Slytherins come back WAS: Re: My Most Annoying Character/Now Rowling's control

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 180471

> >>Mike:
> <snip>
> By the time we got to DH, I wasn't that scared of Voldemort, for 
> Harry.
> <snip>
> Yes, Slytherin had naturally replaced the mostly absent Voldemort   
> as the main antagonist for Harry. How could they not? Then all of a 
> sudden, in DH, Slytherin doesn't matter any more. We're back to 
> worrying about Voldemort and his Horcruxes. It doesn't flow, not 
> after we'd been treated to so much Snape, Draco and even Narcissa   
> and Bellatrix. Sure, they're all tied to LV, but their characters   
> were fleshed out so much more, in the here and now, than his was.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I think it was Sydney who described Voldemort as more a force of 
nature or a monster than an actual antagonist for Harry.  He's not a 
character we were supposed to look at for any kind of depth or nuance 
(our peep into his childhood made that quite clear).  So I assumed 
that the deep stuff would come from Harry's interaction with the 
actual antagonists of his story: Slytherin.

Hmm, I'm not sure I can make this make sense (it's very clear in my 
head, I assure you *g*) but I saw Voldemort as this great task that 
the solving of would cause Harry to grow.  So Voldemort didn't need 
to be all that interesting, but the way to defeat him should have 
been.  That's where I was expecting Harry to have to learn some life 
lessons, etc.  Instead, the defeat of Voldemort *was* the story.  
Which, you know, yawn.  (Especially since JKR just does not write a 
good battle scene.)
 
> >>Betsy Hp:
> > I honestly think that this sidelining of all things Slytherin was
> > a massive story-telling mistake on JKR's part.  She'd put too much
> > into making them the big antagonist for Harry to suddenly say they
> > didn't matter.  Which I think is made apparent by all these
> > attempts to ret-con them back into a place of importance. <snip>

> >>Mike:
> I agree with you Betsy, again. I expected so much more out of or 
> directed towards Snape and Draco. The reduction of Snape to a 
> footnote and what felt like the dropping of Draco's story          
> altogether was my major disappointment in DH.
> <snip>
> I also had no delusions that Slytherin was anything other than the 
> bad guy house, so I wasn't looking for any redemption. (I don't    
> mean anyone here was delusional, heh, I mean I was certain in my   
> mind what JKR was doing with Slytherin.) But that didn't mean I    
> expected, as Betsy put it, "all things Slytherin" to fall off the   
> table in favor of following Harry's story.

Betsy Hp:
I'm thrilled with the amount of agreement we have going on, Mike!  
Also, I'm curious: what did you want to see with Slytherin?  
Obviously, I was hoping for a redemptive arc, but what were you 
looking for?  A bigger show down?  (Honestly, I think I'd have 
preferred that to the whimper Slytherin ended with.)

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > Heh.  In some ways, I think the subject line best reflects my 
> > thoughts as I read DH:  "Slytherin!  Come back!" <bg>

> >>Mike:
> My sentiments would be more along the lines of: Slytherin, go      
> away!, as in, I never liked you guys and I still don't. 
> But she shouldn't have built up their story for six books if she   
> was going to just kick them off the Hogwarts Express before it     
> pulled into Hogsmeade Station.

Betsy Hp:
Hear, hear! :D