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JBVisions on Jul 21, 2007

The Butler did it!

sgitheanaich on Jul 21, 2007

Noooo I'm still slogging through book 6! Nipped down the shop this evening and every man and their dog was offering theories... aaargh dont tell me!!! :)

cheiie on Jul 21, 2007

Or - just don't open the blog post. You've had sufficient warning :)

sgitheanaich on Jul 21, 2007

Haha :) I've already been told. Blimey, it's the worst kept secret!
It's worse than "who shot JR" for rumours and it's like trying to get through a whole day til the re-run without finding out the score from a Cup Final game!
Ah, I'm just going to savour every page anyway. It's sooo good.

JBVisions on Jul 21, 2007

I read the entire book in about 5 minutes. There's a full review on Wikipedia

sgitheanaich on Jul 21, 2007

It took you that long? What kept you?

MaskedJedi on Jul 21, 2007

It r0><0rd.

gswd on Jul 21, 2007

I just had a Harry Potter night after work. Picked up my copy of the book, then went to see movie #5. Now home and awaiting pizza. I've got 2 days off. Can I read it that quickly? We'll see.

cheiie on Jul 21, 2007

It's pretty easy reading, gswd - I got through it in a couple of hours :) It started a bit slow for me, but after that became quite engrossing.

cheiie on Jul 21, 2007

WikiPedia hardly compares to the experience of wrapping up a series you grew up with. Could people please comment on the book(s) and not post unrelated comments? Thanks.

SpacesEnd on Jul 22, 2007

Ever since J.K. Rowling got rid of her editor, the book have become too long and boring for me. I just read the last few pages to see what happens!

cheiie on Jul 22, 2007

Which editor?

MaskedJedi on Jul 22, 2007

Yeah, she still has one.

debragail on Jul 22, 2007

I did the whole dress up for the launch thing. I finished it in about 4 hours but really I think I need to reread the whole series again now.

cheiie on Jul 22, 2007

Who did you dress as?
I've never done the dress up thing, but it's cute I suppose. I did want to learn to knit so I could make an HP scarf this winter, but it doesn't seem it will work out.

debragail on Jul 25, 2007

My sister and I dressed up as a witches (we wore giant purple witches hats and cloaks) the brother-in-law did the Harry Potter dress up. It was good fun even if a photo ended up being published in the local paper.

lilysunshine on Jul 25, 2007

I called in sick yesterday to finish it! :P
It was a good ending to the whole story and a very captivating book. :)

ftapao on Jul 25, 2007

I finished it last night. Work kept getting in the way. :(
It was awesome, but then it was cheesy too.

gswd on Jul 25, 2007

It did take me the 2 days, about 24 hours total reading time. Darn that sleeping and eating.

Betty on Jul 27, 2007

I finished it last night.
I found that several hundred pages in the middle were quite dull. For a series that uses a July to June school calendar frame, basically not much happened until March. I thought the ending was satisfactory. Kind of funny with the inclusion of just about every character ever mentioned.
[My kids have grown up reading the series, and I'm a fan as well.]

iconmaster on Jul 27, 2007

Probably the most complicated of the seven, which is an odd way to go for the final installment. Hallows, Horcruxes, lots to keep track of. Fun though, and I appreciate Rowling more or less redeeming Snape at the end -- I've had a feeling for some time that he was on the right side after all.

Funny how the major "spoilers" turn out to not be spoilers at all. Snape kills Dumbledore? Well, yeah, but... Harry Potter dies? Ah, kinda. But not really.

Forevagrey on Jul 27, 2007

done in 4 hours. basicly 2am on sunday morning on the second day it came out.

SmockLady on Jul 27, 2007

Aaah, but iconmaster, do you really think Snape was good in the end? I tend to think not. Though I think he was not bad either. See, Snape didn't do "the right things" for "the right reasons" and motive matters. Snape cared for Lily, yes, but Snape was always only about Snape. After the life he had as a youngster the only side he would go to would be the side that accepted him first (like a lot of kids getting into gangs). He only gave Harry the memories after he had been bitten (there were other opportunites and he didn't take them).

