• ✍️ WORDS ✍️

    Welcome Guest!

  • Words Moderators: Shambles

Harry Potter/6th Book/Half-Blood Prince *SPOILERS*

fairnymph

fairnymph

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 16, 2000
Messages
17,159
Location
Germany for now, US again soon
DO NOT READ THIS THREAD UNLESS YOU HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK OR WISH TO BE SPOILED!

These comments are actually from my livejournal, so they aren't very composed:


I thought the beginning of the book was a bit slow; not bad or anything, but nothing special, and amongst the more mediocre writing I've read in these books. There weren't many dramatic OR funny moments, it was all sort of relatively rote storytelling. 2/3 into the book, things started getting much more interesting, with the HBP and Potions books and the pensieve sessions with Dumbledore.

THEN towards the very end, the last say 5 chapters, were positively gripping. Really fabulous. First, there are some ships. As in relationSHIPS. In fact there are FOUR major character couples that form in this book! Ron/Hermione (*sighs*), Harry/Ginny (!!!), Tonks/Lupin, and Bill/Fleur (who get married). From pretty early on in the book Harry starts feeling things for Ginny but she's still dating someone else at the time. Likewise, it becomes obvious quickly that both Ron and Hermione are interested in each other but too stubborn/silly/proud to do anything about it.

Anyway, the way that Ginny and Harry get together is actually rather cool, and well, I do like Ginny. I didn't like her when she was shy little pawn of Riddle's, but she has improved greatly since then. So Gryffindor wins the Quidditch Cup, and Ginny runs into Harry's arms 'with a hard, blazing look in her eyes' and they embrace and then *extremely loud ear-piercing squee* he kisses her! I read this little paragraph/few sentences about 5 times in repetition, and screaming and squealing and squeeing at the top of my lungs, meanwhile my fucked up husband looks at me like I'm crazy, and the cat's gone berserk, she comes over to me and keeps nuzzling my face and making worried mewing sounds, the darling. I continued this raucous as I read through the response to their VERY public kiss (in the Gryff common room) and then into the next chapter where Ginny is LEANING AGAINST HARRY'S LEG! *more loud squeals*

I'm so PROUD of Harry that he actually made the first move! And then followed up on it! He's not a little pussy! He's grown up! :)

Anyway I was still feeling quite elated about all this when Harry and Dumby run off to uncover a Hocrux, and that was all interesting and a bit eerie, and then they come back to Hogwarts and there is tremendous mayhem and the Order and Death Eaters and evil, Death Eater, traitor!Snape, who it turns out is the Half Blood Prince, and who kills Dumby!

I was quite shocked by all this but not as saddened as when Sirius died. I'm not sure why, but his death affected me much more profoundly on an emotional level. I definitely didn't expect THIS character death, though. I was once again proud of how Harry, when he took D's death in a very stoic and mature and determined manner. He really HAS grown up, and it's good, and it's going to be tough, but it will be worth it. And I'm glad he was able to be vindicated about never trusting Snape, the evil (and very clever) bastard. The 7th book will certainly be intense and I'm already waiting impatiently.
 
for anyone caring, I have the complete Harry Potter Half Blood Prince audiobook in MP3 format, I think it's read by the author J.K Rowling at Edinburg castle the other night!
 
Have you listened to it?

Btw, something I forgot to say:

There is a typo at the beginning of chapter three ('fug' instead of 'fog'), and there is a HUGE GAPING PLOTHOLE that has been bugging the hell out of me.

Namely, supposedly the potions book is 50 years old, upon which Harry concludes that neither his father or his friends could have been the HBP, but then it turns out the HBP is Snape, who was in school at the same time as Harry's dad and friends! Wtf?
 
So... Harry's holding a piece of Voldy's soul, eh?


makes sense....



in order to "collect" his own soul, Voldy has
to break off a piece of something after a
murder.... Voldy has already learned to
hide a piece of it in a snake...


Tried to do it with Harry as well.... but the murder
that allowed Voldy to "break off a piece of his soul"
or whatever happened to be the sacrifice of Harry's
mother... but there's a piece of Voldy's soul still
in Harry... but he could only do the spell due to
Lilly's sacrifice...


hrrrm... all that rhubbish about "transference of
power" in Book 2... all the "wow, my name is
Tom Riddle and you look just like me..." and the
so forth and so on... and then, Snape says "he
belongs to the Dark Lord"....

kinda cool....


i still say Hermoine should have died, too... that
way, all of Harry's crutches would be gone....

PS --> more non-Neville... geeesh... what's the point
in setting up a "hey, it could have been Neville or it
could have been Harry" if you're not gonna use it???
 
Last edited:
fairnymph said:
Namely, supposedly the potions book is 50 years old, upon which Harry concludes that neither his father or his friends could have been the HBP, but then it turns out the HBP is Snape, who was in school at the same time as Harry's dad and friends! Wtf?
Click to expand...

Hmm, I thought the book belonged to his mother
 
fairnymph said:
Have you listened to it?

Btw, something I forgot to say:

There is a typo at the beginning of chapter three ('fug' instead of 'fog'), and there is a HUGE GAPING PLOTHOLE that has been bugging the hell out of me.

