Bio Whats George Lucas got to do with this?

Star Wars is a far larger Universe than Harry Potter if theres plot holes in Star Wars its because theres like 20 different people who have written Star Wars Novels.

 

The six film movies which George Lucas only has control over are riddled with inconsistencies, inaccuracies and a lot of retconning.

I used that to show that even if you're the only author and it's your world, you sometimes have to cut corners and rework things that don't flow with previous events. That's never appealing, I don't think (seeing as the prequel trilogy was panned).

 

Good idea. I'll jump right on that.

My review:

DH tied up every loose end that we've been wondering about for years. DD's past played a huge role in the book, obviously, and making him into a mortal wizard who is capable of the tremendous fuck-ups like getting into a fight that killed his sister is a huge point in favor of this book; I was too uncomfortable that DD was infallible, and indeed, too powerful.

Snape was a point which I was very surprised, and pleasantly at that. His back story was interesting, though we could have done without as much young childhood memories and skipped straight to the important stuff. Finding out Snape was the one who cast the patronus and he didn't hate Harry as much as people thought was mind-boggling at first, but as the story went on, it made much more sense. His role really rang true with the rest of the plot (i.e. love and self-sacrifice being more powerful than lust for power and hate), and made TMR's demise that much better.

Neville was probably my favorite part of the entire book. He grew a ton as a character in just a few short paragraphs; IMO after DH, he's one of the strongest characters (and not just wizarding power).

Harry's character went through a tremendous transformation in the book, and not just romantically, as he ended up with Ginny. He started DH as a lost 16-almost 17 year-old, with no idea what to do, who to trust, or how to go about doing...anything, really. He was shit at planning, shit at executing, and couldn't keep his cool under-cover to save his life (OK, maybe a bit of an exaggeration). By the end of DH, we see Harry coming into his own, giving orders with full belief in himself and the belief in others to do what he told them. The death of Dobby really changed something in him; whether it was Dobby dying for him, or the situation he had escaped from, I can't really tell at this point, but something changed. He was more calm, more assured in the direction he was taking, and he knew what that direction was. He wasn't letting Ron/Hermione decide what he was supposed to do anymore; in fact, they took a back seat role in the last third of the book.

Ron and Hermione played their role, I think. They lead when Harry was stuttering and falling, but they never took anything from Harry. Ron's desertion was necessary to see how much he helped the trio in their quest; and I thought it was funny that DD knew Ron would desert H&Hr.

DD's past was, as mentioned earlier, the main thing that tied the entire plot together. His metamorphosis from nice, crazy old Headmaster to crazy old human Headmaster from GoF -> OotP -> HBP and then to just plain old human in DH was possibly one of the more cathartic changes Harry witnessed in DH. Realizing that the Headmaster who had seemed so formidable, so infallible, with flaws as real as his own made Harry realize that he could beat TMR without DD's help. That DD seemed to have guessed at what would happen was at once doubtful, but at the same time satisfying (in that he really was brilliant, just not perfect) to the story.

In as far as TMR and the DEs went, I thought they were very well portrayed. It's now understandable why the WW was in such fear of TMR during his first rise. It also put into perspective Grindelwald, who was supposedly the most powerful Dark Lord before TMR. That DD had defeated him--indeed, knew him as a child--seemed to make TMR that much more intimidating.

As far as the bad goes, I'd say there was enough of it to not make the book into an epic, but it was certainly better than every other HP book, in my regard. The twists, the turns, and the resolution of the past was extremely important, and personally I found it fascinating.

What I didn't enjoy was Ginny; she either played too little of a role (in the case that she was to become Harry's wife, as in the epilogue), or too much of one (as in being Harry's wife in the epilogue). The epilogue sucked because of her, and it was greatly unsatisfactory. The epilogue tried to tie everything together further, and just ended up tightening the knot until I couldn't breathe.

I didn't enjoy Luna as much; she seemed to be stupider (i.e. MUCH) than she was in OotP. It didn't fit.

I didn't enjoy Fred dying. Percy would have been much more dramatic and shocking; Bill would have been better still.

Fleur and Bill's relationship and how they treated Harry irked me. I don't know why, it just did.

Anyway, I'm sure there's more stuff I have to review about DH, but I'll leave it here for now. 5/5, again, without the epilogue, 4.75/5 with. Great book, and I can't wait to see the Battle of Hogwarts on the silver screen.

To be fair, I thought the prequel trilogy sucked because of shitty acting and design. It wasn't really a fault of the story, which held up in my limited knowledge of the Star Wars fandom.

