Why down on all the characters?

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 179311

Jeanette:
>   It just might be me but since the release of DH there seems to be a 
> very negative feel to a lot of the posts.  People are trashing JKR as a 
> writer, people are trashing the various once-loved characters. 
> 
<snip>
>   Is it because we invested a lot of time and emotion on the story and 
> feel cheated either that it is over or that it didn't end in the way we 
> wanted?


Montavilla47:
I think that's part of it.  I also think that JKR did so many thing right
that it's really disappointing when she (IMO) went off the rails.

I wasn't so much disappointed in what happened in the story--I got
the big things I wanted.  Snape was good--something I spent two
years arguing about--and I actually prefer his death scene to the
one many predicted (in which Snape throws himself in front of an
AK to save Harry).

I was reconciled to the idea of Snape being in love with Lily, so that
didn't bug me (although Lily did).  I was shocked to find James
and Sirius coming off worse after DH than before it, but I'm not 
heavily invested in either character, so that didn't bother me.  I was
happy to see Dumbledore have a troubled past--it made sense to me
that he would.  I was shocked at how contemptuous he was towards
Snape--since he pretends to Harry to feel the opposite way--or 
perhaps by HBP he had softened towards Snape.

And I loved what happened with Neville.

So, what didn't I like?  I didn't like how inconsequential the Malfoys 
were, given the build-up we'd had.  I didn't like how absurdly 
inconsequential the life debt from Peter Pettigrew was, given how
much Harry's mercy towards him cost.  I didn't like how everyone
in the Wizarding World (with the exception of Neville) sat on their
butts for nine months and allowed Voldemort to take over without
any effective resistance.  I didn't like that Harry basically sat on 
his butt for months without even sending  a word of encouragement
to the people who believed in him.

I didn't like the way every climax to every story arc got pushed 
back into the last five chapters--so that, instead of Percy's 
return to his family being touching, it was simply annoying.  
Likewise, the "kiss" between Hermione and Ron.  I'd rather that 
it had not happened at all.  I didn't like Harry's quip about Crucio
and Molly's callout to Bellatrix, because they sounded like bad
lines from action movies.  

I didn't like that--despite having assured us that not *all* 
Slytherins were Death Eaters or the children of Death Eaters--
*all*the Slytherins deserted the school, thus proving themselves 
*all* cowards and traitors.  

I didn't like the absence of Snape's portrait in the Headmaster's 
office.  That struck me as petty.  

Montavilla47