Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[justalurkr]

OK, finished it. Can't give a whole-hearted "dis/liked it" yet, I'm afraid.



Huhn. Well, there went my One True Slash Pairing.

I had a feeling how the shippiness was going to work out the second JKR introduced Ginny Weasely.

I don't understand the fake thing. Why a fake thing? All that is less pointful with a fake thing.

Half. Blood. Prince. [exorbidant eye-roll] Well, it was a better explanation than I expected.

We'll always have fanfic, darlings.



I was glad to see from planet_mel that I am not alone in having an unusual amount of trouble finishing the book. I'd chalked it up to the adolescent angst slopping about, as well as the expository nature of the KEEL BAD GUY! plot, but really? That book seriously wandered around.

I'm sure JKR will sew it all up in sequined bows in the finale, but the narrative's got an unpleasantly loosey-goosey feel at the moment

Must nap now. Up far past my bedtime.

EDITED TO ADD: There are now very specific spoilers in the comments

Comments

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

What fake thing was that?

I do have a question. Remus tells Harry that there are no princes in the wizarding world or something like that. Does that mean that there have never been members of royalty or nobility among the witches or wizards? Ever?

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Fake thing = the locket that was not a Horcrux, according to the note Harry found withing from R.A.B.

And, yes...I felt led to believe that while there's a big deal made about the purity of wizarding pedigrees (which strongly resembles an aristocracy to me,) there has never been a regonized institution of royalty.

Could that be a British thing? JKR, as a loyal subject of Her Majesty, would never dream of involving the Real Royal House in her fantasy nor yet set up a wizarding rival to the actual institution?

The pun involved in Half-Blood Prince's identity was very like that guy who turned out to be the Half-Blood Prince. ;)

[nialla]

Fake thing = the locket that was not a Horcrux, according to the note Harry found withing from R.A.B.

I'm wondering if those initials are for Sirius' brother, whose name does begin with an R, if memory serves.

This book does suffer a bit from being so highly anticipated and also the penultimate book in the series. I have a feeling that a lot of stuff we're pondering why it's even in the book will play out to be a major part of the last book.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

I think you're right, there.

I remember my mom's only comment about Empire Strikes Back being that it was "like a comma in a sentence." Or, very clearly not the conclusion of anything.

HPB is a book of transitions: Harry's always be a doer, but his primary job has been that of a learner. After this book, his "doing" will be less situational and entirely intentional. It being the last gasp of learning as his primary thing, we got a fairly well-handled infodump on Voldemort and what really was a brilliantly handled exposition on Snape. She got all the shippiness sorted out (for now, I guess) and can move on to strictly down-and-dirty Voldemort hunting.

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

And since Peter Pettigrew was with the Weasleys for 12 years, he'd have a load of info from them to tell Voldemort. Peter would have told him just how close to the Weasleys Harry is. He would have also told Voldemort about Hermione. I do wonder if Peter wants to get even with Crookshanks...

Then there's Snape and Malfoy. They probably would have told the Bad V something.

What Voldemort may be having to contend with are the myths that have grown up around Harry and separating them from the truth. It would be interesting to see if Voldemort is working under misinformation from Peter and others and makes a serious tactical error.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Snape is supposed to be unequaled at Occulemency (or whatever,) so I wonder if some of the misinformation might come from him.

My fanwank on Snape whacking Dumbledore is that Snape was (a) under the Unbreakable Vow to do just that and (b) as the best Potions Master Hogwarts ever had, I'm sure he knew there was nothing he could do for the dying Headmaster and that was really a coup de grace, vigorously ignoring that it was an Unforgivable Curse. 0:)

[nialla]

She got all the shippiness sorted out (for now, I guess) and can move on to strictly down-and-dirty Voldemort hunting.

Was it just me, or was there a serious Spider-man vibe with the whole Harry/Ginny situation at the end? He's going to stay away to protect her?

Sounds nice, but even if Voldemort doesn't know about their personal relationship, he already knows that Harry is friends with everyone in the Weasley family, and that Harry's already fought to protect Ginny before. Sounds like all the ammunition he needs to use Ginny -- or anyone else in her family -- against Harry.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Well, exactly. If Voldemort doesn't think Harry himself will rise to the bait, he's got the whole Weasley family to distract from helping The Chosen One.

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

How many people have been mentioned that have a B for a last initial?

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

My mind leaped immediately to the owners of the shop on Knockturn Alley, B&B, for whom Voldemort worked awhile after graduation and who, logically, would have aided or abetted or at least known about what sorts of objects he was looking for, and maybe even how to make them into horcruxes.

[nialla]

Oh, dear. Someone posted a link over at Ex Isle to a collection of links to fanwank over this book. My eyes, my eyes!

The Harry/Hermione shippers seem especially traumatized, because they expected canon ship, dammit. Now I'm all for fanon in fanfic, and discussing what you'd like to see done differently from canon, but come on, the way for Ron/Hermione was set up in the first book. And having Ginny all nervous around Harry early on was a sure sign, to me anyway, of Harry/Ginny in the future. All the ships played out as first presented, IMO, though the Tonks/Lupin thing just came out of nowhere.

I sometimes wonder if fans discussing books, tv shows, etc. actually make this sort of "fan-made disappointment" more common? You find out you're not the only one who likes a particular pairing, story development, whatever, and so you discuss it, sometimes a lot, and the line between fanon and canon becomes blurred.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

re: Tonks/Lupin? Extreme nowhere, dude. That was the wax seal on my conviction that JKR was clearing the decks of all "unfinished business" so she could get straight to Voldemort's ass-kicking.

re: Hogwarts 90210. Ron/Hermione = antagonistic meet. Add years of sniping like a young married couple, the genuine collegial respect between Hermione and Harry; blend with hero-worshipping Ginny & saved-by-hero Ginny, and you get no friendship-wrecking love triangle to distract from the grand finale.

Additionally: What amounts to the re-villainization of Snape and the confirmation that Draco Malfoy isn't just a badly-raised twit, but capable of real evil, and methinks we have the makings of a really fast-paced, un-put-downable final volume.

I just wish she'd done some besides swab the decks and make puns on Snape's name for a plot in this one.

I think there's plenty of room for a stab-Voldemort-from-behind move by Snape and Draco, though. Snape is an out'n'out double agent, but for whom, really? He's too good at occulemency (sp?) to be sure, and now has plenty of time to work over Draco about the best thing for them to do.