Forums | MacLife

Spoilers!

shapoopy wrote:

My only hope is for Snape to somehow redeem himself in the final novel. I don't know how likely that is though. Dammit I'm sad.

I'm rather hoping that Harry takes him out too, actually.

shapoopy wrote:

SPOILERS BITCHES

oatmeal wrote:

I've always been with Harry in the not-trusting-Snape thing.

I'm still really sad about that. Snape has always been my favorite character. I've been able to relate to him all throughout the series, and now all along Harry's been right? That hit hard. It is true that Snape would have died himself had he not done it, but still, the fact that he made the vow shows where his allegiance lied for so long. Why did Snape help Harry out (even if Harry wouldn't admit it) in the earlier books? And in Order of the Phoenix Snape was a crucial part of the destruction of Umbridge! Why why why why why? I feel so crushed right now. My only hope is for Snape to somehow redeem himself in the final novel. I don't know how likely that is though. Dammit I'm sad.

HUGE smurfing SPOILERS, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!














More importantly, why did he just parry away all of Harry's spells and run off instead of killing him?  He didn't wait to avada kedavra the old guy, what made him toy with, and ultimately just leave Harry?

Chris FOM wrote:

Oats, changed the topic to indicate the presence of spoilers from the get-go. They're fair game now. If you're still reading, you've been warned.

Cool. If you hadn't done it, I would have been doing it right now instead of reading your post.

Chris FOM wrote:

There's more to that scene with Snape at the end than meets the eye. Albus Dumbledore does NOT beg for his life. It's utterly out of character for him and out of character with his views on death for the entire series. In addition, if Snape wanted him dead and a far more plausible reason for it as opposed to killing him in the open, all he needed to do was not quite be good enough when Dumbledore destroyed the ring horcrux. "I'm sorry Albus, but this is beyond my skill to heal." Dumbledore dies then instead of just losing his hand, and Snape has an iron-cast explanation for things.

I think Snape was faking in the beginning when he heard about Draco'smission. He had no idea what it was until the end, but used it and the Unbreakable vow to get himself in with the Death Eaters. That potion Dumbledore drank to get at the horcrux was fatal (notice that he kept saying Snape was the only one who could help him?) and he was begging Snape to finish the job and keep his cover. Nothing else makes sense.

What you're saying is plausible... but I think I'll take it at face value until I read otherwise, next book.

Chris FOM wrote:

And I found the editing in this one to be lousy, I noticed numerous very strong and obvious typos throughout the text, although maybe that was just me being tired when I read it. Rowling's writing, on the other hand, was far stronger I thought. The interplay between the characters was dead-on. After 5 previous books and over 2000 pages with them we know everyone of these characters through and through, and she really used that to move things up a few notched. The dialogue and situations between them always had a bunch of really nice little things going on just beneath the surface that were easy to pick up on thanks to our previous knowledge of them. Very nicely done.

Yeah.  Harry's breath left "fug" on the window?   He's a lot more mature and so is her writing.

Chris FOM wrote:

I do have to wonder about Harry breaking up with Ginny though. A, no way ginny just accepts that, she's too strong. she just doesn't want to stop Harry from doing what he has to do. But her acceptance is as real as the felix felices that Harry gave Ron before the game. B, I think it was hypocritical of him to break up with her because he posed a risk but then be then be thrilled Ron and Hermione were going to stick with him.

All in all though I thought this was by far the best of the books thus far. But book 7 is gonna be absolutely hellish to write.

Agreed on all points there.

I'm still unsure on whether or not Dumbledore was planning on having Snape kill him, but it does seem awfully convenient (Snape arguing with Dumbledore, obviously not wanting to do something and then Dumbledore begging when Rowling took the time to needlessly expose the fact that Dumbledore isn't the type to beg).

However, Rowling could be pulling a Kenobi on us, making sure the mentor is dead so his student can move on to beat the big bad guy alone.  One has to remember that the Dumbledore gained a certain amount of arrogance in this book (constantly reminding Harry that he very smart...something he didn't do before) and his character seemed far less certain about things than it did before.  This probably all makes sense, but this change in Dumbledore's character is very sudden.  It's almost as if Rowling said to herself, "I need to make Harry strong for book seven, but it'd just be easier to make Dumbledore look weaker."  Whatever it was, the Dumbledore in this book was clearly less likeable than the omnipotent yet casual wizard we had seen before.  I think Dumbledore, as this weaker character, was prone to make the mistake to trust Snape...a weakness that Harry will have to learn from and carry into the next book.

