Post by White Tiger on Dec 27, 2004 19:17:27 GMT -5
I have decided to christen this forum by doing a thread in which i rant about the Harry Potter book series.
It was upon finishing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that i realized I was begining to dislike the book series.
After finishing the above stated book, I was left with a sense of disappointment toward the book. There was also alot of hostility mixed in. The book just kind of pissed me off, for several reasons.
First and foremost, I did not agree with J.K. Rowling's decision to kill of Sirius Black. Here is a character introduced to the public in the third book. He plays a small role in the fourth, then a very signifigant role in the fifth. We learn that he cared a great deal for the Potter family, and that he was practicaly family. He spent time in Azkaban, a vile place, simply because he tried to avenge the Potter family. He also helped Harry out when ever he could. He was then placed under house arrest. He may not have been the greatest of people, as shown through some of the stories, but he was far from evil, nor did he have any reason to die. He never did anything which merited death as punishment, and he never did anything in which death was required to redeem him. Given the situation, he did not trade his life for anyone elses, especially not harry. The only reason I could see on why J.K. Rowling decided him to die, was so she could continue to use her set form for writing the books.
That infact brings me to my next point. A point which I realized after my hatred for the final book got me thinking. The Harry potter books are form books. They follow the following sequence of things exactly: Unpleasant Time with Dursleys. Escape from Dursleys, Big adventure at Hogwarts, and Dumbledore explains to harry some crucial information.
Now, I can understand the neccesity of starting the books off with him living at the dursleys, every singe time. New readers. They wouldnt know of their unpleasantness if they didnt start off that way.
What I cant tolerate is the adventure and dumbledore explination combination of events within the story. Take Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for instance. Harry and friends go on this incredible, and mysterious adventure... which inevitable has jack to do with shit. He then is taken to Dumbledore's office, where he is told important information, that does not relate to the adventure, yet is cruicial to the underlying plot of the series. This explanation is roughly one chapter long, and exists just before the final chapter. What exactly was the point to the other 400+ pages of the book?
Perhapse I'm over reacting, but lets look at the very first book. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. The entire adventure of that one is nothing more the Harry trying to stop Lord Voldermort from obtaining this increadibly powerful, magical stone. Of course, he succeeds, but wait. If you think about it, according to the explanation of Dumbledore, in the next to last chapter of the book, Lord Voldermort would not have been able to get the stone, even if Harry had not gone down there, due to the securit measures. So, the entire adventure was in essense, pointless. All so dumbledore could explain some important information to Harry, before sending him home.
Harry Potter and the Chambe of Secrets I'll be fair, this was a decent story. But the adventure still didnt have Jack to do with anything, and made less sense then a Dennis Miller rant. Not to mention that Lockheart fellow was more annoying then nails on a chalk board. Harry goes down to this chamber, where the only reason he survived, was because a magical pheonix droped a magical hat onto harry, who pulled a magical sword out of it. I'm sorry, but if your gonna put your hero into harms way, lets not use the emergency all purpose contegancy plan of "Hey, its magic..." to get them out. Especially when its stuff that was never referenced before. Like the magic sword.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban This made a little more sense then the previous one, and seemed a hair better written... massive plot holes aside. I am perplexed on how a big, black dog would simply walk out of a maximum security prison of wizards. If I'm guarding the scum of a magical community, I'm killing any suspicious animals...especialy when its a semi-common thing for wizards to turn into them.
Then what with the time travel... it creates a paradox, similar to what I call the "terminator effect" an event in the future happens to cause an event in the past to happen, which in turn causes the event in the future to happen. This works for terminator, because the event in the future could have happened, even if it was not started by an effect in the past. It doesnt work in Harry Potter though. He was going to get the Dementors Kiss, but because he didnt, himself from the future casted the spell to fight them. That means, he would have some how not gotten the kiss of the demeantor, even if he did not show up from the future... which I find hard to belive, given the situation. Confused? Good. You see the problem with the book then.
This ends just like an episode of the X files. Every peice of evidence is lost, and no one believes Harry.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire I dont remember much of this... I mean the unimportant adventure was all over the place. You had an imposter, a man never mentioned before, posing as this other guy. Then, theres this big seqence in which Voldermort is reborn, despite Harry's continuous attempts to stop it... so... really arent the first two books extra pointless? Then, surprise, surpise, no one believes harry's account of the events. So... adventure, loss of evidence, disbelief, yet another X files ending.
