Readers' expectations and change of them along the ride.

[kiricat4001]

No: HPFGUIDX 176905

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:

<snip>
> I decided that I am quite Okay with doing so. I mean it was easy 
> enough in a sense that I always adored Harry and liked Trio as a 
> whole, it was just sad to abandon my desire to see adults doing 
> something more than they did.
> 

Marianne:

While I, too, realized that the adults were really props to the 
Trio, I kept hoping to see more back-story on the page.  I'm still 
left with unanswered questions about the Prank, what turned Sirius's 
attitude against his family background at such a young age, was 
Peter's treachery a slow slide, or did he jump in with both feet, 
what activities did DE Snape participate in, etc.  All of this is 
incidental to the story line, and fanfic writers the world over have 
more leeway to develop their stories, but, still, it lessens my 
overall enjoyment of the whole series. My own issue, since obviously 
the books are "Harry Potter and..." and not "The MWPP Era and..."

I guess the adults and all of their particular failings and quirks 
were more interesting to me than Harry and Co.

dumbledore11214: 
> My question, if of course anybody desires to answer would be - did 
> you change your attitudes and expectations about the series while 
> you were reading them.
>.

Marianne:

My expectations were that I would be ultimately somewhat unsatisfied 
because I felt that I was not going to like the end result of some 
of the themes of the books. 

And, look, I was right.  I don't mean that I hated the last few 
books of the series.  I just have some issues with what I felt were 
dissonances in JKR's writing.  Like, the Unforgivables.  I don't 
have a problem with the good guys using them in times of war, but, 
I'd have like to have seen at least a little reflection on how a 
line has been crossed in using these things. In GoF, Sirius gives us 
a picture of how dangerous and uncertain the times were and how, 
when the Aurors were granted powers to use these curses, Mad-Eye 
Moody, Auror Extraordinare, tried not to use them. I read that as 
him trying to keep the moral high ground, which meant he thought 
about why these were called Unforgivable and were not something to 
be used as a common spell. 

But, at the end, this is tossed out the window.  Harry seems to have 
no compunction in using Unforgivables, and doesn't reflect on this 
at all.  So, as the author herself has set up the moral strictures 
against using these Curses, I expected her to give me some sort of 
reasoning by her characters as to how they've decided that using 
them is okay. But, no, that's all gone by the wayside.

I have issues with Hermione doing some of the things she has done, 
even though she may have done them with all good intentions - 
leading Umbrigde to the centaurs, the sneak curse, modifying her 
parents' memories, etc.  She never seems to reflect on her actions. 
Nor does JKR seem to expect her to. Why? I guess because she's 
Hermione. 

I also felt that the whole business of House unity would actually go 
somewhere.  But, no, it seems that Slytherins are still viewed with 
distrust and there don't seem to be a high percentage of them that 
JKR has viewed positively. 

I sometimes feel that the final few books of the series sort of took 
over from their author and careened along trying to fit in all of 
the various magical aspects of things, while keeping the secrets 
intact for the final big reveal(s) in DH. The result was that some 
character development and continuity of some of the themes were 
sacrificed.

Marianne