Deathly Hallows initial reactions
Jul. 22nd, 2007 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ishtar79I don’t know how to feel about it yet.
Correction, the first readthrough left me with the urge to throw the book against the wall. Or inside the sea, given that I read it all by the beach.
After a good night’s sleep and reading all the reaction posts, I’m mostly feeling…ambivalent. I’ll be away for a few days, so I think a second read and some distance from fandom will allow me to get my thoughts together for a coherent post, but in the mean time, here’s some random initial thoughts:
-Ok, so for being dead, Dumbledore does a great job of being simply one of the BEST aspects of the books. Morally ambiguous!Dumbledore is hardly a new concept for a large segment of fandom, but I’d never thought we’d get such canon acknowledgement of the fact…and did we EVER! And Dumbledore/Grindelwalt: like Xavier/Magneto, in a way. Only even more so.
-Aberforth is made of awesome! Seriously, for a character who used to be a throwaway joke, what a fantastic treat he turned out to be. Though the goat thing still stands.
-Harry didn’t annoy me in this one. Not even a little bit,
-Naked Harrys! Fenrir seemingly having escaped from one of those DE Dark Revel/noncom fests fics! Dumbledore’s little sis gang-raped by Muggles (I suppose there are other possible interpretations, but COME ON!)! Bella Crucioing Hermione! An entirely unhealthy theme of wand obsession throughout (it’s not the size of it, but how you USE it). Hogwarts turned into the DE’s personal Chamber of Pain (and sex)! GOATS!!111!! (After my last post heavy on the goats, I now want to read crackfic about Aberforth’s Samothraki vacation) At this point, I’m *convinced* she puts that stuff just to mess with us.
-If the above list was a tribute to all that is kink and twisted in fandom, that epilogue reads like the worst fanfic.net fluffy fic. Pass the sick bag.
-Oddly, I didn’t mind the Ron/Hermione is this book. Yeah, I don’t know either. Possibly because it didn’t turn into a giant monster that swallowed up the storyline.
-After the travesty of HBP, Hermione is back to form, and thank God for that.
-Minimal Ginny. Yay!
-Man, the DE and Voldemort were actual *scary* in this one. And effective. Who knew it was possible?
-Well yeah, I knew Bellatrix would die. But all the Bella/Voldemort stuff was gold.
-Draco survived, though much of his character development from HBP, and I’m to say, some of his hair, didn’t.
-Haha, like there was any doubt the Malfoys loved their son? Bye-bye, abusive!Lucius fics!
-Ok, so the Kreacher bits were INSPIRED. He actually IS Albert from Batman!
-Snape. Like I can pretend it was about anyone else but Snape for me. I was expecting his death. A large part of me was even expecting the Snape/Lily. I’m feeling particularly vindicated on the subject of his allegiances, because there was never the shadow of a doubt in my mind. And yet….gah. This is one of those topics I’m not ready to talk about. At all. Will get back to you when I decide how to feel.
-Having said that…Snape’s Patronus is BAMBI?!!! BWAHAHA! I can speak of that part, because the absurdity of it is just…*DED*. No wonder you didn’t get the girl-all this time Lily thought you were her extremely fey gay best friend.
-So…AU? Don’t let me down, fanfic writers!
Correction, the first readthrough left me with the urge to throw the book against the wall. Or inside the sea, given that I read it all by the beach.
After a good night’s sleep and reading all the reaction posts, I’m mostly feeling…ambivalent. I’ll be away for a few days, so I think a second read and some distance from fandom will allow me to get my thoughts together for a coherent post, but in the mean time, here’s some random initial thoughts:
-Ok, so for being dead, Dumbledore does a great job of being simply one of the BEST aspects of the books. Morally ambiguous!Dumbledore is hardly a new concept for a large segment of fandom, but I’d never thought we’d get such canon acknowledgement of the fact…and did we EVER! And Dumbledore/Grindelwalt: like Xavier/Magneto, in a way. Only even more so.
-Aberforth is made of awesome! Seriously, for a character who used to be a throwaway joke, what a fantastic treat he turned out to be. Though the goat thing still stands.
-Harry didn’t annoy me in this one. Not even a little bit,
-Naked Harrys! Fenrir seemingly having escaped from one of those DE Dark Revel/noncom fests fics! Dumbledore’s little sis gang-raped by Muggles (I suppose there are other possible interpretations, but COME ON!)! Bella Crucioing Hermione! An entirely unhealthy theme of wand obsession throughout (it’s not the size of it, but how you USE it). Hogwarts turned into the DE’s personal Chamber of Pain (and sex)! GOATS!!111!! (After my last post heavy on the goats, I now want to read crackfic about Aberforth’s Samothraki vacation) At this point, I’m *convinced* she puts that stuff just to mess with us.
-If the above list was a tribute to all that is kink and twisted in fandom, that epilogue reads like the worst fanfic.net fluffy fic. Pass the sick bag.
-Oddly, I didn’t mind the Ron/Hermione is this book. Yeah, I don’t know either. Possibly because it didn’t turn into a giant monster that swallowed up the storyline.
-After the travesty of HBP, Hermione is back to form, and thank God for that.
-Minimal Ginny. Yay!
-Man, the DE and Voldemort were actual *scary* in this one. And effective. Who knew it was possible?
-Well yeah, I knew Bellatrix would die. But all the Bella/Voldemort stuff was gold.
-Draco survived, though much of his character development from HBP, and I’m to say, some of his hair, didn’t.
-Haha, like there was any doubt the Malfoys loved their son? Bye-bye, abusive!Lucius fics!
-Ok, so the Kreacher bits were INSPIRED. He actually IS Albert from Batman!
