Overall review of Deathly Hallows
21 Jul 2007 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
salineaNeed I say SPOILERS? Totally spoilers.
Okay, so overall I liked it a lot. It's rather well written, it's action packed and pretty well plotted. I mean, it's not without inconsistencies and a couple of plot holes, but it was an enjoyable, relatively complex plot, which kicked from beginning and never really paused much (except for exposition ^^). I thought it started losing a bit of steam when we came to the Battle of Hogwarts, possibly because I was getting tired from the all nighter and it was getting pretty confused, but overall I thought it had a pretty good pacing. She also closed a lot of loose ends plot wise.
Thematically wise, I thought the book worked mostly. I'm not totally crazy about the Deathly Hallows (but I love the idea of the Wizarding fairy tales ♥) but it worked well enough into the narrative. I'm a bit as repulsed with the idea of "yay, death" as I was with it in Buffy's season 5's ending, however. And HP lacks the whole "homecoming" part. It just goes straight the "happy ever after and many many BABIES! *giggles*" errr - but it works well to conclude the series nonetheless. The very big thing that missed was a real re-unification of the Slytherins into Hogwarts' good side. It looks rather petty to keep 'em as the caricature. (as a result, calling Snape worthy of Gryffindor just comes out as the biggest Patronizing back-handed insult ever for exemple).
The trio was the big highlight of the book characterization-wise. Emotionnally, their road was awesome. You could relate to all of them, and they all had some cool stuff to do. I could totally &heart; them through the book. (I'm not a big Trio fan, but I always rather liked Harry and Ron ^^)
When it came to secondary characters, JKR had much more trouble giving us a convincing picture. Obviously she struggled a lot with the limitation of her PoV. Some of the solutions was ingenuous and fun (Dumbledore's backstory). Some were handwavy but okay-y (Voldemort's visions, Snape's memories). Some characters very much got shafted because JKR had no room and no complexity (possibly no willingness) to tell their story fully.
Neville and Luna really shone when they appears ♥ Poor Ginny was only left as Harry's love interrest and as a result gets even less coherent characterization than previously. Lots of small characters had cameos that were great : loved Viktor Krum and most of the teachers, for exemple. I couldn't be happier about the resolution of Regulus' backstory. Narcissa was awesome. Loved seeing Andromeda and Ted. Aberforth was totally rad. It was good to hear about of Rita Skeeter. Hearing characters on the radio like Lee Jordan and others was a nice touch (although I didn't like the gimmick because of the overdose of WW2 ref).
Some character's part was way too small (Percy), but was still okay as is. Some were way to quick to be any good (Peter's death x_x).
It's a bit disapointing that all the Malfoy build up ended up only with that, at least for Draco. I can't say it wasn't entirely what HBP was preparing for, because it's in the continuation of Draco's hestation and unwillingness to act rather than his willingness to do something "good", however it did make it feel very unresolved. Thank God Narcissa is there to save honour ^^ I rather like that the Malfoy family all survived and we had no doubt that they were a loving family in themselves (I never really worried about Draco, but i thought one of the parents may quite die).
I am way to biaised to properly assess Snape's plotline being the Snape/Lily hater than I am, however, Snape was definitly very cool in the few scene he was in (limitations of PoV again), the whole discussion with Dumbledore was awesome. His death was abrupt, but not entirely without good plot reason, not unexpected of course and certainly no worse than Sirius' in the quickness and lack of funeral of it, so I don't have a very big issue with that. I'm not entirely sure about the pacing of the quick death then long revelation scene in the Pensieve, especially as the only purpose those scenes served was tell Harry he must die. We needed to know Snape's backstory here, of course, but telling it in that way was slightly awkward.
Of course I really disliked how big the focus was onto Lily. I'm getting really really weary of Antiheroes plotlines being resolved by #1 "Redemptive" death, #2 it was all for the love of the good woman. I totally think it clashes with the idea of an actual moral compass, you know, or whatever. And it's totally clichéed. In this case it's also totally creepy but well it's Snape, he can do creepy.
Remus and Tonks - well. I don't actually have an issue with the characterization. I didn't think any of is worked against what we knew of them previously. I actually like remus' big loss of control, it's always nice to see Mr Repressed lose his cool ^^. I do totally have an issue with the fact she had no real plot purpose for them (apart from a bit of exposition), so she filled that void with mariage-baby-death. And that's very LAMEZ.
I'm not particulary upset about any of the other death. I mean, I'm sad with Moody, Ted and Fred, but there had to be death, and they didn't have WTF death.
Some characters never did actually get any resolution, let alone a passing mention. No Zacharias Smith for one ;_;
I'm very unhappy about the sledgehammer of WW2 references, as previously mentionned. Stylistically wise, it's wince worthy how unsubtle it is. And honnestly? There's a point where too much feels rather disrespectful.
OKay, i ended up speaking more about the stuff I didn't like than the stuff I did like, but I did think it was a good book overall.
