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Thursday, July 26, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Review-- by yours truly..


OK. So here I am reviewing DH... If you are reading this and if you havent read the book yet... then you have been warned... SPOILERS AHEAD!








~~~
Ofcourse, I loved it. JKR does manage to pull out another blockbuster.. It is one of the most fast paced books in the series. And this is one book, Im happy to say will do great as a movie... there isnt much they can cut out.. We get to see a lot of Harry, Ron and Hermione, infact the trio are together till the end.. there isn't a page to turn when the story has moved away from them. I absolutely loved the way JKR rounded up Kreachers character. There are more than a couple of deaths in the book and again... depicted very movie-like... I love Rons witty dialogues... Even Trelawney in the climax... I loved the battle at Hogwarts and all the action surrounding it.. Neville is absolutely the superstar here... His defience to the dark lords regime at Hogwarts and absolute determination to crack the system, all written down to the tee.. Dobby was simply magnificent.... The life of Dumbledore was the most shocking of all..

So, heres what I dint like..actually a lot of it I dint understand!(Yes, either JKR wrote in a language I dint recognize or I have lost the ability to comprend english!!)... The trio were playing hide and seek with the deatheaters for more than half the book..and their camping escapades were never ending... infact a little repetative...

What was the need to make Dumbledore sound like a bad guy... (yes, its her story... but its our Dumbledore now!!) He was portrayed throughout the book as a power hungry wizard who had even gambled with the dark arts "for the greater good"! All thanx to Rita keeter ofcourse.. But JKR dint really trouble Rita with it much.. infact.. its strange she got all the facts right...

Who was that one person who managed to do magic late in life under desparate circumstances, that JKR said we'll meet in DH?? I dont kno.. (I might have missed it.. but is it possible for half the people on earth to miss it?? ) EDIT: JKR says that she gave this a miss while writing the book...from the bloomsbury chat.

JKR says the book is meant to give a sense of reality to children who read them... But Harry Potter survives till the end simply due to the efforts of his pals, Ron and Hermione, Dobby, Hagrid, The order, etc.. or because he luckily escaped a lot of life threatening situations.. I mean, clearly, dumbledore couldnt have forseen that Harry would live (after facing 30 deatheaters at once...and voldemort twice!) to figure out all the clues he had left behind for Harry to find...

Next, the trio lose track in between and start looking for hallows instead of horcruxes... Ofcourse, in the end it mattered a lot that Harry found them....

I really wished it would have been Neville who avenged his parents maddened state. It would have been truly spectacular if Neville had been given the opportunity to Avada Kedavra Bellatrix. There wasnt any particular incident that prompted Molly Weasley'd anger to rage beyond recognition that she resigned to call Bella a Bit*h!

As I had hoped Snape was a good guy in the end... He saved Harry in many ways.... but all for the wrong reasons...He felt guilty for Lily's death and would have been Voldemorts right hand for real if it had'nt been for Lily! For all the reasons I imagined... it was eventually Snape who had to face Lily whenever he looked at Harry..his green eyes! Plus, I felt the character wasnt given its full due in the book... he was left to tell his story after his death... I would have liked for Snape to converse personally with Harry before he died....

But it was totally unbelievable that Ron could even 'imitate' parseltounge... So is parseltounge something we can learn?? I thot it was a very uncommon rare gift... Ofcourse, whatever it is, Parseltounge is inevitably a language..so I suppose you could learn it...

The death of Dobby was perhaps the most touching scene ever... My eyes watered over that scene...

Also... a huge doubt on how the fidelius charm works... According to JKR's FAQ's in her website, this is how the charm works...



"In other words, a secret (eg, the location of a family in hiding, like the Potters) is enchanted so that it is protected by a single Keeper (in our example, Peter Pettigrew, a.k.a. Wormtail). Thenceforth nobody else – not even the subjects of the secret themselves – can divulge the secret. Even if one of the Potters had been captured, force fed Veritaserum or placed under the Imperius Curse, they would not have been able to give away the whereabouts of the other two. The only people who ever knew their precise location were those whom Wormtail had told directly, but none of them would have been able to pass on the information."

"When a Secret-Keeper dies, their secret dies with them, or, to put it another way, the status of their secret will remain as it was at the moment of their death"

But in DH we see that all those who knew the secret have turned secret keepers by default. Does that make any sense?


The epilogue was really not what I expected..cheesy even.. But you gotta let JKR have it for her simplicity... Life goes on.... All is well!!

