Spoilery Harry Potter thoughts

[selenak]

Bless Borders. Okay, here was my problem: I had ordered "Order of the Phoenix" months ago, not knowing that I'd be in London at the time of its release. Which means it will wait for me in Munich when I return.
But. Waiting till Thurday to read it when it's everywhere in my immediate vicinity? Torture. However, the above mentioned chain bookstore kindly offers chairs to its visitors. So this morning, I marched in, grabbed the next best Potter copy, and read it.



Scattered thoughts:

A some weeks ago Joss Whedon praised the HP saga (to no one's surprise, considering all the shout-outs since Dawn's arrival in BTVS) but wished Harry would be more rebellious and anti-authority, even if the authority is Dumbledore. Well, he got his wish. Harry is one angry teenager ™ in this volume, and it makes complete psychological sense.

A.J. Hall will love what JKR does with Neville. And I can't think of anyone who won't. He rules in the last third of the book. The big revelation re: him and Harry is just the cream on the cake.

Hermione was fabulous throughout, but what I particularily adored was her scene with Rita Skeeter. Our Hermione has an inner Lilah I highly approve off.

Ginny got character development, and it's most enjoyable; no pining for Harry, instead she's got as many dates as first season Cordelia, and she gets to show more common sense than Ron ever did, combined with bravery than. Loved her cool "how good for you" reply when Harry said he'd forgotten she had been possessed by Voldemort.


During the first half of the book, I felt a bit disgruntled that there was little to no Snape, with his one or two appearances of a perfunctuary nature (i.e. enters, sneers at Harry, makes vicious sarcastic remark, leaves stage). However, then we come to a situation right out of fanfic, with Snape giving Harry secret extra lessons in anti-Voldemort fighting technique. As opposed to fanfic, this doesn't result in a wonderful friendship. But what it does result in pleased me very much, to whit:

Some emotional background for Snape, and Harry's and our first distinct unflattering look at James & Co. Given the Dursleys, it's not surprising Harry idealized his parents and specifically his father, and everyone except Snape so far told him only wonderful-sounding things about him. And you've got to admire the set-up Rowlings does for Harry's disillusionment: it's in character for Harry to snoop in the memories Snape specifically did not want him to see, and because he knows Snape hid them away they're more credible than any rants would have been. Incidentally, this must also be the first time we see a group of Gryffindors presented as bullying a Slytherin.

Snape as the outsider bullied by the popular kids makes sense (which is why lots of fanfics presented him that way already), and explains though by no means excuses the way he treats Harry & Co. Lily defending Snape and him snarling at her because of it should make lizbee happy…

In the interests of shades of grey, I also loved Dumbledore pointing out to Harry Kreacher's motives and the unthinking discrimination Sirius exercised by never thinking of Kreacher as a sentient being like himself.

Speaking of Sirius: I predict much wailing. It did surprise me - I thought Hagrid was going to be the one to bite it. But it shows JKR is really prepared to take some risks, Jenny-and-Tara-stye, Sirius being one of the most beloved characters of the series. Additional kudos for the Harry and Nearly Headless Nick scene making clear Sirius won't come back as a ghost, either. Letting Harry use the Crucio on Mrs. Lestrange to revenge Sirius was gutsy, too. It emphasizes once again we, and Harry, shouldn't take Harry's good nature for granted. He could become Voldemort. It's his choice, not his destiny, not to.

Speaking of the bad guys: while I'm delighted with the good guys getting all sorts of grey shades, the villains are pretty much the usual. Which means rather dull for the Malfoys, père et fils, and over the top for Voldemort and Mrs. Lestrange, though it's interesting she's Sirius' cousin. (And hey - Draco is Sirius' nephew once removed!) Oh, and as opposed to many a fanfic, Voldemort did NOT tell his Death Eaters he's a half blood himself. Makes sense. As does Dumbledore addressing him as Tom all the time.

One last thought: the step-by-step takeover of Hogwarts by the Inquisition and its youth squad reminded me of Night Watch in B5's second season. Also of the fate of schools in 1933, of course - and the McCarthy period.

