Deathly Hallows, chapter 1

[anehan]

The Dark Lord Ascending

* Am I the only one who considers the Aeschylus quote rather hilarious in the context of DH? Is "the grinding scream of death" with Harry like a presence?

* Yaxley's features are blunt. All the baddies are ugly.

* If you haven't already realized it, the Death Eaters are like Nazis. Sieg Heil.

* And we arrive at Malfoy Manor. I've always imagined the Manor looking more like Avebury Manor than Burghley House. Unfortunately JKR seems to disagree with me. No doubt the Manor is decorated with bad taste.

* A meeting of the DEs? Check. Voldemort sitting on a throne? Check. A minor character to be killed? Check. What is this, a cliché parade?

* Voldemort orders Snape to sit on his right. Usually that seat is reserved for an honoured guest. Just observing.

* Poor Dawlish. He is fated to play the role of an incompetent Auror.

* Snape the Super Spy! Wheeeeeee!

* "A squat man" speaks up and giggles wheezily. I mention it in case you forgot the ugliness of the baddies.

* Note how the DE succeed in placing the Imperius Curse on an important Ministry official. And it took them only two years. I'm rather impressed. After all, the Order doesn't manage to concoct anything resembling a plan in three years.

* Poor Pius Thicknesse. Fated from birth to become a DE puppet.

* The DEs have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport and therefore immediately know if Harry Apparates. Am I the only one who wonders how that works? Does the Department know when anyone Apparates, or just underaged wizards?

* "I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors, than to his triumphs."

Darling Voldie, how naïve you are. It's his nobility and selfless nature that have, and always will, carry him through.

* Go, Narcissa! I've always known she was the one who ruled the roost. Farewell trophy-wife!Cissy!

* Voldemort is stroking his snake. Has it, by any chance, ever entered Ginny's chamber of secrets?

* Yes, we know the Malfoys are not in Voldemort's graces. We don't need this drawn-out taunting. Oh, sorry, I forgot. There's the exposition dump on the latest news on the Tonks-Lupin courtship to be given. They are so important to the plot that even Voldemort is interested in them.

* And we come to Charity Burbage, the respected and well-known Muggle Studies teacher. No doubt you all feel her death like a presence.

* Poor Draco. At least his character development from HBP still seems to be going somewhere. Enjoy it while it lasts.



Day-for-Night:
"It was a dark and stormy night."

IITS:
So why did it take Voldemort two years to Imperio a Ministry official? IITS!

Informed Attributes:
Voldemort is scary. Death is with us like a presence.

Misdirected Answering:
Did you hear Tonks and Lupin got married?

Nut o' Fun:
Peacocks!

Final score: 5.

Comments

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

That Potter lives is due more to my errors, than to his triumphs.

He couldn't be more right. I doubt Voldemort knows that this is because he could go to the history of literature as the most incompetent villain who needs to suck because it's the only way for the serie's lame hero to shine a bit by comparison.

We don't need this drawn-out taunting.

HOW DARE YOU?! This is one of the only four scenes that even features the Malfoys in this book, you're suggesting any of them should have been cut? Huh?? Huh??? *roars at you*

Poor Draco. At least his character development from HBP still seems to be going somewhere. Enjoy it while it lasts.

And the count-down begins. Was anyone else reading this book, constantly wondering where Draco (and Snape for that matter) was hidden?

[anehan]

HOW DARE YOU?! This is one of the only four scenes that even features the Malfoys in this book, you're suggesting any of them should have been cut? Huh?? Huh??? *roars at you*

Hee, sorry! Let us by all means keep it all. Besides, Cissy was wonderful there.

[va32h.livejournal.com]

Hmmm let's see....

A little over a year ago, Voldemort was desperate to get his hands on a prophecy given by Professor Trelawney.

Dumbledore made a point of keep Trelawney safe at Hogwarts even after she was sacked by Umbridge, because he feared that Voldemort would try to capture poor Sybil and fry her brain trying to get the prophecy out of it.