Monday, June 11, 2007

The Relics of Death!

Alright... this is wat i could find on Relics...and im just arranging everything in someway...have a look!

From the dictionary...
relic (plural relics)

Something old kept for sentimental reasons.
(religion) A part of the body of a saint, or an ancient religious object, kept for veneration.

From wikipedia: A relic is an object, especially a piece of the body or a personal item of someone of religious significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial.

Relics are an important aspect of Buddhism, some denominations of Christianity, Hinduism, shamanism, and many other personal belief systems.

The word “relic” comes from the Latin “reliquiae” which means “remains”.A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more relics. It is used for objects, notably parts of a human body or intimately associated objects, kept as a memorial of a deceased person. Honoring relics seems to be universal and quite instinctual. ...

The veneration of relics is based on the concept of "beneficent contagion", according to which a person's virtue, holiness, or protective healing powers, do not die with him or her but continue to reside in the body and can be tapped by any believer who in some way makes contact with the remains of or objects associated with the person.

It is further believed that, if the body of one of these holy persons is dismembered, the power within it is not diminished and each part will be as full of potency as the whole. The same thing applies to anything touched by the person while alive or anything that touches him or her after death.

These containers of a supposedly animate force - whole bodies, bones, hair and teeth, clothes, books, furniture, instruments of martyrdom, winding-sheets, coffins and (if the body is cremated) the ashes that are left - are dignified by the name of "relics" and credited with the grace that once resided in their owners.

Again from another place, "It became the custom to carry relics as a means of protection from evil influences. In 1066 William the Conqueror went into action at Hastings wearing round his neck a string of relics given to him by the Pope." Neone thinking of wat Harry is wearing around his neck in the HPDH cover art(US version)?!

In short... Relics of death does directly refer to Voldemorts Horcruxes.... So wouldnt Deathly Hallows refer to Horcruxes as well??
So if Relics does mean Horcruxes then they would indirectly mean the four founders of Hogwarts, coz voldemorts soul is residing in the relics of the founders, rite??

Now, I was also wondering wat the connection is between the Deathly Hallows and the Relics of Death.

Many have termed Deathly hallows as a place, a colloseum, a hall, a veil... But wat if we look at the word 'Deathly" as an adjective? An adjective to Hallows? The hallows are described as Deathly....

This second title was released by Jo and Bloomsbury because the phrase "Deathly Hallows" is hard to translate.

So couldnt Deathly Hallows be translated to Deathly Relics as well??

Deathly means according to the dictionary..
adj. 1.Of, resembling, or characteristic of death: a deathly silence.
2.Causing death; fatal.
adv. 1.In the manner of death.
2.Extremely; very: The night was deathly cold.

and Deathly is not equal to Deadly..
Deadly means according to the dictionary...
adj.1.Causing or tending to cause death: deadly weapons; a deadly spill of radioactive waste products.

The following titles had been registered by JKR and her pulishers for the last book.

Trademark Registered December 2006 ®
Heart of Ravenclaw
Deathly Hallows
Deadly Veil
Demon's Sword
Quest of the Serpent

Trademark Registered September 2006 ®
Grey Lady
Heir of Gryffindor
Lost Sceptre
Broken Wand

Gryffindor Quest
Peverell Quest

(If you didn't know...Peverell was the coat of arms that was carved into a black stone in Marvolo Gaunt's gold ring and he claimed it was additional proof that the Gaunts were descendants of Salazar Slytherin.)

Trademark Registered November 2005 ®
Wand of Gryffindor
Ring of Destiny
Elder Wand

Trademark Registered October 2005 ®
Revenge of Dumbledore
March of the Death Eaters
Return of the Dark Lord
Curse of Nagini
Last Prophecy
Hallows of Hogwarts
Mudblood Revolt
Seventh Horcrux
Wand of Grindelwald
Final Curse

Could the titles I put in blue give ne clues??

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Where was James?

I was reading the Lexicon, and surpringly stumbled on something that dint add up.....

Why was Lupin surprised that Harry said he heard James' voice?

When Harry was telling Lupin about the voices he'd heard, Remus reacted in surprise when Harry said he heard his dad. Why? Does Remus know something that he's not telling about that event? Does he know, for example, that James wasn't really there?

After all, Harry has never heard his father's voice, so he doesn't really know that he's hearing James, he just assumes it.

In the film, in a scene which JKR made clear that she personally added, we never see James, just Lily. So was someone else present, someone else whose voice Harry heard and mistook for that of his father? And then where was James and how did he die?

