worrying about the potential future for his child if they do turn out to be a werewolf, but, for me at least, that’s not how the lines actually read. Given that Rowling has stated in interviews that Remus has trouble with not being able to say no to people because he doesn’t want them to dislike him or be upset with him, that he’ll effectively do anything for people to like him, that pretty much tells me that’s exactly what happened here. Tonks was miserable because she was in love with him, and when she wouldn’t give up, and everyone else seemed hell-bent on seeing the two of them together, Remus just sort of gave up and went along with it, against his better judgment. He didn’t want to have a baby, but he either went along with Tonks’ desire (in which case he was being very reckless and irresponsible, which isn’t at all against Remus’ established canon behavior - he knew that Sirius was a animagus and thought that he might be out to kill Harry, but he still didn’t tell anyone) or there was an accident, or Tonks tricked him. Knowing that she’s half Black, I tend to favor the latter explanation. I could see her deciding in an immature sort of way that having a baby would make things better for them, would make Remus happier, would make them a real couple, and then just sort of... forgetting whatever contraceptives she was supposed to have been on. Oops. It was an accident, but we’re happy, right?
Question: Lycanthropy seems to be passed by bodily fluids in this universe. Even if full lycanthropy is only passed during the full moon, doesn’t that put Tonks herself at some risk? Obviously this is not a question for the up-and-up text of a children’s book, at least not in this political climate (me, I think it’s a good thing for kids to be bloody well aware of pretty early, given modern STD rates...), but... it does make one wonder. Not that it will matter, given how Rowling “solved” all their problems by killing of both of them.
One inconsistency from early on in the book - Harry can’t cast any spells until he turns 17, but Hermione is able before the book even starts to enchant her mother and father so that they don’t remember her and think that they’re other people entirely, people who want to go off and live in Australia. It’s a very noble (and also very sad) thing that Hermione does, there... but isn’t she under 17 as well? I could have sworn it was established some time ago that Hermione was actually younger than both Harry and Ron. I know Rowling stated that Hermione’s birthday was in September. (Note to people who think it’s odd that I remember this: given the amount of time that I spent playing Hermione in a few text and journal RPGs, it will not at all surprise you that I also noticed that Hermione’s middle name seems mysteriously to have reshuffled itself - I’m quite sure her full name used to be Hermione Jane Granger, but in book 7 it’s stated as Hermione Jean Granger. I do not find this a great improvement.) Either way, that should have been something that was stated clearly to avoid confusion.
Bill and Fleur... are cute, but I mostly don’t give a damn. Enough of that.
Harry and Ginny... are cute, but I still don’t give a damn.
Hermione and Ron... are cute. And Ron has actually grown up enough that I mostly find them amusing, even if I still find it ever-so-slightly ooky that Ron seems to regard her as a younger incarnation of his mother. I accept that people tend to end up with people who are a lot like the parent-of-opposite-gender, but... must we make it so very obvious? Or maybe it’s just that I’ve never been all that terribly fond of Molly, whereas Hermione, aside from the icky feelings given to me by one Emma Watson AKA the worst actress it has ever been my misfortune to be stuck watching for five movies with two more in sight... is still one of My Characters, and I will love her no matter what happens, and am sitting here right now feeling slightly upset that she doesn’t appear to leave Hogwarts and go straight off to university as I’d always expected she would. What about running off to read history and physics and come up with all those wonderful theories about how magic and physics are really the same thing viewed from two different perspectives? What about bringing Ginny to dorm parties and introducing her to all the cute Muggle boys who can’t understand why her cute red-headed friend doesn’t know how to work a computer or a can opener or a lightswitch?
...Like I said, I’m still used to thinking of Hermione as One of Mine, and thus have done a bit too much of investing my own feelings into her. I was Hermione when I was young, folks - minus the genius and the magic, I grant you, but still. I can’t help identifying.
Right, where was I?
Well, while I’m fapping on about My Characters, I might as well cut to the Malfoys, right?