Now Dumbledore is dead and Voldemort can scamper up to Hogwarts and kidnap any teacher he likes.

So naturally he chose Professor Burbage.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

So naturally he chose Professor Burbage.

I hadn't realized the stupidity of this. I suppose Voldemort is too overcome by Muggle-hatred to make rational decisions about anything?

[snapes-witch.livejournal.com]

Um hm, we might actually have cared if it had been Sybil.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Geez. And it would have made sense, too. I mean, yeah, the Death Eaters are going to get rid of the muggle-loving Muggle Studies teacher because they hate muggles, yadda yadda yadda.

But it would have been much scarier and sad if that had been Trelawney hanging there. Babbling madly, because her brain has been violated and tortured by Voldemort.

Then again, I'm not sure anything else in the book would have been able to top that.

[anehan]

Good catch! I hadn't quite realised the full stupidity of this scene. Voldemort really is the most incompetent villain ever.

[artystone.livejournal.com]

ROFL! But of course. Even Voldemort realizes that this so-called prophecy is made of suck.

[r-ganymede.livejournal.com]

Actually, I didn't find that part too strange. Trelawney is clearly still at Hogwarts at the end of DH, so technically Voldie does have her. He may well have kept her around just in case she rattled off another prophecy. Which would mean he was using the same logic as Dumbledore, amusingly enough.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised Dumbo didn't just murder Trelawney. The two prophecies were enough to go on, he didn't need her any more; and anyway, he'd been protecting her for years so it wouldn't even be a crime, really.

"Hagrid! Another for the "special corner" of the Forbidden Forest."
".... Right you are, Professor Dumbledore."

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Not much is ever going to top the catalogue of lameness that someone over on the DHs sporking community pointed out insofar as that Snape and Yaxley Apparate into a dark lane, cross a dark garden, enter a dimly-lit entry way, and then a parlor lit only by a fire in the fireplace...

...and have to wait for their *eyes* to adjust to the darkness. When, from the opening of the chapter have they been in anything *other* than darkness? Hell, the parlor is the brightest place we've seen so far in this book.

Dark, dark, dark. Ooooo, this story is so *dark*. And serious too. And DARK...

[anehan]

Oh, that is so lame.

[artystone.livejournal.com]

Don't forget DARK.
Ah but you see, the Malfoys bring a whole new meaning to the word "dark".

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Blond is the new Dark.

[tabaquis.livejournal.com]

Photons are srs bzns.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

LOL! Who was the guy who read the Aeschylus quote and suggested that if bad books were going to insist on starting with quotes from classics, then classic books should start with quotes from mediocre books. Like a random line from Tom Clancey talking about guns.

The Peacocks are the best thing in the chapter.

This chapter really is a great cliche parade, especially with the Nazi stuff.

The sad thing is this chapter totally got my hopes up. We had the Malfoys tortured, newly!wise Draco (I thought) seeing something had to be done, Lucius broken, Narcissa taking over. It seemed like it was going somewhere. I should have known when they brought up Lupin/Tonks that it was actually going nowhere. They should have just been killed after picking Harry up in OotP.

Btw, the DEs are ugly!

[anehan]

Yes, the Malfoys were probably the best thing this chapter had to offer. I was heads over heels in love with Narcissa in this chapter and was so disappointed she got so little page time in the book.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

I vote an addition to the Jabootu score: Godwin's Law. Every time brick thick parallels are drawn between Death Eaters and Nazis, mark one point. This book is infested with them, and when I reached the Ministry chapters and saw the blatent Holocaust references, I wanted to strangle JKR.

[anehan]

Ooh, definitely. That's a good addition.

[ellecain.livejournal.com]

Yay! DH at last! I'm so happy. :-)

I'll be honest and admit I still have no clue what the the Aeschylus quote is supposed to mean. Reading it the first time, my reaction was "Um, ok," without taking too much time to think about it because I was so excited to get on with the book.

