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deathtocapslock2009-11-03 12:45 am
montavilla.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2009-11-03 12:45 am
Deathly Hallows Chapter 26
Gringotts
It’s time for the big heist to begin. A single long, coarse black hair (plucked from the sweater Hermione had been wearing at Malfoy Manor) awaits its immersion in Polyjuice Potion. As a longtime reader, I can’t help remembering that the last time Hermione put something off her clothing into Polyjuice, it turned out to be cat hair. It would be really funny if she turned into Bellatrix’s lhasa apso this time.
The crowning touch, Harry reminds the others, is that Hermione will be carrying Bellatrix’s own wand. Which was stolen several weeks ago at Malfoy Manor. But Bellatrix would never tell anyone that. Never.
Weeks of planning.
Hermione is frightened to hold Bellatrix’s wand. She tells Harry in a low, deeply emotional voice that it feels all wrong. Harry nobly doesn’t tell her “I told you so,” since he experienced the same thing with that random Snatcher’s wand from Chapter 20, but he sort of wants to.
This narrative-sprite is really doing Harry no favors. He’s having to do so much negative commentary that Harry just ends up looking bad. Either he’s imagining his friends mocking him for caring about an elf, or he’s reminding us that Hermione’s a big know-it-all bitch.
Harry must really miss Snape and Draco since they usually do this kind of stuff for him. And then Harry can look good by getting all indignant about it.
Come to think about it, the major problem with this book is the really the lack of Draco and Snape. They were both better foils for Harry than Voldemort, who is a very boring villain (at least to me), but when you put either Draco or Snape in a scene with Harry, you know there are going to be some sparks flying.
Without them, Harry is reduced to sparring with Ron, Hermione, and a gobin. It’s just not the same.
Hermione reminds us that Bellatrix’s wand tortured Neville Longbottom and killed Sirius and broods because Mr. Ollivander sent Luna a new wand. We get a glimpse of Luna practicing in the back yard with it while Dean Thomas watches gloomily.
Sorry, kids. If you wanted a new wand, you should have spent three months in a dark room with a sick old man. Otherwise, you just don’t deserve one.
Anyway, Harry looks at Draco’s wand, which feels oh-so-good in his hands. Why, he just has to touch it for it to get all excited and tingly. See? Harry has better chemistry with Draco’s wand than with his best friends.
Griphook comes in and Harry grabs the Sword of Gryffindor and moves it a little closer. Way to build that trust, Harry!
Harry can’t wait to leave. He’s tired of being all cooped up in the small bedrooms and worrying about being overheard, and most of all, tired of being around Griphook.
I can’t get over how consistently ungrateful Harry is when he’s someone’s guest. He was stomping all over the Burrow because Molly kept giving him chores. He couldn’t wait five minutes to leave the Tonks house. Now, he’s resenting the size of Bill and Fleur’s bedrooms and ordering them to stay in their rooms.
Oh, by the way, Bill’s given them a tent to replace the one they lost. I’ll bet he didn’t get much thanks for that.
I would say that Harry’s just a terrible guest, except that he did help Fleur to make dinner and stuff. So, he isn’t terrible, but I’ll bet that the cottage was a lot cheerier once he left.
Part of Harry’s bad mood comes from the Trio’s inability to figure out the practical steps in double-crossing Griphook. Ron isn’t smart enough to come up with a plan, Hermione is to “ethical” to scheme, and, frankly, I don’t feel like helping Harry either. Brat.
God, I wish Snape were here. He’d nip this idiot goblin-cheating plan in the bud and probably give Harry detention to boot.
So, the night passes with Harry beginning to worry that their plan will fail—that they’ll have forgotten to plan for something… Now why would he think that? Could it be because every other plan the Trio have come up with in the past nine months has failed miserably?
The only plan that really seemed to work in the whole book was the one by that mysterious person who left the Sword of Gryffindor for Harry and Ron to find. That plan worked like gangbusters. Too bad they don’t have that person around to help them out with their complicated bank heist.
As Harry waits for Hermione, he notices that green shoots are already coming up on Dobby’s grave. And his one regret in leaving seems to be that he’ll have to leave the brave little dead elf behind. He fingers his neck pouch, remembering the blue eye and wondering…
It’s funny. Harry never really seems that fond of people until they die.
Hermione arrives, looking like Bellatrix and complaining about how disgusting Bellatrix tasted as Polyjuice. Maybe that’s how the Sorting Hat figures out how to place students. It tastes them. If they taste like boogers or vomit, they go into Slytherin. If they taste like delicious (or smell flowery) they go into Gryffindor. Ravenclaws are either sugary or acidic. Hufflepuffs taste like potatoes.
Hermione transfigures Ron’s features to disguise him. Something we know she excels at because she was top of the class last year when they were learning it. So… she could have disguised any of them, at any time, in the last year. With a real disguise and not just exaggerated botoxing. Any time.
So…. they didn’t really need to sit under the Invisibility Cloak for weeks on end to observe wizards going in and out of the Ministry. Nor did they really need to kidnap or poison Ministry employees. They could have simply transfigured themselves to look different and walked through the visitor’s entrance.
Nor did they need to steal Muggle hairs in order to visit Godric’s Hollow.
Sorry, I was so busy ranting there, I almost missed Harry making a gay joke. Commenting on Ron’s disguise, he says, “Well, he’s not my type, but he’ll do.” No. We know Harry’s type. His type is hawthorn with a unicorn-hair core.
Once they leave the cottage, Griphook climbs up on Harry’s back. “Epitome of Love” Harry pauses to note how much he dislikes the feeling of Griphook touching him.
They land in London with Harry and Griphook underneath the cloak and go through the Leaky Cauldron where Hermione almost immediately blows it by being too polite to Tom, the bar man.
