Deathly Hallows (spoilers)

[cormac]

I finished Deathly Hallows last night. On the whole, I was pleased with plotline and characterization, but I do have some questions for those who have read.

Let's start with the worthless excuse for an epilogue. By the numbers:

1. Wizard naming practices. It seemed to me that the cruel names wizarding parents gave their children ended around 1979 (which would allow for slightly older characters named Nymphadora, but would also allow for Harry's generation of Ron, Dean, Lavender (pushing it a bit, but it's ok), Seamus, etc. Draco was the exception, but he came from a Malfoy family, so what did you expect? Is it just me, or did the shit names that were placed on hold for Harry's generation come back full-force? Sure, we have a James, a Lily, and a Rose, but we also have an Albus Severus, a Teddy, a Scorpius (even worse than Draco) and...Hugo.

I envisioned Rowling saying thus: "I want to name the kid Viktor, but Ron would kill Hermoine, and the fans would kill me. So let's see...Viktor, Victor...Victor Hugo....heh, I'll name the boy Hugo and it'll be my little secret to me."

Speaking of shit names, Victoire?

2. Employment: What on earth do Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermoine(, Luna, Seamus, Dean...) do for a living, now that they're in their late 30s? Did Harry ever get to be an Auror? It's clear they're not teaching at Hogwarts. Who still is?

3. Was Teddy held back in school? Why is he 19 years old and on the Hogwarts Express?

4. And kissing Bill and Fleur's daughter?

5. For that matter, did he or she ever show signs of lycanthropy?

6. Whatever became of Draco Malfoy and his relationship to the trio? Is he still as much of a stuck-up, pompous ass as he was in school or is Ron being a prat for prat's sake?

7. Was the sole purpose of the epilogue to show that Harry believed that Snape was on his side in the end? Couldn't that have been written into the main storyline there at the end, and saved us this gratuitous epilogue that raised more questions than it answered (like what crack they were smoking when they named their kid ALBUS SEVERUS?!?!?)

There. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's look at the rest of the book. Most of it's a blur, so I don't have much at this point, but there are some questions I have.

Did anyone else feel that the Snape Memory Exposition Train was a bit too much at once?

To anyone with children: do you feel the concept of accepting and embracing death is something appropriate for children? If so, how young? When I bought the book, I saw 7-year olds running around with their copy clutched to their happy little chests. Will they understand the concept and learn that death is just another stage, or will they freak out and ask their parents, many of whom fear death themselves?

Was anyone else reminded either of Aliens or of Eddie Izzard's corresponding bit when Mrs. Weasley screamed (slight paraphrase here as annecathryn currently has the available copy of the book) "GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BITCH!"?

Oh, and I called Aberforth as the owner of the inn years ago. Go me!

That's all I have for now, but I'd love to hear your impressions of the book.

Comments

[magenta513.livejournal.com]

Sounds like I had the same problem with the epilogue that you did. I wanted more. Sure, it's great to know that Harry and Ginny had their happily ever after with their adorable little family, but the epilogue set more up for a spinoff than giving actual closure. In fact, that was my actual thought reading the epilogue. Well, I guess it's time to find a new rpg.

The only character I was satisfied with in the epilogue was Neville. I love Neville.

Though I can accept Hermione approving of a weird name like Hugo. Because her name is so normal.

[annechen67.livejournal.com]

Molly Weasley, elemental mother - Do not mess with the cubs unless you have made sure the mother is out of the picture.

I think the epilogue was showing the cycle goes on - but I think the timeline was off, because even if Hogwarts had been have been closed for a year to rebuild, there wouldn't have been that much of a shift in the classes.

Apparently the naming practices were to show the varying degrees of "traditional" for each family. The Malfoys may have a list to use for each generation (dim memory of a scene from a Chinese film in the 1990's), and I see nothing wrong with Al Potter. Victoire is on her own, though.

The only one we know anything about in adult life is Professor Longbottom, and that's pretty slim. If this was intended to close the book on the series, it's pretty thin. There's plenty of ways to start another series.

[cormac.livejournal.com]

Neville was the only one who got a job, clearly. It being 11:00 AM when this was occurring, people with jobs should have been at them at that point.

[magenta513.livejournal.com]

I guess Harry or Ginny wouldn't need jobs, as James Potter was rich, but I don't see any of them sitting still and not having jobs. And I really wanted to know what Hermione ended up doing.

But no. Only Longbottoms get professions.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with this book that some competent editing would not fix right up. Unfortunately, nobody has the cojones to edit the 500 Pound Gorilla so it never happened. The film version will by necessity be tighter.

1. Draco and his son Scorpius fit into the Black family naming tradition of stars and constellations. Exceptions in the Black Family seem to be Narcissa and Phineas. However, Regulus, Sirius, Bellatrix, etc. constitute some kind of tradition.

2. I don't even know if the Big Three were granted diplomas from Hogwarts. Do they have a Wizarding G.E.D.?

3/4. A 19 year old could be snogging a 16 or 17 year old. I had an older boyfriend that young. My parents were livid of course, but the Wizarding World seems to run to younger marriage.

