OOP: Disappointing AND Excellent

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 66600

Debbie wrote many good points:
 
> I was also really disappointed with the Dept of Mysteries episode; 
I felt like I was watching a run-of-the-mill action movie

Check.  Me too.

> the parallels between the ending of each book and the 
correspondingly numbered obstacle to the philosopher's stone seemed 
more apparent than ever this time around.  

I struggle to see the parallels (or rather, I think one can jumble 
the obstacles and still get possible parallels) though I feel they 
must be there: 7 obstacles is just so neat.  Doubtless this has been 
posted before but I would like to understand this better.  How is 
the end of PS foreshadowed by Fluffy, e.g?

I agree the type of set-piece battle is unlikely to be repeated. 
(and... no polyjuice!  Voldemort's animagus abilities tossed in 
almost to be dismissed!  no time turner!  the imperius victims 
exposed early on!)

> I didn't find the darkness of OOP disturbing.  In fact, I thought 
GoF was a darker book in many ways.  It definitely affected me more.

Yes.  The way I see this is that the *type* of darkness introduced 
in GOF was essentially new, and much of the darkness of OOP was a 
continuation and deepening.  It is not different in kind.  To me the 
disturbing thing about GOF is that it is the first book to push 
forward plainly the view that Voldemort is not the essence of evil 
in the WW, he is just its logical conclusion.  OOP takes this 
further partly with more exposure of the corruption of the MOM but 
also with the exposure of flaws in the good charcters.

>  I thought a number of things that were irrelevant to the plot 
were slipped in primarily for the purpose of answering fans' 
questions -- like why isn't Hermione in 
> Ravenclaw, which is the only one I can think of at the moment.

I thought that too.

> I was still annoyed with the gender characterization in OOP.  JKR 
did demonstrate that there are women in significant Ministry 
positions, but the only one that gets developed is unrelentingly 
evil.  In fact, she's given us two Evil Women.  Molly, OTOH, is 
shown as the OOP member in charge of the headquarters housecleaning 
team.  And Tonks was rather pointless.  Only the male OOP members we 
met turned out to have a role.  The adult women are just too static 
for my taste.  And while we saw both Hermione and Ginny take active 
roles, they were there to support the hero.  At times, I felt that 
they were primarily out there establishing their shipping 
credentials to Harry. 

OTOH, McGonagall, who in the earlier books has looked rather wet 
beside Dumbledore (go on, say the name!; stop that Dementor!; stay 
in the hospital wing to see Sirius!), was shown to have real 
gumption.

I think the jury's still out on some of the others, notably Molly 
and Tonks.  I see Molly taking refuge in cleaning etc: her 
dedication shows she has something else in her to suppress, IMO.

I really liked Luna, though I have a soft spot for dreamy characters 
(of either gender) who suddenly come out with penetrating insights 
or crack into action when the plot demands it (I know she didn't do 
much of that, but that's presumably where her character is going).  
Me and a million Mary Sues, no doubt.

However, I was slightly disappointed in Bellatrix Lestrange.  Yes, I 
understand that 14 years in Az does you a lot of no good, but she 
was just a bit too insane for my taste.  I preferred her in the 
Pensieve, when she was clearly sane - just very focused.  She had 
lost the charisma that had one imagining half her Pensieve audience 
were about to realise they had got Voldemort all wrong.  I had hoped 
for a character who would make death-eaterism attractive, exciting, 
and sexy.

> In particular, I think she does an excellent job of balancing one 
character's actions against contrasting actions of other characters.

Yes, lots to chew on in a second read, I reckon.

  Some observations:
> 
> Harry -- IMO, it was critical to the story arc for Harry to fail 
in a significant way.  

Yup.
 
> Hermione -- Hermione was *way* too successful in OOP.

Yes, I found her ability to offer unerring character insights into 
Cho particularly odd.

> The only suggestion of failure here is in her campaign to free the 
house-elves.  It failed, but she's still unaware of that fact.

Yes, the fact that she takes no steps to find out if her campaign is 
working is particularly interesting.  If nothing else, it shows she 
is just as capable of displacement activity as Molly.

> I believe she must be being set up to fail spectacularly in the 
next book.  We've seen all the other main student characters fail 
now, and I think her turn is coming.

I think so too.

> Ron -- I think JKR was quite effective here by awarding him 
responsibilities but letting us readers know that he had not earned 
either one.

I may have missed something on my one read, but were we told that 
Ron had not earned his prefect responsibilities?  Yes, Dumbledore 
thought Harry was at least as well fitted for the job, but not that 
Ron wasn't.  It's a weakness of the house system that if there are 
two good candidates in one house, and Draco in another, you can't 
select the better candidates.

I think there was also a message in the Quidditch part about giving 
people responsibilities that they can grow into.

>  The curse of the giggles?  What an embarrassment; it made the 
slug-belching look cute. 

Now that was fine by me.

> Neville --  I agree with the many others who found the most 
poignant scene in the book to be the one with the wrapper.  For me, 
though, what made the scene was the juxtaposition of Gran's rather 
babyish treatment of her daughter-in-law and Neville's 
natural "Thanks, mum." 

Yes, I picked that up, too.  In fact, Neville's keeping the wrapper 
can be read in two ways.  The first is that Neville is so 
emotionally overwrought by his mother's state that he can't bear to 
let go of the wrapper, because it's sort of all he's got left to 
cling on to of her.  The second (which I prefer), is that he shows 
respect for her humanity by accepting what she gives him in a 
serious spirit.  He is affirming, despite his gran, that her actions 
count, because they are her actions and she is still his mother.  
This is a much more mature reaction, IMO.

David