(Spoilers) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

[tleilaxu]

cross-posted from NKL minus swearwords

Well... finished it last night around 2am.

Was it better than Potter 4? I'd say no, but it is close to that level.

For me, HP1 was a funny and interesting story. HP2 was kinda more of the same kids detective stuff, and depended on the formula. It didn't really add much. HP3 was exponentially better than 2. It added all kinds of interesting things and was really interesting. HP4 was to 3 what 3 was to 2. It was a really, really good book, with an awesome ending.

I'll have to give it a while to sink in, but Order of the Phoenix right now is better than Prisoner of Azkaban but not quite as good as Goblet of Fire.



The big things in the story, the death of....











Sirius Black, and Dumbledore's "now i'm going to tell you everything" were a bit underwhelming for me. Rowling continues to rely on cardboard cutouts for some of the villians in the story. Draco and his stooges continue to be edit: jerks with absolutely no character development over the entire 5 books. Umbridge, uber government edit: bad woman, is so evil as to be unbelievable (much like reeta skeeter in HP4).

Rowling continues with the formula of a series of portants popping up throughout the schoolyear culminating in a big showdown where everything falls into place.

A lot of the stuff in the first half of the book was kinda wrapping up the missions and other fallout from the end of HP4, with Hagrid only showing up 1/3 into the book. Other intriguing characters from HP4 are largely dropped (Krum gets mentioned, um, twice i believe). No romantic development between Hermione and Ron, and Harry manages to screw things up with edit: Cho Chang.

On the positive side, there is some really excellent character development with Neville, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Snape, McGonagall, and Sirius. We also get to see the cool Mod Squad wizards.



your turn

 

[Uzumaki]

I think I always agree with you, Tsyr. Anyway, my comments.

Harry in the first 1/3 of his after-muggle scenes in the book. Too tempermental... It just really seemed out of character for him.

No kidding. To me, this was the biggest disappointment of the book. Apparently, only a month has passed between the end of B4 and the beginning of B5 and Harry has had a radical personality change. He's had his blow-ups before, about his parents, the Malfoys, and the time he chucked an anti-Potter badge at Ron, but he was just inexplicably pricky for most of the book.

I know people are just going to put the whole thing down as 'he's a teenager,' but having your loins awaken doesn't make you a completely different person. However, I did like that Hermione and often Ginny (yay, Ginny!) called him on his crap most of the time.

The thing with Cho... Ok, sure, you wanna give Harry a fleeting love interest. Fine. WHY CHO? She really doesn't seem like all that great of a prospect, constantly throwing little fits at Harry whenever he mentions Herm... I mean, anyone who had payed attention at Hogwarts *knew* they were long-time friends, so why is it a surprise that he still is?

Bugged me, too. Cho has always seemed so nice and together. But she was just biznitchy and weepy here.

Death of Sirrus. Bah. I liked Sirrus. Sirrus was cool. And his death didn't even have meaning.

If he'd had time to utter it, I'm sure his last wish would be that people spelled his name right. I thought the death was going to be someone else, someone, well, more important. Don't get me wrong, Sirius does kick butt, but... he's never really done anything. He's only been in the third book and this one, and he wasn't in either of them that much. I understand his deep connection with Harry, but I seriously doubt readers are going to be little more than bummed by the loss.

Developing Neville's character.

Especially with what was revealed at the end.

McGonagall. She kicked ass.

Boo yah. The more I read, the more I realized how perfect Maggie Smith is for the role. She's gonna have a lot of fun with this installment, should they reach it on the bigscreen.

Umbridge. Evil as hell or not, she was a great character. Great character. I loved her slipping more and more from the "Hard-hearted semi-evil" Umbridge to the maniac, out-of-control, paranoid, semi-inane, pure evil Umbridge at the end. And I LOVED her fate, and I LOVE that Rowling left it very vauge what happened to her. My mind has invented a number of decidedly Un-Eric's Grandma Friendly (TM) ideas as to her fate... Considering her reaction to the sound of hooves...

Eh, I could never really get a feel for her. I wonder who the next DADA teacher will be?

Fred and George. Fred and George! Aweome characters! Just awsome. Their exit was amazing, and it showed so much character that they were willing to do what they did... Class clowns or no, they knew they were risking a lot doing that, not just being expelled (Which they didn't care about, of course).

I'm glad they got more page time. I only hope that they'll show up even though they're no longer Hogwarts students. Not that they would've been after this book.

Dumbledore's exit when DA is revealed. Like the painting said... "He has style.".
Dumbledore at the end.
The D.A.

Amen. Everything Dumbledore. So cool.

The scene where they tried to take Hagrid, and he went berzerk... Even if I most assuredly did not like what happend to McGonagall during that.

Yeah. He may not like to hurt things, but that doesn't mean he won't. Very sweet.

