SPOLIER THREAD -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

[Deathshotshooter]

I agree with a lot of what you said, Deathshotshooter.

The deaths were poorly handled. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I hated the way in which Rowling handled her secondary characters in this book; by robbing them of their roles and reducing them to cannon fodder. I always liked the way in which many of the secondary characters were so vibrant and distinctive, but in this book they were reduced to the level of props to be killed off-screen. I think we could have done with a little more than a paragraph on the death of a character like Moody or Lupin.

The whole "Deathly Hallows" plotline was utterly ridiculous. It wasn't foreshadowed at all in previous books, and feels like it was stuck-on in a last ditch attempt to make things more exciting. No wonder many people who read the online leak of this book thought it was a fake. I heard a lot of people saying the leak couldn't be real because so much of the meat of the story seemed to come out of nowhere.

I also hated the stupid bit at the end. That whole "Where are they now" premise was stupid. And if she simply had to include something like that, why couldn't she have included more significant details? I wanted to see what happened in the immediate aftermath of Voldemort's death. At the least we should've gotten an epilogue set a couple of months after Voldemort's defeat. The jump years and years into the future wouldn't have been bad if we would've learned more than the fact that Harry married Ginny and Ron married Hermione. What's Harry done with his life since Voldemort's defeat? How was the wizarding community put back together after institutions like the Ministry of Magic were decimated? We didn't get any answers.

I guess the best way to sum up my feelings about this book is to say that it felt like Rowling approached this book in a very workmanlike fashion. She had a checklist of things she needed to cover and she made it very obvious when she was checking something off the list.

I gotta agree with Mordack, the chracters were so breif, like in times, she would introduce something new about a chracter, and right when you get to something good about him, it would end, not explining how, why, etc.

Also, about the characters she seem to forget the whole point of aurors, and even the main chracteres such as Hermione, and Ron, she just lack what made them who they are.

I agree with Mordack for his last comment also, i think by the time she wrote Deathly Hallows her only motivation was the money, no matter what she would earn a ton of money on the first day of sales, which is good enough for her.

Throughout the majority of the book she gave methe feeling that she didnt even want to write this. There were parts where you got the feeling from Rowling, like she just said, **Filtered** this, im gonnaget rich, lets just bs.

As for the leak, when i read parts of it, i personally thought it was fake too, for one, the leak didnt seem like Rowlings writting in the past 6 books. But only till i got Deathly Hallows did i realize it was real. Quite sddening cause she missed the whole point of Harry Potter. With his adventures, quest, friends. And even those who werent importnat, like Kreacher, there way no detail in it. She just decided harry should suddnely be nice to kreacher, and tada, kreacher loves him now.. like WTH? Same with the new and old minister, we never knew anything about them, what thir personality was like, nothing, like in chamber of secrets i feel like i knew Fudge better then the ministers in Deathly Hallows. This also happened with the death eaters and the dementors, and even with voldemort himself, i remember in book 4 -6, Rowling gave use this "evil" feelling of voldemort, death eaters and dementors, we could feel that they were evil. That they were the truly "bad" guys in the story, but in Deathly Hallows, i found that Rowling made the Death eaters and even the dementors more like **Filtered**. Like when Ron, Hermione and Harry, sneak into the Minestry of Magic, and when they have to go trough half a dozen of demontors to get away. I found it lame, all harry did was cast his patronus, and the dementors left. In the fifth book, we learned that even with a patronus, the dementors still tried to attack the casters. They seemed evil. In Deathly hallows, all they do is run. Same with the death eaters.

The ending was lame, i have to agree with that, Harry marrying Ginny? like WTH? cant you be a bit more imaginative then that? come on. And their children names? wow...i got the feeling Rowling just didnt care at the end, all she wanted to do, was get it over with, and get her final money by selling the book

This book could be alot better

Deathshotshooter

[Thelen]

she is a first generation billionaire.
meaning she created it all.

She didn't create it, she was given it. She had no more skill than the other 123121231 writers out there who write brilliant books, but don't manage to catch on to the next fad. No-one would deny JKR can write a good story, but there are FAR better writers out there, its just that JKR was 'lucky'.

