Deathly Hallows, chapter 4
Jul. 25th, 2008 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockThe Seven Potters
* Hedwig is sulking. Even she understands how stupid it is of Harry to lock her in her cage.
* Lupin is "greyer, more lined". In every book, Lupin looks worse and worse. I swear, he should have wasted away years ago.
* According to Kingsley, Harry is more important than the Muggle Prime Minister. Too bad we haven't seen Harry do anything to demonstrate this to us. As it is, I remain sceptical.
* Harry can't be Flooed, Portkey'd or Apparated out of 4 Privet Drive. So take him to Mrs Figg's and Apparate him away.
* The Trace. I think I've said all there is to say about it in the previous cap. The bloody thing makes no sense.
* "With You-Know-Who out there and half the Ministry on his side?" My, Voldemort has been busy. He's done more during this summer than in the previous two years together.
* According to Moody, Voldemort is bound to have a Death Eater or two on the lookout. Tell me again, why didn't he do that in the previous two years? Kidnap Harry in OotP and save us the tedium of reading through HBP and DH.
* Harry's Polyjuice Potion is a clear, bright gold. Remember the muddiness of Crabbe's and Goyle's? They were evil already at the age of 12. Remember, it's your choices that... Wait a minute, what am I saying? Some people are born good and some people evil.
* Good thing we have the Polyjuice Potion tell us about Harry's goodness. Otherwise we might have had some doubts, what we the Unforgivables an all that.
* Notice that Fleur doesn't change size when she drinks Harry!Juice. Just observing.
* "Bill, don't look at me -- I'm 'ideous." Ahahahahaaaa!
* Six naked Potters. *leers*
* Fleur give Bill a soppy, slavish look.
* Moody won't lock the back door, since it won't keep the Death Eaters away. Maybe not, but at least it'll keep the neighbourhood children from ransacking the house while the Dursleys are away. Dear me, what am I talking about? No one cares about the Dursleys' property. They're just dirty Muggles.
* Why aren't the Potters and their guards Disillusioned? Quite aside from the fact that Muggles can now see them flying, why are they making the Death Eaters' job easier? Logic, what Logic.
* Hedwig died. Cheap, Rowling, cheap.
* Harry is doing magic willy-nilly. Whatever happened to the Trace?
* What is dragon fire and why haven't we hear of it before?
* Stan Shunpike's face is strangely blank. Maybe it's supposed to tell us that Stan is Imperio'd, but why would the Death Eaters take an Imperio'd person with them to such a delicate mission? I much prefer to think that Stan really is a DE.
* I don't get why the DE would think Harry's the only one who'd use Expelliarmus against them. Surely it's not that obscure a charm, considering that it was the first charm the students were taught in the Duelling Club in CoS. It doesn't make sense.
* Oh dear, here we have the incident of Harry's wand acting of its own accord. More things that don't make sense.
* Well, that was boring.
Designated Hero:
Harry's Polyjuice Potion reveals his essential goodness.
Hero's Death Battle Exemption:
The Killing Curses miss Harry by millimetres.
IITS:
Why can't Harry be Apparated away? IITS!
Final score: 3
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Date: 2008-07-26 06:03 pm (UTC)We could all take a nap while waiting for something to happen.
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Date: 2008-07-25 04:03 pm (UTC)Has he EVER traveled with her in the age before, except by train? That death was so telegraphed.
Lupin is "greyer, more lined". In every book, Lupin looks worse and worse. I swear, he should have wasted away years ago.
Nah, Lupin is fine. It's just that Harry's such a self-centered little birk that every time he sees Lupin he's like "Wow, look at all that grey hair! Was that there before?" Then promptly forgets it once Lupin is out of sight. No one else is worth remembering.
The Trace is completely the pile of poo we've all discussed. If it existed, it should have been brought up in previous books. The amount of new CRAP that JKR shoved into this book instead of building on her previous "worldbuilding" (such as it was) is mindboggling. Of course, when you don't RE-READ your crap...
Harry is doing magic willy-nilly. Whatever happened to the Trace?
Uh... a wizard did it? No wait, that's the REAL answer in this stupid book...
Oh dear, here we have the incident of Harry's wand acting of its own accord. More things that don't make sense.
Did that shit EVER get explained? Or just sidelined when Harry's wand broke and Voldie got a new one?
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Date: 2008-07-25 10:19 pm (UTC)Lupin is grey and lined from hiding his big secret. He did naughties with Lily and Harry's his son. That's why he suddenly starts acting like a selfish, emotionally constipated, self righteous jerk in this book - nothing at all like he used to. That's the real Lupin breaking through - showing the characteristics he passed on to his gruesome love-child.
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Date: 2008-07-26 06:06 pm (UTC)Sadly enough, I can totally buy that explanation.
Did that shit EVER get explained?
