I do wonder if Rowling killed off Lupin because he was:
a) Harry’s last father figure
b) The only surviving member of the ‘Potter Gang’, with Wormtail already having died.
After that, I suppose killing Tonks is easier that dealing with her grief, and the baby doesn’t know what he’s missing.
I’m definitely hoping for an Ender’s Shadow-esque book around 7. Something from Ginny’s, or maybe Neville’s, point of view. There wouldn’t be as much tension, of course, but there could still be a lot of story told. I imagine the DA at Hogwarts would’ve been a good story. On the other hand, it probably would’ve fit well as a couple chapters interspersed with the tent living. Everything doesn’t have to be about Harry… right?
I think it’s one of those things that’s better imagined than actually spelled out. One of the highlights of Deathly Hallows, for me, was Neville’s emergence from the tunnel and recounting all that had gone down at Hogwarts. Longbottom went from a incompetent squib to a central part of the resistance and I like that I don’t have all the details.
I agree that the tent living bit was laborious, but I think Rowling did that to explain the poor decisions that they made. It’s probably not the best way to convey the passing of time, but I felt it was a reasonable way to convey it. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.
I thought the same thing about wanting a book devoted to a Harry-less Hogwarts.
Was a great read. Only wish there had been a final Ginny/Harry moment before the epilogue.
You know what I was expecting but didn’t get?
A Snape Headmaster portrait doing something cool, or saying something important. It was fine that Snape was redeemed through the Pensieve, but in the end he very much deserved his place on that wall in the office at Hogwarts, and that should have been mentioned.
Great call. Though he did a get little shout out in the final dual against Tom. I thought it was a nice touch to have Harry vindicate him publicly.
I think it really showed Harry’s “goodness” how he forgives Snape so readily, after seeing what happened in the Pensieve. I do think that he was one of the most heroic characters in the series, at least equal to Harry - doing what he did, how he did it, for so long, is amazing.
I really liked the book. My only bitch, and its a minor one, is that Neville shoulda put the sword of Griffindor through that whore, Bellatrix Lestrange
Yeah, the lack of denouement is kind of strange considering the last three books have basically had 50 pages of post finale material. I think Rowling thought the epilogue served that purpose. While I didn’t mind the epilogue itself, I think her attachment to it (evidently it hasn’t changed much since she wrote it while writing the first novel) clouded her eyes on it.
Now only has she improved dramatically as a writer since that first novel, but the scope of the series has grown so much with the rather large supporting cast that it’s strange to read an epilogue that’s clearly written from the standpoint of only the key characters of the first novel (basically the trio and a shout out to Draco).
I’m kind of hoping that if she ever does do the Encyclopedia for charity she’s mentioned that she might throw a short story or two in there about the more immediate aftermath of the final book.
I loved it - any complaints I could list would boil down into minor nitpicks. I’m not sure if it’s my favorite of the series yet, but it may well be. The final showdown at hogwarts was worth the price of admission all by itself.
Glad that everything’s wrapped up, not sure that it’s my favourite. mainly for the things mentioned aboved (Camping especially), but it’s certainly a decent end to the series.
I did like that it muddied the waters a bit further with Snape and Dumbledore being less “evil” and less “perfect” respectively, but I’d still have liked to see a bit more from Snape within the book. But in some respects I guess that we, like Harry need to find out from the pensive. I’d decided (along with everyone else) that Snape was one of the good guys before the book arrived, but it took one incident once he becomes headmaster to cement it as definite. I didn’t have him for the doe patronus though.
I’m assuming you are talking about sending the kids to Hagrid of all people as punishment for breaking into the headmaster’s office and stealing a priceless treasure? Yeah, that cemented him as good for me too.
I thought he might have been behind the doe patronus but I didn’t know why it was a doe.
Yep that’s the one. The doe patronus did throw me off the scent totally, I presume it’s mentioned somewhere that Lily’s patronus was a doe, but it’s been a good while since I read the earlier books so I was just left wracking my brains trying to figure it out.
I had been starting to think that I must have skipped a few pages by mistake during the big fight and missed Tonks’ and Lupin’s demise but it does seem it was pretty much glossed over. For all the hoohah about major characters biting the dust, it was only Snape’s demise that really seemed to carry any meaning, everyone else seemed to have been wiped out without much ceremony except dobby, a character I hated because of the films anyway, but which I presume was the one that had Rowling howling into her typewriter.
I did think that the deaths were copouts to an extent. She had promised deaths to help the hype and then delivered with some of the most expendable characters that still have name value - the b-list after Harry and the rest of Carry On Camping. And if Tonks and Lupin were glossed over, how about Fred? A death so understated that even Qt3 has managed to ignore it!
I don’t think they ever mention what Lily’s patronus was. I still suspected Snape though because he seemed the most logical person to have access to the sword of Griffyndor.
I find what Rowling did with the Lupin and Tonk’s death (and to an extent the entire final battle) interesting- since she never breaks away from Harry’s viewpoint in the novels outside of a few opening chapters, it would be kind of weird for Harry to be present for the death’s of all of his friends since the fighting is over such a large expanse. To just see Lupin and Tonk’s dead without any apparent information over how they died seemed pretty realistic.
I felt pretty bad about Fred’s death- the twins have long been among my favorite characters of the series.
I don’t know, I didn’t see any reason that Ron or Hermione needed to die. It never felt necessary to me. A much bigger copout to me would have been killing off Percy or even Bill or Charlie.
She did say that one character was slated for death and got a reprieve- my guess is that it was Hagrid.
My favourite of the series. While I agree that the camping went on too long, I put it down to Harry literally having no clear idea of what to do, not being a notable ideas guy.
I loved the final battles and it’s fun to see Harry in kickass mode once he finally has figured things out.
I thought of another complaint: I wish Umbridge had gotten hers but good. She has it coming as much as any of the Death Eaters, and she walks! That won’t sit well with me. Sequel!
I don’t think that they needed to die, but that the already massive hype was amped up by veiled hints about people dying. As it went, I think that the characters that did die weren’t quite on the level that people were expecting and were the ‘safer’ choices.