![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
HBP Spoiler Review - Chapters 21-23
Spoilers for the whole of HBP must be assumed since I won't refrain from talking about later events than the chapters I'm discussing, if I feel like it.
Chapter 21
This is the second time the issue of dating the Giant Squid has been mentioned in the series. Foreshadowing, I wonder? Probably not. :-)
Crabbe and Goyle as eleven-year old girls. Eek.
Draco using the Room of Requirement is another incident in the series of the bad guys ending up using a tool we've formerly seen the good guys -- which is cool IMO. In most series, films/etc, it's usually the bad guys who are first seen using a weapon or device until the good guys find a way to turn it against them. But in the HP series, in multiple occasions it's the opposite that's seen taking place, and the weapons of the enemies are first introduced in their use by the protagonists:
The Invisibility Cloak, used by Harry from the 1st book -- later an Invisibility Cloak is used by Barty Crouch Jr in the 4th.
The Polyjuice potion, first used by the trio in the 2nd book -- likewise used by Barty Crouch in the 4th.
The Marauder's map, used from the 3rd book -- likewise by Barty in the 4th!
The ability of House-elves to circumvent their masters -- useful (kinda) to Harry in the 2nd book, catastrophic for the good guys in the 5th.
The connection between the minds of Harry and Voldemort -- useful to Harry as a warning in 1st and 4th books, used to Voldemort's advantage in the 5th.
And now here we have the Room of Requirement, which was useful to Harry & co in the 5th book and is being utilised by a bad guy now in the 6th. Oy.
The only magical device we've not seen the bad guys yet use must be the Time-turner. I wonder if that remains to be seen in the 7th book.
Hints of Draco/Myrtle? Ugh -- I've only seen that pairing in one fanfic, and it wasn't a particularly believable fanfic either. Sorry, but I kinda think that Draco would look down on someone like Myrtle, who pretty much seems to be the definition of "unpopular" and "uncool" in Hogwarts, even letting aside the issue of her being both dead and (even worse) Muggle-born.
Tonks' bizarre attitude had me worried when I was reading the chapter whether she might have been under Imperius or something or the sort -- or even worse if she had been replaced by a Death-Eater, and that this was the reason she couldn't Metamorphose anymore.
Chapter 22
Here I'm not sure I liked the way that the Felix potion was used... If it was merely *luck* that it created, then some bits of the chapter work perfectly like Harry accidentally jostling Ginny leading to her argument (and eventual break-up) with Dean, or Filch forgetting to lock the doors. But most of its method of operation seems to be leading Harry to inspired-yet-irrational hunches about what he should do next. Luck doesn't seem to me to really enter into it.
That'd be perfectly okay if we'd been told that that's how the Felix potion worked -- that it was a "divine inspiration" potion or something. But we'd been told it was a luck potion. It seems to me that in this Chapter JKR just couldn't make luck work Harry's way as much as she may have originally wanted to. This chapter just feels a bit clumsily written to me...
Chapter 23
Hoo! I really like the idea of the Horcruxes. The idea of the Horcrux reminds me of some Russian folktales about Koschei the wizard who kept his heart/soul hidden far away, and that's what made him immortal. And that murder is needed to make it happen -- that's a cool tidbit also. It both explains why only bad wizards seem to have traditionally hidden their souls away in such a manner -- and I also like the philosophical/made practical concept of "murder rips the soul (of the murderer) apart". This is Dark Magic indeed -- and probably the creepiest bit of magic we've yet seen in the series.
Nagini as one of the Horcruxes is interesting I guess -- I wonder if that passage in OotP where Dumbledore asks one of his intstruments "But in essense divided?" (upon which the image of the snake indeed divides) is a foreshadowing of this splitting-of-the-soul and entrusting part of it to Nagini.
Am glad Dumbledore is telling Harry that Voldemort and he are doomed to their final confrontation because of their *personalities* and regardless of any mystical prophecy... but I'd rather if JKR had figured that out herself already from the previous book -- it's after all the reason many of the readership felt rather let down by the lame prophecy at the end of that. Back then we were all like "tell us something we *didn't* know already". :-)
Chapter 21
This is the second time the issue of dating the Giant Squid has been mentioned in the series. Foreshadowing, I wonder? Probably not. :-)
Crabbe and Goyle as eleven-year old girls. Eek.
Draco using the Room of Requirement is another incident in the series of the bad guys ending up using a tool we've formerly seen the good guys -- which is cool IMO. In most series, films/etc, it's usually the bad guys who are first seen using a weapon or device until the good guys find a way to turn it against them. But in the HP series, in multiple occasions it's the opposite that's seen taking place, and the weapons of the enemies are first introduced in their use by the protagonists:
And now here we have the Room of Requirement, which was useful to Harry & co in the 5th book and is being utilised by a bad guy now in the 6th. Oy.
The only magical device we've not seen the bad guys yet use must be the Time-turner. I wonder if that remains to be seen in the 7th book.
Hints of Draco/Myrtle? Ugh -- I've only seen that pairing in one fanfic, and it wasn't a particularly believable fanfic either. Sorry, but I kinda think that Draco would look down on someone like Myrtle, who pretty much seems to be the definition of "unpopular" and "uncool" in Hogwarts, even letting aside the issue of her being both dead and (even worse) Muggle-born.
Tonks' bizarre attitude had me worried when I was reading the chapter whether she might have been under Imperius or something or the sort -- or even worse if she had been replaced by a Death-Eater, and that this was the reason she couldn't Metamorphose anymore.
Chapter 22
Here I'm not sure I liked the way that the Felix potion was used... If it was merely *luck* that it created, then some bits of the chapter work perfectly like Harry accidentally jostling Ginny leading to her argument (and eventual break-up) with Dean, or Filch forgetting to lock the doors. But most of its method of operation seems to be leading Harry to inspired-yet-irrational hunches about what he should do next. Luck doesn't seem to me to really enter into it.
That'd be perfectly okay if we'd been told that that's how the Felix potion worked -- that it was a "divine inspiration" potion or something. But we'd been told it was a luck potion. It seems to me that in this Chapter JKR just couldn't make luck work Harry's way as much as she may have originally wanted to. This chapter just feels a bit clumsily written to me...
Chapter 23
Hoo! I really like the idea of the Horcruxes. The idea of the Horcrux reminds me of some Russian folktales about Koschei the wizard who kept his heart/soul hidden far away, and that's what made him immortal. And that murder is needed to make it happen -- that's a cool tidbit also. It both explains why only bad wizards seem to have traditionally hidden their souls away in such a manner -- and I also like the philosophical/made practical concept of "murder rips the soul (of the murderer) apart". This is Dark Magic indeed -- and probably the creepiest bit of magic we've yet seen in the series.
Nagini as one of the Horcruxes is interesting I guess -- I wonder if that passage in OotP where Dumbledore asks one of his intstruments "But in essense divided?" (upon which the image of the snake indeed divides) is a foreshadowing of this splitting-of-the-soul and entrusting part of it to Nagini.
Am glad Dumbledore is telling Harry that Voldemort and he are doomed to their final confrontation because of their *personalities* and regardless of any mystical prophecy... but I'd rather if JKR had figured that out herself already from the previous book -- it's after all the reason many of the readership felt rather let down by the lame prophecy at the end of that. Back then we were all like "tell us something we *didn't* know already". :-)