What do we lose?

[pippin_999]

Kneasy:
> Not forgetting the other thing, the unkindest cut of all.
> As Carolyn observes in her post today we hoped, even had some reason
> to expect, that this was aimed at a wider market than the pre-pubescent
> and post adolescent, that the books would have subtleties and sub-themes
> that real grown-ups would find complex enough to be toothsome. IMO 
> OoP made that doubtful and HBP pushed such hopes over the border
> into the realms of self-deluding optimism. Some imagined that as the
> denoument approached and the plot-lines became more defined, there
> would be a balancing complexity in character development.

Pippin:
What subtleties and sub-themes did you see hinted at in the earlier
books that have not been addressed in the later ones? 

Kneasy: 
> Has Harry's character developed? Nope. He's the same stroppy, snotty,
> I-know-best teenager he's always been. Has any character opened out
> significantly? Nope. 

Pippin:
I just re-read PS/SS and CoS, straight through as novels, not hunting for
theories or evidence or such, and I disagree. Harry and Hermione
have changed quite a bit. Ron would barely recognize himself.  

I suppose I'm one of those people who keeps butting in to say, "Jo says."
But that's the game, for me, making it work within Jo's limits. If she makes
it harder that makes it more fun, not less. 

Pippin
who is quite happy that Jo has relinquished Vampire!Snape. He's all mine
now and I'm not giving him back. Let *her* write fanfic. Lessee, I think I'll
call him Panes...