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Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (w/Spoilers)
Maui:
OMG FINALLY GOT TO READ IT TODAY.
I so so so agree about the movies. I think they're alright, but probably could've been loads better if they had just waited a couple of years for the story to be finished eh?
As for the book, i finished it and was satisfied.
An hour later i was super mad when i read online all this nonsense about Rowling wrapping up the loose ends of the story in televiision and online interviews. Am i the only person who doesn't understand why she couldn't just have added another 50 pages to the book? I'm not sure, but that bothered me a lot.
I was content with the book but to be all "Hey i didnt want to water down the epilogue so here, let me describe on the today show how Harry Potter became an auror" just kind of ruined the magic for me i think.
0bsessions:
--- Quote from: Dirk Hopeless on 10 Aug 2007, 18:36 ---(wtf connection did voldemort have to Bellatrix's Gringotts vault?)
--- End quote ---
As was explained in the book, Gringott's was a place that represented wealth, something he had never known in life. He acknowledged the inherent power of the upper class and that's why he had it there.
--- Quote ---and Neville suddenly going from plump buffoon to badass rebel leader.
--- End quote ---
I'd hardly call it sudden. The evolution of Neville as a character has been a gradual thing that had building since the first book when he first stood up to the others when they were leaving to try and stop Snape. It started to take on a quicker pace by the point of the fourth and fifth books when details started to surface about his parents' fate.
--- Quote ---What the fuck was that final battle scene. An army of house elves and centaurs, Giants included as an afterthought because she had mentioned them earlier?
--- End quote ---
It had been foreshadowed toward the beginning of book five that the giants would be joining Voldemort and I enjoyed seeing a bit of an actual payoff to the whole SPEW storyline, which is what I felt the house elves were involved for.
--- Quote ---Characters being killed just for effect and to bring the death toll up?
--- End quote ---
Well, that's basically the purpose of any death in books and movies. Any writer can get by with death, but it's always been a common story device to make the stakes seem higher. Headwig's death proved early on that really no one was safe. Headwig was something seemingly integral to Harry as a character, yet minor enough that you're really never expect Rowling to bother with it.
SeanBateman:
--- Quote from: 0bsessions on 11 Aug 2007, 06:10 ---
--- Quote from: Dirk Hopeless on 10 Aug 2007, 18:36 ---
--- Quote ---What the fuck was that final battle scene. An army of house elves and centaurs, Giants included as an afterthought because she had mentioned them earlier?
--- End quote ---
It had been foreshadowed toward the beginning of book five that the giants would be joining Voldemort and I enjoyed seeing a bit of an actual payoff to the whole SPEW storyline, which is what I felt the house elves were involved for.
--- End quote ---
They didn't mention SPEW at all. And if anything, Hermione pissed off[i/] the house elves, not inspired them to fight for her, if I remember book 5. I knew the giants were joining Voldemort, but really it felt like she just added them to that scene, not to the story as a whole, because she wanted the final battle to be more epic.
--- End quote ---
the_shankmaster:
--- Quote from: Maui on 10 Aug 2007, 21:02 ---
I was content with the book but to be all "Hey i didnt want to water down the epilogue so here, let me describe on the today show how Harry Potter became an auror" just kind of ruined the magic for me i think.
--- End quote ---
It seems like a huge cop-out. "I can't effectively write this into the book, so I'll just tell you about it sometime."
Johnny C:
--- Quote from: 0bsessions on 11 Aug 2007, 06:10 ---Well, that's basically the purpose of any death in books and movies. Any writer can get by with death, but it's always been a common story device to make the stakes seem higher. Headwig's death proved early on that really no one was safe. Headwig was something seemingly integral to Harry as a character, yet minor enough that you're really never expect Rowling to bother with it.
--- End quote ---
Hm?
No, death should be used as a thematic device rather than a deus ex machina sort of thing to get the plot moving or to wrench an emotion out of the reader. The difference between a writer who uses death gratuitously and one who uses death organically is that the deaths from the latter writer will always, always be more authentically moving.
The deaths of characters like Remus and Tonks were a bummer but nowhere near as crushing as the end of, say, Of Mice And Men for that reason.
I really liked the book. It was riveting, in fact. I read it in enormous chunks and could barely tear myself away from it whenever I picked it up. Rowling delivered on not only the loose story ends of the series but also the themes - love conquering death more than anything else (look how well it conqured death compared to the Hallows themselves) and greed, corruption and pride causing nothing but temporary power and permanent ruin.
The deaths were my only complaint, and not because there were too many or anything but because they sometimes just didn't feel like anything but death for death's sake - say what you will about "that's how it would happen in real life the deaths wouldn't be as important etc." but we are reading books about teenage wizards and witches. If I want realism I'll open a newspaper. If I want fiction I open a novel, and if someone important dies I better damn well feel something at their loss.
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