Since JKR clearly said that Voldemort killed James, I think we must look for other explanations for Lupin's reaction. At that point, for example, he hadn't told Harry that he had been friends with James, so maybe it was just a shock to hear that Harry was reliving the death of Remus' dear friend. The reaction could have come from the fact that he had to hide his feelings.

The above is mentioned in the Lexicon.

To read the discussion on this click HERE.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Triangle: coincidence or is it purposeful?

This is regarding the trailer of HP 5...

What exactly is the Triangular building we see in the trailer???

Is it a coincidence that a triangular symbol is on the spine of the book and we know nothing about it... The triangular building.. also something we dont know off...??? [;o] are they related??

I mite be putting two totally different things together here... but the triangle stands out!! hehe.. neone who wants to kill this statement??

Does it make sense to assume that it is azkaban and that it has an important role in HPDH?? i mean the triangle on the spine..???!@$@ ofcourse.. im just asuming.. but someone said Azkaban could be the next hiding place for a horcrux???

Does it say newhere in the books that Azkaban is a triangular structure?? i dont recall ne of the description of azkaban! yes it says surrounded by water on all three sides! but does it say its a triangle as well??

To read the discussion on this click HERE.

Friday, March 30, 2007

a wierd thot....could it be possible?

I was just reading another of rowlings interviews when i read this and then a wierd theory came to me...this was the bit where i got my so called theory...

Question..What happend to Harry's grandparents? Will we ever learn about them?
JK Rowling replies -> They're all dead and not particularly important to the story, although you will find out a little bit more.

Also JKR wont tell us who else was present in Godrics Hollow the nite Lilly and James Potter died at the hands of voldemort....

Now this below is the scene dialoges of dumbledore from when he drinks the potion in the cave to retrive the locket...

Dumbledore panted and then spoke in a voice Harry did not recognize, for he had
never heard Dumbledore frightened like this.
"I don't want. . . Don't make me ..."
". . . don't like . . . want to stop . . ." moaned Dumbledore.
"No ..." he groaned, as Harry lowered the goblet back into the basin and
refilled it for him. "I don't want to. ... I don't want to. . . . Let me go. . . ."
"Make it stop, make it stop," moaned Dumbledore.
"No, no, no, no, I can't, I can't, don't make me, I don't want to. . . ."
"Its all my fault, all my fault," he sobbed. "Please make it stop, I know I did wrong, oh please make it stop and I'll never, never again ..."
"Don't hurt them, don't hurt them, please, please, its my fault, hurt me instead ..."
"Please, please, please, no ... not that, not that, I'll do any-thing ..."
"I want to die! I want to die! Make it stop, make it stop, I want to die!"
"KILL ME!"


After putting all of this together... could DD be talking about all the POTTERS?(look at the part that i marked in red) Was DD present at godrics hollow unable to save them due to some reason? Or did DD miscalculate voldemorts moves on the Potters? or is he blaming himself for not being the secret keeper himself and agreeing to make wormtail the secretkeeper???

About Dumbledore.... I was also wondering , since JKR promises us we're gonna learn more on dumbledores life and family in the next book...wat if Dumbledore is talking about his own family? JK tells us that Dumbledore is primarily self taught(and he had a lot of good teachers!)..and that "Dumbledores Family is a profitable line of inquiry".....so could something have happened to his family where he was unable to anything to save them?? (maybe Grindelwald destroyed his family--kind of harrys story! and thats why how dumbledore killed grindelwald is also going to be significant for Harry--- he mite just find out a method to VANQUISH the Dark Lord!)

According to TIM "For some reason my impression is that the liquid Dumbledore had to drink was enchanted to store the worst memories of people, sort of like the Dementors make people remember the worse moments of their life. Not sure whose memories were stored there but maybe some of the inferi who were lying in the lake. "

To read the discussion on it Click HERE.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

The Bones ~! (another theory!)

The bones family : I cannot think of a family that has been more brutally targeted over the years by Voldemort & Co. Edgar Bones:He was an original Order member;"a great wizard"--according to Moody ;he and his family among "the greatest wizards of the age"--according to Hagrid;One of Amelia's Brother and Susans Uncle;was killed with his wife and children(more than one probably).

Amelia Bones: Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement,presided over Wizengamot, she is Susan's aunt,Is known to be a very powerful witch,fair and honest.Interestingly,we do not hear of Amelia being a part of the Order, either in the first war or the current one.

Is this significant?

