I wish I could give the book three stars in general and the epilogue minus ten. The book had some decent parts, but that wandering around in the forest went on way too long, and there were so many confusing things in it, what either seemed to contradict things Jo had already said, or got pulled out of nowhere, that I got frustrated. Who the hell was Charity Burbage and why should I care? Wouldn't it have been nice to have fiend fire (or whatever it was- I don't have a book with me right now.) mentioned in one of the classes? JKR said Dumbledore's family would be a promising line of inquiry, but who the hell could have guessed he had a messed up sister living in the back room at one point? I could go on and on, but what's the point?

The epilogue just plain sucked,and not just because I hate H/G. I wanted to know what changes were made in the wizarding world, not what Harry and the Gin-bot named their bratty kids. I actually am considering just taking a box cutter and slicing it out.

 

Wow, capslock must indeed be the way to coolness if your post is anything to go by. I mean, why else would you use it so many times in stupid arrangements in such a small paragraph?

And is netspeak included in this guide to cool, man, I gotta start taking notes.

Also, I'm still pondering what FRAV means, must be cause I'm not cool enough.

 

I assume you were talking to Alter, the poster before me and not me.

I hate lots of caps in posts, and netspeak, too, although I do throw in a LOL! once in awhile.

If we go back to talking about weird things in the books, why were the carnivorous thestrals grazing in the Weasley's yard? I swear, the editor of this book was too busy bowing down to her cash cow than editing. I think the rules aobut secret keepers changed a bit, too, and I especially want to know how that old lady was visiting the Potters if they were under a Fidelius. Why woudl Peter tell her where they were?

 

Yes, you sniped me and I didn't notice. -_-

 

People keep saying that JKR had Harry Potter all planned out. I doubt it. Sure, she knew Harry was gonna secks Ginny, and that Voldemort was going to die. But if anything, her writing just showcases poor planning.

For the first couple books, it's just Harry going off on adventures. Meeting characters and forming bonds, but really, there's little build up or foreshadowing. Very scant on the thematics too (if the Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland can have themes and be children's books, so can Harry Potter [I'm not saying there is no theme, just that it's really lame (no symbolism or anything) and unfitting for the plot]).

I skimmed the book, since I only read it so I would get fanfiction that uses some of the elements from it (and just for general knowledge's sake). 2.5/5 (I rounded down).

As a whole, my biggest beef with Harry Potter is that Harry Potter is no more the hero than Ron Weasley, or Seamus, or Dean. JKR is essentially living her indulgences and hidden desires through Hermione, the true protagonist and mastermind behind every one of Harry's victories.

My second is, that JKR never really expounded upon the Wizarding World enough. Too much Britain. It is believed by some experts that readers, although appreciate good writing talent, love books more for the worlds than they do the fancy prose that take us there. JKR, even if it was just in passing comment by Aurors or something, could have descrbied more of the way magic was around the world. There was too much Dursleys --> Train Station --> Hogwarts --> Several other minor places/Ministry --> Train Station --> Dursleys. When she started rolling in the dough on her stuff, she could have really gotten into writing her world. Seven Wonders of the Magical World? Egytpian tombs? Incas and Aztecs and Witchcraft during puritanism in the thirteen colonies and the dark ages and et cetera et cetera... a lot of wasted potential.

This is what disappointed me in the series as a whole, and I was foolish to think the seventh book would have made any difference.

Edit: But hell, why didn't JKR try something more adventurous with her last book? It was still going to sell even if it just didn't work out, or people disagreed with the ending –– she could have written practically anything! She had total artistic freedom with the assurance she would still make millions! Authors would die for such an opportunity and she squandered it with a stupid anticlimactic ending, lack of real character development (honestly, how different are Ron and Hermione and Harry from the first book?), and a whole lot of pointless shock-killing (LOOK I KILLED OFF CHARACTERS! SEE! DRAMA!).

*shakes head*

 

Because as soon as the books got popular she decided to tell a moral tale instead of a realistic one.

 

Okay, I waited, and waited till all the hype was over... and finally read it.

