While genuinely I do like canon, my main gripe with it is the characters. There is too much convenience, and the lack of weight to the story, major events, and the characters themselves feel a bit like they're all just there to serve specific purposes rather than being there to stand on their own as characters themselves.

If I had to use one specific example, it would be the fact that Harry never learns. He fights Voldemort in a Graveyard, witnesses the Dark Lord's power first hand, yet, past the beginning of OOTP it seems that the whole event passes by his mind when he could be taking his time to catch up on his lack of Duelling knowledge. He sees Sirius being tortured, knows of the mind connection, yet, he goes down a road of bad decisions to end up getting Sirius killed. Does he learn in HPB and start thinking smart and not jumping in at the first sight of danger? Nope, that would be too normal of him, instead, he runs after Snape and gets his ass beat, wastes Felix Felicis just so Rowling doesn't have to worry about the logistics of everyone surviving through this. But does he learn after this? No, he doesn't even learn in CC when he is a literal trained Auror who isn't supposed to be a hot-head. The lack of progression is mind boggling.

There's also something to be said about the fact that he never mentions female's physical appearance indepthly, as any male would. Why do you like Cho Harry? "He thought she was very pretty." That's the most arbitrary terminology you could have used.

 

- Romance: Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione seemed to be sudden and unpredictable pairings

- Snape: Ugh. He was willing to become a double-agent to protect Lily Potter? What about Harry? What about James? I HATE how Harry is able to idolize him after he willingly gave the prophecy to Voldemort.

- The Epilogue - Utterly horrible. Albus Severus Potter? Harry named his child after the two men that fooled and manipulated him. Besides that, the epilogue revealed that Harry married Ginny. Lastly, everything was so damn predictable. Harry became an Auror, Ginny became a quidditch player, Ron becomes an Auror, and Hermione becomes a Ministry lackey. Quite a disappointing end.

- Luck - Harry lived off of luck. He was lucky that the wizarding world was weak (alliteration) minded. He was lucky that Voldemort made mistakes. He was lucky that every situation he waked into, he came out alive. It seemed unnatural. Perhaps this was because of the prophecy, but canon Harry was a tad too lucky for my liking

So thats it. Luckily, we have fanfiction to fix all of these. Yay for fanfiction! :banana:

 

I feel compelled to say it again. Harry had just as much bad luck as he had good luck.

 

I don't think that makes things better. It just makes the story as a whole feel more contrived.

 

I'd blame Rowlings lack of understanding the male psyche for that one

 

You can blame that for a lot of things. Harry's emotional responses to the Dursleys? Yeah, Harry should have been the biggest cunt this side of Vernon. It's what generallly happens to little abused boys when they grow up.

 

She should have asked one of her ghost writers ecksdee.

 

I didn't say it was making things better, but it's hard to say that Harry "just got lucky", when in fact both Harry and Voldemort got lucky and unlucky. I think Rowling writes that way because it's easier to surprise the reader when things aren't exactly planned or logical, which results in plots that make everybody look like idiots.

Or, you know, the fact that the series was aimed at children, and wasn't focused on romance in the first place.

 

The instant the series shifted to Young Adult she lost that excuse

 

That same need to surprise the reader caused Hermione to be this Dumbledore-level control freak and hoarder of secrets, which almost certainly wasn't intentional. She really should have suppressed the urge at some point.

 

Nevermind.

Someday I'll learn to check the date on the post I'm responding too before I actually respond.

 

It's not just control freak, it's the fact that Rowling is so blatantly trying to project herself onto this character. And Rowling can't have flaws now, can she? Even when Hermione is wrong, she is right to some extent. Even when she intentionally creates an organization that would disrupt the magical world, she is still doing it for a 'just cause'. She is progressive with no rationalism, aka, the worst kind of progressive. As is Rowling.

 

I hated the pairings - Harry/Ginny especially was far too sudden. For some unfathomable reason I had always rooted for eventual Harry/Hermione, and the sudden ~feelings~ toward Ginny caught me completely off guard. Fuck, even Cho Chang could have worked better. At least Harry had had some sort of infatuation to begin with. Harry first found about her in his third year and even then he liked her. Then he played against her and that added some depth to their dynamic.

Then there's the matter with Snape. There's probably no way for me to convince any of you who don't agree with me, but I found his redemption arc appalling. Even if he loved Lily, even if his role as a double-agent required it, nothing will make me forgive him for his behaviour in the previous books. Nothing.

Then there's the matter with Albus Severus Potter...

 

The pairings. Harry/Ginny came out of nowhere in HBP, while Ron/Hermione seems like a set up to domestic abuse.

Also, the last minute change to wandlore just to justify the Elder Wand.

Snape's behavior makes no sense at all; he could have just been the hyperstrict disciplinarian Harry dislikes without crossing the line into being personal, and he could even have justified it the same way Lucius Malfoy justified his own behavior, and with even more reason: "I need to pretend to be reformed in order to fool Dumbledore."

Finally, I too do not think that any kid deserved to have a name like 'Albus Severus' inflicted on them.

 

I'm in the Molly vs Bellatrix camp as far as my most "ugg, this is just stupid" moments. The entire premise of the protective mother (an overweight, older house witch at that who wasn't part of the order during the first war on top of that) gaining super spellcasting abilities in order to defeat one of Voldemorts chief enforcers is just ludicrous.
Although I do agree with most of you above, Snapes behavior is just unforgivable.