-Shakes head-

Just because you're willing to settle for the most plebian of all possible outcomes doesn't make me an idiot, Rather, it makes you a simpleton.

Book seven was, in my opinion, a compilation of poor Deus ex, and bad Fanfiction. Rowling should have started the war in book five, and not tried to keep it rated 'T'. It may have started as a childrens story, but war is never pretty, and she made a major fuckall of it when she tried to put it off for three books, and then cram it all into the last one.

Edit: and Sesc, the 'In Character' and 'Predicted' coupled with the Massive Deus Ex that was the hallows is why it was so crappy. There was SO MUCH potential in that book, and with very few exceptions, she pissed it all away.

 

So, what did all of you expect to happen post book-5 compared to what did happen in the final two books?

 

I expected that I would read the ending to a series of books I enjoyed. I didn't expect people to take spiky hammers made of rage and beat the books into oblivion because the author decided not to use their genius plot devices.

 

I sure as hell didn't expect H/G.

Seriously, where the fuck did that come from?

Besides that I expected one of the Golden Trio to kill someone. I really did. I thought it was pretty much inevitable that they would have to.

I also expected Harry to die and stay dead. Considering how JK said the last book would focus on death.

I expected a lot of people to die and I got that but what I didn't get was the emotional response from Harry. His response to all the people that died for the cause was pathetically short. It reminded me of the end of Eldest. Sure it was the end of the series and she didn't have much room but she could have given it a go. Maybe I just like to see Harry suffer.

I also expected JKR's editors to keep their bitch on a leash.

And I'm pretty sure no one expected the 19yl shit.

 

While there were specifics in book 7 that rankled, in the end, it was the incongruity between book 7 and book 6 (as well the large one between book 6 and book 5) that did me in. Reading it as a stand alone, it is passable fantasy. As the culmination of a 7 part series, it fails, hard.

Although, it has to be given, she might have screwed up plot mechanics at times, in book 7 the apotheosis of Harry's character is done pretty well, thematically. It could have been better, but after book 6, I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. (This, of course, excludes the epilogue, which was basically stuck into the final draft by a drolling fan who happened to be the progeny of one of the people in close contact with the book.)

 

First Girl Wins - Ginny was literally the first female his age that Harry meets - in Book 1. I predicted this when I finished reading the first book. Furthermore, when it was ultimately Ron, and not Harry, that saved Hermione, I figured out the Ron/Hermione pairing would happen.

Anyway, there were more than enough hints throughout the series until they finally got together in book 6.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1572107/20071017/story.jhtml

Also, http://www.accio-quote.org/ , Ctrl+F and search for <JKR: "hogwarts is a multi-faith school">

As someone who picked up on the Christian symbolism that smashes you in the face throughout the first book--though Jo toned it down in the subsequent volumes--the Harry-dies-and-resurrects thing was pretty predictable to me. It doesn't hurt that throughout the series Harry symbolically dies in each book and then symbolically resurrects.

Whether one is Christian or not shouldn't matter to people in the west who are bombarded by its symbols every day of their lives. Even if you just want to read a story and don't want a religious book, people have got to be willfully ignorant if they don't see it.

Whilst the particulars were not predictable, the jist of it was: the main pairings were there and they had kids. What was more surprising was Draco not dead or in prison.

In any event, Jo wrote the Epilogue pretty early on so she would have a goal to work towards. That explains why the writing level noticeably shifts from the style of the 7th book to that of the first book.

 

After book 4, I wanted and expected a time skip, Harry to have some training for the eventual battle. Not some bullshit deus ex. Instead, nope, it's go to school as usual while a war is building up.

The whole series would of been better as a trilogy like she though originally. Most stuff is just pure filled. The Stone, the Chamber, everything in Azkaban except for Sirius, Remus and Peter was filler, and then she threw the characters away more or less. Goblet was a just filler fest, Phoenix seemed interesting, but again, nonstop filler fluff.

Take out the Quidditch, the random nonsense, the crying over Privet Drive, and a few other things, and you can condense the books into a 2 medium sized books. Flesh them back back with some decent middle sections rather then random gibberish, and there you go.

 

Primarily, I expected Harry to defeat Voldemort on his own merits (with Hermione and Ron at his side until the final battle). There would be a message about hard work, determination and the will to succeed will enable you to overcome adversity, or something similar.

We all know what happened instead.

What else post-OotP? I expected Harry to become more studious, given that the stakes had been immeasurable raised. I expected more encounters with Death Eaters, and Harry actually besting them on his increasing skill. He didn't necessarily have to kill, but to capture/defeat them, sure.

