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Came across a copy of HBP:
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Aug 31, 2010 19:06
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Looks pretty cool to me, all weather-beaten and old timey. I started the first potter book when the third was just coming out, and let me tell you the wait till the next one was agonizing. The worst was from 6 to 7 though, because half blood prince is pretty much sweet-wizard high and development of a psycopath. It is the biggest thing that bothers me about the series really, all the crap she writes about choices and the first thing we see is a serial-killer eleven year old. He never had a choice to be evil or good. Deathly hallows had a pretty cool conclusion, even if it was a bit contrived. The epilogue though, I think it gave me diabetes. The writing is uncomplicated and easy to follow, which is probably why it sold so well (in addition to the awesome you could be a wizard thing).
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Aug 31, 2010 21:50
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MrFlibble posted:Looks pretty cool to me, all weather-beaten and old timey. It was ruined by water damage.
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Sep 1, 2010 01:56
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LooseChanj posted:Came across a copy of HBP: That's so sad
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Sep 1, 2010 02:01
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I used to think HBP was the best book, but having gotten older I think Goblet of Fire is the best since it was just packed so full of stuff. It kind of suffered a little for it though. HBP is #2 though.
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Sep 1, 2010 02:05
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LooseChanj posted:Came across a copy of HBP: Someone was pretty pissed about the epilogue.
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Sep 1, 2010 02:10
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Obligatory Toast posted:Someone was pretty pissed about the epilogue. That's Half Blood Prince, not Deathly Hallows.
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Sep 1, 2010 15:42
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caleramaen posted:That's Half Blood Prince, not Deathly Hallows. If I hadn't been spoiled already before I read it, I would have have done similar things to this book when Snape killed Dumbledore.
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Sep 1, 2010 16:00
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caleramaen posted:That's Half Blood Prince, not Deathly Hallows. Then I rescind my previous post! Honestly, I didn't look that hard at the pic, and I went with the book that a loooot of HP fans got pissed at.
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Sep 1, 2010 16:06
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I never really understood the whining about the epilogue. Wasn't it pretty much "Happy Ever After"? What was wrong with it?
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Sep 1, 2010 19:06
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Hobnob posted:I never really understood the whining about the epilogue. Wasn't it pretty much "Happy Ever After"? What was wrong with it? I thought I disliked it the first time I read through it, and the second and third time I was more or less ambivalent. It's an okay ending. Although I would never name a kid Albus.
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Sep 1, 2010 19:35
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Obligatory Toast posted:I thought I disliked it the first time I read through it, and the second and third time I was more or less ambivalent. It's an okay ending. Although I would never name a kid Albus. But he's a WIZARD kid. It's better than calling him Daedalus Diggle.
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Sep 1, 2010 20:34
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Hobnob posted:I never really understood the whining about the epilogue. Wasn't it pretty much "Happy Ever After"? What was wrong with it? It was pretty unnecessary but not nearly as big a deal as some people make of it. I think a lot of those people are probably shippers that weren't happy with how Rowling paired everyone up in the end.
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Sep 1, 2010 21:08
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caleramaen posted:But he's a WIZARD kid. It's better than calling him Daedalus Diggle.  quote:I think a lot of those people are probably shippers that weren't happy with how Rowling paired everyone up in the end. VVV That's worse than much of the "Ginny is a whore" wank I've read, goddamn. 
Obligatory Toast fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Sep 1, 2010 |
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Sep 1, 2010 21:23
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Harmonians (people who prefer the pairing of Harry and Hermione, or "Harmony") are some of the craziest people in the fandom. Before Half-Blood Prince explicitly established Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny as canon, many Harmonians actually believed that Harry and Hermione's ride on Buckbeak in Prisoner of Azkaban was a "Symbolic Flight" that represents their true love for each other. When Buckbeak's name was changed to Witherwings, Harmonians interpreted it as Rowling taking a big steaming dump on their 'ship. Read more about Harmony here.
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Sep 1, 2010 22:11
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Pththya-lyi posted:Harmonians (people who prefer the pairing of Harry and Hermione, or "Harmony") are some of the craziest people in the fandom. Before Half-Blood Prince explicitly established Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny as canon, many Harmonians actually believed that Harry and Hermione's ride on Buckbeak in Prisoner of Azkaban was a "Symbolic Flight" that represents their true love for each other. When Buckbeak's name was changed to Witherwings, Harmonians interpreted it as Rowling taking a big steaming dump on their 'ship. Read more about Harmony here. Oh God. I knew that Harry Potter had a crazy fanbase... but really? I can see where love is a main theme in Harry Potter, but these people take it to an extreme. This is just as crazy as the Harry Potter/Snape fan fics. Less creepy, but just as insane.
