Not Surprised that People are Disappointed

[michaelkgidlow]

No: HPFGUIDX 65422

I'm sure many of you have noticed that not a few people were 
disappointed in OoP. Personally, I liked it, though it was quite 
different from the other books. I have offered some reasons listed 
below as to why people were disappointed in the book:

1. The massive hype surrounding it. Hardly any book, movie, album, 
etc. ever lives up to the hype surrounding it, or at least in my 
experience it hasn't. I remember all the hype surrounding "Star Wars: 
The Phantom Menace" and how excited people were before it came out. 
But a lot of people (except for the die-hard fans) were disappointed. 
The movie just didn't live up to its predecessors or to the hype. I 
think something similar happened here. The three years of waiting had 
people in a frenzy about OoP and they were expecting it to blow away 
all the other books. 

2. Introduction of new characters and the absence of the old. Anyone 
who is a fan of any series knows that the series is headed for 
trouble when old characters start to leave and new characters take 
their place. I'm sorry to say, but the Gryffindor Quidditch team will 
never be the same without Oliver Wood. He was one of my favorite 
characters and I was sad to see him go after PoA. I counted at least 
20 new characters in this book. Tonks and Umbridge were very well 
developed, but many of the other characters were like cardboard cut 
outs. Hagrid had a smaller part, and Malfoy was hardly in it. And now 
that Fred and George are gone, I'm interested to see who will take 
their place. 

3. Abensence of popular plot ingredients. I know I'm not the only one 
who has noticed that Quidditch is slowly disappearing from the books. 
Also, did anyone notice that this is the first book that didn't 
really have a major plot twist at the end? Maybe it was just me, but 
I found the book to be somewhat predictable. The thing I really liked 
about books 1-4 was that the culpret always turned out to be the 
person you leasted suspected. I mean PoA probably had the biggest 
plot twist at the end. Who would have guessed that Ron's rat would 
turn out to be the real villian and that Sirius Black was innocent 
all along? GoF comes in second. We thought Moody was trying to 
protect Harry when all along he was in league with Voldemort. OoP 
didn't have a major twist like that. That was one thing I was very 
disappointed in. 

Well, those are the main ones I noticed. I think Rowling, in her 
quest to make each book unique and fresh, is getting rid of the very 
things that has made the series popular. This book didn't have near 
the mystery that the other books have had, and the stories are 
starting to become predictable. Each year Voldemort plots to kill 
Harry, and in the end there is a big show down between Harry and 
Voldemort (or one of his servants) and Harry always gets away and 
ends up in Dumbledore's office for moral lessons and info about his 
past. Don't get me wrong, I love the books, but they are starting to 
head in the direction that all series head. I'm just glad that 
Rowling will stop with book 7.

Michael