Done!
And I liked it.
At least it resolved most of my issues with book 6. And I will note that there was no Quidditch and very little snogging. (Gasp! Me, complaining about snogging? Yes--JKR can't write romantic to save her life, and why should she in a kids' book? Leave it to the fan writers.)
It did get bogged down in the middle. And towards the end of the middle/beginning of the end, well--
I began to feel like the narrative was deliberately throwing characters under the train. I don't feel like I can explain this well, but I couldn't help but see the character deaths primarily as tools for producing (a) sadness, angst, and anger in Harry; and (b) sadness, angst, and anger in the readers. It seemed to say 'Oh, of course Harry is too noble to every willingly sacrifice a person even for the best of causes. But the author isn't!' Or as if the story needed a lot of deaths but also needed to make sure that Harry evaded responsibility for all of them. And the sense of Harry's overwhelming Speshulness got to me after a while.
But still, yes, it was good and well worth the reading.
Also, Why I Don't Do Harry Potter Fandom: There are already two communities dedicated to slashing two characters who appeared for all of four pages at the very end. I think that's hilarious, in a Please Do Not Come In My Backyard kthxbye way. If you've been writing slash about the original characters, isn't it kind of creepy to do Slash: The Next Generation? I think I've seen the "I will live out my unrequited love for you with the love between my child and your child!" thing in manga a time or two, but it never gets less squicky.
At least it resolved most of my issues with book 6. And I will note that there was no Quidditch and very little snogging. (Gasp! Me, complaining about snogging? Yes--JKR can't write romantic to save her life, and why should she in a kids' book? Leave it to the fan writers.)
It did get bogged down in the middle. And towards the end of the middle/beginning of the end, well--
I began to feel like the narrative was deliberately throwing characters under the train. I don't feel like I can explain this well, but I couldn't help but see the character deaths primarily as tools for producing (a) sadness, angst, and anger in Harry; and (b) sadness, angst, and anger in the readers. It seemed to say 'Oh, of course Harry is too noble to every willingly sacrifice a person even for the best of causes. But the author isn't!' Or as if the story needed a lot of deaths but also needed to make sure that Harry evaded responsibility for all of them. And the sense of Harry's overwhelming Speshulness got to me after a while.
But still, yes, it was good and well worth the reading.
Also, Why I Don't Do Harry Potter Fandom: There are already two communities dedicated to slashing two characters who appeared for all of four pages at the very end. I think that's hilarious, in a Please Do Not Come In My Backyard kthxbye way. If you've been writing slash about the original characters, isn't it kind of creepy to do Slash: The Next Generation? I think I've seen the "I will live out my unrequited love for you with the love between my child and your child!" thing in manga a time or two, but it never gets less squicky.
no subject
Several of the deaths felt totally gratuitous, particularly Lupin and Tonks. Grumble. But yes, overall, I liked it too.
I AGREE ON THE FANDOM THING. Gah.