Also, HP

[jethrien]

Finished Harry Potter last night. (Hey, I didn't get my copy until after lunch yesterday - it arrived while we were at Chuckro's parents' house.)


Overall, I'm satisfied. I would have liked to see a little bit more of Draco at the end, to get a sense of whether the whole debacle had any impact on him at all.

A couple questions:
- How did Gryffindor's sword get back into the hat after the goblin took it? I realize they needed it to be there, plotwise, but it didn't really make sense.
- If the entire house of Slytherin abandoned Hogwarts at its moment of need...why the hell is there still a house of Slytherin? I mean, we've pretty much proved that Slytherins are only good despite themselves. Why continue allowing this house to exist?

Anyway, it was a little more straightforward than it could have been, given all the hints dropped about Neville and so on. But overall, it was enjoyable, wrapped up most of the loose ends, and felt like a satisfying close. So I'm happy.

Comments

[hyouneko.livejournal.com]

According to Wikipedia, Rowlings defends Slytherin saying they aren't all bad. But I think it actually shows a weakness in her writing. We are supposed to believe that they aren't all evil, but yet most of the villans are from Slytherin. Seriously, the house of Voldamort? It's represented by a snake? At this point, regardless of intent, the writing's in the books. Gryphendor is seen as good and Slytherin is seen as evil.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The problem Rowling has with defending Slytherin is that she has purposefully condemned it from the outset. Hagrid is the one who says that there wasn't ever a witch or wizard who went over to the dark side that wasn't in Slytherin. It's why it was so easy for the world at large (who didn't know him) to believe that Sirius would have turned on the Potters (since his family's Slytherin forever, it would be easy to assume the Hat made a mistake in his case; it also makes the case of Pettigrew all the more interesting).

So, while it's true that all dark wizards and witches are Slytherins, not all Slytherins are dark wizards and witches, it doesn't look well for one house of Hogwarts to have such a huge amount of attrition to evil forces.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

And, as for the snake? Snakes are perfectly lovely creatures. Harry talked to several and found they weren't really all that bad. Like anything else, there's always a few bad apples to spoil the bushel. Besides, there are plenty of examples of creatures thought to be evil by reputation and lore that aren't, really, even just in Harry Potter.

Sorry, got defensive as a former snake mommy.