Overall, I liked it a hëll of a lot.
I’ve given it some thought and decided that I won’t go into detail. I will simply say that I think Rowling pulled it off. Yes, to some degree it was “Harry Potter and the Deathly Exposition,” but she had a lot of ground to cover and loose ends to tie off. She accomplished a hëll of a feat.
And the only vaguely spoilerish thing I’ll mention is this: At one point Harry, having been rendered insensate, comes around, and we have the following sentence:
“Almost as soon as he had reached this conclusion, Harry became conscious that he was naked.”
Am I the only one who, upon reading this, immediately jumped to the conclusion that in a burst of metafiction, Harry was going to discover that he was on stage in a production of “Equus?”
PAD
• 
Having seen him (in every sense of the word) in Equus, I got a laugh out that bit (and the early bit with the 7 Harrys). Of course my wife and I were also making those sorts of jokes during the Thestral scenes in the movie.
David
I am on my third read-through of this book and I am still trying to put it all together – there was so much going on – but I really liked it and was very pleased with the entire book. All those little things, like the gleam Harry thought he saw in Dumbledore’s eye when Voldemort took his blood at the end of GoF, the locket, Kreacher, RAB, Aunt Petunia – I could go on for pages about all the loose ends that were tied up – I was very impressed.
But I still want to know what Dudley saw when the Dementors were attacking them. Aside from that, I was satisfied.
I, for one, didn’t think the writing was particularly good–certainly not as good as some of the previous HP books. You’re right, though, Peter, that it contained a lot of exposition, and that’s tough.
The best thing I can say for the book, and this is major, is that Ms. Rowling really succeeded on an emotional level. If I hadn’t been finishing the book at five on Saturday morning, with my 3-year-old asleep in the next room, I would have stood up and cheered. Emotional success is huge–look at the disappointment so many felt at The Dark Tower‘s ending. (Not everyone, but many, by King’s own admission.)
I really enjoyed the book, especially the second half.
Eric
“Jocelyn at July 24, 2007 10:06 PM”
The diet sheet from the School Nurse at Dudley’s school and the realisation that it didn’t include deep-fried battered Mars Bars. 🙂
I was happy with the book and how it wrapped up the series. Some of the outcomes were what I had expected.
Megan (on the scond reading).
I liked the book–a lot. Probably more so than any of the others. I loved how everything came around and little things that I vaguely remember fit in like a huge puzzle.
I was, and still am, however, sorely disappointed in the epiologue. I felt it wasn’t needed and it ruined the post-wonder of this huge “fairy tale”. I felt it came across silly and tacked on. The last sentence of the real story was a perfect ending…we already knew enough to fill in the blanks of the love stories.
It felt like a forced addition rather than the “real” future of our heroes.
Perhaps it’s just me?
One thing that I like and dislike about the epilogue is that shows very, very concretely that these characters live as happily ever after as anyone possibly could. I especially like it for kids, because there was a great deal of doubt and paranoia built up over the course of the series, and the epilogue makes it abundantly clear that everything is as hunky-dorey as can be even nineteen years later. I’m not sure that many of us are used to such a lack of ambiguity from our stories anymore, and I’m not sure what I really think of that.
But it’s not just you, Czar.
Eric
I was quite surprised to see many of my own predictions came true. Even Better: There was even more to the story that I imaged.
With regards to the epilogue. Back in the previous thread I had mentioned that I had been spoiled on the last page and i hated it. After reading the book i kinda liked it. I liked it better on the second read through and I’m glad it’s there.
The story is she wrote the epilogue years ago. (I guess because she felt it may be too hard to do at the end of everything.) So that’s one of the reasons why it feels so different from everything else.
But I also liked the fact that it was so far ahead, she left spaces for a lot of things to happen.
the Trio and ginny didn’t start having kids until about 6 or 7 years after they graduated, so there was plenty of time for them to go out and have well not adventures but certainly have a life did he become an auror, did he play quidditch professionally? Still up the air a little for people to decide. I think she did it that way people knew long term they were together.
