"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" out tomorrow!

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Guynemer
You know, I'm rather ashamed to admit that I have no idea what this "Cthulu" is, but people always seem to be making references to it.

The short answer is that Cthulu is an evil god/demon/thing created by the horror writer HP Lovecraft in the late 1920's. It only actually appears in a few stories and only very briefly at that. The misguided/evil sorcerers in Lovecrafts world are constantly trying to open a rift in time/space with the aid of the magic in the book 'The Necronomicon' (written in Lovecrafts world by the mad arab Abdul Al Hazrad) and allow it to return to the earth (followed by the expected chaos destruction etc).

His short stories had a resurgence in the 70's (after Tolkiens work became popular) along with the sci-fi and fantasy writers of those times i.e. Burroughs and Howard etc.

[Guynemer]

Thanks.

[Imran Siddiqui]

A lot of people were disgusted by Harry hooking up with Ginny.

Very different, IMO. That was a tangential story dealing with Harry's love life. Yes, it pissed off a lot of people, but she was going to piss off a LOT of people no matter who Harry hooked up with (and he had to hook up with someone... really).

Dumbledore coming back from the dead would just be cheesy beyond belief and would run totally counter to what she's been doing so far (ie, even a kid can beat the biggest baddest ******* in the country if he's brave and smart enough).

[pchang]

Why did Harry have to hook up with anyone? Why not end up asexual like Dumbledore or Voldemort?

[Drake Tungsten]

The vast majority of Harry Potter readers are kids and women. The kids could live without a romance angle, but you know that the women can't...

[Jaguar]

All the romance is a bore to me, so I did not like that angle of this book, even though it all turned out how I predicted.


I think Snape simply got painted into a corner, weighed his chances for survival, and made a choice. I refuse to believe he is a bad guy who turned into a good guy, but continued to have a sour temper, making him appear like a bad guy while he was really still a good guy, then betrayed the good guys, appearing to become a bad guy, but was really good in the end.

He killed Dumbledore, and that is all there is to it.

[Jon Miller]

just bought this at a 24 hour grocery store

JM

[Jon Miller]

my thoughts

snape killed Dumbledore

because he had to

he made a binding promise to the mom to help Draco

snape I think is still on the side of good, and I predict will help Potter in the end, if Potter doesn't refuse it

if you think about it, Dumbledore has been saying all this book (and some of the previous ones) about how he isn't all that important anymore

and especially focusing on the importance of Harry

and Snape

notice that Snape made sure Harry survived

I also didn't like Harry much in book 5, he was better in book 6 but was still bratty

Jon Miller
(have read 2-6 in the last few days)

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by SpencerH
The short answer is that Cthulu is an evil god/demon/thing created by the horror [hack] writer HP Lovecraft in the late 1920's.

Fixed.

[Jon Miller]

I don't like the idea that Tom Riddle was corrupt from the beggining..

everything seems to be very set in stone.. if you are corrupt from the get go you go to slytherin, and if you are lucky you end up just a greedy manipulative person..

I would have liked it much better if it was something that had built up over time..

JM

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I don't like the idea that Tom Riddle was corrupt from the beggining..

everything seems to be very set in stone.. if you are corrupt from the get go you go to slytherin, and if you are lucky you end up just a greedy manipulative person..

I would have liked it much better if it was something that had built up over time..

JM

[Godwinization]
Why, the Slytherin mythos includes as one of its tenents intolerance to muggles? The way Rawling set up the 4 founders was to clearly show Salazaar as the founder of fascism within the wizarding world. Voldemort being the wizarding equivalent of Hitler.

Slytherin in her earlier books was set to be inherently a powerful yet morally bankrupt approach to wizarding from its inception as a house within Hogwarts. [/godwinization]

[Japher]

Not reading this thread until I finish the book. Just started yesterday, on page 100 or so... Love how these books fly.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I don't like the idea that Tom Riddle was corrupt from the beggining.

I don't see a problem with it. Rowling seems to have done her homework. The guy is a classic psychopath: cares nothing for others, cares only about himself, emotionless, thinks himself special or superior to all others, charming when he wants to be, etc. This guy could be Ted Bundy. Voldemort is a serial killer with magic powers and followers. Think Manson with magic.

[Guynemer]

He even displayed all the classic traits of a child who becomes a serial killer--animal mutilation/torture, doing "something" to other kids...

[Jon Miller]

I don't think the rest of the order is with Snape killing Dumbledore

I think that Snape will be working against Voldemont from inside from now on.. but won't be passing info to the Order

I predict that the final confrontation Harry will be aided by Snape, if it is accepted

or that Snape will help Harry right before the end (Destroy the last soul fragment or something)

JM