Posted on 07/21/2007 5:18:11 PM PDT by JenB
So you finally know what happens to Harry. All our questions are answered. Or not. What are your reactions? Whose death hurt the most? Do you want more, and about whom?
SPOILERS are ok on this thread! You have been warned!
Wow. It's over.
Yes, I recall Harry being befuddled at the collision of the two worlds, and suddenly becoming powerfully aware that Petunia was his mother's sister.
I've been re-reading parts of Hallows now, and am still finding things I don't understand. For instance, couldn't Kreacher have saved Regulus? Kreacher was able to disapparate from the Inferi, and we know he can take other people with him when he disapparates. He does it to Mundungus Fletcher, and Dobby apparates with Harry. Did Regulus want to die? Have to die? Or, more prosaicially, why didn't they just bring water with him on the return trip to the island? I guess there was sure to be some magical preventative there. It also struck me as interesting that Mad Eye, Lupin, and Snape all die-- that curse that Snape put on the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher seems to be a pretty potent one! Even Moody, who never actually filled the post, gets it.
Well heck, I was choked up a fair bit through the book myself, and I’m neither teenaged nor a girl.
By contrast, my wife and I marveled how incredibly sharp and quick-witted Hermione was. You want to count something, count how many times she saved their bacon by coming up with something in a split-second (stairs, Harry’s swollen face, etc.).
To me, this is the book in which Hermione finally comes into her own.
That’s what I get for getting into a discussion after reading all night and going to work...
I can’t wait till I get off of work - 6:00pm, so I can go home, and “I’ll be in my bunk.” (to sleep, not for Jayne’s reason!)
Mark
A friend of mine calls her "Arwendy." Speaking for myself, I think Liv Tyler is attractive enough, but she has that trout lip thing going.
In the LOTR movies, she always looks like she's about to start drooling.
Finally got around to reading that. MAN that’s funny...
FANS SEEING THIS AGAIN BECAUSE JOSS WHEDON IS OUR MASTER: AAAUGH! Whedon, you bastard!
*snork*
Now, here is what else is puzzling me. Harry is, albeit unwittingly, the seventh horcrux. In Hallows, there is some discussion (between Harry and Hermione, I think) about the risk of being too close to a horcrux for any length of time. Even wearing the locket turns out to be risky. And Hermione points out that the reason Ginny got into real trouble was that she opened herself emotionally to the horcrux that was Riddle's diary, a risk also spelled out in Chamber of Secrets. It is made very clear that there is real danger in becoming emotionally close to a horcrux. So, as Harry is the horcrux, how come for seven books, everyone from Dumbledore to Ginny gets so emotionally close to him with no ill effects?
Because they didn’t wear him around their necks?
Hmmmm. Maybe Harry is a “horcrux lite,” but even so, Ginny didn’t have the diary with her all the time. In fact, I think it continued to exert power over her even after Harry took it into his possession (after she tried to throw it away).
I also like the fans who’ve not seen the movie wondering why their friends who have seen it are whimpering.
Have you seen the “How It Should Have Ended” animations? They do one of Lord of the Rings that’s hysterical.
That was me...I practically had my hands over my eyes and fingers in my ears at that part on subsequent viewings. *shudder*
Haven't seen the "How It Should Have Ended" things...I'll look it up later!
(I’d do it for you, but YouTube is blocked at my work. There are several of them, and all the ones I saw were funny to varying degrees.)
To answer one of your original questions, the death that keeps hurting the most is Snape’s. I would have hoped for them to come to some understanding while Snape still lived, for Harry to say how sorry he was for his dad’s behavior.
But this way makes it more tragic, and sadder. Harry barely gets there in time to see him die so ignominiously, having no idea what it means. But Snape does, and with his last breath, he tells Harry to look at him — so that (we surmise) he can see those eyes, so like Lilly’s eyes, that he’s dying for.
So bitterly sad.
The books are definitely shown from Harry's perspective, and certainly he would not have picked up any Christianity from the Dursleys, so I don't think Harry is religious at all. I don't think that means *none* of the characters are Christian, just that Harry doesn't particularly observe it if they are. In the graveyard, Harry doesn't recognize or understand the "last enemy to be destroyed is death" quote, but Hermione seems to, and even though she doesn't explicitly say it's from the New Testament she does explain that it means life after death. Certainly we don't see any gung-ho vocal Christians, and Harry would surely notice if, say, the Weasleys were weekly church-goers, but the reality is that most nominal 'Christians' are not particularly devout, either (especially in the UK, compared to the US).
Join y'all soon at the end.
I think Snape’s death is sad. But at the same time it’s full of redemption. He knows, as well as Harry that he ~must~ die for Voldemort to be defeated.
He also knows that by giving Harry his memory, Harry will understand.
And I think, as shown by the portrait’s of the Headmasters (discussed upthread), Snape knows the outcome and he would have heard what Harry said to Voldemort.
Wasn’t Snape the one who alerted the Order at the end of OoTP. How is it that no one else recognized his Patronus? Sirius would have had a field day with that one.
I’ve been wondering when you’d show up.
Excellent points. You’re right about the unlikelihood of Harry’s having much contact with practicing Christians. Obviously someone in the fictional world goes to church, since they were having a Christmas Eve service in Godric’s Hollow when Harry and Hermione arrived there.
My sister-in-law is the daughter of a Church of England priest. I wonder what she thinks about the whole thing!
There's another Biblical quote in "Deathly Hallows." "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." That's from Matthew 6:19-24.
Now where's the "Harry Potter is the Devil" "Rowling is the Antichrist" crowd?
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