The other thing according to an article about the upcoming today interview is that JK is going to a Harry potter encyclopedia which is going to fill in some backstory on other characters like Dean Thomas and cover some of the intervening years.
Is she the best writer in the world? no. But you have to give her credit for what she’s done.
She made reading into a group experience, you had thousands of people reading the same book at the same time.
The sheer amount of effort she put into these books creating a world so immersive that it’s captured the minds of millions.
No wonder the Doctor was so impressed.
i don’t know if we’ll ever see a series like this again.
I hope so but i hope not as well.
I agree wholeheartedly with PAD–J.K. Rowling pulled off a hëll of a feat. I’ve been an avid reader for awhile now, and I can safely say that getting a book that manages to tie up most loose ends (if not all), and deliver a satisfying climax is, unfortunately, rare. But she did it.
Voldemort’s coup of the Ministry was a masterstroke, I thought. It really established Voldemort as a threat, which books 5 and 6 didn’t really accomplish, in my opinion. Not only that, Rowling included another mystery in the book, along with the location of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, which I seriously did not expect. I was so focused on where the Horcruxes were that the reveal of the Deathly Hallows blindsided me. And yet, the clues were indeed there.
Of course, some clues should have been given in earlier books. We should have known the Snitch had flesh memory way back in book one, not to mention just how good Harry’s cloak was. It’s only now that we find that something may be special about it.
However, those are pretty minor quibbles, all things considered. Even if J.K. Rowling doesn’t write another thing after this, I think she’s proven herself remarkably well.
A few quick comments:
1. When Hedwig bought it, besides catching me totally by surprise and causing me to exclaim “Møŧhërfûçkër!”, it let me know right off the bat that the bodies were going to stack up like cordwood.
2. Interesting bits of revelation of who “that awful boy” Aunt Petunia referred to and what precisely was Snape’s worst memory.
3. Where was Susan Bones? She had family killed the first time Voldy was around and lost her Gran this go round. Why isn’t she there during the last battle?
4. Molly Weasley’s Ellen Ripley moment.
5. I really wish the epilogue had a scene where the Ministry of Magic went all Nuremberg on Umbridge’s ášš.
6. A surprising amount of very poignant moments including Luna’s ceiling, Dobby’s final fate, Snape’s last request, and Albus Severus sharing his middle name with “the bravest man I have ever known.”
7. Xenophillius –> “Lover of Strange Things”. Perfect name!
8. The movie will have to be at least three hours long.
9. One bit that really should have been there:
When Harry enters the headmaster’s room and all the portraits applaud, a new frame next to Dumbledore featuring Severus Snape, clapping politely.
Speaking of Luna, we saw “The Order of The Phoenix” on Saturday night. Is it me or have they cast that role perfectly? The lass playing Luna really portrayed the (extra) otherworldly qualities that Rowlings gave the character – well for my money anyway.
Megan
I agree with many of you. I enjoyed the book and the wrap up. I had to read a couple of the chapters twice to make sure I caught everything. The main thing I did not like was it seemed like there was a lot of wasted time wandering around. I realize that is part of the story, but it seemed to take forever. I felt like the stories really got to you, I admit to shedding a tear when Fred (or was it George, who can tell?) died. And Percy coming back for that matter. Loved the Mrs. Weasley moment! I jumped up yelling, my wife thought I was losing my mind. I’m going to have to read it again and reread the sixth book, now that I know more about Snape and Dumbledore. Turns the scene on the top of the tower in book 6 on it’s ear!
Speaking of Luna, we saw “The Order of The Phoenix” on Saturday night. Is it me or have they cast that role perfectly? The lass playing Luna really portrayed the (extra) otherworldly qualities that Rowlings gave the character – well for my money anyway.
The producers apparently gave the casting gods proper sacrifices.
PAD, any chance of an ORDER OF THE PHOENIX discussion page?
BTW, anyone catch the opening to Monday’s COLBERT REPORT? Perfect.