Now I’m wondering why Hermione was chosen to impersonate Bellatrix. It’s Polyjuice. It’s not like we haven’t had cross-gender Polyjuicing before. JKR’s been sneakily introducing the idea that Ron is good at imitating people in this last book (although I don’t recall this being one of his talents previously). And, as we recall from HBP, Hermione is terrible at acting.
We enter Diagon Alley, which has been turned into a Dickensian nightmare. Ragged and maimed beggars plead for knuts and to insist that they are wizards. They are.
Well, they don’t come up to "Bellatrix." Instead, they try to run away. Except for one man in a bloody bandage who lunges at her, demanding to know what happened to his children.
So… these would be half-blood children? I mean, if he’s in Diagon Alley, then he must be a wizard. If he’s a Muggle-born wizard, then his children would be half-blood—unless he married another Muggle-born? What would they be then? Quarter-blood? I’m kind of confused now that I’m reading this for the second time.
I’m always hung up on the status of Half-bloods, because of the whole Half-Blood Prince thing. Was Snape wholly accepted into Slytherin, or was it conditional? Were this random wizard’s children taken away and placed with a Pureblood family? Or were they sent to Azkaban? Or were they disappeared? If he’s Muggle-born and his wife is Pureblood, wouldn’t they stay with her?
While I’m obsessing about this now, I actually didn’t give a hoot the first time I read this. It’s weird that I was very upset about such off-stage deaths as Emmeline Vance and Amelia Bones, but now JKR has the entire cast of Les Miz hobbling around Diagon Alley and I. Just. Don’t. Care.
Ron blasts the demanding man away, and even the well-off wizards start running away from Hermione. Then, she’s greeted by Travers, and overplays the haughty act, since he’s a Death Eater. Not only is he a Death Eater, he’s one of the ones who came to Lovegood’s home looking for Harry.
Acting. Hermione Granger’s Kryptonite.
Travers is already surprised and suspicious because the news is that Bellatrix Lestrange’s wand was stolen and that she’s currently confined to Malfoy Manor for screwing up Plan Keep Harry Potter from Escaping While He’s Tied-Up and Locked in the Cellar Without a Wand. But Hermione manages to allay his doubts by acting snotty.
When he finds out that “Bellatrix” is heading toward the bank, Travers decides to accompany her and to throw out a gratuitously racist remark about goblins. Because Death Eaters are the racist ones. We can’t forget that.
Meanwhile, Harry is still stressing out over the goblin cooties he’s getting from Griphook.
They arrive at the bank to find that the normal goblin guards have been replaced by wizards wielding Probity Probes.
“Ah, Probity Probes,” sighs Travers theatrically, “so crude—but effective!”
Where did this character come from? Oh, duh. Les Miz. I forgot.
Anyway, Harry (at Griphook’s urging) confunds the guards so that they allow “Bellatrix” to pass without probing her. Just imagine the scene from Star Wars when Obi Wan Kenobi uses his Jedi powers to keep the Storm Troopers from checking R-2 and C3PO. I know that image leapt immediately to my mind when I read this.
They pass through the doors and Harry remembers going into the bank for the first time as a child. Never did he think he would someday come here to steal! It is kind of ironic, because that was the same day that Quirrell tried to steal the Philosopher’s Stone. So, the readers have never really been to Gringotts on a day that it wasn’t being burgled.
The goblins seem shocked to see “Bellatrix” and ask for identification. As Hermione tries to bluster her way through that awkward moment, Griphook warns Harry that the goblins are on the lookout for impostors. The only thing to do is for Harry to cast Imperio. Which Harry does—for the first time in his life.
I get the feeling that this is vaguely… significant here. Harry has a swarthy, dirty, long-fingered, monkey-like goblin on his back, telling him to do things that Harry wouldn’t otherwise do. Again, it’s like Harry’s made some metaphorical deal with a demon in order to get the precious Horcrux. And now he’s being pushed by that deal into Unforgiveable Dark Magic.
I’ve read a theory that JKR had Harry cast the Imperio here (and the Crucio later) in order to build up suspense for the final duel. In this theory, we’re supposed to worry (or assume) that Harry will use Avada Kadavra to try and defeat Voldemort, since he’s already cast the other Unforgiveable Curses. I dunno. We were told way back in Book 1 that Harry’s big superpower was love. So, I never thought for a second that Harry would even try to use the A.K. That would just be… dumb.
But JKR does highlight this Imperio cast with this line: A curious sensation shot down Harry’s arm, a feeling of tingling warmth that seemed to flow from his mind, down the sinews and veins connecting him to the wand, and the curse it had just cast.
So… Draco’s wand gets off on those Unforgivables. Heh. I guess that makes it doubly not Harry’s fault. First, he’s being told to use Imperio by a goblin, and then the wand itself starts bonding with him because of it. It’s not Harry. It’s the wand.
Harry then casts the curse on Travers to keep him from questioning Hermione’s wand, and, after getting some clankers and shaking off other employees, the imperiused goblin, Bogrod, takes them into the vaults. Once there, Harry pulls off the cloak, admits his Imperius curses might not be very strong (since you have to mean them) and curses Travers and Bogrod again.
He sends Travers off to hide. The image of Travers trying to wiggle into a crack in the stone wall is the one I remember best from this chapter. It’s very disturbing to me. I can’t help hoping that he was found quickly and de-cursed.
The Trio and goblins pile into a cart and set off towards the Lestrange vault. They hurtle down, down, down, deeper in the earth than Harry ever was before… in those two times he’s been to his vault. After a hairpin turn, they see a waterfall ahead. Unable to stop, they are drenched by the water, which strips them of all the concealing spells and dumps them out of the cart.
As a defense against break-ins, this isn’t as effective as you might think. They are no longer concealed and Harry has to recast the Imperio (which again gives him a pleasantly powerful feeling), but the thieves simply continue on by foot. After a few turns, they come upon a huge, blind dragon guarding the oldest and richest vaults.