I think DD gave us some sort of half-assed explanation. I guess we'll find out what it was once we get there.
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Date: 2008-07-26 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 04:14 pm (UTC)Actually you could just post this single comment for every chapter in this book.
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Date: 2008-07-26 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 04:15 pm (UTC)Ergo: this whole "dramatic" escape is completely, totally, pointless.
I must say that the DH Sporking Community's take on this pile of drek last year pointed out some real gems. Like the Order members showing up all disillusioned (even though Hagrid was on the motorcycle which was roaring just like a motorcycle) and then un-disillusioning themselves in the garden rather than waiting until they got into the house. And Moody, the paranoid champion of Constant Vigilance shouting out that they'd see them all at the Burrow in an hour, after they *left* the house.
Plus, we now have Voldemort flying about unassisted, like superman.
I actually worked out a mini-theory about the wand going on autopilot: Voldemort was using Lucius's wand. It's an unfamilar one for him so he was trying just a bit too hard, calling up *all* of his available magic to send through it.
Well, there was a bit of his magic stuck in Harry's wand ever since the end of GoF, and it was close enough in proximity for that bit to come too. If Harry hadn't kept a grip on it, Tom would have gotten his wand off him, too.
Unfortunately since this silly exchange is clearly what reset the mental connection from Tom>Harry to Harry>Tom there probably wasn't any way of doing without it. But I still think that the shift could have been managed some other way. A way that *didn't* raise questions of how Voldemort kept on flying after the wand shattered...
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Date: 2008-07-26 05:49 am (UTC)Where is this comm? Sounds like fun!
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Date: 2008-07-26 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 05:37 pm (UTC)Rowling seems heavily "inspired" by whatever she is reading or watching when she wrote these things. Perhaps Garbo's Camille was on cable for awhile? Le Cough.
Harry's Polyjuice Potion is a clear, bright gold. Remember the muddiness of Crabbe's and Goyle's? They were evil already at the age of 12. Remember, it's your choices that... Wait a minute, what am I saying? Some people are born good and some people evil.
I couldn't stop laughing at that. In the Potterverse the choices you make as a 1 year old last a lifetime. Obviously there have never been eviler babies than Crabbe and Goyle. Except maybe the infant lil' Orphan Tommy.
"Bill, don't look at me -- I'm 'ideous." Ahahahahaaaa!
Those Frenchies, always worried about their looks. *eyeroll* Fleur needs to work on her blazing stares.
Maybe not, but at least it'll keep the neighbourhood children from ransacking the house while the Dursleys are away.
If Harry Potter didn't leave anything in the house, then the conclusion for the reader is that there was nothing in the house of value.
Stan Shunpike's face is strangely blank. Maybe it's supposed to tell us that Stan is Imperio'd, but why would the Death Eaters take an Imperio'd person with them to such a delicate mission? I much prefer to think that Stan really is a DE.
Stan was just following through on all those bad choices he made as a toddler. Evil. Evil among us, I tell you.
Everywhere....evil babies...planning mayhem.
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Date: 2008-07-25 06:32 pm (UTC)LOL
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Date: 2008-07-26 06:13 pm (UTC)Was it Ursula K. LeGuin who called the Potter books ethically mean-spirited? Whoever it was, they were right.
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Date: 2008-07-25 07:32 pm (UTC)Part One: Why not let Hedwig go days before? Why not hand her over to Dedalus Diggle (best name ever!) to slip away with the Dursleys if he thought she was at risk? Why were the Dursleys safe enough to drive together on the Day of Harry’s escape? Surely it was a bit of a risk, as a real psychopath would have slaughtered them for protecting his enemy. Then left them dead in the smouldering ruins of their house (I presume the protection stopped with Petunia’s heartbeat) and set Harry up for their murder - within the Muggle world at least. Indeed Harry could have been killed before the Order had poured their Polyjuice Potion into flasks and left the Burrow. In fact, why not kill Petunia in Phoenix, once Voldemort was up and running - or at least try to?
