Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - POTENTIAL SPOILERS

[GreyRat]

On Voldemort and the Weasleys... we see in the last book that Voldemort really doesn't want to kill pureblood families. He will if he has to, but he wants them to convert to his side. There are really few pureblood families by this point (as Sirius says in book 5), so wiping out the Weasleys is somewhat counterproductive.

Yeah, that always gets me to convert to the side of murdering fascists: "We want *you*... for breeding stock."

Definitely some good action scenes in the book. I don't know if I've gotten too used to the movies, or if Rowling is picturing the films already, but I could already hear some of the lines in the actors' voices.

FWIW, I liked the revelations about Dumbledore's past, and thought the revelation of his brother (and his goat patronus )was well placed. I've never liked the substitution of the Penseive for actual past-revealing dialog, but that's my hang-up. The Deluminator-ex-machina nearly broke my suspension of disbelief, though. I'll just try to ignore that bit, next time I read it.

 

[Vocenoctum]

The Deluminator-ex-machina nearly broke my suspension of disbelief, though. I'll just try to ignore that bit, next time I read it.

A friend also mentioned that problem, but I never had an issue with it. It would be easy for Dumbledore to add the enchantment to the item in order to hide it from the Ministry. The need was obvious, since every year Ron and Harry had some sort of spat that split them up.

Or, as Robot Chicken said it;
Ron: "Oh Harry, I'm scared!"
Harry: "You're always scared you Chickensh**!"

 

[Desdichado]

FWIW, I liked the revelations about Dumbledore's past, and thought the revelation of his brother (and his goat patronus )was well placed.

I miss having Aberforth's Goat as my custom user title.

Here's a question for everyone. Nearly-Headless tells Harry at the end of Book 5 that those who are afraid of passing on remain as ghosts. Voldemort seems to have feared death more than anyone encountered to date. Any ghost potential there, or the fact that he's broken his soul into multiple pieces nix that idea?

 

[WayneLigon]

I didn't see redemption for any of the Malfoys; they only changed tune because they fell on Voldys bad side, due to repeated failures as Death Eaters.

I think I see some for Draco. All this time he's been basically playing at 'Evil'. Once he sees what the face of evil is really like, he backs away from it.

Lucius, no, I don't see any real redemption for him. He was a tool that didn't live up to expectations. He spent years as a bigwig: board of directors of this and that, lunch with the Minister of Magic on Saturdays, blah blah blah. He expected the Dark Lord to return and shower him with power and glory, and he forgot that in Voldemort's eyes he was just a minion, no better than the other tools.

 

[Ambrus]

Some centaur will be wandering around and find a resurrection stone!

Sounds like a bad Monty Haul campaign in the making.

DM: Alright. Your PC is wandering around the darkened forest.
PC: Oh hey! I'm running low on sling stones. I look around for some to refill my pouch.
*DM rolls*
DM: Hm. Your PC finds a small black stone in the underbrush. It has a crack snaking across its surface. Congrats. You've just found the legendary Resurrection Stone.
PC: Uh. Neat. I, uh, look around for a sword and some armor..."

 

[Vocenoctum]

I think I see some for Draco. All this time he's been basically playing at 'Evil'. Once he sees what the face of evil is really like, he backs away from it.

I'd say he and his mother were never fully behind Voldemort and the more that they got drawn in, the more they balked at it.

Lucius, no, I don't see any real redemption for him. He was a tool that didn't live up to expectations. He spent years as a bigwig: board of directors of this and that, lunch with the Minister of Magic on Saturdays, blah blah blah. He expected the Dark Lord to return and shower him with power and glory, and he forgot that in Voldemort's eyes he was just a minion, no better than the other tools.

They don't go into any details about the future of Azkaban, but I'm pretty sure Lucius isn't a free man anyway, change of heart or not.

 

[Hijinks]

I always wondered how wizards end up with such names. Is somebody born 'Saruman' or 'Voldemort'?

In at least the film version of The Chamber of Secrets, Tom Riddle spells out "Tom Marvolo Riddle" and rewrites it in the air to spell out "I am Lord Voldemort." I don't recall if that was in the book as well, since it's been ages since I read it.

But that's where he got his name, iirc.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

JK Rowling has a great sense of humor

Just a brief tangent....

JK Rowling has a great sense of humor.

Warning, SPOILERS for "Half-Blood Prince"

[sblock]From CNN:

"I suppose it's fair game," she said. "You can't be too precious about this stuff. Obviously, as a writer I would prefer people to be able to sit down and read it and discover the ending through reading the whole story. But with 'Half-Blood Prince,' people dangled a sheet over a flyover (overpass) the next day -- 'Snape kills Dumbledore.' Part of me does find that very funny; I can't help myself."

[/SBLOCK]

 

[bodhi]

I've never liked the substitution of the Penseive for actual past-revealing dialog, but that's my hang-up.

I like it as a plot gimmick.
1) You get the fully-immersive holodeck style flashback.
2) You get stuff in a memory that that a person might not consciously remember.
3) When Slughorn modifies his memory, the tampering is pretty obvious.
4) And (possibly the best from a GM standpoint), you get the flashback without needing the person. You have to acquire the memory in the first place, but once you have it, you don't need the person to be there (or even be alive).

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

I hope the wizarding world got rid of the dementors for once and all.