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Spoilers!!
I'll now be talking about Order of the Phoenix.
Hm, well, I guess we'll start with Harry. Good to see the realistic teenage angst, although there were several times though the book in which I wanted to kick him. I think Harry's worst flaw is really, really coming out in this book--he refuses to trust anyone's judgement but his own. Some of the others have this problem--honestly, how many books do we have to go through with Snape proven innocent of anything the trio suspect him of before Ron gets it through his head that he ISN'T working for Voldemort anymore?--but Harry's the worst about it. He doesn't trust his friends, his guardians, his teachers, and, worst of all, Dumbledore. Here's hoping he gets that in hand over the course of the next book.
Speaking of Snape, though, it was absolutely wonderful to see his flashbacks, most notably the one to his young childhood. I know some Snape fans out there are feeling very, very vindicated by that. The Marauders one was pretty revealing, and it was very nice to see some negative attention to James. That reminds me, all of the Marauders were in Gryffindor, right? Either way, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't hang out with a Slytherin, so it's now apparent that Ron's statement in book one--that wizard who ever went dark was in any house but Slytherin--is untrue. I approve of this. And I don't hold Snape's calling Lily a mudblood against him--think about it, he's a teenage boy having his butt defended by a GIRL, and one from Gryffindor, no less. How mortifying must that be?
Lets see... Umbridge is FOUL. The other teachers, espescially McGonagal (one of those consonants should probably be doubled, but I don't know which one). I loved the part where she told Peeves that the chandelier unscrewed the other way. I felt bad for Trelawney when she almost got thrown out, poor thing. Flitwick also rocks, and I loved the fact that Dumbledore still calls Voldemort 'Tom.' As for other students, Draco's as obnoxious as ever, but I hope that his father in prison will maybe have some impression on him. And NEVILLE! Neville ROCKS! ^___^ Luna's entertaining; I wonder how much of her vacancy has to do with her mother's apparently messy death?
Hm, it was nice to see the Durselys get some more attention. Dudley, terror though he is, doesn't deserve the Dementor's Kiss he almost got, and it's very good to have seen Petunia get something resembling development.
The Aurors we have thus far rock, although Tonks's ability to change her appearance is going to spawn more terrifying Mary Sues than the world ever thought possible. Yay for more Moody, I like him, and yay for that black Mace Windu of the wizarding world guy. Oh, and I liked seeing Remus go off to talk to that werewolf guy at Mungo's.
So, onto my two biggest comments, Sirius and Percy. My liking for Sirius went down a peg when he told Harry cooly that he wasn't so much like his father after all, just because Harry was worried about him. I can hardly hold that against him now, though, can I? *sighs* I wish his death had been something a bit more lingering than it was, though. Rowling, we got your point about how death can come out of anywhere when you killed Cedric; we didn't need a repeat performance. A moment for Harry to talk to him would have been nice. I can see the slashy Remus suicide fics coming now.
Percy. Percy, Percy, Percy... I can't decide whether I want to kick him repeatedly in the head for his behavior in this book or hug him desperately for what he's going to have to go through in the next book. On the one hand, he deserves it for being such a prat. On the other, dealing with having had his loyalty and faith in the Ministry shattered is going to be hard enough, and I'm sure the twins and Ron aren't going to make it any easier on him. Really, although Percy said some terrible things in that fight with his father, I think Arthur started it. I mean, everyone KNOWS how much faith Percy has in the Ministry, and how much his career means to him; how much tact would it have taken to congratulate him on the promotion and wait to get him in private before confiding the concerns? How much simple understanding of your son is required to realize that, "Oh, they only promoted you so they'd have a spy in the family," being the first thing he hears when he happily tells his family about his promotion is NOT going to go ever well and is a horrible thing to say? For that matter, I didn't see Arthur in any terrible rush to reconcile with his son; Molly was the only one I saw making much effort. He's being stubborn, but no less so than the rest of his family--and as snotty and obnoxious as his letter to Ron was, at LEAST he wrote him and congratulated him on becoming a Prefect. Sure, what he said was pompus and irritating, but he DID believe it, and believe what he was saying was for Ron's own good. Ron seems to have a problem seeing the real love Percy has for him; even though Percy's made such efforts to cut himself off from his family, he still contacted Ron to wish him well. It'll be nice to see him having to deal with his attitude thus far, though, and hopefully his family won't be too terrible.
Although, it occured to both me and my dad that there's always a possibility that Percy is in fact spying on the Ministry for Dumbledore. A long shot, perhaps, but it would be wonderful if it turned out to be true. I'm sure we'll get something on him, anyway; Rowling is far too thorough a writer to have been scattering all the comments about Percy's ambition without a plan for them. I'm hoping it'll involve the reminder that, "Hey, for all the ambition that everyone keeps harping on Percy for having, he WAS Sorted into, and, even more, became a Prefect and Head Boy, for Gryffindor, the house of loyalty and courage. Here's why."
Random last thoughts:
I want to know more about the Bloody Baron.
Rowling REALLY should have found a better turn of phrase that 'ejaculated' to describe Ron exclaiming something.
My favorite humor line was Harry telling Vernon, "You can't give a dementor the old one-two."
In other news, this amuses me greatly. It's Shougo! From the X movie, the Kakyou replacement who got Yuuto's water powers. (Now if I can just get Innouva...) Glad to see him in CLAMP's massive cross over series, although I really think they need to cut back on their monthly output (serializations of four series per month; Tsubasa, XXXHolic, X, and Gohou Drug); the art quality's beginning to suffer. Parts of Tsubasa--most noticeably, to my untrained eye, the proportions in the torso and limbs--look REALLY sloppy.