It was upon finishing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that i realized I was begining to dislike the book series.
After finishing the above stated book, I was left with a sense of disappointment toward the book. There was also alot of hostility mixed in. The book just kind of pissed me off, for several reasons.
First and foremost, I did not agree with J.K. Rowling's decision to kill of Sirius Black. Here is a character introduced to the public in the third book. He plays a small role in the fourth, then a very signifigant role in the fifth. We learn that he cared a great deal for the Potter family, and that he was practicaly family. He spent time in Azkaban, a vile place, simply because he tried to avenge the Potter family. He also helped Harry out when ever he could. He was then placed under house arrest. He may not have been the greatest of people, as shown through some of the stories, but he was far from evil, nor did he have any reason to die. He never did anything which merited death as punishment, and he never did anything in which death was required to redeem him. Given the situation, he did not trade his life for anyone elses, especially not harry. The only reason I could see on why J.K. Rowling decided him to die, was so she could continue to use her set form for writing the books.
That infact brings me to my next point. A point which I realized after my hatred for the final book got me thinking. The Harry potter books are form books. They follow the following sequence of things exactly: Unpleasant Time with Dursleys. Escape from Dursleys, Big adventure at Hogwarts, and Dumbledore explains to harry some crucial information.
Now, I can understand the neccesity of starting the books off with him living at the dursleys, every singe time. New readers. They wouldnt know of their unpleasantness if they didnt start off that way.
What I cant tolerate is the adventure and dumbledore explination combination of events within the story. Take Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for instance. Harry and friends go on this incredible, and mysterious adventure... which inevitable has jack to do with shit. He then is taken to Dumbledore's office, where he is told important information, that does not relate to the adventure, yet is cruicial to the underlying plot of the series. This explanation is roughly one chapter long, and exists just before the final chapter. What exactly was the point to the other 400+ pages of the book?
Perhapse I'm over reacting, but lets look at the very first book. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. The entire adventure of that one is nothing more the Harry trying to stop Lord Voldermort from obtaining this increadibly powerful, magical stone. Of course, he succeeds, but wait. If you think about it, according to the explanation of Dumbledore, in the next to last chapter of the book, Lord Voldermort would not have been able to get the stone, even if Harry had not gone down there, due to the securit measures. So, the entire adventure was in essense, pointless. All so dumbledore could explain some important information to Harry, before sending him home.
Harry Potter and the Chambe of Secrets I'll be fair, this was a decent story. But the adventure still didnt have Jack to do with anything, and made less sense then a Dennis Miller rant. Not to mention that Lockheart fellow was more annoying then nails on a chalk board. Harry goes down to this chamber, where the only reason he survived, was because a magical pheonix droped a magical hat onto harry, who pulled a magical sword out of it. I'm sorry, but if your gonna put your hero into harms way, lets not use the emergency all purpose contegancy plan of "Hey, its magic..." to get them out. Especially when its stuff that was never referenced before. Like the magic sword.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban This made a little more sense then the previous one, and seemed a hair better written... massive plot holes aside. I am perplexed on how a big, black dog would simply walk out of a maximum security prison of wizards. If I'm guarding the scum of a magical community, I'm killing any suspicious animals...especialy when its a semi-common thing for wizards to turn into them.
Then what with the time travel... it creates a paradox, similar to what I call the "terminator effect" an event in the future happens to cause an event in the past to happen, which in turn causes the event in the future to happen. This works for terminator, because the event in the future could have happened, even if it was not started by an effect in the past. It doesnt work in Harry Potter though. He was going to get the Dementors Kiss, but because he didnt, himself from the future casted the spell to fight them. That means, he would have some how not gotten the kiss of the demeantor, even if he did not show up from the future... which I find hard to belive, given the situation. Confused? Good. You see the problem with the book then.
This ends just like an episode of the X files. Every peice of evidence is lost, and no one believes Harry.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire I dont remember much of this... I mean the unimportant adventure was all over the place. You had an imposter, a man never mentioned before, posing as this other guy. Then, theres this big seqence in which Voldermort is reborn, despite Harry's continuous attempts to stop it... so... really arent the first two books extra pointless? Then, surprise, surpise, no one believes harry's account of the events. So... adventure, loss of evidence, disbelief, yet another X files ending.
[/glow]
