Todd wrote:
>
> It also seems like Rowling left the door open to come back
> and write about the intervening years. She purposely didn't
> tell us what Harry, Ron, and Hermione did for a living, and
> she made some comment that left open the possibility
> down the road. Personally I'm not sure how you top
> beating Voldemort. Any other adventures would pale by
> comparison.
>
I wasn't completely satisfied by Book 7. I've seen enough commentary
at other websites to know that I'm not alone in finding the whole
camping trip in the woods as incredibly boring. Generally speaking, I
wanted to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione interact with a lot of other
characters much, much sooner - and more often - than they did. Left
to their own devices, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were remarkably slow,
argumentative, and ineffective. They needed a good, swift kick in the
pants.
Also, too many things happened offscreen - eg., Neville, Ginny, and
Luna rebelling against the regime change at Hogwarts; Lupin's and
Tonks' relationship challenges; and all the ongoing activities of the
Order of the Phoenix. It was all very frustrating to see so many of
my favorite characters get shortchanged, particularly those who died.
I was very sorry to see Hedwig die. I understand that Rowling sees
her death as a metaphor for Harry's loss of innocence in this new war
against Voldemort. However, all I could think about is how much it
reminded me of why I hate to see a cute or beautiful animal in a
thriller or horror movie - they never make it out of one alive. They
are the red shirts of such movies.
I guess I expected something a little more horrifying to result from
Mad Eye's death. When Bill and Lupin failed to find Mad Eye's body, I
sort of expected that meant that the Death Eaters would turn his
corpse into one of the inferi. But, perhaps, Rowling thought the
imagery would be too disturbing.
Snape should've received greater prominence. For all these years that
he's seemingly served as such a great foil for Harry, he deserved a
greater chance to shine here. Alan Rickman must be pissed if this is
all he gets to do in the final film.
And don't even get me started on how disappointed I am in what
happened to Lupin.
This is not to say that I didn't enjoy certain parts of the book. I
did. I loved the scene at the beginning of the book when the Weasley
twins look at each other in their new Harry Potter disguises and
exclaim, "We're identical!" I also thought that Rowling was
particularly effective in describing Dobby's death and burial. And I
thought that the scene where Harry believes himself to be going into
the woods for the last time was very moving. It's just that I wanted
to enjoy the book more than I did.
La Binsk
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