Though I made note of it at That Other Blog, I figured I'd let y'all know that I have vanquished HP7, and lo, it was good.
And I want to talk about it. Pretty please? Erica? Matt? Dani, did you finish it yet? hooray for wizards!
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OMG GIRL! I have gone to such lengths to finish it: 1 borrowed copy in Israel and two pirated copies, one from Bangledesh!
Yes, let's debrief!
And who saw HP5 because Matt and I did last night and I am just gushing over IHBC as Bellatrix.
and lo, there shall (finally) be discussion! I will do my bestest to remember the details I breezed by a month ago in my efforts to finish as quickly as possible (I'm honestly not 100% certain which twin died), using fansites to refresh my memory if necessary.
also, I have mixed feelings re: HP5 -- I saw it the second it came out (seriously, at midnight on opening day) and LOVED it, but a week later I reread book 5 and I was like, "holy crap -- this 5-page scene was summed up in one movie line!" apparently it's both the longest book and the shortest movie, which made for lots and lots of action but not so much exposition. I'd be curious to know how well someone who hasn't read the books would have followed it...
{{SPOILER ALERT [I'm not quite sure who I'd be spoiling things for, but just in case we get some random Google traffic]}}
I'm willing to discuss as well... Dani and I had a long HP-related discussion the other night in the car and, as I said then, I thought it was an adequate ending to the series, but there were a lot of things that should have been tighter. IMHO someone (e.g. me) should take the time to hack down all the extraneous stuff, fix some of the plot holes, improve some of the symbolism and such, etc., and release a "mod" of the HP series that actually makes it into a full-on literary achievement. Kind of like when they did the Phantom Edit of the first new Star Wars movie a few years back, which I'm told brought it almost in line with the quality of the original trilogy.
Also, I was disappointed by the total lack of plot twists that there could have been at the end. I mean, I guess the whole Harry-dies-but-then-gets-to-come-back thing is kind of a plot twist, but I think of it more as just a cop-out. I would have been satisfied if Neville had turned out to be the Chosen One after all, or if there had been some sort of more interesting variation on the Snape/Dumbledore plotlines, or if Ron/Hermione had died, or SOMETHING. Just a lot of mid-level characters dying doesn't cut it for me, especially since pretty much all of the things that could have been significant twists (i.e. Harry being the final Horcrux) could easily be, and in fact were, predicted from evidence given in the previous books.
Anywho. What was the major thing Kat predicted?
Also, I thought HP5 in film form was the first one that really did it for me as a movie. The others were, IMHO, adequate adaptations but not great as movies themselves... this one got rid of a lot of the kiddie stuff and as such I liked it much better.
oh. well. shoot. I predicted that Harry was a horcrux, but when you phrase it like that, I guess it wasn't such a huge revelation... I just couldn't imagine how they would be able to kill the horcrux-Harry and keep the real Harry alive. And maybe the way they did it was kind of a cop-out, anyhow.
I do wish Neville had been the Chosen One, or at the very least the Heir of Gryffindor (did we ever figure out who that was?), since he pulled the sword out of the hat all bad-ass and he's a pureblood wizard. I would've liked to have seen him kill Bellatrix, too, though Molly's moment of triumph was probably the next best thing.
But I wasn't that disappointed with it. I loved that there was a lot of action, I loved that there was a constant sense of impending danger (unlike the school-based books, where Dumbledore was around and there was a sense of protection), and even though none of the major characters DID die, I had an appreciable sense that they *could* at any moment.
Here's one for you: I read in one of those MSNBC links that Rowling traded Arthur Weasley's death for Lupin and Tonks. I love Arthur, but I think it might have made for a more moving story to have him die rather than the other two (almost as an afterthought in the text--"oh, look, they're dead too"). It does make Harry the godfather to a parent-less kid like he was, but I didn't think it was needed. Anyway. I always talk up Cassie Clare's HP reviews; you can find hers here for book 7.
also, in case you don't feel like reading through the pages and pages of comments at the end of that link, here's something I didn't pick up on, but made me say, "awww" aloud just now when I read it:
"And the last words Snape spoke to Harry: 'Look...at....me.'
Just one last impression of green eyes."
*sniffle*
okay, wait, so weigh in: how do we all feel about the resolution with Snape's character?
And i totally agree about Arthur Weasley. That would have been more satisfying than Tonks and Lupin. Would that have meant that both Arthur and Fred/George/whichever it was would have died? Who killed that twin anyway?
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