The dragon is more pitiful than frightening. It’s blind, chained, and it’s been trained to dread being slashed with hot swords when it hears “Clankers” rattling. So, rather than fearing for our heroes, I’m feeling sorry for the gigantic monster in their way. But that’s consistent throughout the series. I felt sorrier for the werewolf chasing him than I did for Harry in PoA. Fluffy was kind of cute. The centaurs were cool and interesting. Even the giant spiders seemed cuddly.
The thieves rattle the Clankers and the dragon retreats and Bogrod lets them into the vault. After they are in, the door closes behind them, but Griphook assures them that Bogrod will let them out again.
Hmm. It strikes me that, if the Trio was intent on stealing a cup from Bellatrix without alerting Voldemort, it was pretty dumb to bring the goblins into the vault with them. Did they think the grubby little monkey men wouldn’t notice what they took? Plus, leaving Griphook outside the door without the sword would give them a better chance of his letting them out again.
Well, never mind. They start looking and it turns out that all the treasure in the vault has been cursed to a) replicate itself a dozen or more times and b) burn. So, now they are trapped in a vault stuffed with treasure, looking for a cup or maybe something else, and if they touch anything they get burned and possibly buried.
After several minutes of anxious searching (and some mishaps), the vault is getting unbearably hot. Fortunately, Harry spots the cup on a shelf. Unfortunately, it’s too high to reach and he’ll just burn himself if he does reach it. They try to Accio the cup, but that doesn’t work.
Harry gets the inspiration to use the Sword to hook the cup, which isn’t a bad idea, except he still can’t reach it, so finally—irony of ironies—Hermione uses Levicorpus, the spell she so vehemently protested in HBP, to hoist Harry into the air. In doing so, Harry hits a suit of armor and starts a chain reaction of replicating, burning treasure. He manages to hook the cup with the sword, but Hermione, Ron, and both goblins are drowning in a sea of red-hot gold.
Harry reaches down to pull Griphook (who has disappeared except for his fingers) out of the gold. Then Harry releases himself from the Levicorpus spell, which wasn’t the smartest thing to do, since it drops him and Griphook right back into the burning, rising tide of treasure. Harry drops the sword and Griphook retrieves it, swinging it high out of Harry’s reach—and throwing the cup into the air.
So, Harry now has to choose between grabbing the Sword or grabbing the cup… He goes for the cup, which starts replicating and burning him, but he keeps hold of the original cup, so good for him.
Finally, the door opens (no thanks to our heroes; it’s the goblins coming to catch them), and they ride out of the vault on top of the gold. Harry puts the cup in his pocket and tries to get the sword again, but Griphook has already jumped off of Harry’s back and disappeared into the crowd of goblins, crying, “Help! Thieves!”
When I read this for the first time, I was mentally cheering Griphook on. I didn’t give a darn about the Trio. I knew they’d get out of this. But I didn’t know if Griphook was going to come out okay. I was delighted that he made off with the Sword because I was so disgusted with Harry for trying to cheat him.
Pardon me while I rant for a bit, but this is another one of those things I just can’t make up my mind about. It seems to me that JKR bends over backwards to make Griphook sympathetic—yet I’ve seen posts from fan that howl with indignation about Griphook’s treachery in grabbing the sword and leaving the Trio to their fates.
This is how I see Griphook as a character:
We see him briefly in PS/SS and he makes little impression beyond being part of this new magical world.
We hear earlier in the book that he was fired because he wouldn’t do things “unbecoming” to a goblin. Which I took to mean he wouldn’t lower his ethical standards for the Death Eaters. Also, he lied to the Death Eaters, allowing Voldemort to believe he had an important artifact when he only had a copy. As far as Harry’s side is concerned those are good things to do.
When we find him again, he’s in really bad shape from having been on the run and there’s something seriously wrong with his legs. Nevertheless, when Harry asks him to lie about the Sword, he does so without question. Another good thing for the good guys. For which he gets slashed across the face.
Later on, he expresses surprise that Harry respected an elf and bothered to save his life. Then—although it goes against his principles and he’s risking being branded a traitor by his people, he agrees to help Harry break into a Death Eater’s vault. All he asks in return is the sword (which he believes properly belongs to the goblins).
All this makes him a compelling character. He’s risking a lot for Harry’s cause and not asking all that much in return. Also, as Jim Smith pointed out, he probably would have been fine with getting the sword at some point in the future if Harry had explained things a little. Yet Harry feels the need to cheat Griphook with a technicality that wouldn’t pass a child’s ethics test.
So, it doesn’t matter how much Harry calls him swarthy, bloodthirsty, or dirty. That doesn’t make Griphook look bad at all. It just makes Harry look like an asshole. (Oh, is he dirty, Harry? Maybe that’s because he’s been on the run for six months, just like you have—except without the tent, a wand, or a pair of shoes! By the way, I notice that you didn’t shave for months, even though someone gave you a magic razor and your tent came with plumbing.)
It’s really the same thing with Marietta. From the beginning of her arc, we see that she’s reluctant to join the D.A. She only does it to please her friend, and we later learn that her mother works at the Ministry and she’s under great pressure to support Umbridge. We see her terrified and disfigured in Dumbledore’s office. She’s obliviated, and then physically shaken by Umbridge… how could a reader not feel sympathetic for this girl?
When Harry later notes with satisfaction that her face is still scarred, it’s hard not to start hating him.
I can’t reconcile the two JKRs. Is she the one who wrote such sympathetic villains and it’s just her fans who can’t separate their feelings from Harry’s? Or is she the one who, in interviews, expresses satisfaction at Marietta’s continued suffering?
