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Harry Potter spoilers

Spoilers!

I liked the book, a lot.  Harry wandering around outside of Hogwarts means:
assault on the Ministry;
visit with Xeno and a chance to see how terrorism works (threaten the child and a "good man" does bad to keep child alive);
Ron saving Harry after Harry follows a Patronus (did you really guess whose Patronus it was?  I thought maybe Aberforth(? Dumbledore's brother) then when his was a goat ... no thoughts);
wasn't the locket's defense / attempted seduction of Ron interesting?;
Malfoy Manor & Beatrix, more Harry being good to Goblins and House Elves (are there non-house elves?);
assault on Gringotts and escape with a dragon;
return to Hogwarts. 
Finding out about the 7th Horcrux!

Neville's development is actually shown nicely in the HP 4 & 5 movies: in 4, it IS Neville that gives Harry gillyweed (not Dobby), and in 5 Neville gets the Room of Requirement to open, as well as learns how to duel.  It's clear he's an outsider becoming a leader, but not one of the Three.  Him pulling out the G sword to kill Nagini was another quick surprise.

In fact, JKR does so many things in this book, they almost all seem rushed near the end -- yet the Wandering was building up to all of them.

On disappointments, certainly Ron with Parselmouth was terrible, for me perhaps the worst.  While I'm not surprised that Wormtail (unlisted in deaths above) is killed by Voldy's arm, I was hoping for more drama.  (Tonks father is also killed, along with Dirk Crevill (?), who was involved in the Ministry break-in). 
Having Ron & Hermione use the Basilisk teeth was excellent though (I had wondered before).

The second disappointment was Snape's death, too quick.  I was mildly disappointed Harry didn't grab the Potions book.  The Prince's Tale was great, though.  What did Snape want to say before he died?

Did Snape believe Dumbledore was sacrificing Harry to get Voldemort?  Dumbledore's humanity was far more than Gandalf's, for comparison.

The final duel between Tom Riddle and Harry was fine but too predictable -- Molly and Bellatrix (the Bitch!) was a bigger surprise.  And I think death in war is like that -- too many to treat each as the human tragedy it is.

There is a small argument in favor of the Death Penalty involved in the Death Eater escape from Alcatraz, er, Azkaban.

Posted by: TomGrey at 08/19/07 00:21 | link | comments
harry potter

Islamofascists are Deatheaters - Harry Potter 7

I don't link so much to my own stuff, I should probably do so more often.  Here is what I wrote about Iran getting nukes.  And after HP 5, I wrote a longer note that is now gone (with the "blogged up" service).

I think after The Ministry has Fallen, and the Deatheaters are in control, there is a better explanation of living under terrorism than most current books.

How could Hamas kill so many Fatah folk in Gaza? Like Voldemort supporters killing those wizards who oppose them.  Most folk obey because they have too much to lose, like Xeno's fear of losing Luna.

Posted by: TomGrey at 08/17/07 02:48 | link | comments
harry potter