![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trude
Finished my re-read of the Half-Blood Prince! Wheee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is indeed the book where everyone (if one by "everyone" means the Trio and Ginny) act like the annoying teenagers they are. I'm actually less annoyed by Ginny than by the rest of them. (I suspect we would have had 50% less Ginny-wank in the past 2 years if JKR had said "well, she's in a difficult phase right now, but basically she's a good person, and good for Harry" instead of "Ginny is pretty great!".) Still, this time I actually enjoyed getting one last enjoyable year at Hogwarts. (I think Harry might go back to school in last book, but the usual school-year structure with qudditch and all will probably be gone.)
Mundungus is talking to the barman from the Hog's Head (presumably Abeforth D.) just before Harry accuses him of nicking Sirius stuff. Which could mean Dung isn't as much stealing stuff as...something else?
I cheered when Madam Pince called Harry "depraved". This is why I shouldn't be a school librarian.
So auntie Bella actually did teach Draco Occlumency? Neat. I somehow missed that line and thought it was fanon.
Dumbledore: the writing for him, especially the dialog, is great most of the time. Makes me hope that Rowling sometime in the future writes a novel with a (less powerful) Dumbledore-esque character in it.
Still, I loose him in the "Horcruxes"-chapter when he goes from talking about how Voldemort turned Harry into his greatest enemy to how lucky it is that Harry is good and pure and not interested in money or immortality. It's like...uh, we should be lucky that Gilderoy Lockhart wasn't the chosen one?
Also, I wonder if his meltdown in the cave after he drinks the potion ("it's all my fault") has any significance?
Slughorn: wouldn't like him much in real life, love him in the book. Because he brings Lily into the story by remembering her not as Harry's brave, sacrificing mother, but as this talented, cheeky girl. (How much do I love the After the burial-chapter? A whole damn lot, and not just because of Odo.) Admittedly, his fondness for her was probably rather shallow, but still. Still.
Snape: probably not totally evil. (Still neither saintly nor hot.)
I still think Draco will live and possibly redeem himself, but wouldn't it be nice if he died and became a ghost and could live with his One True Love Myrtle for eternity?
Remus & Tonks: still think it would have been better if they had gotten the Bill&Fleur treatment (relationship set up in three sentences in previous book, BAM here are the issues BAM now they're resolved) instead of being shadowed by that whole red-herring stuff, but both from a shipping and an aesthetic standpoint I would much rather the relationship was kept intact (or ended by death) in the last book, than that the whole thing was a misdirection and one of them is actually evil/possessed/Regulus.
Scrimgeour annoys me much more than Fudge did.
Having re-read all six books now, I have to say that while I still absolutely love Hermione and Hagrid it is more clear to me why some people don't. I've also totally failed (I think) to pick up any clues or make any lofty theories.
And unlike most of fandom, I realized that I like house-elves. Yes, it's in a way fearfully convenient and not very pleasant that our heroes never have to cook, or clean or do other every-day manual labor while at Hogwarts because there are beings who just happen to like to serve, but I love Kreacher, Dobby and Winky. (Hokey, on the other hand, is a weak, inactive character who couldn't ever bother to get herself a decent lawyer. I really hope she won't return from the dead to break up Kreacher and Dobby's lovely hate-sex.)
So, I'm all set for book seven. I don't really worry about anyone's death except Harry's, I do worry about favorite characters becoming less smart, and brave and loyal than they can be, just because they are not Harry. And it's probably a good thing that I won't have unlimited Internet access the week I get to read the book...
This is indeed the book where everyone (if one by "everyone" means the Trio and Ginny) act like the annoying teenagers they are. I'm actually less annoyed by Ginny than by the rest of them. (I suspect we would have had 50% less Ginny-wank in the past 2 years if JKR had said "well, she's in a difficult phase right now, but basically she's a good person, and good for Harry" instead of "Ginny is pretty great!".) Still, this time I actually enjoyed getting one last enjoyable year at Hogwarts. (I think Harry might go back to school in last book, but the usual school-year structure with qudditch and all will probably be gone.)
Mundungus is talking to the barman from the Hog's Head (presumably Abeforth D.) just before Harry accuses him of nicking Sirius stuff. Which could mean Dung isn't as much stealing stuff as...something else?
I cheered when Madam Pince called Harry "depraved". This is why I shouldn't be a school librarian.
So auntie Bella actually did teach Draco Occlumency? Neat. I somehow missed that line and thought it was fanon.
Dumbledore: the writing for him, especially the dialog, is great most of the time. Makes me hope that Rowling sometime in the future writes a novel with a (less powerful) Dumbledore-esque character in it.
Still, I loose him in the "Horcruxes"-chapter when he goes from talking about how Voldemort turned Harry into his greatest enemy to how lucky it is that Harry is good and pure and not interested in money or immortality. It's like...uh, we should be lucky that Gilderoy Lockhart wasn't the chosen one?
Also, I wonder if his meltdown in the cave after he drinks the potion ("it's all my fault") has any significance?
Slughorn: wouldn't like him much in real life, love him in the book. Because he brings Lily into the story by remembering her not as Harry's brave, sacrificing mother, but as this talented, cheeky girl. (How much do I love the After the burial-chapter? A whole damn lot, and not just because of Odo.) Admittedly, his fondness for her was probably rather shallow, but still. Still.
Snape: probably not totally evil. (Still neither saintly nor hot.)
I still think Draco will live and possibly redeem himself, but wouldn't it be nice if he died and became a ghost and could live with his One True Love Myrtle for eternity?
Remus & Tonks: still think it would have been better if they had gotten the Bill&Fleur treatment (relationship set up in three sentences in previous book, BAM here are the issues BAM now they're resolved) instead of being shadowed by that whole red-herring stuff, but both from a shipping and an aesthetic standpoint I would much rather the relationship was kept intact (or ended by death) in the last book, than that the whole thing was a misdirection and one of them is actually evil/possessed/Regulus.
Scrimgeour annoys me much more than Fudge did.
Having re-read all six books now, I have to say that while I still absolutely love Hermione and Hagrid it is more clear to me why some people don't. I've also totally failed (I think) to pick up any clues or make any lofty theories.
And unlike most of fandom, I realized that I like house-elves. Yes, it's in a way fearfully convenient and not very pleasant that our heroes never have to cook, or clean or do other every-day manual labor while at Hogwarts because there are beings who just happen to like to serve, but I love Kreacher, Dobby and Winky. (Hokey, on the other hand, is a weak, inactive character who couldn't ever bother to get herself a decent lawyer. I really hope she won't return from the dead to break up Kreacher and Dobby's lovely hate-sex.)
So, I'm all set for book seven. I don't really worry about anyone's death except Harry's, I do worry about favorite characters becoming less smart, and brave and loyal than they can be, just because they are not Harry. And it's probably a good thing that I won't have unlimited Internet access the week I get to read the book...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-07-08 08:25 pm (UTC)Particularly treasured the Kreacher/Dobby hatesex and the "you depraved boy!" line, which I'd complettely forgotten!
no subject
Date: 2007-07-08 08:37 pm (UTC)Thanks!
Particularly treasured the Kreacher/Dobby hatesex
It's lovely to re-read books and be able to discover new things in them. I've always enjoyed Kreacher, but it was actually a pleasant surprise to discover that I'm one of Dobby's few fangirls.