So yes, I was cheering Griphook as he triumphed over the bad wizards trying to cheat him. I would be even happier if, like in last chapter’s DVD Extra, he had been actively working to double-cross them all along. Serve them right.
Back to Harry, the Trio don’t have any choice but to fight their way past the crowd of goblins. They do so and Harry gets the idea of escaping on the back of the dragon. He magicks away the chains from the dragon and climbs up on its back. It probably would have been smarter to reverse that order, but it doesn’t matter, because he and the others manage to climb aboard before the dragon realizes that it’s free.
I had imagined, for some reason, the dragon heading straight up through the rock, but it doesn’t. It heads through the existing passage (which makes more sense, duh), blasting through with its fiery breath when the tunnel is too small. Harry hears the rock crashing behind them—which implies to me that those goblins might be getting buried in the rubble. Great. And all those bank vaults are probably going to be inaccessible for awhile.
I might be wrong about the dead goblins, though, because they can hear clanking behind them. So… the goblins are running after the dragon clanking their metal noisemakers that the dragon is trained to move away from. Oh dear. Logic.
The dragon bursts out of the tunnels and into the lobby of the bank as the Lez Miz chorus runs away screaming. It forces its way through the metal doors, ruining them, and then flies up into the air, our heroes clinging to it like three stray pieces of toilet paper.
This could spell disaster for the entire wizarding economy. Face it, Gringotts is too big to fail!
Fan Service:
Gringotts returns and so do dragons!
Hoyay abounds as Harry bonds with Draco’s wand!
Fan Slappage:
There’s no specific slappage in this chapter—except the normal assaults on our intelligence.
DVD Extras:
INT: DAY – SHELL COTTAGE KITCHEN
The cozy kitchen seems particularly airy and fresh on this spring morning.
Bill sits at the table, fixing a fishing net. Fleur is making cookies as Luna comes in with some flowers. Dean follows, having held open the door for her. He carries a milk pail.
LUNA
Hi! What happened to Harry and the others?
FLEUR
(grumpily)
Zey dizzappeared dis morning.
She pulls a tray of hot cookies out of the oven and puts a second tray in.
BILL
They’re off with Griphook. But they didn’t say where or why.
Luna tilts her head thoughtfully as she puts the flowers in a vase.
LUNA
I expect that they’re off to break into Gringotts.
DEAN
What? What makes you think that?
LUNA
Well, they’ve been planning something for weeks. And, since they always chase me out of the room, it’s probably something illegal and dangerous.
BILL
Which breaking into Gringotts would be.
LUNA
Yes, and Griphook used to work there. I also noticed that Hermione saved this long, black hair from Malfoy Manor, which must have belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange. When Bellatrix was torturing Hermione, she kept yelling about something in her bank vault.
Luna helpfully transfers cookies from the tray to a platter, as Dean pours glasses of milk.
LUNA (cont’)
So, I figure they must have decided to plan a break-in with Griphook in order to steal something from Bellatrix Lestrange.
FLEUR
Zat sounds plausible. Certainement.
DEAN
What would they be looking for, though?
LUNA
Something valuable. I was thinking it might be a Horcrux.
FLEUR
A what?
LUNA
A Horcrux. It’s when someone takes a piece of their soul and puts it into an object—like a stone or a book.
DEAN
Can people do that?
LUNA
Oh, yes. Daddy told me about them. He thinks that's how He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named came back from the dead.
BILL
But it’s absurd. Horcruxes are no more real than Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.
FLEUR
What?
BILL
It’s some kind of animal that Luna keeps insisting—
FLEUR
But of course zere are Crumple-‘Orned Snorkacks. Zere is a Snorkack Preserve in Provence! Eet is world-famous!
BILL
There…. What?
FLEUR
(throwing up her hands)
Ze Eenglish! If it doesn’t exist in the London Zoo, zen it muzz not be real!
LUNA
(nodding)
Daddy says English wizards are especially close-minded.
FLEUR
Oui. But… (glancing sideways at Bill) …zey are also very ‘andsome.
She goes to Bill, plants a kiss on his mouth and then feeds him a bit of cookie. Bill rolls his eyes at Dean, commiserating.
BILL
Yes, we’re pretty, but stupid… (squinting quizzically at him) Which one are you, again?
DEAN
Dean Thomas. (pause) I’ve been sleeping on your couch for six weeks? (as Bill still looks blank:) I dated your sister for almost a year?
BILL
Really?
DEAN
Never mind. I barely remember I exist, myself.
He bites gloomily into a cookie.
FADE OUT.
no subject
Yes, I was tired of the penis jokes as soon as they started in the book. It's funny when people make them as a snark, but I find it unseemly in an author to make her own wand/penis jokes. That gives them an official sanction that penis jokes shouldn't really have.
It's much better when she doesn't seem to be aware she's doing it. I mean, she could know how it sounds with Harry and Draco's wand bonding, but I like to imagine she doesn't.
Somebody ought to write a parody where wizardkind has sent Harry and his sidekicks on a fake quest...
You know, I'll bet it could be done. Start with Scrimgeour making it up about Dumbledore's will in order to drop all the "clues" into the Trio's collective lap. Then get Snape together with Lupin, Shacklebolt, Bill, and Fleur (what the hell--throw in Luna, too!) to hunt down the Horcruxes.
Then the Trio throws a wrinkle into the process by actually finding the locket, which means the real team has to figure out a way to deliver the sword....
It practically writes itself!
no subject
- Voldemort is at his best when viewed from afar. Or in a brief glimpse at the end of a book. Or simply being described in various tales of horrific cruelty. It would be difficult for any baddie to live up to the reputation of being the worst Wizard of all time when given too much attention. That said, JKR’s decision to turn him into a fool, so that an even bigger fool could win the day, did him no favours.