I played Narcissa for years, both as a teenager in an alternate-universe 1970s era game called Anno Domini Voldemort, and as an adult in its sister game, Infusco Bonitas (don’t think about the Latin too hard on that one - none of us were ever quite sure what the original mod had intended with it, but we were aware that it didn’t quite work). I loved all of her, even when I sometimes thought she was an idiot, and one of my favorite things about the last two books is that the canonical Narcissa Malfoy, who used to be little more than a name and a turned-up nose under blonde hair, came fairly close to becoming exactly that woman I built up and loved in my mind for the years that I played her.
We saw her relationship with Bella, the love and the anger and the fear, and we saw that she brooked no offense to her husband, even from her beloved sister. We saw that she had been friendly with Snape in the past, at least enough to call him by his first name and demand a great and very dangerous favor of him. We saw her willingness to beg and cry for the sake of her son. And in this last book, although we didn’t get anything nearly as good as that first scene in HBP, we did see a little bit more of that, particularly that she was willing to protect and cooperate with the Dark Lord’s worst enemy for the sake of her son. It wasn’t quite the turn-around I was hoping for - I admit that I treasured the image of a desperate Narcissa, left alone now that her husband was in Azkaban and her son had been dishonored among the Death Eaters, turning to the Order’s side. But it was enough, for me. I was happy to see the three Malfoys curled up together in Hogwarts, pathetic and stupid but still living and together. And I was happy that it was Narcissa who brought it around to that, even if I’d like to point out that Rowling has a serious mother-love complex working for her in these books. And I was happy to see that Lucius was broken by his time in Azkaban, that the other Death Eaters mocked him for the arrogant twit he is (the white peacocks!), and that Draco is still a weenie, hopeless little bastard who can’t even manage to choose a side. I liked all of that, because it was so true to how I saw all of them. If we could have had a bit more, I’d have been thrilled, but this was about as much as I’d ever expected, and it was truer than I’d hoped to how I would have wanted them to turn out.
Wait - I need to put one exception on that: Scorpius?
What the fuck kind of name is that? ...Seriously, though. Scorpius Malfoy. Clearly, Draco just didn’t want to be the worst-named in the family anymore. :P And who the hell did he marry, anyway? They never said, and I’ve always wondered. If it’d been Pansy I suppose they would’ve said as much, so... are we meant to assume he hooked up with someone from outside England, then? It’d be good for the family, that’s for sure. With the amount of in-breeding in the Black family... ah, whatever.
Speaking of the Black family, how about Regulus? Regulus Arcturus Black. I’d had my bet on it be Antares (as it was in the old games), but I’m willing for “Arcturus.” Anything star- or constellation-derived is fine by me as far as the Black family goes. ...So long as it doesn’t sound too stupid, that is. (Scorpius!) And it turns out he was a Seeker! That made me quite happy, mostly because I expected that it might just tweak Harry’s brain a little, finding out that he had to respect this Slytherin on that level, and then again on the level of him doing quite an impressive bit of work with that locket. Incidentally, I’d be curious to know what turned Regulus against Voldemort in the first place - too bad we never got that information. And I’ll never be all the way convinced that he’s dead, I don’t think. Something about drinking all that poison... just seemed a little too pat, I guess. I was convinced that he’d be back, and slightly disappointed when he stayed good and dead, without so much as a moment’s reappearance. Same goes for Sirius, who I incidentally totally didn’t buy in his amazing miraculous reappearance as the excessively handsome twenty-something. Why are people always young and handsome again after they’ve died? Lupin, too.
Oh. Lupin. Poor Lupin.
I had a feeling he’d die, although I was pissed off at not actually seeing it happen, and I really could’ve done without him leaving behind his baby son. It felt too much like an intentional re-spinning of the wheel, with a little baby boy being left behind after his parents died heroically at Voldemort’s hands. I suppose we’re meant to assume that little Teddy grew up loved and doted on by his Grandma Tonks and his young god-father, but it was just a little too pat for my tastes, I guess.