What is this, a cliché parade?

LOL, the whole book is a cliche parade. How strange is it that in all these DE meetings the actual business of taking over the world is given least importance? Imperiusing one Ministry official is all they've done because they sit around gossiping for most of the meetings, I bet.

Tonks and Lupin's impending nuptials being discussed at the big meeting? They're the Posh and Becks of the WW. Wonder how much Witch Weekly paid for the exclusive wedding pics?

[anehan]

Let's hope that I have enough alcohol perseverance to get to the end of this book without flinging it out of the window in disgust.

It's sad that as ineffective as the DEs are, they are still more effective than the Order.

[(Anonymous)]

Imperiusing one Ministry official is all they've done

And isn't it just a blatant "idiot world" moment that the guy works in the _Auror office_, yet nobody there notices his condition? I mean, it is only the department that is dedicated to combat against Dark Magic! One would have thought that during what is effectively a civil war they'd check all MoM officials for signs of Imperius every day! It seems to me that Aurors have to be even more bumbling and pathetic than the DEs.

Tonks and Lupin's impending nuptials being discussed at the big meeting?

And isn't it deeply funny that they lived openly for the rest of the year and were even apprehended by the DEs at the marriage celebration, yet nobody touched a hair on their heads until the final battle?!

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest and admit I still have no clue what the the Aeschylus quote is supposed to mean. Reading it the first time, my reaction was "Um, ok," without taking too much time to think about it because I was so excited to get on with the book.

Basically, Electra and Orestes are off to kill their mother and her lover, because the two (mother+lover) killed E+O's father. It's a song wishing success to the children. I read that quote for comfort when JKR's writing got too awful.

I think it means that Lily faked her death and is LV's lover and a snake Animagus - Nagini.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Sorry for the exceedingly late comment, but after this explanation everything clicked: Rowling really does believe that revenge is the best expression of love.

[anehan]

sigh* At least we saw the Malfoys, Snape, and the peacocks.

Yes. Unfortunately, from now on, they are pretty much absent.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the Holocaust references being bashed into my skull made me think of my high school English class. My teacher would relate every form of prejudice, EVIL, and meanness in the world to the Holocaust. Aside from the grammar issues, this book is a little like one I imagine she would write, actually, complete with the quotes and pathetically ineffective villains.

For me the offensiveness of using the Holocaust is that it's used as a 'SEE HAVE EBIL THEY ARE!!111' tool. I'm a Holocaust historian and I can't tewll you how much I hated that. The worse thing is that it would have made for a great story. That the Wizarding World was happy to stand aside and 'just follow orders' and enable the deaths of who knows how many muggles and muggleborns. It would have made for a good deal of soul-seaqrching and perhaps a revaluation of the way the Wizarding World treats muggles as a whole- which is deplorable. But no, heaven forbid anything should change, and the Holocaust allegory is made solely the fault of a few 'bad apples'. Which is plainly not the case.

Sorry, I'll go calm down now.

[(Anonymous)]

For me the offensiveness of using the Holocaust is that it's used as a 'SEE HAVE EBIL THEY ARE!!111' tool.

Sure, but for me the resolution - i.e. that everybody just needed to wait, idle and unresisting, until a prophesized hero delivered them, was the most offensive of it all.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Oh, that as well, very much. Grrr.

[(Anonymous)]

IIRC, it is Voldy, who kills the woman. But yes, OoTP and HBP suggested 2 teachers LV should have really liked to kill, people we know - Trelowny and Slughorn. That should have certainly produced the emotional payback and "darkness" she was angling for here. Yet, she invents some faceless extra?! While Voldy just completely forgot about the other 2 for the rest of the story.

[anehan]

It's definitely weird of her to kill Burbage, since she had no problem killing such characters as Cedric, Sirius and Dumbledore. Why get cold feet in the last book? Even Frank Bryce's death was more affecting than Burbage's.

