CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Weeeeell, overall, I'm pretty happy with how it ending. Anyone else finish yet?

It had a good bit of adventure, drama, some humor, some answers, and all that, but--wow--that was a lot of dead people. I guess it's to be expected what with it being a war and all, but still...

[spoiler=people who died]Some of those really, really hurt: particularly Dobby, Fred, Lupin, and Tonks. I was so relieved Draco survived, though.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=A lot of stuff got called in advance...]Um...I was a little disappointed R.A.B. was exactly who everyone figured he would be. Oh, and all the Snape/Lily fans must be in utter bliss by now. And, not like this was called, but did Harry have to start monologuing right at the last battle? Seriously.[/spoiler]

[spoiler="That very end bit"]Somehow, the 19-years-later epilogue felt like a bit much. Not sure why, but it just seemed too neat and storybook-ish, kind of tacked on after the tragedies and all. Everyone marries exactly who you'd expect, names their kids exactly what you'd expect, yadda, yadda. But I'm just nitpicking. I really did like it.[/spoiler]

Ha ha ha. I jokingly said a gag spoiler to someone off the top of my head, and it turned out to be true.

Must not mouse over spoilers... must not mouse over spoilers >_< Didn't take that long to read^^ Then again it all depends on the time zone and I still haven't seen just HOW big the books are yet. Surprising how much story was fit into the first 3, being as skinny as they were^^

I'll be picking the book up on monday from the bookstore I work at.

Fish and Chips wrote:Ha ha ha. I jokingly said a gag spoiler to someone off the top of my head, and it turned out to be true.

Haha, what did you say?

Aka-chan wrote:Haha, what did you say?

[spoiler]Hedwig dies.[/spoiler]

Fish and Chips wrote:[spoiler]Hedwig dies.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]XD I think that's about the only death that shocked me. Personally I thought more people would have died. I mean...really...think of how many Weasleys there are... Not like I wanted them to die or am really disappointed, I just figured she could have killed off a couple people closer to Harry...*cough*Ginny*cough*[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I thought the story seemed to go a little too easy at times. And how did they always end up meeting people they knew? Does Harry know EVERYBODY in the wizarding world? Is it really that small? I did like the Snape story though. It seemed obvious to me...but well...I loved Snape...I didn't like how all of the fans hated him at the end of the last book. Yeah...this ending was a bit much, but I can never truly hate an ending like that.[/spoiler]

Yeah, Aka-chan, I have to kind of agree with you about the [spoiler]epilogue. It was too neat, probably, but, then again, by the end, you know who's going to marry who anyways. However, I do think, however, that Harry might want to see a psychologist about this internal drive forcing him to name all his children after dead people. Surely that's setting a kid up for some serious emotional issues. The only thing I think that really accomplished was telling us:

1) Hogwarts is alive and well.
2) Harry no longer hates Snape.[/spoiler]

I have to tell you, though, that the thing that surprised me the most was not the deaths in the book, but rather [spoiler]how my feelings towards Snape completely morphed. I'd like to go back to that flash back and see if there were any clues to his feelings towards Lily. Actually, I even found myself LIKING Snape, particularly at the scene in which Dumbledore asks him, in effect, "Severus, have to come to have feelings for the boy?" and Snape says "For HIM?" and produces his patronus. A doe. Dumbledore then, as you'll remember, asks him "After all these years, Severus?" and he replies "Always."

