Half-Blood Prince
Apr. 28th, 2007 01:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
progI finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and enjoyed it a great deal, probably the most of all the books in the series so far. (Yes, I've been having a good run of books and movies lately. I do dislike things sometimes, honest!)
The statute of limitations on this volume probably passed a while ago but just the same, let's hide my spoilers under a cut.
I began the book already aware about its big shocker, and I also knew that it seemed to have polarized all my Potter-reading friends. (I recall![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
leighjen saying she hated the ending with the fires of a thousand suns.) Since at the time I was putting up a modicum of spoiler suppression, I never asked for more details, but I assume that those on the hatey side were upset that Snape, who up until then had been presented as a complex and deeply conflicted character, seemed to flatten out into an out-and-out villain in the end.
I do not think it is so simple, though. After the climax, and right up through the last pages, the characters remain utterly confounded why Dumbledore trusted Snape, mentioning it frequently. This is clearly something that will be carried over into the next - and final - book for ultimate resolution. Also, did you notice that Snape was still giving lessons to Potter while he was fleeing Hogwarts, telling Harry why he was able to counter-hex all his spells and advising him how to improve? The tone seemed more teaching than taunting. Given the circumstances I found it weirdly touching, and maybe the most raw emotional scene between those two characters yet.
And finally, did you notice that when Dumbledore called for Snape after he and Harry landed on the tower, he didn't say why he wanted him? The readers are free to assume it's because he wanted Snape to provide an antidote for the terrible potion he drank at Voldemort's cache, but I think this is just more of the misdirection that Rowling just loves to do. Even when Snape finally appeared, Dumbledore only begged him "please".
I'm withdoctor_atomic that the apparent murder was all part of Dumbledore's plan, that he had worked out a situation with Snape - perhaps with Snape's conscious consent, perhaps not - that would involve him sacrificing himself in exactly the way that happened. The clues all point to a hell of a reveal about this event in the final book.
The statute of limitations on this volume probably passed a while ago but just the same, let's hide my spoilers under a cut.
I began the book already aware about its big shocker, and I also knew that it seemed to have polarized all my Potter-reading friends. (I recall
leighjen saying she hated the ending with the fires of a thousand suns.) Since at the time I was putting up a modicum of spoiler suppression, I never asked for more details, but I assume that those on the hatey side were upset that Snape, who up until then had been presented as a complex and deeply conflicted character, seemed to flatten out into an out-and-out villain in the end.I do not think it is so simple, though. After the climax, and right up through the last pages, the characters remain utterly confounded why Dumbledore trusted Snape, mentioning it frequently. This is clearly something that will be carried over into the next - and final - book for ultimate resolution. Also, did you notice that Snape was still giving lessons to Potter while he was fleeing Hogwarts, telling Harry why he was able to counter-hex all his spells and advising him how to improve? The tone seemed more teaching than taunting. Given the circumstances I found it weirdly touching, and maybe the most raw emotional scene between those two characters yet.
And finally, did you notice that when Dumbledore called for Snape after he and Harry landed on the tower, he didn't say why he wanted him? The readers are free to assume it's because he wanted Snape to provide an antidote for the terrible potion he drank at Voldemort's cache, but I think this is just more of the misdirection that Rowling just loves to do. Even when Snape finally appeared, Dumbledore only begged him "please".
I'm with
doctor_atomic that the apparent murder was all part of Dumbledore's plan, that he had worked out a situation with Snape - perhaps with Snape's conscious consent, perhaps not - that would involve him sacrificing himself in exactly the way that happened. The clues all point to a hell of a reveal about this event in the final book.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-29 02:38 am (UTC)The Snape/Dumbledore thing bugs the hell of out me. I don't think Rowling is being fair with the reader. She's either playing it straight, in which case Snape is indeed just a cardboard yawn-yawn bad guy, or she has something up her sleeve, in which case we have absolutely zero foreshadowing what it is.
This kind of cutesy does-she-or-doesn't-she nonsense is the lamest sort of narrative hook in the business.
My bet: there will be unexplored alternatives by the end of the series that are not explained by the nominal logic of the climax. That is, we will find that Snape "had" to kill Dumbledore, but to anyone capable of a moment's reflection there will be stunningly obvious alternative actions that he could have taken that are in no way closed off by the "explanation" the author purports to give.