- Draco might have just been a spiteful bully, but he lived up to that description effortlessly and was very easy to recognize as a type. He even got some character development in the later books. He was perhaps the best person for Harry to react to (and against). Harry came across as a nastier character then Draco in DH - a terrible failure on JKR’s part. The problem was we saw little of Draco and when we did he was having a bad time. Living with Harry for 3693 months meant we saw just how appaling he was, with only Hermione to take up the ‘what a git’ mantle occasionally.
- Snape was an enigma and that’s always fascinating. Sadly The Prince’s Tale removed a lot of the mystery – like so many other characters, DH was his downfall. In his favour, he didn’t reconcile with Harry and despised him to the end. So he deserves some respect for that.
--- “See? Harry has better chemistry with Draco’s wand than with his best friends.”
Or with Ginny.
--- “So…. they didn’t really need to sit under the Invisibility Cloak for weeks on end to observe wizards going in and out of the Ministry. Nor did they really need to kidnap or poison Ministry employees. They could have simply transfigured themselves to look different and walked through the visitor’s entrance. Nor did they need to steal Muggle hairs in order to visit Godric’s Hollow.”
YOU BLOODY THINK?! This makes me SO MAD. You can’t convince me that Hermione is either clever, or logical when this whole year has been so badly organised. Her flashes of ‘brilliance’ in this book just make the ridiculous mistakes stand out more clearly. Either she’s an unbelievable Mary Sue at the mercy of the plot, or she’s written by an author who is no longer up to the job. Um.....
--- “They try to Accio the cup, but that doesn’t work.”
Yay! You see JKR? If something might get in the way of your ‘plot’ don’t brush it under the carpet, address it and have it fail. Now time to get that time turner and apply it to
1) Harry and Dumbledore in the cave dealing with the liquid in the bowl - HBP
2) Harry jumping into a lake with a Horcrux round his neck and with little effort made to levitate the sword or remove it some other way - DH
3)The entire ‘Crouch using Polyjuice (in the days when it had to sipped every hour) for a good 9 months instead of just using a Portkey to abduct Harry on the second day of the school year’ plothole in GoF
And many more!
Still loving the DVD extras. Poor Dean – dumped for being too much of a gentleman, then hastily replaced by a ‘hero’ who could never be accused of such a fault. At least he didn’t die. Unless he did and JKR just couldn’t be bothered to spare him even the one line Tonks and Remus had to share for their goodbye. After all she didn’t bother to include his mysterious past.
no subject
Roger Ebert (or maybe it was Gene Siskel) said that for a great movie, you need a great villain. (I seem to remember it being in context of a creature feature about killer whales--who lack the necessary eye size for greatness.) Voldemort has some good points. He's got the snake face and all. And, in the graveyard, the theatrical movements and speech really worked.
But, yes, unfortunately, he had to become mega-stupid in order to be outwitted by Harry. By the end of DH, it's really hard to take him seriously.
I happened on a cheap price for OotP, so I got it and watched it again. For all its faults, they made the battle in the Ministry really fun once the adults showed up. The duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort is spectacular. It made me sad to think that the final, final battle probably won't measure up--unless the filmmakers take a LOT of liberties.
You can’t convince me that Hermione is either clever, or logical when this whole year has been so badly organised.
It's unfair to blame Hermione too much. It's not like anyone else was doing any planning. The boys were completely useless, and the rest of the cast wasn't allowed to help because.... because... oh yeah, the secrecy thing.
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Things like only using polyjuice if you need to look like a specific person and being as anonymous as possible when on a seek and destroy mission at the heart of the enemy should have been a basic rule - it's not top level strategic planning. Also, how long did it take to plan that Ministry nonsense? They started from scratch once they knew that Umbridge had the locket and when all three sit down together, Hermione, we're told, is the smart one. Yet nothing was decided for when they got there - something that, along with the glamour vs polyjuice idea should have come up within a few hours, surely? They didn't even send Kreacher along first to check out the situation - I'd have laughed if Umbridge decided to wear a pearl choker that day! If Ron had been allowed to keep his tactical ability, maybe he could have played Devil's advocate and drawn attention to the practical flaws to the plans Hermione (and Harry? why do I doubt that!) was coming up with. As it was, being brilliant at glamours yet unnecessarily using up their finite supply of polyjuice is like packing clean underwear (like the stinky Harry would care - even if their tent didn't have all mod-cons) yet forgetting to pack FOOD.
I agree that Hermione took all the planning on herself, and the boys *were* useless, especially annoying as one was the *Hero*,but too many silly things happened that didn't need experience, just a concientious project manager. Some didn't even need careful planning beforehand, just a bit of nous at the time. But you're right - maybe I shouldn't blame Hermione, just as people shouldn't call Wizards stupid. The fault lies with someone who wasn't sufficiently thorough when building a world and compelled her characters to act with exceptional inconsistency to fit a plot which really wasn't worth it. No names mentioned.
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Since we don't actually know what the Trio was planning, it's impossible to figure out how the plan went off... well, Harry admits that they didn't have a plan beyond "we'll get inside and then go looking for Umbridge."
So, I guess they did pretty good at the getting inside part. Still, they were planning from that heist from probably August 7th - September 1st. (They arrived at 12 Grimauld Place on August 1st or early on the 2nd, and then Kreacher took a few days to locate Mundungus. Harry made the decision to go ahead on September 1st.) So, it was three weeks of "how do we get inside?" Three weeks in which the question of "what do we do if she isn't wearing the locket?" never came up.
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Can you blame them though? It's not as if they had a house elf with them who they could send to get a map of the ministry (that will show where Umbridge's office is) from a ministry worker that was on their side like Tonks or Lupin.
*headsesking till the end of time*
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Yet another reason why they ought to have first tried breaking into Umbridge's place *while she was at work* first. Rather than just *automatically* assume that she wore it all the time. Ginny threw hers away once she realized that it was causing her blackouts. Umbridge wasn't necessarily being *compelled* to keep the locket on her all the time.