And then there’s Snape. Bitter, cranky, constantly-foiled Snape, who I’ve loved loved loved from the minute I saw him. I never doubted for a minute that Dumbledore had ordered him to kill him and that he was really doing the best he could to keep things under control while not blowing his cover. He’s a double-agent, people - nothing can be so important as his cover. But he kept his promise to Narcissa, and we heard enough of conversations between him and Dumbledore that I always thought it was completely obvious that he was doing exactly what the Headmaster wanted him to, even when I didn’t know exactly why he’d wanted that. I cried when Voldemort killed him, not because he died, exactly (I knew he was going to die, I’ve been preparing myself for that for years), but because I wanted him to die redeemed. I wanted him to die a hero. I wanted him to die somewhere very public, where everyone, for once, could see that he had really been on the side of right, that he had fully dragged himself out of the mire he’d gotten sucked into as a young man. That he was not a nice man, no, not at all - but that he was a good one. Instead, he died alone, with only Voldemort and a boy who’d always hated him (and whom he’d hated in return, no question on that) beside him. And for absolutely no good reason. So I cried. For the little boy who’d had such a fearful, unpleasant childhood, for the miserable, poor, angry young man who was mocked by his classmates and desperate to gain respect at any cost, and for the bitter, nasty adult who continued his childhood grudges to the point of sheer ludicrousness. He was mean and cruel and an abysmal teacher, but I’d wanted better for him. I wanted a chance for him to be happy. Just once, because it seems like he never has been.
I think we’re supposed to take some comfort from the fact that Harry immediately found out his whole story. And what does it start with? Him falling in love with Lily. I said before I started the book that if one more person, especially Snape, was found to have been in love with Lily, I would scream.
Out of deference to our very nice neighbor, I didn’t scream. I just felt tired and annoyed. Seriously, is there anybody in these books who didn’t think Lily was So Very Perfect? I hate her just hearing about her. I’m sure she was a perfectly nice person, but nobody’s that perfect. Nobody. And just because she’s the hero’s mother, and just because she died to save him, and just because James was passionately in love with her... for god’s sake, isn’t that enough? Can we drop everything else, please? Can we leave off on the movie-implications that Remus was in love with her, and then the book flat-out insisting the Snape was? Seriously? Next thing we’ll find out that Sirius was, and Pettigrew, too. Oh, and Lucius. Because god forbid anybody feel anything less than undying love for the great and holy Lily.
Sorry. But that really got on my nerves. And not just because it smashed my most beloved pairing and my most beloved friendship-pairing in this series into itty little bits. I’ve seen it coming ever since “Snape’s Worst Memory,” but I always hoped that they’d leave it in the background, just a little thing to take or leave as you like, maybe. And in some ways, if there wasn’t this whole fuss about how frigging perfect Lily Evans is, I might have liked it, I suppose. It was endearing, sort of. Bitty!Snape was sort of adorably pedantic and earnest, with his hideously mismatched clothes and his solemn manner and random hexing of Petunia. And I liked the little comment about them being best friends. That was nice. You don’t see enough girls and boys being best friends in fiction without it turning into a love thing by default. In the long run, though... it made me feel even more miserable for Snape (and I’d already started out feeling horrible for the poor guy), and in some ways I felt like it was... I don’t know, smacking us upside the head with “Snape must be good, because he fell in love with Lily!”
Also, on a completely unrelated note, if he was already suspecting Lupin of being a werewolf (“always on the full moon,” he says, when Lily comments that Lupin gets sick a lot), why on god’s green earth would he have followed Sirius’ advice to go down into the Shack on the full moon? Sure he’s curious, but if he suspects what Lupin is, wouldn’t that be kind of... suicidal?