Two words.

Utter Crap.

Snape a hero? an Anti-hero... Bullshit. She doesn't have clue fucking one what being a hero, even an anti hero, is about.

A hero of any sort, one with any sort of redeeming qualities does NOT pick on a fucking rail thin 11 year old kid. The guy was a dick, and her trying to cast him as not being one is bullshit. Let Occam's razor have it's due.

Manipulative Dumbledore is fine. Once you're as old as he is it's a given you're a corrupt fuck.

The biggest problem though were the characters
Ron: woefully awful, where was the Ron from the first three books?
Hermione: She's been turned into the brain box Deus Ex machina there to just solve shit when the authoress wants it solved... utterly awful
Harry: Jesus, where to start? He's a whinging pussy that is content to live a life as a drudging pruel when he should be taking back his pound of flesh from the wizarding world. Content to live a normal life... what a wuss.

All in all... it read like bad fanfic. Shame on you JKR.

You should have given your characters brains as well as hearts. Hearts only get you so far, and they've never won a war.

Who wouldn't have thought for a moment that the Bill and Fleur wedding wouldn't be crashed by Deatheaters? There should have been drills where people form up lines and when the DE's arrive they AK their asses in a huge volley of green death.
JKR has two classes of combatants in this book.... The badguys who kick asses at will... and the goodguys who have their asses routinely outmaneuvered and kicked with impunity.

It's fucking ridiculous.

 

I didn't have time to really go through other threads so I don't know if this is answered or not.

It was explained that a wand changes hands when they rightfully earn it from another person (ie disarm, rip it from there hand, defeat in a duel etc).

In the story Harry took Maloys wand which transfered ownership of the Elder Wand to Harry too.

Now, since Harry took Malfoys' wand and the elder wand became Harry's that would mean that any wand Maloy owned would now belong to Harry.

Would that also mean any future wand that Malfoy buys would also be Harrys'? Would that mean that no wand will rightfully belong to Malfoy until he himself defeats someone and takes their wand?

 

The way I read it, the wand that is captured at the time transferred. The Elder Wand is, after all, a special case.

According to how I read it (see above), no. Just the wand stolen and the Elder Wand.

 

I think you have the order reversed. You mean the bad guys who unrightfully always seems to get their asses kicked to the high heavens by the goody-two-shoes band of schoolchildren and Order people.

 

(Sigh) True, true.
And to think I paid my country's equivalent of 28 dollars (give or take some) for this shit. With my own hard-earned money.
The dragon thing was pretty cool, though.

 

Am I the only one who found the Gringotts sequence boring?

 

No, you're not. It was pretty unbelievable too.

IMO the whole Gringotts escapade was only cool for one thing- Harry using the Imperius Curse.

 

If you could have held JKR at knife point (because a knife is more personal), what would you guys have changed? I would've made her write Harry like a hero: Ginny/Ron/Hermione [whoever] is/are killed protecting Harry (early on in the book), Harry puts up with a lot of shit, but he doesn't break. He doesn't pick up any fancy relic or artifact, but instead preserves. He buries Dobby, puts up with the death of Remus, the fact nobody will ever understand his pain and suffering [to Harry's point of view anyway, I couldn't write him totally out of the fact he's a bratty child], the fact that he has no training or power or even the slightest tangible advantage over Voldemort, but kills him anyway. In some totally awesome and unexpected way. No – actually, better idea – he doesn't kill Voldemort, he makes Voldemort kill himself (without the shitty deus ex "lol your spell bounced off of me" bs). He exploits Tom's fear of death, or his fear of losing power (which are arguably, the themes that JKR was struggling to write into the book), and bam, Harry doesn't hesitate, he's finally an adult; he wins.

What I want to know is, who influenced JKR to write Harry Potter? Was this all just some fantasy she came up with on that napkin and decided "lol boy with glasses, magic, gin-slut, lol-self-insert god-character" or did somebody tell her to write these things. Was it the fans? Perhaps it was because she was too conscious of the fact this whole series started out as a "childrens'" book (which is a bunch of bullshit, I hate the label).