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I remember being really confused that this isn't what they did. I have a vague memory of looking forward to seeing what Umbridge's place looked like.
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This reminded me of the movie, "Idiocracy," where in a land of the supremely stupid and clueless, a person with only average intelligence is forced into the thankless job of leading. We are told that Hermione is the most clever, but in a world of wizard dolts who'd rather sit on their butts and mull over sparkly plans forever, her cleverness hardly seems to translate to laudable problem-solving skills. When it comes to actually delivering, she seems to pull a lot of last-minute rabbits out of her
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I know what you're saying about this stretch of the book. It's not as infuriating to read as the earlier parts--because at least something is happening and some kind of progress on the Stupid Quest is being made. Since Harry decided against following the Stupider Quest.
But I'm so ready for this stuff be done with. I don't even know what I'm going to do when we have to spend three? four?? five??? chapters with Harry running around Hogwarts looking for the tiara. Or worse, not running around Hogwarts looking for the tiara, but standing stupidly in one place with his thumb in his mouth waiting for McGonagall to kick him in the behind.
Am I mixing metaphors? Whatevah. I do what I want!
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Imperius, Crucio, and Avada Kadavra are the three Go-Directly-to-Jail spells, but Draco's never taken to account for his casting Imperius on Rosmerta, and Snape's wand is apparently never tested or he'd be in Azkaban for a few weeks anyway....
Argh. Must stop looking for consistency!
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This entire chapter is like a sweater filled with dangling threads: they all beg me to pull on them, but I'm not sure which to pick, and every single one unravels the story JKR seems to be trying to tell. (I throw in a "seems" because... really? Is this really the story JKR's trying to tell?)
But two things from your recap stand out:
Come to think about it, the major problem with this book is the really the lack of Draco and Snape.
Sing it to the rafters, sister, because it is the truth! :D
I can’t reconcile the two JKRs. Is she the one who wrote such sympathetic villains and it’s just her fans who can’t separate their feelings from Harry’s? Or is she the one who, in interviews, expresses satisfaction at Marietta’s continued suffering?
It still boggles me, with all the power JKR has as the author, how badly she supports her point of view.
Lovely recap and incredibly lovely DVD extra. (Awww, Dean. *huggles him* ... *snags cookie*)
eta: um, yes I can spell! Sometimes!
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It still boggles me, with all the power JKR has as the author, how badly she supports her point of view.
And I'm boggled right along with you. JKR seems to have very strong ideas about her characters, but the books present a much more ambiguous picture.
Awww, Dean
He really does get shafted as a character. And, since he never really contributes to the story in DH, it's weird how he ends up hanging around in so much of the book.
Tom Stoppard ought to write an existential play about Dean Thomas and his quest for meaning in this series....
Thomas and Finnigan are Dead.
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Oh... if only fanwanking had directed the series; what a happier story would have resulted! ;D I think JKR put no thought into deeper themes and explorations of ethics and such. It must have been rather startling to her when she saw what fans were doing.
Tom Stoppard ought to write an existential play about Dean Thomas and his quest for meaning in this series....
Thomas and Finnigan are Dead.
Ooh! Yes, please! :D
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Hee! True. ;D I wonder, how's the series doing now? I have this idea that the books won't last too long now that the story is over and done. I feel like it's going to be remembered as a footnote in the history of online fandom and marketing and such.
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I’m always hung up on the status of Half-bloods, because of the whole Half-Blood Prince thing. Was Snape wholly accepted into Slytherin, or was it conditional?
AFAIK, any combination that's neither pureblood nor Muggleborn is a halfblood. While not quite as good as purebloods, halfbloods are generally accepted. Lucius welcomed Snape into Slytherin. Draco offered to shake Harry's hand with no fear of cooties. There's no WW equivalent of the one-drop rule or "quadroons" and "octoroons". The main dividing line is between WW-born wizards and wizards out of the Muggle world. A decent, unprejudiced wizard is someone who doesn't hold the Muggleborns' Muggle background against them.
Snape's case is complicated by his working-class status. There's a whopping dose of class prejudice in the way James and Sirius treat him. No doubt he met with Slyth snobbery as well. He'd be doubly anxious to cling to the pureblood Princes and repudiate his unpleasant Muggle laborer father.
I’ve read a theory that JKR had Harry cast the Imperio here (and the Crucio later) in order to build up suspense for the final duel. In this theory, we’re supposed to worry (or assume) that Harry will use Avada Kadavra to try and defeat Voldemort, since he’s already cast the other Unforgiveable Curses.
Ingenious, but it presumes that the Unforgivables are a simple progression of bad, worse, worst. The facts are more complex. As you say, Harry's use of Imperius is much like the Jedi mind trick, which bothers nobody except maybe Karen Traviss. Of course, since the Jedi have special training against abusing their powers and Harry doesn't, it would be nice if Harry had qualms about controlling people with his mind. But basically casting Imperius doesn't seem morally different here than Confunding the guards.
However, Cruciatus is the worst of the Unforgivables IMNSHO. In some cases use of the AK may be defensible, as when Snape kills Dumbledore. There can be no excuse for casting Cruciatus deliberately and with intent because you feel like torturing someone, as Harry does. (His and Draco's previous uses of Cruciatus under extreme teenage angst, what Sister Magpie called the "fuck you" curse, is something else again.) Regardless if Harry ends up casting the AK, he can't sink any lower than this.
The dragon is more pitiful than frightening. It’s blind, chained, and it’s been trained to dread being slashed with hot swords when it hears “Clankers” rattling. So, rather than fearing for our heroes, I’m feeling sorry for the gigantic monster in their way.