Another inconsistency - I can’t seem to find my copy of book 5, so I can’t confirm it, but I’m pretty sure that Sirius said he left Grimmauld Place when he was a teenager. In the movie he said when he was sixteen. So... how was a letter from after Harry was born in his room there? He’d already moved out and been disowned, and if Lily was sending him letters there she must’ve been seriously confused. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Additionally, I find it strange that his mother would burn his name off the tapestry, but keep his bedroom exactly as it had been. I mean, Harry seems to think that they couldn’t undo the charms he’d used to stick the pictures to the walls, but that doesn’t explain why there were still letters... from a mudblood... Details, Rowling. Details. This woman needs a continuity editor like nobody’s business. Yes, it’s a huge universe to deal with, but, come on. That’s the kind of thing that would be easy to check for.
I loved that the thing with the house elves was tied up neatly. The thing with the goblins, not so much. But... whatever. We can’t ask for everything. It was great seeing Kreacher, the quintessential Bad House Elf, get redeemed. And I liked that what finally put Hermione over the edge with Ron was him restating exactly her opinion of the whole House Elf thing, entirely of his own free will. They’ve grown on me, bless ‘em. I still don’t entirely approve of the pairing, but I’m definitely warming to it. Doesn’t hurt that Rupert Grint is the most adorable of all the kids in these movies, not to mention the best of the young actors. He’s adorkable. <3
Grawp was important. Thank god that whole thing had a point. Otherwise, I would have hated to have had to go through it. I hated that whole plot device, both in the movies and in the book.
Neville was awesome. And so was his Gran. I was excessively pleased with how well he stepped into the leadership role in Harry’s absence and became a hero in his own right. I also like that they’re still pointing softly, subtley, at the possibility of him and Luna, because Luna is adorable and very amusing as well as heroic, and I think they’d be good for each other. Love that Neville is the one of the kids, in the end, who turns out to be a professor. ...Do not love that we get no indication whatsoever of what any of the girls are doing except being mothers. This displeases me immensely. Way to go, Rowling, for reinforcing the idea that girls just finish school, get married, and have loads of babies. To be fair, we don’t get much about what the boys are doing, either, but... argh. Couldn’t we get something? Please? For absolutely anybody? It felt sort of like they weren’t doing anything except hanging around having babies. Which... dear gods, they all did seem to have rather a lot, didn’t they? Maybe I was just overwhelmed by the pile of new names.
And... Albus Severus. Albus Severus Potter. I find that... well, very fan-fic-y, honestly. If somebody’d done it in a fic, I’d have thought it was a lame-ass way of fiating forgiveness and remorse, and I still sort of do. I guess it’s kind of cute given Snape’s obsession with Lily, but... I don’t know. It still sort of makes me go “bleh.”
Also - why, in the final battle, do we have Voldemort battling three strong, adult wizards... and Bellatrix battling three female students? Is the female villain only allowed to fight the female heroes? Where the fuck was Neville, and why was he not hexing the living daylights out of the woman who destroyed his parents’ minds? And sure, Bella’s Voldemort’s best lieutenant, but she’s apparently defeated by... Mrs. Weasley. I’d have been surprised, too, if I was her. I suppose I should be happy that Molly got to do something cool for once, but... really I just sort of felt confused, and rather as though it cheapened Bella. Silly of me, I suppose - if it’d been a Terry Pratchett book and Lady Sibyll striding into battle against some evil amazon-type, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. Possibly because Sibyll would be fighting just as evenly against the men, and so would the evil amazon-type... now that I think about it, with the exception of Sirius (who, by virtue of their familial ties, doesn’t really count in this argument because murdering him is almost a domestic issue for Bella), Bellatrix is almost exclusively pitted against women in the books. Please, somebody, prove me wrong on this? I really don’t want to think that it’s true.
Also, Snape apparently turning into a bat (or bat-ish? I read the book very quickly, and haven’t had a chance to go back over parts yet) was completely... unnecessary. Suddenly he can fly? WTF?
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Date: 2007-08-03 04:10 pm (UTC)Hermione's older than both Ron and Harry. You must be 11 before Sept 1 to be admitted as a first year in Hogwarts -- Rowling said so in an interview. So she turned 12 mere days into her first year at Hogwarts, and turned 17 in book 6 (so did Ron, but he did in March). Don't forget she took her Appartition test in book 6 and passed!
