HP5 spoilage

[avram]

More thoughts about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Stuff I liked

Ginny Weasley: This book does pretty well by Ginny. She’s smart, brave, clever, and generally more of an interesting protagonist than most of the other characters. She and Hermione could probably support a series all by themselves.

James Potter at fifteen: This was a great scene. I’ve been a bit distressed at the level of casual cruelty in the series to date, and Rowling seems to be actually addressing it in this book. (It also seems to me that casual cruelty is far more common in British fiction than in American. Anyone else notice that?)

Delores Umbridge: A good, creepy, thoroughly unpleasant villain. Good name, too. Rowling does a good job of keeping the threats fresh and new with each book.

Stuff that pissed me off

Sirius’s death: What a lame-ass death. it was essentially an accident — he’s hit by a stun-bolt and falls the wrong way, though that mysterious arch. And that arch is the worst part of it. Everyone tells Harry that Sirius is dead, as if the arch is universally recognized as The Arch Of Instant Death, but nobody actually tells Harry how they know, and Harry doesn’t bother asking. This is a classic sign that Rowling is hiding something from us, badly. Probably means Sirius is coming back in book five or six, in some way that we’d all have been able to predict if Harry had actually bothered to ask about the arch.

And hey, when Harry was desperate for a way to get in touch with Sirius, wasn’t it a good thing that he had those magic mirrors? The ones he totally forgot about, because it hadn’t even occurred to him to even find out what Sirius had given him? Because hey, it’s not as if magical devices ever come in handy.

Comments

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

It seemed pretty clear to me that the gateway arch was a non-metaphorical entrance to the land of the dead.

Now, of course, this means that, strictly speaking, Sirius is not dead, just residing in the land of the dead. This means that his recovery is more possible. (though note: denial/avoidance of death seems to be a cardinal bad thing in the potterverse.)

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

I also found the forgetting to unwrap Sirus's gift to be quite lame. Upon finishing Bk 5, I found the ending to be contrived.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

General agreement.

I am curious about something. I know we're told, by Dumbledore, that yes, Harry, not Neville, is the boy in the prophecy. Why? Cuz Voldemort marked him. Okay, but how do we know that that mark is -the- mark?

I also wonder -- Harry, of course, could make an excellent future Dark Arts teacher. But... so could Neville, I bet. And I'm sure he'd be patient with students.

And Umbridge may have given Harry the boost of his career by mouthing off about his chances of becoming an auror to the wrong person.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Hm, about that mirror -- if I recall the chronology correctly, Harry gets the mirror at Christmas break, then starts Occulomancy with Snapes, then learns his father was sometimes a jerk. Then, he contacts Sirius and Lupin via fire. Okay, so, why didn't Sirius say, during a fairly long conversation, "Oh, by the way, that present I gave you? You can use it to contact me."

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah Sirius Deathis clumsy. Worse the scene with Dumbledore where D. confesses that he has made of mess of things for basically the whole plot of this book don't really work. THINK (shoot me down if you want) that Rowlings is trying to move into teritory that this sort of series don't handle. tennager learning that the semi-numinous authority-figiures of childhood are faible.
THOUGHT she was going to top Hermione was pleased not so.
Cruelty bit don't get what your getting at please expand
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