Harry Potter: Its all over

I disagree strongly with Brekka here - I thought the first two films were mould-filled Hellpants, but I thought the third one was actually rather good for this kind of thing. It isn't a bloated Columbus thing, and the time travel element is really fun on screen.Anyway. The films after that are okay.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!.
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First, the book did not follow the standard Potter formula, with school being the gel that held everything together.

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I disagree, and actually think that this is one of the strengths of the book.Everything that Harry loved or that protected him or gave him any guidence had to be taken away from him in order for him to do what he needed to do, and that included Hogwarts and the teachers there.Loss and abandonment and how we pesevere and make our own way is a major theme of the series.

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The far more critical issue with the book was the lack of any real epilogue or 'denument'. After investing seven plus years and 3000 or so pages into a setting and characters the lack of closure really, for lack of a better word, sucked.

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I think you are missing the point of the epilogue."Nothing happens", because nothing much happens in normal life during peacetime when people are free to live as they wish and are not under constant thread of attack, torture, and death.That is exactly what Harry and everyone who opposed Voldemort was fighting for; the ability to have a normal life.

The books definitely get better - the first two are decent kid's books, the third book really picks up, and the series as a whole is a very satisfying piece of work.The first two films are merely OK, but take a huge leap in quality with #3. I'm really hoping they bring back Cuaron to direct part 7.

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Am I alone in not liking either the books or the movies? She seemed to invent the magic as she went along. There were far too many rabbits out of hats.

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The magic really isn't the point of the story, Percy.It's just a fun and engaging backdrop to the tale of an ordinary boy who is thrust into extraordinary circumstances and has to make many chioces, all of which have consequences, and not just for him.It is a great morality tale about choosing to do the right thing, even when it costs you dearly, and how incredibly hard it often is to do that.The first two films aren't very good; the third is very good and this latest one is almost as good.And, you actually have no idea if you like the books or not if you have only read a quarter of the first one.Edited by nator, : No reason given.

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I enjoyed the deathly hallows more than any of the others, but only because I knew we would finally get all of the answers.

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Yeah, some people really have a strong need to know all of the answers, don't they?

Maybe that's why he doesn't like it. Not everybody likes morality tales and coming of age stories. Some people like fantasy the same way they read bridge columns; they're interested in how clever people use tools and take advantage of rules - or even cheating - to solve problems.

Reading yours and others comments it seems that I should take a look at the 3rd film at least.The 4th film sounds worth avoiding and then the latest back on track again.I intend to get the latest book but will probably leave the films until my little boy is old enough to take an interest in them. Then, hopefully, even the worst of the film series will take on a new light as I see them through his eyes to some extent.

By this logic are the best works of fantasy the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books? I mean you might as well just be reading the sourcebooks half the time for some of them, and I think at least a few were based on actual campaigns. By the way Crash do you read 'The Order of the Stick'?TTFN,WK

CONTINUING SPOILER ALERT!!.
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. I absolutely agree with the reasoning for the last book to take place outside the protection of the school and in the "real world."My only problem (and it's a small problem, really...I just didn't want the series to end) is that JKR always said that she planned on seven books because that is amount of school terms Hogwarts has. So, if she was basing the number of books on that and Harry and Co. do not return to school in the final book (at least not in the same sense), then what was the point of limiting the books to 7? Why not have 7 school terms and have the final book take place in the year following 7th year?/whineThat said I love how the final battle takes place at Hogwarts. It adds such an emotional factor seeing the place we've come to know and love be the scene for such carnage and destruction (probably for Harry, too, since it is what he calls home). And Harry finally has a family.I think that many fans who have issues with closure only have them because very specific questions/wishes they have (fates of favorite characters, reappearance of things/people - like the veil or the locked room in the Department of Mysteries - and other various loose ends)or from things Rowling has intimated at in interviews (someone using magic late in life in a desperate circumstance) weren't directly answered. I have those issues as well, but I still see that the ending and epilogue provide perfect closure for the central story.It's been a wonderful journey.