 

o.o indeed.

<_<

 

We never knew he had borrowed it before DH. For all we knew, it might have been torn and left with Dumbledore to fix it, or it might have been given for the use of OotP or simply left in the will.

ATM I can't think of any undeniable Hollows foreshadowing in the first 6 books. Sure there are half-indications here and there, but nothing like the telegraphed Regulus subplot or a number of other tidbits.

 

Vash edited the poll.

It was 80 (3 or less) to 35 (4/5), exactly.

While it doesn't matter, I still think it's ridiculous the lengths one will go to make it seem like the opinion of the people isn't directly against the book and that furthermore, that's a bad thing.

Edit: Fixed. Thanks Midknight.

 

Good Lord Mid...was that really necessary? We're already traumatized enough.

Moving on, finished reading the book and now I officially bump the rating up to a 2.5/5. Maybe it's just me but Voldemort and Neville are my two favorite characters now. I always thought Neville had potential but was never really utilized until now it was a huge jump but I liked it. And the whole thing with Voldemort and the taboo was interesting. But the dialogue was physically painful at points. And killing off Remus and Tonks for no apparent reason and no epic death scene really pissed me off. (but they're two of my favorite characters so I'm a little biased.)

And I know that JK based Hermione off of herself, but come on now. She practically solved every problem in the book. Hell I thought she was going to push Harry out of the way and kill Voldemort herself. And Ron is not even worth mentioning at this point. And Fred being dead? I was really going to shoot someone at that point. But I should stop. I'm really just repeating what everyone else mentioned but it seems we all recognized the same problems in the book.

And manipulative!Dumbledore kicked massive ass! I knew something was up with him when I read the 4th book when Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire and he SMILED! I totally thought it was him until the whole ending with Moody and Barty Crouch Jr. Harry doesn't even register as a character to me anymore.

 

I think the point people make about fanfiction influencing opinion is the fact that the most virulent criticisms of the last two books come from fanfiction sites, writers, and readers. I know a few times in DH (I read 1-6 all at once, and have been reading fanfiction since) I noticed many fanfic similarities- so much of it I had seen in various fics. But that just comes from people making good educated guesses about the world JKR has presented.

To me, it all feels like one series with no significant drop-off of quality. Many times I have read crap from fic writers bashing HBP, and looking between the lines you realize they hate the details that are different than what they've written. Like Kinsfire hating Hermione's characterization, going so far as to saying that book 6 is where she abandoned Harry. But she didn't abandon him, all she did was nag him for cheating nonstop. And then you read his fanfiction, and Hermione is practically perfect and the hottest girl in 6th year (funny how no one else seemed to notice this; you know Ron would and therefore Harry would), and it starts to make sense.

But on the otehr hand, one shouldn't make the claim that this is always the case. You could easily argue that people who read and write fanfiction are merely that much more passionate about it. I don't buy the claim made earlier in the thread that people write fiction to fill in the mediocre gaps; the majority of fics I read are clearly from people who love whatever fandom they're writing about.

Yes, there are some very obvious cases of people hating the last two books because they were expecting something completely different due to reading too much fanfiction, or fic writers who let a bunch of good reviews go to their heads I just doubt that this is the case the majority of the time.

 

Anyone who has been following the DH threads will probably know how I feel about the book.

I've taken a few moments and thought it through... I still say the book sucks ass, but it does have some redeaming aspects.

This has nothing to do with Bio, nor does it have to do with all the people who seems to think everyone who gave the book a bad review only did so because they wanted to get in Mr. Plagues knickers...

This is my.... Pro list:

-Harry stood up to the dursleys...

Long time coming and it wasn't dissapointing in my books. He was sarcastic and insulting, and he put them in his place; I liked that. I was afraid all the bad mouthing the dursley's would get was from Dumbledore the last book. With his, you should be ashamed because sunshine shoots out of Harry's ass speech.

-I liked the use of polyjuice...

It was funny with everyone trying to be harry in my books; I look forward to that scene for the 7th movie. Harry's inner monologue was full of win.

-Opening the book with a battle and action scene that automaticly competes with the ministry hoo ha...

I didn't expect that and I was pleasently surprised. I wasn't fond of Voldemort flying but I did like the whole arial battle. I won't comment on Hedwig, as even though I was sad that she died... I honestly couldn't see much use for her or any of the other pets during the rest of the book. They would have been a useless addition.

-Deaths and injuries...