Also, I'm not sure how the Ministry counts time-turner usage, but that would certainly increase her subjective age as well.
Re: Middle name -- My British-edit copy's on loan at the moment, but I don't remember seeing "Jean" as her middle name... I remember it always being "Jane" -- but, then, I might've skimmed it and reordered the letters in passing, since I knew it already.
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Date: 2007-08-03 04:48 pm (UTC)The thing about messing with her parents' heads still kind of blows my mind, though. Amazing, and definitely a Hermione decision, but... can you imagine how freaked they're going to be when she turns them back?
Hmmm. Maybe it was a typo, then - I've heard other American-edit folks who are confused, but I haven't heard a word from my UK friends. Interesting.
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Date: 2007-08-03 04:38 pm (UTC)Hermione/Ron: Blehhh. I hate that pairing for all the reasons you pointed out. There's a fabulous 'fic on Ashwinder that I love dearly and desperately want to have the author finish (it's been over a year since the last update), that basically deals with what happens in the aftermath of the war... Hermione and Ron get married, but neither of them are actually *HAPPY*, because they are so intrinsically different in exactly the ways you mentioned.
I just ... I have trouble picturing Hermione being willing to essentially hang her brain on the coatrack when she gets home. It's one of the things I adore about the Hermione/Snape pairing -- they're both bloody smart. (And snarky!)
I did actually call Snape/Lily, m'self -- I think it makes perfect sense. Why else would Snape hate Harry with the vindictive passion that he does? Just because he hated James really isn't enough. I mean, Snape's a bastard, but I just don't see him wasting that much energy on it if that's all there was to it.
Re: Harry/Ginny -- I also agree. Giant MEH. She could've done something SO much more interesting than that.
I also agree re: Kreacher. Bwhahaha, that was beautiful.
"Albus Severus Potter" == worst name ever. The entirety of the Potter children's names were awful and cliche and the sort of thing you find in Mary Sue 'fic. Especially with the "What if I'm in Slytherin?" bullshit. I pretend the Epilogue doesn't exist, because it's wantonly stupid.
I noticed the females-fight-females-and-visa-versa thing, too -- wtf? In a battle, you'd think that it'd be more of a free-for-all than that implies.
And flying Snape? Just freaked me out. I see absolutely no reason to have included that little bizarre detail -- especially without fleshing it out so we know wtf she means. Was he an animagus? Did he turn his robes into wings? Did he suddenly become Clark Kent when we weren't looking?
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Date: 2007-08-03 05:31 pm (UTC)Snape and Lily makes perfect sense, it just irritates me because Rowling paints Lily as so absolutely perfect... and, admittedly, because I'm kind of a die-hard Snape/Lupin shipper, and the fact that Snape has Always Been In Love With Lily kind of kills that. :P Petty, I know. I like it, I just... get a little annoyed by it, as well.
Poor Ginny. So much potential, with absolute lack of follow-through. Fandom did it so much better, in a lot of cases.
YES. Clearly Snape is Clark Kent. XD
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Date: 2007-08-03 06:46 pm (UTC)I agree -- Lily couldn't've been that perfect. But the whole series is told from Harry's point of view, and of course he wanted to view her as perfect. And, really, people are going to be hesitant to besmirch her name to the son she died for, eh? Even if she was a royal bitch when she was alive, no one would mention it after she died, especially not to Harry.
We can assume Snape is bisexual, and then he can be with them both!!!1one
I still insist you (and everyone!) should read Blood Magic, dammit. Here, have a link: http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/gatewaygirl/BM.html
And, yeah -- a lot of the characters are better fleshed-out in Fandom. Isn't that what Fandom is for?
ZOMG. I am now picturing Snape in a tight blue leotard and red cape. I think he might hex me just for having the mental picture.
Hey -- are you familiar with Revolutionary Girl Utena at all? If so, there's an icon you should see here: link!