Fandom wise, of course, there's some adjustement to do. I'm sure we can find war to walk around Snape's and Remus' death, thankfully. Remus' wedding might be harder to do but it's not impossible to do. So it's a big blow, but I'm confident in fandom's ingenuity to adapt itself.
The hardest thing to work around for me is Snape's obsession for Lily (i knew it would be so :( why I dreaded the thing so much). On the positive side they never actually go and say it's romantic love, and he could have been in denial etc. etc. But yikes, it's still too important a part of his canon characterization to be left alone.
I'm happy the Blacks were mostly left unharmed (of the wacky characterizationà) and even enriched to play with.
That was possibly the most Snape/Harry friendly book yet, and that's saying something XD I'm not very big into this ship, but I think there's still a lot to work there (though creepy, but Snarry should be creepy anyway). I can't get over the doe XD. You might want to fit in some James/Snape in it too.
Harry/Draco is still extremely playable, especially with all the life saving (life debt!) and all. Pretty nice.
Fanfic wise what i most want to see now is Hogwarts throughout the year. There's a lot of fodder there because the DA's antics and Neville kicking ass, Snape as Headmaster and the DE using students for torture practice as if we were in one of these amenuensis1's fanfics ♥
There's probably a lot of things to do with the Ministry as well, because you gotta love that 1984's feeling and I always loved the Ministry.
There's still a lot of things to do with the First War, and since this is my favourite period, I'm happy it was left unharmed ^_^
Founders time was also left mostly spotless but for Ravenclaw's daughter. I want to see some fics there too.
Of course, I'm all for ignoring the Epilogue because there's a point of silly, childish and sugarcoated that's just embarrassing for JKR. Let's just Obliviate ourselves, 'kay?
Okay, so overall I liked it a lot. It's rather well written, it's action packed and pretty well plotted. I mean, it's not without inconsistencies and a couple of plot holes, but it was an enjoyable, relatively complex plot, which kicked from beginning and never really paused much (except for exposition ^^). I thought it started losing a bit of steam when we came to the Battle of Hogwarts, possibly because I was getting tired from the all nighter and it was getting pretty confused, but overall I thought it had a pretty good pacing. She also closed a lot of loose ends plot wise.
Thematically wise, I thought the book worked mostly. I'm not totally crazy about the Deathly Hallows (but I love the idea of the Wizarding fairy tales ♥) but it worked well enough into the narrative. I'm a bit as repulsed with the idea of "yay, death" as I was with it in Buffy's season 5's ending, however. And HP lacks the whole "homecoming" part. It just goes straight the "happy ever after and many many BABIES! *giggles*" errr - but it works well to conclude the series nonetheless. The very big thing that missed was a real re-unification of the Slytherins into Hogwarts' good side. It looks rather petty to keep 'em as the caricature. (as a result, calling Snape worthy of Gryffindor just comes out as the biggest Patronizing back-handed insult ever for exemple).
The trio was the big highlight of the book characterization-wise. Emotionnally, their road was awesome. You could relate to all of them, and they all had some cool stuff to do. I could totally &heart; them through the book. (I'm not a big Trio fan, but I always rather liked Harry and Ron ^^)
When it came to secondary characters, JKR had much more trouble giving us a convincing picture. Obviously she struggled a lot with the limitation of her PoV. Some of the solutions was ingenuous and fun (Dumbledore's backstory). Some were handwavy but okay-y (Voldemort's visions, Snape's memories). Some characters very much got shafted because JKR had no room and no complexity (possibly no willingness) to tell their story fully.
Neville and Luna really shone when they appears ♥ Poor Ginny was only left as Harry's love interrest and as a result gets even less coherent characterization than previously. Lots of small characters had cameos that were great : loved Viktor Krum and most of the teachers, for exemple. I couldn't be happier about the resolution of Regulus' backstory. Narcissa was awesome. Loved seeing Andromeda and Ted. Aberforth was totally rad. It was good to hear about of Rita Skeeter. Hearing characters on the radio like Lee Jordan and others was a nice touch (although I didn't like the gimmick because of the overdose of WW2 ref).
Some character's part was way too small (Percy), but was still okay as is. Some were way to quick to be any good (Peter's death x_x).
It's a bit disapointing that all the Malfoy build up ended up only with that, at least for Draco. I can't say it wasn't entirely what HBP was preparing for, because it's in the continuation of Draco's hestation and unwillingness to act rather than his willingness to do something "good", however it did make it feel very unresolved. Thank God Narcissa is there to save honour ^^ I rather like that the Malfoy family all survived and we had no doubt that they were a loving family in themselves (I never really worried about Draco, but i thought one of the parents may quite die).
I am way to biaised to properly assess Snape's plotline being the Snape/Lily hater than I am, however, Snape was definitly very cool in the few scene he was in (limitations of PoV again), the whole discussion with Dumbledore was awesome. His death was abrupt, but not entirely without good plot reason, not unexpected of course and certainly no worse than Sirius' in the quickness and lack of funeral of it, so I don't have a very big issue with that. I'm not entirely sure about the pacing of the quick death then long revelation scene in the Pensieve, especially as the only purpose those scenes served was tell Harry he must die. We needed to know Snape's backstory here, of course, but telling it in that way was slightly awkward.