Jan on Jul 27, 2007

I wonder if Rowling actually had Harry dying in the end, then the editor/publisher stepped in and said, "WHAT are you thinking??? Readers aren't going to accept that!" So, she buffered it with a Near Death Experience.
Having said that, I like the way she ended the series. I wanted Snape to be a 'friend' from the very beginning, and he turned out to be, if not a friend, at least loyal and trustworthy. It was a nice depiction of nurture vs nature -- Snape's upbringing caused him to be mean-spirited but, he was able to love, and the ability to love changed his life. Lacking the ability to love was Voldemort's downfall. I give Rowling a lot of credit. There could have been so many different endings, all justifiable. But she tied up all the loose ends and gave the best ending possible.
I agree, the whole forest thing seemed to serve no other purpose than cycle past characters through. But some of us enjoyed the visit. :) Jan

cheiie on Jul 27, 2007

Though it did seem to drag on during the camping scenes, I really enjoyed it. There were several deaths that did make me sad though.
I liked the ending, it was nice.. but I really, really would like to know what happened to George - he was not mentioned in the epilogue. Presumably, he went on to carry the torch with the shop, but what else?
I couldn't help but hold a glimmer of hope for another series based on Lupin and Tonks' child, but it's doubtful, I suppose.

iconmaster on Jul 27, 2007

SmockLady -- I agree with that. But also consider that even when Dumbledore explained that Harry wouldn't be saved, Snape continued to follow through on Dumbledore's instructions. At that point, he couldn't have been doing it for Lily alone -- acting only for the sake of Lily's memory would require him to save Harry.

Complicated character, for sure.

travisseitler on Jul 28, 2007

Nicole (my wife) and I had been literally reading it together--we took turns waiting for the other to finish so the page could be turned. I love reading like that, not least because I get to snuggle up to my cutie late into the night.

As for the book itself ;) I have to say that Rowling made my decade with what Neville did. I've been rooting for him to have a major (if not *the* major) role in the finale of this series ever since the prophecy was revealed in the Ministry of Magic, and I'm so glad she didn't disappoint me there (even though she made it clear that Neville wasn't the prophecy's subject)!

cheiie on Jul 28, 2007

I agree - I love Neville, he's been such a great character.
Kind of OT but, I've watched the OOTP movie several times now, and I'm still in awe as to how perfect they got Luna Lovegood's casting :D

Steax on Jul 29, 2007

I finished reading it the afternoon after buying it. Kinda jumblish, in a sense that it didn't have the continuity of the past books, but this must be because its jumping around different places and events.

I never would've guessed the whole thing boiled down to a love problem between Lily and Snape. =P

I don't really like the movies... they're putting in all the thriller bits and romance, but they're letting out the family, fun, jokes and all that stuff. I can't blame critics for saying that the movies are too scary.

And yeah I got a feeling Rowling was trying to balance out the crowd. Half of us said Harry would die, some would not. So to satisfy us all, both happen. ^^

The community was right about the Locket, R.A.B and Harry being the last horcrux! Just kinda sucks she put in a new set of items in the last book (the hallows). Wasn't really timely. The whole "horcrux JS hallows" thing.

THiC on Jul 29, 2007

So who died?

cynicalpink on Jul 29, 2007

My favorite of the series is Prisoner of Azkaban. I think the quality of the writing went downhill from there. I agree with the "I'm so famous I don't need an editor" sentiment.

But I still mostly enjoyed them.

Steax on Jul 29, 2007

We really can't list who's gone for sure.

==== SPOILER ====

Mad-eye, Tonks, Remus Lupin, Fred Weasley, Ted Tonks, Severus Snape, Tom Riddle, Colin Creevy, Peter Pettigrew, and Dobby are all dead. I might have missed a few, and there were (in the first part) "half of the resistance dead", meaning there should be 50 people or so dead. There might be other characters dead, but not shown explicitly.

Jarekk82 on Jul 29, 2007

Wee-ha, I'm through too. :)

daia on Jul 29, 2007

I finished it yesterday too, and don't forget Hedwig died aswell, poor thing.

I agree, it's really captivating story and this last book had a good twist.

Steax on Jul 29, 2007

Interesting to note that Lupin and Tonks were supposed to lived, and the reverse applied to Mr. Weasley. I guess Rowling was going after a Harry-ish story with Ted Lupin.

