Obligatory Potter post

[ellid]

Didn't go to party. Am waiting on reactions from certain folk before deciding whether to read the entire book. Still no plans to buy.

WARNING: SPOILERS IN COMMENTS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Comments

[aunty_marion]

The general consensus from Sectus is 'yes, it's worth it'. Though there's a vocal minority (or possibly majority?) to whom I belong, who think JK wrote the Epilogue, and various fanfic writers wrote the main book. I may or may not have spotted at least four of them...

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Okay...what's the reaction to the Lupin/Tonks subplot? The American reaction so far has been almost 100% negative. I admit that this is by far the part that troubles me most.

Warning - spoilers to some extent!

[aunty_marion]

Well, consensus (so far) seems to indicate that we think that Tonks was already pregnant and rushed Lupin into marriage, which accounts for his distinct lack of enthusiasm for the situation! I personally wonder if it's not *his* baby, and he suspects as much, too. The Snupin meet-up this afternoon reckoned that since he definitely wasn't happy at being married (or not as happy as perhaps he should have been if it had been Twoo Wuv) there's still plenty of room for the Snupin ship to continue to sail happily along.

Also, the Snape - Dumbledore's Man discussion and the Snarry discussion both agreed that Snape May Not Be Dead (no mention of a funeral, we think he could just have been in a coma, Madam Pomfrey can do Good Stuff), and if he is ... well, Binns could teach as a ghost. There's no clue in the Epilogue as to who's Headmaster at Hogwarts, so we see no reason why Snape couldn't be Head, either in the flesh or as a ghost!

However, alas, Lupin appears to be dead. Again, no funeral, but his body seems to be laid out with the rest of the dead at the end.

Re: Warning - spoilers to some extent!

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Well, consensus (so far) seems to indicate that we think that Tonks was already pregnant and rushed Lupin into marriage, which accounts for his distinct lack of enthusiasm for the situation! I personally wonder if it's not *his* baby, and he suspects as much, too.

That makes sense, considering he goes from "no no no" to "let's date" to "let's get married" in about a month. Also, he seems genuinely stunned at the pregnancy and reacts so poorly that it's obvious it wasn't planned and that he didn't want it.

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

Read the book. The _whole_ book. Beginning to end.

Cherry picking sections means you lose the richness of multiple references to the same characters, you miss a lot of the subtleties, and you miss the narrative flow that JKR uses very well.

I read the epilogue as a standalone, and was mildly satisfied with it. I read it as the end of reading the whole book, and was very happy with it.

As to Lupin and Tonks: Lupin's desire to help Harry instead of be with his pregnant wife is shot down by Harry, and I think Lupin gets it after that (though we don't witness his realization). I think Rowling had a point to make there about parents, and made it strongly.

There is a powerful point, very short, when Lupin comes back near the end of the book to talk to Harry. Few dead characters get such a chance, and he says something good about being the parent of an orphan.

But the moment won't have the same power if you just flip to that section and read that one section. It has power because of all that has gone before.

Read the book. The _whole_ book. Beginning to end.