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Sep 1, 2010 23:12
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I'm rereading GoF right now and I'm remembering all the objections I had to the Age Line that prevents underage kids from putting their names in the Goblet of Fire. Yeah, the Line can't be tricked by Aging Potions, but what was there to stop an underage wizard from 1) balling up his parchment and throwing it into the Goblet or 2) giving his parchment to a seventeen-year-old confederate who could drop it into the Goblet for him? Also, if underage wizards really aren't up to the task of competing in the TriWizard Tournament, then wouldn't the Goblet simply not pick them? Whomever the Goblet picks as Champion is objectively more skilled than the other applicants, whether or not he's underage! You guys, I am sperging so hard right now. Siriusly. Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Sep 2, 2010 |
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Sep 2, 2010 00:16
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The dumb part of the epilogue was that all the kids were named after people important to Harry and it stood out as really amateurish storytelling, sorry Ginny you don't get a say in this.
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Sep 2, 2010 00:58
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Pththya-lyi posted:I'm rereading GoF right now and I'm remembering all the objections I had to the Age Line that prevents underage kids from putting their names in the Goblet of Fire. Yeah, the Line can't be tricked by Aging Potions, but what was there to stop an underage wizard from 1) balling up his parchment and throwing it into the Goblet or 2) giving his parchment to a seventeen-year-old confederate who could drop it into the Goblet for him? Also, if underage wizards really aren't up to the task of competing in the TriWizard Tournament, then wouldn't the Goblet simply not pick them? Whomever the Goblet picks as Champion is objectively more skilled than the other applicants, whether or not he's underage! You're forgetting number 2 happened to Harry. He was entered in by Barty Crouch Jr., under a fake fourth-school name, from which he was the only entrant and therefore guaranteed to get in and get killed by Voldemort. It's pretty clearly stated at the end that that whole thing was fixed so Harry could win. I'm certain that with number 1 you were likely to get caught by a teacher and have the poo poo punished out of you. VVVV poo poo pretend my answer was that. Obligatory Toast fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Sep 2, 2010 |
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Sep 2, 2010 01:01
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Pththya-lyi posted:I'm rereading GoF right now and I'm remembering all the objections I had to the Age Line that prevents underage kids from putting their names in the Goblet of Fire. Yeah, the Line can't be tricked by Aging Potions, but what was there to stop an underage wizard from 1) balling up his parchment and throwing it into the Goblet or 2) giving his parchment to a seventeen-year-old confederate who could drop it into the Goblet for him? Also, if underage wizards really aren't up to the task of competing in the TriWizard Tournament, then wouldn't the Goblet simply not pick them? Whomever the Goblet picks as Champion is objectively more skilled than the other applicants, whether or not he's underage! A wizard did it. Literally.
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Sep 2, 2010 02:15
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Reading through for the first time and am very glad this thread is here. I'm on Order of the Phoenix, and Mad Eye just showed Harry a picture of the original crew. Among them are James Potter, Lily Potter, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. Now, according to the timelines I've been looking up, they all started at Hogwarts when Dumbledore became Headmaster (Lupin says he didn't hold out hope of entering the school until ol' softy Dumbledore became Headmaster) in 1970. So they were all around 11 in 1970. 1970 is also the year that the First Wizarding War began. So they were 11 when that started. So that means they graduated Hogwarts in spring of 1977. Now we can safely say they weren't involved in the Order during their school years, but even in 1978 they're 18, in 1979 they're 19 and around that time is when Harry is conceived...so when could they have been in the Order at all? They just seem so out of place. Why them?
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Sep 2, 2010 06:49
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Snape was already a Death Eater when he was in his sixth year at Hogwarts (since Lily calls him out on it), so it is possible they entered the Order around the same time, when they came of age, which would have been in their sixth/seventh year.
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Sep 2, 2010 06:56
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Decius posted:Snape was already a Death Eater when he was in his sixth year at Hogwarts (since Lily calls him out on it) FrensaGeran posted:Reading through for the first time Unless I missed that chapter... 