I havent seen ne evidence in the books for Susans Grandparents(amelias parents!) ..but i feel they mite have died during hte First war!

So its no less than atleast 5 members of the Bones family killed by Voldemort and/or his followers.It seems that the third sibling,presumably Susan's father,has thus far been spared.Will he or his family be next to go?

Susan is a Hufflepuff,and Amelia is described by Tonks as having the very Hufflepuff quality of fairness.It is reasonable for us to assume that the Bones family is as traditionally Hufflepuff as the Blacks and Malfoys were Slytherin.

Could this probably have nething to do with Hufflepuff's Cup.But what if Amelia's murder was used to create a new Horcrux?

I believe that the Bones family is in the books for a specific purpose that we have yet to find out in the next book!

Could the Cup of hufflepuff be with the Bones family?

To read the discussion Click HERE.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

OH GOD!!! Dumbledore might be back (in some form!)

The Times Online and The Observer have both released new interviews with the Harry Potter actor.

Of particular interest to book fans, the latter website provides an interesting experience Dan had with Jo during one of her OOTP set visits:

"Jo came down to the set at one point and I said, "Oh hello, why are you here today?" And she said, "Oh I just needed a break from the book - Dumbledore's giving me a lot of trouble." And I said, "But isn't he dead?" And she said, "Well, yeah, but it's more complex ..." I was like, [briskly] "OK, I'm not gonna ask anything else!"

WOWOWOW!!!! So Dumbledore will probably be back! even tho hes dead! Harrys not going to be alone after all!! this is the best news iv heard after the name of Book 7!~!

OR.... was she talking about Aberforth???

To read the discussion click HERE.

Friday, February 2, 2007

What does Essence Divided Mean?

Dumbledore swooped down upon one of the fragile silver instruments whose function Harry had never known, carried it over to his desk, sat down facing them again and tapped it gently with the tip of his wand.The instrument tinkled into life at once with rhythmic clinking noises. Tiny puffs of pale green smoke issued from the minuscule silver tube at the top. Dumbledore watched the smoke closely, his brow furrowed. After a few seconds,the tiny puffs became a steady stream of smoke that thickened and coiled in the air… a serpent's head grew out of the end of it, opening its mouth wide. Harry wondered whether the instrument was confirming his story: he looked eagerly at Dumbledore for a sign that he was right, but Dumbledore did not look up.

'Naturally, naturally,' murmured Dumbledore apparently to himself, still observing the stream of smoke without the slightest sign of surprise. 'But in essence divided?'

Harry could make neither head nor tail of this question. The smoke serpent,however, split itself instantly into two snakes, both coiling and undulating in the dark air. With a look of grim satisfaction, Dumbledore gave the instrument another gentle tap with his wand: the clinking noise slowed and died and thesmoke serpents grew faint, became a formless haze and vanished.

To read the discussion Click HERE.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Why dint Dumbledore make Harry's job easier??

..."why dint Dumbledore NOT kill or try to kill Voldemort in the scene in the ministry.....Although Dumbledore gives a kind of reason to Voldemort, it is not the real reason. Dumbledore knows something slightly more profound than that.I would advise you to concentrate on this question. That might take you a little bit further." :- JKR

oh yeah... dumbledore knows of the horcruxes......but even then he could have finished voldemort there... that would leave only the rest of the horcruxes, rite? so why dint he help make harrys job easier?

Though dumbledore cant really 'kill' someone..even if its voldemort...mayb like dumbledore said to voldemort....there are other things greater or worser than death....does than mean voldemort is going to be loved to death?????.... heheh...

To read the discussion click HERE.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Movie 3 forshadows books 6 and 7!!

Jo Rowling: Alfonso had good intuition about what would and wouldn't work. He's put things in the film that, without knowing it, foreshadow things that are going to happen in the final two books. So I really got goosebumps when I saw a couple of those things, and I thought people are going to look back on the film and think those were put in deliberately as clues.

This was said in the Interview with David Heyman, Steve Kloves, Mark Radcliffe, Alfonso Cuaron, and Jo Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban DVD "Extra," November 23, 2004..

During Lupins transformation into the werewolf...Snape was unconcious at the time and Sirius tried to come in between the trio in his Dog form... but Sirus is pushed away and the werewolf Lupin faces Harry and friends..... and thats wen Snape comes in between-- obviously he dint realize a werewolf was standing there... but nevertheless once he realizes this he tries to protect the trio..... SO in short.... Snape does try to protect them in the POA movie...In the POA book no such scene occurs... Snape remains unconcious...(i just read it!)Therfore This could very well mean that Snape mite indeed be the good guy....he mite still hate Harry...but still on the good side!

