The obligatory Harry Potter 7 thread with spoilers

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by aneeshm
Now I'll move on to a more general criticism. I had expected that the previous six books were intended to create and flesh out a world, and the characters in it, and the seventh would involve working within the universe, and by the constraints, created by the previous six. I thought that we would not gain any further insight into the nature of magic than was absolutely necessary. In this, I was sorely disappointed, as in when, for instance, the destruction of the diadem took place due to the Cursed Fire created by Crabbe (or Goyle, I forget which). Had that fire not been created, what would have happened? They'd have effectively had to sit on their arses, waiting for something to turn up.

They had collected a basilisk fang from the Chamber of Secrets at that point. They could have destroyed the horcrux had Crabbe not been attacking them.

It was rather convenient that Crabbe's dark magic was able to destroy the horcrux, but it wasn't absolutely necessary.

[MJW]

Okay...

The only people strong enough to take down the MoM was Dumbledore and Riddle. Lots of other people would try but they would fail. With their deaths the MoM is unbeatable. It may cause problems but they are no longer world-breaking ones. No one has the strength to solve them in small groups (it's too unrealistic even for JKR) and writing about large groups solving problems is not the focus of the book. The focus has always been Harry (and his friends) growing up in books 1-6 and Harry vs. Riddle in the last book. Everything else is just tacked on food for thought.

[snoopy369]

How much stronger than Harry were Dumbledore/Riddle?

[MJW]

Due to the fact in Harry Potter offense is much stronger than defense the person who hits first almost always wins. Most power in Harry Potter therefore does not come from raw magic power.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by aneeshm
After reading it, specially the epilogue, I realised that nothing was really fixed at a fundamental level - the entire larger system was exactly the same.

The system which allowed Voldemort to become the threat he was, which allowed the sorts of ritual abuses we have come to expect students to undergo at Hogwarts, which left the Ministry open to attacks from many fronts, and vulnerable to the oldest trick of them all - the sowing of internal dissension, and in which non-human magical species were treated as inferior, was still unchanged. The systemic flaws were not fixed at all. The old instabilities still remained, and it is a foregone conclusion that given enough time, another Voldemort will arise. And this time, there will be no lucky concatenation of circumstances to stop him.

I'd have considered it a much bigger literary and intellectual feat if Rowling had managed to create a book where Harry's victory consists not only of his triumph over evil as embodied in one deranged man, but in fixing the system which made the regular emergence of such men inevitable.

By book 6 it was obvious that this wasn't the way the books were going.

I am trying to decide if I am going to go pick it up tonight.

JM

[Dr Strangelove]

I thought that 2 main characters were going to snuff it in book 7. If so, who was #2?

BTW, exactly how is the Minister of Magic selected? In OoP there is mention of liason between the muggle prime minister and the minster of magic. Is the minister of magic some sort of secret UK cabinet post? Did deatheater implants in the ministry of magic dupe Tony Blair into going along with Bush's plan to invade Iraq?

[Krill]

Wow.

Didn't see that stuff happening. Going to start reading it again at a slower pace now.

[Kuciwalker]

One main question: why the **** did they spend so much time camping out and walking? Surely they realized that it was completely pointless.

[snoopy369]

Camping

[MJW]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Camping

Are you talking about FPS et. all type camping or real ramen noddles camping?

[snoopy369]

Spending time in the out doors with trees and animals and stuff?

[MJW]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Spending time in the out doors with trees and animals and stuff?

or gaming camping. Answer me!

[snoopy369]

Do I look like someone who would sit on his computer watching a point on the map carefully for hours, not doing ANYTHING, until something randomly comes up?

[MJW]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Do I look like someone who would sit on his computer watching a point on the map carefully for hours, not doing ANYTHING, until something randomly comes up?

[snoopy369]

/me goes off to find his trout...