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.
If Dumbledore possessed the Elder wand, presumably since 1945 (his defeat of Grindelwald as stated in the Chocolate Frog card), why do you all think he didn't use it to defeat Voldemort the first time - before he killed the Potters?
Advanced technology is virtually indistinguishable from magic.
I think wizards ignored silly little Muggle inventions that tried to make up for their lack of magic so long, when the Muggles did come up with things that were better than magic, they couldn’t cope.
Which is why my epic story that I will write someday is about wizards with spaceships. As soon as I figure out how to make a believable invasion of the magic users by the non-magic users.
Yes, I appreciate the nostalgic appeal, too ... although I notice nobody tries to do without bathrooms in these stories, or at least doesn't mention it if they do.
Snape is easily the most complex character in the series. I was always much more interested in what was going on with him than in the teenage angst!
Yeah, PBS gomered up some of the stories. They did the same thing with another series of books that I love; Ellis Peters' "Cadfael" stories, about a Crusader in the late 11th century who, after returning from Jerusalem, at a loss about what to do with his life, 'takes the cowl', and becomes a Benedictine monk. Because of his knowledge of plants and herbs learned in the Holy Land, and because he's seen the violence that men can do to each other, he begins to help the local sheriff solve murders.
Watch out for Gulping Plimpies.
I’ve read all the “Brother Cadfael” books. I thought a few of the BBC movies were okay - the earlier ones, before they turned Hugh Beringar into a meathead. However, it’s impossible to do justice to the complex plots in a 90-minute show.
On the other hand, I think the A&E series of “Horatio Hornblower” is better than the books!
Well, no -- it would have been contrived and boring to make them perfect little doers of the Word. They've all got flaws that they have to overcome, and like any real person they fail a lot. But again, look what sorts of things they do stand for. It reminds me of this:
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' (Matt. 25:37-40)
One of the big reasons that Harry triumphs over evil is because he's like this -- with house elves, goblins, centaurs, and so on. I'm also reminded of Paul's exhortation to Philemon, urging him to see his slave Onesimus as more than just a slave, but as a brother in the flesh of the Lord.
Looks like magic folk could control nature to some extent, but not their “human-ness”. They also referred to Tonks getting pretty big, and it seems that Teddy’s arrival was some months after Lupin told them about it. I’m thinking if they were to be able to do magic I would take care of some of the inconveniences of pregnancy, wouldn’t you?
Maybe it's just me, but I can get into the nostalgic appeal of quill pens and candles.
Not so much with outhouses and chamber pots.
I agree. I was just pointing out that the contrast in your earlier post was a little strained.
The only time I wanted to cry during the book was when Kreacher led the house-elves out of the kitchen, "In the name of brave Regulus!" I had to get my son to bring a box of Kleenex to the treadmill :-).
On a completely salacious note:
It seems from Lupin's description of Teddy's color-changing hair (and that Tonks did the same), Teddy is a metamorphagus.
Tonks used to change the shape of her nose. You gotta know that a boy with those powers wouldn't be wasting time on his nose....
No wonder Victoire is so enamored of him! ;-)
ROTFL! I love it!
Yeah, but you could Scourgify the crap right out of them -- no mess nor bother.
Yes, that's true. For example, they could probably do something about morning sickness and stretch marks - but a baby's got to grow, so a mother's got to expand.
On the subject of Tonks and Lupin, I thought their dying heroically was a pretty good expedient, because it didn't look like the marriage was going to work out. Remus was in such a fuss over being a werewolf that it would, I imagine, be like being married to an amputee who obsessed on the missing limb, even if nobody else in the family cared.
(Hee hee!)
I never got any sense of how Lupin and Tonks worked anyway. What attracted her to him, what they had in common... wish Rowling had filled in just a little of that.
There was an occasion in “Prisoner of Azkaban” where Ron had to clean bedpans in the hospital, without magic ... so they obviously have a functioning Muggle sewer system, or they’d all have typhoid.
(Sorry, I can’t help being too practical.)
Heh...can't you just imagine all the young wizards practicing engorgio?
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