 

No I've got it pretty much got the order precisely right.

Let me clarify though out of respect for your question, because frankly it's a damn good one.

You rightfully point out that Harry and Co and the rest of the "goody two shoes" schoolkids always seemed to kick the bad guys asses throughout the book. You're right (with the sole exception being when Fuckhead!Harry once more said Voldemort's name, and had Greyback settle His, Ron's and Hermy's shit for them).

I mean come-fucking-on... JKR is trying to make me believe that three school kids would be able to sneak into The ministry and break out all those Muggleborns from the center of the corrupt ministry (Hmmm... corrupt and ministry... it's the same damn thing in this book) Then evade capture for as long as they did, and break out of Malfoy manor, then break into Gringot's?
Again... Come-fucking-ON! this is just ridiculous. But here's the thing... if a pack of God Damned SCHOOLKIDS and some over the hill professors can kick the asses of Deatheaters on a regular basis... (and here's the crux of my discontent) the what the fuck is the excuse for the whole rest of the wizarding world for not doing likewise?

Okay, some examples.

The Wedding.

The Wealsys HAD to know that everyone knows where their sympathy lies with regards to Muggles. As a result, they should have KNOWN, as would everyone else attending, that it was a near sure thing that Deatheaters would raid the wedding. As such, only a total buncha clueless fucking morons would not PLAN for it. Set up apparition points for exit, stockpile explosive potions or some shit like that that could be hurled at the Deatheaters... or better yet, have everyone attending do a few defense drills to have send some nasty shit into the faces of oncoming death eaters.

Ooooh, but no!, Can't have that! Goodguys are pussies in JKR's head. When they're attacked they run around like fucking chickens with their heads cut off and flee from the fight. Guess old Godric has some pretty loose definitions for what constitutes bravery these days.

No! What should have happened is when Kingsley's alarm went off at the wedding, the guests should have lined up and formed ranks. And when the Deatheaters arrived (and remember... they were attacking multiple houses SIMULTANEOUSLY according to the book... and thus their numbers where cut down to a fraction of their total number.) They should have been fucking MOWED DOWN. That's right, if the DE's were at a fraction of their total numbers attacking the Burrow, they should have been fucking massacred by disillusioned wizards and witches who would be waiting for them in nice pre setup defensive positions.


Now, I know what some people might say about this: "B-But...It's a children's book! You can't have the goodguys do 'bad stuff'!"

To which I say BULLSHIT!

Harry Killed another person in the very first book! Also, in this book we've had references to ruthless injustice, government corruption, torture, illegal imprisonment, and even rape (though it was somewhat glossed over by JKR), and lots more adult issues. Hell, Ron, in the final battle, said that he wanted to kill more Deatheaters. That sorta implied that the people that were defending hogwarts were killing people at the same time they were being killed too. Molly even did Bella (oh, that was just wrong)

The fact that Schoolkids were killing off Deatheaters just pretty much proves inescapably that Deatheaters are incompetent fuckheads.

But that said, if Deatheaters are made of suck... then what does that then imply about the people that let Deatheaters run roughshod over them the way the wizarding world did.

Specifically, that whole Muggle registration bullshit. Oh my fucking god. When Lupin said, "They're already rounding up Muggleborns" and implied they were getting away with it without resistance... I about fucking threw the book into the bin.

I mean come-the-fuck-ON already. JKR is trying to make us believe that Muggleborns and halfblood wouldn't IMMEDIATELY recognize that it's 1940's germany all over again? I mean for fuck's sake!

And that get's at the key of the arguement about the Deatheaters. They never have one of their victimization plans ever go wrong for them.

What should have happened was that Voldemorts plan for that should have blown up in his face and ignited a civil war in the Magical UK. It should have cut his army of deatheaters to the bone and sent him and his forces reeling from a wave of pureblood killings.