If the Dursleys were safe to just drive off with a couple of Wizards, why didn’t they put Harry, in the Invisibility cloak in the magically extended boot? In fact, why had the Dursleys not left days before, one by one, under the guise of going to work/shopping/hang out with mates? If Hedwig had to stay until the 7 Potters nonsense, why not shrink her cage and let her fly under her own steam, when she‘d be the last thing the Death Eaters would give a toss about? If she had to die, why not send her off a couple of hours before? Then when Harry got to the Burrow, he’d receive an early birthday present - a box filled with white feathers. That’d wipe the smug smile/scowl of self-pity off his face…
So many questions raised by the least important part of the story, but I haven’t mentioned the most important one yet. Why did Hedwig explode? Don’t get me wrong, I had a hysterical fit of laughter when I read this - but then I wasn’t reading it to small children. Do Post Owls have petrol in their veins? I can presume that her cage didn’t have fuel - if it was motorised, she wouldn’t have plunged to her death. Are Owl pellets made of gunpowder? I think JKR’s habit throughout this book of writing with Hollywood in mind has gone too far, very early on. They tend to make crashed cars explode far more then they normally would in real life. Maybe she decided that slow types (who still think she’s a great writer) wouldn’t understand death unless it happens in a ball of flames? Maybe the whole ‘Sirius through the veil’ thing made her cautious? (It would have been fine if better explained) Or maybe she wanted to prevent conspiracy theorists who’d insist that Hedwig had survived and was leading woodland creatures in the fight against evil. (I hoped Moody had survived until his eye turned up)
Why didn’t Dudley just walk off that morning to meet some mates as he always did? Diggle, could collect Dudley from a pre-arranged point, then after taking him to safety, cut a lock of hair and deliver it to the Burrow. Then about lunchtime, polyjuiced as Dudley, Arthur/Kingsley/Ron/Bill/Charlie/Fred/George/Hermione/Tonks/Diggle or anyone else apart from Moody with his limp could go back to Privet Drive ‘for lunch’. He could then walk off with Harry under the Invisibility Cloak to a prearranged point. If she really needed to make those ‘ear ear’ jokes, George could have had his little accident at the end of Book 6.
Why did JKR become so ridiculously simplistic that Harry’s polyjuice had to be golden, like his very soul (retch)? Why mention that at all? Why can’t she show his good nature by - I don’t know - MAKING HIM GOOD? Why all the ridiculous symbolism that doesn’t tie in with his dull, bovine, sulky, mean spirited, occasionally downright vicious nature in this book?
I actually liked Fleur as Harry eyeing up Bill, especially that Harry didn’t want to ever see that expression on his face again. A bit like catching your Mum snogging your Dad I imagine. Yuck!
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Date: 2008-07-25 08:52 pm (UTC)Are you kidding? Woe would have been him! It'd be HIS owl who'd been cruelly slaughtered and again the universe had NOT stopped its existence. So of course another bout of self-pity would have been called for!
Do Post Owls have petrol in their veins?
LOL!!!
Or maybe she wanted to prevent conspiracy theorists who’d insist that Hedwig had survived and was leading woodland creatures in the fight against evil
Damn! Hedwig could have led the owlery during the battle of Hogwarts. In fact, it should have been Pigwidgeon, charging into the Great Hall ahead of the rest, screeching "For brave Hedwig!" But alas, Rowling just does not do melodrama (my keyboard starts fuming at this point, so I'll stop the irony).
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Date: 2008-07-26 06:16 pm (UTC)That's the question. Why did Voldemort wait for two years before taking over the Ministry, attacking Harry at 4 Privet Drive, et cetera ad nauseam.
Do Post Owls have petrol in their veins?
*giggles*
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Date: 2008-07-25 07:47 pm (UTC)I understand that maybe she wanted a big action scene (so did I by this point) but why such a rubbish one? jodel_from_aol, I’ve also read the DH Sporking Community’s version and it was such a relief to hear my questions from other people, and know I wasn't going mad!
Why did they make such a fuss and noise when mounting their transport? I presume the DEs had no magnifying equipment and so couldn’t see Bill and Remus helping ‘Harry’ as if he was a delicate girl. If they could, that was two Harrys they could immediately discount. Can the flying creatures really begin to outfly brooms? Dragons I can believe, but Thestrals? Why weren’t they all on brooms? Or was this an attempt by the Order to take out the by now totally tiresome Hermione? Or did the DEs only use some old crap brooms and save their best for a special occasion?
Sorry to repeat myself, but why was Hedwig there? Talk about a big beacon! Either it’s Harry Potter, or a fool prepared to stick out like a sore thumb, far more than the other 5 decoys. Why not make them all carry large cages? Better still, why not put Hedwig to sleep (not in the muggle way) and put her in a bag (with air holes) so she didn’t attract attention? Why not do anything else but what they did?
I agree that it makes no sense to use the Imperius on Stan. If he was willing, that’s fine, but why would they be so keen to take a bus conductor on this mission that they’d have to coerce him? Did their plan involve issuing tickets? Wouldn’t Voldemort prefer to send hardened killers? Was Lucius there? He might not be trusted to run the operation, but he could (and would) happily be used to attack this rubbish bunch of idiots.
I actually didn't mind 'Accio Hagrid' - it was an accurate piece of characterisation. That's exactly the desperate sort of idiocy that Our Hero would try. I'd only have objected if it'd actually worked.
So many unanswered questions in a chapter that doesn’t even mention wand lore. (Apart from that piece of crap with the self-determining wand which is even worse than Sirius’ mirror in adding nothing to the story except confusion and stupidity)
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Date: 2008-07-25 08:25 pm (UTC)Like no one would notice that one of the owls was alive...
