Disclaimer:
The 文章 is not mine I only used it cause everyone has always wrote 文章 aganist Twilight how about Harry Potter now
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I finished 阅读 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a couple of days back. In my view, the book is much 更多 tightly written than the last two books. And that itself is a relief. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are much better etched out in Deathly Hallows, and there are quite a bit of surprises, disappointments, revelations.

But when someone asked me today what I thought about it, I replied, “Decent.”

Why just decent?


The book is fantasy, and just like in the case of science fiction books, 幻想 图书 attempt to create a separate universe – which is very similar to ours, but with certain critical elements that operate differently. And these worlds have their their own logic, which should be consistent. The fantasy, 或者 sci-fi, itself is an exception – and their cannot be exceptions within exceptions. Rowling sometimes fails in creating a consistent 幻想 universe and the rules 由 which the universe works are often ad-hoc. (By the way, the Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows 电影院 are gonan be in 3D )


For example, there is the spell Accio - it brings the object 你 demand to you. Accio 扫帚 brings 你 your broom. But this spell has been such a problem – if it works as advertised, 你 should be able to grab anything from anywhere. So Rowling had to introduce counter-spells, which would negate the effect of this one. So there are things that cannot be accio-ed.

Expelliarmus – One of the first spells taught to the novice wizard and witch. Almost everyone in the Harry Potter series makes liberal use of this. Unlike Accio, this always works. So even a Draco Malfoy can disarm Dumbledore – the only wizard who even Lord Voldemort fears. Is this really likely? It is a spell a kid can do – any serious wizard worth his spells should be automatically protected against this even in his sleep. With such a handy spell around, and in the middle of a massive fight like in the Central Hall of Hogwarts, there would be wizards expelliarmusing left, right and center – and no one manages to get strip Lord Voldemort of his wand! Why? In the book, there is no mention of a counter-spell against Expelliarmus. A man can operate only in 360 degrees where he is standing, and someone is bound to hit 你 with an Expelliarmus 或者 an Avada Kedavra. However, no one manages to do this, even in the heat of the battle. Not even when their lives are in danger of Voldemort Avada-ing you. Why? Don’t tell me everyone wants to be a saint even when fighting Voldemort for their lives.

And then the curious direction-specificity of the spells. Often, people jump out of the way of a spell. Come on, we have read magical 图书 before – and we have read Mandrake the magician too. There was never any mention, anywhere, that when a curse comes towards 你 in its red-or-green coloured glory (why are curses / spells coloured?) 你 just had to dance your way out of its way. Spells were never like that! But Mandrake andhis enemies used to hit people in the face with a mental 冲床 – and that was direction-specific. Point your hand at the enemy, and Pow! And sometimes the enemy would save himself 由 jumping out of the way. So Rowling’s spells are like Mandrake’s powers.

Then, there are the idiocies of the 你 Know Who. Arrogance 或者 not, no evil man worth his dark soul would confirm, doubly, that the enemy 你 have been tracking is indeed dead. 你 know, really, really check. Send a couple 更多 spells for good measure. Yea, sure, James Bond villains used to be quite careless about leaving Bond to his death. Voldemort seems to be in the same class.

And then in jubilation, when Harry is pretending to be dead, Voldemort uses the Cruciatus curse on him and Harry rises in the air like a rag doll. Then Voldemort drops him on the ground. Curiously, the evil wizard drops him on the ground gently – he doesn’t make Harry fall on his head and break his neck for good measure, break an arm 或者 a leg – nothing! Have 你 ever fallen on your back from a height of 6 feet? Harry manages to keep his dead-body act so easily – it happens only in 宝莱坞 movies.

And there is the whole monologue 由 Harry about how he is the true master of the Elder Wand and all that. True, Harry has a point. Because he disarmed Draco, the Elder Wand, which Voldemort now possesses actually considers harry its master. Assume that this is true. How can Harry be so sure? Dumbledore did not tell him that. Olliwander did not tell him that. Harry is no expert in wandlore. How did he figure it out? How did this clueless nitwit suddenly work it all out 由 himself?

Okay, say he worked it out. How can he be so sure? He can’t be. It is a theory. It may be wrong. Harry’s confidence may be bravado, but nothing indicates that. It is just another theory – and Rowling wants it to be true to she can make Voldemort lose. Sorry, not convincing enough!

There is more. The Elder Wand belongs to whoever defeats its current master. So, it was Draco who is the real owner of the Elder wand the moment he disarms Dumbledore. Fine. But when Harry takes Draco’s wand, that is Draco’s normal wand which he takes. He has just taken a regular wand. So if a wizard takes any wand that belongs to the owner of the Elder wand, the wizard is considered defeated, and Elder Wand switches loyalties? Sorry, Rowling has not thought this through well enough.

And then there is the curious case of Grendelwald. Seems he did not defeat 或者 disarm Gregorovich. He 偷了 it first, waited at the window, and then hit Gregorovich with a stunning spell. That will do? Steal and attack, not attack and own?

And the Deathly Hallows themselves. Rowling has, again and again, established that Voldemort’s knowledge of the history of wizardry is astounding. His skill is super-super, and so is his knowledge. But he has never heard about the Deathly Hallows. Seems it is a story which every boy knows, but not poor Tom Riddle! Okay, poor unfortunate orphan that he was, no one may have taught him that. But it is still quite an unlikely chance.

So 你 have spells that hit 你 only if 你 are in their way, 你 have Accio that doesn’t work sometimes, 你 have Expelliarmus that works every time, 你 have dumbo Harry suddenly turning into Harry Potter Poirot and Harry Potter 007, 你 have Voldemort who does not even now how to 确认 if his enemy is truly dead and crucios him nice and gentle…

Sure we can all come up with ways in which it all might make sense. But a book SHOULD make sense 由 itself. The world should work. The world created 由 Rowling is ad-hoc.

But yeah, suspend your disbelief and enjoy 阅读 it. It is definitely an entertaining read. Just don’t go around saying “Rowling is King” and all that.

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