* And this short excursion into Dumbledore's past is relevant to the plot how, exactly?
But it's totally relevent to the time we heard this story before. And the time we'll hear it again.
* The sky is indifferent to Harry and his suffering. I only wish the author was as well.
I'm sure people are eating somewhere too. Eating indifferently to Harry. Bastards.
* Oh yeah, Harry's wand is different, just like Harry is different.
This was never ever explained, was it? It was literally something made up in one scene to get rid of Voldemort. It made him search all over for a new wand, but there was never any reason for it.
* "Out of sheer desperation they had talked themselves into believing that Godric's Hollow held answers."
LOL! This goes along with the defenses that the camping is *supposed* to be boring and frustrating to read because the characters are bored and frustrated. You're supposed to think it's on purpose that the only reason they think Godric's Hollow will help is because the author can't come up with any actual way to hunt for Horcruxes.
You wanted to know everything about Dumbledore, Harry. Now you'll have to grin and bear it, even if Dumbledore's past turns out to have a homosexual affair with Grindelwald.
But don't worry, it had nothing to do with sex!
Dumbledore was a Youth Representative to the Wizengamot. How come we haven't heard about these Youth Representatives before?
Nope. It's one of those issues with the world-building. As Harry gets older he ought to be part of this more complicated, sophisticated world that Dumbeldore inhabited, but by the time Harry got there it didn't exist.
* Grindelwald would miss out the top spot in a list of Most Dangerous Dark Wizards of All Time only because of the arrival of You-Know-Who?
Well, Rita's got to work overtime on Voldemort's publicity, I guess. Everybody has to act really scared of the guy so Harry can come of age. The whole country's in on it.
I seems to me that, whatever Rowling tries to make us believe, Dumbledore still subscribed to the wizard dominance over Muggles for their own good even after he and Grindelwald parted.
Since the whole series reeks of it he almost has to have.
Harry points out that the defence "they were young" doesn't really fly when it comes to Dumbledore and Grindelwald, because they were the same age as Harry and Hermione are and they are out there fighting the Dark Arts.
Yes, nice little reminder of how special it is that Harry and his friends, who've been tormented by Voldemort their whole magical lives and are friends exclusively with people who hate Voldemort, have taken to fighting "Dark Arts" at such a young age.
Harry is so angry because Dumbledore never told any of this to Harry himself. As if Harry was somehow entitled to know everything about Dumbledore.
And as if Harry even cared to want to know before now. I like Dan Hemmings' description of how this works: Suddenly Harry realized that JKR was a great writer whose characters were all very complex!
In fact, the whole Dumbledore subplot was completely unnecessary. It was interesting only as far as it concerned Grindelwald, and the space devoted to it could have been used to resolve any of the number of unresolved subplots from the previous books.
It was a really blatant clue about how important backstory is to the books--sometimes it's there to cover up the lack of story.
If I were Harry, I'd rather Dumbledore had explained something useful, like how to destroy Horcruxes.
Yeah, you'd think. But then, Harry will continue to blindly trust Dumbledore even after he's dead. This somehow makes him mature.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-06-01 02:22 pm (UTC)But it's totally relevent to the time we heard this story before. And the time we'll hear it again.
* The sky is indifferent to Harry and his suffering. I only wish the author was as well.
I'm sure people are eating somewhere too. Eating indifferently to Harry. Bastards.
* Oh yeah, Harry's wand is different, just like Harry is different.
This was never ever explained, was it? It was literally something made up in one scene to get rid of Voldemort. It made him search all over for a new wand, but there was never any reason for it.
* "Out of sheer desperation they had talked themselves into believing that Godric's Hollow held answers."
LOL! This goes along with the defenses that the camping is *supposed* to be boring and frustrating to read because the characters are bored and frustrated. You're supposed to think it's on purpose that the only reason they think Godric's Hollow will help is because the author can't come up with any actual way to hunt for Horcruxes.
You wanted to know everything about Dumbledore, Harry. Now you'll have to grin and bear it, even if Dumbledore's past turns out to have a homosexual affair with Grindelwald.
But don't worry, it had nothing to do with sex!
Dumbledore was a Youth Representative to the Wizengamot. How come we haven't heard about these Youth Representatives before?
Nope. It's one of those issues with the world-building. As Harry gets older he ought to be part of this more complicated, sophisticated world that Dumbeldore inhabited, but by the time Harry got there it didn't exist.
* Grindelwald would miss out the top spot in a list of Most Dangerous Dark Wizards of All Time only because of the arrival of You-Know-Who?
Well, Rita's got to work overtime on Voldemort's publicity, I guess. Everybody has to act really scared of the guy so Harry can come of age. The whole country's in on it.
I seems to me that, whatever Rowling tries to make us believe, Dumbledore still subscribed to the wizard dominance over Muggles for their own good even after he and Grindelwald parted.
Since the whole series reeks of it he almost has to have.
Harry points out that the defence "they were young" doesn't really fly when it comes to Dumbledore and Grindelwald, because they were the same age as Harry and Hermione are and they are out there fighting the Dark Arts.
Yes, nice little reminder of how special it is that Harry and his friends, who've been tormented by Voldemort their whole magical lives and are friends exclusively with people who hate Voldemort, have taken to fighting "Dark Arts" at such a young age.
Harry is so angry because Dumbledore never told any of this to Harry himself. As if Harry was somehow entitled to know everything about Dumbledore.
And as if Harry even cared to want to know before now. I like Dan Hemmings' description of how this works: Suddenly Harry realized that JKR was a great writer whose characters were all very complex!
In fact, the whole Dumbledore subplot was completely unnecessary. It was interesting only as far as it concerned Grindelwald, and the space devoted to it could have been used to resolve any of the number of unresolved subplots from the previous books.
It was a really blatant clue about how important backstory is to the books--sometimes it's there to cover up the lack of story.
If I were Harry, I'd rather Dumbledore had explained something useful, like how to destroy Horcruxes.
Yeah, you'd think. But then, Harry will continue to blindly trust Dumbledore even after he's dead. This somehow makes him mature.