Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

[DM]

Am I the only one who liked the middle of the book? I felt it was somewhat necessary, and good -- it helped to highlight the major differences between Harry and Voldemort, and the differences (and similarities!) between the Order and the Death Eaters.

No, I actually agree with you, I just didn't feel like opposing the mountain of people who didn't like it. I felt the middle section was a real page-turning affair, it was slow, but not slow enough to lose my interest, and it was to the point where I couldn't put the book down because I NEEDED to see where it was going.

edit: I thought Snape was a Bad Guy up until his death, at which point he turned good to betray his master (I didn't realize the stuff his corpse was leaking was memories until the pensieve was used). Good to see I was wrong!

Heh, same here. I couldn't figure out why Harry was collecting the nasty shit coming out of his neck.

edit 2: Voldemort's cave from HP6 is now one of the creepiest places in fantasy imo, up there with the forest of the elves from Dragonlance when I was 15. Just thinking about what he could have done to terrorize those two kids there when he was a kid is pretty creepy.

Oh wow, agreed. It completely freaked me out when reading it, and you just reminded me of that. What a FUCKED UP little kid he must've been.

 

[TheMantyke]

My mom and sister are potter heads, so I got a little information from just listening to it in the car (we have it on cassete). personallly I thought that this was one of the best in the series, I think that when it comes out as one, it'll have a bunch of good movie scenes.

 

[commonyoshi]

Am I the only one who liked the middle of the book? I felt it was somewhat necessary, and good -- it helped to highlight the major differences between Harry and Voldemort, and the differences (and similarities!) between the Order and the Death Eaters.

edit 2: Voldemort's cave from HP6 is now one of the creepiest places in fantasy imo, up there with the forest of the elves from Dragonlance when I was 15. Just thinking about what he could have done to terrorize those two kids there when he was a kid is pretty creepy.

I agree with everything you and Doom Mullet have said. The camping wasn't bad at all, and I especially agree with the cave. Young Voldemort would scare the heck out of me.

"I can hurt people if I want. I can make it hurt... Muhuhahahahaha!"
@_@

 

[Surgo]

Here's something random that I forgot about after Order of the Phoenix, but just remembered recently.

I was somewhat disappointed that the last books didn't go more in-depth about Luna's past. It seemed mostly like a missed opportunity. She had told Harry that she could see the Thestrals, because she had seen death. In addition she was, well, somewhat insane, or at least a couple of eggs short of a basket. Putting two and two together, that would have made a rather interesting backstory. What sort of death would she have seen? Could it have been an extremely traumatic experience, permanently damaging her and causing the rather insane behavior that she exhibits? An interesting thought...

 

[Mizuno]

Err, IIRC, the person Luna saw die was her mother, which got herself killed in one of her experiments (she liked to make experiments). I think that was mentioned in Order of the Phoenix.

 

[Fishin]

Luna needed more time in the story IMO. She was definitely one of the more interesting characters.

To me, though...the book as a whole was good, but I didn't like it as much of many of the others simply because it was so fast-paced - part of what I liked about many of the other books was just the characters enjoying their school life and learning about all the interesting quirks of the HP universe. The story was good, but it just lost out on that feel that I liked.

 

[Alienjesus]

i thought some of the deaths seemed a little stretched to me.
moodys i could take, it was liek the death of a mentor and hero (as an auror) in harrys eyes. Snapes also, while a little rushed, felt sinister enough and unexpected enough to show voldemorts true evil.

hedwigs was a bit silly imo, and i felt that it didnt add anything worthwhile to the story. if owl messages were pointless, harry could've just left her at the weasleys in the story instead.

Dobbys death seemed kind of random aswell, and i dont get why they killed him AFTER the scene at the malfoys. also, i had to read twice to udnerstand where the knife came from. also, if people survive iron bludgers to the head, i fail to see how a magical creature like Dobby would die to a knife wound, especially when these seem easily heald by magic.

Freds death was like "omg!" but i dunno, it seemed to be there for the sake of having a character die in the final battle, and seemed a bad choice of character, as fred was only a comic bit-part anyway.

lupin and tonks was fair enough, but imo lupin didnt need to die (seriously, its kinda expected as all of harrys other father figures were killed off too) and killing both lupin and tonks seems a bit pushed, and its only purpose seems to be making Teddy be like Harry, which is a bad juxtaposition imo.

