mothwing | Deathly Hallows - Reactions to HP7

Reactions and musings

Before I begin not saying how great I found this book I would like to point out that yes, of course I was disappointed by the fact that Snape died, but then, I knew that he was going to die. I wanted JK to stray from the standard plot reserved for primary minions, but was not surprised to find out that she did not. Snape was a dead man from the moment we found out he was a spy. As for the way he died - I don't suppose I can complain, it could have been worse. So, no, Snape had nothing to do with the fact that I am not fond of this book. I was sad that he featured in the book so little before he died, as I would have wanted to see more of him, but I always do.
Let's start with the good.

The Good

The Teachers! McGonagall kicked ass just as I had wished she would. Too bad it took Minionerva so long to act, I keep wondering what the hell she had been doing all year. Convenient for us the trio was not at Hogwarts, as I was wondering what she has been doing all year.
The Malfoys. I was particularly fond of Narcissa, and glad that Draco stayed true to his two-dimensional self.
Harry. Fancy seeing me say that. I liked how he became more and more like Voldemort and how overtaxed he was as the mascot of this war against Voldemort.
Hermione. Whoa, she is the next Dark Evil Overlady, for sure. Too bad she settles for doing the friggin' washing up for Hugo, Ron and Rosie instead.
Aberforth. Loved him.
Dumbledore backstory. Finally.
Snape's death. It could have been worse. It was pointless, but at least he was not killed by Harry.
Bellatrix. Scary minions are awesome.
The Prince's Tale - I really liked the way this was written, the style, the succession of brief glimpses. Nice. The content - well. Syrup.
Percy. I had hoped he'd come back!
Dudley. When I first looked over this chapter in the scans it was the main reason I thought they were fake because it seems to come directly out of happy FF-land, but no... Still, well done, Big D.

More soon.

The Bad

Consistency, people. Did anyone else have the feeling that there were parts in this book that dated back to the very beginning of her writing, while others were more or less pasted in to fit changes made.
The first chapter seemed more recent, but the wedding scene struck us as odd. Hagrid was back to his original clumsiness and his drunkenness, which he seemed to have lost during the last three books, for example.
Also, "My god"?
Speaking of which - Unforgivables. Yeah, let's just all use them, without caring that they are supposed to land you in Azkaban. The Hermione double that was doing that particular scene did not care Harry kept using them. At all. I guess she got that from McGonagall, who also does not seem to have a problem with using them. At all.
Final Battle. I don't think I can appreciate lots of people fighting and dying, though, having been raised on Terry Pratchett's pacifist humanism. The fact violence and fighting is glorified in Fantasy is not to my taste at all.
Housism - come on, ALL of the Slytherins were evil, with a couple of token exceptions who were evil in the beginning, but then saw the error of their ways? Are we really going to believe that? Our author does not seem to have a problem with it.
Pointless Deaths - apart from the fact that even I, as a trained crime reader, would argue that we don't strictly need them to make clear that "things are getting truly dangerous", these particular pointless deaths were extra-pointless. Hedwig? Seriously.
I had to laugh inwardly when Fred died, though. At the very beginning of the series, when my family and I contemplated who was going to die, I kept saying "one of the twins", seeing as because of their close bonds that would be extra-tragic, and seeing as there were so many Weasleys to begin with, anyway.
and speaking of which, Lupin AND Tonks deaths. Seriously. Why on earth did Lupin have to get himself in danger? His wife is a trained auror, and he is an aging werwolf, who is likely to be more skilled at fighting? It was absolutely ridiculous that both of them got themselves in danger and got themselves killed. Good to know that they thought the good cause was more important than their son having a parent.
"With great power comes great responsibility, and great power can be a terrible temptation". Er, yes. We know. Good that Spiderman Gandalf Obiwan Dumbledore did not yield to the temptation.
Loose ends. So, what happened to the Grangers, exactly? Not that they were ever particularly important, but I think that the parents whose memory was modified and who were shipped off to Australia would have deserved a half-sentence reference somewhere? I assume that Teddy is living with the proud grandma, right? Who were the other tons of people who died? What became of the Malfoys? Were they integrated into society like villains at the end of a Shakespeare comedy?
House system. How come the only truly sensible school reform is suggested by a crazed super villain? Why on earth would anyone still insist of the house system after all that happened? This is un-fucking believable.
World War II references. Not appreciated. No one needs them. You can have your super-villain without any references, Grindelwald would have worked - and did work - very well without them.
Geography and languages. No, central and eastern Europe is not all the same, not everyone speaks German there, although it is still a popular foreign language there. I don't see any immediate reason why Krum should have left the country to buy his wand, and no reason why someone called Gregorovitch should speak German. But JK is not the only one who never realises.
The end of the Death Eaters. So the problem truly died with Voldemort? That's naive. Of course, the Death Eaters do not have a motivation to join in the first place, so we probably can't complain, but assuming that the death of one person stops a lot of people from thinking mean thoughts and acting meanly is just - ... very naive. They're not Orcs. They don't simply stop existing after the fall of the Dark Lord.
The kitsch. The stupendous amount of it. We regularly got stuck in treacle chapters and had to take breaks until we got unglued again and until the faint nausea lifted. Yes, parts of it were sweet, but the amount made it rather ghastly for me to read. The wedding, Snape's story, the friggin' Epilogue - I never realised this was Four Weddings and a Funeral, or Love, Actually. A doe? Albus Severus??