OOP: First-read Reactions (way too long)

[Phyllis]

Debbie (elfundeb) wrote:
 
> I found myself initially disappointed with OOP.  Oddly, one of my 
> sources of dissatisfaction was the number of things I'd predicted 
> correctly, which took away any sense of excitement at the unfolding 
> of events.  

Oh, I agree completely.  I read the first four books before I joined 
HPfGU and started analyzing and theorizing, and I was wondering 
whether I inadvertently denied myself the pleasure of discovery in 
OoP by working a lot of the plot points out ahead of time.  Oh, 
well...

Debbie:

> I feel comfortable, though, that this ending will not be repeated; 
> the parallels between the ending of each book and the 
> correspondingly numbered obstacle to the philosopher's stone seemed 
> more apparent than ever this time around.  

Great idea - I've never made that connection before!

Debbie:
 
> I didn't find the darkness of OOP disturbing.  In fact, I thought 
> GoF was a darker book in many ways.  

Once again, I completely agree, and am at a loss to explain why OoP 
is being referred to so often in the media as a darker book.  IMO, 
what made GoF a darker book was the extent of our exposure to 
Voldemort, the lengths he went to do obtain Harry's blood for his 
recorporation potion and how close to death Harry was in the 
graveyard.  Voldemort only makes a brief appearance at the end of OoP 
and Harry is hit with the AK out of nowhere - there was not as much 
Harry-Voldemort lead-up like there was in GoF to get our hearts 
racing.

Debbie:

> However, I have to ask, why does JKR go so far out of her way to 
> make him [Ron] look unappealing?  

Not to mention the spattergroit - how insulting was that???

Debbie:

> Fudge and Umbridge -- I have to consider them together, because my 
> final OOP prediction was for Fudge to turn out to be evil in almost 
> exactly the way that Umbridge turned out to be.  <snip> I think he 
> [Fudge] was fully aware all along that Voldemort was back, and I 
> think that perhaps the Fudge vs. Dumbledore plot is not over.   

I've never believed in FIE, and after reading OoP I was even more 
convinced that Fudge was acting out of fear of losing his Minister 
position rather than because he's ESE or under Voldemort's control.  
However, I see Umbridge as being more complicated.  Here's a woman 
who sends dementors after Harry and who forces students to carve 
words into their own skin during detentions.  The fact that she sent 
the dementors after Harry actually leads me to believe that she 
*isn't* a Voldemort supporter, because it's clear that Voldemort 
wants to kill Harry personally.  Also, as a Ministry employee, she 
could have cleared the way for Voldy to get the prophecy from the 
Department of Mysteries.  However, I found the use of the skin-
cutting pen very intriguing - given the great lengths to which 
Voldemort went through to obtain Harry's blood in GoF, as I read the 
detention scene in OoP, I was wondering whether the pen could perhaps 
store Harry's blood and would somehow be instrumental to the Dark Side
in the future.

~Phyllis