Maeve. A manipulative bitch to the end. using her own daughter in an attempt to shield her own life and stave off her death. Unfortunatly, such things rarely work when you have one such as Harry as an opponent. Expecting shock and tears? Well you got tears. But you now have the utter rage and fury of a Denarian wizard.

GG.


Lol. Amanda with the Sword to the chest. "Oh hai. You die now."

Excellent finish. Is this it for the 2nd book? I means is this pretty much the end not withstanding the epilouge and the teaser to the third.

 

Eh? What? This is the third and final book. Still got Voldemort to go here Mercenary.

As for the chapter itself, i'd seen it in a less edited form before, but still, it was absolutely epic.

I didn't not like a single thing in it, too be honest, content wise. Few bits of wording to fix up, but nothing too hard.

 

I`m getting a little sick of Amanda. The last chapters were all about her, I mean she does everything. She rescues Harry, and now she is the one who truly defeated Meave and saved Harry again.

Less Amanda, more Harry, more Dumbledore, more Vodermort, more anyone just stop turning Amanda into a Mary-Sue.

 

OH GOD SHEEZA I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE ACTUALLY USING A CHARACTER YOU'VE BEEN BUILDING UP FOR THREE BOOKS.

 

It`s not that, I just felt that Maeve should have died when Harry used those three words. That was the moment, not some crappy AK after Amanda got in a lucky shot.

 

Eh, the problem with Harry winning when he used the three words would be that it would be too normal.

When our main bad guys go we don't usually want to see them die in a normal way. Harry beating her in a flat out magical duel, even one with lots of things going "boom", would have been anticlimactic. As much as we hate dues ex machina, we also love it.

Imagine if Lord of the Rings had ended with Gondor marching on Mordor and winning via a normal battle. Or Gandalf having a magical duel with Sauron and winning. It'd be lame. It's not what we want from an ending. We want something unique, something special.

If Harry beats Maeve because he's just plain stronger than her then she becomes less. She's no longer the Big Bad. She's just another bad guy like the countless others that Harry has fought and slaughtered.

 

Although IIRC Gandalf did come back and shit on Sauruman(?), his archnemisis, quite thoroughly. Sauron was only going to die when Frodo threw the ring. Deus Ex Machina is fine. Amanda taking the killing blow is not so much. I'd rather Harry get lucky than Amanda incapacitate Maeve. It isn't so much that she was even involved, it's that she basically did the lion's share of the work, striking the critical, decisive blow of a battle that wasn't hers. Harry puts the final bullet in her head. Assistance has a limit. In the end, the protagonist must venture alone.

And again, this was a fucking epic chapter, don't get me wrong. But on this one facet, that's my opinion.

 

Just noticed something.

I was under the impression she was still a changeling? unless it was mention previously and I missed it.

 

^This is what I was talking about

All the things Maeve has done to him and in the end she goes down in the end because of all things Amanda shanked her with some holy iron? Im with afrojack in that even if hed gotten lucky it would have been more satisfying than Amanda stepping in. Now dont take it like I didnt like the chapter it was epic but it would have just sat a lot better with me if Maeve had gone down in a fiery explosion of power from Harry then shanked in the back by Amanda of all people.

 

Personally, I'd have preferred it if Amanda merely distracted Maeve at the last second, giving Harry the chance to kill her properly. Seems more fitting for the sidekick/almost-hero role she was forced into upon taking Meciel's coin.

On a completely unrelated note: Do you reckon a Word meaning 'Die!' in some ancient language would fire an Avada Kedavra? Since there really doesn't seem to be a way to upgrade that beyond what it already does.

 

QFT for both.

It may as well be a Word, just one that is much more commonly used. You know, concept of death should be the same for any world so the difficulty of grasping it should be next to none.

 

I suppose you could consider all wizarding spells Words... just human ones.

Regarding Amaris, I was under the impression that we found out that she had chosen Fae this chapter. The spiel about her being Fae and having a different conception of morality.

 

We know that a little longer:

 

Didn't Harry mentioned that a wound like that would heal for him in minutes? So... wouldn't there be a chance to hand Meciel to Amaris before she died?
I was kind of expecting that while reading before Amaris died.

 

Hand Meciel to treacherous Amaris while Maeve is still ten meters away?

Hell no!

 

Amaris remains Harry's only daughter, wouldn't saving her there be reasonable keeping in mind that even after torturing Harry he still wants her to live.
Even with Maeve 10m away, wouldn't just having Amaris touch the coin for a few seconds having her fae powers amped by meciel be enough to at least escape death until Maeve is defeated?

 

Frankly, if Harry just wins every fucking fight, it gets old. Fast.

I mean, half of DL has been action packed, Harry kicking ass, frankly, I am happy to get away from the monotony, and actually have him not be the strongest or luckiest or most underestimated person for once. Its nice to see that even with a fallen angel, he is not the most powerful person. I mean, it just gets boring if he is. There is no challenge, there is no place for others to shine. It would also completely undermine half of Shezza's plot, which is that he is NOT the strongest, he CAN be beaten, which is why he needs Dumbledore as an ally.

I also happen to love Amanda, and well, anything that she does right is fine by me.

 

Id agree with you if this was only half way through the series or something but this is the last book and near the end of it, outside of Voldemort this is theoretically the last big fight so I just personally feel that this far in to the story it just detracts from it that for all his training and everything hes gone through when fighting the sidhe whos done so much to him, he can't beat her by himself and he has to get his butt yanked out of the fire by a under trained human girl.

 

I don't think that would be possible. IIRC, you only get the powers from the fallen by trading your soul, and b/c Fae have no soul this would be impossible for them. However, I'm not sure if that was DF-canon or if Shezza is even using it if it is canon.

I liked the fact that Amanda (in this case) had to help Harry defeat Maeve. Maeve had Amaris pop in the fight, and makes it more believable to me that someone would take a potshot at a powerful enemy if it would help their side.

 

Wow I didn't see this coming Amaris dead. Meave dead and Dumbledore still alive I was sure he was a gonner.
Damn nice update!