OOP: THEME, New Characters, Harry/Snape

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No: HPFGUIDX 61566

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "professor_monkshood" 
<professor_monkshood at y...> wrote:
> Repost from the OTChatter
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> Talk about red herrings we've been given from book 1 to 4, I think 
> this has to be the biggest of them all. I kept thinking back of 
> Dumbledore's remark in PS/SS that Snape and James were a bit like 
> Harry and Draco. We now know that this was a complete 
> misdirection. Yes, they were a bit like that but it was James who 
> was like Draco. Not only the public humiliation but that git don't 
> even duel fairly -- unexpected attack, one against two, what sort 
of 
> fight is that!

Actually, I would sooner think that it was more the constant sniping 
back and forth, the fact that they both had talent but couldn't STAND 
each other, that sort of thing. I find it highly, highly improbable 
that Snape wouldn't've initiated against James from time to time.


> 
> New characters
> Not many makes much of an impression.
> 1. Tonks was a total odd character. Don't exactly know what she's 
> doing in the book. The same goes for most of the people in the 
> Order.

Tonks is in the book mainly to show off her shapeshifting, IMO. Also, 
this is their "career planning" year, so we need to see some Aurors. 
Or something. ;)

> 
> A slight whinge: there has been no complex, central characters 
> introduced since book 3. Although JKR has enough on her hand as it 
> is, can't we have someone who is more complex, who would last more 
> than one book? Or cut down on the number of newbies?

I'd like to cut down the number of newbies. I'm pretty sure we'll see 
Firenze and possibly Grubbly-Plank in larger roles coming up.

> None of the predicted big romance happened. The H/Her and the R/Her 
> and the D/G and H/G etc. can start bickering once more. Honestly, I 
> don't expect anything more; sticking with the same pairing for the 
> next two books would be quite boring.

Well, this is also fairly normal adolescent behavior. I don't really 
remember any of my classmates having the same romantic pairings all 
the way through school, and I think that romance is a minor theme in 
the Potterverse.

> Speaking of which ... Missing Person(s) Notice
> Where is Wormtail? Has he been fed to the snakes? Totally 
> disappeared from view. JKR hasn't forgotten him, has she?

No. But we didn't get to see much of what was going on in Voldemort's 
camp in this book anyway.