[ellecain.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Hannah Abbot removed from class in HBP for some sort of tragedy? It could have been her instead. Or Amelia Bones' relatives? Hell, even Cedric's parents would've done. But no, we had to have a brand new character only to die dramatically.

I think it was supposed to be Ron - that kid who's family has been destroyed and is thus making a moral stand or whatever. She did say she was planning on killing Arthur Weasley in OOtP originally. Shame she didn't have the guts to go through with it - Ron would have had to grow up, the Weasley family would have to deal with the fallout and the readers would've been affected more profoundly.

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

There's the exposition dump on the latest news on the Tonks-Lupin courtship to be given. They are so important to the plot that even Voldemort is interested in them.

This may have been the very first moment I was pulled out of the story by a "huh?" moment. It was not, alas, the last. ;)

[va32h.livejournal.com]

It didn't strike me as odd at the time, but now you mention it, it does seem a bit silly, especially when Voldemort says that she is marrying "the werewolf Remus Lupin." Of course we know that Lupin is not the only werewolf, and surely there aren't other Remus Lupin's about (Can you just imagine a subsequent meeting with Voldemort apologizing: "Sorry, Bella, my bad. It seems Tonks is marrying the accountant Remus Lupin."

But I sometimes wonder if Rowling wasn't obliged to throw in some of that stuff because it's a series and she has to remind those readers who are late to the game...sort of the way Nancy Drew books would always reference her father Carson, the noted attorney, and their housekeeper Hannah Gruen and Nancy's blue roadster and all that.

Rowling does it in all the books, sometimes more or less subtly than others.

[intotheaether.livejournal.com]

It seems Tonks is marrying the accountant Remus Lupin.

Haha! But then she'd be marrying a Muggle! I assume wizards don't have anything that practical.

[anehan]

Yes, it's such a non-sequitur that it can't help but be jarring.

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

* Voldemort is stroking his snake. Has it, by any chance, ever entered Ginny's chamber of secrets?

Oooh, yes. Along with Fawkes, her brother Ron, Lockhart and Harry. It's a large chamber, you know.

* And we come to Charity Burbage, the respected and well-known Muggle Studies teacher. No doubt you all feel her death like a presence.

I was never aware that Malfoy was such a big Muggle Studies fan and that he would even have known Charity from a hole in the wall. It must have been his secret extra credit class. Only taken when he was polyjuiced as girl student. A very ugly girl student, mind you, we couldn't have him rivaling the plain but secretly gorgeous Hermione Granger now, could we?

There's the exposition dump on the latest news on the Tonks-Lupin courtship to be given. They are so important to the plot that even Voldemort is interested in them.

They fought at the Ministry and Riddle was present as well. Why couldn't he have gotten to them then? If they were so important. It would have saved everyone from reading a bad and totally fruitless story line.

[anehan]

Oooh, yes. Along with Fawkes, her brother Ron, Lockhart and Harry. It's a large chamber, you know.

And all of them at the same time.

Ew, ew, ew. Now I grossed myself.

[(Anonymous)]

Am I the only one who considers the Aeschylus quote rather hilarious in the context of DH? Is "the grinding scream of death" with Harry like a presence?

If I had had any respect left for JKR after OotP and HBP, the Aeschylus quote would have killed it dead as Dumbledore. I mean, dude, what the hell do people think they're doing when they do this kind of thing? Surely the last thing you want to do at the start of your mediocre fantasy novel is to remind people that there's a wealth of genuine literature out there which is way, way better.

Of course, I'm a roleplayer, so I really can't talk. RPGs have been doing this for years, usually with Aristotle, Sun Tzu or Shakespeare. It always struck me, to borrow a turn of phrase from Terry Pratchett, as like a child coming proudly to show you a full potty. "Yes yes dear, very clever, you found a quote from a famous person. Why don't you try writing your book now."

- Dan Hemmens

[anehan]

It rather feels like she was saying "look how clever I am".