Yes, Hedwig died too... It feels like a lot of what connected Harry to the first story broke off in the next 6. His wand, Hedwig, Olivander, and such... I was wondering why the that mirror in the first book didn't reappear. The cloak made it through, though. I always knew there was something special about it.

iconmaster on Aug 06, 2007

Technically the wand gets repaired. ;)

Just re-read Deathly Hallows, and I'm happy to say that the plot holds together nicely -- i.e., some of the plot points I thought would fall apart upon closer inspection, don't.

I do need to toss these questions out to anyone who wants to take a stab at them:

1) Voldemort takes on some of Harry's blood, which maintains Lily's protection (V. sort of becomes the blood relative, I guess) and "tethers" Harry to life. But weren't we told earlier that this protection expired when Harry turned 17? Did Voldemort's act net him an extended warranty, or what?

2) Since it's actually Voldemort's blood tethering Harry to life, was there really any need for Harry to become the master of the Hallows? Or is that just sort of a happy but fairly minor side effect of how things played out?

3) If Harry knows the Elder Wand belongs to him, why does he Expelliarmus in the final duel? Won't the wand refuse to hurt him regardless?

Btw, I think I love the camping sequences more than just about anything else in Deathly Hallows. Great to have the trio and just the trio together, isolated, with all the solidarity and irritation that implies. Also, Hermione just about runs away with the book. She rocks!

Dave on Aug 06, 2007

hmm.. wonder how many I can answer...

1) Good point, but I think the reason the protection would have run out at 17 was because he would no longer live with the Dursleys after coming of age, but since he and Voldemort both thought of Hogwarts as home, maybe that kept it going.

2) Minor side effect I think. Since Dumbledore's original plan was to be the last master of the wand, so he obviously expected Harry to cope without being master of the Hallows.

3) He had to tell the elder wand that he had defeated Malfoy by showing it a spell from Malfoy's wand, like what happened the first time he duelled Voldemort. The spells had to collide mid-air to make the wands know they were facing each other. (That might be completely wrong but it sounds right to me :D)

renbot on Aug 06, 2007

Hmm, iconmaster, this is what I can come up with for answers to your questions, although I haven't had a chance to go through the book as carefully as I'd like yet. Just friendly speculation! :)

1. I think the only protection that expired when Harry turned 17 was only the protection Dumbledore gave him at Privet Drive, which was strengthened by the fact that Harry was living with his mother's blood relative. It wouldn't really make much sense to say that the dying for someone you loved would only be good for X number of years, would it?

2. There probably wasn't any need, but I don't really think anyone understood what was going on at that point-- and by that I mean, what exactly was keeping Harry alive.

3. Because expelliarmus is his trademark!! Honestly though, I have no clue about this. You could argue that the wand COULD still hurt the person who "owns" it; it's unbeatable, but that doesn't mean that it can't do damage to its owner.

Dave on Aug 06, 2007

ah I like renbot's answer to #1 better :)

(but then again - surely all Dumbledore's protections would have disappeared when he died anyway? That's what they were saying about the OotP headquarters at least)

renbot on Aug 06, 2007

I like Dave's answer to #3 better than mine, I think.

Dave, I don't think the bond with Aunt Petunia could be broken just because Dumbledore died (obviously, it couldn't)-- it seemed to me that it just depended on Harry being able to call it home. The OotP headquarters lost its protection because Dumbledore was the secret keeper.

gswd on Aug 06, 2007

A thought about question #2 - did Harry ever master the Hallows? He never had all 3 items in his possession at the same time.

renbot on Aug 06, 2007

I don't know if he was or not-- I mean, he did "own" all three of the hallows at the same time (he got the Elder wand when he got Draco's wand, right?), but I don't know if you actually have to be holding all three with you in order to be the master of them (in the case of the wand, that is). With the cloak and ring, I would think that you would need to have them on your persons, since unlike wands, they will work the same for everyone.

gswd on Aug 06, 2007

My thought would be actual physical connection to the items. That way your body acts as a conduit for the special properties of each item to combine and create the one special power.

renbot on Aug 06, 2007

Hmm, that sounds like a pretty good explanation. I'm sure JKR has some sort of reasoning behind it all; too bad she hasn't enlightened us yet!