While I wasn't supportive of all the deaths... they were in general done tastefully leaving some kind of signifigance for each character. Most I say...

-The hollows...

I'm not fully in support of them... but I do see some redeaming value in them.

I like the fact that they are a wizarding legend, and that it was fairly original.

Plus if you think about it... Harry has the best hollow in the legend, and he frequently leaves the priceless relic lying around. On the roof, in a dusty passage way... I would have loved to have seen dumbledore's reaction to that. Most of the year its lying next to Vernons old sock... Come on! Thats lulz worthy.

-Taboo...

I did like that, I do admit... it was very original and it was left vague enough that many plot wholes could have been easily explained away. The fact that they needed the ministry resources to do it means that it isn't as simple as waving your wand and Saying "Taboo 'Voldemort' "

-Harry is so freakin proactive...

I love that, He doesn't just complain and moap... he does shit. They come up with a plan, and then they execute...

Usually we get the idiotic harry who does impressive stuff by accident. Now we have a harry, who thought stuff through, had a role to play, found some snaffu's and improvised to make the whole operation a success. That was refreshing...

-Harry is also heroic...

Harry saves so many people through his travels... freeing the muggleborns, rescuing luna and ollivander... And thankfully we don't have harry sitting down at the end of the day or someone else, telling him how great he was to have saved so many people.

They did impressive shit... and then they moved on. Harry still gets his street cred through other sources, but it isn't sappy, and he earned it fully this time.

-Minor characters get upgraded...

Neville, gets kick ass, I love that. Alot of characters get expanded on... Luna started out kind of ditzy in the begining but I liked how she progressed.

-Dark arts....

While harry is still stupidly idealistic, he does use unforgiveables when he sees the need. And so do people like McGonagall... And no one complains. That was great, I didn't want to have to sit through Hermiones outraged scandalous admonishments.

-Gryfhook...

Now before the neg rep starts flying... I like this only for one thing. Gryffhook double crosses them... he got the sword, after helping them and then two times everyone by reporting them and running off. I laughed... it totally blows all those honor bound, goblin friends plots out of the water. Gryffhook was badass.

I've already argued with Bio about this and it seems I'm the only one to find this funny... meh.

-Ariana...

Her story was touching and well done... It adds alot of layers, which should explain my joining the New AFC (ArFaCl). There was nothng about her that didn't win.

-Lack of Ginny...

I expected her to be a love interest and thats not what I'm talking about here...

The fact that Rowling didn't turn the entire story into some long sufferign drivel about how he missed ginny, his true love, his soul mate, his snookums.... There was some of that but it was minimal. Plus I'm glad she didn't cop out and have Ginny tag along... God that is annoying to read. Plus she had nothing to do with Harry's power of love... or whatever it was. It was all Harry through some highly ridiculous plot twist.

-Snape...

Conflicted...

I can kind of accept it (Lily knowing him when they were kids), but it was a bit to sudden. If Rowling had introduced some further information to hint that Snape might have lived close to Lilly when he was younger... then I think it would have been less crappy.

As a plot twist, its ambitious but poorly executed...but on the up side...

...even if he was a good guy, he was a selfish stalker good guy. He was that creepy kid in the corner who somehow got on a first name basis with the hot girl... he lurved her but she didn't reciprocate or even know about it... He only joined the good side for purely selfish reasons... And he died.

He didn't die saving Harry, he didn't die some noble death.. he died pointlessly. That was epic. Rowling gets points for that...

... .. ... .. ...​

Thats my pro List... I've already described why I hate the book; the sheer stupidity of the other stuff simply overshadows all the good in my books. There was any number of ways that the end could have been written to keep the same general plot... Rowling was just lazy in my opinion.

But I will upgrade my rating... -0/5 is now 1/5

I think I've suitably explained my views on the book so anyone who claims that I'm following someone elses lead can go fuck a lawnmower...

Sincerely,

Quazi

 

I liked it, but it seemed like a fanfic to me. It was a bit boring at times, but that was easy to muddle through.

There were only a few things I didn't like about it. First, Tonks and Dobby died....fuck that shit, I'd rather have his two flunkies bite the dust, that's all I have to say. Second, Harry didn't even really kill purposely in the book. Voldemort got killed by his own spell...lame. Lastly, the epilogue....'nuff said.

I actually didn't mind how Snape was portrayed, I mean, he's not my favorite character but at least he had a reason for joining Voldemort. I don't get the American children's cover, it doesn't even look like the Great Hall...

