Post DH
Right so. Overall, I liked it. I thought that the start was slow, and I hated the political Voldy=Hitler/Muggle-borns=Jews thing. Oh, and WTF, Umbridge? Mad-Eye's Eye?! Weird-o.
Luna's father and house made me soooooo happy. Seriously, Xenophilius? Best name ever. It means, in case you don't know, lover of strangers or strange thing in Greek. And the pictures on the ceiling! AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! Is it weird that in my mind, Neville's picture was the one right about her bed? So she could look at him the best? Yeah, my ship wins. You know she's at Hogwarts with him and their kids and that's why she wasn't on the platform in the epilogue. Don't deny it.
Speaking of the epilogue, that was pretty lame. The names for the kids read like bad fanfic. You can do better that that, JKR. I would have been happy with Chapter 36 being the end since that's how the epilogue was. I was hoping for something along the lines of Tolkien's 6 or 7 appendices about what happens all the way to the end of their lives. But then fandom would be dead, right?
Plus, I think most of the world knew that Snape wouldn't live (Yay Snape and Lily!!) and that not all of the Weasleys would make it out alive and unscathed, but come on! Remus AND Tonks?! (Sidenote: I love that they call her Dora.) I don't like that Andromeda lost her husband, only child, and her son-in-law, AND has to raise her grandson. I thought Neville and Harry filled the quota on orphans raised by family members in this series...
Okay, good things: NEVILLE! OMG! So wonderfully defiant and amazingly brave. I loved, loved, loved that he got to kill Nagini. I yelled, "WHAT? HOW DID-? HE GOT THE SWORD!!!" when that happened. My brother looked at my strangely. Anyway, Neville was awesome and I most definitely cried when he appeared in the tunnel with longish hair and scars and all. That was completely amazing. Oh! But what was up with him not getting to face Bella AT ALL?!?! He didn't even have a CHANCE! I was pretty mad about that. But everything else he did was beautifully done.
I loved Ron in this book, too. Even though he ran away and came back. I thought that it was a nice touch to the story, having the Horcrux feed off his insecurities. I loved all the R/Hr moments, too, especially the kiss. I was waiting for them to shag each other for the WHOLE DARN BOOK! And also, did anyone else think something along the lines of "they're off snogging" when Ginny said they had disappeared saying something about the bathroom? Or was that just me?
What else... I'm glad that McG turned out not to be a spy. I was almost convinced by the "McG is a Spy" theory - I wouldn't have been surprised if that was the case, but I didn't think that JKR would do that to us. Speaking of spies... I was terrified that
So, about the wandlore and Three Brothers and all the "mythology" so to speak:
I loved it. When Hermione was telling the story at the Lovegoods' was when I really got into the book. Before that it seemed to me to be just a politically-driven, depressing bloodbath. "NOWHERE IS SAFE!" "EVERYONE'S ON THE RUN OR DYING!" That kind of thing. But once JKR told us the story of the Hallows, the story picked up. I liked the uncertainty of which was more important - the Hallows or the Horcruxes - and I liked the interactions of the Trio as they tried to figure it out. The wandlore was well done, I thought, and I liked the way it all played out in the end (even though I wasn't altogether pleased with JKR's afterlife thing). And does anyone know what that baby thing was? I didn't get it.
Alright, it's 3am and the cat woke me up with his meowing at 6:30, so I should get going. I'm sure there will be more thoughts later after some digesting and maybe rereading of some parts. Also, I've been reading everything that you all have been saying, even if I'm not responding all the time. I do really like to hear what you think!