I'm pretty sure we're meant to react with pity, and disgust for those vicious goblins. Except that when the twins tormented a salamander in PoA it was supposed to be funny. Abusing animals for practical reasons = evil, abusing them for entertainment = fine and dandy.
Griphook and Marietta: While you speak sooth about Marietta, I can see why some readers judged her more harshly. She went to Umbridge of her free will and sold out her friend. I don't think she owed the DA any loyalty, but she did Cho. But then, if Cho forgave her that's good enough for me. If I'm supposed to want a TRAITOR to SUFFER even unto the third generation, their "treachery" ought to be a sight more shocking than a stressed-out teenage girl going off half-cocked. (Or failing to realize that Umbridge is evil incarnate, apparently a black mark against both Marietta and Percy.)
OTOH, Griphook is indisputably in the right wrt Harry. Wizards have sequestered a piece of goblin property which he would like returned. How is Harry justified in doublecrossing him? There's no reason to doubt Griphook's word that goblin custom is to rent, not sell, valuable swords. The implication is rather that wizards should feel free to ignore goblin custom 'cause goblins are icky and their rules are stupid. You paid for it, you own it, amirite?
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Thing is, I don't think JKR was interested in exploring the issues. She just needed them to provide some kind of good/evil alignment for her characters.
But they are interesting, so the fans tried to take up the slack.
Grr... that's not even it, really. Look, she has Harry saying that a half-blood wouldn't be welcome in the Death Eaters (although Hermione or Ron--I forget which--contradicts that). But if it wasn't an issue, why bring it up? Why have Bellatrix react to negatively to Harry's half-blood status (using the so-lame rationale that Harry is a half-blood because Lily is Muggleborn) and the very idea that Voldemort could be half-bood?
Why does the half-blood status make Harry more of an outsider, but not Snape? Especially since Snape also seems to have the draw-back of coming from the working class, while Harry's parents can live on their inherited wealth?
It's more of that cake-and-eat-it thing where Harry is the sports star of the school and Hope of the Wizarding World and dead sexy, while simultaneously being an outsider, a pariah, and the Boy Who is Crazy Insane and Has Fits.
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All the talk about prejudice in HP comes down to mostly window dressing. Voldemort may despise Muggleborns, but it's nothing personal. He despises everyone. His anti-Muggleborn platform merely exploits his pureblood followers' concerns over issues he really could care less about. Where Hitler was a genuine mouth-breathing antisemite, genuinely believing he could make Germany great on a pyramid of corpses, Voldemort is some sort of weirdass nihilist. The true theme of the series is death. The villain wants to be immortal, the hero defeats him by dying and triumphs in death just like Jesus! Simple as that.
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Which not only waters down the racism aspect of the books, but makes the Death Eaters look like idiots for falling for it in the first place.
And it doesn't help that the only people who seem anti-Muggleborn (before DH) are... well, Draco. It would make a much stronger statement if Hermione had to deal with anti-Muggleborn prejudice from random Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Then it might seem more like a real issue, rather than Draco sublimating a secret attraction or something.
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The Nazi thing (blood prejudice, anti-Muggle prejudice), the magical creature thing ("slavery" and ignorant prejudice), the need for the protection of secrecy (yet Muggles only thought they were burning witches, ha ha), the girl power thing -- all these were poorly-thought-out when introduced, contradictory in execution, and dropped like an inconvenient weight in DH. Half-Bloods made it to the top in a generally purist society while a Muggleborn basically forced a final solution on her inconvenient parents; the House-Elf was best suited for making a sandwich for Master; the werewolf, when not threatening little girls, was cloying and better off dead; goblin culture was just "wrong"; centaurs and merpeople are just there for wizards to use; wizards were still pulling the wool over Muggle eyes (Ron's driving test); and the heroines found their ultimate callings attached to and supporting men or defending their children. Rowling subverted her own avowed messages, which is headdeskingly amazing to me. She told us white is white, she showed us grey or even black, then she asserted that no, what we saw was really white -- she told us in an interview! I suppose a continuity editor couldn't have forced her to write a better book, though. Her plot was beyond that.
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or followed annoying things like previously-expressed rules.
BTW, I watched "A Very Potter Musical" on Saturday (a little fun before November writing). It was fabulous! Here's (http://melundomeiel.deviantart.com/art/pfffff-142554760) an artist on DA who captures the joy of one of the ships.
And, poor Dean. Sometimes it's better when Gryffindors don't know you exist, however.
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I really thought that some such detail would come out during Book 5, with its Ministry focus. I was wrong. Actually, I thought she'd come out all guns blazing for Book 7, to end the series on a high. I was wrong there as well.
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(Completely OT: Since we weren't shown anything about the faculty's private lives, it's possible the female teachers (possibly even the male teachers) weren't allowed to marry so they could devote their entire lives to their charges without conflict of interest with a family at home. That's been done in the Muggle past, why not the Wizarding past as well?)
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?!?!?!? You've only *got* a dozen subjects, you never showed more than one teacher for any of them, and in the six years that we were actually on the school premises we never saw any adult who wasn't a member of the staff. Who are they supposed to be married to you silly little liar?
ETA: I honestly think she has no awareness that the world she has presented *isn't* the "real" one -- except for her random insertions.
It's the other way around. Instead of trying to tuck her own little world into nooks and crannies of the real one, she seems to be attempting to cram the real one into the thin tissue paper bag that is hers.
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YES
Plus, while I'm not defending him, Draco was in the middle of a fight, and a years worth of stress and over six years of jealousy and resentment all poured out. Harry was in a situation where petrificus totalis would have done just fine. He was using it as a punishment (repulsive), not as a move in a battle (where it would still be wrong). McGonagall is 10 times the person he is - she can take care of herself, despite the pain and suffering that being spat on would have caused (sarcasm). His use of it would have forever prevented him from being a hero IF that hadn't already happened sometime in Book 5.