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Date: 2007-08-03 06:45 pm (UTC)http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/
http://www.hpana.com/news.20137.html
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Date: 2007-08-03 08:17 pm (UTC)And as for the whole Lupin/Tonks thing, I've been thinking about it a lot, and I've decided that for myself I kind of like that their relationship is such crap. I mean, that's realistic, in my opinion, in all these adults there's bound to be a dysfunctional relationship somewhere. I don't think Lupin and Tonks treat each other very well, even though they likely care about each other, but I don't think their relationship has to be all rosy. Sometimes people eff up and have a kid and then don't know what to do with themselves.
And I have much much love for the Malfoys sitting together uneasily in the Great Hall after the battle with that kind of "How did we end up here?" air about them. Go cockroachy Malfoys~
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Date: 2007-08-03 08:54 pm (UTC)In one sense, I like that it's realistic - as you said, it really does happen that people have relationships like that. I'm just a little bit disconcerted, since in a lot of ways it feels like all the realistic stuff got shoved into this book after years of "everything's perfect because it's a childrens' book" and... well, poor Lupin and Tonks. *Pouts* I feel bad for them, anyhow. They really got the short end of every conceivable stick.
Ohgodyes. The bit with them made me So Insanely Happy. XD
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Date: 2007-08-03 08:59 pm (UTC)...And, incidentally, sank my ship in so many ways I still haven't figured out a way to plug all the leaks. :P Alas.
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Date: 2007-08-03 09:18 pm (UTC)As for Ron and Hermione, I've always liked them and I've always liked the character of Ron though I've had to look away at times when he is at his worst. I actually think that their relationship is good for him. I felt like we got to see Ron discovering his intelligence, or maybe I should say wisdom if we think about it in D&D terms, and while I don't think he'll ever be a heavy-weight like Hermione, I don't think he'll stay an idiot either because I can see her encouraging him to think more and Ron deciding it's not so bad after all and enjoying the positive feedback. While I personally couldn't imagine being with a guy that much less smart than me, I think Hermione likes to be in charge of the boys around her, and Ron will give her that to some extent.
And since no one else has done it, here is my moment of silence for Moody, whose death made me sadder than anyone else's.
And why is Hagrid still alive???
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Date: 2007-08-03 10:01 pm (UTC)Also, JKR confirmed that Teddy is a metamorphmagus, not a werewolf.
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Date: 2007-08-03 10:03 pm (UTC)My interpretation is that he was doing what Voldemort did during the first battle - riding the wind. Remember how they said V was flying without a broom? I don't think Snape actually turned into a bat, it's just that his cloak was billowing out, looking like wings.
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Date: 2007-08-03 10:06 pm (UTC)The Malfoys! Yes, yes, yes. I loved them sooooo much in this one! *huggles them all* They were perfect.
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Date: 2007-08-03 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-05 04:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-06 10:53 pm (UTC)Thanks especially for all your comments on Lupin/Tonks and so succinctly putting into words why I found that aspect of the story so unsatisfying, even though I adore both of those characters, and I'm not even opposed to the idea of them begin together, being married, and being parents.
As for Lily... I can't hate her, simply because we really know so little about her. We hear all about her, but most of it comes from people whose perceptions of her are decidedly skewed in a certian direction -- Snape was in love with her, and so the memories of her he would have cherished most were those which cast her in a positive light. Sirius and Remus were obviously fond of her (though if the movie was implying Remus was in love with her, I totally missed that.) Dumbledore speaks quite fondly of her, but he's fond of most people. And of course, the book is from Harry's perspective, and Harry's not gonna wanna think any bad thoughts about Lily, not when he's got as huge a mommy complex as he does.
I feel disappointed that Lily never got the Dumbledore treatment -- that is, here's a character who is loved by nearly everyone who knows them, but hey, guess what, this person is still a person, with big flaws and faults and a dark side. But we never got to see Lily as a whole person, really. So yes, it's frustrated, but I'm more frustrated with JKR for never fleshing out the character, than with the character for never being fleshed out.