As for the 6th and 7th books, they were crap, i think, frankly because she probably didn't care any more. She was a 100 millionare before she even started the 6th book. She was a billionare before she was halfway through the 6th book, and after everything is said and done, by 2010 when all the movies are done, she'll probably be worth a couple billion more.

Back to Albus's childhood, etc. As a story goes, it really doesn't make any sense to change the character. Previously, we knew Albus made/makes mistakes, however his whole attitude and persona has been warped in the last 2 books.

[Mystake]

unfortunately a few jerks spoiled the ending (but i was told hermione died).

im at page 538 of the 620~ page edition.


ill say... too much death, not enough detail.

just felt like an overall rushed book so far.

[Thelen]

Aye, i agree not enough detail. Remember back in the 3rd book, the fuss made about Rons rat Scabbers??? There must have been 5 pages worth of the story to do with that, and yet in the 7th, we have 3 lines about Hedwig.

And what about stupid aunt Muriel??? She had NOTHING WHATSO-EFFING-TO DO WITH THE STORY!!! Yet JKR wastes 3-10 pages of the story dealing with her....

Anyway, i guess its all opinions, but for me reading the 1-5 books, they just seem better. Maybe its cos there are more jokes, maybe cos its more light and friendly, but maybe its cos they are actually better written..

[Mordack]

I wonder how much the ending of the series changed because of the sheer popularity of the whole franchise. The stories about how Childline is braced for calls from sad children upset at the death of whichever favourite character may have been killed might have made JK rethink. The guilt and blame she might feel if she had the guts to kill one of her major characters (Harry, Ron or Hermonie) may have been a factor in making the end so cheesy and happy and a relatively low death count considering. Most of the deaths occured off screen (Mad Eye, Tonks, Lupin). I was not so sad to see Fred go really and many other killed characters were so minor as to be almost unnoticed. The only one that really got a response from me was Dobby, I thought that scene actually held some meaning with Dobby declaring to his former mistress that he was a free Elf who made his own choices.

[Pele]

I thought the idea of the book was good, problem was she tried to do too much in the space of 1 book. The majority of the sixth book was dedicated to Harry and Dumbledore finding 1 horcrux but in the space of teh 7th he found and destroyed 5 horcruxes. If this was spread out over 3 or 4 books aswell as teh deathly hollows thing then she could have put more detail into the deaths, describing the various emotions felt by each character but because she didn't have the bookspace she couldn't put anything in detail, it was all brief descrptions.

When Harry was thought to be dead I wanted to read more about everybody reactions to him, I agree with Mordack, I wanted the secondary characters deaths to play a bigger part but she didn't have teh space.

I wanted to know what happened in the direct aftermath of the final chapter, what were everybodies attitudes to Harry? Was he seen as a coward because he 'played' dead? Was he seen as a hero? Did people hate him for bringing so much death and disruption to there lives?

I agree with Judo, the last chapter just left you asking more questions, such as what are there professions? JKR has said that she might consider writing an eighth book and give the proceeds to charity, teh book will basically tell you what happens after Hogwarts if she writes it.

[Deathshotshooter]

I thought the idea of the book was good, problem was she tried to do too much in the space of 1 book. The majority of the sixth book was dedicated to Harry and Dumbledore finding 1 horcrux but in the space of teh 7th he found and destroyed 5 horcruxes. If this was spread out over 3 or 4 books aswell as teh deathly hollows thing then she could have put more detail into the deaths, describing the various emotions felt by each character but because she didn't have the bookspace she couldn't put anything in detail, it was all brief descrptions.

When Harry was thought to be dead I wanted to read more about everybody reactions to him, I agree with Mordack, I wanted the secondary characters deaths to play a bigger part but she didn't have teh space.

I wanted to know what happened in the direct aftermath of the final chapter, what were everybodies attitudes to Harry? Was he seen as a coward because he 'played' dead? Was he seen as a hero? Did people hate him for bringing so much death and disruption to there lives?

