Deathly Hallows Reaction - Could do Better, Sorry

[Goddlefrood]

No: HPFGUIDX 172252

Where to begin? I disliked the book. I felt let down
after several years of, admittedly, rather high
expectations for the final installment. It had a
satisfactory outcome, but no more than that. The way
that outcome was reached was somewhat predictable
after the first two chapters of the novel.

The insanely high expectations of some fans would be
practically impossible to have met. One thing that I
would say regarding Snape is that he was certainly
noble in the way he turned out. I had actually always
quite liked him and was not too surprised that his
death went largely unheralded. His characterisation,
as many of us agree, was supremely well done, there is
a little more below on him.

Prior to book 7 and some time between books 5 and 6 I
had begun to write up a few little theories and
comments here and there around what is now a vast and
multiplying Harry Potter fandom. While they were
largely done for amusement's sake and at times for
information, I actually got a few things correct or
near enough. It seems the minutiae were ultimately of
some import, as I had commented they would be. There
was a dragon at Gringotts bank for instance, Dittany
played a role, not quite in the way I had predicted it
would but quite close, Stan Shunpike, depite we
readers being led to believe that he was an innocent
patsy in book 6, was a Death Eater, notwithstanding
Harry's rationalisation of the blank look on his face
when Harry saw him, and a few other little bits and
pieces.

I also got several things spectacularly wrong, and I'm
sure we all did. The worst of these was my thought
that Grindelwald would not play a part, oops.

The thing is, I had written that there would be
something that was basically the opposite of a Horcrux
and indeed there was. The mechanics of that were
different from how I'd seen it, but nevertheless it
was there and many people had scoffed at the very
idea.

Dumbledore's back story I did like, it made a great
deal of sense. He could quite easily have mentioned
that Horcruxes are not too difficult to destroy, as
they ultimately proved. That information seemed to me
to have been withheld for no especially good reason
before its revelation from the book Hermione had
summoned.

My interpretation of the Slytherin business is that
while they may be a little vilified still that
vilification os far less at the end than it had been
at the beginning of the series.

Although it wasn't spelled out as such, that was
Horace Slughorn who returned to the fray with some
others in tow. Does that not suggest to you that
Slytherins and the other three houses can eventually
reside in harmony? My view is that message is quite
clear and the road to healing is well on its way.
Years and years of mistrust do not diappear overnight.
Just think of the situation in Europe post World War
II to get the idea. There is till today, even over 60
years after that terrible war ended , continued
mistrust, a mistrust between nations that has lessened
over time while never entirely disappearing.

Molly's defeat of Bellatrix was a stand out moment for
me. It's one of those moments in the series that makes
me appreciate that there's always good and bad parts,
bits we each like and bits we each hate.

*Points of Dissatisfaction*

Harry used the Imperius Curse twice and succeeded in
using the Cruciatus Curse. Why? As there is an
opposite to a Horcrux, could there not have been an
opposite spell for these two without actually having
Harry break the law?

When one is fighting fire then it is acceptable to use
fire would be one rationalisation to this, but I'm
sorry it does not meet the case for me. Harry is
supposed to be the shining beacon for the wizarding
world, he should not have stooped to the level of
those whom he opposed.

There was no need at all for Lupin or Tonks to die.
That their son's story is in some way supposed to
mirror Harry's is taken by me as the message we are to
glean from their deaths. It wasn't necessary, it was
rather gratuitous. I suspect we may find out soon that
the werewolf and the metamorphmagus were the two
characters who were not originally slated to die. With
the way Snape nauseatingly turned out to have never
got a life, I find it unlikely that he was originally
intended to survive. The character who was meant to
die but received a reprieve may well have been Hagrid.
I hadn't ever expected him to die and never gave much
credence to what I call the alchemy death theories. I
wrote an alchemy based theory here at the group a
while ago that actually turned out much nearer to
being what happened and what can be extrapolated to
have happened post Tom Riddle's defeat and pre the
platform 9 3/4 epilogue than the usual death based
ones. In that regard I must extend thanks to
Montavilla47 for prompting me to finally put it out
there.

For what it's worth it was not because I liked Lupin
or Tonks especially that I thought their deaths were a
little gratutious but rather for the sake of their
child. The world of the perpetual orphans about sums
it up. On that level, and as a parent myself, I found
it rather depressing. 