The Muggleborns and the Halfbloods should have... no strike that... they WOULD HAVE flat outright rebelled and formed their own vigilante organization almost immediately and started carrying out attacks on the ministry and anyone involved in the whole Muggleborn persecution bullshit.

They should have started attacking and killing the pureblood agenda spouting racists and bleeding them out in the streets of london.

In a realistic setting, people would have spotted the whole Muggleborn registration thing as a direct ripoff of Germany's"Final solution" immediately because of the fact that they ARE muggleborn and halfblood. They would thus be intimately familiar with the history of Britain and the 1940's from their parents and their schooling. Their muggle parents would have seen what it was instantly.

This right here is what pissed me off about the book. The general populace was given no credit whatsoever. Now, I can understand that longtine residents of the Wizarding world are lazy gits. They're used to being able to magic up pretty much anything they want, and thus would prefer to live in their own little happy world of denial. But Muggleborns or people with muggle parents would have the "hunger" that comes with a work ethic for having to do things for yourself. As such the fact that JKR flat outright showed the general populace as being incapable of resisting the whole pureblood bullshit just proved to me that she's either got shit for brains or that a previous poster was dead on right. That the first few books were good because she was trying to write the story realistically (as far as it being character and event driven) but the moment she decided that it was now going to be a moral story... she ruined the series.

She should have stuck to writing the books more and more realistically to reflect the growing maturity of the readers and the characters. By the time this book rolled around, it should have been reading like a Tom Clancy novel with people fighting intelligently and fighting a REALISTIC war. Not this bullshit moral tale she foisted off on us.

I agree that it was ridiculous that Harry and Co whipped up on the Badguys...

But it's reprehensible on the part of JKR that the adults among the Muggleborn and the Halfbloods didn't kick the asses of the Deatheaters ten times harder than Potter and the rest if Potter and crew could do it.

Instead, we had to bare witness to hundreds of pages of innocent characters running like pussies and being persecuted ... and NOT FIGHTING BACK. That's what just galled the fucking hell out of me. That noone fought back... not even the people that should have been fighting back because they knew what was coming.

Again... Utter crap. It was a waste of good money. It read like the worst sort of angsty fanfic. All angst with no reason for the angst and defeatism.

 

But you have to consider that most of the general populace do not have their mindset wired towards actually fighting the DEs, and most also either are really pathetic at defence, or have plainly forgotten how to defend themselves. Wait a fucking minute, why the fuck am I trying to defend JKR's fallacies? Even when typing this, I myself know it's not an argument that holds much weight.

On one hand she has shown us how a bunch of barely trained kids can continuously screw up the Dark Lord's plan and hold their own against the DEs. On the other, she has the general populace getting slaughtered/captured/persecuted without putting up much of a fight. In short, she is contradicting herself.

But why would she do it? Simply because she was torn between having to show off Harry and his friends' victories against the forces of evil, because that's simply what the book is about, and having to ingrain the evilness of Voldemort and the DEs in the minds of the readers. In essence, to make them look bad enough to justify Harry skipping school, constantly putting his and his friends' lives in danger, and any of the more questionable actions he took (ie. the Unforgivables that he cast)

To put it bluntly, the story was pretty much doomed from the start. Ask yourself this- is it logical that a main character who is pretty much average magically, has just a little more brains than your standard wizard, too much courage that it constitutes foolishness and negates the previous point can, along with some fellow children, not only stand up to but defeat the most powerful wizard currently, who is also supposed to be smart and charismatic, and who has a band of followers who are supposedly experienced and trained in killing/destruction?

Simple logic says no.

 

Well, yes, that too.

 

This would make an awesome oneshot, IMHO. Having a massive civil war errupt due to this, etc . . .

 

Um...that is what happened.

There was a civil war in magical UK.

That vigilante organization...it was called the Order of the Phoenix.

 

No.... that wasn't a civil war... that was one battle that the goodguys should have lost due to the sheer stupidity and lack of planning they used.

What I'm looking at is the reactions of the rank and file people in the street and how they handled the clearly over the top tyranny of the change in the ministry and the occupation of it by Deatheaters.