I agree with Judo, the last chapter just left you asking more questions, such as what are there professions? JKR has said that she might consider writing an eighth book and give the proceeds to charity, teh book will basically tell you what happens after Hogwarts if she writes it.

She better write it, cause this book just sucked

[Angnoch]

I thought that giving us an insight into Dumbledores past was one of the few good ideas in the book. I thought that the Snape loving Lily was a good twist however it was somewhat obvious especially since Harry has the same eyes as his mother it brought a closure of sorts to the Snape storyline. I did think there was way to much fit into this one book and she absolutely needs to write and eigth book to explain what happens to everyone in the future.

As to the secondary character deaths Dobby and Fred dying were the only two that really held any meaning. Lupins death and Tonks death were way to quick especially considering Lupins role in Harrys life. I think she gave more notice to Bellatrix dying than she did to Voldemort dying it seemed almost as though Bella was more important to the story. I would have liked more history on the Potters and on the Blacks.

[Mystake]

this book was meant to bring closure to a few things

im glad they closed snape
but i hope they close everyone's life now, the weasley aftermath too

[Thelen]

Mystake, yea it brought understanding for alot of things, although now in retrospect, it still doesn't explain alot.

For example, Snape. We know why he is 100% trustworthy, and we know he tells dumbledore how much harry sucks after he sees him for the first time, but it doesn't explain why really. i mean, we know he hated harry's father, but he loved his mother, up to the end. it really just doesn't make any sense,..

[Pele]

Maybe seeing Lily's eyes brings back bad memories for him.

[velya]

i think snaped hoped to find lilly in harry, all that was outwardly visible were they eyes, still snape and lily *vomits*

[311 [TA]]

i enjoyed the book

i think there were good reasons for everything she did, and can explain why

if u catch me on msn ever.........i can explain em all.........she did good, good book..........and remember its a g'dang kids book with the ending thats overly happy with the marriages and all ...........its a KID BOOK, remember that


seriously, i liked it

[Obsidian311-]

i thought it was a good book also. i just got done reading it yesterday and noticed this thread was put up to talk about it today. i think she did a good job with the end and not having Harry actually kill Voldemort but rather Voldemort killing himself with the elder wand. i liked the whole thing with dumbledore because im sorry if you didn't see that coming with how secretive and such he has been and how freaking nice he was. come on noone is that good not even harry. i think my favorite part of the book is when Belatrix is attacking Ginny, Hermione, and Luna and she almost kills ginny and Mrs. Weasley jumps in. just what she says is freaking great. i was kinda angry about her not going into detail on deaths and stuff. and with Tonks and Lupin both dying right after having a freaking kid pissed me off. but all around i think it was a good book and i have been reading em since they started. (when i was a kid) but like 311 said its a kids book so what did you expect.

[Spacey]

I'm happy that I was right about Snape and Neville. It seemed far to simple for Snape to be the bad guy, and Neville was too kind, gentle, and 'hiddenly' brave for him to stay that way (for lack of a better expression).

I think velya is right: Snape asked harry to look at him once dying to look into lily's eyes; one last time. It's give the whole thing a sad/tragic feel to it all, but I think it should have been included for another character. I didn't like the taste that left in my mouth, it shone on the relationship of Lilly and Snape to be deeper and more developed than that of Lily and Harry's father, or at least that's the impression that I get.

I had though (hoped) Harry would be the tragic hero or the story: that he was ultimately doomed in the end because his soul/spirit was tainted from the link with v. I think it would have made for a much better story if harry had died. Like a mix of the final few scenes in the LOTR and the general story of Hamlet.

It seems like as the series was going on more and more reasoning was being pulled out of the air (ie. things that you can't reason or suspect without being told because they are so fanciful), like we saw when Harry was reasoning wildly about a Hallows being in the snitch, and then it was true. That left me scratching my head.

Overall I liked the books. I think they were written in a manner where you would be encouraged to go back and re read it all over again, but this time, knowing how the story ends.

I'm going to put my pennies together and save up for the boxed set, or if I do a little sleuthing maybe an abridged set of all the books.

I think the books have done (in a not so direct way) to shed light (once again) on parts of humanity that we would feel better to overlook, but can never escape.