All the characters turned out very much as could have
been expected from a surface reading of the first six
books, and yes, that includes Severus Snape. The only
reason I was reluctant to cast Snape in the role of
loving Lily was that it made me feel sick to
contemplate it. It was his love for Lily that saved
Harry as far as I am concerned. Voldemort had agreed
to spare Lily and by not doing so he effectively
achieved his own first downfall. Contracts in the
wizarding world appear to do that to you, much as they
would come back to bite you in the real world if you
don't stick to them.

Another thing about which a reaction would be welcomed
was the ludicrousness of the whole sword in the lake
moment. Why not just leave it in an easily accessible
position?

Dissatisfied really doesn't fit the bill after the
length of the wait and here I was believing that
satisfaction would be guaranteed. A forlorn hope as it
turned out, IMO.

There was no evil Lupin, no evil McGonagall, no
further traitors in either the Order or amongst the
Death Eaters. This was all to be expected. Harry had a
task to fulfil and he did so, there was no need to
make it harder than it already was, and it was
certainly hard.

Certain other things that we could plausibly have
expected to get some resolution of, and which had been
anticipated by many from various interview snippets of
JKR, were left unresolved. That she may patch this up
in future interviews is likely. Where, for instance,
was the person who displayed magical tendencies later
in life? What did the Potters do for a living? Why did
Dumbledore not tell Harry how a Horcrux could be
destoyed? This one's easy enough to give an
explanation for, Dumbledore was expecting Harry to use
the Deathly Hallows. Just as well Hermione was on the
ball and summoned Dumbledore's books. Maybe he thought
she would do so. There are others too, however I do
not propose to list them, they may get resolved
eventually, as I say.

My biggest complaint I save until last: -

To quote Ronald Weasley in an earlier work by JKR:
"How thick can you get?". How thick indeed. Lord
Voldemort has been shown to be rather less intelligent
than an amoeba. He never realised that Harry was
seeing what he did. Nary a thought was given to the
possibility that he should not under any circumstances
dwell on his Horcruxes, and yet he did, allowing Harry
to know where they were. Far too convenient a plot
device and eminently unsatisfactory to this reader.
Why, when he had apparently invested some time in
blocking the link between himself and Mr. Potter was
that link reopened? Couldn't Ms. Rowling have allowed
the trio to figure out the locations of the Horcruxes
in another way, thus cutting down on the listlessness
of their otherwise aimless search?

Lord Voldemort spent the greater part of the novel
chasing around after the Elder Wand. All well and good
but had he not thought to check his Horcruxes after he
knew full well that the Diary one had been destroyed?
The way that was explained was highly unsatisfactory
and again went to show that Voldemort was singularly
lacking in common sense. His further idiocy, that we
are to just swallow, and the one that really got me,
was the Diadem hidden in the Room of Requirement. How
could Voldemort possibly honestly believe that a room
chock full of the detritus of many many years had only
ever been discovered by him? Just how did he imagine
all the other junk got there, and did he never stop to
think that others had preceded him in finding the room
with the strong probability that future students would
also not find it? That is unbelievable and even with
the suspension of disbelief that goes with this kind
of novel I feel not insulted but aggrieved that the
readership is asked to simply accept Voldemort's
arrogance as the explanation.

*Overall*

In many ways my reaction to the end of the series was
the same as it has been to all except one other well
known series. It ended I thought with a whimper rather
than with a bang and I doubt if I'm in that small a
minority in this opinion.

Having never in my life, with one exception, read any
Harry Potter fan fiction now is not the time to start.
I never read any James Bond books not by Ian Fleming,
I wouldn't contemplate reading anything else not by
Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes. I did read
The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin and
enjoyed it. He was a fantastic writer in his own right
so I made that one exception. Good luck to you if you
are either a fan fiction writer or reader.

My involvement with the fandom may continue up to a
point, I do have my children to read the stories to in
due course. They will, no doubt, enjoy them and I will
also, up to a point, enjoy reading to them. 

We all invested a good deal of time in the story, but
finally I must say that while I was disappointed I can
see that the story satisfies. I am satisified because
it is all over. Even though it did not meet the
expectations I personally held it did gratify, if that
makes any sense to you.

Goddlefrood, going back behind the scenes where he
belongs ;-)



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