-Snape. Like I can pretend it was about anyone else but Snape for me. I was expecting his death. A large part of me was even expecting the Snape/Lily. I’m feeling particularly vindicated on the subject of his allegiances, because there was never the shadow of a doubt in my mind. And yet….gah. This is one of those topics I’m not ready to talk about. At all. Will get back to you when I decide how to feel.
-Having said that…Snape’s Patronus is BAMBI?!!! BWAHAHA! I can speak of that part, because the absurdity of it is just…*DED*. No wonder you didn’t get the girl-all this time Lily thought you were her extremely fey gay best friend.
-So…AU? Don’t let me down, fanfic writers!
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-23 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-25 09:58 am (UTC)And I thought that Hermione snogging him when he finally saw the truth of her Elf views was kind of brilliant.
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Date: 2007-07-22 02:53 pm (UTC)I beg your pardon! Snape's Patronus is Bambi's mother.
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Date: 2007-07-22 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-25 09:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 06:58 pm (UTC)"And Dumbledore/Grindelwalt: like Xavier/Magneto, in a way. Only even more so."
Oh that is SO TRUE! LOL
Okay I loved the book...but I was very surprised that Snape/Lily turned into the monster that ate the book (I had that that was just a fan fic pairing, did JKR actually foreshadow that w/hints that I missed?!).
Killing Fred was too harsh for me, but luckily it happened near the end... You may have noticed that
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Date: 2007-07-22 07:03 pm (UTC)I think that there was some foreshadowing of the Snape/Lily from JKR with Snape's Worst Memory as well as in HBP in those comments about how Lily was good in Potions. I was dreading the Snape/Lily and it made me so mad I wanted to hit something.
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Date: 2007-07-25 10:01 am (UTC)I didn't give a toss about Fred, or any of the deaths besides Snape really, but Hedwig got to me too.
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Date: 2007-07-23 05:13 am (UTC)*chokes*
I know! Even when she allows him to survive, get laid and have offspring, she just couldn't resist slaming him down one last time. I can't decide if I am outraged or amused by this- maybe both.
Snape’s Patronus is BAMBI?!!! BWAHAHA! I can speak of that part, because the absurdity of it is just…*DED*. No wonder you didn’t get the girl-all this time Lily thought you were her extremely fey gay best friend.
Bwahahaha!!!
Man, you never fail to crack me up!
And agreed, so far (I still have 300+ pages to go!) the Dumbledore backstory has been the most fascinating part of the book for me! Who'd thought!
no subject
Date: 2007-07-25 10:02 am (UTC)I know! Even when she allows him to survive, get laid and have offspring, she just couldn't resist slaming him down one last time. I can't decide if I am outraged or amused by this- maybe both.
I'm leaning towards 'amused'. And hey, at least our boy survived!
Albus' awesomeness in this book is only eclipsed by Aberforth's.
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Date: 2007-07-23 09:16 pm (UTC)Hey, she still could be right! A very possessive, extremely fey, gay best friend! Voldemort just didn't understand it!
Morally ambiguous!Dumbledore is hardly a new concept for a large segment of fandom, but I’d never thought we’d get such canon acknowledgement of the fact…and did we EVER!
She went all the way and beyond with that! Did anyone forsee this? I had the impression that most people who saw Dumbledore exactly like he was presented in canon (!!!!) hated JKR for not seeing it herself... I'm in a state of awe!
Dumbledore’s little sis gang-raped by Muggles (I suppose there are other possible interpretations, but COME ON!)!
I read this bit three times with a raised eyebrow and I swear, I did not find other possible interpretations. And Greyback's obviousness is out of question. I think Rowling still held herself back with what she really wanted to write, but not much!
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Date: 2007-07-25 10:05 am (UTC)A lot of ficcers will see it that way, which is FINE by me!
I read this bit three times with a raised eyebrow and I swear, I did not find other possible interpretations. And Greyback's obviousness is out of question. I think Rowling still held herself back with what she really wanted to write, but not much!
Ah, good, it's not just my dirty mind then.
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Date: 2007-07-24 02:07 am (UTC)Seriously, I flipped a shit at how awesome the Dumbledore family stuff was. Magical insanity! A really cool goat-fucker! A haughty muggle-born mother and a father in Azkaban. The most brilliant wizard of his age with a wand called the Deathstick. The rest of the book could have been nothing but the epilogue and I would have loved it for this stuff.
The only thing that could have made it better was if she had realized what she HAD to do and put him in Slytherin. But alas, I forgive and will see Slytherin!Dumbledore and warm fuzzy socks in my Mirror of Erised.
The Ron/Hermione didn't bother me either. Instead of JKR coming at it as "this is obvious to me and I will show you why over and over again and poorly" she took it as given and it was just there. It was nice that way and undistracting.
I was expecting the Snape/Lily and I was expecting to hate it. But the fact that they were lifelong friends who had a falling out (and he was in love with her) was much better than what I was expecting, AND explained some Petunia stuff I'd been wanting to know about.
Yes, there are PLENTY of things I disliked, but since a good chunk of the book was Dumbledore and omg we met Grindelwald and they were friends!111! and DUMBLEDORE and omg DUMBLEDORE I can forgive so very much.
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Date: 2007-07-25 10:08 am (UTC)I was expecting the Snape/Lily and I was expecting to hate it. But the fact that they were lifelong friends who had a falling out (and he was in love with her) was much better than what I was expecting, AND explained some Petunia stuff I'd been wanting to know about.
It definitely could have been worse, and I chose to interpret his continuing feelings for Lily as guilt at having his first (and only?) friend killed, rather than him still carrying a torch for her.
People need to start writing Dumbledore/Grindelwald slash like there's no tomorrow. *heavy hint*