Lucius wasn't there, but his wand was.
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From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2008-07-25 09:55 pm (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
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Date: 2008-07-25 09:18 pm (UTC)His robes are always patched, too. Aren't there spells he can use to repair them, or is this one of those convenient restrictions invented to make life harder for Our Heroes?
According to Kingsley, Harry is more important than the Muggle Prime Minister.
Obviously! The Prime Minister is just the Muggle leader. Harry Potter is the Chosen Leader of a select group of wizards. I think I know who is more important!
Moody won't lock the back door, since it won't keep the Death Eaters away.
What was the point of this detail, anyway? If Rowling had taken it out, it wouldn't have detracted from the story. By leaving it in, she makes a lot of her readers angry. It would've taken, what, ten seconds to lock the door manually? Even faster with magic, I bet.
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Date: 2008-07-25 10:22 pm (UTC)O Editor, where art thou?
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Date: 2008-07-25 10:35 pm (UTC)[...]
* Hedwig died.
I remember reading this and thinking that JKR basically wrote Harry as having a pet who hates him. And then the pet dies. I mean, we're talking a dead pet here! How hard should it be to jerk tears out of this moment? And she manages to completely screw it up. It's just mind-boggling.
* Six naked Potters. *leers*
That was plain weird, to me. All of them stuffed into a room they don't comfortably fit in, with a whole house available, stripping down without a care... I guess it was supposed to be funny? But the haphazardness of it, the unnecessary discomfort, it's like awkwardness squared.
I have to say, discomfort seemed to almost be a theme. I think every single method of travel was uncomfortable -- including Harry squeezing into the sidecar -- and then there's the long camping trip (which should have been comfortable, what with it being in a flat), bad food, lack of bathing... Possibly the author expressing her lack of comfort writing in this world? Maybe I'm reaching? :)
Oh! Was this the chapter where Harry squealed over Tonks being married? I giggled over that OOC moment.
* Stan Shunpike's face is strangely blank. Maybe it's supposed to tell us that Stan is Imperio'd, but why would the Death Eaters take an Imperio'd person with them to such a delicate mission? I much prefer to think that Stan really is a DE.
This may well have been one of the stupidest plot points ever (and I'm including that whole wand thing). Harry is able to tell, via facial expression, that a virtual stranger (he's met Stan twice, briefly, over a four year period) is under Imperios. Why was that curse so devastating to the Ministry again? I know, I know... IITS. ;)
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Date: 2008-07-26 03:31 pm (UTC)This is probably the five hundredth time I've made this comment, but Harry's conviction about Stan's innocence baffles me. I mean, nobody should be sent to Azkaban if they haven't done anything illegal, but Harry bases his
conviction on nothing but the fact that he knows the guy slightly.
Plus, for all his conviction that Stan is innocent, all Harry really does is use Stan as something to beat up Scrimgeour about. He does nothing useful for the poor guy, who languishes in prison for a year before the DEs free him. If Harry was really sure that Stan was wrongfully imprisoned, why didn't he write a letter to the Prophet about it? He was, at that point, the Chosen One and his views would have been taken seriously.
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Date: 2008-07-26 01:44 am (UTC)And yet that sums up every single thing that is said or done in this chapter: fucking stupid.
Seriously - HOW HOW HOW could this have passed muster? How could anyone working for Bloomsbury or Scholastic read this and NOT point out the hundreds of things that are implausible, contradictory, out of character, and just plain fucking stupid?
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Date: 2008-07-26 06:33 pm (UTC)Yes. Not only is this chapter (and the whole book, to be honest) boring, it also is so badly constructed that it's difficult to believe it's the work of the same author that gave us Philosopher's Stone. The two books couldn't be farther from together.
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Date: 2008-07-26 10:27 am (UTC)Oh, wow, I remember I got so excited at this point because I was so sure it was Snape doing some sort of wandless magic. The real explanation to this was so half-baked! And now that I think about it, this false excitement was the only bit that moved me, the rest of the book up till this point had zero effect on me.
No wait, there was one more bit of false excitement in this chapter - when I thought Hagrid was going to die! Damn, I was so happy for just that couple of minutes. I was cheering like nobody's business. Die, Hagrid, die!
*sigh* I still haven't gotten over the disappontment.
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Date: 2008-07-26 10:29 am (UTC)Typos to be blamed on the painful memory of this chapter.
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Date: 2008-07-26 11:54 pm (UTC)I still can't believe Harry's wand is smarter than he is.
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Date: 2008-07-27 12:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-08-01 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 12:48 am (UTC)I think we should read that as "not a look of disapproval". Remember ladies, control your man! Insults and bickering are the signs of Twu Wuvv!
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Date: 2009-02-17 10:52 am (UTC)