But yeah....Molly killing Bella was...unexpected. I mean, it's hilariously ironic that everbody has been predicting either Neville or Harry destroying her...I give props to JKR for that.

Overall, I give DH a 4/5

Edit: Thought of a few other things people have pointed out...Wasn't Harry supposed to have another pet? I guess it could have been the snitch but I find that unlikely.

I found it hilarious that Neville pulled the Gryffindor Sword out of the hat...I want to see a ficlet where the sword just disappears under the goblins' noses.

The H/G wasn't all that bad actually...My rating still stands.

 

Ok, I'm on page 72 now.

Things I have liked so far:

Order showed intelligence with the 7 Harry's plan.

Hedwig getting AK'd.

I liked the dragon fire motor bike bit, actually, very clever.

The dark atmosphere is nice.

Remus is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters.

Things I didn't like:

Harry "I TRUST YOU ALL" "I'M NOT GOING JUST BLOW PEOPLE AWAY" Harry's attitude is very annoying.

The H/G shit.

First 4 chapters are 3.5/5

 

So I just finished reading it and am, overall, quite impressed. I had figured that after I hated HBP so much this would continue in the same vein and I would be massively disappointed. Thankfully that wasn't the case. Mostly.

My thoughts are first and foremost that the overall darker tone of the book suits it well. I have to admit I was afraid that Rowling would turn it into a tale of mushy proportions just to keep it a happy family story but she seems to have had no reservations in taking things where they needed (imo) to go, including the killing off of characters to impress the tone of the ongoing situation upon readers which I had felt she might try to avoid (having them all safely locked up at the new HQ for the whole book for example, with them always being safe when they got back there regardless of what else happened). I think that all things considered I prefer the completely darker overtone this book had over the overtones of all the previous books, but as I deem darker tales to be far more interesting reads that is hardly surprising.

She continues to write conflict well (well, if we ignore any and all conflict from HBP that is) and when events begin to spiral forwards it becomes very difficult to put the book down. There was a span of the last 200ish pages, from Bill and Fleur's Cottage onwards, that I read in one sitting (something Id been trying not to do before that so that I took it all in) simply because it kept me very engrossed, Overall I was not let down by the way things were wrapped up, to my surprise, and felt that it was very clever and fitting the way she had wove the tale from disjointed threads left by the other books into a smooth ending. I must admit, however, being surprised that Pettigrew's life debt was not more important than the twinkle in GoF in the overall scheme of things. I'd been banking on Pettigrew playing a large role in the final battle and a Redeemed!Pettigrew after re-reading the previous books.

Despite this though I can't proclaim the book to be perfect. Whilst the book wasn't a mushy romance novel like HBP when they crept up the references to romance annoyed me greatly, and in some places it was frankly completely inappropriate (specifically Ron and Hermione getting it on in front of the Room of Requirement as the castle is crumbling around them. Harry should have bitchslapped the horny morons). I also felt that, whilst throughout the majority of the book the usage of character death had been done to very good effect, there were several deaths particularly near to the end of the book that I felt were just thrown in as an excuse for Rowling to be able to do something else a few pages on, specifically Remus so that she could include him in the 'back from death' scene and Fred so it'd give Molly an excuse to duel with Bellatrix (and also, Molly killing Bellatrix? She must have been drunk when she wrote that...). Certain characters also remained alive that I felt would have been much better served being killed off in order to create a much more realistic means of pushing events onward as things drew to a close (Specifically Ginny, Ron, and Hermione here) One or more of their deaths would have spurred him on more to go and die for the greater good imo, and I felt that him just doing it without a drive of that kind was slightly unbelievable.

And then we come to the Epilogue. Ugh, what can I say about this chapter aside from the fact that it annoyed me the most in the book? Considering I absolutely despised the romance she set up in HBP I guess thats no surprise really, but seeing a future where Harry goes off and marries the girl that only liked him in the first place because he is famous, and Ron and Hermione marry after nearly coming to blows in every book stinks of being completely unrealistic to me. I was also very disappointed that we didn't see anything about what role Harry did/would have played in Teddy's life. I would have much preferred a chapter following directly on from the previous one, perhaps a few days in the future, detailing how things moved on in the immediate future rather than the fangirlish glossing over that we got.

To summarise, a fairly impressive book and better than what I had anticipated for the most part. Not perfect, but a very strong conclusion to the saga. 4/5

 

people are hitting on Hermione changing her parents mind and then unsure how to do an obliviate later.

