(no subject)

[phineasjones]

finally finished the book.

generally, i loved the book. she handled the story well, i thought, and it was amazingly intense and dramatic right from the get go. jkr's not always been good at that, so i think she deserves some props.

a lot of people died, huh? the most shocking was hedwig. that set a tone that had me on edge for the whole book. i was most surprised by my own reaction to dobby. i never thought i'd find myself sobbing over the death of such an annoying character, but there it was.

the worst for me, by far, was snape. the story i never wrote about him, the one that's lived in my head for years, turned out to be remarkably close to what we learn about him in this book. and his life is, i think, the greatest tragedy in this whole story. i really, really, really didn't want him to die. i wanted him to have one little chance at a real life of his own.

one might have expected that lupin's death would be the one that hurt me most. but... there are several reasons it's not. the first is that, well, long ago i figured lupin would be in less pain dead than alive. and we even got a little glimpse of that. i didn't really want him dead, but once sirius had gone, it almost didn't matter so much. not if he wasn't finally going to have a meaningful relationship with harry, anyway. the second reason is that i've come to understand that jkr's lupin really isn't my lupin. i think she missed her own boat, here. the man she created in PoA is not the man who appeared in later books. and the one in PoA is the one i love. in my mind, he lived on in another world. the one she killed off is a sort of AU lupin and i don't mourn him as much as i would the other. the lupin who fights harry at grimmauld place is the lupin of hbp. it makes sense if i think of it that way, and don't expect him to be my lupin. it was even interesting an enjoyable to watch his arc from that perspective. i could be happy for him and tonks.

it was still hard to feel it coming. when we see dolohov still standing after they dueled and just know what was to come. except the tonks part was still a shock. and... if she was going to do that... create another war orphan and leave harry as his godfather... why did she drop that ball? the tiny mention of teddy in the 'nineteen years later' was not enough. not at all enough.

harry heading off to sacrifice himself was more emotionally painful than i ever would have predicted.

i didn't really like the 'nineteen years later' part much at all. partly because it was so incredibly predictable. harry&ginny, ron&hermione. of course. like we didn't see that coming? i choked up at the 'albus severus' bit, bc i'm that way and i can't help it. and i was pleased to see a nod to malfoy being there. but. eh. could have done without it for the most part. would rather have had the next day or the next year. more open doors for interesting fic.

but i don't mean to keep complaining. i really did like it. it could have been much worse. i feared much worse.

Comments

[mrsronweasley.livejournal.com]

the second reason is that i've come to understand that jkr's lupin really isn't my lupin. i think she missed her own boat, here. the man she created in PoA is not the man who appeared in later books. and the one in PoA is the one i love. in my mind, he lived on in another world. the one she killed off is a sort of AU lupin and i don't mourn him as much as i would the other.

WORD. WORDY MCWORD WORD. I so want to quote you, because that is EXACTLY how I feel. She DID miss her own boat. I'm so glad it isn't just me who thinks that he changed and DRAMATICALLY from PoA to OotP to HBP, etc. Like. A completely different character. And, in the end, there was barely a trace of the old Lupin, and that made me so sad, because I love him. Loved him. A whole, whole lot.

And, basically, word to everything else, too. YAY.

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

yes, i went and read your reactions too and, as you said, word.

yeah... i find that i'm more sad that lupin is not my lupin than i am that lupin is dead. but maybe it's better this way, in a way, because i think i would have been completely and utterly destroyed if the lupin she killed was the lupin i love.

[colorfulshadows]

anyway. the second reason is that i've come to understand that jkr's lupin really isn't my lupin. i think she missed her own boat, here. the man she created in PoA is not the man who appeared in later books. and the one in PoA is the one i love. in my mind, he lived on in another world. the one she killed off is a sort of AU lupin and i don't mourn him as much as i would the other.

AMEN! That is so very true. It's how I feel, too. It's been weird that since HBP he's felt OCC. Which is strange to say considering it's the canon source, but I've always maintained that he's not the same character as he was in POA & OotP. I miss that character and, in my mind, he's the one that was standing next to Sirius (and Lily and James) in that last image of him.

[colorfulshadows]

I hope you don't mind, I quoted you in my lj.

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

of course i don't mind! it makes me feel all smrt.

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

yes, totally. i mean... i guess it's possible she had some different characterization of him in her head the whole time and we only saw a few pieces at once or something like that. but. then i liked the pieces we saw in poa and ootp. and i'd rather live with that character in my head and in fic than settle for the one she makes him into later.

and i totally agree... when he rejoined them and stood next to sirius, it felt like returning to an original state, the state i loved him in. sigh.

i finally finished!

[(Anonymous)]

It hasn’t sunk in that it’s over. I finished the book at about 1:30 Wednesday morning and there was no one to call, even you, two hours behind are probably asleep. The book was everything I wanted and more. I think I had decided that I would hate it. That it would be a really boring quest—just the three of them, new places, new horcruxes. But I loved how much old stuff came back to play (although, there could have been more about it, I mean, like he could have seen the photo of albus and the grinwald in a previous book—though I do like that revenclaw’s headdress we had seen in book 6) and I loved the old characters coming back, especially my crush—oliver wood. And then percey came right after that! And I love that olivander was in it and, yeah, I never liked dobby until he died. I love all the politics between the other magical creatures and the wizards. Oh, and umbridge rounding up the mugbloods was so creepy and so her. I teared up when they said that wizards were protecting their muggle neighbors without them knowing. I got a little confused with the whole wand ownership thing in the end, and I was convinced that draco was going to be good (and I thought of you draco/harry fans when harry draped draco over his broomstick). Wow, people were dying left and right. I figured a Weasley would have to go, in fact I figured it would be a twin and I guessed Fred, go figure. I think hedwig and mad-eye were preparing us—no one was safe regardless of how sentimental or how skilled (and how could they have disapperated all the time with an owl?) I thought there would be something about harry being teddy’s godfather, and getting to be the godfather that Sirius never got to be. The 19 years later, was a little much, doesn’t really leave much to the imagination. But the book is a lot about younger generations replacing older ones and there was kind of a phoenix effect to harry sending albus off to hogwarts. And it’s nice to know hogwarts is still around and Neville still has his plants. But who is the headmaster?
-amanda