Touque Guy wrote:

harry, hermionie, and snape all kill each other in a knife fight on the golden gate bridge while it's on fire

Saw it coming.

Yeah, My thinking is that dumbledore was going to die that night. And he knew it (kept saying harry was the important one) I think that snape is a good guy.

maxintosh wrote:

(also, I wonder what will happen to him becoming an Auror... no NEWTs?)

Me too.

jhota wrote:

Harry's an idiot if he thinks Ginny is going to just let him go. at the same time, i'm sure she (being a not particularly foolish person) will most likely continue with her sixth year at Hogwarts - she can always lean on Ron, wimp that he is, to find out what the "big three" are up to.

Yup.  Somehow, though, I think the order will manage to impress upon him to complete his final year (if the school is even open... as if it wouldn't be ).

If I remember right, Dumbledore told Harry in Book 1, "To the well-ordered mind, death is but the next great adventure." I love that line. I think it will figure into Book 7.

With so much writing experience, Rowling has improved as a writer. What writer doesn't?  I'm eager to read book 6 but my son's not finished yet, so I have to wait to borrow his copy.

As to Snape in Book 6, I think Rowling's life view (which is very Christian, no matter what Pope Ratzinger the Overpopulator says to the contrary) will determine Snape's end. She makes sure all of the main characters are "round," not unidimensional. That's undoubtedly why Dumbledore is shown as more fallible in book 6, because he has a larger part than before. So Snape, who has been portrayed so well since book 1 as a basically evil person who does some good, has some saving graces (or perhaps as a basically good person who has some major character and personality flaws) will be redeemed. So might Dudley; so definitely will Draco. I think Ginny will have a huge part in Book 7. I'm kind of sick of Ron (largely because the kid who plays him in the movies is such a poor actor -- "indicates" constantly), so I think he'll be even less important.

Isn't it great to be around while these books are coming  out? When I was a child, I used to think that way about the classics I read, especially Alcott's and Twain's, How great to be alive when these books were first published! Well, I for one know that the Harry Potter books will outlive Pope Ratzinger.

Also, when Sirius died, Harry tried everything to talk to him again. There was no way. In this book there was a way, and he didn't try

As mentioned, I haven't read book 6 yet. But I'm wondering, is there any chance that Harry will die in book 7 as a kind of antiChrist - thereby rendering the series an antiChristian allegory? I hope that's absurd. 

Rowling said that she dreads having to write the ending. I don't feel she can betray the children she writes for and loves and owes so much to. She has to keep Harry good and heroic. But Rowling knows her Joseph Campbell: Most of the time the hero dies at the end or becomes otherwise inaccessible.

I think the only way out is for Harry to lose all of his magical powers. He can't simply chose not to use them (like a trite Samantha from "Bewitched"); he must lose them irrevocably. Perhaps he must enter the Muggle world and do great good working as an agent of goodness.

Of course, it's always the courage and cleverness of Harry and friends who defeat evil, not simply their knowledge of spells. Perhaps she'll have to tell Harry's ending  in flashback from his perspective as an old man, headmaster at Hogworts, husband of Ginny. Maybe the last book will be about their children's first adventure.(CS Lewis took a sidetrip to other characters and outside Narnia in "The Horse and His Boy.") I hope not.

On one of the Sunday talk shows, Rowling said she absolutely must not leave it possible for anyone else ever to write a book 8. She needs to tie this package up really neatly and indicating Harry's place in the larger world without making him a savior-martyr, a Jesus-figure, of the whole of witchdom. I'm confident she will wrap it all together quite satisfactorily.

Last edited by debbiedowner (2005-07-18 9:21 am)

debbiedowner wrote:

I think the only way out is for Harry to lose all of his magical powers. He can't simply chose not to use them (like a trite Samantha from "Bewitched"); he must lose them irrevocably. Perhaps he must enter the Muggle world and do great good working as an agent of goodness.

That's great - the first item on his itinerary can be explaining to Ron's dad how airplanes stay up.