Comments

[aphedas.livejournal.com]

Some emotional background for Snape

Yes, I loved all this. I'm actually amazed she did this turn around, although it was a shame Snape disappeared right after this.

And Harry as an angry teen made a much better book than I expected.

It does sound the death knoll to all the Draco lovers though. If he isn't set up as a tortured character seeking redemption by the fifth book, but just a cardboard cut-out of his father he never will I'd say.

Letting Harry use the Crucio on Mrs. Lestrange to revenge Sirius was gutsy, too.

Ah, I hadn't thought of the becoming Voldemort angle there, but of course you're right. (It is odd though that no-one commented on the being sent to Azkaban Unforgiveable curse thing). And that ties in with the having to be killed by him or kill him thing. I didn't think about that when I read it, because we'd all assumed that he'd have to kill Voldemort anyway. He's afraid there that if he kills Voldemort he becomes like him but he's already taken the first step with the Crucio curse.

Well now...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

"It does sound the death knoll to all the Draco lovers though"

I have to confess I feel a bit of Schadenfreude there. Fanon Draco has absolutely nothing to do with canon Draco, and never did. (Which is why he is one of my pet peeves in fanfic. I'm all for interpretation, but there has to be SOME basis in the original text.) Rowlings never gave us any indication this would be a redemption story. She has her ambigious Slytherin with a increasingly layered relationship with the hero, and that's Snape. No Malfoys need apply.

"He's afraid there that if he kills Voldemort he becomes like him but he's already taken the first step with the Crucio curse."

Yes. Not a death curse but a curse specifically designed to inflict pain. Insert all obvious references to third season Buffy/Faith scenes and Vader/Luke scenes in SW here as well.

Re: Well now...

[aphedas.livejournal.com]

I have to confess I feel a bit of Schadenfreude there.

I love that word. Um, right, book5, I wonder if all the Harry/Draco shippers will shift to Harry/Snape now, cos that was so there. And Snape is as you say in some ways very like fanon Draco... only not so pretty.

Re: Well now...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

"I love that word"
One great contribution of the German language to the world.

As for Harry/Snape: apart from Snape's canonical lack of prettiness (Alan Rickman and terrific voice notwithstanding), I don't think ALL slashers will ignore the obvious teacher/student problem. Which is good. Emotional realism and so forth. I remember Torch, I believe, writing a story which deals with this aspect realistically, "A Pale Taste of Green", I think.

You came to your OotP knowledge much as I came to mine, then.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Only I went to Hugendubel and crouched down next to a stack of books and didn't *quite* read all the book, or my knees and feet would have died off! ;-)

I'm... underwhelmed, somewhat. I remember JKR saying the death was *necessary to the plot* and I don't see how it was necessary... but maybe it has something to do with that weird archway and it will play a role in later books... All I can say is that at the moment, it seems pretty pointless, about as meaningful as John's and Aeryn's death in Bad Timing. (What is this about characters I love dying pointless deaths, anyway??? Yeah, yeah, I know - dren happens, there hasn't got to be a point to everything.)

Loved Sirius' background, though. I'd say that for someone with that kind of family he turned out surprisingly decent, even if he was a git at school!

Anyway... Sirius-centric summary of the Harry Potter series so far:

Book 3: Sirius is hunted.
Book 4: Sirius eats rats and writes letters.
Book 5: Sirius does some house-cleaning and dies.

It must truly suck to be nothing but a plot device. ;-( Ah well, there's still fanfic.

That should probably read 'you came *by* your knowledge', shouldn't it?

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

My English's not always up to scratch.

Ah, but I have the advantage of...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

...not seeing the series from a Sirius-centric (and don't you love the alliteration?) pov. I mean, I like him, but he's by no means my favourite character.