Definite Sigourney Weaver Moment. Also, some Wicca moments with "maiden, mother and crone" Ginny, Tonks and Gran Longbottom kicking Bellatrix's butt. And the Four Elements glossed with the Hogwarts Houses.

[cormac.livejournal.com]

1. True. And the Weasley pattern seems to follow common names every child has heard. But Albus Severus?

2. Which only makes the question more pertinent. Are they living off of Harry's immense wealth? Pensions? Raparations from the Death Eater family fortunes?

3/4. I'll accept your answer for 4, but not for 3. He was 19, and on the train to Hogwarts, where wizards come of age and graduate at 17. If he was a student, he'd been held back 2 years, and if he was on staff, he was snogging a student (something I believe would still be taboo in the wizarding world). Either way, it comes across as something not quite right.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Was he on the train? I thought he was just on the landing at Track 9-3/4, seeing the students off. *smirp*

[jedi-dad.livejournal.com]

He says very specifically that Teddy was just there to see Victoire off. Why would he be there to see a student off if he was going to be on the the train with her.
You're usually much more logical than this.

[andrastelovesu.livejournal.com]

Mrs. Weasley swearing was awesome, although I did wonder how they slipped it into a kid's book (yeah, the age range is debatable, but theoretically the series is still considered kid's lit). And yes, Eddie Izzard did come to mind.
I loved the memory exposition train. I now like Snape.
I asked all of the same things that you did about the epilogue. Additionally, it seemed really perfunctory. I would have loved to know more about the character's normal everyday lives, and think that it could have been written better with less of a desperate, trying too hard edge. Instead of just approaching the big sendoff as a normal day and showing, rather than telling, it seems like Rowling went "okay...loose ends.....loose ends...what to do....I know! I shall cram in lots and lots of badly named kids to emphasize the point that Harry and co. later went on to lead well adjusted and responsible adult lives." And where the hell was Luna?

[czina.livejournal.com]

Of course, as proud parents on 'the first day of school' - they are allowed to take a day off. So it's not SO strange they're there for Al's first day. And based upon his (Al's) concerns about the sorting, and everything - the parental support was greatly appreciated.

And you have to figure in the Wizarding world - this is 'THE DAY' for all the families with teenagers. Unlike Muggles, who have different school start times, and other distractions, all Hogwarts students start school on the same day, so it could end up a de facto 'Work Holiday' for the parents, too.

[cormac.livejournal.com]

I'm usually working on more sleep than this. I was working from a single read-through.

[paksmrbk.livejournal.com]

Mostly in agreement with other comments. Thoroughly enjoyed the book (even the unnecessary hanging out in the woods doing nothing while looking for Horcruxes section). I actually liked the Snape Pensieve sequence - it was really the shortest way to give an alternate view of critical events, especially since the audience needed to not quite be convinced of Snape's true loyalties until the last possible moment. Also, it went to support (though a bit heavy-handedly) Dumbledore's premise that love was the one thing strong enough to beat Voldemort - it was Snape's love for Lily that kept him working against the Dark Lord & enabled the ultimate victory.

As far as names go, Victoire is French for Victoria, & a fairly common French name at that. Since Victoire is likely the daughter of Bill & Fleur (who is French), the name then makes sense. Teddy is short for Theodore, also a nice normal name - he was likely named for his maternal grandfather, Ted Tonks, victim of the "mudblood hunting" during Voldemort's return to power. Finally, given the overwhelming respect that Albus Dumbledore had in the wizarding community, there's no real issue with calling a child Albus - no wierder than some of the names that are floating around today. On the other hand, I hated that they shortened it to Al (ew! "Al" wears bowling shoes, not wizard's robes). I think Harry & Ginny naming their son Albus Severus was more to indicate Harry's respect for Snape, for living as he did for all of those years. After all, he tells his son that Severus was "one of the bravest men I ever knew".

The "Why is Teddy at the train station" question was answered already. It doesn't really matter whether or not he exhibited lycanthropy (though I would guess not), since according to Harry and Ginny's conversation, he seems to be a happy, normal kid who is over at their place often & is loved by their family. He's accepted and loved as Lupin never really was, therefore Lupin and Tonks get their happy ending, too. Besides, given that Victoire is part veela...most healthy 19 year old boys wouldn't object to kissing her if she was willing, so I don't see why we need to know more detail than that.

I wish we could have found out what Luna was up to & that she was ok. She's really the only one of the 2nd tier characters that wasn't given follow-up, since it was established that Neville is teaching herbology at Hogwarts & is still a close friend to Harry & the others. For that matter, it doesn't matter what Harry & the others do for a living as adults as long as they're happy, which they are - the epilogue shows who they became, their true natures, not their career paths.

With the whole Draco thing, I don't know whether he's gotten any better (though the nod indicates at least a certain amount of restraint - it's certainly more polite than his father ever was), Ron was being Ron - trying to make a joke & not doing it too well. He's done it throughout the series.

With the final question, yes, I do feel that kids need to understand that death is part of life. As to when they come to accept the idea, that's left to the individual child and the circumstances of his or her life. Some have to accept the reality at four or five...and some still can't accept it at forty-five. I hope that reading and talking about the book will bring kids to the beginning of the idea that death is what it is & not to be feared, but it may not really register until later - depends on the kid.