Crabbe (it was crabbe right?) dying seemed kind of dumb too, how did he manage to cast such a powerful spell (hes been nothing but dumb and hopeless until then) and if hes practised enough to cast something so powerful then he must surely have control over it too, which doesnt explain his death in the flames to me.

Finally, and most importantly in my eyes, WTF COLIN CREEVEY!?

hes been a character with zero coverage in the last few books, who wasn't over liked or disliked, and didnt really do anything to make you feel any emotion much at all. Also, upon seeing his body Harry's kinda like "yeah, whatever"

I liked the book for the most part, but it seemed to me like Rowling just threw in a new death every couple of chapters for the sake of somethiong happening. often these were unnecessary, or seemingly unimportant (muggle studies teacher, although i can understand this showing voldemorts aversion to muggles, Colin Creevey as above, Wormtail, Dobby, Hedwig, Fred and Bathilda bagshot come to mind)

I enjoyed the book, but meh, i would've preffered a more positive finale, maybe im immature.

oh yeah, what happened to Xeno Lovegood? did he die or what?

 

[Mekkah]

hedwigs was a bit silly imo, and i felt that it didnt add anything worthwhile to the story. if owl messages were pointless, harry could've just left her at the weasleys in the story instead.

It's symbolic.

Hedwig's death was essential to announce the end of Harry's childhood.

I didn't like her dying either but it's not as random as you think it is.

Crabbe seemed the school example of "how not to use dark magic". Hermione even says that she heard of the spell, but was too afraid to use it. Crabbe is dumb so he could just have picked it up anywhere and use it without controlling it at all.

Wormtail and Lupin were not unnecessary, they were the last few of the Marauders. The previous generation, if you will. And yes, Lupin was killed because JKR wanted to make a connection between young Teddy and Harry.

The deaths are there to reflect the randomness and the harshness of war. Not just for the sake of "let's kill stuff randomly"

Finally, and most importantly in my eyes, WTF COLIN CREEVEY!?

hes been a character with zero coverage in the last few books, who wasn't over liked or disliked, and didnt really do anything to make you feel any emotion much at all. Also, upon seeing his body Harry's kinda like "yeah, whatever"

Then Neville nearly walked into him. He was one half of a pair that was carrying a body in from the grounds. Harry glanced down, and felt another dull blow to his stomach: Colin Creevey, though under-age, must have sneaked back just as Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle had done. He was tiny in death.

Looks like he is affected, but we're obviously not going to be spending a few paragraphs on Colin Creevey when we are actually following Harry walking towards the forest, preparing for his own death.

 

[User 12783]

Pretty much two things in general bother me as I'm not nitpicking yet.

1. The middle chapters were HORRIBLY LONG! I started the book at 1 in the morning the night it was released. By the time I got to like chapter 12, it was roughly what, 3 or 4, and this was when it was most enduring.

2. Me perosnally didn't get enough closure with the epilogue. There are so many questions as to ask about what happened.

True same here

The story big battle then bye

It's symbolic.



I didn't like her dying either but it's not as random as you think it is.

Crabbe seemed the school example of "how not to use dark magic". Hermione even says that she heard of the spell, but was too afraid to use it. Crabbe is dumb so he could just have picked it up anywhere and use it without controlling it at all.

Wormtail and Lupin were not unnecessary, they were the last few of the Marauders. The previous generation, if you will. And yes, Lupin was killed because JKR wanted to make a connection between young Teddy and Harry.

The deaths are there to reflect the randomness and the harshness of war. Not just for the sake of "let's kill stuff randomly"





Looks like he is affected, but we're obviously not going to be spending a few paragraphs on Colin Creevey when we are actually following Harry walking towards the forest, preparing for his own death.

There was like a full chapter of him walking to his death I personally think Harry was right to at least keep one Deathly Hallow


And that stuff about Dumbledore was really suprising

 

[Backfall Genius]

Well yeah, its been a while. I finished the book on the 22nd, and it was great!! I wrote really long reviews somewhere....doesn't matter now. And I miss Harry Potter already! :(

Well there IS the encyclopedia and 2 more movies to look forward to. And I really hope they don't screw up the next two movies! >.>

 

[Surgo]

The only way they could possibly screw up the Half-Blood Prince movie is by cutting out all the amazing young Tom Riddle scenes, which won't happen because that's about half the story of that book. So worry not, movie 6 will be awesome.

 

[Death Phenomeno]

The only way they could possibly screw up the Half-Blood Prince movie is by cutting out all the amazing young Tom Riddle scenes, which won't happen because that's about half the story of that book. So worry not, movie 6 will be awesome.