Man, when I read that, I had chills running down my spine and I actually hugged the book and said "I like you Severus Snape!" I feel so much more sorry for him now, knowing that he was wasting away with love for a woman he had had a hand in killing. It also makes it a little more apparent why he might have butted heads with Harry so much. Harry is very much like James, who we can now see Snape would have hate for reason more deep than a school rivalry. Additionally, I think it would probably be pretty torturous to have spend every day looking into eyes that look exactly like those of a person you loved and lost. I need to go back and read the Order flashback to see if I see hints of this (and I'll respect Jo so much more if I do. If I don't, I'll deal with it, but I'll be a little disappointed.) [/spoiler]

What made me the saddest [spoiler]would probably have to be a tie between the death of Fred or the deaths of the Lupins. I had to stop reading for, like, a minute after I read that Lupin and Tonks had died. I mean, it fits for them to die together in the final struggle against Voldemort, but I was still very sad. [/spoiler]

I was a little suprised to discover that [spoiler] Dumbledore was a little more of a manipulative person than I thought. I mean, he wasn't hugely manipulative, but he used Harry much more than I would have previously imagine. Odd.[/spoiler]

So, yeah, overall, I was very happy with it. Granted, it was a very [spoiler] tidy ending[/spoiler], but, honestly, I think I would have depressed by anything less.



EDIT: I just thought of something! For those of you who have seen Order of the Pheonix, do you think the film makers may have worked themselves into a corner by [spoiler]cutting Lily, and by virtue of that decision to cut her, Snape's calling Lily a mudblood from the movie?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I've always read the books for the sake of Severus Snape and I pretty much gasping in disbelief and yelling at Rowling as he died. But the next chapter did not dissapoint. Snape you great big soppy tragic romantic, that was a side I totally never expected to actually see on the pages of the books, despite speculation throughout fandom. The silver doe pretty much broke my heart. BEST. CHARACTER. EVER.[/spoiler]

mechana2015 wrote:It sounds like Harry has a disease of some sort called the deathly hollows...

Aside from that I'm really looking forward to the resolution of the series. She's proven to be entertainingly unpredictable.

Entertainingly unpredictable as I thought it would be. I really enjoyed it. Great ending.

Rowling is said to be planning on writing a History of Hogwarts or Enclyopedia or something like that now.
As far as it goes I pretty much found out all the spoilers yesterday while googling around the internet.So I don't think anything can be said to be really secret any more.

In response to the Snape-ness

[spoiler] I thought the saddest part was Snape's last words, "Look at me." I totally didn't even understand why he said them until after the big flashback and I realized he wanted Harry to look at him because he wanted to see Lily's eyes one last time. That death was the saddest in the book simply because of that flashback. Snape's climbed my list of top ten fave characters simply because of it. They better keep the whole thing in the movie. Dobby's death was horrendous and I did not see Fred's coming. Thank goodness Percy came back!!![/spoiler]

Stole it from my ravenous family and read it first. I loved it. Everyone was so awesome, so in character. My favorite of the series besides, perhaps, the Prisoner of Askaban.

I would write what I thought about the plot and such but I am alas ignorant in the application of spoiler tags. Hmmm...

Use this code, but without the asterisks:
[*spoiler=topic]text of spoiler[/spoiler*]

I'm still not reading spoilers, myself, though a friend told me about a number of things that aren't particularly critical. It will be interesting to see who all dies.

[spoiler=topic] I liked the pacing of this one better than the previous two, and I liked that the mystery solving aspect came into play again.

I was sastified on the whole, but I was bothered by the use of uncredited Bible verses coupled with the decidedly atheistic approach to life after death. It could be interpreted different ways, but I bet most kids will take it at face value.

[/spoiler]

uc pseudonym wrote:Use this code, but without the asterisks:
[*spoiler=topic]text of spoiler[/spoiler*]

I'm still not reading spoilers, myself, though a friend told me about a number of things that aren't particularly critical. It will be interesting to see who all dies.

Oooh! Thanks! Okay, then...

[spoiler=topic] I swear J. K. Rowling gets her kicks out of torturing this boy! I mean, Sirius, Dumbledore, and Harry's parents dying are one thing, but Hedwig?! His poor, sweet little owl? And my mom actually cried when she read the part about Dobby dying. There were a lot of deaths, Lupin, Tonks and Fred the saddest for me.

It was interesting to see what motivated Snape]

All in all a great book.

uc pseudonym wrote:I'm still not reading spoilers, myself, though a friend told me about a number of things that aren't particularly critical. It will be interesting to see who all dies.