I expected him, Hermione and Ron to mature, given what they'd seen and done, and not waste an entire year squabbling amongst themselves while acting way out of character even for hormonal teenagers.

I expected Harry and Hermione to end up together given that Hermione was the only person that ever truly supported Harry always or knew him. Ginny was less than a minor character after CoS until OotP. No development between the pair. Utterly ruined the romance angle in the series.

I expected Dumbledore to teach Harry properly, and not simply review memories (which, while useful to understand why Voldemort is evil, was insufficient given the massive difference in skill levels).

Besides that, I've mostly forgotten my expectations. Book 6 was just terrible, and 7 was too jammed packed with content that should've been split between the two. I wouldn't have minded H/G if Ginny had been characterised properly and the romance properly formed. I also wouldn't have minded the Hallows if there had been mentions of them in previous books - some kind of foreshadowing.

 

Am I the only one which thinks that HBP was written by a ghostwriter and DH's whole garbled structure felt really weird to me, not to mention the ending ?
She wasted 6 years to build up Snape and partly Lucius and both ended in the most pathetic pointless ways I can't even grasp the intention of the writer.

I mean, can anybody here actually understand the point of the convoluted plot to let Snape kill Dumbledore and make himself the most trusted DE ? What was the actual benefit for the plot in DH?

As a reader you can assume that he avoided too much damage to the pupils but assuming makes no story, neither do you need to be the most trusted DE to end as Headmaster.

If Snape would have found the location of a Horcrux or provided some other important informations it would have made some kind of sense. To let him deliver the sword or provide the information that Harry is the last Horcrux and needs to die felt like an extremely convoluted way to keep Snape somehow in the story than ignore him completely. Here the whole planned plot broke together imho.

The previous books had a similar style and mood, the plot matched between the ends and the start of the next book and if somebody argues with child books, GOF and OOTP surely weren't child books anymore. But that wasn't the case with HBP and DH at all.

She got her child 23 January 2005 while HBP was released 16 July 2005. If I had half a billion in my bank account and with a child on the way trying to write a book to keep up with my publisher's release date expectations would be the last thing on my mind.

Despite a few stupid plot devices in OOTP the book was my favorite with POA because both opened the magical world a lot and created so many possibilities because it made the world grey.

But HBP and DH didn't use the developed world to its potential at all. Either the interesting planned world she created was an illusion managed by sheer damn luck to quote McGonagal and the luck ran out after OOTP or she wasn't fully involved anymore.
Maybe it was a combination of both.

 

No.

The books are solid in terms of delivering a cohesive plot from book 1 to book 7. The only thing that changed is you - getting older, developing new preferences in literature, and (the biggest mistake) reading fanfiction by incredibly talented authors.

 

Really the biggest problem I have with DH (besides ASP) is that long ass part in the middle where there's nothing but them walking around in the woods.

 

I wouldn't say that Blaise. I read them all but 7 pretty close together, and have again since. The writing style changes in 5 a small bit, 6 big time. The quality just takes a giant nose dive.

 

I actually still love all the books. I've yet to re-read DH though which is an indicator of dissapointment with it.

 

Aw Sree did you take your big boy medicine today? Yes, I expected the books to be worth a fuck, and not end the way they did. Blow me.

And remember, she didn't plan on 7 books. The success took her by surprise and she didn't know what to do next.

*So I'd thought I remembered, maybe I'm wrong.

 

Seriously, you on your period or something, you're being pretty bitchy for some reason?

Anyhow I distinctly remember us all discussing how she didnt plan all the books at the start from some interview she gave forever ago, cbf to find the links, maybe I'm wrong. Either way it doesnt change that fact that I didn't like how it ended, fanfiction possibly ruined it for me, but the quality just fell off a cliff.

 

Harry actually cries over the loss of the Dursley's in book 7 because they were killed? He cries over "family" that abused him for 17 years? What a fucking dipshit. If it were me, I wouldn't cry over those pieces of shit dying. Since my mother was such a fucking bitch, and didn't really show real emotion towards me the first 17 years I live with her, and if she actually died right now, I'd be actually happy, and I'd piss on her fucking grave, that's what I'd do. But since Harry is such a fucking retard, it doesn't surprise me that he'd cry over assholes that abused him for 17 years.

Rowling really doesn't understand how humans really work. Douchebag.

 

I've read enough chapter chunks to stay away from it. What I saw was enough to know I'd hate it.