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Sep 2, 2010 07:02
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Patience, young padawan
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Sep 2, 2010 07:06
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I actually like the epilogue outside of the names of the children being a little silly. It's a happy ending with good closure. I especially like the little detail of Harry's son going off to have tea with Hagrid. I also think Ginny is a cool character and her relationship with Harry was realistic and fun to read. Both of these beliefs get me harassed by friends.
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Sep 2, 2010 12:48
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Ginny and Hermione are both pretty cool in that they're female characters who can actually get poo poo done. See also: Molly, Bella, Tonks and Fleur. You'd think that would come naturally, what with them being written by a woman, but the fact is it's not that common. One more reason JK Rowling is basically the Queen of the universe.
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Sep 2, 2010 15:22
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Did Harry Potter serve as a tipping point for deranged shipping? I'm largely ignorant of that side of things (thankfully so it seems) but I can't really remember people being so vocal about fictional character's love lives before HP.
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Sep 2, 2010 15:25
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Paragon8 posted:Did Harry Potter serve as a tipping point for deranged shipping? I think it's when it really hit the masses. When I got to college in '97 I knew people who would write X-Files shipping action. The first 'slash' story I saw was Mulder / Skinner action. 
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Sep 2, 2010 15:27
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Decius posted:Snape was already a Death Eater when he was in his sixth year at Hogwarts (since Lily calls him out on it), so it is possible they entered the Order around the same time, when they came of age, which would have been in their sixth/seventh year. That's only revealed in the last book and he's on Order of the Pheonix.
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Sep 2, 2010 16:21
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Hey IRQ, don't know if you missed it but I responded to your post:IRQ posted:Literally the only thing I can remember about the OOTP movie is how good Luna was. Van Dis posted:I'd like to hear why you think this is so, because I read the HP series as wonderfully illustrative of what happens when an author loses control of a narrative. In each successive book, Rowling hamfists more and more details and explanations to appease the monster she sketched in the early books. She performs gymnastics to force her worldbuilding instead of just showing how things work in the Potterverse. Her usage of the second person plural "you" increases as the books progress. Flashbacks are by no means seamless, and even in the last book almost all exposition or development is done with info dumps, often taking up entire chapters. Interested to hear your thoughts.
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Sep 2, 2010 16:58
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Timeless Appeal posted:I actually like the epilogue outside of the names of the children being a little silly. It's a happy ending with good closure. I especially like the little detail of Harry's son going off to have tea with Hagrid. I agree on both accounts. I like the epilogue, although the book would have worked without it just fine too. Also, I never got why people think Ginny is a slut because she had three(!) relationships in six years, while Ron, Hermione, Harry are perfectly innocent with their two (three if you count Hermione's "make Ron angry with the jock jerk"-date). Although an epilogue with Luna and Harry married would have been fun too...
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Sep 2, 2010 19:10
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Van Dis posted:Hey IRQ, don't know if you missed it but I responded to your post: Well I'll take a crack at this. Generally speaking people think her writing gets better as the series goes on. This is not to say that all instance of bad prose disappear, they certainly don't. Yet Rowling's tendency to use pithy phrases decreases significantly over the course of the series. Her prose isn't great, but it improves to the point that much of her older terminology is out of place. I could accept the term Muggles in Sorcerer's Stone, it's written like a children's book. Deathly Hallows is not written that way however and a lot of her terminology seems forced. This brings me to another point, her prose is very simple. This has less to do with whether it is written for children and more to do with how she tries to tell the story. There is nothing wrong with this, it makes her books very easy to read, and it saves her writing from being completely mundane. The length of the books never concerned me. I read all of Deathly Hallows the day it came out. Realistically her strengths lie in her storytelling and characterizations, not her writing ability. The length of her books was due less to world building than it was related to the increasing complexity of the plot. Deathly Hallows had more going on in it than any of the other Harry Potter books. It was a single focused narrative however, with few side plots. And while it can be argued that the way the story is told in DH is alienating, I found the story itself fascinating. As far as her characters they speak for themselves. Draco seemed to be completely evil, but turns out... different than I expected. Dumbledore seemed to be pure good, but is revealed in the last book to be a very flawed human being. And Snape turned out to be the best character in the series, full of complexity, anguish, and bitter regret. The last book showed Harry's entry into adulthood, and forced him to acknowledge that his heroes weren't saints and that his enemies weren't all completely evil. It is a very mature look at people. Basically my point is that Rowling's writing does get better, it just gets overshadowed by the plot. Which is okay cause that's really not why we were reading it in the first place. If there is a criticism to be made here it's that she didn't plan the series out well enough, so she had to cram her really complicated ending into one book.
