OoP first impressions / what will happen next? (spoiler)

[sueeeyqbong]

No: HPFGUIDX 62054

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.--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "grlndgz" <grlndgz at e...> wrote:
> 
> Was anyone else as disappointed as I am in the big shoot-out at the 
OK Corral 
> ending?  I felt like I was reading a description of something that 
would look really 
> flashy on a movie screen, but was in fact just one more fairly 
uninspired ending to 
> your standard B-movie summer action flick.  "Oh, no!!!!  They're 
hopelessly 
> outnumbered and outgunned.  Oh look - more good guys, just in the 
nick of time." 
> I've come to expect better.  This seemed to just run on and on for 
no real purpose.
> 

I reply (this is my first post though I've been a lurker for a long 
time, so be gentle) :

Yes, I felt that about the big climax too. And also, I didn't think 
that the fight was as well written as I'd expected...somehow I kept 
losing track of who was doing what and exactly what was going 
on...especially the confusion about whether or not Sirius was 
actually dead, and what killed him - the wand curse or the falling 
through the veil. All a bit confused.

 I really really enjoyed reading the book, but am left feeling a bit 
empty and I'm not sure if that's because it's an anticlimax after all 
the anticipation or because I was so sad for Sirius spending his last 
year on earth in such a sad and tormented way, or because of any 
flaws in the writing itself. Here are my initial thoughts...halfway 
through the second (more leisurely) rereading.

* There didn't seem to be as dominant a plot as in the last books - 
both in terms of the plot of OoP and the plot of the series as a 
whole. I didn't feel the building tension of an unfolding plot as in 
the previous books and there was no big denouement at the end as I 
expected - no 'I was the bad guy all along and you trusted me', 
no 'oh - so THAT's why so-and-so was doing that. The main story at 
Hogwarts was the sinister intervening of the Ministry in the running 
of Hogwarts (Umbridge) and the reaction of the students to it 
(forming of the DA), and those two plotlines were unfolded with a 
series of small quite insignificant events which didn't give the 
story a strong backbone (unlike, for example, the three contests of 
the Triwizard Tournament in GoF). I felt as though the purpose of 
this book was more to set the scene  for the last two books of the 
series and to set in stone the darker adult atmosphere which was 
introduced in GoF. 

* Sirius dying - while I didn't think the death scene that well 
written, I was devastated by the impact of his death, and the fact 
that his last year was so miserable, lonely and tormented. I think 
that that will have an enormous impact on Harry later on, and that 
his anger at Dumbledore, for keeping both Harry and Sirius out of the 
loop, and thereby 'causing' Sirius' death, will only grow in books 6 
and 7. The fact that Sirius was so miserable got to me more than the 
death itself - I felt that he'd been betrayed by those around him, 
and so was Harry. Hard to see how to get anything positive out of 
this scenario in later books. I don't think that that's the end of 
Sirius though - we're bound to encounter him later on - I think as 
flashbacks to Sirius' youth - and I think that there's a lot more of 
his story to be heard which will shed light on the overall plot. Eg 
the circumstances of his leaving home, things which happened when he 
strted to live at James' house, his role when Harry was born and he 
was nearly chosen to be the Potters' secret keeper.

* The flashback scene to James Potter's bullying of Snape was 
unnerving. I think that in the later books there will be some 
defining event which will be related to the overall series plot, and 
which will make James realise how horrible he's been. Maybe this will 
be how Lily learns to like / love him? And maybe that's how James 
ends up being head boy in year 7 when he wasn't thought suitable to 
be a prefect in year 5.

*Why no Lily Potter story? I thought we were going to learn something 
big about her in book 5 , but all we learned was that at first she 
didn't like James - not really a big thing to learn about her really. 
I might have got the wrong end of the stick but I thought that JKR 
said we'd learn something significant about her in book 5
.
* There were lots of hints about how badly the wizarding world has 
treated the rest of the 'magical brethren', wasn't there? Eg the 
anger of the centaurs towards wizards, the treatment of house elves 
and how the rights of goblins have been restricted. And all 
emphasised by the brethren fountain in the entrance of the Ministry 
which was mentioned twice at the beginning (H entering and leaving 
the ministry) and several times at the end) I reckon this will be a 
big theme later on, when the wizrding world try to recruit these 
creatures to their cause and find a lot of hostility. Perhaps this 
points to a schism within the house-elf community, with some house 
elves rebelling against their masters and some remaining faithful?

* The prophecy was interesting, but a bit of an anticlimax to me - at 
least, not as strong a plan as you'd expect Voldemort to have. I was 
left thinking 'was that it?'. I wonder if Harry's not 
necessarily 'the one' though, and it might be Neville after all - 
just because Harry was marked by Voldemort doesn't mean that Neville 
wasn't also - perhaps when his parents were attacked by the 
Lestranges? I know this is when Voldemort was no longer around, but 
you never know...if Neville's memory was modified afterwards, this 
would explain why he's been so vague up to now. I think it's careless 
of Dumbledore to assume Harry's definitely the one just because of 
his scar - does anyone else agree?

* Speaking of which - what a let down Dumbledore's been to Harry, and 
what a complete change from D's absolute control and confidence of 
the previous books. I just can't reconcile the two Dumbledores at all 
and am a bit mystified by this. I know it's meant to signal the end 
of childhood and the loss of trust and innocence that this entails, 
but something feels wrong somehow. These ARE still meant to be 
children's books, after all, and there's only so much a child can 
take.

Well, if I flicked through the books I know I could find a lot more 
things to say, but that's got a lot off my chest and I feel a lot 
better now. Please let me know if you've thought these things too.