5 posts tagged “harry potter”
I've written up some of my Deathly Hallows thoughts here. I'll probably add to them as I think of more stuff about the book.
Wands are only as powerful as the wizards who use them. Some wizards just like to boast that theirs are bigger and better than other people's.
–Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, page 415
In college we used to like to make up believable lies and spread them around campus.
If you were to spread a fake spoiler about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,
what would it be? "Hermione dies" seems a little too easy. You want
something ridiculous, but good enough that people will fall for it.
"Neville kills Ron" has a ring to it, but it's too similar to the real
spoiler from book six.
We saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night, and it totally lived up to the hype. I had just a few minor gripes (why did they establish that Ron, Hermione, et al couldn't see the thestrals and then not play that up for humor when they were flying on them?), but I think it's my favorite of the movies to date. They mostly cut out the right things to cut to let the story move forward, though I'd maybe have liked a few scenes to be a bit longer. Another minute with Sirius wouldn't have hurt, nor would have explaining a little more clearly why they all get mad at Cho. Rowling's strength is not in writing action, and I found the ending battle to be more exciting on film than in the book. Like the cemetery scene at the end of Goblet of Fire, the end could have been scarier and sadder, but it worked. I especially liked the way the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters flew around and flicked spells at each other, and then how the Voldemort vs. Dumbledore battle looked like they were conducting an orchestra with their wands. It was no Yoda vs. Darth Tyranus fight, but the following internal conflict between Harry and Voldemort was great. They're lucky Daniel Radcliffe grew up to be a good actor.
I’m a whole chapter into the new one and I’m wondering, what all did Voldemort do the first time around? Maybe this book will tell us more, but all 9 billion pages of the first five books I don’t think anyone’s ever really rattled off a list of what happened during his first reign. We know he killed some people and stuff, but beyond that no one ever wants to talk about it. Did Voldemort try to take over the whole world? Did he succeed? What did Joe Muggle perceive was going on?