My take on why the death was necessary: see above. Because it caused Harry to go after Lestrange with a Crucio, thereby deliberately using one of the Unforgivable Curses and showing his Voldemortian - or should that be Tom Riddlean - dark side. Hence, btw, my comparison to Tara's death. It had to be someone Harry loved, and it couldn't be Ron or Hermione, nor Dumbledore (because the Big Mentor Death is obviously saved for the last volume). Hagrid would also have qualified. Why Sirius? Because fans love him more.

Oh, and it fits with the process of growing up. Harry gets severely disillusioned with his idealized dead father in this volume, feels used by and rebels against the overall patriarch, Dumbledore, and loses his replacement father, Sirius.

Okay, let me elaborate on what I mean by the 'pointlessness' of Sirius's death.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

I realize that killing a father figure makes sense from a storytelling point of view. However, he died in a very 'oops, well, shit happens' kinda way - quite stupidly, really, if you ask me (okay, I do know that RL often *is* that way, but this *is* fiction. A bit of meaning doesn't hurt.)

*And* he had, IMHO of course, a lot ot *completely* undeveloped potential. In fact, I feel that he has done next to nothing meaningful in the books except being a means of exposing some of the truth about the death of Harry's parents and providing Harry with something to latch his surrogate father fantasies on. He provides some exposition and a space for projection. He barely even qualifies as a real character.

Now, here's this guy who has had *the* most shitty life one can imagine (just compared him to John and Frodo, who both also score highly on the shitty life scale, and he wins by a wide margin!) and who really has, or could have had, a 'journey' as a character - winning back some of what he's lost, getting revenge (or not, but at least trying), getting his name cleared, actually *being* that surrogate father to Harry - and he does, precisely, nothing.

I actually wouldn't have minded if she had killed him at some later point, or if she had killed him after at least doing *something* with him, but he really only is a projection space. A plot device. She wouldn't have had to make him *happy* to make me happy. I just would have liked him do *something* meaningful. I would have liked to know that he actually fulfilled some sort of purpose, instead of just being a tiny cog in a huge seven-year plot to propel Harry to some unknown sinister - or glorious - destiny.

Hagrid, who was often mentioned in the 'who's going to die?' discussions before the release, did not have nearly as much potential as a character as Sirius did. In fact, I've read many comments - can't judge it from the bits I read so far - that say he's not really being used to great purpose in the book at all. I'm not saying I would have been happy to see Hagrid die - however, it would have had a bad enough effect on Harry, and would not have robbed the Harry Potter universe of as much potential as Sirius' death did. JMHO, inevitably tinted by my grief for Sirius.

On a lighter note: I just saw the cutest (not so accidental) misspelling of 'godfather' in another LJ: 'dogfather'. *g*

Death and the beloved character

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Hagrid: as you know, he was my guess for the doomed Redshirt. And pretty much everyone else's, yes, which is perhaps why JKR chose Sirius instead - greater shock value and all. However, again, Hagrid is not a father figure. He's everyone's best buddy. As for further relevance, I do wonder whether his aquaintance with Tom Riddle will come in handy later. Also, being a half-giant, he's a constant reminder of the racism the Wizard world has at the best of times.

Undeveloped potential in Sirius: well, yes, but you can say that about many a character who gets killed off. Boromir, for example. Zhaan. It still makes sense within the story.

Of course, I realize I've got it easy to talk because Sirius wasn't on the top of my list of favourite characters, and I did get development where I wanted to see it - with Snape, with Neville (go, Neville!), and with Ginny, who used to be far less fleshed out than Sirius was. And most of all with Harry.

So, here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/marinarusalka/53671.html#cutid1) is a review of OotP by Mariner aka Marina Frants aka Marina Rusalka, who as you know adores Sirius and wrote some great fanfic about him. She's just as much in mourning as you are but nonetheless loves the book, and explains very well why.

Zhaan, Boromir, Sirius.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Well, certainly, most characters could still go *somewhere* instead of being killed, but if I compare these three, I'd still say, Sirius was the only one whose death is *really* premature. The others *might* have developed in an interesting way yet, but this guy had *burning issues* - IMO to a much higher degree than any of the other two. And not a single one of them was even remotely resolved.