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*Snort*
"...except for one man in a bloody bandage who lunges at her, demanding to know what happen to his children"
I can't help but be reminded of that scene from "The marathon man" with the nazi and the old jewish lady- "I know that woman...Bellatrix! Bellatrix! my god It's bellatrix! stop her! she gets away, she's a monster, stop her!..."
As for his children, I guess they could be pure blood but got caught in some anti-Voldemort activety and were sent to Azkaban (too bad it didn't happen to Ginny too).
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Yes. Except that scene was very emotional. This one... not so much.
As for his children, I guess they could be pure blood but got caught in some anti-Voldemort activety and were sent to Azkaban (too bad it didn't happen to Ginny too).
Hmm. I suppose so, but you'd think in that case he'd know that they were in Azkaban. I get the feeling that they are young children--but there's really not enough specific information to make the moment real.
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That was my feeling, too. I thought he was smart to distance himself from Harry--and that he'd probably get praise from his fellow goblins when he later explained the whole thing to them.
I don't really ship Draco/Harry, but man, those homoerotic subtexts are a bitch to deal with.
I know. And she just keeps putting them in there!
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I remember first reading this and thinking WTF? that only Luna got a new wand from Ollivander. Did he only have enough supplies to make one? Was new, creepy, book7 Luna who paints stalker-like pictures in her room and gives eulogies for house elves when Harry can't and is apparently the only shining light in prison the only person special enough for a wand? Sorry, little side rant. I really hated DH!Luna. And I really liked her in OotP and HBP, too :(
Laughed out loud at Hufflepuffs tasting like potatoes! And of course Harry isn't responsible for casting all these Unforgivables, can't you see the Devil Made Him Do It? (couldn't resist the Flip Wilson reference, sorry.)
Completely agree with your assessment of both Griphook's character and the Marietta situation. And of course that poor dragon. You knew the kids would be fine, but my concern was with that dragon because he just seemed so helpless. Gringotts is too big to fail! Quoting because it's brilliant.
Loved your DVD extra. Fleur was the best. She knows the world ends with Wizarding Britain. There is nothing else and no other ways of doing things!
Also loved that Bill had no idea who Dean was.
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Why would he have any supplies at all, if you think about it. He's hidden away at Aunt Muriel's. Where is getting his one-wand supply kit from?
And what the hell happened with his shop filled with wands? Everyone is so hampered without wands, but in HBP, the shop was left neat and undamaged--hence no one knew if he had been kidnapped or simply ran away.
So why didn't Lucius just go and pick out another wand after his was broken? It's been eight months now. I can't imagine how he could even function for that long without a wand.
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But if that's so, then why wouldn't that random wizard know where his children are? They'd be at school, right? It's compulsory for all underage wizards.
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Is she actually trying to suggest that living on the streets of Diagon Alley is far preferable to a Muggleborn than going back to their Muggle parents/siblings for help? Presumably they're not all lone-child orphans?
God dammit Rowling why must you suck so hard.
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Unfortunately all the Muggle relatives were memory-charmed and no longer recognize their wizard kin.
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How does Hermione know it's the wand she had used on the Longbottoms? Wouldn't that wand have been confiscated upon her arrest? And probably destroyed after her life sentence? How does Hermione know Bellatrix didn't use some spare heritage wand until Ollivander was taken? Or even later, it worked well enough for her at the Ministry? (Ollivander would recognize it as hers in any case, he saw her with it.)
As for Luna's new wand - maybe wandmaking takes a long time. Maybe the wood of the only available tree was only suited to her. In any case, I understand him preferring her to others. But how did he get a unicorn hair (or dragon heartstring, or phoenix feather)? Maybe Luna's wand has a Snorcack hair at its core.
It’s funny. Harry never really seems that fond of people until they die.
Yes. He is so full of love.
Hermione transfigures Ron’s features to disguise him. Something we know she excels at because she was top of the class last year when they were learning it.
Indeed. We were *shown* that they learned human transfiguration in 6th year. Why not use that knowledge?
Now I’m wondering why Hermione was chosen to impersonate Bellatrix.
Especially as it seems Harry has better claim to Bellatrix's wand.
BTW it seems Hermione used Bellatrix's ex-wand the entire battle (unless she disarmed someone without our knowledge) - so the wand must have adapted to her at some point anyway. And Draco showed up with Narcissa's wand - which had earlier been taken by Dobby. But Dobby was killed by Bellatrix. So perhaps she's the one with best claim to that wand? I think I give up.
So… these would be half-blood children? I mean, if he’s in Diagon Alley, then he must be a wizard. If he’s a Muggle-born wizard, then his children would be half-blood—unless he married another Muggle-born? What would they be then? Quarter-blood? I’m kind of confused now that I’m reading this for the second time.
Supposedly to the most extremists Muggle-borns are not really wizards. So a child of two Muggle-borns wouldn't really be a wizard either, and the child of a Muggle-born and 'proper' wizard is a half-blood, just like the child of a Muggle and a wizard. Which is terminology used by all sides. So I'm not sure why any side should be thought of as non-racist (or bloodist or whatever the term is supposed to be).
That wandless Muggle-borns approach Travers with requests for reconsideration suggest to me that once Muggle-borns were disarmed and sufficiently cowed they were left alone. They weren't (at this stage) being rounded up to be killed.
Ron blasts the demanding man away, and even the well-off wizards start running away from Hermione. Then, she’s greeted by Travers, and overplays the haughty act, since he’s a Death Eater. Not only is he a Death Eater, he’s one of the ones who came to Lovegood’s home looking for Harry.
He is also one of the DEs Kingsley and Hermione fought in the 7P battle. Did she really need a reminder about him?
This could spell disaster for the entire wizarding economy. Face it, Gringotts is too big to fail!
Makes you wonder where Harry and co keep their money at the time of the epilogue.