I'm actually being good with not spoiling myself^^ Except for this habit I have due to my curiosity, and reading the last line of the last page of the book. Oh, and on Warcraft some cool guy shouted out [spoiler] something about Harry being Voldemort with a relfection spell... Personally, I don't find it a spoiler since OBVIOUSLY harry's going to find a way to fight him and NOT die... still I wish he did :/ [/spoiler]

I might not consider it a spoiler, but stuck tags anyways. I tried mentioning it to my friends but they didn't trust me with saying that it REALLY doesn't give away anything...

I loved it.

[spoiler] the thing is...i always stuck by snape and the malfoy's becomming good. and lol. i was right. ^_^ I really think that it was interesting how Draco's mom, Narcissa doesn't live up to her name. [/spoiler]

I have finished the book as well. It was a suitable ending to the series. I now present massive spoiler tags for those who have read the book:
[spoiler=Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]
As usual, my biggest complaint is Harry. Having a flawed protagonist is good, but does he always have to be such an insufferable idiot? The centrality of the books on the heroification of the protagonist is their greatest weakness, in my opinion. Quidditch, bleh…

Learning more about Dumbledore was good. I want to go back and read the very beginning to see what exactly he said in response to McGonagall’s “dark powers he was too noble to use.â€

You know, I kept misreading things....which really screws one up in the midst of a raging war and people dying >__>
[spoiler]I never realised Lupin and Tonks had died until they were mentioned being dead. Then I just stared at my page, mouth open, thinking "WHAT?!"

Best part of the book was Molly Weasley at the end, hands down XD! That had me doubled over laughing for minutes on end.

Ah, and I liked the original Ravenclaw question: "What came first, the phoenix or the flame?" Like our, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?"
[/spoiler]

Oh yeah, and I forget when it'd happened...but near the beginning of the book I was reading, misread a line, started cracking up, to everyone around me asking "What?" So I told them "I just read...'The Death Killer went to eat him.'" It was something like that, obviously I had switched Kill and Eat, LOL

Okami wrote:You know, I kept misreading things....which really screws one up in the midst of a raging war and people dying >__>
[spoiler]I never realised Lupin and Tonks had died until they were mentioned being dead. Then I just stared at my page, mouth open, thinking "WHAT?!"

Best part of the book was Molly Weasley at the end, hands down XD! That had me doubled over laughing for minutes on end.

Ah, and I liked the original Ravenclaw question: "What came first, the phoenix or the flame?" Like our, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?"
[/spoiler]

Don't worry, Okami-chan...I was confused at that part too! I actually went back and re-read that chapter trying to figure out where I missed it!

[spoiler]It just wasn't written in there were Tonks and Lupin died! Last time we see Tonks, she runs off to find Lupin, then the next scene shows them lying next to each other dead! [/spoiler]

I managed to finish the book in 4 days--working the overnight shift, you find you have a lot of time on your hands between calls!

KhakiBlueSocks wrote:[spoiler]It just wasn't written in there were Tonks and Lupin died! Last time we see Tonks, she runs off to find Lupin, then the next scene shows them lying next to each other dead! [/spoiler]

That's what I thought happened. Talk about driving you mental D:

Okami wrote:That's what I thought happened. Talk about driving you mental D:

My sister in Christ, I was already mental! Harry Potter didn't help the matter much, though!

Did any one else tear up when...

[spoiler]Dudley thanked Harry for saving his life in the beginning of the book?[/spoiler]

And also...

[spoiler]Did anyone else think that Dudders looked MASSIVE next to Harry in the Chapter Picture?[/spoiler]

Hahah, no kidding. Then again, I've been reading Harry Potter since I was 6...sooo....


I was hardly looking at the chapter pictures o_o; The only one I remember is the chapter after Gringotts ^^;

Just finished it...

[spoiler]I must say, I didn't realize Tonks died until I read all these spoilers... Who's taking care of Teddy? I also didn't realize Lupin died until Harry brought them back.