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

I’ve never commented online about Deathly Hallows, I’ve just let it fester inside me. However this is the ideal place to get stuff off my chest, so I opened an account especially. Please excuse my long rant, I’ll calm down for later chapters. Probably.

If JKR wanted to kill Burbage that‘s fine. I even remember thinking that she was saving the more important Trelawney for a bigger scene later on. Yeah right. However we should have met her earlier - not a controversial view on this site. How easy would it have been to introduce her in OotP being awfully sweet to Harry like lots of other teachers were when the Quibbler interview came out? Or sniggering behind Umbridge’s back with Flitwick, when the twins were making their presence felt? She taught Muggle Studies, it would make sense that Umbridge would have no respect for the subject or the teacher, and given her a hard time. It makes sense to me, anyway. JKR stopped linking little things like that together after Goblet.

Also why didn’t she come up with some other plan(s) that the Death Eaters had been using to try to infiltrate the Ministry? She didn’t have to go into detail, just let us know there were some. Then, Voldemort could say that the time had come to finally resort to the Imperius Curse. Snape could remind him (and tell us) that all staff at the Ministry had to constantly submit to random testing for ‘Dark Manipulation‘, for want of a better phrase. (The existing spies would be of currently limited numbers and voluntary). It’d make sense and prevent them seeming as foolish as they are so very ugly.

It’d have been even better if Thicknesse changed sides willingly. (Though perhaps he shouldn’t have been an Auror, just a high ranking politician.) The persuasion and bribery necessary could take a very long time, and the random testing would explain why they persevered. As it stands, I was already taken completely out of the story, in the very first chapter, thinking, well what have they been waiting for/doing all these months?

My other big gripe is with nobody being allowed to kill Harry Potter except Voldermort, or rather the way that that was handled. I heartily agree with The Dark One that it was his own mess ups that got the snivelling little rat, I mean our hero, off the hook over and over (though perhaps JKR shouldn’t have pointed that out, as it makes him seem rather silly). The importance of image and ‘respect’ drives people to act in terrible ways in the real world. Therefore it could have been totally believable if this had been played up in the book. Voldemort failed to kill a baby in his cot, and was actually turned into Voldemist. Not impressive. Then, finally in possesion of a body again, he let the whining adolescent escape in full view of his Death Eaters. The Shame! Then he had to run away after the break in at the Ministry. Embarrassing or what? Are Love Sacrifice/Priori Incantatem/Dumbledore to the rescue, reasons or excuses? Couldn’t Dumbledore point out that if someone else succeeded where Voldermort ‘failed’, then he might not like the risk that they’d be seen as the better Wizard? Might even think they were actively trying to set themselves up as such? As a nouveau half blood trying to pass himself off as the crème de la crème, and bestest Wizard ever, you could see why he’d hate the idea.

Personally I’d let someone kill Potter, then kill that loyal servant to prove I’m the Business. But JKR should have made more of an attempt to show why Voldemort didn’t think that way. We didn't have to agree with his thinking, just be made aware of it. (Snape could also have added the ‘I didn’t want to set myself up as a rival’ schtick to Bellatrix in Book 6 to shore up his rather vague arguments.)

Sorry to go on for so long. Best to get it all out before we get to The Trace, Secret Keepers, Kreacher’s conversion and (shudder) the camping scenes…….

[anehan]

Oh, rant away. DTCL is an ideal place for that. No canon-whores here to spoil a perfectly enjoyable rant.

This truly is an Idiot World. Voldemort has been back for two years, and it's only now that he manages to take over the Ministry. Bitch, please!

Your version of why Voldemort insists on killing Harry himself makes a lot of sense. Too bad JKR didn't emphasize that aspect of it.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

I discovered DTCL a couple of months ago and love it! Thanks for letting me get it off my chest - here’s rant no. 2.…

Do you know what’s really wrong with this series? (Boy is that a rhetorical question!) Editing. She really should have got a non-fan, or at least a freelance not linked to her publishers to edit it, because poor editing destroyed Deathly Hallows, almost as much as the plot-free plot (which would take a lot more fixing). Sadly everyone else around her seems too scared, or in awe to correct her. If it’s true they were pressuring her to release in Summer 2007, couldn’t they have used the same pressure to force her to let someone actually EDIT the damn book?

