Minor long-term surprises:
* Snape, Lily, and Petunia (!) grew up together!
* Hedwig? Good lord! (Rowling killed her to deny Harry of a means of communication later, but it was a surprise when it happened.)
* The Gray Lady and the Bloody Baron were lovers (sort of).
Definitely a Christian work! I would say that the overall theme of the series was voiced by Dumbledore: Our choices make us who we are.
Dumbledore overcame his youthful bigotry by devoting his life to protecting Muggles and the Muggleborn (and denying himself power).
For all his sins, Voldemort, thanks to Harry’s mercy, might have found redemption even at the very end if he had repented and felt remorse for his actions.
Petunia decided to hate a world she could not be a part of rather than be happy for her sister, and it poisoned her life.
Percy the prodigal son gave up his career to stand with his family when it really mattered.
Draco was pulled back from the brink. I don’t think that Harry and Draco will ever like each other, but there is respect there now.
And let’s not forget Big D.!
Of course, Snape gets a whole chapter to himself on this score.
On the deaths: I was surprised at how many happened “off camera”, but if you’re going to stick with Harry’s POV, I suppose that’s inevitable. I would have liked to see Lupin and Tonks go down back to back, though, and taking twenty or so with them. I had expected before this book that it would be Neville taking Bella down, but given Fred’s death, I’m glad it was Molly who got to go all Ripley on her (her line is going to bring down the house when the movie comes out).
I might have missed someone, but I think that every character still living (and one not) came out for one more bow somewhere in the book, from Krum and Umbridge right down to the Headless Hunt and Griphook.
I hope this series is preparing an entire generation of English kids to fight the war of their generation against radical Islam. They’re going to need all the help they can get. Just a few weeks ago, the Muggle PM banned the phrase “War on Terror.” Perhaps they will start saying “The Conflict That Cannot Be Named” instead?
As for the movie of DH, there is the middle of the book that will be cut way down.
But, in a strange way I liked the pages and pages of wandering around, the false starts, the deprivation, the irritable moods, etc. because much of the real world fighting of evil (like the war in Iraq) is like that...no quick Hollywood solutions, just day in day out fighting evil or trying to figure out how to fight it.
Well, I imagine they'll trim out the camping-in-the-woods-for-a-long-time-not-really-doing-anything bits. I'm not saying those parts were bad, but considering how many loose ends I though JKR was going to be tying up, it surprised me how little plot-related activity took place in the several months after the trio fled the wedding, and especially after leaving Grimmauld Place. In any of the other books, this kind of lull would be filled by everyday life at Hogwarts, but in this book, they seemed to just hang around in one forest after another, being cold and hungry and grumpy.
Go see it at the Imax so you can see the fight at the Ministry of Magic in 3D.
I went to the Premiere in Birmingham at the Imax dome..Leaning back in your seat,surrounded by the screen was cool, but talk about motion sickness when they are flying on their brooms.
When I went to see it at the regular Imax in San Antonio where they have 3D, that was neat, too.Love the old timey 3-D glasses.