Namely, supposedly the potions book is 50 years old, upon which Harry concludes that neither his father or his friends could have been the HBP, but then it turns out the HBP is Snape, who was in school at the same time as Harry's dad and friends! Wtf?
Click to expand...

the book was ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 50 years ago.

that doesn't mean that the notes written in it were
50 years old....


so, not a plothole at all...

in fact, part of the problem -- or charm or whatever --
of the HP books is that the narrative is often times
Harry's perception... Harry isn't very intuitive... and he's
not the smartest and brightest... he jumps to conclusions...
don't listen... in other words, he makes mistakes... and
HIS mistakes are often our perceived mistakes, as well.

so harry made that assumption...

but it was just a poor assumption on his part...
 
Last edited:
^ I could be wrong, but didn't Hermione point that out? Harry had been thinking the book belonged to his father and Hermione is the one who nixed that idea...
 
fairnymph said:
And I'm glad he was able to be vindicated about never trusting Snape, the evil (and very clever) bastard. The 7th book will certainly be intense and I'm already waiting impatiently.
Click to expand...


Snape only killed because he made the "unbreakable bond"
thingy.... that's why he'd been freakin' out on Harry during
their last confrontation.... it wasn't simply because he was
calling Snape a "coward".

Rowling has made a habit of making sure main characters
are not 2 dimensional... so there's got to be a twist with
the Snape thing... this more than likely will be it... i'm sure
we'll see some form of forgivence in the 7th book.


Also, remember Dumbledore talking about "hey Malfoy, we'll
make it seem like you died... then you can hide..." maybe....
dare i think it? I mean, maybe this is somnething that Rowling
didn't think about... Snape WAS in the Order... Dumbledore made
it seem like the death-hiding thing was something they did
often...


Also, my final prediction will be that Harry will kill Voldemort...
but then will have to kill himself, too, to make sure that VOldy's
soul is gone forever.
 
Oh and Snape wouldn't have made the unbreakable vow if he were on Dumbledore's side...I'm sorry but I can't think of how Snape can be redeemed after this.

Rowling has made a habit of making sure main characters are not 2 dimensional
Click to expand...
I disagree, I think Voldy is pretty one dimensional despite the dev't that occurred in this latest book. I think he is a really horribly boring and un-scary bad guy. And cliche. Bah!
 
fairnymph said:
Oh and Snape wouldn't have made the unbreakable vow if he were on Dumbledore's side...I'm sorry but I can't think of how Snape can be redeemed after this.
Click to expand...

Snape had to make the vow. He's being accused
of being a spy, practically... so he had to show that
he wasn't... that'd be the end of Snape right then
and whatever plans Dumbledore had...

of course, part of my "not 2 dimensional" means
that perhaps Dumbledore WAS wrong about Snape...
maybe that's the point... that his infallable attempt
to see the "good" in people has failed him again...
(first with Voldy as a child, then with Snape)...

we'll see... hopefully, it won't take as long as ORDER
OF THE PHOENIX took to get to the stands....
 
I really think that somehow, Snape is going to be a "good" guy when all is said and done. I think him just being evil afterall is too easy. Perhaps he had knowledge that Dumbledore was going to die anyway, or he had some plan with Dumbledore. SOMETHING. Anyway, I can't wait for book 7.
 
Also, I'm happy with the new relationships, too. Of course, she had been leading up to Ron and Hermione through the last few books, and there were some allusions to Harry and Ginny, too.
 
^ Sigh, I read an interview where Jo said that she wasn't going to start seriously writing until next year (so that she could spend time with her children. Psh! Who needs 'em?) ...and that she predicted at least another two year wait.
 
I hate the fact that Dumbledore died. I had a feeling that they were going to kill off Dumbledore so Harry was by himself and doing it alone when he finally killed off Voldemort, but it doesn't mean I like it. I refuse to believe that Dumbledore is dead and Snape is evil until the end of the final book. I always thought that Snape was a bastard, but I had hoped against all else that Dumbledore was right in trusting him, even though I had remembered Dumbledore's own admissions that he had been old and foolish before, in not telling Harry the truths that were eventually revealed in book 5.

Dumbledore was one of my favorite characters. I truly felt he cared for Harry more so than any of the others, and I feel the series suffered a loss because of his death. He was revered among all the wizards in the books in the positive sense, whereas Voldemort was remembered as much as Dumbledore in the negative sense if that makes sense.
It just pisses me off. I don't understand how faith will exist in the wizarding community enough for those against Voldemort to withstand, especially considering how much it suffered when the Daily Prophet was talking smack about Dumbledore, Harry & co when it all went down. It's not as though the current Minister of Magic (scrimgeour) was all that friendly to Dumbledore.

I don't even really want to read the last book knowing Dumbledore isnt there to support and help Harry. I think that Hermione and Ron as a couple is lame. Rarely did they ever exchange kind words. I thought Harry and Hermione would be better suited and thus I don't accept him(Harry) and Ginny as a couple. It seemed sudden and rushed. I was pleased with the intro and the majority of the book because it was a lot more positive for Harry in terms of support and in regards to the lack of Umbridge. I felt less of a desire to throw the book against the wall in a fury, but now that Dumbledore is gone, I just feel apathetic. Perhaps I've read the books too many times and invested too much interest in him, but that's just how I feel.

ps, I read this

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/07/18/britain.j.k.rowling.ap/index.html

If she doesn't write the last book soon I will be even more furious. She has no reason not to, PLUS I recall interviews where she stated that she might write more than 7 books. She better make up her fuckin' mind.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top