The obligatory Harry Potter 7 thread with spoilers

[Kuciwalker]

Kingsley in the OotP movie

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Finished it last night. I agree with most of what's been said here, good and bad, especially about the effing epilogue. But I haven't seen anyone mention the opening chapter yet. Rowling is absolutely brilliant at stealing from other authors (the Dursleys are straight out of Roald Dahl, for example, while Mad-Eye Moody -- especially in GoF -- is based very clearly on a John LeCarre character), but I can't recall her stealing from Ian Fleming -- until that opening chapter, which is basically a magical gathering of SMERSH, with a snake instead of a cat.

Beyond that:

Good
The sequence of chapters in which Harry returns to the Room of Requirements, then goes to Ravenclaw, then watches McGonagal and company battle Snape are, taken together, the most thrrilling stuff in any of the books. Really well done.

I found the death of Dobby to be probably the most moving thing in any of the books.

The resolution of Snape's story was far better than I could have hoped for, and really satisfying.

The redemption of Percy was a complete and delightful surprise.

Disappointing
The deaths of Fred, Remus, and Tonks. I don't mind that they died, but it was done so quickly and casually. Surely a paragraph or two could have been spared, in a 750-page novel, to give us George's reaction to the death of his twin, especially since he's been with us from the very beginning. And the offhand announcement of the fates of Remus and Tonks, in particular, reminded me of how we learn the of the end of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern in the final scene of Hamlet (well, I did say Rowling steals from the best...).

There was too little of/about Malfoy. After his central role in most of the books, he's merely in the background here. Plot-wise, that makes sense, but it's unsatisfying in terms of the overall story arc of the series.

Molly's duel with Bellatrix was great -- but, really, Neville should have been the one to take her out.

Aside from mechanically moving the plot forward, why on earth did Harry say "Voldemort" in the woods? He's really the boy too stupid to live.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO LUNA!!!

And that's about it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

If you want to know what happens to Luna just click on the link I posted about her interview where Rowling goes into some more detail about what happens.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Ooo, I missed that. I'll go check now.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

One more disappointment: Umbridge just disappears from the narrative. I hated Umbridge more than any character in any of the books, including Voldemort and Malfoy, and I really wanted to see her come to a satisfying end.

[Will9]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
One more disappointment: Umbridge just disappears from the narrative. I hated Umbridge more than any character in any of the books, including Voldemort and Malfoy, and I really wanted to see her come to a satisfying end.

QFT!

[Guynemer]

Amen to that. What a repulsive creature. Hopefully, she saddled up with the DEs who stormed Hogwarts and got offed by... oh... let's say George. Or Minerva.

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
The sequence of chapters in which Harry returns to the Room of Requirements, then goes to Ravenclaw, then watches McGonagal and company battle Snape are, taken together, the most thrrilling stuff in any of the books. Really well done.

Agreed 100%. I had to run errands with the wife (hereafter known as Galnemer) right when I got to the start of The Battle of Hogwarts chapter. I knew it was gonna be great, and I couldn't wait to get back home to the book. It did not disappoint. In fact, the whole sequence at Hogwarts was amazing; I wonder if part of that was due to us missing Hogwarts so much, it was like coming home. To see Neville fulfilling his promise as leader of the resistance, to see McGonagal confront Snape, to see the DA assembling bit by bit in the RoR... amazing. I got chills and a fit of the giggles when McGonagal yelled "CHARGE!" while leading a pack of transfigured desks. Can not WAIT to see that in the movie. Even when peripheral characters like Slughorn and Charlie led the reinforcements into Hogwarts, I couldn't help grinning like a maniac.

Molly's duel with Bellatrix was great -- but, really, Neville should have been the one to take her out.

Agreed. I'm really quite surprised we never got a Neville-Bellatrix fight, or a Lupin-Greyback fight. I suppose those were both highly predictable, so perhaps Rowling didn't want to do the obvious, which is good in a way. However, it didn't have the emotional impact it would have had if Neville had gotten his well-earned vengence.

I had also hoped, before reading the book, that the Trio would eventually be joined by the Auxiliary Trio in the Horcrux hunt. However, in retrospect, it makes perfect sense that the Auxiliary Trio would be leading the resistance in Hogwarts.

The only part of the Hogwarts sequence that I didn't like was the Hermione's explanation, "Oh, that magical fire is also one of the things that can destroy a Horcrux." Whatever; the thing is clearly wrecked, no need to do that sort of crap explanation.

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
One more disappointment: Umbridge just disappears from the narrative. I hated Umbridge more than any character in any of the books, including Voldemort and Malfoy, and I really wanted to see her come to a satisfying end.

QFT! I hate that *****!

[Jaguar]

All in all, I felt like the series needed more denouement than JKR allowed for. Most of the minor characters with their own personal odysseys completed them very abruptly. (For example, Percy Weasley and the Malfoys.)

I think that after a certain point, she moved the storyline much faster than she needed to.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Jaguar
All in all, I felt like the series needed more denouement than JKR allowed for. Most of the minor characters with their own personal odysseys completed them very abruptly. (For example, Percy Weasley and the Malfoys.)

I think that after a certain point, she moved the storyline much faster than she needed to.

Agreed. Downer though it would have been, I would have liked a chapter at the end of the story (before the epilogue) devoted to the funerals of Fred, Remus, and Tonks (and maybe Colin); such a chapter could have wrapped up other story lines, too.

[Imran Siddiqui]

[q=Guynemer]However, it didn't have the emotional impact it would have had if Neville had gotten his well-earned vengence.[/q]

There is the possibility, though, that she didn't want to "taint" Neville by having him do an AK curse on Bellatrix (which I'm assuming Molly Weasley did).

[Japher]

Neville was never the revenge type. It would of been out of character. If Bellatrix had been threatening his grandma, but the Neville's grandma seemed like she would lay down some law of her own.

Fun book, lots sadly missing, but then if had been the 1500 pages I would of like it would probably never had been finished...

[LordShiva]

Also, Neville had just inexplicably come free from a spell that had bound him and set him on fire, and pulled teh sword out of the hat (which had also been on fire) that teh hat somehow stole from teh goblin, and had cut off teh head of Voldemort's last surviving (and unprotected) horcrux. It would have been a little bit of a stretch to have him then turn around and kill teh fearsome Bellatrix who was pwning three of his fellow students.

[Nostromo]

Neville didn't stand a chance against Bellatrix, not without Rowling's help. Of course, she stepped in countless times to save Harry, so she could have done the same for Neville. You know what Voldemort should have done? Kill J.K Rowling! She was the chief obstacle between him and world domination