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"You are metaphysicians. You can prove anything by metaphysics; and having done so, every metaphysician can prove every other metaphysician wrong--to his own satisfaction. You are anarchists in the realm of thought. And you are mad cosmos-makers. Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration." -The Iron Heel by Jack London

I've just been thinking about the genetics of magic in the Potterverse. I think there is a pretty clearly implied genetic basis, but as with so many things the details are fuzzy.It seems obvious to me that Magic use is a recessive trait since we see a number of magic users with muggle backgrounds (i.e. Hermione, Lily potter, the Creevey brothers).Perhaps the more interesting question if we assume magic use is a recessive trait, is the origin of squibs. Squib characters seem to be rarer than muggle born wizards, so perhaps squibs are the result of de novo mutations which compromise the function of the magic using gene.In a wiki article on blood purity it quotes Miss Rowling describing magical genetics, "Squibs are rare; magic is a dominant and resilient gene." I can't see any way in which this actually fits with the facts as we know them. Magic use seems much more likely to be a recessive trait, if it is a simple trait.TTFN,WK

---SPOILER ALERT--- Yeah - good point. I agree.The books really make you think you're in his position aswell.I guessed Snape could have sent the doe with the clue "you'll always get help at hogwarts".Where you sad for Snape? I was. I thought he was a good guy - that's the only prediction I got right really.Oh - and does Hermione remind you of anyone Shraff? P.s. And the last enemy to be conquered will be death. Read my sig and weep, as the bearded sky-daddy in heaven says it like it is. Edited by mike the wiz, : No reason given.

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Ofcourse it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real? - Albus Dumbledore

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. I agree with what you are saying, but the execution was very weak. I was very happy that she actually killed Dumbledore and kept him dead for that very reason. I had serious doubts that she would actually commit to that, and I'm happy to have been wrong about it. Jaderis hit what is probably bugging me about the setting thing. She has always claimed that there was going to be one book per school year. What happened to the seventh year? That's the thing though. Wars just don't 'end' cleanly like portrayed in this book. There is always aftermath, always strife that needs to be resolved, always ramifications to the people involved. Again, I have to point to LOTR and B5 as perfect examples of works that understood this and followed through on it. After so much investment in the world, I want to know how things turned out and 5 pages of sappy 19 years later doesn't cut it. The story arc deserves another few hundred pages devoted to it and I don't think we will ever see it now.

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Where you sad for Snape? I was. I thought he was a good guy - that's the only prediction I got right really.

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I was sad for Snape (and sad we didn't get more of him in this last book). However, I don't really think he was all that good of a guy, although I also guessed that he was a double agent. Ultimately, the only thing he had was an unrequited love/unhealthy obsession for Lily. He didn't really care about Harry.

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Oh - and does Hermione remind you of anyone Shraff?

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Wow, such an excellent compliment! I am flattered.

If you're familiar with this use of the term, would it be fair to say that Snape was a Nice Guy?I caught on that he was being set on a redemptive arc, etc., but I was dismayed that the way it worked out was that his sense of male sexual entitlement was so big it drove him from the Dark Lord. Uh, yeah, that's a real redemptive story there.

I'm right with you there. For me, it got old really fast. Wow, me too! You must have been influencing me to do what I did.I'm the sort of person that would stay up all night and pay for it the next morning if I happen to have started reading a book right before bed. Normally, I read about a book every two days. And usually when I read a book that I don't like, I just try to read to the end just to see how the plot turns out. Even Doesteovsky's (sp?) longest and most boring book in the world Demons I actually painfully read all the way through after having read about a quarter of it.Harry Potter book I was so borring that I just put it down and had absolutely no desire to pick it up again. When a Dutch couple (they ain't no woman and man if you know what I mean) and their 2 adopted sons came and stayed here for a few nights, I was so surprised to find them reading one of the Harry Potter books each night right before bed to the boys, and I was even more surprised to see the boys so interested and quietly listening to something like that before, and I'm talking about a 7 and 11 year old.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

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He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!