This book made me the dark twisted soul before you. Causing me to read only evil/independant/super, more or less any fic that WONT happen in cannon.

 

For those who want a series that doesn't fall to shit before it's finished, pick up The Amber Chronicles by Rodger Zelazny

 

That happened to me as well, I was just so disappointed that I started reading all the evil fanfics I could find, naturally, I eventually found this site

 

I'll agree to that. I might have been leaning towards the twisted/dark side, but that book really pushed me over it. Good lord, Harry blew so much ass, I almost thought it was a Harry bashing fanfic.

 

No...absolutely NOT :x worth the time I spent reading it.....and thats saying a lot since I was in the middle of the woods, with nothing to do all day except read the copy of Half Blood Prince that I.....umm....."borrowed" :wink: from a friend. Good Thing I didnt buy it.

Oh...while I think the book sucked, I think that it unfortunetly has to be read, otherwise, you will be totally lost when the next book comes out!

Oh...and incase you were wondering....yeah....I eventually gave it back to the guy.........and lets just say it was a good thing I was leaving the camp that day!!! :lol:

and power to ye bunnies!!

 

I hope the pages you used to wipe yourself off with after bathroom visits didn't give you papercuts. At least the book could possibly be worth it's price in toliet paper.

 

To be fair...

Just to be fair to JK for a second, in terms of overall literary quality HBP was the best written of the series in that regard. That said, I'm with the rest of you that say that the plot BLEW. I dont mind H/G so much, but I despise R/Hr and I really dislike the way JKR writes the romance aspects of the book (altho the various euphemisms she uses for kissing are rather amusing) . Also, this book could have been about 300 pages shorter since the whole concept of going through Voldemort's past is mind-bogglingly asinine (it better prove DAMN important in Book 7 or I'll be pissed). JKR spent way too long on this plot while completely ignoring most of the issues brought up by Book 5 (my fav, altho, again, JKR+romance writing=NOT GOOD, the Harry/Cho scenes made me sick). I was glad with it that it had Snape and Malfoy on Voldemorts side, I always find fics that have them converting to the "Light" side retarded. So, ya thats my little rant, here's to hoping Book 7 returns some order, eh? (raises glass, drains it, grabs the bottle, takes it to his room to get piss drunk to forget the bad of HBP)[/i]

 

Now that you mention it, I browsed through this and realized that no one had mentioned one of the biggest flaws of HBP - Voldemort's history. I mean, doesn't anyone else finds it shamelessly biased and poorly motivated?

Look for one moment at what I ASSUMED would Riddle's story be like.

His mother, going against everything her family beleives in, marries a muggle. He turns out a real jerk and dumps her when he finds out she's a whitch. She dies brokenhearted and alone after Tom is born. Tom is scrawny kid like Harry and he gets picked up by other kids. Caretaker is a squib and he/she hates wizards, so he/she encourages the other kids to pick on Tom. Tom finally gets the letter and learn about magic, everything is great, he's finaly free etc. But then he's forced year after year to return to the orphanage to beating and torturing etc. Frustration grows, the knowledge that he could defend himself but he's not allowed is eating him up. Then he learnes about him being Slytherin and about his family's beleifs. Him being an orphan and all, is very interesting in his family and he researches it deeper. He finds out that they hate muggles, same as him. Than he finds out about his mother and he hates them even more... Thus, he figures that his famly is completely right abour everything and turns dark.....

Now that's how I see Ridley's characterisation and reasons why he turned dark.

And this is what is practically JKR's take on the same thing.

Gaunt family lives like a bunch of evil savages (them being Slytherins and all). God forbid we even imagine there's a good bone in their bodies. Coz of course, we need to understand that all Slytherins are evil in their core. Merope, Voldie's mother, is an ugly bitch. Tom Riddle is a Garry-sue, rich, handsome, good man. Merope, being ugly and evil abnomation that she is, enthralls Riddle to fuck her. Unfortunatly, the whench isn't even smart enough to keep him under potion, making Riddle break the spell. When he realizes that ugly bitch practically raped him, he does what every decent human being would have done - he runs away from her never to see her again. Gee, what a bastard!

Then, the orphanage - Run by an obviously good woman, all the kids are little angels, save for Tom, who is of course devil's spawn (him being Slytherin and all). He's bullying all other kids and living like a God amongst them, not coz he was being bullied or forced to survive, but coz he was born evil and enjoys torturing other human beigns (him being Slytherin and all). He refuses to allow saint Dumbledore to manipulate him, which is a SURE sign he is evil. And then he goes to Hogwarts and starts hating all the muggles, even though there's no reason at all for that (remember, he was living very cozy amongst them). And in the end, he kills poor Riddle for no reason at all. Why? Because, like Dumbledore is the EPITOME OF GOOD, Voldemort is the EPITOME OF EVIL!! (him being Slytherin and all). Did you get it, kids!? That's why Harry is Dumbledore's man, instead of Voldemort's! Coz, faced with Voldemort-like childhood, he had choosen GOOD instead of EVIL!!! Weeeeee!

