Deathly Hallows: My Review (SPOILERS!)

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 172310

First Ali:
In the end, I feel like JKR wanted me to believe that "Snape turned 
good for the love of a woman," but what I felt was that this man 
decide to *switch sides* for his own purposes.  He didn't turn good; 
he bargained with Voldemort to save Lily first.  Had it worked out 
that Lily was saved, I doubt that Snape would've worked for 
Dumbledore.  Working for good didn't make him any less evil.  Pah.  
(Yes, start sending the flames my way.  I accept that my view is 
entirely unpopular.)


Then Magpie:
> No flames from me. If you want support, that's what I got out of it 
> too. A very small redemption, one that leaves me looking back on 
> Snape's behavior throughout the books and finding him a lot less of 
> a character than I thought he was. And I thought Snape *was* good. 
I 
> never doubted for a second he was DDM. I had argued with Dana that 
> being a double agent doesn't mean you can't also have had a true 
> epiphany and become a different person. I still believe that's 
> possible, but her description of Snape was the correct one.
> 
> And I must add I find Harry's naming his son after this guy frankly 
> bizarre. It's strange enough naming him after Dumbledore given the 
> weirdness there. But naming your kid after the guy who treated you 
> badly all your life because he hated you and got your parents 
killed 
> with less than total regret, because it turned out he protected 
your 
> life as part of his obsessive love of your mother the whole time? 
> Yeah, that's...creepy. 

Now va32h (me):

Agree with you both, it is the thing that made me not just 
disappointed but ANGRY at the book. This was our big redemption? 
Snape the Stalker? Snape who would have cheerfully watched the 
Longbottoms be slaughtered, because after all, he never had the hots 
for Alice? No nonsense about atonement or remorse, no realization 
that it is morally wrong to kill people, Snape is just mad at 
Voldemort for killing the wrong person. 

There were no redeemed villians in this story - none! The Malfoys 
acted for themselves, sure Narcissa lied to Voldemort - because she 
wanted to save her son, not because she realized "hey this Death 
Eater thing is sadistic and wrong." No, more like "he this Death 
Eater thing isn't working out so well for us, personally."

Regulus Black is the closest we get to a Death Eater with a change of 
heart, and even then we have to fill in a lot of the blanks 
ourselves. Going just on the text, Regulus is another willing Death 
Eater who is just terribly sentimental about his elf. 

So in the end, the good guys are really, really good, and the bad 
guys are really, really bad. And why did we need 7 books for this 
revelation? 

I will say that I have more or less calmed down, and am able to find 
redeemable qualities in the book (even if there are none for many of 
the characters). 

va32h