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Sep 2, 2010 19:31
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Paragon8 posted:Did Harry Potter serve as a tipping point for deranged shipping? Buffy the Vampire Slayer shipping got pretty nuts, I think that beats out Harry Potter, though they were contemporaries for a few years. Something about those two fictions lead to way more fanfiction than pretty much any other setting, and with that comes legions of vocal shippers.
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Sep 2, 2010 22:23
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Van Dis posted:Hey IRQ, don't know if you missed it but I responded to your post: I didn't say she was Shakespeare by the end, but I think it's hard to say she didn't improve. I haven't read the books since Deathly Hallows came out so I couldn't give you extreme specifics, but I did read 1-6 in the space of a few weeks and I definitely felt that each book was progressively better, relative to where Rowling started anyway. My impression of book 1 was that it was incredibly simplistic and barebones almost to the point of being a screenplay. They got leaps better until around OOTP which was a bit overlong, and I would agree that the story started to sputter in Half Blood Prince, but aside from length I don't remember much of your complaints. I really didn't have a very high standard for these books though.
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Sep 3, 2010 00:21
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It would have been cool if there had been no epilogue, but instead have the final chapter be Harry seeing Snape's memories, years after the battle of Hogwarts. Like, he had forgotten Snape had given him the vial full of memories, then had gone and fought Voldemort. Unless... I forget, is the revelation that Snape loved Lily important to Harry's final battle? Or could it have been done this way with Harry and the reader thinking Snape is an evil rear end in a top hat until the very end?
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Sep 3, 2010 02:16
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Hedrigall posted:It would have been cool if there had been no epilogue, but instead have the final chapter be Harry seeing Snape's memories, years after the battle of Hogwarts. Like, he had forgotten Snape had given him the vial full of memories, then had gone and fought Voldemort. Unless... I forget, is the revelation that Snape loved Lily important to Harry's final battle? Or could it have been done this way with Harry and the reader thinking Snape is an evil rear end in a top hat until the very end? No he had to know that Snape hadn't defeated Dumbledore so that he could figure out that Malfoy was the one who mastered the Elder Wand
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Sep 3, 2010 02:32
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Obligatory Toast posted:You're forgetting number 2 happened to Harry. He was entered in by Barty Crouch Jr., under a fake fourth-school name, from which he was the only entrant and therefore guaranteed to get in and get killed by Voldemort. I did remember that plot point, but I just can't believe that nobody else thought to do that. You'd think this idea would have occurred to at least one of Hogwart's ~250 underage students. I was 13 years old when I first read the book, and if goody-two-shoes me could work out the loophole, then I'd think that the 16-year-old super-prankster Weasley twins could have done the same. quote:I'm certain that with number 1 you were likely to get caught by a teacher and have the poo poo punished out of you. I doubt it. Kids like the Golden Trio and the Weasley twins managed to sneak around Hogwarts a whole bunch of times and only occasionally got caught. Besides, once your name is in that Goblet, it doesn't matter whether or not you get caught - if you are named as the Champion, no one can stop you from competing in the tournament. (Okay, maybe they could stick you with a bunch of busywork that makes it all but impossible to prepare for the challenges, but then they'd risk getting you killed, and how could a dead Champion show up those snotty foreign kids?) Okay, okay, I think I'm done sperging.
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Sep 3, 2010 03:35
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Hedrigall posted:It would have been cool if there had been no epilogue, but instead have the final chapter be Harry seeing Snape's memories, years after the battle of Hogwarts. Like, he had forgotten Snape had given him the vial full of memories, then had gone and fought Voldemort. Unless... I forget, is the revelation that Snape loved Lily important to Harry's final battle? Or could it have been done this way with Harry and the reader thinking Snape is an evil rear end in a top hat until the very end?
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Sep 3, 2010 05:46
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Pththya-lyi posted:GoF sperging. There's even a Cracked Article about it (it's the second one on that page).
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Sep 3, 2010 06:40
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Being chosen is a "binding magical contract" and if you think regular contracts are hard to get out of, well gently caress man, just add magic and you'll see how little choice you have.
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Sep 3, 2010 06:46
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