What a bunch of bullshit. She turned carefully developed characters into comic book hero/villian types, whose whole lives are defined by heretige. I won't even go into the fact that this shit tears down the whole value system she had created in her world. "Blood doesn't matter", wasn't that the whole point of the war and the series in general? And then she turns Tom into a devil just coz he's from Slytherin bloodline. Fucking biased bitch.

So, no one had mentioned that before, but Riddle's history (and Dumbledore becoming a saint, making the whole war into simplistic GOOD vs EVIL fight) are probably one of the poorest moments of the whole series (along with Harry's non-existant character).

 

Great points, ip, your version of things makes a lot more sense. JKR has seemed to have oversimplified the fight. I had always wondered why, in OotP, Harry didn't use the Chamber of Secrets to house the DA, it would've been perfect once they got rid of the Basilisk corpse, but that would've made Harry too much like Voldemort, wouldn't it? Speaking of the CoS, it even implies that your version of Voldemort's story is correct, "There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles" (italics mine) implying that their treatment at the hands of Muggles was similar.

 

Riddle's Childhood

I'm rather saddened personally by Riddle's characterization as a child, and the lack of redeeming qualities. All of the best villains have that shred that makes people like them -> Darth Vader v Palpatine for Luke, or even Magneto tryin' to help out mutants.

Rowling basically ignored her own philosophy and just had Riddle be 'born evil' since he was of the bloodline, which is bs. The whole history lesson thing with Dumbledore was, imo, one of the most ridiculous plots in the entire series. who the fuck cares about his childhood when all you're doing is painting him to be evil, why waste so many damn pages restating it.

_____
Frowning slightly at Harry, Dumbledore spoke again, "Voldemort was evil from the womb, Harry, his choices made him that way."
______

and save us all the problems of having to read half the book.

but his lack of any redeeming quality makes him a rather flat and all around boring character. Good v Evil is boring to read about, Gray v Somewhat-darker-Gray is far more interesting, and her portrayal of his childhood left young Riddle as despicable, when it would have been far more interesting to have him fall because of the hatred of his classmates, for being a half-blood in Slytherin, or something.
blah.

 

Agree, how can she destroy the possibility for a perfect enigma evil character by filling in a bunch of bull shit regarding his being born evil?

 

Re: Riddle's Childhood

Rowlings portrayal of Riddle's character annoys me.

To quote a famous existentialist whose name escapes me at the moment "Should I eat breakfast, or kill myself"

Meaning that everything is a choice.

Riddle, by virtue of Rowlings characterization of him is a man who has made no choices, but was instead born on a pre-destined path towards evil.

Thus removing choice from the equation and countering the argument in favor of the breakfast quote that she set up with Dumbledore.

Sorry if this post is a bit messy... I drank a bit to much tonight, and I will probably be paying for it 6 hours from now.

 

jkr wrote herself in a corner with this one.
Why would riddle want to stay at hogwarts over the summer? by going back to the orphanage everyone fears him and hes like the biggest bully which means he can probably get whatever he wants there from the other kids

i can understand in later years he wants to stay and study about him being slytherin's heir but early years didnt he try to stay at hogwarts? and yet he had no reason to really stay there. so what the fuck?

 

If they got rid of Slytherin house then all those future dark wizards would end up in the other houses. They might even go on a killing spree because they were stuck in a house full of mudbloods. Plus, Lucius Malfoy was on the governor's board thingy for a while and there are probably other former Slytherins on it too. So you can't get rid of the house. It would also be disrespectful to the founders.

One more, I think Dumbledore liked having the Slytherin house in his school. Think about it. He knew that Gryffindors and Slytherins never got along, yet why did he organize the classes so they'd be in the same class? He thinks its fun. He was an old man who was bored with life (which is why he didn't fight in HBP) and decided to mess up Hogwarts. How else was he not able to find a competent Defense teacher? He should of just started teaching the subject himself after Lupin left.

 

He should've but you have to keep in mind that he's a busy guy, Supreme Mugwump of the Wizengamot, Head of the International Confederation of Wizards, Head of the Order of the Phoenix, Fudge coming to him (until GoF) for every little thing, plus whatever he has to do as Headmaster, he didn't really have a choice to become DADA teacher. What he should've done is bring back Moody (hopefully not an imposter this time) in OotP, it makes a lot more sense than fucking around all summer and getting stuck with Umbridge

 

but moody is worth more as a member then a teacher. I mean other then him and a few others they have noone with experince.besides hes a might be second powerful after albus.