My main problem with the epilogue was that it seemed like the only things worth mentioning of the next 19 years were who married whom and what kids they had. The only career path we get to see is Neville’s, the only non-spawning accomplishment we get from the Big Three is that Ron got his driver’s license (and it’s also implied Harry has his, since Ron asks if Harry had trouble parking).
Personally, I thought the book was great! I loved it.
It was, imo, a great end to the series!
As for the epilogue, personally I liked it a lot. I was thinking that Deathly Hallows was going to have a bad ending (it really seemed like Harry was going to die) and was very happy to see that the series ended on a happy note. Sure people died, but the main three are safe! Not what I expected at all and I’m VERY happy with that.
I’m so tired of books & movies that have depressing/sad/terrible endings. There’s too much of that now. Everybody thinks they have to go with the ‘realistic’ ending and kill off the main guy or do something else sad or just not end the thing at all (Halo 2/Cell/Angel. UGH) and leave everything to the readers imagination! Ugh.
Now sure, Rowling does leave some things to our imagination with the eplilogue, she doesn’t tell us everything, but I’m OK with that. I’m just glad she did the epilogue. She could have ended it with Harry & the kids winning & Harry getting his wand back. I know I would have been disappointed with that though. I really wanted that epilogue! 🙂
Deathly Hallows is definitly my favorite of the Harry Potter books! Loved it. Especially everything at Hogwarts!
This is going to make one heck of a movie!
DF2506
” Is glad some book/movie series is going to have a happy ending for once.”
I thought it was cute that A.S.P. was afraid he’d be Slytherin.
I’ve been reading HP reviews and one thing I keep noticing is people complaining about the epilogue.
So many people get stuck on the shipping, which to me is incidental where HP is concerned, or the naming of the kids, which well… they’re wizards, all wizards suck at naming their kids, just look at all the rest of the names in the book for crying out loud.
But all those people nagging and nagging and nagging about the sentimentality and stuff seem to be people who haven’t even bothered to read the epilogue, because it is essential.
In the first book, Hagrid almost instantly fills Harry with prejudices against Slytherin. It’s in big part because of what Hagrid tells him about Slytherin that Harry ends up in Gryffindor. (and don’t tell me Dumbledore didn’t have a clue that this would happen, because I’m pretty sure he knows Hagrid well enough to know his opinion on matters)
Yet in that last scene, we see a moment where Harry could have filled his sons head with the same petty prejudices that he went in with, and he doesn’t. We’re shown that Harry has grown, has matured, has become a more forgiving man who can see beyond labels and look at people and see them for themselves.
He can in full honesty tell his son, “Then Slytherin house will have gained an excellent student, won’t it? It doesn’t matter to us Al.”
Read those words “it doesn’t matter”, compared to Ron’s joking to Rose, compared to Hagrid’s words to Harry…
Harry releases his son from the chains of fear and dividedness. He tells his son about Snape, the man his son was named after and gives him a glimpse of understanding of Slytherin.
And I love Rowlings for doing that, for giving us an adult Harry who has truly come full circle and has become a man to be proud of.
Who cares that Harry ended up marrying Ginny, that Ron married Hermione, that’s almost incidental in nature. It doesn’t matter. It’s just a small setting, like the trainstation. It’s not the point of the epilogue, which is why we get no more than a glimpse of it.
What matters is that Harry has become an adult.
And that is why I love the epilogue, no matter how schmoopy or sentimental it may be.
It makes sense to hear that Rowling wrote the ending a long time ago…it felt like it. But I wish she realized she had become a better writer and decided to rewrite it. Not necessarily changing the ending, but improving the telling, adding a few more details on those 19 years.
I just realized ASP’s initials due to the above commenter. I hope Rowling intended that, because it’s great!
I didn’t think of Equus-metafictionally in the scene PAD mentions, but in that, and a few other scenes, I wondered how exactly they were going to film it. For example – 7 Harrys – since they all are wearing their original clothing when they turn into Harry, and then change clothes, there could be some interesting totally-in-the-British-tradition cross-dressing.