What happened was people didn't do shit.

The people that showed up at Hogwarts were a tiny... miniscule fraction of who SHOULD have been there. And even then, as I pointed out, it was just one battle that had no planning behind it at all. The few people that were there farted around for a whole year until there was a final big hoopla-esque confrontation centered around Harry Potter.

Honestly, it's not like Voldemort can be everywhere dealing with every battle against his forces and his regime change. And that's the thing, if people were killing his forces left and right and apparating out before he showed up... his attempts to rule would fail utterly.

John Maynard Keynes had the right of it. Wars are fought on butter and bullets. If you don't have people occupying positions of power, and making the day to day tasks of life happen... you cannot enforce your authority on them.

But back to the story.

There was no rational leadership, no plan, no active resistance right up till the end. That's no war.

Instead, it was like.... and I'm going to get roasted over the coals by any UK residents for saying this... it was like the Wizarding world of the UK was just like FRANCE in WWII.

There was an underground resistance that did jack shit.... but all the real power was in the hands of the occupying forces while the resistance ran around doing diddly and slapping themselves on the backs and congratulating themselves for avoiding battle.

Look at the comparisons. There were hoards of jackbooted thugs running around out in the open, grabbing people with impunity and no one said 'boo' to them. Where were the OotP wizards that should have been up on top of buildings setting up killing zones and ambushing known death eaters with public AKs and aparating out immediately?

Instead of actually fighting and killing the forces of evil and denying them victims... they just ran from them, ran pirate radio stations, and talked about defense. Not offense, not taking back their freedom, not throwing off the yoke of tyrany, and certainly not fighting back. It was always passive. Defend yourself ... but don't kill.

That's just fucking stupid.

Here's what happens in a war where you don't inflict lasting casualties to your opponents... YOU LOSE!

Imagine if the Aliies had used Rubber Bullets, leaflet bombs, and smoke gernades in WWII while the Germans used normal bullets, real bombs, and real grenades.

If one side just fiddle fucks around and doesn't kill the other side and tries to use nonleathal defense while the other side is killing the fuck out of them... it's a sure bet that the fiddle fuckers are gonna lose and lose big.

Honestly, I'd have expected people to do things like have someone mouth off to an informer in a pub saying something like "Oi, I think I seen me a muggleborn hiding out in the old Winwood house up the street." so that a team of ministry thugs go there. Only to have double the number of muggleborns apparate in behind them and cut them the fuck down.

Here's the long and short of it.

Voldemort's forces used modern day C2W attacks. That's Command and Control Warfare. It's where you attack the foundation of the government and it's military such that you disrupt and destroy their ability to operated effectively.

Blow up an unguarded bridge... and while the obliviators and aurors are away dealing with it... and thus sucking up resources... you send in teams of infiltrators and sappers and destroy more ministry resources or tie them up so they can't be used to fight you.

It was the selfsame tactics that American Revolutionary fighters used against the occupying British in our own War of Independence.

Snipers and woodsmen would attack a marching colunm and then run away. The British were moribund in that they would only fight a war with troop blocks and formations. They slugged it out directly.

Voldemort's forces fought smart right up till they took the ministry. At that point they gave up their most critical weapon, the illusion of anonymity.

Once people of certain leanings took positions in the ministry, they made themselves targets that Muggleborns, halfbloods. A proper civil war movement would have taken advantage of that visibility and started a pureblood bloodbath that would have gutted the heart out of Voldemort's forces.

That's the thing, while the Deatheaters were fighting the ministry and trying to bring it down... they were effective because they were mobile... and because it's far FAR easier to destroy than it is to maintain a corrupt bastion of government.

The second that Voldemort had control of the ministry.. .he gained all of it's weaknesses.

By putting his own people in power and having them openly espouse their beliefs... he made them immediately identifiable.

That right there made all his pureblood superiority supporters instant targets that the persecuted muggleborns and halfbloods should have started murdering left and right.


Now, as to the the other poster's point about this being an idea for a Oneshot.

Gonna do it right now I think.