JKR never thought things through. This is already apparent in ‘The Dark Lord Ascending‘. She had a truly fantastic idea that really went to waste in the later books, which is such a shame because it could have been totally deserving of all the praise. She isn’t the best writer (duh!) but I don’t think that was the worst problem. She needed a lot more planning and a lot less interviews. She never tidied up after herself. She left vast amounts of silly things unexplained and raised more questions than she answered - totally unnecessarily! As I read the book, I was constantly coming up with theories and answers. I’m no writer, so what does that make JKR? A real editor should have sorted all this out. Here are some examples - all from Chapter One!!

1. Why did they take so long to target the Ministry? (I suggested an answer in my earlier post)

2. Why did Voldemort insist on killing Harry Potter himself (I suggested an answer in my earlier post)

3. How was Draco punished for his failure? (This could have been touched on, or better shown - forced to kill Burbage? For someone obviously not at all keen to be where he was, forcing him to kill would be a real act of cruelty, raise the stakes and easily make up in emotional investment for the fact that victim is a complete stranger)

4. Who on earth is this Burbage person? (Again, I covered this in my earlier post. I’m happy enough as to why she was chosen, but she shouldn’t have been a stranger. V kills at random all the time - why should we care? )

5. Was Snape punished for helping Draco fail, or rewarded for killing Voldemort’s other greatest enemy? (Voldemort could have indicated in a couple of lines that Snape, had made the whole DE attack on Hogwarts worthwhile and earned his trust even more than before. Or something.)

6. Was there ever any sort of trial re:Dumbledore’s death? Was Harry interviewed by the Aurors? Were his memories taken and analysed? Was the Malfoy House raided in order to find Draco who’d mysteriously gone on the run? (Look over here Sir, it’s The Dark Lord hiding in the cellar!) Did they just all presume he’d slipped on some owl droppings and fallen?

(Ch2 could have had a couple of paragraphs of Harry remembering the investigation, (after the funeral). Maybe being angry that it looked like Snape/Draco were off the hook, or relieved if they were wanted men. Snape/Malfoy could have contacted the Ministry blaming other DEs. It would have been their word against his and Scrimegeour hated Harry. Surely Snape can fake a memory? Might need planning, but it’s her story. It’d have been better if we’d actually witnessed it happening in Book 6, before the funeral, but this is about Hallows. Show don’t Tell is important, but telling is a damn sight better than ignoring completely!)

As I said before, the answers don’t all have to be brilliant (though that’d be nice). Leaving them unanswered, however, is terrible writing, and the story itself can’t take that level of questioning.

Editing would have sorted out all the sloppiness and the books, while never masterpieces would be fine. After all, the plots have never been brilliant, though Azkaban was pretty good. Self inflicted failure in my opinion.

[anehan]

She isn’t the best writer (duh!) but I don’t think that was the worst problem.

I definitely agree. She isn't the best writer, but her earlier books show that she can be a compelling story-teller, and for me, that would have been enough.

She needed a lot more planning and a lot less interviews. She never tidied up after herself. She left vast amounts of silly things unexplained and raised more questions than she answered - totally unnecessarily!

Yes, yes! I think that's part of the problem with DH. JKR had all these unresolved storylines from the earlier books, and she should have concentrated on them. Instead, she came up with new things, like Dumbledore's storyline and the Deathly Hallows. It all had the effect of making DH feel fractured and random, while leaving all kinds of interesting questions unanswered.

[anehan]

Yeah, it was the first time we saw Burbage. Harry doesn't even take Muggle Studies, so Burbage was a really bad choice as a teacher to kill.