I was a little surprised by some of the language in the book. ‘Merlin’s sagging left’, and ‘effing’ caught me off-guard. Sure, 17-year old characters, but there are still 10 year old readers.
I think the biggest hint that the invisibility cloak was something special is that no one else had one.
Wow, Lore, that’s a great analysis! Very well put.
The only negative thing to come out of all this are the douchbags who have been planting spoilers all over the place–some even used magaphones to yell out plotpoints to people waiting in line. You have to wonder at the mindset of someone who would get pleasure from that.
It might have been fun if, in the epilogue, one of the other families bidding their child goodbye…had been Dudley and his missus! Just an idea that makes me chuckle.
Other than that, I enjoyed HP7 a great deal, and I’ll be rereading it again soon. (I got started on another multipart saga while waiting for HP7 to arrive, so I want to get that out of the way to clear the mental space for a nice, leisurely re-read…)
I enjoyed the book immensely, although because of the inordinate amount of time spent on the 3 wandering around and scratching their heads in the first 1/3, I don’t think it will go down as my favorite. The only point that bothered me, and I don’t think she wrapped it up tight enough, was that of Ted Lupin. Harry, as an orphan whose Godfather meant so much to him although he knew him too briefly, is suddenly the godfather of a small baby who is now an orphan like himself. Then, when Dumbledore gives him the choice of life or death he doesn’t even seem to consider it at all in his decision. I expected Harry to see himself a lot more in the baby.
I realize this would probably have added another 100 poages to the book, but I would have liked even 2 lines to bring mention of it between the last chapter and the epilogue. (Who raises the baby? Tonk’s widowed mother? Harry? Butt-kicking Mrs. Weasley? Did he have any of his father’s werewolf charactistics?).
I know, I know, it’s a kid’s book. Like I won’t read it at least 5 times.
There was one contradiction in the book tho … maybe some of you on the second read through can help me … but didn’t she say in this book that the Invisibility Cloak that Harry had was absolutely impenetrable? That no one could see him if he was wearing it? And didn’t Moody’s Mad Eye see him across a crowded pub while he was wearing it in HP&POA? And wasn’t it implied that Dumbledore detected them at Hagrid’s in HP&COS when he was being sacked by Fudge and Malfoy?
I was mostly bored through the book until he got back to Hogwarts, then the action kicked in. He spent months on the run, trying to figure out what to do … I spent 8 hours reading it, and I knew what he had to do. He had to go find a painting of Dumbledore and talk to it! It appeared that the paintings carried the personalities and memories of the subject. I was surprised at the end of last book he didn’t go over to the painting in the Headmaster’s office and say “Wake up! What’s the game plan, coach?”
The epilogue would have been much better with other tidbits in it … who raised Lupin’s son? (Again, I might have missed that point in first read.) How high up did Arthur Weasley get in the Ministry after his heroism, and how was the Ministry restructured? Did they go Nuremburg on Umbridge’s ášš? How did Malfoy’s parents pay for their crimes, and how heartfelt was their remorse? What happened to Luna? What job did Harry take? Was there a painting of Snape now, and did Harry apologize to it for his misgivings? Did Azkaban get shut down … it sounds more inhumane that Abu Gahrib.
I was, and still am, however, sorely disappointed in the epiologue. I felt it wasn’t needed and it ruined the post-wonder of this huge “fairy tale”. I felt it came across silly and tacked on. The last sentence of the real story was a perfect ending…we already knew enough to fill in the blanks of the love stories.
It felt like a forced addition rather than the “real” future of our heroes.
Perhaps it’s just me?
Personally, I think that ending may lead to a future series for Rowling: The Heirs of Potter.
I thought it was fairly obvious about Teddy: he’s been raised by his grandmother, just like Neville’s grandmother raised him.
Syd, I would have loved to have seen Dudley and his wife at the end. I was telling my husband that I wondered how Vernon and Petunia would react if a grandchild or -children turned out to be magically gifted. I’ll bet doting mommy/granny Petunia would forget all those silly prejudices the moment she saw “Dudder’s baby boy,” especially seeing how badly young Petunia wanted to go to Hogwarts herself.