Hm, well, I guess we'll start with Harry. Good to see the realistic teenage angst, although there were several times though the book in which I wanted to kick him. I think Harry's worst flaw is really, really coming out in this book--he refuses to trust anyone's judgement but his own. Some of the others have this problem--honestly, how many books do we have to go through with Snape proven innocent of anything the trio suspect him of before Ron gets it through his head that he ISN'T working for Voldemort anymore?--but Harry's the worst about it. He doesn't trust his friends, his guardians, his teachers, and, worst of all, Dumbledore. Here's hoping he gets that in hand over the course of the next book.
Speaking of Snape, though, it was absolutely wonderful to see his flashbacks, most notably the one to his young childhood. I know some Snape fans out there are feeling very, very vindicated by that. The Marauders one was pretty revealing, and it was very nice to see some negative attention to James. That reminds me, all of the Marauders were in Gryffindor, right? Either way, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't hang out with a Slytherin, so it's now apparent that Ron's statement in book one--that wizard who ever went dark was in any house but Slytherin--is untrue. I approve of this. And I don't hold Snape's calling Lily a mudblood against him--think about it, he's a teenage boy having his butt defended by a GIRL, and one from Gryffindor, no less. How mortifying must that be?
Lets see... Umbridge is FOUL. The other teachers, espescially McGonagal (one of those consonants should probably be doubled, but I don't know which one). I loved the part where she told Peeves that the chandelier unscrewed the other way. I felt bad for Trelawney when she almost got thrown out, poor thing. Flitwick also rocks, and I loved the fact that Dumbledore still calls Voldemort 'Tom.' As for other students, Draco's as obnoxious as ever, but I hope that his father in prison will maybe have some impression on him. And NEVILLE! Neville ROCKS! ^___^ Luna's entertaining; I wonder how much of her vacancy has to do with her mother's apparently messy death?
Hm, it was nice to see the Durselys get some more attention. Dudley, terror though he is, doesn't deserve the Dementor's Kiss he almost got, and it's very good to have seen Petunia get something resembling development.
The Aurors we have thus far rock, although Tonks's ability to change her appearance is going to spawn more terrifying Mary Sues than the world ever thought possible. Yay for more Moody, I like him, and yay for that black Mace Windu of the wizarding world guy. Oh, and I liked seeing Remus go off to talk to that werewolf guy at Mungo's.
So, onto my two biggest comments, Sirius and Percy. My liking for Sirius went down a peg when he told Harry cooly that he wasn't so much like his father after all, just because Harry was worried about him. I can hardly hold that against him now, though, can I? *sighs* I wish his death had been something a bit more lingering than it was, though. Rowling, we got your point about how death can come out of anywhere when you killed Cedric; we didn't need a repeat performance. A moment for Harry to talk to him would have been nice. I can see the slashy Remus suicide fics coming now.
Percy. Percy, Percy, Percy... I can't decide whether I want to kick him repeatedly in the head for his behavior in this book or hug him desperately for what he's going to have to go through in the next book. On the one hand, he deserves it for being such a prat. On the other, dealing with having had his loyalty and faith in the Ministry shattered is going to be hard enough, and I'm sure the twins and Ron aren't going to make it any easier on him. Really, although Percy said some terrible things in that fight with his father, I think Arthur started it. I mean, everyone KNOWS how much faith Percy has in the Ministry, and how much his career means to him; how much tact would it have taken to congratulate him on the promotion and wait to get him in private before confiding the concerns? How much simple understanding of your son is required to realize that, "Oh, they only promoted you so they'd have a spy in the family," being the first thing he hears when he happily tells his family about his promotion is NOT going to go ever well and is a horrible thing to say? For that matter, I didn't see Arthur in any terrible rush to reconcile with his son; Molly was the only one I saw making much effort. He's being stubborn, but no less so than the rest of his family--and as snotty and obnoxious as his letter to Ron was, at LEAST he wrote him and congratulated him on becoming a Prefect. Sure, what he said was pompus and irritating, but he DID believe it, and believe what he was saying was for Ron's own good. Ron seems to have a problem seeing the real love Percy has for him; even though Percy's made such efforts to cut himself off from his family, he still contacted Ron to wish him well. It'll be nice to see him having to deal with his attitude thus far, though, and hopefully his family won't be too terrible.
Although, it occured to both me and my dad that there's always a possibility that Percy is in fact spying on the Ministry for Dumbledore. A long shot, perhaps, but it would be wonderful if it turned out to be true. I'm sure we'll get something on him, anyway; Rowling is far too thorough a writer to have been scattering all the comments about Percy's ambition without a plan for them. I'm hoping it'll involve the reminder that, "Hey, for all the ambition that everyone keeps harping on Percy for having, he WAS Sorted into, and, even more, became a Prefect and Head Boy, for Gryffindor, the house of loyalty and courage. Here's why."
Random last thoughts:
I want to know more about the Bloody Baron.
Rowling REALLY should have found a better turn of phrase that 'ejaculated' to describe Ron exclaiming something.
My favorite humor line was Harry telling Vernon, "You can't give a dementor the old one-two."
In other news, this amuses me greatly. It's Shougo! From the X movie, the Kakyou replacement who got Yuuto's water powers. (Now if I can just get Innouva...) Glad to see him in CLAMP's massive cross over series, although I really think they need to cut back on their monthly output (serializations of four series per month; Tsubasa, XXXHolic, X, and Gohou Drug); the art quality's beginning to suffer. Parts of Tsubasa--most noticeably, to my untrained eye, the proportions in the torso and limbs--look REALLY sloppy.