 

[WanderingMonster]

Okay...I have to address the "sudden" temperment change of Harry. Two months before the opening og OotP he saw YKW reutrn to life, and he saw a schoolmate die. Now, I don't know how I'd react, but would people think I was overreacting if I got a little moody?

And remember that Harry's 15. Now, I'm looking way back at 15, so my memories might be foggy, but I do remember being moody, feeling alone, acting self-concious and defensive. And my nemesis did not just kill a chum of mine (although I know you're out there Von de Vaanderbaan!)

Cut Harry some slack, and give JKR some credit. She wrote her hero as a true teenage boy.

Now...here's what I liked:

1) Ginny rocks. She is more of a fireball than we knew! Definitely Fred and George's sister.

2) Hermione just rules. "I am feeling a little rebellious." Awesome.

3) Dolores Umbridge is the most evil villain so far. Hey, when your name means "Hurts" in spanish, you got a lot to overcome.

4) Raise your hand if thestrals are being added to your campaign.

5) McGonagall kicks butt. How much more respect can I have for this character?

I guess this was the "I am woman..." book. The heroines came away very strong, and the villainesses very evil. The guys got their due, and Harry was cool and all, but the female characters really came out much stronger. It makes me think that Lilly Potter is going to have a HUGE(r) impact on the story than anyone could have guessed.

For the record, I was convinced Dumbledore was going to die. I changed my mind many times while reading.

 

[Uzumaki]

I've had friends die before. They weren't close, but probably as close as Harry and Cedric were. When I was 15, a car crash claimed the lives of two friends of mine, and nearly another. I'm best friends with the lone (mostly) unscathed survivor, and also with the older brother of the kid who was comatose for days afterward. (He's fine now.)

When you've come that close to dying yourself, you don't get all pissy and bite people's heads off. Given the circumstances, and also how Harry hasn't been acting like a typical pre-pubescent and pubescent child, it was merely disappointing that he would suffer the personality change, especially since it wasn't really explained. Maybe we're expected to chalk it up to being 15, or being stressed, or whatever other fanwanking, but it shouldn't be counted on.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I feel a need to step up and defend Harry and Cho.

Some seems to be forgetting that their behavior did not happen in a vacume. Harry was not popping just becuase Cedric died. He was popping becuase he had been cut off from his friends for a month and people - like Umbridge - kept emotionally kicking him in the face, calling him a liar and telling him his grief and pain were unimportant. Change any of those elements and it would be a different story.

Likewise, Cho is a teenage girl. While teenage girls are usually more mature than teenage boys, that is not saying much. They are still addled in the head and apt to be tempermental at the best of times.

And the Durlsey's...

...Is it just me or are they becoming more noxious. At this point, if given a choice between being locked in a room with Tom Riddle (aka Voldemort) or the Durlsey, I would choose Riddle. He at least would be an interesting conversationalist (all Machavalian and Neitchian power and what not, while the Dursley's would just talk about their yard or something).

 

[blackshirt5]

I have to agree with the Grumpy Celt. I'd feel the urge to beat the Dursleys until they stopped moving.

 

[stevelabny]

also in defense of Angry!Harry (uh oh, ive officially cross the line into loser-dom, is there any hope?)

i dont know why people never have caught on to this BUT harry spends the first four books CONSTANTLY saying I HATE YOU, I HATE THIS , I HATE THAT, and wanting to kill things. he has ALWAYS been a very angry, and potentially dangerous.
his use of an unforgiveable at the end of the book is no accident.
this boy is either a> evil or b> will go to the dark side to get more power to defeat voldemort

and although i said i thought Cho was up to something and instead she was just being a dumb teenage girl... thats still perfectly in character...which is to say, we dont really know anything about her character before this book.

none of the characters are acting out of character.
(althought two days later, i still havent gotten any good answers to my plot-hole question in numerous locations)

 

[drothgery]

And the Durlsey's...

...Is it just me or are they becoming more noxious. At this point, if given a choice between being locked in a room with Tom Riddle (aka Voldemort) or the Durlsey, I would choose Riddle. He at least would be an interesting conversationalist (all Machavalian and Neitchian power and what not, while the Dursley's would just talk about their yard or something).

I don't know about that. Riddle has that whole 'guy who's quite likely to kill you for no apparent reason' thing going on. Given a choice between being bored and dead, well, bored has a lot going for it

 

[CrazyMage]

For the record, I was convinced Dumbledore was going to die. I changed my mind many times while reading. [/B]

I thought perhaps all those warnings to Harry about his temper were leading up to Dumbledore dying because Harry let his anger get the better of him and acted rashly again. Happy I was wrong because Dumbledore is a great character.

 

[Piratecat]

I had originally expected Dumbledore to be killed - lord knows that there was enough foreshadowing about it. It's fun how Rowling yanked our chains, since we knew someone was going to die; first Arthur Weaselly, then Hagrid, then MaGonagall (sp). Nicely done.

Did you folks notice the tribute to the DiscWorld books? There's an allusion to a wizard named Ponder Stibbons. Very fun.