Did the Deathly Hallows ruin DH? (Was: Epilogue (was Re: Ron and Parseltongue)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183451

CJ wrote:
> > I will admit to being incorrect about what "had to happen" in the
last book. But when the major plot line of HBP consists of Dumbledore
tracking down horcruxes, all but getting himself killed in the
process; when the destruction of the horcruxes is absolutely essential
to defeating Voldemort; and when DD specifically commits that task to
Harry before dying, I think I can be forgiven for thinking that's what
we were going to get in book seven. Instead, after spending an *entire
book* setting up the horcrux plot line, she shunts it aside for a new
plot line that ultimately goes nowhere. <snip>

Shelley responded:
> CJ, I'm in agreement with you there.  The DH are something new, like
she set up that pattern that she had to have a new mystery to solve
each book, and so she had to invent one for this last book, but I
seriously think that if she had just broke that model, and merely
dealt with resolving all the Horcruxes, that no one would have noticed
anything "missing" from the last book. Instead, we might have gotten a
full resolution on all the plot elements that we did love- like
finding out more about Snape so that his death didn't seem like such a
waste of print, or letting us know what else was going on in the
Wizarding world during those long camping sessions. I really thought
the last book would be about the Horcruxes, too, and it's almost like
they are resolved in afterthought or by mistake- a bit too 
disappointing compared to the story I hoped I would be getting.

Carol adds:

I don't think any reader could possibly get exactly what he or she
wants from the final book of any series. All of us had expectations
and hopes, and inevitably some of those expectations were unfulfilled
and some of those hopes dashed.

That aside, I, too, wish that she'd never brought in the Deathly
Hallows, but she needed the Hallows to give Dumbledore a reason for
putting on the ring and to sidetrack Voldemort from his confrontation
with Harry for the length of the book. She *may* have thought the
Hallows plot necessary for other reasons (guaranteeing Harry's
survival and giving Voldemort a reason, however feeble, for killing
Snape--the Elder Wand was working just fine, d**n it!). Certainly, it
enabled her to have the shades of Harry's loved ones walk with him to
what appeared to be certain death. Harry is also faced with the
crucial choice of Hallows or Horcruxes, and, of course, makes the
"right" choice, unfortunately dooming Snape in the process (though he
doesn't know it).

Whether those reasons, or others that I haven't thought of, justify
the DH plot in a book that we expected to be about the Horcrux search,
I don't know. I do think that the Horcrux search alone could not have
filled a whole book, and JKR would have had to deviate from her chosen
point of view more than she wanted to in order to provide additional
information. The isolation of the main characters, who for the first
time in the series are not at Hogwarts, also presents problems. It's
very difficult for the characters, and consequently for the readers,
to know what's happening to other characters outside the Trio. (The
overheard conversation of Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas, Griphook, Gornuk(?)
and the other Wizard whose name momentarily escapes me was an
ingenious device for allowing them to hear what was going on in the
world, especially at Hogwarts, and for JKR to drop hints entirely
missed by the characters that Snape was on the good side. Ron's
departure serves a similar function since he provides news of the
outside world when he returns. Other than that we have one wireless
broadcast and Phineas Nigellus's snidely biased reports and Harry's
scar link (the last wholly unhelpful with regard to events at Hogwarts).

IOW, Harry is not where he needs to be for readers (or HRH) to learn
what we wish to learn. True, JKR wants to keep Snape's motives secret
until almost the end of the book, but Harry at Hogwarts could have
found a way, under Headmaster Snape's very nose, to find the Ravenclaw
Horcrux. The locket could have been found over summer break and the
Godric's Hollow fiasco, if it needed to occur at all (the part about
LV finding the photograph of the merry-faced thief could have been
left out) could have occurred as it did over Christmas break and the
kidnapping by Snatchers (which resulted in the discovery of the cup
Horcrux's location) could have occurred as it did over Easter break.
That leaves Nagini, who could only be killed in the final battle
(having Harry kill her earlier would spoil the plot), which could
occur at the end of the school year, after HRH have finished school
and taken their exams.

It wouldn't be a great school year, but at least the reader would have
contact with the characters we care about. A way could have been found
to have Snape give Harry his message (a visit to the Pensieve,
escorted by a McGonagall who knows where Snape's loyalties lie)
without Snape's dying (though I must admit that last bit of magic
performed while Snape was bleeding to death was spectacular).

I disagree that Snape's death was "a waste of space"; Harry's
realization, too late, that Snape was on his side (and was a "lost
boy" like himself, similarly used by Dumbledore) is both ironic and
touching (though, of course, I'd rather that Snape hadn't died at all).

What I'm trying to say is that, if the book is fatally flawed, part of
the problem is that it takes place away from Hogwarts, isolating the
Trio from events at Hogwarts and in the WW at large, condemning Harry
to long periods of inactivity and brooding worthy of Hamlet, and
necessitating the introduction of some other plot element to fill up
space, keep LV out of Britain for the requisite time, and bring about
Snape's death, in however convoluted and unbelievable a fashion.

Carol, who found DH a wild ride that violently wrenched her emotions
all over the spectrum but unsatisfying intellectually because of
inconsistencies, improbabilities, and unanswered questions (then
again, I don't always like JKR's answers!)