Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (SPOILERS)

[Deleted]

Just finished! So awesome. Some random thoughts in no real order.

McGonagall kicks so much ass. I laughed at her little army of schooldesks! I was so sad when Dobby and the twin and Lupin and Tonks died. And Hedwig! I love how prepared to leave Hermoine was. There was far to much time spent wandering aimlessly. I loved that Ron came back, I was SO disappointed that he left. Dumbledore is not the nicest character. Aberforth and the goats! Hee! I got so sad when Hermoine was getting all upset about making sure her parents would be safe. The Ministry was so creepy, especially that statue! I loved that there was so much action.

The epilouge was a little too cutesy for me. I would have prefered something like a black screen of justice but for everyone involved. Luna and her dad. The not dead twin. Percy and the rest of the Weasleys. Draco and his family. Hermoine's parents. It feels like she just wrote it at the last minute or something.

ETA: I was so happy I forgot to write about Snape! So happy he turned out not to be evil. I was really worried about that.

[luciano]

It is on page 738, Harry tells Voldy that none of the spells are sticking.

Yeah - it explained why Voldemort's Silence charms kept breaking.

Snape was one of my favorite characters, so I'm happy that it came out that he was one of the good guys. Although, it was a bit weird to read Harry saying that Snape was the bravest man he ever knew. I mean, I understand it, but still weird.

I still feel nothing towards Ginny, though. Meh.

[heavenleigh2001]

I just finished the book, and I thought it was great. Of course I could have done with Ginny.

[sumire]

Something else I loved, Harry uses expelliarmus again, after told not to by Lupin earlier in the book.

Also, it turns out that Expelliarmus is key to wand-mastery. Although that raises a possible problem--I seem to recall that there was a fair bit of Expelliarmusing going on in earlier books--wouldn't that mean that anyone who had been Expelliarmused would have trouble with his/her wand after they got it back?

[MrsCatHead]

I wanted to know more about the world after Voldy's defeat...not just necessarily who married who. I want to know about the Death Eaters who survived, the Dementors, is Azkaban open, is Luna's dad OK, what about the poor Muggles on the lam, where's Voldy's body buried, why Harry didn't go back and destroy the "thing hidden in the Snitch" so it couldn't be used again...

[kiwi]

I only choked up twice while reading. Once when Dudley -- DUDLEY of all people -- feels his heart grow eighteen sizes. When he initially hung back I thought he'd figured out that the best of the Order would be with Harry, but when it then became totally clear that this great hulking lump was actually legitimately worried about Harry in spite of being told that his entire family were in danger? Sniffle.

And the second bit came totally unbidden, when Harry says "Stay close to me" quietly to his mother. He's hero-worshipped his father and Sirius for so long, and Lily's always gotten a little bit lost in all that testosterone. It was lovely that at the very end, after all those years of admiring fighting and wit and all of that other stuff, he seems to realise that his mother was the one who made that selfless decision, and she's the one he's been most like all along. And I absolutely teared up.

Criticisms were that the Hallows dragged for me -- I really am not sure we needed all of that, especially with Horocruxes already in the offing. A search for seven mystical power-thingees suddenly blew up to 10. Unwieldy. I also got quite bored of hanging out in the woods in a tent, and not in that "oooh, I feel their boredom" way, more in the "ooooh -- I feel quite bored" way. Lupin and Tonks have never quite clicked for me, so the fact that they both ran off and left their half-werewolf son to be raised by Tonk's widowed mum.... grrrr. I feared a twin would die -- fare thee well, Fred, I liked you tons.

And lastly: Dammit, JK! Ginny is a kickass character! I am having trouble with the fact that F&G know Ginny is formidable, her teachers know she's formidable, her family knows she's tough as nails... but Harry Potter keeps getting to tell her to stay out of trouble. How is he the only one not to realise that out of ALL of them, Ginny is the only one who consistently shows anywhere near his magical potential? And so he keeps her out of the fight as long as he can, telling her that he cares for her too much to fight but never reiterating that he seems to catch on fire whenever he looks at her... I am highly annoyed! For her next real appearance to be toting around Harry's three kids, bite me. If Ginny had been kept at that worship-Harry phase, maybe. But she didn't, and I had a really, REALLY hard time believing that she wouldn't just kiss him and tell him to try not to die and then dive into the fight.

Whoo, feels better to get that out.

Oh, also forgot: loved Neville. Loved. I mean, he's dead scary in that he's apparently decided this fight is worth it and that given his parents were tortured into madness he can bear anything up to and including, but I had absolutely no trouble taking the cinematic Neville I just saw in OotP and seeing him as the hard, determined guerilla. And awesome that the B-Team didn't just see H/H/R drop out and decided to wait for instructions -- it made perfect sense that they'd step into the gap and tailor the fight to their own skills.

Lastly: If I read that right, James and Lily were 21 when they died, which is exactly where I've been imagining them from the start. I go so, so confused when Sirius turned up as Gary Oldman, I'd been expecting Christian Bale -- the ages just seemed totally, entirely off. But I suppose on one hand, Christian Bale -- on the other, Alan Rickman...

I am completely thrown to realise that Harry is currently, if we take the Potters' death in 1981 as a cue: 27 years old. Eek!

[bklynred]

Ok I totally missed the army of schooldesks...gotta go back for that one.

Thank God I have someplace to work out this stuff...my real-life friends are polite about it but ah, secretly laughing at me, I think. My mom however cheers on my enthusiasm as if I were a 2 year old learning to read. Go moms!

Question: What was up with Harry's wand working on its own? Did they ever work that out? He never seemed able to convince people that could happen...

Dobby's death was just devastating. I think it was his proclaiming "I'm a free elf!" That sh*t was just heartstring-tugging. Freaking writers and their bags of tricks.

I couldn't figure out what Molly (Reppin for the Burrows! East Side What?) Weasley shot at Bellatrix, but beause it was aimed at her heart, it seemed like a specific spell. Avada Kedavra seems like something you can willy-nilly throw at anybody.

[Mutagen]

nycole said:

I loved that Ron came back, I was SO disappointed that he left.

And what a return it was! I have to admit, the part when Ron was trying to kill the locket really got to me.

Dumbledore is not the nicest character.

I know!! But I like that JKR went there, it makes sense in terms of Harry's coming of age. In the first book, when Harry was a child, Dumbledore was kind of God, Santa and Gandalf all rolled into one. Now that Harry's grown up he can see Dumbledore in a more flawed, adult way. Kind of like what most people go through with their parents.

[twodollars]

Wow, I loved this book. And I was shocked by how many characters got killed off in this series, especially since it was written for kids initially. I was expecting JK to chicken out like the Lord of the Rings, Buffy, or The Sopranos.

Here's the list of major/minor characters killed in the series (am I missing anyone):
1. Cedric
2. Sirus
3. Dumbledore
4. Hedwig
5. Mad-Eye Moody
6. Dobby
7. Fred
8. Tonks
9. Lupin
10. Colin
11. Snape
12. Bellatrix
13. Voldemort
14. Wormtail

I think I was most thrilled with Neville and Luna stepping up to fight. I also liked that JK showed us how Dudley's experience with the Death Eaters affected him. I did like that she didn't redeem Petunia, Vernon, Luficus or Draco.

This is going to make a kick-ass movie. I can't wait to see the fight defending Hogwarts.

[Mutagen]

twodollars said:

This is going to make a kick-ass movie. I can't wait to see the fight defending Hogwarts.

I know!! I halfway want Peter Jackson to step in and direct...