Of course I really disliked how big the focus was onto Lily. I'm getting really really weary of Antiheroes plotlines being resolved by #1 "Redemptive" death, #2 it was all for the love of the good woman. I totally think it clashes with the idea of an actual moral compass, you know, or whatever. And it's totally clichéed. In this case it's also totally creepy but well it's Snape, he can do creepy.
Remus and Tonks - well. I don't actually have an issue with the characterization. I didn't think any of is worked against what we knew of them previously. I actually like remus' big loss of control, it's always nice to see Mr Repressed lose his cool ^^. I do totally have an issue with the fact she had no real plot purpose for them (apart from a bit of exposition), so she filled that void with mariage-baby-death. And that's very LAMEZ.
I'm not particulary upset about any of the other death. I mean, I'm sad with Moody, Ted and Fred, but there had to be death, and they didn't have WTF death.
Some characters never did actually get any resolution, let alone a passing mention. No Zacharias Smith for one ;_;
I'm very unhappy about the sledgehammer of WW2 references, as previously mentionned. Stylistically wise, it's wince worthy how unsubtle it is. And honnestly? There's a point where too much feels rather disrespectful.
OKay, i ended up speaking more about the stuff I didn't like than the stuff I did like, but I did think it was a good book overall.
Fandom wise, of course, there's some adjustement to do. I'm sure we can find war to walk around Snape's and Remus' death, thankfully. Remus' wedding might be harder to do but it's not impossible to do. So it's a big blow, but I'm confident in fandom's ingenuity to adapt itself.
The hardest thing to work around for me is Snape's obsession for Lily (i knew it would be so :( why I dreaded the thing so much). On the positive side they never actually go and say it's romantic love, and he could have been in denial etc. etc. But yikes, it's still too important a part of his canon characterization to be left alone.
I'm happy the Blacks were mostly left unharmed (of the wacky characterizationà) and even enriched to play with.
That was possibly the most Snape/Harry friendly book yet, and that's saying something XD I'm not very big into this ship, but I think there's still a lot to work there (though creepy, but Snarry should be creepy anyway). I can't get over the doe XD. You might want to fit in some James/Snape in it too.
Harry/Draco is still extremely playable, especially with all the life saving (life debt!) and all. Pretty nice.
Fanfic wise what i most want to see now is Hogwarts throughout the year. There's a lot of fodder there because the DA's antics and Neville kicking ass, Snape as Headmaster and the DE using students for torture practice as if we were in one of these amenuensis1's fanfics ♥
There's probably a lot of things to do with the Ministry as well, because you gotta love that 1984's feeling and I always loved the Ministry.
There's still a lot of things to do with the First War, and since this is my favourite period, I'm happy it was left unharmed ^_^
Founders time was also left mostly spotless but for Ravenclaw's daughter. I want to see some fics there too.
Of course, I'm all for ignoring the Epilogue because there's a point of silly, childish and sugarcoated that's just embarrassing for JKR. Let's just Obliviate ourselves, 'kay?
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no subject
Date: 21 July 2007 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 21 July 2007 05:27 pm (UTC)I have a theory Andromeda killed him and blamed DEs because he'd call her "Dromeda" one time too many. One should totally kill a husband that call you Dromedano subject
Date: 21 July 2007 05:29 pm (UTC)I have this idea for a fic about a train and Ted and Tonks and Remus and Marlene McKinnon, so we'll see how that pans out.
no subject
Date: 21 July 2007 05:45 pm (UTC)Yes ^^ i'd forgotten that.
I have this idea for a fic about a train and Ted and Tonks and Remus and Marlene McKinnon, so we'll see how that pans out.
Oh! I look forward to reading that!
no subject
Date: 22 July 2007 05:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 July 2007 03:11 pm (UTC)I'm a bad French!
no subject
Date: 22 July 2007 10:44 pm (UTC)I wanted more percy! T_T I also wanted him to be a spy but i love the way he came back.
Although I loved all the Snape/Lily I was definitely hoping for more memories with either Snape & Dumbledore or Snape and a few other people, just to see that it wasn't all for Lily. I do love it but at the same time hate it cause all Snape sacrificed, his only happy moments were of Lily and never of just being happy. I wanted him to be good not soley for lily but with everything else. Definitely wanted more chapters with snape & draco.
In my fanon, Snape always had a thing for Lily but he became fond of Lupin too. Yes it needs to be part of him to be more canon compliant but I think it can be done.
And yeah, I'm pretty much going to ignore the epilogue in anything I do, especially since I don't support those ships. Sorry this reply is all over the place, writing at work between photos.
But yes, it wasn't that bad of a final book. =3
no subject
Date: 23 July 2007 09:16 am (UTC)I think you're spot in with how the fandom will adapt to the change in canon to keep the required ships alive and floating.
N
no subject
Date: 24 July 2007 08:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 25 April 2012 06:56 am (UTC)