Upon finishing The Deathly Hallows in the early hours of this morning, I have a few personal remarks to make. Before I do, however, let me recommend a visit to Jabel's site to any reader of the Potter series who is interested in technical discussions of the writing.
Here are my thoughts in no certain order:
1.) I was fascinated by the opening scenes, especially the first battle as Harry was being transported from Privet Drive. Jabel put it well in referencing the "chaos" and referring to the event as "horrifying".
2. ) Of all the deaths, I felt that Dobby was the most troubling. I hated to see Mad-Eye go, and the loss of Lupin was quite disturbing as well, but the killing of Dobby at the hand of Bellatrix while the house-elf was rescuing Harry was truly painful.
3.) I am sure she has her reasons, but I think I would have preferred the book not include the "Nineteen Years After" ending.
4.) I would have liked to known a little more about the Malfoy family, especially the (perhaps?) inward struggle of Draco.
5.) I can't help but feel sorry for Snape. I didn't subscribe to the "bad Snape" view of some I know, but I can't say that I'm all too convinced in his goodness, either. I would give him the benefit of the doubt and call him mostly good-partly evil, but I feel sorry for him for not ever fully going for the good.
6.) I've enjoyed the series, but I'm not lamenting the fact that no more of it will be written. I don't feel that I'm missing anything by not knowing of Harry as a parent, a middle-ager, an old man, etc.
7. I'm so looking forward to the movie, especially the battle at Hogwarts.
8. I felt like parts of the hiding out scenes of Harry, Hermione & Ron were a bit drawn out, and the whole days-turned-into-weeks lines weren't satisfying to me.
9. I wonder sometimes if there'll ever be a villain who decides to just go ahead and kill the good guy while he has the chance. I mean, what is up with the whole attitude of delaying the act for a more gratifying time...why not do it and get it over with. It always comes back to bite them in the end.
10. I wanna go stay with Bill & Fleur for an extended vacation.
3 comments:
The Epilogue has been a source of a lot of controversy. Many fans wanted more information. JKR said that she gave all she could give while still maintaining a coherent plot. (More details will follow in the encyclopedia.) But she wanted to include it because she wanted to make it clear that Harry won, Voldemort isn't coming back, and "all is well." Nevertheless, I understand the dissatisfaction.
As for Snape I think his love for Lilly was the only feasible way to make him convincingly good. Otherwise it wouldn't have made much sense.
Not only should the villain kill the good guy when he has a chance (see "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" - Scott Evil: "Why don't you just shoot him?" Dr. Evil: "I have a better idea. I'm going to put him in an easily-escapable situation involving an overly-elaborate and exotic death.") but the good guys should kill the bad guys when they have a chance. How many Death Eaters did Harry have a chance to kill that ended up killing other good guys?
Once again your brilliance and recall amaze me. Give it up on Snape, though, as he was a good guy-greasy hair notwithstanding. Here's a question I've been asked by a few readers. It was suggested prior to release that "2 major characters" would die. Which were the two? Snape & Fred? Dobby & Lupin? I'm confused...
Actually I think she said at least two would die. Turns out it was more than that.
By the way, I got the Austin Powers quote off the web. My memory is quite poor.
Post a Comment