I was reminded of THE LION KING, etc. at the end. The circle is now complete and it’s all about the children going off to school again to discover the wide wizarding world in front of them.
Linda
I liked it overall. I agree it dragged during the “camping stuff,” but maybe that was Rowling’s way of helping the readers empathize with the characters’ frustration. 🙂 Also would have liked to see Harry et al. actually graduating from Hogwarts. (Maybe do a “one year later” epilogue in addition to the 19 years later one?) Other than that, no complaints and a lot of enjoyment.
My only real complaint about the book (other than that too many of the deaths happened off-screen, decreasing their emotional resonance for me) is that we never got to see Umbrage meet a horrible and painful end. Honestly, the only character I can think of in literature who I hate more than Umbrage is Hugh of Austra from Kate Elliot’s “Crown of Stars” series, and I was pretty disappointed by the fact that we didn’t get a nice, 15 page chapter detailing his demise too.
My only real complaint about the book (other than that too many of the deaths happened off-screen, decreasing their emotional resonance for me) is that we never got to see Umbrage meet a horrible and painful end. Honestly, the only character I can think of in literature who I hate more than Umbrage is Hugh of Austra from Kate Elliot’s “Crown of Stars” series, and I was pretty disappointed by the fact that we didn’t get a nice, 15 page chapter detailing his demise too.
My only real complaint about the book (other than that too many of the deaths happened off-screen, decreasing their emotional resonance for me) is that we never got to see Umbrage meet a horrible and painful end. Honestly, the only character I can think of in literature who I hate more than Umbrage is Hugh of Austra from Kate Elliot’s “Crown of Stars” series, and I was pretty disappointed by the fact that we didn’t get a nice, 15 page chapter detailing his demise too.
My only real complaint about the book (other than that too many of the deaths happened off-screen, decreasing their emotional resonance for me) is that we never got to see Umbrage meet a horrible and painful end. Honestly, the only character I can think of in literature who I hate more than Umbrage is Hugh of Austra from Kate Elliot’s “Crown of Stars” series, and I was pretty disappointed by the fact that we didn’t get a nice, 15 page chapter detailing his demise too.
I loved the epilogue–more than that, I think I needed it. Not to go into personal circumstances, but there was a recent death in our family, and I think the frame of mind I was in when I read it made me want the happiest ending possible. Sentimentality it may be, but I wanted to know that everyone grew up, got married, had kids of their own, and lived Happily Ever After.
For that reason as well, the only thing I was disappointed in was the deaths of Tonks and Lupin. It felt very much like their deaths were a case of, “Well, I’ve had X number of people die, and that really isn’t enough to give the whole thing enough impact, I should kill a couple more people too. Hmmm…Tonks and Lupin?” 🙂
AJ Sherman wrote:
There was one contradiction in the book tho … maybe some of you on the second read through can help me … but didn’t she say in this book that the Invisibility Cloak that Harry had was absolutely impenetrable? That no one could see him if he was wearing it? And didn’t Moody’s Mad Eye see him across a crowded pub while he was wearing it in HP&POA? And wasn’t it implied that Dumbledore detected them at Hagrid’s in HP&COS when he was being sacked by Fudge and Malfoy?
“Invisible” does not mean “immune to detection.” We’ve already seen in book 7 that there are spells to simply reveal human presence in a house, visible or invisible. Hermione herself points out that they’ll leave tracks in the snow. Both Moody and Dumbledore had reasons to be very, very alert, and there were any number of signs that might have shown themselves to men such as those. To the kids, especially, who might be overconfident in the power of invisibility alone, such detection might seem like magic, but it might be simple observation.
Eric
I thought it was perfect. And well-written, too; I’m always extremely annoyed by people who claim that Rowling’s prose is bad. I think it mostly has to do with the success of the book – some people just can’t accept that something can be good as well as successful.
As for the epilogue, I think it was extremely satisfying. Soppy? Not in the least. Yes, they’re happy, but they’ve paid for that happiness with blood. People *died* to create this future.
