Deathly Hallows, chapter 12

[anehan]

Magic is Might

* Yeah, yeah, the Death Eaters are observing 12 Grimmauld Place. Why don't you cut straight to the story, Rowling?

* I've got to say that it's stupid of the Death Eaters to expect anyone to appear there, not when they are so obvious about keeping an eye on it.

* The kitchen is now polished to perfection, all thanks to the mysteriously changed Kreacher. Even Kreacher's ordering Harry about isn't enough to make me reconciled to this new state of things.

* Well, Snape can't be a worse headmaster than the previous one.

* IIRC, this is the second time that "Merlin" is used as an expletive in this book, this time by Hermione.

* The other teachers won't accept Snape as a headmaster? Oh, come on, Ron, that's naïve even for you. The slightest reflection should make it clear that they have no choice.

* "The quality of Kreacher's cooking had improved dramatically since he had been given Regulus's locket." Nonononono! *whimpers*

* Exposition alert! An infodump about new Ministry policies. Stupid policies, if you ask me; there only so that the Trio can put their plan into action.

* Hermione is worried that the plan will go wrong, because so much relies on chance. Get used to it, Hermione, since that's what you'll be relying for the rest of the book.

* It's so very Harry to have a plan that's likely to go horribly wrong, only to be rescued by luck.

* Am I the only one who thinks that real reason for Ron's reluctance to have Hermione with them is misplaced chivalry?

* Master, Master, Master. Shut up, Kreacher!

* Harry's scar hurts again. It just doesn't make sense that Voldemort suddenly stopped using Occlumency after using it for the previous book. IMO it's there only so that we can get periodical updates about what he is doing. Oh dear, consistency.

* Hermione knows very well that Harry doesn't know how to use Occlumency, so what use is it telling him he shouldn't let Voldemort into his mind?

* Harry gets angry when Hermione suggests that the reason he never really tried to learn Occlumency is because he likes to have this special connection to Voldemort. Oh, I don't know, Harry, I think what she says has some merit.

* It's rather rich of Harry to tell Hermione to forget Dumbledore when he's himself been all about doing what Dumbledore wanted him to do.

* And off we go to the Ministry, armed with a plan with very little chance of succeeding.

* Frankly, the reason why they gave Mr Magical Maintenance Puking Pastilles instead of stunning him makes no sense. The Stunned bodies would be in the empty; they wouldn't be attracting anyone's attention.

* Stupid of them to have Harry impersonate someone who they know nothing about.

* The official entrance to the Ministry is quite stupid. I'm getting bored of these supposedly quirky habits the Wizarding World has, such as this and the moving staircases at Hogwarts. I'm sure they're meant to be funny, but they only make wizards look incredibly stupid.

* The Death Eaters have no subtlety. Magic is Might, indeed.

* Yaxley's face is brutish, and he's dressed opulently. No doubt his Polyjuice Potion would be mud-coloured. After all, blood will tell.

* A very short recap this time, for which I apologise. The chapter was boring as hell. We're only a third way in, and already I am heartily sick of this book.




Atomic Grenade:
Puking Pastilles. Guaranteed instant hurling.

Designated Hero:
Master, Master, Master, Master. Our Hero is so noble that lower life-forms can't help but worship him.

Informed Attributes:
The Trio's plan will word. Really.

Final score: 3.

Comments

[ellecain.livejournal.com]

Its escapism, in its purest form. I don't think you can have fiction without some of it creeping in, but the porportions tend to shift, and right now a lot of authors who just plain go overboard with it are getting published.

Because, silly mistakes and missing pieces and all, the smaller scale of the first three books was *working*.

This actually makes me think of the parallels between Harry Potter and the Twilight series*. Both started out with a supposedly average kid who discovers fantasy at the doorstep of the real world and turn out to be much more powerful and speshul in the fantasy world and (interestingly with reference to Dan Hemmens' article - I think he's on to something here) both choose to stay in the fantasy world at the end.

I find the backlash from the Twilight fans over Breaking Dawn very reminiscent of Harry Potter wank. Everyone who complains gets told "But why are you complaining now? This stuff was present from the beginning," and it's true. For the first parts of both series it seemed to work, when taken to a larger scale, fans reacted badly. IMO in both cases I think the authors put wish fulfillment over the desire to tell a good story.

*everything I know about Twilight I learnt from cleolinda

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Do you know? I'm suddenly flashing on one of my own essays (not one of the Potter ones).

I think it was written back before I even had a site and was run through an apa (Amateur Press Association) that I belonged to. It's up in the commentary area now. It's called 'Beauty Times 3' and is comparing what appeared to be something of a "fictional dialogue" between the work of various authors who were publishing retellings of Beauty and the Beast.

Retold fairy tales seem to have been very popular over the past 20-30 years. Basically ever since fantasy began to be marginally respectable. And Beauty and the Beast is certainly one of the most so. The essay touched upon about 5 modern iterations, and concentrated upon three.

But the relevant point is that in the last two, the authors chose to sidestep the traditional "happy ending" of breaking the enchantment and reverting the Beast to the Prince he originally had been. In these, the Beast remains a Beast.

Now, this particular happy ending was always rather problematic. Beauty is never represented as being particularly overjoyed when confronted with this handsome stranger. Her first words are always; "Where is my Beast?" But I rather doubt that anyone since Madame Whoever who wrote down the first version back in the 1700s has ever taken the tack that if Beauty has learned to love the Beast, then she ought to be allowed to keep him, until the late 20th century.