About that… Wikipedia says the following:

Since February 2007, Stuart Craig has been designing sets for the film, including the cave, and the astronomy tower, where the climax of the film takes place.[20] Yates and Heyman have noted that some of the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows may influence the script of the film,[21] and that there will not be as many memories in the film than in the book. Yates noted: "We're making a decision right now to compress those a wee bit, but we've still got some really cool ones."[22] Nicholas Hooper will return to score the film.

 

[Surgo]

Ugh, alright...hopefully a "wee bit" really is a "wee bit". I think every one of those memories is essential to the storyline though :\

 

[Cid999]

For me Half Blood Prince was focused mainly on informing the reader about Tom Riddle’s past and desire for power, the books so far had been about Harry’s ascension to mature wizard and it was interesting to see the same idea’s from another’s point of view. I enjoyed the book only because it showed more of Riddle’s life, and gave the reader more than just the ‘scary snake guy’ angle, humanising an early Tom made the monster he becomes a lot scarier as it draws comparison between the choices he and Harry make, were Harry to have not met Ron and Hermione he may well have ended up the same, a theme explored with Harry’s random aggression and outbursts of rage. I think the problem is, for the Half Blood Prince movie to make money, two and a half hours of Riddle memories will not appeal to a mass audience, so they will forgo the good story telling for cheap thrills, which is why I think it will miss the key points of the book and disappoint fans.

 

[FiretypeFanatic]

I think the problem is, for the Half Blood Prince movie to make money, two and a half hours of Riddle memories will not appeal to a mass audience, so they will forgo the good story telling for cheap thrills, which is why I think it will miss the key points of the book and disappoint fans.

Quoted for truth
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I felt that the battle between Harry Potter, and Voldemort wasn't nearly epic enough. The greatest dark wizard of all time, he has a million ways to kill people, he has matched Dumbledore in strength, and has an army of followers... dies in less than a second in a shitty 5 sentence battle.

Other than that I dont have any complaints. I just know the movie will suck, or it will rock but be like 5 hours long.

 

[Surgo]

I felt that the battle between Harry Potter, and Voldemort wasn't nearly epic enough. The greatest dark wizard of all time, he has a million ways to kill people, he has matched Dumbledore in strength, and has an army of followers... dies in less than a second in a shitty 5 sentence battle.

That is kind of why it was a 5 sentence battle because how else would it have been done? You said it yourself...greatest dark wizard of all time, a million ways to kill people, an army of powerful followers, so how could some punk kid stand a chance?

 

[Cid999]

I agree in the sense that I was dissapointed in the final showdown, but like has been said it couldn't really have been done any other way, dedicating an entire chapter to the fight would have failed as at the core of it, Harry wasn't as powerful a wizard as Voldemort, he came nowhere near that power, but he was able to win becasue of the help he had, and the choices people had made. The fundemental difference betwen them both was the bonds they created, Voldemort was probably the strongest wizard of all time, a feat he achived through willpower and determination, yet Harry had people he cared for and who cared for him, and with all thier help they were able to overcome Voldemort's power. I would be a lying if I said i wasn't dissapointed in the last book, for me it had presented a world where the danger of death was real, and promised severe consequnces for those opposing Voldemort, we were instead given a perfect ending where everything neatly fitted together, but was it ever going to end any other way? Killing off the main three would have been a pointless task, and would have only satisfied a small part of the fan in me, the book is about escapism and to murder these children after everything that has happened to them was unneccasary

 

[Llama]

I dont know about anyone else, or if it was mentioned in this thread but i really really liked the fact that the 7th book answered the longest running question of the series imo, even if it wasnt an important one. Harry finally realized what Dumbledore had seen when looking into the mirror of erised. i just thought rowling including that was amazing.

 

[Deck Knight]

That is kind of why it was a 5 sentence battle because how else would it have been done? You said it yourself...greatest dark wizard of all time, a million ways to kill people, an army of powerful followers, so how could some punk kid stand a chance?

Voldemort was killed by his own arrogance. His death was seven years in the making only because of the Horcruxes. It was arrogance that caused him to miscalculate the night in Godric's Hollow, and it was arrogance that caused him to use the same strategy that had always failed against Harry. You'd think after a while he'd figure out the only person he can't AK was Harry, but he just couldn't believe it.

Personally I thought it was a fitting end for one who took lives without batting an eye to be slaughtered in an instant by his own backfired killing curse.