A worthy end to a wonderful series. I’m happy. All is well.
Hmmmm. Except for the 100 pages focusing on the travels of Harry, Hermione and (sometimes) Ron, I really enjoyed this last novel in the series. The final two hundred pages were a blast to read and I really like that almost all of the minor characters got a chance to take one last bow.
For those who have not seen the Rowling interview with Viera:
She basically announced that at some point she plans to do a ‘PotterPedia’ that, while not a novel, will fill in a number of the details that people have been seeking, especially regarding the epilogue (my personal theory is that the Epilogue was deliberately left vague to encourage discussion). No time frame was given, at least in what I heard.
Once she’s had a chance to calm down after 17 years of work on this, I would not be surprised to see a short story here and there, perhaps in charity compilations, etc.
I may be the only person in the world who didn’t think the book dragged in the middle. In fact, I found that the fleeing and hiding by Harry, Hermione and Ron to be incredibly tense.
That part reminded me a lot of the books and movies I’ve seen that relate how the jews fled and hid from the Nazi’s in WW2. The idea that no matter where you hid or went one slip up could cost you your life.
How could that be considered dragging? Sure, the battle of Hogwarts is great, but the constant danger for their lives as they stayed one step ahead (almost) of the Death Eaters kept me on the edge of my seat.
I may be the only person in the world who didn’t think the book dragged in the middle. In fact, I found that the fleeing and hiding by Harry, Hermione and Ron to be incredibly tense.
That part reminded me a lot of the books and movies I’ve seen that relate how the jews fled and hid from the Nazi’s in WW2. The idea that no matter where you hid or went one slip up could cost you your life.
How could that be considered dragging? Sure, the battle of Hogwarts is great, but the constant danger for their lives as they stayed one step ahead (almost) of the Death Eaters kept me on the edge of my seat.
Sasha: When Hedwig bought it, besides catching me totally by surprise and causing me to exclaim “Møŧhërfûçkër!”, it let me know right off the bat that the bodies were going to stack up like cordwood
And, yet, they didn’t. Which I’m coming to realize I found disappointing.
I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to a Hamlet-like closing with bodies strewn all across teh stage, but Rowling had said very clearly that we’re dealing with true evil and it doesn’t target extras. The main characters were in peril and major folks would die.
And yet very few did. And those that did, with the exception of Fred, all died off screen. As if, despite what she’d said, Rowling couldn’t bring herself to write about these characters deaths.
Y’know, it’s stuff like this that make me really glad I’m getting this book on Friday, along with Darkness of the Light if I can find it. (Don’t worry, I didn’t read anything anybody posted, kinda the blog version of sticking my fingers in my ears and going “LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALAALALALALAALA” while everybody else talks.) But, having talked to many people around me that have gotten it, and with the only bad review coming from someone who gives nothing but bad reviews, I just can’t wait to get my grubby big paws on it. Shame I’ll have to wait until Stace finishes it. But, if I can get same paws on Darkness of the Light, I’ll put my After Effects book aside for a while.
And I apologize to anyone, (granted, nobody around here knows what I look like) who, after reading the Lalalala bit, got a disturbing visual. My bad.
LorE: Interesting idea regarding HArry and Syltherin…the problem, though is the book never shows Slytherin’s being good. We see Gryfendor bravery as good, Ravenclaw smarts, and Hufflepuff caring…but we never see why Syltherin ambition is a good thing, or any of its members doing the right thing. None of them join the fight at the end…they all either nick off or join the bad guys. The closest you get is Snape working for Dumbledore, but that’s not him doing it because Voldemort is wrong, but because Voldemort killed someone he loved..he was basically motivated by revenge, not goodness.
I thought the epilogue works cause it lets you know they were okay and did get married…but vague enough so she didn’t tell you what they are doing. So its up to you to think…is Harry working for the ministry like he originally wanted? Are Harry and Ginny working together at something. Did Ron become a Quiditch Manager? I think she left it open for us to fantasize about with just enough to know its a Happily Ever After life.