To read the discussion click HERE.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Loose Ends! will JKR tie them up?Do we have answers?

Ok here are a few loose ends in the series so far that i hope JKR will address in the final book...(courtesy mugglenet! Ofcourse!) Do we have ne answers to these?

1.Why was Voldemort prepared to let Lily live after he killed James at Godric's Hollow?What bad memory was Dudley forced to encounter when he was attacked by the dementors in Order of the Phoenix? Did Voldemort go to Godric's Hollow alone the night he tried to kill Harry? If so, how do people know the events of that night?If Voldemort lost his body at Godric's Hollow, then who retrieved his wand?How did Dumbledore know the details of Lord Voldemort's murder of Lily - how LV offered to spare her life and how the charm that protects Harry was formed - if no one else was there to witness it?

2.What did Dumbledore actually see in the Mirror of Erised in the first book?What was the 'gleam of triumph' in Dumbledore's eyes at the end of Goblet of Fire?What happened to Dumbledore's wand after his death?With Dumbledore dead, who will lead the Order?Where did Fawkes go at the end of Half-Blood Prince?

3.Will the two-way mirror that Sirius gave to Harry come up again? On her website, JKR stated that "there IS a significant - even crucial - answer" to the following question: How and why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak? What is the significance of this?

4.Is there more behind Voldemort wanting the DADA teaching position so badly, or is it just because he simply wanted the job?

5.What will Percy do now that the Ministry has been proven wrong? Will he go back to his family?In Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart says that he transformed a werewolf back into a man using the "immensely complex Homorphus Charm." Now we know that Lockhart didn't actually do this, but he did steal the sitory from another wizard. So, is there a way to cure Lupin?

6.Assuming Hogwarts will open in Book 7, who will be the DADA teacher?

7.Why did Regulus choose to leave the Death Eaters?

8.How will Harry find his parents' home in Godric's Hollow? After all, Wormtail is the secret-keeper, and as far as we know the only way to find the home would be for Wormtail to tell Harry its location.How did Hagrid retrieve Harry from the ruins of his parents' house if he was not told the location by the secret-keeper? Now that Dumbledore's dead, who is the secret-keeper of the Order of the Phoenix? Is the spell broken?

9.What significance is the fact that Mundungus Fletcher has been stealing things from Grimmauld Place going to have to the plot of the next book? Did he take the locket from Grimmauld Place, and if so, who did he sell it to?

To read the discussion click HERE.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

What is JKR getting at?

I was reading an editorial today (on mugglenet) about the poll question answered by JKR in her website.. and it was thot provoking...

the question was: What is the significance of Neville being the other boy to whom the prophecy might have referred?

JKR says that this is the question she wanted to answer the most...in this she toks about how close neville came to be the "the chosen one"..

She says..."what would have happened if Voldemort had decided that the pure-blood(neville), not the half-blood(harry), was the bigger threat? Harry wonders this during the course of 'Half-Blood Prince' and concludes that the answer hinges on whether or not one of Neville's parents would have been able, or prepared, to die for their son in the way that Lily died for Harry.

Had Frank or Alice thrown themselves in front of Neville, the killing curse would have rebounded just as it did in Harry's case, and Neville would have been the one who survived with the lightning scar. What would this have meant? Would a Neville bearing the lightning scar have been as successful at evading Voldemort as Harry has been? Would Neville have had the qualities that have enabled Harry to remain strong and sane throughout all of his many ordeals?

Although Dumbledore does not say as much, he does not believe so: he believes Voldemort did indeed choose the boy most likely to be able to topple him, for Harry's survival has not depended wholly or even mainly upon his scar."

The above statements in italics suggests that its is Dumbledores view that Harry is the obvious chosen one... This is not JKRs view..(atleast she doesnt say so.. take notice: she says: "Dumbledore does not believe...."

towards the end she says..."Of course, none of this should be taken to mean that Neville does not have a significant part to play in the last two novels , or the fight against Voldemort. As for the prophecy itself, it remains ambiguous, not only to readers, but to my characters.Prophecies are usually open to many different interpretations."

this would mean that Neville has a significant role to play in HPDH..and it is against voldemort!

She also says... that the prophecy is still confusing and not clear to her readers and her characters.. SO..IS shes asking her readers not to believe everything her characters believe in....?????????????


To read the discussion click HERE.