One word guys: Confundus

Hermione never did a memory charm, she confunded them into thinking they were completely different people with different goals in life and have never had a daughter,

We saw Snape do that to Mundungus in Snape's memory - he put the idea in his head and then told him that he had not seen Snape.

So please quit with the bashing of Hermione on that front. It's as if you didn't read the whole thing that just assumed instead.

 

She says she changed their memories... in the book...

It never said anything about confounding. That is an assumption.

 

I actualy liked Griphook subplot, I just forgot to mention it.

I found it pretty cool how Harry tried his best to become friends with the goblin, but it just didn't work out. Like in the real life, sometimes cultures are just so different that it's better to keep them apart, than causing a conflict by pushing them together. Rather brave move by JKR, making a point like this (unless I'm misreading it and the whole thing was accidental).

BTW, I think it's pretty retarded to hate Griphook subplot just because JKR used THAT NAME, instead of inventing a new one. So what? Why shouldn't she use her own character? It's not her fault that hundreds of FF authors had used this one passing character to mush things up between Harry and the poor downtrodden/misunderstood/honorable Goblins.

 

Well, having finally read the entire thing in printed form (I never did finish the carpet version, skipped about in places but it was just too much of a pain to really read on a monitor), I give it 3/5.

The battle for Hogwarts was a bit disjointed, I think, but overall it reads well. The sense that Snape had a fairly disturbing crush on Lily is muted, but it's there, especially when he provides the memory (he didn't have to) which admits that the word "Mudblood" left his lips a little too easily during his Worst Memory (which is when he realized he'd bungled it so badly Lily would never become more than a distant friend - we still don't know exactly who wrote all the stuff in the Half-Blood Prince's textbook but it's a toss-up between Lily Evans or Eileen Prince).

Harry learning Occlumency-of-sorts isn't formally noted; it turns out, upon reflection, that the reason Harry could never learn it the 'orthodox way' in the first place is because he was an accidental Horcrux. If Dumbledore figured this out before Harry's fifth year, then I can only accuse him of the most monumental idiocy in asking Snape to teach it to Harry. However, to Harry's credit, his usual instinctive tendency to handle advanced magic without understanding its underlying principles stood him well as he realized how to manipulate the connection to let him see through Voldemort's eyes.

Harry taunting Voldemort and speechifying with him didn't seem out of place. Yes, the Deathly Hallows themselves are quite out of left field with little precedent for them anywhere in the series, but that's what makes it uniquely JKR's. She knew the whole story. We didn't.

The epilogue (which I did read in the carpet version) still seems kind of cheezy, but I can live with it.

Specifics re: Horcruxes, Sword of Gryffindor and Goblins

The thing that felt like a real Deus Ex Machina was the FiendFyre thing. Crabbe (or is it Goyle? I've forgotten who did it already ) casting an advanced spell that makes some crazy spirit-destroying fire? O-kay.

And the whole Sorting Hat grabbing back the Sword of Gryffindor? Griphook's not going to be too pleased with THAT. I wonder if it didn't accidentally trigger yet another Goblin Rebellion.

Speaking of goblins, I suspect JKR was mocking the fanfics that have Griphook practically falling over himself to cement an alliance with Harry Potter, because in this fic, Griphook's an unprincipled sneaky bastard who doesn't care that Harry needs the Sword to smash Horcruxes. So much for honorable goblins who'll help Harry from bad ole Dumbles!

 

The thing that bothered me most was the lack of evolution in Harry's magical skills. It seems like he stopped learning spells after GOF. Of the training he did for DA, there is no trace. Stupefy and expelliarmus are the spells of choice. Harry is supposed to be a 'great wizard', but we see no evidence of that fact. In every sticky situation, it's 'bucktooth' that's quick on the draw, knows the spells and saves the day.
Then we have the whole Dumbledore fiasco. He finally begins to have doubts of his intentions and eventually finds out the truth: Harry was a tool, nothing else. Then what does he do when he meets Dumbledore? He fawns over hin again. No resentment, no anger, no kicking him in the groin.
Harry was just too weak and unskilled and Hermione just too hypocritical and unrealistically knowing for this to get more than 2/5.

And don't even get me started on Ron....... Asshole that he is, had he been killed I might have given this a 4/5.
And as many have previously stated: Mollywobbles has NO business offing Bella. No chance in hell.

 

Just something that occured to me.

Taboo - Could only be tied to living creatures? Voldemort had the spell performed on himself? That would explain why the Ministry never utilized it in regards to the Unforgivables.