Then, I picked up the GoF and I read the last three books back to back in about a week. They were so good. I was completly surprised when (okay, I'll go along!) blabberblabber killed mumblemumble because I was convinced blabberblabber was a good guy. So I did a search to see what other people thought of THBP and found an article by John Granger:
Now, since I am new to HP, this may be old news but I thought it was very interesting. He seems to know his stuff. And his articles helped explain to me why HP and Voldemort are so closely linked (Is Harry a Horcrux?) and why blabberblabber killed mumblemumble.
I don't think Snape is evil or a double-agent for the Death Eaters because that would make Dumbledore the biggest dupe in the series.
I didn't hate GoF, but I was disappointed in it. (First of all, the actual GoF has little to do with the book, but I guess it sounds better than "... and the Tri-Wizard Tournament".) It had its good points, but I just didn't like the whole tourney setup. The reversal on elves liking their captivity annoyed me, too. The movie was worse than the book because Harry didn't actually seem to learn anything or discover anything. He seems to be pulled along by the events happening around him. Yes, that happens in real life, but at least in the book, he made some choices that mattered.
I did like in the book that she did something with the fact that they both had wands with tail feathers from the same pheonix.
Yes, I have to reread GoF and everything afterward. I read THBP in less than a week starting the night it came out. I read fast so I could pass it along, so I missed stuff. (And I was, at first, quite annoyed at the ending, but am now willing to admit that I'd been taking in and things are not as they appear.)
I'm looking for Neville to shine in the last book, but he's not going to take on Voldemort. He has his own nemesis to worry about. (There was some interesting -- by which I mean "stupid" -- comparisons made at that panel by people saying that "Frodo wasn't the one who destroyed the Ring" meaning that Harry might not be the one who defeats Voldemort. Hello?? If it isn't him, then the wrong name is in the title of the series.)
Hmmm, anything else?
Oh, yeah. I don't think that the Dursleys are an Evil Fat Family. They are a loving, albeit dysfunctional, family who just happens to prefer their own and don't consider their nephew to be one of their own. (And Mr. Dursley is only his uncle by marriage, so he's freer to be flippant about it.)
TS
Great article. Thanks for posting the link. :)
Thanks for the link. I don't have time to read that all now, but I'll bump it for later.