I just finished the book at 2:30 a.m. this morning. Believe it or not, one of the best things about reading the book was the comments posted here. A lot of the comments brought up points I had forgotten, overlooked and never thought about. I liked what people thought should have been included, what was left vague, why Rowling might have done something.
A big thanks to Rowling for many enjoyable hours and to all of you for your comments.
Actually Slughorn’s a Slytherin and Nigellus Black. Both were working against Voldemort.
And of the Slyhtherin kids only three or four if you count Pansy went to actually help Voldemort.
Sure the Slytherins weren’t shown as the great heroes of the book, but so what… It’s in their nature to do the sneaky thing, rather than open bravery. Snape’s a great example of this.
And personally I’ve never seen why love for one person is an unworthy motive for doing good. In fact, it’s one of the greatest things there are.
Snape loved Lilly, as a best friend, maybe even as someone in love with her and in the name of her memory, knowing he’ll never get anything out of it for himself, he did what he could to save lives. It might not have been for the greater good, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of respect.
I forgot something. Several months ago, Rowling said the books final word would be “scar”. In fact, our local paper had a contest to see who could write the best last line ending with scar. Obviously, that didn’t happen.
If Rowling wrote the epilogue years ago as was stated in comments above, when and why was the last word changed?
My contest submission:
“And now,” said the plastic surgeon, “breathe deeply, count backwards from 100 and when you awake, I will have gotten rid of that dámņ scar.”
I didn’t find any part of this book “slow” or dragging.
Megan
TransDutch: I didn’t think of Equus-metafictionally in the scene PAD mentions, but in that, and a few other scenes, I wondered how exactly they were going to film it. For example – 7 Harrys – since they all are wearing their original clothing when they turn into Harry, and then change clothes, there could be some interesting totally-in-the-British-tradition cross-dressing.
Harry’s thought that he’d like the others to be more respectiful of his privacy as they changed clothes got me thinking of some of the more interesting (or sophmoric?) things one could do with a batch of Polyjuice.
Ever wonder what the person looks like naked? Get a strand of hair and find out. Is there an easy path, in the wizarding world, for those who want to switch genders? An interested couple could take a bit and see how things work from the other person’s point of view…
Still regarding the epi:
I have to dispute the one poster’s assertion that the epilogue was needed because it showed Harry became a man.
That in itself was my main problem–it showed a grown up Harry, a domesticated Harry. It’s that FINALITY of it, that Harry grew up and had kids, that ruins the fun of…what happened next?
Maybe it’s also because I would like to think there could be more books in the future, no matter what has been said, and the idea of, like someone said, the Heirs of Potter isn’t what I’d personally be interested in.
No, the epi doesn’t rule out that Harry had tons of adventures in his twentys but it sets up a new time frame, of his children, rather of him himself. And I’m sorry, but I don’t like it.
Is it cute? Yes. Is it a happy ending? Yes. Would it have worked better three books ago? Yes. As it is, it sticks out like a sore thumb and while it may show that he’s grown up and is a man and is the father that he never got to have–it also disappoints BECAUSE of those reasons.
Contest submission:
“And yet, with all that said, Harry was still concerned that–in the entirety of ‘The Lion King’–his son’s favorite character after all this time remained Scar.”
PAD
“Czar at July 25, 2007 05:12 PM “
You must be a bloke! 🙂
“No, the epi doesn’t rule out that Harry had tons of adventures in his twentys but it sets up a new time frame, of his children, rather of him himself.”
This is a problem for you because? Ms Rowling stated from the outset that this was the last novel, so why is this an issue if she’s not going to write any more of them?
Plus the time frame jump – ok a larger jump than the last “New Frontier” jump, but still allows the possibility of more stories of what happened in the intervening years being revealed should Ms Rowling change her mind.
Hmmm. At least she did not end the last book with Journey playing in the background, Harry and his friends eating a meal in the dining room and suddenly a fade to black.
I have to admit, though, that I was hoping that on the last page would be the words “To be continued.” Sure, I would have been angry about being misled that it was the last book, but I would also would have been relieved.