Did anyone else feel like Dumbledore had betrayed Harry to death when Harry viewed the memories? Also, I actually thought Harry died when the killing curse hit him.

Personally, I expected Hagrid to die the entire time, and was surprised that he survived time after time... The one that really made me cry was Dobby, though...

I loved this book so much... Snape was redeemed, Kreature was redeemed... Draco was redeemed! Someone said "the malfoys" but I honestly don't remember Lucius being redeemed, only Draco and Narcissa. I love that the only thing that Harry did with the Elder Wand was repair his own wand, a feat that no other wand could do... I knew Harry could never use the Elder wand since so much bloodshed had come from it...

I didn't like the fact that harry AND McGonnogal used unforgivable curses, and actually, when Voldemort fired the last killing curse, I thought it was Harry... I was kind of upset, but then I realized it was voldemort, and the only thing Harry did was expel the wand, so the spell backfired on Voldemort... I didn't like that they had not only Harry (which by itself would be almost understandable) but McGonnogal, of all people, using unforgivable curses...

Anyhow, I loved the book overall, and I really hope that the last two movies do more justice to the books than Order did... [/spoiler]

Heh JUST finished it last night (yeah took me a while) and I guess I was the only one who actually caught the part about [spoiler] Tonks and Lupin lying dead next to each other [/spoiler]. Although, I DID have to re read that part cause I was kinda shocked^^

So the American books have chapter pictures in them? Guess my Canadian editions don't... I wonder if the British ones do though?


Sooo much good stuff in the book.

[spoiler] Snape story was THE BEST part... I was SO surprised and never thought...

On Warcraft someone in chat said 'Harry kills Voldemort with a shard of his mirror!" which I thought had spoiled it but apparently not. Mostly because someone on the forum said just HOW important Sirius' mirror was and how it would've been crucial to have been shown in the 5th movie, but apparently it's NOT that important. Talked to a friend and I told him the spoiler and how he lives and he was like 'don't believe it he DOES die but... I won't give it away... But he is a horcrux. Didn't you realize it about the scar and the connection?" At the time, no I didn't... didn't even think about it... wish I didn't knew^^


Still overall good... yeah the epilogue was covered in cheese, but whatever. Guess we can give the poor guy some slack with 17 yrs of a miserable existence of one friend dying after another and being mistreated at home etc.... [/spoiler]

Tenshi no Ai wrote:So the American books have chapter pictures in them? Guess my Canadian editions don't... I wonder if the British ones do though?

Yeah, I read the British version, and there aren't any chapter pictures. I think that's just an American thing. I prefer the British publication, both for the slightly different wording in some places, and for the cover pictures. Though when I saw the Deathly Hallows cover, I thought, "Why are the Trio in a candy store?"

If I'd known about this thread earlier, I would've put up my thoughts on the seventh book, which I finished a couple months ago. The short version of it is: I really, really liked it. It's now my favorite book in the entire series, and I can almost not find anything wrong with it (except for GinnyXHarry, which I've never really liked). I didn't find the epilogue that cheesy, really, and I can't really see what people are complaining about. But I admit I'm a fangirl, so I can't really talk, can I? I especially liked Chapter 34: The Forest Again. Very poignantly written.

the_wolfs_howl wrote:Yeah, I read the British version, and there aren't any chapter pictures. I think that's just an American thing.

Note, however, that Rowling has generally endorsed the representations from the American editions. I can't cite the interview, but I'm fairly confident about this.

Don't remember ever posting my comments about Book 7. Overall, I was really satisfied with it. And I confess, I was on the edge of my seat throughout much of it. The epilogue was cliche but I was thought it was decent overall.

Anyway, about the religious themes, here's an article that's worth reading.

But, more important right now is uh.... this... piece of news.
At this point, I have a suspicion Rowling is trying to screw with people's heads. Otherwise, I don't really know what to make of a bizarro plot twist...