WARNING: SPOILERS
Ross Douthat of the Atlantic online (and greatest last name ever) explains why the last Harry Potter was pretty lame. He argues (and I agree) that Rowling took a lot of cop-outs, and hinted at complexities that might have made it a more interesting book.
In my personal opinion, Harry should have bought it when Voldemort killed him, not some stupid almost-death. Neville should have then killed Nagini AND Voldemort, in a nice ironic twist, showing that it was the prophesy that made Harry great, and that it could just as easily have been about Neville. After all, isn't the whole point that Harry isn't the greatest wizard? Just brave with good friends?
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6 comments:
Oooh, I kind of agree. I think that she knew she couldn't kill Harry though (too many upset kids), so she copped out. A better idea would have been to flip a couple parts near the end, have Neville kill Voldemort while Harry was being held up (though alive, as a taunt, before Voldemort planned on killing him) because Neville could have been the one, too.
It would be classic Harry - getting saved by his good friends. (Dumbledore's love stuff, blah blah, could have been tied in too.)
I did like the 19 years later bit, though. She basically cut out any chance of people writing their own Potter stories and likely ruining it.
So I finally finished, and I am not unhappy with the book. Yes, yes, it was a cop out, but there was nothing else to be done. It is, after all, a children's book at the core (i.e., read HP1-3) and he can't die. Sure, the epilogue was dumb and predictable and the whole Ron/Hermione pairing happened post movies (didn't you watch HP3&4 and go huh?!), but it was a nice closure. I personally agree with the NYTimes review - it's good, old fashioned closure. Yes, it was lame, but if you were 15, you'd be happy.
And the scene with Mrs. Weasly and Bellatrix = totally worth it.
I am so not on board with the Mrs. Weasley vs. Bellatrix Lestrange thing. Either Mrs. Weasley was hiding some secret reserve of badassery under endless sweater-making and worrying (and who worries that much when they can kick ass?) or Bellatrix Lestrange pretty much just sucks.
If it's the latter, the whole Harry Potter series has the Star Wars problem: the bad guys lose because they staff with incompetent assholes.
And I believe they could have killed Harry. Didn't they just make a movie of Bridge to Terebithia?
Neville is one of my favorite characters.
I believe that Harry Potter should have ended with Harry, Ron, and co. eating onion rings at a local diner only for a suspicious character to walk in whilst Journey plays in the background.
That or it should have ended with Harry being revealed to be the creation of an autistic child. Or, at the very least, Voldemort stepping out of the shower alive.
In short, I couldn't agree more.
Thank you for sharring this
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