another DH post
Jul. 21st, 2007 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gmonkey42Because I'm waiting for my brother to get home so he can scan my hilarious DH comics (he won't let me use his computer myself), here's some more rambling. Not going to do the highlight-to-read-it thing because the comments are going to have spoilers in normal text anyway.
When Nagini's flying hamster ball went after Snape, I thought "oh! This is Snape's chance to kill her! He knows he has to kill her, he keeps looking at her." And then I had to re-read it to realize that it was just on his head and shoulders, leaving his wand outside the ball. Clever, Voldemort!
Umm. What else?
I've said this in comments elsewhere but: Snape and Lily were never romantically involved, right? Snape wasn't even really physically attracted to her, he just loved her as a friend, right? I couldn't take it if Snape's motivation throughout the entire series was just that he'd wanted to get into Harry's mum's pants.
I don't like that his reasons for joining the Death Eaters weren't explored in more detail, though I get that there was nowhere good to fit that in. I still think the lack of other opportunities for him after Hogwarts was a huge factor.
I re-read the part about why the Elder Wand thought Draco was its master. It makes more sense now - he took it from Dumbledore on the tower before Snape showed up - but that's a stupid way for a wand to work. Could you wait until someone was asleep and steal their wand and then it'll work for you and not for the original owner? I don't like that.
OH! I remember a big thing I was going to bring up: What's up with the plot structure?
1. The trio sits around having no idea what to do until...
2. ...Harry does something stupid...
3. ...which places the trio in mortal peril...
4. ...until they're saved by yet another deus ex machina.
5. GOTO 1.
And meanwhile, there was practically no Snape! I really, really thought he'd make contact with them somehow after giving Harry the sword and he'd start giving them information about the Horcruxes, because by then he would have found out about them (I was pretty sure Dumbledore hadn't told him about them but I thought Voldemort would figure out what was going on much sooner). I admit, beforehand I was picturing a war and spying thing when the book had to be a quest thing. Except the trio sucks at quests. Harry survived by dumb luck again: Draco's wand happened to work for him better than that other guy's did, so that's the one Harry was carrying when he fought Voldemort.
I thought JKR was doing a great job establishing a theme where the good guys are forced into an ends justify the means mentality (when did they change them to "not really Unforgivable, just try not to use 'em too often, mkay?" Curses?) and Harry would be forced to reevaluate his concepts of good and evil. Except that all just fizzled to nothing. Conclusion: using Unforgivable Curses is OK if you're the Good Guy and the people you're cursing are Bad Guys - or goblins, they're not really people anyway. That was disappointing. Like that guy he Imperio'd and told to hide in the vault: what are the odds he'll be found before he starves to death in there? How many people were maimed or killed by the dragon leaving the bank?
ETA: and another thing
What's with Ron's How To Trick Women into Liking You book? I knew he was kind of an asshole but goddamn. Speaking of which, we never got a satisfactory answer for why Lily changed her mind about James. Unless I'm wrong about the dreaded Lily/Snape and she started going out with James because she subconsciously - or deliberately, I suppose - wanted to spite Snape. That would suck.
When Nagini's flying hamster ball went after Snape, I thought "oh! This is Snape's chance to kill her! He knows he has to kill her, he keeps looking at her." And then I had to re-read it to realize that it was just on his head and shoulders, leaving his wand outside the ball. Clever, Voldemort!
Umm. What else?
I've said this in comments elsewhere but: Snape and Lily were never romantically involved, right? Snape wasn't even really physically attracted to her, he just loved her as a friend, right? I couldn't take it if Snape's motivation throughout the entire series was just that he'd wanted to get into Harry's mum's pants.
I don't like that his reasons for joining the Death Eaters weren't explored in more detail, though I get that there was nowhere good to fit that in. I still think the lack of other opportunities for him after Hogwarts was a huge factor.
I re-read the part about why the Elder Wand thought Draco was its master. It makes more sense now - he took it from Dumbledore on the tower before Snape showed up - but that's a stupid way for a wand to work. Could you wait until someone was asleep and steal their wand and then it'll work for you and not for the original owner? I don't like that.
OH! I remember a big thing I was going to bring up: What's up with the plot structure?
1. The trio sits around having no idea what to do until...
2. ...Harry does something stupid...
3. ...which places the trio in mortal peril...
4. ...until they're saved by yet another deus ex machina.
5. GOTO 1.
And meanwhile, there was practically no Snape! I really, really thought he'd make contact with them somehow after giving Harry the sword and he'd start giving them information about the Horcruxes, because by then he would have found out about them (I was pretty sure Dumbledore hadn't told him about them but I thought Voldemort would figure out what was going on much sooner). I admit, beforehand I was picturing a war and spying thing when the book had to be a quest thing. Except the trio sucks at quests. Harry survived by dumb luck again: Draco's wand happened to work for him better than that other guy's did, so that's the one Harry was carrying when he fought Voldemort.
I thought JKR was doing a great job establishing a theme where the good guys are forced into an ends justify the means mentality (when did they change them to "not really Unforgivable, just try not to use 'em too often, mkay?" Curses?) and Harry would be forced to reevaluate his concepts of good and evil. Except that all just fizzled to nothing. Conclusion: using Unforgivable Curses is OK if you're the Good Guy and the people you're cursing are Bad Guys - or goblins, they're not really people anyway. That was disappointing. Like that guy he Imperio'd and told to hide in the vault: what are the odds he'll be found before he starves to death in there? How many people were maimed or killed by the dragon leaving the bank?
ETA: and another thing
What's with Ron's How To Trick Women into Liking You book? I knew he was kind of an asshole but goddamn. Speaking of which, we never got a satisfactory answer for why Lily changed her mind about James. Unless I'm wrong about the dreaded Lily/Snape and she started going out with James because she subconsciously - or deliberately, I suppose - wanted to spite Snape. That would suck.
